Silence.

Once more, silence filled the entirety of Tristan’s body. However, this time around, it was not due to the shock he felt from reading the description of the newly improved metal glove he was holding.

Instead, the silence came from the words Valyr had spoken to him in response to his question.

“That’s all yours.”

Those three words lingered within Tristan’s mind, the young man’s voice sounding similar to church bells that had been rung near his ears as he failed to comprehend what Valyr had said at first. Fortunately, those same words eventually sunk in, causing Tristan’s attitude to go through a full 180 degree turn as he gave the metal glove back to Valyr before waving his hands back and forth in refusal.

“Oh no, no, no! It’s too precious!” said Tristan in response to Valyr’s words, causing the latter’s eyes to briefly widen in surprise from the abrupt change in his good friend’s behavior.

“It really is all yours.” Valyr looked at the metal glove he had been given for a bit before proceeding to try and give it back to the man in front of him. “After all, the materials used to forge this metal glove came from your smithy in the first place. Following that train of thought, we come to the conclusion that this metal glove is yours.”

“But you were the one who forged the metal glove!” Tristan responded with a slightly loud voice. “If anything, you have the right to do whatever you want with it!”

“I do have the right to do whatever I want with it.” Valyr nodded in agreement. “Thus, I choose to give the metal glove to you.”𝑜𝚟𝗅xt.𝗇𝓔t

“And before you tell me you can’t accept it one more time, let me tell you something.” Just as Tristan was about to refuse the metal glove once more, Valyr interrupted him from doing so as the young man proceeded to tell the former a few things that lingered in his mind. “Earlier, you said that you didn’t believe I had the skills to forge a piece of Epic grade equipment, so I went ahead and showed you that I did, forging the metal glove I’m currently holding.”

“At first, I made it out of spite since your words ticked me off the wrong way.” Valyr looked at Tristan with a solemn expression, briefly shrugging his shoulders as he told the latter the truth of the matter. “However, once you took a look at the glove and I noticed the genuine awe you had on your face when you realized I did have the skills, I started to look at the metal glove I had forged a bit differently.”

“What was a product of spite at first eventually turned into something I considered as a way to say thanks for allowing me to step on the path of blacksmithing, something I should have actually done a long time ago now that I think about it.” As these words left Valyr’s mouth, the young man slightly scratched his head as he let out a wry chuckle. “In other words, it would be nice if you could have it since it’s my token of appreciation to you.”

“Man…” Becoming silent for a bit as he processed the words Valyr had said to him, Tristan eventually let out a low sigh, feeling a bit sentimental over the entire matter as he started to look at the metal glove from a slightly different perspective.

However, just as he had come to the decision to accept the metal glove and thank the young man for forging such an item for him, Valyr decided to say something to Tristan that rubbed off the latter the wrong way as the young man’s attitude took a 180 degree turn as well.

“Of course, if you really don’t wanna accept it, then that’s fine with me. I’ll just put it in the furnace and crank up the heat as high as possible so it turns into a puddle of unusable slag.”

“Fuck you! That’s the last thing I want you to do with it!”

…

After a bit of bickering between the two over what Valyr had said to rile up Tristan’s emotions, the latter eventually accepted the metal glove the young man had forged, wielding it for quite some time to get a rough feeling of how it would feel when he was using it in combat.

Surprisingly, after both Valyr and Tristan realized that only one of the latter’s hands would be covered by the metal glove, Valyr went ahead and forged a similar glove of a similar rarity, much to Tristan’s immense shock. Deciding to use materials of an opposite nature for the second metal glove to possibly complement the first, the system unexpectedly rewarded Valyr for it, with the metal glove obtaining an innate skill that allowed it to deal greater damage when in contact with energy of opposing nature from the glove.

By the time he was done forging and upgrading the two metal gloves to Tristan’s current level, it was already night time, causing Valyr to become slightly dejected as the main reason for him coming to the smithy had been forgotten. Of course, with how much Valyr had given to Tristan in the form of the two metal gloves, it was no surprise that the latter told the young man that he was allowed to use everything in the smithy the following day.

Which he did.

Once the sun started to peek out of horizon, which signaled the start of a new day, Valyr beelined to the smithy to upgrade his armor set and weapon, making sure to do those things first in order for him to not forget and end up wasting time on other tasks once more.

After he was done upgrading his items to the highest levels they could reach where he could still use them, he then urged Tristan to grab a meal with him for a breakfast, which the latter unsurprisingly agreed to.

While eating their respective meals, Tristan brought up the topic of smithies, prompting Valyr to talk about the brief time he owned a smithy of his own back in Clossbay City. Naturally, Tristan was quite surprised to hear that the young man before him had become the owner of the smithy, even for a short time.

Though, what truly surprised him was the amount of money Valyr had made within that short time.

Even though Valyr talked a bit about how much money he earned, satiating Tristan’s curiosity in the topic, the thoughts in Valyr’s mind wandered off into something else, prompting a question to form in his mind, which he thought that he would act upon once he returned to Algerie City after the monster tide.

After sharing a meal together, Valyr and Tristan then went on their separate ways, with the former heading back to the barracks, spending most, if not the entire next couple of days holed up in his dormitory to polish his considerably decent level of control over magic he had in the past even further.

Eventually…

Ding!

You have received the emergency quest: Astarto Monster Tide.

Proceed to the outskirts of the Astarto Village as quickly as possible.