"Can you tell me your master's name at least?" After so many failed attempts in prying over the identity of William's mysterious master and her current whereabouts, Ellina couldn't help but ask about this question.
If she knew the name, she could start digging more information about that master and might even get lucky and know her whereabouts.
She wanted nothing more right now but to go and meet such a legendary master. If her disciple, one who lived in the academy as a porter, was showing such awesome tricks and skills, then Ellina could only imagine what William's master was like.
"I can't say anything without her permission," but William didn't even budge, "you know she is my master and I have to follow everything she says."
"Keeping herself this hidden is a miracle in itself," Ellina sighed, "I can't believe such an outstanding master is present in the same world I live in without knowing about her."
She never ceased trying to guess that master's identity. But from all the famous and renowned names she knew about, none matched the identity of William's master.
She wasn't only a mysterious master in her way of forging, but she seemed to seclude herself away from any known force in the spirit master world. Besides her unusual ways in forging, if such a person was known in this world, then she would be famous for her bizarre techniques.
And yet, she had not even a single name to fit such criteria. If anyone else told her about this, she might question the integrity of the story rather than believing it.
But she was the one who saw everything and witnessed how William dealt with the scarlet vibrant ore using new skills.
"Then can you tell me more about the things you've done here?" After William finished eating, nearly sweeping half of the rich meal, she had the courage to ask.
"May I ask about the reason?" William didn't hurry to refuse her request. After all he might get something useful like that potion in return from this.
"I think that clay method can be used with other ores, right?" Ellina didn't hide her own thoughts. When William didn't comment, she continued, "if we used the thunderous lick ores for example instead of the scarlet vibrant ores, we could craft brutal weapons that can kill dark gold monsters even!"
She seemed excited, and William understood the reason behind that. "That might work in theory, but not practically," he slowly said, "such berserk ore is hard to control using this clay."
"Why?" She forgot that she was speaking with an eleven years old kid and a porter. She then started a long session of discussion like she was talking to one of her colleague masters in the Forging Department.
William didn't limit his answers to just yes and no. He started to slowly explain a simple concept known in the outside world, the energy capacity concept.
Homos clay had a good control ability, but its innate power limited its usages. When he slowly explained this to her, she started to gain insights into a totally brand new world.
"If you are this curious, then I can ask my master to write a few ways to control some hard to forge ores to get better benefits from them," William finally threw in his piece, "but that will come at a price, of course."
"Anything is negotiable," Ellina didn't even hesitate to agree, "anything she wants will be agreed upon by me acting as a guarantee."
She wasn't overstepping over her boundaries here. She was sure any other forging master would agree if he was in her spot.
"It's not a big deal," William casually said, "In addition to that, I can bring many manuals about how to forge new alloys and such to make outstanding gears. Yet, the things made out of my master's methods and instructions will be sold at a high price. Of course, after cutting away the initial cost of the materials, my master will ask for fifty percent share of any profit."
"This…" Ellina paused and William mistook her silence for refusal.
"You have to know the value of such methods aren't only in the price of the final gears, but in the renovative way of thinking itself," William slowly said, explaining in deep meaning why he asked for fifty percent.
"It's not that, it's just the price seems a bit low," Ellina knew from a profitable point of view, this might be a good deal to not turn down. However, her eyes weren't on this deal, but on the master shrouding in mystery behind William.
"What about this, your master will take fifty percent of any item price, no need to consider the material cost in this," she decided to give a profitable deal to William so she would build a strong relationship with his master.
"Deal!" No matter what she planned, William would be a fool if he turned down such a deal. "I'm going to meet my master soon anyway. After I return, I'll hand over the techniques if the master agrees."
Despite there being no master and he was the owner of everything, William decided to do things this way. Who knew, people had different hearts after all.
Ellina might be a good person, but if another one with a darker mind and twisted soul found out about that, he might face problems he couldn't deal with.
He had to put his master in the front as a kind of protection, even if that meant he had to waste time in return.
"Alright, how long will you be away?" Ellina was feeling excited from striking this deal. If not for William's need to finish his final product, she would have left and gone to the headmaster of the forging department and shared the news with him.
"Almost a week," William couldn't give an exact answer. After all, his return was linked to his spirit power upgrading plans.
"A week isn't that long," Ellina heaved a sigh of relief before she realised something but didn't express it in words. If William needed a week to visit his master and be back, then his master must be living nearby.
She decided to keep such a note to herself and try to find a way to search for that master personally.
If not fearing for creating misunderstanding, she would rather tag along and track William's steps during this trip.
"May I ask what you are doing?" As William finished the deal, he stood up in a fresh state and started to work again.
Ellina stood by his side while watching him arranging the first dim ores he handled.
"I'm building arrowheads," he gestured with his head towards the mould she produced in a way as if he was saying: Isn't it obvious?
"I mean what do you plan to do with this ore?" Ellina rolled up her eyes in a funny way. If not for her tough features, she would look pretty by doing so.