Book 1 Chapter 17: A new Job

Chapter 17: A new job

Spectre rode for several minutes back home, as Asher had gone more east in the large city. He arrived back at the Nest and strode up the ladder until he reached the top. Just walking over was enough to pass out, sleeping deeply until the following morning. He was exhausted over the last month of constantly waking early and studying until late into the night and he was finally able to get good rest, silent breathing the sound of the shack for all of the night.

He awoke to the sun shining opposite to the shack, cascading down around the building and onto the street. Spectre flipped up and lifted his hands up above his head to crack his back.

"Ahhh" Yawning out loud and speaking to the wall, "Today I have to find a new job!"

Spectre got dressed and swiveling he lifted his hand up causing a bag to lift up into the air and come over. The disk was inside so of course it would look from the outside to fly.

He took the board out and hopped on after packing some medicinal creations Yuki had taught him.

Downstairs was a sumptuous breakfast with his brothers being gone he now hard far more too eat to himself.

"Thank you!" Spectre shouted out before a cloud congealed around the board, lifting him off into the air down the street. The old woman shook her head with a smile.

People looked at him in the street without much of a reaction, this was because magic was the largest part of life in the world. Although he was young, he seemed to be a wind mage apprentice or rain mage apprentice, flying wasn't unheard of as even earth users could fly by manipulating their earth armor to float or even simply a flat stone. He hid the board because it is easier to understand a rain user then a metal manipulator, as it was beyond rare to be so.

He floated around for quite a while, before seeing a shop deep in the western reaches of the city merely 20 miles from his home. The city itself was approximately several hundred miles across, which in this world could be considered a small village. About 400 miles from here was one of the main cities which was about 500 miles wide and was the main city of this clan. This was the northern city, several 100's of miles from the east and west city and well over several 1000 from the south.

The cities were not far from each other in context as this was the defensive formation of most small clan cityscapes. It created 4 main route roads leading to the main city, this city was a satellite city, where as the other side cities were just lonesome. The north cities were 2 cities like half moons, like 2 circles leading to the north; half the size of the other cities.

The shop Spectre was looking up at was about 4 stories high, and had many adventurer class individuals hanging around it. This smithy was the counterpart to the main business, which was mercenary and adventure boards. The smithy crafted items for those out on missions, and even created the rewards after they brought back parts from missions as trade. Spectre had heard of this place and chose it as the place he would work at and train in.

One, because they had good materials, and two because he felt he could definitely get accepted as he had already learned the basics and could manipulate metal to double the speed of creation to most crafted items.

He walked in past many adults who laughed heartily seeing this little lad going in, they were tall and fierce looking adventurers of only the second tier but they obviously were at least a bit arrogant.

They let him walk by and saw him actually go to the main desk 40 feet past the front door, surprised they listened in guessing he was an errand boy for someone grabbing something…but to their surprise…

"I'd like to apply for a job as a craftsman here. I was trained by a grand master for a while, and he sent me here to gain some experience." Spectre said with an aloof but honest face of a child.

The shopkeeper was currently smoking a rolled cigarrete, he blew the smoke out and laughed, "You're quite confident, uhm alright go into the back there since nobody is in today and craft something with uh…" He grabbed a piece of random metal out of a bin behind the stall, and a handle. "Craft uhm..."

'Man this guy is indecisive!' Spectre thought to himself.

"Hey you! Come here, whatcha want?" He said relatedly. The man pointed at pondered for a second before saying, "Don't go hard on the little laddy, how about a knife, big one." He said with a smile.

Spectre looked up at him and nodded, grabbing the piece of metal he walked around the long almost 25 foot desk and the tall wall littered with different items and weapons and into the back, closing the door behind himself. The two men heard the furnace fire up and start to billow, and after about 15 minutes some clanging against an anvil sounded out with a set rhythm.

"Hey at least he can actually hold the hammer, he may be useful" The shopkeeper laughed with the man.

Spectre however…was sitting down and smacking the hammer against the anvil every once in awhile, he smelted the metal and manipulated it into a blade with a turn handle with groves for a grip.

He gave it a slight curve at the top and near the bottom interwoven blade points, like a saw on the back side of the blade. He even found a ring on the floor, and as it was heated simply slipped it into the piece of shaped metal at the base of the blade. The metal made space for it at Specters whim, sliding around the ring like flowing mercury. It hung right under the square of the handle that he was given. He had expanded it a little after heating it, so that the blade could stop swords from cutting the fingers. The ring gave it a unique look to say the least.

Taking out a gem from his ring which was just a natural amethyst, it was a common crystal, he heated the bottom of the handle until it was seeping. He then placed the crystal into it, with the metal wrapping around it keeping it from contacting the hottest metal flow. Once it cooled it would seal around the crystal, but till then he didn't want it to crack. He placed it in water, and it cooled down. He then baked the blade in the coals, giving it a tempered look and shine. He sat for a good 45 minutes which he felt was a good time and wouldn't be weird to the shop keeper for being too fast.

The blade was cooled, and after he picked himself off the floor and stopped hammering the side of the anvil, walked over and began to sharpen it with three different grinding stone wheels. He took out a piece of paper and it cut straight through it like butter. He didn't have much hair on his arms to rely on to test it, so paper was good.

He walked out with it covered in clothe. This was what his master did, and it really did add anticipation to it. He liked the 'big reveal' feeling. He unwrapped it and set it on the table.

"Holy shit, that's so cool!" The man exclaimed, grabbing it and feeling the weight. It was perfectly balanced! What a good make. This was on a whim too so he just got it for free.

"Damn kid you are good, what a good master. Alright uh…you're hired." The men around heard this, but after seeing that cool looking blade felt good about it as it was unique and well made. This kid could be real nice if he stuck around!

"Hey uh my order hadn't come in since about 5 days ago, how about letting that kid create it" A big burly man said, having his friend received that blade he wouldn't mind if the kid created it, with some style it could give some flare to battle.

"Uh… yeah sure" The shop keeper turned around, and actually walked off to the back office to sleep. He handed Spectre the keys, and told him to do well while he slept. Spectre almost burst out laughing, he had been here for an hour or less! 'Ahahahaha What a lazeeee'

He looked at the man, before looking down at some paper and flipping out a pencil from a cup on the table.

"Make it long, and also if possible an ax with a blade that goes to the handle, I'd like the handle made with beast hide, and the blade with dark steel. Got it?" The burly man who was tall enough to be double the height of Spectre said.

"You got it…boss." Spectre said catching himself, remembering that this burly man wasn't the burly man he once knew. It was only natural to say.

He walked around and grabbed the dark steel, as well as beast hide that the man handed him as when someone came for something to be created, brought with them the material they wanted it was crafted with. The shop usually gave the metal as compensation as reward for completely missions, if they didn't take gold instead.

Spectre grabbed a second ore, a vibration reducing iron main ore. Which could withstand earthquakes quite well in the earth because it dissipated the vibration.

Sometimes standing straight as it grew even while the earth fell around it, creating an iron main road of ore. It wasn't as good a material as his blade, but it would reduce backlash as well as make it stronger.

About an hour later, he came out with it clothed. He walked over to the man who was smoking a cigar sitting at the desk that was actually lined on one side with swivel chairs. He set its heavy body on the table and wapped off the cloth with a slap. The burly man's face went up into a grin, he looked down to see a very pleasing weapon.

The ax head at the top was a crescent moon shape that was about 6 inches wide from the middle axle with a level top, the blade came down towards the handle about 7 inches. The back side of the ax had a hammer head that came from a 2 inch wide base into a thicker 4 inch wide head. Where the hammer and ax met, a straight blade carried down on the side of the ax down to the handle, on the hammer side or so to say on the back side of the main body blade, was a saw blade that was wavy interwoven and perfectly spaced.

This would allow him to use the ax and blade bodies as weapons, as either could cut a man down, the ax blade going down while still having the blade go to the top could have swords or spears caught in it, and a long weapon like the spear could be cut. The back side hammer allowed for blunt force, and the saw part could be used for obviously cutting wood as well as saw through armor or a weapon if strength was being pushed between him and an enemy. It was over all a multipurpose weapon. As asked, the handle was strip woven and perfectly fitted to the two handed handle.

The base of the handle had a large ring meant for connecting to chain or rope. With the hook ax, it could be thrown and pulled back!

"I mixed iron main ore into it, when you swing it, it will lower the back lash for full on hits, as well as it strengthen the core and body of the blade." Spectre said with a content tone.

"Kid, gods damn this is one fine ass maiden hahaha" The burly man laughed, he picked it up and felt it was perfectly proportioned. The large head had just enough more weight to make it carry when swung, but not too much to not make it a finesse weapon with enough strength.

"Here, take this..." The burly man handed Spectre 2 gold, as well as a spool of wire thread. "This is the steel silk of the beast we killed, a 2 headed cicada beast spider. It can cut a man in half and is great for forging. Keep it, thanks kid." The burly man covered up the ax, and swung it over his back into what looked like a giant wide quiver but was actually meant for axes. It would allow for it to easily be pulled out, but unlike other holsters not have the head poke out or latch onto things.

He waved, and stuck his thumb over his back pointing at spectre, motioning and giving an index to thumb hand sign showing Spectre was good at crafting for being so young. Spectre smiled, as with having the metal affinity it made crafting a breeze. He couldn't create vast things, only having enough energy to manipulate metal ore on a smaller scale like ore or blades.

This was enough for crafting mortal weapons though; he had to learn magic, and then sealing arrays to create magic weapons. This required the person creating the weapon to need to know that spell or have an affinity. Once crafted they would embody the weapon with their energy, or onto an array. The weapon would thus have the ability to do as created. Secondly, another person could cast onto it as a coordinated craft to do the same thing.

Lastly, the weapon could use the trait of a beast or creature like a large poison scorpion barb on a spear head. This was using beast parts for a weapon, and in some cases was stronger than available ores. This was also why this place was a part of a mission board as the people coming here from missions would bring pack beast parts they could add to weapons or trade.

Spectre created 5 more unique weapons before most of the men cleared out off to go on missions or sleep, it was about 4 pm now. So he decided to do some crafting to put onto the walls, or even…just for himself. "Heh heh…let's see what he's got around!" Spectre walked around for a while, noting the different things he had here. There were many different beast parts, as well as ores. The ores were inferior to what he carried however so he didn't care much for these. The beast parts though came in all different varieties, claws, hides, eyes, shells, weird barbs and tentacles. You could name several hundred.

He grabbed a beast hide that was black and sleek in color, he studded it and created a holster for the back side, before placing the grafting spear into it snuggly. He grabbed some left over scrap metal and created arrow heads out of them, he found he could only manipulate about 8 of them at a time with complete control and put these into a pouch. These would be great weapons as he could throw them out and freely manipulate them.

For a child with manipulator abilities of this level is unheard of, as they would need a vast amount of training to achieve this by about the age of 12 if they started at the age of 8. Spectre had a formidable mind ability and attribute to manipulate things freely. He was a unknowing genius that would one day rise to glory….but for now…

Spectre was sitting at the front desk when a group popped in, they looked around and only saw Spectre sitting there assuming he was in an apprenticeship. They walked up steadily, all being about 20 years or younger in age.

They layed out a bunch of broken equipment on the table, "Hey, we need this fixed…had a tough mission earlier, and would've succeeded! But alas our weapons broke upon hitting the beasts resilient back and had to run. Could you fix em?" The main leader of the group and also the oldest of 20 years of age asked.

This was the second aspect of the shop, not just to create but also repair as equipment would obviously be damaged on missions.

"Sure I'll be right back" Spectre said, lifting up the different equips, a broken sword, 2 knife blades, a shield and a rod. This most likely meant there were a defensive artist, dual agility wielder, tactic fighter and caster in the group. Which was the normal group type for adventurers as each made up for the lacking aspect of a teammate.

The better the coordinator and bond of the team mates, the better they battle. Asher had taught Spectre this.

After an hour, Spectre came out and set the equips onto the table covered in cloth.

"First, I reforged all of them as they were not very well done. For the shield, I added a purple moon jade into it as well as some iron main ore. I sensed one of you was an earth type and assume you are the defensive one, the purple moon jade can draw earth energy and strengthen the defense of the shield. The iron main ore, will reduce vibrations."

He took out the shield first and set it onto the table above the cloth, revealing a scale layered shield that looked well-crafted with different points in a circle around the edges with moon jade placed into it.

"Oooh!" A hefty teen said in the group, obviously the defensive earth user.

"Secondly, the 2 blades could be better made as well. I added a diamond crux sliver to the edge of the blades and tips. This should cut through any stone like it was butter, the blades themselves use dark steel to be a bit tougher but also weigh a little less as it is a denser metal, and I made it thinner then what a steel blade would be. On the handles, I added a loop connected to Steel silk from a large Cicada beast spider, this can cut through men easily and I just acquired it today after making something for a man. You can use it to move, as the diamond edge can imbed itself in just about anything, as well as it is so thin you can use it for touch to know where an enemy is. Lastly you can constrict and pull it to tame as well as harm a beast." Spectre pulled the two blades which were connected to two wrist loops.

The blades gave off a sharp feeling and were sleek and dark with no shine, to not give off reflections when attacking or at night, it was sharp and light when made using it as agility attacked easy and deadly.

"My gods…it's perfect." A 15 year old said, who looked like a fast runner with a sleek build.

"Thirdly, I made the sword out of dark steel as well as Iron main ore. I could feel you were a fire user? So I added some deep mine fire grain sand to it, this will make its heating point much harder to reach and the blade wont crack from use of fire." He took out a long sleek blade, it had a hole in the bottom portion of the blade above the handle meant for containing and releasing energy as he read in one of the books Asher had given him. It was sleek and black like the blades, but double sided, with the top curving into a point in a katana shape. The handle wrapped with fire lizard hide.

The twenty year old leader stepped forward and picked it up, finding it was perfectly weighted as compared to the sword from before. Which had indeed cracked when he sent fire energy into it, heating the blade and sending out a flame breath attack.

"Alright lastly, the rod wasn't too bad, but I can tell it could be better! I added a tiel of water jade meant for pulling water energy, this was double the coalescence efficiency of the item as well as casting time. The body is made out of a tough dark steel, and thinned slightly for easier carrying. I also…added an attribute to it."

"An attribute!!" A 19 year old girl poked her head out from behind the 20 year old, these two seemed close and most likely were a couple. This was an irony to opposites attract, as she was a water user and her boyfriend was a fire user.

"It is the attribute 'cloud convergence' it will create a mist for obscuring. You can condense the mist into a ball, and then release it expanding it for a time and also giving you the ability to heal allies through using the water energy in the air at a 5 to 10 foot distance near you, as well as obscuring and escaping. It is the only spell I know so far…and I just learned how to do it yesterday. My master taught me arrays, or I wouldn't have thought of this." He also wanted to know if this worked, a majority of the time he was crafting for an hour was setting this array which drew water energy and was a basic design of Bosses.

He then emulated the cloud from his board which was sucked into the rod crystal he placed at its end. He then took away the array, and the crystal created reflections of the array inside cementing the cloud spell into it.

This was how he was taught about how magic craftsmen store spells into weapon, was crystal, which in the world could contain energies. This was the easiest way to place spells on weapons.

"Thank you so much!!!" The girl exclaimed in glee. Everybody looked on with smiles, as this would benefit the group greatly!

The leader looked at this, but his smile slightly waned, "I uhm…how much will this cost for all this?" The group tensed up, as such an upgrade would definitely be pricey.

"How about….The regular price, and if you succeed in this mission I want a body part of my choice from it, as well as you spread around that Spectre is a good craftsmen?" Spectre said cunningly.

The group laughed, "You sure are a sly one. Okay, it's a deal!" The leader said, they grabbed their items and ran out of the shop after paying the gold, they told him they planned on resting tonight before going out to complete the mission early in the morning. It was about 6 pm, and the shop wouldn't craft past this hour. The mission board would stay up, and the 3 levels above were also temporary stay for missionaries.

Spectre grabbed the bag of gold he had received for different crafting today from before this group, and walked over and dropped it through a slot in the office door into a small hamper for collection. Hearing snoring through the door, he walked out and rode his cloud covered board back home.

He cultivated for several hours studying different papers and notes, as well as practiced with moving the arrow heads and using his blade before going to bed.

What a lad!