Chapter 174 - Quasi
Chapter 174 – Quasi
Jason was astonished to notice that Cheng was considering signing a soul contract with him, which he would have never imagined before.
`Is he really that interested in my progress, or is it something else that attracted his attention?` he pondered and it might have been wrong for him to mention a soul contract that could have made Cheng curious.
However, he already said so, and going back on his words could end up in a worse situation than letting the Artisan-tower president watch over his forging process after he signed the soul contract with him.
Pondering for a second, Jason stated a few things he found important.
“If you want to observe my forging process, you’re not allowed to tell anyone about it, which includes writing it down anywhere.
Recording it and any other means to spread what you saw is also strictly forbidden.
Furthermore, if anyone asked, you have never observed me forging anything within the Artisan tower.
If the receptionist tells anyone about me trying to find a forging room, just tell them that you know me from your daughter and that you brought me to a forging room, because you took a liking to me.
After a short chat I left, okay?
Other than that, you should never try to find out who my master is or where I learned what I can do, alright?
Ahh… and additionally, everything we are talking about today will be kept a secret, forever!”
Saying so, Jason released a thread of his soul, that was shaped into a piece of paper, as he wrote down the paragraphs he said before in an orderly manner.
“If you agree to the previously stated things, please sign the contract and we can continue,” Jason said, smiling brightly in order to lighten up the tension which builds up between both of them.
He might be overbearing right now, but it was extremely important for him to not reveal his black origin flame at the moment, because he couldn’t protect himself, yet.
Seeing Jason smile, released the tension accumulated within Cheng slightly, but the stated facts were more detailed than he thought, as he read through the almost transparent soul contract in front of him.
They were slightly different than what Jason said, but the content was roughly the same.
Everything stated, prevented him from leaking anything he would see and hear from Jason.
Furthermore, it would be, as if he had never asked the youth in front of him to observe his forging process.
As such, everything would be kept a secret from anybody.
The only thing that annoyed him slightly was that it was a one-sided soul contract without any binding force towards Jason.
Jason could also undo the soul contract if he wanted to, which was unlikely to happen.
Pondering for a moment, Cheng noticed that he grew even more curious than before, as it was impossible for nothing special to happen if Jason tried too hard to keep everything a secret.
As such, he signed the soul contract as his curiosity and impatience were the worst characteristics he had.
After Cheng signed the contract, Jason sighed in relief, as it was the first time for him to do something like that.
Small sweat pearls poured down his temples, but that was it and the tension between both of them almost immediately dissipated as they went towards Cheng´s private forging room on the highest floor.
Walking towards the forging room, Jason noticed that there was not a single person who saw them, which wondered him quite a bit.
Cheng noticed Jason looking around, as he explained to him.
“There won’t be anyone who might see you, because the path towards my forging room is solely for me, because others distract me easily which is prevented like that.
Sometimes an idea pops up in my head and I have to immediately try it out.
After being multiple times distracted on my way towards the forging room, I told my secretary and everyone on the highest floor to keep the hallway towards my forging room free.”
Jason found this weird, but he only nodded his head as if he was agreeing to Cheng´s way of thinking, only to see enter the forging room, which was even larger than the one Shane had.
But upon scanning through everything with his mana eyes, he felt disappointed.
All tools, the force, smithy, and so on radiated a weaker color than he was already adjusted to all the time within Shane´s small and comfy forging room.
Sighing deeply, Jason looked at Cheng with a piercing gaze as he asked
“Can I begin now, or is there anything I should look after?”
Seeing Jason so unbothered about the high-graded equipment he collected over the period of several dozen years felt upsetting, but he couldn’t say anything against him, as he estimated that Jason´s master was a higher-ranked Blacksmith than he was.
“You can start whenever you want to, just treat everything here as if it belongs to you,” Cheng said, as he saw Jason taking out dozens of basketball-sized jade iron ores.
This was nothing special, but upon seeing a black flame igniting in Jason´s hand, the origin flame within him shrieked out in fear, before it floated as far as possible from the black flame Jason ignited while staying within Cheng´s soul world.
`What is wrong?!?!` Cheng had never felt any emotion from his D-rank origin flame and now a deep sensation of fear and submission overwhelmed him.
He didn’t know what was going on and roughly the same applied for Jason with an important contrast.
His black origin flame transmitted him the desire to infiltrate Cheng in order to devour his origin flame, which worried Jason a little bit.
Controlling it carefully, he began to perfectly cleanse the Jade iron ore after he extracted the ingot.
Cheng took a few minutes to control his origin flame, as he roughly figured out why Jason didn’t want him to tell anyone about today’s happenings.
`He also has an origin flame!!! And it has a much higher grade… OMG…Isn’t he only 14 years old…HOW?!` Barely being able to think straight, Cheng couldn’t comprehend what exactly was going on, as his gaze returned back to Jason.
Only to see Jason easily purifying the jade iron in front of him, as impurities and sludge were exhaled from the jade iron ingot just like that.
There weren’t even many special hammer strikes Jason applied and Cheng only detected that Jason was using his mana extremely accurately in order to lead the impurities out of the jade iron bar, without hurting the mana conductivity.
Upon seeing Jason exhaling the impurities within the jade-iron so easily, Cheng wondered if he was dreaming, when the black-haired youth suddenly began to strike the ingot into a rough dagger-like shape.
Only now did Cheng realize something particular about the jade iron in Jason´s hand which caused him to blurt out “WHAT?!” before he regained his senses.
`He can already perfectly cleanse a grade-1 ore? And in only 30 minutes at that….Who is teaching this monster….OMG If I could only tell someone…` Cheng regretted his decision to have signed the soul contract.
Hours passed and Jason was fully focused on his forging process, and he even forgot that Cheng was present, when he took a look at the brightly green shining dagger in his hand that was 30 centimeters long and razor-sharp.
Smiling while looking at his first well-done product, Jason saw the familiar faint black color radiating from it and he immediately knew that the dagger was already a top-grade-1 product which shocked him.
It was only his second try to forge a weapon but his second try was already a few hundred times better than his first one, as he applied multiple newly acquired techniques in order to temper the blade better and produce a more aesthetic-looking dagger.
While the backside of the dagger was shining in a dark green color, the sharp blade side had a lighter green thought and was sharpened extremely fine with an expensive whetstone.
The handle was customized for himself and his right hand fitted almost perfectly into it, as he wrapped it into comfortable but tough evolved beast hide.
Looking at the dagger in his hand once again, Jason felt that it was still not perfect for his first one, as he took out his perennial neoxid.
There he firmly gripped the remaining inscription solution he had left from his runemaster basic exam, as he filled half of the content into the empty ballpoint that appeared in his hand.
Cheng looked carefully at what Jason was doing all the time and the whole forging process went extremely smoothly as if the 14-years-old youth in front of him had been doing it for years.
Immediately identifying the inscription solution in Jason´s hands, Cheng’s eyes widened as shock spread through his whole body.
`Can he also inscribe runes on the dagger, without worsening the mana consumption which could destroy the whole blade? What monster did I found here…..WAIT!! Won´t his perfectly cleansed jade iron dagger be considered a quasi-Mana dagger if inscribed with suitable runes?`
The more Cheng thought about what Jason did, the more shocked he became, as he noticed Jason smoothly inscribing two different kinds of runes on the dagger.
It was the sharpness and toughness runes, Jason imprinted into his mind from the Goblin´s weapons.
Finishing the process with his mana eyes activated all the time, he was satisfied with the result, as he injected mana into the blade, which brightened up with the runes gleaming in white light.
‘He really manufactured a quasi-mana-dagger just like that, while only being 14 years old…` Cheng almost lost his reasoning, while looking at Jason who´s smile radiated the whole room in shock.