Shane had already expected that there would be an additional condition if they were to purchase all three materials, so he was not surprised.
They were extremely rare and procuring them had probably taken several decades!
The reason for this was because both ores were extremely rare and their occurrences were small.
Furthermore, the location at which they could be found was a particular, high-ranked rift.
Those rifts were extremely dangerous with several Monarch ranked beasts roaming around too.
Meanwhile, the ore occurrences were protected by even stronger beasts. This means that acquiring a few kilograms of Yvaldranite and Affanyr ore was already a difficult task!
At the same time, acquiring Mayrod Soul wood might seem somewhat easier, but the beasts protecting the Mayrod Soul trees were strong too.
However, they didn't attack someone at a physical level but their opponent's mind and soul!
As such Shane was glad that the condition Haepha had stated was something so simple. In the past, her demands were extremely high, and most big clans or old ones did only reluctantly visit her to purchase something when they were truly desperate.
Looking at Jason, Shane could only say that it was his decision, whether or not he would tell Haepha his story.
After he had thought about it, Jason decided that Haepha had already found out most of his secrets, like him being a halfling from the Celestia race, that he had mana eyes or that he possessed an origin flame.
The latter was something she had found out when Jason had spoken to Shane, thus he thought that he might as well reveal everything if they received enough benefits from it.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Until now, Haepha had remained calm about everything she had heard and seen during the last few minutes, which told Jason that she was either thinking about something or that she didn't mind that he was not entirely from the human race.
In the end, this didn't matter because everything he had heard during the last few minutes pointed towards the fact that the soul weapon Shane wanted to forge him would be extremely powerful.
Yet, to create this powerful soul weapon, they required the three ingredients Shane had previously stated!
As such, Jason started to summarize his own story, without telling too much or too little information.
He didn't explicitly say that he had encountered his father or every detail about his mana eyes, but the sheer mass of uncommon things that had happened to Jason was already enough for Haepha to say.
"Are you sure that you're not an Old One?" There were too many things that had happened to Jason in such a short time, but if she were to be honest, the most shocking was Jason's current age, his soul world, and the fact that his combat prowess might be on par with a Grandmagus.
After she had heard everything Haepha took some time to digest everything, which included the fact that foreign races used body refining techniques, that there was an unimaginable high number of planets that were more advanced than Argos, and that their cultivation system was not a little bit wrong, but completely!
A few minutes had passed and Haepha had remained at the exact same position, before she turned around, moved to the counter, as she took out a peculiar spatial ring.
Inserting her mana into the spatial ring, large ore lumps in two different colors and a black-colored piece of wood landed on the counter as she said.
"Thanks for telling me your story, Jason…Shane, you'll cover the bill, right? You know that my payment is different from others, right?…"
Jason didn't listen to Haepha and instead stared at the ore lumps and the piece of wood.
Yvaldranite ore was black in color while the Affanyr ore was silverish in color with faint strands of the rainbow colors intertwined within
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})She smiled at Shane lightly before she showed him a number '10' which caused Shane to explain
"10...you want 10??"
Jason was not sure what that meant but when Dalia heard how Shane exclaimed, she had to say
"10 unconditional favors...are a lot…"
After he had heard Dalia, Jason began to understand that Haepha's payment would be unconditional favors, instead of star notes.
This was nothing surprising because the price for the three materials that stood on the counter should be extremely high if Jason didn't misunderstand everything.
"3 favors for each ore and 4 for the Mayrod soul wood!" Haepha said with a faint smile on her lips.
She knew how important those items were for Shane, and at the same time, she felt that Dalia and Jason wanted to obtain them too.
It was obvious because strong weapons were sometimes enough to let someone survive dangerous circumstances, which was even more important in the current times they would have to face.
In the end, it was not even sure if everyone survived the war which the foreign races and a few big clans had initiated, but that was also the reason Haepha wanted to make use of everything she could.
'She is a true businesswoman!' Jason thought inwardly, thinking that she didn't give her friends any discounts while knowing how important the three ingredients were to Shane and everyone else.
Suddenly he recalled how Haepha had said that the ores she had were enough for two attempts of a perfect refinement.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})As such he subconsciously blurted out.
"If I perfectly refine all the ores and we return what's not required, we shouldn't have to pay much, right? At least not if you're not confident to perfectly refine the Yvaldranite and Affanyr ore as you said!"
Shane hadn't thought that this was feasible because he didn't want Jason to exhaust himself too much during the purification process.
He would had to insert a thread of his soul during the entire purification process of the ores to receive the best outcome during the following process after all!
In the end, everything was slightly more difficult than Jason might expect and Shane was not sure whether or not this was a good deal.
However, Haepha nodded her head after she thought about Jason's words for a moment as she said with a faint smile
"If you return me perfectly purified ingots of the Yvaldranite and Affanyr ore, you won't have to pay anything, it's more likely that I'll have to pay up!"
Jason was glad to hear that as he thought 'They're just grade-3 ores...it will be fine...I hope!!'
**
Several hours flew by and Jason couldn't help but smile brightly as he looked at Solaris.
Both his and Solaris' stigmas were glowing brightly as the black flame spread through the first Yvaldranite.
After Shane had accepted the price for 10 unconditional favors if Jason were to be unable to perfectly purify all ores that were currently laid out in front of him, they had entered the basement of the antiquary shop.
One could see a large room with Haepha's smithy placed in the center, and even without his mana eyes activated, Jason could tell that Shane's smithy paled in comparison to Haepha's.
Only a short while later, they had already started to prepare everything necessary.
While Dalia left them to enter a different room in which she could take out her alchemy tools in order to concoct the most suitable and best inscription solution she was capable of concocting.
Inscribing the right runes into a soul weapon was even more important than doing the same with mana weapons.
In the end, a soul weapon was connected to one's soul and faulty runes inscribed on something that belonged to oneself as an entity was not something anyone wanted to face.
As such, the right inscription serum was the first step to do everything properly.
Emily left with Dalia and only Shane, Haepha and Jason remained.
However, Shane and Jason didn't even notice Haepha, who observed them keenly, because they were fully focused on their task at hand.
While Shane began with the reduction process of the ores, Jason would purify the reduced ores before he would shape them into bars.
After that was done, it would be Shane's task to create an alloy out of the two ingots, shape the weapon, and inscribe the runes that were able to take the forged weapon's highest potential into them.
Once that was done, he had to cool it down, take care of the weapon with different surface treatments and finish the whole forging process by sharpening the blade
Meanwhile, Jason had to supply all three ingredients, they used to forge the soul weapon with his soul imprint. At the same time, they should already be connected to him from the beginning.
This meant that Jason had to loosen a soul thread during the purification process in order to allow the purified ingot to become acquaintances with his soul imprint.
At the same time, Jason had already supplied the Mayrod Soul wood with his soul imprint and soul threat since they had started.
One could say that this was one of the most important steps. The handle that would be made out of the Mayrod Soul wood was to become his connection to the rest of the weapon.
As such it had to have the firmest connection with him!
In the end, several hours had already passed before Jason had even started with the purification process of the ores!
Shane's preparations and the fact that he wanted to reduce all ores before Jason started with the purification process took so long.
Meanwhile, the Mayrod Soul wood had already begun to glow faintly, indicating that the connection between it and Jason was about to be established.
If Jason were to pay attention to the Mayrod Soul wood closely, he would have been able to see the infinitesimal golden and silver threads within the faint glow.
However, his entire focus was on Solaris and the reduced Yvaldranite ore he had already purified halfway through!
In one way, it was not as difficult as Jason had expected it to be, but just when he thought about that, the soul imprint he had inserted into the Yvaldranite ore was rejected!!
It looked like the ore was alive and Jason's eyes widened when he inserted more mana into his mana eyes to figure out what was going on.
"Huh? What is that??"
