Seeing Noah shift into full work mode, Tsubaki quietly slipped out of the workshop, knowing better than to disturb a smith at the anvil.
Haruhime, on the other hand, stayed right where she was.
The fox usually made herself scarce when Noah worked, but today, she sat rigidly by his side.
Her two golden fox ears stood straight up, swiveling like radar dishes on high alert.
She looked ready to fight off a wild beast!
Every few seconds, her fluffy tail would twitch in pure irritation.
Whenever she did that, Noah would absentmindedly reach out and stroke the top of her head.
The gentle pets instantly smoothed out her anxiety, making her hum happily.
Watching this play out, Aisha understood the situation perfectly.
To a battle-hardened veteran of the pleasure quarter like her, the emotional tension between a man and a woman was as easy to read as black ink on white paper.
The fox girl was head over heels.
'But... fufufu,' Aisha thought.
The little fox's "assets" are severely lacking in the heavy artillery department.
Aisha glanced pointedly at Haruhime's chest, which was as flat as a cutting board, and let out a soft, disdainful smirk.
Catching the look, the little fox's face instantly flushed crimson with utter shame and rage.
Noah, assuming Haruhime was getting restless again, reached out to smooth her fur one more time.
"Alright, let's get back to business," Noah said, pulling out a fresh sheet of parchment.
Aisha shifted her stance.
Her sitting posture screamed 'boss.' S
he sat with her legs spread wide—one leg stretched out lazily, the other propped up on the edge of her chair.
It was an excessively aggressive, masculine pose, but she clearly couldn't care less what anyone thought of her.
"My primary weapon is a greatsword," Aisha explained. "I know my way around shortswords and regular blades, but they don't hit hard enough for my style. My Falna development abilities are Hunter and Abnormal Resistance."
Noah jotted down the details.
He honestly hadn't expected her to dump her specific stats so easily.
Most adventurers guarded their Development Abilities like state secrets. After all, a blacksmith's skill had nothing to do with their moral character.
If a corrupt smith leaked a client's specific combat weaknesses to a rival Familia, it could get that client killed in the Dungeon.
'This woman might be a prostitute,' Noah thought, 'but she's incredibly straightforward.'
From the way she carried herself, he knew she wasn't stupid or naive.
She was taking a calculated risk by placing her trust in him. It was a good reminder that a person's profession didn't define their true character.
"Oh, and I can use magic too," Aisha added casually. "It's called Hell Kaos. I gather my mind into my weapon and fire it out as an explosive projectile."
'Magic?' Noah paused, looking up with a hint of genuine surprise.
Based on her build and her preference for greatswords, he had pegged her as a pure, physical vanguard.
Throwing magic into the mix completely changed the weapon design.
It sounded like a high-yield offensive spell. Regardless of her base stats, a magical strike would always out-damage a standard physical slash by a massive margin.
The two attack types operated on completely different planes of reality.
A physical attack—whether it was a slash, a thrust, or a heavy cleave—relied entirely on the user's muscle density, their form, and the weapon's base attack power.
The damage ceiling was strictly capped by human biology.
But a magical attack? That was like handing a regular guy a rocket launcher.
The raw, destructive output a normal human could never achieve physically could be unleashed with a single pull of a trigger.
That was exactly why magic users were treated as the ultimate "finishing move" in any high-level party.
Naturally, a custom weapon built for a magic swordswoman had to be forged to handle that explosive output without shattering.
"Follow me," Noah said, standing up.
He led the way to the heavy iron door at the back of the workshop and pushed it open.
Aisha followed him out, but she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the "state" of the backyard.
"What the hell happened here...?"
Cold sweat trickled down the side of her face as she scanned the "scenery."
Shards of incredibly dense, shattered metal littered the dirt.
Several thick, humanoid training dummies had been deformed, twisted, and half-melted by pure destructive force.
Small mountains of ruined, twisted scrap metal were piled in the corners.
The ground itself was heavily pitted, scarred by deep craters, and scorched pitch-black in several areas.
Saying a small war had taken place in this backyard wouldn't be an exaggeration.
Noah walked past the wreckage and stopped in front of a specific humanoid target.
The thick metal torso was permanently bent backward at a sixty-degree angle.
It looked totally weird standing crooked like that, but the core structure hadn't actually snapped.
A few weeks ago, Bete Loga had tested a new weapon here.
A single, mana-infused "Rider Kick" from the werewolf had warped the heavy target into this state.
And Bete hadn't even been trying—he only used about forty percent of his full strength.
Still, the dummy survived the impact.
Noah gave the heavy target a solid shove.
The foundation held firm.
"We'll use this one," Noah said, turning to Aisha.
"Eh? Use it for what?"
"Hit it with your magic," Noah instructed. "I need to see the activation process, the mana draw, and the spell's raw power with my own eyes. I can't design a weapon to amplify your magic if I don't know how your magic flows."
"Huh? A weapon that actually amplifies magic?" Aisha looked skeptical. "Isn't that something only ancient Elven staves can do?"
The Elven race possessed a deep, ancient history with magic.
Many of their sacred relics and heirloom staves could passively enhance Elven spells. However, those staves only worked for pure-blooded Elves, and their power wasn't a product of mortal smithing.
The relics were basically natural resources, raw symbols of the gods playing favorites with the forest dwellers.
"Leave the professional forging to me," Noah said bluntly. "Just cooperate and hit the target as hard as you can."
Noah knew trying to explain the intricacies of his Spell-Weaver and high-level metallurgy would take all day, so he opted for the direct approach.
He'd learned that if you actually possessed the skills to back up your talk, you shouldn't use vague, humble language. Being overly modest only made rough adventurers doubt your expertise. If you weren't assertive, they would walk right over you.
That was probably why the best blacksmiths all had terrible tempers.
Tsubaki had beaten more than one rude customer half to death, and the customer was always the one forced to apologize later.
"Sure, but I didn't bring a weapon with me today," Aisha pointed out.
"Will any greatsword work?"
"Eh? Ah, yeah, any greatsword is fine."
"What are your ideal dimensions? Length and width?"
Aisha held her hands out, measuring the air. "About this long... and for the width, I usually like a grip about a finger-width thicker than standard."
"Understood."
Noah nodded.
He crouched down and placed his bare palm flat against the scorched dirt.
Under Aisha's horrified gaze, Noah activated his mind.
He manipulated the ambient metal elements buried in the soil, forcing them to violently rip through the dirt and converge in the air, forming a swirling, terrifying storm of black iron sand.
As the metallic tornado condensed and took the rough shape of a massive greatsword, Noah chanted in a low, even voice.
"Smelt Iron."
Blinding fire and crackling blue lightning surged from his palm, completely enveloping the floating shape.
Aisha had to shield her eyes.
Through the glare, she watched the sword—originally composed of millions of loose iron particles—fuse into a solid, heavy slab of metal in a matter of seconds.
The intense lightning polished the surface of the heavy blade until it reflected the sunlight like a dark mirror.
The finished greatsword was pitch-black, perfectly balanced, and entirely seamless. There were no hammer marks, no weld lines, and no trace of traditional forging.
It was a true, one-piece manifestation of pure magic.
Noah casually grabbed the hilt and thrust the heavy blade into the dirt right in front of Aisha.
"This should work for the test, right?" he asked casually.
Aisha stood dazed for a full ten seconds.
She finally stepped forward and wrapped her calloused hand around the pitch-black hilt.
Gripping it tight, she gave a powerful tug, pulling the massive blade from the earth to inspect the edge.
"This is..."
'Why does this feel... better than the custom weapon I actually use?'
'This kid had just conjured a perfectly balanced, razor-sharp greatsword out of thin air!'
'There was no hot forge, no anvil, no hammer. He just slapped the dirt, and a masterpiece popped out.'
'Magic? He can just create a weapon that a Level 3 veteran would kill for, just like that?'
The rumors called him the 'Smithing Genius of the Hephaestus Familia.'
Aisha thought the stories were crazy exaggerations cooked up by drunk adventurers.
But this?
This is just straight-up cheating!
Honestly, the test sword in her hand felt good enough to keep.
Even though he spent less than ten seconds on it, the balance and weight distribution were already incredibly close to her ideal specs.
The only question left was how it actually performed under heavy mana stress.
Aisha took a deep breath, calming her racing heart.
She gripped the black greatsword tightly in both hands and squared up with the crooked humanoid target.
As she adjusted her stance, she noticed a deep dent on the side of the metal dummy.
'Wait, is that a footprint? Did someone actually kick this solid chunk of metal hard enough to leave a boot print?'
'Does that mean this target isn't actually that sturdy?' she wondered.
If a physical kick can bend it that badly, a point-blank magic blast is going to blow it into a million pieces.
She shook her head, clearing the thought. She wasn't great at holding back her mana anyway.
If she was going to cast Hell Kaos, she had to go all out.
"Alright, here I go!" Aisha shouted.
She took a breath, closing her eyes to focus her mind and draw on her Falna.
When her eyes snapped open, a violent, visible aura of mana surged around her body.
"Come, Lord of Brutality!—Brave warrior, mighty hero, greedy and violent champion! If you wish to claim the Empress's sash, then prove it! Satisfy me, pierce me, slay me as your proof! The name of my thirsty blade is Hippolyte!"
She swung the heavy black greatsword in a devastating downward arc.
As the blade cut the air, a massive burst of highly compressed mana erupted from the tip of the sword.
The mana projectile, glowing with volatile energy and spinning like a drill, tore across the yard and slammed into the humanoid target with a deafening BOOM!
The point-blank explosion unleashed a violent shockwave, kicking up a storm of dust and bathing the entire backyard in a hurricane of displaced air.
Aisha braced herself against the wind, waiting for the smoke to clear so she could see the crater.
When the dust settled, Aisha's eyes widened.
Her jaw dropped in utter, mind-numbing disbelief.
The heavy metal target was still standing. The sixty-degree bend had been pushed back to maybe a sixty-five-degree bend.
At the exact spot where her ultimate magic attack hit, the metal was emitting a few thin wisps of blue smoke.
Other than that? Nothing. Not a scratch, not a crack. That was it.
"No way..." Aisha dropped her greatsword, a look of pure existential dread washing over her face.
"This is impossible!"
Her strongest, full-power magic attack had only caused a tiny smudge of damage?!
Was this dummy actually indestructible?
She looked over at Noah with a vacant stare.
Noah didn't look surprised at all. He was busy writing notes on his parchment.
Catching her horrified expression, Noah suddenly realized the issue.
"Oh, right," he explained casually. "I fused twenty kilograms of raw Adamantite—also known as Orichalcum—into the core of this target. It's only natural that it took the hit so well."
'Orichalcum?! Wasn't that the insanely rare, ultra-high-grade material required to craft legendary weapons with the Unbreakable attribute?!'
'And he used twenty kilograms of the stuff just to build a training dummy?!'
'No, wait a minute.'
Aisha slowly turned her head, scanning the ruined backyard once more.
There wasn't just one dummy.
There were dozens of them!
And some of those Orichalcum targets were completely wrecked, ripped apart, and left lying in the dirt like cheap scrap metal.
If her absolute strongest, full-power magic strike could only slightly bend the metal... what kind of monsters were training back here to produce those destroyed targets?
Before she left the yard, Aisha took a long terrified look at the deep footprint stamped into the side of her target, burning the exact shape and size of that boot into her memory forever.
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