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CHAPTER 19

Kreegan put his hand on his swords and said

"Don't worry. Nothing will happen to me. Very bad things usually happen to people who have bad intentions toward me."

The man finally realized that this was going to end badly and he said in a calm voice.

"We don't want any trouble. Why do you come to our shop and act like this?"

"I treat people like a mirror. If they treat me with respect, I will show respect, but if they are disrespectful, they will see the bottom line of disrespect."

The man took a deep breath again and said.

"I'm sorry for my disrespectful behavior. Can you please tell me what you want? So, we can get back to work."

"I want to rent a forge and an anvil for a few days."

"Sorry, but as I said, we're very busy. Someone teasing will be the last thing we need, and we don't have time for amateurs."

"One million bellies for rent, and if I can't forge a better sword than your best sword, I'll give you another 10 million bellies."

The man stayed where he was and looked at Kreegan with an expression as if to say you're kidding.

"I am not. I am dead serious."

He stepped out of the way and made a mocking bow to guide Kreegan through.

"It is your funeral."

Dalman was the best swordsmith in Kumon Town, and he didn't believe this young thing could create anything remotely close to his best creation. He was able to create a Graded blade, Raito (light) was his best sword. Before reforging Ichinami, Kreegan decided to forge another sword to remove the rust on himself.

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He hasn't touched a hammer or an anvil for a year. He took out the hammer that his master Kozaburo had given him from his bag and took a steel ingot into his hand. After a bit of scrutiny, he dropped the ingot. Kreegan was almost a master smith. If a smith can regularly craft skillful-grade blades, they are often referred to as a master smith.

So, he could understand the quality of the steel he picked up by scratching it a bit. None of the steel here was enough to make a Skillful or higher-level sword. The ingots have either too much carbon or too little of it. If it is too little, it means that it is almost iron, which makes the metal easily bendable. If the carbon content is too high, this makes the steel very hard, and the sword with no flexibility breaks easily.

So Kreegan first started out by making steel ingots. He didn't like the first few ingots he made and kept making ingot after ingot. Seeing this, Dalman and his friends were in awe. All the steel ingots the young man was dissatisfied with were high quality.

He finally got an ingot he liked and started forming the sword. About 10 hours later, Kreegan had finished, and another meito had appeared, but Kreegan was examining the sword disgruntledly, and suddenly he slammed the sword against the anvil. There was a small cut on the corner of the anvil, but there were also micro folds on the edge of the sword.

Seeing this, Dalman almost screamed.

"What do you think you're doing? How could you do that to a beautiful sword?"

"What am I doing? I don't need a Graded-blade. If it is not Skillful-grade, it is not worthy for me to name them anymore."

Hearing this, Dalman was stunned, dashed towards Kreegan's swords, and began inspecting them.

"Don't you know you shouldn't touch someone else's swords without permission? Do you have a death wish?"

Dalman didn't even hear what Kreegan was saying. He had studied many swords and read many books about meito during his 40-year life. His skill might be mediocre, but his love for swords was supreme. This blue katana was definitely a Skillful-grade meito, and he had never heard a blade like this one before. He can't say he knows every Graded blade. There were thousands of them, but there were only hundreds of Skillful-grade ones. He could tell this katana was a new one.

"Did you forge this one?"

"I did forge both of them. The blue one is Ichinami, and the black one is Chisanami."

"Can I learn your esteemed name?"

"Kreegan Darius Wucrane"

This time Dalman bowed down to Kreegan respectfully and said.

"Master Wucrane, I am sorry for my disrespectful actions. Please forgive me."

"Isn't it hard to bow to a man your son's age?"

"For me, age doesn't matter when it comes to sword making, the only thing that matters is skill level, and you deserve this respect here."

Kreegan threw the newly forged sword to him and said,

"If you want it, you can have that. I don't need it."

"Could you please give me the honor to carve your name onto its tang?"

Kreegan carved his name on the tang and named it Hokisare (abandoned one).

Believing he had found his form again, Kreegan threw Ichinami into the forge, and when it warmed up, he began to inscribe runes in different shapes onto the sword's surface, and when it was all over, he tempered it again. While inscribing the runes, he could feel the magic inside his body moving into the sword. After pulling it out of the oil, he looked closely to check the runes, but none of the ones he had inscribed were visible. It was as if Ichinami had absorbed these runes like a sponge.

As soon as he finished this job, it was as if a mist had descended on the corner of his mind where he had information on how this enchantment was done. Kreegan had just finished it but had no recollection of how it was done. Since this enchantment only added weight when it was swung, the sword even got faster too.