Niphru tihrough the city toward the destination he had pnned on, likely a shop of some sort, judging by the wagon he had seen from above. Along the way, he entered a group of children pying in one of the smaller streets. While they were in the middle of the road, they did at least keep cheg down both sides of the road, so he figured they were safe enough and tinued onward. Eventually, he approached his arget, smelling ash aal as he he building.

  As he ehere was a loud g, and he looked up, spotting a metal bar extending from the door far enough to hit ahat was hanging from the ceiling. Since he didn’t hear anything particurly loud, he assumed that whoever owhe shop must have heard. As he tinued inside, he noticed a small sign that said to pull on the beside it if no one resent, but there were footsteps approag from the other room, so he did not bother.

  Seds ter, a soot-covered man arrived, entering from the other room in a bst of hot air. He immediately g Niphru before stating to him, “I don’t reize you, so I reend you go elsewhere, I’m having some problem with the fe right now and barely handle my existing orders.”

  Niphru was curious about this and, after a moment of thought, asked, “What sort of problem are you having? I was actually going to go to a few other pces to help them tomorrow. Maybe I could do something?”

  The smith frowned for a moment before replying, “Well, I suppose it ’t hurt. My air entment failed, and I’ve been having to use old bellows instead. Unfortunately, there are some holes, and it barely works. You don’t happen to be able to fix the holes in the leather, do you?”

  Shaking his head and having the illusion do the same, Niphru expined, “I ’t work with leather, but I am a mage, I could take a look at the entment. Maybe it is something I fix.”

  Eyes widening, the smith shook his head before waving for Niphru to follow him as he remarked, “Talk about a surprise; I never expected a mage to e here. What were you looking for? Maybe I make it if you mao fix the blower.”

  As the man led him to the back, he replied, “I wasn’t looking for anything in particur; I was just wandering around the city since I haven’t been around the area much.”

  Entering the w area itself, Niphru couldn’t help but look around, amazed at how many tools were present and surprised by a rge device with a surprisingly rge mana stoached to it. In addition to that, there were multiple, quite obvious, closable vents along the walls, as well as another in the ceilihe fe itself.

  The smith chuckled as he saw Niphru’s surprised expression, stating, “First time in a smithy, I take it? Our work is a lot more plex than most seem to think. Anyway, the blower is over here. It was w fiil two days ago.”

  The man stepped to the side as he waved at the small mae, and Niphru stepped forward to exami. Si was mounted fairly high up, he had to use a pne of force to lift himself to the same level, but ohere, he saw that the device was quite simple. There was a small mana stone inside a box, held ih a simple bracket, and it appeared to be desigo simply produce a gust of wind. The side of the box had a one-way valve to allow air to flow into the chamber to repce what ushed out, but otherwise, it did not possess any moving parts to cause wear and tear.

  Oher hand, the mana stoself was the issue, as the smith had stated. After cheg the entment on it, Niphru frowned. Either the enter was an idiot, or someone had cut a k off the stoer it had been ented. Typically, outside of very unusual situations, mana stones degraded at the same rate all around, yet this stone had the entment off-ter and partially chewed through by the degradation that had occurred over time as it discharged.

  Fortunately, re-enting was barely more difficult than enting initially. Niphru simply let his i flow through the crystal, smoothly washing away what was already present, leaving it as if it had never been ented to begin with. From there, it was a simple matter to design and attach a pattern that would suck air from one side and push it away oher. Ihan a minute, he had finished his work, and pced the re-ented stone back within its bracket.

  “That should have fixed it. you verify it works right, please?” Niphru requested as he dropped back to the ground and stepped away.

  Nodding, the smith reached into the taio activate the mana stone and closed it immediately afterward. A slight hiss could then be heard as air was sucked through the small valve, and the man reached his hand towards the hearth, feeling the heat ing off of it. A moment ter he smiled and excimed, “It wreat now, better than it did before! Thank you for your help. I’m afraid I ’t pay you the normal fee until I finish several more orders, but I’ll pay you what I . You return in two weeks and I’ll have the rest.”

  As he eaking, he quickly moved back toward the front of the building and opened a safe, removing the only visible bag within it, as well as a notepad. After a qui the bag, he scribbled down some numbers on the paper before putting it bad closing the safe agaiurning to Niphru with the bag. After firming that Niphru had a way to hold the s himself, the smith emptied his pouch, handing over all the s inside before throwing it back across the room to bounce off the side of the safe.

  Repeating his prior trick of using illusions and force magic to sneakily move the s into his harness, he then remarked, “I am not pnning on ing this way again, so don’t worry about the rest of the payment. To be ho, I don’t even know what this would normally cost, and it wasn’t terribly difficult for me. I’m gd I was able to help since I happeo be here.”

  Niphru then poio the rge structure to the side with the rge mana stone and asked, “Would you miing me know what that is? I at least guess at the purpose of everything else, but I don’t uand what that big mass of pipes and gears is for.”

  Walking over to the devi question, the smith reached down to the base, pointing at the stone, and responded, “This mana stone here heats water ihe chamber up here, produg steam. From there, it flows through pistons that turn a shaft on the back, which helps move a rge hammer over my anvil, though it is currently recessed within the ceiling.”

  The maurned back to the fe, pointing out part of the ceiling that looked weird, with a metal block hanging down, and tinued, “This helps me work a lot more effitly without having to tire myself out as much hammering away nonstop for simpler parts of the job. I’d love to upgrade it with a denser, but I ’t afford another ented stone, and won’t be able tood while, so I just have turly refill the water manually.”

  “That is very iing, I didn’t know you could do things like that with steam. All I knew you could do with it was make damaging explosions, which aren’t very useful except for causiru,” Niphru remarked, thinking of what the books on magic had mentioned about bining water and fire magic together.

  At this statement, the smith chuckled before expining, “If you don’t pay attention, this also explode. And si is tained withial, it would thro ks of metal everywhere, as well. As you might imagihere are some safety meisms built into it, but I also try to keep cheg on it regurly.”

  It wasn’t hard to imagihe results of su explosion, so Niphru nodded before saying, “Thank you for the expnation, I certainly learned something new. I should probably go head back for the day, I’ve been wandering around for a while now. I hope your woes well now that the blower is fixed.”

  “Of course, thank you again for the help! I was looking at having tle for a couple of weeks with damaged bellows to afford to get the blower w again. Thanks to your help, I’ll be able to repce that old thing soon, and I don’t o worry about the mana stone for a while. May your travels bring you profit,” the man replied, bowing to Niphru as he finished speaking.

  Niphru had his illusion wave to the smith as he headed back outside. Since he had already spent a good portion of the day wandering around the city, he began to head back to the spire, pleased with having already earned some money without even meaning to initially.