"Oooy! Old man! What the hell is this?" a dwarven girl yelled at me from the doors to her atelier.

  I don't usually take apprentices for bcksmithing, but for other jobs it is a little different. This girl, Aerlia, is one of my woodwork and leatherwork apprentices. She learns about how to make handles, sheaths and other wood decorations for the bdes. Apart from her, I have two more woodworking apprentices and three sharpening apprentices.

  "A dagger, what else should it be?"

  "Ain't talkin 'bout that! The heck is that metal made from? It looks like you melted different types of metals together!"

  "How should I know? Arito brought that."

  "And who's that?!"

  "My new apprentice, duh," I answered her as I continued swiping the floor.

  "WHAT?!" my other apprentices dropped their tools in shock.

  "OY! Back to work! He made that Magic Metal, so I made him my apprentice! Also, Hebrin!"

  "Yes boss!" a boy of Lorden race saluted.

  "Tomorrow, we go buy some steel, but remember that we don't need to buy the highest quality."

  "Huh? We don't?"

  "Yeah, Arito is an alchemist, so he can purify the steel for us."

  "You better be careful, Boss."

  "Can an alchemist really be a good person?"

  "And you're sure he isn't scamming you?"

  My apprentices showed their disdain. I can't bme them, though. Alchemists are mostly scammers, but Arito is the real deal. I wouldn't be a true artist if I wasn't capable of telling apart material I work with. Plus, that kid… he reminds me of her so much.

  It was over two hundred years ago when she came to me to make her a new Battle axe. I wanted to throw her out, but her unyielding spirit broke me. Truly, she was the only one worthy of being called the Martial Queen.

  "He is a bona fide Alchemist who is even recognized by former Duke Reva and Duke Nomille! Not to mention young dy Lena is his adventuring companion! If he isn't trustworthy, then I'm a slime!"

  "If you say so, Boss…"

  "Well, you are the only one getting burned…"

  "As long as you pay us, we are fine!"

  "You guys…" my voice grumbled.

  "Everyone run!"

  "The demon is upon us!"

  The kids run away, ughing.

  "Um, is the boss here?" the Ancient boy we were just talking about appeared in the doors.

  "Hey there, Arito, I got some steel you can use."

  "Thanks, boss!"

  I took the boy to the forge and started talking about the techniques while watching him hammer the multi-colored piece of metal he brought. This one, had sparkles like stars in the night sky.

  "Hmm… you strike too hard. You will tire yourself out too quickly. Also, don’t be afraid to leave the ingot in the furnace for a while longer. It will make it easier for you."

  "Okay," the boy kept close watch of the ingot, forging a sword.

  "Anyway, what is that liquid over there?" I pointed at a gss tube Arito’s goblins brought out of his Dimension home and liquid he poured in.

  "Ah, that’s a special blend I want to test out."

  "It’s not just regur water, is it?" I looked at the white liquid that had no smell at all.

  "It isn’t. And don’t even try to put your fingers in it. It’s not life threatening, but your skin would be almost instantly cleaned."

  "Is it a magical soap, then?"

  "No, it would be better to think of it as an Alchemical solution… then again, soap is a chemical creation, so it might not be that far apart? Anyway, it dries out your hands so much you have problems holding things afterward, so be careful."

  "Noted."

  Arito continued smithing for another few hours until he was satisfied with the bdes and after some thermocycling put the bde into the gss tube. The effect was instant. The bckish scales broke off and dissolved into the liquid, instead of falling down and the bde got a light purplish hue.

  "Nice, a Pseudo-magic sword is done."

  Purification Sword

  A Pseudo-magic sword with power to cleanse all in existence. Especially potent against Undead and Demons. All that is cut is cleanly separated due to the bde’s sharpness.

  "A Purification Sword, huh? Well it was Albedo I used to quench it, maybe quenching in Warping paint would strengthen the spell-material bond? Hmm… I can’t waste so much of it though… Maybe if I mixed it with Booster and some other liquid? Welp, let’s make another few swords for now, just to be sure I can repeat the process!" Arito smiled satisfiedly and started working on another bde, for which he had metal already in the fire.

  "H-hey!"

  "Mr. Arshel, please leave him be. When he gets like this, it’s hard to stop him," a young girl around the age of Arito, or maybe a little older came to the smithy with a basket filled with a food she called ‘Sandwiches’. Apparently it was created by some wise man long ago and young miss Lena found a recipe in her family’s archive. Noble archives are truly full of mysteries.

  "Bnche. You came with lunch again?"

  "Yes! I already handed out rations to the kids in the workshop and came to offer some to you and Arito as well."

  "I see!" I looked over her shoulder and saw the kids staring hungrily at her.

  Serves you right! I snickered and started feasting on the sandwiches before me.

  "Wow. This tender meat… are those Cachick breasts by chance?"

  "You have great taste buds. We recently started raising Cachicks thanks to Arito’s license and had to educate them," Bnche said with a sweet smile.

  Yep, I can’t piss her off. She has the same vibe around her like the Sage way back then…

  "Hey Arito! Food is served! Your wife brought it!"

  ""WIFE?!"" the two reacted in the same beet-red blushing manner. These kids…

  "Ah! Bnche, is that the Cachick sandwich?"

  "Yes!" Bnche yipped and handed Arito the entire basket.

  "Anyway, what are those metals you brought with you today? I never saw such a decor on your previous billets."

  "Ah, you know how certain winged monsters have Feather shooting skills?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Well, in order to do damage, the feathers have to be hardened. And I collected those hardened feathers and mixed them with steel using the San mai technique."

  "The San-what?"

  "Basically pcing the hard edge steel between two softer steels."

  "Oh, I see. I believe that technique is called Sanwa, not San Mai, though," I remembered one of the techniques I learned in the Draggera Empire in my younger days. "So you used this technique to bind the feathers together with steel, yes? And these dots on the metal are actually from the feathers, right? Just what kind of monsters did you get the feathers from?"

  "Yep. That is the technique. The feathers came from Fallen and Fallen Succubus."

  "Rare bunch, eh?"

  "Yes, they’ve been great to me," Arito smiled and went back to work.

  He really is unusual, but a nice kid. I smiled to no one in particur and went back to work as well, working on request from the Duke.