Chapter 372 - The Final Preparations

Due to Queen Tori's news, I already have an idea of what items to make and what kind of armor and weapons I have to make for everyone else. With the Monster Parade currently happening in the Frozen Desert of Sandurk, it is not a good thing for the current equipment of my companions. I have to make a specialized item that can help mitigate the situation.

Queen Tori and Queen Tanya decided to stay to relax in a new environment than Queen Tanya's castle which they are sick of staying already.

"Oh, Your Majesty Queen Tori, I have a request coming from my Master about the upcoming raid."

"Your Master?"

"Yes. Her name is Almira. She was requesting to be the Head Blacksmith at the upcoming raid after hearing that I will be participating in this."

"Pfffttt!" Queen Tanya spit out her drink the moment she heard the name "Almira".

"Queen Tanya? Are you alright? What happened? Why did you spit out your drink?" I hurriedly opened my inventory and pulled out a Clean Cloth to wipe the tea she spilled.

"Ah, thanks Bladeheart, but there's no need," Queen Tanya composed herself before snapping her fingers, causing the spilled tea on her dress and surroundings to disappear in thin air.

"Is everything okay sister?" Queen Tori frowned on Queen Tanya's behavior.

"Nothing... there is no problem at all."

"O-okay? What are you talking about earlier again, Bladeheart?"

"My master asked to be part of the raid as a head Blacksmith for the raid."

"Huh? But the head blacksmith..." before Queen Tori can say anything, Queen Tanya quickly accepted the request.

"She wanted to be the Head Blacksmith right? Then I accept that request of hers."

"Huh? Sis?! Why did you..." Queen Tori wanted to ask Queen Tanya but the latter shook her head and did not explain further.

I am quite sure that Queen Tanya knows something about Almira but I decided not to know what it was. If Queen Tanya is not even willing to say it to her sister, then it must mean it was a secret she cannot say.

With Queen Tanya's approval, Queen Tori has no other say to it and decided to just allow it. Since Almira's request is already granted, I left the two to enjoy the tea and snacks as I started to prepare for the final things we need for the raid.

...

...

While Manato is currently busy at the workshop, Queen Tanya and Queen Tori started talking about Almira.

"Why did you suddenly accepted Bladeheart's request even though we don't know if that Almira person is capable enough to be a Head Blacksmith? We can't just hand it to someone without knowing their full abilities! Being a head Blacksmith is a very hard work and it's not just something given out to random people without even sizing up their abilities!"

"No. If she does not qualify, no blacksmith qualifies to be a head blacksmith, my dear sister. If we declined that request, we are missing a bigger opportunity. Also, its better that you don't know much on who or what Almira is capable of. You are still not yet ready for her."

"This is the first time I have seen you this giddy, Sister. I don't know what is happening but you seemed strange right now..."

"Of course I will be. I am just excited meeting Almira and spar with her. "

Queen Tori is more confused than ever and she has no idea what is causing her sister to act like this. The only thing she knows is that there must be something more than what it seems on this individual named Almira that Bladeheart personally asked permission for to participate the upcoming raids. Perhaps she has to know until the actual time they will meet but until then, she can only speculate what is going on.

...

...

When my 100th bottle of Bottle of Petrification done, and the cooling of the armor I am making for Hagane is almost done, Queen Tori entered my workshop.

"I am sorry for intruding, Bladeheart. My sister is currently sleeping on the sofa in the living room so I decided to look at your work and maybe I can at least give you some advanced tips in making things."

"Much appreciated, Queen Tori."

Although I know much from the knowledge I have in the past timeline and all the teachings that Almira handed to me when she accepted me as her disciple, there is no harm getting some pointers on someone who commands multiple blacksmiths to craft items that can be used to repel and kill monsters that regularly appears in the Frozen Desert.

I started forging items and despite knowing a few of what she has already pointed out, she still had some valid points in her teachings that I could really use in my techniques. Some of her method makes things much easier and it allows her to finish faster in crafting without any kind of side effects like shorter time in crafting but lower durability or lower quality. Her methods allow to cut off quite a lot of time while maintaining the usual quality the item has which is pretty good.

With the help of some of her pointers, it allowed me to craft items faster than expected and it allowed me to breeze through on the job.

"Your master must be really good at her job for her to teach you most of the fundamentals of blacksmithing and how to keep your craft really elaborate, easu and high chance for you to create a higher quality items."

"Is that so? Is it that incredible already?" I tilted my head. After all, I have not seen other blacksmith craft things other than Almira and I picked up these habits from Almira herself. So perhaps, Almira was a really incredible blacksmith indeed. Perhaps because of this reason I find it normal to craft Rare and Very Rare items in a regular basis.

"Being a blacksmith is hard, Bladeheart, if you think it was that easy to create high quality items then you are wrong. Perhaps because your due to the regularity of Rare and Very Rare is too common in your methods, perhaps the Trash and Common rarity is much rarer to create using your own method."

I had no idea that Almira's methods are too different than what the conventional blacksmith does. After all, the only blacksmith that I have interacted all the time is none other than Almira and no one else. So hearing this from someone else is a bit of an eye opener to me.

After giving me some pointers, Queen Tori stopped giving me pointers since my methods are no longer in need of giving pointers, my method is good enough.

"It looks like we have stayed here far too long Bladeheart. We will be going home already. I apologize for barging in and crashing to your place like this, Bladeheart."

"No worries. You guys are welcome to visit here again anytime you guys wanted to come."

She smiled before she carried her sleeping sister. I handed her a teleport scroll that is currently connected to the Sandurk Continent and if used, will send them straight to Queen Tanya's castle. She thanked me before going home with her sister on her back.

Now that Queen Tanya and Queen Tori are no longer at home, I continue my preparation. With the new method of Queen Tori to increase the work done in a short amount of time, I decided to use the remaining time to increase my Blacksmith level and increase the quality of my equipment. With all of the items I purchased from the miners earlier, it was easy for me to procure different kinds of ores I needed.

"Let's get to work!"

However, before I can continue the very last things I needed for the preparation thing, my chat alerted me of an incoming call.  When I checked whose call this was, I didn't expect to see that it was a call from Harmless Sparrow herself. Harmless Sparrow has been quiet since the time I asked everyone to help for the quest but gives Harmless Sparrow an ultimatum on whether I needed to include her or not.

Due to her affiliation to her guild, I am unsure whether I wanted to let her join or not do it. But I didn't expect for her to be the one to contact me instead and it was this soon. Is she going to decline?

I decided to accept the call and was about to restrict her from going when I heard her speak.

"Bladeheart, can you help me?"

"Huh? What do you mean "help me?" I was confused.

"Help me escape from this situation Bladeheart... I needed someone who can help me with the matters regarding my guild."

I frowned a lot more and looked at her in confusion. Then, Harmless Sparrow continued.

"Help me escape on this guild, I wanted to quit this guild and join you guys."