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Jessica snorted and gestured towards the elderly man standing by her side. "This is Elder Ming," she introduced. "He oversees the Military\'s Artificer department. Also, he\'s a gold ranker, and he appears to appreciate your work."

The elderly runesmith in the room twitched upon hearing her words. Warden studied the old man for the second time. The aura the old man emitted spoke of power, mostly retracted but unmistakable. Most Runesmiths had superior control over their abilities compared to regular rankers; this old man was undoubtedly a master runesmith.

"Where does your skill at runesmithing stand?" he inquired.

"Tier-5," Warden replied.

"Tier-5 in what kind of runes?"

"All of them," Warden said, attempting to keep any smugness or pride from his tone.

The elder runesmith exchanged a look with Jessica, whose eyes revealed nothing. Not all runes were equal; for instance, a Tier-4 Restoration Rune was more challenging to create than most Tier-5 runes.

"Why have they sent you here like you\'re a common soldier if they knew you possess such quality?" the elder grumbled. "Such a waste..."

"Tell me about it," Warden sighed. After receiving permission to sit, he settled into the chair across from the captain. "Well, it\'s mostly my fault; not many knew I\'m a skilled artificer."

It came as a surprise even to him.

"Are you affiliated with any organization?" the elder asked. A master artificer was quite rare, and given his age, he had likely encountered or known of most of them.

"I\'ve signed a contract with Dragonforge just before joining the front line," Warden disclosed. The elder\'s frown deepened immediately. "Of course, that didn\'t stop me from creating weapons for other parties."

The elder\'s expression brightened somewhat. Warden could already surmise that they wanted him to craft weapons for them; it was quite apparent. Creating new artifacts was far more appealing than repairing old tools. However, Warden wouldn\'t agree at the first chance of their offer.

"That\'s good," Elder Ming said. "The reason we called you here is that we\'d like to put your expertise to better use."

"Before we delve into crafting weapons for the army," Warden interjected, "I must add that I have no interest in investing all my effort and dedication into work when I barely receive a fifth of my pay."

Elder Ming furrowed his brows and turned to Captain Jessica.

"Oh, I forgot to mention, he\'s a condemned soldier," she said.

"His offence?" he asked.

Warden didn\'t bother to open his mouth, as the question was directed to his superior officer, who shuffled through stacks of papers to bring out one about him.

"Looks like it\'s some minor issue," she said, as though she was reading it for the first time. "Most of it is unproven too. He\'s charged with six months of service as a Condemned on the frontline. His main offence is attacking a Justiciar Acolyte on duty and cursing at a Judge when he was proven guilty."

"By attack, it was mostly meant defeating that Justiciar Acolyte and making a fool of him in front of guild men and students," Warden added, much to his amusement. "As for the cursing, well, they didn\'t really care about the truth."

Both of them stared at him for an extended moment.

"You\'re lucky it\'s only an Acolyte," Jessica said. "Even if you have a good reason, attacking a true Justiciar can only end one way, and you won\'t like the sound of it."

"On top of that, you cursed at the Judge?" the elder said. "Lad, you either have the courage of a lion or are truly foolish..."

"Well, probably both," Warden sighed. "Although it\'s not entirely my fault; my oversight has caused most of it."

"Whom did you offend?"

Warden blinked. "I actually forgot the name, but it\'s some young master with the surname, Walt."

"Truly?" Jessica asked, her eyes gleaming. "A Justiciar Acolyte, so it\'s probably Torin Walt."

"The Major General\'s brother?" Elder Ming scowled.

While Jessica just laughed. "Why didn\'t Jason tell me this before," she chuckled. "This is truly great. I must invite you to a drink just for that."

"Don\'t encourage him," Elder Ming admonished.

Jessica smiled. "I don\'t think Terel Walt is aware of his brother getting beaten by a soldier in his troops," she said. "He wouldn\'t have let you be just like this, and neither would I have gotten the chance to transfer you from the 16th infantry."

Warden groaned inwardly. Of course, that Walt family had a stake in the military as well. Just incredibly convenient.

Elder Ming shook his head. "It is very unbecoming of a captain to talk behind their superior\'s back."

Jessica met his admonishing words with a smile of her own. "Anyway, Elder, what do you want to do about him?" she said. "You can put the words into the Major General\'s ears and forcefully transfer him into the Artificer Department to get what you want—"

Warden sat straighter in his chair as they discussed turning to serious business. After all, they were talking about him laboring away a good part of his remaining five months making artifacts and formations, at least not with that meager pay.

"--or you can pay some favors and discuss with him what it will take for him to work with you."

"You think very little of me if you believe I\'ll simply snitch on a talented fellow artificer just to gain some benefits," Elder Ming snorted. "You\'re even more mistaken if you think I need to inform the Major General to transfer him to the Artificer Department. My own rank did not lose out to that of a general, even if it is just in name."

"Elder, it is very unbecoming of you to badmouth the Major General," Jessica smirked, and then both of them burst into laughter.

Warden sighed in relief. Although the situation wasn\'t perfect, it didn\'t seem like he would have to be at the mercy of the Major General, who was probably the same petty, snobbish young master kind as his brother.

"So what did you decide, Elder?" Jessica asked.

"I haven\'t decided yet," Elder Ming shook his head. "While I can play some cards to get his condemned identity pardoned, I\'ll be giving up some big favor just to get him to work five months."

"I can make at least a hundred artifacts with Tier-5 runes," Warden added.

The head of the Artificer Department shot him an incredulous look. "You\'re boasting, boy."

"I have completed sixteen commissions from Dragonforge this month," Warden smirked. "Before any of you complain, all of it was done in my free time."

Well, mostly. Nobody should begrudge him for working in guard duty, after all. However, the elder still didn\'t seem to believe him.

Finding the elder contemplating, Jessica cut in, "That reminds me, what have you done to the topical garden?"

"Just some minor work," Warden said. "I laid just some isolation barrier around it, which wouldn\'t let the barren environment affect the garden."

"But wouldn\'t that also cut away the source of ambient energy as well?"

"It should have, but I\'ve added a filter to the barrier that will channel purified ambient energy into the garden," Warden explained. "If everything works out, we\'ll get to eat the mangoes in just a couple of months."

"Truly? I must thank you for your hard work."

"It\'s hardly hard work. It took some time to plan out, but most of the work was finished in a total of eight or nine hours."

The real reason for him to fix the garden was that Warden wanted to breathe fresh air and ambient energy when he was working. Rejuvenating the withered garden was just a plus, which he later improvised into an array of formations.

"How about this," Elder Ming said, finally coming to a decision. "The formation on the west side of the main camp is damaged. You fix this, and we\'ll talk about your pardon."

Warden wasn\'t easy to agree with. "How damaging is it?"

"There\'s a big hole in it," Jessica said before the elder could open her mouth.

"Well, the primary shell is damaged by about 70%," Elder Ming said, glaring at the captain. "I\'ll send you a team to help you with it. If you can fix it within a week, we\'ll talk about your pardon."

With that, the elder left, even before hearing him out.

"So haughty at this age," Warden muttered. Other than that, he found the arrangement to be pretty good. With this, he might have a chance at getting the top stuff in the emporium.

"While the elder is a bit of a cheapskate, he\'s mostly fair," the captain said. "You won\'t lose out much, of course. That is, if you can finish the work he has given you. While I don\'t doubt your words, I must mention if you have even boasted a little of your capabilities to the elder... come clear as soon as you can. He\'s very uptight."

Warden nodded. "How accomplished is he in this work?"

"Well, he\'s a master runesmith and probably can craft some Tier-6 runes," Jessica said. "You don\'t look impressed? Other than being a runesmith, Elder Ming is also an adept Alchemist and a Grand Master Blacksmith—the empire only has like eight of them last I checked."

A Grand Master Blacksmith! Warden sucked in his breath. Wouldn\'t that solve his problem of finding someone to make him the spear?