"Uncle! Is that true? Thirty Gleam Swords?!" A young girl around fourteen years old asked her uncle in surprise.

The middle-aged man is currently eating his breakfast when this young girl popped out. 

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"T-that's right…" He answered as he gulped the bread in his mouth. 

"Thirty?! How are we going to complete that order? We still need to provide fifteen pairs of pauldron and bracers!"

The young girl has short black hair and tanned skin. She was still wearing her thick gloves and working clothes when she entered the house. 

Their small smithy was located just at the back of their house and her uncle was only taking a break as he was working since early in the morning. She heard the news from one of their clients asking for a repair. 

She was unaware of this until now and she didn't expect her uncle to accept more jobs considering that they were still unable to finish the first batch of orders. 

"It's just some gleam swords… We can probably make it…"

"Urgh… Even you're not sure. Is it really just two weeks order?" The young girl asked helplessly. Since her uncle already accepted it, they couldn't just refuse at this time. 

"Yes…" The middle-aged man then sighed before continuing.

"The order came from a baron… We have to do this…"

"A baron? Why would they make a request here?"

"Mhmm… It seems that they needed a total of five hundred Gleam Swords… We'll just be taking a small part… They are also paying almost double the price… So we can't really refuse without any acceptable reasons."

The girl understood what her uncle was trying to imply. If a generous request of a noble was rejected, it would affect his reputation to all the other nobles. Aside from that, if the baron didn't take it lightly, they might even decide to close their smithy through various means. 

"Urgh… If we work day and night, we might be able to complete the order…"

The girl said while massaging her shoulders. 

"Right?! We can do this! The money we will earn in this job will be used for your study next year…"

"Hah! I don't have to study! I will be a blacksmith! I'll just open my shop someday if you don't want me to inherit this place… Hehe…"

"Stella… You can't! I promised your father… I only allowed you to help me so we can easily save more money…"

"Sigh~ It's alright, uncle… I will decide for my future… I know that my father would want that as well…"

"You—" 

Her uncle couldn't find the right words to refute that so he only sighed in the end. 

"Let's finish the order first before we talk about your future… Let's go…"

The duo worked day and night before they managed to complete the fifteen pair of pauldrons and bracers… Unfortunately, this order came from the Merchant Association and they couldn't delay this order since the caravan that would take the swords would only stay in this village for a day.

"That took four days… We can now focus on the swords…" Stella's uncle muttered as he tried to calculate the time they had to spend working…

He looked at his niece and noticed that she was also very tired. Even if they have practiced Spiritual Energy, it wasn't enough to fill their mind's exhaustion during those days. 

Only ten days were left to complete the baron's order… This is going to be very difficult so he had to ask some helpers. However, it was not enough…

"Uncle… We are missing a few materials for the sword…"

"I'm sorry… It seems that there has been a massive order of Gleam Cores from the surrounding villages… I tried to hire some people to acquire them… But it's still not enough…"

"This is going to be a problem…" 

The Gleam Swords require a material called Gleam Core that can be extracted from a specific wild beast. This wild beast had to be around 3 years old to have the perfect core for the sword. 

Stella counted the Gleam Cores they have…

"We only have twenty-five… We're also not allowed to make mistakes…" She muttered worriedly…

The Gleam Sword can be barely called a magic weapon. At most, people would like to call it a Warrior's Sword…After all, it doesn't have various magical effects and it only has Penetration ability that would allow them to easily strike armored opponents. 

It was the best weapon to fight against humans instead of beasts. 

"I'll start working for now… Can you try to visit Venya in case he has some of these cores left…"

"Alright, I'll try…"

Stella answered even though she was still a bit sleepy. She only slept for about three hours but she felt the urgency to complete their job. She even felt a while ago that someone was observing her from afar… 

'I should probably get more rest after visiting the old man…'

She didn't change her clothes and only remove her dirty gloves before she went out. 

Venya is not a hunter, merchant, or arcanists… However, he is an old guard of this village and he likes to collect various cores as his hobby. 

Her uncle and the old guard had known each other for a long time as both of them grew in this village…

Whoozzzssh!

The man's house was located close to the river in the eastern part of the village. 

It didn't take long before she heard the gushing sound of water and saw the familiar house made of woods.

"Eh?"

She suddenly smells the scent of blood coming from the house's direction. It confused her for a moment before she suddenly stopped her footsteps… She doesn't feel right about the situation.

"Sir Venya! Are you alright?"

Stella shouted worriedly outside the house… However, no one answered her. 

She continued calling for him but even after waiting for a while, Venya didn't appear.

She looked around the place and noticed that his neighbors seem to be empty as well… 

"Tsk… I'm entering…"

She decided to break into the house to ensure the man's safety… If not for the smell of blood, she wouldn't dare to do this…

As soon as she entered the house through the window, she saw Venya on the floor bathing in his blood! The blood was still fresh so this must've happened recently.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

She then heard footsteps coming from one of the rooms within the house.