Chapter 146: In the Woods (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem
Angele and Omicade were both satisfied with the trade.
The only thing that upset Angele was that only one Chaos book was valuable, the other incomplete notebooks were written in Barun or Vlasov after checking. Also, most of the old incomplete notebooks only had useless information written in them.
Angele stretched his back and put down the last incomplete notebook.
"What do you think? Do you need it?" Omicade stood beside him with arms crossed, expecting Angele to trade something else with him.
"I’m sorry." Angele shook his head, and he saw Omicade purse his lips.
"Well, I was hoping to get something else from you, haha."
Angele heard Omicade’s word, and a smile stretched his lips as he nodded.
"Great. I actually want something from you. I think it’ll be an easy task."
"What do you want me to do?" Omicade asked, surprised.
"Collect metals for me. I need all kinds of them." He had nothing to hide. It was one of the reasons that made him decide to visit the capital.
"Umm, metals? Not a problem at all, but we need to leave the high tower and go talk to a blacksmith first."
"Sure."
Angele put the Chaos notebook into his bag and walked down the spiral staircase with Omicade right away. They traveled to a large blacksmith’s shop using Omicade’s carriage for about two hours.
"We’re here, the street of blacksmiths."
The Sage opened the door and jumped off the carriage.
Angele jumped off the carriage as well. As he landed on the ground, he could feel stickiness on the bottom of his boots.
The black, oily ground slid into Angele’s sight.
There were several simple buildings lined up on both sides, and he could hear the blacksmiths smashing their hammers on the iron anvils inside their shops.
A burnt smell permeated the air of the street. The place was dark and dirty; it gave Angele an unpleasant feeling.
Angele saw adventurers with crossguard swords, iron shields, and sledgehammers checking the shops.
The Great Sage’s carriage did not attract any attention. The pedestrians and adventurers had a glance at it, but no one came to greet Omicade. It seemed like he came here often, and people were no longer surprised by his presence.
Omicade led Angele to the largest blacksmith shop on the street, a large building with three open entrances at the front. The name of the shop ‘Francesco’s Blacksmith Shop’ was engraved into a bronze board on the top.
There were barely any people checking the shop, and Angele saw a middle-aged woman with a greatsword on her back walking out of it while cursing.
"Damn you old prick! Francesco, seriously? 5000 gold coins for a sheath? Greedy old f*ck! One day you’ll drown in your sea of gold coins!"
"Filthy rat! If you don’t have money, don’t even come here! Get the f*ck out of here!" a rude voice came from inside.
"Go f*ck yourself!" The middle-aged woman turned around, gave Francesco a middle finger, and left angrily.
Angele knew the voice had to come from a tall, strong man just by hearing it.
Omicade shrugged and looked at Angele.
"Well, this is still the best blacksmith shop in the city, its only drawback is the price tag."
Angele chuckled and followed Omicade into the shop. Inside, intense steam hit his face right away.
A three-meter-tall giant was swinging a head-sized hammer and carefully working on a piece of red-hot alloy. On the other side, four bellows makers were trying their best to keep the smith’s furnace fire at the proper temperature. The five took up most of the space in the shop.
Only a small area was used to display the crafted weapons and shields in the corner.
"Francesco, get me all your metal ingots here. My friend needs to see them," Omicade yelled at the giant, but his voice sounded low in the noises made by the hammer and bellows.
"Metal ingots? What do you need that for?" The strong giant stretched his back a bit and put down the alloy.
Sweat and oil covered his muscular body. He was bald, with no eyebrows or beard, and there was a large gold earring on his left ear.
"I want them, not him. How many different types of metal do you have here?" Angele asked, stepping forward.
"What? You?" Francesco asked the bellows makers to stop for a minute and started observing the short man in front of him. He quickly noticed the black robe that covered Angele’s body, and it seemed like the robe reminded him of something.
"Ah… A dark…" Francesco stopped before spitting out the word, but Angele could see the respect in his eyes. "What do you need? I have many different ingots here." He turned around and grabbed a large box full of dark metal ingots.
"Wait a second, I have more."
Before Angele could respond, the giant already walked to a corner, entered a storage room, and moved five large boxes to the front. Each of them was about one meter tall and filled up with metal ingots.
A total of six boxes were put down in front of Angele. There were white ingots, dark-red, silver, while the rest were all black with silver glints.
"Star Iron, three boxes. White Membrane Steel, Blood Core Steel, and River Copper, one box each. Those are the rarest metal ingots in my shop. Anything caught your attention?"
Angele’s eyebrows furrowed, he had no idea what the giant was talking about, and he decided to check with Zero.
"Can I take a closer look?"
"Of course." Francesco stepped aside and smiled.
Angele stepped forward, and Zero started scanning all the metal ingots. Star Iron was hard and elastic, but it had no magic resistance.
White Membrane Steel, not elastic but very hard. It was great for crafting sharp weapons, but it could not be used for making shields. Its magic resistance was low as well.
Blood Core Steel could not handle high temperature, and it was just an average metal with low resistance. The last was the River Copper. It could handle high temperature and radiation, but its hardness was low. This copper was usually used for heat insulation materials.
"Do you have something that has good elasticity when melted and high hardness after cooled down?" Angele questioned.
"Umm, give me a second." Francesco rubbed his chin and thought for a while.
"Master, we still have two boxes of Combustible Iron, right?" A bellows maker suddenly said.
"Combustible Iron? You’re correct! Leeson, bring the boxes here!"
"Sure! You guys, come with me!" Leeson responded and entered the storage room with the rest. After several minutes, two boxes of black iron ingots were put down in front of Angele. These ingots had small holes in them for some reason.
"Combustible Iron? What’s that?" Angele got curious.
Francesco immediately explained, "Combustible Iron is a combustible metal, its melting point is high, but once it’s lighted up, you won’t be able to put it down easily."
He grabbed a fist-sized iron from one of the boxes as he spoke.
"Wind will only make it burn longer. Combustible Iron of this size will burn for a whole day if you don’t try to put it off. This iron came from a special underwater ore. It’s very dangerous if you use it in the forests."
"Interesting…" Angele grabbed a piece of the iron and observed.
It was hard and heavy; the surface was covered in tiny holes, and it looked like a honeycomb.
Angele sniffed it— it smelled like rubber.
"I know this thing. It’s usually used in siege attacks. Cover it with oiled clothes, pour some feces onto the surface, light it up, and shoot it with a ballista. Its damage is incredible," Omicade said, looking at Angele. "But it’s not rare, the ores are easy to find."
"I’ll take all of the metal ingots you just showed me. How much are they in total?"
"Well, if you only want the materials, I can give you a discount." The giant rubbed his hands and did some calculations. "About 120,000 gold coins."
"120,000 gold coins… Not that bad." Omicade nodded. "I’ll pay for it. Francesco, put it on my bill. Come to my high tower and pick up the gold coins before the month ends."
"For sure."
Angele nodded, he did not have that many gold coins with him, so he had to let the Great Sage pay for the metal ingots.
"Thanks, Omicade."
"Not a big deal. I still have some questions to ask you, and knowledge is priceless." Omicade pursed his lips to a smile.
The two hired four carriages to carry those boxes back to Omicade’s high tower.
Justin came to invite Angele to the party held by the Kings once he returned to the high tower. They also made it clear that there would be many nobles waiting to see him in the party.
Although Angele wanted to decline the invitation, he still owed Justin a favor, so he decided to attend and see what the Kings were thinking.