What's inside the mirror?

I slowly tried to open my eyes. It was an extremely strange feeling. My body felt slightly sore, and the air, just like Nail had told me, it felt different. Not in a bad way, though. It actually felt cleaner? Honestly, I couldn't really explain it, but it felt good.

"Took you long enough," said Nail, standing with his arms crossed, looking at me.

I nodded. Honestly, there was nothing I could say, I was too surprised. Then I noticed we were in what seemed like a town. I was surprised. Even though I knew how the Mother Mirror worked, thanks to some of the books I''ve read, it was still shocking. Nail, as if he could read my mind, answered before I could even speak. "The Mother Mirror has some mechanisms. One of them is that any constructions around it will still remain, even after the time change. Another thing it does is protect itself from the 'darkness.' That also includes any beings infected by it." Honestly, I was surprised ,tho I knew about the fact that people could build around the mother mirror, it was much more cooler hearing it coming from an explorer, I mean they are the ones who wrote the 85% of the information we have until now about the Reflection into public books, but what really got me surprised was the information about the darkness, to be honest, I just know what the books say, ''A srange black fog that covers some places inside the Reflective word , having contact with it is extremly dangerous.'' It really sounded weird, I'll ask Nail later, its better to focus on what he wants to show me.

Following close behind Nail, we walked through the town's streets. The town had a rustic kind of structure, somewhat similar to Celin. After around ten minutes of sightseeing and exploring, we ended up in what seemed to be a forge. Inside was a man who looked to be around forty. His long blond hair was tied back in a ponytail, and his eyes were a blue, almost cyan color. He wore a blacksmith's apron and a pair of large black gloves. "Hm? Nail? I thought you left with everyone else. Did something happen?" the blacksmith asked, wiping sweat from his forehead with a rag."No, everything's fine. I've been training this kid for a while now, and today's his first time in the Reflection. I thought I'd get him a little present," Nail said, pointing at me.I nodded and gave the man a small wave. Then I realized what Nail had said—a present? I didn't really mind, as long as I could use it to hunt. "This is Nicholas," Nail continued. "He's part of the Explorers like me, but he's not the best when it comes to exploring or fighting. So, he basically works as the blacksmith for the official members." Nicholas looked at me. At first, he seemed surprised, but after a few seconds, he cleared his throat and extended his hand for a handshake. "I see. So, Nail is training you, huh? What's your name?"

I took his hand and shook it. "Yes, he's been training me for a while. He's good at it. My name is Mergo. A pleasure to meet you." As we shook hands, I noticed the strength of his grip, Nicholas could easily crush my hand if he wanted to. Those hands were really scary.

"So... a small gift? I suppose a combat knife should do fine?" Nicholas asked turning his head towards Nail, while he let me go of the handshake, "Yeah that's what I was about to say, preferable a tactical knife." said Nail as he looked at Nicholas. "Sure I had a few already done, just get one which the boy feels comfortable, and dont worry it's on the house." Nicholas said as he pointed at a door behind him, Nail quickly moved and we got inside the room. This room was not as hot as the one which Nicholas was, it had shelves and shelves with tons of weapons, from simple weapons as Cestus to what it seemed greatswords. "You know why I'm gifting you a weapon?" I heard Nails voice behind me. "Yeah, because a common knife even if it can kill a reflected criature with a low infection of darkness, its basically useless against something stronger." Even tho I was not completely sure that was the bestu assumption I could make. "Huh...I didn't think you would actually read them." What Nail meant by that was that he a few weeks ago he lent me some books that the Hares wrote about hunting reflected criatures. "Yeah I had some free time so..." After a few more minutes of glaring at the weapons, I found where the knives were, there I stood seeing six different knives, even tho they were similar, they each seemed different on their own way, but they all seemed to glow slightly. after a few minutes of staring I grabbed the fourth one, it didnt look like the heaviest or sharpiest but it was light. "Thats the sturdiest of them all" I looked back as I saw Nicholas lazily looking from the fram of the door. "It's a good option , a knife should be light and used for a close range fight, plus , you don't want your knife to break in the middle of the fight right? and more when it comes to a close ranged combat." I got silent and after a few seconds I spoke up "I'll get this one then"