Soon after the fun, I managed to complete the urgent tasks in my underground layer. The second layer of the ward was established, Helga’s Divine Domain started to coalesce, and security measures were established.
It was time for me to leave once more.
I didn’t want to do that. I had missed Helga greatly, and another separation, no matter how short, was not a welcome development. Unfortunately, I had two important priorities. One was to empower her, and the other was to find the rest of the girls.
Neither could be done in Silver Spires.
Finding the others was obvious … searching for them couldn’t be done from Silver Spires. The school was already away from the centers of power even before my arrival, a haven for the noble children to slowly develop. The current situation isolated it even further. Trying to find the girls from there was not only inefficient, but any new spy ring would be caught easily.
Strengthening Helga was trickier. Increasing the production of the Divine Spark was very simple. The more students in Silver Spires, working to improve themselves through a study of magic, the more Divine Spark fragments there would be generated … and the faster Helga would get stronger.
Unfortunately, while it was simple, it was not easy.
Silver Spires were effectively in a political exile, and were being deliberately suppressed. I could easily take the role of the headmaster in disguise or put a puppet before increasing the student intake … but that would get the attention of the royal family, which then in turn bring the Eternals down.
However, trying to set up another school from scratch was an even more complicated process, and if a mysterious organization suddenly grew from nothing and surpassed Silver Spires in numbers, it would be even more difficult.
Political problems require political solutions…
So, I decided to travel to the Royal Capital, the biggest city on the material plane. Not only I could make the necessary moves that could be leveraged, but also I could set up the feelers necessary to an extent.
Admittedly, my melancholy about leaving her was a bit exaggerated, as I still have my ability to teleport back and forth, but with the several self-assigned missions that needed to be launched at once, I would be extremely busy.
There were people to be hired, spies to be organized, businesses created … no, I would be extremely busy, and it couldn’t be simply done by just disguising as a servant.
It was why I was at city gates, driving a large carriage while wearing armor, a huge hammer on my back, and my hand scarred with flames. My outfit shouted blacksmith, and my cart was filled with exquisite weapons … well, exquisite from a commoner perspective, as forging them took barely an hour with the help of my magic.
It was just there to establish a business, waiting for my turn at line, just to enter the outer city. Finally, it was my turn.
The guards looked disappointed at my arrival. After all, I was a sole traveler, which meant little money they could skim from the top.
“Reason for arrival,” one asked.
“I’m a blacksmith, trying to establish a business,” I answered. At my mention, their gaze widened, and grew even bigger once they looked at the cart.
“That’s a lot of weapons,” one said, their eyes glinting with greed.
The other joined immediately. “Bringing that many weapons into the city is suspicious. We need to check them carefully.”
“You’re right, of course,” I answered, but didn’t act panicking. Instead, I grabbed two swords, both considerably better than what they had, and passed them to the guards. “How about now. The number should be acceptable,” I said.
The guards didn’t answer, and I immediately grabbed more, this time two daggers, and their greed was stoked even further as I passed it to them, thinking that I was easy to extort. “We still need to…” he started while he played with his new sword.
“How about I check your old sword as well,” I said, and before he could react, I grabbed his old sword. “A piece of garbage,” I said as I bent it, and it immediately shattered.
The expression of the guards changed immediately. “On second thought, the numbers look more than satisfactory,” the guards changed their attitude, even ready to give the swords back.
“Good, you can keep them,” I said as I rode the cart into the city.
After all, my aim was not to avoid the guards or somehow save one or two weapons. If that had been the case, I could have just sneaked into the city and silently established a business.
No, I wanted everyone to know that a formidable blacksmith had arrived in the city, one that appeared from nothing… Which was not that uncommon in a world that was ruled by the system. A strong soul space and a certain amount of recklessness — and a lot of luck, both to survive against the monsters and to get decent achievements — was all that was needed for someone to climb up to the peak from nowhere.
Of course, while such entrances burned brightly, they were usually suppressed soon after. Oeyne’s fate was a good example. An incredible blacksmith who could forge enchantments directly to the metal, yet she had been suppressed until she had to escape to Silver Spires and live ignobly.
I wanted to replicate that trick.
There were multiple reasons for choosing a blacksmith. First of all, a blacksmith was not immediately threatening. Oh, they could take down a lot of low-level people if they had time, but that was true for every high-level individual. They lacked area-of-effect impact, which was what mages dangerous. Which meant, that blacksmiths represented opportunity rather than danger.
Especially when they were not a part of the Guild.
Which was the second part of my trick. I wanted the Guild to target me. Not because my objective was to actually hurt them — no, that was a nice side benefit — but I wanted a reason to expand aggressively, sell my weapons at the cheap, and helplessly align with a lot of parties despite the apparent disadvantages.
I was willing to give away my weapons for free as long as I could establish the necessary connections, but such disadvantageous actions would require an important reason — which the guild should provide with their arrogant ways.
Such connections should give me the necessary political connections so I could poke and prod the decisions about Silver Spires once I understood the political landscape. I could always pull some more obvious actions as a last resort, but I wanted to see if I could resolve it with some soft touches first.
Another advantage was the recruiting. I needed to hire and assess a lot of mages, with a preference for low-level and non-combat roles that might be desperate to accept a mysterious role; to create some additional source of Divine Spark for Helga … or maybe even find a few good candidates to be raised as Chosen.
Amusingly, a blacksmith's identity was better than a mage for it. To get a lot of apprentice candidates, a mage should be very high level, and such a high level one was expected to be discerning. And, if not, they would get a lot of unwelcome attention.
Making a blacksmith identity far more useful for recruitment.
Of course, while they were important, none of them was the main reason.
I wanted to send a message to Oeyne.
The girls were being hunted, and naturally, they would be very carefully hidden. I couldn’t find them directly, and since they weren’t stupid, they wouldn’t try to find me without having a reason to believe I returned.
The weapons I planned to sell would be that reason. I had worked together with Oeyne for a long time, and I knew her style intimately, just like she knew mine. By creating tens of thousands of weapons in that exact style and flooding the market with them cheaply, it would be a message for them.
Hopefully, the cheap prices I would push as I fought with the Guild would allow those weapons to spread all along the Empire, while the story of their creation would lead her right back to Capital.
Which was the most dangerous yet the safest place for her.
Pity I didn’t have a similar way to connect with the rest, or it would have been much easier.
“One step at a time,,” I murmured as I moved toward the commercial district at the outer city, ready to plunge the capital into a smithing crisis.
—
{Strength: 45 Charisma: 45
Precision: 45 Perception: 45
Agility: 45 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 45 Intelligence: 49
Endurance: 60 Wisdom: 45}
{Purified Divine Spark: 33280}
{Pseudo-HP: 15000 Mana: 20000}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Light - Chosen 7.4
Nature - Chosen 10}
{MINIONS
GODDESSES
Elven Goddess
Goddess of Knowledge}
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