This was all Grace had at that moment in time. She was guildless, and the most she could do was simple jobs that required hard labor. Hard labor that wasn't worth her time at all. She couldn't believe what she was doing for a simpleton like Barras. Though, that didn't mean he wasn't useful. He was one of the Lord of Magnolia's right hand men. He was supplying him with stuff that others couldn't. She had hope that she would be able to gain some power from getting on his good side.

So, as she walked up towards the man with a gentle smile on her face, she said to him, "How do you do? My name is Grace Lucrin. I was the lady who signed up for the job you posted up." With that, the man looked up at her, looking back down to see the petite physique she had. He looked at her questioningly, wondering if she was actually serious in her offer. It was no matter to him, though. He just scratched whatever preferences he had for a worker, and decided to tell her what she needed to do. With a short and simple summary, he said to her, "Well, you're not really what I was expecting for work, but you are probably capable of doing these tasks. So, my assistant has recently hurt his arm in an accident with a hammer. Hopefully, you'll be lucky enough to not do the same, because you will be flattening out metal throughout the day. Every now and then, I will check up on you to see how you are doing, but its a simple enough task for me not to."

As he began to finish up with what he was saying, he looked over to his lowly assistant. The man then went over to a bin filled with metal, of which he picked one of those metal pieces out, placing it on top of the anvil that was in front of Grace. As she looked at it, she felt pure discomfort with the job. She knew that she was completely capable of doing something like this. The problem was, was that she didn't want to do it in the first place. Of course, she didn't show this discomfort on her face, but rather she looked at it as though she was examining the metal. She hoped that that would cover up whatever she was feeling, because she needed this job. She needed to make her parents happy. If they had any chance of becoming a noble, or something better than that of a noble, she would need to put in the work. Her parents had spoiled her without end, waiting for her to fulfill their life goals. Grace wasn't going to let them down, not now, or ever. So, looking down at the hammer on top of the anvil, she picked it up and got ready to swing down upon the metal before her.

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As her arm was up in the air, she started to slam it down upon the metal, causing it to flatten pretty easily. The metal wasn't very hard, so to speak. Instead, it seemed to meld pretty well with the strength she had acquired through her training. The smith that had given her the job was thoroughly suprised by this event, which Grace dully noted in her head as she hammered away at this piece of metal.

Grace knew that she hadn't done her job well enough, not the one she was doing currently, but rather her job of creating a good first impression. The smith seemed to think of Grace as a prissy little girl who was in over her head, rather than someone that was worthy of doing a job under him. This caused her to hit down upon the metal harder than before, while still having some restraint to her emotions. It was obvious that something invigorated her, but her anger was not seen as that vigor. This made Grace seem a lot scarier than she had at first, making the assistant wince in pain at the poor metal that was being beaten to a pulp.

She smiled a bit at the notice of this, realizing that she was finally making more of a name for herself as a secret weapon. Although she was small in stature, she still was a powerhouse when it came to pure strength. This metal flattening only proved that fact, not to mention the cowering assistant near the metal bin.

So, this allowed her to continue on with the beating of the metal for quite a while. After hours on end of doing this, she was finally halted to a stop as the assistant looked at the girl in surprise. It seemed as though Grace had completely flattened every single piece of metal that could've been flattened. It was an amazing deed, and something that the smith hadn't really seen from a mage before. As she looked into his eyes, she started to see a respect for herself in his eyes. Though, she didn't let a smile penetrate through her serious look. She was not going to make the mistake of looking like a weakling again. If she could do the work of a mere poor person, she could do anything. The work was so hard, because they deserved it. They weren't smart enough to do anything besides this tiring work. This knowledge allowed Grace to realize the sheer amazingness she had. She had the knowledge of a noble, and the strength of a poor person. Two things that shouldn't go together, yet they are both in her.

Pride started to feel her body as she said to the Smith, "It was a pleasure working under you. I hope that next time I'll be doing something a lot more meaningful under you." With the confidence showing through her voice, the man before her laughed his hearty laugh, and said to her, "I guess we'll see then, now won't we?" Listening to this fueled Grace's own ambitions, knowing that some day soon, he wouldn't be questioning her abilities.

wc: 537
tc: 1043/1000