Old Friend

Beyern could be seen walking into a blacksmithy, seemingly bored.

Which he honestly was, he expected that the promised short sword was going to be sub-par at best. He didn't even really want it when he was negotiating to be totally honest, he had enough weapons on hand.

But any upstanding mercenary man would not deny any free stuff, of course, without any shame and/or feeling of obligation.

But still, it'd probably be pretty bad. 

But he couldn't help but smile mentally at a good night of mana circutry expansion, while once again building up his mana.

He glanced at Seria, her seemingly a bit less nervous here than last time 'Good, it seems she's adapting to her new life quickly.'

His eyes once again scanned the frontroom, his pupils widening slightly at the sight of a familiar face.

"Oh, hey newbie!"

Hariot fake huffed, in an obviously comedic tone, while flashing his guild card "Novice Pyromancer, I will no longer allow such blatant disrespect."

The spellsword- Who's name he still didn't know, and he was certain also didn't know his- took in a deep breath of shock "My dearest apologies sir, I will make sure this never happens again, novice."

With a proud nod from Hariot, the spellsword looked at Seria "Who is this twerp?"

"This, is Seria, say hi."

"Hi Seria."

"Uh, hi?"

Hariot shook his head "Seria, say it straight."

The former rat's eyes skuttled about for a moment, before saying the word correctly "Hi."

Beyern nodded proudly, after which looking back to the unknown spellsword "So, you're back from another round trip?"

"Yep, I'll be taking a break for a few days 'till the next caravan is ready," he said in response while adjusting his sword a bit "What brings you here?"

Hariot's left eye twitched slightly "Oh, nothing much, I'm here to pick up a short sword, what about you?"

"Just a bit of maintanance." He got in response.

Hariot was planning to keep the conversation going, because he didn't see a reason not to, but his moment of thinking was interupted by a semi-familiar voice "Terum, why do you even com-"

The bald blacksmith turned his head back "Gerin! Get the sword!"

A far off 'Yes!' could be heard, from the section with forging going on. In response, Hariot couldn't help but get back into his neutral smile- It had become a habit at this point.

He also noted the spellsword's name, if- In the off chance- He met him again 'Terum, huh? Pretty rare name, I think.'

"It seems you two are getting along nicely."

"Yes, you could say we are." Hariot said casually while feeling the hair that had grown on his chin, thinking for a moment 'I should probably shave... But I really don't want to get cut right now...'

A moment later he phased back to reality with no signs his thoughts had drifted "Did the sword come out good?" He said, nonchalantly.

"Really good actually, you'd do be surprised." The smith said with quite the happy voice, with a somewhat intimidating- Though not malicious- Smile.

"So you're the crazy guy that critized Veniln? Didn't expect you to be a hotshot." Terum said while nodding.

Hariot shrugged in response "What can I say?"

"I don't know, what can you say?" Terum said in response.

"Any combination of words imaginable." Hariot said passively, seemingly waiting for something.

Terum seemed like he was about to say something- But then paused, before saying "I... I don't really know what to say."

"You weren't supposed to." He said matter of factly, turning his head to glance at Seria to check her continued stationary presence.

"Good to know, good to know... When is that- Gerin I think- Coming with the sword?" Terum asked, seemingly done with this conversation.

The bald smith- Which Hariot heard to be called Veniln- Paused for a moment "He should've been here already, stay for a moment, I'll check."

Hariot gave a small nod, and took a bit of mana out to play with as Veniln went back to the smith and Terum leaned against the wall.

As Seria fidgeted, not knowing what to do, Hariot looked at his status.

===

Beyern

Class; Necromancer

Title(s); Novice, Interreligious

Skills; Necromancy (lvl 1)

Masteries; Mana-manipulation (Rank 0, Initiate), Mana-packing (Rank 0, 10-star), mana-shaping (Rank 0, 8-star), Spell-craft (Rank 0, 7-star), Aspect-attribution (Rank 0, 2-star), Arcane manifestation (Rank 0, 0-star) Mana-infusion (Rank-0, 0-star), Mental grimoire (Rank 0, 0-star), Telekinesis (Rank 0, 0-star)

Spells; Magic missile, fire bolt

Marks; Cercil, Quanta

===

Both {Aspect-attribution} had gone up a star along with mana-shaping, which was kind of surprise since both hadn't been the subject of his focus.

But he wasn't one to complain, aspect attribution had gotten smoother by a bit, and mana-shaping was growing nicely.

It was kind of weird that {Arcane manifestation} wasn't growing at all, since he had been using it, like a lot actually. A lot more than {Aspect-attribution}, why {Arcane manifestation} wasn't growing was a question he could not answer, so...

He just left it at the back of his mind for a later time, once more.

He flowed 1 mv of 1:8 mp to his hand, which was formed into a palm, and decompressed it in order to fully fill it. Then, for a few moments he fine-tuned the mana's form.

Then he made sure to hold the mana still, and pulled his hand back haphazardly, slightly annoyed at the tearing feeling that came from not properly pushing out the mana.

Left behind, was a light-blue phantom of his hand in the form of a palm. It was pretty rough- A phantom, not a memory of the past in etherial form- but it would make do.

But still, some tweaks were in order. With his head circling around his creation, he squinted his eyes as he gave the few refinements and improvements he could at the moment.

Because, he couldn't see a reason not to.

A few moments later steps were heard along with a grumble, Venlin coming back with a scowl and sword "Sorry it took so long, some rat snuck in and Gerin was having some trouble capturing them."

Hariot paused for a moment 'A blacksmith was able to capture a thief? Is he a combat smith or something?' He purposely also showed it on his face too, hoping that it would initiate some kind of explanation.

Luckily Venlin seemed to have basic social skills "There are a lot of weapons and the like laying around the smithy, a few being mana-forged. The rat was also a weakling."

"Huh, so... About..." '-The sword', he wanted to finish, but he stopped. It might be less than socially acceptable...

"The rat? He's currently tied up in the corner until I know what to do with him." The bald man said, relieving Hariot of his troubles.

Hariot nodded for a moment, then stopped acting like he cared "So, can I see the sword?"

"-Ah, yes, the sword. Sure, you've already paid for it."

In response to that, Hariot walked over and snatched from the open hand layed before him.

He then got some distance with Venlin, since standing to close to others who he knew were probably stronger than him in immediate strength wasn't a hobby of his.

Then a moment later, he started to inspect his new sword- After taking it out of the scabbard surrounding it, though he didn't expect to get one with it.

'The weight seems balanced, the handle is pretty good too, the blade is nice an straight, the edge seems pretty sharp- But there's only one way to check!' He thought, tracing his middle finger across the edge with slight force, leaving a red cut.

'Oh, that really good actually! but one last check, is it actually mana forged?' He thought with a smile, hiding a glimmer of suspicion.

He couldn't just see if something was mana forged from a glance, he hadn't actually had more than one or two chances to see one close up, he first gave his a flick to see if it were any different from his other sword.

It was different, it gave off a slightly distorted ring instead of any normal sound you'd expect from iron, and he didn't believe this was steel either even if he'd never seen some before.

But the other check was more important, was there that small light-blue gleam?

Tilting the blade's edge, Hariot's eyes strained, scouring the metalic creation for any light-blue. After a moment, he fount a tint of it reflected along with the somewhat yellow light coming from a torch.

"Soo... Uh... You're a mage?" Venlin asked, breaking Hariot out of his inspection partially, while looking at the floating phantom of Hariot's palm.

"Pyromancer specifically, but yea." Hariot said, while smiling a good bit as he attached the new sword along with it's scabbard on his belt 'Now I'm sure that I'm not going to give this to Seria, at least not for now... I'll give her the scavanged sword when she deserves it.'

Seria fidgeted so much at this moment that he could litterally hear it, so he turned his head for a moment "Stop fidgeting, it's annoying." Then turned his head back.

Surprisingly, his comment had actually calmed the red haired child quite a bit. Whether it be out of fear, or something else, he did not know; Nor did he care.

From his command, a certain air filled the room, one of tension. But Venlin, not one to stay silent, asked; "Are you a part of the Zankret church?"

"No, though I'd like to join."

"Oh?" Venlin asked, not really taking note of the fact that Terum was staring at the palm floating in the air in silence "I'm sure you'd fit right in."

Hariot smiled "You're being to kind."

"No, no. I'm actually a believer myself, take my word for it." Venlin said, shaking his head twice in succesion at the same time.

Hariot thought for a moment 'Hmm, makes sense. Zankret is the god of magic and steel... If that's true then there's just an open road to entering the Zankret church right in front of me...'

Then his face returned to a neutral smile "Really? Then, I hope I'm not being a bother to reccomend me."

"Heheh, there's no problem." Venlin said, again with his psuedo-threatening smile.

Hariot didn't show it, but he did pass his hand over the handle of his new sword for a moment seeing it "Then I really have to thank you, when would there be a suitable time?"

Seeing a confused face on the smith's face, Hariot repeated in a more secular way "Thanks, when do you have time?"

Venlin made a face that just screamed 'Oh!', as if he had been enlightened "I'm pretty busy recently, I'll be open in... Uh... Eight days? But I'm not really sure."

"I'll make sure to remember it."

Having basically finished this conversation, it was obviously time to show off his prudence, and recycle his mana. Doing so by overlaying his hand over the magically produced phantom, accepting the feeling of something tearing into him, then draining it back to one of the rings after anchoring it.

To others thought, it looked like the hand had just been returned to him the moment after the real one and the phantom had overlapped.

Terum just silently accepted this and turned to the blacksmith that had apperantly forgot about him "Hey, baldy, are you going to do the maintenance or not?"

"I am not a baldy Terum, or, 'Aspiring hero'."

"You know that was-!"

Hariot shook his head, then turning to the still nervous, and now confused, Seria "Don't even become like these two, okay?"

"Um... Okay?"

"Good," Hariot said, turning around and striding to the door "We'll be leaving now!"

With that, he stepped back on the streets, pleased by this interaction overall. He had gotten a better sword, along with a pathway to enter the Zankret church.

He once again looked at Seria, who was still somewhat confused- Not seeming to know what happened- And sighed "Don't question it too much, we're going hunting again."