Chapter 166: The Interesting Stories of a Shopkeeper

The ice giant shopkeeper was amazed as he opened the large leather bag which packed up the items I had crafted. These items were mostly the bad results I threw away, as I wanted the best one for the kids.

They were all of low Grade, none of them was C nor B Rank in quality.

If you don't remember, all the equipment I create with my system has certain quality and stats assigned to them, even abilities that I can see as their own status panels. Through that, I can analyze the quality of the weapon.

The highest quality I've achieved is Skadi at B-Rank quality, which is also my limit.

But perhaps I could create A-Rank quality items if I put a lot of effort and soul into it.

I would guess that the quality of items goes from F-Rank, E-Rank, D-Rank, C-Rank, B-Rank, A-Rank, and... maybe S-Rank, SS-Rank, and SSS-Rank afterward?

Anyways, this old, bearded blacksmith was amazed.

"By the gods! These items are all... gleaming with so much quality!" he said, as he grabbed a small Ice Knife, which had the tip made of a small piece of my scale.

"This knife... What kind of material are these? This ice is not normal... I can detect a lot of magic from within it. The particles of ice are so compact and well made, it was as if they were created in this shape from the beginning... And the tip of this knife... this sharp metallic material. Ah! This is not metal, it is organic?! Some type of chitinous thing... Scales?" wondered the man. He was detecting everything with amazing detail. He didn't have any system or whatever...

"You have sharp eyes..." I said.

I checked his stats and found out he had several Abilities I had never seen before. Some were [Magic Blacksmith], [Ore Appraisal], [Smith Magic], and even [Transmutation]... This old man was an amazing blacksmith who had even combined his own magic with it to get such Abilities.

It was obvious that he was able to see in detail my items if he had such amazing capabilities... Although I might end up risking my true identity as a dragon, it was worth a try to find someone so talented.

"I do! You are not in the field for over two hundred years for nothing, young man!" laughed the Ice Giant. Apparently, he was over two hundred years of age... Recalling what Benladann said, Ice giants lived approximately 300 years, so he was fairly old as he was over half his estimated age.

"Amazing... You're a talented blacksmith, aren't you?" asked Benladann.

"That's right young lady. I used to travel all around Jotunheimr. I even traveled through the Bifrost when I was younger and reached the neighboring continent of Midgard and Niflheim, I traveled both! Humans are not as bad as they say! Although don't spread around that I said that." Said the old man.

"Uwah, you must have visited a lot of places... So interesting!" said Benladann.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Name's Rakasha, I settled down in this town because this is where my mother died when I came back from my travels... Since then, I've been stuck in here, holding into the past," sighed the old man.

"I-I see... It is hard to lose your parents..." sighed Benladann.

Rakasha glanced at Benladann as he realized that she might have gone through something similar. However, due to her youth, it was more impacting. Perhaps his mother died out of natural causes, or when she was already pretty old.

"Well, you're still a young and pretty lady, so you just gotta keep going. Life is long and hard, but there is always something nice we can find along the way if we keep perseverating," said Rakasha.

Benladann suddenly tightened her handholding, as she nodded.

"Hm, you're right..." she said.

Rakasha noticed that we were holding hands as he chuckled a bit.

"Hehe, I see you two are a couple. Did you make these? Honestly speaking, if you did, then I would like to ask you if you could teach me your ways because these items are mind-blowing! But I would guess you don't really want to meddle with this eccentric old man, ahaha! Honestly, I don't think I have enough money on me to buy everything, because everything here would cost over sixty thousand Mana Stones," said Rakasha.

"SIXTY THOUSAND?!"

Dregeann and his group, who were silently watching over were shocked.

"Is that a lot?" I asked.

"That's as much as a Sect Member makes over a year! Probably way more..." said Gaston.

"Actually, I believe it would be way more... If you want to make a lot of money, maybe try to sell all of this to the Sect, I don't even have enough funds to pay you for everything... But let me buy this dagger and... these two rings, they all look amazing, they would resell for a fortune. Oh, and I am taking the Mana Cores too for... 6200 Mana Stones, what do you think?" said Rakasha.

"With how much can you buy a loaf of bread?" I asked.

"Hm... A single Mana Stone gets you a kilogram of bread and even some milk, eggs, and butter too," said Rakasha.

So a Mana Stone is around... 2 or 3 dollars, based on my country's prices. Although it might be cheaper or more expensive depending on if it is elsewhere.

Wait, so he's handling me around 12k dollars or more?!

I feel like I am stealing this old man's life savings.

Is he willing to give me so much money for my failures of equipment?

I wonder how crazy he would get if I showed him the higher quality stuff...

"And with how much money will you end up with? I don't want you to leave you starving or something...," I said.

"Haha! No need to worry, I got my own savings, and I like to invest in valuable stuff," said the old man.

Hm... Did he say that he wanted me to teach him before?

Would it be too soon to ask him to join my crew?

Perhaps...

"Well, that's good then," I said.

In the end, we ended with 6200 Mana Stones, enough to buy whatever we wanted in the market!