I love time travel the most!

If you ignore the anger in his eyes and the furious tone of his voice.

"A, Ku, Ya—!"

"Wait, wait a minute, let me explain!"

"Enough talk! Accept the sanctions!"

"ah--!"

Aqua's face was being rubbed and squeezed so hard that a horrifying scream erupted from a corner of the guild. The unsuspecting adventurers thought someone had brought a pig into the guild and killed it.

Chapter 187 Best Sixth Man, Exclusive Blacksmith

Aqua is a goddess with divine powers. However, this doesn't mean Aqua is omnipotent; even as the goddess of water, there are things she cannot do.

That is to recast the mecha parts.

She excels in design, performance tuning, and mecha design, but she is powerless to recast the mecha and change its original shape.

However, it must be said that Aqua was very clever. Since she herself couldn't do it, she found someone who could. So, Aqua found a blacksmith with exceptional skills in the starting village.

"Yes, it's me!"

“Bill…”

Kobayashi tilted his head slightly.

Kobayashi's lips twitched involuntarily at the sight of the one-eyed, bald, muscular man standing two meters tall, with bronze skin and a muscular physique, who was giving him a thumbs-up while flashing a hearty smile and displaying pearly white teeth.

There's a kind of beauty in a gay guy trying to unzip my pants.

He was that cunning blacksmith who hadn't appeared in over a hundred chapters. Oh, I misspoke. He did appear briefly during the equipment upgrade, but it was just mentioned in passing. After all, he wasn't some beautiful girl, so there was no need to waste words on him.

"Xiaolin, what kind of look is that? I feel like you're thinking something bad."

"You think too much."

This guy has been gone for a long time, and his appearance only added to my troubles, so I'm a little angry.

He strode to the chairs at the top of the lobby, plopped down, crossed his legs, propped his head up, and squinted.

He coughed lightly and demanded, "Tell me, why does Aqua owe you money?"

"...Huh? A question back?" Bill was dumbfounded. He scratched his smooth head and looked at Aqua beside him with a lack of confidence, asking, "If I remember correctly, you guys owe me money, right?"

"Yes, yes. Ahahaha...hahaha..."

Aqua dared not speak at all.

Xiaolin leaned back in his chair and deliberately drew out his words, saying, "Don't you know that the person who owes money is the boss now? Hey, hurry up and serve the boss some tea."

“…I’ve never heard of that before.” Bill clenched his fist, and a faint blue vein bulged on his forehead.

This indicates that he is not in a good mood.

After all, no one would be in a good mood if the one who is clearly in debt acted like a boss and tried to make things difficult for them.

Aqua was also taken aback by Kobayashi's arrogance.

She quickly leaned closer and whispered in Xiaolin's ear, "Hey, Xiaolin. It's true that I asked him to pay the money he owes. Is it really okay to be so unreasonable? We've made some money lately, so just consider it my fault and pay him back the debt."

This guy has changed his ways; he's actually not going to renege on his debt?

Kobayashi glanced at Aqua with surprise.

In the past, this silly goddess would have loved to default on every debt, but now she's terrified and is even taking the initiative to pay it back?

However, Kobayashi overestimated her shamelessness.

Aqua continued, "Look at how angry he is, he doesn't look like someone to mess with. If he gets angry, we're both going to get beaten up!"

She immediately understood why she wanted to pay back the money: she was afraid the muscular, tanned man would get angry. Kobayashi was certain that if it were that delicate lich lady—Wiz—she would have reneged on the debt without a second thought.

A shameless goddess who bullies the weak and fears the strong!

Kobayashi glanced at her with disdain, a rude look that made the proud water goddess very anxious.

No matter how she explained, the label of bullying the weak and fearing the strong was still attached to her.

“It’s not that I don’t want to pay you back,” Xiaolin explained. “If it were anyone else, I would definitely pay them back without any complaints, but Bill is an exception, because that swindler uncle cheated me terribly back then.”

That's right!

That was when he was still a novice adventurer.

As everyone knows, the Giant Toad is the weakest monster around Axel's starting village, and also the most suitable for novice adventurers to hunt.

To succeed in the raid, the key is equipment.

With a reminder from the guild receptionist, Ms. Luna, we learned that the giant toad hates iron the most, so as long as we wear iron armor, we can easily defeat it without any pressure.

When Xiaolin excitedly took his half-month's wages to Bill's blacksmith shop to buy equipment, the unscrupulous merchant ruthlessly emptied his wallet.

What's most infuriating is!

If the equipment were useful, that would be one thing, but this unscrupulous merchant sold him a piece of tattered armor that was just covered in iron.

This caused him to rush towards the giant toad, where he was immediately bound by its tongue and swallowed whole.

If Dust hadn't happened to pass by, he might have gone to see Eris back then and become the most frustrated transmigrator with cheat codes!

When he stormed back to confront him, Bill mocked him, saying it was all because he was blind.

Yes, just like when he learned from Eris.

That's why Kobayashi got angry.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's been half a year, please forgive me." Bill lost his temper when he heard Xiaolin's words, and even explained aggrievedly, "Didn't I compensate you with a beginner's set later? That set of equipment was worth several times more than the money you were ripped off."

"That can't change the psychological trauma you caused me back then! Do you know how much psychological trauma a set of junk equipment can cause me?" Xiaolin's words were very hurtful.

Bill scratched his head, his face full of distress, yet unable to defend himself.

Because it is true.

Kobayashi, as if seeing right through him, glanced at him sideways and deliberately mocked, "This time too! You must think Aqua is an easy fool to fool, so you're just trying to raise the price."

"Wait, wait! It's a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding! This time it's not what you think, Kobayashi!"

Bill raised his hands and quickly defended himself.

Kobayashi raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything, meaning he was to let Kobayashi explain it himself.

Bill stated bluntly, "I may have gone a bit too far before, but I assure you this time I absolutely did not charge exorbitant fees. In fact, these are all material costs; I haven't even charged for labor."

Huh? You've changed your personality too?

Xiaolin glanced at him in surprise.

It's a well-known fact that old habits die hard, and Bill's favorite pastime is swindling novice adventurers or fools like Aqua. It's impossible for him not to take advantage of the situation to charge exorbitant fees.

Bill noticed Kobayashi's confusion.

"Well..." He rubbed his hands together, a little embarrassed, and said, "Everyone has their own hobbies. I like to craft equipment, and I dream of creating a massive set of equipment that no one can stop. At this time, Miss Aqua sincerely invited me to modify the mecha together, so I readily agreed."

His bronze skin had an unusual reddish tinge, suggesting that he also found the reason embarrassing and unconvincing.

However, Kobayashi believed it.

"I see, that's it."

"...You believe it?"

"Ah, after all, there are many strange people in this world, and it's normal for them to have strange hobbies, not to mention that your hobby is quite normal."

He thought of Huihui.

The chuunibyou little girl in the team who always shouts that she wants to become the strongest explosive mage, doesn't she also love large robots to bits?

Looking at it this way, Bill's hobbies seem quite normal and are closely related to his profession.

Bill was delighted. He leaned closer, panting, and said loudly, "Kobayashi, Kobayashi! I have a great suggestion! Let me be your team's exclusive blacksmith! I'll forge all your equipment from now on! Of course, I'll also fully cooperate with Miss Aqua if she wants to forge a mecha, and I won't charge you anything except for the cost of materials. How about it! Isn't that a tempting offer!"

"Wait, wait, don't bring your face close!"

Kobayashi pushed away his panting head.

To be honest, the way he looked at him with gleaming eyes and inexplicably heavy breathing made him instinctively clench his buttocks.

Create some distance and let the agitated Bill calm down.

Kobayashi asked curiously, "Why do you want to become our exclusive blacksmith? Don't tell me the reason is just to forge mechs. If that's the case, as long as you spread the word that the mech that performed so well in the War of Destroyers was forged by you, I think many adventurers will come to you."

"No, no, no, you're thinking too simply, Kobayashi."

As if he had already guessed that Kobayashi would say that, Bill raised his index finger to deny his statement.

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it carefully. Even if I could build the mecha, could it unleash its previous power without the support of related technologies? And most importantly, it's you, Kobayashi, who's piloting the mecha. Could anyone else unleash the full potential of the mecha? No, impossible! Only when the mecha and the pilot are one can the mecha's power be perfectly unleashed!"

"……I see."

Simply put, he was not only interested in Aqua's mecha technology, but also in Kobayashi's piloting skills.

The main body that can be modified—the Supreme Throne—has been destroyed. Can it be modified into a mecha again?

"No problem, I've successfully recovered the damaged mech." Bill gave a thumbs up, grinning broadly to reveal his white teeth.

"So it was recycled?!" Kobayashi exclaimed in surprise.

After thinking for a moment, he slowly said, "Alright, we'll make you our team's exclusive blacksmith. However, you'll need to sign a contract. Not only will you be responsible for forging mechs, but you'll also be responsible for forging regular equipment. In return, we'll pay you. Of course, it would be even better if we could offer a 50% discount."

Bill instinctively refused, saying, "No need, this kind of money..."

“No way.” Kobayashi refused outright, saying, “Only an equal exchange can sustain a cooperative relationship in the long run. This is what you deserve; I can’t let you give for nothing.”

The brothers are still settling accounts.

Although Bill's proposal could save them a lot of money, in the long run it might make Bill have different thoughts, and it is also necessary to maintain a good relationship.

However, if Aqua and Kazuma Sato were to come, they would be more than happy to have Bill give them a free ride.

After all, that's just who they are.

In that case...