They went out to a small pub where they ordered out to eat in the late morning. They planned on doing that throughout the day as a way to help spend the coins they had hoarded up. Sure, they donated quite a few, but thanks to the reconstruction, they were once again rewarded by the system and granted more money to spend.

Just like with the defense of Eve Glade back a while ago, the town recognized their efforts and rewarded them for their reconstruction. Just like before, they received a message, gaining a bit of coin like before, except it was drastically lower than what the defense provided.

Still, even if it wasn’t over 6 grand in terms of US dollars, they still received a hefty sum of almost a grand for it in bits of copper, silver, and gold coins alike. Of course, this was the most out of everyone else as Zeke did quite a lot during the reconstruction efforts, and Mikella herself received a lot more than the others due to her ease of repairing buildings.

The three sat together at a small round table, with a waitress nearing middle-school age showing up and taking their orders. Zeke figured that there were laws against this sort of thing, but then, it was a fantasy world where they can’t really rely on the government much like in their old world. Not to mention, was it really that strange for a child to want to help her parents run a hub, especially during these tough times?

Even more, the girl was a delight as even Clara declared how pretty she was while wearing a simplistic white blouse with a black dress-like overalls. The girl blushed as if that was a first she heard, and even gave Clara an extra helping of sweet rolls the pub gave for appetizers.

Needless to say, Clara was ecstatic.

As for their meal, Zeke and Mikella ordered a variety of meals they normally wouldn’t order according to their experiences in the old world. Ever since they started living at the Mystio household, both Cloud and Val cooked up a variety of meals to eat. Since then, Zeke never really bothered what kind of food might be served. Even if the name was strange to hear, if it’s being served and he was curious enough, he would order it.

Due to that, he received a plate filled with a mish-mash of steamed cut vegetables and cubes of seasoned meat and tubers. Mikella on the other hand ordered a soup with large reddish noodles, the brim of the bowl filled with a variety of veggies cut into tiny circles. Apparently, it was famous for being extremely spicy, hence the reddish noodles that even got Zeke to close his mouth out of instinct.

Mikella, however, ate it with gusto. Even as she nearly squealed from the intense heat and spice currently burning her throat, her eyes watering, there was that look of delight in her eyes that made Zeke pause on whether she was actually right in the head.

“Can I try that?” Clara asked her Sissy as she herself ordered something similar to Zeke’s. Compared to ordinary girls her age, her palate was just as extensive as his own now.

“Oof, uuh…” Mikella closed her eyes for a brief moment, shaking her head. “This might be a little bit dangerous for you to try right now…”

“But Bobo can heal me,” Clara asked, her eyes shining with an excited light, but Bobo shook his head.

“I refuse to heal bad mistakes,” Bobo declared. “If it was an accident, that’s fine, but injuring yourself on purpose is forbidden.”

“What? That’s not fair!” Clara shouted, but Zeke wasn’t going to give in to her cries even if she showed the most heart-wrenching puppy dog eyes she could muster.

After seeing her charm fail on Bobo, she turned to Sissy, but being her oldest sister for a long time, she grew resistant to her stares, especially when it came to handling spicy foods.

Even though she grumbled, she easily forgot about the spicy soup as she delighted in eating the veggie and meat stir-fry she ordered along with Zeke. The three enjoyed themselves in their outing, finally able to relax for once.

Zeke and Mikella spoke softly while Clara walked ahead, enjoying the sight of the restored town after weeks of constant work and repairs.

“This was a good idea,” Mikella said, nodding approvingly. “I should’ve been the one to ask for this.”

Zeke shrugged. “You would have. But we just had so much crap to go through.”

“Tell me about it,” Mikella shook her head. “Still, you’re doing really well as Clara's older brother. I might even say that you could actually replace our dad as a good male role model.”

“That’s…” Zeke’s face heated. “That’s a lot of praise coming from you. Honestly, Clara is just making this way too easy for me.”

“True, but credit is given where credit is due,” Mikella said with a cheeky smirk, getting Zeke to roll his eyes at her.

The two kept talking, and eventually brought up how the collar was acting. Even now, it was a strange feeling. It felt like he wasn’t wearing it on his neck, yet he felt stifled as though he was wearing a stuffy snowsuit. It was helping, but it was really hard to ignore.

Then they heard the ever so loud booming voice of the smith waving his arm at them.

“Oooi!” Adam shouted, getting their attention. “Glad to see that you two are alive! And… oh! What have we here?”

Adam smiled warmly at Clara who ran up to him to give up a hello and wave. His entire rough-looking facade melted as he smiled gently at her and waved back with his own meaty callused hand.

“How is the forge?” Clara asked, staring at the other side of Adam to find his shop, trying to see into it. “Is it still working?”

“Aye, it’s working properly, all thanks to your older brother there. I owe him quite a lot.”

“Bobo is nice to everyone. He’ll just say no problem and walk away.”

Clara declared with a proud stance, her chest puffed up and her hands on her hips. Zeke started to wonder whether she was slowly getting Mikella’s cheekiness at a rapid pace.

“Good to see you’re doing well,” Zeke said, facing Adam with a nod.

“Guess business is booming too, huh?” Mikella said, noticing the wide array of weapons and tools near the shop and even outside in displays. They were of excellent quality, and even now the other citizens were looking over at them, along with the soldiers being engrossed in looking at the weapons.

“That it is, and I ain’t jokin’. You really saved my sorry behind there, Zeke. I don’t even know how to thank you, much less pay ya.”

“Hey, it’s seriously no pro–”

Zeke caught himself, his face turning placid as he turned to Clara, who was just smiling at him in the exact same way Mikella was.

“Goddammit,” Zeke muttered, shaking his head. Adam, however, just laughed like he lost it, cackling like mad.

“Ooh, looks like little Clara caught you red-handed! You have the makings to be a seer, don't cha?”

“Seer?” Clara tilted her head.

“Witches capable of seeing the future,” Adam said, his voice turning all mystifying as his hands slowly drifted apart. “They be able to divine the fates of others, and peer into gods’ own eyes for themselves.”

“Ooh…. umm, aren’t witches bad, though?” Clara asked, tilting her head.

“Oh, definitely. And they are ugly to boot. Big ass noses lookin’ like crows, and skin as dry and wrinkled like your granny!”

“Eeww! I don’t wanna be a witch!”

“Hahahahaha!”

Adam was just having too much fun toying with Clara’s innocence, so Mikella spoke up.

“So, what’s up? Is there anything going on we should know about?”

“Ah, right,” Adam clapped his meaty hands together, creating a booming noise that caught everyone by surprise. “I got back on those orders you put up a while ago. Y’know, that book you’ve been trying to get rid of.”

Both Zeke and Mikella widened in recognition. It’s been so long that they have completely forgotten about it.

The book they acquired after finishing the tower known as Death’s Embrace. Mikella received the skill book known as Pained Shot, a terrifyingly cruel skill capable of shooting a magic projectile capable of inflicting more pain than normal.

As for the skill book, while it is dark-based, it was still deemed useful. But as everyone in the soldier’s group wasn’t keen on taking in dark-based mana skills, and Mikella certainly had no use for it being a warrior, she was glad to sell it for a good amount.

Zeke had also sold the necklace he gained from the dungeon; The Necklace of Last Night.

It was a weird necklace, an equipment he gained that increased dark-type skills and spells, and allows one to see better in the dark. While it would be useful for someone with dark-based skills, much like having the skill, it was useless for Zeke as well as everyone else around him, so he gave that away to Adam once he could find somebody to give it to.

“Come into the shop, I figure it’d be better than talking it out here in the open.”

Adam waved them in, including Clara who followed the two into the store. As the people were clamoring outside and looking over at the tools, Adam took them over to another side of the store where a door laid. It was the resting area for Adam, and it also doubled as his home as the store was large enough to house both his tools for the trade as well as living here.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Getting inside, it was what Zeke expected a blacksmith to have–a simplistic stone home with some basic furnishings, all of which were clearly made to withstand the heat of the forge by any means, that included using cloth for the flooring and the seats around the place that wouldn’t catch fire.

After being led there, Adam left for a moment then returned with the haul from their trades. As he settled on what to bring out, they began talking.

“So I’ve been going around my contacts, seeing if they got anything of note. What’s with the situation here in Eve Glade and all, one gotta figure out the necessities, y’know?”

“That’s a given,” Mikella stated, getting Adam to nod in return.

“So that’s why I wanna apologize for taking a while. You two are probably my most valuable customers, so as a merchant, it irked me to make you wait for so long.”

Zeke wanted to wave it off, but he didn’t want both Clara and Mikella to get more ammo for his predictability, so he just stayed quiet as Adam continued.

“But another reason being is that I figured you two needed something special. For you, you damn crazy lass, there’s nothing more suitable than this.”

Adam pulled something out that made the scowling Mikella widened her eyes. Zeke marveled at the weapon in his hands, a pristine like bow with a green tinged coloring. It had sharp angles, and it was a bit shorter than most bows he’s seen so far, making it either a short bow, or if he was honest, just an ordinary bow.

But when he Identified the bow, he changed his mind on the ‘ordinary’ part.

> Tempest Bow (Uncommon)

>

> A bow forged in the depths of the storm, allowing it to be blessed by the element of wind. The arrows it shoots are fast and invisible like the air itself.

>

> Enchantments:

> Lesser Air

> Arrow Forge (Unique)

“Whoa,” Mikella gasped, taking the bow that Adam handed over to her. “Neat!”

“Hah, ain’t nothing just ‘neat’ about it, lass! What you have there is a bow that ain’t just air-attuned, something like that Sword of Lightning you broke before.”

Adam gave her that ‘stare’ he gave whenever Mikella brings in the nearly broken weapons she had for him to fix, getting her to wince and try to look away from someone for once.

However, Adam just chortled. “Hah! Just kidding. I know you sacrificed it for the greater good. Hells if I know someone that actually went through their Expert breakthrough with a godsdammed weapon instead of how the whelps usually do it! hahaha!”

“Haha, yeah, way to make me feel like shit for a moment there, old man,” Mikella grumbled, getting Zeke to shake his head.

“Getting back on topic,” Adam quickly returned, pointing at the bow. “It ain’t just elementally attuned, it’s got that unique enchantment; it allows you to make arrows for free by just using a little bit of mana.”

“What?!”

Mikella stared back at the smith in shock. Zeke also looked at him in awe at what she just gained.

“Isn’t this, like, super valuable then!?” Mikella said, her hands actually shaking as she still held onto the bow, which she was practically revering it at this point.

“Ah,” Adam just waved his meaty hand away at the thought. “Think not. Remember, it’s still Uncommon. Like I said, it’s the higher rare stuff that’s valuable. If we’re talking Epic rarity here, now that’s somethin’ valuable.”

“Oh…” Mikella actually looked confused. “Still, getting free arrows sounds awesome as fuck.”

“Free arrows!” Clara exclaimed, pretending to hold a bow in her hands as she closed one eye to shoot arrows. “That’s so cool! You can make arrows from nothing then?”

“Clara, you can’t close one eye–that’s improper form,” Mikella instantly pointed out, getting Clara to grumble before opening her eye and still pretending to be an archer. Zeke just marveled at that.

“Pretty much, but that’s all it can do other than making the arrows wind-attuned,” Adam stated. “Like I said, it’s uncommon and not as valuable because of it’s attunement. If you had a Wind or Air attunemnet, that bow right there would make your attacks a lot more powerful when charging it with your attunement, and would probably make your arrows free of charge. But since you’re lightning attuned, it’ll just drain your mana a bit more. Plus, the damage won’t be as significant either. It’ll just be normal arrows for you. If you’re facing something that has a weakness to air or something, that might be worth it.”

Adam just guessed, making Zeke realize he meant what he said. It wasn’t as though monsters and other types of creatures follow a strict rule of elemental weaknesses like a certain monster-collecting game, but it was still obvious that natural weaknesses are natural for a reason.

For example, a tree or anything grass-related monster can easily catch on fire faster and get more damaged. The same goes with water if lightning coursed through them, getting damaged a lot more.

Then again, he’d only ever seen the monsters around the forest and the undead type monsters back at the dungeon. He hasn’t faced any monster with any specific weaknesses as of yet.

“Still, free arrows!” Mikella exclaimed, both her and Clara smiling in glee. “Not having to worry about how many arrows I’m wasting is such a load-off. Thanks so much, Adam!”

Her beaming smile as she now treasured the bow was enough to make Zeke delighted as well. Adam just laughed it off, waving off the thanks.

“It’s nothing! And don’t you worry about any costs. Like I said, the weapon’s not that valuable, and as for the skill book–here’s the payment as requested.”

As Adam promised, he gave the coins that the skill book earned–a whopping 7 gold in her hands. Mikella whistled in delight, and Zeke just wondered what kind of person would actually buy the skill book.

But that all went away as Adam made his next announcement.

“And I got something for our Runist here too!” Adam said with a rising grin, surprising everyone, especially Zeke.

“Huh? Me?” Zeke said stupidly, pointing at himself.

But before he could get an answer, Adam went ahead to the other room, where he probably kept his gifts for them. When he revealed himself, he had a black suitcase like box held on top of his arms. He showed them off like a grand prize as he presented it to the three. Everyone marveled at the elaborate markings on the black box, golden edges with etched markings on the top of the box. They were more like insignias, not really runes like what Zeke read.

He wondered exactly what it was before Adam clicked open the hinges of the box, using the other hand to open up the top half. What was underneath made Zeke’s eyes widened.

“Pens?” Mikella exclaimed in shock, her head hung back.

They were indeed pens–four elaborately designed pens that looked more ornate than functional. The pens had a sleek black color with some casings that made them seem unlikely to grip on. If anything, it looked uncomfortable to actually write them with.

The nib, the part used to write, looked more like a blade than an actual nib for writing, completely sharp and glistening under the room’s light. The four pens actually had different shaped nibs, but followed along the design of the pen as a whole.

They were otherwise very stylish and very expensive looking fountain pens. But that wasn’t all. The mana that flowed from them. It felt intricate, more complex than anything Zeke had ever felt before. He had a clue that these weren’t used for combat at all despite their looks.

So when he Identified them, he wasn’t at all shocked, but still, his mouth gaped.

> Runist Pens of Paroth (Rare)

>

> Four pens created by the great runist and enchanter, Paroth the Vast. It is said these pens contain his wisdom, intellect, and eccentricities.

>

> Enchantments:

> Rune Proficiency

> Major Mana Conductivity

“They’re not just pens,” Zeke said, his eyes glued to the writing utensils. “They’re magic pens.”

“Wow, that does not impress me whatsoever,” Mikella said, shaking her head. Zeke figured he could’ve said it better.

Well, at least Clara was impressed. Her eyes glittered at how pretty the pens were. Adam, being the nice guy he was, knelt down to let Clara get a better look at them. She even took a pen off and studied it carefully, oohing and aahing at it before carefully putting it back.

“These pens aren’t just your ordinary pens, lass,” Adam said, pulling himself back up to show the pens off once again. “These are pens that runists would die for–considering how fucking expensive they were!”

Adam laughed out loud as usual, making Zeke wonder just how expensive they were. He did read that there were some pens in his old world that actually went up to several millions. Then again, those types of pens had diamonds and rubies encrusted onto them.

“Well, I say expensive, but that’s very perspective. Remember, unlike our runist friend here, most runists don’t end up being useful right off the bat. That’s least of all considering the gear they needed to get up to speed. These kinds of pens are what those runists usually use to make those impressive runes and arrays–so imagine what this lad can do with these babies!”

That immediately got the family’s attention, now marveling at the pens being displayed. But Zeke groaned, turning to Adam.

“But Adam, they’re expensive right? Is it really okay to get them for me?”

“Listen lad,” Adam said, disrupting his good mood and turning on a solemn expression. “You didn’t just fixed up the town, heal the sick and injured, and even put up a barrier over the town which would’ve costed the towns hundreds, or even thousands of gold to get–you fixed my forge. And that’s enough to make me your comrade for life.”

Zeke wanted to shake his head at that. He should’ve figured a smith would be more appreciative over the forge than literally everything else he’s done. Still, it’s not like he did all that to get anyone’s favor. At least not the townspeople that had taken care of his family.

But the look in Adam’s eyes proved that trying to deny these claims would be pointless.

“That, and I got a sick deal for these! My friend wanted to get rid of these for a long time after buying them off of an auction for a crap ton of gold, thinking he can sell it for even higher, and never managed to sell them for less than a few hundred silver, hahahaha!”

He wanted to take back every good thing he thought about Adam at the time. He just frowned at the smith, which only made him laugh even harder. Even his family laughed along with Adam.

“You’re all traitors,” Zeke said to the girls, which only made them laugh harder. He rolled his eyes, but he still looked at the pens.

Despite the ridiculous low price, and clearly they weren’t so valuable to anyone else other than runists, the pens were indeed impressive. Figuring that it was fine, Zeke took the pens off the box–apparently Adam could use the box to make a better presentation for his own gear, and Zeke was glad to not keep it himself.

As he stared at the pens in his hand, he found out that he had a notification once he accepted them. He pulled them up, and it asked if he wanted to officially own the pens.

> Would you like to accept the Runist Pens of Paroth? Once you accept them, they will be soul-bound to you.

Of course, he immediately asked about that. Adam explained that the soul-bound part is nothing dangerous, and that accepting them means that nobody else but him can use them. He wondered why these pens needed to have such a constriction, but since he was the only Runist around, he accepted the prompt.

“Great, so…” Mikella spoke up, crossing her arms as she stared at the pens. “Why four pens? That seems kinda… redundant, I think?”

“Actually, not sure meself’,' Adam shrugged. “Extras in case you lose them? It was part of the deal I got, after all.”

“Oh, good point,” Mikella nodded in approval. Apparently the girl really likes having good deals for cheap.

But when Zeke found out how they worked through the enchantments, his eyes widened.

“No way… Can I…?”

He muttered, getting everyone’s attention as he held the pens up to the air.

With his Mana Manipulation skill, he found out that his own mana is connected to the pens now. He had way more control over these pens than he ever had with his ordinary one. So with a crazy idea in place, he let the pens go, dropping them from the air.

And they started to float right in front of him. He could tell, with the command of his mind, that he can control each pen seamlessly as they floated in the air, spinning around each other according to his thoughts.

That immediately made everyone lose their shit as they stared and gawked at the floating pens.