Machiya, like other traditional Japanese buildings, was easy to identify.
But they were very easy to find. A single sweep of the eyes was enough to tell how many machiya stood along the street.
While most houses had thatched roofs, machiya used a tiled-roof design that was centuries ahead of its time. Black Kyoto tiles were layered across the roofs, reflecting Everworld's thin sunlight and making them especially conspicuous.
As Uesugi Tetsu approached the machiya, he had not even released the Hundred-Eyed Demon's eyeballs to scout ahead when the cold gleam of the weapons behind the lattice windows nearly blinded him.
Every weapon in sight was either high-quality or rare. There were even two or three blades of epic quality.
For one brief moment, Uesugi Tetsu considered taking advantage of the smithing sounds coming from deeper inside the machiya and sweeping all the weapons into his possession.
But the thought quickly vanished.
In the shadows inside, a burly, weather-beaten old man was dozing with his upper body sprawled across the counter.
That was not important.
What mattered was that the aura floating above his head was black.
It was not red or blood-colored, which represented "danger." It was black, likely signifying "death."
So Uesugi Tetsu followed his instincts and honestly knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
"Come in."
A hoarse voice suddenly appeared beside Uesugi Tetsu's ear. His heart tightened, but his movements did not slow in the slightest as he pushed open the door and entered.
"Another Brahma?"
The old man sounded somewhat surprised. Uesugi Tetsu glanced at the top of his head.
[Blacksmith]
The two characters appeared clearly.
Who, then, was the one hammering away inside?
Blacksmith: "Since you're a Brahma, just buy whichever weapon catches your eye."
Uesugi Tetsu shifted his gaze and spotted the cheapest high-quality dagger in the corner.
[Price: 800 Soul Ash]
Turning his head again, he saw a rare-quality katana. Its blade was clear and beautiful, and the several attached skills made Uesugi Tetsu drool.
Unfortunately...
[Price: 3,200 Soul Ash]
The old blacksmith simply watched Uesugi Tetsu wander around the shop for several minutes. Only when he reluctantly reached the doorway did the old man speak.
"Not buying one?"
Uesugi Tetsu turned back. The Laughing Brahma mask remained as still as a dead well. "I can't afford it."
What a joke. Every weapon cost over a thousand Soul Ash. Uesugi Tetsu truly felt that this blacksmith shop ought to be located in Edo Castle.
It had no business being in a one-star map like this Ghost Village, where he did not even know whether the Soul Ash dropped from killing all the monsters would be enough to afford anything.
"For the sake of you being a Brahma..."
The blacksmith's peripheral gaze fell on the Walker Token at Uesugi Tetsu's waist as he slowly continued, "I suppose it wouldn't be impossible for me to forge you a weapon."
A custom weapon?
Uesugi Tetsu's first reaction was that the old man had designs on his body.
The blacksmith shop looked bright and respectable, but who knew whether it was all a trap? Perhaps the blacksmith simply wanted to turn this Laughing Brahma into a weapon.
Then again...
Uesugi Tetsu was not a native demon. If he died, so what? At worst, he could wait twelve hours and be a hero again.
With that thought, Uesugi Tetsu nodded. "What do you need me to do?"
"More sensible than that White Brahma. Not bad." The blacksmith spoke leisurely. "Less than three hundred meters east of my machiya, there's a small workshop."
"It's noisy as hell every day. Just shut it down."
The blacksmith let out a disdainful snort. "What kind of lousy assembly-line production is that? How could it make weapons better than mine?"
Three hundred meters east?
Uesugi Tetsu brightened and hurriedly asked, "Which direction is east?"
The blacksmith could not help bursting into laughter. "As expected, all Brahmas are muscle-headed simpletons."
After laughing, the blacksmith did not forget to point Uesugi Tetsu in the right direction. "That way is east. The method of finding your bearings is simple, too. The direction in which the twin moons rise at night is due east."
The twin moons.
So Everworld had day-and-night cycles after all?
Uesugi Tetsu wondered whether he had happened to arrive during Everworld's daytime every time.
Or perhaps the twin moons were also hidden by dark clouds?
The thoughts flashed through his mind and vanished. Uesugi Tetsu memorized the direction indicated by the blacksmith's finger and made a rough estimate. The huge factory he had seen earlier was to the northeast.
A rough map of Arakawa Ghost Village began to take shape in Uesugi Tetsu's mind, so he thanked the blacksmith.
Without the other man's help, Uesugi Tetsu did not know how many lives he would have needed just to figure out east, west, north, and south.
"Come back quickly." The blacksmith waved impatiently. "If that workshop keeps making so much noise, I might get sick of staying in this wilderness."
Uesugi Tetsu paused, then nodded to show that he understood.
So the blacksmith was an NPC capable of moving between maps. No wonder the weapons here were outrageously expensive.
Being able to meet him this time could only mean his luck had finally come through...
Uesugi Tetsu rubbed the Walker Token at his waist.
Whether it was luck was another matter.
After leaving the blacksmith shop, Uesugi Tetsu immediately decided to go see the small workshop to the east.
First, it was nearby, so there would be fewer surprises along the way. Second, Uesugi Tetsu wanted to get a weapon he could use as soon as possible. The woodcutter's knife was easy enough to handle, but whenever he used sword techniques with it, the feel was terribly strange.
The three-hundred-meter distance passed in the blink of an eye.
It seemed to be time for work to begin, because halfway there, Uesugi Tetsu heard the rumbling machinery from far away.
After arriving at a small house several dozen meters from his destination, Uesugi Tetsu looked at the pale white twin moons that had just risen and felt as though his eardrums were being shaken painfully.
No wonder the blacksmith could not sleep...
This noise was almost comparable to that factory built completely outside the village.
After standing there and adapting for a while, Uesugi Tetsu finally released the Hundred-Eyed Demon's eyeballs.
Although the blacksmith's request was to shut down the workshop, how could Uesugi Tetsu let all that precious Soul Ash escape?
Before taking action, of course, intelligence gathering was essential.
[Clumsy Worker Apprentice] [Rank: One-Star]
These were the details of the minor monsters walking back and forth through the workshop and operating the machinery. Uesugi Tetsu counted them. There were roughly twenty or thirty.
The actual number should have been higher... but after circling the place, Uesugi Tetsu still had not found their foreman.
But if it came down to patience, Uesugi Tetsu, who could maintain a Heart Like Still Water state for a long time, was not afraid at all.
He waited for over half an hour more before finally seeing a burly man wearing a white safety helmet appear in his field of vision.
The man beat and berated the apprentices, acting very much like their leader. Uesugi Tetsu merely stared at the top of his head and waited for the information he wanted.
[Worker Leader] [Rank: Half-Star]
Only half a star.
That made things much simpler.
The only difficulty lay in the workshop's large number of one-star apprentices.
If all the apprentices surged out at once, then even if he used up his entire life, he would only be able to trade it for two or three of them. That could hardly be called efficient.
In that case, his discovery from earlier became very important.
Through nearly an hour of observation, Uesugi Tetsu had clearly noticed that the minor monsters in this workshop were different from the factory workers and the Corrupted Farmers.
They unquestionably possessed a small degree of intelligence and could communicate. The elite leader was the same.
Since that was so...
Uesugi Tetsu carefully straightened his Western-style school uniform.
He had to admit, the uniform was nothing special in the real world, but in this Ghost Village, it was absolutely top-tier merchandise. Calling him a Foreign Lord would not be an exaggeration.
Dressed like this, fooling two or three ignorant apprentices into following him to some secluded corner would be a piece of cake.
After quietly waiting for another hour, Uesugi Tetsu finally saw two apprentices sneak out of the workshop to get some fresh air.
He recalled the Hundred-Eyed Demon's eyeballs, retied the necktie at his throat, and strolled toward the two apprentices.
Before you continue