"...Alright, girl, describe how you want your sword. You can just call me Kjori," I say to the girl who is the swordswoman. Evelyn is sitting in a chair, rapidly reading the book I gave her, while I start to light the forge.

"Just call me Eve. I need a sword that's light but very sharp and good for thrusting. It can't be too thin, but it can't be too thick either, while still having an extremely resilient blade and tip."

"It also needs to withstand violent impacts and explosions, as well as be capable of handling high temperatures. It needs to disperse the impact from my strikes well, which are quite... severe."

"The blade needs to be large, but not too large. I think 95 centimeters is perfect. It also needs to have a balanced center of mass because, although I use thrusts a lot, I still use more standard strikes and defenses that involve redirecting blows."

"The hilt should also have a firm grip, allowing me to hold it without issues even if the handle is covered in blood or any other slippery liquid."

"It would also be good for the sword to be rigid, but slightly flexible, so it doesn't break if I thrust or cut into something very hard and rigid."

"..." Eve gives a good description of what she needs, and I think about what kind of sword that is, quickly finding one that fits the description.

'This is good. This girl knows exactly what she needs.' She also deserves a degree of respect. I hate indecisive people who don't know what they want and drag out the choice.

"So, you want a [Cut-and-Thrust Sword]. It's a good choice, great for thrusting but still good for cutting. Of course, I'll make some customizations based on your body, but that's the general idea," I say, approving of her choice.

"I actually have the perfect sword for you. It's the [Bloody Rose], a sword model I was already planning to make, and it's perfect for you," I say as she nods in approval.

"Perfect, then. As long as it's exactly what I asked for, I accept it," she says while I turn my attention to the other girl, who is far too curious.

"And you, curious brat, what do you want?" I say to her. She looks at me angrily but swallows her pride since I'm the one who will make her weapon.

"I don't want anything specific, just something that helps with elemental magic, isn't too complicated to carry with me, and..."

"I'll make you a big magic staff," I cut her off. She looks furious, but I don't care about her feelings. She doesn't even know what she wants, so she has no right to complain about what I say.

She looks at Evelyn. Evelyn looks at me and then at the girl, deciding to speak up and choose her side.

"Syl'Vyr, you're a mage. If it works, it's fine, right? You said yourself you didn't want anything specific. If you think it's bad, then give a real description..." Evelyn suddenly falls silent while staring at the curious girl.

"But... star? That form?" Out of nowhere, the girl starts muttering things while Evelyn stares at her.

'Is that telepathy magic? But I don't feel any magic...' They seem to be communicating, but I can't sense any magic. However, I decide not to get involved until the curious girl finally decides to speak up properly this time.

"Okay, okay, hey! I know what I want now. I want a large staff, but with a large magic jewel of the [Star] type, you know? Those big, round jewels that float at the top of the staff's shaft."

"And the staff will be made of wood, but a specific type that can conduct elemental magic more easily. I also want my staff to have a design that's good for holding and moving."

"And I want the staff's name to be [Celeste]." The girl finally gives it a proper form. Not as detailed as the swordswoman's, but still better than saying she doesn't know what she wants.

"Now, I want you all to go outside. Only Evelyn and I are allowed in this forge room." I start ushering them out and soon return, seeing that Evelyn is avidly reading the book.

"Skip catalog 1. It doesn't matter for actually learning about magical relics. It's just stupid knowledge," I tell her. She looks at me and nods.

"I already skipped that part. It doesn't make sense as part 1 of the book. The book's creator should have put a more relevant introductory topic for the first experience. Frankly, it's a pretty bad first part, although the rest seems great..."

"I wrote this book," I say, making her tense up.

"..."

"Don't worry about it. I wrote it way in the past, and I was immature. I admit the first part was poorly fitted, but the rest is good," I say, brushing off her complaints about the beginning.

"I-It's very interesting. I didn't know you could use magic like this. You know, I don't have much talent for learning magic, even though I have a large magic pool," she says, admitting this and changing the subject.

"I understand. I'm not very talented at magic either, despite having a lot of magic. It's natural for many artisans to be like that." You can't just follow the path of a mage because we have magic.

At least in forging and creating magical relics, we can use the talents we have without anyone being able to interfere or just mock our skills.

"Can I use your tools? I promise to be careful not to break anything," she says, and I decide to approve.

"Sure, but if you break it, you pay for it. Simple as that... Besides, I want to see your skills directly. So, how about a test?" I say, going to my desk and picking up a piece of wood, 30 centimeters on each side.

I quickly bring it to her, handing over the large wooden plank to see how far her skills go.

"Carve an image into the wood. It can be anything," I say, handing her some of my tools.

"Can you do it?"

"Probably," she shrugs, accepting everything and putting the book in the corner before taking my tools. I watch her begin, and the start is quite disappointing.

The carving looks extremely poor and amateurish, like someone who doesn't know what they're doing. But I understand it takes time, so I watch as the wood takes shape.

And as time passes, the image takes form, and it's an impressive likeness of herself, even surprising me with her talent. It's not as refined as one might expect, but it's undoubtedly above many others.

Even the details of the mask on the wood are perfectly depicted. After 6 hours of just observing her carving, she finishes. It's simple, but it has elegance, skill, and technique.

"Very good, although your use of the tools was amateurish. You should have used the finer tools more during the creation process, not just for the details but for the overall shaping."

"Besides, the overall carving is too rough, which ruins part of its value. If you were to sell this now, you could get maybe 1000 gold coins, but more than that would be difficult."

"And considering the art itself, frankly, it's not worth much. The wood you carved this on is worth 5,000 gold coins per meter," I say, pointing out the negatives.

"I see... It was fun. And I still look beautiful in the image," she says proudly, trying to see the positive sides. I partly agree; the art, while not very valuable, is still beautiful.

What reduces the art's value is that she carved a masked image of herself, and frankly, she's not famous enough for a picture of her to hold great value.

"Yes, it's a good form. But do you know how to make objects that aren't flat?" I ask, giving her a round wooden block.

"Turn this into a... ring. It's simple, but it has a shape that requires skill," I say as she takes the wood and starts working.

I watch carefully as she carves the wood. This time, she does a bit worse, not really understanding how to use the tools properly, so it takes a long time. After hours, the result is a very ugly wooden ring.

But she managed to give it a decent shape, although she made it too thin, which ruined the design.

"This is horrible. Next time, don't try to add details while fixing the ring's errors and imperfections. Only add details after you've completely fixed the ring's base shape. Doing both at once just creates more mistakes," I say as she looks at the flaws as if she doesn't understand.

"It seemed fine while I was fixing it," she still tries to find the error, even though it's obvious.

"It doesn't matter if it seemed fine while you were fixing it. That's not the right method. First, you need to make the base completely, and only then do the details. It's the same as taking a raw diamond; you can't make a ring with it without refining it first," I say, irritated by her attempts to justify it.

"Okay, okay, I think I understand... If I try to shape it and add details at the same time, it's like messing with hot iron, trying to shape a sword while simultaneously trying to sharpen the blade, which goes wrong," she offers a good analogy.

"...More or less. You can't sharpen a sword that's hot and still being shaped. The same goes for relics. You can't make a relic while working on its details. First, you need to make the relic, then the details."

"Now, try again. I'm going to start melting the materials in the forge to make the items for your companions."

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