Mm, Durandal was sent back inside his weapon body. The blacksmith confirmed it. Right now, he’s prepping the materials and his tools. I know exactly what he’s doing! I’ve seen this process a lot inside of his head. Mhm, right now, he’s, uh, doing things to the materials. He’s going to, uh, yeah! Do that. I knew he was going to do that. Next, he’s going to smash them, err, melt them. I knew that. “You sure you don’t need my help?” Wouldn’t it be better if I helped him? If there’s two master blacksmiths working at once, the finished product should definitely be better!

The blacksmith gave me a long look. Was there something on my face? He sighed. “Yeah, you can help. I need you to keep a lookout.”

Huh? A lookout?

“Don’t you understand?” the blacksmith asked. He waved his hammer around, gesturing wildly at everything. “I’m about to forge an immortal-ranked weapon. These materials are beyond precious; they can’t be found anywhere on this continent. What if someone tries to steal them? What if someone tries to interrupt the crafting process, and the materials are wasted? There’s no second chance.”

Hmm, what he’s saying makes a lot of sense!

“You’re the strongest person in the world. Who better to keep a lookout than you? Make sure my crafting process is completely undisturbed! No matter who comes to find me, send them away.”

“Alright, you can count on me!” I’m good at sending people away! All I have to do is pick them up and throw them. Mm, but what if the blacksmith is trying to trick me? What if he takes Durandal and runs!? “Ilya, I have a very important job for you.”

“Do you now?” Ilya asked from behind me. My tail was still wrapped around her. “Let me guess; you want me to watch over this man to make sure he doesn’t run away with these materials. I’ll set up a space-locking formation, so you won’t have to worry about anyone teleporting in or out.”

A space-locking formation? Ilya must’ve learned how to make one from the invaders since they used it on her. I’m not sure if I can trust Ilya though…. She’s been wanting to run away from me for a while now. My tail doesn’t trust her much either. “Can you set up a formation with my tail wrapped around you? Ah, who am I kidding? You’re Ilya! Of course, you can.”

“Great.”

Is it just me, or does Ilya sound a bit tired? I can’t blame her. She has this technique which splits her brain into ten parts, and each of those ten parts do their own thinking. That’s crazy! She can think of ten things at once, but obviously, that means she gets tired ten times faster. Mhm. My head hurts if I think about one thing too hard. If I thought of ten things at the same time like Ilya, my brain would probably melt. She offered the technique to me, but I’m not falling for it! It might be an immortal technique, but compatibility is important! Just like how I’m not allowed to cultivate men-only, killing techniques or women-only, ice-type techniques because I’ll explode, it’s the same for brain-splitting techniques.

“Move a little to your left. I have to place a void shell there.”

Alright, the blacksmith might not need my help making Durandal, but Ilya needs my help to make her space-locking formation. I’ll follow her instructions perfectly! I’m totally helpful, mhm. …Mm? Why isn’t Ilya putting down her shell?

“I said left, not right.”

Oh. Oops. I swear Ilya said move to the left though. How odd. Is this enough? Alright, perfect, she placed the shell down. What exactly is a void shell?

“Can you not move and sniff the things I place down?”

Oops. “I just wanted to know what it was.” And I know now! It’s part of a crab! I think. It looks and smells like a black crab shell. Now, I’ll put it back. Did Ilya put it down like this?

“Flip it over.”

Mm, I knew that. “Hey, Ilya, don’t you think this would be a lot easier if you did this yourself?”

“Yes. Yes, I do. However, you’re not planning on letting me go, so we have to do this the hard way. There are still eighty materials I’ll have to place down, and then we’ll have to make seven hundred twenty connections between them. At the rate we’re going, we’ll finish right before the week is over.”

…That’s a lot of stuff to do for one formation. A whole week? Uh, wait, she said before this week is over. That’s … three days!? “It takes you three days to put down one formation?” That’s impossible! “I know you can do it faster. You set up hundreds of formations every day, don’t you? How come this one is going to take so long?” Won’t I have to wait three whole days before the blacksmith can start forging Durandal’s weapon body? I can’t wait that long! I have to make Sophia’s meals! She’ll starve without me.

“Hello? Did you hear me? Move over to your left some more. I have to place another void shell there.”

Wait a minute. Those spirit-restraining ropes Ilya made me a long time ago, they stop people from teleporting, right? Where did I put them? Uh…. Hmm. Hmmmm? Gah! I remember now! I think they were melted by that stupid immortal’s attack! Alright, that settles it. I’m teleporting away from here.

“Where are—”

And I’ll kidnap one of Ilya’s corpse puppets like so. Perfect! Now, I’ll just teleport back to the forge. “There! Now you can create that space-locking formation while I keep a lookout.”

“Alright, I’m done.”

Wow, that was fast! “Ilya, why is your corpse puppet so much faster than your real body?” Huh? Wait a second. That wasn’t the sound of Ilya’s voice! “Mr. Blacksmith!? What do you mean you’re done!? I haven’t even started looking out yet!”

“I’m done,” the blacksmith said, waving an awesome-looking red sword around. Durandal’s old weapon body’s hilt was already dismantled. “I just have to put the spirit seed into this slot right here, and … boom! There you have it, one immortal-ranked sword.”

…Am I being scammed?

“What’s that expression on your face? I’m a master.” The blacksmith handed my new sword to me. “Huh. The weather changed really quickly. I didn’t think it was going to storm today.”

Mm? My tail? It stiffened so much that it released Ilya! T-those aren’t regular storm clouds! Is that…. “A tribulation!?”