THAT DAY I BECAME A STAR

I stand up and goes to her.

"For the weapon, I want a raiz…I want two raizens."

"Two?"

"Yeah, the last one broke so I don't want to repeat the same mistakes."

"I see. A good point, indeed."

"For the armor, however, I don't really know. Maybe something that's easy to move in but really resistant as well, durable, flexible. The guy before also talked about amplifying scripts. I don't know how that's works but if it is possible to do it then I want it as well.".

The girl notes everything I said down on her paper and then looks at me.

"Well…The cost will be quite high, you know. Surely, master will give you a discount but even so."

"I have some materials I already gathered."

"Oh, that's good. Are you an adventurer?" She looks at me with a warm smile.

"Yes."

"Fantastic. Bring them out then and we will appraise their quality first."

"I don't think there is enough space here."

"Eh?"

***

Sophia brings me inside the smithy. Yeah, she told me her name when I said I already materials at my disposal. The inside of the smithy is huge. There are six anvils next to tall furnaces placed at the different corners of the smithy. All the furnaces are connected to a massive tunnel of sort attached to the roof. It must be what we see when we are outside of the building. In front of each anvil, there are three men. One hammers the iron, while the two others are holding it with tongs.

There, at the far right end of the building, I see Claire's husband. As we walk to him, he turns around and greets me. He is wearing a leather apron covered with black traces of charcoal as well as leather gauntlets which look a bit loose.

"Master, your friend said he wants to have an armor and weapons crafted."

What was that guy's name again? I completely forgot.

"Good morning."

He extends his hand to me and I shake it without thinking. It was filthy with the charcoal, but I don't care. I am not the cleanest person there is as well.

What is weird is that after I shake his hand, he smiles brightly and makes a thumb up. What does that mean?

"Master agrees to craft you everything you want. You are lucky, you know."

Ah, I see. "Thank you."

The man indicates the center of the smithy with his hand and then start walking.

"Let's go and see your materials."

We go to the center and then I activate my bracelet. Let's bring out everything. The two gnoll's corpses, the crystals, the gragora's skins…Everything come out of my bracelet in a flash of light. Which is then followed by screams.

"IMPOSSIBLE!!"

"Hey, guys!! Look at that!!!"

"How can this be?!!!"

Every single person present in the smithy comes running after they I empty my bracelet. What is so surprising about this?

"A-a-a gnoll? How…where…WHO ARE YOU?!!!"

Sophia jumps on me and holds my shoulders with both hands. Her eyes are shining like jewels. She is even drooling. What is wrong with her?

"Who am I?"

"You must be a meister!! You are a meister, right?!!"

"A meister…Incredible."

"And he is so young."

"Damn, he is lucky."

"Calm down." I remove her hands and holds them tight. "I am not a meister."

Why would she think I am a meister, anyway? Compared to that old teacher, I am still too weak.

"Are you sure? Even if it is a secret, it will be well kept with us, you know?"

"Yeah, we won't tell a soul about it."

"I am not."

"But, then, how?" Sophia leaves me and goes over to the corpses. Claire's husband does the same and then they both start inspecting them. The bigger one's half and then the smaller one. They also take the gragora skins and inspect them. Sophia's mouth is opened and she is breathing heavily. Her eyes are turning bloodshot as well. Claire's husband, however, is calm and composed. He inspects the corpses slowly.

"You are not a meister and yet you have sliced an alpha gnoll in half. You should apply for the meister position."

"No, why would I do that?"

"With your strength, you could-"

"I haven't been an adventurer for long so I wouldn't be able to even if I wanted to. And I don't want to begin with."

"Well, in times, you should."

"What do you say about the materials?"

"They are all of high quality. An alpha gnoll, a female one as well. Two beta gragora's skins as well as five normal. They were not skinned well enough but it should do. There are even crystals, though they don't seem to contain a lot of Angas. We can definitively craft the best weapons out of all those but sadly we will need other things well."

"I see. What else, will you need."

"Ore. We can't craft a good raizen without metal after all. Though the bones of the gnoll will make an excellent shaft, they can't be used for the blade. We will need arachny's silk as well to make the inner part of the armor."

"I see. So you need ore and silk. Is that all?"

"Well…" Sophia looks at Claire's husband who nods silently while looking at a gragora's skin.

"Yes, it is."

"Don't you need money?" She asks a pretty high amount to the guy before. Why won't she ask the same of me? I might not be able to pay but still, I don't need other people's kindness.

"No, we don't."

"How so? You ask money from the other guy, so why not ask the same of me?"

"Well…" Sophia looks at the master smith.

"I don't want to be a special customer. If I have to pay, make me pay like anybody else."

Sophia looks at Claire's husband for a while and finally answers me.

"Ah…Listen, considering the fees needed to dismantle those corpses and the money we will obtain from the meat and organs, together with the different expenses needed…It will be…"

"Just say it."

"Two million wellis."

"I see." Two million wellis. If only I still had the money I got from my assassinations…

"But since-"

"I will manage to get the money. Just hold on to the materials for now."

"I…We can do it for free, you know. You-"

"AH, I would like to order another armor for my pet as well."

"You have a pet?"

"Yes."

"I see. Okay, just bring him over and we will handle the rest."