(Planet Tithia, The Forge District)
The air inside the Forge District was thick with smoke, heat, and the rhythmic clang of hammers striking metal, yet to Amanda it might as well have been a festival.
Her eyes sparkled with wonder, her voice brimming with excitement as she darted from one side of the bustling street to the other, tugging Leo's arm as though she might burst if she didn't share what she saw.
"Look, Leo! That's a mana-crucible stabilizer— oh my god, do you know how expensive those are? They're used to melt alloys that ordinary forges can't even scratch!"
she gushed, pointing at the massive, rune-etched cauldron glowing white-hot at its core.
Before Leo could answer, she spun the other way, her gaze landing on a rack of gleaming tools that shimmered faintly with mana. "And those are compression hammers! They can fold a metal's mana lattice without breaking it— do you realize how groundbreaking that is? I've only ever read about them in texts, and they actually have them here!"
Her voice bubbled with enthusiasm, carrying over the noise of the forge fires, as Leo couldn't help but smile faintly as he walked beside her, listening to her pour out her awe like a child seeing fireworks for the first time.
But while Amanda's attention was consumed by every machine and contraption they passed, Leo noticed something else.
Each blacksmith they walked by, regardless of how grimy or sweat-soaked they were, paused in their work to greet him.
Some wiped their foreheads with soot-stained hands before bowing deeply. Others straightened from their anvils to murmur words of respect.
"Congratulations on your victory, Lord Shadow Dragon."
"Thank you for Nemo, my lord."
"Welcome home, My Lord."
The respect in their eyes was unflinching, their reverence quiet but genuine, as Leo accepted it with a small nod each time, his stride never faltering.
Eventually, the duo reached the massive gates to Argo's private forge, which looked massive in comparison to the other forges surrounding it and emitted an incomparably stronger heat.
"Oh my god, that's flame from a tier-six flame spirit or higher. How did anyone even manage to tame something like that?
No wonder he's the Cult's best blacksmith—" Amanda whispered in awe as she and Leo stepped inside the forge, their very presence instantly disrupting the rhythm of the apprentices at work.
"My, my, what an unexpected honor to have you here, Lord Shadow Dragon."
Argo's booming voice carried across the hall the moment his eyes fell on Leo, as he set aside the massive hammer in his hand, and abandoned the half-finished project on his anvil without hesitation, to greet the Cult's Shadow Dragon with due respect.
"I can hardly believe you came here personally. You need only have summoned me, and I would have come to you."
He said, as he strode towards Leo, stopping only a few feet short.
"My Lord, thank you for what you achieved on Nemo. The Forge District has long suffered a deficit of high-quality mana stones... but thanks to your victory, that problem will soon be a thing of the past."
He said with a bow, as immediately, Leo returned the bow with equal depth, his tone measured but sincere.
"And thank you, Master Argo, for the mana shields you crafted for our jets. Without them, this victory would have been impossible."
Leo expressed, as the two men straightened and clasped hands firmly, the gesture carrying mutual respect.
"This is my girlfriend, Amanda," Leo introduced, his voice softening as he drew her forward.
"She's a blacksmith herself, and she's been working on a project that could use your expertise.
So, if you can spare a few minutes of your time today, we'd both be grateful."
Leo requested, as Argo raised an eyebrow and turned his gaze towards Amanda, who looked too slender in his opinion to be an expert blacksmith.
"I-I-" Amanda stammered, clearly intimidated by the gaze of the much senior blacksmith before her, as she retrieved her TV-sized mana heart from within her storage ring, and presented it without a word.
"This device... I can't get it to be any smaller... But Leo needs me to make it the size of an amulet..." She said sheepishly, as Argo picked up the mana heart device like it weighed nothing and began inspecting its engineering.
First, he turned the device over in his calloused hands, his thick brows furrowing as he traced the runic inscriptions, before then prying open a panel to study the inner lattice of filters, as immediately, his sharp eyes caught the glint of copper-iridium rods, aligned in a way that was anything but standard as his lips parted with surprise.
"Copper-iridium rods... as the filters? Ingenious. That alloy is usually too unstable for sustained mana exposure. Yet you've tempered it perfectly for purification. And this power core— why did you design it with a triple-split conduit instead of a singular one?"
Amanda blinked, startled by the directness of his question, but quickly steadied herself, her nerves dissolving into focus as she explained with clarity that belied her youthful face.
"Because a single conduit causes mana turbulence at higher volumes. By splitting it into three smaller streams, I reduced the pressure in each channel, which lowers the risk of crystal erosion.
The copper-iridium rods are unstable if forced to absorb all the turbulence at once... but if the flow is evenly divided, the instability cancels itself out. It's not perfect, but it stabilizes long enough to cleansed impure mana without breaking down the rods."
Argo's heavy jaw slackened as he stared at her, genuinely impressed. Slowly, he set the device down with a reverence most would give a relic, before looking from Amanda to Leo.
"My lord..." he said, his deep voice carrying a rare note of admiration, "your wife might be one of the best inventors of our time. Most of my apprentices couldn't come up with half the reasoning she just gave, let alone build this."
Amanda's cheeks turned crimson at his words, her hands fluttering nervously as she tried—and failed—to suppress a smile. "W-wife? Oh, we're not married yet..." she muttered under her breath, which only made Leo's lips curl into a proud smile.
He laid a hand gently on her head, ruffling her hair as if she were both brilliant and precious at once, before turning serious once more.
"So... can it be done?" He asked Argo with his usual business-like cadence, as Argo scratched at his soot-stained scalp first, before then thoughtfully tugging at his beard, his gaze never leaving the device.
"Give me a few days to study this problem, Lord Shadow Dragon. Your partner may stay here in the forge with me if she wishes, and together we will refine it. But this is no ordinary trinket—this is technology critical to the Cult's future if I'm not wrong, and for that reason, it cannot be worked on in the open.
Argo said, as even though Leo did not explain as to why he needed this device made, he still understood the strategic importance of its creation.
"I'll have to move this project into my private chambers and develop it in secret. Loose tongues could get us all in trouble if the wrong ears hear of it."
He said, as his words immediately caused the apprentices around them to suddenly become busy with what they were doing, and not pay attention to this conversation.
"Is it alright with you?" Leo asked Amanda, who nodded with burning resolve in her eyes.
"If it helps you sleep better, then yeah, I'll stay, I'll stay for as long as it takes." She reassured, as Leo gave both her and Argo a firm nod.
(More chapters in Buyers club for TMT)