"Mind explaining why he hates you?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well..."
"That's nothing for your ears, young Stacy," Steve said, interrupting, still glaring at Kayda.
"Hmm," Kayda hummed, shrugging at me.
"Now come, young Stacy, tell me a little about why you are here. Let's go to my office. And you go away." Steve said, shooing Kayda way out of his shop.
"Alright, alright, see you later, Kitsu," Kayda said, kissing me before leaving.
"I know you two have bad blood, but is it really needed to throw her out like that?" I said, not very satisfied with how he handled Kayda.
"That is between the two of us, not you, Little Stacy." The dwarf said, making no room for discussions.
"Sigh, whatever, having you help me is better than trying to fix some relationship," I said, sighing in defeat.
"Now come, let's go talk in my workshop," Steve said, walking into the back of his shop.
"Not office?"
"No." The man said, continuing his walk to the back.
"right." I hummed, nodding to the disappointed clerk following Steve.
"Come in. We don't have that much time." Steve said, hastening me into the workshop.
"So, how much did my mother say about all this?" I asked, looking around the workshop at all the tools and metal lying around.
"You want to make good weapons with ice. That was about it." Steve said, shrugging.
"Well, I do want to make good, proper weapons with my ice."
"Hmm, your mom brought me this," Steve said, picking up the stuff I made and used against the devil child a week ago.
"Oh, that thing? Mom brought it with her. I thought it broke already."
"She told me you were able to throw a level 700 devil child around like nothing with this," Steve said, inspecting with narrowed eyes.
"Uh, well, yes," I said a bit awkwardly.
"But you were pouring mana into it the whole time, keeping it sturdy, weren't you?" Steve said, narrowing his eye at me this time.
"Yes, if I didn't, it would have broken in a single hit," I explained, rubbing my hand awkwardly.
"Yeah, no shit," Steve said, pressing down on the staff, shattering it into billions of pieces.
"That looked too easy," I said, annoyed.
"It was easy," Steve scoffed.
"haha."
"Make a sword," Steve ordered, looking at me with crossed arms.
"Okay," I said, nodding and making a broadsword in my hands.
"Sigh, you want to learn from me how to make weapons, right?" Steve said, sighing downwards.
"Yeah, I thought that was obvious," I said, tilting my head at him.
"It is obvious, but I am still a bit confused about why you want to learn from a blacksmith specifically," Steve said, rubbing his face in annoyance.
"Why is it confusing? You're a smith king." I said, getting agitated at his behavior.
"You are making it out of magic, girl, not metal," Steve said, pointing at my sword in hand and the metal on the ground.
"Well, can't I replace the metal with ice? I don't really see the difference between the two." I said, tapping the sword in my hand with my fingers, making a metallic sound.
"Well, there is a big difference between the two, but also isn't," Steve said, narrowing his eyes at the sword again.
"Can we not do riddles, please?"
"Sigh, there is a big difference between Solid Mana and Metal Girl," Steve said, looking at me.
"..."
"Creating a weapon out of mana is ten times harder than forging it," Steve said, getting blunter.
"Ah, so it wouldn't have helped. Damn, I thought this might help." I said, disappointed.
"Woah, I didn't say I can't help you improve your weapons."
"But..."
"It's just your original thoughts were wrong. But I do have an idea about something I can teach you." Steve explained, looking me up and down, looking like he was trying to calculate something.
"Oh, let us hear it then," I said, smiling again.
"Ah, before that, give me that sword."
"Okay?"
"Ah, like I thought, you do really make it flexible," Steve said, bending the sword a bit.
"Well, it helped make it not break that easily."
"Yeah? You dumb girl." Steve said, looking at me like I was dumb.
"Sigh, no need to be that blunt, old man," I said, embarrassed.
"You made ice flexible? Why ice is hard, and the harder it gets, the better, but we will fix that later. Now here, take your shitty sword and slide this apart." Steve explained it through a block of adamite in front of me.
"There is no way I will be able to cut through adamite with this," I said, pointing at my sword.
"Of course not with a weapon like that."
"So what now?"
"I said cut it even if you know it will break. I want to check something." Steve ordered, pointing at the block of adamite.
"Okay?" I said to bring the sword down with everything I had, and as expected, it chattered.
"Hmm, like I thought, not even a dent," Steve said calmly.
"So what now?. You going to show me something that can cut through that then?" I said, annoyed.
"Yes." He said, creating a blade with raw mana in his hand. He cut through the block of adamite like it was butter.
"What!?" I exclaimed, surprised.
"I am a forged king for a reason, girl," Steve said, boasting a bit.
"I see. So when you forge, you use mana to make the basic form of the sword, then add the metal afterwards." I said, looking at the pure mana in his hand.
"You really catch on quickly. That's how we do it, adding the metal to it, making the sword. But this kind of forging is rare and very hard to do. Even as a forged king, I struggle to do that constantly." Steve said, sighing, lasting the mana to dissipate.
"Were the weapons you gave me all those years ago like this?" I asked, remembering that I had broken all of them by now.
"Oh hell no, that many would bankrupt this country, not to mention kill me. These swords are called demigod swords for a reason. I can only make a weapon like this once a year, which is my limit." Steve said, shaking his head.
"Oh, I see. Is it possible for me to do this with my magic, though?"
"I don't know, but I also think it will work."
"Oh, so you showed me this to test me, did you?"
"Hahaha, yes, just think about it. A person like you can create these weapons. You are, after all, the first-ever weapon sage. I don't think it's impossible for you." Steve said, grinning madly.
"Haha, okay, I get it. Then I will buy 10 blocks of adamite for now," I said, smiling back.
"I will get that right for you. Oh, and do remember the first stage is only to use raw mana. Don't go and add an element to it. Using only raw mana will make the process easier later on. Steve explained while looking for adamite blocks.
"Alright. How about we consider making a deal?
"A deal?" Steve said, raising an eyebrow at me.
"Yes, I know how you made that mana weapon, but I am back to knowing nothing after that. How about if I could make a mana weapon and cut through 1 block of adamite, you make me your assistant for making the next demigod sword? So I could see the entire process." I said, grinning at him.
"That making one demigod sword will take a whole month, you know," Steve said, narrowing his eyes.
"So? I need to learn somehow. I don't care about doing some grunt work for a month or two if I could pop out a demigod sword every second. It will all be worth it."
"You, you're going to make it like that!?" Steve said, surprised.
"Of course, as a primordial and a weapon sage, I do have to have something overpowered, don't I?" I said with a manic grin on my face.
"Whahahahaha, you have two weeks."
"Agree!"
"It's a deal; you better keep at it, missy." The forge king laughed, mimicking my manic grin.
"Before I go, show me your mana weapon again. I need to inspect it."
"Fine with me," Steve said, creating another mana sword.
"Hmm, so it's like that. Damn, I have to go back to Kayda training then." I said, humming.
"Good luck, missy. Get the rest of the adamite blocks at the front. I will see you in two weeks then." Steve said this as he turned around and returned to his forge to work, not noticing that I was leaving.
"I will be back. Thank you, old man," I said, thanking him before leaving.
[15 minutes later]
"You are already back. It hasn't even been an hour?" Mom said, confused, seeing me walking into the mansion's main door.
"Oh hey, Mom, are you already going?"
"No, not yet. What is that?" Mom said, shaking her head before noticing something in my hand.
"Ah, this is an adamite block." I said, holding up one adamite block in my hand.
"Why do you have that and carry it?"
"To cut it, of course," I said, grinning at seeing her confused face.
"Mind explaining?"
"Nope, you will have to wait until the tournament."
"Hmm, okay, if you can create demigod weapons by then, I will give you a present," Mom said, holding out her arms.
"Hehe, of course, you knew. Okay, it's a deal." I said, hugging her.
"Okay, see you later then."
"Okay," I said, going outside to the training ground.