"Look, I will provide the mana gems, I just want you to cut them so they're just like this drawing. Then engrave them with this and I'll pay you." Evren said to the manager in the store he was at.
"And what will you pay with?" the manager asked.
"Money." Evren said as he laid a sack down on the counter. It contained the gold coins, he had taken the silver, copper and iron ones out already and put them into their own bags.
The manager looked at the bags and raised an eyebrow seeing the gold coins. "How many do you want cut with this?"
Evren pointed at the parchment, "I want one with this glyph, and thirteen with this glyph. Make the first ten out of the black mana gems and the last four out of the purple ones."
The manager looked at the purple mana gem and put it over the drawing. "It does not look like the purple ones are large enough."
Evren nodded, "You can make those a little smaller, just keep the inside diameter the same."
The manager said, "Twenty-five gold."
Evren dropped twelve gold on the counter, "Twelve now, the other thirteen when they're done."
The manager collected up the gold and put it into a strongbox behind the counter. He put all the mana gems on a tray along with the plans and schematics. He went into the back and after a few minutes, came back up front and said, "Three, no four days." He wrote up a bill of sale for Evren along with the total amount due and handed it to Evren.
Evren winked at the man and walked out of the store. His next stop was the local blacksmith.
He entered into the shop and found an attendant at the back of the store. He approached and said, "I'd like to speak with the blacksmith about a special order."
The clerk didn't even acknowledge Evren, he just shouted, "JACK!"
A man came out from the back and said, "You know I'm busy wha…" he paused as he noticed Evren.
"Hi, what's the hardest metal your forge can work with?" Evren asked.
"Scarletite, if you don't mind your hands going numb." Jack said.
Evren asked, "What color can you get the scarletite to?"
Without batting an eye, he responded, "Orange."
Evren clicked his tongue and said, "That's too cold." He then asked, "Do you know anyone around here that can work with adamantium?"
It was Jack's turn to click his tongue and said, "Nobody works with that stuff, it's useless."
Evren closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, "Can I take a look at your forge?"
Jack stared at him and then looked to the attendant that didn't seem to be paying attention at all, then back to Evren. He nodded and turned around to enter his workshop.
Evren looked around the shop and at the level of quality of the products made. They were similar to what Levi was making when he first met him. He walked over to the forge and pumped the bellows and conjured a 'dust devil' to see if he could get it hotter. The blacksmith was shocked to see the dust devil and how hot the forge got, but Evren backed away.
"Yeah, not hot enough." Evren looked to the front of the store then back to the blacksmith. He reached over his shoulder into his backpack and pulled out his adamantium sword. He unsheathed it and showed it to the man who was shocked. While the man was admiring the sword, Evren pulled a sword he made for practice out of his backpack and handed it to the man.
Jack didn't want to give up the adamantium sword, but when he saw the sword made out of steel, he was amazed. He held it in his hand and moved it up and down a bit, testing the weight and center of balance. He looked at Evren and asked, "Where'd you get these swords from?"
Evren looked the blacksmith straight in the eyes and said, "I made them."
The man's eyes got wider as he looked at the sword in his hand. He asked, "Can I test it?"
Evren nodded and Jack got a wooden log that he set on the bench and hacked it with the sword a few times. He then looked at the blade and said, "No chips, no rolling. How did you make this?"
Evren said, "Hold the sword out in front of yourself."
Jack held the sword in a poor Ox stance and Evren used his adamantium sword to swing at the steel sword, cutting it in half. He pointed his sword at Jack and said, "Still think adamantium is useless?"
His jaw dropped when he heard that and said, "You made an adamantium sword? How? Isn't it too hard? How did you get it to weld together with itself? Don't tell me you can melt it?"
Evren put his sword away and took the cut sword as well. He then said, "You're on the ocean, get some seashells and crush them up to a powder. When you melt your iron, add the powder to the melted iron to stabilize the carbon content. That'll give you a better steel to work with. You're making tools and weapons out of pig iron that's got too much carbon in it and it'll be too brittle."
Evren walked to the door and said on the way, "Good luck."
Jack got over his stunned state and said, "Really? Wait! Does that really work?"
Evren crossed the store and said, "Try it and see."
Once Evren exited the store, he said to himself, "Well, that was a bust."
He looked around and thought to himself on what he should do next. He had three days to wait for the mana gems to be cut, and another eight days after that to wait for the next ship to Seeclind.
Everyone was off doing their own thing until the ship arrived. The nine of them had gotten three rooms from a local inn. In the morning, they would meet up for the meal and then separate until the evening meal, when they would meet up again at the inn. Evren had spent his time, working on the thing he wanted to create. He wished he would have thought of this before he left Anbuton so he would have the tools to make it himself.
He shrugged and figured he'd just go around to stores and see if he could find anything he could use. He found a shop selling nautical tools and bought a couple maritime telescopes, which he put in his bag for later.
Evren had spent some time searching for books, but it seems that the only ones allowed to be sold were those directly approved by the Holy State Grandia. There were none containing magic. No books included some secret crafting techniques, or even basic crafting techniques as far as Evren could tell. Anything pertaining to monsters and their vulnerabilities was banned, as was any history other than that of the Holy State Grandia itself.
Evren was bored, so he headed back to the inn to see if anyone else was there, but unfortunately, he was alone. He went out at noon to see if he could get some seafood. Since his race was aquatic in nature, seafood was a large portion of the diet. Near the pier there were a several restaurants that had seafood as part of their menu, so Evren went to one that seemed promising.
He was enjoying his lunch to be sure. So many things reminded him of his past life, yet they were good memories, unlike the ones he had been experiencing so far. He had originally asked the waitress if there was a sampler menu, but the woman didn't understand, so he just asked for "a little bit of everything."
Evren had never really eaten a lot in a single sitting, he had to be conservative in his food to ensure it lasted. But, when the plates of food kept coming out, he was pushing his stomach to the limits. By the time he left there, his pocket and his mood were both lighter.
He walked out to the pier to speak with the harbormaster who he had secured passage with. He spoke with him a while to get information on the journey. It was three weeks passage by ship to get from Dhalmer to Arcadia on the Seeclind continent. He'd been told there were four ships that were currently travelling back and forth from the two. A majority of the time, they were hauling cargo and rarely did they transport people.
Evren asked about the safety of the trip, whether monsters or pirates come along, and the harbormaster responded that there hadn't been an attack against any ship in the last twenty years. The Holy State Grandia had assigned puppets to each of the ships to work as crew members. While they work tirelessly, they also are excellent fighters. Initially monsters were a problem, but once the puppets were assigned to the ships, they gradually started thinning out. Pirates learned to leave the shipping lane free and especially did not target the Holy State's ships.
That didn't last long though, as with all things, the Holy State Grandia viewed pirates as a threat to their holy authority and launched a campaign against them. They scoured the shorelines and small islands of the archipelagos, wiping out every pirate location they could find, and have since regularly patrolled the waters in search of more.
Evren had thought to have the others cast spells to work on their magic capacity but was having second thoughts as the captains of the ships were loyal to the Holy State Grandia. Because they had banned, burned and killed everything associated with magic, to suddenly have several people able to cast magic would set off some flags. He still had plans to have them train, but they would be using less obvious spells, or doing so in the privacy of the cabins.
Evren thanked the harbormaster and walked down the pier to its end. He had been trying to use his sensory field in the water, but he felt a significant resistance. When he would increase his sensitivity, it reduced his range above water, but increased below water a little bit. Yet still he was having difficulties with it. It wasn't that it was not providing feedback, but that it was providing too much.
He thought that perhaps it was because he was in air, trying to see underwater, as if the surface tension of the water was refracting his ability, as it does light. He was also considering currents were interfering somehow. He wanted to swim. First to see if he could swim with a human body. Second to test his ability underwater. And third, he just wanted to swim.
He headed back to the inn to leave his equipment and backpack there, taking only a dagger with him. He then headed out to the southern part of town and walked along the sandy beach, passing fishermen. He asked them if there was a good place to swim, to catch some crustaceans or oysters and was directed to a cove further south. The cove was behind a cliff, and he had to walk through waist deep water to reach it.
There were a couple other people here fishing for crustaceans as well, so he found an empty spot on the beach and undressed down to his shorts. He tied his dagger off to his lower leg and wrapped a string around the guard to keep the blade inside the sheath. If he needed it, he would be able draw it, but it would remain in place while he swam. He waded out into the water, eventually diving in and swimming out deeper.
The first thing he noticed was that everything underwater was blurry. He thought that human eyes weren't adaptable to seeing underwater, so he didn't let it bother him much. At first, he was swimming by kicking both of his feet at the same time, while his body undulated through the water. While this wasn't that effective, he learned that humans couldn't hold their breath quite as long as coamen could. He was annoyed that he had to take his head completely out of the water to catch a breath as well. 'There has to be a better way to do this.' He thought.
He got closer to one of the divers to watch how they swam and discovered they were kicking their feet individually instead of together, and they used their arms to pull them through the water. Evren tried this and it was uncomfortable and awkward at first, but he noticed a difference immediately. He practiced by diving down, swimming underwater and surfacing when he needed air. This continued until he got water in his nose, and he rose to the surface coughing.
The other divers, when they surfaced and noticed him coughing asked if he was alright, but they kept their distance. He would assure them that he was fine, and when things cleared up, he went back to practice swimming. After some time of practicing his swimming, he tried using his sensory field underwater, and it felt like looking for a pebble in a foggy field. If he got close enough to see something, he could sense it, but it was worse than his blurry vision.
After a few hours of swimming, Evren returned to shore empty handed. He noticed his skin was different, softer and wrinkled and frowned. He'd heard of this thing before, but never experienced it. It wasn't the most pleasant of feelings. He picked up his clothes and carried them out of the cove, choosing to put his clothes on after he had dried off a little.