Chapter 41 (1/2)

Chapter 41: Starting Preparations

As the sun was setting, Loren was starting a fire in a furnace he found in a nearby blacksmith’s shop.

It was shaped like a pot, and although it was quite large, it wasn’t too hard for him to carry it back to the clinic. After he put coal inside, he pulled the lever on it, and hot flames shot out of the opening.

There was a spell that controlled the flames inside, so it was possible to control the intensity of the fire.

It was a magic tool that used the mana of the user through holding down the lever, and Lapis told him that it was quite an expensive tool, but Loren didn’t care about its price if it could do its job.

But it was indeed very useful, and Loren was thinking of taking it with him, as its fire controlling feature would make it a better version of a bonfire.

Anyways, when the fire started going, he held the crucible he found at the shop with a pair of tongs, put in the ingredients he found from nearby buildings, and held it over the furnace.

Since what he was doing would emit a lot of heat, if he wasn’t careful, it could start a fire, so he was doing this outside of the clinic, sitting on a chair.

“What are you doing?”

Lapis asked him while he was working.

Her curious gaze was focused on his hands, but Loren didn’t respond, but instead silently focused on his work.

The ingredients inside the crucible wouldn’t become anything just by roasting it over a fire.

He gripped the lever and pulled it up and down, letting air inside the furnace. The coals inside started burning furiously, and after increasing the fire using the magic spell, the fire became hot enough to start melting the ingredients inside the crucible.

“Loren, getting ignored is kind of sad, you know?”

Loren replied to Lapis, who was looking frustrated, without letting his eyes off his work.

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m trying to be a blacksmith here.”

“Huh, what are you trying to make?”

The city was silent during the day, but there was no telling what could come out at night.

Since there were undead popping up around the city, there was a high probability that something else like them might be around as well, so currently Klaus was destroying nearby buildings and making a barricade around the clinic with the rubble.

The reason Klaus was chosen for the job was mostly due to the power of his Gift, but Loren suspected that this was Lapis’ plan. In the case this became a problem later, all the responsibility would fall upon Klaus.

“It looks like our opponents are mostly undead, so you would need an appropriate weapon.”

“Are you saying the great sword isn’t going to be enough?”

Loren looked over at the great sword sitting next to him. Loren guessed that this great sword, pitch black from its grip all the way down to the end of the scabbard, wasn’t an ordinary great sword, but currently it was nothing but a black sword.

Well, judging from its enormous size and weight, most might not agree that the sword was normal at all, but from the viewpoint that it didn’t have any special features to it, it was in fact, normal.

“I want to take it easy if I can.”

Loren never thought of swinging around such a heavy weapon as difficult but doing so continuously will eventually tire him down.

So after thinking for a while, Loren reached a conclusion to make the things he needed in order to make things easier, which led him to what he was currently doing.

“I see. So, what are you making?”

“The cla.s.sic type of weapon when it comes to dealing with undead is silver, right?”

Near Loren was a cast for making thin plates.

Loren poured the contents of the crucible into the cast and after it became about the length of his palm, he hit it out of the cast, and picked it up with the tongs. He then set it onto the anvil he brought from the shop and hammered it to sharpen the edges, then cooled it off in the barrel of water at his feet.

A loud sizzling sound occurred along with the steam, and Loren turned and poured in more ingredients into the crucible and started melting it again.

“Silver weapons? But where did you find all that silver?”

Lapis rolled up her sleeves and took out the thing that Loren dropped into the barrel of water.

The blade-like object was in no way a masterpiece, but when she rubbed the black surface with her finger, a silver shine appeared from underneath.

“Well…it was something that needed to be done…”

As Loren gave her a vague answer, Lapis turned her gaze to the bag behind Loren, which seemed to have the ingredients, and opened it.

Inside were silver coins.

Different nations used a different amount of silver for the coins, and often were mixed with other metals if there weren’t enough silver, but it was indeed something that could be used as silver ingredients.

There was some jewelry in there too, but most of the things inside were silver coins. Lapis looked up and said to Loren with a serious look on her face.

“Isn’t destroying currency supposed to be a crime?”

“Hmm, was it?”

Even as Loren played dumb, his hands continued to move.

Crimes only become crimes when there is someone to regulate it, but in Hanza there was nothing of the sort, and nothing was stopping Loren from what he was doing.

“Anyways, where’s Shayna and Shutel?”

“I locked them up in different rooms.”

Locking them up didn’t seem like the most peaceful thing to do, so Loren guessed that she just meant that she locked the door, but Lapis then added.

“I barricaded their doors with chairs and tables, so they can’t come out even if they wanted to.”

“You actually confined them.”

“Don’t be so rude. Not being able to get outside means nothing can go inside. I nailed the windows down too, so it should be perfect.”

Loren returned his gaze back down to his hands and asked Lapis in a low, quiet voice.

“So, what did you notice?”

“Your question is so vague, I’m not sure how to respond.”

Loren sighed at Lapis’ calm response.