There were two precise objectives Theo had to accomplish within the limited time he had before hurrying back to the academy so as not to miss out on the benefits he had secured.
The first was to grow stronger, to proverbially level up, even if there was no such mechanic in this universe allowing for one to get such a linear and trackable way to measure their growth.
For that reason, he purchased all the weapons he needed for the hunt and now was in the process of cutting them down to shape—or, to be more precise, chiseling away the wooden parts he saw as nothing but excess.
And so, he would cut away at the knives' handles, adding some ridges for better grip—one that wouldn't betray him even if the weapon was covered in a thick layer of blood, slime, or ooze. The young man had even less mercy for his spears, brutally cutting away half of their handles, turning them from stabbing weapons into throwable projectiles.
Sure, they were nowhere near as handy as proper javelins or the like, but at just two silver coins apiece, Theo opted to go with the less optimal but simply cheaper design.
Those makeshift javelins were consumables, after all, designed to be replaced rather than withstand wear and tear so they could be reused ad infinitum.
The swords were the only weapons Theo left as they were, their simple design leaving pretty much no room for improvement.
The whole process of chipping the excess wood away would normally take about an hour. Yet, between Theo's currently clumsy hands and years' worth of expertise, it wouldn't take longer than half that time.
Wouldn't… if not for the other purpose for his visit to the smithy—a purpose that, for now, he could satisfy just by taking his time and looking around.
'It's just like I thought,' Theo noted, watching how the smithy's apprentices continued to run around with all sorts of weapons, carrying them from the workshop to the storage room, and from the storage room to the shop where they would distribute them to their customers.
There were at least twelve of those apprentices running all over the place, with a further three much older men working the metal back in the smoky bellows of the smithy.
All in all, out of fifteen people deployed to this location, only three—maybe five, if the opportunity allowed—would actively produce wares by blasting the ores into iron juice of just the right properties before pouring said juice into the charred clay casts.
'From how things are here, I think everything should work out just great,' Theo thought, intentionally slowing his hands as he kept a lookout for every tiniest detail that would allow him to further his second agenda.
His second purpose for coming to the frontier town, where death was common and lives were cheap.
And, contrary to how he acted around his money thus far, money was precisely the reason for Theo to come here.
If it was just about hunting, Theo could find more than enough opportunities to do so around the capital. If it was about earning money, he knew a hundred and one methods to extract money from unsuspecting victims, making himself maybe not rich but affluent in the process.
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But when it came to securing both, there was no better place than here, in the bellows of this overworked smithy.
"Okay, I think that will suffice," Theo finally dragged his eyes away from the smithy's insides and pulled them over to his weapons, inspecting his job before carefully stuffing them all over his outfit.
The knives went into a simple holster strapped across his chest, allowing for easy access that would position them just right to toss at the enemy. One of the swords ended up on his hip, while the other—merely a spare—ended up strapped to his back, soon joined by the three makeshift javelins.
After a quick test, Theo confirmed that, as opposed to his spare sword, he could draw his longer projectiles with ease, finally completing the gear-side of his setup for the rest of the day. And with it, Theo quickly cleaned up his station—for leaving it dirty would invite ill will from the smiths he wanted to cooperate with—and then left the building through its side entrance, ready to embark on the adventure that his entire mission in this town was centered on.
The hunt.
"Excuse me… s-sir…"
Right as Theo emerged from the smithy, took a deep breath of relatively fresher, cleaner air, and stretched out his chest, looking out into the sun with his thoughts already out beyond the frontier's lines… a small voice dragged his raised chin down as his eyes reached lower and lower, only stopping when he locked his sights on a small frame of a young child at his feet.
The child reached out with its two hands, not to ask for charity, but to grab Theo's hand and then drag it to a tiny, messy wooden stall with just a bunch of half-wilted flowers and fruits of dubious freshness displayed on the wobbly corner.
"W-would you l-like to buy a flower, good s-sir?" the kid asked, forcing a smile on its mouth while its eyes filled with silent desperation.
Theo raised his eyes as he took a look at the stall appearing as if it could collapse at any moment. The run-down, half-burned house behind it, with a whole bunch of small children playing in what likely used to be a backyard and a lone, drunkard of a man sitting behind the stall's counter, caring neither for its half-spoiled wares nor something as simple as catering to customers.
"A flower, you say?" Theo muttered to himself, eyeing the whole picture, only for the child to pull on his sleeve again.
"Or a fruit! We have f-fruits too!" the young boy added, not sure whether to be hopeful now that someone actually stopped to hear his pleas or distraught that Theo's attention would soon fade away.
"That's…" Theo finally locked his eyes on the drunk, snoring man before drawing his gaze back to the child.
"You know what, I have no need for flowers or fruits, so keep them for someone else," Theo smiled as he squatted down to match the child's eye-line, only to then grab its hands… and stuff a silver coin inside. "Take this and go get yourself and your siblings something to eat," he advised, already standing up.
This wouldn't change a thing. By helping out now, all Theo did was make this kid more eager to beg for charity from others in the future, likely inviting trouble either from the annoyed customers of the smithy, the smiths themselves, or heavens know what other threat roamed those dilapidated streets.
The thing is, helping out was not Theo's goal in the slightest. And the slight twitching of the drunkard's eyes already implied what other trouble would come the kid's way, long before he would have a single chance to turn the silver coin into something to eat.
'This might be backhanded, but I can't really afford to play fair now, can I?' Theo thought, closing his eyes as he took his first step, soon turning his walk into a jog as he hurried toward the city's outer gate.
The seeds were sown. But for them to grow into Theo's solution to everything that he gave up on when he decided not to aim for a spot in the academy's dormitory… there was still one major, if not outright most important, step for him to take.
A simple step of hauling his ass over to the forest and then turning his weapons from expenditure into tools that would allow him to earn back their cost tens, if not hundreds, of times over!