It was a cold morning when Grey immediately got up while the sun was still emerging halfway from the horizon. He has some urgent things to do with his uncle that day and needed to prepare some things for this activity. After taking a bath and changing unto his usual clothes, he quickly grabbed the 'Rain toad's core' and went directly to the craft house, playfully humming on his way.

Seeing the slight gap on the door as soon as he stood in front of the craft house's door, he knew that someone was already up even before he does, as he heard some noises coming from inside. Excitedly grinning, he quickly stuck his small hand through the slightly ajar door and flipped it open vigorously, causing a wild creaking noise. The moment he stared inside the fairly large room, he quickly laid his eyes onto another person, busily polishing a silver boots.

"Uncle Reynold!" Grey loudly called. His voice echoed throughout the averagely large room, causing the middle aged uncle to be startled and jolted his body in surprise.

Still recovering from the shock after almost having a heart attack, Reynold gently patted his chest and let out a long sigh to calm himself. "Grey, don't go surprising me like that. I almost dropped my heart." He said, slightly chuckling before averting his gaze at the thing the young man was carrying. "Is that—"

"The beast core." Before the uncle could even finish blurting his comment, Grey already spoke for himself, raising the blue orb to his eye level and showing it to his uncle. He then proceeded to said, "You're going to make me a weapon today, you promised.", smiling temptingly, staring at the softhearted uncle with puppy eyes.

Reynold smiled awkwardly at him. He tried not be tempted by the child's request as he tried teasing him a bit by delaying his response. But Grey didn't even fazed and just remained smiling at him. Reynold seemed to be caught off guard by those smile and even looking away won't do any better either. So he just looked at the young man and sighed, before saying, "Okay, fine... but let's wait for the Wild beast guild to deliver us the ember stones and some rune metals that they got from our previous raid."

Hearing this only raised more questions inside the young man's head. "That was three days ago. They're still not finished collecting the loots?" Grey asked out of curiosity while pondering about the things that happened just recently.

"Well, the queen's presence in town must've changed everything. They are probably holding all the supply of ember crystals and rune metals." Reynold replied with disinterested eyes as he got back on polishing the silver boots on the lower shelves.

His reply only made Grey more eager to ask questions. "Is the queen really that powerful?– I didn't mean that in the literal way." He asked before pulling the chair below the table close to him and sat on it as he patiently waited for the uncle's answer.

Reynold paused and carefully pondered about what to answer, and said, "To answer that question, let's just say that the queen has all the authority over the kingdom's business and external affairs with other villages while the king is involved in protecting the entire kingdom. So it's quite easy to say that the queen is quite powerful individual."

The explanation brought satisfied expressions to the child's face upon hearing it. Grey summed up the information and said, "External conflict huh?... That explains why she's here and why she's holding all the supply." He concluded after thinking briefly about it.

Looking at Grey with a smile, Reynold replied, "That's right, this village is the home of greatest magic artifacts and items the entire royal military needs. Obviously, she would be securing the stock she came here for." He was proudly holding his head high while saying every words.

Grey heard those words many times and he literally read those exact the same words at the entrance of this village. He refused to listen any further to his uncle's bragging statements and just nodded his head disinterestedly. Taking a look at his current situation right now, it seems like his life is back to normal once again, if not because of Ryner's story yesterday that is.

Grey released a long sigh remembering that story that happened to sound like a prophecy. He looked at Reynold for a brief moment before gazing at the hanging swords near the entrance of the room. "Do you think the kingdom is preparing to go to war?" He asked as he gazed back to his busy uncle.

Hearing this made Reynold stop what he was doing and looked at the boy that asked him an intriguing question. He then broke the eye contact after a moment, averting his gaze somewhere else. "Y-Yeah, I guess so..." He hesitantly replied in shaky voice. "Once the information reaches the king, he will definitely take immediate actions."

Grey was robbed of his speech after hearing this. He have heard a lot about this king and knew how strong he is from the stories his parents had told him. It was reassuring to know that someone like him is existing in this realm and makes him less worried about the future. "that's a relief." Grey sighed with his eyes slightly closed.

Receiving his reply, Reynold couldn't help but smile in relief. Somehow, he managed to answer the boy's intrigued questions. 'This kid—'

"BAM!"

"KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!"

A loud banging sound, followed by a loud and forceful knock, interrupting Reynolds' thoughts. It's seems like a sound of something heavy hitting the ground, causing it to shake lightly. Soon after, the door was flipped opened from the outside and was followed by a scream, "Great craftsman Reynold!" The familiar eardrum-shattering voice echoed throughout the room causing the two people inside to cover their ears.

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Reynold was quite expecting this since he was the one who asked the noisy person to bring him the supply, but somehow, he was caught off guard and now his ears are hurting like hell. Annoyed as he was, he stood up to face the noisy intruder.

In front of him, Ryner was proudly gazing down with his head held high. On his left hand side, he was flaunting his shiny sword. He was on his usual worked up expression as he started looking around and said, "I brought the supply— by the way, good morning."

"Yeah, we know—" Reynold replied, still covering his ears. "—could you shut up for a moment?"

Seeing the man so worked up, Grey was amazed on how fast he recovered from his yesterday's dark story. 'It's quite surprising and relieving to see him returning to his usual self overnight.' he thought. Grey quickly got out of his chair and walked towards him, looking at the fairly large wooden chest Ryner has dropped.

Reynold also followed the boy, ignoring the lively and noisy man in front of him. "Let's check if everything is here." The uncle said, twisting the lock on the both ends of the chest and then flipping the cover to reveal what's inside.

"I brought everything so don't worry." Ryner's words seems truthful but Reynold still checked what's inside.

Taking a closer look, the first thing Reynold saw are the shining reddish crystals that radiates with mana inside the first compartment. This things are indeed ember crystals. "Seems like the real deal." he uttered. Looking further to the other side, he saw some oddly shaped dark-silver metal that looks really smooth together with some smaller chunks of similar metals. "There are also plenty of rune metals inside. I guess you really put some effort with this one." He commended Ryner, looking at him with a slight chuckle.

Which lead to Ryner screaming, "What are you waiting for? Let's get my excalibur a make over." He was crazily flaunting his sword, swinging it everywhere inside the room... with the scabbard on of course.

Reynold quickly stopped him by saying, "Woah, wait... I'm going to forge this child a sword first, I made a promise." He directed his gaze and pointed his finger at Grey.

Grey just smiled with satisfaction while looking at his uncle.

After hearing this, Ryner looked so startled. His eyes are wide and his jaw dropped, blankly staring at the young boy in awe. "A-Ahh, young great master Grey!" A usual scream escaped his mouth, echoing throughout the fairly large room.

"You don't have to scream everytime," Grey annoyingly grumbled tensing his jaw while slightly biting the side of his lips. ", and stop addressing me with that weirdly sounded name."

Ryner was surprised to hear the boy's response and quickly backed off a bit, calming his overly worked up nerves. "I'm sorry!" He said, lowering his voice while awkwardly smiling at the kid.

The comedic conversation came to an end when Reynold walked between them, carrying the large chest that contains the things he needed for crafting. "Alright, alright, let's get working." He said while humming the last words.

Grey immediately followed him and curiously observed what he was doing while Ryner stood beside him pestering him with his faint whispers of amazement.

Reynold started taking out the minerals from the box and then putting the ember crystals inside a slot underneath a furnace, causing the top part to glow with a nice red-colored light before the heat inside the room increased gradually. Reynold was excitedly rubbing his hand together while watching the furnace lit up with red color.

Next, he put the large oddly shaped rune metal inside a bowl-shaped container above the furnace followed by the smaller chunks.

"Woah!" Ryner was creepily widening his eyes with amazement, causing Grey to stay one step away from him.

While waiting for the metal to melt, Reynold flipped over a metal plate that looks like a mold, placing it onto a wooden table, underneath a funnel-shaped metal object that was hanging one meter from the ground. He then turned his head towards Grey and said, "Grey, where's the monster core?"

Without any means of asking, Grey quickly handed him over the Rain toad's core, causing Ryner to stare at him with surprised expression.

"Is that–" Ryner didn't even finished speaking when Reynold nodded his response, signalling Ryner not to make a fuss about it, and then got back to his work.

The wise uncle placed the blue orb in a metal stand beside the metal mold. He grabbed a bottle of a transparent liquid that looks like a potion and then poured it into a cup just enough to barely reach the brim.

At this point, Grey was utterly confused and the expression his face was making was almost unreadable. He was standing in place while fixedly looking at the man doing his job. Bas d on his reaction, it seemed like he has never seen a weapon being forge in in his life. The world he came from was a place where mana are used to conjure weapon and moreover, his previous life doesn't have such thing such as elemental magic so forging a magic item was most likely not their thing.

Confused as he is, he felt a hand being placed on his shoulder, causing him to look on that direction just to see Ryner looking at him with excited expression.

"This is the best part." Ryner said, before anchoring hos attention to the scenario in front of him.

'Best part?' Grey fleetingly thought as he returned to watching his kind looking uncle do his thing.

The moment Grey redirected his attention at him, Reynold was already halfway finished in drawing similar magic circles around the stand and the mold simultaneously using the potion that he poured in a cup as an ink. Soon after he was finished, the rune metal on top of the furnace has already melted and was already at light yellow color from its hotness. "This should be ready." he whispered.

After looking around him to make sure that the other two guys in the room are staying far away, the spirit mark engraved on his neck glowed red before he grabbed the bowl-shaped container above the furnace that contains the melted rune metal. He hurriedly poured the liquidized metal through the funnel and went directly to the mold.

The sight was satisfying to watch, causing Grey to not took his eyes off of it even for a second. Amazed as he was, he watched his uncle shape the melted rune metal into a short blade using the mold. 'What's he gonna do next?' he wondered.

Soon, after pouring everything into the mold, Reynold placed his finger into the magic circles that he drew earlier before channeling his mana into it, causing it to instantly glow. The Rain toad's core is also glowing with a strange blue color.

"SWOSH!"

The mana pressure inside the room gradually increased, resulting to an irregular and unstable mana flow in the atmosphere. It was as if the mana inside that core is causing all this irregularities.

The sudden pressure caused Grey to cautiously cover the entirety of his body with his own mana. He looked at the blue orb and saw the blue vapor being released from it, causing him to question himself, 'What the hell is that?'