Afterward, Shane compensated Millianna with the grilled fish set meal they had eaten at noon.
Looking at the little cat girl eating with puffed cheeks, her face still clearly unhappy.
Shane said solemnly, "Look, cats love fish. If you eat more fish, you'll smell like fish, which means you are a fish. So, cats will definitely like you."
This theory immediately made Millianna smile.
Erza, who was drinking water, almost choked upon hearing this, her shoulders trembling slightly. She was quite speechless at this twisted logic used to fool a child.
But considering she also had a part in making Millianna cry during the day, she could only suppress the urge to roll her eyes and silently turn her head to study the patterns on the wall.
At night, Shane lay on the inn's not-so-soft bed, his mind clear. To adjust his biological clock, he forced himself to close his eyes. But having slept too long during the day, he tossed and turned for a long time before feeling a hint of drowsiness.
However, the Saber illusion Shane was expecting did not appear.
He had always suspected that using a Noble Phantasm would block the dream connection, but felt this guess was a bit unreasonable. Recently, he had to train Erza and use the Noble Phantasm, so there was no way to experiment.
Thinking back and forth, he suddenly felt a greater possibility was that the appearance of the dream depended more on the depth of his understanding of the Heroic Spirit?
If the understanding was deep enough, like with Arash, the dream would appear on the same day, and the True Name would be revealed within two days.
But if that was really the case, Shane was truly speechless.
This was like a fresh graduate being required to have "work experience" when applying for a job, but without a job, where would the experience come from?
An infinite loop...
His last thought was swallowed by fatigue. Anyway, it was a dreamless night.
And he didn't sleep soundly.
The next day, just as the sky was turning pale, urgent knocking sounded like war drums, bang bang bang, shaking the door frame.
Shane struggled to get up, radiating low pressure, and pulled the door open expressionlessly.
Outside the door, Erza was already standing there full of energy.
She wasn't wearing yesterday's dress but had changed into a sharp black outfit. Her long scarlet hair was tied in a high ponytail, making her look incredibly dashing.
Shane complained groggily in his heart: This girl changes her look quite diligently...
Before he could speak, Erza grabbed his wrist and excitedly tried to pull him out: "Shane! Quick, let's go to the coast!"
Shane struggled to fully open his eyelids, his feet planted like roots, and said helplessly:
"Wait... Erza, your most important task right now is to familiarize yourself with magic and control techniques. The only help I can give you now is improving your swordsmanship, so there's no rush for this moment."
He talked until he was blue in the face before finally making the energetic girl understand that "meditation and stabilizing magic circulation" were equally important training, barely persuading her to go back to her room to study magic on her own.
Although he didn't understand what so-called meditation and magic circulation were at all. He just parroted Rob's theory to fool her.
After sending Erza away, Shane let out a long sigh.
He left the Tower of Heaven to enjoy life, not to accompany a battle-maniac girl to fight all day long.
Since he was already awake, he leisurely went down to the inn's lobby on the first floor and ordered a simple breakfast:
Slightly burnt white toast, a small dish of jam, and a cup of steaming milk. He ate in small bites, enjoying the rare tranquility of the morning.
"Excuse me... are you Mr. Shane?" A slightly hesitant voice sounded nearby.
Shane looked up and saw a somewhat familiar boy standing by the table. He frowned and searched his memory for a while before asking uncertainly, "Tower of Heaven?"
"Yes!" Seeing Shane recognize him, the boy seemed very happy. "My name is Noel. Thanks to you..."
The two chatted. Shane casually asked why he was still staying at the inn. Noel scratched his head, his smile simple and honest: "I'm an orphan with nowhere to go. I thought this place was nice, so I just settled down.
"And I've already found an apprenticeship at a blacksmith shop in the city. It includes room and board, and I plan to move my luggage there today."
"Blacksmith shop?" Shane became interested.
Seeing Shane's interest, Noel was even happier: "Yeah! Would you like to come and see, Mr. Shane?"
"Sure." Shane nodded and sped up eating his breakfast. Seeing this, Noel simply didn't rush upstairs to pack. He waited patiently for Shane to finish, then actively led the way.
The blacksmith shop was located on the edge of the city, not far from the harbor.
Before getting close, they heard the rhythmic clang clang of hammering and felt the heat wave rushing toward them.
Walking into the open door, what came into view was a roaring furnace fire. The walls were hung with various farm tools and simple weapon blanks, and coal cinder and iron filings were scattered on the ground.
The air was filled with the unique smell of charcoal fire mixed with metal.
Smelling this scent, an inexplicable sense of familiarity surged in Shane's heart. His fingers even itched a little, wanting to try it himself.
"Sorry, Mr. Shane, the master said novices can't touch the hammer..." Noel stopped Shane's hand reaching for the hammer somewhat embarrassedly.
Shane felt a bit regretful but nodded in understanding. Since he was here, he wandered around the shop.
Possessing Saber's Noble Phantasm, he naturally didn't lack weapons, but suddenly thought of a problem—he couldn't use two Class Cards simultaneously.
When using Arash's crimson longbow, if paired with physical arrows, the power would be stronger than arrows made of pure Magic Power. In that case, preparing some physical arrows would be a good choice.
He expressed his desire to buy arrows to the owner of the blacksmith shop. But the owner told him that arrows were basically custom-made, and there were very few readymade ones.
The owner brought a few sample arrows. Shane took them and looked; whether it was the straightness of the shaft, the forging of the arrowhead, or the fit of the fletching, none of them satisfied him.
He thought for a moment and said to the owner, "Can you get me some rough blanks of long iron strips?"
This request was really abrupt. Although the owner wondered what he wanted iron blanks for instead of arrows, he still fetched the materials as requested.
Shane just had an idea, and his wallet didn't support much, so he didn't buy too many. He asked for nine sets of rough blank materials in total.
After paying, he took these materials back to the inn room.
As soon as he closed the door, Shane impatiently switched to the Archer class.
Then, guided by the instinct of [Arrow Construction], he picked up a set of rough blanks and carefully infused Magic Power into every part, guiding its shaping.
Under the effect of Magic Power, the iron gradually deformed, finally freezing into a slender iron tool gleaming with cold light.
But rather than an arrow, it looked more like a strangely shaped longsword.
"It really works!" Shane's eyes lit up. "As long as I consider this an 'arrow,' the creation process naturally holds true."
But after the joy, he held this "rapier" and examined it repeatedly, always feeling it wasn't perfect enough, frowning slightly.
Suddenly, he had a flash of inspiration and switched back to the Saber class.
Once the "Weapon Master" intuition of Saber unfolded, Shane immediately discovered many subtle flaws he hadn't noticed during the creation process just now.
Spiral patterns could be added to the blade to make it easier to break through the air, and the material could be appropriately hollowed out to reduce weight, making it easier to control.
Just like this, he repeatedly switched classes, pulling and shaping with Archer's ability, then reviewing and correcting with Saber's intuition, tirelessly tinkering with these nine arrows.
Throughout the process, Shane was inexplicably absorbed, as if the whole world consisted only of the weapon gradually taking shape in his hands.
When he finally finished the ninth arrow, it was already dusk outside the window, and orange-red twilight flooded the room.
Shane lined up the nine "arrows" on the table and examined them seriously.
Their lines were smooth, their sharpness hidden. Spiral patterns wound elegantly along the shafts, like ceremonial swords carefully crafted for nobles, possessing both beauty and sharpness.
Shane nodded in satisfaction, muttering to himself, "Although I still feel something is missing... this is the limit of what I can do right now."