Reincarnated as a Phoenix

Chapter 93 - Gold

"Hmm..."

Back in the blacksmith's shop showing him the lump or ore, he seems to be staring at it a lot on his shop counter. Look, I know he's a blacksmith so he can probably tell how good ore actually is but it's been like ten minutes already! Hurry up and start smelting it down!

"... Whatever you two kids have come across; I want in even if the risk is extremely high. Despite not actually seeing raw gold before, it doesn't take a genius to tell this is some quality rock"

Heh, the people over here really don't care that much about breaking the law, even if there doesn't seem to be much of a law to break in this town. As for the ore comment, good then I guess, it freaking should be good since it's gold after all.

"It's nothing illegal like that, Jaxon made sure to pass a message on"

"Yeah, the kid said something about preparing this a hundred times and that you'll know what it means?"

Look at us finishing each other's sentences, I'm not sure that was what she intended but it seemed to give her a smile.

"Hmm... you kids really must've have stumbled across a large amount of this then. Listen, I'm still up for this but if a band of blood thirsty pirates come looking for all this gold you're stealing, I really don't plan departing this life that way, even if my lips will remain sealed"

This old blacksmith really can't get it into his head that we haven't actually stolen this, why is finding a gold mine so hard to believe? Maybe it's that dungeon that causes it, most people don't dare go over to that place since the dungeon is supposed to be cursed, the workers we hired all must be a little more carefree about such a thing. Well... it obviously isn't, just that there's no chance a normal human could ever defeat that gigantic bastard so the curse is just people getting pummled by his club.

"Heh, your worries are unneeded"

"Stop worrying over it old man, it seriously ain't nothing like that so let it go"

"I'll shut it then... though, I've normally charged down to weight when it comes to ore. Seeing that the risk factor is pretty high and this will take a lot of time, that won't really cut it..."

Oh, so that's what he's trying, negotiating a higher fee. I was always just going to offer him a decent wage but if he's just trying to be sly about it and do this, I'll just let him get on with it.

"... Also, if there's that much of the stuff, I might even need to hire some more recruits... this will unfortunately have to be a high fixed wage for such a demanding constant working job..."

This old guy... he really thinks he's bargaining from a position of power here, might need to knock him down a step if he keeps it up.

Before he has the chance to continue hinting at a higher wage, Petra's had enough of it and steps in.

"Listen blacksmith, don't be acting like you're irreplaceable, we're paying a visit to the dwarfs at some point and there will definitely be smiths willing to work with the gold over there as well"

"True, but most aren't as close as my shop here, the shipping costs would be enormous"

He hasn't realized it yet but he's not just trying to debate with anyone, this is Petra we're talking about here.

"What about the other blacksmiths in this town? You also really think we couldn't convince some dwarfs to relocate? Keep it up and we'll stop this slight exclusivity we're already offering you for the time being... you'll get paid enough so whatever it is you're doing, it's pointless and boring"

Petra is really good at killing a guy's hopes and dreams, I guess we both do need to have a slight amount of authority if we're going to have people working for us after all, carefree Ikarus has been developing so that might need to be something I better myself on.

"Hmph, fine, don't knock an old guy for trying his luck though, I'd love some of that gold for myself but obviously that's isn't something I'd ever think of doing"

"You've already seen both our weapons, no point even giving a warning"

I do actually like seeing take control of the situation Petra come out to say hello, it's been lacking a bit recently since I've been doing most things but it's always good to see her bossy side return. That's not sarcasm, I actually like every aspect of her.

"Yeah yeah, it's not exactly like I could sell it anyways, no one of this boring place has the coins for such a thing... I'm a blacksmith anyway, not a bloody thief! Those little shits have always made us shopkeepers jobs more danger filled, I mean..."

He complains about the risk, then also complains it being boring? Make up your mind old man, and now it sounds like he's rambling about something else. I'm pretty sure he also just said something about most of the modern generation not wanting to work, I've basically stopped listening at this point.

After an annoyingly short time later, that conversation has now finished and we've left him with the gold, it'll be doubtful if he can even make a decent size bar out of that since the richness of it could depend greatly but I guess we'll find out very soon...