A special offer.

"We don't have enough to pay you." Aelya blurted out while positioning herself in front of Edwyn, as is she was protecting him.

"I don't want money. Instead, I want to make you a special offer."

The young woman gauged him, trying to find any clue about his real intents, however she couldn't find any.

Edwyn coughed and pulled her sleeve.

"Milady Aelya, I think we could at least hear his story. If after that we don't want to accept, we would at least know what we lost." He said while lowering his head.

"What a wise person you are." The unknown man bowed after Aelya nodded. "Let me introduce myself, my name is Wallace Douglas, i'm a blacksmith and miner and I heard your discussion with that damned dwarf earlier..."

"eavesdropping hmh? It gives you a trustworthy look." Aelya smirked.

"Don't blame me milady, I was just passing by! However that's not the point. As I said, I heard your conversation and I know what you need. That's why i'm offering you my services."

"What do you want in exchange?" Aelya was straightforward.

"Your help and the blueprint. You see, I was a former member of Smith & Weapon, however I was fired for a... divergence of opinion so I decided to try my chance by myself in this vast world!"

Edwyn finally understood, It was exactly what they were talking about before, a solo crafter. This gave him a good impression of this Wallace Douglas. After all he was doing his best to move forward.

"What do you mean exactly by "our help"?" Edwyn asked by stepping aside. Aelya gave him a surprised look but didn't say anything.

"In order to craft your item, I need to level up my job, and for that, I need to gather ores for the minor, and craft ingots for the blacksmith. Luckily for you, you need those ingots for your craft and there is a quarry close to the town. Add me to your group and let's go to the quarry!"

"How do we know that we can trust you? After all, you were fired from the crafter association and scamming innocent peoples like us wouldn't be complicated." Aelya asked.

Wallace shrugged.

"Honestly I can't give you anything but a promise. If I want to be independent, I need to have a good reputation so I can't scam people."

Aelya sighed and looked at Edwyn.

"It's up to you to decide. I'll follow whatever you choose to do."

He pondered for a few seconds before nodding.

"We accept your offer Wallace Douglas. We'll help you but in exchange, we want you to craft all our items for free. We'll provide you the resources of course, but you won't get any fee from us. Do you accept?"

Wallace didn't loose his scheming smile and happily nodded.

"Of course, it's my pleasure to work with you!"

Wallace then drove them outside of the town, behind a hill. There, they discovered a vast plain without any tree, and at the middle of the plain, a crevasse wihch split the earth in two.

"The quarry is at the bottom of the crevasse, there is a stair on the left side which leads there. The path is safe, however once we'll be in the quarry be ready, there is monsters." Wallace explained.

"What sort of monster?" Edwyn asked while looking inside the crevasse. There was at least two hundred meters of depth.

The stair was cut directly in the rock wall, without any barrier on the exposed side. It was a little bit frightening but Edwyn was able to overcome his fear by keeping his gaze on his steps.

It took them a whole 10 minutes to get down inside the crevasse, Aelya took the first position, her axe ready to strike while Edwyn was just behind her, and Wallace at the end of the formation.

However what welcomed her wasn't monsters, but the sound of pickaxes digging the rocks.

"What's happening?" Edwyn asked, totally confused.