Chien stood by as I worked, now in the normal shop. I poured more and more of my mana into the fire as the copper began to melt, knowing that the little crucible formed of magical force could take it.

“The men selling this should be beaten,” I declared, not even fully done yet.

“Okay... why?”

“See all the black stuff forming on the liquid there? Those are impurities, and this copper is loaded with them. It's like they didn't even try to make it pure, just got it good enough,” I griped.

“Well you know Justin, it's not like everyone knows that. Maybe they'd never made it before,” the young man argued.

“If it were something they'd made, or they were actually working the material I could live with that Chien, but they were selling it bulk, it's just unprofessional.” Something pinged in the back of my mind and I smiled. “Should make a complaint, make them the next Ea-nasir.”

“The who now boss?” Chien inquired.

“A man who sold shoddy copper, don't worry about it,” I hastily said.

“Right...” I don't think he believed me, but my assistant was oddly willing to let a lot of things slide so long as I kept giving him profitable work. “So why am I here?” he asked.

“To learn what we're looking for. I won't always be around to get supplies, and frankly there aren't many people I'd trust to do it for me,” I answered.

“I'm touched you'd put that much trust in me.” I looked back to see him with a hand on his chest and what might have been the most sarcastic face I'd ever seen.

“Starved for options here Chien,” I quipped. “Regardless, you do good work.”

Before we could continue there came a knock at the door. Since I was clearly busy Chien went to get it, and came back with one of my other few friends in tow, scowling. No matter what I did those two still didn't like each other, which was understandable, they were just too different. That said, they at least kept the bickering to a minimum around me.

“Ian, wasn't expecting you today,” I observed as the local guard joined us. We weren't doing anything secret, or even all that interesting to most people, so it was fine if he came into the shop.

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“To be honest, I wasn't expecting to be here either,” he returned. “Heard you got more copper though, and came to see if all of it was already spoken for.”

“Most of it yes, is there something specific needed?” I inquired, knowing that Ian, and his grandfather, were currently very important to me keeping things going as they were.

“Well, I was hoping I might be able to get a spear, but I know they're pretty expensive...”

“Why a spear?” I asked, a little curious about the use.

Copper spears were good, in many ways better than stone ones. They lasted longer, were sharper, and tended to pierce things a lot more effectively. That being said, most of the time it wasn't worth the cost, that was a lot of material, and unless you had a lot of copper, liked to show off, or really needed a top tier weapon, it wasn't worth it.

“It might seem silly, but I feel as if I need to get serious. Most of my siblings are already in better positions than myself, and I need something to... help me along the route,” he explained, a bit dejected looking. “I'm good at my job, but I lack the power, I don't have the kind of fire you two do.”

Ian was short on magic, that much was true. Much like my childhood friend Ninden he could boost his strength very briefly, but it ended there. He simply lacked the magic for much else.

“A tattoo?” I suggested, knowing that one would give him another ability, but he shook his head.

“Sadly that won't work. No matter how hard I train I'm just not getting much stronger at any appreciable rate. I even asked my grandfather, he said it would come with time, but...”

But this world was harsh, he didn't need to say it. The reason that elders were respected and cared for was just that. The city was safer, true, but even here there were monster attacks every now and then, and the guards had to go and deal with those, power or no. Perhaps he would grow over time, in my experience all elves that lived long enough gained some magic, but he needed the time to grow.

I looked him over. Ian and I didn't end up working together too much, but he was always around, and a good contact between me and some of the powers of the city. Perhaps I could come up with something, perhaps even something new to introduce.

“I don't think a spear is what you need,” I told him. “A spear would make you only a little bit better at hurting things, but something to protect you might do more than that.”

“I have a shield already,” he observed.

Shields were common enough, normally made of wicker or wood. The concept was just too obvious for anyone interested in fighting not to quickly come up with. There were even a few types of armor, though those were mostly poor, bits of bone and wood tied to cover the arms and legs. Perhaps now would be the time to come up with something a bit better though, if I could.

“I've got some ideas if you're willing to trust me. Let me think and work on some things and I'll see what I can come up with. The copper is still expensive though, so be ready for that,” I told him.

“Sure,” he accepted easily.

I blinked at him for a few moments, there was still slag settling atop my current batch of ore, and after hastily using magic to scrape it to the side I stopped heating it completely.

“...”

“What?” he asked.

“You accepted that too easily,” I said.

“Oh I know most people think you're mad Justin, but your work works.” He smiled at me, shaking his head. “Like your pipe idea, a few of his advisors are worried it'll collapse, but I'm betting you've already thought of that.”

“Yeah, it's an arch,” I answered, and both of them gave me a blank look. We really needed to institute some basic skills education one day, something I couldn't do, but wanted. “The shape, it's called an arch.”

They both had no idea what I was talking about, so after that batch of copper cooled I got some bricks for a demonstration. Arches were so simple, and so key to building things that it shocked me I'd never thought of it. They were right there, a low-hanging fruit that everyone could use. Heck, even people in villages could build these for bridges and the like.

Chien seemed to think the design was neat, but not really something he could use day to day. Ian on the other hand was looking at it hard as I jumped atop the small structure I'd built to explain. He worked all around the city, and even as I watched I could see him thinking, thinking was good, thinking built societies.