Chapter 107 - 106: Mr. Fuller

Sev Steele had just reached her door when she bumped into Hayden Hanson. He was carrying an old canvas bag and casually handed it to her when he saw her.

"I went to the Mutant Potato Forest to dig for mutated potatoes the day before yesterday. Midway through, Seth Jennings took a team hunting and managed to get a few mutant bird eggs.

"When they were sorting out the loot yesterday, she sent them all over to me.

"In my hands, these things can only be hard-boiled, which is a complete waste of good ingredients.

"I figured I’d bring them to you instead. You can make all sorts of delicious dishes with them, and I can reap the benefits and enjoy a good meal, too," Hayden explained.

Ever since his genes had collapsed, Seth would send over mutant bird eggs whenever she got them to help him nourish his body. Naturally, he had given Seth a lot of help in the past, so he felt perfectly justified in accepting the eggs she gifted him now. Friends always reciprocated, after all. Since Hayden felt he had eaten quite a few of Sev’s delicacies these past few days, he simply decided to pass the eggs on to her.

Sev didn’t decline. Winter was fast approaching, and it would soon be inconvenient to go out scavenging, meaning she would have plenty of time to cook all kinds of food. Since they were neighbors, if she refused his ingredients now, Hayden would naturally feel too embarrassed to eat any of the meals she made later.

Previously, she had always sent a bowl over to Hayden whenever she cooked, but she hadn’t shared any of the steamed milk and egg custard with hazel mushrooms she made last night. The outskirts of The Murkwood, where they normally scavenged, didn’t produce those specific mushrooms, and explaining their origin would be too much trouble. She had no intention of letting Hayden know about Rick Kaye, even though he was a trustworthy person. After all, the fewer people who knew about it, the safer they would be. When it came to a matter concerning her entire family’s survival, she could never be too careful.

Sev held Firestone’s hand as they followed the address on the pickup slip, only to find a very ordinary courtyard. Although this was Sector A, it was still The Slums. She wondered why a master craftsman capable of forging weapons wouldn’t live in The Gilded Ward, considering they should be quite wealthy.

After ringing the doorbell, the face of a girl around ten years old appeared in the small visual intercom window.

"Miss, please show me your pickup slip, or I can’t let you in!"

The young girl had a sly, lively gleam in her eyes and looked highly endearing. Sev smiled, tapped her watch, and held the digital pickup slip up to the camera. The girl checked her own watch, found the matching order number, and carefully verified it before finally opening the gate. Seeing Firestone standing beside Sev, she mischievously stuck her tongue out and made a funny face at him.

Firestone rarely had the chance to interact with other girls, especially one so bold. He lowered his blushing face, not daring to steal another glance at the young girl.

"Tch, what a boring little guy!" The girl curled her lip and paid him no further attention.

This was Sev’s first time stepping into a standard courtyard in Sector A. The Jennings family’s home had been renovated by The Azure Owl Mercenary Corps, making it a step above the regular houses in the sector. Although she had been envious when she first saw it, she hadn’t taken it to heart; after all, Seth was an elite mercenary, someone Sev could never hope to catch up to.

The courtyard before her covered about two hundred and forty square meters, while the house itself was around one hundred and twenty square meters, featuring two bedrooms, two living rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Just looking at the layout made Sev’s heart flutter. She didn’t have any lofty ambitions; she would be perfectly content if, in her lifetime, she could move her four children into a courtyard just like this one. When that day came, she could convert one of the living rooms into a private bedroom exclusively for Rose, as girls ought to be pampered a little more. As for the stinky boys, it wouldn’t hurt them to squeeze together in one room.

A shed had been erected on both the left and right sides of the courtyard. The one on the right was a standard woodshed, haphazardly piled high with unprocessed firewood. The shed on the left, however, was exceptionally spacious and divided squarely down the middle. One half housed a Melting Furnace, bellows, and a Quenching Pool. A wide alloy workbench was cluttered with various shaping tools—metal tongs, hammers of all sizes, chisels for engraving patterns, punches, whetstones, and more. It looked completely disorganized, but it had absolutely everything one could possibly need.

The other half contained all sorts of raw materials, including various ores, beast bones, beast fangs, and numerous unidentifiable objects. They were tossed together in a messy pile, making the area look more like a scrap recycling station, but Sev knew these things were likely quite valuable.

"Please follow me!" The young girl led Sev and Firestone into the living room. After ushering them to take a seat, she headed straight for the other room.

A massive shelving unit stood there, lined with boxes of varying sizes, each labeled with a different serial number on its side. While the girl rummaged through the shelves, Firestone sat stiffly on a wooden chair, too nervous to even look around. Sev, on the other hand, openly observed their surroundings.

The kitchen door was open, and a white-haired old man sat with his back to her. He was presumably the craftsman who had forged her daggers. She scanned the rest of the house but saw no one else besides the two of them. The rooms were relatively clean and tidy, and although the furniture looked simple, the quality was quite good. It was obvious at a glance that they lived a comfortable life.

It made sense when she thought about it. The crafting fee for her two daggers alone was thirty thousand points, and they were finished in just ten days. Judging by the mountain of materials piled up in his shed, the old man had definitely taken on other commissions alongside hers. He was clearly not strapped for cash.

At that moment, the old man seemed to hear the commotion. Without looking back, he complained, "Shannon Fuller, you brat! Every time you cook, you fob me off with this slop that tastes worse than pig feed!"

Shannon had just retrieved the goods and retorted casually, "Just be content, old man. If I didn’t cook for you, you would definitely starve to death!"

"Hmph! I’m not eating! You disrespectful brat, hurry up and get in the kitchen to clean the dishes!" Mr. Fuller stood up and strode out of the kitchen, finally noticing Sev and her son.

His beard was white, and his face was deeply lined with wrinkles, making him look to be in his sixties. His expression was incredibly gloomy, as if he might charge over and smack Shannon at any moment. However, the girl couldn’t care less. She blatantly ignored him, walked up to Sev, and handed over the daggers. Sev found the dynamic between the grandfather and granddaughter to be... rather hard to put into words!

"Miss, please inspect them carefully. If there are no issues, just scan the code to sign for them!" Shannon said, offering the box to her.

"Hmph! What could possibly be wrong with the things I make? Is there even a need to check?" Mr. Fuller grumbled, his face full of displeasure.

Sev thought to herself that if this old man didn’t possess top-tier skills, he would never get any business with an attitude like that. However, master craftsmen usually had their eccentricities, so she didn’t mind. Doctor Jenkins was a very reliable person, after all, and he wouldn’t casually recommend someone with shoddy workmanship.

With this in mind, she smiled and said, "Sir, you come highly recommended by Doctor Jenkins, so I definitely trust your craftsmanship. May I ask how I should address you? When I acquire suitable materials in the future, I’d like to come back and commission more weapons from you."

Seeing her respectful and amiable attitude, which didn’t seem pretentious at all, the old man’s expression softened significantly.

"Hmph! At least you have a good eye! My surname is Fuller. You can just call me Mr. Fuller," the old man said with an air of haughty pride.

"Then I will call you Master Fuller. Actually, I commissioned these daggers for my child. How about I let him test them out to see if they feel right in his hands?" Sev asked politely.

It was never her habit to leave without inspecting the goods. After all, these two daggers were forged using the two snake fangs from a Third Tier Mutated Coral Snake that she had luckily scavenged. The raw materials alone were worth sixty thousand points! Coupled with the thirty thousand points for the crafting fee and Doctor Jenkins’s ten thousand points for the referral, she had spent a total of one hundred thousand points.

Just thinking about it made her heart ache!