Eiwin admonished Rog and Red for over ten minutes. The boy thought about arguing about how this wasn't his idea in the first place, but once he saw her expression, he changed his mind. Not to mention that she brought up good arguments like how dangerous it was to leave with no notice. Red couldn't help but agree with her once he recalled their encounter with the bandits. Rog, on the other hand, had an exaggerated look of regret on his face.

With Narcha's assistance, though, Eiwin finally calmed down and took notice of the boar on Rog's shoulders.

"It seems you got lucky." The woman commented as a serene smile returned to her face. "Did you learn something, Red?"

"Yeah, I learned how to shoot a bow." The youth replied. "Rog planned to stay there longer, but we couldn't because of the bandits."

"Bandits?" Eiwin's grin vanished as suddenly as it appeared.

She turned to stare at Rog, looking for an explanation.

"Yeah, uh..." The hunter scratched his beard in embarrassment. "We ended up being stalked by some bandits."

"This close to town?" Narcha, who had been mostly silent, spoke up.

"I thought it was weird too." Rog shrugged. "Can only imagine they were there for something else but thought they found some easy prey."

"Are they dead?" The warrior asked.

"All the ones we encountered, yeah." The man nodded. "But they probably had companions in the region too. I didn't stick around to look for them, though."

"These guys are getting too ballsy." Narcha growled. "What gives them the confidence to mess around with our town?"

No one responded to her. Eiwin looked to be in deep thought after learning this new information, and Red also started to consider some possibilities.

"We'll talk about this with Master Hector tomorrow." The younger woman spoke. "We still have the mission Master Frida gave us to consider. Perhaps we can tackle all these matters in one go." She turned to look at Red. "You should probably go to sleep. None of your teachers will give you a break tomorrow."

The boy nodded but then turned to look at Rog.

"Can I keep the bow?" He asked.

"What for?" The hunter frowned.

"For shooting things."

"Oh. Yeah, sure." The man nodded.

With this confirmation, Red wandered off towards his room. The two women stared at Rog in silence, with judgemental looks on their faces.

"What did I do now?" The hunter looked confused.

...

The rest of the night passed by uneventfully, and Red was able to peacefully sleep. Without error, the rooster's crow foretold the arrival of sunrise, and the youth got up from bed. When he walked outside, he was met with a familiar scene.

Domeron was sitting on his rocking chair, sipping from a mug while watching the chicken coop. Red examined the man attentively before deciding to approach him.

The youth didn't hide his footsteps, announcing his arrival. The swordsman, however, didn't react again and pretended the boy wasn't there.

"You're a swordsman, right?" Red asked.

"Hmm." A grumble of affirmation came from Domeron.

"Where's your sword, then?"

The rocking chair stopped. The man looked at the boy with a frown on his face.

"Do you like bothering quiet people?" He asked.

"Not particularly." Red shrugged.

"I see." Domeron continued to rock his chair. "I have a sword. I just don't carry it with me inside the guild."

"Shouldn't a swordsman carry his sword around at all times?"

"Is that what qualifies someone as a swordsman?" The man scoffed.

The youth supposed not. Red began to ponder another matter that had been in his mind. He recalled the scenes from the forest the night before.

"Could you beat Rog in a fight?" The boy asked out of nowhere.

"Depends." Domeron gave him a curious look. "What prompted this kind of question?"

"I saw him shoot down some bandits yesterday." Red explained. "He was really skilled."

"Bandits?" The man frowned. "Well, under the right circumstances, Rog could definitely be considered the strongest person in the Sect other than Hector. No common equipment can block the power behind his arrows, and if he has a clear shot on you, then you're probably dead."

"Could you block them?"

"I have some tricks up my sleeve, but I'm not completely confident that they would work." Domeron admitted. "Only chance I would have of winning is if I got close enough."

"Even with only one arm?" Red was skeptical.

"What? Do you want to spar with me to check it?" The man grinned.

The boy shook his head. He wasn't stupid.

"What are we training for today?"

"More footwork." Domeron replied as he got up. "We'll be doing that for a while until I feel you're good enough."

"I thought you said my footwork was good?"

"It's decent, but there's always room for improvement, kid." The man explained. "Not even the strongest people in this world can claim to have mastered everything there is to know about a skill. In cultivation, simple proficiency is barely even the start."

Red nodded in understanding. He was eager to learn how to wield weapons, but he knew he had just barely begun training. The best decision was to defer to the one with more experience and knowledge than him.

The two of them walked to the training field to begin another day of training.

...

An hour later, Red finished his training session. The improvements in his footwork from yesterday were small, but they were still there. Domeron explained that substantial change would only appear over weeks and months, but the youth was already used to that. He wasn't in any particular hurry just yet.

After they were done, Red didn't wait for Eiwin to come looking for him. He walked towards Goulth's workshop, where sounds of activity could already be heard. As the youth arrived, he knocked on the door.

"Come in!" The giant's voice replied from inside.

Red entered the house he had become familiar with over the last few days. In the next room, the blacksmith was already getting the breakfast ready. The man smiled once he saw the youth come in and pulled a bowl aside.

"Come on, we need to start the day with a good meal!"

Red didn't stand on ceremony.

...

After they were done eating, the two of them began to work the forge. Red followed Goulth's instructions, and soon the furnace was ablaze. The man started to go through his explanations about handling metal bars, except this time, the boy got to have a more hands-on experience.

"Here, use the tongs to hold the bar over the anvil." The giant instructed. "I'll be hammering it down."

Red did as he was told, using the tongs to hold the heated piece of metal steady over the anvil. However, he soon found the task was not nearly as easy as expected. When Goulth's hammer nailed down, a shockwave ran up his arms from the sheer force of the blow. At once, Red felt like the tongs were about to escape his hands.

"Hold steady!" The blacksmith barked at him.

The boy didn't complain and decided to use the strength of his Upper Arm Vein. The second blow came down, and the youth felt the force travel up his arms again. This time, though, he held steady through the trembling.

"Good!" Goulth praised him. "Now turn it over!"

Red used the tongs to awkwardly shift the metal bar. These tools were not very wieldy, and it was harder to handle the material with precision. The giant told him to stop moving once he got to the correct position before his hammer came down again. The youth absorbed the impact with a grunt.

They continued this process for the next few minutes until Goulth finally called for a stop. Red was absolutely exhausted, and a dull pain was spreading through his arms. The simple task of holding the metal bar still while the blacksmith shaped it with hammer blows took more of him than any training the boy had gone through in the past.

"Good work, kid." The man patted his shoulders. "Look at what you've created."

The boy had barely any time to examine the object in the anvil while he was focusing on his task. When he looked over, though, he just saw a misshapen piece of metal was the final product.

"Was it supposed to come out like this?" Red frowned.

"Oh, not at all." Goulth laughed. "That's completely useless."

"What was the point of all that then?"

"Just to get you accustomed to handling the tongs." The giant explained. "Most blacksmiths just have their apprentices handle the hammer, but I like to have you involved in every process of creation."

Red understood the man's intentions, but he felt like he hadn't been able to learn much while fighting for his life to hold the tools.

"Anyways, go rest a little bit." The blacksmith instructed him. "I'm gonna melt this piece into something usable again. Next, you'll handle the hammer, and we'll actually make something."

The youth didn't know how much strength he would be able to gather, but he simply nodded. As Goulth was occupied preparing the material, though, a question flowed through the boy's mind. He hesitated for a while but still decided to speak up.

"Do you only use metals to forge equipment?" Red asked.

"It's what I specialize in." The giant nodded. "But it's honestly not that simple. Oftentimes there are more things than metal that are needed for a finished product."

"What about monster parts? Can you use them to make things?"

"Depends on the part of the monster." Goulth explained. "But generally, body parts are obviously not as easy to transform as metal. If we're talking about solid components like bones or horns, I can still do something with them. Hides and softer things, though, are not my specialty."

"I see." Red nodded. "Is that why the guild orders the uniforms from somewhere else?"

When the boy mentioned that, the blacksmith's figure froze. His expression went through multiple changes in a short amount of time before coming back to normal.

"Yeah." Goulth nodded. "I'm not good at making those things."

The change didn't go unnoticed by Red. He recalled how Frida reacted at the mention of his master's name back then, and it was clear now this was a sore spot for both of them. The youth didn't dare to probe anymore, though, since he got the answer he wanted.

"Do you also work with stones?" Red shifted the topic.

"Not really. That's more mason work." The man explained. "Besides, stones are not as easy to shape and forge as ores."

The boy frowned. It wasn't what he wanted to hear, but it also wasn't the end of the world for him. It merely meant he would need to get his moonstones from another source.

"Is there something you want to know?" Goulth asked.

The question made Red's blood run cold. Did he suspect something? However, the youth quickly calmed himself down. It wasn't weird that the man would ask if there was a purpose behind the boy's curiosity. As far as Red could tell, this was a harmless question, but it still made the boy hesitate.

Should he finally ask the one thing that had been in his mind the entire time? Despite everything the youth had gone through, he still found it hard to take that final step. However, it was obvious his silence had unintentionally given rise to more suspicion on Goulth's part.

"It's fine if you don't want to tell me." The blacksmith smiled. "There are also things I don't feel comfortable telling you. Just know that whatever you tell me doesn't go out to anyone else if you don't want to."

Red couldn't help but curse his indecision. If he hadn't taken so long to reply and played it off as mere curiosity, then Goulth probably wouldn't suspect anything. However, the youth also found his concerns to be silly. If even a hothead like Narcha suspected he was hiding something already, how could the blacksmith not suspect it either? What mattered more, in the end, was what they did with that suspicion.

If Red didn't feel secure addressing his question directly, perhaps there was another way to do it.

"Do you have a book on common materials?" The boy finally dared to ask.