Off to the side, Dobby was furiously working on his own project, quickly shaping the blackened bone with his tool.

  I hope he doesn't rush things just to compete with Robby... No, he's an expert who has pride in his craft. He wouldn't do that... Right?

  The dwarven man stopped his work and stood up with the finished staff in hand. He slammed the bottom into the ground. A loud crack echoed in the teleportation chamber, accompanied by sparks of lightning along the ground.

  Some people across the room jumped in shock, only to give disdainful looks at the sudden disruption. Dobby was none the wiser; he was glowing with pride and sucking in air, ready to make his announcement.

  In a booming voice, demanding attention, Dobby hollered toward the celebrating craftsmen. "I've completed my masterpieces!!! Not just one, but three!!!"

  The dwarf pulled three staves from behind him and raised them proudly for all to see. Two of the dark bone staves were identical and had hollow hexahedron tops. Most likely the ones meant for Frey and Donna. Both had requested spell empowerment for their enchantment.

  They had expressed concerns about their firepower during the disaster. But that was just a consequence of being fledgling tier 4s going up against overwhelming numbers and stronger undead. Alex, empowered by Fergus, was just... special.

  The third stave was a little different. It was longer than a walking cane, one would expect for a mage. It was more similar to a staff weapon a fighter would use.

  The very top was also not a hexahedron like the others, but had two circles perpendicular to one another, intersecting at the top and bottom of the curves.

  Their share of bones didn't include any long enough to craft these staves, except for the ones reserved for Alex and Damian. Dobby must have melded multiple bones together with a skill.

  ""Ooooo!"" The crowd resounded. Multiple crafters were closing in to get a better look at the finished pieces.

  "First! I present you with these two sister staves! I've named them Lightning's Blessed!"

  "They boost the firepower of any spells cast! Not only that, they imbue the spells with lightning! I've obtained the ability to take a material's inherent characteristics and merge them with the rune's own power! I am now a tier 6 crafter!"

  "Ooooohhh Yeeeeaaahhh!!!" "We've been blessed with another tier 6!" "Our future looks bright once more!" The crowd continued their celebration, growing louder with each piece of good news.

  Alex walked over with Robby still on her shoulder and picked up the other dwarf.

  "Let's hear it for the two brightest stars in the Crafters Guild!"

  "Wooooo!" The crowd continued to roar. Dobby had a smug look on his face while soaking up the cheering crowd.

  "My other masterpiece summons earth to protect the wielder, either by shaping normal earth or with extra mana, summons ethereal earth. When struck, the shield stores the energy and fires it back at the attacker as lightning. I call it Thunder's Rebound!"

  The crowd continued to roar, raising their hands into the air and bumping into one another. Damian had a flashback to the healing center's chaos, to the bodies of adventurers pushing against one another as they tried to escape. Ugh...

  "My skill is obviously better than yours, you hack!" A disgruntled Robby snidely commented.

  "I create two separate functions that can be combined into one! You're just slightly enhancing your base runes with the materials you craft with!"

  It seemed Robby wasn't content to share his moment of glory.

  "What! I'm perfectly blending the two aspects! There's less loss in the mana used! The overall firepower ends up greater!"

  "No! You're losing the ability to adapt! You're choosing to use one big bang instead of a combination of finer details!"

  "Why you!"

  The dwarves on Alex's shoulders were back to bickering after their moment of celebration. The crowd was still crowding around in amazement at both the staves and the dadao.

  It looked like they were going to ignore the two dwarves. They had grown used to the two of them nitpicking at one another over the years.

  When Alex set them down, it didn't seem like they even registered it. They just kept pointing out why their method was better. Their craft wasn't even the same; it served two different purposes. Maybe because they use the same material, the rivalry peaked.

  'sigh'

  "Um... Excuse me, sir." Jimmy Lee's voice resounded from behind.

  "Yes?" Damian could see that the man was holding a sheath that would match his new saber.

  "With the extra materials, I made a sheath for your sword and a holder for the bigger miss. I hope that was alright... I got too excited about being able to make more with it." The lanky man was gaunt from exhaustion, but he still looked delighted through it all.

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  "No, that's more than alright. That's perfect. Thank you. By the way, I wanted to talk with you about payment."

  "!!! I–I'll pay you whatever you want. I'll even take a loan. I can die happy knowing I could create my own masterpieces."

  "Pay us? No pay you. What have you been doing to think that you'd have to pay us?"

  "Ah! ... Master wouldn't let me finish work with the better materials. He said I had to pay him if I wanted to get my grubby hand on any of it."

  My goddesses! What the hell did this poor man have to go through under his contract?! I'm kind of glad his bastard of a master is dead.

  His party members were giving Jimmy Lee concerned looks. Will he be alright on his own? Could Robby and Dobby be trusted to look out for this guy? Would they be enough for this person whose sense of reason seems so distorted?

  'sigh'

  "Ok, can you first show us the pieces you worked on? I'd like to know what they'll do. Then we can discuss paying 'you' for the commission."

  Jimmy Lee led the group over to the little corner he carved out for himself. Complete sets of armor were lined up for each of them.

  "I made it so that the different pieces will automatically snap together when placed together. They will only snap to the correct parts. You can release them by channeling mana into the rivet points."

  "Ah, the runes on the armor increase its durability. It'll reduce the damage from everything except piercing attacks. That includes both physical and magical. Some redundancies keep the enchantment active even when it's damaged. If you channel mana here, it will self-heal as long as it's not too far gone... I hope you like them."

  Damian and his party didn't know how resistant the armor pieces were. It came from a tier 6 wraith that didn't go down easily. So, regardless of how effective the runes were, this was going to provide them with a significant upgrade to their survivability.

  Not to mention that all the works looked incredible. They had gotten a sneak peek earlier, but all the sets lined up make it look truly complete.

  Their group was like most other adventuring groups, with armor in various color schemes. Fergus always wore a grey robe with a leather chestplate. Donna's equipment was similar, but she wore a white-and-blue robe beneath the armor.

  Frey and Alex both wore leather armor, wrist guards, and greaves. Alex's had chainmail added to different parts of the chest plate. Damian just wore standard leather armor, nothing special. Their equipment was in various states of disrepair.

  Now they would all be sporting outfits with similar designs. They'd look more like one of the more professional sub-guilds amongst the Adventurers Guild.

  He could see how they might look intimidating, walking around with matching black outfits, and Damian loved the idea.

  "Ah! Let me put up a curtain so you can change." Jimmy Lee seemed prepared for customer service, if anything. Just couldn't be trusted with the financials.

  The members went into the changing room one by one and emerged wearing the stylish new gear. They looked as if they were high-ranking military nobles from one of the colder regions of the Earthen Union. They'd fit right in as night watchmen with their dark-toned equipment.

  The runes on the armor stood out far more than they did on the weapons. The lighter grey points marking the magical symbols added depth to the look. Unfortunately, Damian took a while to change.

  In the end, Frey had to enter the changing room to help take off his previous gear. It always seemed that having one arm wasn't too big of an issue, until it was.

  "!!! It looks good. Really good!" Everyone was getting excited about their new gear. There were also built-in potion slots, numerous pockets, and easy hooks to add sheathes. Everything was accounted for.

  Alex's armor already had a sword hook on the back that would snag her dadoa. By putting a little mana into it, the sword would automatically release.

  "This is amazing! Thank you so much, Jimmy Lee!" Everyone was gushing over his work. Fortunately, the crafters were still obsessing over the staves and dadoa they left behind. If they weren't distracted, some of them might try to touch them to see the finer details. Crafters were a ravenous bunch.

  As for Jimmy Lee, the man was awfully shy when he wasn't focused on work.

  "Ok! First off, we'd like to give you any of the remaining materials you didn't use."

  "!!!" Jimmy Lee was already transitioning to work mode, making his way to begin his next project. Alex had to grab him by the shoulders and shake the poor worker so that he'd come out of his focused state. Even after they caught his attention, his eyes kept rolling off toward the pile of materials.

  "Listen here." Frey grabbed the man's head so that he could no longer look at the crafting materials. "We don't have a lot of money compared to the work you did. But we're going to give you what we can."

  "No, no... I owe you all... I was able to tier up to 5. Being able to work with such high-quality material allowed me to exercise my skills much more."

  'sigh'

  "Donna, if you would." Donna stepped forward and brought the bag of money that Ms. Sanderson had given them yesterday. They had agreed, upon seeing the equipment, that they'd be paying 5,000 dials per piece. A complete set of armor was many times more expensive than a single blade or staff.

  They were drastically underpaying the man for his work, but their group needed to keep some money for themselves in case whatever came next hit them hard.

  Far too many unexpected things had already happened in the span of a day. So their rainy-day fund would be a measly 2,000 dials, plus some pocket change they carried—an amount they were used to living on.

  If worst came to worst, they could always sell their new equipment for many times more than what they were paying Jimmy Lee.

  "Here is 25,000 dials. You'll also get all the remaining scraps you didn't use."

  "No... I didn't use much of my own stock to make those pieces. I just used the stuff I was allowed to use. I'm gaining too much if you pay me that."

  Jimmy Lee's resistance was starting to get on Damian's nerves.

  'sigh'

  "If you truly feel that way, then just pay it forward. With some spare coin and time, make some cheap armor for the orphans in the city. They're bound to rush into the dungeon at some point and get themselves injured or worse."

  "Make it happen less with decent armor. Ah! But don't make it too good, or else they'll either get targeted or get too big a head and jump into danger they can't handle. Shit, I don't know... Everything has its ups and downs."

  "Ah, ok. I like that idea... I think. What was that about getting targeted or jumping into danger?"

  As Damian messily explained his idea, Fergus was jotting something down on a piece of paper. As they left Jimmy Lee, he handed the note off to the man who was already rushing toward the pile of scraps they had left behind. He definitely needed sleep and would probably only get it once he collapsed from exhaustion.

  "What'd you jot down for him?" Damian asked.

  "Just some basic rules. Nothing too complex. The first one was absolutely finding someone to manage the buying of materials and the selling side of things. I'm sure Robby or Dobby will manage things for the guy in the short term."

  "Also, I noted that he should create some rules for the equipment he gives out for free. Well, if he chooses to do that. I liked the idea you had."

  "He shouldn't give them away, but rent them for free to aspiring adventurers. If they break his rules, he gets to take the equipment back or promise not to lend to them anymore. That'd probably help limit kids from taking on too much when they get shiny new armor."

  'sigh'

  Hopefully, things go well.