Chapter 869 869 Aezam’s Foremost Forge

Stepping off the carriage, Marcus looked up at the top of the building in front of them and saw several plumes of steam coming out.

Despite it already being late the forge was still going at full force.

Closing his eyes and honing his hearing Marcus could make out the clanging of metal coming from the inside and a nostalgic smile came over his face.

'It has been too long since I last paid Thabon a visit. When we get back I need to make sure to go and see him and tell him about what I have seen.' Marcus thought.

Once he opened his eyes he saw that a young looking woman was waiting for them.

However, it only took Marcus a single glance to realize that her appearance was not telling the full story.

After appraising the woman Marcus found that she was actually level sixty-five, and her age was eighty-seven.

Still, despite being closing in on a century old, she still looked to be in her twenties. A byproduct of having achieved a high level and being an evolved human.

"So, you are the ones that wanted to see my family's workshop." The woman said curtly.

Unlike the other people that had come to greet them on their tour around many of the shops in Aezam's capital, she was not acting polite by any stretch of the imagination.

While the other shops had welcomed them and acted completely subservient since they were guests of the Eazim Clan, it appeared that the owners of this forge did not care about kissing up to one of the six great clans.

Amira stopped dead in her tracks at such a remake and her head guard grimaced and likely would have retorted if not for the fact that the woman was stronger than him.

"Yeah, we are. Sorry that it is so late. This is our last stop for the day. We can come back tomorrow if it is too much of an inconvenience for us to come in now." Marcus said, not hesitating at all under the woman's glower.

"Hmph! If you cared about not inconveniencing us at all you would not have scheduled a sudden visit at this time of year. We got a lot of orders to fill before the festival." The woman said, agitation in her tone.

Hearing this Marcus realized now that it was likely that Akeem had twisted their arm to force this showing. The other places may have been happy to be making a connection with the Eazim Clan but clearly this forge was not.

However, before Marcus could say anything else the woman spoke up again.

"My uncle told me to turn you lot away if you were a bunch of spineless weaklings just looking around for the hell of it, even if you got the backing of that geezer from the Eazim Clan. But I can see that the two of you are strong. I bet you can appreciate fine craftsmanship when you see it. Name's Qadria, I will be the one showing you around. Now follow me and don't make any trouble."

After that Qadria turned around and began walking back into the building without waiting for Marcus and Mrazivý to introduce themselves.

"I suppose we should get going before she turns around and yells at us." Mrazivý said with a slight snicker, not perturbed by the situation at all.

This knocked Amira and her guards out of their stupor and they began moving as a group following behind Qadria.

"I am truly sorry for her behavior. I did not except that any shop in Aezam would be so rude to guest of the Eazim Clan." Amira whispered to Marcus and Mrazivý.

She was obviously afraid that they were going to be offended.

"No, it is fine. I should have realized that we would be bothering them by showing up all of a sudden. I got a bit ahead of myself, getting too excited to see a forge here in Aezam. I should have waited until after the Muharib Festival and had you give them more time in advance. We are the ones who have been rude." Marcus said, giving his opinion.

This calmed Amira down a bit as she had been afraid that Marcus would be mad, but apprehension still remained on her face.

"Now this is where we keep our finished items that are for sale. Feel free to look around but don't touch anything without permission." Qadria said.

Going over to the nearest weapon rack Marcus found that it had several types of polearms on it.

All of the blades were made of steel but all of the poles were made out of bones from some type of beast or monster.

'I would say it is an uncommon grade beast of a monster of an equivalent power.' Marcus thought, tapping on the poles.

The materials themselves were not of a high quality since they were pretty mundane, but the craftmanship was quite good. Marcus figured that these would be about the best weapons anyone could have before they learned how to channel mana.

Looking around Marcus saw that the front of the building mostly had steel weapons in it and he figured that the higher end pieces were probably further in the back.

'Yep, just as I thought.'

Going up a row Marcus found weapons that were made out of steel alloys that were better at conducting mana and bronze weapons that only had one or two simple enchantments on them.please visit

However, as Marcus continued looking around, he found a type of metal he had never seen before being used in numerous pieces.

Frankly when he had passed the section of enchanted bronze, he expected to fine mithril next but was instead met with something else.

'Hm, what kind of alloy is this.' Marcus thought, tapping on the blade.

He could tell it was quite sturdy and looked a bit like bronze but was a slightly lighter color and felt stronger.

Marcus was about to absentmindedly pick up the scimitar that's blade was made of the unfamiliar metal when Qadria saw him.

"Hey what did I say! Do not go touching anything without permission!"

She then rushed up to Marcus with a scowl on her face and started laying it into him.

"Sorry, I forgot myself for a bit. I have never seen this type of metal used before and it drew my interest. I happen to be a bit of a crafter myself." Marcus said.

"If you a forgemaster, how have you never even heard of titanium cooper? This alloy is more conductive than bronze and a hell of a lot sturdier. It doesn't quite match up to mithril, but it is a lot easier to get ahold of." Qadria said, an incredulous look on her face.

Yet, while it may have been common to work with an alloy of titanium and copper in Aezam, Marcus had never even heard Thabon mention it.

'I don't think there was very much titanium in Borealia to begin with. They must have more access to it here in Aezam.' Marcus thought.

Thanks to trade, dungeons, and miens in Borealia there was a steady supply of mithril which was likely another reason why this alloy was not used up north.

But when Marcus looked further down to where the mithril weapons were he could see that there were only a few and all of them were very securely locked behind a large case. Of course, there was no adamantine or amethros to be seen, but that was the same for the Blazegram Forge as well. Those weren't the kinds of items that got sold to the general public.

"Where I learned how to forge there is not much titanium in the area. I suppose that is why I never worked with this alloy. After bronze, it was straight to mithril." Marcus replied.

"I see, I never left Aezam before, so I do not know how it is done in other places." Qadria said.

With a curious expression she looked Marcus up and down and seemed to be thoroughly examining him.

She had realized earlier that he was strong just by his presence but now she was really appraising him.

"Here take this." Qadria said, tossing a hammer to Marcus.

With sharp reflexes he caught it and took the grip he normally would right before getting to work.

"Looks like you aren't no amateur after all." Qadria said, able to tell simply by the way Marcus held a hammer. "Follow me. You wanted to see the forge itself, right?"

Nodding his head, Marcus followed behind her.

Seeing this Mrazivý and Amira headed over as well and got in line behind Qadria.

"You are going to have to stay behind. Your guards are going to be too disruptive." Qadria said, whipping around and scowling at Amira.

Amira looked like she wanted to protest, but Marcus held up his hand, and said, "Amira, would you mind waiting for us here. We would not want to have you part with your guards."

"Very well." Amira said with a frown on her face.

After that was settled Marcus and Mrazivý continued following behind Qadria into the forge.

Immediately as the doors were opened a wave of heat blasted them into them and Mrazivý's face twisted into a grimace.

Quickly Marcus used his chill zone to lower the temperature around her and she let out a sigh of relief.

As they entered several workers looked over with curiosity and confusion on their faces. They had been told that visitors would be coming but it was not planned that they would be coming into the work area.

"Here, this is my station. I want to see what you can do." Qadria said, giving Marcus a forceful look.