Chapter 3

Sarah was rather surprised when Marcel took up her offer so soon. She had guessed that those two grandmasters, as she came to see them, lived so secluded because they wanted to avoid attention. But now this boy stood in front of her and excitedly told her about his plans. She naturally accepted to let him travel with her and secretly decided to keep an eye on him while he lives in the city. The city in question will be Lansview as it is the group's destination and their home base.

The next day Marcel met with the adventurers in front of the inn, he was fully loaded with all the equipment he needed. Tom and some villagers came along to say him farewell. It was a quick but tearful goodbye. It hadn't even been a full year, but Marcel was sure that he would miss these folks, especially Tom. Sarah too gave Tom some words of goodbye. Marcel didn't hear them, but Tom looked much more reassured after he had heard them.

They set out on foot, Marcel really wished they had horses. Strangely he had never seen any before. Cows and chickens and some wild animals like foxes and birds he had seen and they are also rather similar to Oliver's memories. But there just didn't seem to be any horses around. As such they walked in a rather harsh pace. Marcel still could easily manage it though, his enhanced muscles and organs could sustain this pace for many hours before he would need to rest.

Sarah was rather embarrassed that her companions would try such a mean prank on the kid. They would normally walk casually, but today they picked a pace that wasn't sustainable through muscle power alone. One needed mana to enhance oneself. Interestingly enough Marcel didn't seem to mind it. And as time passed it wasn't him that was exhausted, but one of the three pranksters. The constant strain on his mind from keeping up the reinforcement took its toll on the youngest member of this adventuring group. In the evening shortly before he probably would have had collapsed they reached their destination. What should have taken them 2 days of casual walking, was covered in one. Marcel still looked as fresh as he looked at the start of their journey.

Marcel stayed this night at the groups home. There he learned a few informations about his travel companions. All four, Sarah and the three pranksters, were born in lesser noble families that own land around Lansview. They knew each other since they were children although they were some years apart. Sarah was the oldest of them, then came Peter, followed by John and Steven. They just started adventuring together, hence they choose easy tasks. Like picking herbs. Sarah and John already had a higher rank, but since they wanted to show their friends the ropes they lowered their standards for jobs.

The next day Sarah helped Marcel to find a small house in the crafts district and even guaranteed for him while setting up the renting contract. The house had a shop front, a separate workshop and living quarters on the second floor. It already came with furniture and cost a whopping 40 gold per year. Marcel paid upfront with the money earned from crafting the sword for Sarah. His father had insisted that he takes this money. After he stashed his belongings, Marcel and Sarah set out to get some daily necessities and to get his business started. After they went to the market Sarah led him to a giant building. It was the adventurers guild and was similar in build style to his fathers house, just way bigger.

“The guild master here is an old acquaintance of my Ranenhold family, I may not be able to influence him but at least you and your wares will get an audience. If you can impress him, and I am rather certain you will, then he will recommend your shop to the adventurers.” Sarah said, while he followed her through multiple buildings of the guild. Marcel doubted that on his own he would have been able to enter any room after the foyer. Finally they stopped in front of a dark wooden door with a golden label “Eric Lan Guild Master” on it. Sarah timidly knocked.

“Enter.” A sonorous voice could be heard through the door. And so they did as said and found themselves in a study room, in front of a desk behind which the guild leader sat. He was a wiry old man with silver hair and a sharp face. “Ah, hello Sarah. I heard you had a small matter that you need help with.” “Well I would say small might be an understatement. Please have a look at this sword.” Sarah said while giving him her sword. “Hmm it seems to be a mundane steel sword. But I guess you already know that, so there must be something else. Hmm what is that? How can it be so sharp? It should break from a casual touch and yet I don't doubt that it can easily withstand parrying. And what's up with this absurd mana conductivity?” he muttered while inspecting the sword.

“You brought me something I can't explain and this in itself is quite an accomplishment. So tell me where did you find such an artefact and what does this boy have to do with that?” He asked. “I think he can explain that better than me.” Sarah says. “I made that sword and we are here to ask for your support for my new shop. And should you doubt my words... take this!” Marcel said and placed a small metallic cube on the table. The cube wasn't remarkable at all. It was just a cube of steel. But it emitted a constant light. As the guild master inspected it he couldn't find anything extraordinary about it, he couldn't even find any soul creating the light, there was only the mana that is bound to the matter of the cube. Yet another unexplainable thing had appeared. Suddenly Sarah gasped.

“So that is how it works! It isn't a new way of refining the steel it is infusion of magic arrays into the material! That is why the knife shattered when I tried to strengthen it! But how?” She exclaimed. “How indeed.” The old guild master said. He couldn't find the array at all. Marcel already knew that they couldn't and he could also guesse why. Their view of the world simply was full of errors, they called it mana while it was in fact mist made of souls, which is mouldable. They probably didn't even knew what atoms are.

“It would be very complicated to explain that. Let us just say that I am worldborn and the knowledge awakened in me, which it kind of did.” Marcel said. “I can live with that for now, although I dearly want an explanation at a later date. And I can see why you would need my support. Without it you probably would have a hard time setting up shop here.” Eric said. “ And indeed you shall have it.”

With this assurance their business here was concluded and Marcel and Sarah left the guild building. Hours later the guild master was still looking at the cube that was left behind. When his assistant asked him what he sees in this thing he just answered “A Chance at Hope”.

The next day Marcel started his day alone in his new home. After a quick breakfast he began to set up his workshop. He brought along only a few pliers and hammers and a basin made of steel. This steel basin will be his forge, it is enchanted to convert anything that is placed into a small compartment of it into energy and store it into the diamonds on it, when needed the stored energy will be converted into heat. The wonderful thing about enchanted items is the fact that they don't tire a soul when they work, their energy processing power is more limited though. They are slower than a mage but they don't need a break. Next Marcel took out a diamond with an iron fitting, placed it on the ground and activated its enchantment. Slowly an anvil would begin to grow from it. It will take two hours to finish and consume a fully charged diamond, which needed almost a full month to charge through Marcel's energy absorption. But it was still better than carrying an anvil around.

He was just set up when he heard the bells from the store front, which still looked rather barren except for two cubes of metal at the counter, one floating ten centimetre over the wood and the other one dimly glowing. “How can I help you?” he greeted his first costumer, a young man in new looking leather armour. “Ahem, This shop was recommended to me by some guys at the guild, but I fear they played a prank on me. Or do you by any chance sell weapons here?” he asked nervously. “Yes I do. And not just any sort of weapon. Mine have some original properties, like those cubes you see here.” Marcel answered. “So if you want something you can order it from me preferably with specifications about what exactly you want.” He told the man whose eyes were glued at the floating cube. “Hmm? Oh, yes! I want a spear, preferably long lasting and about 2 meters long. I also would like it to be easily throw-able.” he said. “I guess you will want a metal shaft right? And if you add a ring to your order I could add some nifty enchants to the combo. My prices are fixed at 50 gold per weapon right now, but rest assured that you will receive a high quality weapon. So do you want to set up a contract?” Marcel asked. He agreed. And like that Marcel gained his first costumer.

He started to work as soon as the anvil had finished to grow. The final form of the spear was quickly and easily achieved. The spear was forged from a single staff of steel. All he had to do was to form the spear tip and balance the weapon. The ring too was quickly fashioned. The hard part begun now. He worked for the rest of the day on it, luckily no one interrupted him in his work.

The next day at the appointed time, his costumer returned. “It is finished. But I will need a wide area to demonstrate it to you, do you have access to a training area?” Marcel asked him. “Yes I have. All adventurers do. Let us go to the training field of the guild.” he answered and after a short walk they arrived at aforementioned place. Marcel walked to the shooting range, while carrying the spear and wearing the ring. The man followed him filled with doubt, he had never seen the master of the boy and he still thought that he had been fooled. This spear simply didn't look like anything special.

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Marcel raised the spear, its tip pointing towards the sky, and let go of it. But instead of falling down it just stood there, in the air. Yet this was just the beginning, to an invisible signal just a bit more than some tiny waves in the mana around them, the spear began to move. And with insane speed it shot towards the metal target and punched trough the 10 centimetre thick steel as if it was tofu. Marcel continued to demonstrate some flying manoeuvres of the spear, mostly because he really enjoyed to play around with his new invention. After 10 minutes the energy reservoir in the spear was almost empty and it returned to him. He quickly recharged it with a energy absorbing ring he had fashioned to combat his own low capacity and absorption rate. When he was done he turned around and saw a slack jawed young man in leather armour in front of him and simply pushed the ring and the spear into his hands and begun to explain how one could control it. He also gave him a small hastily written manual.

But the young man gave Marcel a big shock when he simply threw the spear. With this throw it reached a speed that was above the upper limit of the enchantments. It seemed like the enchantments simply can't compensate the use of supreme techniques. Yet the young man really liked the enchantments, with them he could increase his accuracy and even retrieve his spear. These things could save his live in the future and adventurers needed every safety measure they could get. He happily paid the price and even gave Marcel 5 gold as a bonus.

The news about a young smith that could produce wondrous weapons quickly spread throughout the adventurers guild, but just as quickly they had been suppressed. A consensus was quickly formed among the adventurers to keep those weapons to themselves and to not share the news with the other organizations, like the military or the mages. The three organization kept each other in check, the adventurers fought the monsters that roam the land and collect resources, the military fights off other nations and upholds justice and peace in the kingdom and the mages furthered the knowledge. Those three are rivals that fight over the grace of his majesty. They want to be seen as the most useful and acquire more resources if possible. Yet if an open war would occur all three would work together immediately, there was no hate between them only rivalry and the kingdom would always be their priority.

As such Marcel's shop wasn't flooded with customers the next day, it would have been too suspicious if a horde of adventurers tried to enter a shop, instead the adventuring guild had worked out a list of orders and secretly brought it to Marcel, who was rather dumbfounded when a customer entered from a window at the second floor and brought him a paper roll with the adventurer guild's seal and a bag full of coins, which was his advance money. He was now filthy rich, at least for a commoner with a lesser class. Just when he was about to get to work, he heard someone entering the shop. Thinking that he would have to turn the new customer down, since he already had enough work for the rest of the month. He walked through the door behind the counter.

The man in front of him didn't look like an adventurer at all. With his beautifully dyed and embroidered clothes and his bulging belly he looked more like a merchant. “How may I help you, dear sir?” Marcel courteously asked. “Hmpf at least he knows his place, lowly worldborn.” The man mumbles almost inaudible and with scorn all over his face. “I am here on behest of the crafter's guild. It came to our attention that a new shop was opened without consulting us.” he said. “I wasn't aware that this is a necessity, nor was I made aware of that when I rented this store. I am also rather certain that there isn't any law that states that one has to be in a guild to open a store.” Marcel defended himself. “It is true. There are now laws stating as such. But I can guarantee you that you won't get any costumers, if you don't join. The conditions are simple: The guild gets 80% off your revenue up till now and 20% off your future revenue.” The merchant says confidently. “Actually I don't see a need for you or your guild. I have more than enough work right now.” Marcel responded. “You will regret it. Our next offer won't be as benevolent.” The man said in aggressive tone.

“BENEVOLENT MY ARSE!” A female voice is heard from the door. “I KNEW YOU THIEVING PIGS WOULD COME HERE SOON. LEAVE! NOW!” Startled the merchant fled. Marcel finally recognised the person at the door, it was Sarah and she didn't look pleased. “Damn him and his guild. They push all the prices to make profit, not seeing that they cripple the populace in the process.” She angrily mumbles. “You don't have to worry about them the guild will guarantee your supplies.”

“I am more worried about his open hostility towards worldborn than about his threats. I hope it won't be an issue when I attend the academy.” Marcus said. “I would be lying when I say it won't. Especially since you also will be one of the youngest people attending. Barely 13 and already a business man and master of his own art. Way ahead of your peers, aren't you? The spear is impressive by the way. Normally it is very hard to remote control something. Mages have to create and tame spirits for that and those tend to desert.” She said. “Wait are you saying me that it is easier for them to create a sentient being than to create a receiver for waves in the ambient soul mist?” Marcel asks. “Soul mist? I don't know about that. But yeah they need something to communicate with when they control spells from far away.” Sarah answers, curiosity is clearly visible on her face. “Ups, I forgot you use the term mana. I named it soul mist because its composition is similar to ones soul and I learned of it before I heard of the term 'mana'.” Marcel replied. “Interesting.” Sarah said. The look of curiosity in her eyes send shivers down his spine.

“Actually I came here to ask you something everyone else has missed to ask. Would you take on an apprentice? I know that you plan to go to the academy, as such you will have to swear the pledge and share your knowledge when you want to graduate. Also you probably won't have the time to continue your work.” She argues. Marcel doesn't have a reason to refuse actually, he will draw a lot of attention towards himself sooner or later anyway and his prior dislike about such attention was his reason to keep it a secret to begin with. As this reason isn't valid anymore and he is more or less used to this attention now, he agrees. But he wants the guilds help in finding an apprentice, since he won't have the time to. His requirements are rather easy, it must be someone who is proficient in spells and science. It has to be noted that it mustn't necessarily be a mage, since a lot of people are also proficient in casting spells. A mage in this world is a person who have pledged their lives towards the research of magic.

After Sarah left, Marcel got back to work. He had to work on the orders and also work out a teaching schedule. He won't have much free time in the coming months. Also the academy recruitment would begin in two months. He would need to clear most his responsibilities till then and study some more.

The next morning Sarah brought twenty people to Marcel, 8 women and 12 men. The store quickly felt rather stuffed and so Marcel asked if he could use a guild room for now. After he had collected, what they would need for the lecture, they set off. The first lesson was a strange experience, for everyone involved. A 13 year old kid asked seasoned adventurers what they knew about the world and how it worked and nearly collapsed in frustration. Everyone in that room was stronger than Marcel in terms of magic, yet it was impossible for them to replicate a lot of his spells. They didn't even understand the implications when he showed them his craziest and most unstable creation, a spell that created a miniature sun. For them it was just a very hot fireball and something they couldn't do. They never even heard about a way to increase the heat of a fire to such a degree.

They only understood that this flaming ball was a replica of the sun and produced absurd amounts of energy that easily could fuel some very big spells after he pointed it out and explained it for hours. Resigned Marcel had to change his lectures and added an advanced physics course to it. He would have to buy some weapons and enchant them instead of making them from scratch. Which meant that he would lose out on the actual enjoyable part of his craft.

Another problem was the way his apprentices used magic up till now. They are trained in a maximizing way, the more power the better. Yet enchanting needs a very fine control of the soul and energy. It was like one tried to solder a motherboard with a flamethrower. And led to some rather dangerous failures. Marcel almost never left his cover under his desk when they practice, since he couldn't protect himself like his apprentices could. He inwardly thanked the architect who wisely made everything in the practice rooms out of flame-proof and sturdy materials.