Astonished

Iledoya decided to just fly there. While flying to Gilrad, he also practiced making magic balls that he formed into a galaxy. It became a story for some travelers that were heading to Gilrad. About how they saw a sky phenomenon where numerous grey balls appear in the sky.

It was night time when he arrived at the gates of Gilrad. He could just fly in but he decided he would camp outside the city, inside his bag.

This is Iledoya's first time exploring the house. He noticed that the size was actually quite big. It had 5 rooms where each can fit 2 people. It also had a kitchen, a toilet, and a living room which had the shelf Iledoya placed the Demon Lord fruit.

Iledoya just claimed one of the room and slept there.

The next morning, Iledoya was standing in front of the gates. Proudly flashing his badge to the guard, he entered without paying anything.

"Now then… He lives this way I guess?" With so many famous weapons coming from Gilrad, Iledoya happen to know some of the skillful blacksmith.

Gilrad was actually quite big due to the numerous blacksmith. If it was just a little bigger, it would have qualified to be called a city. Gilrad town is located inside a canyon.

With extra walls built around the canyon, it became quite a challenge to enter the town from any other way. Digging under the canyon is where most people find high quality materials that blacksmiths used to forge their weapons.

Following the direction from the knowledge he has, he walked through the town towards the house of the blacksmith that he knew. While there are many blacksmith in town, according to his knowledge, there was only one blacksmith that could handle the best metal one can find in Gilrad.

"Hold on. Did I just… forget to get the materials?" Iledoya scratched his head in confusion. 'I guess being a 10,000 year old immortal has its drawbacks'. Realizing this important point, Iledoya decided to look for the guild. The guild provides basic public information to adventurers and being in Gilrad town, a mining town, it should provide information on spots to find certain materials. After that thought, he soon found another problem. 'Where is the Adventurer guild in Gilrad?'

He got the knowledge on Gilrad from a soul that lived before a guild existed in Gilrad. Thus he didn't have any knowledge on where the guild is. Wandering around thinking on how to get to the guild, he passed by a workshop where he felt something suddenly flew towards his head from the door. *stab*

"Hmm?" Iledoya felt his head suddenly becoming heavy. As he touched around his head, he found something has stabbed his head.

"AAHHH ARE YOU OKAY???" A big burly man ran out of the workshop. When he looked at Iledoya, who had been stabbed in the head by his craft, he paled. He fell to his knees while mumbling "I killed someone… I killed someone… I killed someone"

Iledoya scratched his head, especially the place that got stabbed since it itched quite a lot and approached the burly man "Mister, I'm not dead, can you take out this thing from my head?"

"AAAHHH A GHOST" The big burly man started running back into his workshop. Contrary to his strong looking body, he was very afraid of the pale-looking Iledoya. Frantically running into his workshop, he passed out after tripping on his own foot.

Iledoya could only sigh. After feeling the object stabbed in his head, he found out it was quite fragile and intricate. Iledoya didn't want to pull it out himself, considering the possibility the man might still want to work on it. But since the man has passed out and the itch has become unbearable, Iledoya pulled it out himself.

The stab wound soon healed by itself. Iledoya thought it was fragile but it was actually quite strong as none of it got left in his head. Holding on to the item, Iledoya could see what the object look like. It looked like a letter T or maybe even the letter Y because of the curve. It was something Iledoya and all the souls he has severed has never seen before.

After a while, the man woke up and he could see Iledoya holding on to the strange looking item. He scratched his head in confusion thinking 'Was it a dream? Let's just say it's a dream…' he convinced himself that it was a dream since he didn't want to have a murder record.

"Hey, what are you trying to make?" Iledoya was very curious of the object due to its intricacy. Though it looked like a T or a Y, there was curves here and there, a spiral looking end, and the top part was very thin.

"Heh, I don't know either. I was only given a blueprint by the client" The man answered while still sitting on the floor. "Cih, this thing is crazy. Who the heck thought of such a thing?" He got up from the floor and started walking towards one of his table. "Even looking at the blueprint, I can't tell what the heck what's it for…"

On the table there was the blueprint. After staring at it for a while, the man realized something and turned towards Iledoya "How could I forget. Welcome to Dranky's Workshop and the Dranky be the man before you. How can I help you?"

Iledoya just walked straight to the blueprint. It was quite hard for Iledoya to look at it because of his short body. Dranky was quite an open person as he didn't mind Iledoya just walking straight to the blueprint.

"I was looking for a blacksmith when suddenly that thing of yours went flying through the door and almost hit me. It looked quite interesting so I wanted to find out more. You can call me Iledoya by the way"

"Oh I see…" Dranky totally just ignored the fact that he threw his craft out of the door. After looking at the blueprint for a while, Iledoya said "If I can help you make this object, will you let me meet the client too?"

"HAHAHA of course! But if even I, the famous Dranky of Gilrad can't make it, then no person in Gilrad will be able to make it!" While Gilrad is mostly famous for the weapons the blacksmiths make, blacksmithing isn't the only thing needed to make a weapon. Leatherwork, woodwork, and many other sorts of crafts can be found in Gilrad and all of them are equally skillful as the blacksmiths.

Dranky was actually one of the best crafters in Gilrad. There is a possibility that no sane crafter in Gilrad will dare claim first if Dranky claim second. "The client said that he has went to many crafters and none of them was able to finish past the handle like part. Only I, am capable enough to make it this far"

While Dranky was bragging, Iledoya was following the blueprint to make it. Using his magic control and Life magic, he grew a branch from the tree on his back shaping by following the shape on the blueprint.

Dranky was still bragging "Even that old goat will have to acknowledge me..." He starts singing while bragging. He was actually very good at it. While bragging, he didn't look at Iledoya who had almost finished growing the object. Conveniently enough, all the part was made out of wood.

"No~ one~ Crafts like Dran--" his bragging stopped when he finally turned around and saw Iledoya. With a little bit of Death magic, he cut off the object from his tree.

Dranky was absolutely flabbergasted. "Are all mages as capable as you?" he asked. Iledoya smirked as he used the same song as Dranky to answer "I~ am~ the best in the world, no one can best me in this" stopping the song, he continued "Then it might have to take someone from outside of Gilrad to make it"

Dranky felt embarrassed hearing how Iledoya answered. It was just moments ago that he was still bragging with his song that he has practiced many times. He was still bragging about how he could finish more than others could but then this random boy completed it? Dranky felt really stifled.

"*cough* anyway, like I promised, let's go meet the client" He wanted to make himself forget about what has happened.

Excited to meet the person who designed the object, Iledoya didn't dally any longer and they headed towards the client house. While walking towards the client's house, someone shouted "Dranky! Is that what I think it is?"

Both Iledoya and Dranky looked towards the source of the voice. It was a short man with some crazy long facial hair. Iledoya finally saw a non-human of the races. 'A dwarf!' he shouted in his heart.

"Hahaha Old Goat! As a matter of fact, it is!" When Dranky saw the dwarf, he joyfully answered him. Dranky brought Iledoya to the dwarf to introduce him. "Iledoya, this old goat here is Gratrosa. But just call him Old Goat"

"NO. Don't call me that. Since this singing muscle introduced you, just call me Old Grat."

"hehe well then let this singing muscle sing you a song of yourself~"

"Please don't" Iledoya and Grat said at the same time.

"Fine… So Iledoya, have you ever heard of the name Frasrt?" Dranky asked Iledoya. Since Iledoya mentioned something about looking for a blacksmith, then he should have heard of this name

And as a matter of fact, "Yes, I have" this was actually the blacksmith Iledoya was looking for. He was famous for his ability to make very durable weapon. He knew about him from the soul of a soldier that fought with a hundred man and his sword did not even chipped.

Not a blood stain, not a bend, nothing. It is possible to say there was zero damage, keeping its shine. Since then, Frasrt became famous for his almost unbreakable weapon.

"Well guess what? This Old goat in front of you is his teacher" Dranky said while grinning

"What!? The famous Frasrt's teacher!?" Iledoya's eyes was bulging in shock. At this point, he really think his luck isn't bad at all. To think that forgetting to get the material would lead him to the teacher of the blacksmith he was looking for. He can't help but tremble in excitement.

Though he did wonder why he hasn't heard of Gratrosa's name, he just think of it as another case of the student being more famous

"Hey old goat, you also got an order from that person right? Did you finish it?" Dranky asked while smirking. He knew that Gratrosa also got a ridiculously hard order.

"Heh, unlike you, I am capable of finishing it myself" from what he knows about Dranky's style, Gratrosa was able to tell that the item in Iledoya's hand was not made by Dranky. Gratrosa walked into his workshop and brought out 2 strings.

Dranky was astonished and felt even more down. While he wasn't able to make the item he was ordered, Gratrosa was able to. "hehehe, do not underestimate this dwarf! While it was ridiculously hard, I was still able to make it!"

Iledoya stared at the strings in Gratrosa's hand and was perplexed. 'It's just silver coloured string… What's so hard about it?' he thought. Gratrosa saw the expression on Iledoya's face and said "Here, take a look for yourself"

Iledoya took the string and took a closer look. As he looked at it more and more carefully, he found out that the string was actually made of metal! And not just that, the metal was made into a string that was very thin, that was then coiled into actual thin strings. And both of the strings was actually of different thickness.

Pride filled Gratrosa's heart looking at the astonished expression on Iledoya's face. While he doesn't know what's it for, but just from the difficulty of making it is enough for him to be proud for a long time.

"Oh, by the way, it's such a coincidence that you're here. I already informed the client about it being done and he said he would come here to take it inspect it or take it back himself" Gratrosa said.

"OOOOIIIIIIIII GRAT-SAN! Oh? Dranky-san, you're here too? And is that… What a coincidence!"

As the trio looked towards the source of the sound, Gratrosa said "Oh? Speak of the devil, here he is"

While Iledoya was once again astonished today. Looking at the person who was apparently the client, a mixture of exicitement, curiosity, happiness, sadness, and all sorts of feeling arose in his heart. He didn't expect to meet the person now.

It was the great guy who speaks of loli, the baker, the boss of Reunard.

[edited by ed]