“Look who finally decided to show up.” By the time Valyr had arrived at the entrance to the village smithy, Tristan stopped what he was doing and turned around to look at the young man with a slightly mischievous grin. “You know… I’ve always wanted to say that.”

“As if it wasn’t that obvious.” In response to Tristan’s words, Valyr let out a bit of laughter before moving closer to the man, embracing the man not long after as he faintly let out a sigh of relief. Surprisingly, Tristan reciprocated the embrace back, hugging Valyr a bit tighter than one normally would, which was something that did not go unnoticed under the latter’s senses.

“It’s really nice to see you again.” After some time, the two of them let go of each other, with Tristan initiating the conversation as he made his way back to the only anvil in the smithy that was placed a fair distance away from the furnace. “Sure, it’s only been a little bit over a month since you left the village, but it’s around time does the feeling of longing for someone become strong.”

“Well, the feeling is mutual,” said Valyr in response, taking in a deep breath before letting out a relaxed sigh. “Though I may have been able to do a lot more things and progress even further in my craft after leaving the village, there’s still a large part of me that misses the ambience of the village from time to time.”

“I get what you mean.” Tristan nodded in agreement, a slight smile adorning his face as he grabbed the metal he was working on with a pair of tongs before placing it in the furnace. “Whenever I’m forging something here, the peacefulness the entire village exudes clears up and refreshes my mind quite a bit, making me feel like the thing I’m forging would come out significantly better than it normally would.”

“Anyways, enough talking about missing the village and all that.” Tristan waved his hands after he was done reminiscing the various times he had been forging in the past, as if signaling to Valyr that they were changing to another topic.

“What brings you to the smithy today, aside from wanting to talk with the great me?”

“Still as narcissistic as ever, I see,” replied Valyr as he listened to Tristan’s words.

With that, Tristan responded back with, “It’s not narcissism. It’s called great self-confidence.”

“Whatever floats your boat.” Feeling as if there would be no point in arguing over what Tristan’s personality truly was, Valyr briefly shrugged his shoulders before proceeding to answer the question the former had asked him. “In any case, to answer your question, I’m here to enhance my armor set and weapon by a few levels.”

“Oh? You crafted a new armor set?” Raising his eyebrow in curiosity in response to Valyr’s answer, Tristan went ahead and took out the piece of metal he was heating from the furnace before placing it on top of the anvil, proceeding to hammer it into the shape he wanted. “Now that I think about it, you did leave that Supreme Astarto Defense Armor set here before you left.”

“Is it still here?” Hearing Tristan mention the old armor set he used, memories of using the set in the dungeon he cleared gradually surfaced in Valyr’s mind, causing a faint smile to creep up onto his lips. As the original version of the set was only considered Common grade, Valyr went all out in upgrading it to the best of his abilities to increase his survivability in the dungeon, utilizing Tier 1 Upgrade Alloy to elevate their rarities to Common grade.

Now that he had more experience utilizing the numerous memories of forging from his past life, as well as the fact that he now had access to far better materials, Valyr had no doubt that he would be able to forge a better version of the first armor set he had forged, innovating upon the original blueprint multiple times.

‘Speaking of which, it would definitely be handy to get my hands on the higher tiers of Upgrade Alloy in the future,’ thought Valyr to himself as he recalled how many people flocked to the Crimson Forge back then due to the fact that he was selling a significant amount of items at Common grade.

With that in mind, he was certain that if he got his hands on Tier 2 and Tier 3 Upgrade Alloy, which would upgrade any of the Common grade items he forged to Uncommon and Uncommon grade respectively, the amount of money he would earn at that point would allow him to live a carefree life.

“It is, but at the same time isn’t.” As he made a mental note to grab the blueprints for the two next tiers of Upgrade Alloy once he had returned to Algerie City, Valyr heard Tristan’s response to his question, causing him to slightly tilt his head as the latter clarified soon after.

“In other words, it’s been here at the smithy all this time, with me even enhancing it by a couple of levels,” said Tristan amidst the hammering he was doing. “However, since Myst had gone outside, I gave her the armor set to wear for now, considering that she doesn’t have a proper set of armor yet.”

“I see.” Once he was done listening to Tristan’s explanation, Valyr nodded in understanding as he began to retrieve the pieces making up his Nascent Wyvern Armor set from his spatial bracelet, much to the former’s interest. “Where is she at the moment?”

“She’s at a nearby city… grinding XP through an Experience Pit to prepare for the upcoming monster tide…” Unsurprisingly, Tristan was left staring at what Valyr was doing, becoming incredibly silent once he was done responding as he watched Valyr retrieve the Nascent Wyvern Armor set from the spatial bracelet Braum had given him before he left. After that, he focused his gaze onto the armor set Valyr had brought out, instantly feeling the slightly oppressive aura emanating from it.

“Is this the new armor set you’re currently using?” Moving closer to the pieces making up the set, Tristan used Analysis on one of the pieces, his eyes widening in disbelief as he read through the description of the item. Once he was done, he closed the screen before him as he was left at a loss for words.

Looking for the right words to say as he could not comprehend what he had just seen, Tristan eventually found what he wanted to ask Valyr, shifting his gaze towards the young man as he posed the question. “Where… where did you buy this?”

“Buy it?” Valyr raised his eyebrow in response before shaking his head. “I made it.”

“Huh?” Rather than find the response normal, considering that Valyr was a blacksmith himself, Tristan instead felt even more disbelief from the young man’s words after hearing him say he made it. “You made this? Really?”𝑂𝓋𝒍xt.𝑐𝐎𝓜

Unknowingly, at that point, a slight frown adorned Valyr’s face as he looked back at Tristan. With a slightly annoyed tone, he asked back, “Are you trying to tell me something?”

“Perhaps… something you might want me to know?”