nThe Blacksmith’s Arrival

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n“Ooh, Gozoh! Thanks for calling me. Is Roppu doing well?”

n“Kantra! You’ve come! Aye, full of energy as usual.”

nInside the small guild branch, there were two bearded dwarf ossans. 1

nGozoh was the C-Rank adventurer that defeated the iron golem to collect its iron.

nThen this new person, Kantra, is probably the blacksmith.

nTo make a magic sword, after seeing that this dungeon somehow produced good quality iron golems, Gozoh called over his blacksmith acquaintance.

nFurthermore, after he defeated that iron golem, he went on to defeat two more.

nLooks like he decided to do that after determining that this dungeon produced iron golems at fixed intervals.

nBecause of that, he was confident when calling over his blacksmith acquaintance.

n“With that, Kehma. This is Kantra. Take care of him.”

n“Ah—yes… I look forward to working with you?”

n“My regards, Kehma-dono.”

nWhy am I here for these two’s reunion? He caught me leaving from the dungeon together with Meat when we were wearing equipment in order to make it look like we were adventurers, bringing us to the guild.

n“… So, why am I here?”

n“Kehma is the Dancing Doll’s Pavilion’s owner’s secretary, essentially number two aye?”

n“I heard from Gozoh that yer the Cave of Desires dungeon’s top capture person.”

nTo put it simply, limited to this dungeon, I’m a person of influence I guess? Well, I’m really just the dungeon master though. To be the big fish in the pond is a bit…

n“That’s why I want to make a smithy a bit away. I don’t know when I’ll be able to make it, but if it’s something like weapon maintenance I can do it immediately, Kehma-dono. Ah, right. As a token of gratitude for our acquaintanceship, may I perform some maintenance on that sword hanging at your waist? It would be free of charge of course.”

n“Free huh? Then, please.”

nI passed him the sheathed magic sword blade golem.

n“… N…? Is this a magic sword?”

n“How’d you know?”

n“Because I’m a blacksmith. It’s my dream to create a magic sword myself one day. I heard that there were magic swords coming from this dungeon, but it’s a good sign that I could hold one in my hands so soon.”

n“Yeah. According to my guess, that sword was obtained from this dungeon. Will you show how to go about maintaining a magic sword?”

n“The fundamentals for magic swords aren’t different from normal swords. As for whether the blade could be made from water and fire, I dare say that is something else entirely… hmmm, this sword doesn’t particularly need any repairs. I mean, it is closer to say it hasn’t been used at all?”

n… Geh, busted. As expected of a blacksmith. This guy can speak to swords… well, it’s a golem though.

n“I am a mage after all. The sword is essentially unnecessary.

n“That’s a shame. However, it can’t be helped then, I’ll return it… What about that small one there?”

n“That’s my vanguard. Ah, could you maintain her sword instead?”

n“Aye, leave it to me.”

nWhen I said that, Meat, who had been waiting next to me so far, handed him her favorite golem knife.

n“… Heeh, this one’s a magic sword too? Moreover it looks like it’s been used well. It’s more or less been tended too, looks like it has a good owner.”

nKantra grinned at Meat, who was smiling broadly.

nThis bearded old man feels pretty good natured… well, I don’t know his actual age though. Looking at it another way, it’s possible that he’s just a agreeable young man.

nBut where did Meat learn to maintain it? Maybe Ichika taught her.

n“Well then I’ll give it maintenance here. I can only do a quick one though since I don’t have any equipment here though.”

nWith that, he took out a grindstone right there and began to polish the sword. Moving it nimbly, he held the blade up and looked at it from the side before bringing it back to the whetstone to polish it again… This was repeated several times.

nEventually, Kantra nodded approvingly while looking at the sword.

n“There, now it’s plenty sharpened. Then, to finish, Revitalize… Ah, good. There we go.”

n“Hm? Just now, was that the life magic’s Revitalize? Not earth magic’s Sharpen?”

nIchika taught me about it before, but Revitalize should be the life magic that causes a slight improvement in crop production by making the soil fill with vigor.

nSharpen is a low class earth magic that improves something’s sharpness the first few times it’s used on it.

nThat’s why I thought he’d use Sharpen on it for the finishing touch.

n“Aye. Revitalize invigorates the ground… then, wouldn’t it invigorate swords? They come from the ground.”

n… I didn’t think about that. Certainly, minerals are in soil, in other words the ground. In other words, it’s a kind of soil.

nNo way… to fall behind in magic conceptualization…

n“Also, blacksmiths that use Sharpen are second rates, magic is a cheat for unskilled maintenance. I may use it if asked since I’m also a blacksmith, but I won’t like it that much. I think using magic when you need to heat something up on-site is alright though.”

n“Kantra’s Revitalize is something like a good luck charm though. I haven’t seen any other blacksmith use it.”

n“That’s rude, Gozoh. This is a method that’s been handed down from generation to generation after all. My swords really last longer and are sharper than other blacksmith’s aye?”

n“Hahaha, that’s because of your skill! Even if that charm has an effect, it’d be small. More like, it’s not like swords will get better even if they’re invigorated. It’s not like they’d go and start cutting things on their own.”

n“Come on now, swords are alive! If Gozoh’s a dwarf too, you should also have some love for your equipment…”

nCome to think of it, a magic’s effect changes depending on the image. Then, it’s probably better to think that it really does get invigorated by Revitalize when you think about invigorating a sword.

nPerhaps it’d turn into something like recovery magic when it’s used on a golem? Let’s try it out next time.

n“Ah, our chat went off track, sorry. Well with those reasons, please let me have a smithy here. Although there’ll probably be a lot of orders for armor from adventurers, I can also make nails, tableware, and other things for daily necessities.”

nAh, that so? Although there was the image where he’d only be able to make equipment like a blacksmith from a game, in reality they can also make other merchandise.

n“Understood, I’ll request something if we need it.”

n“Leave it to me… it what I want to say. First I need a smithy, a blacksmith without a furnace is horrible and out of the question. I’m planning on making a simple one, but it’ll take around two or three weeks.”

nFumu. That’s quite a while.

n“What do you need to make a furnace?”

n“Hmm? Bricks filled with strong materials that can resist the fire. I got a hold of a lot of cheap red lizard scales and bones a little while back, so I thought about using that.”

nOops, the fantasy crept its way back in. Right, so make it from heat-resistant materials.

n… Come to think of it, I have a lot of phoenix eggshells left over. Those would probably work out fine, can’t they resist even a dragon’s flame?

nI took out an eggshell and handed it to Kantra.

n“Then as advance payment, take this. You could probably use it if you need something that can withstand heat.”

n“Is this an eggshell? From the looks of it… yeah, fire attributed. The eggs of fire attributed monsters become considerably good materials. With this it’ll be a proper furnace. I’ll gladly accept it.”

n“Yeah, so in exchange I’ll order… right, when Kantra makes a magic sword, give me one.”

n“Oi oi Kehma, isn’t a magic sword beyond overcharging for a single eggshell?”

n“Hahaha, I don’t mind. I’ll be indebted to Kehma-dono after this, so how about I present him one when I can make them?”

nKantra. A pretty down-to-earth guy.

nI don’t know how much an eggshell can do, but I want to help him achieve his goal of making a magic sword himself.

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nFootnotes:

nオッサン -> ossan (Oh-San). Middle aged man.

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