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Chapter 131: Acquiring new gear and new companions go hand in hand with protagonists

Whew~.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a proper forge, and even longer since I’ve gone all out.

My MP is pretty much drained, but after using some of the techniques I’d thought up while we had been on the road, I’m really happy with the magic ore sword I smithed today.

It’s a katana again~.

Although I’ve gotten used to smithing broadswords and the like, I still like forging a katana.

There’s something about it that makes my soul sing, like it’s coming home.

Besides, my fighting style works better with a katana. Probably.

Even though I wasn’t necessarily forging this blade for myself, it can’t be helped that a blade made without any specifications will end up aligned with my preferences, right?

Yeah.

I like this one.

My magic ore forging has reached a level where you could say that I’m reaching the peak of the current abilities of smiths, although that’s honestly only really possible because of my enormous amount of MP.

Also, the image training I did while on the road has paid off pretty nicely.

I used the method I’d thought of to replicate the sword song forging – just a little, but even using it just a little bit had refined the metal’s ability to conduct magic by at least 1.5 times.

If I’d had a magic effect in mind, I could even use the sword song forging to embed that in with some magic-circuit engraving… but well, I don’t think this sword needs it.

If you think about it, embedding certain effects into your sword necessarily effects your fighting style, so for me, it’s better to have a sword that just conducts magic really well.

I like being able to adjust my fighting methods according to the situation, after all.

Anyway, Graham-san was interested in embedding circuits and magic into a sword, but I question the necessity of such a thing.

It’s interesting, for sure, but at that point you’re basically making a magic tool.

It might as well be an edged wand – ah, that might be what he’s going for.

Since in this world, metal conducts magic more easily than other substances, and weapons are often used to conduct magic.

Regardless, my sword song forging method was a way I thought of to activate particles already embedded in the sword in order to trigger the making of a magic circle within the sword.

After ascertaining the blade myself, I turned and handed the unpolished blade to Graham-san.

I want to take my time with it later, after all.

And I might have already emblazoned my mark on it now, but I also want to inscribe a name on it later.

The first blade I’ve actually had an urge to name… I’m pretty excited.

“Fumu… indeed, this isn’t something a normal bladesmith could come up with.”

Graham-san looks a bit dazed, but surely he’d had some sort of idea about it before.

That my blades weren’t normal.

Although, this might be the first time he’s seen a katana-style sword, since a lot of my practice pieces were broadswords that I was attempting to make sellable.

As Graham-san analyzes the blade himself, I’m suddenly aware of the crowd that’s watching us.

Unlike Nyl City, where each company of smiths owned their own forge and only the smiths that belonged to that company could normally use that forge, there really isn’t enough room in Ploids for that to be the case here as well.

Instead, this forge, and a lot of other forges around the city, does belong to a company, or a few companies, of smiths, but there are a lot of stations within the forge that are rented to others.

That said, it’s not like the forges at the Adventurer’s Guild that can be rented as you like.

Instead, these are more long-term rentals for companies of smiths.

Which is why the men from before were furious that I thinking about borrowing forge space, I guess.

It’s totally disregarding the rules that allows the basic system for smiths to live and work in Ploids.

It’s a bit late, but my apologies…

I only just found out about the system now, but honestly, couldn’t you have just explained it to me instead of getting all worked up?

I would have understood, you know.

Anyway, because of that system … aren’t my abilities going to get out a little too quickly?

Practically the entire forge is just staring over here…

… … … Oh well.

Seimei-san might be angry with me later, but that’s just something that’s going to happen.

I can’t change the results now.

“… Miss Jun…”

Ah, it’s Andira-san.

“Yes?”

I wipe off the sweat on my forehead with the towel around my neck as the Kartinez sisters appear, dragging along a kind of apprehensive looking man.

That’s their contact at this forge, I guess.

“Um… if you have the time…”

… Somehow, Andira-san’s acting even more politely than when she found out that I was traveling with Ragnall.

I take a quick glance at Graham-san.

He seems pretty engrossed in the blade, so I probably do have a few minutes.

“Yeah. Is this about the materials?”

Or like, that’s the only thing that would be the subject, right?

“Yes. Since we have to borrow tools and facilities at this forge, the price would have to go up a little, so we’d like to discuss the rental fees with you present.”

That makes sense. I have no objections to that, and it’s most likely that the payment will be the materials, anyway.

Actually, asking me to be present to prove they’re not ripping me off is a professional move to make, right?

Maybe.

In the end, my non-existent negotiation skills aren’t needed, since the negotiations are mostly between the sisters and Felixon.

Turns out he’s one of Graham’s smiths, so he DOES have the authority to work out rent and stuff.

The Kartinez sisters will rent facilities and tools in exchange for a small fee plus some rare materials, and in turn I will shoulder 50% of the rental fee in the armor payment.

… … I mean, I guess it’s fine that they’re doing things systematically, but in the end, I probably won’t be paying anything, since the sisters are taking a corresponding amount of rare materials as payment for the armor.

I guess even if that’s the case, everything has to be properly calculated and balanced.

I’m pretty awful at that kind of thing, so I’ll just sit here and thank fate that the Kartinez sisters are the honest sort of tradesmen.

After they finish the transaction, complete with contracts and witnesses, I turned to Andira-san, who was letting Lizette-san handle all the business side of things.

“So is this going to prevent you guys from being harassed from now on?”

“Well… I think that was stopped when the White Demon appeared. And even if it wasn’t, that kind of display definitely did it.”

Does she mean the forging process with ‘that kind of display’?

But either way, Ragnall and I don’t actually belong to your shop or anything, so I don’t see how that helps at all.

I guess I’ll leave it up to the mysteries of people.

“Ah, I am amazed to see such magic ore forging… Miss Jun, it truly is a miracle of a blade.”

Ah, Graham-san has finished appraising the sword, and he’s now addressing me.

Seeing that Graham-san had some business with me, the Kartinez sisters quickly excused themselves, returning to their shop to begin their preliminary work before they could come back to use the forge here.

Even though they don’t have to be so scared of Graham-san… he’s a completely nice old dwarf.

“Still… I think some prudence would be better taken when forging a blade… although it is marvelous…”

… Here too, there’s someone telling me that I should hold back.

Yeah, I know, maybe I should, but it’s been such a long time since I could forge properly, so let it go for now, please.

Completely ignoring the watchers crowding around, many of which appeared to be dazed or so surprised their eyes looked like they were going to fall out of their sockets, Graham-san turned, carefully handing the blade back, and winked with a crafty smile.

“Now, let me show you what I can do.”

—

“Hm hm hmm~ hm hmm~.”

I’m returning quite a bit later than I expected to, but even though I’m probably going to get lectured at by Ragnall, I’m in a really good mood.

After watching Graham-san forge a few different knives, I’ve got a pretty good idea how forging with monster parts works.

He only showed me the most basic of each different method of forging with monster parts, but it was the basics forged by a master, so every movement he makes shows the most important reasons behind each consideration he makes.

Plus, he was probably assuming that I’d be experimenting around with things, and so he didn’t bother putting his own flair on those knives.

I mean, he was right.

And can I just say, that for a bladesmith to not put his own preferences into a blade shows how damn good his basics are?

Sure, my preferences always go into my blades, but I’m not really an orthodox smith.

Anyone who’s hoping to learn off me is kind of … well, it wouldn’t be easy.

Anyway, I’ve had a lovely afternoon, but I really should be getting back now to see how the girls are doing.

As you might expect of a Labyrinth City, the streets are still full of people even at this time of night and lit up by magic and torchlights.

It can’t be helped that I’m brushing up against a lot of people, but I’m not too worried.

Pickpockets can’t get into Inventory anyway, and I’m wearing a sword on my hip, pretty visibly.

There shouldn’t be too many people looking for trouble with someone so visibly armed.

Tug!

-!

Wha-?

I look over my shoulder at the hand of a man who had a firm grip on my cloak.

As if noticing my sudden wariness, bordering on aggressiveness, he quickly lifted both hands up as if to show how harmless he was.

Like that’s going to make me less wary.

I didn’t notice his presence at all until he tugged my cloak, after all.

Even if he has absolutely zero hostility, I have a number of detection skills on all the time (well, I apparently have little affinity with the world attempting to quantify my abilities into game skills, so it’s more like I’m always probing my surroundings using mana and magic in multiple different ways all the time).

I shouldn’t be able to overlook someone in my surroundings unless he’s using some sort of ability that’s pretty powerful, and sorry if I feel immediately wary of someone who’s using an ability to mask his presence.

Looking him over, the man is human, maybe a little older than me, with brown hair … okay, he doesn’t look too different from the locals, but something’s different somehow.

I’m not sure how, but somehow.

After a few seconds of staring at each other, the man hesitantly handed me a scrap of paper.

Keeping my hand over my sword, I glance down at the paper.

“… Please lend me money. What? No.”

The note completely threw me for a second, but, no, I’m not going to lend a completely suspicious person money.

…So why is he looking so excited all of a sudden?

Right after my refusal, his eyes lit up and he smiled broadly.

What the hell is with this weirdo?

…Wait a minute.

I was able to read that.

I quickly look back down at the paper.

It might have been written in stilted, somewhat misshapen kana, but the words were おかね を かしてください.

Please lend me money.

… … … Okay.

So I get why you’re happy even though I refused to lend you money, but surely there was some other way to determine whether I was Japanese, yeah?

Seriously…

I heave a sigh.

“… Why do you need money?”

The man quickly wrote something down and showed it to me.

I want to buy a slave.

A slave…

My feelings must have shown on my face, because he panicked and quickly scribbled something else down.

I want to free my friend.

“…”

Haa…

I’m not going to just lend him money, but I do have a lot of money lying around.

For some reason, I keep earning more money and buying things without using money directly so I have a lot saved up, and I can always ask Seimei to send me some more through Friendchat, so I should have enough to buy a slave.

But of course I don’t feel like getting taken advantage of, either, so just in case this man is lying, I say,

“Show me.”

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<a/n: I kind of feel like… screw the pacing, let’s just throw everything in now because reasons.

Man the corona virus is annoying. I get all the self-quarantining and restrictions and stuff to prevent the infection (especially to people with vulnerable health like the elderly, sickly, and young), but staring at the empty grocery shelves, I kind of wonder if people aren’t mistaking it with a zombie apocalypse.
I mean, it’s a super flu, but it’s still just the flu; your water is unlikely to be cut off, and you aren’t holing yourself up for the next year or two. Just wash your hands, rinse your mouth, and do all the other flu prevention things and I’m sure you’ll survive your next foray out to the grocery store.>