Magic-Smithing Ch: 57

“Are you sure you don’t want to stop by the village before you go?” I offer Reel the chance to rest before he returns to Drey.

“I have to get back to Kervin,” Reel quickly shoots down my offer. “Have you recovered?”

I stretch my arms across my chest. “I’m still a little sore, but I should be back to full strength by tomorrow.”

“Good,” Reel nods his head and turns around to start heading back the way we ca.

"Thanks for running with ," I call out to his retreating figure. I can't see his face, but I bet he's smiling… probably not, I laugh to myself.

Reel quickly disappears down the trail, and I turn back towards the village. I’m standing where Kervin usually camps, and though I’ve only been gone about ten days, it feels like it’s been much longer than that.

Mr. Grey saved so ti having the materials ready for to be inspected, but I lost a day in the woods after the bandit attack. All in all, I made it back on schedule; aning, mother, father, and Master Del are probably expecting to arrive ho soon.

I stand in place, looking at the village from a distance. The midday sun overhead is pushing back the remaining winter chill, causing the snow on the ground to glisten like everything is covered in crystals.

Dilemmas are never fun, and yet I've co across so many this month. Now I have another one I need to rack my brain over, and it’s by far the most daunting one yet.

Who do I visit first?

On the one hand, master needs to be prepared for tomorrow, and he's closer. Plus, I can drop off the materials while I'm there.

On the other hand, when mother finds out I'm ho but didn't imdiately go to see her… a chill runs up the base of my spine.

Both mother and master will insist on hearing about my journey, and both of them will need to hear about what happened.

I guess I’ll have to drag Master Del out of his house and bring him ho with .

I cut through the forest and make a bee-line for master’s clearing. I wonder what master spent the last week and a half doing, probably napping most of the ti.

Getting closer to the clearing, I'm surprised to hear the lody of ringing steel. When I finally make it through the trees, I see master working at the anvil. Instead of announcing my return, I silently watch Master Del move the steel ingot. It's always a joy to watch master work.

Del shapes a corner of the ingot into a perfect nail with only a handful of strikes with his expert hands. Master switches his hamr for an axe and severs the nail from the rest of the material. Master checks to ensure the nail falls into a bucket of water waiting below before starting to form the next one.

It doesn’t take long for Master Del to turn the ingot into a pile of nails.

“You just going to stand there and watch , or are you going to greet your master?” Master sets down his hamr and lifts his head, looking directly at .

“It’s rare to see you up and forging all by yourself; I wasn't sure if I was seeing things." I leave the tree line and head towards master. "Did you miss ?" I ask with a grin.

“I did, until I rembered how cheeky you are,” Master feigns displeasure.

“I missed you, master,” I tell him with a sincere smile on my face.

Master's expression turns into a soft smile, " too." I lean in and give master a hug, which he returns.

As we part, master eyes the sack attached to my back. "Managed to get everything you need? I need to hear all about it." He sounds like a parent who just had a child co back from their first day at school.

I ignore his question and move over to our supply shed. Carefully lowering my bag and putting it inside, I leave everything but my travel pack I started my journey with. "You co back from your first trip, and now you ignore your master?" Del huffs in disapproval.

“Sorry, but I wasted too much ti watching you work,” I throw my travel pack over my shoulder and move to grab master’s hand. I start dragging the stunned Stone Kin towards the path that leads to the village.

“What’s with the rush?” Master complains.

“I need to tell my parents that I’m ho,” I usher master to move faster.

"You haven't gone to them yet?" Master asks in disbelief. "Are you trying to get us both in trouble?" Del matches my speed, now understanding why I'm rushing us. If soone happened to see outside the village and reported back to the headman that I was back, he would imdiately head for my house to find . I can't have word get back to mother that I'm ho and didn't see her first.

“I wanted you to be with when I explained my trip to my parents, so I stopped by to pick you up first.” I quickly explain to Master Del.

We both start jogging towards my house. On the way, I ask master why he was forging nails instead of napping as usual.

“Salus started on the village armory, now that the snow isn’t falling as much. After I helped him lay down the stone foundation, he started building the fra but was out of nails, and you weren't here to make him more.”

"Wait, you actually helped him lay the foundation? You didn't just give him the stone?" I ask, surprised.

"Well, he ca to asking for the stone and started complaining about how much he missed his apprentice. I felt bad and offered to help him." Master says it like he had no other choice but to help the poor man.

I look at master like he’s grown another head.

"Don't look at like that! I was bored and decided to help, that's all." Master cos up with an excuse. Del must have gotten used to helping every day and got restless after I left.

“I’m sure Mr. Salus was grateful,” I say with a grin.

I cut my teasing short when we enter the village, and people start noticing us.

“Aaliyah’s back!”

“Welco ho!”

“Did you have a nice trip?!”

I'm shocked how many people call out to as we jog through the village. I didn't think people would notice that I left, let alone be this happy to see return. As more people call out to , I start to blush and slightly pick up the pace.

I stop when I spot Arash, one of the senior hunters that worked with during the goblin extermination quest, walking by. “Hey, Arash!” I call out to him.

“Aaliyah, good to see you’re back.”

“Thanks, it’s good to be back. Are you on patrol right now?” I ask him.

“My shift just ended. Is there sothing you need?” Arash asks .

“Did you see where my father was while on your patrol?”

"I did; he's helping clear trees along the northern side of the village. Did you want to let him know you're back ho?" Arash gives a friendly smile.

“Please?” I give him a pleading look. “I was heading ho to tell mother I was back, and I don't want to leave father out."

“Sure,” Arash agrees to help . He changes the direction he was walking and heads to where he said father was working today. Now I just need to get ho.

"Aaliyah!" I take five steps before I'm forced to stop again when I hear Camden's voice calling out to . The headman cos running up to . "I was told you were back; how was your trip to Drey? Did you see Sandra there?"

"Sorry I didn't. Look, I really got to go." I try to inch my way towards my house.

“Was the city everything you thought it would be? I bet you realized life in the village is better.” Camden doesn’t appear to realize I’m in a hurry.

"Listen, Camden, my family, is…" I start, but I'm interrupted again.

"It's a good thing everything was quiet while you were gone. Did you run into any beasts on the road?" He eagerly asks. A frown crosses my face as I'm reminded of the bandits. "Everything ok?" Camden notices my displeased look.

I quickly change my expression and reassure the headman, "Nothing I couldn't handle," I explain. Camden gives a concerned look, but now that he's quiet, I can tell him I need to leave. "I'll try to find so ti to et with you, but I'm on a tight schedule for the rest of the week. I only have the rest of the day to spend quality ti with my family, and I haven't even seen them yet. We'll talk later, all right?"

The headman gives a smile, “Of course, go be with your family. Whenever you have ti to talk, visit at my house.”

I wave goodbye, and master and I start making our way back towards my house, and we're soon at the front door. I open the old wooden door and smile when I hear the familiar creek as it swings open.

“Mom, I’m ho!” I call out as soon as I step in the entryway.

“Aaliyah!” I don’t have much ti to prepare myself before mom springs up from her sewing station and rushes to embrace . I have just enough ti to brace myself before she tackles , so neither of us gets hurt.

While she’s holding on tight to , I pick her up and shift us to the side so Del can co inside too.

“I’m so happy you’re back… and with Del.” I feel her arms tighten around . “Did you wait to co ho?” Mother asks in my ear.

“No, no,” I hastily reassure mother. “I had to drop the materials I bought off at Del’s place. I figured he would want to hear about my journey as much as you or father would, so I brought him with .”

“That’s fine, but one of us will need to go to get your father." Mother lets go of and looks up and down. "Sweety, why are you so dirty? I thought your skills and magic protect you?"

I do my best not to flinch at her question. "I saw Arash on the way here and asked him to let father know I'm back ho, so he should be here soon."

“That’s good, but what why are you so ssy?” Like a bloodhound, mother zeros in on the information I don’t want to share.

"I tried sothing new with my magic on the way ho and overdid it. I'm already almost back to 100%, so you don't need to worry." I smile and lean in to give mother another quick hug.

She pulls apart quicker this ti and continues to glance over , looking for anything that might be wrong. There's only one way I can reassure her. "Now that I think about it, my mana has recovered more than enough to clean myself."

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“Ahyt ls weem appiss!”

I chant my cleaning spell and finish with a grin on my face.

Mother watches almost three days of dirt and gri peel away from . While mom is happy to watch look as good as new, I’m gritting my teeth through the pain I’m feeling. The gaps in my mana network haven't fully closed just yet, and even though it was a small spell, it aggravated my earlier injuries.

“Alright then, co and sit down. I’m sure you’re tired from all that running. Mom gives little ti to change my shoes for slippers before she’s dragging to sit at the table. "Are you hungry at all? I have so dried fruits if you want a snack?"

“I’m fine, mom. I bought so fresh jerky in Drey and had that on the way ho.”

“Are you sure?” She presses again.

“I’m sure,” I flatly tell her. “Do you think dad will be able to make it ho soon?” I try to change the subject. I watch master take an empty seat at the table.

“If I know your father, he’ll be flying through that door any minute now.” Mother gives a knowing look.

“Really? I can’t picture dad running ho, you maybe.”

Mom brings her hand up to her mouth and giggles. “Out of the two of us, your father has been the one constantly worrying about you while you were gone. Tossing around in bed, asking when you were due back; it’s been fun teasing, I an reassuring him you’d be fine.”

"Aaliyah, honey, are you finally ho!?" I hear dad's voice coming from outside our door. "Silvia, if this is another prank, I'm going to…" The door is flung open, and dad stops mid threat when he sees sitting at the table.

Dad kicks off his shoes and runs at with a smile brimming with happiness. I can’t even stand up before dad lifts into a princess carry up against his chest. Neither of us says anything as I feel the warmth of his love wash away the feeling of pain from my mana network.

At least for a few seconds.

Our loving mont has a bucket of cold water splashed over us with mom’s ominous voice. “What were you just saying, Darrius?”

Dad carefully sets back into my chair before turning to address the vindictive banshee in the room. "I was rely joking. You know I could never be mad with the most beautiful woman in the world." Dad imdiately tries to lay it on thick.

Dad moves around the table, ignoring Master Del, and proceeds to embrace mother from behind. When dad is out of mom's view, she sends a mischievous wink before returning to her previous expression of rage. “Is that so,” She huffs after dad wraps his arms around her. "Is this how you treat after I held you every night, comforting you, telling you Aalyiah will be fine on her own?"

"You don't need to ntion that in front of company." Father hisses, while his tanned cheeks start to redden.

“Fine,” mother appears to relax in his arms. “But you’ll have to make up for it later.” Mother turns around in his arms and deeply kisses father leaving him no chance to refute her claim.

Master Del and I share awkward looks.

When my parent’s faces finally separate for air, mother tells father to take his seat. “Aaliyah was waiting for you to co ho before she told us about her trip to Drey.”

“Only if you two are done,” I roll my eyes at mom.

"Don't be like that, dear. You'll be the sa way when you find soone special; you're about that age now. Your brother ran away with Sandra the first chance he got.” Father’s eyes widen when mother brings up my potential love life. “Did you et any handso boys in Drey?” Mother teases , but father looks at with fire in his eyes.

"Stop! I didn't have ti to et anybody on my trip; I was too busy." Mother nods in understanding, and dad looks relieved.

"So, tell us what did happen during your trip," Mother asks, leaning forward.

I clear my throat, “After we left the village….”

I start recalling everything that happened on the trip.

The annoying cart ride to Drey that took too long, the part about Mr. Grey being ready for us, the fantastic dinner, and our ga of questions, I went into detail about everything. The only thing I didn't cover was the knowledge they had on master, that I planned to tell him tomorrow when it was just the two of us.

I talked about the deal we made for the materials and passed around my new amulet for everyone to look at. Dad almost dropped the magical item when I told him how much it was worth.

Mother praised my rchant skills, and master was impressed with how I handled picking out the materials.

I left out what happened on the way ho, only ntioning Reel escorted back, finishing up my story.

“What do you guys think?” I ask for everybody’s opinion after I finished explaining everything.

“It sounds like Silver Herd values you a lot,” Mother offers her opinion.

“As they should,” Father and Del say the sa thing, making mother and I laugh.

Mother takes control of the conversation, "Did anything seem odd to you, sweetie?" Mom gives a curious look.

“There was one thing that seed odd at the ti,” I tell her.

“What?”

“Mr. Grey asked if I knew the Panetta family. He wouldn’t explain to who they were and said it was a question from their headquarters. Do you think it’s code for sothing?” I speculate.

“Maybe people you need to look out for?” Dad hypothesizes.

“I can’t recall ever hearing the na before,” Master doesn’t know anything either.

“You don’t need to worry,” Mother draws everyone’s attention to her. “They asked you about the Panetta family because I threatened I'd contact them if anything happened to you." Mother casually tells the table.

All of us look at her with dumbfounded expressions. “Who is the Panetta family?” I ask.

“They are one of the prominent households in the Twin Serpent Trading company, one of the big trading companies of Olebert.” Mother explains like it’s no big deal.

“How do you know them?” I question mother. “Does it have to do with your side of the family? You ntioned grandpa was in charge of getting expensive materials for enchanters. Are we related to the Panetta family?" I practically vibrate in excitent. Mother had always left out details when she talked about her family; is this why?

Mother smirks, drawing astonished faces from everyone at the table, including dad. "No, I just lied to that shady looking bodyguard." The three of us nearly fall out of our seats at mother's sudden reveal.

Mom holds her sides, laughing. "That wasn't funny, mom," I complain. "What happens when silver heard finds out you lied to them?"

Mother wipes underneath her eyes like she was about to cry from laughing too hard. “It wasn’t technically a lie,” Mother cryptically tells us.

“What does that an? You said we weren’t related to the Panetta family.” I ask.

“The Twin Serpent Trading Company is incredibly large like all the major trading companies are. There are quite a few families that make up its structure. Different families manage different assets of the company. The Panetta family is one of those families, and they were the patrons of my father's business." Mother explains.

"So, technically, we are connected to the Panetta family?” I try to clarify.

"Vaguely," mother smiles at . "If I decided to send my father a letter asking for help, it might make it into the Panetta family’s hands, but it’s more likely to end up in his fireplace. I wouldn't know; I haven't talked to my family since I ran away with your father."

Dad leans over and sportingly takes mom's hand into his own.

“If Silver Herd can track down my family, they would realize my threat is possible. It was the best thing I could think of to give them pause and not try anything underhanded with you." Mother explains why she lied to Reel.

No wonder Reel looked scared after she talked to him before we left the village. If I learned anything from my trip to Drey, it's that Silver Herd is worried about outside interference, especially from the major trading companies. And mom threw a grenade at them, claiming she's on speaking terms with one of their major competitors. I can’t help but give mom props for being the evil genius that she is.

“Wow,” father exclaims.

“Damn, mom,” I give her a thumbs up. It’s a good thing I taught my family what the gesture ant as a kid.

"Language," Mother scolds . "It worked out more or less as I planned," she tells the table. "Was there anything else you noticed about your eting?" Mother questions further.

“Not really,” I answer. “I got the feeling they were honestly trying really hard to wow and draw in. Mr. Grey seed like a nice man and was very upfront with my questions."

“As far as you know,” Mother reminds .

“I’m not a fool, mom. I know I can't take everything he said to be the truth, but honestly, I found dealing with Mr. Grey even easier than Kervin." I give her my honest opinion.

“I understand, as long as you’re careful, honey.” Mom gives a supportive smile. “Now that you are back, what are your plans?”

I look around the table at everyone before focusing on master. "Master Del and I will be busy the next few days forging the arrow. That's what I'm focusing on for now. Hopefully, Silver Herd cos through with the hint to make engraving ink, but that only matters after completing the general's order. I'll apologize in advance, but I'll be spending most of my ti at Del's place." Mom nods in understanding while dad slightly frowns.

"In that case," Mom stands up and claps her hands. "We better make the ti we have together count. Aaliyah, sweetie, why don't you help start an early dinner?"

"Of course, mom." I look forward to cooking with mom and put aside everything that happened on the trip ho.

“I should go,” Del pushes out his chair to stand up.

“Don’t you dare,” Mother picks up her kitchen knife and points it at master. “Aaliyah brought you here to hear her story with us. She invited you into our house, so we’re obligated to have you stay for dinner.”

“That’s really not necessary,” Master tries to excuse himself again.

“If he doesn’t want to stay, we shouldn’t…” Dad isn’t subtle when it cos to Del, but he stops himself when mom glares at him.

She turns her gaze back to master and points her knife at his chair, “Sit.”

Master Del gives up and silently sits back down. Mother is amazing; it doesn't matter who she's dealing with or their levels; she's not afraid to speak her mind.

The rest of the day passes quickly with helping mom with dinner, and us all sitting down and enjoying it together with friendly conversation.

Mother asked multiple questions about Drey and whether or not I liked the city. Master asked questions about Mr. Grey's materials, and dad asked three tis if I t any boys. He nearly had a heart attack when I faked interest in our handso server at Alizio’s.

An average family dinner at our house, and yet, the food and company were more appreciated than ever.

Master left, reassuring he would be up early tomorrow morning, waiting for at the forge.

Mother and father sandwiched with a group hug before we turned in for the night. And I collapsed face-first onto my bed and told my furniture how much I missed it as soon as I walked into my room.

Now I'm staring up at the ceiling in my dark room, smiling at the crudely drawn clouds up above. This is the first ti I’ve genuinely felt comfortable in days, but I can't fall asleep for so reason.

I've already absorbed enough extra ambient mana to heal my mana network, and I was hoping to get a good night's sleep in preparation for tomorrow. I try to quiet my mind, but it doesn't help.

Plan B, if I can’t fall asleep naturally, I’ll enter my soul and let my body rest on its own.

A quick glance at the center of my soul, and the next ti I open my eyes, I'm in the familiar forest clearing.

“What the hell!” I scramble to my feet when I notice I’m not alone in the clearing.

Surrounding in a circle are eleven n. Each has their own horrible expression directed at , but my focus is drawn to the one I imdiately recognize. The bandit's leader has the sa cruel smile he had on his face when he stood over before I activated my spell. Looking closer at the other n, I notice they're the sa ones I killed.

Is this a dream? Did I fall asleep without realizing it?

No.

I’ve been inside my soul hundreds of tis, and I know what it feels like; this is definitely the outer part of my soul that I always appear in.

Realizing where I am, my emotions calm, and I look closer at the n standing around .

They aren’t real.

Each of their bodies looks faded and transparent. I see now; they're made up of the experience I got from killing them. A piece of their souls is now a part of my own.

The forest around represents the outer part of my soul, and everything is a manifestation of my experience. The more experience I gain, the more detailed the forest becos and the wider it expands.

I've watched what happens when a living creature dies, the central part of the soul is taken away, and their experience diffuses into the surroundings. These figures are not them. "You are nothing but ghosts my mind conjured up," I say aloud to the specters. Not one of them moves.

I close my eyes and center myself.

When I feel myself enter a state of tranquility, I once again open my eyes. "Begone!" I wave my hand, and the specters dissipate into specks of light that assimilate into my surroundings.

A single tear runs down my cheek, which I quickly wipe away. As I lower my hand, I notice it isn't wet, and it doesn't feel like I ever cried in the first place. I still don't fully understand this place, and maybe I never will.

I sit down on the forest floor and enter a ditative state, pushing the bandits' mories to the back of my mind. I know I’ll need to spend quite a bit of ti here before my body gets a proper rest, and I don't plan to use the ti thinking about those n.

With ti almost aningless here, I alternate between ditating and hunting for the pieces of the Contract skill that ford between Mr. Grey and . It doesn't take long; the contract was obscure, making it smaller and quicker to piece together than the one I made with Kervin.

Trying to keep track of ti while I'm in here doesn't help , so I only head for the mory sea when my gut tells I’ve been here long enough.

Just like ti, distance is also tricky to asure, but I can tell the forest has grown in size since I was last here. I slowly walk through the trees and the mountainous region until I reach the shimring sea of mories.

I don't hesitate to jump over the edge and plumt into my past. A mory forms around , and I frown at the familiar clearing. It's not the clearing I'm used to seeing when I enter my soul, but I'm quite familiar with it none the less.

I look at the fallen tree blocking the road and turn to watch myself from three days ago run into the clearing just like I rembered it.

“You got to be shitting ,” I complain out loud. Is this all a coincidence, or is my mind purposely trying to fuck with ?

“You can get out now!” I yell up at the simulated sky, waiting for the eyes to blast out of my soul.

Only this ti, nothing happens. The one ti I don’t want to stay here, the eyes decide not to show up.

I'm forced to relive that mont once again and watch myself cut down three people before blowing the rest to hell. I expect the mory to fade once the explosion happens, but the mory continues for so reason.

How can I relive sothing that I never witnessed?

I get my answer when Reel runs into the clearing, looking distraught. I'd never thought I'd see such a look of panic on his face.

I cringe when I hear coughing from the crater and watch, amazed as Reel rushes towards the noise. I watch Reel force a potion down my throat and pull away from the blast site. I was awake!

I have to cover my face in embarrassnt as loopy talks to Reel. I end up trying to kick mory as I start spilling my secrets to Reel. I wasn't even cryptic with what I said; I straight up told Reel how I overclocked the spell with a skill.

Stomping around the mory in frustration, I finally feel the eyes focusing on . "About ti, get out of here!" I shout like a lunatic up at the eyes, watching them force their way through the mory.

The next thing I know, I’m sitting up in my bed covered in sweat, with the morning sun beaming through the gaps in my window.

Instead of getting a good night’s sleep, I’m waking up pissed at soone I can’t even confront.

I pace around my room until the anger I feel starts to subside. I’m forced to get ready with the playback of the bandit attack repeating through my mind.

I try to forget about the attack by focusing on getting ready for the day. After changing my clothes, I brush out my hair and marvel at how long it has gotten. My red locks travel all the way down my back; I'll have to ask mom to help trim it later. The dark red color of my hair has beco bolder the more points I put into Vitality; the shade itself hasn't changed but looks healthier in general.

Looking over my body, it's hard to think I was in an explosion a few days ago. Other than my rough hands from blacksmithing, I can't find a single mark on my skin. What will it be like when I reach even higher levels?

"Are you up, sweetie?" I recoil when I hear mom's voice through my door. "You said you needed to get up early; I was just checking to make sure you rolled out of bed already."

A smile creeps across my face. “Yeah, I’m already up. I’m almost ready to leave for a morning run.” I walk over to my door and open it.

“Are you sure you have ti?” Mother asks.

“I’m sure I can spare thirty minutes; I promised myself to start running again.”

"Mind if I join you? I missed our runs together." I'm surprised mom is still interested in running with .

“I would love for you to join ,” I tell her with a smile.

The two of us head to the door and change into our outdoor shoes. Once outside, we go through a quick stretching routine, and I notice mom has improved a lot since the last ti we ran.

She notices my surprised looks. “I don’t run that often, but I do your stretching routine at least once a day. Your father enjoys how flexible I’ve beco without wasting any of my stat points.”

“Gross, mom,” she laughs at the sour face I make.

“I even leveled my running skill, which hasn’t happened since I was a kid.” Mother boasts about her success. “Ready, let’s go.” Mother takes off before I can say anything, laughing as she goes.

I quickly catch up to her, and we share in each other’s laughter.

We loop around the village three tis before deciding I need to head to Del's place finally. "I'll see you tonight, mom." I lean in and give mom a quick hug.

"Good luck with your forging," Mother tells as we separate.

"Thanks," I tell her and start walking down the trail to Del's house. The running helped imnsely with clearing my head, and now I'm confident I'm ready to forge at my best.

When I'm out of sight of the village, I activate Mana Skin for the first ti in days. I tested my mana network during our run by filling the mana obscuring amulet. I didn't feel discomfort when using my mana, so I know I can activate my skill without worry.

A part of I didn’t know was tense finally relaxes as my skill activates. Feeling my familiar barriers surround my body and protect from the remaining winter winds feels like I stepped into a room with perfect air conditioning.

But though the barriers feel similar, I can tell imdiately they're stronger than the last ti I used Mana Skin. After I survived my explosive magic, I gained two levels, making it my highest-leveled tier 4 skill, passing Inject Mana. I can’t wait to get the skill to level 60 and figure out how to improve it further. Who knows, maybe if I can safely protect myself enough with the skill, blowing myself up in the future might beco a viable combat strategy.

I could already imagine the looks of horror on master’s and Ronald’s faces if I tried that spell against a chaleon spider. Let the beast try to eat then, boom! I chuckle at the absurd idea as I make my way to master's house.

Stepping into master's clearing, I take note that Master Del already has the forge going, and he's inspecting the materials I brought back with . “I brought back so good stuff, didn’t I,” I call out to master.

“You brought back a pain in the ass,” Master calls out, without looking up from the materials. “Kaglese is hard to work with by itself, and I've never heard or seen anything about this black rock before."

“Mr. Grey showed a small sample they managed to forge from it, and I can say without a doubt it's the best material we've ever worked with," I reassure master.

"Do you have a plan, then?" Master looks at , unsure about the whole thing.

“I think we need to spend today and tomorrow testing everything.”

“Oh?” Master gives a look to continue explaining.

"We break up the black rock and turn a small amount of it into its tal form. Once we have a good sample to work with, we start testing how much mithril we add into the solution by starting small and adding more as we go. That way, we figure out a good alloy to work with for the final product. Then, we do the sa thing with the Kaglese. Once we know their perfect alloy composition, we have one day to process the rest of the material and then two days to make the arrow itself.” I lay out the details of my plan.

Master nods his head, “That could work. Does that an you want to spend the whole day only working with the black rock?”

“That’s right,” I answer master. “The black rock is the biggest unknown for us, so I figure we start with the most difficult part first.” I grin at master.

“It’s never boring with you.” Master huffs and moves to throw more fuel into the forge.

“I missed you too, master.” I smile and prepare myself for a long day.

This will be the start of the hardest thing I've ever tried to forge, and it begins now.