After hesitating for a bit, Rondo finally said, "Alright, I accept your condition."
I gave a nod before turning to Haley and saying, "Can you prepare a place for our competition?"
Haley gave a slow nod before suddenly pulling me away.
Rondo was surprised by this, but he could see the relationship between the two through their interaction. He wasn't that rude of a person that would interrupt a private matter between lovers.
After she pulled me to the side, she suddenly pushed me against the wall and reverse kabedoned me.
I just revealed a bitter smile and teased, "Isn't this too open of a place to do something like this?"
But Haley wasn't in a mood to joke around as she said, "Why did you do that? You should know what kind of craftsmen the dwarves are and you're challenging one to a forging duel? Are you crazy?"
I just said with a calm smile on my face, "I know what I'm doing."
When Haley saw this, she couldn't help calming down a bit.
She didn't know where he got this kind of confidence from, but whenever he showed this confident look, he would always give her some kind of surprise.
Perhaps this time it would be the same.
After a moment of silence, she finally said, "So…mithril…"
I gave a slow nod as I could already guess where this was going.
Her eyes slowly started to light up as she said, "If you get the rights to buy mithril, you'll need someone to help you transport it and everything, right?"
I revealed another bitter smile as I said, "Who else would I rely on if not you?"
Haley revealed a bright smile after hearing this before moving back and letting me up.
Mithril…
It was something that was abundant among the dwarves since they had the ability to find and develop these mines.
Humans on the other hand didn't have the same abilities and it had already been centuries since humans had been able to find a mithril mine.
As such, mithril had become a legendary ore in human society and anything made of mithril would sell for a high price. Even the ore itself would be sold for a very high price among humans.
So mithril was something that all merchants dreamed about.
It was the product of legends for merchants.
If Haley was able to get some, there was no doubt that it would be like opening a new world for her and her company.
But humans didn't have a chance to obtain mithril.
Mithril was hoarded by the dwarves who didn't think that humans were worthy of such treasures and only a few pieces would come from the dwarves each year.
So the right to buy mithril was a very big deal.
After settling this, we went back and Haley quickly brought us to separate waiting rooms.
Rondo complained about this the entire time, but when he saw the forge that was being prepared for him, he fell silent.
At the very least, he had to respect the humans for setting up a proper arena for them to duel in.
But before the duel could happen, I had another matter to address.
I said to Rondo, "I can't forge myself, so I will be directing someone to forge for me. Is that alright with you?"
Rondo looked at me with a shocked gaze when he heard this.
Then he looked at me as if he was trying to figure out if I was telling the truth or not.
When he saw that my expression didn't change, he couldn't help saying in an angry voice, "You don't even know how to forge and you're telling me that you're the one that created that magic weapon?"
I just gave a shrug and said, "Not for a single second did I say that I crafted this weapon. I merely found it in a special place and brought it out with me."
It wasn't just Rondo who knitted his brows when he heard this.
Even Haley couldn't help knitting her brows.
After all, there were things about Zwein that she didn't understand, especially those surprising things that he brought out.
She had asked Rose and Cecilia about this, but both of them had said, "I don't know."
They too were unaware of where Zwein was keeping all of these things.
It almost seemed like he pulled them out of thin air sometimes.
Rondo deeply knitted his brows when he heard this.
It wasn't that he didn't believe him since he could see Zwein's hands for himself.
Those hands were clearly not the hands of a blacksmith, so it should have been unlikely that he was the one that had crafted this magic weapon.
But then how did this human plan on beating him in a forging duel?
The more that he thought about this, the less that it made sense.
Finally Rondo said with a sigh, "Just do whatever you want."
He just gave up thinking about it since he couldn't understand what this human was thinking.
His father was right, humans really were strange beings that didn't make any sense at all.
I just gave a nod and then turned to Haley to say, "Can you get me your best blacksmith?"
Haley looked at me with a doubtful gaze, but she still gave a nod in the end.
Half an hour later, we were all gathered in the town square where the stage for the forging duel was placed.
There were two furnaces that were placed opposite each other with anvils in front of them. To the side, there were two identical sets of various blacksmithing tools that had been prepared.
With all of this, there was no excuse if either side lost.
Everything had been prepared, so the only thing that one could blame was their own lack of skill.
Beside one of the furnaces was Rondo.
Beside the other furnace was me and a large man with a fierce beard.
This was the blacksmith that Haley had found for me.