After a hasty goodbye and secret tears, our physicist moves into the densely populated city, looking around in amazement.
It was a messy, lively environment with vendors around every corner trying to yell over each other.
The physicist looked around, confused and somewhat panicked at the sudden change in environment.
Some vendors pushed items into his face.
"More durable than bronze!" one pushed some obviously colored material in front of him- "but I'll sell it just for you for 2 ingots!"
"Delicious Peldoa, here have a sample!" another waved a ladle filled with some sort of stew before his nose.
"Apples, Apricots, And Peaches" Yelled an especially loud fruit salesman from across the street "Apples, Apricots, Peaches!"
Subduing his panic, our physicist slides past them as quickly as his armor allowed him to, moving through the poorly built streets-looking around this strangely developed city for anything interesting.
And then he saw it- A corner store showing off the owners "alchemical capabilities". In a glass window of the store lay a series of strange metals, one laid after the other.
Many of them were fake and simply dyed a different color, our physicist could tell, but he noticed a few strange ones.
"That's not right..." he murmured
"Hey you gonna just sit there and look or you gonna buy somethin?" A rough voice sounded from the entrance of the store.
Our physicist jumped back, slightly startled. He looked to the source of the voice and saw an old, bearded villager with strange, blue eyes. "Hi....I'd like to ask about this material here..." He points at a pinkish ingot that lay in the glass display.
The villager's eyes widened in surprise "You recognize it...?"
"Alumite is it not?" He replied with a question.
"So that's what it's called..." murmured the villager.
"Where'd you find it?" Asked our physicist abruptly.
The villager paused for a moment, gazing into our physicist's eyes. "come inside. Let's talk out a deal."
Though our physicist did not trust this villager a single bit, he was confident in his capabilities to defend himself, or at least escape into one of the close large crowds. He also made sure he was prepared to draw his sword from his inventory at any given time.
The two walked into the empty, dusty store slowly.
The strange villager started "I won't ask you where you're from, or how you know about that strange material, but from your armor and you being capable of identifying that material-"
"Alumite" interrupted our physicist.
The villager shot him an annoyed look "Yes, Alumite." He continued "I can tell that you may be what I've been looking for."
"And what is that?" asked our physicist.
"Someone who can and is willing to revolutionize the world. Someone who is capable of fulfilling my lifelong dream to see the ends of my profession, metallurgy."
"Metallurgy..." murmured our physicist. "Can I see your work?"
"I doubt my works would impress you, someone who made that alloy you wea-"
"Just show me your work would you?"
The old villager grumbled about young peoples' rudeness or something along those lines, and walked to the back of the store.
A moment later, the villager walked out of the back of the store, holding a wooden crate that seemed to be filled to the brim with something heavy.
"A little help would be nice" grunted the villager.
Our physicist did not move due to a sense of caution that bordered on paranoia.
Seeming to have sensed it, the villager sighed and murmured something about young people again, this time with a strange softness to his voice, and placed the crate down on he stone brick floor with a loud thunk.
"This here is my finest work."
The villager opened the crate and pulled out a bright red ingot, that our physicist could tell wasn't something that was simply colored. It was also flawlessly alloyed, not like the crudely made alloys of his own creation.
He could tell this villager was a master.
The villager continued to speak. "I call it red alloy."
Our physicist raised an eyebrow behind his helmet at that.
Seeming to sense that also, the villager shot him a glare. "It's my alloy I can name it what I like."
"Alright I suppose..." replied our physicist, slightly amused. Using the akashic record, he could tell that this strange alloy was actually incredibly useful for his current stage of technology-it was a good material to make wires out of. "That's...really good work right there." He started.
The villager raised an eyebrow questioningly.
The physicist replied instantly "I mean it's a flawless alloy to start, and it seems like it would be the perfect alloy for energy transfer."
"You can tell that much just by looking at it?" the villager asked incredulously.
"Yes, I can. It's a gift I've developed over time." a deadpan reply was given. The physicist wasn't gonna tell anybody about the record, no matter how close they were to his heart.
The villager smiled delightedly "I was right! You are the one! Follow me!" He rushed to the back of the store, and our physicist followed him carefully.
By the time our physicist caught up to the villager, he had already come to a stop before a massive something covered in a rough cloth.
"I found this in a ruin back in my adventuring days." The villager smiled. "That was the same ruin where I found that alloy you noticed along with a few others. But this thing...This thing was my greatest discovery."
Our physicist stood in shock as the villager revealed the strange object.
A grin formed on his face for the first time since he entered the village. "That. Is awesome."