She raised the blade towards my face and held it with both hands. She then pushed it towards my chest. Still red. I looked at the blade. Took a deep breath to say something to get out of this mess but before I managed to say something she talked. "What is your name?"

"Ash."

"T-Take this blade. This is the best blade I made." She pushed it further. "Here." I took it slowly and looked at her. She beamed at me, then hugged me. She then kissed me on the lips deeply. She parted after a while, licked her lips and said "That's a gift from me. You can come any time you want and we can do.. You know." I looked at Sophie who shrugged. I gave her the knife then started to undress. When I took out my underwear I heard a gasp.

Before continuing I asked. "What is your name?"

She answered without looking away from my son. "I am Charlyn." She swallowed her drool. Then started to undress herself. Her body, while not as good as Emerald's was still a sight to behold. She has tanned and muscular body. After looking her naked body, for the first time, I looked at her face carefully. While she wasn't very pretty, she wasn't ugly either. She had dark hair and brown eyes, pretty normal. What importance does it make you ask? Nothing. She is breathing, young and woman. Meaning she is in my hit list.

She looked at me expectantly. Waiting for me to do something. I went around her then pushed her, gently, to the door. After her back pressed to the door I got between her legs and started to lick her crotch. The moment I touch there she shook a bit and gasped. After a while she was very wet between her legs and my face was drenched with her fluids. 'You hold it in too much, dear. Let me relieve you. Ehehehehe.' Then I told her to sit down. 'Damn height difference.' And started doing customary dance. Though of course, I danced conservatively. After only a short while she started screaming my name and then there was only silence.

I looked at Sophie with the hope to find her naked too but that didn't happen. She was still intently inspecting the knives, very much clothed. I sighed. “Charlyn, lets go take a bath. You have a bath here right?” She nodded and shakily stood up, white dripping between her legs. What I saw excited me but I held myself from acting. 'She might pass out. Then I would have to wait for her. Emerald would definitely worry about me then. Might even try to search for me.' We then went to the bath. Charlyn opened the faucet and sat down. I followed her and take the responsibility for what I did earlier. I made sure she was clean in, and out. After the bath, I let her lead me to her bedroom, I told her to lie down on the bed and she did. Then I started the massage session.

When we were out of Charlyn's shop I asked Sophie. “Did you look at the knife?”

“Yes. Its worth is a million Beli.” She gave the blade to me.

“Woa, that's some quality knife. I looked at the knife but for the life of me I couldn't see whats so great about. “This should go to Merideth.” Sophie nodded thoughtfully and we made our way for our next stop. After that, we went to a few more blacksmiths but sadly, they were at best mediocre. Weapons of most were of a lesser quality then mine. So I didn't give them much importance.

After the last blacksmith, just when we were about to turn back home, I heard a voice. A rhythmic clang sound to be precise. I quickly made my way there. It was an old building. It didn't seem like anyone lives in it either. Feeling curious I made my way in. There a masked person was working on a sword. I looked carefully and saw that they were in fact reforging the sword they were holding.'Competition?' I watched like that for a while feeling Focus activate.

“What are you doing here?”

I looked away from the forge and to the masked person. “I was watching you forge. I am a blacksmith myself and was looking to see other blacksmiths around here. I checked out every blacksmith and while I was returning to my house I heard you. So came and watched you forge. I think you are great with the hammer by the way. 'Let them be a hot woman. Please.'

She looked at me a while, then put her hammer down. “You are the new tenant of the old forge. You must have accepted the quest to reforge the sword, so what are you doing here, rather then working on it, hm?”

'Yes she is a woman with a sexy voice. This day gets better and better.' I am on a break. I will continue working on it after I get back.

“So it was true. Your master gave the job to you. Come here then.” She held a broken sword towards me. “Reforge this so I can see how hard you are working.”

I put my hand on my chin. “What will I gain from doing this?”

She nodded to herself. “I have a lot of experience reforging. If you show a satisfactory result I will show your mistakes to you which should help with your quest.”

“Okay.” I said and took the broken sword from her then started working on it.

“Let me look at the sword.” I passed her the thong. She took it from me and looked at the blade closer. She nodded again.

“You were great, your handling of the hammer was very good too and somehow, it ended up with better quality then before. But, you made a few rookie mistakes. Here let me tell you what you did wrong.” Then she proceeded explain my mistakes.

After about an hour she finished. I felt like my head is ready to burst and I have 27 Int. Though this wasn't without merits. Far from it. I learned lots of useful things in just an hour about reforging. More then I gained in this month.

She looked at me intently and I looked back. She then looked Sophie who was forgotten by me. She pointed her with her chin and said “Who is she? She didn't say anything since she came in with you.”

“She is my friend. She is an aspiring merchant. So while I go around meeting merchants she came with me to look their works and evaluate them.”

She nodded absentmindedly and after a short while asked. “Are you two, you know, dating?” She looked at me. Since I can't see her face, I had no idea what to make of her question.

I answered honestly. “We are not dating but we are together. Like marriage, but unofficial.”

She nodded again and ran her hand on her hair. She had light brown hair. They were really beautiful though unlike Sora's hair, it had a natural beauty. She noticed I was looking and turned her head to look at the side, giving me ample room to look at her hair. I looked a little then made my move. “My name is Ash. What is yours?”

“My name is not important. You should go, its near to dusk. You wouldn't want to walk the streets at night with a beautiful girl.”

I nodded. “Will you be here? I would like to come and watch you time to time.”

She shook her head. “I don't think so. For now, you should just focus on your quest. You might be good but you are not good enough to try, not yet.”

“Did you take the qu-” I was about to ask but she stopped me with a gesture.

“You should go.” I nodded reluctantly and took Sophie's hand. Then made my way to home.

The second we got out of the building, alarms started wringing in my head. I held Sophie's hand firmer and increased our walking speed. After a minute we were running. Right when we were about to reach forge, a group of ten people cut our way. They all had nets in hand. There was no doubt about their intentions. I looked at the back and there too were people with nets. I sighed. I looked around and found a relatively short wall. I gestured Sophie to follow me and we made our way over it. We were a few meters away from home when lots of people with nets came in sight. 'Must be other ambushers.'

I leaned towards Sophie. “Sophie, I will give you an opening. Get inside forge and get help quickly.” She nodded seriously. I nodded back and ran forward. Sophie following behind me. When we get closer to the man on the front they started throwing nets to us. We dodged the most of them. I got face to face with one of the man, I suddenly sped up and punched him in the face with a laud crack. Then turned to one side and threw a punch there too but he dodged. I then put myself between a wall and the man. While the man getting closer to me Sophie run forward towards the forge. When she got out of sight, I gave the breath I was holding and focused on the opponent ahead.

While I listened to the gossip I heard about a conspiracy. It seems like there was a secret that could shake all kingdom though don't know why. It seems royalty was making moves to rectify that but they have failed every time. That gave the conspirators more courage. They also talked about kidnapping some people but they only said blacksmith but nothing else. Thinking that might be Ash, I made my way to the home as fast as I can.

When I arrived to the home, Emerald were forging something again. I went to Sora. Mary was there too. When I told them what might happen they froze. Then Sora took her sword and run towards the stairs. We followed. When we got out it was dark and there were lots of people with nets, converging at a point. Sora turned towards their target and did something that made her very fast. Every person came in front of her fell to the ground, lifeless.

She then did something else to push them out. Then I managed to see the person there. It was Sophie. She was running towards us. When she reached us she held my arm and screamed. “They took Ash!” It felt like a punch. I looked at Sora's form fighting with that many people and doesn't even sweat. If she were to be with him.. Shaking my head I ran, passed by the people and found a group of people carrying a sack, it was trying to move and make things harder for the people carrying it. That was the biggest reason I managed to catch up to them.

When I reached them I had two choices. First attack them and save Ash. Second, follow them to their base, then save Ash. Second option was very tempting but using Ash as a bait was something I couldn't do. Still, I followed them until they reached a building. Then attacked them from behind. After I am done with them, they didn't even have a clue what hit them. I freed Ash who seemed tired and battered and helped him stand. When I acted to help him walk, he shook his head then motioned me to get in building before getting in himself. When we are inside we saw lots of people. Even more then the ones surrounded the forge. They seemed to doing different tasks. Some going around with papers, showing them to others. Some were carrying other things.

There were cages. Inside were people. I heard Ash whisper 'Slavers.' and nodded to that. These people were, without a doubt, slavers and they were too much for just the two of us. I turned to Ash. “Their numbers are too much for us to deal. We should go back to get help from others.”

He shook his head. “If they find out we were here they will just relocate. Though I don't know how fast they can do that we shouldn't risk it.” He pointed at a circle of people. “Do you think you can go and listen to them without being found out?”

'Can I?' I looked at Ash carefully and saw Haki's range. It was like an intangible cloud. “If I can stay out of their Haki's range while eavesdropping I should be able to manage that.”

Ash nodded. Then pointed to the bodies on the ground. “I will clean this place up. It should buy us some time. Good luck” he said and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. I breathed out once and made my way towards the stairs which was the only way to reach them.

I walked slowly and carefully, all the while keeping my eyes open for any person with Haki. The power Ash gave me worked so well today that I was glad. Anyone without Haki acts like they don't see me at all. That's how I manage to hide in plain sight. I passed by just another person. I was so confident in my ability that I nearly failed to stop myself from talking to a few people. After a minute I was as close as I can get to the group of people. Some of them had Haki and one among them has a greater Haki then Emerald's. So I stayed at the back and activated listening skill.

“If they can forge it our plan will fail.”

“Yes. We can't let them forge it no matter what!”

'It seems they just finished what a luck.' I turned around and made my way to Ash as fast as possible though I did looked at the leaders faces enough that I was sure I can draw them. After another minute I was beside Ash, walking towards the forge.