It's perfect

Sitting at the somewhat large mahogany dining table in the living room, Kris nudged Asbjørn's side when Lars entered the room, he wasn't exactly in the cleanest state, having worked in the smithy for multiple hours, though he had at least taken the time to clean his hands.

"Seems like you didn't really need to take that bath after all, your dad doesn't look to be in a much better state appearance wise." He joked.

"Nah, it was a much-needed bath, it really helped in multiple ways," Asbjørn courtly replied before realization struck him. "It was a joke, wasn't it?"

"Sigh. Yes, yes it was."

'I really need to get better at recognizing jokes.' Asbjørn thought to himself in silence, watching the situation that was about to unfold.

It wasn't until Lars, who appeared a lot more exhausted than usual, had taken a seat opposite Kris that he actually noticed the guy, and a big, but tired, smile immediately blossomed on his face.

"Hey Kris, been a while since I've seen you, how're you doing?"

"I've been doing great, the dungeon dives have been going quite well recently. How's life been going for you?"

Lars slowly nodded in acceptance of what Kris was saying, before puffing in annoyance at the question.

"Boss' been getting on my nerves the past few days, and for some reason we were all told to stay home today; I don't know why, but I certainly don't mind it. Because of Boss' decision, I've been able to begin forging a sword for Asbjørn."

"That does indeed sound quite annoying. I hope it'll improve when you return."

"Thanks kid, let's hope that." Lars chuckled, as if to bring the conversation away from that subject.

Just as they were about to continue with another subject, Linda interrupted them by placing the final saucepan on the table, "Anyway boys, what do you think of eating while the food's hot?"

Seeing this as a chance to finally get something to eat, Asbjørn immediately expressed his agreement with Linda, "Why don't you start, Kris, guests first after all."

Kris facepalmed at the mention of Linda's food, "Ah yes, the food. how could I forget about it; I had been looking forward to it so much," -his voice turned slightly apologetic- "Sorry Linda."

His reaction got a light giggle from Linda before she told him to just begin.

Dinner passed with a lot of talk, and somehow, despite being the person who both ate and talked the most, Kris finished before anyone else. Before leaving, he helped Asbjørn clean away after dinner.

"By the way, where's Anna? I'd like to at least say hi as it's been a while."

"Don't know; probably at a friend's place."

Drying off the last saucepan, Kris smiled as he moved over to the drawer and placed it inside.

"Too bad. I guess I'll just go now then unless there's something else?"

Taking a look at his watch, Asbjørn saw that it was approaching 21.

"Nah, there's nothing else," he said and followed Kris to the entrance where he gave him a hug. "See you on Sunday."

"Yeah, see you dude." With that said, he left to go back home, while Asbjørn decided to do some research online tonight, and then spend most of tomorrow training on the dummy.

The following day was spent working on mainly one pressing issue, that being bad edge alignment. This was something that Kris had pointed out as well, but they had decided to focus more on general movement than the finer details, as it was easier to train the latter alone.

A little after noon, Asbjørn had resumed his training after a lunch break and had finally gotten into a training flow, but all good things must come to an end, some sooner than others. He felt a hand touch his shoulder and sprang away in surprise, as had music in his ears to help him block out the surrounding world.

With his focus now back on the world around him, he noticed the sound of a girl laughing, so he turned around while turning off his music.

Before him stood a girl a couple years younger than himself. She stood almost a head beneath him and smiled widely. Her bright blue eyes shone and after a couple seconds, he noticed that her straight, auburn hair that barely touched her shoulders was shorter than usual, as it'd normally reach past her shoulders while curled. And last but not least, she had changed from one of her usual skirts to a pair of cut-off denim shorts, but she had kept to her crop tops.

"Missed me?" Anna asked in a teasing tone.

"No, not really. Besides, you only stayed at a friend's place for one night," -He quickly shot down her teasing, and knowing that she'd be surprised if he actually commented on her hair, he decided to do that- "and I see that your hair was cut."

"Yeah, I didn't miss you either," -Her expression and tone took on an exaggerated tone- "Ohhh reaallyy now. I hadn't noticed that myself." To which he just rolled his eyes.

Then she continued in a more thankful tone, "Thanks for noticing though, you rarely do."

"So, you're finally allowed to go into the dungeon?"

"Yeah, dad lent me a blunt sword for training while he makes one specifically for me."

She just nodded along with what he was saying, "Cool cool, do you think you could maybe bring me with you into the dungeon when I turn 15? I don't want to wait an extra three years."

Had Asbjørn had water in his mouth, it'd all have been spat out at the suggestion, "God no, the fuck's up with that idea? Do you want me thrown out that much?"

"You're right, that was too much, instead you just have to do well, then I can hopefully instead convince them to have you bring me there. How does that sound?"

He heaved a large sigh, "Yeah yeah, just don't ever bring up that first idea ever again."

A wide smile blossomed on her face, "Thanks, I'll keep you to that, so please do well in the dungeon. Anyway, I promised Stine to call her soon, so I'll go do that. See ya later."

"Alright, see you later."

As Asbjørn was about to continue training, he realized that Anna had just guilted him into agreeing with her plan, and even though he'd probably have said yes anyway, that really annoyed him.

Fueled by a river of frustrations and curses, he resumed an even more heated attack on the dummy.

Before Asbjørn laid a scabbard with a nice handle and guard at the opening. He had just finished cleaning away from the dinner that finished around five minutes prior, and he now stood in the workshop with his dad behind the table in front of him.

Lars gestured to the sword, "Don't just stare at it, try it and check its status."

Spurred on by his dad, he took the sword and pulled it out of the scabbard.

The dark, leather wrapped handle fitted perfectly in his hand, far better than any weapon, be it real or fake, ever had before.

The pommel was formed as a cylinder that was laid on its side, allowing him to hold the sword with both hands without any real discomfort, while not having to deal with too large a handle. Its two edges had also been smoothed out to give it a more comfortable hold.

The guard stuck out around a little over six centimeters on each side and had a slight curve. It was a little wider than tall, with the height being around 1.5 centimeters.

The metal for both parts, presumably a type of steel, had a mat shine and light gray color.

Unlike the guard and pummel, the blade had a much cleaner look and shine. It continued for around eighty centimeters from the guard, slowly becoming narrower, with the last couple centimeters dedicated to rapidly narrowing it into the tip.

The sword had a great balance when he held it, regardless of him using one or two hands.

He finally decided to check the status of it.

[[Item name: Stolthed (A/N: Means pride in English)

Rank: Unique

Description: Stolthed is a sword imbued with a dad's feelings for his son's growth. These feelings allowed him to smith a sword that has the ability to take on the core attributes of the user when they break through. Stolthed is forged from high quality metals and has the power to withstand most blows without bending, breaking, or dulling in any meaningful way, though that also makes it harder to sharpen when it does dull.

Effect: +25% cutting power; +10% piercing power; +50% hardness; +50% toughness

Owner: Asbjørn Nielsen]]

Even though Asbjørn didn't know much about items, he could still tell that this item was anything but ordinary, especially with the Unique rank. So, after coming over the shock of it, he placed it back down on the table and went over to hug his dad.

"Thank you so much dad, it's absolutely perfect."

Lars just laughed and ruffled Asbjørn's hair, even though he was only slightly taller than his son.

"Of course it is, I'm the one who made it." He got out of the hug and turned Asbjørn to face the sword. "Now, take the sword and sheath it before you leave, and then you just have to go rest to be ready for tomorrow, as even if your friends will be there with you, you better be fresh and ready."

With that said, Asbjørn took the sword and sheathed it, before leaving the shop to head to bed. "Good night dad, see you tomorrow."

And although it took him a bit due to excitement, he managed to fall asleep before it become all that late.

A/N: sorry for just disappearing during the summer, but my brain didn't really want to get in a writing mood, so I didn't get anything done, and this first week of school and a good bit of summer break has gone with reading all of One Piece, but I'll hopefully be able to get some more work done on this story from now on.

I had the entire chapter written like a month ago, but real life (mostly school) and other stuff just got in the way of me proofreading it, so it took until now for me to get it done. For the reasons I just mentioned, expect the upload schedule to be even more fucked up than it was for GCP.