Death... and me

Roan could recognize the interest in Rean's eyes. 'Did you find anything interesting?'

Rean nodded, telling Roan, 'Maybe...I would need to take a further look into it.'

Rean then looked at the elder and asked, "Senior Aien, would you perhaps have more of those Earth's Remnants?"

Aien was puzzled by Rean's question. But since Rean paid him so much Divine Stones just to stay in the village, he didn't care. "Well, because it doesn't have much use to us, we simply destroy it all once we accumulate a certain amount of it. It's better than simply throwing it away and letting it gather around like trash."

Rean couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed after hearing that. "Would you mind taking what you have and bringing it to me? I'm a blacksmith, so I might have some use for it."

Aien nodded in response, not minding it too much. They've already lived in this place for a very long time. Obviously, other blacksmiths had already tested whether the Earth's Remnants had some use or not. However, they didn't find any good use for it, so Aien didn't think Rean would find one either. "Sure, we should have a few kilograms somewhere."

In their room, Langara and Fatax couldn't help but ask, "Weren't you a Formation Master? Are you a blacksmith as well?"

Rean nodded in response. "The white and dark swords you saw were crafted by me, you know?"

Langara and Fatax didn't even know what to think anymore. Amazing talent, huge strength, and on top of that, he was also a Formation Master and a blacksmith. Besides, both Fatax and Langara could tell how good Rean's swords were. "That's really impressive, even for the Royal Family. You two certainly have a very high position there, no?"

Rean smiled in response but didn't comment any further. A few minutes later, someone knocked on their door. "Oh, it should be the Earth's Remnants."

Rean was right. One of the residents came with a bag with all the Earth's Remnants they had, a total of three kilos or so. "That's all we had lying around as we destroyed the rest around a month ago."

Rean nodded. "That's more than enough, friend. By the way, do you have a workshop here in the village I could use? If necessary, I can pay for that as well." Rean had the Soul Gem Blacksmith Workshop, but that meant he would need to enter the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm. It was better not to do so in this place. Besides, no one would find it strange if Rean brought some tools out of there as they would think he simply took them out of his spatial ring. At most, they would consider Rean to have a spatial ring with a lot of space.

The guy obviously didn't mind. "Of course! However, it doesn't have anything of high quality. If this friend doesn't care about it, I can show you the way."

"I'll stay here cultivating. The rest of you can do whatever you want until Rascal gets his rest," Roan said before sitting down and taking some Divine Stones out.

Langara and Fatax decided to leave the room and go somewhere else. As to whether they would take that chance to leave Rean's group or not, that wasn't a problem. Rean and Roan didn't feel like they had to help those two to start with. If they wanted to leave on their own, then so be it. Even if Rean couldn't get information on the Fallen Light Star Fragment, he could still use the Royal Family to get it.

Well, Langara was relying on Rean to talk with the fairies, so she wouldn't leave either way.

In the workshop, Rean began to work with the clay-like Earth's Remnants, trying to analyze its properties. 'Indeed, it seems like the people of the Realm of Gods also don't know much about modern forging. Otherwise, there's no way the blacksmiths who saw it before wouldn't understand how good this thing is.'

Roan, who was cultivating, heard Rean's words through their Soul Connection. 'What's special about this Earth's Remnants?'

Rean then explained, 'Almost all forging materials blacksmiths use are deeply connected to Earth Element. Even those metals that attack other elements are no exception. After all, the earth is usually their place of birth. You understand that much, right?'

Roan nodded and waited for Rean to continue. 'The point is, this Earth's Remnants can feel the gaps between the crystals that compose the metal very, very well.'

'Crystals?' Roan asked back.

Rean noticed he went too far ahead in his explanation, so he simplified it and replied, 'Oh! This is related to my field of metallurgy. It's a crystalline solid in which the atoms are held together by metallic bonds. When you use X-ray crystallography, you'll see that their structures look like tiny crystals.'

'We make alloys, trying to improve these bonds. For example, when making steel, we use lime in the composition. Lime can reduce the concentration of impurities in the steel. Fewer impurities, better bonds. That's what I used back then in our Varen Tribe,' Rean continued. 'Anyways, this Earth's Remnants simply makes all the materials I used in my alloys look like trash!'

Rean didn't get ahead of himself, though. 'Of course, this is just my theory. Without trying it out by myself, I can't be certain. Since we still have a few hours ahead, I want to try something.'

Rean then reached into the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm before asking, 'Sister Orb, how is our supply of World Essence in the Dimensional Realm?'

[Oh! So, you're finally going to use it? As I mentioned before, the Dimensional Realm is very small, so it doesn't make much. Still, it should be enough for you if the job doesn't need too much of it. Just remember that World Essence will take a long time to accumulate again if you use everything.]

Rean smiled in response. 'That's good enough. I have the knowledge I acquired in the Blacksmith Hall back in Lukimira Sect. I'm still a Silver Middle-level blacksmith, but I think I can head straight to Silver Peak-level once I'm done.'