246 I Need To Use Your Forge

Only a bit over two weeks have passed since Leon left for the underground expedition, but the Capital's rate of development was staggering and seemed to have increased exponentially.

The construction of the railway and strengthening of commoners via the breathing technique had indeed greatly boost productivity and work efficiency, but the greatest factor was not related to Leon.

The World Tree had only just started introducing spirit energy to the world. It would take some time before the spirit energy spread to the Capital. 

Under normal circumstances, the most talented of miners had only reached the 3rd layer of the Body Tempering Realm. This had indeed boosted the acquisition of raw ores greatly, but half the contribution of raw ore acquisition was actually due to earth-users.

The power of Awakeners was practically designed for the development of human civilization. Any area of development that required manual labor could be substituted with the elemental manipulation of Awakeners. 

During the time Leon was gone, the Capital had experienced a large increase in low-level Awakeners amongst the lower-class nobles.

Low-class nobles were different from many higher-class nobles and did not discriminate against commoners and were willing to work alongside them. 

With earth-users and miners working in tandem, the greatest work efficiency was achieved in the acquisition of raw ores from the rich underground mineral deposit.

Leon could guess where these lower-class nobles got their Awakening pills. Dwight was an alchemist and the True Awakening Pill formula was left in their hands. He no longer needed to refine the pills for them as Dwight could do it himself.

He did not blame Dwight for making the formula known, he was only concerned that the increase in earth-element Awakeners would cause instability in the Capital's foundation and collapse it.

But his worries were for naught. If he could think like that, others could too. 

In the underground, a large framework of steel beams was already being used to hold up the Capital.

Even without Awakeners, the excessing mining and hollowing of the underground would eventually lead to the instability of the structural integrity of the foundation and ultimately lead to a great tragedy if no preventative actions were taken.

Thinking back on the True Awakening Pills, Leon was a bit embarrassed about all the talk of demons, but he still felt like something was still amiss. 

Few clues have pointed towards their existence, but not a shadow had been spotted nor had he found any more clues since then. Was he just overthinking and paranoid? 

Leon shook his head and entered the Capital. He was famished after the long run and decided to settle his stomach first.

…

"Ah, ahem. What would you like to order, esteemed customer?" The waiter, Mary was surprised to see Leon again after so long and slightly stuttered before asking.

She did not want to be unreasonable and bring up the previous matter. She thought the reason this customer had not visited their Steakhouse in so long was due to her attitude at that time. Thus, she was already content that Leon was willing to dine in at the Steakhouse again.

Looking at the familiar menu, Leon was hit with nostalgia as he reminisces on the past. Where was Teacher Lina now? He was told that she had left on a journey, but her parents did not know where to.

Leon did not dwell on it for too long, before he smiled and said, "I want 200-gram of this, this, and this, medium-rare with the Steakhouse special sauce and no sides, thanks."

A total of three dishes was ordered. Recalling the traumatic experience brought by overeating, he dared not to order too much again and toned down on the cut and dishes. He was only here for a quick feed.

After 15 minutes, the food was brought out one by one. They were all new dishes he had not tried before. There was quite a variety of beast meat on the menu. 

This time, he was trying the meat of the Fierce Hyena, River Bison, and Mountain Stag. Nevertheless, he finished everything in 30 minutes. Pulling out a grey Transcendent Crystal and chewing on some wood-element herbs, began refining some more pseudo-Grandmist energy.

No matter how many times he visits the Steakhouse, he was still left amazed by the richness of energy retained in the cooked meat. The Royal Chef back in the palace was slightly inferior.

Nevertheless, after he was done, he called the waiter to pay the bill. 

"That will be 6200 Craws, esteemed customer," Mary said, but she did not offer any hand to receive the Craw notes in Leon's hand. Instead, she puffed her chest pocket.

"You… want me to put it in there?" Leon asked with doubt.

"Just like the first time." Mary nodded as a red hue slightly crept on her face. Perhaps, she was being too shameless, but she wanted to experience it again.

"Just the first time?" Leon could not help but rub his forehead as he recalled with a guilty conscience.

"Exactly like the first time," Mary affirmed as the red hue became more evident.

"Um, alright…" 

Leon understood and smiled wryly. Were all waiters this forward and daring? …Probably not. 

At the corner of his eyes, he could see another waiter peeking over through the gaps of her hand covering her face with a flushed face. He could subtly hear the waiter gasping, 'Mary, you're so daring~ Fighting~!'

He slipped 7000 Craw notes into Mary's chest pocket and disappeared, but of course, not without copping a feel.

Mary shivered with pleasure and delight from Leon's magical touch before she looked at the 7000 Craw notes in her chest pocket and ran out of the Steakhouse to shout into the distance, "Thank you for patronage! Please come again!"

The Steakhouse was relatively empty, and business was not doing well since the Capital Crisis, but there were still a few old-time customers in the Steakhouse. 

All sorts of hoots and whistles came from them in response to Mary's daringness as they teased her.

"Mary, the kitchen, now." 

A casual aged voice of an old lady resonated from the kitchen and the commotion immediately died down as the old-time customers all turned respectful towards the voice. The old lady owner of Steakhouse did not seem happy.

Mary froze before making her way back to the kitchen with her head down. She snuck a peek at the old lady in the kitchen and gulped. She was definitely in trouble.

"Grandma…"

…

After leaving the Steakhouse, Leon headed to the Lancaster's workshop tower. He marveled at the changes of Upper North District along the way.

Ding, ding, ding!

The sound of hammering hot iron and steel could be heard resonating out of the workshop tower as he entered and found the Duke working amongst the other blacksmith, topless and soaking in sweat.

"Hoho, a rare guest has come to visit." Duke Ignis immediately spotted Leon and placed down his hammer to walked over and welcome Leon with open arms. "Come, give your father-in-law a hug first." 

"Hold it right there!" Leon immediately stopped the Duke before contact was made.

"Hm? What's the matter?" The Duke frowned.

'What's the matter, you say? You are literally the embodiment of human sweat!' Leon mentally complained.

The workshop was humid and pumping with hot air, making anyone who had yet to adapt to the change in atmosphere uncomfortable. 

Getting hugged by a sweaty and topless middle-aged man ripping with muscles shortly after would immediately multiply that uncomfortableness by hundreds fold!

"Are you looking down on me, boy?" The Duke grinned.

When the question was raised, the other blacksmiths also put down their hammer and looked over.

Leon could see that the Duke was not offended and was only joking. Recalling what he came to the workshop to do, he smiled wryly. "No, of course not. I wasn't ready."

Taking off his own top and showcasing his own lean muscles packed with hidden explosiveness, he puffed out his own chest with gritted teeth and said, "Now I am ready!"

The Duke took a moment to process before he burst into laughter. "Hahaha! That's the spirit! Come here!"

Leon was bear-hugged by the Duke and the feeling of sweaty skin coming into contact made his face twitched excessively. 

After a while, he was released like a fresh inmate who had just graduated—Ahem, freed from prison.

"Alright, speak. What did you come for? You usually don't visit your in-laws without a reason." Duke Ignis said grudgingly that Leon came emptyhanded. 

"I need to use your forge, father-in-law." Leon smiled and pulled a package of spirit-grade herbal tea leaves he had prepared beforehand and passed it over.

"Use my forge? Do you know how to? Hmph! Don't you know how busy it is around here? I don't have time to let you fool around and don't think you can buy me over just because you brought some gifts…" The Duke said as he accepted the package and looked inside.

"Oh, these are some good stuff! Ha? What was that? You wanted to use the forge? Haha, you sure can. You can use the one I was just using just over there." The Duke pointed happily.

Leon was speechless.

The Duke was sure quick to switch stance when he saw the contents of the gift. Even flipping a page might not be faster than this.

"Right, how was the underground trip? Any amazing discovery?" The Duke added, recalling that Leon had just taken the package of tea leaves out of thin air and related it to the gains of the underground trip.

"Of course. There was some amazing knowledge left down there and the solution to our runic bottleneck is all here." Leon pointed to his one head with a grin. "But first, let me forge a few items then I'll teach father-in-law what they're used for."

"Hmm… alright." The Duke decided to patiently watch Leon forge and find out exactly what he learned. The boy did not look like he was joking. 

Duke Ignis was even prepared to give some guidance on the side, seeing Leon had taken an interest in forging.

Leon practically no longer cared about hiding the fact that he had an interspatial storage. Interspatial storage is only precious due to their extreme convenience and rarity, but once it has been mass-produced, its value will be diminished greatly. 

He was prepared to make interspatial storages common like it is in the Divine Realm. Would people still fight over something they can buy with money? He was the only person who could make it and he was on his home turf. There was little for him to worry about. 

Interspatial storages were indeed one of the few items he intended to forge and gift to the people around him, but it was not the first item he was intended to forge.

After a quick inspection of his soul core and found that it would still take another day for the merging process to be completed, he gave up thoughts of elemental manipulation and prepared to forge replicas of Ravenous Black manually with his father-in-law's assistance.

Ignis and Amelia had both reached a frightening level of perfection in their runic line drawing. The only thing they lacked was the tool to bring life to their runes. 

Once that condition was met, the people can expect to see more airships and many more wondrous creations in the future.