The Market

Since the admittance was on a Monday, it was finally Friday. Cassie allowed the three of them to take the day off if they so wished to after their encounter with Peter and the demon. They were told to relax and come back on Monday for class.

"Mm-mm! An extended weekend!" Alex stretched out his arms first thing in the morning.

"Good morning boys!" Corbin smiled.

"Morning Corbin! Are we hitting up the market today?" Thomas asked.

"You bet!" Alex grinned.

All of them got dressed and headed out to have breakfast before hitting the market. At their dormitory there was a smaller canteen area on the main floor where one could purchase sandwiches and smaller snacks. They got two sandwiches and a bottle of carbonated soft drinks each.

"Ah! Nothing feels better than some coke!" Alex felt rejuvenated after taking a few sips.

"Could not agree more," Thomas laughed.

The three of them were in high spirits and headed for the market area.

In the capital there were two markets, one in the upper left quarter, and one in the lower right quarter. The two upper quarters were the richer areas and where you could fetch the higher-end products. However the lower one had the black market if you wanted to acquire things off-market.

Since the academy was in the upper right quarter, it took a while to traverse through the entire capital and reach it.

"We are right on time by the looks of it!" Alex stated after they passed a corner and entered a large plaza.

There were smaller stores set up everywhere and crowds of people walking with every shopkeeper yelling out their products.

"The best prices for any kind of medicinal vials!"

"Fresh vegetables!"

"Game caught and brought back from this morning!"

"Herbs for sale!"

People were yelling left and right from where they were walking through. Alex led them to one of the shops in the corner. It had a more closed off section and once they headed in everything got quiet.

"Neat is it not? They have a sound dampener orb just like in the restaurant we were in yesterday!" Alex smiled broadly.

Once they reached the front desk Alex held up two fingers and the shopkeeper disappeared to the back. When he came back, he rolled out a set of different materials.

"Well then, pick anything you like and ask any questions. There are even swords to your side to try out and weigh the different material put into them," Alex mentioned and the shopkeeper noded.

Corbin and Alex waited for Thomas to try a few swords out. Thomas picked up a couple of them and took a few swings. Some felt too heavy and the ones that were light had no real sharpness to them.

"If you seek to balance a sword out, they usually fetch a hefty price, since they are crafted to match their owner," The shopkeeper finally spoke.

Thomas pondered for a second.

"This will take some time, let me think about it," Thomas said and closed his eyes.

[Arcane System Awakening]

Thomas began talking to the female voice of the system.

"Can you scan the materials like you did the vials?" Thomas asked.

[Scanning materials…]

[These materials were found in the swords you tried out…]

And a list appeared before him. Thomas smiled, this was exactly what he needed.

"Can I combine them in any way I see fit?" Thomas asked a second question.

[You can as long as the magical bonds remain in harmony]

"I will take one of each material," Thomas smirked.

Alex looked displeased for a second before he got excited.

"What do you think you are doing? Bleeding me dry here! But I look forward to your attempt of crafting something monstrous with that brain of yours!" Alex roughed up Thomas' hair.

Alex then took out a few gold coins and put them down on the table. The shopkeeper dropped his jaw in the surprising turn of events.

"We will take the lot," Alex smirked.

"Th-thanks for your purchase, but I must ask, are you planning to forge more than one sword?" The shopkeeper inquired and stared at Thomas.

Corbin and Alex turned their heads towards him as well, however Thomas refused to give in and grinned.

"You will have to wait and see, I have a crazy idea," Thomas kept his grin.

"See Corbin? I told you this guy is funny!" Alex laughed and hit Thomas on his back.

Shortly after they decided to walk straight back and returned to the academy to show Thomas where the forgery was. It was the first time Thomas had been inside a blacksmith, and everything in there appeared high-end.

"There is a manual on the wall, they have made sword forging extremely easy nowadays…" Corbin pointed out.

Thomas knew this to be true. With the current state of modern day technology, one only needs to choose the shape and input the materials and it would forge for you. The entire process of smelting and re-forging to strengthen the magical bonds and such was such an easy task that any dummy could do it.

The only tricky part which remained was balancing the sword. That is where expertise of one's craft kicked in and not many people were able to forge masterful works anymore. Even more so now that swords were being able to be mass-produced by anyone.

"Alright we will leave you to it, catch up with us later! We will probably be at lunch or in the park after we have done some training!" Alex waved Thomas off and they took their leave.

This made Thomas smile and held the bag upside down for the materials to fall down onto the table.

"Let's get to work shall we?" Thomas cunningly smiled with an agenda in mind.

[Arcane System]

"How do I balance all of these materials to create a sword with a sharp cutting edge while maintaining a harmonious state…?" Thomas asked.

[Simple…]

[Follow these steps…]

[Place this amount here… and that amount there to attain the harmonious state]

The system lengthy explained in great detail to Thomas how to forge the sword and make full use of each input material. It put delicate emphasis on how much of each material needed to be used in order to fully balance it. Nothing of too much or too less.

[Once merged leave it for two days to cool off]

"Alright… time to create something both extraordinarily and beautiful," Thomas rolled up his sleeves.

Thomas was all excited for the sword he had in mind forging, which would prove most useful to counteract his one current weakness: "Not having an ability".