“That… is terrifying,” Reya said. “And kind of ugly.” It was the following morning, and Arwin had completely missed his previously imposed deadline of the previous day to get to the market and sell his armor. He’d spent the rest of the day making a metal mask that matched the design on his newly-made stamp, but he was proud of the results. The mask apparently didn’t count as headgear because the Mesh hadn’t recognized it. That came as a relief, as it wouldn’t have been particularly useful if it was clearly magical, and he had no way to know if the mask would have been able to hide itself like some of his other items. Perhaps the delay had been a blessing in disguise because it had given him time to bind Verdant Blaze to himself with [Arsenal]. He’d also dismissed his armor, so he was just walking around in his normal clothes. Arwin lowered the mask from his face. “Right? It looks memorable.” “It’s definitely something,” Lillia said, her features unreadable. “Is there a reason you went with a monster design rather than a human or a symbolic one?” “Nothing wrong with being a monster, is there?” Lillia tilted her head to the side. A small smile traced across her lips and she shrugged one shoulder. “I suppose not.” “Anyway, the mask isn’t all I made. Take a look at this,” Arwin said. He held a hand out and summoned Verdant Blaze. Lillia’s eyebrows lifted in surprise at the appearance of the weapon. Arwin snorted. "Figures. Well, we need to handle some other stuff first. “Like getting some money?” Reya asked. “Yeah, that might be a good idea.” “Then we’re going to go try and sell the stuff now?” Reya asked, hopping down from her chair eagerly. “You said we were doing it yesterday, but–” “Yeah, yeah,” Arwin grumbled. He dismissed Verdant Blaze. “I got distracted. We’re doing it today.” He slipped the mask back over his face. The eye and nose holes weren’t quite in the spots where he would have liked them, but he could still see and breathe, which was all that mattered. “I just have to do this first.” Arwin knelt beside the sets of armor and took out the disk bearing his mark. He let [Soul Flame] rise up from his palm and heat the mark until it was glowing red. He then pressed it into each piece of armor, just enough to burn the impression of the Ifrit onto them. “Perfect,” Arwin said, drawing his [Soul Flame] back out of the disk so he could return it to his pocket. “Now we’re ready. We just need to go get ourselves a cart and we can make some money.” “I might know a place that could have a cart,” Reya said. “I’ve been keeping an eye out.” “It isn’t stolen.” It was Reya’s turn to be defensive, though Arwin strongly suspected that she’d left off a yet somewhere in her sentence. “It’s just not getting used much. I’m sure nobody would miss it.” “So maybe we could buy it,” Arwin said with a grin. He then realized Reya couldn’t see his face behind the mask and cleared his throat. “Well, shall we? I’m eager to do this already.” Stolen story; please report. And I also should try to make some edible items again. I had a snack in the dungeon, but I should make sure to keep ahead of the Mesh so I don’t have to panic and rush the next time a stomachache comes on. I’ll get materials and make something right after this is done. “Do you want to come, Lillia?” Reya asked as she headed over to the entrance. “Who, me?” Lillia started. “I didn’t think there were any other Lillia’s here.” “I have to stay at the tavern,” Lillia said, putting a hand on the counter. “What if someone shows up while I’m out?” “You left when we were doing the dungeon.” “That was a special circumstance.” And she didn’t have to go into the town, dragging the cloud of darkness along with her. Someone would figure out something was off pretty quickly if she was just standing around on the street. “Maybe next time?” Arwin offered, giving Lillia a way out. “Yeah, maybe that,” Lillia said with a grateful nod. “Good luck, though. If you happen to find anyone looking for a good meal, send them my way. No inn-goers, though. I don’t have enough rooms for more people right now.” Reya shrugged and scooped up half the armor on the ground. Arwin picked up the other half. “I suppose it would be a good workout.” Arwin raised a hand in farewell to the stunned old man, then grabbed the cart and drew on [Scourge] once more, trotting off down the street with the cart rumbling behind him. Excitement swirled in Arwin’s stomach. Even if he was only selling mundane gear, he was confident that he’d be able to impress people with the quality of his work. He hadn’t seen anything like the scale armor in the other blacksmith’s shop. And, once I start to get a steady flow of money, I’ll be able to start doing magical weapons and armor on commission for people that I think deserve them. Then I’ll be able to upgrade the smithy even more. It was time for Ifrit to make his name known.