Weapon Refining

"Why didn't you give him money to clean himself? Better yet, why haven't you spent money to clean yourself?" Minos asked the dirty Rubella.

"I didn't know when you'd come back master, so I thought wasting money on a shower was too frivolous." Rubella said, lowering her head in shame.

"It's alright, just know that as long as I'm around, you don't have to worry about wasting money, just take care of yourself." Minos said, not blaming her as he patted the dust off her head.

He understood Rubella's past, and knew that keeping clean had never been a priority for her. Things like this could only come with time as Rubella got used to a more prosperous lifestyle.

"Alright, say goodbye to your friends. It's time to go back to learning." Minos said, as he began walking out of the alley.

"Bye guys, I'll meet up with you all later!" Rubella shouted, as she waved goodbye to her buddies.

"Boss, what should I do?" Beetus asked as he followed behind Minos.

"I have a job for you Beetus, the question is, are you up for it?" Minos asked as he turned towards Beetus.

"I'll do anything you ask, boss!" Beetus said as he pounded his chest in confidence.

"Good, then what I want is both simple and hard. I want you to take charge of this group of kids." Minos said.

"Take charge, but why?" Beetus asked in confusion.

"I want to use them as my eyes and ears, meanwhile, you'll act as my brain." Minos said.

"Uhhh, I don't understand?" Beetus said as he scratched his head with a naive look on his face.

"I want these children to go around keeping an eye out for any news. Once they have something, they'll tell you, and you decide if it's important or not." Minos explained in simpler terms.

"Ahh, I understand!" Beetus said with excitement.

"Smart man. Remember, if you get any important news or if you need help, tear this talisman, it'll send me a signal." Minos said as he handed Beetus a signal talisman.

Signal talismans were the lowest level among communication talisman's, incapable of actually transferring any information.

These talisman's existed in pairs, and once one was activated, the other would similarly activate, turning to dust.

Minos would love to have a transmission talisman, which was capable of sending audio, but unfortunately even the worst transmission talisman was a Four-Moon level item, which was currently out of his grasp.

"You kids, come here for a second." Minos said as he finished talking to Beetus.

"What do you want mister?" One of the older girls asked.

"Would you like to work for me?" Minos asked, having no intention to force these children to do something they didn't want to.

But as beggars, how could they possibly refuse any chance for work. It didn't take long after Minos said those words for the group to start jumping, trying to get the opportunity.

"Me, me, I'll work extra hard!"

"Ignore him, he has a bum leg, he can't even walk properly!"

"Who are you to speak? I've seen birds outwit you!"

"Alright, calm down everyone. This is a job you can all take." Minos said, causing the small group of children to stop their stampede.

"The job is easy, I want you to keep your eyes and ears out, looking for any interesting information."

"I'll give you five meat buns a day, whether you can get any information or not, but if you do get information, I'll pay you a bonus."

"The more valuable the information, the more I'll give you. If you hear or see anything interesting, tell Beetus, and he'll tell me. So, are you up for it?" Minos finished with a smile.

"Of course, that's easy!"

"Five meat buns a day, and we don't even have to do anything? You must be lying mister, that seems too good to be true." One of the smarter children said in suspicion, causing the others to nod in agreement.

"Five meat buns may seem like a lot to you guys, but it's nothing for me. The world you know is a small one, for those strong men in the real world, even a million meat buns wouldn't be worth a second of their time." Minos said.

"Impossible!" One of the children shouted, feeling their entire worldview had been shattered.

"Possible, and as long as you work for me, you may have a chance to see that world, maybe even become part of it." Minos said, dropping another bomb.

"For real?" a little boy said in wonder, as the other started to discuss this amazing piece of news Minos had just tossed on them.

"I have no reason to lie to you all." Minos said, not having an intent to keep placating them.

Fortunately for Minos however, it seemed they started to believe him, and they didn't ask any questions.

Minos had them sign a basic form just to keep everything organized. Of the 17 children here, all of them signed up, giving Minos 17 official info gatherer's.

With Beetus acting as a captain and these children as spies, the basic backbone of Minos's organization had been developed. While it was still far from being compared to a real group, Minos was still proud.

"Also, I want you all to keep your eyes out for a man, if you see him, make sure to tell Beetus right away." Minos said as he described Venix's appearance, even going so far as to quickly make a sketch of him for Beetus to use in the future.

The children nodded as they firmly burned the man's appearance into their memories. Minos smiled in appreciation, happy to see they took their work seriously.

That was one thing beggar children had over well-off children, they understood the value of a coin, so they took any work given to them very seriously.

This mentality was the very least someone needed for success, so Minos had high expectations for this small group.

Seeing everything was in order, Minos decided it was time to go. Calling Rubella one more time, the two soon left the alley behind, leaving Beetus and the 17 children to get to work on their new jobs.

Before they headed back to their cave in the Underwood Mountain Range, Minos wanted to buy a few things.

Before the auction threw off his first course of action, he was originally going to try to learn weapon refining, starting with the Wood-Shift Dagger.

Now that he was back and had the free time, it was time to put this back on the menu. Of course before any of that, he needed to buy the necessary tools and ores for weapon refining.

Arriving at the Nine Treasures House, Minos efficiently ordered the items he needed. A small furnace along with some other essential tools.

He also ordered Hundred-Year Wood and Ten-Fold Steel to build the Wood-Shift Dagger from, buying enough to make a dozen attempts with, as well as some cheap practice material to train with.

Having everything he needed, he and Rubella left, exiting Underwood City and re-entering the Underwood Mountain Range.

…

The journey to the cave was a fast one, and Minos couldn't help but take in a deep breath of contentment, feeling like he had truly come home.

Rubella had a look of disgust on her face as she saw Minos relish in the comfort of the filthy cave. She was by no means clean, but at least she didn't live in a cave.

Minos naturally noticed her look of disgust, as well as the aura of disgust that surrounded her, but he ignored it.

"Home sweet home." he said with a smile.

"Master, for someone who told me to take a shower, you sure do love to live in filth." Rubella said.

"Filth? Looks pretty clean to me, and besides, as long as you take a dip in the river everyday, you'll be clean no matter where you live." Minos said, as he knocked a thick cloud of dust off Rubella's hair.

"Speaking of a dip in the river, you should go take one. Come back when you're clean." Minos said as he shooed Rubella off.

Rubella wanted to argue, but Minos ignored her, focusing on how he was about to go about making his Wood-Shift Dagger.

Seeing Minos ignoring her, Rubella could only stomp her foot in anger, eventually heading to the river to get clean like Minos asked.

With Rubella leaving, Minos could focus fully on refining. Having already fully memorized the instructions to create the Wood-Shift Dagger, all that was left was hands-on experience.

First he had to ignite the furnace to an exact temperature. Overheating would cause the Ten-Fold Steel to instead become more brittle, meanwhile, under-heating would make the steel impossible to work with.

Hence when it came to refining, control of heat was a critical skill that could not be lacking. Many amateurs would fail dozens of times at this step before getting a feel for the proper temperature.