It is the next day.

Hineni stands back, looking at the long molds that he had made from river sediment. Molten metal that fills them. It had taken several attempts to get a good mixture, one that could handle this intense heat, but after some experimentation with different combinations and drying methods, he found a mixture of river-gunk that not only dried into nice bricks by the heat of the forge, but that also seems to be very temperature resistant.

- [Fire Clay] -

- Quality -

Normal

- Composition - Silicon Dioxide 89.8% Aluminium Oxide 5.40% Magnesium Oxide 0.09% Calcium Oxide 0.20% Iron Oxide 0.40% Potassium Oxide 2.40%

- Quality Effects -

None

A hardened clay-composite. It can withstand extremely high temperatures. Fire clay is capable of being used to line furnaces and crucibles. Weight: 4.24kg Value: 04 Obols

The man can’t help but nod in satisfaction. It really was a good idea that the boy had. Sure, it’s taken him a day longer to make the wands. But this way, they’ll be real, professionally made wands, instead of looking like they’re from some dinky, two-bit hobby project.

He hadn’t expected this, honestly. He’s been so stuck in his way of doing things, that he’s completely failed to realize that other people might just have ideas that are better than his own. The man stares down at the solidifying metal inside of the cylindrical mold, iron-copper alloy. He needs to be careful about that in the future. His stubbornness almost cost him this good idea. This fire-clay could be useful for a lot more things than just wands. Anything that could use a mold. Sword-blades, for example?

Hineni thinks about it. He’ll have to test it, if a blade from a mold is better or worse than one he hammers into shape himself. But it’s an interesting experiment. If it works out, he could mass produce things like metal plates for armor, blades for swords. Hell, even just cutlery.

He wonders if a kitchen-knife would get Obscura’s boon if he makes one? It counts as a weapon, technically, right?

After he had returned the night before, unable to find Rhine’s family, he had found Obscura cleaning up, having finished her cooking and having brought Rhine a bowl in order to apologize.

Hineni asked her why she was scaring him so often. She had answered that it was fun to scare small creatures before eating them.

But Hineni just thinks that she’s having trouble adjusting to having someone else around. Rhine may be the first person she’s interacted with, apart from himself, here and she might just be overwhelmed, not knowing how to behave. A third thought however is that a secret part of him hopes that she might also be jealous about having to share him with someone else during the day, but he keeps that to himself. It’s kind of silly and childish. But he still doesn’t really know what to do with these weird feelings either.

Hineni sighs and shakes his head. He’s going to have to wait for the mold to harden, until then…

...Window?

Hineni nods, dusting his hands as he heads out of the forge to go back to his favorite window.

A gentle breeze pushes in through the large hall that he finds himself sitting nervously inside of.

He had forgotten about this. So much for his relaxing five minutes. Hineni, sitting in his booth, leans to the left and looks towards the front-door where the carpenter and his men are looking around the room, trying to see where to start, in order to fix the water damage of the house.

Looking back to the man sitting across from himself, Hineni leans back upright and nods, accepting the terms.

“Five-hundred for the window,” he agrees, but lifts a finger. “Payment after completion.”

The glassworker doesn’t seem to be too happy about this condition, judging by the pursing of his angled lips. The worker’s eyes rise upward, towards the rafters where he sees something sitting above them. He quickly straightens up himself too and nods, accepting the condition. “I’ll start today,” he says, getting up to go start his work.

Hineni lets out a sigh of relief, his shoulders drooping as he wraps his hands around his mug. He had entirely forgotten about the repairs on the house starting today. He looks down at the once dusty book lying in front of himself, on the table. He’s going to have to start book-keeping, if this keeps up.

Maybe he should be doing that anyways?

He recalls his parents having always kept ledgers down by the receptionist’s desk.

Hineni gets up, heading to the desk to pull out some old ledger to study, to try and figure out how they had done it. Though, maybe it’s just as easy as writing a list for money made and a list for money spent?

It isn’t.

Hineni can’t make heads or tails of whatever is written here. If he didn’t know better, he’d be sure he grabbed some obscure tome on magic from the library.

He sighs, shutting the book. Waiting a moment, he peaks back inside, just to check if maybe this page here would be more understandable?

It isn’t.

Hineni closes it again and sits there, his fingers twitching as he taps them against the table.

He opens the book again.

The metal has cooled off now and Hineni stands in the forge once more, pleased with the decently cylindrical rod that has come out as an end result of this manual crafting process.

Making a wand out of this should be easy, honestly. He’ll just use his abilities.

Setting the rod, which is about the length of his forearm, down onto his anvil, Hineni holds his hands above it and first shaves off a good amount of metal, making the cylinder thinner on one end than it is on the other.

(Hineni) uses: [Blacksmithing: Remove Material]

Then, he repeats the process, making the thinner tip of the wand more stubby. Right now, it’s very sharp and pointy. Almost like a dagger. Honestly, you could probably stab someone with it. Is that a practical application for a magic wand? He thinks so. But the casters of the academy would beg to differ.

(Hineni) uses: [Blacksmithing: Round]

Shaking it off, he then rounds off the base and then starts removing more material to make an indent for the grip.

(Hineni) uses: [Blacksmithing: Round] (Hineni) uses: [Blacksmithing: Remove Material]

There! That already looks a lot more ‘wandy’. Sure, it’s still a little heavy for a wand, as they’re often made out of wood. But metal wands aren’t unheard of. In fact, some casters prefer them as they’re less likely to break during a fight. They have the right idea, in his eyes.

He swishes the thing around, wondering what it’s missing…

“Ah!” Hineni realizes what it is, looking at an old sword that he never managed to sell. He grabs some of the black leather from his table and begins fastening it around the grip, making it much more comfortable to hold.

- [Copper-Iron Alloy Wand]{Gift of the owl-god} -

- Quality -

Normal

- Composition - [Copper-Iron Alloy Wand](Normal) [Leather Wrap](Normal) [Black Cloth Wrap](Normal) [Black Cord](Normal) - Quality Effects -

“Chosen of the owl-god”

Adds additional attributes to the attached weapon - Title Effect - “Gift of the owl-god” +3 OBSCURANTISM +3 WIND DMG* +3 LUK

- Material Effect -

Iron-Copper Alloy

Augments all offensive spells with +3 FIRE-DMG +3 SPELL-DMG

*Augments all offensive spells with +3 WIND-DMG (“Gift of the owl-god”)

A long, sturdy wand made out of a blend of copper and iron. It is very durable and offers strong fire-related properties. ‘Made by weaponsmith Hineni - Chosen of the Owl God’ Weight: 0.123kg Durability: 19/19 Value: 333 Obols

“That’s not so bad…” he says. Sure, the price for the swords was about the same and those were just made out of iron, but wands are just the swords of wizards and this one here is really just a proof of concept.

Hineni thinks, swishing the wand around the air and listening to the whipping sound it makes. If he can get the mold-concept down, he could produce dozens of these a day, just by pouring some metal and wrapping some cloth around them.

“Hineni has done well,” hoots Obscura. He didn’t even hear her enter. Though, that’s normal really.

“Thanks,” he says. “I think these will be popular,” he notes, looking at the item’s menu. “So, I have to ask,” says the man, pointing at the stat. “What’s that?”

Obscura follows his finger to her own special value that he’s pointing at ‘Obscurantism’. “Three,” hoots Obscura. “It gives three!”

“Three what though?” he asks, lifting an eyebrow. Obscura tilts her head, tapping against the name of stat with her long talon. “Sure, but what does it do?” Obscura continues to tap against the screen as if pointing at it. Getting annoyed, she spins her head in a circle, letting out a hoot. She grabs Hineni’s hand, lifting it up and presses it against the window.

[OBSCURANTISM]

A core value tied to the Owl-God. Obscurantism is a branching stat between LUK and WIS. It aids in regards to both not being noticed as well as noticing things that others do not see.

Cost: While wielding items carrying this value, your MAX-SOUL is reduced by 3%

“Oh,” says Hineni. First his ‘oh’ was for the obviousness of the situation, that he could have just checked his menu. Then his ‘oh’ was for the stat itself, which is fairly self-explanatory. That’s neat and also far less morbid than he had imagined. Wait. Maybe a stat like this is the reason that nobody has ever heard of Obscura, the Owl-God…dess?

There’s a discrepancy between her title and gender, but that might just be an issue of formalities. But more to the point, she’s literally obscure in a manner defined by the cosmic-system.

“Wait…” Hineni, thinking about it. “Isn’t this bad?” he asks. “Won’t this mean that the more weapons we put in peoples’ hands, the more obscure you’ll become?” he asks. Considering that she siphons off some of their magical energies through the weapons, it makes sense to him. This could make building a reputation for their… guild or shop or cult or whatever it is that they have, difficult.

Obscura shakes her head. “Hineni will have to work hard, HARD!” she hoots. “Little humans don’t know of Ob~ Scu~ Ra~!” she says, flapping her arms around. “But Hineni will work hard to make them!” The owl creature steps towards him, leaning in towards his face, staring into his eyes from up close. “But Obscura not only hides, Obscura gives eyes! Eyes!” she croons, her eyes going wide as she presses her face towards his in some obsessed tangent. It feels like she’s about to go on a rant or have one of her ‘three’ episodes.

Hineni takes his chance to defuse the situation and moves his face forward to meet hers. Their lips meet and they stay like that for a moment.

“WHO~!” is the only thing he hears, before she turns into a fluffy, small owl, falling to the floor and quickly scrambling away, trying to get up and fly off in what might be her least successful escape to date. The embarrassed Owl-God flies off through the window of the forge and Hineni shrugs, looking back at the window of the stat.

“Ooooh!” he says, realizing what she meant before. The thing about eyes. The stat doesn’t only make the user more obscure, it also lets them see and notice obscure things better. So… that means that people using their weapons would know about them more than people not using them?

Hineni scratches his head. He doesn’t know if it works like that. He might just be making things up. Obscura is probably going to be gone for a few hours now. He assumes that he won’t see her again until tonight. In the meantime, he fills two other molds with new metal for two more wands and then heads back out to the main hall and watches the men tear up his floor.

Hineni stares at Rhine, who is still lying in bed. Feeling himself being watched, the boy shoots up, flailing. Hineni grabs his arm, already feeling the trickle of magical water run down it.

“Don’t ruin this floor too. I can’t afford it,” says the man, looking around the room. Everything is still untouched. The only thing different is the empty bowl sitting on the night-stand. “Can you walk? You should check in with your family.”

Rhine blinks, staring at him. “Huh?” He sits upright, pointing at himself with his thumb. “Of course I’m fine! I’m Rhine!”

“- The river-wizard,” finishes Hineni, rolling his eyes, but still nodding. “I don’t want to be arrested for kidnapping,” he explains. “Please let them know you’re alright,” says the man.

“Do I have to?” asks Rhine. Hineni blinks. This isn’t a situation he’s equipped to handle.

“You do,” he explains, staring at the boy with the blue hair and the blue bruises. “Are you mistreated?” he asks, getting to the point.

Rhine turns to him. “No!” says the boy immediately. Hineni tilts his head, adjusting his scarf. “I just get into a lot of fights with all of the monsters I kill!”

“…Okay,” replies Hineni, shrugging. “If you need to rest longer, you can stay here. But only until I get arrested,” sighs the man, waving to Rhine. “I’m going to the adventurer’s guild to sell the wands,” he explains. “Your idea with the molds was good. Thank you,” says Hineni.

“Really?!”

Hineni nods to him and then closes the door, adjusting the brim of his hat as he goes downstairs and makes his way outside with three wands in his pocket. He jiggles the door, making sure it’s closed. The craftsmen have left for the day and the downstairs is a mess, to say the least.

The man heads to the adventurer’s guild, wondering if maybe Obscura’s obscuring blessing isn’t what has been stopping people from rushing to his door more than they have? Maybe he, as well as his home, are literally clouded in secrecy?

So far, only highly potent people have come to his door. But never anyone normal.

Hineni picks up the five-hundred Obols, letting them rest in his hand for a moment, just to feel them. This is money he worked for, money he earned. It’s going to pay to fix his home, to provide. It feels good to hold.

Money…

He lifts his gaze to the tired receptionist who seems to be working her usual shift of every shift. She’s already slumped over forward, her face pressing against his open hand as her head has fallen against it. It’s a good thing he has gloves on, because she’s drooling on him.

“Hey,” says Hineni to the woman.

“Huh? Wha-?” She blinks, rubbing her eyes, before turning to him in confusion for a moment. “Oh, hello!” she says. “Are you here to sell… uh… weren’t you just here?”

“I’m still here,” says Hineni. “Do you know anything about book-keeping?” he asks.

The elf yawns, leaning back and stretching. “I used to do it,” she explains. “But now I just work the counter all day,” she says, staring at the ceiling above her. “Every day.”

“Do you think that you cou -”

“Forever,” she finishes.

Hineni blinks, staring at her for a moment to see if she’s really done. “Do you think that could teach me?” he asks. “I’ll pay.”

She looks at him for a moment and he thinks that she’s considering his offer, until he realizes that she has been holding that expression for too long. She’s fallen asleep with her eyes open.

He clears his throat.

“Ah!” she jumps. “Oh, hi!” she smiles at him, rubbing her tired eyes. “Three days in a row, huh? Busy-busy!” she laughs.

Hineni shakes his head. “I’m still here. It’s still the same day.”

“Oh,” she says. Her expression becomes grim as she lowers her gaze, staring at the counter. “You wanted some money for your wands, right?” she asks, looking around at her desk, pulling open some drawers. Uh… five-hundred, yeah?” she asks, pulling out some new coins.

“You already paid me,” sighs Hineni. This isn’t going anywhere. He adjusts his hat, looking over his shoulder. People haven’t made their approach yet, but they’re going to soon. He turns back to look at her.

She’s slumped over forward, her head is resting on her arms on the desk.

Hineni sighs, deciding to just let the poor woman sleep.

He leans over the counter. “Beni,” says Hineni, finding some courage he didn’t know he had. An oddly nervous man, Beni, looks around the door to his office, his fingers clambering around the frame as if he had been there listening the entire time. Hineni points down at the receptionist. “Can I take this?”

“U- uh…” stutters the oddly sweaty elf.

“I’ll bring you a load of weapons tomorrow for free,” says Hineni.

Beni nods and then quickly shuts the door to his office, slamming it.

The receptionist jumps up, scared by the bang, scrambling as if the world were ending. She looks up at him. “Hey there!” she yawns, stretching and looking around for the source of the noise. “Back again? Wow. What a week.”

“You’re coming with me,” says Hineni, walking away from the counter and around to the side-door.

“Huh? What?” she asks. “I can’t leave the counter. I’ll get in trouble.”

Hineni shakes his head, opening the side-door. “It’s okay. I bribed Beni.”

She blinks. “Oh.” The elf shrugs, as if that was enough to explain everything and gets up, stretching as she rises to her feet. Walking forward towards him, rubbing her face, she slides against the wall and then slumps over forward.

Hineni catches her. This is really going to be a problem sooner rather than later.

The man looks around and sees a cart with wheels, used to carry food to the different tables. Slumping her over it, the man carts the receptionist out of the guild, taking a blank book and some pens with him to practice with, ignoring any and all looks that he gets on his way out of the door.

He leaves some money behind though. He’s not a thief, after all.