Lucas opened his mouth, but in the end, nothing more came out. His expression looked like he was all too used to Thunder’s hot temper.
After a while of dodging, Lucas finally backed up near a teleportation gate floating in midair.
Thunder immediately caught on to his intention to leave.
"Are you planning to run?"
"I’m not running."
Lucas stepped backward into the gate.
"I’m just temporarily leaving to avoid getting killed by a skilled A-rank Craftsman. Once you’ve calmed down, I’ll come and beg you then. After all, we’re old friends..."
"You—!"
Thunder lunged forward, but Lucas had already disappeared behind the light. The teleportation gate shimmered once and then faded away.
Thunder stopped in the middle of his ruined shop. He stared at the spot where Lucas had vanished, his face flushed red with anger.
Then, Thunder spat on the ground.
"Damn furballs."
He planted his sword on the stone floor, breathing heavily.
"I must have been insane to work with you people for so long!"
The street fell silent. It seemed the quarrel had finally come to an end.
Kei looked at Thunder’s shop. One wall was smashed through, shelves were tilted over, and a few swords lay mixed in with the wood debris. Smoke was still rising from behind the counter.
He turned to look at Sora.
"Sora."
"Hm?"
"Can we call ahead next time before we come? I feel like this world is a bit dangerous for a weak Craftsman and an ordinary person like me and you."
Sora nodded very seriously.
"Yeah. That would be much safer."
Thunder finally noticed the two. He looked at Kei, then at the deeply dented door of the shop across the street.
"Right, it’s you, the kid from Mrs. Kim Hye Ji’s shop." Thunder squinted. "You just flew out of my shop, didn’t you? Are you hurt?"
"Not exactly."
Kei thought for a moment.
"I walked into the shop, and then I got pushed out."
Thunder was silent.
Sora quickly bowed in apology:
"I’m sorry, Kei just came here to find you. We didn’t know something was going on inside the shop."
Thunder stared at Kei for a few more seconds, then clicked his tongue and waved at the two standing outside the door, signaling them to come in.
"What do you want from me?"
Kei looked at the wreckage inside the shop, then slowly answered:
"I’d like to borrow a few more research books."Thunder immediately became angry again.
"You still want to borrow books when my store was just smashed to pieces?! You little brat, you have no tact at all, unlike Kim Hye Ji!"
Kei looked around and smiled sheepishly.
"Actually, most of the damage was caused by you yourself, so it’s not really my fault for coming to see you at such a time, is it?"
Thunder glared.
Sora next to him immediately tugged at Kei’s sleeve.
"Kei, stop talking."
She had a feeling Thunder was about to go crazy and cut both of them in half with his sword.
Thunder gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, veins bulging on his forehead. However, after a few seconds of looking at Kei’s calm expression, he suddenly burst out laughing.
"Ha ha ha! You’re right."
Thunder sheathed his sword, then looked at the pile of ruined storefront with a pained expression.
"That damn Lucas. Next time I see him, I’ll definitely make him pay for everything. All of this is the fault of those hairy hunters from that Guild Zootopia!"
He turned to Kei and asked:
"You want to borrow books, right? Go on in. But since you and the little girl arrived at just the right time, my store is already in ruins now, and the books are all mixed up everywhere. To make up for the book rental fee, the two of you have to help me clean up."
Thunder said this with a shameless expression. Kei looked at the store, then at Sora, and they both knew this was hard to avoid.
Sora smiled.
"At least you got out today, so getting some exercise is good."
Kei sighed, stepped over the piles of wood debris, and started rolling up his sleeves to clean everything up.
Behind him, Thunder carried up a crate that had been broken in half with a pained expression, muttering under his breath:
"What an unlucky day."
Kei looked around the devastated store, and a bad premonition suddenly arose in his heart. Perhaps this book borrowing trip would not be as easy as he had thought.
While cleaning up the debris of Thunder’s shop, Kei suddenly realized that the goods Thunder dealt in were truly diverse, and unable to contain his curiosity, he ran over to Thunder’s side and quietly asked:
"Hey Thunder, things like heavy equipment, weapons, protective clothing, jewelry and food, are all products of Craftsman?"
He asked curiously.
Thunder arrogantly lifted his chin and said in an extremely self-satisfied tone:
"Except for food that requires chefs with awakened professions to help make, all the other items in this shop are crafted by the Craftsman in my store. I am just a blacksmith who can only make equipment; to be more precise, blacksmithing is only one branch of the Craftsman profession."
Kei let out an "oh" of surprise, it turned out that Craftsman had that much potential.
The more potential this profession had, the more interested Kei became in it; a true magician is one who is passionate about researching everything about this world.
If so, then researching the crafting of items in the Craftsman profession was no different from the research and learning about the truth of the world, just like a magician.
"I’m getting more and more interested in my awakened profession, and I also remember your help, Thunder-nim."
Thunder laughed heartily, he also agreed with this.
Being a rank A blacksmith who agreed to come to this tiny city of Dong-San to do business was precisely because of his personality that refused to flatter or grovel; Thunder could not accept the fact that a powerful support item-crafting profession was being looked down upon in cities ruled by large Guilds.
Just like the way the guild master of Guild Zootopia looked down on the items his shop had sent to Guild Zootopia a few days ago, then said that items crafted by Craftsman were nothing but trash.