One-Eyed Monster

Whoosh—

Igor watched the scruffy uncle toss charcoal into the forge. The scattered flames inside instantly began to leap, like fish seeing fresh bait, jumping upward again and again.

Just adding charcoal wasn’t enough. To make the fire roar, you couldn’t do without the bellows beside it. The blacksmith’s standard trio was forge, bellows, and anvil, and even in a place this small, all three were present.

Whoosh—huff—whoosh, the bellows began to work in rhythm under the scruffy uncle’s hands. In no time, the jumping flames turned wild, like a lion opening its Gaping Mouth, wanting to Devour everything.

The chunk of Red Iron in the scruffy uncle’s hand was burning in the forge, ravaged by the flames. The crackling and popping was a kind of Integration; before long, the reddened-with-a-hint-of-white iron block was clamped out in one smooth motion with his tongs.

With one hand he held the tongs, with the other he swung the heavy hammer. Bang bang, clang clang, he started striking on the anvil.

The whole process flowed in one breath; the scruffy uncle didn’t pause for even a moment. The forge’s heat had him sweating like rain, and the way he switched back and forth between the sledgehammer and the small hammer left Igor dumbfounded.

This forging process had Igor’s jaw hanging wide open. The speed was just too fast, and the level of skill—this wasn’t something an ordinary master could compare to. Igor had seen forging before, but one person handling so many steps alone was still amazing!

The scene was like a musician playing a beautiful piece of music. The chiming clangs made Igor feel as if he’d stepped into a wondrous realm.

By the time Igor fully came back to his senses, a long sizzling hiss rang out as white steam spread through the whole smithy. Clearly, the item being forged had already taken shape.

But there were still sparks dancing in Igor’s eyes…

Just now, with the heavy hammer pounding and the small hammer tapping, that glowing red iron block had turned into a thin, long strip in an instant. After more heating and hammering, the thin strip became even flatter and finer.

The scruffy uncle casually picked up the blueprint and gave it another glance, then there was another round of clanging. After that he directly plunged the glowing, bright-red, round, slightly ball-shaped object into the water.

”Alright, it’s done.” The scruffy uncle picked up a rag, wiped the sweat off his body, then sat to the side, lit a pipe, and started smoking.

”Master, this, this…” Igor was clearly awed by the scruffy uncle’s skill, and for a long time he didn’t know what to say.

”My name is Lao. Don’t keep calling me ’Master, Master’ all the time.”

”Uh, Master Lao…” Igor was a bit at a loss for a moment.

”So what exactly are you making this Mask Hoop for?” Master Lao couldn’t help asking again.

”Well…” Igor didn’t know if he should be honest.

”Oh, heh heh hahahaha, I shouldn’t pry. Look at me, why do I have to ask so much?” Master Lao said at once. Seeing that Igor had his own difficulties, he hurried to correct himself.

”Uh, it’s like this. I have a friend whose appearance is very unusual, so we need a mask to cover it…” Igor suddenly told the truth. His instinct told him that Master Lao wasn’t a swindler; after all, this was A Rang’s master, he couldn’t be that bad.

”Just for that?” Master Lao was clearly stunned.

”W-why, is what I’m doing wrong?” Igor was also stunned by Master Lao’s reaction.

”I just think there’s no need anymore.” Master Lao said honestly.

”Why? A strange face will scare people. They’ll reject him.” Igor voiced the doubt in his heart.

”But these days there are strange-looking people everywhere.” Master Lao said.

”What?” Igor didn’t understand what he meant.

”You mean you don’t know? Oh, heh heh haha, I forgot this is Gaga County. There weren’t many Adventurers with Class here to begin with, much less people from an Alchemy Workshop.”

”And what does that have to do with the Alchemy Workshop?” Igor had a bad feeling. It felt like the Alchemy Workshop had stirred up a storm across the continent again. That didn’t make sense—Luona even knew the movements of the attacking side, and now they were in a cooperative relationship.

”Ever since the Alchemy Workshop started taking in ordinary people, that is, us Non-Adventurers, this world began to change. A lot of people abandoned their original looks and started accepting bizarre appearances, because that way they could obtain the power of Adventurers with Class.”

Master Lao had only just gotten through the beginning, and Igor already understood what was going on; that was the principle behind it.

So ordinary Non-Adventurers, in order to gain more power, had given up their original faces. It felt familiar—those seniors on Guru Mountain had gone through the same thing, hadn’t they!

”And people can accept this kind of change?” Igor asked, puzzled.

”At the start, of course they couldn’t. So lots of people, just like you, came to us blacksmiths to have masks made. At that time, in all of Luona, our smithy was about the only one that didn’t want to take that kind of job, because all the other smithies were happy to take work from the Alchemy Workshop.”

”Why!”

”They felt the Alchemy Workshop paid well. But we figured, a mask might hide their strange faces, but it couldn’t hide those twisted hearts of theirs!”

Igor felt this sounded familiar, but couldn’t remember who had said something like it.

”And besides, we felt the Alchemy Workshop was selling people to the Devil…”

”There is that…” Igor nodded slightly.

”So I don’t think you need to hide strange faces anymore. If you go to a big city now, you’ll see hideous-looking people everywhere!”

Igor fell into thought.

”Still, I feel like we’re fated to meet. Since you know A Rang, I’ll make something else for you. I’ll forge you a weapon. Anyway, the forge is already burning, and my body has only just warmed up; I can’t stay idle!” Master Lao said, stretching his joints a few times as he spoke.

”Well…” Igor didn’t know whether to refuse or accept.

”Heh, you didn’t hesitate to be honest with a scruffy stranger like me, so I have to give you something. In our world, don’t we always value Equivalent Exchange? I’ll forge you a weapon.”

”O-okay… sure!” Igor scratched his head, feeling rather embarrassed.

”So what kind of thing fits your hand? I’ll find you some good material. Say what you will, even though Gaga County is remote, all the iron they use here is good stuff. Rare Red Iron is actually being used to make hoes and shovels… such a waste!”

”I…” Igor listened to Master Lao rambling while thinking about what weapon he was best with.

”What suits your hand?” Master Lao asked again.

”A sword, I guess. I seem to be better with a sword than with a knife…”