Uninterested Blacksmith

While Alyssia was finishing up with her fights on the platform, the rest of her crew were beginning to complete their own tasks.

Inside a small blacksmith, the sounds of hammering were loud and continuous as the blacksmith struck downward with his smithing hammer towards the heated iron ingot one after another.

Nica and Alfred arrived at the doors of the blacksmith and looked inside appreciating the many freshly made weapons hanging on his walls.

Alfred carried a long staff in his hands and waited while Nica observed full of curiosity towards this type of craftsmanship.

On Zou, they had a blacksmith to make weapons but they rarely showed their skills unless it was a request from someone with a high enough rank.

The Mink who was in charge of the engineering side of things was her master and also a close friend to that blacksmith so he was able to request to have various metal moulds made to be used in his newest experiment or tool that he was inventing.

The blacksmiths in Kano preferred to use the ancient ways and teachings to craft weapons and create cold weapons rather than guns much like Wano.

Within Kano country, it was very rare for them for a person to be seen carrying a gun of any kind and even the Navies fighting style relies more on their martial arts and cold weapons with the slight addition of cannons on their ships.

Although the person inside the blacksmith couldn't be known as a master skilled enough to produce a weapon on the same rank as a cursed blade, his skill was one of the best for making a very sturdy and long lasting quality weapon or tool using whatever materials that he has available to him.

After the man finished hammering on the ingot he looked over and saw that there was some customers and shouted towards the back room. "Customers are here!"

A rough looking man stepped out and saw the two customers and smiled. "Is there anything you wish to buy or have made?"

He had slightly tanned skin, unshaven beard and messy hair but a very strong looking body and ordinary appearance with brown hair and black eyes.

Alfred stepped forward and introduced himself while showing the staff. "My name is Alfred, I am here to make some requests for strong and durable weapons like this one, I believe that this has come from this place so I would like to establish a relationship with its creator and have them complete some parts and also some additional blades from the blueprints that I have brought."

The man took hold of the staff and examined it. "Yeah, this is one of mine. How did you find get a hold of it?"

Alfred began to explain the story and the circumstances in which Alyssia had acquired it leading up to how they had investigated the maker and his home country only to track him down to this location.

The man responded calmly. "It seems that the person you work for has a good eye."

If many people were to call themselves masters of their craft then he would definitely be known for his skills in using the most suitable materials for their intended purpose and making the most if that material to bring out its full potential.

There was nothing special about his weapons in general that would be recognised by the most skilled of weapon users or blacksmiths because the likes of famous swords or cursed swords are much more known and popular in the world, his weapons weren't the sharpest or most deadly but they were difficult to destroy.

The staff had been one that he made when he experienced a breakthrough in his smithing abilities and was part of the several best weapons he had produced to date.

However he had long lost inspiration, his days were full of making swords, spears, staffs, glaives, axes, sabres, needles and knives on repeat and his skills had begun to diminish just like his interest.

All his customers wanted was new tools to kill and when his works became more well known he also grew tired of seeing his hard work being used so carelessly by fools who did not know how to properly use them or someone that wished to keep it as some form of collectable.

He continued in an uninterested tone. "However I only accept interesting requests these days. If you can amuse me then maybe i will consider making you something."

It wasn't him being rude to the visitors to the blacksmith but it was more his general lack of interest and lack of motivation that lead him to answer in this way.

He had long got used to customers coming to him for a new weapon and something that he knew how to craft even in his sleep.

Alfred did not seem to care. "What we are here for is not just your blacksmithing skills but also to get your help building some of my captains and this ladies inventions. They have built some interesting tools or weapons but they are really lacking in terms of sturdiness. If used too often and too much force is used they may break apart, this is mainly why I need you to help make the parts with your blacksmithing skills but also make some other parts that may not need to be so tough as the best you can make as moulds. We hope that if you happen to take an interest in the work, you may wish to take part in the research and stay on board the ship."

The man still had an uninterested look in his eyes. "Show me the types of shapes and materials you wish to use and then I will think about it."

Nica handed over a small piece of a blueprint that had some written specifications for the design and said. "For now, we need to maintain secrecy so how about you complete this first. We hope that you can give it a try. If you express the desire to work on the other parts if various blueprints then we would be happy to work with you but if you do not then we may have a hard time looking for someone else with your set of skills."

He looked at part of the design that came in mainly on large shape and also had several extra parts on it and found the request to be interesting. "A mask? But the material specifications on this show that there is a specific purpose for the mask and things to be added to it.. interesting. Fine I will take on the task."

On the blueprint there was a design of a half mask that covered the lower half of the face and was designed according to Alyssia's face shape.

She had specified that this was a priority item to be made as soon as possible because she urgently needed it now that she was going to be taking part in Chinjao's tests.

She believed that having this mask would perhaps save her life one day but also help to conceal her appearance a little.

If one looked closely the mask design looked a little familiar.

Its black design and shape made it look very similar to the Mortal Kombat character Noob Saibot's mask with a couple of alterations to provide it with some extra uses and remain on her face without giving her any discomfort.

Nica added. "While it must be durable, it should also be made so that it is as light as possible without sacrificing the durability or any of the intended places that will need to be constructed and added later."

The man looked over it once more and then a look of appreciation was in his eyes. "It seems like you really wish to hide the full designs from me but it dies not matter. My guess is that the intended purpose for this mask would either be to provide air in difficult to breathe spaces or to filter the air correct?"

Nica looked at him and revealed a look of approval. "You have guessed it correctly."

The world was full of many dangers and the most treacherous ones of all was either drowning, suffocating, disease or poison.

No matter how strong a persons body is and how strong their Haki, if they cannot breathe or the air around them has been polluted they would have a hard time surviving.

Enemies like Caesar Clown were dangerous because of the gas weapons they manufacture but so are those who purchase them or use similar methods to weaken or kill their enemies.

Brooks crew died from poison, Caesar blew up an island and made it inhabitable due to the toxins in the air, Queen deploys diseases in combat and even upon his own crew members creating chaos, Jack released a weakening gas onto the Minks to defeat them and Don Krieg released a deadly poison gas bomb upon the Baratie during his confrontation with Luffy and Sanji.

These were just examples of the hidden dangers that Alyssia feared so she had requested a mask to be made with an air purifier or gas mask function.

Upon seeing that the man had taken some interest in making it, Nica and Alfred went to purchase a couple more materials that were needed for various other parts of the blueprint designs while Tristan and Medea were busy with their tasks of gathering any useful or seemingly interesting books, clothes or other things that caught their eye.