"You can actually tell just by looking at it that it’s galathrium?" Quinn asked, his voice laced with a genuine touch of surprise.

"Well, yeah, of course I can," the tall girl shrugged casually, adjusting her stance. "I’m a forger by trade."

Looking her up and down properly for the first time, it only then dawned on Layla and Quinn that the girl was wearing a heavy, soot-stained blacksmith’s apron over her clothes. Furthermore, she sported a tiny, distinct logo embroidered onto the front—an image of a clenched fist positioned right in front of a hammer that was entirely engulfed in flames.

’Where on earth have I seen that specific symbol before?’ Quinn thought to himself, wrinkling his brow as he racked his brain to trigger the memory.

Then, like a sudden bolt of lightning, it hit him. Quinn vividly recalled seeing that exact same fiery hammer logo stamped onto the box of advanced armor that Erin had proudly purchased earlier that very day. If he remembered the details correctly, the packaging had explicitly listed a pair of names representing the creators: "Alex and Asahi."

"Are you Alex?" Quinn said, blurting out the first name that came to mind.

"Seriously? This is the second time today that this exact thing has happened to me," the girl replied in a profoundly tired, exasperated voice. "No, I am NOT Alex. I’m Asahi. Alex happens to be my business partner—but seriously, how on earth is he getting so much more recognition and attention than me around here?"

"...Who exactly is Alex?" Layla wondered aloud, looking between Quinn and the frustrated girl, completely left out of the loop.

Asahi shook her hands frantically in front of her to dismiss the topic. "Just completely forget about him. Right now, I just want to see those raw metals for myself."

Quinn carefully lifted the medium-sized box and placed it directly onto the surface of the stone stall table, stepping back to give her some room. Asahi immediately got straight to work. She reached out and grabbed a random piece of jagged scrap metal from the pile, and the moment her fingers made contact with the material, it began to glow with a brilliant, golden-orange hue.

"Hmm, yeah, there’s no doubt about it, this piece is definitely galathrium," Asahi muttered to herself, turning it over. She then grabbed another chunk, then another, and then another in rapid succession. "This one’s silver, this is galathrium, this one is tin, more silver..."

Every single time her bare hands gripped a new piece of metal, the material would instantly begin to heat up rapidly without her using any form of visible flame. Despite the intense heat radiating from the glowing chunks, Asahi didn’t seem the least bit bothered or burned by it. It was the very first time either Quinn or Layla had ever seen someone manipulate metal in such a strange way, which immediately made them believe that Asahi must be an Original. The only detail throwing their theory off was the digital watch resting on her wrist; it explicitly stated "level 4," whereas true Originals were almost always level 8 and above, given that they had far more years to practice and refine their hereditary powers.

"Alright, so there are definitely some decent chunks of galathrium hidden in here, but most of this pile is just a mix of other common metals," Asahi concluded, wiping her hands on her apron. "By the way, despite the fact that these pieces are all in various advanced stages of rusting, I can easily tell them apart because they all possess completely different melting points. Also, the natural color gives them away."

Pulling a sleek pocket register out from her apron, Asahi began performing some quick mental calculations, typing the figures steadily into the device.

"So, how about we say 5,000 credits for the entire box?" Asahi asked, looking up at them. "Honestly, the galathrium alone is worth a solid 4,000, even with it being such a relatively small amount. It’s just such an incredibly hard material to acquire these days." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Quinn’s jaw nearly fell completely to the floor in utter shock at the massive sum of money.

"Deal!" Layla stated immediately, not wanting to give the girl any chance to change her mind.

"Wait, you mentioned that you’re a forger, right? Do you happen to sell beast bows?" Quinn asked, shifting the focus of the transaction.

"Ah, right! Preferably something in the intermediate tier, but honestly, I’ll be completely fine even if it’s just a basic tier bow," Layla eagerly added, her eyes lighting up at the possibility.

Asahi mumbled thoughtfully under her breath, "I think I might only have one left in stock right now, but I’ll need to go check my stall to be absolutely sure."

The trio walked over to Asahi’s personal stall, and the forger immediately began to rummage around, searching deep inside one of the many heavy wooden crates stacked in the back. Normally, bows were not something that Asahi actively focused on creating, primarily because it wasn’t a very common or popular weapon for people to use in combat. Most buyers were far more likely to purchase standard melee weapons like flails, heavy axes, or swords, which comprised the vast majority of her current retail stock.

After opening at least three different crates and tossing aside various pieces of ironmongery, she was finally able to locate the very last bow she had on hand.

The weapon she pulled out was a very lightweight, aerodynamically designed bow. It was primarily a striking grayish-purple color, with the tips of the flexible limbs painted a vibrant yellow. The central riser section featured two small bits of polished metal that sharply stuck out near the grip. This specialized little section was known as the bow sight, and it was engineered specifically to help an archer aim accurately and lock onto targets much faster.

"Yep, I knew it, this was definitely the last one," Asahi stated, holding it out. "You know, I could just directly trade you this bow in exchange for the box of metal. It’s pretty much the exact same amount cost-wise."

Quinn nodded in immediate agreement, and Layla excitedly took the weapon, immediately pulling back the string to test its draw strength and tension.

The two of them looked to be quite incredibly happy with their new purchase, so Asahi decided to give them a little extra valuable information regarding the history of the weapon.

"By the way, that specific bow is officially called the Starlingshot, and it boasts some pretty good built-in accuracy. It’ll always aim true at least 50% of the time. At least, that’s exactly what I found while trying it out myself, and I barely even know how to properly use a bow!" Asahi let out a hearty, booming laugh.

Before they departed, Asahi began picking through the box of scrap, sorting the pieces into completely different piles on her workbench.

"Dang, I really should’ve asked that traveler from earlier for some help with my metals," Asahi whispered quietly to herself, shaking her head. "At least he could’ve easily used his raw ability to crush the materials together into one solid block, or maybe I could just melt them all down? Ah, but I don’t have any molds on hand right now, so that would just turn into a massive mess..."

"Can I try?" Quinn asked suddenly.

"What? Let me guess, you can control metal too?" Asahi speculated with a trace of sarcasm.

"Something like that," Quinn said with a small smile. He stepped forward and grabbed a large handful of loose metal from within one of the sorted piles.

Concentrating deeply, Quinn closed his eyes. He focused the energy of his ability directly into the raw material held in his hands, slowly pressing his fingers into the metal, forcing the separate jagged pieces to bond completely to one another. Once he was entirely finished, he placed it back down onto the wooden table. It was now a solid sphere that was still quite rough around the edges, looking not all that impressive on its own—but if someone actually knew the strict limitations of Quinn’s supposed earth ability, what he had just done was completely groundbreaking.

"Oh! You must be a level 1 ferrokinesis user then, right?" Asahi commented, looking at the sphere with an appreciative nod. "This is actually a massive help, I didn’t have any smaller boxes to separate them in."

Quinn gladly helped Asahi compress the rest of the loose metals together into neat spheres. Once the task was fully completed, he and Layla said their goodbyes and headed back toward the military dorms.

The entire time they walked back through the corridors, there was a nagging question weighing heavily on Layla’s mind.

"How exactly were you able to control metal back there? I thought you were only an earth ability user," Layla asked, keeping her voice low.

Quinn looked at her, slightly confused by her line of questioning. "I just thought other earth users should naturally be able to do this too."

In his mind, using the earth ability to bend and manipulate metal was as simple and logical a leap in logic as using his power to detect anomalies that weren’t earth, or covering his own body with rock armor. It all felt connected to the ground.

"I know I’m certainly not an ability expert, but wouldn’t you think that if the military could control metal like that, they would’ve done so by now?" Layla replied. She kept glancing sideways toward Quinn, still visibly surprised that he could achieve such a feat. Everyday, it seemed like she was finding Quinn using the earth ability in increasingly impressive ways.

"I just thought that they preferred to use standard earth because it was simply easier to shape, or that metal manipulation was a skill unlocked once they reached a higher level," Quinn explained. "I can already tell that it took a lot more out of me; I used up way more MC just making a single small metal ball."

Then, a sudden realization dawned on him, and a shadow of worry entered his mind.

"Maybe I shouldn’t do that in the future around other people. If normal earth users really can’t control metal at all, then I’ll just end up attracting a lot of unwanted attention to myself."

"Maybe, but so long as you only display one specific type of skill at a time around others, they might not even notice the difference," Layla speculated, placing a thoughtful hand on her chin. "Although, you might be right that it’s generally a bad idea. Word can spread like wildfire in an enclosed spot, especially in a place like the military school."

Turning her head fully towards Quinn, she flashed a warm, reassuring smile. "Just like with Erin, I promise not to reveal your secret to the rest of the school."

Quinn returned a grateful smile back to her, but that was the exact moment he noticed a glowing notification window pop up in the corner of his vision.

’So that’s what you’ve been doing all of this time, Erin?’ Quinn thought to himself, reading the text.

[Shadow control has reached level 2]

[You have gained 10 stat points]