“... where..?” The dy bcksmith questioned when she opened her eyes.

  Lua had used a bit of time with Silpheed to make sure they got all of the onoxide out of the bcksmith’s lungs, before she finally used her copy of Monster Reborn to resurrect the dy.

  Spoiler[colpse]Also, with that smoke bomb out of the fe, we were able to air out the room and got most of the smoke out.

  “... a… a dragon..? Are you … here to take me … to heaven?”

  “Do not think so. You aren’t done livi.” Agunan told her.

  Wait? Is this something normal? Remio ask Agunan ter.

  “I see. So my job… I really must plete it…”

  “What job are you talking about?” I just asked.

  Me speaking up apparently brought the smith’s attention to the fact that there were more people in the room. Her eyes wandered around and stopped at few pces, like taking a good while to look at both Lua and Ria, but just gng over Alice, befain stopping and fog on me, or perhaps my duel disk to be accurate.

  “... are you… a dungeon master? … The dragon has ooo… A dragon, two dungeon masters… and two dhampirs… this must be heaven.”

  Wait? She figured out that both Lua and Ria are dhampirs? How?

  “This is no heaven. We are still in the workshop.” I told her.

  “... are we..?” She seemed to finally be catg on, and she took another look at the room. “... I guess we are… heaven wouldn’t be this run down.”

  Wow. Aowledging that the workshop is in disrepair. Isn’t this your workshop?

  “... so why are you here then? And why am I on this table?”

  “We came here to deliver treant wood. You did request some from the adventurer’s guild, right? We tried to call when we came in, but no one answered, so we came further iually we found you passed out on the floor of your smithing room.” I expined. o add too much about her literal death experience.

  “Passed out?” She questioned.

  “Yeah. The room was super filled with smoke, so I think you passed out because of that.” I again didn’t tell the whole truth, as I don’t think it is a good idea to tell someohey may have been an assassination target.

  “Smoke… Alright… I guess this workshop really is breaking before my will…”

  “Sorry to ask this right now, but we are kind of on a quest here. We brought the treant wood you asked for, so where should we put it?”

  “The wood? Did you really? Now I … but… I don’t…” At first, she seemed to get holy excited, but then she quickly turned crestfallen. “... May I get the wood? … I … for a ission.”

  “Sure. That is what we are here for.”

  “... but I ’t pay the extra I promised on the quest form. You will only get what is on the guild paper.” She told us. “... is that still fine?”

  I looked at Alice. Admittedly, I hadn’t fully read the guild’s quest form, so I didn’t even know about this additional reward.

  “I think it did mention it. But I just picked it because it was a quick easy quest for us.” Alice admitted.

  “Then perhaps read the form properly ime…” I just ented. “Well, whatever.”

  “... excuse me, but what are you talking about?” The smith asked.

  “Don’t worry about it. So, the wood? Where do you want it?”

  “Just put it there.” She said, as she poi the floor. “Now… maybe I still keep my freedom…”

  Keep her freedom? Is there something bad happening to it?

  “Excuse me, but may I ask something?”

  “I guess? What is it? I still won’t have the extra money, but if you want, I service your ons. I’d love to make something new, but… I don’t have materials for anything but…”

  “No. Not that. What do you actually he treant wood for? And what do you mean ‘keep your freedom’?”

  “Oh that. It is just a ission I have for the town’s lord. He requested I make him a treant wood staff with a magic stone. And if I ’t, he will take my workshop and turo a sve because of a debt I owe him.” The smith expined. “I don’t really care about the shop and I’ll have to turn it over anyway. I’ve been pnning on leaving the town anyway, as I just don’t have ers any more. But because of the debt I have, I have to plete this job, or I’ll be made a sve. But now. I have the wood, the magic stone and the fittings, so I plete the job.” She added, with clear determination in her voice.

  “I really ot reend that.” Lua cut in. “You were passed out just a moment ago. You should be resting, not w.”

  “... there really was a dhampir here… Why is there a dhampir in my shop?”

  “Perhaps some introdus are in order.” I said.

  “I am Wilhelmina from Sm.” The smith introduced herself. “I’m also the owner of this workshop. … though I’m also the only one w here currently.”

  We had all already introduced ourselves, she was the st.

  “... Lord Wood.”

  “Please, just Brian. I only use my full name when I operate as a the moment, I’m just an adventurer.”

  “... Lord Wood. Would you be… in need of an artisan?” Wilhelmina asked. “... as you see, my shop isn’t doing that well. So I’ve sidered moving away after pleting my current ission. So perhaps… you might need an artisan? … I also fight… if that is what you need. I keep your ons in tip top shape while out on jobs. And I’m good with a shield, so I keep everyone safe. So… Lord Wood, would you please hire me?”

  “... is that really what you should be asking now?” I just asked her. “Don’t you have like seven bigger problems, like losing your freedom if you don’t plete the staff? Worry about your hing after that.”

  “Brian. You know she should rest.” Lua said, with a somewhat strict tone.

  “I know.” I admitted. “Just reminding her.”

  I say that but holy, getting a bcksmith might not be a bad idea. I have Kotetsu, but having a local person w for me is not bad at all. And it’s not like I ’t pay her.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]

  As I was thinking over my options, a system s opened up.

  Missiohe BcksmithInfo: Artisan and bcksmith Wilhelmina has run into some trouble that might end up with her as a sve. Help her plete the staff issioned by the town’s Lord and deliver it to him. Make sure Wilhelmina doesn’t end up as a sve.Goal: Make sure Wilhelmina is able to keep her freedom.Reward: Opens Promo Trades ‘Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories’, ‘Yu-Gi-Oh! The Eternal Duelist Soul’, ‘Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel’ and ‘Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom’.Note: If no a is taken, no reward will be given. Even if Wilhelmina is able to keep her freedom.… System? Are you sure this is the time you should send me a mission? Well, I don’t miing o still.

  But because I have to take a, let’s do just that.

  “How about this, we will help you plete your ission, and then we sider you joining our party?”

  “... why are you just her help?” Alice questioned. “Don’t tell me it is her boobs.”

  “You know I don’t care about that.” Boob size doesn’t matter. What matters is the person they are attached to. (Besides, getting a skilled artisan w for me couldn’t be a bad thing, right?) I added, with our system link.

  (I know. I know.) Alice responded. (And I guess I could see the use for one. But your monsters already do that, don’t they?)

  (For the future, I mean. If we really are going to start some sort of school or something, we will need personnel. Including people for maintenance. And she might be perfect for that.) I gave my reasoning.

  “So, what do you think? Do you accept my offer?” I asked Wilhelmina.

  “NO! This piece… I ’t use this… Did I really not finish it?” Wilhelmina, or Wilma as she asked to go by, yelled out as she saw some sort of metal fitting on the anvil in the f room.

  “... is there something wrong with it?” I asked. The fitting looked fine enough to my eyes.

  “Loht here. A crack. I must not have cooled it properly and a craed.” She poi one point with her finger, but I actually couldn’t see anything wrong with it. “It will interrupt the flow of magic, so if you tried using something with this, that point would gather energy aually break.”

  “’t you repair it?”

  “No. I’d have to refe the entire piece. But I’ll lose too much material if I try to refe this one. And I don’t have any more materials for a new one. I’ve made multiple of these fittings over the st month, but I had to sell them for food money, so I ran out of the raw material.”

  “I see.” So problem one. We need a new fitting. I do have materials in ste, so we could make one. … but this o be done in two days, so let’s try the cheaty route. “ I hold it for a sed?” I asked.

  “... that’s fine, but why?.” Wilma asked, as she handed me the fitting.

  After receiving it, I took it into Ste and used Ste’s repair fun to fix it. Then I took it back out and ha back.

  “... what… did you just do to this? The crack… is gone? As are the hammer marks… How?”

  “I’ll expin some other time. you use it now?” Because the fitting was sidered both the a material and a finished product, I could actually use both Material Quality Increase and Item Maintenan it. If it was a fully finished product, I would have only been able to use Item Maintenan it, but as it is still sidered a material, I could also use Material Quality Increase.

  “Yes. It is perfect. Thank you.” Wilma thanked me as she closely looked at the item from all sides.

  “Alright. So the staff , right? What kind of treant wood do you want for it?”

  “... what do you mean?”

  “I mean do you want bright-wood treant? Or crimso? Maybe cotta treant? Aqua treant? Dark-root treant? Or razorleaf treant? Do you have a preference?”

  “... you have all of them? Aren’t they all B-rank monsters?”

  “Yeah. I do also have some of the standard k treant wood, if you prefer that.” I won’t be mentioning the world treant, for obvious reasons. o use something like that for this ission.

  “... I really pick? Those are… quite valuable materials.”

  “Don’t worry. When you start w for me, you’ll soon learn that I have access to some good materials. So as long as you work hard ter, I don’t mind a bit of expe this point. And I think you should really impress Baron Peks with your st job.”

  The staff material ended up being cotta treant, and Wilma got to work carving the staff into form. At lunch time, we interrupted her and ‘forced’ her to take a lunch break.

  During the break, we learned a few hings about Wilma. She was a dwarf, just an abnormally tall one. And the try she is from is on the northern edge of Ruiso Kingdom.

  Because of her height, other dwarves were making fun of her, callihings like ‘Little Giant’ or ‘Troll dwarf’ so after her training at home, she decided to go out and founded her own workshop.

  It was quite popur at first, and she even had a total of 5 other people w here.

  But then a big pany made their own workshop in this town. And because they just had access to cheaper materials, more variety, and the pany name bringing in ers, in just a few years that new workshop got all of Wilma’s workers to move to it instead.

  Because of how bad her shop was doing, Wilma took a reasonable loan from the town’s lord, Baron Peks, but because she hasn’t been able to pay it back, she went uhe threat of being turned into a sve. But the Baron made a deal with her. If she could make him a treant wood staff, he would only take the workshop and she could go free.

  You might think the noble is beiful or something, but you have to remember, loans are loans. And in this world, if you ’t pay back your loan, you will be turned into a sve.

  But now, that shouldn’t be a problem. With me using my entire monster lineup, as well as my Ste materials, by the end of the day, we had quite the formidable treant staff made. Well, you’d still o build it up, by passing mana through it, but other than that, it erfectly fine.

  Oh. And o thing. I asked Agunan and Wilma about the ‘taking to heaven’ thing. Apparently it is some dwarf legend that dragons will take dwarves to heaven after they pass.

  “What? You ’t sleep here.” Lua told Wilma as she heard Wilma was going to be sleeping in the workshop.

  “Not like I have a choice. It is either here, or oreet. At least here I’ll have a roof over my head.”

  “Not happening. You are ing with us.” Lua said, and nearly dragged Wilma behind her. “Brian will get you a room at the inn.”

  “Using me as a wallet already? Well, I guess that is fine.” I joked.

  “Just let me take the staff into my Item Box.” Wilma said, before Lua had time t her off.

  Yeah. Apparently Wilma has some strange skills, like Item Box and some sort of appraisal. She ’t see statuses or anything, but she tell people’s races. Well, she ’t actually see mine, because of level difference. Lua and Ria seem to both show up as dhampirs to her, and Alice seems to still be a human to her appraisal skill. Maybe it just cks levels to be useful, or we are just too high leveled, so we resist it? Well, I’ll find out with time.

  But still, I’m getting some sort of picture, maybe. I meant why this is happening to Wilma. I think there was some mert that wao use her Appraisal and Item Box skills. robably refused, so the mert made a new workshop iown to outdo hers. Then she would either fall into svery and the mert could purchase her, or she would just agree to his offer, now with much worse terms than before. Well, that is just a theory I have.

  And if she does agree to work for me, we won’t have anything to worry about. If some random mert tries to mess with me, I’ll deal with it. And if there is a noble involved…

  Well, I’ll see what I do.