"Huh!? Another request for us Master? This is like the sixth one this month!" I said, looking at the letter that Master had shoved into my hand the moment Sif and I walked into the guildhall.
"What do you expect Zeph? Your fame has been skyrocketing ever since you became an S-class mage. First you took down that slave operation run by Bora, then you went and took down the Beast King that had been largely considered to be invincible before you showed up, is it really so surprising that you have people clamoring out the door to get you to accept their requests?"
I sighed, but couldn't refute his point. I had already been moderately well-known as the youngest S-class in Fairy Tail history, but after Cana's promotion our team began taking more and more S-class jobs with each rising in difficulty until a year had gone by and we took on the Beast King, the same quest that Lisanna had died on with one difference… Mira wasn't S-class in time to take the request.
Whether it was out of some misguided sense of guilt for changing the timeline like I had or a genuine concern for the people who lived in fear, although I was aiming for the latter, the Wolf Pack took the job. We won, albeit greatly injured, but after taking it down, news of our feats spread throughout the country and we became swamped in requests. The good news was that our strength grew by leaps and bounds, the bad news was that there was never any free time left for us to do anything else.
"Oh, relax Zeph! I'm sure it'll be easy! What exactly is the job asking us to do anyway?" Cana's voice made itself known before she slipped next to me and intertwined her fingers with mine.
That was another thing that had changed after the X781 S-class exams. Cana and I officially started a relationship with one another, much to the annoyance of Gildarts. However, he had left on his one-hundred-year quest a month later so his meddling hadn't been that much of an issue.
Smiling at the thought of the old geezer, I skimmed through the paper that had been handed to me before sighing in relief at what was printed on it.
"It says here that the mayor of Hargeon would just like to patrol the town a bit over the course of a few days. Nothing major, just going around and letting our presence known to ward off any more bandits or slavers that might get any funny ideas. It doesn't pay much, but it would be like a vacation and the mayor is willing to cover the cost of lodging and food within reason."
"Then let's take it. It could be like a mini vacation before we take some harder missions again."
"Hm… okay then. We'll head to the train station now then Master. We'll be back in a few days to a week at most."
"Okay! I'll go stamp this and you three have fun. Take the time to put your feet up."
"We will Master, see you!"
Our group made our way through the hall and back out the door before heading to the train station and buying tickets and heading to our seats. Taking the time, I marveled at how much Cana was different from her canon counterpart by this point in the manga.
For one, she didn't walk around only wearing a swimsuit top and tight pants and instead opted for a similar fashion to what she wore when we were younger, mainly dresses and having her hair tied up. She didn't drink as much either. Don't get me wrong, she still had an iron liver and liked drinking, but she only drank heavily at parties and other special occasions.
"What are you looking at?" I snapped out of my thoughts and noticed the sly look she had on her face as if me caught me doing something I shouldn't have.
"Just taking a moment to admire you. We don't usually take jobs that are this simple, do we?" I played off my staring at her, knowing that by acting flustered would give her ammunition to make fun of me.
"Yeah, that's true. Knowing our luck though, something is going to go wrong and we'll end up involved in a whole mess again."
"Can't really argue with that, can I?"
"Nope!" She grinned as she gave her reply, but it came with an odd sense of dread.
If something really went wrong on this mission that made it harder than it was supposed to be, I was going to scream.
We continued to talk as the hours began to blur and soon enough, we pulled into the train station before departing and stretching our legs before making our way through the port town.
"So, do you have any idea of where we need to go to check in with the mayor? We weren't exactly given an address."
"No clue, but one of these shops will probably have someone able to tell us what we need to know."
"I guess so, how about that one over there?"
The shop in question was one of many buildings that were lined up alongside one another in a row along the street. The sign outside the door making it known as a magic shop, very few people could be seen through the window perusing the shelves filled with grimoire and lacrima.
"Yeah, he doesn't look too busy. Let's ask for some directions and be on our way."
The three of us walked over and pushed the door open, a bell sound signaling our entrance to the man manning the desk up front.
"Hello! How may I help you this fine day? We have color changing magic for clothes, it's supposed to be all the rage with the younger folk nowadays."
"No thanks, we were actually just looking to get some directions. We accepted a job request from the mayor but he never specified where he wanted us to meet or where his house is. Could you point us in the right direction?"
"Oh sure! If you take a left once you leave the shop and head down until you hit the port before making another left you should see a big building with a dark blue roof and a green double door. Anything else I can help you with?"
I was about to say no and go to leave, but something on the shelf behind the man caught my eye. An old grimoire with metal gray coloring and a black binding, the entire thing looking like it wouldn't last more than a few months before falling apart. Altogether there was nothing special about it but all the same I couldn't shake the feeling that I had to have it.
"Actually, what's that book over there? I'd like to take a look at it if you don't mind." Plucking it from his hands as he handed it to me, I skimmed the contents for a bit before closing the book and placing it on the counter.
"How much?"
"Oh, that thing is quite old, but it is pretty advanced and rare magic which would bump up the price… let's say two thousand jewels, considering the condition, and it's yours."
I didn't even argue, handing over the requested amount before making my way out of the store, passing by a man who was making his way into the store. Cana and Sif caught up to me before she raised an eyebrow.
"So, what was so special about that book that you had to have it. It looks like a strong page turn will be that things death."
"Doesn't matter the condition of the book, I've been at a standstill for a while and I think that this is what I finally need to push myself over that next threshold of strength." It was true, while I was still considered to be pretty much near the top of our guilds power ranking, I hadn't been able to improve much on what I already knew and had been focusing on increasing the amount of ethernano that my magic container could hold, but power wasn't my focus as a mage. Increasing the power of my spells two much would be counter productive to my technique-based style, but something in that book had called to me. I didn't know how, but metallurgy was my ticket to new heights.
A small amount of laughter burst from Cana's lips and before I knew it, she was hunched over in gut-busting laughter. It continued like this for a few minutes before she finally regained control of herself and wiped a tear from her eye.
"Only you Zeph! Only you could reach the level of strength you have and still want to get even stronger. We came on this request to relax and take a break, so don't worry about anything like training until we get back. If you don't, you'll just end up going crazy."
"Yeah, you're right. Let's find the mayor and discuss the job details."
"Alright!"
"Graugh!"
Following the shopkeeper's directions, we eventually came across the house that he had described to us and made our way to the door before knocking. There was the sound of shuffling feet before it opened and we were greeted by a short, pudgy man with red hair and dressed in finery usually attributed to the wealthier side of society.
"Yes?"
"Hi, we're Fairy Tail's Wolf Pack. We got the request you sent and wanted to find out more about what you wanted us to do while we were here."
A bright smile split the man's face before he ushered us inside and into a large living room with velvet couches and wine-red drapes with a mahogany table in the middle. All of us taking our seats, the mayor started us off by shaking mine and Cana's hands.
"Well, firstly let me say what an honor it is to meet the Sword Saint and Fortuna of Fairy Tail, especially after you stopped that horrid slaver and his crew."
"Believe me, the pleasure was all ours."
"Either way, all of us in Hargeon continue to be extremely grateful, but recently there have been whispers of people trying to relaunch their operations. I'd like your group to do a little investigating to see if there's any truth to these rumors. I also believe that the presence of the team who shut down illegal slaving in the area would deter anyone who actually might be considering this. A show of force, if you will."
It made sense, having our team come in a show our faces to deter any nefarious actions as well as the fact that we were strangely equipped for tracking and information gathering. Sif would be able to track any scents that came up from our investigation and Cana's fortune telling would be able to point us in the right direction. I just hope that nothing actually comes up that we have to deal with.
"We'd be happy to help. How long do you want us to stick around for?" Cana asked the mayor while I came out of my little contemplation.
"Only for about a week or so and food and lodging will be taken care of by me."
"Alright, if that's all than I believe we'll get started right away."
A few pleasant goodbyes later and the three of us were out the door and wandering the streets again while keeping an ear open for anything that might be important. Unfortunately, nothing was coming up.
"You know, I really thought that information would conveniently make itself known." I spoke up after we took a seat on a bench and Cana began using her cards to try and get a read on the town or anything else.
"Well, the mayor did say that these were only whispers and rumors. For all we know this could be just one giant false alarm and we were called for nothing. You were the one who wanted a break from S-rank missions anyway."
"I know what I said, but that doesn't mean that I'm not still wired for something to go wrong or turn out to be something really huge.'
"Why?"
"Cana… I hope you realize that seven out of every ten missions we go on something happens that makes the mission either infinitely harder or more frustrating than it should be, right?"
"Well yeah, but there's still a thirty percent chance that everything could go right. It's not good to be so paranoid about things."
"But I'm not being paranoid if I'm right, isn't that right Sif?"
"Graugh!"
Cana just laughed at me before reshuffling her cards and putting them back in the holster on her hip before pulling me away from the bench and towards the center of town.
"That may be so, but I'd like to think for once our luck won't be that bad."
~x~x~
Fortunately for us, it turned out that Cana was right. There were no signs of any sort of operation starting up in town and all the rumors turned out to point towards various different areas of town that when investigated revealed more of nothing.
Most of our time pretty much just went towards enjoying ourselves in the town and taking in the sights once it became clear that the false alarm really was just a false alarm. Aside from that, I cracked open the grimoire I bought when we first got into town and holy shit was metallurgy amazing.
The basic concept behind it was pretty simple, it combined a few different magics that were usually used in the process of forging and smelting metal and adding others that weren't very special by themselves to create something complex and amazing. Firstly, it took the concept of making metal from metal-make as a base and adding temperature control, magnetism as well as the manipulation of metal. The next part was picking and choosing which aspects you would combine for certain spells or even using one aspect on its own. The only requirement for every spell was that it used metal as a base, and for a sword user like me, the possibilities were endless.
I didn't get as far into the book as I would have liked, but I could already tell I had made the right choice making this purchase. Which actually led me to what I was doing right now.
"Hello, welcome to my shop! I see you've come back, is something wrong with the grimoire?"
"No no! The grimoire was exactly what I was hoping for, I was just coming back in the hopes you would have any others on metallurgy or related magics so I would be able to go more in depth into the topic."
"That's great, I love repeat customers! I just need to get this young lady here the key she purchased, but while I'm in back I'll look for the items you requested."
"Great, thank you very much!"
The shopkeeper quickly disappeared into the back, leaving me alone with the blonde who gave me a weird sense of deja vu. I shrugged it off and began looking at the magic items the man had on display before the girl started speaking to herself under her breath, but still loud enough for me to hear.
"Can't believe that the old man would only take off one thousand jewels from the price. Is that really all that my sex appeal works?"
"Well, it really depends on what type of item you were trying to buy. Rarity and production cost will determine if someone is willing to lower a price, but even than it would still need to be high enough so that they could make some prophet off of what they sell."
She obviously hadn't expected me to hear what she was saying and immediately turned red in embarrassment before switching to confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, he said you were trying to buy a key. What kind?"
"A celestial silver key, but twenty thousand is way too much for that!"
"No, it really isn't. Even for one of the weaker keys that's a little low from what I've seen in other shops and the fact he lowered it by one thousand means that you're getting a pretty good deal. You have to remember that celestial keys can't really be made by mages and can only be found out in places of intense magical concentration, so you actually got really lucky. That's practically a steal."
Reaching out, I grabbed some magic cards that I knew Cana didn't have in her deck yet before placing them on the counter when the shopkeeper came back with both the key and a stack of three books.
"Well, here you go young lady! One silver key and as for you, I couldn't find any other books on metallurgy considering the rarity, but from what I know these might prove useful for you, each one will be five hundred and those cards are the same."
I read the titles of the books; property manipulation, refining and reshaping, going over what each should be capable of in my head before taking property manipulation and reshaping and handing the man three thousand.
"I think these two will help me the most, thanks a lot."
"No problem, and if anyone asks, you got them from my shop."
I laughed at his shamelessness before agreeing and making my way out of the shop and heading down the street to where Cana and I agreed to meet up.
"Hey, wait a minute!"
The girl from the shop ran out and up to me before seemingly giving me a once over.
"Can I help you?" I was confused as to what she could want from me, but seeing her made that sense of deja vu come back.
"You seemed to know a lot about magic items and how much they were worth. Are you some kind of mage, because you don't look like it."
Wait… what was wrong with the way I look? Taking a quick look down, I took note of my gray t-shirt and black cargo pants and boots with confusion before she snapped her fingers in my face to get my attention.
"Well? Are you a mage?"
"I really don't have to answer that question, especially because you just started snapping in my face. That's really rude you know." I did a quick sidestep and began walking forward again but she apparently wasn't giving up just yet and continued to follow me and ask if I was a mage of some kind until I finally spotted my two favorite girls.
"Did another one of your fans start following you around? Am I going to have to worry about you leaving me, because if that's the case I'm taking Sif."
The little traitor nodded her head in agreement but I just decided to ignore that before pulling what I had bought at the shop out of the bag I was given.
"No, why do you always jump to that joke. I went back to the store I hot that grimoire from and picked up some supplemental materials as well as a few magic cards I knew you didn't have in your deck, but if you don't want them, I can always get my jewel back."
"Don't be like that Zeph! I was only kidding you know that!" She took the cards before I had a chance to follow through and looked them over before stuffing them in her deck and looking over my shoulder.
"So why does Blondie look like she's going to explode?"
"Oh my gosh, you're Cana Alberona! I've read all about you in Sorcerer Weekly and the horoscopes you've done. I am such a huge fan!"
She continued to rant about Cana for a few minutes while my girlfriend soaked up the attention before the super fan seemingly came to a realization.
"That means that this must be Sif and if she's here than that means… oh. You're the Sword Saint?"
"First you insult how I dress, then you seem surprised that I'm the Sword Saint!? You're the only person I've met who's ever done any of that!"
"Well you do dress kind of plainly, maybe you should add a jacket or something."
"First off, why are you only just now telling me this, secondly, not the time Cana."
"Well, anyway! I'm Lucy Heartfilia and I would be honored if I could join Fairy Tail."
Oh… that's why she seemed so familiar.
~x~x~
I'm back people! Sorry for the wait on this chapter but our internet has been going on and off sporadically for the past few weeks, not to mention that I rewrote this chapter like four times. At first I was going to have Ikaruga show up and start the rumors in order to lure Zeph into another fight, than I was just going to have it be normal criminals, but I realized that every mission I written has had something go wrong and I didn't want that to become a habit so this kind of turned into a slightly shorter chapter to introduce Lucy (who if you couldn't tell I'm not a big fan of) and have a chance for Zeph to find a grimoire on metallurgy, although I'm still not completely happy with how this chapter turned out. This new magic actually came to mind because someone pointed out that Zeph seemed to just be using flashy moves from other anime/manga and when I thought about it, realized they were right. I only gave Zeph like… three or four original moves and I didn't like that. So, metallurgy, which I did give a minor explanation this chapter, is going to be an introduction into a completely new sword style and sword magic that I'm going to be coming up with. He'll still be using the other spells he has in his arsenal, but they'll be changed so that they're combined with metallurgy to make them more unique. Obviously Zeph isn't going to go right into using new magic, but within the next few chapters expect to see what he comes up with. Until then, favorite, follow and review with constructive criticism!