The reason why Miles was surprised was because of the requirements. Except for him, no one among the freshmen had used four serums. Let alone five. Even among sophomores, there wouldn’t be more than ten people.

This quest was posted for him alone. Alex must have felt the same way, so he wanted him to take a look at it.

Miles looked at the date of the quest and realized it was a week before the new year. And the duration was two weeks. ‘Isn’t this too convenient? I smell something fishy!’

Miles looked at the Quest giver and noticed, unsurprisingly, it was Milosh.

“There is still more than a month before the quest time. I can talk with Milosh later.” Miles shook his head and returned to his villa. His plans for the competition worked better than he thought. Not only did he advertise his brand, he even won the competition. He still couldn’t open his own shop, but at least rent a bigger forge for the time being.

“Coin, how many orders did we get?” Miles asked as he walked with Alex.

“There are hundreds of orders. I answered all of them already, but they find prices too expensive. I leave the judgment to you, but there should be more than 20 potential buyers.” Coin answered.

“It is good. We can sort them when we get home.” Miles said.

When they were in front of their houses, Alex said after a while, “Are you going to the capital?”

“Yes. I believe that quest is for me.” Miles answered. That kind of requirement was impossible to find in Unity, let alone in the Academy. Adding the timing, it can only be his mother’s doing. ‘Mother must have threatened Milosh.’

“I wanted to do quests with you sometimes, but now with the crafting and later quest in the capital, you will be quite busy. I will find another team then.” Alex said.

“With your powers, you can join sophomores too. If you want I can talk to Val about it.” Miles said.

“Val and her friends mostly do scouting. It would be better for me to find a hunting team.” Alex said.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Alright, Let me know if you need it,” Miles said and went into his house. When he was in the house, he asked Coin to show the orders. He read one by one, but as Coin said, most of them were only asking for the sake of asking.

Miles sorted them out and called in order.

“Hello, ma’am.” Miles greeted the lady who appeared on the screen. She looked to be in her mid-twenties and had a charming smile.

“No need to call me that, handsome. What is your name?” She asked seductively.

“I am Number 2.” Miles said with a professional smile and continued, “I read your mail and you are requesting armor that can accumulate elemental attacks to unleash later like one in the competition right?”

“Yes, honey. But the armor I require is pinnacle-tier, not a low one.” The lady said, ignoring Miles’s professionalism.

“I am sorry to say this, but I am not capable of working on such a core at the moment. I do not possess enough energy to craft such armor.” Miles said politely. Although he realized where the conversation was going, he didn’t change his attitude.

“That is easy, right? Let one of my boys be there with you while you are working to supply energy into the workstation. Or rather, can I do it?” She said with the same seductive smile. “Don’t worry, I will not charge you for that.”

‘As expected. Does she really think I am a clueless kid?’ Miles thought but answered calmly. “Unfortunately, the formulas I am working with had been lent to me by a party I cannot mention. As I signed in the contract, I cannot work with any third party while I am using the said formulas. I am sorry to inform you that I cannot help you, ma’am.” Miles said.

While crafting, he needed help from others to melt elemental cores. As cores could only be melted by the same elemental energy, there were only three ways of doing it, one was hiring help from other hunters, the second was using Elemental Minerals, and the third was using monsters. But it didn’t mean these elements had to be there all the time.

After the core was melted by the same type of energy, any energy could keep the process working. In this case, the crafter, Miles, would supply energy into the core to keep it in melted form until the crafting was completed. But Miles's energy was limited too. He was only a low-tier hunter, and he could hardly work on a low-tier core. If he wanted to work on a middle-tier, he would have to consume all the energy in every part of his body, and maybe luckily he would be able to.

And for high and pinnacle-tier orbs, he shouldn’t even think about them. His energy couldn’t even last for a quarter of the crafting session. Most crafters would use a second hand to supply energy in these cases, but Miles didn’t want to as the formulas were his secret.

When he worked with Elemental Minerals, minerals could do it all the way to the end thanks to their natures, and he was able to craft easily, but now that he didn’t have any and he didn’t want the help of others, he could only limit himself and work on low-tier armors. That was his market from the beginning anyway.