"Welcome dear guest. I am proud to announce the start of our RedCaps Auction House's mithril town branch bi-annual auction. I am your house for today Red 10."

A host that uses a code name, what a weird auction house. He looks like a normal green goblin with a red hat but does it mean he is stronger than normal or is it just a fashion statement? maybe a uniform? This place is a branch house so this company is big enough to expand to multiple towns, if they have an in-house blacksmith maybe it isn't bad to apply for apprenticeship here. It would limit me in growth a bit, I would also be essentially applying for an office-like workplace but maybe this place gives employee discounts.

"Before we start I will explain the rules. No one is to interrupt me when I am speaking. No one shall use their prestige to deter others from bidding. No one shall start a fight within 5 buildings surrounding the auction house within 3 hours before and after the auction. No private deals within this auction house. We will punish violators regardless of status so please don't test us."

Using this kind of rules for a merchant is a bad move in terms of customer relations but this house could have a huge backer or strength to lean back on. I wonder is there is a fool who will get carried away later so I can verify if they will go through with the supposed punishment 'regardless of prestige'.

"Now that we have that out of the way, let me welcome you again as we start of the auction. First up is the works of this towns very own blacksmith teachers of the Mithril Town Academy, 50% of the proceeds will go to the repair, maintenance and funds of the academy. The rest will go to the respective teachers as usual, the auction house will not take a commision for these so feel free to donate and buy these quality works. Remember the coins earned through these are the foundation of future masters that will graduate at the academy in all kinds of [Job]'s."

Heeh, so this isn't just some random money grubbing of our teacher. Does this mean he is the representative of the academy? No, maybe it's some kind of rotation system and our teacher just happened to be the one who gets to go today. I still think he is cheap though, if he honoured that bet and given me the pass for the excellent quality knife then I would have earned 1% of all the winnings we get in the auction. Since it's the combined products of the academy then potions, weapons, armours, clothes and different kinds of things would be in it. Even if they are not sold for a particularly high price, there are still a lot of items so I would get a lot of coins.

"It seems they put up our items first. They really want to get the troublesome things out first, especially since this part of the auction doesn't give them any income. Alright, you kids can stay here or you can roam the auction house store and see if they have things you want. The things put up by our school isn't that high tier and you will probably learn how to do it in school too so feel free to leave. Come back in an hour or so, that should be enough time for our works to be auctioned off. Don't make a mess out there and remember that what you do reflects our school."

Nice, I feel that looking at the works auctioned off by the school won't really give me anything. I can buy these products from fellow students, although they won't be as good as the ones the teacher made, but it would cheaper regardless.

"Chatterbox, victor, let's go and explore."
"No thanks, I visit this place from time to time so I already know what they have. I recently visited this place too a couple of days ago. I'll stay here and see how our school did."
"I'll go, If I can make the weapons and armours that are going to be shown then I won't need to see them. I'll just wait until the teacher teaches us how to make it then I will make my own. I'm interested what the auction house has on display too, since this place is very famous so they probably have good stuff on show."
"Okay, let's go victor and keep your voice down we are still inside the auction room. Chatterbox list down the things the weapons and armour the school put up along with how much the auction priced them with to start. If you can then draw how it looks like too."
"I'll try, I don't know why you want to though. Oh, please buy me some snacks and drinks on your way back, some grape gravel juice and some fruits would be nice."
"Got it, here is the pencil and some paper. Don't forget list, starting price, and draw."

The school or more specifically the teachers won't put their best work up for auction. They would only get 50% of the price so they would much rather sell their products on their own. For this auction they should only put some basic things or simple design so it is a great reference for the stuff I would make. I can think about the fancy smancy stuff later when I get more money.

"Haaaah, I can finally breathe. It's very stifling inside, I can't even move properly."
"You still have that stage fright? I'm amazed you can fight people with that kind of thing."
"In a fight you don't have to think. You hit when you can and hit harder if they are strong and retreat if they are very strong."

It somehow makes sense but that is brute force kind of fighting.

"The problem with these kind of things is that no matter how strong I am, they would overwhelm me with just words. I can pommel them down but I can't get up if they pommel me with their money and influence."

That is very true, experienced that during my first life here. I tried very hard to cut that chain off me and move far away but it somehow found me and yanked me back. This time I will build up a prestige and root myself down. I will gain fame and make it so that if they want to take me down, my customers would riot and cause problems, hehehe. It won't be a self-sustaining life like a farm but it is still something in which I create something from my own hands to make a living.

"You need to strengthen your mind some more, I won't tell you how to live your life but find a way where you don't retreat so much in this society. They will keep advancing if you don't at least stand your ground. Come one, let's look at what the auction house have."
"Hmm, alright. I'll think about it."

It looks like we are in the precious gems and ore section. I see some diamonds, ruby, emerald, jade and space metal looking things. I'm still not sure if they have the same name but I can at least know the name based on the colour.

"We don't really have a need for these things yet. Let's go the the next section."
"Yeah, this place is really big."

This place has a space like a baseball stadium. The main center ground is where the opera like auction room while the sections of different products are surrounding it, like a moat encasing a fort.

"This is the alchemy room, we don't need anything here."
"We could buy some health and stamina potions here, always handy in a prolonged battle."
"Yeah, but we could buy it cheaper at the academy. If you know an alchemy then you could get it even cheaper."
"Ooh! As expected of the smart one."

If I am the smart one then I should start charging you for this.

"Looks like we are in the weapons and arour section now."
"Yeah, I'm going to check out some foot gear, I need a new one and I doubt I could find it in an auction."
"Ok, I'll check the armours, find me in the weapon aisle when you are done."

Most of the armour are different types of plate armour. I guess it makes sense, considering most of the enemy in this continent are earthern based monsters that deal impact damage. 

Most fighters also use spiked or impact weapons since the monsters also have thick metal armour from all the earth mana in this continent. I should specialize on impact weapons then, it's a shame since I wanted to make all kinds of swords. I did receive training in using daggers and a bit of the saber since an impact weapon are heavy and slow, which is a bad trait for protecting people.

This may be the reason why they only taught us to make knives as a first experience in blacksmithing.

Oh, that dragon scale armour looks great. That green rock lizard scale is also good, it also has those spike things a certain bat anti-hero has on his forearms. I can't afford any of these though, the cheapest price is actually 1 gold and 50 silver coins. The price really skyrockets when it comes to weapons and armours, especially when its a matter of life and death in this world.

I don't know if I can make something like this though, I can imagine how to make it if I used the blacksmith skills but the size of this is too much for one sitting. When will they teach us how to make armour, I hope we skip making cloth armour. I don't know how to knit. Wait, with the [Shaping] skill and the passive [Fire resistance], are they going to ask us to actually hand knit flaming metal wires into a  chainmail?

I mean some needlework is needed in creating armour so as a practice for that, we will make towels, sheets and rags as practice just as we made kitchen knives as practice for making weapons. Maybe next time we will make some carpentry hammers.

My survey of the armours is done so let me go to the weapon aisle and see the money maker of all blacksmiths. You see people without much armour travelling outside but you won't see someone without at least some kind of weapon.

"Oi, brill, what took you so long."
"What took you so fast? I thought you would have taken some time to finish. Aren't fighters supposed to be particular about their equipment?"
"Yeah, we are picky about it but I only need to test it a few times to know if it's good or not. It's easier to test foot wear since you can test it right away, not like weapons or shield where you won't get a true feel until you hit or get a hit."
"A bit quirky but alright."

I never really paid that much attention to it since I had my butler uniform before. It is a low quality uniform since the royal castle wanted us servants to prioritize the look instead of the fighting ability, it works well since we blend in with the background well unlike the true fighting force, the knights.

There really are very few swords here, barely any bladed weapons. They don't have kitchen knives since those are low tier products. The edged weapon here are the bulky kind, the gigantic great sword in fantasies to be exact. I guess it is wield-able if you have fantasy strength, it looks ok too since you can use it as a shield. The normal one should probably be easy to make if I have a big enough forge but the quality of these at the auction house is a bit complex to me. This one looks like a combination of a snake and a great sword, the handle also has that magic power receptor, like the one with the mike, so this one has a special effect. If that is true then it should have a circuit beneath the metal, really exquisite work right there.

The impact weapons don't vary much from hammers, hammer with a spike, spikes and the like. There is even a giant club. The design are mostly monster heads or horns, and I think it's not a sculpted image but a real head or horn made smaller through the use of the [Shaping] skill. The monster are loaded with earth mana so most of their parts are hardened by it, they may have infused and filled in the gaps with metal to reinforce it. It's a delicate process and I hope they cover it in school.

The prices are at minimum 1 gold coin, a bit cheaper than the armour but not as cheap as the bladed weapons where the cheapest is 80 silver coins. I'm guessing they are not enchanted but normal plain weapons. I don't know the different kinds of enchantment but the most suitable one for monsters here are the piercing or anti-armour kind.

"Did you buy anything? I don't have much money left after buying the combat boots."
"I don't see anything I need for now. Should we return? It's only been about 30 minutes, we could wait out if they are still auctioning the school products."
"There is still some time, I heard from the clerk before that they have a mystic section here. They put all the weird and bizarre things in there."
"It seems interesting for killing time, lead the way."

I think you have fallen for sales talk though. I am pretty sure that they shoved all the useless and weird junk in there while re-branding the name with some mysterious origin to build intrigue. The price should be more than 3 times the proper price too.