I woke up feeling the laziest...

"Well..." I said standing up and stretching. 

Dressing up, I remembered that I killed something yesterday

"Hm, weird." I didn't feel anything in particular.

I left the house and headed to the apothecary, with Benjamin, Rosa or..."pram" as Mavis calls her, is busy.

"How is it to work with lady andy?"

"Hm...I'm just working there for 2 days but, I would say it's nice."

"Do you amm... make Potions?"

"Yeah, a couple per day, then clean, make some medicine if needed, and dry some ingredients."

"You can use magic and even brew potions, you're amazing." He said, lightly punching my shoulder.

"Thanks."

"It's really really hard to learn magic, and you know that plus alchemy, you must've worked really hard..." He said, with admiration in his voice.

Ouch.

"...It took me 2 years just to learn fire magic." He continued

"Oh, so you do know magic?" I asked.

"Yeah, I do, but it isn't powerful enough to make a crater like the one you made."

"The one I made?"

"Yep, When you told me that you fought a goblin... I went to see his body, they are great fertilizers y'know?"

Oh.

"...but the only thing I found was a big crater... That was you wasn't it?"

I wasn't afraid of the goblin ok? I just wanted to test that spell.

"Yeah, i kinda went overboard."

"Haha, i knew it. That was [fire pillar] wasn't it? You're at that level already?"

Pff, nah.

"That was a fireball." I said, not realizing the fire in his eyes.

He stopped walking, then turned around to look at me.

"Fireball?" He cried, his wide eyes looking at me.

Amm, something wrong dude?

"Yeah." I answered, nonchalantly.

"WHAAAT." He shouted.

Oh, I remember reading somewhere that fireballs normally have a predetermined size, and only people who mastered fire magic or extremely talented individuals can modify it.

He realized that he was making a scene, and calmed down, then asked...

"I know it's rude to ask about other people's skills but... Did your fire magic evolved into a skill?"

I get the feeling that I'm missing on some very important info.

"...Maybe, why are you asking?" He said that it was rude to ask... So he won't find me avoiding that question too weird.

"Amm, my master told me that only people with the skill form of spells can modify the potency or very talented people."

I see.

"To answer your question, yes, I have the fire magic skill."

"Wow, you're as young as me, and yet you're at that level."

Is it that hard to get a skill?

"Hey, do you know anything about magic stones?" I asked remembering the stone in my pocket.

"Mmm, no, you should ask a blacksmith ."

"Is there any here in this village?"

"Of course, it's here close."

"Can you take me there?"

"Sure, let's go."

I have some time, it's morning, so why hurry to work?

After just 5 minutes of walking, we arrived at a decent looking weapon shop, inside were some knives and short swords lined up on the wall, and some were inside wooden barrels scattered around, sets of leather armor, a silver knight helmet, and some other weapons that I didn't know the name of.

The atmosphere was weirdly cozy, except for that thick scent of alcohol that could probably make me drunk just from inhaling it, I could hear the sound of metal striking metal from the distance.

Wait... a forge, weapons, and alcohol?

"ey, ben, 'ow dings goin?" Someone said, with a thick Scottish accent.

A DWARF.

"Fine and you?" Answered Benjamin.

There was a dwarf on the counter, drinking from a mug the size of his head.

He had a big black beard, brown eyes,  wore a pretty ordinary apron with some tools on the tool belt, and a simple pair of brown pants and shoes, no shirt.

I understand the 'round as a barrel' expression now.

"I'm good, so what brings you here? Need some weapons?" The barrel asked Benjamin, this time without the accent.

I like the accent.

"Nah, my friend here wants to know about magic stones, so I thought you could help." He said pushing me forward.

"I'm Venir, nice to meet you." I said extending my hands, he shook his head then lift his fist.

A fist bump? Sure thing.

We fist-bumped, looking at his hands now, there are quite dirty, covered in black, coal I think.

"Name's Garick, nice to meet you as well." He said, proudly, for some reason.

"So, about the stones..." Said Benjamin.

"Right, I dahn't know moehch abooeht dem, I'm mahre into metals, but... wait a minute." He went in through a door at the back of the counter.

He then came back with a tall and good-looking woman.

"She's mahre qualified in magic stones than me." Garick said.

"Hello, the name's Christine." She said, extending her hands, she had a grin on her face.

HMM...

"My name is Venir..." I said, also extending my right hand. " Nice to meet you...!?" She.... she began crushing my hand.

Heeeelp.

She probably didn't mean to crush my arm... I mean she's a blacksmith, her hands are as hard as a rock.

Let's just... keep a straight face.

I forced a smile through that deadly handshake.

Man that hurt.

"So, you want to learn about magic stones, huh?" She asked, seemingly satisfied about something.

"Y-Yes, i found this..." I said, taking the small Marin stone out of my right pocket and handing it to her. " I had put some mana in it and it just glowed, nothing else."

"Hahaha, right, everyone thinks brute magic stones can produce magic effects right from the start." She said, laughing. " You're lucky, I have some time on my hands, want me to process your stone?" She said beaming

Yes, yes, a thousand times.

"Yes but..."

"Don't worry it'll be free of charge."

Really?

She asked me to follow her to the back, the forge.

"Benjamin, won't you get in trouble." I asked, worried that he might get in trouble for taking too long.

He is a servant, he should probably be doing his chores or going on errands by now.

"Don't worry, my errands in the morning are just to accompany you, cut some logs and some stuff I can do quick. There's a lot of wood, so I got nothing more to do, and besides, I'm a mage, do you think I would throw away such a big opportunity to learn like this?" He cheerfully said.

"Of course not."

"Ok then, let's gooo." He said, practically flying after Christine.

"See yah." Said Garick.

I followed Benjamin to the forge...

"This is where the magic happens." Said Christine, flexing her muscles and making a pose.

Hmm.

Her arms were very muscled, not as much as Bill's but still enough to make me envy her.

She was tall, about 1,9m ( 6.3 Feet), light brown skin, chestnut brown eyes, and stiff-looking black hair that was set in a bun.

She was wearing Tight-fitting trousers that were baggy above the knees, knight-looking knee level leg armor, a sleeveless shirt under an apron and a worn-down pair of leather gloves.

"Do you know how magic stones form?" She asked me, with her eyes closed and her index finger extended up from her closed fist.

A teacher huh?

Because of the enthusiasm she showed, when I asked about magic stones, I realized she really wants to talk about this, there are probably not many people who are interested in magic stones in this village.

"No, I don't." I said.

"Well..."

Summarizing, magic stones form when a specific type of stone is exposed to a specific type and concentration of mana for long periods of time.

I got confused with the types of mana thing, I didn't ask because I got the feeling that it would take a while to explain and she probably wouldn't be able to explain since she's a blacksmith.

"Watch closely." She said, putting my stone on a copper board and using a copper tong to hold it in place.

The stone was 5cm wide and 3cm long, ebony black, smooth as a river stone should be, and had cracks on of the sides.

"Time to work my babies." She said to her tools, a small hammer and chisel, they were glittering.

Glittering metals?

"Quite expensive, these." She said, placing them in the table.

Ohh, orichalcum... no, no, it's Mithril.

Mithril tools huh? Isn't mithril, like, super expensive?

I just remembered, the most expensive fantasy metals:

Her tools were small but with how expensive mithril can get, those are too expensive for a villager blacksmith.

Y'know... She was probably a famous blacksmith before getting here or something, won't waste time thinking about something that is none of my business.

"Are those made of mithril?" I asked.

"Yeah, 100% mithril."

Benjamin gasped. "Wow, that must have costed a fortune." He exclaimed.

"It sure did." Christine said, softly

"Amm, I couldn't help but notice the peculiarity with your tools, is there a reason as to why those tools are made of those specific metals?"

It seemed weird to think that she would waste money on unpractical yet expensive tools.

Sure, mithril is strong but it's pointless to use a mithril chisel to work with stone.

Maybe the stone is super hard? Nah, its durability is 20, it's more fragile than a wooden doll.

"Yes, there is." She said, lifting the small glittering hammer.

"I bought this because of its mana conductivity, I'll be carving a rune in this stone to make it operational, and I will be using magic skills that allow me to do that, therefore I'll need something that can conduct mana without much resistance." She said, beaming.

"Oh, i see." I said.

"About the copper, copper has the worst mana conductivity after gold, so the mana that will be transmitted to the stone won't leak."

"Hm..."

"If mana leaks, the magic stone won't operate properly, leaking mana from the exact place it leaked in the configuration process, thus lowering the value."

""Ohhh."" We were amazed.

She grinned, then she said... "Now step back a little." We quickly distanced ourselves.

She then proceeded to carve a symbol onto the stone, she carefully struck the chisel as she drew a symbol that looked like two £'s facing each other, each time she hit the back of the chisel the carved part shone blue.

She took 3 minutes carving, and 1 extra minute chanting something, and then she placed both her hands on the stone and said... 

"「Create rune」" after she said that, a soft light enveloped the stone, the light faded a couple of seconds later...

"It's done, now you just need a mage with [Spell conferment] or you can use it as a simple conductor, an option which I don't recommend."

"Why not?"

"It's a waste, if you specialize the stone to a spell, it will boost the spell power to about 30%, if you use it as a conductor it will reduce the effect of all non-water elemental spells by 20%, and because of the mana it will absorb it'll break easily."

"I see." She gave me the stone which now had a rune engraved on its surface.

"Don't put any more mana in that thing, the mana you already put damaged it a little, see?" Said Christine pointing at a crack that formed as soon as I touched it.

"The mana that was inside reacted violently with mine and damaged it a little, so don't try to activate the stone right now, wait for about 10 hours."

Ignoring my surroundings, I focused my mind on the stone, from what I felt, I understood where she was coming from.

This thing will explode.

I could feel two different mana signatures inside, one was moving slowly and fading inside the stone and the other was the exact opposite, moving violently in every direction.

"It won't explode or something, it'll just break apart, the mana inside isn't enough to make it blow up." Christine said, as if reading my mind.

"Oh, ok. Thanks for the lesson and the stone."

"You're welcome, come here anytime."

She left us at the door of her forge, the forge, and the shop were a couple of meters from each other.

"So, did you get something out of that?" I asked Benjamin, who seemed to be whispering to himself.

"Yeah, YEAH, I never saw a rune being carved, it's so... Wow." He said, with stars in his eyes as we got in the weapons shop from the back door.

"Ey, so how was it?" Garick asked, still drinking.

"Interesting." I said.

"You're kidding, right? Just 'interesting'? That was mind-blowing stuff right there." Cried Benjamin.

"Hahaha" Garick laughed.

Hm, what if I use identify on him? I thought, thinking that it might work differently for demi-humans.

「Identify」:

<Name: Ga'rick (Dwarf).>

Noted.

He then looked at me as if he had noticed something.

"Want to see some swahrds?" He asked.

"Sure, but I can't buy any, since I don't have any money." I said, dejected.

He left his huge mug on the counter and brought three swords from a nearby barrel.

"Choose one, I'll tell what it will cost."

"Hm?" I looked at them dubiously.

"Don't worry, these have been sitting here for ages, so instead of just melting them, I'll trade one withcha. They aren't curshd or  anythin."

Trade? I have nothing on me.

Oh well, let's see what we got here:

「Identify」:

「Air」- Reduces air resistance by controlling the air around the weapon.

A sword of the perfect size for me, it was silver but with a hint of purple on the edges.

「Self-Repair」- uses the wielder's mana to slowly recover durability.

A pretty ordinary-looking long sword.

「Improved conductivity」- Improves mana conductivity.

Well, this is tough.

The skills descriptions aren't specific enough for me to decide which is better just by looking.

The Steel long sword seems like a good sword but....

"Can i wield them?"

"Sure, go ahead.""

Ngh." I struggled to lift the long steel sword.

Too heavy to be useful, at least... For me.

I could lift it but it was too heavy.

"Hm..." The iron sword looked like a Jian sword, it looked good and was light, I tried testing the skill improvement and I felt no significant resistance.

Good.

I gripped the steel short sword and was surprised to discover that it wasn't as heavy as I expected it to be, it had the perfect weight, it felt right to hold it, I tested the mana conductivity and it was amazing, I felt the resistance was even lower than the other one.

Wow, this is the one. I thought.

Well, let's see what he wants...

"If I could buy one, I would take this one." I said, plainly, as I placed the sword on the counter.

He grinned then said something pretty interesting.

"I need Potions, 3 to be precise, an antidote, a strong healing one and... " He paused, looked around, and signaled me to get close.

Benjamin looked at me then shrugged and went to see the weapons on display.

I got closer to Garick and he said something... pretty... Immoral.

"And... Uh, an aphrodisiac." He said, with a grin.

Noticing my judgemental expression, he explained himself.

"It's like this, things have cooled down between me and the lady, y'know..." He said looking at the back door.

So they are married, how... How does it work? With the hight difference?

"....so, you just bring me the goods and you get that sword, the best." He whispered.

Oi, Didn't you just say that you were going to melt them?

"Ok, I'll see what I can do."  I remember seeing some recipes in「Library」that were related to... This.

"I'll be waiting, here take this." He handed me a small sheathed knife. " Keep this between us, ok?" He said softly.

Sliding the knife from its leather sheath...

It had a slightly curved silver blade and a snake engraved on the leather handle.

I don't know much about weapons but this looks good to me.

Sheathing it, I took the Dagger and left, going in the direction of the apothecary with Benjamin in tow.

"What did he want?" Benjamin asked.

"Just some potions." I said, not lying. "...and he gave me this." I showed him the knife.

"Ohh, a magic dagger." He said after inspecting it.

Well, good way of distracting him, i guess.

"You can tell? You have appraise or something?"

"Appraise? Nah, i saw this." He was pointing at a small Crystal on the cross of the dagger.

"Oh."

It was a small blue crystal, it wasn't emitting or absorbing mana so, I guess that's why it didn't catch my attention.

We went to Rose's apothecary without detours this time.

"See you later." Said Benjamin.

"Yeah." I opened the door and was surprised to see how empty the shelves were, the only things still in them were the mason jars.

"Mmmmm." I was confused.

Did they get stolen or something?

"Venir, great timing..." Said a sleepy Andy, her eyes barely open.

"Amm, are you okay?" I asked, softly.

"Ye ah, Y E A H, just a, little... tired.", She said, as she fell asleep on the counter.

Where's her dude?

I locked the door and went into the living quarters, an extension of the shop, there was no one there.

Storage?

I went to their storage, the basement, there, I found a soundly sleeping John, he was hugging a box of potions, which I presumed he must have been carrying before.

Sorry dude, I have to wake you up.

"Hey." I said, shaking his shoulder.

"Mmm, zzz." 

"HEY." I said, a little louder.

"Hm?" He stood up fast "!?" and without wasting any movements, pointed his sword at me.

"H-Hey, hey, it's me, Venir." I said, raising both my hands.

"Oh, sorry, you surprised me there." He said, yawning.

"So, why are you two so tired?" I asked him.

"We've been making potions non-stop since yesterday, the chief..." He yawned. "...Ordered a lot of... emergency potions...  y'know, we didn't sleep, we couldn't, he told us to make as much as possible, and yeah, this is are consequences."

"!?" He widened his eye when he saw the box that was on the floor. 

"Shit." He gasped.

"You were supposed to deliver this right?" He nodded, then put his hand on his forehead.

"Don't worry, I'll deliver it if it isn't too late." 

He must be very tired.

"Really? Hm... Ok, sorry for the trouble."

"Nah, I don't mind, this is nothing." I reassured, smiling.

"Thanks man, deliver this to the village hall." He said, his eyelids closing.

"Right, BUT before you sleep again, go get Andy she is sleeping on the counter."

"Right, I'll go get her."

I closed the box which was open before and took the box with me as we went to the shop.

"... let's have some rest." John said lifting and carrying Andy in a princess carry.

"Can you take care of the shop while we rest?"

"Yeah, sure, just don't lock the door."

"Right, later." He said, heading to the living quarters.

I left the shop carrying the wooden box.

After about 8 minutes of brisk walking I got to the hall.

Nothing's broken... Good. I thought, examining the contents of the box, I closed it again and went inside.

"As I said, we should go now..." 
"We wait, the potions will arrive soon."
"You said that 10 minutes ago."
"Potions, Potions, they are just rabbits."
"Have you ever even fought horned rabbits before? they come en masse."
"We can go without Potions."

There was a commotion in the hall, apparently because of the delayed delivery.

I began looking for anyone I knew, I could have announced my delivery, but...

Too many people.

I'm not exactly shy, just not good at talking to a crowd, my voice gets very weird when I try to speak aloud, and the attention o would get because of that, I mean, except for the lightly equipped and prince looking guy at the center of the ruckus, these are all 'muscled black bears', I'm just a little boy here.

Just a random sheep passing by, don't mind me. I thought, avoiding everyone as I searched.

After searching for a minute I found Bill or as people call him 'Red'.

"Hey, Bill." I greeted him, nodding, my hands were busy.

"Hey, oh, so you're the one delivering?" He queried.

"Yeah, is the chief here?"

"Right there." He said pointing at a crowd of people dressed up in expensive-looking equipment.

"Thanks." I went there and in the middle of the crowd was the village chief, Mr.Geld.

"Excuse me..." I said softly to the Adventurer closest to me, he looked at me, sneered, then continued to chatter.

Of course, it's always like this, do I look like a bratty child or something?

I moved to ask another person.

"Can you let me through?" I said, firmly, showing him the box, he let me through and there was the chief desperately trying to calm everyone down.

"Mr.Geld?" He didn't hear me, I called him again, nothing.

Haaah. i sighed.

"MR.GELD." I said this time, loudly enough that he would hear me.

"!!?" He looked at me with an irritated expression, then quickly change once he saw that it was me who was calling him.

Why is everyone on edge?

"Young man, we can talk later." He said dismissingly.

"I came to deliver this." He then noticed the box that I was holding.

"Good, good, thank you." He sighed in relief as I handed him the box.

Task completed, now bye-bye.

I left that unwelcoming atmosphere and went straight back to the apothecary shop.

                 ++++++Geld++++++

"Ok everyone, calm down, I have received the final batch of potions." I said to the crowd before me.

"Chief, will they be enough?" Said one of the hunters from this village.

"Yes, they will." I said, firmly.

They probably will, as long as the rabbits aren't as many as we predict.

I had sent two hunters to scout the forest area around the rabbit nest, and they ended up discovering 4 more nests, each of them had at least 100 Horned rabbits in them.

Oh gods, why?

The rabbits multiply fast, so we periodically reduce their population, we don't completely exterminate them because of the forest's complicated food chain.

If there are too many rabbits, food becomes scarce for them in the forest and they come to attack our fields, we can deal with that kind of loss, since it's not too much, but the sheer number of rabbits this time is enough to destroy the fields and possibly attack the village itself, they are omnivores so, I fear the worst.

Our active hunters wouldn't be enough for this quest so I hired every ex-adventurer that could still fight, and even more adventurers from the ones staying at our Inn.

"Boss, my party is strong enough to handle an entire nest, so just save that reward money for us." Said one leader of one of the adventurer parties I hired.

Only an inexperienced adventurer would say something like that, unfortunately, I had to hire even those greedy and reckless adventurers.

In this extermination quest, numbers are everything.

"Hahaha, your party alone? Look at your equipment, you're just a bunch of E-Class who know nothing, MY party CAN deal with one nest alone, I mean,  look at us, fresh C-class directly from Rynoi." Mocked and boasted another.

Even just ignoring them it's hard.

"Let's head out." Said the leader of one of the extermination groups, First Moon, after I permitted them to go.

The adventurers and villagers totaled 175, which were of course divided into 4 groups before we left: First Moon, Second Moon, Sun, and Star.

1st moon had 40 members, 30 of them were high-rank adventurers that were staying at our inn, the other 10 were our elite hunters.

2nd moon had 50 members, all of them were part of the village, the ex-adventurers, with 10 elites, to lead them.

Sun had 45 members, half mid-ranked adventurers and half villagers, including 5 of our elite hunters...

Star had 40 members, 25 mid-rank and 10 low-rank adventurers, with 6 of our elite hunters.

Most of the villagers chose to stay, not because they were unwilling to help the extermination groups, but because they wanted to protect the village itself, their fields, and family, in case the rabbits decided to attack the village.

"See you later, chief." Said Hunter Red, apparently relaxed in this tense atmosphere.

He has been really smiley and in High spirits since yesterday, haha, found a lady, huh?

He's normally pretty reserved and most of the time a little intimidating, since yesterday he's all talkative and in high spirits.

Good for him.

I sent him with the Star group because he's pretty patient, and able to deal with youngsters, so I put him with the troublesome group for him to smooth things out.

I just hope everything goes well.

They are capable, but the forest's hostile environment may cause problems.