Lucius smiled when he saw the changes in front of him. There was a big crowd signboard attached to the top of the smithy. Lucius read what was written on the board.
"Repairing low-tier weapons" Lucius read out in a loud voice.
Lucius ignored the signboard and looked at the chimney that was on the top of the building. An enormous amount of black smoke was coming out from the chimney signaling that someone was working inside the smithy.
Lucius decided to not waste any time, so he opened the door and took a peek inside before entering. He spotted a young man working on repairing a sword. This young man was none other than Lincoln.
He was shaping a heated-up red sword with a hammer, the sword rested above an anvil. Lincoln was working on repairing the sword with great focus.
Lucius decided to wait until he was done repairing the sword since he didn't want his concentration to break because of him so he just stood there as he waited.
A few minutes of waiting later, Lincoln was finally done repairing the sword. Seeing this Lucius knocked on the door.
Lincoln turned around when he heard the sound. The moment he turned around he spotted Lucius.
"Lucius, why are you here?" Lincoln asked as he walked towards him.
Lucius didn't reply to that question since it was far too early to tell him that.
"Can I come in first?" Lucius asked.
"Of course the Lucius," Lincoln replied.
Upon receiving Lincoln's approval, Lucius did not waste any time, he quickly entered the smithy. Lucius looked around him and saw that the smithy was brighter than usual.
Lucius looked towards his left and saw that there was a pile of broken weapons there. Some were not too much damaged while some had suffered serious damage. There were at least a total of 30 weapons on that pile.
Lincoln noticed him looking at the pile of weapons. He coughed to get Lucius's attention towards him.
"These are the weapons that I am repairing," Lincoln said.
"So you have started to repair weapons but when I came here for the first time didn't you tell me that you don't repair anything" Lucius said with a slight smile on his face.
"What I can do now, I am running quite low on money" Lincoln replied with a bitter smile on his face.
When Lucius heard that he knew that a golden opportunity to reveal the intention behind his visit had appeared so he didn't waste any time and got straight to the point.
"I have an offer from which you can earn a decent amount of money. If you are interested then I can tell you about the details" Lucius exclaimed, his voice carrying seriousness.
When Lincoln heard about the offer, he seemed to have fallen into a deep thought which could mean he was interested in the offer. A few seconds later, Lincoln confirmed his interest in the offer.
"I am interested, tell me more about it," Lincoln said.
When Lucius heard that, he nodded his head. Then he began to explain everything from the beginning which took quite some time. A few minutes passed away in the blink of an eye. Lucius was done explaining everything within 30 minutes.
Lincoln remained silent for some time after he heard about the offer. He seemed hesitant which made Lucius nervous.
He earnestly prayed that he would agree to come to the raid since if he didn't, Lucius wouldn't have any choice but to go to the road without any potion due to the lack of money which would be very dangerous.
A minute or two a voice resounded through Lucius' ears which caused him to sigh in relief.
"I am willing to do the raid as long as I get paid enough. Since you had saved my life earlier I will give you 50 percent of the money I will receive" Lincoln said to Lucius.
When Lucius heard that he almost want to jump up and down from happiness but he somehow managed to restrain himself. He looked at Lincoln while bearing a smile on his face.
"Alright then I will be contacting Zoe right now" Lucius exclaimed as he took out the communication device.
Right after taking out the communication device, Lucius was about to call Zoe but Lincoln signaled him to wait. So he retreated his hand.
"I also have some other demands other than money, I will tell you about my demands ." Lincoln said to Lucius.
Lucius just nodded his head and signaled him to continue speaking.
"I think you should know that I have enemies who want to usurp the smithy belonging to my master. They have been sending me a lot of threats lately.
I am afraid that if I leave the smithy unguarded, they will destroy the smithy. If it happens then I won't be able to face my master so I want you to send someone to guard the smithy while we are gone" Lincoln exclaimed, his voice carrying seriousness.
"You should tell this to Zoe. Considering that she is in dire need of a blacksmith, she will probably agree. I will be calling her right now" Lucius replied.
Lincoln just nodded his head in approval and signaled Lucius to call her. Lucius dialed Zoe's number just a second later, then the communicator started to ring. Just a few seconds later, she picked up the call and Zoe's voice resounded through his ears.
"Considering that you have called me, have you convinced Lincoln to join us" Zoe's voice resounded through his ears.
Lucius shook his head as he replied to her.
"No I haven't convinced him but I have talked to him and he is interested. He wants to talk to you about the payment" Lucius exclaimed, his voice carrying seriousness.
"Give him a communicator, I will talk to him" Zoe replied.
Lucius looked at Lincoln who was standing beside him and handed him the communicator. Lucius signaled him to talk properly and demand as much money as possible. Lincoln just nodded his head when he received the signal as he took the communicator from his hand.
Lincoln brought the commcator closer to his mouth as he took a deep breath.
"Hello" Lincoln said.
When Zoe heard his greetings, she also replied with a greeting and a basic introduction. They chatted about Basically l stuff for a few minutes before they got straight to the point.
"Alright let's get to the main point. As you know, I want you to join the raid as a team member since we need the skills of a blacksmith.
What do you want as payment?" Zoe asked him.
Upon hearing this, Lincoln fell in deep thought as pondered how much to demand. After a few seconds of thinking later, he decided to start off high since he knew that bargaining would lower the price.
"Raiding a dungeon is very dangerous and life threatening, especially since I am non-combative Divinity. So, I need a decent amount of pay.
Also I have lots of enemies, once I leave the smithy alone then they will probably try to destroy my smithy so I need you to send some guards to guard the smithy while I am gone.
If you give me 150000 gold coins and send guards to guard my smithy then I am willing to accompany you in this raid" Lincoln exclaimed, his voice carrying a slight nervousness.
Lucius widened his eyes in disbelief when he heard the absurd demands that he put. Even he didn't expect that Lincoln was going to put such absurd demands.
"Zoe is 100 percent going to reject this offer" Lucius muttered under his breath.
A few seconds of silence, Zoe's angry voice resounded through the entire place.
"Are you crazy, I am not going to pay you such an absurd amount of money. I also only get like 30000 gold monthly as allowance from my father" Zoe's angry voice resounded through the entire room.
Lincoln stood firmly on his stand and didn't lower the price by even a single gold coin for the next few minutes. After intense negotiating, they finally came to a final conclusion.
"I will pay you 60000 gold coins, we will also give you some valuable resources that we have gathered at the end of the raid.
As for the guards that you have requested, we will send them over to guard your smithy while you are gone.
Do you agree" Zoe asked, her voice carrying seriousness.
Lincoln looked at Lucius who was standing not too far from them. Lucius signaled him to say yes.
"Alright, I accept your offer," Lincoln replied.