Crafting District

Finally, it was the day of Blake's bet with Craftsmaster Deller. Currently, the whole group was moving through the ever-busy streets of the Crafting District, however, this time around with the addition of Gram carrying Mari and Baba floating around, they got a few more looks than wanted but not only that.

"Hey, is that him?" A worker asked another as they were moving supplies from one building to another.

"Yeah, that's him! I heard he got trained by Reiner." Answered the second worker as they slowed down to get a better look at Blake.

"What really!? And he's going up against Anthony!? This gonna be the biggest thing to happen here since their masters' contest, right?"

It would seem that within just a week, the word of Blake's and Deller's challenge had gone around to every ear willingly and unwillingly to hear about it. And sparked all kinds of rumors tossed around from Blake lying about the whole thing to something about Reiner and Deller fighting over a woman and of course on how Deller lost his arm.

"Hey, uh, Boss?" Bread was walking behind Blake carrying a wooden case. It held the item that was going to get judged by Gorz's top blacksmiths. "Are you sure about this?"

"Huh? I'm not really sure, but what do you think?" Blake asked in return, looking at Bread. "And don't call me 'Boss' that's what I called my old man...feels weird coming from you."

"O-okay! But I don't know what to think about this...? I mean don't you think it was kind of a waste to use that Ore on this?" Bread worked up the courage to ask, looking at the case he was carrying and gripped it tightly as if it was part of himself.

"I guess that last week was a waste too, huh?" Blake asked in return with his head turned forward.

"N-n-no! It's just, ugh..." Bread went silent at that question, sure enough, it got to him and made him think back to the past week he and Blake spent getting ready for this day and demanding on how not just Blake but he himself performed meant whether or not they were going to be leaving Gorz.

5 Days Until The Present

"What's this?" Bread asked after waking up to something wrapped in cloth next to his head.

"Why don't you open it up and see," Blake answered while eating porridge with some berries tossed in.

"Ok?" With a shrug, Bread got to unwrapping whatever this thing was. "A hammer?" Yep a hammer, in fact, the head was the last one he made last night after he finally made one Blake thought was passable. "Huh?" He turned it around and found that one side of it had N.B engraved into it. "Whoa!" And even though it was a slab of iron on a stick, for Bread at that moment, it felt like he was holding something important to him, something that he made, something that was his.

"Like it?" Blake asked, standing over Bread as he was engrossed in the hammer, making the boy look up to him in more than one way.

"Y-yeah, but what does N.B stand for?" Bread asked, showing the letters to Blake.

"Oh? You can read, I was worried for a sec there..." Blake joked around a little, but Bread gave him a blank stare. "...it stands for Nobel and Bread your two names if you haven't noticed, and there on a pretty nice bit of work if I had to say."

"I did a good job?" Bread asked half cheerful and bewildered by his own success at something other than running away from someone.

"If you didn't, then we'd still be working right now." Blake pointed out then a hand went to Bread's hammer, making the boy hold it up. "A smith's hammer is only second to his own mind and skill when it comes to his work keep it close, it safe and most of all keep it at the ready when it's time to work."

"Right!" Bread nodded, giving his new hammer another look over then tied it to his side similar to how Blake usually keeps his. "Did your teacher tell you to make yours too?"

"Nah..." Blake patted his hammer and grabbed hold of it. "...he said when he found me that the thing was stuck in my hands even while I was sleeping, so he never got the chance to make me work for it..." He brought his hammer to his face to give it look over, a simple hammer put went through years of use, and many more were to come.

"Wait? When he 'found' you? What's that mean?" Bread asked after listening to Blake, but he felt that he knew what Blake meant by that.

"Ugh? I was homeless for a pretty long time, and then the biggest asshole in the world took me in as his son that's what I mean." Blake answered as if it was nothing; in fact, he would like it that way no need to keep going back to his darkest time.

"That's what she meant...?" Bread whispered to himself, thinking back to when Mari told him that Blake was like him. "Is that why you knew about the things I was going to say back in Troville?"

"More or less, I used to think the same until Reiner beat it out of me then gave me a home, a family and..." Blake started listing some of the good Reiner did for him back then trailing off a little. "...but, more importantly, he told me how to get things done by my own hands, and that's what made me the guy I am today."

"Heh, I kind of don't wanna end up like you if we're doing everything he did with you." Bread joked at Blake's comment then went silent when Blake came up to hold his shoulder. "Ugh! Not that it wouldn't be cool to me you or anything! Hahaha!"

"Sorry to tell you this kid but you're not gonna end up like me, even if I did everything to a 'T' like my old man did with me, you're you and I'm me. I can only give you the basic skills on how to make your own person out of yourself from there it's up to you," Blake explained, giving Bread a serious look that didn't fit with how he usually acts.

"R-r-r-right...so what do we do from now?" Bread was taken aback by Blake's words as he was never told that he was the one in charge of who Bread was going to be everyone else just slapped a label on him and called it a day but now here's someone who was like him once and turned out the opposite of what he was.

"Oh? You what something to d,o eh?" However, said person was not the best role model at times as Blake slowly grew a wide grin that made Bread understand that he was in for it. "These next few days might be fun, hehe!"

4 Days Until The Present

"Just hit it!" Blake yelled, standing behind a barricade made out of random things he found inside his smithy.

"No!" Bread yelled back at him while covered from head to toe in burns and soot, standing over an anvil with a heated Bomber Golem Ore right in front of him. "These things keep blowing up the moment I swing at them! Don't you have anything else!"

"Well? Yes and no..." Blake pointed out doing so-so with his hands. "...I have some other safer Ore but only a hand full of them which is why we're using the Bomber Golem Ore since I've got a lot of 'em and it helps you understand just how hard to hit, so don't worry about it! You haven't died yet, so I think you're pretty close to getting it down!" After that, Blake ducked down and waited for the next blast.

"Even if I just tap this thing, it goes off!" Bread angrily waved his hammer in the air at how stupid this was and pretty much threw any amount of respect he had for Blake out the window. "...Just let it all out and kill me, please?" He took a swing at the Ore with his eyes closed, ready to take another blast to the face.

*Clang*

"Huh?" But it never came, and once Bread opened his eyes, he saw the Ore giving off a glow. "Hey! I did it!" He turned around to see Blake smirking at him from the barricade.

"Don't get too happy that was the first hit two more to go," Blake warned but right now he was pretty happy with Bread's progress.

"Alright! Now just go boom!" Bread span around to the Ore and slammed his hammer down on it.

*Boom*

Three Days Until Present

"What are we doing now?" Bread groaned as he was digging a hole outside for seemingly no reason.

"Hey, what's that thing you're using called?" Blake asked in return, standing next to the boy.

"Wha?" Bread stopped shoveling dirt and stared at Blake every time he thought he knew what Blake was about the guy got harder to understand. "It's a shovel?" He held it up high over his head a bit unsure of himself.

"Okay, and what do you do with it?" Blake added, rolling a hand to tell Bread to keep going.

"You dig with it?" Bread answered not should for what to say to the random questions coming out of Blake.

"Oh, then is this a shovel?" Blake pulled out a knife, stabbed it into the ground and dug up some dirt.

"No, that's a knife...right?" Now Bread himself was starting to question things. "What are you trying to tell me? Cause either you're bad at it, or I'm dumb."

"Probably both..." Blake answered, putting a smile on both of their faces. "...but before I tell you, take a look at this." He got the dirt off the knife and held the blade to Bread's face. "If you can see your reflection does that make this a mirror?" To the question Bread just shrugged. "Well, it's not pretty, I guess, maybe it's a lockpick? Or a toothpick? Or something else."

"Kind of like this shovel?" Bread asked, starting to get it now.

"Yea, just because something is supposed to do one thing really doesn't mean it can't do another thing, right?" Blake pointed out, holding up the knife. "Same goes for us, so use what you got any way you like."

"Hmm? Then I shouldn't be using this to dig a hole?" Bread asked, pointing to the shovel thinking that Blake was trying to teach him something.

"No, keep digging," Blake told in a monotone voice.

"Why!?" Bread yelled at him, what was the point of the whole speech Blake just gave him.

"Cause I want to plant an apple tree?" Blake shrugged as he gave his best answer and was trying his best to hide the fact that he didn't have a good answer for Bread. "Trying to teach you shit, kid."

Two Days Until The Present

"Hey, nice job so far." Blake nodded at the shimmering Boomber Golem Ore that Bread had gotten two of the last three swings out of it.

"At least they're not blowing up in my face anymore." Bread looked over at the pile of failures he had racked up and the spots that had his silhouette made by the blast of the Ores going off. "It's not gonna magically let me get the last hit in is it?"

"Nope, it might just blow up bigger than all the other times," Blake warned as he took a step back just in case. "You know? We really shouldn't be doing this in here might cause a cave in..." He muttered while looking around his smithy to check if any part of it was looking a bit off.

"You think the Dragon girl would save us?" Bread asked about ready to take one last swing and hopefully finish his first item with Monster Ore.

"Ugh...uhmm...maybe?" Blake had to admit it if anything Saffire would think an earthquake past by and leave it alone.

"Heh, maybe then we'd get turned into Ore like a monster!" Bread joked, choosing not to take a swing just yet 1) cause he didn't want a cave to drop on him and 2) because of a question that popped into his head. "Wait? Do humans drop Ore like monsters do?" He turned to Blake and found him trying to climb up to the landing above the smithy. "Hey!"

"Dammit!" Blake slid back down after failing to get away from the maybe explosion. "...*ahem* Good question, to answer it have you ever seen anyone saying anything about an item made out of human Ore?"

"No? I know about weird stuff like skull armor..." Bread answered to which Blake gave him a look. "What? Sarah told me stories about what wild Lizardfolk do with people to scare me sometimes."

"Whatever..." Blake muttered as he got back to Bread's side. "...when a monster dies all of its power gets compacted down into a hard rock that has some of its mana in there which most people called Monster Ore, however, humans like you and me don't do that."

"Why? What's the difference between humans and monsters?" Bread asked, wanting to know more.

But Blake shrugged and scratched his head, trying to think of how to explain it to Bread. "I don't know, kid. I just make items from rocks that come out of monsters. That's good enough for me, but it is weird I mean it's not mana that's a problem since everything naturally has some. Weird appearances aren't it either cause other than little stuff like ears or age Elves, Dwarfs, Orcs, and other more human monsters aren't that different from us, and they still drop Ore when they kick the bucket."

"I guess that means humans aren't that special, huh?" Bread thought out loud after listening to Blake with a bit of unimpressed look on his face.

"Well, it's not all bad, it just means whatever makes humans...well human can't be put into something as simple as a rock, yeah?" Blake pointed out, trying to flip Bread's view on the fact of their races blandness.

"That's lame." Bread muttered not moved at all. "Sounds like something someone old would say before they tell you're too young to understand."

"Eh, true but its the only thing I can say, now get back to it." Blake agreed then pointed at the shimmer Ore in front of the both of them that was waiting for one more hit.

"Here we go!" Bread bought up his hammer high then came back down on the Ore.

*Boom*

"Ow..." Came the pained groans of Blake and Bread after they were sent flying back by the blast of the Bomber Golem Ore going off.

"Keep it down up there!" Saffire' draconic growled came echoing out of the cave followed by a jet fire.

"Let's call it a day kid." Blake declared after picking himself up from the floor then looked over at Bread who was stuck to the wall.

"Cool..." Bread just nodded before sliding down to the floor.

One Day Until Present

"Hey, Blake! I think it's done!" Bread yelled from in front of the furnace as he was tasked by Blake to get the Fire Elemental Ore ready to get forged into the item that would be put up for Blake's contest with Deller.

"Well, looks like we're done for the week then." Blake was at a desk working out plans on how to fix the Guild House. "Gonna take a bit of funds to get this place looking good, and that's after I beat that Orc which means..." His thoughts trailed off as he was looking at Bread, pulling out the Ore from the furnace set it down at an anvil. "Good job, kid, now get your hammer."

"Don't you mean yours?" Bread looked at Blake, confused by the order.

"I not letting your hands on my hammer." Blake flicked Bread on the head, making him flinch. "Now get to work."

"Eh?" Bread just kept switching between Blake, his hammer and the Ore on the anvil. "What!?"

"Get. To. Work." Blake said it slowly this time around while making hand gestures towards Bread and the Ore. "I knew you were an idiot but damn."

"B-B-B-But this for your contest thing right!" Bread shuttered over his word as he took a few steps back. "Hah, come on,you're joking, right? Yea, that's it! Good one! Now let's just go back to the Bomber Golem Ore...haha!" He laughed it off as a joke then wheeled around to grab one of Bomber Golem Ores. "Ugh!"

But Blake grabbed his arm and turned him around. "No, you should know when I'm joking, brat." Then he brought Bread back to the anvil. "Get to it."

"I don't even know what to make...?" Bread shrugged as he had given up on trying to talk Blake out of this. The past few days told him anything it was that Blake was the type of person that did what he wanted as long as someone didn't try to stop him which was usually and only Risabeel, but she was off at Troville with Saffire and Baba having a girls day at the Heated Scale.

"Don't ask me. This is all you," Blake told Bread as he walked around to the other side of the anvil. "I'm willing to help you a little bit, but I need to know why you aren't up for this first?"

"But why?! Do you not remember what that Deller guy said!? If you don't win, you're out of Gorz! And I remember how mad you're at him! It was like you didn't have a choice and came up with that whole bet as a way to stay here! And now you're going to put all of that on me!? I know you're teaching me to be a blacksmith and all! But, but, but you're a fucking idiot!" Bread poured out everything that was going through his head at the moment and maybe what he had been feeling since Blake took him in.

"..." Blake stayed silent, letting Bread getting everything that he wanted to say or scream in this case and watched the boy breath in and out roughly and rigidly.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" Bread asked, looking at Blake and wasn't able to tell what he was thinking. "Come on! You know I'm useless! Just kick me out alrea-OW!" He started yelling again only for Blake to drop a heavy fist on his head.

"*sigh* Geez, I knew there was something still going on in that head of yours..." Blake muttered as he started to twist Bread hat around on his head a few times to mess up his hair. "...first off, this bet isn't just for me, it's for my friends too and even more so for you as my student, Nobel..."

"What do you mean?" Bread raised his head since Blake was kind of pushing it down when he was playing with his hat. "..." When he did he saw Blake smiling at him but it wasn't his usually cocky grin but a simple, small, and heartfelt smile, unlike all the other people who'd scowl at him once they learned just how much of waste he was.

"Well, let's say because of you I lose this bet, and we all have to leave? Yea, I'd be pissed and be yelling at the top of my lungs at how much of a jackass that Deller guy is. But all that would be on me, and it's not because I picked you it's because I failed as a teacher at making sure you could do what was needed as a smith," Blake still keeping his smile told Bread now lightly rubbing his head.

"But why me? If you wanted to see if you taught me well then do it after the bet, it's to show your skills as a smith right? So why waste it on me?" Bread needed to know why this guy wanted to him to do this so badly.

"That's easy cause your part of my skill as a smith, brat," Blake answered, putting that familiar look of confusion on Bread's face. "Look, kid, we as blacksmiths or in your case, a blacksmith in training are meant to take one thing and make it into another. That's what I wanted to do with you, turn a worthless piece of shit like you into a half-decent smith, but since it's me doing it, that makes you one of the best in this city."

"Heh...ahah...hahaha!" Bread started laughing, but he wasn't sure why maybe he was happy that someone was willing to put that much thought on him or maybe he was done with it all and didn't care what happened anymore. "...ahahah! Alright! Fine! Let's get this over with and see what happens!" He broke out into a big smirk while swinging his hammer around.

"Good to hear!" Blake shared the smirk with Bread as he got his hammer out as well. "But since you're so much of chicken I'll at least help you out until we get to the big part!"

Back To The Present

"So after all that you still don't have the balls to go through with this?" Blake asked, turning his head back to Bread.

"..." Bread finished remembering what Blake taught him and shook his head. "Of course, I do! And this is going to knock them on their asses! Old man!" He cheered, holding the case high over his head. "This is a Nobel one of a kind!"

"Stop it with the old man! I'm 17!" Blake smacked Bread behind the head for that and got back to moving towards the Crafting District's main office.

Chapter end