Reincarnated As A Parasite

Ashura's Incarnation Arc - Chapter 17: March On Snow

Mark has been working in his run-down smithy workshop for the last twenty years that his mentor had left him, it was the only physical property he had in his life. The furniture and weapon brackets looked like they have seen better days.

From sunrise to sunset for the last twenty years, he crafted equipment for the town's mercenary force to earn a living. He knew no other expertise than to make and repair weapons and armor. His wife had already left him after being inflicted by a rare illness soon after giving birth to his young daughter. His only way to sustain his lifestyle was to hammer away in life and subsume all the stress.

As he tempered a searingly hot blade with his trusty hammer, the bell attached to the entrance of his door chimed to announce the arrival of a customer.

Asura found the temperature of the room stifling the moment she entered, but she still approached the spot where the blacksmith was tempering a blade, it became so hot it was a wonder how he could still stand there calm and unburnt. His shiny head devoid of hair glistening with warm sweat and his forgery emitting enough heat that the air around him was distorted.

Not wanting to disturb the remarkable craftsman's profound concentration, Asura stood a few meters next to him, watching how he tempered the blade even when it wasn't anything special.

He took the shaping of the weapon so strictly that it took him more than a thousand strikes with the hammer before he finally called it a day.

After wiping clean his drenched physique, he turned his head to look at Asura who was staring at him as if she was staring at a wall.

"It's you again, here to come get your armor? It's over there along with the bow and arrows. Since you left your initial order of a bow here, I figured I'd make you one that compliments your size."

Mark the Blacksmith jerked his bald head at the direction of a wooden stool. Laying on top of it was a set of leather armor that prioritized protecting many parts of the body that people would often instinctually use to defend themselves from harm.

He also added some extra protection for Asura's breasts which made him seem like an expert to think about the inconveniences a female mercenary would face during battle.

"You already paid me the right amount of money the other day so you can go out right away. Make sure to come back here when you need more arrows, I always make arrows as a hobby during midnight anyway."

Ashura ordered Asura to put on the leather armor right away, but since she had a hard time doing it by herself with the complexity of it's design, the former had to take over and do it himself. Making sure to lecture her so she can do it by herself later on.

"Hmm... It fits you perfectly. As expected of my product." Mark grunted in satisfaction.

The job he did on the armor was praiseworthy enough that he has the rights to brag about it. Even though it eats quite some time to equip, it proposed an adequate degree of protection which left no further improvements desired.

The outer garment consisted of leather wristguards, foreguards, shoulder pads, trousers and chausses while the inner parts were mainly made of a white tunic and chainmail armor, which left the joints impervious to slashes but susceptible to stabs.

In the first place, it didn't matter to the two the degree of protection the armor could offer as Asura's body can regenerate in a heartbeat with the parasite's help. The armor only served it's purpose as a way to identify Asura as a warrior and a mercenary rather than a frail little girl to her colleagues' eyes. If she always went with that get-up, it will only draw some eyes and make people pick on her.

It's was an unspoken rule in human society afterall that people are mostly judged through their appearance, although he'd rather not have Asura looking like a muscular burly man just to intimidate others even if he's able to alter Asura's body whenever he wants to a certain degree.