When Jason regained his senses, he could only look at the fire giant while hiding his dry smile behind the mask.
"I was just looking at the exhibited goods when I saw you forging with that mysterious technique. Is that why every weapon has less than 1% impurities?"
Instead of beating around the bush, Jason decided to get straight to the point.
There was no need to hold back, to begin with.
He was in a neutral zone and if someone wanted to attack him defending himself was not really a problem.
Either way, Jason didn't sense any hostility from the fire giant. Instead, he seemed to be somewhat curious.
"You're a blacksmith too, am I right? It's not easy to figure out the difference between highly purified and almost perfectly refined weapons!
Some people are too ignorant to notice whether a weapon has been purified or not....those fools!! They're just complaining about the prices without caring about the effort we have to put in!"
When he heard this, Jason couldn't help but smile lightly.
The fire giant was more sympathetic than he had expected, and it looked like he needed someone to talk to.
As such, Jason continued speaking to him for quite some time.
In that time, he figured out that the blacksmiths' name was Jlarn and that his race was in fact the Lesser Fyr giants that were also called Fyrlg race!
Jlarn was very talkative despite his outer appearance that radiated a grumpy attitude along with the response to the earlier question that had sounded harsher than he had wanted it to sound.
Apparently, he was using the traditional blacksmithing technique of the Fyrlg race, called [Hammer of Fire; K?yldram] that was in fact a Terra-Advanced forging technique!
The technique sounded more like a weapon to Jason, but he had simply nodded his head, interested to know more about every detail of the technique.
He had seen quite a lot about the technique thanks to his observance of the entire forging process through his Emperor Eyes.
As such, he knew how the movement of the basic hammer strikes worked.
Unfortunately, after Jason got to know that it was a traditional technique of their race he couldn't simply ask Jlarn to sell him a copy of it.
This would be extremely rude, and instead of being hasty in wanting to lay his hands on the technique, Jason changed the topic.
Jason accessed his spatial ring and took out certain ores he had perfectly purified when he had learned about manufacturing guns and other weapons at Mike's house.
When he placed the small metal bars on the counter in front of Jason and Jlarn, the blacksmith who was at the peak of the Lique stage couldn't help but instinctively inspect them.
The mana they released was extremely pure and he couldn't sense any impurities within them.
Thus, Jason could visibly see how Jlarn's eyes widened more and more in shock upon seeing the thing that he held in his hand.
It took him a few minutes until he had evaluated all the different types of perfectly purified metals Jason had laid on the counter one after another.
He had a huge mountain of unrefined ores which he had exchanged at the trading market on Janur a few days ago, and wanted to test a few things.
Nevertheless, the perfectly purified goods in front of him were the best of the best of what mankind could provide.
They were rare materials at the Lique rank that were strong enough to be forged into good weapons without the need to purify them.
However, being perfectly purified changed everything about such materials, turning simple metal ingots into finished products that were several times more expensive than the raw material used and had less than one percentage of impurities.
Jlarn was fully aware of the value the perfectly purified ingots in front of him had as forging one was something he had achieved only once in his life as a blacksmith, and that had been an ingot at a much lower rank!
Turning towards Jason, he couldn't help but feel threatened as an uncomfortable feeling emerged within him.
"Did you forge them? What do you want?!"
The blacksmith's mind was running wild and the worst-case scenario flashed through his mind.
As such, he was already expecting Jason to ask for his forging technique in exchange for a certain number of perfectly purified goods.
Jason was a little bit astonished about the blacksmith's behavior, but it seemed like Jlarn could read his body language perfectly well.
'He is more perceptive than I thought!' He thought before he simply asked.
"Are you up for a deal?"
This caused the blacksmith to squint his eyes, only to size up Jason once again.
His talk with the man behind the silver dragon mask had been refreshing, but he couldn't help but feel that the man at the peak of the 1st Lique stage was more capable than he was.
Even more so if he didn't lie about forging the perfectly purified Lique rank ingots himself!
However, he couldn't help but feel intrigued about what kind of deal someone at Jason's caliber could have.
Instead of looking at Jason like someone who was below him due to his mana core rank, the blacksmith had long since noticed that he was no match against him.
Jlarn had never focused on increasing his combat prowess, let alone learning many martial art techniques to a high degree.
As such, he had asked almost immediately, "What deal?"
At that moment, Jason knew that he had caught Jlarn's interest, and once he heard of the deal, the blacksmith wouldn't be able to reject his offer!
Nevertheless, Jason remained silent for a minute as if he was pondering about something before he answered,
"I was inspired by your forging process and felt like I had received enlightenment. Unfortunately, the feeling dispersed when you stopped forging.
How about I give you one perfectly purified Lique rank ingot in exchange for observing your forging process from the beginning?
Well, at least if you are allowed to have visitors who look at your forging process while you exert the Hammer of Fire forging technique!"
This deal astonished Jlarn because it was something he hadn't expected. Hearing that Jason was enlightened while observing his forging process only for a short time sounded nice and made him feel a little proud of himself.
However, even then, the price Jason wanted to pay for looking at a forging process that took less than four hours was too high.
Because of that Jlarn hesitated only to recall what Jason's last sentence had been.
'There is no problem if someone wants to look at our race's forging technique...if he comprehends something by himself there shouldn't be a problem at all!!'
With that thought in mind, Jlarn accepted Jason's offer, unaware that he had just made a deal with the devil.
If the blacksmith were to know that Jason could see and imprint every single move, mana circulation, and the exact amount of mana that had been utilized by every person in his proximity, he wouldn't have accepted the deal so easily.
In the end, Jlarn had accidentally taught Jason the entire Hammer of Fire forging technique in just a day!
Jlarn had even exposed several different ways to use the Hammer of Fire technique, thinking that he had to show off and that he should allow Jason to make full use of the price he had paid to observe his forging process.
Meanwhile, Jason's cost to learn the technique was only a few perfectly purified Lique rank ingots, and not even close to the information he had imprinted in his mind!
After he left the forging shop, only slightly more than one day had passed, and he had more than enough time to do different things.
However, now that he had truly used his Emperor Eyes to learn a technique focused on auxiliary occupations, Jason couldn't help but feel exhilarated!
With that in mind, he accessed his spatial rings to take a proper look at the goods he had still left, as his eyes fell on a bunch of potions Dalia had concocted for him months ago.
They were perfectly purified due to the silver origin flame she had, and Jason couldn't help but grow sad as he thought about his deceased master.
Nevertheless, he couldn't allow sadness to engulf him.
Instead, he had to think of a way to exploit a runemaster in the same way he planned to take care of the alchemist.
At that moment, he recalled the numerous runes his Emperor Eyes had imprinted into his mind every single time he had looked at a world bridge and how they were composed!
A bright smile emerged on his lips as he paved his way through the crowded street.
'I guess it's finally time to learn a concocting- and rune inscribing technique!'
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