It had been a few days since Thabon had told him about the tournament and Marcus had been hard at work forging a number of items and taking every commission he could in order to increase his funds. In this time, he had also been training with Roxene even getting her to level up once after multiple days of intensive training. And last but not least Marcus had set up a meeting with Lilia's friends' parents, that would be happening in a week.
"Ting, Ting, Ting."
'Okay it is done.'
Holding in his hands currently was the mithril dagger that Marcus had been commissioned to make by his acquaintance Viscountess Tenreion for her son's fourteenth birthday.
The dagger was quite ornate being encrusted with a number of jewels that represented the families' colors and had their crest etched on the guard.
'This is the first time I have made anything that was just meant to be an ornament, but the pay was way too good for me to decline the offer.'
Giving the dagger he had been paid five hundred gold to make and included materials, Marcus could not help but be satisfied with his work.
With the dagger complete Marcus had finished up ever commission he currently had on his plate and was now going to get ready to go to the training session that Adrianna had prepared.
'Time to go and teach some kids a lesson I had to learn the hard way, not to be to overconfident in your own strength.'
Leaving his workshop, Marcus called Blitz over to him along with Roxene who was currently roaming the grounds.
After a few minutes the two of them arrived in front of Marcus who had managed to get them to get along after a few days.
Of course, Blitz was still terrified of Roxene but as long as Marcus was around, he would not bolt off as fast as he could.
Hopping onto Blitz with Roxene in is arms Marcus began making his way towards the training ground that Adrianna had reserved for today's lesson.
Riding along Marcus was currently having a telepathic conversation with Roxene telling her about what was going to happen today.
'So, my friend asked me to show these new knights one of which is also my friend that they should not be too overconfident in their status and abilities. I already have a good plan in mind to curb their attitudes, but I recently have been thinking about utilizing you as well, since it would be good training for you.'
'Yes, that sounds good, so far you are the only one I have fought, and I could use a few people to beat up to work off my frustration of always losing to you.'
Shaking his head, Marcus could not help but feel that Roxene's motivation was quite cruel but at the end of the day as long as she fought that was all that mattered.
It was not long before Marcus stood in front of the training ground and after tying Blitz up in the stable and storing Roxene back in his companion storage, he walked in and found Adrianna talking to Clarisa along with eight other people.
Looking them over Marcus was able to tell that the three extra people were the masters of some of the new knights same as Adrianna is to Clarisa.
Going up to them Marcus greeted Adrianna first followed by Clarisa and the others.
However, in contrast to the informal greeting Marcus had given, the future knights and their masters lightly bowed before greeting Marcus using his title as would be normally considered polite.
With a slightly exasperated expression Marcus said, "No need to stand on formalities, I am just one rank higher than all of you any way and if you stand on ceremony, it will be much harder for us to effectively train. So please just call me Irene like Adrianna and Clarisa do while we are here."
After saying that, the tension in the atmosphere slowly began to fade as Marcus got acquainted with the future knights that were Clarisa's friends along with the knights that had trained some of them.
'Okay so the three knights are Sir Darian, Sir Kase, and Dame Herta. The five peers of Clarisa, are Branson, Cain, Kieran, Amara, and Tessa. Apparently, Cain is the ringleader of their little group and the one that has the most ego. So, he is the one that has been riling the others up and giving them all a big head.'
Going through and quickly apprising all of them, Marcus found the future knights to be between level twenty-five and twenty-eight and their masters to be level thirty-one to thirty-seven.
'The strongest one is Sir Kase at level thirty-seven, and he is also the one that trained Cain so his ego problems may have stemmed from his master. I wonder if Adrianna brought them here for me to fight as well, or if they are just here to reinforce the lesson.'
Once the group began to settle down after everyone got to know each other a bit, Marcus lightly coughed to get everyone's attention before saying, "Before we begin, Adrianna actually asked me to make a set of swords for Clarisa as a present for her becoming knight so before we get to the training exercises, I would like to present them to her."
Hearing this everyone had surprise on their faces except for Adrianna, but when Marcus pulled out the two swords, he had made for Clarisa even her expression shifted into utter disbelief.
Everyone stared at the two swords Marcus had taken out of his item box in a daze, even the knights.
But of course, they would, the weapons that Marcus had just shown them were even better than the ones they currently had, being in the same league as top knights and high-ranking army officers.
Handing the two swords over to Clarisa, Marcus said, "I made these special with your lightning magic affinity in mind. Each of the blades has a number of enchantments on them, so it might take you awhile to adjust to using them, but I can guarantee their quality."
Clarisa holding the new weapons that Marcus had forged for her, actually began crying seeing the weapons that were far beyond anything she though she would ever have.
At the same time Adrianna came up to Marcus and pulled him away before saying in a hushed tone.
"Irene, what are those. I only paid you three hundred fifty gold for a pair of mithril swords. At best I thought you might put a sharpening and reinforcement enchantment on them. Why the hell did you make a pair of swords that are at the same level as heirlooms for noble families."
Hearing this Marcus had a "what do you mean" expression his face. As far as Marcus knew he had just made a pair of good swords, but he did not realize how high quality they were. He figured that there were at least thirty or so people that could make weapons just as good from what Thabon had said. However, Thabon never elaborated since even if there were other people that were at the same level, maybe only one out of ever thousand items they made would be able to get the system's approval, making items like the ones Marcus had just made incredibly rare.
"Do you know how many weapons there are at the same level as the ones you made in the kingdom. Maybe a couple thousand at best and most of them belong to the royal family and nobles with a status of at least Marquis. Even my family which have been knights for three hundred years only have one weapon of a similar quality and it is being used currently by my older brother who is a royal knight protecting the fourth son of the king."
With a look of realization on his face Marcus finally understood how impressive the swords he had made really were.
'Now that I think about it, while I was making those swords, I put more effort into them even than my own weapon. Also, even with my near unending stamina I had to take a break while making them, and how many people would be willing and able to make weapons of that caliber for a random commission.'
Gulping, Marcus looked over at Clarisa who was holding the swords with starry eyes.
'Guess I got a little carried away while making them. Oh well, if it is for a friend, I am willing to put in the effort to make the best.'
After being chewed out by Adrianna, Marcus headed over towards Clarisa and said, "Well I hope you like them, I put my all into making them for you so what do you think."
Clarisa began nodding her head vigorously before jumping at Marcus and giving him a hug and saying, "Thank you so much, I never excepted to get such an amazing gift. But are you sure that I can have these, they must be incredibly valuable?"
"Yeah, I made them special for you, ah and you should also thank Adrianna since she is the one who commissioned me to make you a pair of swords."
Hearing this Clarisa detached herself from Marcus and ran up to her master and began profusely thanking her as well.
However, at the same time Marcus scanned the expressions of the other knights and future knights and found that many of them were looking at Clarisa with jealous expressions.
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