Way of the Knights

Chapter 18: Chief Jonathan

Unsure of what to do, Raven thought of asking the store clerk.

“Hi miss!” The lady at the counter gave him a look as he continued: “I was wondering if there are knuckles, arm guards and leg guards that have better quality than the ones in here.”

“Well…” the lady smiled wryly and explained, “Young Master’s choices are really rare. There’s almost no Fighter nor Knight that uses those.” She hesitated for a while before saying: “Allow me to talk to Chief, many he made something like those…”

She then bowed and excused herself, Raven nodded in appreciation and waited for her. Meanwhile, he heard footsteps behind him and saw Paul and Mark, they already finished their purchase and came to him.

“What did you buy?” Mark asked.

“Nothing yet, they lack better quality of the weapons I prefer to use, I asked the clerk for help and currently waiting for her.” Raven explained.

Paul could seen roaming his eyes on the weapons available, he made a weird expression in his face as he asked: “Are you really going rely on just your limbs to fight?”

Mark was enlightened when he heard this, he also looked weirdly at Raven for making this kind of choice.

Both of them found it weird that during the entire length of their training together, they have never saw use a weapon. They know that he could, he even was the one who taught them how to but he trained with his fist, and just a few days earlier he was training his legs. They never imagined that he would really decided on going unarmed.

“We’ll see, I just feel that I could pull it off. Anyway, I might take a long time here so go look for armors, oh and if you see any gravity suits, buy one as well.” Raven waved his hands to send them off, Paul and Mark nodded and left to view some armors.

Raven waited for at least ten minutes before the clerk return, he looked at her and saw that she was wearing a peculiar expression.

“Young Master, our Chief invited you over.” The lady beckoned and led the way, Raven shrugged and followed her.

They went up to the back of the building, Raven could feel the heat rising as they move closer to the forges. He also heard the faint hammering sounds getting louder as they moved closer. The lady opened the metallic door and hot air immediately blew in Raven’s face.

The sound of hammering rang in his ears, each strike seemed to resonate with their hearts, whenever the hammer strikes, their hearts will tremble. In front of the billowing forge, there was a bulky figure who was the source of these sounds.

He had a worn out bandana on hos forehead, his white hair was neatly tied up to a bun. His figure screamed extreme masculinity as his stern face concentrated towards his work. He was bare chested, countless of scars and burnt marks could be seen on it’s surface yet each muscle of his screamed in vigor.

“Chief, this is the child that I was talking about.” The lady softly said as she retreated to the side.

The hammering stopped, the old man threw his craft back to the kiln and placed the materials on the table. He reached for a towel to wipe off his sweat and turned around.

Raven smiled, he almost blurted out: ‘Good to see you again old friend.’ Good thing he didn’t. He bowed and introduced himself: “Greetings Chief Jonathan, my name is Vendrick Valorheart, Raven’s my nickname. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

The old man didn’t say anything, he stepped forward and crouched in front of him, clearly inspecting his body.

“Shirt, off.” His voice was gritty and forceful, yet Raven didn’t mind. He took off his top as well as his gravity suit. There was a gleam on Jonathan’s eyes when he saw the suit, but it was almost untraceable. He then placed a hand on his shoulders.

But for Raven, this isn’t simply a ‘placing’ a hand. It was more like ‘a mountain was pushing his shoulder’s down’.

Raven knew he was being tested, though he had no idea why Jonathan was doing this, he knew what kind of character he had during his past life. Raven resisted the push, he could clearly feel the pressure gradually increasing but it wasn’t on the level that could make him fall over.

Jonathan’s eyes flashed, there was a trace of appreciation on his wizened face as he gradually add pressure to the boy’s body. His appreciation became more and more obvious the longer Raven endured. The pressure that he was giving to Raven was enough to completely flatten a Late-stage Skin Toughening Realm but Raven didn’t even look like he was struggling with it. The pressure added to Peak-stage and Raven started to tremble, yet he was still standing.

Jonathan stopped testing him, he then placed a hand on Raven’s legs. He ‘gently’ squeezed it but Raven felt that his leg was being squeezed by metal cuffs instead. Jonathan inspected him for a while before standing up and going to one of the corners of the room.

He picked up four items in total. Two arm guards and two leg guards. He handed it over to him and Raven inspected it immediately.

The design of the arm guards were simple, it shone with a black metallic finish and had a hollowed tube-like shape which he slip his entire arms in. Judging by the length of the arm guard, it should reach halfway through his shoulders. The tips had a retractable claws that could be activated using his fingers, and there are some lumps that traced his knuckles, there also a spherical orb that is placed on the area where the back of his palms were.

As for the leg guards, it looked more like some leggings that had protected majority of his legs, it followed the same color as the other. The metal was placed on the knee caps down to the sole, leaving the thigh and foot unprotected, even so this is better than what he was looking for.

“Woah.” Raven let out an astonished voice, “Flexible Metal! This kind of metal is hard to forge since too much heat will completely disintegrate it and not enough heat will only make it bend without shaving off the impurities. This should be quenched not in oil but using Liquid Ice to prevent it from going out of shape! What an awesome craftsmanship!” Raven praised as he inspected it closely.

The lady and Jonathan looked surprised when he said this. It was understandable since most of kids these days are too focused on cultivation and had no time learning other things, like metals used for blacksmithing, or the herbs and ingredients used for alchemy. It was nice to see that there’s still other kids who are curious enough to study other things as well.

Raven wore the items that was given to him. Just like he was expecting, the arm guards reached halfway through his shoulders, the cloth of the leg guards reached until his inner thigh. He opened and closed his hands and felt if there were any discomfort, he also stretched his legs to do the same and so far, he had no complaints. He focused and threw full forced punch.

Pa!

A loud slap rang inside the room and he wasn’t done yet. He lifted his leg and performed a simple kick that also produced the same sound as his fist. The lady’s eardrums trembled a bit causing her vision to blur, Jonathan was fine but both of them were dumbfounded by what he did. No wonder he was looking for these kind of weapons! It turns out that he was really proficient in this kind of fighting style.

“What’s the name of these Chief?” Raven asked Jonathan, but he only shook his head. Judging from his personality, he meant to say that he hadn’t given any name to these yet. He then smiled and said: “Then I’ll call it , Flexible Brawler Set.”

Chief Jonathan and lady nodded, seemingly satisfied with this name. The name was simple since the appearance of the set was simple too. Naming it grandly won’t really make it stronger since the strength of the weapon isn’t on it’s name but on who’s wielding it.

“I really like these Chief! How much?” Raven asked but he saw Jonathan shook his head and said:

“You can have it. It’s rotting here anyway.” Proving that he is a man of few words. The lady smiled warmly as she heard this. Raven was shocked, but recalling the old man’s character, he should’ve known that he will say this.

“How can that be? Such a fine craftsmanship shouldn’t go unrewarded!” Raven exclaimed as he stepped closer to Jonathan. He then lifted his fingers and pointed at his legs. “I know more Gold Cards won’t really change anything so how about I heal your calves instead?”