Bai Chen read the blacksmith's meaning loud and clear.
"But I'm a hunter. How am I supposed to hunt without a blade? You can't expect me to fight monsters bare-handed — that's too harsh."
He bent to pick up the great sword.
Slap! Tinkatuff kicked it away.
"Ya-ma!" she snapped.
Bai Chen brightened.
"So you're saying you'll make my gear?"
Tinkatuff nodded and waved him over — bring your specs and the materials.
Bai Chen smiled inwardly. After years of bosses promising and never delivering, getting a Pokémon to accept an order felt almost too easy.
He pulled out his phone and rang Lusamine.
A short conversation later, five cubic meters of patterned steel arrived that evening.
Don't be fooled by the modest volume — that metal weighed forty tons.
Enough forging stock to keep Tinkatuff busy for a long while.
Bai Chen checked the alloy quickly. Patterned steel — rarity ★4. Comparable to a mid-tier forged steel: solid, reliable, nothing flashy.
To a layman, it's just metal; to a smith, it's potential.
Tinkatuff's eyes lit up when she saw it. She hugged the metal like a child with a new toy.
"Is this a dream? So much good metal…"
Bai Chen placed the crate before her.
"These are for you. Use them well. I want to see you become the greatest smith in the world."
Tinkatuff blinked, then puffed out her little chest.
"You're pretty decent yourself," she said, tapping her own chest.
"Ya-ma."
"Leave my equipment to me," she declared proudly.
Bai Chen reached into his pack and produced a clutch of Nergigante spines and hardened scutes — the shed pieces they'd pried free during training, and some Nergigante had broken off herself as part of regrowth. Tinkatuff took the materials with trembling hands.
Then Bai Chen stated his specs.
"Make me a great katana. Heavy. If one could weigh five hundred kilograms, that'd be perfect."
Tinkatuff frowned and tapped at a bit of patterned steel, measuring density and mass with the rough intuition only a smith has. After a moment, she shook her head.
"Ya-ma."
"Can't reach the weight?"
She nodded. Patterned steel's density was close to ordinary steel — a huge sword built from it would still cap out around two hundred kilos at best. Far short of Bai Chen's fantasy five hundred.
He thought a moment.
Use a different weapon — a warhammer, a greatsword? No. He was a katana man. Style mattered. A hunter's blade had to be elegant.
"Then make two katanas," he proposed. "If one can't reach the mass, two together can make up the heft."
Tinkatuff agreed at once — she could craft a second blade — but she drew a line.
"I don't make two identical pieces. I am a master smith, not a factory. Every work must be unique."
Bai Chen shrugged. That was fine. He could adapt to non-matching swords.
Tinkatuff was ready to start — but Bai Chen stopped her with a hand.
"Wait. One more thing."
He pressed the Bond Stone lightly to her forehead. The stone pulsed, light spilling over her small brow.
[Tinkatuff] gained a new skill: Avatar of Strength (rarity ★7).
Detected similarity with her existing Smith's Strength — skill evolved.
Avatar of Strength — Mastery (returned 2,392 proficiency points).
Tinkatuff staggered as knowledge and muscle memory flowed into her. Her shoulders broadened in spirit; she felt new craftsmanship in her bones.
Bai Chen drew the Living Forge from his inventory. At first glance it looked like a plain anvil — then it shifted. The anvil shimmered, compressed, and folded itself into the size of a bracelet.
Tinkatuff peered at it, fascinated.
"Ya-ma?" she wondered aloud. "How did you… make this?"
Bai Chen only smiled. "Don't worry about the trick. Consider it a gift. Wear it."
She slipped the bracelet over her wrist. Instantly, a torrent of manuals, diagrams, and arcane forging instructions flooded her mind. She staggered, then laughed like a child learning magic.
Bai Chen watched the new readout appear in his vision.
Forging Soul (rarity: ?) — Exclusive to the Living Forge. The Forge's active skill cannot be copied or upgraded normally. When you hunt or defeat fire-attribute monsters, you may distill a Flame Soul. Each Flame Soul carries unique properties; a smith can store up to five. The quality of a Flame Soul depends on the fire-spirit within.
Bai Chen blinked. Flame Souls could be made by slaying fire creatures. If he ever hunted a true black dragon or conquered a phoenix, the Soul born from that fight… what would it be capable of?
He let himself daydream for a moment — then Tinkatuff tugged his sleeve with glittering eyes.
"Take me! Let's hunt fire souls now!"
After a quick word to Lillie, Bai Chen, and Tinkatuff headed into the fields that night in search of fire Pokémon.
Their first target was a Fire/Poison Salandit (Night Thief Lizard). The fight was quick and clean. Tinkatuff stood by, hammer clutched, as Bai Chen finished the creature.
She reached into the bracelet and withdrew a transparent orb — a soul bubble. Carefully, she aimed it at the fallen Salandit's head.
The bubble wavered, sank into the carcass like light finding a shell, then pulled free again, cradling a small, flickering ember that took the Salandit's silhouette.
A tiny flame drifted inside the orb.
Night Thief Flame Soul (rarity ★2):
When forged into a weapon, it grants a faint poison-element attack to the weapon's strikes.
Tinkatuff held the soul up, eyes wide. The first Flame Soul. Small, but real.
Bai Chen's grin spread.
"Alright. First flame — simple, but useful. Let's see what you can do with it."
Tinkatuff's hammer glowed faintly as she imagined tempering metal with that ember. For the first time since Bai Chen arrived, two worlds' crafts were coming together — hunter iron and Pokémon spirit.
They set to work: two blades, patterned steel, Nergigante spines folded into the edge and tang, and the tiniest ember locked beneath the fold of the metal.
Tinkatuff hummed as she worked; the Living Forge on her wrist pulsed in time.
Night after night passed. The first Flame Soul went into the temper, giving the edge a thin, poison edge that would sear and corrode flesh on contact.
It was a modest beginning — but every legend starts small.
When she finally presented the pair of katanas, Bai Chen hefted them experimentally. Together, they had balance, presence, and more weight than their size suggested.
They weren't five hundred kilos apiece — but with two blades in tandem, he could spread the mass and technique across both hands in a way that felt right.
Tinkatuff watched him with an eager, vulnerable pride.
"Not bad for a starter," Bai Chen said, smiling. "Not bad at all."
Tinkatuff puffed her chest and let out a triumphant, metallic clink of hammer on anvil.
The first Flame Soul had been born.
And with it, a new partnership was forged — hunter, dragon, and smith — each one pulling the other toward something stronger than any of them had been alone.
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