Chapter 44: Velcrean
As Alex poured his mana into the bucket, the blacksmiths gradually left the forge.
"Mars, are you sure you don’t want to go home?"
"Yeah... I’d rather stay at an inn than listen to my wife’s bickering."
"Haha. It’ll be fine, man. She was probably only upset because you injured your hand while working two days ago."
"Still..."
"Tch. Do whatever you want, but don’t call yourself a man after ignoring such a caring wife."
"W-What?!"
"I’m leaving."
"W-Wait, Henry!"
The chatter outside still reached Alex, as the sound-cancellation magic circles only stopped the noise from going out, not from coming in.
Although he would’ve loved to join them, he didn’t have the luxury to do so.
"How much more mana do I have to flow into it?" Alex muttered with a confused expression.
He had been at this for a whole hour, and even now, the sword was the same as before.
It appeared that after entering the bucket, it became impervious to natural phenomena, allowing it to remain in its fiery state without any issue.
And to Alex, it seemed as though he was splashing droplets to stop a wildfire.
"Dammit!"
With him already out of Vitality, all he could do was fight the accumulating fatigue with his sheer will, and that’s exactly what he did.
"Don’t sleep... don’t sleep..."
Time passed, seconds turned into minutes, and minutes into hours as he carefully channeled mana while forcing his eyes to stay open.
As hours passed, the sword began to show changes, and witnessing that was enough to fill him with the desire to continue.
More time passed, and the sword gradually cooled down.
As the sunlight streaming through the window fell onto his face, the sword’s structure became visible, but Alex was too fatigued to check it.
Soon, voices returned, notifying that a night had already passed and the sword was still not yet completely quenched.
Alex stared at the bucket with heavy eyes and mumbled under his breath, "How long..."
After a few hours, the blacksmiths returned to the forge, and as their gazes landed on Alex and the state of the sword, all of them were left speechless.
"Did he stay the night here?" Mars asked with a dubious expression.
A few blacksmiths nodded their heads, and one of them mumbled, "He is crazy."
Yoru, who had decided to kick Alex the very moment he had seen him, watched him with an impassive face and turned around while clenching his fist.
Maybe I judged him too hastily? He thought and walked to the storage room where all of this had begun.
As he pushed the door and entered, his eyes landed on Bron sitting in a chair with his eyes locked at the very door he had entered from.
Yoru instantly knelt and said, "I apologize for disturbing you, Sir."
Bron shook his head and mumbled, "It’s fine. It’s fine."
Even upon hearing those words, Yoru didn’t dare stand up on his feet.
A few long, silent minutes passed between them, and Bron asked, "Do you know why I built this forge?"
Yory lifted his head to look at him and answered, "Because you love forging...?"
"Heh," Bron chuckled and shook his head. "That I do, but that isn’t the main reason."
Yoru’s expression turned confused.
Bron rose from the chair and said, "When I was a paladin at the Church of Prime Night, I had the great honor of meeting the pope... As I had expected, he was strong, but there was one thing about him that I hadn’t known at that time, and that was his nature."
He walked closer to Yoru and added, "He is a cautious man who would do anything and cross any lines to make sure none rose to become his equal."
For the first time, genuine surprise filled Yoru’s face, and Bron’s next words crumbled all of it.
"I built this place to find competent people. People who are worthy to take him down."
"W-What?!" Perplexed, Yoru sprang to his feet and stammered, "S-Sir, you are planning to go against the church?!"
Bron looked past the door, at the person sleeping in the corner of the froge with his hands still on the bucket and mana still flowing through him.
"It appears I have found that very person."
Yoru’s gaze shifted to Alex, and he just stared with an impassive face.
As the day passed, Alex jolted out of his sleep and frantically looked around.
The place, the bed, and everything about it were unfamiliar.
"Where am I?"
"Calm down, boy," Bron, who had been standing by the window, muttered with a faint smile.
Alex looked at him and asked in a low, somber voice, "Did... Did I fall asleep?"
Bron nodded. "You did."
Hearing that, Alex lowered his head and mumbled, "I am sorry for ruining everything..."
Only if he hadn’t fallen asleep, the sword would’ve been completed, but he had failed to keep himself awake.
His fists paled as he clenched them – he had always used Vitality to keep himself awake, meaning he had never felt the hammers of impending sleep.
"What are you talking about?" Bron snorted with a confused look and stepped to the left.
As he moved aside, the sword placed on the table fell into his gaze.
It was a beautiful one-handed arming sword, brightened by the falling moonlight. Its blade was obsidian black while its wide edges were razor-sharp silver – it had a sharp crossguard shaped like a golden star, and its hilt was covered with a dark leather strap, a round golden pommel at the end.
Alex slowly stepped down from the bed and walked toward it. Then, he carefully picked up the sword, and a grin appeared on his face.
Info, he thought, and a blue screen appeared before him.
[Nameless]
[Grade: Rare]
[Description: A sword forged from the regrets and anger of a master blacksmith and quenched by the essence of a terrible being.]
[Created by Bron Haestus]
[Enchantments: None]
[Enchantment Slots: 3]
"Name it," Bron muttered with a serious expression, and a new screen appeared before Alex.
[Enter the new name of the artifact!]
[_ _ _ _ _ _]
"What?" Alex frowned and turned his head toward him. "You are the one who created it, so you should name it."
Bron let out a chuckle and said, "Even though I’ve created it, she is going to stay with you for way longer than me. If I were her father, you would be no different than her foster father."
Alex fell silent at his reasoning, and after a long while, he nodded and muttered, "Alright."
He looked at the sword and mumbled with a wide smile, "Velcrean."
[System: Artifact (Nameless - Rare) has been renamed to Artifact (Velcrean - Rare)!]
"What does that name mean?" Bron asked curiously.
"I don’t know," he responded while scratching his cheek.
Bron frowned. "Then why did you give her that name?"
Alex shrugged. "It just felt right..."
Bron stared at him for a while and then said, "Now that you have the sword, I need you to do me a favor."
