“Hmm?”

“What do you mean?”

She walked over to the workbench where Veldor's equipment was laid out. Her hand hovered over it and positioned above his mace with an open palm.

“If we’re goin' against strong guys, we’ll need to be at our strongest. Normal weapons won’t cut it anymore, we needa pack more power behind every punch.”

Arga’s hand released a golden light that filled her palm. The powerful aura imbued the mace with its pristine golden glint and brightened the area over the workbench.

“What is this… since when could you use magic?!”

“That’s not magic, she didn’t chant anything. Don’t tell me, Arga did you…”

Her toothy grin stretched from one ear to the other as if to confirm my thoughts.

“This is my new skill, Hephaestus’s flame!”

The mace was engrossed in golden light but disappeared the moment her hand left the space above it. She turned to us and addressed our confused stares with a triumphant smile.

My eyes snapped back to normal and I leaned closer to her,

“Wait, so does that mean you’ll help me too, Arga?!”

She nodded back, “Of course, why wouldn’t I?”

I guess I worried for nothing, she does love Alice as much as I do. She probably wants to save her just as much as me.

“I still don’t see how this helps us beat gold and obsidian-ranked adventurers?” Veldor chimed in.

“Ahem! Well if you would let me get to that part… it’s a blacksmithing skill, blacksmiths usually unlock it when they’re about to reach silver rank. It lets me create better gear but more importantly, it’s going to cut down the time on forging them!”

My eyes widened with a starry grin, I took Arga’s hands and held them with a cheery smile.

“You're the best Arga, does that mean we’ll be able to stop them?”

“Not even close.” She responded with an equally cheery tone.

“...”

“...”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Then why are you so calm about this?!!”

“Hey, there’s no way I can compete with their gear at silver rank. They have blacksmiths in gold rank at their disposal, not to mention better items to forge from. That doesn’t mean I’m ‘sitin' down without a fight though.”

Arga extended out her hand as if I were supposed to hand her something.

“Me?” I asked gingerly.

“The items, all of them. We’re going against the best of the best, right? Then I’ll need to see what we’re dealing with. Everything you got.”

I emptied my inventory onto the bench, every stone, gem and monster drop I had was laid out in front of her.

“Not bad… I haven’t even seen some of these before.” Arga responded.

I noticed Veldor by the door, he was on his way out.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“You said we have three days right, well then I’ll take that time to come to an answer. Don’t bother me until then.”

Once again I was left speechless, utterly useless. I stood in the doorway with a depressed look as I watched him leave out the front.

“It’s okay to let him think it over, it is a big decision. You have stuff you need to take care of too, don’t you?” Arga added.

“Yeah, I’ll leave the gear to you then.”

“Naturally~”

***

The next day, Kana arranged a meeting for me. It was early morning and a fresh layer of doon had just descended over the park grass. My body was cold, even the air was frozen with mist.

There was one person I needed on my side no matter what, the only person who had the strength and means to help us. Not attached to guilds, teams or even rules of the city.

“I’m here, Vye.”

I spoke out into empty air but I knew she’d hear me. I knew next to nothing about her but from our week together, I learnt that she’s extremely punctual.

“My favourite little adventurer came back, how can I help you, Rei~”

I felt the chilling breath of her words brush over my cheek, it came out of nowhere and disappeared just as suddenly.

“I need your strength.”

I knew there was no point in trying to discern where she was, I had learnt the hard way that it was impossible. Her voice drifted through the wind from no direction, it wasn’t attached to her. She had completely erased her presence and as such, I kept my eyes forward.

“It won’t be cheap, I’m a pricey lady.”

“I can give you everything I have but it’s not much…”

“That’s okay, I’m sure we can arrange a different option. You wouldn’t mind… would you?”

I couldn’t see her face but I knew she was smiling, it was the one emotion she allowed to pass through her voice.

“You don’t mean something dirty… right?”

“Relax, you’re far too young for me. Besides, I like money far more than men.”

Vye’s voice morphed around me in different frequencies but eventually faded out completely. Suddenly she spoke up but the voice had a direction to follow, it led to right beside me.

“Mills told me about your little mission, it sounds easy enough.”

We’ll be fighting against the strongest adventurers in Istoria and she’s calling it an easy job? Just how strong can she be to think that, isn’t she a silver rank like me?

“But– since we’re not using money, I’ll be taking a second favour from you. A no-questions asked, anything I want, kind of favour. Got it?”

I’ve already sold my soul once for her help, so what’s one more? Besides, for Alice, I’ll sell it ten times over!

“Understood.”