The Cornflower Witch Chapter 184

“Uncle Okan, is the long knife I ordered ready?” The young girl came to the blacksmith street in the city and found the familiar shop.

It should have been picked up a month ago, but Hylial had been engrossed in her studies and completely forgotten about it.

“It’s you! I made that knife a long time ago, but you never came to pick it up. I thought something had happened to you.” After hearing this, the blacksmith uncle took out a long knife encased in a black scabbard from the back room.

“Take a look, what do you think of its quality? If it doesn’t feel right, I can make some adjustments for you.”

Taking the knife, Hylial examined it carefully. Its appearance and shape resembled the ‘Goose Quill Saber’ in her memory. When she drew the blade, its color was dark gold, appearing almost black from a distance, but upon a slight turn, a faint golden reflection appeared. The blade’s lines were smooth, and it could easily cut through leather.

【Glimmergold Greatsword】(Tier 2, Rare): A long knife crafted from glimmergold, exceptionally sharp, comfortable to handle, and possesses demon-breaking properties. (Sharpness +3, Demon-breaking +2)

“Try swinging it. There’s some scrap gray cowhide here you can use.” The blacksmith uncle hung a piece of ‘Tier 1, Excellent’ damaged cowhide.

“Okay.” Hylial gripped the knife and swung it through the air. It felt half as light as black steel, and with a slight acceleration, she could feel a hint of coldness from its sharp edge.

She held the knife and, without applying any extra force, merely dragged it across the leather, cutting a smooth opening in the tough cowhide.

The smooth, effortless cut was captivating. If she had this knife that day, she probably could have cut down the petrified lizard forty times, completely exhausting its regenerative power and causing it to die without being able to perform its mist form.

After trying it several times, Hylial put away the knife and thanked the blacksmith uncle for his meticulous craftsmanship.

“Here are the remaining 50 Gold Coins from the order.” She took out the Gold Coins she was carrying.

“You don’t need that much. Didn’t we agree on a total of 90 Gold Coins? You already paid a deposit of 50 Gold Coins.”

“I know. The extra 10 Gold Coins are a gift from me, as a token of my gratitude.” She wasn’t short on money now.

“All right, I’ll accept it.” The other party no longer stood on ceremony, and chuckled as he accepted the bag of Gold Coins.

After walking around the shop and looking at various weapons, Hylial remembered the 【Black Goat Horn】 that Acanash gave her when he asked for her help previously, and asked the blacksmith uncle how to use it.

“If you’re referring to a Black Goat Horn of the ‘Nightmare’ Aspect, I suggest crafting a dagger from it,” the blacksmith mused.

“I once learned a special weapon design called the ‘Black Dream Dagger,’ which has strong demon-breaking effects and, when plunged into an enemy’s body, inflicts mental damage, making it quite unique.”

“Some large monsters, while physically strong, are not as mentally resilient. Attacking them from that angle would be more effective.”

“The reason it’s a dagger and not a sword or spear is because if the blade is too far from the ‘Black Goat Horn’ in the hilt, its effectiveness diminishes. Therefore, a dagger is the most suitable.”

“Oh, and by the way, daggers can also be used as ritual implements for many ceremonies. This is quite profound, and you’ll understand more about ‘rituals’ and ‘sacrifices’ once you reach Tier 3.”

“So it has such a use!” Hylial found it quite novel, then thought that the Black Goat Horn wouldn’t be of much use if she kept it, so she might as well hand it over to be crafted.

“I’ll send the Black Goat Horn over later. Please help me craft a dagger, Uncle.”

“No problem.” The other party patted his sturdy chest.

“In addition, I’d like to ask you to craft another long knife for me, but this time, it needs to be much slenderer.” Her physique and handling differed from Acanash’s, so compared to the knife she held now, some adjustments would be needed.

The next day, Hylial brought the Black Goat Horn and discussed the detailed crafting of the two new weapons with the blacksmith uncle.

“Here is a deposit of 100 Gold Coins. Thank you for your trouble.” After paying the deposit for the two weapons, Hylial bid farewell.

Carrying the long knife, Hylial went to the Guild for mailing.

“Who would you like to mail it to?” the staff member asked.

“It’s a student at the ‘Wolf Wilds’ outpost, named ‘Acanash’,” Hylial recalled.

“Alright.” After writing it down, the other party calculated the postage fee and informed the girl.

“The postage fee is 2 Gold Coins in total, which includes transfer and transit fees, as well as the cost of contacting the student for you.”

“Okay.” After paying, Hylial received a confirmation slip.

Afterward, she thought for a moment and wrote a letter, handing it to the staff member.

“Please mail this letter to the ‘Forest Spring Orchard’ outpost, for student ‘Florella’. She joined the Woodland at the same time as me.”

“No problem.” Having done all this, Hylial left, feeling satisfied.

Returning to her residence, it was still early. Hylial read a book for a while before Sophiedina returned, bringing prepared dinner for the young girl.

“I bought this on my way back: a roasted goose, two portions of bread, and two bottles of chilled juice.” Sophiedina placed the packaged food on the table.

“Thank you~”

In the evening, the two sat at the dining table, and Sophiedina spoke of the day’s events.

“I’ve been learning about spell models from Teacher Dix recently, and I heard someone talking about you.” Sophiedina sipped her juice in small mouthfuls, gently pinching a piece of bread with her slender fingers.

“Oh, what were they saying about me?” Hylial recalled, as she rarely interacted with students from the same year.

“Everyone said you were very mysterious, rarely seen, and because you cultivated a large number of rare quality crops, some teachers discussed it, and that’s how they learned about you.”

“Some of the students who came to Glittering Gold Plain with you said that you were very aloof back then and didn’t talk to them on the way, probably thinking their strength wasn’t enough to converse with you.”

“Is that so?” Hylial tilted her head, her snowy silver hair curving over her shoulders and sliding down a little.

“I was actually paying attention to my surroundings at the time, because it was my first time in the Woodland, so I was curious about everything.”

Hearing Hylial’s explanation, the black-haired girl opposite couldn’t help but raise her hand and chuckle.

“But in everyone’s eyes, it wasn’t like that. However, many people also admire you, after all, advancing to Sequence Two within a year really surprised a lot of people.”

“Some people found out that you live in that valley and wanted to sneak a peek at how you did it, but the teachers warned them that if they disturbed you, they would be punished, and that’s what scared off the enthusiastic students.”

Sophiedina and Lia chatted about interesting things in their study life, which also gave Lia some understanding of the other students’ situations in the city.

In the end, Sophiedina asked with some curiosity, “Don’t you usually go out to gatherings or anything?”

“Are there gatherings? No one told me,” Hylial softly retorted, indicating that she wasn’t an unsociable person either.

“Your situation is quite rare,” Sophiedina shook her head slightly, then told Hylial about the typical experiences of students.

“If they’ve just entered the Woodland, new students usually stick together and often exchange experiences, since they all chose the same outpost and most of their paths of study are similar.”

“Secondly, everyone is also afraid of being out of the loop, missing out on opportunities, or falling behind. So they actively participate in gatherings. Anyway, such events only happen once a month, they don’t waste time, and they can also hang out with peers and relax their overly nervous and stressed minds.”

“Haven’t you worried about any of this?”

“I was planning to get the crops in the valley sorted, complete the mission evaluation, and was busy familiarizing myself with and improving crop cultivation. Then I had to spend time clearing debris from the valley and teaching those toads some basic routines to help me out…” Hylial counted the tasks she had completed on her fingers, indicating that she hadn’t thought about anything else.

“I think I understand.” Sophiedina cut short Hylial’s explanation and handed her a cut roasted goose leg.

“Lia is the kind of person who completely immerses herself in something when she focuses on it. No wonder she’s progressing so quickly,” she mused with some emotion.

“How about this, I’ll host a gathering the day after tomorrow. You should come and meet the other students your age in the city.”

“Okay.”

“Alright, I’m done eating.” Sophiedina put down her knife and fork and stood up.

“Will Lia be taking a hot bath tonight? I don’t mind if we go together, you know.” Normally, the two bathed separately, as the bathtub was limited to one person per day.

“Uh…” Lia looked at the black-haired girl of similar height in front of her, then thought for a moment and shook her head.

“Maybe next time.”

She still preferred bathing alone. In this life’s memories, she only recalled bathing with Alicia when she was little, and Alicia always liked to fight with her in the water, which left a deep impression.

“Lia’s shy, giggle.” Sophiedina winked at the girl, then picked up her change of pajamas and headed to the back bathroom.

Living under the same roof for two months, the two girls had gone from initial polite unfamiliarity to gradually getting to know each other, occasionally even exchanging minor jokes and teasing one another.