After walking for a short while, the two arrived far away from the tribe, finally having a private space for themselves.
"Minos, you can still change your mind if you want to…" Tinka said, as she turned around to face Minos.
"Once I make up my mind, I don't change it." Minos said with a grin.
"Don't bring that up anymore, let's focus on something else. Since I'll probably be busy tomorrow, how about I teach you how to refine weapons now?" Minos suggested.
"Really!" Hearing about weapon refining, Tinka's mind was completely distracted, not bringing up the marriage anymore.
"Let's get started now." Seeing his scheme work, Minos smiled slightly.
His spatial ring was filled with everything he needed, so Minos quickly set up everything they needed on the beach.
"We don't have much time, so let's just start with hands-on training." Minos said.
He only had a week or so to teach Tinka, so rather than waste a bunch of time having her memorize books, it would be better to just get right to it.
Of course the resources wasted using such a method would be exponentially greater, but since Tinka was only an amateur, the material she needed to work with was low-level and cheap, so Minos had no concerns.
"First is the heating stage, just follow my example." Minos said, as he grabbed a piece of ore with his furnace tongs and got to heating it.
Tinka watched with wide eyes, burning the process into her head. After waiting for an hour or so for the ore to melt, Minos pulled it back out, presenting the result to Tinka.
"While heating may seem simple on the surface, it's actually quite a nuanced skill to master. Your timing has to be perfect, not too long, nor too short. Here, give it a try." Minos said, handing the tongs over to Tinka.
Despite heating being the most boring part of the refining process, Tinka was still excited to take part, quickly beginning her first heating attempt.
Naturally as a beginner, Tinka failed the first time, but she wasn't at all set back by it, and tried again immediately.
With Minos on the side to give her tips, she quickly got the hang of things, mastering it on her fifth attempt.
"I did it, I did it!" Tinka said with joy as she jumped around in excitement.
Minos couldn't help but laugh as he watched her joyous performance, giving her a minute to calm her nerves.
"Relax, heating is the easiest part, now it's time to start with the hard stuff." Minos said to Tinka, who had finally calmed down.
"Step two is hammering, considering you have no cultivation, this part may be hard for you, so make sure to not exhaust yourself too much." Minos warned, as he handed her the hammer.
"Don't worry, despite how I look, I'm very strong!" Tinka said as she flexed her biceps, showing off her muscles.
Unlike city people who were mostly pampered, Tinka who lived in a tribe naturally had a much more tiring lifestyle, but this also meant her strength was a lot stronger than most city people as well.
Picking up the hammer, Tinka began hammering, showing off her impressive strength and stamina. Minos nodded appreciatively at the side, realizing he had underestimated her.
While she was far from comparing to a cultivator, her strength was at least on par with a lot of mortal weapon refiners, which was already incredibly impressive.
Mortal weapon refiners were about as strong as normal humans could get, so for Tinka to have comparable strength given her slim physique was quite amazing.
Minos couldn't help but wonder if part of this was because of her bloodline. While the curse may have sealed her bloodline, it's possible that a little bit of its strength still manifested, which would explain Tinka's power.
In fact Minos had long since realized that the entire tribe had strength that didn't seem to match their bodies.
For mortals, size was strength, so naturally bigger was better, yet despite everyone in the tribe being a mortal, they had power that didn't at all match their sizes.
Minos also noticed that this strength manifested differently in every tribe member, some having more power than others.
Again, Minos thought this likely had something to do with the purity of their bloodline. Those with more pure blood, would showcase more strength.
Tinka was the strongest he had seen so far, which was further proof of the strength of her bloodline.
Minos had a feeling that as long as he unlocked the curse on Tinka, she would be able to explode with incredible power, and her cultivation would sky rocket.
Of course that was all still far in the future, for now it was better to focus on the present. Focusing back on Tinka, Minos realized she had stopped.
"I think I screwed up." Tinka said, looking towards Minos with big watery eyes.
"What are you sad for? I messed up a bunch of times before succeeding." Minos said with a laugh.
While still laughing, Minos began explaining the mistakes Tinka had made, causing her eyes to light up in excitement again, jumping right into her second try.
Like that the two spent the rest of the day, and while Tinka still couldn't get things right despite the sun setting, her enthusiasm was still as strong as ever.
"One more try!" Tinka begged Minos, who had begun packing up.
"It's too late now, besides, you're already exhausted, so your performance will only get worse. You need to rest and re-energize." Minos said, knocking Tinka on her head.
"Besides, tomorrows an important day." Minos continued.
"You're right!" Tinka said, feeling stupid.
"Quick, you need all the sleep you can get if you want to perform well!" Tinka said with vigor, dragging Minos back home.
"So now you care?" Minos laughed.
"I always cared, I just forgot!" Tinka said with embarrassment.
Minos kept laughing and didn't blame her, after all he was the same. People like them would forget the entire world once they became absorbed in something, which was a good trait for success, of course it was also quite annoying for outsiders.
The two soon arrived back at Tinka's home just as the sun disappeared completely. Ronkus and Meninka were still sitting in the living room, seemingly waiting for them.
"Finally back you two? Took you long enough, had I not known better, I would have thought tomorrow was just another ordinary day." Ronkus said.
"Sorry about that, we just got caught up in things." Minos said with a light laugh.
"Well it's just good your back now, you need your rest, tomorrows going to be a busy day." Meninka said, relieving the tension in the room.
"Alright enough talking, Minos needs his sleep!" Tinka said, pulling Minos to his room.
"Goodnight Minos, and remember for tomorrow, you don't have to worry too much about catching something big, I'll accept anything that comes from you." Tinka said with a blush on her face, shutting the door before Minos could reply.
After looking at the shut door with a smile for a moment, Minos laid his head back on the pillow, shutting his eyes and drifting off.
…
"Wake up, wake up, wake up!" Ronkus's loud voice shouted directly in Minos's face, waking him up from his beautiful dream.
The thick stench of his morning breath immediately knocked all the weariness out of Minos's body, waking him up completely.
"Can you not be more delicate when you wake people up?" Minos said as he rubbed his tired eyes.
"Delicate? A big man like me is anything but delicate." Ronkus said with a loud laugh, which only served to annoy Minos even more.
"Dad, stop bothering Minos!" Tinka said in anger as she came out of her room having heard the entire exchange.
"Here comes the wife, defending her husband, how sweet." Ronkus said with another laugh.
"Ugh, you're so annoying!" Tinka said, as she pushed Ronkus out of Minos's room with all her strength before shutting the door.
"The event begins in an hour, so you guys better prepare fast!" Ronkus said from the other side of the door.
"Ignore him, my dad is like that." Tinka said, as she sat on the bed beside Minos.
"It's fine, I'm already used to it." Minos laughed.
Reaching over, Tinka took Minos's hand into her's, holding onto it, as she began admonishing Minos about everything that could go wrong during the fishing.
"If a shark attacks you, hit it on its nose, and if you get swept away by a wave, just follow the watergulls, also if you…" Like that, Tinka kept presenting scenarios and solutions.
"Are you trying to curse me or something?" Minos said, begging Tinka to stop listing things off.
"I'm just worried." Tinka replied.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine, besides you are just getting me more stressed when you tell me about everything that could possibly go wrong." Minos said.
"You're right! Stupid me!" Tinka said as she lightly slapped her own forehead.
"Just believe in me." Minos said as he grabbed Tinka's arm, stopping her mid-slap.