Chapter 170: Forging A Weapon
Chapter 170: Forging A Weapon
"I didn’t come here to cause trouble. I’m here to sell weapons," Leon said calmly.
"Sell weapons?" The haughty man standing at the entrance looked him up and down with a cold gaze. "Then show me the weapon."
"I haven’t forged it yet. I want to forge one first, then sell it," Leon replied.
The man’s face immediately darkened. "Brat, do you think this is some kind of joke? You want to forge a weapon? And you expect someone to buy that piece of junk? Stop wasting my time. Get out before I throw you out..."
It wasn’t that the man was deliberately looking down on Leon. In any place, anyone capable of forging weapons was treated as a priceless asset. Every weapon shop had only one, or at most two, weapon smiths, and each of them was considered a treasure.
Whether they were Disaster Class hunters or F-class knights, everyone needed weapons and artifacts. Yet weapon smithing itself was an awakened ability, and those who possessed it were so rare that almost everyone in Delvan knew every weapon smith by name.
Anyone with that ability could earn a fortune.
Looking at Leon’s plain clothes, however, who would believe he was a weaponsmith?
"Listen, I really can forge weapons."
"Sure you can," the man sneered. "Just like pigs can fly."
With that, he shoved Leon out of the shop.
Leon frowned. "But Peglars really can fly, can’t they?"
Peglars were magical beasts or monsters that resembled pigs but possessed a pair of wings. Despite being only E-class monsters, they were infamous for their cunning and were more than capable of killing an inexperienced D-class knight.
Leon had said that only to provoke the man. He wasn’t pleased with the man’s attitude, and he already knew there was no way he would be allowed inside the shop.
As expected, it worked.
Veins bulged across the man’s forehead as he glared at Leon. If looks could kill, Leon would have died on the spot for making fun of him.
With no other choice, Leon left the shop and continued searching for another one.
As he wandered around the place, he noticed a young woman standing inside a shop, her phone pressed tightly against her ear. Her voice was loud enough for Leon to hear every word, making it easy to understand why she was so panicked.
"Karen, you bitch! How could you betray me like this?" she shouted into the phone. "We accepted payment to deliver ten weapons by this weekend. You took your share of the money, but not only did you refuse to forge the weapons, you even had the nerve to switch shops! If you don’t get over here and finish the order, I’ll sue you!"
Leon couldn’t hear what the person on the other end was saying, but one thing was obvious.
Whatever Karen had said, it wasn’t pleasant.
Because the veins on the girl’s forehead bulged as her expression twisted with anger.
When the call finally ended, she threw her phone onto the counter in frustration before collapsing into a chair.
Compared to the surrounding stores, this shop looked rather run-down. Only a handful of weapons were displayed inside the showcases. And Leon could tell. All of them were low-grade.
A moment later, Leon noticed the girl bury her face in her arms.
She was crying.
’Looks like I found exactly what I was looking for,’ Leon thought as he confidently walked toward her.
"Excuse me, miss. Could we talk for a moment? I have a busi—"
"We’re closed for today." She cut him off without even looking up. "If you don’t mind, please leave." She was in no mood to entertain anyone.
"I think I can help you," Leon said quickly before she could interrupt him again.
The girl slowly raised her head, a puzzled look on her tear-streaked face.
"...What did you just say?"
"I said I can help you. You need someone to forge weapons, don’t you? Well, I can do that. And I happen to need some money, so I think we can help each other."
The girl blinked again. Then she looked Leon up and down, trying to figure out whether he was playing some kind of prank.
Just like the arrogant man from earlier, she found it impossible to believe that someone dressed like Leon could be a weaponsmith.
After a long silence, she spoke in a cold voice. "If you’ve had your fun, please leave."
Leon let out a helpless sigh. ’Why the fuck is it so hard to convince people?’ Leon cursed in his heart. Then, without another word, he walked over to a display case and picked up one of the swords inside. It was a magic weapon, but he could already tell from a single glance that its craftsmanship was mediocre.
"What the hell are you doing? Don’t think you can steal in broad dayli—" Before she could finish her sentence, her eyes widened, and the rest of her words caught in her throat.
As Leon raised his right index finger, a tiny mote of light gathered at its tip. He slowly traced it across the blade. Delicate runic symbols were carved into the sword one after another, each sinking seamlessly into the metal as though they had always belonged there.
The sight alone was enough to leave the girl breathless. She had watched many weapon smiths forge weapons before, but Leon’s technique was unlike anything she had ever seen. Every movement was flawless. Every stroke was precise. It looked less like forging and more like a work of art.
Yet that wasn’t what left her rooted to the spot. What truly shocked her was that Leon wasn’t using a single mana stone.
Mana stones were precious treasures found inside dungeons, containing vast amounts of mana that were used for training. They also served as the foundation of weapon forging, providing the energy needed to imprint magical abilities onto weapons.
No weapon smith could forge without them.
Yet Leon was engraving magical abilities onto the blade with nothing but his fingertip.
And by the looks of it, she knew Leon wasn’t faking it. Because even though the process wasn’t complete, she could already sense a powerful aura slowly building within the sword.
It was enough for her to realize one thing.
Leon wasn’t bluffing. He truly knew what he was doing.