Ed soon found the blacksmith's forge. "Is the boss here? A customer's arrived!" A muscular man walked out of the shop and said to Ed, "What do you need forged? Did you bring your own materials, or will you use mine? Weapons? Armor? I can make anything here! I'm the best blacksmith in town!"
"Do you have paper and a pen? I need some special throwing knives." "Here, take them." Ed took the paper and pen and quickly drew a diagram of a Flying Thunder God Kunai. "Just make them like this. Start with thirty. Can you do it?"
"Don't underestimate me. Thirty of these things? I can finish them in a day. I'm the best blacksmith in town!"
"How much altogether?"
"If I provide the materials, it'll be 1,000J apiece. That's 30,000J total."
"That expensive? Give me a discount. I'm going to need a lot more of these in the future!"
"I'm the best blacksmith in town! My craftsmanship is absolutely worth that price. But if you provide the materials, I can charge you 500J each."
"I don't have materials either." Ed scratched his head and sighed in resignation. "Then 30,000J it is. I'll pick them up tomorrow afternoon. No problem, right?"
"I'm the best blacksmith in town!" The muscular man immediately started boasting again. "You can pick them up tomorrow morning. You're a mage from Fairy Tail, right?" Looking at the mark on Ed's hand, he said, "I won't take a deposit from you. Tomorrow afternoon, payment and goods exchanged at the same time!"
"Okay, okay... I'll leave it to you."
"Don't worry, I'm the best—"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. You're the best blacksmith in town. Please stop repeating yourself. This padding is almost a hundred words already." Ed used Lightning Flash to interrupt the town's best blacksmith before he could finish boasting.
"Hmph!" The town's best blacksmith seemed very displeased at having his boasting interrupted. He snorted and began studying the diagram.
Ed left the blacksmith's forge and checked the time. "I've been busy all morning and haven't even eaten. I should head back to the guild, get some food and rest, then see if there are any easy jobs I can take."
A flash of golden light later, Ed pushed open the guild doors and headed straight for the bar. "Please give me a huge serving of food! Preferably with meat!" As he ate and rested, Ed felt his magic power slowly recovering.
Standing before the job board and looking over its countless different requests, Ed began to hesitate.
"Hmm... This morning's delivery job paid 50,000J. The kunai cost 30,000J, and food cost 300J. But rent is due next month, and I don't have enough money. I still need to keep taking jobs. This one is a missing-person request... pays 20,000, but it's really far away, and I'm not very good at finding people... Oh? This one pays a whopping 500,000J. Let's see... subjugation of a giant magical beast. A subjugation quest..."
Ed thought about the Flying Thunder God Technique, which he was currently most proficient with, and his half-finished Monster Strength, which left half his arm wrecked after a single punch.
"I should wait before taking that... At the very least, I need to become proficient in an offensive ability first... Wait, what's this..." Ed's attention was drawn to a job slip. "Reward: 10,000J... Find... Tiger... return... Hmm... this one it is!"
Ed decisively tore down the request and said to Makarov, "Old man, I'm taking this job!"
"This one? No problem. The client is a noblewoman from elsewhere who's about to leave Magnolia, and she's been worrying over this. Get going, kid!"
Ed quickly followed the directions on the job slip to a forest. He tossed several stones marked with Flying Thunder God Marks around the area, along with some meat he had brought from the guild, then hid himself.
After a while, a cat with a red bow tied to its right ear emerged from the bushes.
Apparently smelling the meat, the little cat slowly approached the food Ed had left behind, warily watching its surroundings.
Ed seized the moment when the cat lowered its head and opened its mouth. He activated Flying Thunder God, and in a flash of golden light, Ed successfully grabbed the cat by the nape of its fated neck.
The cat seemed to know what would happen after being caught and began struggling fiercely, but it was useless. After all, it was only a little kitty. It could not stop Ed from taking it to the client.
"Little Tiger~~~!!" The noblewoman snatched the cat from Ed's hands, hugged it tightly to her chest, and rubbed her face against it nonstop.
Seeing the cat being squeezed out of shape by the noblewoman's Big Mom-like build—miniature elderly version—Ed could not help but shudder. "Sure enough, cat-finding jobs are absolutely a tradition. You have to try them."
Watching Little Tiger set off for home with the Big Mom-like noblewoman while feebly resisting, Ed silently prayed for it, hoping it would survive in good health. Whether it would be happy was another matter entirely.
As night fell, Ed returned to the dormitory and began working out. He had enjoyed fitness training before being transported here. Though he had no professional equipment, push-ups and planks were no problem.
"197... 198... 199... 200!" After finishing his workout, Ed began trying to improve Monster Strength. "That punch last time was powerful, but my arm couldn't take another one. It should be an issue with the magic power burst. I figure I should split the magic power into two parts—one to burst outward, and one to protect my body from the burst... Hmm. Let's try it... I'll use my left hand."
Ed opened the window, picked up a cup from the table, aimed into the distance, and began gathering power. "For a test, use less magic power first. Gather it... cover the arm... then split it into three parts... protect the joints... the muscles... and finally, burst!"
Ed explosively released the magic power in his arm and threw the cup. The cup soared into the sky until it vanished from sight.
"Nice! That's it. Sure enough, as long as the magic power released in the burst doesn't exceed the amount protecting my muscles and joints, there's no problem at all. Once I master this move, subjugation quests and the like should be no issue!" Ed thought of those enormous rewards.
"When will I ever be able to buy a house if I only do delivery jobs? Maybe not even after five years. All right, I'll practice tomorrow and try to master it without slowly charging up. Then I'll let Gray properly experience the fist of love."
With the wonderful fantasy of punching Gray and kicking Natsu playing through his mind, Ed gradually drifted off to sleep.
As sunlight streamed through the window, Ed opened his eyes. "Ah, that was a great sleep. All right, let's do this. I'll try to master Monster Strength this morning!" Ed stretched and got up, preparing to head to the mountain behind the dormitory to train.
Time slowly passed. After Ed's constant attempts, afternoon soon arrived. "This should be enough. I still need to charge up for a full-power burst, and I can't maintain it for long, but tomorrow is only a spar. I won't need full power. If I hold back a little, I should be able to maintain Monster Strength for a long time." Ed nodded in satisfaction. "Oh, right! My kunai should be ready for pickup! Go, go, go!"
Ed arrived at the blacksmith's forge. "Boss! I'm here to pick up my order on time! It's done already, right?"
"Of course it's done! I'm the—"
"Stop! Here's the money! Bring out the goods!" Ed interrupted the town's best blacksmith before he could start boasting again.
"Take it." Townsmith reluctantly shut his mouth and handed over a package.
Ed opened it and saw the completed Flying Thunder God Kunai. "Amazing, they're exactly like I imagined. But I don't think I've thrown this kind of projectile much before. Perfect, there's still time this afternoon. I'll go practice~"
"Whoosh~" Ed returned to the forest from earlier and began placing Flying Thunder God Marks on the kunai.
After marking them all, Ed began practicing throwing the kunai. Following an afternoon of hard training, he could not hit a target dead center from a hundred paces, but within five meters, he could hit wherever he pointed. Within ten meters, the error was no more than ten centimeters; within twenty meters, less than one meter; at forty to sixty meters, it was basically up to fate; at sixty to eighty meters, it was already a miracle of life; and beyond eighty meters, he could not throw them that far at all without Monster Strength~
"Good! Now all that's left is tomorrow." Ed had made every possible preparation—meaning, preparing to beat up Gray.
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