“But I don’t seem to know much about metal, so just pick a piece at random.” Isidor said, scratching his head.
"I recommend this one. It seems to be azurite ore. The toughness and hardness of this metal are excellent. The only drawback is that it is relatively heavy. But your strength attribute is not bad, so this should not be a problem for you." Iovia said while shivering, pointing to a grayish-white ore.
"Iowa has a good eye. Blue gold is an extremely rare metal. This piece of ore alone would cost at least several thousand gold coins. Moreover, it is out of stock, so you may not be able to buy it even if you want to." Esna nodded.
"Is it rarer than the Eastern Snow Lotus?" Isidor asked casually.
"Uh... May I ask what Dong Xuelian is?" Aisina asked puzzledly.
"Uh... well, it's not a question of what it is. It really is that kind of... that very rare snow lotus. Because it grows in the Land of the Rising Sun in the east, it is also called Eastern Snow Lotus." Isidor quickly made up a lie.
"Is that so? We'll see it for ourselves when we travel to the East - Hey, Bald Bird, take us down!" Esina picked up the blue gold ore and handed it to Isidor, then turned and shouted to the harpy.
"Can you exchange it for another one? I stole this one from the Goblin Kingdom all the way here. I was almost beaten to death by those goblins with slings for this stone." The harpy said with pain.
"What a coincidence! We want this ore to make weapons for the goblins. It can be said that 'take from me, give to me'." Aisina said with a smile.
The harpy wanted to fight again, but she saw Iovia playing with a black matte dagger and inadvertently cast a cold look at her.
The harpy's feathers tightened. "I'll take you down now. Please don't come here again."
"Send us to Rodria, and I'll promise you I won't come here again." Esna said with a smile.
"Ah? Why are there additional conditions... Aren't elves peace-loving?" said the harpy dissatisfiedly.
"Stop complaining. Aren't all the ore here stolen? Rodria is just north of the mountains. It won't take you much effort." said Esna.
“Hmph, I was just careless just now. If I had just flown up, you wouldn’t have been able to do anything to me.” said the harpy, flapping her wings.
"You can try. The distance between us is less than five meters. The moment you take off, I will definitely cut your throat." Iovia said coldly.
"Hahaha, what I mean is: I'll do as you say and fly you to Rodria, and you can't do anything to me, right?" After hearing Iovia's threat, the harpy quickly changed her tone and softened, calling her companions to fly with the three of them.
The small town of Loderia, located north of the Death Mountain Range, is an adventurer town that echoes Grimdor. Adventurers from the two towns jointly ensure the smooth flow of trade routes.
Compared to the rich southern continent, the northern continent is much poorer in terms of resources. Merchants alone cannot meet the adventurers' equipment needs, so the entire Loderia is basically self-sufficient. Blacksmith shops can be seen everywhere in the town. Due to fierce competition, many blacksmiths also work part-time as adventurers.
Manglan was one of them. He was a skilled craftsman who had traveled extensively in his early years and had learned a lot of skills. Logically, he should have no trouble finding a job. However, he had a bad temper, which was his excessive pursuit of forging technology.
Sometimes, when D-level adventurers asked him to make a sword suitable for novices and repeatedly reminded him that the budget was limited, he would insist on introducing them to various advanced materials and craftsmanship, and he would increase the budget of dozens of silver coins to thousands of silver coins. He was simply the reincarnation of the brother of the graphics card bar.
Because of these strange tempers, fewer and fewer adventurers were willing to ask him to forge their irons. His blacksmith shop could not continue, so he had to drag his old bones to make a living as an adventurer.
However, his luck was quite bad. As soon as he arrived at the foot of the mountain, he was targeted by a large group of orange-bearded monkeys.
The Orange-Bearded Ape is a monster that is unique to the northern slope of the Death Mountain Range. It is named after its orange beard. Although its individual combat power is not high, it always moves in groups, with a number of hundreds at a time, which makes many high-level adventurers dare not underestimate it.
Under the pursuit of the orange-bearded apes, Manglan got separated from his team members and was surrounded by the monkeys alone.
Manglan tried hard to kill a monkey, but he was also injured. The orange-bearded monkeys were not in a hurry to attack, but surrounded him in a circle, constantly consuming his physical strength. This slow death was more despairing than dying directly in battle.
"It's a pity that all my skills are going to be destroyed by these monkeys!" Manglan shouted in pain, supporting himself on the ground with a long-handled hammer.
As a craftsman who claimed to be a seeker of truth, what made him regret more than death was that he had spent his entire life without being able to use all his efforts to create a perfect weapon.
Just as he closed his eyes and waited for death, suddenly a strong wind blew up and a harpy fell from the sky.
When the monkeys saw the harpy, they screamed and ran away, because this huge bird of prey was their natural enemy.
Since the harpies can fly very high, the numerical advantage of the monkeys is completely useless. The skills they rely on, such as climbing trees and rocks, are also meaningless in front of opponents with flying abilities.
Therefore, the orange-bearded monkey was just a piece of walking meat to the harpies, so it was no wonder that they escaped so quickly.
Manglan opened his eyes and saw that all the monkeys had run away, replaced by a huge harpy standing in front of him.
Manglan knew that this was a more terrifying monster than the orange-bearded ape, but dying under the beak of the harpy was better than being teased to death by a group of monkeys!
Manglan thought so.
"Old man, is there a blacksmith in your town? I want to forge a new weapon." At this moment, a man with slightly green skin jumped off the back of the harpy.
Chapter 52: Forging a Sword and Picking Up the Dice Girl
Manglan was shocked. This kind of monster was known for its cunning and brutality. Because it could fly, even powerful adventurers could not do anything to it. Who was the man in front of him? How could he ride a harpy?
"If there's nothing else, I'll leave first." The harpy behind said cautiously.
"Go away." Isidor said without turning back.
After hearing this, the harpy felt as if she had been pardoned, and quickly flapped her wings and flew away.
"Don't be afraid, old man. My name is Isidor, and I'm also an adventurer." Isidor said, showing his iron tag that symbolized his identity as an adventurer to Manglan.
"D-level?" Manglan looked at the iron tag in surprise. He couldn't understand how a D-level adventurer could make the harpy willing to be his mount.
However, what surprised him even more was that the man was holding a piece of gray-white ore under his ribs. The texture of the metal seemed to be extremely rare gold!
After thinking it over, he finally came to one conclusion: this man must be an extremely powerful person who deliberately concealed his identity. And an extremely powerful person descended from the sky with a piece of top-grade ore and asked him to make a weapon by himself, isn't this a plot that only happens in dreams?
Thinking of this, Manglan couldn't help crying and laughing. Isidor thought he was frightened and insane, so he had no choice but to say, "Please stay here. I'll go to the town to find a blacksmith first."
Seeing that Isidor was about to leave, Manglan rushed forward and hugged Isidor's legs, staring fiercely at the ore in Isidor's hand: "No, no, no, I am the blacksmith! Let me make a weapon for you? What type of weapon do you want?"
"What a coincidence? Then take me to the workshop first and I'll show you the blueprint." Isidor said.
Manglan had just been saved by him, so why didn't he listen to him? So the two of them returned to the town together and came to Manglan's blacksmith shop which had closed down.
Actually, Isidor had come here with Esna and Iovia, but whenever Esna arrived at a place, she would rush straight to the library impatiently, so Isidor had to go to the blacksmith with the blueprint himself.
Manglan first showed Isidor his treasured works. In addition to learning footwork, Isidor also learned a lot about weapons from Esna. He looked at it carefully and knew that the old man's craftsmanship was indeed extraordinary. Each piece was made as exquisite as a work of art. It was just that the raw materials were too poor, so the final product was
"This is the blueprint. See if you can make it?" Isidor said, handing the book drawn by Esna to Manglan.
Manglan opened the booklet and flipped through a few pages, his expression gradually becoming solemn.
"The price is easy to negotiate. I'll have someone willing to pay for it. But the craftsmanship on the blueprint must be done to the best of my ability," said Isidor.
"It's not a matter of price. This blueprint... seems to involve a lot of ancient techniques that have been lost, so it's extremely difficult. But as long as you give me some time, I'm confident that I can restore it. It's just that the last step of quenching requires oil quenching, and it is specified in the blueprint that it must be done with oil refined by giant minotaurs. Even A-level adventurers may not be able to defeat that kind of monster, and there is no way to obtain its oil." Manglan explained.
"So this is so troublesome...Why didn't Esina tell you earlier?" Isidor muttered.
[The evil goblin has found new prey, and he is about to stretch out his claws to the prey! ]
At this moment, the system prompt sound suddenly came out.
"???" Isidor was stunned for a moment. He looked around and didn't find any trace of other people. It couldn't be that the old man in front of him was actually a beautiful woman in disguise, right?
[The evil goblin is looking around, searching for the location of his prey]
The system prompt sounded again. Isidor knew that something was wrong, so he stood up and looked around the blacksmith shop.
When Manglan saw Isidor wandering around, he thought he was upset because he found the giant minotaur's grease difficult to deal with. Little did he know that Isidor was going out looking for a girl?
In order to prevent Isidor from giving up the plan of forging the sword, he quickly suggested: "Of course, the process of the blueprint is not impossible to change. The fat of giant minotaurs is not easy to get, but the fat of ordinary minotaurs can still be obtained. There is an adventure group called 'Pure Love Warriors' in the town. The group is composed of adventurers whose relatives and friends have been hurt by minotaurs. They hunt minotaurs all year round. As long as you pay some money, you can buy the minotaur corpses to refine oil, but in this way, the quality of the finished product will probably be compromised."
"Well, pure love is good, and the minotaur must die." Isidor agreed vaguely, but his attention was focused on a strange object in the room.
The object was about the size of a fist, with many edges and corners, and a number was written on each face. Isidor counted them and found that there were 20 faces, and each face was a different color.
"Grandpa, what is this?" Isidor asked curiously.
"Oh, this is a handicraft from my collection, bought from a street stall. If you like it, take it. It's not worth much anyway." Manglan said nonchalantly.
Isidor felt intuitively that this thing was unusual, so he used his identification skill on it.
【Name: Twenty-sided dice】
[Race: Dice Girl]
[Attribute: unknown]
[Racial Skill: Lucky Throw]
【唤醒方法：依次投出点数2、3、5、7、11、13、17、19】
Isidor was stunned for a moment. The first entry in the identification result was not "name" but "name", which is information that usually appears when identifying living things.
And there are actually races and awakening methods below. Could it be that the dice in my hand is actually a living thing?
"Well, Mr. Isidor. If you like this thing, just take it. Let's get back to business: the minotaur's grease may require your intervention. Because the Pure Love Warrior Adventure Group I just mentioned is a group of ruthless avengers. If you want to negotiate with them, you must have some strength." Manglan continued.
"Old man, you just said that quenching is the last step in sword forging, right?" Isidor asked.
"good."
"So how long will the previous process take?" asked Isidor.
“It will take at least a month, but we will need some funds to hire assistants and buy fuel,” Manglan said.
"I'll give you three hundred gold coins. You start working on it. Within a month, I will get you some giant minotaur fat." Isidor said as he took out three bags of heavy gold coins from the package and handed them to Manglan along with the blue gold ore.
"This is too much! We don't need so much." Manglan said quickly.
"One hundred gold coins are your wages, and the rest are for various expenses. Use them well. I trust you." Isidor said generously.
In fact, the reason why he was so generous was not entirely because he trusted the blacksmith, but because he had the power of hypnosis. If he discovered that the old man had selfish motives, he could use hypnosis to make him reveal the truth.
"Okay! Since Mr. Isidor trusts an old man like me so much, I will definitely use the best method to forge this sword!" How could Manglan know what Isidor was thinking? Seeing that he trusted him so much, he couldn't help but be deeply moved. He secretly decided in his heart that he must devote all his talent and efforts to this sword, so as not to disappoint this mysterious young man in front of him.
"Well, just take your time with it. I just arrived in town and need to find a place to stay first." Isidor said as he picked up the twenty-sided dice and left the blacksmith shop.
Chapter 53: The Knights of the Helping Table
Isidor went to the town's inn specially prepared for adventurers and asked for a room. He put away his few carry-on luggage, then took out a twenty-sided dice and began to study it.
鉴定结果上说，要依次投出点数2、3、5、7、11、13、17、19，才能唤醒骰娘。但想要随机投出这些点数谈何容易？骰子足足有二十面之多，就算只投出第一个数字都没有那么容易。
Isidor tried to manually place the corresponding numbers in sequence, but the dice did not react. He then tried to gently drop the dice from a certain height, throwing out the sequence of numbers in sequence, but still got nothing.
"Cheating is not allowed? How can I do that with normal throws?" After fiddling with the dice for a while, Isidor helplessly threw the dice on the table, turned around and prepared to go out to find Esna.
However, at this moment, a mocking voice suddenly came from behind him: "? What a useless big brother, you clearly used cheating methods to get the startup strategy of this lady, but you can't start it. Trash~ Trash?~(*ノ` ▽｀) A mere goblin, do you still want to be my master? What a fantasy~"
Isidor looked back and saw a slender girl sitting on the table where the dice had been placed. She had no cloth on her body, only a dress made of the twenty surfaces of the dice, which barely covered a few important parts. Each surface was connected by a thin golden chain, which looked even more seductive than if she were not wearing anything.
"You know a lot, you guy. In that case, let me let you know whether I am qualified to be your master!" Isidor said, and took advantage of the moment when the Dice Lady blinked to flash in front of her and grabbed her.
The dice girl didn't expect him to act so quickly, and she quickly curled up and put herself back into the dice.
However, Isidor had already grabbed one of her arms, and most of the dice girl's body shrunk into the dice, but the part that Isidor grabbed could not retract.
"Let me go! You loser, trash, idiot!" Dice Girl tried desperately to pull her arm back, but how could she defeat Isidor in strength?
"No, it won't be able to close like this, and the Dice Girl will break! You have to take care of the Dice Girl, please let me go!" Seeing that she couldn't break free, the Dice Girl could only look at Isidor aggrievedly, hoping that he would let her go.
"No, I'm an evil goblin. Do you expect me to let go of such a sweet and delicious girl?" Isidor said with an evil smile.
"Wow, wow, wow, I just wanted to tease you, but I didn't expect to mess it up. Dice girl is not tasty at all, can you please let me go?" Dice girl said in a crying voice.
"It's okay, I'm not picky about food." Isidor said, trying to reach in with his other hand to pry open the shell of the dice girl, but because the gap was too small, he was unable to do so for a while, and it became a stalemate of the two sides fighting each other.
"Hmph, if you don't let go, Dice Lady will bite your hand until you starve to death! You trash~ you can't do anything to me, right? Lulululu~" Dice Lady seemed to have noticed this, and her attitude suddenly became arrogant, sticking out her pink little tongue and laughing at Isidor.
"Hmph, if I can't solve the problem of you, why don't you ask someone else for help? Wait until I pry you open and make you roll your eyes and call me daddy." Isidor said disdainfully.
"No! Don't hand me over to Esina! I will definitely repay you!" Unexpectedly, the usually arrogant Dice Girl suddenly shouted in horror when she heard Isidor's words.
"Eh? You know Esina?" Isidor asked curiously.
"I don't know, but I just know. Dice Lady knows everything in the world, but she can't know everything at the same time." Dice Lady replied.
"Stop being a riddle man. I can not take you to see Esna, but what can you give me?" Isidor asked.
"Dice Lady can tell you some information, some information that is very important to you but you are completely unaware of it." Dice Lady said.
"Compared to unknown gains, I still prefer tangible benefits." Isidor smiled evilly, and the strength in his hands gradually increased.
Isidor discovered that as the two sides reached a stalemate, Dice Girl's body began to tremble slightly, and it was obvious that her endurance was not very good.
"You guy! What do you want? Dice Girl is going to outsmart others. Your sudden insertion when people aren't paying attention is the most evil of all evils!" As expected, Dice Girl gradually began to lose her strength and slowly loosened her outer shell, spreading out into the shape of a slender girl again.
"Well, you scolded me well. If I don't do something evil, wouldn't it be in vain that I was scolded by you?" Isidor thought that since he still had to deal with the minotaur later, he might as well use this dice girl to increase the ghost beast value and teach this ignorant female ghost a lesson.
Thinking of this, Isidor threw away the last bit of hesitation in his heart. He smiled cruelly, placed the tops of the two tables diagonally to form a triangle, then tied up the Dice Girl and forced her to sit at the tip of the triangle with her legs spread apart.
The wooden corners of the table are not very hard and have a certain curvature, but they are still quite stimulating to the relatively soft flesh.
The dice girl's petite body made it impossible for her legs to touch the ground, and her entire body weight was pressed on the part that was in contact with the corner of the table. Even if she wanted to struggle, it would only intensify the stimulation.
"How's the effect of this Witch Happy Table? Are you sweating all over?" Isidor looked at the Dice Girl and said with a wicked smile.
"Tsk, that's it? That's it? I thought you could come up with something new. It's just a corner of the table, not even an appetizer. You might as well put your toothpick in. Maybe I can make you shiver." Dice Lady said disdainfully.
Although her expression and tone were still arrogant, Isidor could clearly see her legs trembling, and her body's reactions could not be faked.
