"You can really make them now?" Thomas asks, surprise clear in his mind.

He doesn't think he did too much to warrant a larger reward, while I wanted to give him something I felt worthy of carrying the loot he carried. Without his help, I would've needed to bear the weight myself and while I have almost as much Strength as he does, it's better for the stronger guy to carry it.

After almost twenty minutes of negotiating as we sorted out my loot, I convinced him to accept new arrowheads. Me mentioning that I could make them now if he's willing to wait was the first time his slight feeling of attraction wasn't present during the discussion.

I took off my tunic after we arrived and he's subtly checked me out every time I looked away. It's still not the type that means I could try and make a move on him, though. One can be attracted without being interested, and he's definitely not interested.

Though today's trip into the mines did help to alleviate his skepticism for some reason, I can tell he still doesn't fully trust me. I think he's also become a little more nervous of me after seeing my ability in combat and how I could handle things deeper than he could manage to reach on his own.

There's curiosity mixed into the slight feeling of attraction toward me as well, but I don't think the two are related. More like the act of checking me out has made him notice something, and that's made him curious.

Maybe he'll ask. I'm tempted to peek into his mind to learn what it is but I really shouldn't do that. Better to focus on what we were actually discussing than invade his mind to sate my own curiosity. He's not a mute two-year-old or someone I'm interrogating.

"Yeah," I answer. "I just need to brew something up, then I'll be ready to do the arrowheads. The whole process should take about half an hour to make them, then a little bit to attach, so you don't have time to leave and return. If you want to stay and watch, you can. If you'd like to practice your magic with one of the balls, you can."

"I'll practice with the ball some, then," he tells me, then heads over to the lesson zone.

The only reagents necessary for this first part is a mana crystal and a magic crystal, both of which I pull from the loot we acquired on the fifth floor of the mines.

With those already at-hand, it's time to start. I grind a chunk of the magic crystal into a powder, then do the same with part of the mana crystal. Those are combined together, then dissolved in near-boiling water. Once it's completely dissolved, I remove it from the fire, then use telekinesis to carry a charcoal chunk over to the table. This isn't burnt wood from the fire ring but wood I deliberately converted to charcoal, a technique even people out here probably know.

Though my process was probably a lot faster and used a lot more magic than theirs.

With the charcoal present, I'm ready for the next stage of this. I grab a chunk of iron ore from the fifth floor of the mines, then begin weaving magic.

The ore floats up into the air. It's already pure so I don't need to refine it, which saves me some work. A bubble of wind – invisible to normal sight – forms around the ore as it begins to heat. With wind swirling around the ore but not coming within a few inches of it, the heat from the process cannot escape and poses no risk to anything around us.

A small piece of the charcoal breaks off and floats up into the wind bubble and shatters into extremely fine pieces which then incorporate into the iron as the glowing metal pulsates. Soon after that, a small piece of magic crystal and a small piece of mana crystal from the fifth floor of the mines float up.

They, too, are shattered by the wind and then incorporated into the ore.

I finish converting the iron into something more magical, then the pulsating blob separates and takes the form of twenty-four arrowheads. Still hot, I cancel the wind bubble and move the arrows into the alchemy solution I'd brewed up. It steams and hisses, and a mixture of water, fire, and earth magics allow me to finish the process.

When I pull them out, I examine one of the arrowheads.

[Magic Steel Arrowhead] An arrowhead made of magical steel.

There's no mention of it slaying monsters properly, but it doesn't need to say that. The mention that it's magical is enough for anyone who can read to know that it will.

Thomas left his bow and quiver beside the pack, so I'm able to get straight to replacing the heads of the arrows. When I made the shafts, I treated them with alchemy and enchanted them with invisible enchanting ink to strengthen them. They don't bend or break easily.

They won't outlast these arrowheads, but they'll still last awhile. I don't have any wood which is on the same strength level as their new tips.

"Done," I call over to Thomas, who puts the ball away before walking over and examining the one of the arrows.

"There's no crystal coating."

"These ones don't need that," I tell him. "That's a modification made to arrowheads made of something like normal steel or stone. When I turned the iron to steel, I incorporated magic into it as well. They'll last a lot longer than the old arrowheads – and even their current shafts. Though they're stronger and sharper than the old ones, do not go further than you can without them. They can take on tougher beasts, but you yourself cannot."

"I won't," he promises as he slides the arrow back into the quiver, then looks at the sky for a moment. "I was going to ask about using the bath, but I think rain is coming."

"There's a ward against water over the bath," I tell him. "I put one over everything I want to avoid getting wet."

"There's no telling how long the storm'll last," he gathers up his things. "And I want to make it back home before it starts."

"Fair enough," I say. "Have a good day, Thomas. May the spirits and gods guide your paths."

"May the spirits and gods guide your paths," he returns, then leaves.

It's about three in the afternoon now and while I did have lunch in the mines with Thomas, I'm still a little hungry after all the work today. I also want to head into town and do something before the day ends.

Before that, however, I brew up another batch of mana potion, then grab a few things and stick them in good-sized reed-woven boxes which I clip onto my belt. The new jar of mana potion is fixed onto my belt, my tunic and boots are pulled back on, and I perform a [Teleport].

I can make the full trip into town with a single [Teleport] now, and it seems I had enough Skill Experience for that to bump me up a little.

[Spatial Magic] is now Level 7! +100 MP +1 Magic

I do use the spell to get to a few places in the area faster, and to summon items from a different part of my home or camp if I'm not feeling like walking over to grab it. Those are small and cheap and don't award a lot of Skill Experience, but it adds up. Adding in a [Teleport] of over forty miles and how low the Skill Level is, and I'll probably still gain a Level upon returning home.

Before doing anything else, I refill most of my mana. This area should be safe, but I still want to be ready in case of an attack.

About ten minutes after arriving in town, I find myself in the market district. Almost every vendor or caller who sees me tries to get me to visit their stall or shop, just as last time. I ignore all of them on my way through and enter the loot shop I visited last time.

"Welcome back!" The man behind the counter greets me. "No hides this time, I take it? That stoneseeker wolf pelt was quite quality and has been turned into several pairs of boots for adventurers."

He remembers someone who visited almost a month ago, and even that I had brought some hides and what at least one of them was. The friendliness seems genuine even if I can sense the boredom in his mind – it's not me boring him – and he seems to be honestly disappointed by the lack of the pelts.

"No hides," I confirm as I reach the counter. "I might bring more next time. Today, I'd like to sell some crystals I acquired."

"Let me take a look," he grabs a lightly-padded tray from a drawer behind him, then sets it on the counter. "In here, please."

I open up one of my basket boxes and pull out some crystals, which I set on the tray. His eyes widen a little and I can feel the surprise in his mind. That suggests he can actually sense magical energies, as I'm sure he's dealt with crystals as large as these before. No surprise would be present for size alone.

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"These are quite good," he pick up one of them, an earth magic crystal and turns it over in his hands. "Grade 4, and upper. No flaws which I can see, but let me get my lens."

He reaches under the counter and pulls out an eyepiece, which he fixes over his left eye. After examining the crystal and turning it over several times, he nods. His mind reveals just how impressed he is even if his face only shows it a little, and it's quite a lot.

"Zero flaws," he says. "And it's solid crystal all the way through. That suggests it came from a monster, and a tough one, too. It would be useful for making a golem core. No one fashions those in this town, but it's difficult to find magic crystals this large to start with. We can sell it to a workshop in the city. And you have three of these?"

He examines each of the others. There are two types of golems: monsters which spawn and constructs someone built. The former drops loot when defeated while the latter doesn't. The former doesn't have a true core, while the latter has one made from a magic crystal, which controls its actions based on the enchantment set into it. Some types of mines use golems for hauling items, and several upper nobles incorporate them into their home security.

Not all statues are actually statues.

Even the military uses golems, mainly to pull wagons and move heavy items in place of beasts and people during longer missions.

But it really is difficult to find crystals large enough to form suitable cores. These are all Grade 4 in quality, which means they're also rare in that aspect, too. The golems built with them will not only be stronger but also be able to have more commands and more complex ones set into them.

Theoretically, one could fabricate a crystal large enough to do make the cores, but you need a proper full-fledged mage with the right know-how for that. They aren't common and are pretty expensive.

So most golems are on the weaker side due to either smaller cores or inferior core strength.

"All three are the same in quality and approximate size," he says. "The total for this is 5,033,164,897 ciivrios. We can pay by coin or strip, or we can provide a certificate of authentication. If you desire, we can also pay with a combination of those."

Coin is the standard pay, and is just coins. Strip is a sort of certificate which I can take to a bank here in town to receive the coins – essentially, it's a promise from the shop that the amount on it is what we are owed by them and a request for the bank to pay it. That can also be used in another town at an affiliated bank.

The certificate can be used to take the crystals to another shop as verification of its value, allowing me to trade the items directly to the other shop for what I want and receive the change after.

With the latter, that only really works if the shop actually uses said items. Taking earth magic crystals to a cafe will get me laughed at, for example.

Well, they wouldn't laugh at me. I'm a pretty obvious mage and my age indicates I come from a powerful family, since it's rare for someone so young to be full-fledged outside of noble lines. But they'd probably be laughing inwardly if I tried to pay for a meal with an earth magic crystal, even a half-inch Grade 1 one.

"By coin, please," I tell him. "I'll accept it rounded down. That should be fifty platinum ciirvrios coins."

"I'll be right back with the payment," he says.

He heads into the back and returns with the boy I saw last time and a tray with five coins on it. The coins themselves aren't actually made out of platinum, though their alloy was designed to resemble it in color. I examine each of the five coins, verifying through the System that they're authentic 10-plat coins.

"Thank you," I accept the coins and slip them into one of my pouches.

"A pleasure doing business with you, sir," he says as the boy takes the tray with the crystals. "I hope we see you again."

"May the spirits and gods guide your paths," I say.

"May the spirits and gods guide your paths."

I leave the shop and make my way to a nearby crafting district. Most of the shops don't interest me, but I manage to locate a forge which suggests it can handle what I want done. While I can smelt iron into steel, I can't work everything I find in the mines at my current Magic.

A bell rings when I enter the front of the forge, a small shop that's empty of goods. It's mostly for commissions rather than their normal sales – if they even make standard stock items to sell. If they do, those will be sold to the actual shops which manage selling them to adventurers, guards, travelers, or whoever.

The room for the shop is cool in temperature, courtesy of enchantments I can spot when I examine the area with my magical senses. I can't hear any sounds coming from the back, which means either no one's working on something noisy or the soundproofing enchantment I can see is blocking out the noise.

They want to make sure those commissioning items are comfortable while doing so and the heat and noise from the actual forge doesn't enter the shop.

I'm not sure if that's a good sign or a bad sign, but the guy with a crush on Elaina comes out to greet me about a minute and a half after I enter. His hair is sticking to his head with sweat, and he's wearing a thick leather apron over his pants and otherwise bare chest. He nearly stumbles upon seeing me, his mind filled with surprise and shock.

"You're the mage who interrupted the magi in Mistwood during their argument last night, aren't you?" He asks.

Those who visited Mistwood for the festival likely arrived by truck, allowing them to return to town much more quickly upon waking this morning. He's probably been working most of the day.

"I am," I answer. "I am Rowan Zovanzik, and I have a commission I would like to make. Judging by the markings on the sign out front, I believe this forge has the ability to work the metals I want worked. However, I don't know if you make jewelry or not."

It's fine to say my name without worrying about someone from my past finding me, as there are dozens of mages named Rowan and my last name wasn't known to anyone but me. The System shifted my name to match my adoptive parents' when I was adopted, but no one had ever seen my Status before then so no one knew my old one. When I cut ties with my family and had me struck from their record, the System shifted it to this and I've never mentioned it before.

Actually saying my last name might potentially lead me to my real family, though I do have a little bit of doubt about that for out here. We're still quite a distance from the capital and my parents probably didn't know their last names.

"We do," he confirms. "I handle most of the jewelry requests – oh, my name is Ash, by the way. What are you interested in having commissioned? We don't handle rarer metals very often, even if we know how. They're usually something we need to order in. If that's the case, we'll need the cost of the materials up-front, as well as half of the remaining cost. If it needs to be attuned to a magic, the materials cost will be higher."

A standard requirement, in my experience.

"I brought them myself," I tell him. "It's mithril, of both spatial and temporal variants."

The surprise in his mind increases even more, and his eyes widen just slightly.

"You have tuned variants of mithril?" He asks. "We can work that, yes. Am I correct in assuming you want storage items? Stasis storage, I'm assuming?"

A guess he made based on the types of mithril. That's the most common use for them when crafted into jewelry so it wasn't really a hard guess.

"Correct," I answer. "I have more than I need for what I want and would like the remainder back."

"What form would you like it as?" He asks. "I've never made that particular type of jewelry before before but I can do it as a variety of things. Rings, bracelets, earrings, and necklaces, to name the general categories. And I don't know how to set the enchantments so it'll actually contain a space. Probably don't have near enough mana to do so, even if I did know."

Not all enchanting methods require using one's own mana to set them, but it's more common among beginner enchanters.

"That's fine," I open up a pouch and pull out a folded piece of paper. "This is the blueprint. I'd like it as a bracelet with those dimensions and that shape. I can do the enchantment myself."

A shop like this should be one whose staff can read and judging by the appraising focus of his mind, Ash can read.

"I can do this," he nods. "How many do you want?"

"Just one," I answer. "With the quality of the magic within the ore I have, so long as my blueprint is followed exactly, then I'll have a decent space to store goods in."

"Is there a time frame in which you want this completed?"

"How soon can it be done?" I ask.

"A few days if you're willing to wait," he answers. "Though I can expedite it for a fee. The cost to make the bracelet will be 14 plat, and I can have it ready when the shop opens at seven tomorrow morning if you're willing to pay an extra 2 plat. If you'd like it done today, that's an additional 5 plat. We need the full payment immediately and on a rush, we need the additional fee up-front as well. If you pay for it to be completed sooner but don't pick it up within that time, you won't receive a refund as we still had to move projects with a lesser priority."

The full payment being required immediately is due to the cost of the work and them not knowing my reputation. That means they can't trust that I won't pay the normal up-front cost and once it's done, refuse to pay the rest and then file with the guards for them refusing to give me what I paid for. The fact that I'm supplying the metals will only give weight to my argument.

Not that I'd do that to the shop, that's just wrong. This is a rare metal I want them to work and I'm lucky the town actually has a forge which can handle it. Even if I were the sort to levy my status to cheat a shop, I wouldn't for that reason alone.

But I really don't like cheating shops. Receiving what I'm due, and giving them what they're due. That's what I do.

A sudden spike of hope pops up in his mind, a desire of some sort I can't determine the origin of.

"Though I can waive the standard for a Lord Magus," he adds. "Only half of the 14 plat is needed up-front. I do still need the rush requirement immediately, if you wish it faster."

Attempting to curry favor, then. I can't determine the reason without peeking into his mind, but it doesn't matter. I don't feel anything hostile or malicious in the intent.

"Here's the mithril," I open up the second woven box on my pouch and pull out the two clumps. "I'll pay after I receive the remainder back."

"Give me about ten minutes," he accepts the ores, awe and fascination in his mind, but also a caution which seems aimed at the metals. "I'll need to get out the tools and slice them."

"I'll wait."

Ash heads into the back and I remain here. When he returns, the two ore clumps don't look much different – he really did slice them. Based on the slightly-melted appearance, it was via high heat. Not much was removed, just enough to make a bracelet with the dimensions I gave.

I have faith in the quality of the bracelet I'll receive.

"Thank you," I return the ores to their case, then hold out my right hand, palm up. Two platinum coins rest on my palm, summed from the coin pouch via [Teleport] while I was turning my hand over. "Please have it finished today, and if you ensure that it's to the exact specifications that I ask, you can keep the extra plat."

A small touch of joy enters his mind while his expression remains professional.

"I can have it done in around three hours," he tells me. "Though we close at six, just knock on the door if you return after that but before seven. After seven, I won't be able to give it to you and you'll have to wait until tomorrow."

"I'll return in three hours."