Sorry about not posting in so long hopefully this next chapter is enjoyable, please point out anything to make it better!
----------------------------------------
Over the last year and a half my blacksmithing has steadily improved, moving on from the chi manifestation of shape to actual forging.
The reason it seemed like I'd matched Kyle at first was because he was attempting to created something far stronger.
Due to his bad habits I'd been able to pass him in around six months as opposed to Anthony who steadily practiced, not leaving the forge for over a year Anthony improved rapidly under Mordecai's tutelage.
By blacksmithing for a long period of time chi is trained, gathered, and refined none the less once I'd returned home I still absorbed mana and natural energy.
To properly create a weapon a blacksmith must first melt the metal by using fire chi or a furnace, next you'd have to use earth chi to mold and strengthen the metal into a rough shape.
After that real skill comes into play.. Coating a small area of the metal with fire chi would make the metal malleable, Earth chi would then be used to compress, bend, fold, and smooth the metal.
Using water chi you'd cool and clean the metal before once again using fire chi to heat and temper the metal to make it more flexible and less brittle.
Using Air chi you'd taper the edges of the hot metal creating a sharpness far surpassing ordinary blacksmithing methods, finally you'd end up with your finished weapon.
Using chi in such a way would allow anyone to distinctively notice the difference and easily separate chi into its separate parts, well blacksmithing chi would constantly flow through the surrounding air fusing with the purified chi used on the weapons and eventually flowing back into you with it.
Through this process I'd been able to reach the peak of the sixth advanced level, having taken five years I'd passed been stopped at the third level for over a year before learning from Mordecai.
If only for persistence alone Mordecai taught me, Anthony on the other hand was like his own son well Kyle was someone he could barely stand to look at for the past year.
Anthony asks a question he'd answer, Kyle asks a question he'd hesitantly answer, and if I asked a question he'd debate if he should answer before later on coming over to see my work.
In the beginning Mordecai dreaded when I approached him and having to see my work, for the next few months even though I'd steadily improved he'd only call my work "satisfactory" or "adequate."
Only once did he ever acknowledge me the day I left the forge…
Two weeks before my birthday Emily contacted me, not having seen her in over five year I was ecstatic.
Pointing out my soon to be age Emily had but one question, "Will you leave the village."
Every single child has eight years to learn, play, and train before learning essential life skills, thus "entering society."
Even just looking at the inhabitants of a demon town the only ages really seen are between five and fourteen or older than fifty, many demons even only settle down when over a hundred years old.
Being a race where their population will reach at least five hundred years old before dying of age it can only be expected.
Those who reach the age of fifteen are accepted as adults solely because they should have fully absorbed their crystal(s) by then, at the point where they can easily protect themselves they're allowed to travel or go to a higher tier school.
Emily was simply asking if I'd take to the tradition and travel, to that I only had one word "Yes!"
Having spent years moving from place to place I'd still only seen a small portion of what lies on earth, in a world I've never seen before who could resist searching out other races!
Hearing my answer Emily abandoned her residence of five years to hurry towards Bernard City, without stopping Emily would be a week's flight away so taking a leisurely flight she'd be able to arrive shortly before my birthday.
Since I was leaving the city it would only be proper to formally leave both the blacksmith and school, since the new semester would be starting soon Mrs. Prima ran laps around the city trying to find a replacement.
Not really.. Having expected my decision as well as needing to deal with the large population she'd already recruited five new teachers, Mordecai on the other hand was actually sad to see me go.
Over the next week Selena heard about me preparing to leave and came to see me, wearing a light green sundress she'd grown into a stunning beauty even with the saber hanging on her waist.
Having made the saber myself I was particularly frightened by it having been one of my experimental swords, after spending two days fusing mana, chi, and natural wind energy into the metal I'd created a horrifying masterpiece.
Truthfully it was the only weapon I'd created that could cut through my own defense, the ones Mordecai sold in his shop could cut advanced level one defense unless the user use their own energy to augment it.
This sword alone could cut off a lower tier experts limb, due to the increased sharpness through wind chi and the invisible wind mana blade coating it.
If it's natural ability was used a wind tiger could be created with a slash crashing into the opponent before dissipating, but even then it could only kill those below the seventh advanced level with its claw slash.
Mordecai having demonstrated it thus far was reluctant to even use the weapons true ability, instead he explained that the user could fuse the mana blade with the wind tiger.
Doing so would cause the beast to multiple blades of wind, every part of the animal would be razor sharp and could tear the opponent to shreds.
At first I'd wanted to lock it away in safe keeping or give it to my father, but having heard about it from Anthony she ran into the forge and pulled it off the storage rack.
Using the weapon she instantly took a liking to it even to the point of using its abilities, afterwards the forge was disastrous but thankfully the younger apprentices weren’t present.
Having seen the whole thing instead of being angry Mordecai was ecstatic, to be able to use the swords ability at only a low level expert Selena was surely going to reach the emperor rank!
Being a blacksmith Mordecai found a profound joy in people using the magnificent weapons that were created by himself or others, taking the damage out of my pay for weapons sold everything was resolved with Selena taking the sword.
Hearing her reason for searching me out it was rather obvious she wanted to travel with me, normally those who leave would travel together with others their age to a main city and register as an adventurer like in games.
Then they'd find party members who'd be able to compliment them after all with purely swordsmen or mages you'd be unbalanced! Being in a main city already we'd simply need to gather members.
Kyle having heard Selena and I would leave together decided to join us, he's lacking in close combat but his archery is superb surprisingly so is his fletching!
Anthony chose to remain and refine his blacksmithing even further until he can create the best weapon Mordecai has ever seen!
Archers require a large amount of natural energy to increase their speed and senses and fletching followed the same principle, using chi he'd create arrow heads to put on the arrows he'd "forged" with chi and natural energy!
He'd even made his own bow having searched the forest for the perfect branch, although he was only at the second advanced level it was nothing to be ashamed of considering the path he'd chosen is so difficult!
Emily would function as our magician with her natural fire abilities she wouldn’t even need to use mana, all we'd need is a healer but considering I my light and water magic could equal a dual affinity made there would be no problem just the four of us.
Gathering supplies was left entirely up to me Kyle and Selena went as far as to leave me all the money they'd earned over the last seven years, rather than making me handle the expenses I'm the only one with a void storage item.
Thankfully my purse can hold an incredible amount and even preserves ingredients so I could even buy a year's supply of food, purchasing supplies I quickly caused multiple shops to close for the day.
Blacksmiths ran out of ingots, vendors ran out of ingredients, tailors ran out of high quality cloth, and herbs! Alchemy is a part of natural energy even if I don't know it yet eventually I'll be able to create elixirs!
Fletching compared to alchemy is rather just a branch of blacksmithing using more natural energy only to allow chi to effect the wood, alchemy on the other hand uses mana natural energy making it a branch of tailoring.
Even if tailoring is mostly used on cloth items can be created purely out of the elements themselves by using mana, for example a shadow cloak to make one disappear into the darkness.
Natural energy itself is merely able to manipulate life itself, growing and altering plants I could even re-create plants from earth.
After preparations were finished the next few days slowly passed as I created cloths for Emily, Selena, Kyle, and myself.
On the morning of my birthday I was woken up earlier than usual, opening my eyes I could see a beautiful girl floating in the air above me.
Looking her up and down my eyes slowly followed the slender curves of her slender body, glistening in the morning light she was partially covered in water.
After she blushed I turned my gaze over towards the open bathroom door following the trail of water back from my bed, looking into her crimson eyes the mark on my head flared up.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
The girl above me was Emily all grown up!
"Hello master, it's nice seeing you've grown to be a powerful young woman."
" What's wrong Emily we're both girls aren't we why the need for embarrassment?" it may have been years ago but I can still remember the words said after encountering Emily inside my soul.
Smiling Emily lowered herself to the floor only then causing me to notice that she'd not been using her wings, shocked I was barely able to force out the words "Emily have you reached the angel tier?"
Shaking her head I was actually slightly relived the technique she'd used simply required air elemental magic, flight magic actually does exist so I don’t know why I'd assume she'd become an angel already.
Getting out of bed Emily accompanied me to my closet, although most of my things have already been cleaned out two dresses were left hanging along with four towels stacked by the door.
Passing Emily two towels I headed towards my dresser, pulling out both a bra and panties for Emily I went about altering them to fit her current proportions.
Having created form sitting clothing for so long I could instantly tell a person's dimensions from seeing their body, of course if they wore an improper bra or extremely tight clothing I'd be marginally wrong.
Looking at Emily naked it was easy to tell she'd require a larger bra than me, roughly a 42c compared to my own 34b.
Unable to understand why I felt a sense of inadequacy I shrugged it off and quickly completed my work, putting them on Emily was now much easier to look at.
Being a tailor I've seen hundreds of naked women by now but always felt like the gay best friend, having them stand in multiple poses and touching them well taking measurements and I'd felt nothing no pressure in the pants.
Sitting down afterwards would be uncomfortable so I'd always worked well standing up to create their orders, after the women left I'd secretly head to the back to change over my underwear but that was that.
Handing Emily her dress I grabbed the other towels and headed off for my own bath, coming out shortly after my hair and body were both wrapped by towels leaving only my glistening arms and legs exposed.
Quickly getting dressed I all but ran down the stairs in my heels to be met with my parents, Sam, and Emily gathered around the table.
Although turning fifteen signifies one becoming an adult only the tenth birthday is really celebrated, instead all we had was a small family celebration.
In the end mom gave me traveling money and dad gave me an extremely sharp dagger to stab boys with, I promised I'd use it on Kyle by the end of the day causing him to both frown and smile at once.
No doubt he was regretting me traveling with Kyle well at the same time happy I'd have a use for his gift, Sam on the other hand simply grabbed both Emily and me for a large hug causing my parents to join in.
Seeing us off at the door we headed towards Selena's house picking up Kyle along the way, knocking on the door it was Anthony who greeted us.
Wrapping his arms around me with a hug my hand reached for the dagger I'd recently acquired, "please take care of my sister."
Saying that he released his hold on me well I released my hold on the dagger, than he wiped the tears from his eyes as he looked over to Kyle.
"And you stay away from my sister! If I hear you even touched her with a pat on the head I'll…….." By the end of it Kyle went completely pale and promised to never touch Selena again.
Hearing the "again" Anthony as if to match Kyle had all the blood drained from his face before it all came flooding back in rage, appearing just at the right time Selena slipped past her brother grabbed Kyle by the ear and led the way towards the adventurers guild.
Arriving at the guild I was met with an unbelievable sight, although I'd helped with the plans for the city the adventurers district is the sort of red light district.
Along the way down the side alleys both men and women could be seen wearing seductive clothing, skimpy clothing, or almost no clothing at all.
In front of some stores were men wearing entirely black clothes holding chains leading towards the collars around the necks of the woman standing next to them, seeing the four of us their eyes lit up but their bodies remained firmly in place.
Passing them as quickly as possible we made a b-line to the adventurers guild, passing by numerous people our age or slightly older we'd finally arrived.
Today is the start of the school semester, the first day when adventurers can take their, and sadly my birthday the first day of the year..
Entering the guild was a crowd of hundreds of youths taking up the entire building, looking back through the open door I could see more and more slowly trickling in.
All of a sudden the doors slammed shut throwing two people back and trapping everyone else inside, "Q-U-I-E-T-!-!"
Instantly the room turned dead silent until the voice spoke again, "The test will begin in thirty seconds, Defend yourselves!"
All of a sudden a miasma spread throughout the room, once it evenly covered the entire crowd it became stronger.
Slowly one by one the number of people standing turned from a thousand down to five hundred, after ten minutes over nine hundred people were brought out of the room leaving less than ten percent of us.
Turning up the strength even higher I was forced to use mana to augment my chi barrier, Kyle having some trouble had long ago started using natural energy.
Selena and Emily on the other hand both seemed to be fine solely using chi to protect themselves, looking around the room I began memorizing the faces of the experts left.
Finally after what seemed to be an eternity only eleven people were left, out of them Kyle and another boy looked to be worst off.
On the brink of collapse Kyle barely made it, with the other boy collapsing to the ground the attack lessened signifying we'd passed!
Without my own natural energy I would have no doubt failed so I can imagine what Kyle himself we through, with only two powers inside of him he'd barely passed.
Looking over at Emily she was the only one left in perfect condition with only chi, even Selena looked flushed.
Heading over to the counter Emily had to help Kyle over, with a short wait six people went ahead of us before I finally approached the counter.
"Hello I'd like to register the four of us as an adventurer team." Hearing this the woman looked utterly shocked, slowly her gaze passed over the four of us one by one.
"Miss only one person needs to pass the test to become a team leader, why did all of you take it?" Looking over to Selena she simply shrugged, Kyle unable to do anything looked like he wanted to collapse even more after hearing that and Emily was impassive as always.
"We simply didn't know, we only came here to register as adventurers and form a party." Hearing this the woman looked like she understood but her initial surprise remained.
Registering the four of us as adventurers she also handed each of us a card, on the card stated out party, position, race, gender, and rank.
Normal adventurers would start at the earth level, and only those of the air, fire, light, or shadow rank could form a party.
The four of us having passed the test skipped over both the earth and water ranks and could form parties as air rank adventurers.
No wonder the test was so hard I'd had to use all my strength to resist to the end, Kyle being a skirt chaser could only barely keep others safe!
Leaving the adventurers guild we took a different route out and headed towards the merchants district, reaching the main square there were market stalls as far as the eyes can see.
Entering the merchants guild I headed straight towards the transport section, according to the attendant only three merchants were leaving in the next couple days.
Heading out of the guild we rushed to the city walls to try and meet the merchant Erik before he left, reaching the gates I saw a merchant caravan carrying multiple people and goods.
"Excuse me Mr. Erik where exactly would you be heading?" Slowly turning his head towards me a man in the leading cart slowly spoke.
"The human kingdom of Kalmar, why are you interested in hiring transport?" Seeing the greed in his eyes I doubted he could see Selena, Emily, or me as anything but money.
Smiling I walked towards the cart holding out my hand, grasping Erik's hand I began our introductions "Selena, Emily, Kyle, and Azura passage for four please."
Looking us up and down Erik's eyes lingered on my clothes no doubt inspecting the quality of the fabric, "Ten gold for passage, five gold for protection and food."
Smiling I took out the fifteen gold from my purse only to have it instantly snatched from my hands, ignoring his mannerism I climbed onto the cart he pointed out offering my hand to Selena.
Emily passed Kyle over to use and easily jumped the meter up into the cart, the second she landed the cart started moving heading away from the city.
After a couple of minutes I couldn’t help but look back muttering, "Goodbye Oakheart I hope you're still standing by the time I return."
Chapter 11: Attack!