The man removed his feet from the stall and looked over to where Ludwig was pointing.
“Hah? Are you mad? That’s just something I use to… A thousand Kronas.” The man stopped himself from potentially losing a ‘stupid’ costumer.
Ludwig was about to pay it instantly, but he needed to make sure his expression was natural.
“Isn’t that too much for something you’re using to support your stall? I’ll give you two hundred,” Ludwig said.
“What are you doing?” Van Dijk asked, he seemed to have found something usable.
“I just found a piece of metal I can use to learn smiting,” Ludwig said.
This confused Van Dijk.
The young man went around, -raised with extreme difficulty- the stall and pulled out the slab of metal, “I knew you had eyes, I don’t know what this was doing here, I mean this is a… fine? Piece of euuuh… black steel, yes, black steel, you have to give me more than two hundred Kronas dear…”
“Let’s go Ludwig, we’re in a hurry, also black steel is usually deep blue, not black,” Van Dijk corrected.
“Fine, two hundred Kronas, hand it over,” the seller said.
Van Dijk sighed, but didn’t want to stop his disciple from making a mistake, it’s still only two hundred Kronas, but if it was all it took to teach his disciple a lesson for not being scammed then its far too cheap a price to pay. He needs to learn that he could get scammed and lied to. No one is honest in the world after all.
Ludwig handed the two hundred Kronas and grabbed the weapon.
The man had a wide smirk on his face, “Thank you for your patronage,” he said.
“Oi, what are you doing?” a short statured man soon approached the stall.
Ludwig grabbed the piece of metal in his hands, and the moment the old man saw it, his eyes widened, “What is that doing here? This was not something that I was selling,” the old man said.
“It’s okay pops. It’s just a piece of metal, I got a hundred for it,” the young man said. He cut the price by half, Ludwig further confirmed that this fool was nothing but a sleazy idiot.
“I’m sorry patrons, you can get something else that you want, but I wasn’t selling that,” the old man said.
Ludwig wasn’t about to give up something this overpowered once he obtained it.
And Van Dijk, seemed to have realized that something was wrong. He gestured for Ludwig to give him the item.
Ludwig hesitated for a bit, but if Van Dijk wanted it, nothing could stop him.
Van Dijk grabbed the fragment, frowned and infused it with his own mana. The power behind his mana was so mighty and powerful that the stall owner fell on his back from fear and terror.
“Interesting… it’s actively refusing to be imbued, what sort of metal is this…” Van Dijk wondered.
“It’s a Relic,” Ludwig said in a hushed tone.
“Oh, a Relic,” Van Dijk said loudly to which the son and father were both surprised, “Seems you got it for a cheap price, you can keep it.” Van Dijk said.
“As I said sir, I’m not selling that,” the old man said as he stood up.
“Yeah, I didn’t know it was a relic, I would have asked for at least twenty thousand!” the young man said.
“That’s a relic you fool, even a million Krona isn’t enough!” the father said. Who also seemed to have finally realized the truth behind the treasure he had.
“A deal is a deal, it had been agreed to and confirmed. You have sold it, my disciple had bought it. It is your own fault and mistake for treating gold as dirt. You wouldn’t have ever known what this was if not for my disciple,” Van Dijk said. “And if you have a problem with that, then you can come at me.”
“Listen here mister!” the young ma said as he walked up to Van Dijk’s face pointing a finger.
‘Oh, someone is going to die…’ that was the only thought that crossed Ludwig’s mind then.
“What’s going on here!” one of the guards said as he seemed to have noticed the potent mana discharge from earlier.
And the moment he saw Van Dijk.
“Black Tower Master Bastos Van Dijk, I give my greetings to the savior of Lufondal!” he said as he bowed deeply.
The moment the young man who was pointing his hands at Van Dijk understood what was going on, his finger seemed to deflate and curl back.
He then began hastily wiping some of the dust off Van Dijk’s robes, “Mister, you wouldn’t need to even pay for this, if I had known I would have given it to you all for free, is that right, father!”
The father immediately stood up, “Y-yes, for the savior, and the great Tower Master! I would gratefully offer it for free.”
“We’re not hoodlums to take things for free, you have been paid the proper price, Ludwig, let’s go,” Van Dijk said as he walked away from the stall.
“[Cleanse]” Van Dijk said as he was walking away, an aura of magic soon brushed past his clothes making them shinier. “I hate when others touch me.” He said in disgust.
Ludwig had a fear that he might go back and eradicate the two, but thankfully that didn’t happen.
“Tell me, my boy, how did you recognize that thing? It looks dangerous,” Van Dijk said.
“I don’t know, it called to me I guess,” Ludwig lied.
“I see. Take good care of it, though I don’t know what it can be used for, that thing was able to easily shrug off my magic. Though I didn’t fully try, but it didn’t feel like it tried either. It looks like it was broken off of something.
“A sword,” Ludwig said, “This is a fragment of a sword. Thankfully it’s shaped like the edge of a blade, though it looks jagged, it still is sharp.”
“You’d still need to make a hilt and a guard for it, seems like it was broken from the blade.”
Ludwig hesitated on telling him more about it, since no one could actually re-forge or melt this. If what the Lore of the weapon said was true. This thing was forged in the heart of a black hole… yeah, that ain’t happening here.