Chapter 60 - A leader (1/2)

With the hunt starting tomorrow I decided to go visit a blacksmith. There were many blacksmiths in the city but there was a specific one that current students could use inside Avrion academy.

Second-year students were allowed to take their own gear out for hunting and I currently had two intermediate tier crystals. One was obtained from the system, so I didn't want to waste that one, but I still had another that was carved out from the fanged boar.

I entered through a pair of double doors into the blacksmith's room. It was bigger then I had imagined, there were rows and rows of weapons all hanged up on one side of the wall. On the other side were different sets of armour were out on display. I went and approached the counter at the end of the room.

Behind the counter was a skinny man wearing classes. I wasn't the type to go on stereotypes but he didn't quite fit the image. I then noticed that on the counter in front of him there were many different types of beast crystals displayed. There were many but none were higher than an advanced tier crystal.

”How can I help?” the man behind the counter asked.

”I was hoping you could make something from this for me.” I took out the fanged boar crystal and placed it on the counter.

”Well let's take a look shall we.” The man then proceeded to pull out a strange-looking object from underneath the counter. The object had a flat circular base with another circular base on top of it, similar to a lamp apart from the top part appearing hollow.

The man placed the crystal on the bottom base than the top part of the object started to glow and display some writing in the air.

”Oh, I didn't expect it to be an intermediate beast crystal. It says its form a fanged boar. It's best if we turn this into a chest piece armour. It will give you a decent amount of protection.”

I didn't realise that they were able to tell this much information from the crystals alone. Not every crystal looked exactly the same but the device the man had, seemed to tell him everything about the crystal. I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn't be able to get a weapon but a chest piece was still better than nothing.

”So how much will it cost?”

”With your student discount... 1000 should be fair.”

My eyeballs nearly fell out of my socket.

”1000, you don't mean a 100.”

”I'm sorry that's the best I can do. If you don't have the money you can always trade for it as well. A basic crystal is worth 100, and intermediate 1000. It cost the same to produce it into a weapon so basic tear is a 100 and intermediate 1000.” The man said with a smile.

If I didn't know any better I would have thought the man was cheating me, but I was at the academy and they wouldn't let something like that slide.

”I'm sorry I don't have the money right now, I'll have to come back later.”

I took the crystal back and decided I would have to come back at another time when I had the money.

*****

The next morning we had all woken up bright and early. We were told to meet at the south city gate by nine o'clock. I noticed that Gary still had bag's under his eyes. It seemed like he still wasn't getting good sleep for some reason.

We left as a group and arrived at the south gate. There were around two hundred students gathered at the gate. Standing at the front was someone who I hadn't seen for a while. It was squire master Lancy.

Next to Lancy were two other squire masters, one woman and the other a man. They had then split us up into three sperate groups, each group led by a Squier master. Unfortunately, Lancy was in charge of our group.

Each group had headed off into different directions. Our group was silent while listening in on what Lancy had to tell us.

”There are a total of three hunting grounds that are safe enough for you second years to hunt in. The forest, the foothills, and the swamp. There are several more areas where the magical beast breed but unless you wish to live a short life, I do not recommend going there. Today our group will travel to the forest. We will change hunting grounds in the coming weeks. This will allow you to fight a variety of different magical beasts.”

As we continued walking I noticed that the gear the students were wearing differed greatly. Some had intermediate beast tier equipment some basic tier. Many like me just had ordinary weapons and armour. Even in our group Slyvia had an intermediate shield on her back, Dan had a basic tier spear and Martha intermediate tier boots. While me Gary, Monk, Ian and Kyle just held Standard equipment.