While south of Kazar concern themselves with food, the east was a haven for merchants that dabble in materials and non-edible products. There was a saying in the badlands; if there were ten items, half of them had passed east of Kazar at some point of time.

It was no exaggeration to state eastern Kazar was the lifeline of the City’s main activity of forging equipment. The eastern section of the City was distinct where it had greater number of gates and bigger checkpoints, befitting to the scale of ongoing trade.

Ava shifted her gaze from left to right, observing the various creatures here. Instead of laughter, there were haggling and shouting. Cargo wagons roughly outnumber people one to five, transporting all sort of things to and fro from east of Kazar.

Presence of Kazar City guards were also stronger as vast amount of money, precious materials and completed products were exchanged by the second. All manners of trade were conducted here, ranging from buying and selling monster parts to finished dao weapons put up for display.

Clop, clop, clop!

Lufti carefully managed his horse and its carriage among the congested traffic. He had a faint smile observing Ava that looked like a child that was on a first visit to a big city. Akeila on other hand was calculating her fingers, mumbling to herself about something.

“Princess, we’re arrived. Princess…? Lutfi to Princess Akeila, is Princess still with us?”

“Huh? Arrived already?”

“Haha yes Akeila. We’re arrived at eastern Kazar. What are you mumbling about?”

“Nothing important. Say, will you stay around here, Lutfi? I could use a transport back home too.”

“Sorry Princess. I have some errands to run for my master. “

“Eh, nevermind then. Young Miss Ava, we’ll get off here.”

After expressing gratitude to Lutfi, Akeila and Ava disembarked from his wagon. The cheerful Lufti gave further aid, a walking stick to Akeila. Akeila begrudgingly accepted his help as she had no other choice if she wants to continue walking without problems.

The forgesmith cannot stand his smugness as she had always considered him as her rival. This was a loss of face but Akeila did not bother to regain it back. She had other priorities in mind and far pressing matters. At her right side was Ava, still throwing glances toward everything.

“Young Miss, where do you want to go?”

“Anywhere, Sister Akeila. What does Sister Akeila want to do?”

“Hmm….we’ll go to a few shops I know. My forge is lacking some materials.”

Ava nodded to her suggestion. Staying with a knowledgeable person was logical rather than blindly rushing into anything. There were dizzying amount of shops here and sticking with Akeila will ease the Post-Human’s investigation of materials used by natives of the badlands.

It was mostly window shopping as Akeila and Ava went from one shop to another. Part of it can be said due to Akeila’s injuries as she cannot carry many stuffs in her current state. On the other hand, if Ava was to carry her stuff, it would not be good for her public image.

Akeila took her time to visit the shops, socializing with the shop owners. The merchants greeted her with much enthusiasm as forgesmiths are some of their biggest trading partners. Some of them joked that Ava must be her child but the forgesmith vehemently denied it.

Akeila finally purchased some monster parts, ones that she had shown to Ava yesterday. The seller added a simple hand cart as a bonus as she bought quite a number of them. They entered the main street again as Akeila reviewed her mental list of items to be bought.

“Wanderers and forgesmiths! I present to you, a dao crossbow! No arrows, no bolts! A must have for combat! It can hit out to five li! Your enemies wouldn’t even know what hit them!”

A voice spike attracted the duo’s attention. As eastern Kazar was the trading part of the City, there were a number of merchants that loudly advertise their wares. It was a fierce advertising battle as each merchant try to gain the largest number of customers respectively.

Akeila knew the owner of this voice, a former disciple of her master. The disciple left her master out of his own accord but he did not tell her and her master about his reason. Today might be the day she finds out. By the looks of things...this guy sounded desperate under the surface.

The compact crossbow showed by him was an odd object, a rectangular box on top of a steel-coloured crossbow. He loaded some kind of rock into the box and then aimed the dao weapon at some monster shells he put in as distant targets.

Shew, shew, shew!

Multiple bluish bolts flew from the crossbow, hitting all of them within a few seconds. It was indeed formidable; the weapon in his hand was way smaller than the crossbow used to hunt Red Scorpions yet it successfully penetrated all of the monster shell targets.

This peaked interests from the visitors as the dao weapon performance was quite enticing. It looked like it can be hidden under a cloak and its demonstrated power suggested it can dispatch most desert monsters with ease. But with great power, comes a great price.

Bits of rock dust fell from the weapon, the item in its top-mounted box no longer existing. Observant people knew what had just transpired and whispered among themselves. The crowd caught wind of it and then dispersed just like the sands flowing in the wind.

“I knew you were up to something. But I never expected it to be this bad, Janak.”

“Huh? Oh, it’s just you Akeila. What are you being here for? Are you going to scold me again?”

“Nothing. I’m just showing these parts to Young Miss Ava here.”

“This young miss? I don’t want to question your preferences but…”

“Ah shut it, Janak. My passion is in forging. Your item, why did you forge it like that? You’re pissing away money.”

“Urgh, this is why I left you guys in the first place! You guys cannot understand my vision! This dao crossbow here, is the future!”

It was a bold claim made by Janak. He was haggard and his eyes were bloodshot. His body was thin and his starvation was evident. The black-haired man clutched the crossbow as if it was his own baby. It was his greatest creation and shame.

For forgesmith that cannot sell their products, it was as good as being a beggar. There would be no sponsors and no customers. Much of the forgesmith’s reputation laid on the product they made. Janak’s product was quite powerful but at the same time had gained ill repute.

Ava focused her gaze to the strange contraption. It was like a rough jade and crude compared to other dao weapons being sold here. The dao crossbow however contained ferocious might of a dragon or what was left from its previous activation. This weapon reminded her of something.

Drawing parallel from her knowledge, the crossbow resembled one of many energy projectors in her former world. The dao crossbow looked like a primitive handheld firearm. Janak was right but no one seemed to catch upon its implications. There must be some kind of reason behind it.

“Sister Akeila, why do people do not like Brother Janak’s item? Ava found it quite useful.”

“Well...the problem lies on what it uses. So this Janak had a great idea but it wasn’t that great actually. A disaster.”

“Ava do not understand. A disaster?”

“Yes. This dao crossbow unfortunately use dao cores as its bolts instead of ordinary iron bolts. You can turn a dao core to a bladed dao weapon and use it for a long time. This thing? It eats dao cores like no tomorrow. A very bad investment, Young Miss.”

“A bad investment, Sister Akeila?”

“Yeah. Let’s say in a single fight you need to shoot some twenty times. One dao core can probably give two to five shots. That’s four dao blade weapons down the drain as once used by the crossbow, the cores turn into dust. Like Young Miss had saw earlier.”

Akeila put up a compelling argument. Dao cores were central to any dao weapon in existence. Using them like water would bleed just about anyone. Four dao blade weapons can equip a party. A single dao crossbow equip one person. It was clear which was the better deal.

If that was the case, were dao cores rare to begin with? More question filled Ava’s head. If the dao crossbow could be further optimized in some form...it could be a game changer. Evidently the people here did not want to pay to find out. Janak broke her thoughts a few moments later.

“Heh. When people are still running around with dao blades like fools, I will be the one to shoot all of them and they won’t even be able to reach me!”

“Save your fantasies Janak. I knew it, you blew your savings on this thing right?”

“A necessary sacrifice for a new dawn, Akeila. Like I said, this is the future! Why can’t we shoot magical energies like those desert monsters? This will make every man and monster, equal.”

“Equal? Pfft what happens if you ran out of dao cores, Janak? What will you do? What if the monster simply steps to its side?”

“I will figure it out, somehow. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, Akeila!”

“Sigh, this part of you never change, Janak. At least you had some tact to leave us when you came up with this blasted thing. Now if you excuse us...”

“Wait! Can you buy my dao crossbow? Pretty please? You can do whatever you want with it!”

“Uhh...sure. But I’m not paying much for this piece of junk, Janak.”

“No matter! Let me wrap it for you too!”

The eccentric forgesmith left Akeila and Ava alone for a moment. Akeila withdrew her pouch and brought out a palm sized clothes bag. At first she put one green-coloured coin but later she put two additional ones inside the bag. Her action prompted a question from Ava.

“Why does Sister Akeila bought this product? From Sister Akeila’s argument, the product seemed defective.”

“Hum, let’s say it’s a whim of mine. Janak is my master’s favourite or was. At least I can help him this way, somewhat. Repair a little bit of his image as for us forgesmith, every time we sell our product, our credibility would rise. Janak’s talented but I wish he sees errors in his ways.”

“Brother Janak is talented?”

“Yes, way better than me Young Miss. If Sister need to hammer a blade four times, he would find out ways to hammer it once. And his product wouldn’t be any less inferior. Pity a genius had fallen to this extent.”

Akeila’s pity was genuine as she had benefited from experiments and insights of Janak. Her master acknowledged it as well as they both had used some improvements pioneered by the former disciple. But people change with time. What can she do anyway.

To Ava however, Janak represent an opportunity to her. While others shunned him, Ava felt this man might be useful for something. Akeila was somewhat conservative. Janak was more unhinged and could aid Ava in making and testing stuff that ordinary forgesmiths avoid.

If Ava want to employ his services, she needed to either convince or bait him with something he cannot refuse. Ava had determined it was best to bait him with resources as he would likely to ignore any word-based persuasion. He was socially outcast by the people around here after all.

“Here! All nice and tidy, Akeila!”

“Thanks. Forge some dao blades sometimes, Janak. You know, don’t waste your talent like this. You’re a forgesmith, act like one.”

“Those fools are just blind to my breakthrough! I will leap like a carp over a dragon gate, a herald of new age!”

“Uhh...okay Janak. Sure, whatever. I got other stuff to buy.”

Akeila and Ava proceeded to left his stall. For some reason, Janak had laughed like a madman behind them. He was shouting about his luck or something, thanking the heavens for getting him his first sale of the week. Akeila sighed when she thought of Janak.

To her, having a strong mind and self control was far more important in order to live in these harsh lands. Was it a matter of perspective? She put the matter with Janak deep inside her mind. In any case, Ava was handling the wrapped crossbow like a child that just got a new toy.

Akeila and Ava proceeded their visit to number of shops, partly to continue buy the supplies that Akeila needed and partly due to Ava’s consistent curiosity. People that saw this either thought Ava was a young noble attended by her servant or just a little sister being pampered by her big sister.

Their stroll came to a stop to a nearby drink stall as Akeila wanted to rest her legs. The shopkeeper handed them two warm cups filled with pale red-coloured liquid respectively. It had a sweet taste with hint of zest, washing down their fatigue.

The wheeled hand cart was almost full now. Ava kept the dao crossbow in a clothes bag given free to her after their prior visit to one of the shops known by Akeila. As they sip their cups away, someone gave Akeila a sudden greeting.

“Akeila! Never thought you would get injured! Who hurt you?”

“Roaring Lions, they got me good! But the guards took care of it, no harms done. Hauled something good, Muzaid? How goes your party?”

“Pretty well thanks to your weapons! They went to some shopping so..I’m left here. I’m here to consult you about something Akeila.”

“Oh? What is it?”

“This thing. We got it after fighting a weird monster. It was a tough fight. So I thought maybe I could sell it...but most of the shops don’t want it.”

The stout warrior named as Muzaid handed Akeila the strange thing. It was like a black basalt, quite heavy and cold to touch. Akeila took out one shiny stone and put it on the object. Said stone rapidly drained of its colour and crumbled to dust.

“Huh, I can say this thing would be poor for making dao weapons. No wonder all those shops don’t want it Muzaid. So what are you going to do with it?”

“I don’t know. Our last trip wasted our money and yet I can’t sell this thing. Do you have any suggestions, Akeila?”

“Let me try a couple of things.”

Akeila paid the shopkeeper some coins and signaled for Muzaid to follow him. This strange rock also attracted Ava’s interest. From her observation, the rocks put by Akeila on the black thing was similar to what Roaring Lions had used to boost their dao weapons.

They moved to into one corner that was sparse with people. In all of the glowing rocks used by Akeila on said black object, only a few remained albeit dim and about to crumble any moment. This result added nothing but frown to Muzaid, feeling his last trip was a complete failure.

“Your luck this time was pretty bad, Muzaid. I don’t think you can forge it as a shield either. A plate shield made of this thing would be too heavy while a gauntlet...might be challenging.”

“Sigh...what did I do to deserve this...speaking of which, what’s happening to it?”

The blackish stone was no longer lifeless but instead flashed with streaks of blue from time to time. Sweet yet pungent zing can be smelt around the rock that was on the sandy ground. It smelt like a storm was coming but the sun was shining brightly in the skies.

The three of them observed the black object with rapt attention. After a number of glowing rocks had crumbled on top of said black thing, it was now that it showed some kind of response. Neither of them had seen this before, not even for Akeila that was an experienced forgesmith.

“Could it be...some kind of dao bucket, Akeila? How can I use it?”

“I don’t know, first time I saw it react like this too. Where do you get it Muzaid, from what monster?”

“I think it was a variant of the usual Sand Komodo. It did not spit any streams of fire but instead just fought with its strong body. It was way smarter too, knowing our dao weapons are dangerous to it.”

“Sand Komodo? Hmm…”

Akeila produced a common dagger. She tied it to a wooden stick and poked the black rock. Just before the dagger can touch, arcs of lightning suddenly burst from the rock and gripped the dagger. The forgesmith immediately let go of the stick. The dagger was charred and pitted.

“Huh, what the? Lightning attribute? Now this is rare, Muzaid. You picked up some sort of treasure...but I don’t think it’s that useful. You saw how many stuff it broke, right?”

“Ergh, no chance to use it, like ever? Can’t you forge something out of it, Akeila?”

“Not in my current form.”

“Right, you were injured. Here’s a medicine pill, for going all the trouble for me.”

“Thanks Muzaid. What are you going to do next?”

“Maybe catching up with my team. You can have the rock, this young miss was looking at it all the time. Bless upon you Akeila, I gotta go.”

Akeila received a jade bottle without much reservation. Medicinal pills were expensive in the badlands as there were severe lack of suitable plants used to make them. Muzaid giving her the medicine was a lofty payment. Or perhaps as an apology to push this strange rock to her hands.

The said black rock was still emitting a pungent yet sweet smell. This time it was Ava that moved, throwing her dagger to said rock. The rock suddenly exploded in flash of blue and turned some of the sands below it into glass. Her dagger on other hand remained scotch-free.

“Young Miss, what are you doing?!!! That thing is dangerous!”

“Ava reports no problem. Look, the rock is no more. Rock successfully neutralized. How can Sister Akeila bring rock if it was not neutralized?”

Akeila stopped in her tracks. Panic in her face gradually cooled down as she thought things over. The black object was indeed troublesome. What happened to Akeila’s iron dagger was a perfect example. It was as if some beast had chomped into it, causing holes on her weapon.

If a person tried to lift the said black object, the consequences could be terrible. Whatever it was, Akeila thought it was a special kind of dao core. Dormant but temperamental once provoked. Previous events suggested it cannot be turned into a reliable dao weapon.

Its property to greedily devour energy of heaven and earth was somewhat interesting but in the end, it exploded with great force. To Akeila, this strange thing was just as useless as the dao crossbow she bought for Ava. Using dao cores as bombs? What a quick way to become poor.

“Ava questions, where can Ava get the black rock?”

“Uhh...what are you planning to do, Young Miss?”

“Ava want a similar black rock. The black rock had exploded so Ava requests a new one.”

“Well...that’s hard to say. Just as I said, that thing was quite useless. No forgesmith would want to do anything with it.”

“Sister Akeila is wrong. There is someone.”

“Oh? Who...wait, Janak?”

“Yes. If Sister Akeila cannot forge it, Ava will ask Brother Janak.”

Akeila arched her eyebrows in response. What does this Young Miss saw in him anyway? She felt Ava had disrespected her abilities but it was also true she was in no state to forge anything. Even with the help of Muzaid’s medicine, it will take some time for her injuries to heal.

“Uhhh….let us return first, Young Miss.”

“Can Ava follow Brother Muzaid?”

“That’s up to his party, Young Miss. Sister Akeila is not sure.”

“Ava confirms. Let us look for Brother Muzaid first.”

Akeila sensed some headache was incoming. Despite her continued pleas, Ava was quite insistent to get the black rock again. This Young Noble can be a pain in the ass all right. They walked again, hoping to catch Muzaid with his party.