"How nice of you! It’s your second day leave and I haven’t seen you except for collecting your packages and eating. Would it kill you to spend a few hours with us? Do I have to invite Kamila to have you grace us with your presence?" Elina wasn’t happy with his time table and had no qualms rebuking him.
’Now I understand why some mages become Liches. How am I supposed to spend time with my family, practice magic, help my girlfriend, and continue my research all at the same time?’ Lith thought.
’It’s impossible. To achieve something, you have to sacrifice something else in return.’ Solus said.
’You can always ditch your duty as a Ranger and your loved ones. You just have to content yourself in becoming like Zolgrish, who has nothing but his work and a demented assistant.’ free𝑤ebnovel.com
Just the thought of it made Lith shiver. He was still fighting to keep his sanity and he knew that Solus’s had been slipping for years. If he forced her to stay away from any form of human interaction, Lith knew that sooner or later she would snap.
He walked to Lutia instead of Warping, to take a minute for themselves and appreciate the scenery. Winter in Lutia was about to end, but snow still covered fields and trees. There was no one around, giving Mogar a peaceful appearance.
When he reached Zekell’s workshop, the blacksmith looked really tired.
"I’m sorry, Lith, but even with Senton’s help this work is huge. Smelting the Orichalcum is the easy part, same for the hammers since I can directly pour the molten metal into the mold.
"The problem is the chain mail set. I’ve never worked on something so tough and I need time to get used to it. I can either work on the chainmail or on the smelting, not both." Zekell had bags under his eyes and a raggedy breath.
"Can Senton take care of the smelting while you create the chainmails?" Lith asked.
"Yes, of course. I thought you wanted me to do it." Zekell knew that Lith only wanted perfection. Senton had worked with him for over a decade, but the skill gap between them was still huge.
"It’s fine. Even I can do it, so I doubt someone like him will make any mistake. How many chainmails are ready?" Lith asked.
"Four, but their design is terrible. I’m ashamed of how bad they look, but I couldn’t do better with so little time." Zekell lowered his eyes in embarrassment.
"You are dead tired and four are plenty. Take the day off, I have 18 days leave left. I have all that I need for my experiments and I prefer perfect materials for my real crafts. I want you at your best.
"Have Senton keep smelting, I have no idea how many times I will fail." Lith gave Zekell another crate and a few silver coins for his troubles. The blacksmith’s eyes shined like stars, his body was full of energy again.
"No seriously. Take a rest." Lith placed his hand over Zekell’s shoulder to check on his condition with Invigoration. The blacksmith was on the verge of collapsing.
Zekell nodded with a big yawn. A sprinkle of light magic had relaxed his muscles and burned the last shreds of stamina he had. Zekell was in for a long power nap.
Lith took four horrible chainmail that looked like they had been made by a child assembling spare keychains and stored them inside his pocket dimension.
’Eww.’ He thought.
’Enough is enough. We have to think about the design too.’ Solus was outraged. Her pride as a craftsman was horrified at the idea to work on something like that.
Lith was about to reply when his communication amulet drew his attention.
"What is it now? This is the busiest leave ever!" He groaned noticing that it was Quylla’s rune.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Supreme Magus