TRANSMIGRATED AS A GHOST

Walking down the city streets, Marcus followed Jarek who seemed to still be deep in thought since seeing what Marcus' status truly looked like.

Nevertheless, he still led Marcus to the city's leading forgemaster and they were soon standing in front of a shop called the Cobalt Forge.

Just standing in front of the place Marcus could see the heat coming off of it and if he listened closely could hear the sounds of hammering from inside.

Walking inside Marcus felt the heat brush over his skin and saw the glow of flames deeper within the building.

'It is smaller than the Blazegram Forge but seems to still be of a high quality.'

Marcus then followed Jarek deeper in where they were greeted by one of the men that was currently working on a mithril axe.

"Ah Jarek are you here to see the boss. Did you finally get the money together to finish paying off your spear and shield?"

Jarek just shook his head and said, "Not quite but after my last job I am closer, just a bit more and I will be able to. Ah but that is not why I am here today. This here is Irene, and she is an adventure and forgemaster and wanted to meet with Edzard."

"Okay the boss is in his office right now so go ahead and go in."

Jarek then thanked the man and led Marcus towards the west side of the building where a separate room was located.

As Jarek opened the door Marcus saw a middle-aged man sitting at a desk drinking some sort of beverage while looking over a stack of papers.

The man who was most likely Edzard then looked up to see who came in and a face of mixed emotions came over him.

"Jarek please tell me you brought this months payment and are not asking for an extension again. Since we are friends, I do not want to enforce the contract and repossess the shield and spear I made for you."

Jarek went pale faced for a moment but quickly regained his cool and took out a small chest from his item box and handed it over to Edzard.

Edzard then opened up the chest and Marcus could see the glimmering color of platinum coins coming from the chest.

Marcus quickly estimated how many coins were in the chest and figured it was somewhere around a thousand which would be equivalent to ten thousand gold.

Edzard looked through the chest for a moment before nodding with a satisfied smile and putting it away and saying to Jarek, "Well with that you only owe another fifteen thousand gold until you are the true owner of the adamantine spear and shield, I made for you. Now would you mind telling me who this is you brought with you."

"Ah yes this here is Irene Geist and she said she wanted to meet with you since she is a fellow forgemaster, and apparently even a new apprentice of Thabon Blazegram."

Edzard's eyes went wide when he heard that Marcus was Thabon's apprentice, and he stood up and walked over to Marcus looking him over.

"Your hands look like newly made porcelain, and you say you are a forgemaster and Thabon's apprentice at that."

Edzard continued to look at Marcus skeptically and said, "So Irene, "Thabon's apprentice", what is it you wanted from me."

Marcus could see it on Edzard's face that his mood was rapidly declining and that he did not believe him.

However, what Marcus wanted was not much and he was sure he could smooth over this misunderstand if he steered the conversation the right way.

"Well, I will be staying in this city for around the next two months and was hoping that I might be able to use the tools and facilities in your forge while I am here. Of course, I am willing to pay for my time here and any tools and materials I use, and as for why my hands looks so pristine is because I have a regeneration skill."

Edzard looked a bit surprised when this was all Marcus asked for since he was expecting something more extravagant by a person, he presumed to be lying about being connected to the most famous forgemaster in the kingdom.

"Very well then if you are truly an apprentice of Thabon's would you mind making something for me and if your skills are good enough, I will let you use the facilities in my forge. You understand I would not want an amateur to damage any of the equipment I have here."

Marcus nodded his head and said, "Where can I get started."

Edzard then led Marcus over to an empty station and asked him what he needed and then had one of the other men fetch it.

Marcus had just asked for some basic materials and tools so, Edzard was willing to provide them.

"Okay Jarek I need you to leave, can't be showing the tricks of the trade to those who are not privileged."

Jarek looked confusedly at Marcus for a moment but ultimately left, and Edzard said with a smug face said, "Did you not want to have Jarek see you fail, it is not to late if you want to back out now."

However, what Marcus did next shut up and wiped the smug expression off of Edzard's face as he took out a small ingot of celestial platinum.

Hastily as he saw this Edzard said, "Put that away, some of my men do not know about that yet, and revealing it to them would not be good for either of us."

Edzard quickly herded Marcus to a private forging location after seeing the celestial platinum he had taken out and his attitude had completely changed.

"So, you are actually the real deal huh. I still am not sure if you are Thabon's apprentice, but no amateur would know about celestial platinum. Would you mind showing me your mana etcher, if you really are Thabon's apprentice he would have given you one, right?"

Marcus then took out the mana etcher that Thabon had gifted him when he became his apprentice and Edzard looked it over.

"This is Thabon's craftsmanship no doubt about it, to think after all the fakes the genuine article finally showed up. Sorry about my attitude earlier you are not the first person who has come to my forge saying they were an apprentice of some famous forgemaster looking to get something they did not deserve."

Nodding in understanding Marcus said, "I get it some people will claim to have a connection to someone famous to try and get ahead. But I am actually Thabon's apprentice, so you do not need to worry this time."

Edzard then put on a big smile and said, "So how had the old man been I do not think I have seen him in fifteen years."

Marcus began telling Edzard about his master and the man seemed to get a bigger and bigger smile as he heard about his old friend.

"Well thank you for telling me about how Thabon is doing, and feel free to come in and use the forge whenever you want. All I ask is that you pay for the cost of materials you use and feel free to ask me for anything up to mithril."

Marcus gladly accepted Edzard's offer since he had left most of his forging supplies back home to make room in his item box, and the two of them shook hands to mark their new friendship.

"I probably won't be back for a bit since I am going into the dungeon to look for certain materials, but once I have found what I want I will be back to work on something special."

Marcus and Edzard then walked out from the back of the forge and Jarek looked at them bewildered since before it seemed like Edzard hated Marcus but now they looked like old friends.

"What did you make that turned Edzard's mood around so fast."

"I just showed him that I really am Thabon's apprentice and now I can use the facilities here"

Jarek looked like he wanted to know more about how Marcus got on Edzard's good side, but neither of them gave up anything and he eventually relented.

"Well see you later Irene and it was good to meet you. Next time you are around how about we get some drinks, and we can discuss forgemastering at length."

Marcus agreed to have drinks with Edzard and then said farewell before walking back outside with Jarek close behind.

However, they did not get far before Jarek stopped and said, "Irene there is something I wanted to talk to you about, would you mind coming with me somewhere else."

Nodding his head Marcus followed Jarek and they entered a nearby restaurant and got a private room for the two of them to eat in.

When the sever who was taking their order left Jarek looked towards Marcus and said, "Irene would you want to accompany me to fight a boss in the dungeon?"

Startled by this question Marcus put down the drink in his hand and looked seriously at Jarek and said, "Where did this come from?"

Sighing Jarek looked at Marcus resolutely and said, "I happened to find a boss room around two months ago deep in the dungeon. In my curiosity I engaged the room's guardians, but one was level forty-five and the other was level forty-six.. I may have been able to both of them, but the boss would have certainly been out of my league being around level fifty. So would you like to go and fight a boss with me?"