“What sort of weapon are you lookin’ for then, kid? You after a sword or somethin’? You know they sell pretty cheap and sturdy swords over at Kyle’s place. I don’t wanna waste my craftsmanship on someone who won’t appreciate it,” Beth said immediately.

“I came here for that exact reason. I heard of your craftsmanship and I just knew I needed a weapon of your standard. I am looking to be serious in this adventuring business; I don’t want one of those standard mass-produced weapons.”

Renard was trying his best to sound sincere because he definitely hadn’t heard of Beth’s craftsmanship before and he would have certainly bought one of those mass produced weapons because they were cheaper. The problem was that he would have to visit Kyle’s store to buy one of those, so as long as he didn’t have to go there again, he didn’t mind paying extra.

“Hmmm, you’ve put some thought into this then, intersetin’. If you’ve come here specifically for me, then you should know that most of my skill comes from bein’ able to work high-quality materials into weapons. You’d be wastin’ your time comin’ here if you don’t want one of those. And I hope you got some high-quality material yourself because its gonna cost you a pretty penny to buy the material I have in stock. You’d have to cough up 3 platinum for it.”

Renard quickly thought and remembered that he had the skeleton of the Lighting Boar in his inventory. He hoped it would count as a material because he definitely didn’t have 3 platinum. He willed for a small piece of the skeleton to appear as he put his hand into his pocket. He then took his hand out along with a piece of bone and put in on the counter in front of Beth.

“I’ve got a whole skeleton of this material, will that work?”

Beth didn’t make any comment but instead picked up the piece of bone. She brought it close to her eye and held it there for a few seconds.

After putting the bone back onto the table, she said, ”Nice material you got there. Looks like a Lightning Boar Boss to me, if that’s true the spine will make for a great weapon. Those boars naturally gather the energy of lighting in their spine. So if you can bring me the spine, I can make a decent weapon that utilises that power for you. Based off this, I would recommend some of spear-type weapons. If I make the pole section out of the spine, the power of lightning will be best utilised.”

“Sounds interesting. Can I have a minute to think? I was just going to get a sword and didn’t think about the possibility of a longer range melee weapon. Will you be able to do any type of pole-type weapons?” Renard responded.

“I can’t spend too long waitin’ for your answer if you want me to start on it today, but a few minutes should be fine. I can make pretty much any weapon you ask for, so don’t worry about it and just let me know what you decide.”

“Thank you.”

Renard then took a moment to think about the new weapon options. Although pole-type weapons were useful to him as he liked the idea of the distance between him and his foes, there was still the negative of his enemies getting too close. If he chose to have a spear, it would become awkward if the enemy came close distance as it would be more difficult to maneuver and to strike the target.

After trying to remember a few more types of pole-type weapons, Renard thought about the glaive, it is a pole-type weapon with a single-sided blade at the top, the blade was generally quite large, almost the size of a short sword. This sort of weapon was quite useful to Renard as the large blade meant that it was easier to strike targets at close range.

“Do you think you could make a glaive with those materials?” Renard asked as he looked up to Beth.

“Interestin’ choice, been a few years since I’ve had to make one of those. Should be simple enough, the pole part of the weapon should have the same effect, and the blade will be useful in close combat as well as mid-range. A clever weapon choice instead of just followin’ the traditional path, I like it.”

Beth had a satisfied expression on her face. She had been expecting the whelp in front of her to be boring and just pick a simple spear, so it was nice to see someone who broke the mold.

After taking a moment to think, Beth then continued, “If you can bring me the spine of that boar, I should be able to have the glaive ready for you in 6-days. But if you feel like payin’ extra, I'll focus my time on doing your weapon first, and will get it done in 3-days for ya. It’ll cost ya 6 gold for that, otherwise it will only cost you 3 for the regular speed.”

‘Guess I can’t expect my gold to last that long if I want to have decent weapons. I don’t really need to have the weapon that quickly, and I am not sure how much other quests pay so I should save as much as I can.’

Renard made his decision and replied, “I’ll take the full 6-days, please. I don’t really have the funds to afford extravagant spending just to save a little bit of time.”

“Alright then, don’t worry about payin’ anything upfront. This material is worth more than the labour is, so I am sure you will come back for it.”

Renard felt like he was being undermined by Beth’s comment but he didn’t mind holding onto the gold for a little while longer.

“Just so ya know, it might take longer than 6-days because this type of material can be uncooperative sometimes, but I won’t charge you any more than what I already said. So tell Kathy where ya stayin’ so she can get ya when it's done instead of ya loitering around here, I hate it when people do that in my shop. Alright?”

Beth’s gaze was intimidating as she towered over Renard, so his body quickly agreed to her request without consulting his brain by nodding.

Beth grinned at his response and went back through the curtains behind her. She gave a command to Renard as she left, “Bring that skeleton in today and pass it to Kathy, she will deal with it. You can get the rest of it back when I am done.”

Kathy then took a turn to speak, “Thanks for the work, just leave the skeleton on the counter if I’m not here when you get back. Please tell me where you are staying too.”

Renard turned and started walking towards the door and shouted back, ”Thanks for all the help, I am staying at The Misty Tree. I will see you soon.”

His pace was getting faster as he got closer to the door.

‘Why is everyone so weird here, I feel like I am in constant danger from every shop I go in around here.’

Renard finally felt a little safer after exiting the shop and taking a breath of fresh air.

‘Now I just need to drop off the skeleton without attracting too much attention. I haven’t really got anything to carry it around with, let’s see if I can just wait for Kathy to leave the main desk, then I can dump it straight out of my inventory on the counter, no carrying required.’

After 20 minutes, Kathy had finally finished doing miscellaneous things in the front of the shop and headed through the curtains. Whilst waiting, Renard had heard the term “Peeping Tom” from passersbys but none had stopped to bother him.

After waiting a few seconds to make sure Kathy wasn’t coming back through the curtain, Renard snuck back into the store. He crept forward until he was finally in front of the big chunk of metal they called a front desk. He promptly opened his inventory and selected the drop option on the skeleton of the boar.

As he did so, the blue box of him crackled and started to glitch red. An error box and a new blue box then appeared once the glitching passed in front of the inventory menu.

[##ERROR##]

[Congratulations! You have successfully completed a Perfect Legendary-Difficulty Beef Stew!]

A brilliant aroma suddenly overtook his nose as the metal block got stained a brown colour from being coated in chunks of meat and vegetables. Renard had become slightly more accustomed to these errors, so he quickly dismissed the messages and re-selected the drop option on the skeleton of the boar. This time, it actually appeared on top of the metal block, allowing Renard to run away as he pleased.

Kathy, who was holding onto some hot metal with a pair of tongs as Beth shaping it with a hammer, thought, ‘Is somebody cooking some food on the street?’