Chapter 16: Finding a Sword

Jia Yuan looked around the room he was in. His eyes truly

sparkled, but the receptionist couldn’t tell because of the straw hat.

If she could see Jia Yuan’s face, she could see that he was

quite literally drooling at the site of the weapons.

Unfortunately for Jia Yuan, a good half of the room was

filled with axes. After all, axes paired well with the fire element, as both

provided for strong and explosive attacks. As such, for many in the Fire Kingdom,

either the one-handed or two-handed axe was the weapon of choice. In this

regard, sword practitioners like Jia Yuan were still plentiful, but part of the

minority.

However, the swords he saw were more than enough to sate his

eyes. It took him a while to remember his goal: to find a sword that he could

go through life and death battles with.

He began to look at the swords more discerningly.

He looked back at the receptionist.

“If I just want to check the balance of a weapon, do I have

to go to the field testing area?”

After all, he was on the third floor of the building, and

the field testing area had to be outside. It would be quite troublesome to have

to repeatedly go from place to place.

“No, but I will have to invite one of our weapon specialists

over. Would you like me to do so?”

“Sure.”

Jia Yuan understood that the two main things he needed in a

sword was for it to be made of good materials so that it wouldn’t be damaged or

break during the heat of battle, and that it needed to have a balance that he

liked. As such, he needed a sword that had similar balance to the wooden sword

that he had been using all of these years.

The receptionist led Jia Yuan to the first room, where he

had noticed some people lounging about earlier. Apparently, these were the

weapon specialists.

The receptionist led Jia Yuan to one and said, “Hello sir,

this esteemed customer would like to check the balance of some weapons.”

“Hmm? Alright, alright… let’s go.”

They walked back to the 4th room, and the weapon

specialist turned to ask Jia Yuan “So, what sort of weapon are you looking for?”

“I am looking for a straight hand and a half sword with

the balance slightly ahead of the guard.”

Jia Yuan had been practicing with a straight sword, after

all. As for the change to the hand and a half sword, at points he wanted to

be able to grip the sword with two hands so that he could swing with more

power. Furthermore, since Jia Yuan only ever wielded a sword and had never

practiced with a shield, he used his blade to defend against attacks. As such,

it was easier to block attacks if one had two hands gripping the

sword.

However, he didn't want a two-handed sword, as the sword would likely be too big compared to the sword he had practiced with. Furthermore, many of the stances he practiced were one-handed. Combining all of these factors meant that the hand and a half sword would be the best choice.

“Hmm… would you mind if I recommended some swords to you,

sir?”

“That would definitely help.”

Seeing that the two got along fine, the receptionist

followed them calmly at a moderate distance.

“Alright, lad. Er, uh, esteemed customer. We only have about

ten swords fitting the description of what you just said. Unfortunately,

RockFire City isn’t exactly the largest city around, so when it comes to the

lesser used swords, such as the hand and a half swords we don’t carry many.”

“However, we still have some high quality ones. Usually

people only buy the cheaper swords, so most of the better swords haven’t been

purchased. As such, we’ll probably still be able to find a fit for you.”

“Here. This is a one and a half hand sword specially designed

to maximize one’s fiery aura. It’s made from extremely rare fire stones which

are not only beneficial to those who train in a Song of fire, but are also very hard. The sword was also forged in a way to maximize flexibility, so the

sword is also not likely to break from stress in battle.”

Jia Yuan looked at the sword. He then grabbed it and swung

it around a bit to test the balance.

“It’s okay, but it’s also not exactly what I was looking

for. Do you have any swords that are compatible with all elements?”

This startled the weapon master, who quickly gave Jia Yuan another glance.

“No, but you could probably get one custom made at a larger

city. Although, it’ll probably cost you an arm and a leg. For someone to be

able to forge stones of all four elements together would mean that they would

be a master blacksmith, and their services are high in demand.”

“Furthermore, the creations of those master blacksmiths

would probably be great enough to be considered a prized item in any household.

As such, you’d probably be looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of a few

million large fire shards…quite a sum even for the royal family.”

Jia Yuan suddenly had a bitter feeling in his heart. He had

felt just minutes prior that he was at the top of the world with his 9 thousand

large fire shards, but now he had just found out that this fortune of his wasn’t

even enough to cover even a single percentage of the costs needed to buy type

of sword he wanted.