Two weeks have passed since the Aviflora incident.
Chrysos has been busy for a while. He took many low leveled quests and brewed potions to sell. His business wasn't too big, but at least he has a steady source of income.
His business wasn't too big, but he did earn a lot from it.
While he was researching a brand new recipe for a potion, he heard a knock coming from the door..
Chrysos turned around and asked. "Who is it?"
He heard another round of knocks.
Chrysos sighed and slightly shook his head in annoyance. "I get it! Be patient and I'll be there." Chrysos put away his stuff and walked to the front door.
When he opened it, he saw none other than Nadt.
"Hey! Long time no see bud." Nadt revealed his signature smile.
Chrysos happily replied. "Yep, it's been a while. How have you been?" Chrysos opened his door and let him in.
"Ah well, same as before. Just sell my merchandise and then go home and eat." Nadt entered the house and sat on a chair.
"What a neat place." Nadt looked around and saw that Chrysos got himself a pretty good house. He remembered the first time he met him.
...
One day, he was just about to go back to Ironmountain, and since it was getting late, he took a shortcut. And from afar he saw a strange cabin that he had never seen before.
When he got curious and checked it out, he found out that someone was living there. At first, he ran away because he was too afraid after seeing the strange man.
But who could've thought that the strange man would offer him a deal.
"You seem fit for the job... Say, would you like to sell my potions to Ironmountain?" The strange man lowered himself to Nadt, who was on the ground after tripping.
"Wh- What?" Nadt couldn't make sense of what he just heard.
"Hahahaha... Let's talk.."
...
And after that day, his life changed. He sold lots of potions and became significantly wealthier. He helped his sister and himself eat decent food everyday thanks to Chrysos.
His business expanded and even without him anymore, he can sustain himself for life.
He felt like he owed something to him. Everyday, his fear of him disappeared bit by bit until an unexpected change happened to his strange dealer.
The strange and unapproachable man became more talkative and respectful to him. He didn't get it. Was there something wrong with his head?
But truthfully speaking, Nadt was happy that Chrysos changed for the better.
...
"So, what's your business here?" Chrysos poured Nadt a drink he brewed himself.
"I just wanted to check up on you.. no big deal." Nadt took a sip and tasted a sweet and sour fruity flavour. "Wow, this is good."
"So, you've probably heard that I'm an adventurer now, right?" Chrysos laughed.
"Yep, I heard about how you took care of that assassin. Honestly, I didn't know you could fight that good." Nadt raised his cup and drank another mouthful.
Chrysos sounded shocked. "Wow, I didn't know you looked down at me that much." He made sure to sound offended. Of course he was just kidding.
"Hahaha, of course not. It's just that I've never seen you fight before." Nadt drank another cup then stated his intentions. "The truth is that there's been more reported missing cases of adventurers lately. I need to tell you to be careful."
"I've heard of it, but I know that it's not enough of a reason for you to visit me, right?" Chrysos asked.
Nadt nodded. "Yes. According to Alor, There's a group of corrupted ones that are actively hunting adventurers called the 'Legion.' But what the public doesn't know is that they hunt down those specifically who have killed a corrupted one or those who have taken down a fugitive from the bounty list. And so far, you fulfill one of the criteria."
Chrysos coughed and spoke in his mind. "Well, actually I fulfill both of the criterias.."
Nadt noticed Chrysos' cough and took it as a sign of Chrysos being afraid. "But don't worry, as long as you stay close to Ironmountain, there's no way they'll catch you.. However, make sure not to create a commotion next time.. After all, you caught Shalra and presented her in front of many people." Nadt sighed. "Well, I'll be off now."
"Okay, have a great day.. Thanks for the tip too." Chrysos sent him away.
He closed the door behind Nadt.
After his friend left, Chrysos groaned. "Why is it that I have to be so unlucky? What's their deal anyways?" Chrysos couldn't help but complain. "Plus, what kind of name is the 'Legion?' Legion of what? Idiots?" Chrysos paid them no heed.
Afterwards, he did some chores and left his house. Of course, he locked the door on his way out.
"Now, let's go to Calmoal street and find the Runesmith.." Chrysos looked at his Alizuite sword. It needed special modifications to improve it.
He currently had more than 200 gold coins on him, so it should be enough for one rune drawing, right?
Chrysos arrived at Calmoal street and saw a plaque saying "Vicias' Rune Smithery." When Chrysos saw the plaque's gold outlines, he knew that it was a top tier establishment.
Tringiling!
The moment Chrysos opened the door, the chimes rang above his head.
He saw that there were a lot of adventurers inside. But they were wearing better equipment than the normal adventurers. All of them had special steel armor or weapons. There wasn't any iron on them.
From this, Chrysos knew that they were all rich. Some even had butlers or maids attending to their needs. Not only that, they have multiple magic gemstones and crystals embedded within them.
He immediately felt inferior. Compared to them, he was just in plain Taronite armor. Even though Taronite is at least five times stronger than steel, the invisible mental atmosphere made Chrysos feel gloomy. He felt uncomfortable being so 'inferior.'
Well, you can't blame him, one of them was even wearing an armor made of Lioqar. It's a type of metal that is stronger than steel, and it even has a golden sheen, making it look amazing! Plus, the armor had intricate carvings. It was obviously made by a high ranking blacksmith or armorsmith.
"Let's just get this over with." Chrysos took in a deep breath and walked to the counter.
Behind the glass was a wise looking man with glasses, black ironed pants and a gentlemanly coat complimented by a golden silk tie. When he saw Chrysos, he politely spoke with an elegant tone. "How may I help you sir?"
"I would like runes on my sword. The lighter it is and the slicing ability it gets, the better." Chrysos stated what he wanted.
When he looked at the man's modern looking tie, he wondered to himself. "When did ties exist here? Am I on earth?"
The man nodded and wrote Chrysos' request.
The man then took a crystal gadget powered by Divinium. He used it to scan the paper that he wrote on. "Wonderful. please go to room 16 there will be a runesmith for your request. I've already contacted them."
"Also, I noticed your interest in my tie. If you would like to know, it is made by fine materials such as-"
"No thank you. I was just thinking about who invented such a fashion trend." Chrysos replied to the man before he flaunted his tie any further.
"Oh, it's started by the great Emperor Albert Tesla and his brother, King Nikola Einstein from the richest continent of the human kingdoms, Ablizas Neouvis." The man spoke with elegance and pride.
"Heh?" Chrysos stood there, frozen.
He blankly stared at the man before thinking, "Don't tell me I'm not the only one who reincarnated in this world… So there were ones before me?! And do they really have to be such idiots to name themselves that? I mean, the names aren't bad since they belong to legendary figures, I only meant that those two who named themselves that are just plain idiots."
And just as Chrysos stood there in a daze, the man continued talking about the two legendary figures like a fanatic.
"Not only that, but before they became great figures, they founded the adventurer's guild, helped resolve the monetary crisis by introducing the bronze, silver and gold Cabrital coin system, they even impacted the literary culture and language, fashion norms, economic systems of continents and even helped the rise of education! They're that amazing!" The man gracefully raised his arms, not knowing that Chrysos had already left.
Chrysos walked unenergized towards room 16 leaving the man from earlier with a blank expression, knowing that all that he said landed on nobody's ears.
"…"
Reaching room 16, Chrysos opened the door and saw a huge table and a young woman holding rare tiered Divinious crystals engraving magical markings on a weapon. When she looked up, she saw Chrysos entering the room. From the concentration of Divinious, he knew that they are high tiered crystals instead of the middle tier or low tiered crystals that he worked with before.
"You want speed and more slicing abilities on your blade right? Just leave it here and wait for a bit." The woman had an impatient attitude. But despite that, her charming physique and her fierce demeanor made her attractive in her own way.
She had long dark red hair and brown eyes. She wore round working goggles, light plated armor made of special steel from her torso to her legs in order to prevent explosions from harming her. She has an unapproachable aura because of how hard she works all day to the point of having dark circles under her eyes.
She reminded Chrysos of Eve. Miss Lynn's assistant.
Chrysos took his sword and placed it near her workplace.
He found a chair and sat down. He grabbed a vial with an orange liquid inside. He drank it and felt relaxed. It was a hypertraining potion.
"On the plus side, I'll be able to get a full skeleton of a wild Crimson Tusked Blood Elephant soon to make a better muscle hardening potion." Chrysos thought to himself and immediately felt better.
...
The woman finished engraving runes on the sword that she was working on and tossed it on the pile next to her. She sighed and saw that Chrysos was sitting in the corner of the room.
"That man actually slept?" The woman looked at him for a brief moment before going back to her work. She reached for a sword and saw a unique dark blue sword.
"What's this?" She examined the sword for a bit. "It's one of those rich nobles who doesn't like steel.." She didn't think much of it and began using her ability "Rune Imprint" to write the specific runes for it. Since this was the one 154th sword that she was going to engrave, she remembered that the request for it was for more slicing abilities. So, she began to work.
One by one, she engraved the correct symbols on the sword. It took her fifteen minutes to finish a side, so she began working on the other side of the sword.
After half an hour, the blade was fully upgraded with runes. "Agh, finally another one is done." She threw the sword next to the pile of weapons she had already completed, and when she was about to work on an axe, in her peripheral vision, she saw that the runes weren't there!
"Huh? Didn't I already write the correct symbols?" She picked up the dark blue sword and sure enough, there wasn't a single rune.
"Am I dreaming or am I just tired?" She rubbed her forehead and groaned. She took another crystal and began drawing once more. She didn't think anything weird and just felt that she was just too tired and made a mistake somehow.
And it took another half an hour to finish it. She moved on to the axe and finished that as well. And when she threw the axe to the weapon pile, she saw that the dark blue sword doesn't have a single rune! It was insane!
"What the?! I could've sworn I finished it." She was getting suspicious. The first one felt like a mistake, but the second one doesn't seem to be an accident.
She picked up the sword and drew one rune and waited for a while.
However, when she watched it for ten minutes, it wasn't fading at all.
"Eh? could I be wrong?" The runesmith frowned. She sighed and grabbed another Divinious crystal. "If this doesn't work, I'll be watching this time."
She began engraving the symbols once again.
This time, she carefully put it on the weapon pile. And when she was sure that the runes were still there, she left it alone.
She grabbed another weapon and concentrated on engraving the symbols once again.
The symbols on the Alizuite sword stayed this time.
...
Chrysos woke up after the effects of the hypertraining fluid stopped. His body felt much more flexible after the "massage" he got.
The principles of the muscle potion, or the Potion of Evolution as he called it now, was just to give his muscles strength potential.
Humans, after training for years, can get to a point where their muscle training no longer gives them strength no matter how hard they train. The Potions of Evolution merely increases this limit.
The hypertraining fluids meanwhile, fill out the limit pushed by the Potions of Evolution.
Using an analogy, the Potion of Evolution digs out a pit of potential while the hypertraining fluids fill out that potential by quickly destroying muscles and quickly healing it in such short intervals that it's even better than working out for a month.
What a revolutionary formula.
Chrysos looked around and saw that the runesmith was finished with his sword.
He walked up to her and asked. "Does my sword have runes now?"
"Yes.. here it is. It'll be sixty gold coins" She took the dark blue sword and gave it to him. "Just get out of here quickly, you're making me more uncomfortable by each passing second." She waved her hand signaling for him to go away.
"Okay I'll leave." Chrysos left with a strange expression. "What's the matter with her?" He thought to himself with his eyebrows furrowed.
After Chrysos gave the right amount, he left the rune smithery with a triple runed sword.
And he had no idea how much he profited because he had an Alizuite sword. After all, A full Alizuite ore is rare, so Ironmountain doesn't have that much information about them. Even Chrysos only knew that it can be used as a Divinious outlet and that's it.
But for Chrysos, this ignorance of the runesmith was a blessing that he couldn't see yet.