As Valyr brought out his identification badge from the Blacksmith Guild, Aster could not help but have an amused expression on his face, lightly chuckling as he recalled that Valyr had mentioned he had already registered with the Blacksmith Guild. ‘An Elite Member of the Blacksmith Guild, huh.’
On the other hand, Arcenne’s eyes widened in shock once she saw Valyr bring out the badge. However, this feeling of shock swiftly disappeared as she felt that it was slightly suspicious for Valyr to have an identification badge from the Blacksmith Guild.
After all, in her eyes, he was a prodigy in combat. There was no way he would find the time to pursue blacksmithing…
Right?𝞸𝑣𝔩xt.𝗇𝓔t
With that, she moved closer to get a better look at the badge, even asking Valyr to give it to her for a moment. In response, Valyr nodded as he gave his badge to her, a light yet carefree smile adorning his face as he did so.
With the badge now in her hands, Arcenne checked every part of it, glancing at Valyr every few seconds or so once she sensed the familiar energy of an official badge from the Blacksmith Guild emanating out of it. At that instant, she discarded the possibility of the badge being a knockoff of some sort.
‘So, you’re telling me… aside from combat, he’s also a well-accomplished blacksmith?’ Suppressing the shock she felt from this thought, her attention was soon focused on the lower portion of the badge, which showed his current class rank, his name… as well as his position in the guild.
“You’re an Elite Member?” At that point, Arcenne was left with no choice but to believe that the man in front of him, who was already combat prodigy in her eyes, was also a certified blacksmith. “Where… where do you even find the time to pursue blacksmithing even though you’re already so good in combat?”
“What do you mean by finding the time to pursue blacksmithing?” Hearing the question Arcenne asked him, Valyr could not help but chuckle as he retrieved the badge from Arcenne’s hands. As for Aster, a smile continued to adorn his face, not letting others know what was going on in his mind.
“My main class is actually that of a blacksmith,” Valyr said, wanting to clear the confusion Arcenne felt. “As for combat, that’s something I focus on when I have free time.”
‘Well, I don’t really have to train my combat skills… but that would leave not just Arcenne, but Aster as well at a loss for words.’ As this thought popped up in Valyr’s mind, causing him to inwardly chuckle, Arcenne could not help but feel great dejection from Valyr’s words.
“So, this is what the others meant when they told me to not get complacent and that there was always a person that could do what I did with less effort.” Soon after, Arcenne let out a long sigh. “Some people truly are just born with monstrous talent.”
Hearing the murmurs that come out of Arcenne’s mouth, Valyr felt obligated to comfort the woman, even though he had not really done anything intentional to make her feel dejected. However, just as he was about to get closer to her and pat her on the shoulders, Arcenne retrieved the spear from the back all of a sudden before sweeping out in Valyr’s direction, giving the latter no choice but to distance himself from her.
Wondering what had gotten into Arcenne all of a sudden, Valyr swiftly noticed the gaze she had towards him, sensing the flames of ambition and determination madly burning within her. With that, he retrieved the spear from his back before flashing a mischievous grin. “Is this a spar to prove whether hard work or monstrous talent has greater importance in combat?”
“Not at all.” In response, a slightly malevolent grin appeared on Arcenne’s face as she closed the distance between them within seconds, slashing down with her spear as Valyr swerved his body to the side posthaste.
“This is just my way of saying congratulations to you for becoming an instructor at the combat training hall.”
“Congratulations, my ass!”
…
After sparring against one another for a while, their fight eventually came to a draw. With Aster surprisingly acting as the referee to the spar, he imparted the somewhat tired duo with tips that would make their attacks more lethal and effective.
Unsurprisingly, as she was his daughter, Arcenne took all of his words to heart, reminding herself to apply his words into actual practice. As for Valyr, he also took his words into consideration, cross-referencing it with his combat experience from his past life as he thought about spending a bit more time on combat. After all, starting tomorrow, he was going to become an official instructor of the Clossbay Combat Training Hall.
Nevertheless, a couple days inadvertently passed.
During those days, Valyr held his first ever combat training session in the combat training hall, teaching the basics, as well as the intricacies of combat to those who attended his session during those four hours. Though he did not have the knack for teaching, with the experience he had amassed in his past life, he was still able to impart and widen the horizons of those he taught, his reputation of being a Rank 1 Combat Elite now including the fact that he was also a great combat instructor.
Aside from that, he also talked to the people Arcenne had recommended to him regarding the supply chain of raw materials for his future smithy. Thankfully, all of the people he had talked to were all easy to work with, especially once they found out he was an Elite Member from the Blacksmith Guild.
Arcenne also sent a few messages to him during the past couple of days through the chat function, telling him to give her his identification badge from the Blacksmith Guild for the meantime to get the paperwork done. When they met up for Valyr to give his identification badge to Arcenne, the latter looked at him for a bit before posing a question to him.
“Those from the government asked me as to what kind of name the smithy would have,” she told him, thanking him as she received the identification badge. “I presume you already have a name in mind for it?”
“Yeah.” With a light smile, Valyr nodded, recalling the time when he had first unlocked the [Basic Crimson Flame Manipulation] skill. Though the skill said that it was a flame made for destruction, Valyr felt like the uses of the skill extended beyond it.
Feeling like he would use the skill in many aspects of blacksmithing in the future, the name for the business eventually came out of his mouth, as if it was seemingly meant to be.
“Let’s call it…”
“The Crimson Forge.”