The Blacksmith's Bond

"You're here!" exclaimed Matt as Nox entered his store.

"I was told someone wished to meet me," Nox replied, looking around the store for any new weapons or armour.

"Yup! He got a little too excited and wanted to meet you on hearing that you bought the moon dagger as well as his armour," Matt replied as he went into the smithy.

'I wonder what he wished to tell me,' thought Nox as he picked up a sword from the display.

[Fire Attribute Sword (B)]

"This looks good," he mumbled, examining one weapon after the other.

[Ice Attribute Sword (B)]

[Light Attribute Sword (B)]

[Mist Sword (B)]

[Silver Sword (C)]

[Tritanium Mace (C)]

[Tritanium Axe (B)]

Nox's eyes gleamed brightly as he examined one weapon after the other. He had enough money to buy everything in the store.

'I guess this's how the rich feel,' he thought, keeping back the weapon in his hand.

"I'll buy something since I'm here anyways," he mumbled, picking up an average-looking sword.

**********

Fire Attribute Sword (B)

A sword made by a novice blacksmith who has incredible potential.

When imbued with the arcane of the fire attribute, the sword's power increases exponentially.

The sword has an 18% chance to inflict the status effect *Burn*.

Under the status effect *Burn*, the opponent's health will decrease by 0.01% every second.

**********

'This'll be useful,' he thought, placing it on the countertop.

"Are you… Nox?" asked a man coming out from the smithy's door.

He was about the same age as Nox and had tanned dark skin with short black hair that complimented his dark crimson eyes, like coals that lit ablaze when reflecting the sparks of his hammer against molten metal. His facial features were almost perfect, with a round nose and a perfectly sleek jawline.

As they examined each other, they felt a strange energy clash... before a message popped in front of both their eyes.

It was unlike anything either of them had ever felt, making both of them instinctively slide back their legs, readying themselves to lunge at each other.

[The player's status screen cannot be previewed!]

'Librarian's eyes couldn't see his status screen?' Nox thought, bamboozled by the phenomena.

This had never happened before except with Sarroth. Even though the information he could see was limited, he could at least see a portion of other people's status screens.

[The player's status screen cannot be previewed!]

'Forger's eyes… failed?' Justin thought, slowly standing upright before approaching him.

***

A short silence followed their surprise before Justin finally put his hand forward, offering a handshake to Nox.

"My name is Justin; nice to meet you?" he said, trying to hide his shock and amazement.

It was the first time that his SSS rank skill had failed to see the status screen of others.

"Likewise," Nox replied calmly and composedly, shaking Justin's firm hand.

As they shook hands, a strange feeling pulsated through them. It was as if they were meeting a special someone after a long time.

"Why did you wish to meet me?" Nox inquired, sleeping his hand back into his pocket.

After a short pause to examine him again, Justin replied, "I just wished to meet the one who could finally use Moon."

They looked at each other for a few more moments before Nox finally took out his dagger from his inventory and held it before Justin.

Justin stared wide-eyed at his creation, which was now on the brink of falling apart, with dents and scratches all over it. The silver dagger he so skillfully made had now become a rusty, brown, ancient-looking blade.

The air around him thickened, and the pressure increased as he stared emptily at the dagger he had created, cross-armed.

A blacksmith's creation was no less than his own offspring, and one could only imagine the things going through his mind as he saw his creation in such a state.

The air beside him crackled, with a blue light sparking around a tiny slit that had formed in the air.

Whoosh.

Slicing through the air, like an arrow released from a bow, a golden dagger launched out of the slit… aimed at Nox.

Nox glanced at the dagger flying towards him. Although he could effortlessly dodge or deflect it, he needed to see what would happen next.

After all, getting the blacksmith to trust him was more or less the only way he could get his dagger repaired.

"Sun," mumbled Justin, diverting his eyes from the moon dagger towards Nox.

Midair, the blade froze, barely a few centimetres away from Nox's forehead. Doubtlessly, it had intended to kill him.

Nox held the dagger towards Justin, "Can you repair it?"

Not taking his eyes away from him, Justin carefully took the blade into his own hands before carousing his fingertips on its rusted blade.

'What's this!' he exclaimed internally, sensing the arcane emitting from it.

He ran his fingers along the edge of the dagger's blade before finally stopping at its hilt.

'The power it's radiating can only mean that thousands were slain with it. But… this man bought it barely a week ago... Did he really manage to kill so many in such a short time?' the blacksmith was taken aback.

Any weapon created had only one wish… to slaughter. Endless slaughter was the one dream all weapons in the universe had, not depending on who its wielder was, be it an angel from high above or a demon from the depths.

No matter if it was an F-rank dagger or an S-rank sword, all it wished was to drink the sweet scarlet nectar. Its thirst for blood only increased with its increase in rank.

As a man who had picked up a forging hammer before he turned five, Justin could sense a part of the emotions of all the weapons he created, even before he arrived at the Tower.

Even back on his home planet of Demacia, where he had made weapons for war superpowers, none of them had managed to make his creations as joyful as the man in front of him had managed to.

"Brother," Called out a childish voice beside Nox, belonging to a young, white-haired boy who wore a white shirt and pants.

Unlike when Nox had previously seen him, a small cut had appeared beneath his right eye.

"Brother!" joyfully exclaimed a young boy standing beside Justin. His short golden hair was neatly trimmed, complimenting his pale skin. He wore a golden T-shirt, along with golden pyjamas. Just like his brother, he, too, had big, purple eyes.

He ran towards Moon with a broad smile all over his face and with his arms open, taking his brother in a warm embrace. Moon was a few inches taller than him, a fact which was evident as he tightly embraced his brother, smiling ear to ear.

Both of them had their eyes closed, enjoying each other's warmth, which they hadn't felt in a long time.

After a few minutes of rubbing their cheeks against each other, the blonde-haired child lifted his hand, pressing it softly against the cut beneath Moon's eye.

"Who hurt you, big brother?" he asked, examining the cut.

Moon smiled gleefully, ignoring the question, "It's nothing, Sun… How have you been?"

Sun violently nodded his head before jumping up in the air in a playful manner, "I'm great! The master cares for me a lot!!"

"That's good," replied Moon, ruffling his little brother's hair.

A few feet away from them, Justin stood still, frozen in place, staring at the white-haired child.

"A cut on the weapon's ego?" he mumbled.

In his entire life as a master blacksmith, he had never seen anything like it.

No matter how broken or old the weapon got, hurting its spiritual form… its ego was impossible. It was a simple fact known to all blacksmiths of all ages on his planet.

"Hello, Moon," he greeted, strolling towards the white-haired child.

"Maker," mumbled Moon, as the smile on his face vanished, replaced by a — I don't want this guy here— expression.

Stopping a few feet from the siblings, the blacksmith looked at the child with loving eyes, "Looks like you had a lot of fun…."

"Of course," Moon replied, a smirk appearing on his cute face, "After all… not all humans are as weak as you."

Justin offered the child a wide, natural smile, "That's good to hear."

An eerie silence followed their short conversation.

Moon and Sun stood together, holding hands. Behind them stood Nox, observing the reunion between the two brothers and their maker.

Behind the reception desk, Matt wrote various entries on his register; after all, anyone except the two dagger wielders could not see their ego.

"Will you be able to repair it?" inquired Nox, breaking the silence.

Justin, who was staring at the siblings, turned his head towards the man wearing the black suit.

"It will take time," he replied, glancing at the rusted dagger in his hands, "At least a week… Even then, I don't know if I'll be able to restore it to the condition it was in before."

Nox turned towards the white-haired boy, who was looking at him, "Do you want to go, Moon?"

The child bowed his head in reverence, "Yes, master… After all, I'm no use to you in this form."

The ponytailed man slowly approached the child, placing his hand softly on the boy's shoulder.

"Take care," he mumbled as the boy slowly started fading away.

Seeing his brother return to the dagger, Sun, too, disappeared into thin air.

Justin put the rusted dagger in his inventory before facing Nox, "You make him feel safe… Thank you for taking care of him."

"He's the one who takes care of me," Nox replied, remembering the countless times he was able to get out alive only because of the dagger.

Taking out a brown leather pouch from his inventory, he extended it towards Justin.

"Ah…" the blacksmith mumbled, "I'm sorry, but I don't want any money–"

Before he could complete what he had meant to say, Nox interrupted him, "It's not money."

With a confused expression, the crimson-eyed man carefully took the pouch, opening it to see its contents.

[Mutated Arkouda's claws (C)] x4

[The Great Wolf's Fang (D)] x2

[Black Bull's horn (E)] x20

As soon as he laid eyes on the pouch's contents, his eyes gleamed with excitement.

The materials that Nox had given him were very hard to come by. For a blacksmith such as him, such materials were worth much more than any amount of money anyone could offer.

"I hope that our pleasant relationship will continue for a long time," said Nox, walking towards the reception desk, where the sword he had previously selected was kept.