We both followed the small dwarf into a special chamber. Immediately the smell of metal wafted up my nose, and the clanging of swords could be heard coming from the end of the passage. We were in some sort of hallway.

A red carpet spread from the entrance all the way to the end accompanied by large pillars, which stood like soldiers on each ends. Everything was dark, the only sources of light being the torches that were on the pillars. I activated my Seikuken just in case.

[Seikuken (Level 35) will consume 1MP every minute]

“We’ll be arriving shortly, sorry for not taking you there straight away sire,” the humble dwarf apologised facing back at Mr Xanxus.

“It’s fine Gandalf. You wanted to test him yourself right?” the hunched assassin queried.

“As expected of you principal, I merely wanted to test the boy’s ability,” the dwarf replied laughing loudly. What was he talking about? How does just looking through scrap metal count as a test? I shook the thoughts as we arrived.

We were invited into a room filled with all sorts of luxuries by another midget dwarf. This time the swords weren’t dull like the previous ones. Each one had its own shimmer and character.

“Hello Good Sirs! Welcome to the Jade Blacksmiths! We provide the highest quality weapons from across the whole kingdom of Vrimion at the most affordable prices. So what are you looking for, sir?” The merchant behind a glass counter said, gesturing at Mr Xanxus. The owner of the store, the dwarf that came with us – Gandalf – had already left and now it was just me, Mr Xanxus, the merchant and the other dwarf in the room. I studied the huge arsenal of weapons.

“Actually, the weapons are not for me, it’s for my pupil here.” the hunched assassin put his arm on my shoulder. The merchant smiled, unwantingly. It seemed like he doubted me.

“I would like two short swords if possible please.” I told the merchant, still searching for swords that suited my type.

“Okay young sir, to make things faster would you like to test your mage rank, it will help determine the most suited weapons for you,”

“Sure.” I had forgotten about the mage rankings, I had never taken a ranking test before, this was exciting! The merchant pulled out a crystal ball connected to a black gauge, from one of the cabinets and placed it on the counter.

“Zeref, only use 50% of your mana, you’re going to raise too much fuss, this merchant will disclose information to anyone if it’s for money, so let’s stay low.” the hunched assassin whispered into my ear, I nodded showing my understanding about the situation.

“Now young sir, if you’ll please place your hands on the ball and infuse all your mana into here.”

“Okay.” I listened to the merchant’s request and placed one hand on the ball.

[MP is being drained at an exponential rate]

[Do you want to cap MP output to 50%]

[Yes/No]

I picked ‘yes’ as always. Lightning mana cackled around my hand as I kept infusing it, I tried to control my other elements from showing but my flame magic was leaking into the ball a little. I remembered what Mr Xanxus told me and removed my hand, before the merchant found out anything else about me.

“Unbelievable! Ho – How is that possible?! C rank!” the merchant had a pale expression on his face. To be honest I was disappointed at hearing that but I had still capped myself at 50% power, so theoretically I was at B rank. That sounded extremely weak in my head at first, but I remembered that Miss Elena and Mr Xanxus were both at low A rank, while Gramps was at peak A rank. How powerful were the S rankers then?

“Boy may I please know your name! This is unheard of, I’m talking to a prodigy.” the merchant spoke up frantically, the sign of doubt gone from his face, now glowing with excitement.

“Haha, I’ll tell you my name if you give me a 20% discount on some short swords.” I smiled knowing I could exploit the situation, since this guy was an information addict, I could exploit the situation.

The hunched assassin gave me a hidden thumbs up, the merchant’s face turned back to normal and he replied, “That’s fine, but you also need to tell me your age and what family you’re from.”

“Deal.” I shook the man’s hand with a bright smile on my face.

“Back to the main topic. Mmh, two short swords, How about you try these?” the merchant turned around and opened a glass cabinet all the way to the far left and pulled out two dark short swords.

“Try these,” the merchant handed me two sheathed dark black swords, I cast my Inspect skill on them:

[C tier dual short swords]

[Durability: 200]

[Mana efficiency: 62%]

[Abilities: Damage Increase 20%]

[Weaknesses: Low Durability]

“Take some swings at that dummy.” the merchant pulled out a small button from his pocket and a hole in the ground formed, slowly a white dummy figure ascended from the hole, a complete replica of a human figure.

I pulled out the shimmering swords and held the coal black hilts in my two hands. I took a couple steps forward and was near the dummy. To warm up I spun the two short swords in my hands, I could feel the merchant’s astonished gaze at my easy handling of the weapons; to me they were like toys.

The swords were surprisingly light, it might’ve been because of my strength stat which was at 40. Who knows? I made a diagonal slash with the sword in my right hand and spun, slicing backwards as I spun anti-clockwise with the sword in my left. The dummy had two clean cuts through its torso, creating an ‘X’ shape; it fell on the ground in pieces. I looked back at the swords, Shucks! Both blades were chipped.

“Amazing!” I could hear the merchant’s admiration.

“These blades won’t do,” I said out loud placing the sheaths and the blades back on to the glass counter.

The merchant frowned, “What do you mean? Those were the most beautiful cuts I have ever seen.”

“The swords aren’t the problem, he’s the problem.” Mr Xanxus butted in looking at me.

“Sorry, but I’m really confused right now. Could you elaborate, young sir.” the merchant smiled scratching his head.

“He’s too powerful for the swords, he only did two moves and they already have chips in them, show us something better.” Mr Xanxus spoke crossing his arms in boredom.

“Oh my goodness! Astonishing!” the merchant picked up the sword from the counter and studied the chips on the blades. Mr Xanxus gave him a sharp look and he put them straight back down. I was also getting tired of this fool.

“Sorry about that. Ooo! I have the perfect blade for you young sir, wait here.” the merchant said excitedly, what was this waffler going to bring now? He took out some keys and opened a door furthest to our right, he entered the mysterious room disappearing out of sight.

After a couple minutes he came out with a rectangular box in his hand, coated in what looked like pure gold and red rubies engraved on its sides. Glamorous!

“Here we are! I am extremely sorry but we don’t have any better dual swords than the ones you chipped, here is our finest short sword, the hilt was forged with the scales of the mighty dragon: Voadhailis, and the blade was crafted from its claws. There are only 10 replicas of these in the world, so you can tell how rare these are, this one is number 3 out of the 10 .” the merchant spoke taking out the sheathed sword and carefully placing it in my hand.

I studied the weapon in my hand. Apart from the spectacular design of the red hilt, the silver blade was extremely well forged and refined; even with my inspect skill I couldn’t see any faults. It even emitted a powerful aura, I couldn’t even fathom how powerful the actual dragon was.

[S tier Short Sword: Voadhailis’s claw (Original)]

[Durability: 1000]

[Mana efficiency: 98%]

[Abilities: Damage Increase 70%

Damage Increase with flame magic use 100% – 250%

Increased power of flame attacks by 100%]

[Weaknesses: Speed of attacks slowed by 15% when not using flame mana

Reduces stamina rapidly when using its abilities

Reduces MP at a fast rate when using abilities]

‘Original?’ This was the original ‘Voadhailis’s claw’. Damn!! My luck was great today! The good thing was the merchant didn’t even know himself. This weapon was extremely versatile, however it had its flaws, it was basically a double edged sword. I could only use flame magic with it, if I didn’t it would just become a normal weapon. My thoughts were interrupted. Some peculiar notifications popped up in my view and a smile stretched across my face.

[Quest Title: Tame the Dragon of flames, become Voadhailis’s master!]

[New Quest: Become the owner of S tier Short Sword: Voadhailis’s claw (Original)]

[Rewards: 20,000 Exp]

[New Quest: Retrieve Voadhailis’s Body from the Human Kingdom]

[Rewards: 50,000 Exp]

[New Quest: Retrieve the potion of life from the Elven Kingdom and revive The Dragon of Flames Voadhailis]

[Rewards: Instant Level Up]

[New Quest: Make a bond with the Dragon of Flames Voadhailis]

[Reward: Instant Level Up x5]

[Do you want to accept the quests?]

[Yes/No]

Sweet! After a long time, I had finally gotten some quests. If I was still in training I would have finished these quests by now but school washindering this progress. What a drag! I decided to just accept the quest.

[Congratulations! You have completed the quest!]

[You have leveled up! You are now level 58 !]

[You have 5 Spare stat points!]

“Well sir, do you want to test out these weap-” before the merchant could finish, I spoke up.

With my poker face on I replied, “How Much?”

He picked up the vibe and replied, “500 platinum coins and 20,000 Gold coins.”

“That’s absurd! Zeref let’s just leave this time waster!” Mr Xanxus disputed turning around. I grabbed his sleeve and stopped him from leaving.

“520 platinum coins and my name.” I negotiated.

“550 platinum coins and your name.” the merchant returned with a smile.

“530 or no deal.” I renegotiated staying firm on my offer.

“Do you have that kind of money young sir?” the merchant gave a cold glare.

“Off course.”

“Done!” the merchant shouted, shaking my hand excitedly, “As a gift from us I’ll provide you with a top quality leather belt to hold your new sword as well.”

“Thank you.” I smiled at the kind gesture. The man again, took out keys from his pocket and walked through the door he previously went into. After a couple minutes he came out with a dark brown belt and matching grieves.

“Take this as a gift too, these are on the house. These grieves are scripted with defensive A grade spells.” the merchant gave me the jacket and belt.

“Do you mind if I give you a cheque instead, I’m not exactly carrying around that much money.” I said, scratching my head.

“Yeah that’s fine,” he pulled out a cheque book and a pen. “If you’ll please sign here.” As Instructed I did what he asked, then attached my sword to my back, grabbed the grieves and we were off.

“Oh wait, what’s your name?!” the merchant shouted as we were leaving.

“Zeref Amara.”

**

“We’re home!” It was already night time and the journey back was long, the stupid hunched assasin didn’t have a portal to return back, so we had to run back.

[You are fatigued, all stats will be reduced by 50%]

The system gave me debuffs like these all the time during my 8 years, but I never knew why.

“Ohh honey you’re home!” my mother ran down the stairs and gave me a hug. We were the same height now, how time flew by.

“Go get refreshed, your first day of school is tomorrow, Miss elena will pick you up in the morning.” she said before letting go and heading to the kitchen.

I will definitely protect her no matter what.