Marcus, hearing Qadria tell him to show off his skills was taken aback for a moment.
'I really did not think she was going to request I make something.' Marcus thought.
However, Qadria was exerting a sizable amount of pressure on him and waiting for him to get started.
At first Marcus figured he would just make something simple out of some bronze ingots he noticed in a nearby box, but quickly decided that this was a good chance to do something else.
'I already planned on doing this at some point when I had the time, so I might as well do it now.' Marcus thought.
Looking around Marcus took note of the equipment that Qadria had and nodded his head satisfied.
Most of it was the same as he was used to and while a few things looked a bit different he was able to figure out what they were without much issue.
A couple implements were things he had never seen but he figured he could just ignore them. He had been taught by the best forgemaster in Borelian and figured that it would be best to not try and introduce new tools into his already well refined process.
"Do you mind if I use my own materials?" Marcus asked.
"Sure. I don't mind as long as you aren't using anything shoddy." Qadria replied, her attitude gruff as always.
Yet when Marcus pulled out the material, he planned on working with her composure crumbled and she looked at him with wide eyed surprise.
"What the hell! Where did you get all that adamantine!?" Qadria shouted.
Naturally she was shocked to see Marcus pull out such a rare metal, and not just a little bit of it. He had pulled out several ingots and an amount equal to what the entire forge might see every four years.
"Oh, I picked these up in a dungeon. I don't have much left so this is pretty much my remaining stock." Marcus said.
He then pulled out his own hammer which was likewise made of adamantine and a top tier piece of equipment.
Seeing this Qadria instinctively walked up to him and began looking over the hammer with a sparkle in her eyes.
"This is incredible. It rivals that hammer my uncle has." Quadria said, a sparkle in her eyes.
Her excitement that caused her to forget herself did not last long though, And Qadria looked up at Marcus with extreme respect.
"My uncle once told me that the number of forgemasters on the continent that have a hammer like this could probably be counted on both hands. You must be a true master if you made something like this."
There was now a look of almost reverence in Qadria's eyes and the prickly atmosphere she had been exuding was completely gone.
"Normally I would be humbler and say my skills are not that great, but the man who taught me would give me a hell of a beating if I tried to downplay myself too much. Yeah, I would definitely rank as an expert forgemaster. My skill is over level six after all." Marcus said, indirectly telling Qadria that he could work with amethros.
Immediately after Marcus said this, Qadria lowered her head and bowed deeply to show her respect.
"Allow me to apologize, I did not realize that you were a forgemaster of such a high caliber. I was incredibly rude to you earlier. I understand now that your interest here was not like most others that try to force their way in."
For several seconds Qadria continued to keep her head lowered, tot eh point that Marcus began to smile uncomfortably.
"No need for that. We arranged this visit suddenly and you had no clue why I wanted to visit your forge. I should have probably informed you about my intentions beforehand. So, please raise your head. I cannot work with you like that." Marcus said.
Thankfully Qadria did not insist on apologizing further and brought her head back up. Her eyes immediately glued on Marcus' hammer.
"I suppose I will get started now." Marcus said, going over to Qadria's forge and lighting it with fire magic.
He did so without saying anything which surprised Qadria and his control over the flames was greater than she had ever seen before.
Quickly Marcus heated up the adamantine he planned to work with and when it was ready he brought it over to the anvil and began hammering away at it.
During the entire process Qadria looked on, enraptured by Marcus' ability.
While he had only told her that his skill was above level six, in actuality it was at level nine. One away from the peak.
Qadria herself only had a skill level of six, but this allowed her to understand how much better Marcus was by the way he swing his hammer.
Soon Marcus had gotten lost in his work and several hours had already gone by.
At this point the sun had already gone down, and he felt a bit bad for Amira who was having to wait up, but he had decided to prioritize what he was making.
'That should do it.' Marcus thought once he had finished sharpening the blade.
Before him was a new adamantine scythe that he only needed to add enchantments to.
Of course, this new weapon was going to be far inferior to his current scythe, but it would be a far more acceptable weapon to use in public.
His top tier amethros scythe was something at the level of a national treasure and using it in the Muharib Festival was likely to cause him all manner of problems.
Mrazivy's sword was another concern, but she still had her old adamantine sword on her unlike Marcus who had taken apart his old scythe and used part of it in the creation of his current main weapon.
'Now what should I use as the core of the enchantments.' Marcus thought as he moved his new creation over to a workbench.
Except as he raised his head slightly he for the first time noticed that he had attracted a crowd.
He had been so wholly absorbed in his work that he had not noticed that pretty much everyone in the forge had come over to watch him work.
Unfortunately, the next step of the process was going to have him use celestial platinum to create enchantments and only those that already knew the secret could be allowed to watch.
Marcus having already attained a skill level of over seven was no long under the restriction he signed with Thabon and he could technically teach anyone he wanted, but he had no desire to reveal such a secret to so many.
"Qadria, I am about to enchant this scythe. Would you mind clearing everyone out?"
Nodding her head, Qadria, being an exceptional forgemaster herself understood Marcus' intentions.
Using her authority as one of the top dogs in the forge she shooed most of the people away, but a couple of individuals stayed behind.
One of them caught Marcus' attention since he was clearly a level above everyone else here and Marcus figured he was the one in charge of the forge.
"Didn't want to bother you while you were working. Nice to meet you. Names Yusef, I am the current head of this forge and Qadria's uncle. When Akeem said he had guests that wanted to see my forge, I never imagined one of them one be a forging forgemaster of your caliber." Yusef said, a friendly smile on his face.
He then held out his hand towards Marcus, and with a jovial grin Marcus took his hand and shook.
"You are pretty strong. Must have a regeneration skill as well. If I did not just watch you work I never would have believed you were this skilled with how soft your hands are." Yusef said.
When he had gripped Marcus' hand, he had applied quite a bit of force that would have crushed any normal person's hand.
Marcus for his part was able to return the grip with ease and felt how rough Yusef's hands were. Showing his many years working in a forge.
Rough hands were normally a sign of someone that had worked hard over a long time, but Marcus did not have this trait. He was a spirit taking solid form so there was no way for his body to show any wear and tear.
"If I might ask, where are you from? I have never heard about you, so you must not be from any of the surrounding nations near Aezam."
"Sorry, I want to keep where I am from a secret. I can tell you that I am currently associated with the Chelmer Resort." Marcus responded.
"That so, I didn't know they had anyone as good as you working for them." Yusef said, a hint of amazement in his voice. "Well, if you ever are looking for new employment, you are welcome here. I'll even let you marry Qadria and take over as my successor."
"Uncle, what are you saying!?" Qadria yelled, her face tinged red in embarrassment.
Yusef began laughing seeing his niece getting so fluster, and while he may have seemed to have been saying this jokingly Marcus could tell he was actually serious.
"Sorry, I will have to turn down that offer. I already have a wife and a place to call home." Marcus said once things had calmed down a bit.
"That so. You could always take a second wife though. A man of your skill should have no problem taking care of a couple of wives" Yusef said, before feeling a cold chill down his spine
He hastily turned towards Mrazivy whose smile did not reach her eyes, and for a moment he shuddered feeling the animosity that she was radiating.
"You know what, forget what I just said. I think your hands are already full. It is a good idea to be loyal to the woman you love." Yusef said, backtracking quickly since he felt his life in danger.
"Now, I think I have taken up enough of your time. I will let you get back to work, but if you ever want to drop by feel free to. It has been a long time since I have been able to bounce ideas around with another true expert." Yusef said, before making his retreat.
Once he was gone Qadria apologized for her uncle's behavior.
"Don't worry about it, I have dealt with worse." Marcus said, scowling as he remembered the marriage proposals that had come in droves for Lilia. Luckily her engagement to Alaric was already known to most and that was a thing of the past
"Okay, time to finish this." Marcus said, pulling out his mana etcher and getting to work on enchanting his new adamantine scythe.
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