Chapter 129- Off to buy forging materials.

Chapter 129: Chapter 129- Off to buy forging materials.

Leo looked genuinely surprised by Elona’s question.

"Plans? Of course — to keep growing stronger," Leo said, as though that answer were self-evident.

Rook shook his head slowly. Elona let out a sigh. "Do you actually have any funds for the guild right now?"

Leo checked his inventory. His expression went stiff....

Whatever you wanted to call it — guild fund, personal fund, didn’t matter — all he had left with him was thirty-eight gold coins. The class conversions the guild members had just gone through had eaten through nearly everything.

"Haha... ha. Ha. Hahaha. I have thirty-eight gold coins," Leo admitted. It was Elona’s turn to freeze this time.

Rook and Hugh both burst out laughing.

"This is bad," Elona said, shaking her head. "We need actual income. A stable, reliable source of it."

Earning gold isn’t the real problem here, Leo thought to himself. I’ll just spend a few days at the forge and put something together to sell. Hugh and I can handle it easily enough.

Elona noticed the sudden determination in his eyes and asked, "So what exactly are we going to do, then?"

"We forge," Leo replied, a grin spreading across his face.

"Hugh and I will put together some equipment — Epic-rank gear and weapons, along with a batch of Rare-rank items to round it out."

Elona nodded along with his plan.

Leo kept going. "Then we hold an auction for all of it. Not a straightforward sale — an actual auction." He paused, a new idea striking him mid-sentence. "Actually, we shouldn’t just hold it in-game. Let’s run it in the real world too, with real-world currency for the in-game items."

"The real world? I’m not sure that’s a good idea, is it? There are limits on converting real money into in-game gold, plus taxes, transaction fees — it’ll get complicated fast."

Leo just shook his head. "Don’t worry about any of that. I’ll handle it myself. You can help me get the word out — just don’t announce the date yet. For now, just let the news outlets know our guild will be holding an auction, both in-game and in the real world, coming soon."

Elona nodded, assuming Leo’s real motive here was publicity and recruitment — using a real-world auction as a way to draw in more players and put the guild’s name on the map.

"We could establish the Eternal Forge’s name in one move," she said, nodding along. "The Graystone City auction house should work fine for the in-game side of things. It’d be even better if we could get the auction held in the kingdom’s capital eventually, but this will do just fine for now."

"That’s exactly the idea," Leo agreed.

Hugh spoke up suddenly. "So, we’re forging, then? Good plan in theory — but how exactly do you intend to buy the materials for Epic-rank and Rare-rank items on thirty-eight gold coins?"

Leo went quiet....

Elona went quiet.....

Everyone went quiet.....

....

Elona finally broke the silence with a smile. "I can invest some gold into the guild myself, if it comes to that."

Leo could only nod and thank Elona later.

"Then let’s go buy some raw materials," Hugh said.

Leo nodded in agreement. Elona added, "Great — I’ll come along with you two."

Before heading out, Leo turned to the rest of the gathered group. "Master Rook, the rest of you — including Min-seo and Yuna — should all go level up in the meantime. Take Cindy and the two cubs with you. Get used to your new classes for a while out in the field."

Everyone nodded in agreement. "Don’t worry," Rook said. "I’m very good at making people train."

His disciples visibly deflated at that particular reassurance.

With that, everyone dispersed — some heading off to rest, others already planning their next moves — while Leo, Elona, and Hugh made their way to the guild’s teleportation formation and teleported straight to Graystone City.

A flash of golden light appeared and they found themselves standing in the teleportation plaza within Graystone City.

Elona turned to Hugh. "Lead the way."

Hugh just shrugged and started walking.

He led them through the main market first, then off through a shadier stretch of alleyways winding deeper into the city, eventually opening into a large enclosed square packed with stalls arranged in total chaos — merchants shouting over each other about their wares, the thick, layered smell of spices, animal hide, and heated metal all mixing together in the air. There were food stalls, weapon stalls, stalls dedicated purely to repairing weapons, stalls hawking general goods, and everything in between.

"Our regular dealers are three blocks east," Hugh said, weaving them through a stack of crates as he spoke. "But the good stuff — rare-grade, elemental-affinity materials — that’s all tucked away in the back alleys. Expensive as hell, too."

They spent a good stretch of time moving between dealers. Leo inspected every item with a careful, discerning eye, using his forge sight to check quality beneath the surface, while Hugh made his own selections alongside him. Between the two of them, they picked up a sizeable haul: a ton of Frost Ingot (Rare grade), several kilograms of Ember Dust, a handful of coiled Serpentine Wire, chunks of petrified Wyvern bone, a few tons of steel ingots, and raw iron ore.

Leo stored everything directly inside the Eternal Forge’s dimension as they bought it, while Elona paid off each dealer without so much as blinking at the totals.

Leo and Hugh could only swallow hard, watching her spend that freely.

Hugh finally motioned them forward. "Come on, I’ll take you to the last dealer. He’s got the rarest materials in the district."

As they made their way toward this final stop, a caravan rolled past them on the road. Both Leo and Elona went rigid the instant they saw what the wagons trailing behind it were actually carrying.

Cages. Iron bars. And behind those bars — people. Humans, elves, dwarves, all packed inside.

It was the first time either of them had witnessed slavery in action, up close.

Leo spotted a dwarf slumped in the back of one cage, his right hand swollen and discolored, hanging at an angle no joint should ever bend to. Nearby, an elf sat tied to the bars, her hair and clothes disheveled beyond any care. Looking closer, Leo noticed a small girl, no older than six, sitting perfectly still in a far corner of the cage. No one seemed to be paying her any particular attention, and yet, strangely, none of the other slaves dared to sit anywhere near her, as though something about her frightened them.

The moment Leo’s eyes landed on the girl, his death mana surged unexpectedly within him. He tried activating his forge sight to get a read on her, but all it returned was a wall of question marks.

The slave merchant walking beside the caravan noticed Leo watching and came trotting over, a wide grin plastered across his face, showing off a full set of teeth, one of them gold. He rubbed his hands together eagerly as he greeted them. "Ah, noble sir! Looking to buy something today? Heh, that elf there — still a virgin, you know. You’d have quite the time with her, if you’re interested."

The merchant kept up the flattery for a while, all the while thinking privately to himself: This batch is genuinely terrible. The only decent piece here is the elf. That dwarf’s hand is completely broken, useless for forging anything ever again. And that girl — something’s just off about her. Everything near her seems to die eventually. Cursed, probably, born under some unlucky star. Ugh, I’m going to go broke at this rate.

Hugh shifted uncomfortably at the sight of a blacksmith and a small child being sold as slaves. "Leo, we should just go—"

Before he could finish, Leo cut in, addressing the merchant directly. "What happened to the dwarf?"

The merchant’s flattering smile flickered, just briefly.

"Poisoned. By his own brother, or maybe a rival — hard to say for certain. Had his hand broken and got thrown out of his own clan for it. Slave traders picked him up not long after, and he ended up here eventually." Privately, though, the merchant thought: This dwarf won’t last much longer. The bone in that hand’s completely disintegrated — veins too, everything. I bought him cheap hoping I could patch him up and resell him, but no healing method I’ve tried has worked on him. Total loss. Damn it. Might as well cut my losses and sell him off now.

Leo crouched down, studying the dwarf closely. The dwarf looked back at him, and despite the obvious pain he was in, something like a flash of recognition crossed his eyes.

"You’re a smith," the dwarf said, his voice hoarse. "I can see it, in your hands."

Leo blinked, genuinely surprised, and glanced down at his own hands — the calluses were there, sure enough. "I could just as easily be a swordsman," Leo offered.

"No. You’re a blacksmith," the dwarf said with complete certainty. Leo could only nod, unable to argue the point.

Leo stood back up and looked past the cage, noticing another one further behind the wagon — this one holding a wolf, snarling viciously at anything that came within reach, its eyes wild and openly hostile.

Leo pointed toward it. "How much for the wolf?"

Hugh and Elona both looked at him in surprise, clearly not expecting him to be pricing out a wolf of all things.

The merchant beamed. "Only two gold coins, good sir."

Leo then turned and pointed toward the dwarf. "And the dwarf — how much?"

The merchant hesitated a moment, thinking it over. "Five gold coins." Leo glared at him with a sharp, unimpressed stare. The merchant coughed awkwardly. "...Four, then."

Leo kept staring silently, saying nothing at all.

"Three?" the merchant offered nervously. "That’s genuinely the lowest I can go."

Leo nodded. "Fine. I’ll give you seven gold total — throw the little girl in with the deal too. I get the sense she’s more trouble than she’s worth to you anyway."

The merchant agreed almost instantly, practically desperate to lock the deal down before Leo could change his mind. He hurriedly handed over all three slave contracts and pocketed the seven gold coins. "Pleasure doing business with you, noble sir. See you around."

The merchant hurried off with the rest of his caravan, leaving Hugh and Elona standing there, staring at Leo in stunned disbelief.

Hugh could only shake his head at the whole exchange. "Feels like we just got scammed, if I’m being honest," he said.

"Were we?" Elona asked, sounding doubtful.

"Probably," Hugh said with a shrug.

But Leo just waved it off. "It’s fine."

"Let’s help the dwarf and the little girl first," he said.

Elona reached out to gently lift the little girl, but the instant her fingers made contact, it felt like she’d just placed her hand into pure, concentrated acid.

"Ah!" Elona shrieked, yanking her hand back immediately.

[-75 Dmg]

Her health bar dropped visibly in response.

Elona stared at the little girl in open horror.

Both Leo and Hugh froze, equally stunned by what had just happened.

Leo, though, felt an odd, inexplicable pull of closeness toward the girl despite everything. He reached out to her himself ....

...