Iji held the piece of glintstone, which was a bit too small for his hand, while his other hand propped up his chin, deep in thought.
Seeing Iji’s gesture, Bai Shi felt a little puzzled.
With Iji's level of skill, a small item like this should be no challenge for him.
So his reaction couldn't possibly be because he had encountered sothing difficult to craft.
It must be that so other aspect of the object had caught his attention.
"What do you think, Old Master Iji?"
"Can you make it?"
Iji looked at Bai Shi and nodded.
"Crafting it is no problem at all."
"Although it requires a certain degree of skill, it's nothing I can't handle."
"It's just that the person who helped the academy forge these things might have a slight connection to ."
Bai Shi's interest was imdiately piqued.
He had been curious before as to why a place like the academy, filled with sorcerers, would have soone capable of forging such magical items.
It seed today this mystery would be solved.
Iji recalled so old mories and began to speak:
"How should I put this..."
"In the past, an apprentice from the Haima school ca to see . His na was Hettis."
"He followed the philosophy of the Haima school, taking it upon himself to quell conflict."
"But he wanted to learn blacksmithing from , which surprised
at the ti."
Recalling that apprentice, Iji chuckled a couple of tis.
In his eyes, that little fellow was quite interesting.
"He told
back then that wielding weapons was the root cause of war."
"When one holds a powerful weapon, they try to solve problems through violence, and the desire for slaughter grows."
"So he wanted to understand what weapons were and what it felt like to forge them."
"He believed that this was the only way to find the root of war and, in turn, explore the path to peace."
"Therefore, he studied blacksmithing with
for a ti and achieved so proficiency."
"But since the Academy of Raya Lucaria sealed itself off, I've had no news of him."
Iji then shook his head, not expecting to hear of him again under these circumstances.
"Just now, I found so information he left behind on this. It's a ssage for help."
"It's a special code that only highly skilled blacksmiths can read."
"He left a location—Raya Lucaria, the study room of the Lazuli Classroom."
"He's likely been imprisoned there by the academy's sorcerers."
Bai Shi committed the location to mory.
This thod of asking for help was discreet, but it was also quite a long shot.
If the ssage didn't happen to reach a highly skilled blacksmith, it was unlikely anyone would ever discover his plea for help.
And with the academy completely sealed, a call for help would normally be useless anyway.
But thinking about it, it was a bit helpless. This was probably the only way he could ask for help.
Fortunately, his luck was good. The distress signal had actually made it out.
Bai Shi now knew his location, and he was indeed planning to go to the academy in a while.
The next part of the plot, then, should be to rescue him and recruit him into his ranks.
This was undoubtedly an excellent idea. After all, Bai Shi was already going to conquer Raya Lucaria, so saving him would be a simple matter of convenience.
Yes, the course of action was quite clear.
A sorcerer from the Haima school who yearned for peace was not unusual. Bai Shi even had the ashes of Battlemage Hugues.
However, what truly interested Bai Shi was Iji's positive evaluation of his blacksmithing skills.
The skills of the blacksmiths in Stormveil were indeed quite average.
While they were adequate for forging standard-issue weapons, Bai Shi and his subordinates often had their own equipnt needs.
To put it simply, Stormveil's blacksmiths could only forge white-quality weapons, whereas Iji and Hewg could forge up to gold-quality.
If he were to be a little more optimistic about the blacksmithing skills of the sorcerer nad Hettis, Bai Shi hoped he could consistently forge purple-quality equipnt and weapons.
Weapons of that quality would be quite good, sothing even Bai Shi himself could use for fun now and then.
And for others, weapons of this quality would be considered excellent.
This was especially relevant since Bai Shi had quite a few Alabaster Lord's Jaws on hand, which could be made into a number of weapons known as the Alabaster Lord's Sword.
Hewg's daily workload was already heavy, and Bai Shi didn't want to reveal too much at the Roundtable Hold.
When dealing with a man like Gideon Ofnir, Bai Shi felt it was best to be cautious.
And while Iji was usually free, he couldn't just work him like a horse. Therefore, finding a blacksmith for his own faction was quite necessary.
It didn't matter if his skills weren't top-tier.
Bai Shi could have his own weapons and armor forged by the two masters, Iji and Hewg.
Hettis would just need to be able to forge large quantities of high-quality equipnt for Bai Shi's subordinates.
"I've morized the location."
"When I go to Raya Lucaria later, I'll stop by and take a look."
Just as Bai Shi bid farewell to Iji, a voice sounded in his ear.
—
In her distant sorcerer's tower, Ranni had been woken from her slumber by Bai Shi's voice on the 'public channel'.
Ranni despised being disturbed during her deep sleep more than anything.
She never expected, however, to be woken up because of the moon this ti.
Communicating through the moonlight was not sothing they did often.
Moreover, Ranni had specifically added a one-to-one communication function precisely to prevent her slumber from being disturbed.
Usually, Ranni would pass down notifications, having Blaidd and Iji contact each other privately.
Of course, Ranni generally wouldn't make contact unless it was for a matter of extre importance.
Just like when she entered a deep cooperation with Bai Shi before, she had imdiately returned to her slumber afterward without a special notification. As a result, Blaidd and Iji only learned about the partnership from Bai Shi later on.
Listening to Bai Shi's voice coming from the 'public channel', Ranni raised an eyebrow slightly.
After Bai Shi and Iji had parted ways, Ranni took the initiative to speak, contacting Bai Shi:
"Bai Shi, have you already obtained the Fingerslayer Blade?"
Bai Shi was very surprised to hear Ranni's voice.
At this mont, lina leaned over curiously. For so reason, she felt that the expression on Bai Shi's face had suddenly beco very strange.
But he couldn't just ignore Ranni.
Maintaining a natural expression, Bai Shi recalled the thod Iji had just taught him and began to 'private chat' with Ranni.
It seed that lina was completely unable to perceive this 'private chat'.
lina's face, now close to his, gave Bai Shi a strange feeling of impropriety.
'Yes.'
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