Metal in Hand!

"He won by luck! By luck!"

"Why are the heavens blind?"

"I worked so hard and failed, then this bumpkin came and stole it from under our noses!"

"Now, now. Luck or not, since you won, this ingot is yours!" The Old Man said with a laugh and called Ezio inside, "Let's go and finalize the procedures."

Ezio waved at the crowd that was cheering and flipping him off, then followed the old man to the shop.

The old man took him to the counter and pulled out the metal to hand it over. There were people in the shop who were watching with bated breaths. Ezio wasn't any better. The metal looked so good. The color was icy blue but the glitter on the ingot looked amazing. The chilly feeling and soothing air around it made it even better. Unintentionally, Ezio reached out his hand and touched the metal. To his surprise, it wasn't cold at all, it was cool.

"Thank you, thank you, sir! You are very generous!" Ezio shook the man's hand as he took the ingot. He fakely touched the talisman on his belt and placed the ingot in the Mysterious Room. When others saw him using a talisman, they looked at him in disgust. Most of the rich people in the inner city wore Spatial Rings. They were more stable and with bigger areas, compared to the talismans. Seeing the country bumpkin place such a treasure in a talisman left a bad taste in their mouth.

"Hoho! You are very welcome, young man. You won fair and square after all." The old man said amiably.

"I will take my leave then," Ezio said and walked towards the door. As soon as he turned his back, the old man's smile disappeared, as he gave a signal with his head. But before they could do so, the girl that served Ezio when he first came, explained who Ezio's master was.

"He is Master Aodhfionn's apprentice?" The old man asked in disbelief, then sweated bullets.

"Do you think he felt the trick we used?"

"I don't think so. Even the Sir Knight failed, how can a little boy notice it? I think it was really luck on his part." Another man walked from behind and said.

"Too bad we set it to random. In Sir Knight's case, the pillar lowered the difficulty, so his result was 1 more than he wanted. This bumpkin punched as hard as he could, I wonder if he applied more power or less." The man said.

"It is okay. We earned nearly 20.000 golds in total and metal worths only 5.000 gold. We still made a profit." The old man said. Others nodded as well.

Of course, Ezio felt the killing intent, but he ignored it. He left the shop and walked away. Not long after, a giant shop with different kinds of metals drew his attention.

"Welcome to our humble shop, Young hero, anything you need?" An old man greeted Ezio as he walked in.

"Oh, just here to purchase the items my master ordered." He walked to the counter and passed them the list.

"Um, Young Master, these items are quite pricey. We would like to see some sort of proof before we start to gather them. Forgive my bluntness, but some of these metals are even more expensive than our best sellers." The girl behind the counter said with a deadpan expression.

"I don't have any proof for the gold," Ezio said while holding his chin. "But this should be enough."

The old man and the girl at the counter were about to kick him out when he said the first part but stopped on the second part. In the next second, Ezio pulled out a token, and everyone inside the shop looked at him in amazement.

"You're Master Aodhfionn's Apprentice?" The old man asked in disbelief.

"Yup, that is me!" Ezio said with a bright smile. "Can this be counted as a proof?"

"Counted? Of course, of course! Master Aodhfionn is our best patron!"

"Thank you, sir." Ezio said and turned to the girl, "Um, can I get those items?"

"Certainly, sir. Just give me a second." The girl said hurriedly and ran off to gather the items. In five minutes, she came back with a ring and handed it over to Ezio.

"Sir, we noticed you are not carrying one, so our shop would like to give this ring to you. It has a 10 cubic meters area inside and is one of the most stable rings you can find on the market. Sorry for not recognizing you before."

"You are all so generous. Thank you!" Ezio said and held the ring in his two hands. He let his Qi enter the ring and checked inside. After making sure all the items were there, he left the shop.

"That was close." The old man sighed as he looked at the door absentmindedly. "I was about to kick the young man. Who knew he was Aodhfionn's apprentice."

"He would kill us all." Another adult came from behind the shop and looked at the door. "That eccentric master is easy to flip."

"Good thing the young man was sensible and showed the token instead of waiting arrogantly." The old man said.

Ezio has reached his new home without dawdling this time. He already spent a lot of time in the Alchemy shop and the contest. When he reached the Forge, Aodhfionn was waiting in front of the house with a bored expression.

"Where were ye, lad?" Aodhfionn said restively. "Ah been waiting for hours."

"Sorry, master." Ezio apologized sheepishly, "There was this contest and this and that…"

"What! You won that metal?" Aodhfionn asked in disbelief.

Ezio pulled the metal out of the Mysterious Room and showed it to his new master. Aodhfionn looked at it as if it was a sexy MILF and tried to touch it, but Ezio pulled his arm back like a jealous middle-aged bald husband.

"Ah am not gonna steal it, ye stingy," Aodhfionn said in disgust. "What ye gonna do with it?"

"I was planning to forge a helmet?" Ezio answered, "What do you think?"

"Nice thinking, lad." Aodhfionn nodded. "Ah will help you."

***

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