"Spirit Star Steel," Dane looked at the man's eyes in a serious manner as he replied.
The man, whose name was Krodel, could not help but look down at the ground and ponder for a bit after hearing Dane's words. Indeed, Spirit Star Steel was a rare metal, mostly used as a material in creating an alloy that would allow the equipment to have improved mana conductivity. As a standalone metal though, pure Spirit Star Steel would not only improve the person's mana conductivity by a great degree, it would allow the user to regain their used mana from the surroundings through the created equipment.
After a few minutes, Krodel could only sigh and look at Dane with a smile before saying, "Ever since we've met, you've always surprised me. This time, you still surprised me, wanting such an extremely rare metal right off the bat."
Dane lightly chuckled at Krodel's response, yet he still maintained a calm and composed expression. "I may surprise you, but you know me right? Everything I say is not without a reason."
"Of course, we've known each other for over 3 decades already," Krodel flashed a grin as he replied. "It wouldn't be an understatement to tell everyone that I know where you keep your special stuff!"
"Bah! You and your lecherous thoughts!" Dane could not help but laugh seeing that the topic was changed in an instant. Although that was the case, Krodel knew what was more important so he let out a light cough before saying, "Spirit Star Steel, I'm sure we have a few kilograms of that in stock. Anyways, what are you going to do with it?"
Being caught off guard by Krodel's question, Dane could not only gaze at the sky for a bit before replying with a light smile on his face, "I'll just say that it has something to do with the future of the Seraph Kingdom."
"If you put it that way, then I pretty much know what you're going to do with it." Krodel smiled after hearing Dane's reply and stood up from the bench as he walked towards a certain direction, Dane following behind him.
Since both of them were Rank 4 Class Holders, their Agility was nothing to scoff at, only taking a few minutes of time to traverse about 20 kilometers, stopping in front of a large vault of sorts.
"Ah, so it's inside your shop's special treasury?" Dane could not help but ask. Because they were friends for over 3 decades, Dane knew that the truly precious items the shop sold were kept inside a treasury that was somewhat far away from the shop. This was done so in order for others to not have avaricious thoughts when entering the shop. Then again, who would dare to steal in front of a Rank 4 Class Holder?
The door to the treasury was opened, which was closed in an instant after Dane and Krodel went inside. It took a few minutes of strolling through aisles and containers before Krodel revealed a pure and shiny chunk of metal that radiated a faint glow under the illumination of a small and soft white light hanging from the ceiling.
"Here it is." Krodel's eyes could not help but gleam as he looked at the chunk of metal on his hand. "This is the biggest chunk of Spirit Star Steel we have, weighing at around 10 kilograms. Normally, it would be 1000 gold coins per half kilogram, but since we've known each other for far too long and I know that you're going to use it for something good, let's just say you can get this 10 kilogram piece for 8000 gold."
"How kind of you." Dane could not help but laugh after hearing the price. "Knowing you, I'm sure that your heart is aching after realizing that you'll probably lose a lot of money from this deal."
Snap!
Dane snapped his fingers as a rift in the air was formed. Not long after, gold coins started to flow out of the rift, forming a small pile in front of Krodel's feet. It took a few minutes for the gold coins to stop flowing, a pile reaching a height nearing Krodel's kneecaps being formed.
"15 thousand gold coins, I'll buy each kilogram from you for 1500 gold coins," Dane stated. "Even if we're good friends, I know when to split business from personal stuff. Also, don't you think this discount for me is enough?" Dane lightly smiled afterwards.
Krodel could not help but frown after seeing the smile on Dane's face. Every time he saw that smile, he had a feeling that there was something he had to exchange in order to close the deal. Yet even though he knew that was the case…
He still accepted.
"Fine, let's close the deal," Krodel answered as he gave the chunk of Spirit Star Steel to Dane. Dane happily accepted the chunk of metal and opened up a rift, placing the chunk inside it before closing it up once more.
"Hehe, pleased to make this trade with you." The smile on Dane's face became more pronounced after receiving the chunk. He turned his body around, walking towards the treasury's door to exit, only for it to stop and look back at Krodel and say, "When we meet again, you better have a Mind Reforming Herb with you!"
Bang!
Afterwards, Dane was no longer seen inside the treasury, only Krodel was left.
Krodel could not help but shake his head and sigh as a light smile was planted on his face. He looked at the pile of gold coins near his feet and muttered to himself, "I should buy something better than a Mind Reforming Herb, knowing him fully well."
"I wonder why he wants that? I'm not in a position to care about that anyway."
"Let's just grab a Great Mind Condensation Leaf when the time comes."
…
With the Spirit Star Steel on hand, Dane now headed towards the next place in his mind, a place where the weapon the Ninth Prince could be actualized.
A smithy.
Knowing Dane though, he was not going to a normal smithy that only crafted Magic grade weapons at most. He was instead going to the most renowned smithy inside Seraph Kingdom.
Cling! Cling!
The bells affixed to the smithy's door rang out, alerting the blacksmith in charge of the smithy of the customer's presence.
"Yes, how may I hel—" At the instant the bells rang out, the blacksmith revealed herself to the customer with beads of sweat covering her well-toned body. Indeed, the blacksmith was a woman.
The blacksmith gazed at the customer for a while before letting out a happy scream as she ran towards the customer to hug him. "Kyaaaah! It's Dane!"
"Haha." Dane could only let out a soft laugh as he was being hugged tightly by the blacksmith. "How's it been Kelsey? No wait, please let go first, it's becoming hard to breathe."
"So far, the smithy is still the most renowned out there," Kelsey replied to Dane's question as she let go of Dane, letting Dane breathe in some fresh air. Of course, she knew that Dane was here for some reason, hence she got straight to the point. "So…what brings you here to the smithy?"
Dane took in a few more breaths of air before responding to Kelsey's question. "I need you to help me craft a weapon. Knowing you well, I'm sure you can craft a Grand grade weapon."
Within the Seraph Kingdom, Normal grade equipment were the weakest and most common, followed by Magic grade equipment, then Grand grade equipment. Although Magic and Normal grade equipments were only apart by one grade, Magic grade equipment were already 10 to 100 times fewer in quantity, with Grand grade equipment being even fewer than Magic grade equipment. One could only hope to see the prowess of Grand grade equipment with their own two eyes.
"Oh?" Kelsey's eyebrow raised as she heard Dane's reply. "How can you be so sure that I can guarantee that I'll craft a Grand grade weapon?"
Dane let out a small chuckle as he pointed towards the air surrounding Kelsey. "You know me Kelsey, I have the [Greater Appraisal] spell so I can know every person's power. But I don't even need to activate that to see that your aura has become more condensed. Let me guess, have you broken through [Intermediate Swordsmithing] or [Intermediate Armor Crafting]?"
"The former," Kelsey smiled as she did not restrict her aura anymore. "By luck, I was evolve [Intermediate Swordsmithing] to [Expert Swordsmithing], giving me more assurance of crafting a Grand grade weapon." Surprisingly, she went closer to Dane and whispered in his ear, "Not only that, I even have a small chance of crafting a Supreme grade weapon."
When Dane heard Kelsey's final statement, he felt like thunder coursed through his mind at the level of disbelief he felt. He could only conceal this feeling before grabbing the cloth covered piece of wood inside his robe and showed it to Kelsey as he slowly unfurled the cloth covering it.
"I need you to craft a sword for me," Dane replied as the piece of wood was fully revealed to Kelsey. "This piece of wood will be used as the hilt, I assume you know this, right?"
"Gale Dragon Wood, a good piece of wood for crafting weapons for classes inclined to the Wind element. How could I not know this?" Kelsey let out a smile as she said the wood's name in one go. "As for the blade, what am I going to use? Mithril? Mana conducting alloy? Or do you have something even better than that?"
Fwoosh!
As if it was rehearsed, a rift opened up after Kelsey was finished asking, a chunk of pure silver metal landing on Dane's arm that was extended at the instant the rift opened. Shock took over Kelsey's face as she pointed towards the chunk of metal. "I-I-Is that…what I think it is?"
"I-Is that…Spirit Star Steel?"
Dane could only nod to Kelsey's words before saying, "Let's stop wasting time. We need to make a Magic-infused Blade. You're in charge of the weapon, I'll be in charge of the spell."
"I trust you that you can do just that, right?"