It took a minute to find a blacksmith from where I was but eventually, I was pointed in the right direction by a friendly woman at a booth that sold some delicious meat skewers, they were from Cutter wolves and seasoned like a steak before being slow roasted. Just mmmmm is all I have to say.

  But anyways I followed the directions and came to a store front with a sign that said ‘Warning! Extreme Heat!’

  “Well, I guess they aren’t totally wrong to say that? But is that literally all that they have for a sign? Where’s the sign that actually says it’s a smithy?”

  “It’s because only the people that can withstand the heat are qualified to have me work on something.” A gruff voice said as a man with no shirt on came from around the corner. This dude looked like some kind of Zangief rip off mixed with a certain alchemist teachers’ husband…

  I stood there just staring as damn this dude was ripped! He had steam practically billowing off him from the heat.

  “Hey! Up here ya freak.” He snapped his fingers a couple times and pointed up to his face. I blushed a little and shook my head.

  “I don’t swing that way, just didn’t expect to see what looks like a blacksmith from a fantasy novel to actually appear. I need this repaired.” I showed him the knife while saying.

  “Jesus fuck son! What’d you do to that poor weapon!” He yelled as he grabbed the knife from my hand and looked at it.

  “I bought it off one of the stalls a little bit ago and first thing afterwards started looking for a smithy. I was pointed towards your shop.”

  “I see… Well, come in then.” He sighed and opened the front door. As soon as he did, it was like I was standing inside of a bonfire that was lit using jet fuel. I felt as my hair was burned and even the clothes on my body started smoking. It hurt but I needed this thing to be repaired so I grit my teeth and started walking towards the open door while the smith stood there watching me with a smirk.

  “Can you handle It boy? Not just anyone can walk into my shop.” He stood there smugly watching me burn. I knew this was a test, but I wasn’t going to turn back, This was one of those crossroad moments everyone has in life and I was determined to not take the easy way that results in being weak.

  I couldn’t respond as the very air was scorching to breath so I just held it for as long as I could to lower the pain I had to endure. I been through worse than a little heat like this Dammit!

  I finally made it to the doorway and with a smile I pushed… Tried to push the smith aside but I might aswell had tried to move the very building itself. He chuckled before grabbing me and pulled me in like he was lifting a piece of paper and sat me down on a stool that looked towards a gigantic forge that looked like it was fueled by lava. The inside of the forge was very neat compared to what you would think, there were neat piles of different metal bars arranged on shelves, partially finished weapons sitting on a nearby bench and everything that a blacksmith would need to create armor and weapons. I even saw some farm tools sitting in a corner!

  “That was pretty fun to watch boy, what’s your name?” He asked as he pushed down on a bellow to heat up the forge even more. I tried to talk but my lungs were still cooling down.

  “Oh yea that’s right, my bad here.” He quickly handed me a glass of water that was faintly glowing blue. I took a drink and the inside of my body went from being on fire, straight to being frozen like I just swallowed a iceberg. It did help me to feel better and I was even able to talk again.

  “Ahem, I’m James, what’s yours?” I had to cough a little but managed to croak out. He hadn’t once looked back at me as he was too busy looking through different metals then looking at the knife, thinking for a few seconds, shaking his head and throwing the bar back and looking at another type. He did this for a few minutes before he answered my question.

  “Name’s Burt, Burt Bronson. I been a smithy as long as I been a Gifted. I got Fire control and come from a long line of smiths even before the fall. So, this knife, you know it’s actually supposed to be a sword right? It’s been broken down to this worthless thing but with a little work I should be able to bring it back to a decent shape. It’ll take a while and I have other orders to fulfill before I can devote a good chunk of time to this.” He put down the rusty knife next to a bar of some kind of iron/silver looking metal and handed me a paper.

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  “This is the price and contract if you want me to work on it.” I took it and looked it over before going wide eyed and slack jawed. He wants 10 rank B cores or 2 rank A core, plus payment to cover the costs of metal and various other materials needed.

  “Is this for real? I haven’t killed anything over C ever, there’s no way I can pay this.”

  “Welp that sucks, it would’ve been a good weapon but if that’s what you want…” He looked at me with the ‘you really sure you can afford it?’ look. I sighed and looked around as I thought before my eyes crossed over the farm tools in the back corner again.

  “Hmmm, what would it cost to turn this into a farming tool? I have a weapon and I have partners to help, what I need is a good farming tool.” I turned back to Burt but he just stared at me in anger for some reason.

  “You want me! To turn this, that could result in a very strong weapon. Into. A. Tool!” He yelled at me as he shook his fist. “This is a weapon for killing you fool! Not for some weak farm bullshit!” He continued screaming but I just held my hand out calmly.

  “Then we are done Burt, I’ll be taking that back now and find someone else who can do what I want.”

  That stopped him dead in his tracks like being splashed with cold water. I don’t think he expected someone to react like I did. Maybe he was hoping to intimidate me into paying? But I didn’t want a weapon, I wanted something to help me farm now that it popped into my head. Plus I don’t think this knife could be repaired back to its former glory of killing anyways. Might aswell be turned into something to help grow.

  “Haaaaa, I can do that…. It’ll cost you a B rank core and I’ll cover the materials.” Burt sighed and he looked slightly defeated. I just smiled before signing the new contract. It’ll take a minute for me to get the core but I’ll have it in the next couple of days. I’ll let you hold onto the knife as collateral until then.” He thankfully agreed and after shaking hands I left the smithy and started on my way back to the farm. But before I could my pocket started buzzing and ringing as the phone I forgot I had started to go off.

  I looked at it and Missy’s name popped up as an incoming call.

  “Hello? Missy?” I said with slight confusion. “I wasn’t expecting a call until tomorrow?”

  “That’s right and I’m so sorry but Rob needs to see you asap! Are you still in town?”

  “Yea, I just finished dropping something off at the smithy. Give me a few minutes and I’ll be there.” She thanked me and hung up. I wonder what could be going on that I was personally called? I had to head home and prepare for my family’s arrival…

  ----

  I ran to HQ since I didn’t know what to expect and saw as Rob and Missy were out front waiting for me. They both had worried expressions as they saw me.

  “What’s wrong? What happened? I gotta get back home quickly so I can cleanup before Hector and Jasmine get there.” I said as I walked up to them while catching my breath, That’s one thing I’m thankful for, when I ranked up, my body got stronger and that definitely helped me deal with the Kwehs.

  “That’s just the thing Jim, It’s about Hector and Jasmine… And Julie… They brought her through the portal with them.” My world tilted when he said that. My hearted skipped and sped up at the same time as the headlines of what happened to the poor test subject crossed my mind. Except it was Julies face that smiled at me from the paper instead of the poor boy.

  “Why.” Was all I could ask as I fell to my knees.

  “She was showing to much power back on earth James, we went over that. The earth isn’t filled with enough mana and magic yet to sustain people like us.”

  “Like us?” That part stuck out to me. “You mean?”

  “Yea, her Avatar powers manifested and they had no choice and ran to the portal when she started to convulse.” He leaned down to me. “She’s fine right now Jimmy. She is in the hospital right now being treated in a special wing under the HQ’s name for Avatars only. They wanted me to get ahold of you and let you know so you can get over there.”

  I was still shaking as my adrenaline peaked. But I sighed in relief after some time passed. “You could have led with something like, ‘Everything’s fine, but here’s what happened.’ Ya know something like that?”

  “I wasn’t thinking right, I’m sorry, I was just as worried when I heard. But let’s head over there right away ok?” Rob helped me up and with Missy in tow, we hopped in Robs personal vehicle and in under a minute we arrived at the hospital. Hector was sitting on a park bench outside. I jumped out and started running as soon as the vehicle slowed down enough.

  “Is she ok! What happened?” I bombarded Hector with questions but he just held up a hand to quiet me down.

  “She’s fine now. She is up and just as happy as ever. The doctors say that they have seen some signs of other kid’s powers manifesting early but nothing to this extent. However Julie is now going to be forced to stay on this side of the portal for the rest of her life until Earth can be able to sustain her. I heard that other world portals are manifesting and it’s helping to increase the density of magic in the air, but it just won’t be fast enough…” Hector rambled for a bit before he sat back down and covered his face with his hands.

  “We were training her like usual when it happened. She has both Fire and Healing, but also something mixed from the both of our powers… It’s like a white flame almost. It gives off no heat but at the same time is like a warm blanket on a cold winters day. But when she used it that was when her Avatar powers fully awakened. She fell to the ground and started seizing. We knew what this was a sign of and I just picked her up and started full on running to get her to this side.”

  “But the portal was over 30 minutes away from our house! You ran that whole way?” I said with complete shock.

  “The things you do for your children haha, you might understand it in the future son. But enough about me, here’s an extra keycard. Go up to room 314, Julie has been waiting to see you.”