"Looking for me?" Muttering out these words in slight confusion, Valyr went ahead and grabbed some of the cleaning supplies he had bought in preparation for the arduous task he was about to undertake. While doing so, he sent a response to the message Damian sent him.
"Why's Wells looking for me?"
After sending out his response, he placed the cleaning supplies he would be using to the side before heading to the living quarters, changing into a set of clothes he had worn a couple days ago while cleaning the storefront. By the time he had returned to the storefront once more to start cleaning, he had received a reply from Damian.
"He told me he has something important to tell you. Speaking of which, he also told me to ask you as to when you're returning to the village."
Since he had made up his mind earlier that he would stay in the city for a bit more to get the smithy fully up and running, as well as find out the aftermath alongside Tryndall regarding the Clossbay Killer incident, his response to Damian's message contained these thoughts, though he omitted the latter since he thought that it didn't have anything to do with the quest anymore.
"Well, if what Wells has to say to me is incredibly important, please tell him that he could head to Clossbay City and search for a place called the Crimson Forge." With this message being the end of the conversation between the two, Valyr went ahead and closed his screen, taking a look at the still dirty storefront as a bitter smile hung on his face.
"At the very least I now have more funds to get this smithy into a better condition." Repeating this thought over and over in his mind, Valyr took in a deep breath before proceeding to try and remove all of the dust and dirt that had built up in the storefront, making a mental note to routinely clean the living quarters along the way.
And with that, a week had inadvertently passed.
…
During the past week, Valyr spent most of his time cleaning the storefront in preparation for the smithy's eventual opening. Aside from that, he allocated part of the morning to communicating with the suppliers he had already talked with back then, informing them to start sending raw materials to the smithy according to a certain schedule.
Of course, he did not forget the sessions he had to teach at the combat training hall every few days, being pleasantly surprised every time he came to the combat training hall to find out that the number of people that were attending his sessions increased with every meeting. Naturally, Gabriel took note of that, increasing the pay Valyr got with each session.
As of late, Valyr now got 100 gold coins per session, almost thrice the original amount the two had agreed upon.
Naturally, with the number of people that attended his sessions, Valyr went ahead and advertised the eventual opening of his smithy, telling them to come to the smithy if they wanted quality weapons, wanted something to be repaired, or wanted something custom to be forged. Surprisingly, a great portion of them told him that they would come, even going so far as to ask the specific date as to when the smithy would open.
With that kind of motivation, Valyr headed back to the smithy with a light grin on his face, utilizing the energy he had gained from their words to swiftly clean the remaining areas of the smithy, with the storefront finally fully cleaned around the half week mark.
Around the half week, the materials he had requested from the suppliers had started coming to the smithy as well, prompting Valyr to let out a chuckle as he thought that it was great timing for the materials to come just as he had fully cleaned the storefront.
With a wide grin on his face, he thought about the items and equipment he would be forging in preparation for the smithy's opening, eventually coming face to face with the question of what would make his equipment stand out from the rest.
"Good thing I grabbed that Tier 1 Upgrade Alloy blueprint from the Blacksmith Guild back then." It did not take long for him to figure out the thing that would make his items out, deciding to use the perks of his class to the fullest, which was the fact that he could consistently craft items of higher rarity, as well as awaken all of the possible attributes his forged equipment could have.
"Speaking of which, I should accept a few missions from the Blacksmith Guild to start earning contribution points and redeeming them for blueprints. On second thought, I should head to the Blacksmith Guild. I still haven't received my Technology Points for the month."
With multiple thoughts swirling in his mind regarding what he had do, the remainder of the week was spent with him forging items and equipment for the opening of the smithy, allocating a day to head to the Blacksmith Guild for Technology Points, as well as completing a few missions for contribution points.
In fact, with the Technology Points he had gained from the guild, he was able to max out most of the Iron Age advancements on the Technology Tree's Innovation branch. On the other hand, with the contribution points, he was able to redeem a blueprint for each major weapon type.
…
"And with that, I declare the Crimson Forge… open!" Amidst the applause the people had given in response to his opening speech, Valyr went ahead and finally opened his smithy to the masses, inwardly surprised at the fact that there were more people who had come at opening day than he had initially thought.
'Word of mouth truly does wonders.' With a light smile on his face, he attended to the needs of the people that entered his smithy, with most of them being surprised by the fact that lowest rarity item they could find in his smithy was Common+ grade.
Surprisingly, this fact became the reason as to why many of those who came on the opening day bought an item, finally allowing Valyr to reap the benefits from his hard work as money finally started to flow into his pocket. Nevertheless, he kept this excitement of his to himself, continuing to tend to the customers' needs as some of them had him repair a few of his items.
"Well, well, well. It seems the Crimson Forge is booming." Just as he had finished writing down a customer's custom order, a familiar person appeared in front of Valyr, causing a light smile to appear on his face.
"I'm guessing you're here to make your custom order official?" Valyr let out a light chuckle as Arcenne nodded in response with a light smile.
"Well, there's that, but there's also the fact that I'm here to support a friend's business," said Arcenne soon after. "In any case, I already got the blueprints for the light armor set I want you to forge for me. I have no specific modifications to request whatsoever. Just try to make it the best light armor set I could ever have as possible."
"That's a tall order, don't you think?" Valyr joked, to which Arcenne laughed in response.
Though, just as Arcenne was going to send the blueprint for the light armor set to Valyr, out of nowhere, a loud voice boomed throughout the entire storefront of the Crimson Forge.
"Owner of the Crimson Forge…"
"Those from the Hekaetos Forging Emporium request a forging duel!"
