"Thanks," William would never act polite, not when such a weapon that would cost tens of thousands of crystals was offered to him free of charge.
He turned to the logs of wood and started to scatter them around.
"What are you looking for?" Ellina came to his side and asked with a curious look.
"I have arrowheads but no shafts," he said while picking up faint brown logs and putting them aside, "these would do perfectly fine."
"The brown bark woods?! That's a common and weak grade of wood! If you want, I can get better wood for you."
William was momentarily tempted before he dropped the idea. It wasn't the issue of quality, rather he wanted something to serve his goals best.
If it was another time, he would prefer to agree. But he knew if he did so, it would take much longer to check the other types of wood Ellina would provide. And he already lost an entire day in his preparations and still not finished.
Despite gaining a lot from coming here, he still regretted all this time wasted on making these arrows.
"Thanks, these will do," he gathered up ten thick and short logs of that brown bark wood and then started to cut them using his sword.
His work was diligent and precise, cutting the wood into similar cylindrical thin pieces to act as shafts. In the span of twenty minutes, he got everything ready.
From the side, Ellina couldn't help but feel weird about his actions. To chop wood, one would use an axe not such a sword! But she refrained from speaking and kept watching in silence, keeping her thoughts to herself.
Under the curious gazes of Ellina, he took one green pot out. The former sparkling green liquid seemed to get smaller in size and brighter in light. In her eyes, it looked like pure water, and the normal candle material became like mud.
*Sizzle!*
Without waiting he poured the liquid over the shafts he prepared. They emitted loud sizzling noises before the shafts absorbed all of it. Not a single drop even fell over the ground.
William didn't just want to have long distance control over the arrows he made. Even if his control over the arrows wouldn't as perfect as the flying knives, such trick would come handy at desperate moments.
Those faint brown shafts changed colour and showed a tinge of green. One pot wasn't enough, so he had to bring another before he was all done.
Around a thousand shafts were ready. He then left them to cool down and took the scarlet red pots out and poured the rest of the green liquid over them.
Each red pot had one green pot emptied over it. Then William waited for five minutes for the mix to slowly and partially solidify before taking it over the anvil.
"Can I use your help again?" as he saw how efficiently Ellina worked, he didn't shy from being shameless and asked her for help.
She started to help again. In the span of the next couple hours, she completed the task. Every Time she finished cleansing, William would come and take the final mix and pour it on the mould.
Twenty flying knives were produced like this. Before he would give any mix to Ellina, he would drop a few of his blood over it to establish a blood link with these knives.
As for the time she kept hammering, he started to get busy assembling the arrows. Using drops of blood to link these arrows to him, he made sure to establish a weaker form of link with them as well.
Flying arrows would consume a lot of his spirit power if he insisted on doing it the same way as the flying knives. But the way he did it allowed him to just exert a little control over the arrows while being airborne.
This might decrease the amount of consumption, and also help him exert a little control to change the direction slightly.
"Thanks," after finishing all that, William saw that this trip to the forging department was worth his time and effort. He didn't feel any regret about losing much time here.
He not only made what he wanted, he also gained a good sword, better than what he expected.
"Say hello to your master for me," Ellina stood at the doors of the academy leading to the forest. She insisted on accompanying him this far, and William wouldn't miss the chance.
After all, he was worried about Guanin and his gang. What if they stopped him and tried to cause trouble again inside the academy? Not to mention Berry's clan would look for him if they noticed his little lie from earlier.
"Sure," William nodded with a big smile that didn't make Ellina satisfied.
"Next time we meet we'll work on our deal," Ellina reminded him, stressing over this point again, "I'll take care of things inside the forging department for you and your master. Just make sure the esteemed master will agree."
"She will," William firmly said. After all there was no master, and he was the one holding the final say here.
If this deal was done properly, then William would solve a big part of his financial problems. He might not face any big obstacles for now. But once his spirit power started to climb higher, he would definitely need a ton of resources.
And any resource in the spirit world would cost lots of spirit crystals.
So securing this deal early on was a good piece of news for him. Despite it not being enough, it would buy him more time to find more sources of profit to his pockets.
As he stepped into the forest, his attention became focused on two things. First, he needed to get inside the deeper zones of the forest, the area he wasn't any familiar with. And second, he had to solve his mud spirit phase issue.
Despite having the godly devouring ability of the nine tailed fox, this would only help his spirit power and physical strength.
Yet his spirit was still immature. Pushing his spirit power further without having a good foundation was a common mistake he wouldn't commit.
"To elevate my spirit, I need to select carefully which monster I should merge with," he muttered to himself while tons of information flooded his mind.
Having a mud spirit wasn't a big deal. In the outside world most of the spirit masters were born like him. It was the same case here as well.
But what made a big difference in the outside world was the simple and yet game changing concept of spirit purity. Anyone had a chance to upgrade his spirit from the mud phase all the way to the top-grade spirit ranks.
Mud phase might be considered the bottom line of any spirit master. Some might be blessed enough and born with higher spirit grades like Berry. Those were the ones who were considered spirit masters in this current world of his.
But William knew better. Mud phase might be called phase zero of any spirit master where spirit power would range below thirty.