"Can you tell me your master's name at least?" After so many failed attempts at prying into the identity of William's mysterious master and her current whereabouts, Ellina couldn't help but ask this question.
Her curiosity had reached a fever pitch. If she knew the name, she could start digging for information about that master and might even get lucky enough to track her down.
She wanted nothing more right now than to meet such a legendary figure. If her disciple—one who lived in the academy disguised as a mere porter—was showing such awesome tricks and skills, then Ellina could only imagine what William's master was truly like.
She pictured a grand expert hidden in the high mountains or deep valleys, a sage of fire and hammer whose very presence would command the world's respect.
"I can't say anything without her permission," but William didn't even budge. He kept his tone respectful but firm, a wall of silence that no amount of Gold-grade pressure could crack. "You know she is my master, and I have to follow everything she says. Disobedience is not a trait she appreciates."
"Keeping herself this hidden is a miracle in itself," Ellina sighed, leaning back in her chair, the light of the forge dancing in her eyes.
"I can't believe such an outstanding master is present in the same world I live in without me knowing about her. I've spent my life studying the lineages of every great smithing house from the Western Plains to the Southern Peaks."
She never ceased trying to guess that master's identity. But from all the famous and renowned names she knew about, none matched the profile of William's teacher.
This woman wasn't only a mysterious master in her way of forging; she seemed to seclude herself away from any known force in the spirit master world.
Besides her unusual ways in forging, if such a person were known in this world, she would be famous for her bizarre techniques alone. The "Atmospheric Forging" he had demonstrated was enough to spark a revolution in the industry.
And yet, she had not even a single name to fit such criteria. If anyone else had told her about this, she might have questioned the integrity of the story rather than believing it.
But she was the one who saw everything. She had witnessed with her own two eyes how William dealt with the scarlet vibrant ore using those impossible skills.
"Then can you tell me more about the things you've done here?" After William finished eating, nearly sweeping half of the rich meal into his stomach with the speed of a starving wolf, she found the courage to ask. She leaned forward, resting her chin on her muscular hands.
"May I ask about the reason?" William didn't hurry to refuse her request. He was a veteran of a thousand negotiations from his past life. He knew he might get something useful—like more of that precious Spirit Breath potion—in return for a few tidbits of theoretical knowledge.
"I think that clay method can be used with other ores, right?" Ellina didn't hide her own thoughts. She was an artisan at heart; once she saw a door open, she had to see what was behind it.
When William didn't comment immediately, she continued with growing excitement, "If we used the thunderous lick ores, for example, instead of the scarlet vibrant ores, we could craft brutal weapons that can kill dark gold monsters even! The voltage alone would shatter their defenses!"
She seemed ecstatic, her golden aura flickering slightly with her passion. William understood the reason behind her enthusiasm.
"That might work in theory, but not practically," he said slowly, his voice taking on the instructional tone of a professor. "Such a berserk ore is hard to control using this clay."
"Why?" She forgot completely that she was speaking with an eleven-year-old kid and a porter. She didn't see the white uniform anymore; she saw a peer.
She then started a long session of discussion, talking to him just as she would talk to one of her colleague masters in the Forging Department's inner circle.
William didn't limit his answers to just yes and no. He started to slowly explain a simple concept known in the higher worlds, but seemingly forgotten here: the energy capacity concept.
"Homos clay has a good control ability, but its innate power limits its usage," he explained, tracing a diagram in the soot on the table.
"Think of it as a sponge. It can soak up the instability of the scarlet ore because their frequencies align. But thunderous lick ore has a chaotic, oscillating frequency. The clay would saturate and fail within seconds of the first hammer strike."
As he slowly explained this to her, showing how the spirit power inside materials reacted to external stressors, Ellina started to gain insights into a totally brand new world. Her understanding of smithing was being rebuilt from the ground up.
"If you are this curious, then I can ask my master to write a few ways to control some hard-to-forge ores to get better benefits from them," William finally threw in his piece, watching her reaction carefully.
"But that will come at a price, of course. My master does not give away her life's work for free."
"Anything is negotiable," Ellina didn't even hesitate to agree. Her eyes shone with a hunger for knowledge that outweighed any concern for crystals.
"Anything she wants will be agreed upon, with me acting as a guarantee. My word is my bond, and the department's resources are at my disposal for such a trade."
She wasn't overstepping her boundaries here. She was absolutely certain that any other forging master in the kingdom would agree if they were in her spot. To obtain recipes for stabilizing "forbidden" ores was the equivalent of discovering a gold mine.
"It's not a big deal," William casually said, waving a hand as if he were discussing the price of common grain rather than revolutionary forging techniques. "In addition to that, I can bring many manuals about how to forge new alloys and such to make outstanding gears.
Yet, the things made out of my master's methods and instructions will be sold at a high price. Of course, after cutting away the initial cost of the materials, my master will ask for a fifty percent share of any profit."
"This…" Ellina paused, her expression becoming unreadable.
William mistook her silence for a brewing refusal. He leaned forward, his eyes narrowing slightly as he prepared to defend the valuation.
"You have to know the value of such methods aren't only in the price of the final gears, but in the renovative way of thinking itself," William slowly said.
He was explaining the deep, intrinsic meaning behind the request; a fifty percent stake for the intellectual property of a master who could tame the scarlet ore was, in his mind, more than fair.
"It's not that. It's just the price seems a bit low," Ellina said, surprising him.
She knew from a purely profitable point of view that this was a deal no sane forge master would ever turn down. However, her eyes weren't fixed on the immediate gold or crystals. Her focus was entirely on the master shrouded in mystery behind William.
She wanted to ensure that whoever this woman was, she felt respected and well-compensated, creating an incentive for a long-term partnership with the Academy's department.
"What about this: your master will take fifty percent of any item's final sale price. There is no need to consider the material cost in this calculation. We will absorb the overhead," she proposed.
She had decided to offer a deal that was almost overly generous, hoping to build a strong, unbreakable relationship with William's master through this show of good faith.
"Deal!" William replied instantly. No matter what Ellina was planning or what political game she was playing,
William would be a fool if he turned down such an advantageous arrangement. "I'm going to meet my master soon anyway. After I return, I'll hand over the techniques if she agrees to the terms."
Despite the fact that there was no master—that he was the sole owner of all this knowledge—William was committed to the charade. He knew that the hearts of men were fickle and often shadowed by greed.
Ellina might be a good person with a genuine heart for the craft, but if someone with a darker mind or a twisted soul found out that an eleven-year-old porter held the keys to the most advanced forging techniques in the world, he would face problems he couldn't possibly survive.
He had to keep his "master" in the front as a kind of spiritual shield, a deterrent against those who might try to snatch the secrets from his hands.
"Alright, how long will you be away?" Ellina asked, her voice brimming with excitement. If not for the fact that William was currently in the middle of his final production phase, she likely would have sprinted across the compound to find the Headmaster and share the news of this impending alliance.
"Almost a week," William answered. He couldn't give her a more precise timeline. His return was fundamentally linked to the success of his spirit power upgrading plans in the Blessing Forest. He wouldn't come back until he was strong enough to at least defend himself.
"A week isn't that long," Ellina heaved a sigh of relief. As she spoke, she realized something significant but chose not to voice it.
If William could visit his master and return within a week, it meant the legendary smith must be living nearby, perhaps in the very forests surrounding the academy or in a secluded valley just beyond the city walls.
She decided to keep this observation to herself, tucking it away for later. She intended to find a way to search for the master personally once William left.
If she didn't fear creating a massive misunderstanding or offending the boy, she would have even considered tagging along and tracking his steps during the trip.
"May I ask what you are doing now?" Ellina asked as William, now in a refreshed state thanks to the food and the potion, stood up and began the final assembly.
She moved closer, standing right by his side as he began arranging the first batch of dim, clay-treated scarlet ores he had stabilized earlier.
"I'm building arrowheads," he said, gesturing with his head toward the mold she had provided earlier. His tone was dry, as if he were saying: Isn't it obvious?
"I mean, I know that. But what do you plan to do with this specific combination of ore?"
Ellina rolled her eyes in a funny, playful way. If not for her tough, soot-stained features and her massive stature, the gesture would have made her look quite pretty. She was captivated by the final stage of the process, sensing that the "matte" ore and the "needle" ore were about to become something the world hadn't seen before.