"... ... and so I was under the wrong impression that saraka ecchi was where I could watch porn parodies of ninja cartoon I used to watch when I was little. Instead, it was a place filled with pictures of sexy fan art. Can you believe that? No videos, no comics, just a single picture of sexy characters. I can't fap on that! I need stories, I need the background of what happened in the picture, and I need time to build up the mood. Man if only you know how disappointed I was back then." Reka said to an old man who was melting scrapped metal in the furnace.
"Woman. If you don't stop bothering me and blabbering about things I don't understand I would really kick you out of this forge. Just because you are a customer and we are currently making your order doesn't mean you can do anything you want in this place. Shut up and stop disturbing our work." The old man warned her as he held up his hand to the ceramic bucket that filled with the melted metal. His hand started to glow green and then some of the liquid metal abruptly jumped out of the bucket.
"Come on, Carl. I am just trying to get us close. A warrior and her blacksmith surely should be as close as a patient and her doctor, right?" Reka smooth-talked while keeping her eyes on how the blacksmith magically got the impurities out of the bucket.
"If anything it just convinces me to distance myself from you. Besides, you only want to get close to us so you could haggle our price the next time you make another custom-made order like right now. Haah... I am starting to regret charging you so little." Carl complained while carefully pouring the now purified melted metal into a mold.
"Ah, is it that obvious?" Reka shyly scratched her left temple.
"Less obvious than my lad who keeps stealing glances at you," Carl said and referred to a young man at the corner of the room. The guy in question flinched and pretended to focus on creating some molds and didn't hear his father's word.
Reka smiled wryly, "Is he always that quiet?"
"Nah, just being that shy since he met you." Carl's hand dimly glowed green again as he cast another spell onto the rapidly hardened steel in the mold.
"Hmm. Oh, and I disagree that two golds were a small amount to charge people over such simple custom-made order." Reka tried to disgress.
"But I lower the price down to fifteen silvers though. Since you cleverly convinced me into buying that knife of yours." Carl opened the mold and took a steel ball that came out of it and brought it to his son who still quietly sat at the corner. The son held up a finger as it started to glow blue. He then wrote something on the ball with his glowing finger and surprisingly carved the ball's surface.
"Don't make me sound so bad. You are the one who cunningly planned to re-sell the knife once you improve its quality. You said by simply hammering mana into it the knife will sell for three golds. let alone adding some enchantments to it. I am the one who openly take losses here since you stubbornly didn't want to accept my custom-made order." Reka grumbled while watching the son adding some enchantments on the steel ball.
"Yes yes. But finding a rich customer who would spend some golds to buy the knife is a risk of mine. Who knows how long it will take the knife to sell. Until someone buys it I will not profit. That's why you should be grateful to me. Who else would be so kind to accept a custom-made order from a broke customer?" Carl bragged how generous he was while took the steel ball back from his son and placed it in the second mold.
"He is lying. This Prevaentis Fortress is brimming with soldiers. Mages and warriors alike would need a concealed and last-ditch weapon. Someone will definitely buy the knife." The son assured her.
"Thanks." Reka smiled sweetly at the man, almost like flirting.
"Shitty son. Taking side with the woman you like and betraying your father." Carl grumbled while he melted another batch of scrapped metal in the furnace.
"My name is Carlson." The man shyly introduced himself to Reka.
"Reka." She gave him her name while smiling at him. "Let me get this straight. Your name is Carl and you named your son Carlson?" Reka now looked at the old man who was repeating the spell to magically remove impurities from the melted metal.
"You don't like my sense of naming? Then don't flirt with my lad." Carl said as he poured the purified melted metal into the second mold which already had the steel ball in it.
"What do people call you when you are being with your father? Just Son?" Reka asked Carlson, genuinely curious.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Carlson covered his face with both of his hands. "Shitty father. Why did mom ever take a liking on you." He lamented. "They just call me by my full name." He said to Reka.
"Hey, how about I call you Arlan? Arl from C-arl. It will distinguish you when you are with your father." Reka suggested.
"That... yes, please." Arlan cheerfully accepted the name that was given by her first crush.
"Lass. Don't play with my boy too far. I will rack you up if you give him false hope." Carl warned her as he cast another spell onto the slowly hardened steel in the mold. Not long after that, he opened the mold and the slightly bigger steel ball came out of it. He then handed it to Arlan again so he could add some new enchantments on the new layer of the steel ball.
Reka just shrugged at the warning, "If you scare every single woman who was near him he would hate you for it you know."
"I know when a woman plays with a man's heart when I see one," Carl said to her. He took the steel ball from Arlan and walked to Reka.
"Here is the prototype for your order. A steel ball with a diameter of twenty millimeters.Very hard on the inside and somewhat soft on the outside. Made with two phases.
"The first phase is making the core. Casting high-end steel into a mold of a ball with a diameter of ten millimeters. Prioritizing its hardness, it was strengthened by evenly distributing mana into it and was reinforced by giving it enchantments to increase its hardness further. Very resistant to deformation.
"The second phase is making the outer layer. The finished core was put into the second mold of ball with a diameter of twenty millimeters. Positioned it so the core was perfectly at the center, then cast another batch of high-end steel to the mold. Prioritizing its toughness, the mana that was distributed in it and the enchantments that were given to it were tempered to increase its toughness further. Very resistant to shattering." Carl summarized what he had been doing until now while bickering with her.
Reka stood up and received the steel ball. It was less big than a golf ball, or from another perspective, it was only as big as two segments of her little finger. "Do you mind if I test it here? in this forge." Reka asked Carl.
"... ...? Sure." He replied short.
Reka immediately activating [Nahuatl Atlatl] and threw the steel ball to the floor at full power. The huge impact shook the whole building and filled the room with a loud boom. The floor Reka hit had a big hole in it, decorated by cracks that came from the hole.
"Do you have any long stick?" Reka asked while searching for some stick. She then found a somewhat long thin steel stick at one of the corners of the room. She poked the hole with it to test how deep the hole was. When she reached the bottom with the stick, she pulled it out and tried to measure the depth.
"That is at least six feet deep." Reka laughed, "Perfect depth to bury a corpse. Coincidence? I think not." She jokingly mimicking one of the memes she knew.
When she looked at Carl and Arlan, she found them in utter shock while still looking at the hole she just made. "Do whatever you want with my son. Just don't kill me." Carl said to her while raising both his hands.
Reka then looked at the referred son but found him kept shaking his head to her. Implying her love was turned into fear and the beautiful woman he saw in her was turned into a monster.
Reka sighed. "Calm the fuck down. If I want to kill both of you why the fuck did I haggle so hard to lower the price of your service like a broke customer I am? and why would I indulge you in your sarcastic joke? Come on man. I did ask your permission to test the damn thing in this forge." Reka tried to lessen their fear of her.
The two men looked at each other and then laughed. "Your order would be finished in two days. We need that much time to make seven hundred of those steel balls as per our agreement." Carl tried to act calm. There was still caution in his demeanor.
Reka noticed the men still needed time to manage their fear and accepted their polite way to drive her out. "See you in two days, Carl. See you to you too Arlan." Reka said to each of them while smiling as sweetly as she could.
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Reka came out of the blacksmith and found the sky was painted red. She then decided to stroll the city a little and headed for a public park. She stopped at a stall and bought three skewers of meat. She then sat on a bench that was covered by tree shades. She started eating her skewers and lamenting about the drawback of her [Slayer’s paradox] skill.
[Slayer’s paradox] 1st Phase level 1: Passive
Giant slayer is a giant on their own. Your small body is just a deception to throw your enemy off guard. Your health, strength, resilience, and stamina are amplified by 300%. Every level gained will increase the amplifier by 20%. Current amplifier is 300%.
Attention: The minimum amount of food, drinks, and sleep to sustain yourself are also increased.
The skill indeed gives me a huge boon on health, strength, and other things. But the drawback is something that worsens my financial problem as of right now. I only have less than eighty silver coins and the urge to keep eating and drinking is disturbing my wallet. Moreover, nap time is a must now rather than optional. This skill is making me feel hungry, thirsty, and sleepy at the same time. How the fuck could I manage that? Reka screamed internally.
There were many other things I noticed from my skills. [Nahuatl Atlatl] as my main offensive skill requiring me to have projectiles to activate it. Not only that, the said projectiles must not be larger than half of my palms. I had tried throwing knives, bowls, plates, spoons, forks, a borrowed sword, a borrowed spear, a borrowed arrow, and condensed horse shit that I made to be as big as a baseball. None of them work.
That's why I came to the blacksmith that Mia told me at the lunch. I tried making them provide me with high-end projectiles, and I ended up guiding them to make a steel ball that has somewhat the same properties as armor-piercing shell. Very hard on the core to penetrate thick armor but relatively soft on the outer layer to absorb the first shock of the impact and preventing the core to shatter.
It was a huge success. But because an idiot that I am, I ended up scaring my potential personal arm dealers. Haaah... Reka sighed.
She finished her skewers and decided to head back to the inn. It would not be long before the sun completely set and she need a rest for this frustating day.
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A knock was heard from the outside of the room in the middle of the night. Reka yawned and reluctantly got out of her bed. She opened the door and found Nadja and Navish standing outside.
"What's up?" She gestured the girls to come inside the room while rubbing her eyes.
"Navish could not sleep," Nadja answered short while leading Navish to come in by her hand.
They all got into bed. Nadja was at Reka's left side while Navish was at her right. "You finally rely on me. Thank you." She said to Nadja and gently kiss her forehead.
The girl in question blushed and leaned on her shoulder, snuggling up from her side. "What do you usually do to make her fall asleep?" Reka asked as she gently patted Nadja's head.
"... ... Our mother usually tells her bedtime story," Nadja answered.
"Leka leka... tell me a bedtime stoly." Navish cutely demanded.
"I do know some stories. Fine then, come here little girl." Reka gently made Navish put her head on her stomach. She also gently pat the girl's head repeatedly just as she did to Nadja.
Reka tried to sound as gentle and soothing as she could and began bedstory-telling the girl about the revolution of France.