anvil with a pair of tongs. I knelt on one knee and grasped my hammer, then called up the pop-up menu and chose the item I wanted to make. Now all I had to do was hit the chunk of metal for the designated number of times and the item would be forged. There was no technique required for this and the quality of the resulting weapon was random; but I thought that the end result depended on how much I concentrated, so I tensed all my muscles and slowly raised the hammer. Then, just when I was about to strike the metal—— “Hey, Liz!” “Ahh!” The door to the workshop opened loudly and I missed; instead of the metal, I struck the anvil with a pathetic clang and a spray of sparks. As I raised my head, the intruder was scratching her head and smiling with her tongue stuck out. “Sorry~ I’ll be careful next time.” “I wonder how many times I’ve heard that—— ...Well, at least it was before I started.” I stood up with a sigh and put the piece of metal back into the furnace before placing my hands on my hips and turning around. Then I looked up at the girl who was slightly taller than me. “...Hey, Asuna.” My friend and regular customer, the rapier-wielder Asuna, crossed the room as she walked towards me and sat down on the wooden stool. She then pushed back the long chestnut-brown hair that went past her shoulders with her hand. All of her movements seemed