Chapter 24

Just hearing what the female guard had said, caused the elders to immediately halt their debates about what should have been done concerning Boulder Village and instead they all looked at Arthur to size him up. Usually, blacksmiths would look fairly similar both in the types of clothes they wore as well as some scars and a darker skin tone from spending so much time over a furnace.

"As I thought, since we have survived heaven's tribulation, our Boulder Village has been blessed with someone like yourself." the mayor said while looking at Timothy's father. "Unfortunately, our only blacksmith who was a level one blacksmith, ended up dying during the battle which is why we have been unable to even have the most basic equipment and weapons repaired."

"Anna, please escort these individuals to Bob's shack. Once we are finished rebuilding properly, we can also give a nice home to this family." the mayor ordered the female guard as none of the elders questioned this decision. It was true that the majority of their forces were no longer armed, so anything that they could do to fix this particular issue they were completely for.

They were arguing about how vulnerable Boulder Village had become and the steps they needed to take in order to keep themselves from falling apart. Normally during battles of the magnitude the one with the demon beasts were, villages would end up breaking apart into individual townships and would be forced to rebuild all over again nearly from scratch.

"And here we are, please make yourselves at home. I know that it is not much, but Bob was a single man with no family." the female guard told Timothy and his family as they arrived at the shack that had a pretty decent looking setup for a blacksmith. Without wasting any time, Arthur began unpacking all of his blacksmith equipment and within the hour, several warriors made their way over to hand in their equipment and weapons to be repaired.

While Timothy and their family's new guard unpacked the remainder of their items, his mother watched over little Joshua as she began to network with many of the citizens who came to greet the new family. It did not take long for the mayor to make his way over to the shack and began discussing the repairing matters with Arthur. They settled on a fair price which Boulder Village's treasury would handle as well as a nice new home in exchange for his services during this time.

"So Arthur, how many gold pieces did the mayor offer you?" Timothy's mother asked his father as the family began eating dinner. Timothy's father had been accepting all of the broken or just damaged weapons and equipment and finally found the time to sit down and enjoy a meal with his family.

"Originally, it was going to be twelve thousand gold pieces, but we settled on nine thousand and a good sized home for ourselves. It turns out that Boulder Village has not received any help from even Mist City, because they were considered to be the wealthiest and most influential village in this region." Arthur explained as even Timothy felt his body shaking from excitement.

"It seems that whatever happened in Hollow City sparked something big. Every other region besides our own within our Bark Kingdom has seen more demon beast attacks. Sure, cities are very well guarded because they have existed for many centuries, but villages such as this one could only fight to survive in such a climate."

"What the mayor also told me, was that the only thriving business type that this village had lacked, was a good blacksmith business. A level two alchemist lives here in Boulder Village and he has been responsible for selling over ninety percent of the pills and elixirs sold in this region. Due to this and a handful of others, Boulder Village seemed on track to become its own city in another century or two. But now that I am one of the very few level three blacksmiths that exist in this region, the mayor could bargain with many of the merchant groups and visitors to use me immediately instead of waiting to head over to somewhere else since a level four blacksmith does not exist here."

Master Sei who was quietly listening suddenly sent a mental message to Timothy explaining exactly what this had meant. As long as Boulder Village could rebuild and remain safe from demon beasts, his family would no longer be considered a poor one. Hearing this news made Timothy feel as if all of the pressure that his family put on him while he was younger, was now slowly drifting away, especially since his younger brother could take on the thriving family business!

Originally, Timothy was going to head out to Mist City so that he could find a school right away in order to bring the rest of the family along with him. But, with his father now being the center of attention within Boulder Village, he could instead take his time and prepare the best he could before setting out.

Two days later, Timothy was sitting in the shack across from the guard he hired to watch over his family for one year. Not only did he want to plan everything out, but he also wanted to see if he could potentially extend the time frame. Since his mother would eventually need to aid his father in the workload, someone would have to watch over and teach Joshua as he continued growing.

"I would be willing to stay an additional two years for seven hundred and fifty gold pieces." the guard told Timothy. Now that his family was in a much better position and they were very close to a city, the guard would be able to make trips to purchase items to help in his cultivation while having a somewhat comfortable day job. It was clear that this guard did not have a family of his own, so remaining with Timothy's family was rather ideal for the time being.