As the lame smith walked into his workshop, he led them to a room that was perfectly decorated. It had a large coffee table which looked to be made of a large chunk of gemstone, some sofas and chairs clearly made with exotic beast fur, and several expensive looking creations mounted on the walls.
it just all around looked far more extravagant than anything Cynthia had seen in this world. It even looked more impressive than a large portion of business rooms Cynthia had seen in her past life which was quite the feat.
"Maybe I should've treated you like a sleazy salesman with this kind of business room!" Cynthia verbally jabbed at the old man.
"Bah!" exclaimed the future god "My worthless disciples forced me to get this business room decorated like this!"
"It's a damn shame he isn't a sleazy businessman…" Cynthia thought "Because I sure as hell am!"
"So about your commission, brat." said Hepheastus "I hope the materials aren't sourced from your body!"
"Even setting aside how inhumane that would be, I can't handle divine materials." Hepheastus continued "Even if you are only a juvenile, they are still divine materials."
"No they are not from my body." said Cynthia.
"Alright, that's good to know…" said the smith extremely relieved, at not spilling the blood of a child.
"The materials are from these two behind me." said Cynthia with a deadpan face while she pointed a thumb behind her to the Human Faced Spiders.
"P-pardon?" said the dwarf looking in horror to what looked like two teenagers.
"Come on geezer, we're beasts!" said Cynthia exasperated "all three of us were born no more than 15 days ago, and we've all experienced several life or death battles."
"E-even still!" stammered Hepheastus.
"Have you heard of the little butcher?" asked Cynthia "I'm told I've become quite famous while I was asleep."
"Little butcher?" said Hepheastus mere moments before connecting the dots "The one who prompted the blood festival?"
"That would be me." Cynthia said resigning herself to her new epithet.
"And you aren't even 16 days old?!" Exclaimed the dwarf in shock.
"Well technically I'm 26, but yes I was born less than 16 days ago." replied Cynthia
"How can you be 26 days old and less than 16 days old at the same time???" asked Hepheastus completely bewildered by this point.
"Not 26 days, 26 years old." said Cynthia.
"You realize that doesn't in any way answer my question right?" retorted the blacksmith with irritation now layered on his confusion.
"This life started less than 16 days ago." said Cynthia highly amused at this point with her ears flicking, tail lashing, and pupils dilated clearly telegraphing her amusement to everyone in the room.
"This life…?" muttered Hepheastus.
"Come on senile old man, it didn't take Yang Ling nearly this long to connect the dots." said Cynthia.
"Yang Ling of the Solar Yang sect?" asked the smith.
"Yup. What is a piece of information pertaining to past lives that a leader of a mid level sect would find extremely important in a very specific circumstance?" asked Cynthia prompting the man's memory as much as she could.
"Reincarnant!" said Hepheastus his confusing turning to shock and then horror.
"Calm down. I promise I don't bite." said Cynthia enjoying his reaction very much "You know, unless you pose a threat."
"You said I should strive to become a divine smith didn't you?" said the smith with hope
"Yeah i did." said Cynthia already understanding the dwarfs train of thought.
"Is that the prophecy of a Reincarnant?" asked Hepheastus tentatively.
"What would be the point of me answering that question?" Cynthia said with wisdom "Whether you have the capabilities has been decided, but your resolve has not.
"No genius can reach the true summit without more effort than countless other geniuses." Cynthia concluded with more truth to hers and Sebas' situation than Hepheastus.
"Wise words for a 26 year old fledgling who barely understands the world of myths." said Hepheastus gaining more and more respect for the little tiger with every word.
"Certainty is the folly of the imperfect." said Cynthia "any train of thought can be derailed before it even leaves the station if the foundation of facts does not match reality."
"And even then facts can be connected in incorrect ways." said Hepheastus.
"Absolutely!" replied Cynthia "The paradox of uncertainty being true certainty is what makes humans, or rather sentience so incredibly fascinating!"
"They say that future gods show their domain before they even become kings." said Hepheastus with awe "I'm sure the concept you introduce to the innumerable realms will be marvelous!"
"Enough flattery. The materials. What else do you need?" said Cynthia getting back on topic "I'm well aware more goes into creating any kind of artisan good than just one material."
"Correct, we usually use several materials from the same source, but the main material is usually a beast pearl to tie all the materials together." said Hepheastus snapping out of his awe.
"Meaning we'd need either a duke grade beast pearl, or a human face spider beast pearl…" said Cynthia.
"Yes. Unfortunately there likely isn't anything good enough at this market. In this region, treasure like those are usually prized treasures of even the highest level sects." said Hepheastus with a grim expression.
"And they definitely don't have anything duke ranked which means it's a legendary bloodline pearl." said Cynthia frowning.
"On top of that the pearl needs to have a high level of affinity with the materials." said the smith complicating the situation even more.
"Does it need to be a beast pearl?" asked Cynthia with a little hope.
"Well usually a beast pearl is used because the beast pearl of the beast that the materials are sourced from has the highest synergy with the materials" said Hepheastus "but the core of the item can be anything of a sufficient level with a high level of affinity."
Cynthia reached into her warehouse and pulled out what looked to be a maroon marble.
"will this work?" asked Cynthia.
"Ohhh! That's a life and death pearl!" said Hepheastus in shock.
"This was the result from my fight in the arena. When I woke up I had this and it has the aura of all of the beasts I killed in the arena." said Cynthia "They were all only barons but these two are still young."
"It is still quite low quality for this project, but if we go for this level of quality we should be able to find something at the local auction." said the smith "Tomorrow is actually their bi-annual summit auction. You'll need a lot of money though."
"You said that legendary grade materials are prized treasures didn't you?" said Cynthia grinning a bit too creepily.
"My lady!" said the Xingxing suddenly "they are my descendants!"
"Tough luck old bastard! plus I can feel that neither of them are opposed to this." replied Cynthia looking at the old spider with apathy.
"Ancestor, all beasts know that our bodies are highly likely to be used for the purposes of making our murderers stronger." said Sebas with a flat tone "You know this just as well as we do."
"If our bodies will be used for those purposes by other why should we refrain from doing the same while we still have ownership of our bodies?" said Yue.
"This world is just as cruel as the one in my past life. The only difference is that this one is up front about it." said Cynthia "Many may call it cruel or morbid, but people just choose to be blind to the morbidity of a modern world."
This course of action didn't sit well with Hepheastus or the old ancestor, but they knew the truth of these words more than the ones who spoke them. The two old men simply had too much compassion to not feel bad for these young beasts.
Cynthia actually didn't feel good about using the two spider's bodies for this either, but she knew full well that even drawing attention to them having legendary grade materials would invite danger, never mind divine grade ones. She would readily use her body for materials if it didn't invite massive powers to come here to hunt her.
The only reason the local powers didn't try anything was a combination of fearing retribution and knowing that them even owning such a heavenly treasure would invite trouble on themselves as well. Larger powers don't have these concerns though.
Young Celestial White Tigers are the easiest to hunt because they don't have the backing of their species, and they would be able to protect these materials, since ducal houses would incur too many losses, and kingdoms wouldn't benefit much from those materials because of how young Cynthia is.