Alex left the blacksmith once he had put the finishing touches on his sword. Now that he had this metal sword, he would hopefully not need anything else until the time when he finally got rid of his seal and had the opportunity to do something about Midnight.
It was still morning when he returned to his place, but when he did, he already had guests.
Mabi had arrived some time ago and had been waiting for him.
“Did you get your sword? Father said you were going to get one,” Mabi said.
“Oh yes,” Alex said, bringing out his sword from his storage bag. The sword was long, nearly a meter and a half in length. It had a brown leather wrapped around the handle, a fully polished iron crossguard, and a heavy pommel at the end for balance.
“That… that’s so much metal,” Mabi said. “I’m surprised they let you use this much metal at all.”
“Is it that much?” Alex asked. “I wasn’t aware metal was rare around here. I’ve seen it everywhere, after all.”
“It’s not exactly rare since we can always purchase more, but you usually don’t see a single object made with that much iron. You could likely make 20 spears if you tried to with that thing.”
Alex looked at his sword and nodded. That much he could understand. He wondered what sort of reaction she would have if she were to see the large metal pot he had where he kept his blood.
“Anyway, let’s forget about the sword,” Alex said, putting it away. “Let us get started with the lessons. I hope you’re ready to learn about pastes. You better be excited about it.”
“I can’t contain my heartbeats,” Mabi said in a playful manner.
Alex chuckled and sat down, beginning the lessons.
He had already taught the women back in the Baylords tribe about pastes, so he knew more or less where he had to start. Mabi no doubt knew a lot more than the regular people back at the beach, but she still had to be taught from the start just to make sure she didn’t have any gaps in her knowledge going forward.
The first day of teaching only contained the basics, so Mabi hadn’t gotten to any of the interesting parts of pastes, but she was getting there. It would take no more than a few days to teach her everything important.
After that, she would have enough knowledge to continue her own knowledge.
Mabi left for the day, and Alex was finally free to do everything else.
He started by finishing his daily requirement of making pastes, so he could give it to Tala at the end of the day. He only had to do this for a few more days.
After completing the pastes, he moved over to the large pot full of blood in his other room. Tala seemed to have replaced it already when he was out, so Alex began his daily absorption of blood aura.
Slowly, he was improving it too, and even though it was slow, he could see definite improvements. It didn’t take him too long to absorb it though, so by the time he was done, it was still early afternoon.
After that, Alex spent all of his time training his Intent, while also trying to meditate on the new blood armor technique as much as he could. He knew there couldn’t be so many different patterns that could be usable. He was getting there, and it wouldn’t take much longer for him to land on the correct one.
Tala came around sometime in the evening to take the pastes for the day, as well as to tell Alex what pastes he had to make tomorrow. He had gone past the point of asking him for the different recipes since everyone already knew what they wanted.
As a result, Alex only needed to accept requests now. His work had become a lot less demanding.
Alex ended his day with an offensive against the seal. He tried to break through it 8 whole times before stopping and going to sleep.
Once up, all he had to do was wait for Mabi to come by again so he could start the lessons.
For the next week and a half, Alex had a set schedule where he did nothing except teach Mabi and make pastes. As the days passed, Mabi began taking over his job as she started making the pastes that were required with his overview.
She was getting better at it constantly, understanding the minor interaction between ingredients and the reasons why some ingredients went together and some didn’t.
Mabi was talented enough to understand what she was taught, so Alex was glad his choice of person to teach hadn’t been a bad one. Not that he had to worry about his knowledge being wasted on her. From what he understood, everything she learned, she taught to a group of her own peers so they could learn as well.
Alex had told the chief that Mabi could do whatever she wanted with her knowledge, so he was perfectly okay with her doing this.
When the 2 weeks passed, Alex finally accepted that Mabi had learned all that she could.
“I have passed all of my knowledge to you. There is nothing more I can teach you in regards to pastes,” he told the woman.
Mabi became a little emotional upon hearing that. She wiped the tear that filled her eyes and put on a wide smile. “Thank you, for teaching me all of this. I, and the entirety of Sunspear, thank you for this knowledge.”
“That’s alright. You don’t have to thank me. I’m getting paid anyway,” Alex said with a light shrug.
Mabi left, and Alex was finally free. Aside from Tala coming in every day to bring in more blood for him, there wasn’t much for Alex to do.
So, with that freedom, Alex spent every second of his day focused on trying to find the new technique to his blood armor.
And after another 10 days, he finally found it.