Aaron really wondered how is this dude still able to dive into a state of deep focus in this environment, his shop lacks a proper ventilation-system and his chimney is in a very bad state.
'Yeah. I bet it's clogged with something, it's probably sealed shut! I wouldn't be really surprised if it is but the worst thing is this heat, I feel like my bones would probably melt if I stay in this place for too long. I do wonder if my Fire resistance would go up if I do.' Aaron decided to be a good guest and behave since he's under this man's roof, not to mention that he really respected and appreciated the giant blacksmith's ability to immerse himself into his work and isolate everything else away from his mind.
"Good morning Mr Smith. Is my order ready ye-" A fatty waddled into the smithy and his extremely loud greeting was his way to grab the blacksmith's attention. Clearly this isn't the first time he was here and he's got a clear understanding of Mr Smith's character and that's why he raised his voice almost to the limit before entering the smithy. But Arturo was quite surprised when he saw Aaron, Pio, and Lucas inside the smithy and found the three of them staring back at him, "Oh. Looks like you've got yourself quite an important guest early in the morning here my friend." Arturo said to Mr Smith before looking towards Aaron and smiling widely and continuing to say : "What a wonderful surprise that is, we meet again Ron. It's always a pleasure for me to see talented young people, makes me feel young and full of energy!"
Aaron kept a straight face and didn't show any of his emotions on his face around this approachable-looking merchant because he felt that the moment he lowers his guard around this type of person is the moment where he might end-up being manipulated by Arturo, somehow his intuition kept warning him that beneath this false character is an extremely intelligent and sly personality which could quite possibly affect his future.
In a good or bad way he just doesn't know and would never risk finding out, the smart choice would be steering clear from this man's path until he's in a situation where he can call the shots otherwise he would mostly end-up being his pawn instead.
Which is something that Aaron would rather die than letting it happen!
"Greetings. Maybe we should step outside and give you and Mr Smith time to conclude your deal in private." Aaron said.
"No, no, no... there's no need, no need at all, please! I don't have anything to hide here, it's just a shipment of second-rate weapons that I regularly send every two months all the way west to Windy-Cliff Town among other local products that my caravan picks from a few other villages on the way. You know how trade works, they take what they need and I take what I need then everyone is happy and smiling as we part ways in good faith." Arturo took a small side step to block the entrance then did what a good and successful merchant would do, he ran his mouth as much as he can while trying to say whatever would make the other person happy.
Aaron smiled before saying : "While making extra profit, otherwise it isn't worth the trouble."
Arturo smiled like a fox while replying : "Not always. Sometimes it's worth much more for me to get acquainted with certain people like yourself for example, the future for this place is looking to be much brighter with you in it." But he was thinking to himself : 'What a sharp kid, I keep getting the feeling like he could see right through me whenever I meet those eyes of his. I better not say or do anything to provoke him, I'm willing to bet on him being one of the few to make it big in the continent a few years later. Only if he survives the tough times ahead, especially with him being in the frontlines of the Dark-Forest where anything could happen at any time.'
"You overpraise me, I worth as much as the amount of Gold Coins in my pocket." Aaron smirked after saying that.
"Oh! May I ask how much is there?" Arturo quickly added : "Only if you don't mind me asking." He thought : 'Here I am asking him such a sensitive question after reminding myself not to provoke the kid just a few seconds earlier, how stupid of me.'
Aaron looked at Pio and Lucas and smirked before putting his hands in his pockets and pulling the fabric out to show Arturo how poor he's right now, "None whatsoever. The scales would tip on the other side if you put a feather against me, don't let appearances fool you." He looked towards his two men and continued to say : "That would be my advice to you."
Pio and Lucas immediately received the hidden warning from their young master Ron, after spending time with him both of them were quite used to the way Aaron acts and they could understand or at least figure out some of what he meant whenever he behaved at a certain way.
Especially whenever Aaron says mysterious things, those times he would look or include people into the conversation vaguely while disguising his words with jokes or by exposing some of his emotions.
The key to understanding those hidden messages is to understand how this young master of theirs is mostly quite the opposite and his thoughts, emotions, and plans would usually be kept close to his chest and rarely revealed to others unless he stands to gain from it.
"Hahaha..." Arturo laughed a loud and seemed very amused but he was thinking to himself : 'That wasn't even funny. The more you try to convince me that you're not worth my time or attention the more I'd try to gain your favor, just that Honorable Sister of yours is enough for me to tread carefully around you. Not to mention that I'm already aware of what you did to Lucas and his men when they dared to pull a fast one on you and your guard in the forest, just the Weapons and Armor that your guard sold to Smith were worth hundreds of Gold Coins. Me seeing Lucas standing behind you like a loyal dog less than two days after what he tried to do is enough proof of your abilities.'
*Hiss*
"Finally I'm done," Smith said after dipping the blade into the water, four pairs of eyes looked at him and the blacksmith felt like he's missing something in this situation but he couldn't get what exactly, "Lucas told me yesterday that you have some business for me."
A fleeting glow flickered within Arturo's eyes when he heard what Mr Smith just said and he looked towards Aaron with interest to hear what he has to say, the same feeling of curiosity was filling both Pio and Lucas's chests because they too don't know what their young master have in mind.
"Before I delve further into details of the matter let me ask you this," Aaron looked the blacksmith directly in the eye and asked : "Are you really the best there is in this village?"
Mr Smith smiled and proudly stuck his chest out while resting the huge metal hammer on his shoulder before replying : "You bet there isn't another fellow sharing my job who holds a candle to me in the surrounding villages, my life long rival is a month's travel away in Windy-Cliffs Town but too bad he's too timid and gets frightened easily whenever beasts are mentioned he'd be the first to flee to the nearest City!" After a long sigh he continued to say : "Too bad we never met before or I would've paid her a visit to compare notes and share a drink every now and then." The blacksmith seemed to lament his fate, he also sounded very lonely too... almost like he's in love and being tormented by separation!
"This time let me ask you," Aaron looked around him at the different types of raw Ores scattered here and there before asking, "Do you struggle with certain materials? Especially the ones that require extreme heat to melt."
Mr Smith and Arturo were confused by the questions and couldn't quite get the deeper meaning and reasons behind them but Pio and Lucas quickly caught up to things and looked towards their young master while feeling surprised, not even they would've imagined that his so-called business opportunity was to provide his services to the blacksmith.
Honestly they're more worried about the kid blowing the whole place up than him actually being able to melt some raw Iron-Ores or not.
Because their young master Ron is a "natural" when it comes to playing with Fire.
'There's also Air though... young master Ron always makes me suffer the consequences every time he does one of his strange acts, I better watch out this time or I'll become the only victim in this situation too. What should I do? Uh... how foolish of me, look for cover. Of course!' Pio thought to himself and decided to be a step ahead of Lucas and looked around for a place to hide when the time comes.
Finally Mr Smith decided to give an answer to this kid when Arturo kept giving him the signal from behind Aaron, Pio, and Lucas.
Arturo kept nodding repeatedly while thinking to himself : 'This is an excellent opportunity for me to see what kind of tricks this boy has.'
"There's a few kinds of Ores that makes it a pain for me to operate like I usually do with common material like for example, Iron-Teeth collected from rabbits they're extremely difficult to melt and much more difficult to separate impurities from them and produce Steel of high purity. Not only does they require flames of extremely high temperatures, but also it's costly to buy Solar Wood which is practically the only material that provide this sort of long-lasting and high-degree fire." Mr Smith released a deep sigh before continuing to say "Honestly Steel extracted from Rabbit-Teeth should be ranked in the top-ten among other types of Steel but production cost is extremely high which is the only trouble, if the process of separating impurities is done well... let's say with 70-80% success. Then it's top five possibly top three Steel product.
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"That's just one of many materials! Over there you can see the Horns of the Twilight Deer which is another problem for any blacksmith since that creature is blessed with extreme heat tolerance and often migrate towards locations where volcanoes exist just to eat an extremely rare Herb, here you find the Fangs and Claws of a Killer-Snow Tiger also a pain in the ass since its Ice-Attribute was accumulated within these weapons of hers all its life until Peter hunted her with old Sid back when he was active.
"Here you can find rolls of leather gathered from Golden-Frog Felines, their Water-Attribute keeps preventing normal and above-normal Fire from allowing me to fuse other materials to the leather like these scales from an Emerald Ghost Snake or these feathers from the Sun and Shadow Sparrow.
"I can't even melt those Scythe-Legs or the Carapace from the Turtle-Arachnids without making a loss with the end-product, most of the time I find myself barely getting by month after month!
"Hell. I can't even work right because my chimney is almost sealed shut! I'm afraid that I might really choke to death on smoke one day in this bloody smithy." Mr Smith took a deep breath before adding : "That was just a portion of my troubles right there."
"According to what you said... almost all of them circle around lacking enough heat and not enough management to generate the profit your effort deserve." Aaron said.
Arturo nodded before looking towards Aaron and thought : 'Why does it feel like he's got everything under control in this situation? Did he get his hands on a special source of material with high combustion-rate?'
Mr Smith raised his hands in the air helplessly while feeling frustrated he said : "Yeah. That's pretty much it, I can't afford to have others helping me with the boring and tedious stuff around here or the ship would really sink for good!"
Aaron felt like his chances for a profitable business deal would never be higher anywhere else in this village and thanked Lady-Luck wherever she were for providing him with this opportunity, yes he had expected to succeed in making a long-term deal with the blacksmith before meeting him today and was quite confident in being able to convince him one way or another.
But he never expected things to proceed so well without having to press for his idea or try to pull some strings, not to mention having Arturo watching and listening from the background.
After all that "Big-Fish" normally wouldn't be easy to lure with "bait" yet in this situation he's eying the "hook" with impatience and all he needs is a small tug of the "line" and he would jump at the opportunity with no questions asked!
"One last question before I give you a demonstration of my abilities," Aaron looked towards the source of heat in the smithy and asked : "Is your furnace sturdy enough to withstand a sudden burst of extreme heat?"
Once again Mr Smith and Arturo were extremely confused by the question while Pio and Lucas took a "cautious" step back.
Pio hesitated for a split-second before hurrying towards the location of his choice to hide from the aftermath that's sure to follow what's coming next, he was extremely proud of himself when he beat Lucas this time and smirked when the man gave him a look as if saying : "Traitor!" Before doing the same and hiding himself in the second-best safe place within the smithy.
Arturo and Mr Smith became even more confused when they saw Pio and Lucas take cover as if it's the natural thing to do in this situation.
It was an odd sight to see grown ups hiding in fear for no apparent reason at all.
'What's with these two?' Arturo thought while having this intuitive urge to do the same and copy them!
"Honestly the most expensive part within this smithy of mine is this furnace, it cost me a fortune to gather enough Lightning-Rocks and Rocky-Primate's Bones." Mr Smith knocked at the wall of the furnace with his heavy hammer a few times and didn't seem like he's holding back at all before continuing to say in an extremely confident and assured tone of voice : "I'll take it as my loss if it breaks! How about that?"
Aaron immediately answered : "Deal." Before looking up towards the chimney connecting the furnace to the top of the smithy, "What's worrying me is that one, Air and Fire go hand in hand after all." Afterwards he activated the Mana Armor Skill and stood in front of the opening of the furnace before taking a deep breathe in then pointed his Staff.
*Whoosh*
Once the Energy Bolt Skill was released everybody could clearly sense the Air within the smithy being sucked towards Aaron!
'Hopefully the air-pressure would clear this chimney.' Aaron thought while taking cover away from the furnace, he even activated the Magic Guard Skill once he ducked behind a stack of raw Ores.
Once Arturo saw Aaron copy his two followers the merchant felt alarm bells ringing in his head and quickly hid himself behind the giant blacksmith since he's the closest thing that resembles a proper cover.
*Boom!*
*Toot*
The loud booming noise was followed by a loud, shrill sound that whistled through the chimneys as they were forcefully cleared by Aaron's Energy Bolt.
Arturo's men outside the shop ran inside to check on their boss after it happened, some of them stared in shock towards the sky above the smithy because a mushroom cloud of black smoke was rising and growing in size!
All they saw was Mr Smith darker than ever and smiling widely which revealed almost all of his white teeth.
Behind him was their superior shaking like a leaf in a storm while looking towards a boy who stuck his head out carefully to check the situation before getting up and dusting his weird-looking clothes.
"Now let's melt all of that shit down." Aaron said while using his Staff to point at the materials scattered everywhere in the smithy.
Mr Smith nodded excitedly while answering : "Let's burn it all to the ground."
"Don't!" Pio shouted while running towards the door as if his very life depends on it!
'Young master is growing more and more dangerous by the day, it really isn't safe to be around him when he's playing with fire. I better create some distance before I get burned to ash.' Lucas thought to himself while copying his fellow sufferer.
Arturo was a quick learner and was catching up to the former gang-leader despite reacting a split-second slower.
His extra weight and advanced age didn't seem to hinder his actions at all really!
The men which entered the smithy to check on their boss were left gawking after the three men practically fled the shop, a second later they too could sense the heaviness in the air and the tense atmosphere before running outside just to be safe.
Aaron and Mr Smith were the only ones left and they exchanged a knowing smile before the blacksmith moved towards a pile of obsidian Ores and dug the rough-looking fingers of his huge hands into them then tossed one handful after another into the furnace before switching targets to an arm-sized piece of the Twilight Deer's Horn followed by a dozen or so of the Killer-Snow Tiger Fangs and Claws.
A moment later he grabbed a pair of Scythe-Legs and a Tower-Shield-sized Carapace from the Turtle-Arachnids before saying : "Just melting them would provide us with an almost perfect combination while refining them is considered a dream within a dream for me, the stage is yours." Then he pulled a chair and took a seat to watch what happens next.
"Be careful." Aaron warned before pointing the Staff once more towards the mouth of the furnace and activated the Flame Orb Skill.
Mr Smith was shocked senseless once he saw the pair of Orbs appear out of thin air and circle around the curved upper-end of the wooden-cane in the kid's hand, he could already feel the scalding heat on his skin from where he sat.
Spending years in front the furnace and handling higher-degrees of fire should've become natural for him and easy to endure!
Not to mention being affected so severely from a distance of more than seven meters.
'I thought my skin was thick enough! What kind of fire is that?' Mr Smith wondered but unfortunately the moment passed quickly because the two Flame Orbs entered the furnace.
This time Mr Smith decided to follow the kid's example and find cover.
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
*Crack*
The smithy was shaking so much that Aaron worried that it might fall apart!
'Hopefully this rickety thing would hold strong and I don't get crushed to death! That "traitorous couple" dare to leave me behind to fend for myself. It seems like both of them really grew a "pair" and I've been going easy on them lately, I better "drill" some sense of loyalty in them fast or they'll walk all-over me in the days to come.' Aaron thought while regretting not running outside, but that window of opportunity is now closed because parts and pieces of the ceiling really started to crash down towards the ground.
A shadow covered his body and Aaron discovered that there's a giant holding a Carapace from the Turtle-Arachnids standing protectively behind him.
"Watch out!" Aaron shouted once he noticed a rock the size of his body falling towards them while shooting an Energy Bolt to redirect its trajectory but the explosion blasted it to pieces and his actions ended up affecting the blacksmith who suffered from the resulting shockwave!
*Grunt*
The giant of a man struggled to resist the force with all his power and his muscles tensed to their limit but Mr Smith still fell to his knees and Aaron was well-protected because the blacksmith ensured that the kid's safety is the biggest priority in this situation, it made Aaron feel like a piece of shit because instead of helping he actually ended-up making it worse for this guardian.
Thankfully a few seconds later things calmed down and the black cloud could be seen from the inside of the smithy.
While Aaron was both thanking Lady-Luck once again and making plans to ensure that both Pio and Lucas would suffer a life worse than hell in the future, Mr Smith tossed the Carapace to the side and ran towards the furnace to check the results like an impatient child eager to play with his new toy!
'Happy Birth Day to me... I guess!' Aaron thought while assessing the damage to the smithy then shaking his head because it seems like instead of striking a deal to earn money... he's going to pay the costs of destroying this place in the future.
"I love you to death my young friend." Mr Smith said.
"Uh! That would be going a bit too far, you just saved my life and I'd hate to lose my benefactor so soon." Aaron replied while feeling awkward at how it's going to be difficult to convince this giant dude that he's going to compensate him for everything once he gets his hands on some money, maybe paying him in instalments would be the best method.
'Hopefully he wouldn't mind it taking some time, but he said earlier that he's barely getting by. Fuck!' Aaron thought while deciding to give Mr Smith the Confusion-Fragment to keep as insurance if he's too pissed to think straight at the moment.
Then it struck him out of nowhere : 'Wouldn't that be adding fuel to fire if I gave him that item while he's emotionally-unstable?'
"You're a miracle worker!" Mr Smith practically ran towards Aaron and raised him up, Aaron found himself practically flying towards the sky since there's no fucking ceiling in this shop which is a coincidence since he's suddenly completely freaking grateful that he wrecked this place earlier. Otherwise his brain would've been smeared all-over it and dripping to the ground after this acrobatic feat!
Then it struck him out of nowhere once again : 'That macho monster of a human being better catch me the fuck well before I splatter all-over the floor!'
"It actually worked my young friend, it worked," Right when Aaron was about to say his final prayers the blacksmith caught him in the air and shouted these words while spinning with him while grinning from ear to ear, "That was a work of beauty! We're rich." But when Mr Smith said these words it felt like the sun was touching Aaron's skin with its rays of warmth and he struggled to take a look at the furnace with all that spinning that seemed to never end.
But he saw Arturo burst into the scene with a hungry look within his eyes, Aaron could almost swear that he saw the fat man's ears twitching!