A weapon for a slime

Aeldrya was soon back with a couple of beers. She handed the dwarf one without a word and sat down next to him. They both took a big drink. The dwarf finished it with a single gulp.

"This beer is disgusting."

"It's the best I have!"

"Well, it's horrible."

"That tongue of yours is only good for talking nonsense."

"At least I can talk without a stool."

"With who? You don't have friends to talk to."

"And you don't have a chest! Flat chest!"

"Pff, yours isn't that big either."

"But at least I have."

‘This chat is becoming weird…’

"Damn elf!"

"Damn dwarf!"

“You really are the most annoying woman I know.”

“And you are the most grumpy woman I know.”

‘Wait a minute, did she said woman? Woman... woman… wo… man…’

[Resistance “Dementia” is now at level 4.]

"Ah! I almost forgot why I came. Limy, what are you doing still outside? Come here."

At last, she remembered us, who were still standing at the entrance.

"Who is this girl?"

"Well… she's… my apprentice… Her name is Limy."

"You with an apprentice?! Is it the end of the world!”

"Yes, yes… Limy, she is Imliar. She is my best friend and the best blacksmith you will ever find."

—Best friend? Oh, that explains everything.

I finally managed to understand the attitude they had towards each other... She could have started by saying that, for a moment I thought that the erofu had gone crazy.

—Master, shouldn't friends get along?

—Yes, well... Let's see how I explain this so that you understand... When a friend stumbles and falls, you will help him and ask him if he has hurt himself. When that happens to your best friend, you laugh at him and even hit him yourself.

—I don’t understand, master.

—Well, when you have more friends you will understand.

"And not only that, she is the only runesmith you will find in this city. She, too, is the most curmudgeonly person I know."

"Thanks for the compliment… both compliments. And tell me, what do you need me to make this time?"

"Since she is my first apprentice I want her to have good equipment. I need you to make her a weapon that suits her."

"You only come to see me to ask me for things and steal beer... Tell, what weapon it would be this time."

Aeldrya laughed wryly for a few moments and finally let out a dejected sigh.

"Well... I think her best-suited weapon would be a whip."

"A whip? It's a prank? No blacksmith will make you a whip. Nor does it look like the best weapon for an adventurer. Those things can be useful against people or low-grade monsters, but against stronger monsters, it wouldn't even tickle them."

"That is why I come to you. There is no one else who can create one strong enough to substitute a sword or spear."

Imliar frowned at Limy, rubbing her beard with an unpleasant expression, and then, without saying anything more, she went to the back of the house.

"I knew I could trust her," Aeldrya said with a smile.

After about five minutes of waiting, she returned with a piece of paper and handed it to Aeldrya. She began to read it and little by little I could see how her happy expression became one of fear.

"This is serious?"

"Absolutely. If you want me to do what you ask, I will need those materials. I can't think of any other way to fulfill your request."

"Ha... ha... ha... This is going to be hard... Limy, let's go... we will have to go on a trip for a few days."

“Understood.”

We left the smithy and went straight home. The first thing Aeldrya did was take out a map and get thoughtful as she looked at it while muttering nonsense.

"We can buy the alchemical mercury in any alchemy shop… Higher refinement powder can be bought too and it won't be difficult to find… We'll have to hunt for these three ourselves… That... probably I could get it from other adventurers... Plus a core from an amoeboid monster of grade three or higher… Where am I supposed to find that?! Will a metallic slime be worth it? I hope so…"

—I get the feeling that it will be difficult to make that weapon for you. Perhaps we should tell her that it is not necessary... At least not something that seems so complicated to make.

“I don’t need a weapon,” said Limy.

Aeldrya put the map aside and sighed as she looked at Limy with a serious face.

"You may be fine now with an ordinary weapon, but if you aspire to rank up as an adventurer, it will be completely useless."

She got up and went to find something in the room where she kept the weapons. She then appeared with a completely different bow and sword than the ones she had been using so far. The bow was black and had a lot of bright blue characters drawn all over it. The blade of the sword reflected everything around it like a mirror of polished metal and shared those same characters on the hilt.

"I don't normally go around the city with these weapons as they are my most valuable companions. Imliar made these weapons when I was still a rank two adventurer. Without them, I would never have reached rank three."

She put them on the table. She would probably bring them with her tomorrow. In addition, there was also that dagger that she carried around her waist all time. It was completely different from the weapons she had brought and don't seem to be as good to fight as the sword. Although she always carried it with her, she did not mention anything about it. She hadn't taken it out of the sheath, so I couldn't really say much about it either, but it caught my eye more than any other of her weapons.

"Do you know how strong a grade 3 monster is?"

“No.”

"Well, you should know. People usually need to gather in a group to confront these monsters. To give you an idea, I am level 23 and I have the class magic archer at level 7. My highest stats are agility with 54 points and vitality with 58. My other stats are 16, 24, and 39. Do you think they are high?”

Limy nodded. To me, they seemed high too...

"Well, they are not."

'I have 0 in almost everything! Fuck you damn elf!'

"The magic archer is a superior class that only the Sabnuriali can get. The stat bonuses it gives are a bit better than common classes, and it gives a lot of amazing abilities. Apart from that, unlike humans, Sabnuriali get 3 skill points per level. Just because of our species and race we are already 3 times stronger than a human."

'Now I understand why Clotpole said that everyone hated her... I'm starting to hate her too!'

"So now, if we're going to a low-level grade 3 monster. Of course, not all are the same, but at level one, some already reach 100 points in some stats. And if we speak of a high-level monster, they could reach over 3000 points. Do you make an idea of what rank 4 monsters are like?"

That damn bird I faced in the dungeon immediately came to my mind. If I could, I would have broken into a gushing sweat. If that was a grade 3 monster... I had miraculously survived...

—Limy...

—Tell me, master.

—We have to assure that she will make the best weapon she will ever forge in her damn life!