Raid: The Blacksmith-Chapter 85: Talk of The Town: Part One

I hold Taipan’s obsidian snake fang shaped daggers in my hands after disarming him of them. "These are really nice." I point out while looking at them with my Soul-Piercing Eyes Skill. "Seems they’re made of Poison Steel and some other substance I don’t know of. I’ll find out what it is as soon as I put the daggers in the Item Space, surely. Crazy thing is, even though they’re not made of just Poison Steel, the poison properties in them hasn’t been degraded on the same level that the poison in the Thousand Twin Death Needles was. It’s still water compared to Gu Poison, but it’s much stronger than the poison the Death Needles secreted, regardless of the fact that the Death Needles were made entirely out of Poison Steel." I observe with intrigue.

"Interesting... some complex, possibly very expensive processing must have gone down to make these weapons, I’m sure of it..." I pause. "Still, I honestly don’t know what I’ll use these daggers for. The Fangs are fine. I don’t think they necessarily need any more advancements unless I’m using pure Poison Steel, which I’ll either have to buy, or find myself by exploring the S-Rank Dungeon, meaning they’re out of the equation... hmm..." I mull it all over. "Should I use them to make those new knives I promised Peyton? Hold on... does she even use poison...?" I wonder. "Hah... no... I don’t think she does... Maybe I can turn them into an entirely new weapon and see if I can sell it. I did contemplate the idea of building a smithy. Thing is, we’ve already established that my weapons are dangerous. I can’t just sell them off to... just anyone..."

"If only there was a way to adjust the quality of the weapons I create." Then it hits me.

"Wait... why isn’t there a way to adjust the quality of the weapons I create?" I ask myself. "No, there should be. I’m the one creating the weapons, aren’t I? If I want to make a weapon that sucks, I should be able to make a weapon that sucks, same way I’m able to make a weapon that’s pretty fucking fantastic, when I want to make a weapon that’s pretty fucking fantastic." I affirm, a hint of pride carried in my tone. "It’s settled then. I’ll build a smithy, where I’ll sell some of the weapons I create. I’ll situate it in the Item Space, so no one can intrude it easily." I finish.

"Speaking of the Item Space..."

....

"Master...! Master! Can you hear me!?" Is the sound of Dawn basically screaming at me telepathically after I relink our Soul Bond along with the Item Space.

"Yes, I can hear you, calm down already-"

"Oof!" I cough as Dawn emerges from the Item Space in an instant, materializing in pixel form to tackle me, her head smashing hard against my chest, causing me to back up by around two metres or so.

"What the hell is wrong with you!? Why are you so mean!?" She yells at me in a panic, after adjusting herself up straight and placing her hands on my shoulders, shaking me back and forth. "Don’t you know how worried I was!? Why would you cut me off like that!?" She continues screaming at me like a child with a tantrum, small tears pricking from the corners of her pale eyes. "Are you okay!? Are you... you... y-you’re... you’re... You’re okay!" She notices with a genuinely surprised expression as her eyes start focusing to look at me clearly. "How... h-how did you..!? But you were...! I saw your...!" She babbles incoherently, trying to make sense of what’s in front of her eyes.

With a smug look on my face, I point behind her. She looks after letting me go and almost immediately as she does, her expression turns pale. Which is without a doubt saying something, because her complexion is already incredibly pale to begin with. "Wh-what! That’s...! But you were...! B-but he was...!"

"Did going into the Item Space take away your ability to speak comprehensible words or something?" I ask.

"This is not a joke, Master!?" She shouts back at me. "How did this happen!? How is he dead, and... how are you still...!?"

"Oh? Are you implying you had no faith in your Master winning the fight after all, then?" I question her with a condescending smirk on my face.

"Th-th-that’s not what I’m saying at all!" She quickly defends herself, pushing her hands out towards me and waving them side to side in a fit of slight panic. It’s freaking adorable. "I know how capable you are, Master, but there’s still the subject of what I saw with my own eyes. He almost killed you. He even sliced off your limbs with a Spiritual Attack so Resilient Regeneration couldn’t have fixed you and yet, here you are, good as new, not to mention your body is glowing for some reason." She points out as she observes, adjusting herself while she wipes off the small tears under her eyes.

"Ah, that... right." The white light still enveloping my body dissipates after she says that, under no control of my own at that, rather basically instinctively in response to her pointing it out to me. Ignoring it, I regulate my Mana to get rid of the damages on my clothes.

"Hah... You’re actually not wrong." I agree with her. "I can’t exactly explain it, since I’m also somewhat still trying to wrap my head around it." I add as I teleport the Twin Fangs and Taipan’s daggers in the Item Space. "Bunch of stuff happened, really. There was like... this voice in my head, but then it turned out that it was just my subconscious, meaning chances are, I was just talking to myself, so it might not be relevant to the sudden power up... maybe... I mean... it gave me the determination to... ’’get the fuck up’’ and start getting serious, which led me to taking full control of the Aspect of Tenacity. So there’s that. And that’s what healed me. Then there was also this... energy... thingy, that... kind of felt like Mana, but... kind of wasn’t? Because it didn’t heal my clothes? Then after that, boom, I killed him." I finish explaining.

Dawn just looks at me with the most confused expression I’ve ever seen form on a person’s face. Then after a long pause, she speaks. "Master... did you-?"

"I did not hit my head." I cut her off. And even if I did, I’m a Warrior. The effects wouldn’t last long, that’s if they even take root.

"Are you sure?" Dawn asks. What worries me is that the question sounds really genuine. "Voices in your head?" She continues. "Mana that’s Mana but isn’t Mana? Are you really sure you didn’t hit your head when you were fighting him?"

"I’ll tell you one thing. I will in fact hit your head if you don’t stop talking." I say to her while looking at her with a nonchalant expression. She pauses at my statement.

"You know, some might say, threatening your daughter with physical abuse isn’t the right way to go about "disciplining" her." She punctuates with finger quotes and a sophisticated tone. Yeah, right.

"Well, ’some’ ain’t me." I reply. "And I’d like to think it’s a different matter with us. If my so called daughter can tank an entire building thrown straight at her, then I’m sure she can handle a bonk of two from me."

"Wow... fine... I won’t ask anymore questions." She caves with an exhausted sigh. "It’s not like I’d get any solid answers anyway. I doubt you’re trying to hide anything from me. No. You just suck at explaining things."

"At least now we know who you take after." She giggles with a slight hint of embarrassment as I say that.

"Alright then." I say as I wave my right hand to the side, conjuring an object out of the Item Space in the process.

Dawn simply watches as a shovel pixelates next to my palm. But not just any shovel. The Great Shovel.

After it materializes, I grab it and start digging. I dig and dig and dig until I’ve dug up a big enough hole to bury someone’s body in.

I plunge the Great Shovel down by the side of the hole and then activate the Tetrax Skill, conjuring waves of wind afterwards to cause Taipan’s body and head to float upwards. I then float them towards the hole and carefully lay his body in the hole, then follow up by putting his head in there as well, placing it on his chest.

Satisfied, I deactivate Tetrax and take out the Great Shovel from the ground then start putting all the soil combined with snow that I dug out, back in the hole.

"Master-"

"He’s no Hayzar... but he’s still different." I say to Dawn before letting her finished what she wanted to say. I can vaguely tell what it may be. It’s come to my attention that Dawn may not have the same sympathy I’m capable of having towards my enemies. I’m no saint to my enemies, that goes without saying. But with Dawn, it’s different, she has genuine hate for them. I don’t blame her. Her loyalty is with me and only me.

What with my goals, I’ll obviously have more enemies down the line. Some will be deserving of some level of respect, some, not so much. All I need to do, is make sure I teach her to understand the difference between the two.

"Alright then." I say after a short moment of silence, transferring the Great Shovel back into the Item Space. "It’s been a very long day. And I’m honestly tired. Let’s get out of here."

"Yes, Master." Dawn replies as we start heading towards the Dungeon Gate.

It’s a long run, or at least it would be, if we weren’t so fast.

As soon as we arrive by the portal. I tell Dawn to go back into the Item Space so as to not cause a scene. She battles me about it a bit but eventually caves.

"Fiiiine... I guess I’ll see you later then." She says as she disappears into the Item Space.

"What a troublesome kid."

"I heard that!" Dang it.

Ignoring that outburst, I step through the portal, therefore leaving the Dungeon. Finally.

As I step out, I’m met with-

~Clack!~Clack!~Clack!~Clack!~Clack!~

"Mr Raid!"

~Clack!~Clack!~Clack!~

"Mr Raid-!"

"-Mr Raid!"

~Clack!~Clack!~Clack!~Clack!~Clack!~Clack!~Clack!~

Flashes. A countless number of flashes. They throw me off a bit as I instinctively raise my right hand to cover my eyes.

I focus my gaze afterwards and start seeing clearly. In front of me is a crowd, a very sizable crowd of people with digital cameras and tablets for what I assume would be taking notes.

"Paparazzi." I say to myself.

They continue taking multiple pictures, cutting each other off in an attempt to talk to me.

"Mr Raid! Is it true you cleared this Dungeons on your own?" One asks.

"I don’t know, you tell me." I answer with a smirk and snap my fingers. The Dungeon Gate closes behind me as I do. "I can aura farm too."

The crowd goes wild after that. Everybody gasping in amazement. The two guards try to do their best to control the crowd, politely trying to push everyone back to give me some space, while the crowd keeps throwing questions at me.

"Is it true you’re an F-Rank-!?"

"Tell us about the Dungeon-!"

"What was the Boss monster like-!?"

"Is it true you can obtain the Boss’s Skills if you defeat it alone-!?"

"What Skills did you gain-!?"

"How did you defeat it!? How are you still so clean-!?"

"That suit! Do you work for the Warriors Association!?"

I don’t answer a single one of them. My mind wanders, leaving me lost in thought.

"Hah... it was bound to happen sooner or later, I guess. Wonder what Peyton’s up to, right now."

"Hah. Knew you liked her."

"Shut up."