"W-wh-what are you saying?! This whole thing was a farce?!"

The young man looked at Andrew furiously as the boy laughed innocently.

"I did not ask you to come along, you know?"

"It's been four days of riding! Tell me sooner!"

Andrew waved his hand dismissively. "Not important, but if you want to do something cool you can join me!"

"I've already been doing all the work! I haven't seen you hunt game, set up camp, or anything in all this time!"

"My uncle ought to know what's going on better than most. Anyways, just deal with it a little longer, okay? I'll make you a pretty sword?"

"Why would I care about these forgeries?! They are nothing at all. Hell, they are next to worthless, you rotten brat."

Andrew snickered knowingly, "you say they're worthless. To you maybe, but what about everyone else? They are all unique and can probably sell for a decent price if auctioned off properly. The work of the Great Blacksmith X!"

"You little bloody tyrant," seethed the young man. "What do you think is so good about those bloody things?"

Andrew pulled out a rock from the ground. "Look closely," cautioned Andrew. "I can only do this with steel so don't get any ridiculous ideas."

The rock turned to form pristine steel before slowly reforming into a rough outline of a dagger. As more layers were added and folded, the dagger took a bulky design. However, it was traced with an impeccable mountain range atop it all.

The whole dagger was clearly meant to be mounted in a cabinet so Andrew formed another unique version to be added inversely. The scene was rather dull by itself, but the boy thought to add many other things.

"I can make a lot of these with next to nothing. All I ask is for a fifty percent cut and you to disguise yourself and hand around these things."

The sheets were openly shown to the guardsmen who chuckled heartily at the scene. However, he paled when he saw the central figure.

"You want me to d-defame the Chancellor?"

"Why not? No reason not to, right?" Laughed Andrew casually. "Just use the money to buy different cloaks... or... masks! We can wear relatively, non-suspicious masks!"

Andrew grabbed the loose soil and formed two masks. They were very light, but hard to see through the small slits. After some modification, Andrew formed a few sets of masks. They showed different races of demons with a steely visage.

The man sighed and tried on the mask. After a few modifications, he wore the mask like a glove and looked at Andrew. The boy took the one that was most similar to his old appearance and even added thin horns that peeked through the top of his cloak.

They curled up in a spiral like a ram's horns and soon all the masks were given similar appearances.

"Hey... uh, what's your name again, old man?"

The guardsman looked offended and he ripped off the mask he was trying on.

"I'm not old, you brat. I'll be sixteen this year!"

Andrew stepped back in surprise before he slowly approached once again. As the young man fumed, Andrew carefully looked over at his appearance. He had long brown locks that were tied back behind his head and a shadow of a beard growing on his face. His fierce green eyes glared at Andrew as the boy scoured over him in detail.

After seemingly ages, Andrew waved dismissively before his eyes glittered. "I know now! It'll be perfect! Actually, screw going to Uncle Lupis for now, I want to see if this'll work. Getting paultry travel funds means nothing! You do have to learn earth magic, though. Well, at least this one."

Andrew used a basic, unranked spell named 'Blade Dance'. It carried no purpose except to showcase various goods. Several shopkeepers even learned the spell merely to attract customers. However, its showy effect was perfect for Andrew's plan.

"Earth Minion, you'll be thus known from now on as Terra! Terra, Demon Lor- hmmm, that might be presumptuous. Wait, where are the demon kingdoms?"

"My name is Greg! Greg!" His sharp features brought forth his fury ten-fold. "And they are to the West of our Kingdom, Nineau. Vinas, Thurn, and Inteyum are typically more well-known kingdoms. Opposite of that is the Great Desert which may hold some scattered tribes of man, beast, and demon. North and South of us typically house humans, but they do mingle with the demons far more than we do."

"Understood, Terra. You will be thusly named until you can master this art and follow the Great Blacksmith X in his time-honoured tradition! Now recite after me!"

Terra, formerly known as Greg, was effectively forced into reciting the spell. Using Andrew's four daggers, they hovered for a moment before they fell to the ground.

Andrew scowled at Terra and shouted, "fine, rock bullet. Try that one, but don't progress too far, okay?"

Terra looked at Andrew irritably before a blank look appeared on his face. "What? What do you mean 'don't get too far'?"

"Bad habits are hard to break! Begin!"

After five rock bullets, Terra started to grow faint and listless.

"One more!"

"I can't," groaned Terra as he clutched his head. "I really, really can't."

"Hmm, maybe I'll find another business partner if you're too weak to do a single rock bullet spell."

"Too weak?!"

Terra roared loudly and completed the last one before promptly passing out.

Andrew grinned, "actually six, but who is counting?"

He laughed quietly to himself as he went into the forest. There was no skill in his steps as he casually waltzed into the forest. The moment he saw a deer he fired a rock bullet at it.

He thought to experiment a little with blood magic so he fired off a few successive round of blood bullets from the dead doe. They were similar to ice shards, but their durability was greatly reminiscent of iron when they solidified.

"I guess it isn't much of a surprise," muttered Andrew. "Well, no use in wasting the opportunity all the same."

His expression paled when he realised something. He was still a child. "There is no way I can carry something like this."

After several, long contemplative minutes, Andrew frowned before using his doppelganger to overtake the body. Walking on four legs was extremely strange and forced him to abandon his true body while he was suffering the five hundred meter walk.

With shaking, knocking knees, he felt his hoof brush against a vine before he fell flat on his snout. He cried out loudly and pumped himself up again before he set himself a slow gait. A half an hour later, he was finally able to saunter into the camp.

"Well," grunted Andrew. "Not going to do that agai-"

"What in the actual hell?!"

"Huh? Oh, Terra, you're up," Andrew smiled with both deer and human body as he tried to wave.

His original body stood, but the deer collapsed.

"Y-y-you're a monster..."

"Not really," chuckled Andrew. "Now more rock bullets! No vocalising the chant!"

"Monster!"

"Ahem, sorry that someone is too weak to even make one rock bullet," Andrew turned and kicked a nearby rock in an uninterested manner.

"What? No. Fine, I'll do it, you brat."

Meanwhile, the deer was crudely skinned and cleaned by Andrew who struggled to accomplish the relatively minor skill most inhabitants possessed. However, after two hours, he was finally content with just chopping off the legs and shoving steel rods through them to spit roast it above a magically produced fire.

"Still trying?"

"Don't eat with your mouth full, brat," growled Terra. "It isn't like I'm some pampered mage or anything."

"Pampered? Oh, because I can't skin a corpse? Well fair enough, you probably would have taken ages to kill it anyways."

"Huh? Hell no, I could down a deer in no time."

"Bah, I don't believe you," spoke Andrew as he turned his head. "Don't think you can even hit that tree."

"Wanna bet? You're on!"

'Silence,' thought Andrew.

Terra was shocked at the loss of his voice, but Andrew taunted, "awe, cat got your tongue? See, can't even hit a tinsy, tiny little tree."

He reapplied the hex and Terra's face grew scarlet. As his brow twitched and teeth clenched, Andrew noticed the earth merge together and form a small rock. It shot forward at a leisurely speed and bounced off the tree.

Andrew fell back and roared with exaggerated laughter and the hex continued to be applied. Furious, Terra continued to fire the rock bullet faster and faster. On the fourth shot, Terra was visibly exhausted, but Andrew's wordless taunts forced him to keep going. That night Terra fell unconscious eight times due to the incessant taunts from a boy half his age.