Henova looked at the two Katanas in front of him. The scabberds didn't have any logo or symbols of the owner or the maker.
He scrutinized the shape, the sharpness and the weight of the weapon. Looking at the handle of the Katana, he knew that the owner was someone that have significant strength but he use a really light weapon instead.
"Hmm such contradictory so how should I upgrade this weapon in less than a day?" Henova muttered.
He was confused why Ares, who has large strength based on the traces on the Katana handle, would even wield a light weapons when he could even use a huge great sword instead.
"Based on this traces, that lad could even crushed a boulders bare handed"
Glancing around the smithy Henova looked at the black stone put inside an airtight glass box. That substance was something given to him by someone he really indebted to but he already decided not to use it since it was dangerous.
He turned away and tried to find other materials that might be more suitable. There were traces of burns all over the Katanas as if it had been struck by lightning.
"I should've ask that lad if he use mana or aura with his weapon. But looking at these traces most probably from mana," Henova decided to upgrade the weapon sturdiness and mana conductivity while still retain its light weight.
His sleepless night continued and he was engrossed in front of the burning fire and hot steaming anvil. Henova didn't even realised that it was already early morning when he finished the work.
It wasn't his first time dealing with such weapons but the Katana wasn't something he used to. The Katanas weren't created from metal but teeth. A set of really sturdy and sharp teeth and that's why it was so light since it didn't contained any metal at all.
"This kind of weapon is more well known in the the area near the sea right? So our young master must have come from there"
North of Hargan was the only place in Hargan that faced the wide sea and people in those area caught more marine monsters than land monsters. Those monsters' body parts were used for various things such as for food and also in weapons making.
Sea monsters were dangerous due to their sharp teeth and big sizes. Those teeth could even ripped apart an ordinary metal ship thus using it to make weapons were a perfect choice.
Kling
The bell chimed when someone opened the door. A man wearing a robe came into the shop. Glancing around like normal customers did.
"May I help you, Sir?" Henova asked.
Based on his discerning eyes, the robe worn by the man wasn't that impressive despite it might be at least grade 1 artifact. The man's face was hidden under the hood and only his mouth and chin could be seen.
"Oh you must be the blacksmith Henova right? Someone recommended me to recruit you to work with our master," the man said, smiling amiably to Henova.
"Recommend me? Who would recommend someone like me and I don't even know who your master is," Henova replied skeptical.
"But what if we said we can give you the Divine hammer, the Hammer of Hephaistos?" The man tried to entice Henova.
'Again, with this Divine Hammer of Hephaistos. Is Ares the one recommending me but I don't even know where that lad even come from let alone this man who didn't even introduce himself,' Henova thought.
"I don't like working for other people. If that's all, can you get out from my shop"
"Hey don't decide hastily. I will give this to you as a present," the man put a black box on top of the shop counter along with a handrawn map.
Henova could feel a familiar sensation coming from the box. Trying to remain calm he asked, "You, what is in that box?"
"Oh it's nothing. You must have encountered something similar before right? It's the Devil Core and this map will lead you to something that rightly yours," the man answered with a huge smile as if proud with what he said.
Devil Core was the term used by blacksmith to a metal named Uru which was a metal that could only be found in the Demonic realm. However in order for Uru to be usable it have to 'eat'
And by eat is to give blood sacrificed to the metal until it produced a faint purplish mist around it and its surface became a bit red. Those that have sharp senses would be uncomfortable around this metal. This metal was doomed to be an evil weapon if it was used in weapons.
Henova had a lump of Uru inside his room but he already decided he wouldn't use it even though he was curious on how the weapons would become if he used it.
"You're a talented blacksmith so aren't you curious what kind of weapon you can make using the Devil Core?" The robed man asked after seeing Henova remained silent.
"No, why would I make a weapon using a dangerous metal like this one. I'm not interested," Henova said sternly.
"Oh it's ok. Just take this as a souvenir from my master. I thought you might wanted to take revenge for your wife and daughter but it looks like I'm mistaken," the robed man started to walk out of the shop.
However, Henova's tried to stop him, "Wait, if you know about my revenge, do you know who was the group that killed them"
"I don't know but my master know about it. If you agree to serve my master, we can even help you with your revenge"
"....." Henova remained quiet but his emotion was clearly shaken at the mentioned of his wife and daughter.
"It's alright. We will meet again if fate allows us," the robed man pushed opened the door.
Henova had always thought of revenge but he knew he didn't have the power to do it. He has served a few nobles in the past in order to try asked their help but his request was rejected every single time.
After that he realised those selfish nobles wouldn't help him if there was no gain for them.
Henova just watched the robed man exited his shop and walked away. The surrounding was a bit foggy maybe because it had been raining last night. The fog obsecured Henova's view from seeing where the robed man went to down the alley.
The robed man seemed like he had vanished into thin air inside the white fog.
While in deep thought, suddenly something taped his shoulder. Henova jolted to his side and turned back to see a young lad wearing a black sweater with a hoody covering his head and a black face mask.
The only thing Henova could see was the crimson red eyes and a few strands of black hair. It was the same young master who came to his shop yesterday.
"Henova, I have called your name so many time after I enter this shop," Ares said.
"Uh, you came quite early today. I thought you might come in the evening and you even come alone," Henova tried to act normally.
"I have to go back before dinner time since my family wanted to meet me. My servants are waiting outside. Is the upgrade not finish yet?"
"No I already finished them," Henova said before giving Ares the two Katanas.
"By the way Henova, shouldn't you try renovating this shop? Maybe at least put a shop name in front of the building?" Ares suggested.
"Hey, is that really necessary? You already recommended me to one of your rich friend right? So I might have to move out from this place later on," Henova said in a mocking tone.
He didn't like how Ares tried to medle with his life. He was annoyed with the previous guy who acted all confident that Henova would agree and now Ares who acted ignorant as if he didn't do anything.
"What are you talking about? I never recommend you to anyone since you seemed to prefer working independently," Ares answered honestly.
"Hey, are you for real so who is that man who came just before you? You might even bumped into him when you came here," Henova was confused.
"Oh that man wearing black robe? I don't know him. Did he offer you something, saying that you was recommended by me?"
".....No, he didn't specifically said it was you, he just said someone recommended me to work with his master."
"Sounds like a swindler to me."
Henova didn't know what to say. He wanted to tell Ares that man seemed to know about his past thus he might not be a mere swindler. Plus he also had the Devil Core metal which was one of the rarest metal in the world.
Giving away such metal as a souvenir wasn't something ordinary people could do. However, his conscience forbid him from telling Ares since he also didn't know who Ares really was.
"It seems you are having a problem. Since you are a talented blacksmith, I can offer to help you if you manage to find me," Ares said before putting a metal insignia on the counter top.
Aree put it just beside the black box given by the robed man. The bright red insignia looked contrastly striking compared to the black box.
"What is this?" Henova asked.
He never really cared much about nobles since he opened the shop thus he didn't recognized the symbol on the metal badge.
He looked at the hexagon shaped metal badge that have a symbol of red thorny roses circling around a red majestic bird breathing out orange fire.
"It's a proof that you're my guest if you manage to come to my place. I have to get going. I hope we can meet again," Ares bid farewell to Henova since he had a more urgent matter to do.
**********************************
Inside an abandoned factory building not far from Henova's shop, a group of people surrounded a fainted man wearing black robe that was tied up with a magic rope and mana restriction bracelet in order to restrict him from using magic.
"Young master, can you please explain why you wanted to capture this man?" Ron asked.
Ares had ordered the Shadows to put an eavesdropping device inside Henova's shop and he had heard the conversation between Henova and that robed man during his way to the shop. He immediately ordered the Shadows to spread paralyzing fog around the shop.
Once the man walked quite a distance from the shop, he fall unconscious due to the fog and that was when Ares's Shadows captured and dragged the man away while Ares continued entering the shop acting nothing was out of ordinary.
"This guy might be the same guy that asked Hamsyar weird questions," Ares had tell Ron a few things about Hamsyar and put a Shadow to follow him around since he didn't want anyone to kidnap Hamsyar and made him a villain.
Hamsyar's talent was a top tier talent thus there was no way Ares would let someone take that away from him. He would use any means possible to make his survivability increased.
Having Hamsyar by his side means that he would have strong weapons that could help protect him in the future. Hamsyar's Mecha Armor was one of a kind where it could even supply mana to it's wearer and prevent the wearer from falling into illusion magic.
That was a few of the well known function of the armour thus if Hamsyar became a villain, he would be the pain in the ass to Cedric and it might even implicate Ares who just want to be a bystander eating popcorn.
The robed man still unconscious but Ares had no time to wait for him to wake up by himself thus he choke him before a buzzing sound came from his hand. Sparks of lightning started to spread all over the man's body.
"Arghhh!" The man instantly wake up.
Ares gave him a slight electric shock to force the man in front of him to wake up. He stared at the man who was in a trance.
The man looked around confusedly. Tuah pulled over the man's hood in order to see his face properly but once he did that the man started yelling and shouting.
"You! Who are you?! You dare do this to me huh"
"Why are you meeting with Henova?" Ares asked as if he didn't hear the man's shout.
"What? Do you also wanted to recruit Henova? Are you a noble? No matter what you do, its nothing compared to what we offered him"
"Oh so you must be the one who gave Henova the Devil Core. How interesting?"
Ares had smell a slightly stinking stench when he was in Henova's shop. The smell was similar to a pig turd but more intense. It came from the black box on Henova's countertop.
In the novel it was described that the Zanuki described the Demon King's sword, Nabassu smell like a really strong fermented pigs turd and only them could smell it. That was why none of the Zanuki wanted to face the Demon King because of the overwhelming smell that make them wanted to vomit.
From there he knew Devil Core was inside the box. Fortunately his face mask block some of the smell.
Devil Core during this time around wasn't that well known and only several people knew about it including Henova. So the man must felt really shock that someone else knew about the Devil Core.
"Oi, that's a dangerous thing. Why the hell you give that to a blacksmith? Are you crazy?"
And of course, Tuah also knew about it since he was an old Druid. He might have at least heard about it since Druid would inherited the knowledge of their predecessors through a special method called memory inheritance where a Druid transfer his memory to another Druid.
Those memories contained all the knowledge the Druid had collected his whole life and a Druid could live as long as a Dragon which is one thousand years old.
"You?! How do you know about the Dark Core?!" The man started to panic.
Zuppp
A clean sword cut appeared on the man's back just below his neck. It was Ares who used his upgraded Katana without a warning.
"The Katana feels nicer after being upgraded by Henova. How does it feels? Nice right? Henova upgraded it for me," Ares sheathed back the Katana into its scabberd.
"Arghhhh! I'll kill you!!! Tell me who you're," the man stared at Ares with bloodshot eyes.
However he couldn't do anything due to his mana being restricted. Even a demon couldn't do anything if it was in the same situation.
Zapp
Another sword slash cut on the area near the first one. Blood started to trickled down.
"Asked more question and the next one will be your legs," Ares said coldly.
"Arghhhh!!!! I kill you!!!"
"Hey are you the one who try to entice Hamsyar? It's you right? Why are you disturbing my kid?" Ares asked ignoring the man's shouts and stares.
"...."
The man stopped shouting but there was a hint of nervouseness in his eyes. Ares continued to probe.
"By the way just want to say thank you for the blueprint and also the magic spell. My Hamsyar really liked it, saying that he would do his best to be the best support type Guardian when he grew up"
"You, what nonsense are you talking about haa!!! What do you want?"
Zup
A dagger was stabbed on the man's right thigh. A loud screams reverberated throughout the area. Fortunately Tuah already set up a noise cancelling barrier around them.
"Why not you at least tell me who your master is? I might get interested and want to serve your master"
"Like hell a nobody like you can serve my master. My master deserve the best of the best," the man's voice started to weaken.
"If you give me at least one answer for my question, I will pour potion on your injuries. No answer or just nonsense shouting, I will stab your other leg. Then I will stab your shoulders, your guts before finally your heart"
The man stared wide eyes at Ares, his adam's apple trembled slightly.
"Then I want to know what is the criteria your master wanted. I don't think strength played a big role here. Both Hamsyar and Henova wouldn't be strong physically no matter how long you wait," Ares said confidently since he knew more about the villain Hamsyar and Henova rather than the current one.
"Like hell I will tell you-arghhh!!! Fuck!!"
Another dagger was stabbed on his left leg. The man could clearly felt the throbbing pain aching from both his legs. His face had become paler as more blood dripping out from his injuries.
"After this will be your shoulders. Next question, what if someone from the noble family wanted to serve your master? He won't decline right?"
"Ptuih, do you thing my master cared about nobles. You're deluding yourself-arghhhhh!!!!"
Another two daggers stabbed onto his right shoulder and left shoulder simultaneously.
"Fuck!!! You said it would be my shoulder" the man said indicating it was supposed to be only on one shoulder at a time, not both.
"I never said I would stab only one place at a time. It can be two places or three at the same time right? So now let's continue, next part will be your guts. So think carefully before you answer. If it was a Zanuki, will your master accept him?"
"Pfttt hahaha!! Are you crazy? Who will reject those bunch? You're saying the impossible. You sure you don't have problems with your brain?" The man said mockingly.
"Oh so your master will accept a Zanuki huh?"
After not being stabbed, the man seem to regain a bit of his sanity. If before his answer was influenced by extreme rage and pain but when he already used to the pain, he decided to remain silent.
It was better than him accidentally blurted out things he shouldn't say.
"Oh is that your answer? Ok then"
Seeing Ares grabbing a dagger, the man closed his eyes instinctively, preparing to be stabbed. He was ready to die from the moment he got caught.
Zup
The robe and cloth he wore were tore, leaving a part of his front body naked. The area from his left clavicle until above his left side abdomen were naked since the cloth was torn off.
The man was confused.
"Who said I can only stab. I'm also an expert in slicing things you know"
The man's face turned disappointed since he thought his agony might ended soon but it had only started.