The next day, I woke up early and got something quick to eat at the tavern next door.

Today is quite a busy day. I’m going to the inn Maria is staying at to give her the Dradevow dungeon book and take her to Mila’s shop. Then I’m going to take Mila to Kinwall’s shop so they can meet each other. After that, I’m going to the guild to meet up with the noble girls, who want to thank me for returning their pendant.

At the inn Maria was staying, she was already waiting outside, looking quite eager to meet me.

When we saw each other, we greeted each other, and I gave her the Dradevow dungeon book I had brought her.

Flipping through the pages and closing it once she was done, Maria said with glee.

“This is the one.”

“That's great.”

Maria thanked me and asked me to wait outside for a bit because she wanted to put the book back safely in her room, and, in her own words, it’s not a place for a young boy to enter in the morning. I guess she still sees me as a child since I’m still younger than her.

Hearing what she said, I think I know exactly what she is talking about. Some of the girls were probably wearing scanty clothing since it was Alex after all; I would be more surprised if they didn’t.

I feign ignorance by not asking about it and not reacting to it at all with my usual expressionless face to keep up my persona.

After around five minutes or so, Maria came out, and we walked to Mila’s bookstore.

On the way, Maria asked how I knew the bookstore owner. I told her that apparently, she was Mable’s older sister.

“Really, I didn’t know Mable had an older sister.”

“Wait, you know Mable?”

“I do; I stop by to borrow some books for my alchemy sometimes.”

“I see.”

We continued walking and talking to each other till we were at Mila’s bookstore. I knocked on the door and told her it was me.

“Hey Nyx, isn’t there a sign that says it’s close?”

Hearing what she said, I told her.

“Yeah, but she likes it when I visit her, and she opens up on completely random days, so she doesn’t mind letting me in even if it’s closed.”

“Ah, I see.”

As we were chatting, Mila shouted back.

“Comming, give me a minute.”

After a minute, Mila opens the door, and for some odd reason, putting it nicely, she is awfully well dressed instead of her usual messy attire and looks. She wore some pants and a loose-fitting long-sleeved shirt and was carrying a bag on her shoulder. It contrasts very differently with how I normally see her in her baggy shirts and short shorts.

“Hi there, Nyx. Oooh, you’ve brought a friend; what’s her name?”

“Hi too; this is Maria. She wanted to stop by her to buy some books if you don’t mind.”

Turning her head to face Maria, Mila smiled and said hi.

“Hi there, I’m Mila; I own this bookstore. Please come in and find what you would like. Also, excuse the messiness.”

Maria, hearing Mila's bright and happy-go personality, said.

“Thank you for letting me in.”

Inside, it was as messy and cluttered as usual, but I soon released and reminded myself how uncoordinated Maria was. When we meet again in Acton, she stops randomly falling on things. Now, in Mila’s bookstore. Maria was tripping all over the place. I had never seen someone so uncoordinated in my current and past life; it was like watching a baby trying to walk for the first time but constantly failing.

I wonder if it was a good idea to bring her here; a place like this is like a death trap to her.

Constantly falling down, I walk up to her and help her out, but once I pull her up, she falls again by slipping on something and falling into a large tower of books.

The tower of books fell on her, and I heard a groan of pain.

Getting herself out of the piles of books, a book fell in front of her.

“Huh!!!!”

To my surprise, she looked completely shocked when she saw the book that landed in front of her.

“What’s wrong?

Concerned, I asked if there was anything wrong, and Maria replied with an absolutely bright and beaming tone.

“I’m fine, but this.”

Holding up the book that fell in front of her, she showed it to my face extremely enthusiastically.

“What is it?”

Looking at the book, the title said The Book of Magnus.

Judging by how excited she is, it must be rare.

“Is it rare?”

“Yes, absolutely, it’s a book about alchemy by one of the most famous alchemists in history. Only 100 books were ever made. I can’t believe this was in this bookstore. It’s what all alchemists dream of having.”

“Ah, I see.”

Turning to face Mila with eagerness and a bit of desperation, she asked how much it would cost, looking like she would pay anything for it.

Mila had a smile seeing Maria's excitement in the book and said.

"Oh, that one. I got it from an alchemist friend of mine; he gave it to me since he doesn’t need it anymore. He told me that it was quite a rare book, so I guess a gold coin should do.”

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Hearing the price, Maria trembly asks.

“Is that really how much?”

“Yeah.”

Mila's smile grew and said.

“You're Nyx’s friend, and I don’t need it anymore. Plus you make good use of it, more than I would.”

Maria had a beaming smile and said thank you very much. She took out her coin pouch and paid for it, which she had carried more than enough.

“Thank you again; if you would excuse me, Nyx and Ms. Mila, I will be going back to my inn.”

Bowing with the most sincere bow, Mila responded.

“I see, see you again, and just call me Mila.”

I said goodbye to Maria and watched her run off back to her room. Let's hope that she doesn’t trip on the way back.

“Come on, I’ve been waiting to see this friend of yours.”

Mila said it after seeing Maria off.

“Okay.”

I led Mila to Kinwall’s shop, and on the way there, I warned her.

“By the way, he tends to set up shop in rather rundown and dingy places that people don’t normally go to.”

“Really, he must really not want people to find him.”

“You could say that; let's just say his skills tend to get the attention of unwanted people.”

Hearing what I said, she caught on to what I meant.’

“Oh, I see. That is surprising.”

“Yeah, that's why he tends to move a lot.”

Continuing the conversation, which led to other things, like Mila talking a lot about her sister, including all the embarrassing stuff about Mable when she was younger, we eventually made it into Kinwall’s shop.

I entered the door and shouted out to Kinwall that it was me; he shouted back from the back of the store to give him a minute to come out.

Mila didn’t seem to flinch when Kinwall shouted back with his deep, booming voice.

“Ah, it's good to see you so soon. Looks like you’ve brought another friend.”

“Hi, this is Mila, and Mila, this is Kinwall.”

I looked at Mila’s reaction to seeing Kinwall coming to the front, who was a dwarf.

She had a big smile and said.

“Oh my, I didn’t expect Nyx to have a dwarf as a friend. Hi there, nice to meet you.”

Mila bowed slightly to greet Kinwall, and Kinwall nodded in response.

“So, what brings you here?”

“Mila says she wanted to meet you after seeing the knives and the sword you’ve made.”

“Yes, that is correct.”

Mila further said.

“I came here to ask you to do a job because you have worked with Mythril before, right?”

“Yes, I have, quite a lot, actually.”

"Well, that is a surprise; you really are sought after, aren’t you?”

Mila’s eyebrows was slightly raised to show her surprise, and as for me.

“Yeah, they really are persistent even if you say no, which is why I move so much. It’s too much of a hassle to deal with them. So, what’s the job you have in mind?”

Taking something out of her tote bag, she showed it to Kinwall; it was a big stamp of some kind with a magical circle on the die part of the stamp, but I don’t really know what it was specifically.

“Well, that is quite a rare sight.”

It seems that Kinwall knows what it was, so I ask.

“You know what it is?”

“Yes, it’s a magical engraver. It can stamp functional magical circles into almost anything but is rare because it has to be made with materials with very high mana efficiency, like pure mythril.”

I turned to face Mila and asked what she wanted to do with it.

“Oh, I’m guessing that you want me to engrave more of your knives. This just makes the process a lot easier and faster. I couldn’t do it before since there aren’t a lot of blacksmiths I know of that are good enough to handle Mythril until you show me your knives, which I wanted to see if Kinwall can do it.”

“Oh, I see.”

Facing Kinwall again, Mila asks if he could do it.

“Of course I can; I've done a fair bit, so I got some experience.”

“Great.”

Mila had a big smile when Kinwall could do it. Kinwall, on the other hand, had a curious look and said.

“Can I ask what you meant by engravings on the knife?”

Kinwall had a glint in his eye, looking at Mila. Mila turned her head to look at me, which Kinwall followed; she looked as if she wanted me or her to answer.

I answer with.

“I’ve been developing magical circles for magical tools that don’t need mages to use, which I got a lot of help from Mila. So far, we’ve made knives that can emit electricity when you hit something.”

Kinwall was deeply astonished by what I said and said that it was really impressive that I made something like that, to which I replied back.

“Not really; it wouldn’t be possible with Mila and her expertise on magical tools. But could you keep it a secret, please? I would rather not let those people know about it.”

Understanding what I meant, Kinwall told me not to worry and that he had done a lot of jobs that are very confidential and classified, so he could keep his mouth shut.

“This is really an interesting job, so what magical circle do you need to reshape?”

Facing Mila again, Mila took out a sheet of paper with a drawing of the magical circle that was meant to gather mana.

After giving the sheet of paper to Kinwall and letting him look over it, Mila looked at me and asked.

“How was the throwing knife you used on the monster in the dungeon?”

Oh, right, I had forgotten to tell her about that.

“It didn’t work as we intended it to.”

Curious, Mila asks what I meant.

"Well, it works, but the output was way more than I expected when I threw them at some orcs. It causes the magical circles to completely melt after throwing them just once.”

“I see, can I see them?”

“Sure.”

I took out a throwing knife and showed it to her.

“That is quite perplexing; what do you think might have caused it?”

“My current theory is the magical shards in the monster also might have been absorbed by the knives, causing there to be a massive electrical surge.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well, the magical shards for all 4 of the orcs didn’t drop. They usually always drop a medium magical shard, a small magical shard if you're very unlucky.”

“Yes, that might be the reason.”

Hearing our conversation, Kinwall looked up from the sheet of paper and asked to look at the knife.

I gave him another knife for him to look at.

“Hmm, quite interesting.”

As he was looking at it, I asked if he could fix it.

“Of course, I can; it's mostly surface-level damage. It’s quite rare for me to repair something, since, you know, most of my customers don’t even bring them back.”

Being reminded about his customers reminds me of the blonde-haired guy who came by his shop in Farsbarow and the insane weirdos in my past life, for which I always get a feeling of complete dread remembering them.

He seemed happy saying that, and then he asked if there was anything else we two needed.

I thought about it, and I guess I’m going to need a bulk order of my throwing knives, say around 20, and new holsters that could carry even more knives for me to use.

“Is that all?”

I reply yeah, and so does Mila.

“I guess I better get started. I’m going to start with the magical stamp, then fix your knives, Nyx, and your orders for a lot of throwing knives.”

“How much is it?”

“For you, it’s 1 gold and 5 silvers; for her, I guess around 3 silvers.”

“Got it.”

I took out my coin pouch, and Mila did the same, and we paid for our respective orders.

After paying, I ask how long it’s going to take.

“I’m going to be very busy for a couple of days, around 2 days for Mila’s job and 5 for yours.”

“Okay, I’ll see you in a week then.”

We walked outside of Kinwalls shop, and Mila asked me what I was going to do next. I told her I was going to the adventurer guild to meet up with some people who wanted to meet with me, and after that, I was going to start fixing the problem with the current throwing knives.

I didn’t have a problem with them, since that amount of electricity being emitted seems quite powerful and useful but tends to be a problem since it also absorbs the magical shards' energy, which isn’t too practical when I need to make money.

I’m going to have to change the magical circle that doesn’t do that, and my first thought was to put a limiter on the magical circle to fix it.