“Hi, mom,” Growly greeted his mother after entering the shop.

“Growly, hi. And Nicky, good morning. And the rest of- Oh! Oh, oh, Narias… you… you’re back. Oh, I’m… - ‘sob’ – so happy… to see you,” Meska couldn’t help but start to cry when she saw Narias enter her shop.

“Hello, Mrs. Ferpaw,” Narias smiled yet became emotional about it too.

“I’m so sorry, I… Oh, I’m such a mess,” Mrs. Ferpaw was wiping the tears away.

“Thank you, Mrs. Ferpaw. I’m back and… I’m fine,” Narias tried to comfort Growly’s mom by showing another happy smile.

“Good morning, Mrs. Ferpaw. How have you been?” Ileena greeted the shop owner in a casual tone, not that she didn’t understand how Mrs. Ferpaw felt.

“Ileena… good morning,” Meska smiled, with a few more tears squeezing themselves out of her eyes. “Everyone, good morning.”

The rest of the group exchanged greetings with the shop owner too, but then went to look around the shop to give her some space.

“I… I’ll go get my husband, ok? You probably want to talk to him about something?” Growly’s mom said. “If you excuse me.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Ferpaw,” Narias said.

“Sorry. My mom was very worried about you,” Growly apologized to Narias.

“It’s ok. I understand. I appreciate her caring so much,” Narias didn’t mind.

“By the rust on my hammer, you’re back!” Their quiet talk was interrupted by the loud shout from Growly’s dad. His wife was together with him too, still teary. Growla quickly came over to pat Narias on the shoulder a few times. The big bear blacksmith kept it together, but Narias could see he was holding back his tears. “Am I glad to see you, kiddo. Welcome back, welcome back indeed. You got us all worried good. Hey, did you grow some muscles?”

“Ah, thank you, Mr. Ferpaw and I’m sorry for making you worry,” Narias said.

“You don’t have to apologize for that. Hah, good. This is really good,” Growla smiled so wide and looked so happy, his sharp teeth didn’t look that threatening at all.

“So, I’ve brought some materials from the dungeon with me, Mr. Ferpaw,” Narias went right to the point.

“Getting straight to business, hah,” Growla laughed. “You must’ve gone through hell and yet you still brought stuff back with you. Ok, let’s see what you’ve got. Huh?” Growla became curious, but then confused the next second, because Narias didn’t have a backpack on his back.

“Ah, yes. Here I go, Dungeon Locker,” Narias activated the magic item’s ability.

“You don’t say,” Growla’s eyebrows shot up.

“Ah, yeah,” Narias expected some sort of surprise.

“Wow, A Dungeon Locker. I’ve never seen one before,” Meska exclaimed, covering her mouth with both hands. A few customers who were inside the shop were equally taken aback when they saw Narias use the Dungeon Locker’s ability.

“I never expected to see one at all. Now that’s an impressive find, kiddo. Very impressive,” Growla was staring at the magic starry window, squinting his eyes while trying to see something that he couldn’t.

“Ok, so… I’ll just take the items out one by one. Do you mind if I put them here?” Narias pointed at the table counter.

“Yes, of course,” Growla, as well as everyone gathered, became very, very curious about what Narias was about to take out.

“This is… the Crystal Hornhead’s shell… or what was left of it,” Narias started taking out pieces of different size and shape of what it looked like metal, but they looked different than a normal metal would. The pieces were very dark red, almost black, in color with a shiny silver glow covering them. Narias took out eight smaller pieces, from a half to one foot in diameter with the last two pieces being bigger. The two bigger pieces were just over two feet in length and over one foot in width, had cracked, sharp edges and were of an oval shape. “Unfortunately, the Pincer Ants had eaten most of the Crystal Hornhead by the time I got to it and these were the only pieces I could salvage. I thought they could be useful for something.”

“Wooow…” everyone gathered gasped, including the few customers visiting the shop who couldn’t help but come closer to look at the loot.

“I’ll be damned,” Growla exclaimed quietly, but also loud enough for people close to him to hear it.

“Honey,” Meska spoke to her husband.

“Ah, sorry for my bad language,” Growla apologized, becoming embarrassed, but quickly shifted gears, starting to inspect the material pieces Narias has laid out. “These are not just from any Crystal Hornhead. They came from the red Crystal Hornhead, didn’t they?” Growla stared at Narias intently, making him become uncomfortable.

“Ah, yes,” Narias said with a smile.

“Now I understand how you got the Dungeon Locker. It was dropped by the red Crystal Hornhead, wasn’t it?” Growla was right on point.

“Yes, it was,” Narias confirmed it.

“Now these are some impressive materials. I can definitely craft something extraordinary from these,” Growly’s dad was inspecting the pieces, pausing to check out the bigger piece a while longer. “Have you thought of what you want to be made out of these yet, kiddo?”

“Yes. I was thinking about asking to craft an armor from all of those. Although, I’m not sure if there are enough pieces to craft it,” Narias said, noticing the blacksmith not being too surprised about his request.

“I am certain…” Growla looked Narias up and down before glancing over the material pieces laid on the table. “…it’ll be enough to craft a chest piece.”

“Ok, great. In that case, I’d like you to craft an armor chest piece for Growly,” Narias announced, surprising everyone who heard it this time.

“Growly?!” The girl’s exclaimed, with Flavia being the loudest.

“Really?” Nicky’s cheeks flared up, her leaning to Growly closer.

“Huh?” Growly looked to be surprised more than anyone.

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“For Growly? Are you sure? These are very rare materials and I will be able to make only one chest piece out of them,” Growla wanted to make sure.

“It’s ok. You should make armor for yourself, Narias,” Growly insisted.

“No, no. I’d like you to have it. You always fight at the front and you can’t use magic. An armor made out of the Crystal Hornhead’s shell will protect you from magic and from physical attacks. I’ve decided on it the moment I collected the pieces. Besides, I still have some other materials that I’d want something to be made for myself,” Narias explained.

“Really? Thanks,” Growly was a man of few words and he wasn’t someone to turn down a friend’s generosity too.

“If that’s your decision, then so be it. I’ll make the best armor I possibly can. And also, thank you,” Growla said, grateful to Narias offering such a great gift to his son. “But then, what else do you have for me?”

“Ah, yes. I’ll need some space on the table,” Narias said. The Crystal Hornhead’s shell pieces he laid out were covering almost the whole table.

“Right, let me take these away for you then,” Growla collected the materials before putting them away.

“Thank you. I can only guess, but this piece was too hard for the Pincer Ants to bite on and that’s why it stayed intact,” Narias took out the Crystal Hornhead’s horn before placing it on the table. It was easily over four feet in length, was almost a foot in width and about half a foot in thickness at one end while becoming thinner and sharper towards the other end. The horn had a slightly curved shape and one extra sharp, four to five inches in length, tooth on the inside at around one third of the distance from the sharp end of it, similar to how the rhinoceros beetle’s horn looked.

“Now that’s a treasure and then some. People would pay a fortune to get their hands on one of those. You could make some fine weapon out of it,” Growla spoke, his mouth not closing after he got quiet. The blacksmith picked up the horn to inspect it, his eyes glowing so intently they were becoming watery due to Growla not blinking. The horn was able to reflect the light when Growla turned it one way or the other while holding in its hand. You could basically see your own reflection on it from how smooth and sleek the horn’s surface was.

“Crystal Hornhead’s horn… Wow… Amazing… So lucky…” whispers were heard around the shop.

“This would make an extraordinary sword. It’d be a top tier weapon, even among what the High Combat Mages and Fighters use,” Growla spoke, not able to take his eyes off of the high rarity material he was holding in his hands.

“Really? Wow, that’s amazing,” Narias was happy to hear that. “So, does that mean you will be able to craft a sword out of it, Mr. Ferpaw?”

“Definitely. It will take some work, but I will pour my soul into it to craft the best possible sword I had ever crafted. That being said, it will cost much more than making a simple accessory. Same for the armor for Growly. Sorry, kid, but business is still business. It will take longer than just a few days to get it done too. Hope you understand,” Growla explained.

“Yes, I understand,” Narias said. “By the way, there’s something else I have found. But now that you’ve mentioned the cost, I doubt I will have enough money to craft something out of it. At least right now.”

“Something else? Humph, I wonder what could it be?” Growla said, readying himself for another surprise.

“Here,” Narias took out a what it looked like a Magic Crystal or a magic ore, but not like any other ore they had found before. The ore looked more like a crystal itself, snow-white in color, but had a mix of sky-blue, turquoise and light green glow when it caught the light. The size of the crystal ore was about of a volleyball, but it wasn’t exactly round in shape. It was still a crystal with sharp edges sticking out all around it.

“You… have to be… kidding me…” Growla’s jaw dropped, his eyes becoming big and wide.

“Wow, what a beautiful Magic Crytal,” Flavia exclaimed.

“So pretty,” Nicky couldn’t take her eyes of it.

“It has such a marvelous glow around it,” Emilia commented.

“It must’ve been dropped by the Crystal Hornhead too, right? I had never seen a Magic Crystal to look so radiant,” Ileena shared her amazement.

“Humph, that Crystal Hornhead sure drops some good stuff,” Flamiris was impressed by the crystal as well.

“Not Magic Crystal,” Growly suddenly said.

“Huh? What? That’s not a Magic Crystal?” Nicky asked, turning to face her boyfriend.

“You noticed, eh?” Growla was pleased his son could pick it up.

“It’s not a Magic Crystal?” Ileena, as well as the others, became curious.

“Nope. Although, I can’t believe I am looking at it right now,” Growla said, shaking his head in disbelief.

“What is it, Mr. Ferpaw?” Flavia wanted to know.

“Well, Growly,” instead of answering, Growla turned to his son.

“It’s the Althyme Ore. Correct?” Growly said, but showed hesitation, not being certain of it.

“Correct,” his dad confirmed, allowing Growly to let out a sigh of relief.

“Althyme Ore?” Nicky gasped.

“Wait, wait, wait! Isn’t the Althyme Ore like a… super rare and expensive material that you’ve spoken of way back, Mr. Ferpaw?” Flavia tried to remember.

“The same one,” Growla told her, still shaking his head in disbelief. “Where on earth did you find it, Narias?”

“Well… I found it inside a small Supply Point room that I’ve discovered. Or rather, the Crystal Hornhead opened a passage to it when it smashed itself into the wall inside the cave that I ended up becoming trapped in.” Narias explained.

“Hold on. So, this wasn’t a drop from the Crystal Hornhead?” Flamiris was a little confused.

“Nope. Althyme Ore isn’t a material that can be dropped by monsters and it’s so rare you could explore Magic Dungeon all your life and still not come across it. Yet you had the luck to find such a big chunk of it too. It must’ve been growing there for a very long time,” Growla said, still being hesitant to pick it up in order to take a closer look.

“Growing?” Nicky was confused about the expression.

“Yes. Althyme Ore is no ordinary ore. It doesn’t simply spawn like Crystalized Mold or Soft Steel Ore. It grows and it takes time for it to do so. Unfortunately, because how rare and valuable it is, it gets mined the moment someone finds it, no matter how small of the piece it is. This whole chunk here could buy you a whole castle and the land on it, and you’d still have some left over to live on,” Growla said.

“A WHOLE CASTLE?!” The girls exclaimed.

“Humph… How about you put it back into your Dungeon Locker for now, kiddo?” Growla added after finally picking it up to inspect it, not bothered by the girls’ sudden reaction.

“Huh? Yeah, ok,” Narias had a hunch why Growly’s dad suggested for him to do so.

“Hey, you were able to place it back inside? I thought you can’t place items inside the Dungeon Locker once they are taken out,” Flavia pointed out.

“The Dungeon Locker comes from the Magic Dungeon. You can place or take any items that come from the Magic Dungeon in or out of it at any time. I thought you knew that,” Growla said, looking at Flavia.

“Of course I didn’t. This is the first time that I’ve seen a Dungeon Locker,” Flavia said with a bit of a frown. “Well, a second time now.”

“Hah, sorry, little one,” Growla smirked. “Anyway, if I remember correctly, you wanted to craft some sort of item that can track time from the Althyme Ore, didn’t you?”

“Yes. Would you be able to craft one, Mr. Ferpaw?” Narias wanted to know.

“Not on my own, but it is doable. However, it will cost you even more than crafting the armor and the sword from the Crystal Hornhead’s materials. Way more,” the blacksmith told him.

“Right. But then you said this is quite a big chunk of the Althyme Ore that I got. How much of it would you need to use to craft the item that I want?” Narias wanted to know.

“It’s hard to say. The thing is, you’d have to extract the Althyme Crystal from it first, but from the size of the ore chunk, I doubt we’d need to use all of it,” Growla was speculating.

“So, maybe I could sell some and use the funds to craft all the items that needed to be crafted?” Narias made a suggestion.

“You’d be willing to sell some of it? In that case, that’ll definitely work. Now that I think about it, even after being processed to extract the Althyme Crystal, the leftover ore pieces can be used for crafting. Selling those would net you quite a sum too. That would definitely cover all the crafting cost easily,” Growla was telling Narias, rubbing on his chin. He was probably trying to remember all that he could about the Althyme Ore while talking about it out loud. “But I’d need to talk to a few people before I could tell you anything concrete.”

“That’s totally fine, Mr. Ferpaw,” Narias wasn’t in a rush.

“Right, well, I think I should go back to work now. Unless you have something else for me?” Growla squinted his eyes, readying for an even bigger shock than before.

“Ah, I have… some normal Magic Crystals that I have found too,” Narias said after some pause, making a few people laugh the moment he said it.

“Ahaha,” Growla was laughing the loudest. “Those are good too.”

After the shock, the excitement and the laughs subsided, Narias and Growla had another short talk about the things that needed to be crafted before finalizing the costs. Growla promised to talk to a few people about the Althyme Ore and Narias agreed to visit Growly’s dad to talk it over in more detail in a few days or so. The next stop was, the cake shop that Growly and Narias went to the other day.