Thanks to Xu Feng's meticulous and delicate explanation, the woman nodded her head.
Nevertheless, she still asked for the letter to verify them.
"Where's the so-called letter? If what you just said is a lie, then don't blame my hammer for swinging toward you." She kindly threatened.
"Why are you still standing like a dork? Hurry up and give the letter to this Miss.!" Xu Feng instructed.
Hearing his friend's instruction, Zhao Kai snapped out of his daze as he retrieved the letter.
With the utmost respect, he held the letter in two hands and bowed in 90 degrees.
Here's the letter, Miss Blacksmith," he said, copying Xu Feng's way of addressing her
Snatching the letter in a swift motion, the woman made a simple glance and sniffed the letter. Her actions somewhat confused Zhao Kai, but he was clever enough to stay silent this time.
A few seconds later, the woman nodded her head, "This is indeed a letter from Uncle Gorrick. The lingering smell and the unique letter symbol."
"See, we weren't lying!" Zhao Kai retracted his body as he stood proudly and said.
However, a single glare from the woman prompted Zhao Kai to go back to his 90-degree bow.
"What's your name?" The woman then asked.
"I'm Fiona Forgefire, and most villagers here refer to me as Fiona, but you are only qualified to call me Blacksmith Fiona for now." She added, introducing her name in the process.
"Good evening to you, Blacksmith Fiona." Xu Feng gave a polite bow and continued, "I'm called Lin Feng and my companion here who was rude earlier is Shadow Blade."
"Rude?" Zhao Kai flared up and curled his fingers into a fist, wanting to punch him for not warning him earlier.
Alas, it was as if he was a mouse that had met a cat, upon noticing Fiona's stare, his mouth went shut as he started looking around, acting ignorant.
"Hmph, at least there is one sensible person among you." Fiona snorted coldly and turned her attention back to Xu Feng.
"My father went away to gather some materials for a forge, so he won't be back for a while." She explained, returning the letter to Xu Feng instead of Zhao Kai.
It was most likely she had a bad impression of Zhao Kai from his earlier interruption, so she was displeased with him and treated him as invisible air.
As for the return of the letter, it meant that Fiona was going to let them wait until her father had returned before handing it over to him personally.
Xu Feng also wasn't going to ask why she couldn't just keep it since it was to his benefit. By retaining the letter, it gave them a legitimate excuse to continue to wander around the village and an opportunity to get some items forged by Fiona.
Although Xu Feng can't tell the levels of Fiona, based on her oppressive aura and strength, it wasn't hard to say she was at least in or above level 30s.
With that in mind, Xu Feng gave the letter back to Zhao Kai for safekeeping.
Afterward, he stepped forward and asked, "Since we'll need to wait a while, is there anything you need our assistance on? Our strength might not be adequate, but surely there must be something that we weaklings can assist you with to save you the time in forging."
Pleased by his word of speech, Fiona smiled briefly.
"At least you know you two are weaklings. It's good to know your limit." She commented, turned around, and inspected the materials.
"I'm short of some monster parts, so you can help me gather them. They're usually located around the Verdant Valley, but I'm too busy to venture out."
"Monster parts? What kind of parts are you seeking, Blacksmith Fiona?"
"I'm missing some Shadow Wolves, Pyrite Drakes, Stonehide Boar, and Ironwood Treant. If possible, I want 50 for each of them."
"Can you even call that some?" Zhao Kai interrupted and questioned in a baffled tone.
50 each of them was equivalent to 200 whopping monsters in total!
Just how were they supposed to gather them in such a short span of attention?
Not to mention, the difficulty of even killing 200 of them!
"Haha, excuse my companion's behavior." Xu Feng chuckled loudly before raising his left hand and delivering a hard smack to the back of Zhao Kai's head.
The smack echoed loudly, and Zhao Kai nearly fell to the ground from the impact.
"No matter," Fiona raised her hand and said, excusing his offense. "I feel sorry for you instead for having such an inconsiderate and impulsive companion."
Putting a smile on the surface, Xu Feng secretly messaged Zhao Kai privately in the process to react later and leave everything to him.
"My companion was indeed impulsive, but he wasn't wrong that 200 monsters are somewhat out of our capability." Xu Feng said, explaining the difficulty of the mission.
"Understandable," Fiona nodded her head in agreement. Their mediocre strength in her eyes was definitely not enough to handle the Pyrite Drakes, Stonehide Boar, Shadow Wolves, and Ironwood Treant.
Unbeknownst to her though, Xu Feng and Zhao Kai had already dealt with quite a few Shadow Wolves.
However, Xu Feng concealed the matter from Fiona, lest she might actually believe they were capable without her assistance.
"Here, you can borrow some of the equipment I have forged in the storage room there. Remember, you're only allowed to take 3 pieces of equipment max. And if you do a good job, then I don't mind selling them to you at a discount." Fiona pointed at the storage room near the right-end corner door.
"Thank you for the generosity, Blacksmith Fiona." Xu Feng quickly, while laughing inwardly. 'Sell them to me? Heh, once they're in hand, it's hard for you to get it back.'
Pleased with the thought of having some free helpers to gather supplies for her, Fiona waved her hand to tell them to pick some already.
Just as she was about to resume her forging, she remembered something.
"Oh right, since you probably arrived here through the letter's hidden teleportation feature. It would be hard for you to return now that the effect is gone. Take the medal by the table and head to the Village Teleportation platform to register yourself."