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"Huh? Who the hell are ya?! Did I call for a band of freaks to deliver me something or what?"
A rude man around his sixties with brown skin, a bald head, and a short red beard greeted us as we moved across the beautiful streets of the Capital, bustling with people to reach the Ember Family Blacksmithing Forge.
It was only one of the many Forges in the Capital, actually, and the smallest and the one with the least amount of popularity too.
Why? Well, it was self-explanatory, but it was because of the blacksmith himself, who was a really rude man.
"H-Hello, is this the Ember Blacksmithing Family Forge?" I asked as politely as I could.
"Yeah, it's on the sign over there." The man crossed his arms, beginning to analyze each of us with his sharp red eyes. "So? What do you want? If you want armor and weapons, we're closed, and you can always just buy something better in the other Blacksmiths…"
"We didn't come specifically for that." I answered, showing him the paper. "We came here because of this request you left behind in the Adventurer Guild, we came to help you out on that."
"Wait, what?!" The man grabbed the piece of paper off my hands and started reading it. "Huh… Did I ever left such a thing over there? I must have been drunk, and it was probably so long ago… Urgh, are you serious about that? This is not some sick prank that you Players love to do, don't you?"
"We're serious." Mark answered. "You said you needed help on the forge, so we've come to help. I hope you don't mind us being a large group, gramps."
Right not it was just us without Angelina's party, who had decided to walk around the town looking for any new clues about the World Quest while we took care of this.
"Who are you callin' gramps, you big ol' piece of burning wood?!" The man angrily said. "But okay… FINE! If you really want to break your backs working for me, go ahead, help yourselves!"
The man walked back to his forge without saying another word, as we felt the intense heat of the forge flowing outside like a flaring shockwave, it was intense, but our levels were so high that it affected us very little, even when I was still rather weak to the fire element.
After becoming an Yggdragon, most of the weaknesses I had as a Dryad became slightly less lethal but were still there. The Dragon Scales and armor help fighting against them though.
"Well, let's get in then." I smiled.
"Ugh, I hate his attitude, he's really a douchebag…" Rita sighed. "Why do we have to do this again?"
"It's for the Hephaestus thing, miss Rita." Brisingra spoke.
"Right, the thing…" Rita sighed. "Oh well, what can we do then?"
"Let's hear the master speak first, he'll tell us what we should do!" Acorn spoke, as we walked inside the forge.
The entire place was much larger than the one over my village, despite how old the building looked like, the interior seemed still rather clean and new, it seemed to have been refurbished.
There was a huge forge blazing with red and orange flames, containing some magical components. Several anvils here and there, many stone-made furniture packed with all sorts of utensils and ores, and also ingots, and well, weapons and armor too.
The man walked towards the largest anvil, where there were some copper-colored ingots he was smelting on the flames inside a huge kettle.
"Alright, newbies, for those that don't know, name's Ambil Ember, but you'll treat me as Master Ember from now on." He smiled. "To complete your task, just do what I tell you to do. Now, you, the rat, you've got dexterous hands, right? Work on this chainmail I am making, make sure it's done by midnight."
"E-Eh? Sure… I've never made a chainmail before though…" Acorn muttered.
"I don't care. The huge tree guy, come enhance the flames with your fire."
"Sure… Is that all?" Mark wondered.
"Yeah. The dark elf lady, you use whatever magic you've got to bring me ingots and molds."
"Sure? Doesn't seem so hard." Rita nodded.
"The fairy, use your cooling magic to cool down the weapons we'll make, you've gotta have a good timing and control your magic properly. Don't screw it up."
"Hmph, I wouldn't ever fail such a simplistic task…" Nieve said.
"Heh. The tiny elf girl, you seem like you're half-dwarf, take a hammer and smack the things I give you into good shape."
"E-Eh?! Me? But I…" Brisingra was doubting.
"You what?! Are you doing the job or not? I'm not paying you if you don't work!"
"Y-Yes! I'll do it!" Brisingra cried.
"Ah, the brownie woman, you'll help on handling burning stuffs and shaping them with your bare hands. I also want you to enchant ore, can you do that?"
"I can try~!" Lily's hands were suddenly covered on metallic ores and crystals.
Everyone quickly dispersed all around the forge, doing their own jobs. Except me, I stayed standing there, looking at everyone beginning to work, Ambil then glared at me with his eyes flaring with red light.
"Oh, and the tree lady… You'll show me what you've got."
"Alright!" I nodded. "Wait, what? What do you mean?"
"I can sense it the moment I met eyes with you. Unlike all your other pals over here, you're the most dexterous and masterful with the hammer. Even though you're a tree woman, somehow…" He said. "Come and show me what you've got. Make me a dagger with this ingot. And do it now."
"A-Are you sure?! We just met, sir…" I said, confused.
"Of course I am sure!" He said angrily. "I can feel it within you, I don't know why… It makes me frustrated even that someone completely random has it but… Your Aura, it's the same that my grandfather had. But I still have my doubts, so show me what you're made of, girl."
Ding!
[The [Special Subclass Quest]: [Find Clues About Hephaestus' Divine Forgeries] has been Completed!]
[Now that you've found out that Ember had left behind a grandson, and whose grandson knows about your strange Aura, it is time to show him what you're made of and craft something that might earn his recognition!]
[Clear Rewards]: [5.000.000 EXP] [100.000.000 Gold] [New Quest Chain]
[A New [Special Subclass Quest] related to the current [Quest Chain] has been now generated: [Forge a Dagger and impress Ambil with your Skills!]
[Ambil has given you a simple challenge! Still skeptical if you truly possess the same aura that his grandfather had, he has decided to challenge you with something rather simple, forge an exceptional dagger using the single ingot he has given to you.]
[Clear Rewards]: [EXP] [Gold] [New Quest Chain]
[Time Limit]: [4 Hours]
[Failure Penalty]: [Lose the possibility of improving your Subclass]
And right as Ambil said that the previous quest was instantly completed and a new one was generated. I guess we are right where we needed to go!
"Alright…" I sighed. "I haven't crafted many things myself though, so I hope you don't complain if I use different methods than yours. Is that alright?"
"Hmph, it's fine." Ambil nodded, glaring at me with a lot of skepticism. "Now get to it! You've got four hours!"
"Yes sir!"
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The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l