"Mr Smith. Is it true?" Arturo eagerly asked while making his way towards them and hopping from here to there through the debris, "Did young Ron really manage to melt these troublesome materials my friend?" The fat merchant was already inspecting the inside of the furnace through the opening but all he could see is deep red color and all he could feel is like his eyes are going to melt if he dared to stare a second longer!

"Hahaha... he did." Mr Smith was already hugging Aaron and it seems like he's a bit too excited and forgot to control his strength and squeezed a bit too much.

"Y-young master! What happened to him?" Pio burst into the scene and saw Aaron's face pale white and his head dangling backwards in Mr Smith's embrace.

'Fucking save me first and ask questions later, can't you see that I'm dying in here? I can't breathe at all that's what's happening here bitch!' Aaron thought before his eyes rolled towards the back of his head and everything went pitch-black.

Once he opened his eyes Aaron saw Sera's face staring down at him from above and his head is resting on her lap, once he tried to get up the pain from his ribcage was like a surge of electric-current of high-voltage spreading in his body.

*Ugh!*

*Snort*

"Serves you right, humph." Sera sounded annoyed but her actions were extremely gently when she slowly helped Aaron sit up.

Judging by the angle of the sun in the sky, he's been out for less than an hour or so.

Chief Peter and his two sons Roger and Sen stood nearby talking to the extremely excited Mr Smith and Arturo who greedily eyed the items in the hands of the giant next to him.

The blacksmith was holding a Dark-Sword in one hand and some rectangular black-colored Tower-Shield in the other, both items clearly seem like they're fresh forged.

Pio and Lucas stood next to Aaron and one of them seemed a bit bored while watching Manji order the men around her to remove the debris from the smithy, while the other was directing all his attention towards the ongoing conversation between the five men who kept discussing how they should deal with this mess.

"Thanks." Aaron found it difficult to speak without feeling pain, even drawing breath was quite the struggle!

"Young master Ron. I was worried to death!" Pio smiled widely once he noticed that Aaron is awake.

'You mean "bored" to death. If I don't straighten that attitude of yours then I'll write my name backwards, just you wait bastards!' Aaron thought while stifling his emotions because he might really die if he became angry in this situation, 'Inner peace, inner peace, Pio and Lucas in pieces... that's not it. Inner peace...' He began repeating a calming mantra while ignoring his two followers.

"Huh! Where's my Sta- Cane, Where's my wooden Cane?" Aaron looked for his Staff and couldn't find it.

"Merchant Arturo has it." Lucas answered while thinking : 'That greedy fucker kept studying that wooden Cane as if it's some precious treasure, I even saw him mimic young master Ron's actions while holding it earlier. Clearly he wanted to conjure some of that Air and Fire, the only reason I didn't ask for it was because he might really succeed and kill me and everyone else here just to silence us forever after getting his hand on that treasure. But thankfully he failed and now it's time for him to clear things with my young master, I bet he's going to lose a pound of flesh or two just resolve this misunderstanding.'

'Ugh! The pain in my upper-body is killing me, fuck. I should've activated Lucid Nightmare to stun this dude but I could clearly sense that he really meant me no harm, and it would've certainly ruined my chances to receive his help to earn money in the future. Lessons learned from this experience is to not mess with this giant and to further increase my Strength-Attribute, also that my Physical Defense is clearly lacking against a strong grown up I wouldn't stand a chance.' Aaron thought while struggling to stand up despite relying on Sera's assistance.

"My friend are you alright? I... I'm sorry, I was so excited and ended up hurting you while celebrating our success. Look! I made these with your help." Mr Smith was feeling so awkward and extremely embarrassed of his previous actions but his apology was genuine and heart-felt, then his attitude quickly reverted to its childishness when he presented the Sword and Shield to Aaron.

Despite everything that happened between them, Aaron couldn't really find it in him to become angry at a person with such a pure personality.

Honestly he felt slightly relieved that he didn't stun this extremely kind person with the Lucid Nightmare Skill.

"I'm not a weapon expert but I could vaguely feel that both items are of good quality." Aaron didn't mention anything about his injuries and nodded after seeing the sharp-looking Dark-Sword and the black-colored Tower-Shield.

"Both the Sword and the Shield are unfinished products but they're still considered of peak-grade in quality of material and craftsmanship, I reckon that once they're completed they're going to reach the perfect-grade since both items are made from materials that lack all sorts of impurities." Sera corrected Aaron while admiring the Dark-Sword after receiving it from Mr Smith.

"Hahaha... as expected from a member of the Sisterhood, for someone with your keen and observant eyes its impossible to miss such details." Arturo approached their group while holding Aaron's Staff in his hand and using it like a Cane.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Pio glared at the merchant who's being rude towards his young master Ron after taking his Cane, Lucas just watched while feeling amused and expectant towards the drama that's going to unfold after his young master Ron retaliates against Arturo.

Sera just smiled plainly without replying to the merchant's praise but she also felt sorry for this fatty who stepped well-beyond the boundaries of respect towards Aaron.

Peter and his two sons could feel the tension in the air around that group and distanced themselves from them while acting like they're doing their job of taking care of the aftermath by ordering the men on what to do, but all three of them were watching everything and could sense Pio's hostile gaze towards Arturo and immediately understood that something is going to happen.

Even Mr Smith found it awkward to stand in-between Aaron and Arturo in this cold situation, the blacksmith stepped to the side and watched in silence but his hand that's holding the Tower-Shield could instantly cover the body of the friend he just made today with a simple movement.

Honestly the wooden Cane in Arturo's hand was quite intimidating after the giant witnessed the kid use it to make miracles earlier today, Mr Smith understands that if it weren't for his extremely strong and durable body and the addition of having the Carapace from a Turtle-Arachne to defend the boy and himself earlier when the ceiling of his smithy was destroyed... then his injuries would've been a lot more severe right now.

Of course most of the wounds on Mr Smith's body were caused by Aaron but he'd never admit or complain about it.

"How does it feel?" Aaron asked Arturo without seeming to be bothered about his Staff in the merchant's sweaty hand at all.

Arturo raised the wooden Staff and traced his fingers at the curved parts at the top, "Great! Actually more than great it's... as if I'm holding the symbol of power itself," Afterwards the fat old man sighed and shook his head before continuing to say : "Unfortunately I couldn't do any of the things you did with it, I really tried." Then he extended his hand forwards with the wooden Staff to give it back to it owner.

Aaron didn't immediately take his Staff from the merchant and looked him in the eyes before saying : "If the power in our bodies then when we hold a Sword with our hands it's just a tool we use for a reason, without us using it to pierce, cut, and kill... then it's just a piece of metal that's pointy and sharp is all."

After giving Arturo a moment to think about what he just said Aaron continued to say : "In my eyes it's just a piece of wood while in yours it's the "symbol of power" and I understand that it might seem unfair but, wouldn't it be also considered unfair when the one holding able to use this "symbol of power" is dirt poor while the one unable to use it is filthy rich? I'll leave you to think about what I said on your journey back and let me hear your answer when you return, if you give me a good answer then I might sell this piece of wood to you. How about that? Deal?"

"Deal." Arturo immediately replied while feeling extremely excited.

'Hook, Line, and Sinker.' Aaron shook the fat merchant's hand while having this thought.

Arturo looked towards the blacksmith and pointed towards the Tower-Shield and the Dark-Sword while asking : "How long would it take you to finish these two? I'm not going back without them so you better hurry up my friend, the Auction House of Meteor-City recently announced their 100-year Auction is being held in four months and it'd take me a month of non-stop travel to make it there."

Mr Smith looked around him at the smithy which is an environment that he could barely manage to work in before saying : "I might finish by tomorrow morning with the help of these men, but we didn't even agree on the price yet and Ron's share wasn't decided yet so it isn't my decision to make alone."

Aaron rolled his eyes at the giant while thinking : 'This guys is hopeless, almost too hopeless that it's bordering cute. Didn't he just hear the fatty mention some Auction? A once in a century event at that! I better handle those things before this merchant skin us dry.'

"You don't need to worry about that because I've got an idea," Aaron gestured the blacksmith to stop squeezing for thoughts because his brain was built different and clearly unable to think about "delicate" matters which doesn't include a hammer and anvil to straighten, "We can be partners if you wish to be included in this deal." He said while looking at the merchant.

This time Arturo felt a headache when he met the boy's intelligent eyes, he'd rather spend days and nights dealing with idiots than spend a few minutes dealing with smart customers.

Because in the latter case the effects in the scenario where he actually makes a loss in the deal tend to be long-lasting and hard to recover from, while in the scenario where he actually makes a profitable deal tend to also be a long-term agreement where the merchant is required to make the effort and handle various situations and merchandize while travelling everywhere just to prevent the deal from turning into a loss!

Which means that ends up slaving himself away just to satisfy his customer who comfortably enjoy the results without having to break a sweat while mostly complaining about this and that to Arturo.

"What do you have in mind?" Arturo asked.

"You receive 10% commission for every item you manage to sell, you get exclusive rights to distribute the products manufactured by our establishment outside Pine-Breeze Village, you're allowed to order specific products according to your needs and our establishment is obligated to prioritize at least one of your requests once every month or get penalized an agreed amount of money." Aaron immediately listed three important and hard to refuse privileges for the merchant before continuing to say : "You're obligated to prioritize trading in the materials our establishment requires every month and provide us the materials at market-price or less never higher than market-price, you're to recruit at least two more blacksmiths with acceptable craftsmanship to join our establishment and help Mr Smith with his work or become his assistants and learn from him until they're good enough to handle products manufacture without immediate supervision, you're required to spread our products in at least 10 different markets and never to limit our options otherwise the whole partnership is going to be invalid and your membership in this business venture is going to be revoked."

Arturo was left gawking like a fool with his mouth open after hearing what the kid just said.

Pio was frowning because most of the term were confusing.

Mr Smith was scratching his head because nothing means nothing and within his head was a miniature version of himself that was also scratching its head because his thoughts kept getting entangled and everything was a mess once the blacksmith tried to use his head to understand what was said.

Lucas was laughing inwardly while thinking to himself : 'This expression is just priceless! Young master Ron is like an Eagle that latched on its prey with its Talons, you're dreaming if you think that you could escape from this fate. Welcome to hell baby, join us... please! Kekeke.'

Sera looked at Aaron and emotions of pride filled her chest with warmth, she ruffled his hair gently before pulling him towards her body.

Sera suddenly had this urge to protect this boy from the world, maybe that's what mothers feel towards their kids!