Halls of marble stretched to either side. Massive scenes of war were engraved into the walls, depicting giant entities wielding fire and lightning, battling on mountain tops, destruction littered in their wake. It was artfully carved, and some of the finer details truly awe inspiring, but something about the whole of the piece… Arron got the feeling it would be best described as history rather than as art.

“It has been many years since someone came here,” a deep voice rumbled like a shifting fault line. The voice echoed down the hall, bringing another gust of warm air with it.

Arron fought off chills as he realized those gusts were from something breathing.

“I can’t imagine why,” he mumbled under his breath.

“Mmmmm?” the voice responded, emotionless. “Are you questioning my hospitality?”

Crap, he had to get a handle on when things could hear him.

Arron checked himself quickly. “Not your hospitality, but perhaps the hospitableness of your home. It was not easy to find.”

The voice was silent for a moment before continuing, “There is truth in that statement. This place is hard to find, and rightly so. But there is also falsehood in your statement, adventurer. Do not lie to me again.”

Well, that was creepy.

“I’m looking for Handy,” Arron said, wanting to get to the quest since his people skills were clearly still lacking.

“Why do you seek the one by that name?” the voice asked as Arron continued his way down the hall.

“I’ve been sent to him on a quest,” he replied, turning a corner that opened into a vast, dim cavern.

Arron came to a ledge above a long drop, where lava boiled in a massive pool of molten slag. Sheer walls of obsidian rose from the lava pool, lining the chamber all the way around, straight to the pinhole of sky distantly above. His long trek brought him inside the volcano.

“I don’t want to be any trouble.”

Something below moved, something large. He’d mistaken it for a piece of the mountain. What had to be a hundred arms grew out of the torso of the massive beast, each grabbing onto the walls of the chamber to stabilize the fifty-foot creature.

It leaned over a giant anvil that jutted from the lava pool, tightly holding a piece of volcanic obsidian as several of its other arms hammered the piece into shape.

Pausing the task, its giant head on wide shoulders like slabs of granite swung toward Arron, and another huge gust of air billowed from its mouth and washed over him. Huge—no, enormous, was not even a big enough word. Its nose alone was taller than Arron, and the next breath that escaped its lungs nearly knocked him off his feet.

A grinding to Arron’s right caught his attention. A massive chain with links as thick as his torso ran over the ledge and down into the lava pit. Runes and veins of gold ran through each link, unscuffed despite being in a constant state of shifting.

The creature moved close to the ledge where Arron stood and said, “That’s not entirely true, though not a lie. You have every desire to be trouble, though not to me beyond the goal of your quest. I am Handy,” he said. “What is this quest?”

Quest: Milestone Complete! – Searching for Handy – You have discovered Handy, The Hundred Handed One. Convince Handy to awaken your Living Weapon. Now, for the hard part.

“I bring a Living Weapon to be awakened!” Arron said, trying to sound magnanimous.

“A Living Weapon?” Handy replied. “Interesting. A rare thing is a Living Weapon. Self-assured and self-reliable, these pieces have been wielded by kings and heroes in the past. Taking on some of the memories and traits of its wielder.”

The titan returned to its work. “A powerful item for any adventurer, and unusual for it to be granted to one so young. Tell me, hero, what will you do to have this weapon awoken?”

“Do?” Arron replied, confused.

“Yes, hero, what task will you complete? How will you show your worth to the Living Weapon?”

“Umm… I don’t know. Most things seem to have a quest. Is there a quest?” Arron asked, feeling slightly awkward. He was hoping to complete this quickly and get back to Leveling.

“There are several quests that you can complete to prove your worth,” Handy said between hammer blows.

“I suppose I need your guidance then. What would you have of me?”

Handy turned, quicker than seemed possible for such an enormous creature. “I would have my freedom,” it hissed.

Arron stepped back at the sudden intensity in the monster’s gaze. “Y-your freedom?”

Handy turned back to his work again, his visage dark. “Many years have I been captive here.” He gritted his massive teeth together, glancing at Arron. “Someday it will be mine, the freedom. Centuries have I toiled, and perhaps millennia more will I remain, but someday… Someday I will have my vengeance.”

A moment passed as the titan took deep breaths, slowly coming back to himself. “But that is not a quest I can give. So, I task you with this instead: travel to the Sea of Merchants. Three days off the coast, you will find an island where my cousin, Polyphemus, raises his flocks. Slay him and bring me his eye, and I will awaken your weapon.”

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Quest Granted! – Be A Sheep – Handy the Hundred Handed One has agreed to awaken your Living Weapon if you travel to the island of Polyphemus the Shepherd, slay him, and return with his eye. Be careful. Depth perception is a challenge for a Cyclops.

“What? You want me to kill your cousin?”

“Correct.”

“But why?” Arron sputtered, confused.

“Why?” Handy repeated, looking baffled. “I do not think anyone has ever asked why. Well…” he said thoughtfully. “He does eat travelers who wash up on his island.”

“Oh. Ok, I guess,” Arron conceded. “But do I really have to go all the way out there? Seems like a really long way to go.”

Handy stopped, intently taking in Arron. “What kind of adventurer are you?”

Arron shifted uncomfortably. “Not an ordinary one.”

“So it seems.” The titan held his gaze for a moment more before smiling. “Hand me the weapon, adventurer. Strictly speaking, I do not have to wait until you return to awaken it.”

Excitement filled Arron and he handed the cylinder over. “Thank you! Oh, man, that’s awesome!”

Handy took the weapon, moving it up near his ear, listening and nodding.

“Noble quest… sacrificed for others…” Handy mumbled. “General lack of subtlety.”

After a moment, he dipped the cylinder into the lava, and began speaking to it in a harsh guttural language that made Arron’s skin buzz with energy.

“Quickly, cut your palm,” Handy whispered in between speaking with the hammer.

Arron did so.

Handy continued speaking to the weapon for several more moments before suddenly slamming it onto the anvil. Using a hammer the size of a bus, he struck the weapon with a single, mighty blow. The shockwave blew Arron off his feet, knocking him back against the wall.

Handy reached down gently with two fingers and lifted something new from the anvil. A small hammer. Grabbing it by the head, he placed the handle into Arron’s bloody hand.

What happened next was truly amazing.

The hammer grew in length, reaching roughly three and a half feet long, with a massive piece of black stone capping the shaft like a sledgehammer. It was flat on one side and wedged on the reverse, and a single knob of silver sat on the top of the stone, marking the end of the shaft. The handle thickened, and runes inscribed themselves along the shaft all the way to the leather wrapped handle.

The finished piece was a sight to behold. It was larger than a traditional sledge hammer, the stone head a foot across, but it remained light and easy to wield.

Somehow, he could feel the force in the head of the weapon when he swung it experimentally. That radiating power was far beyond anything he could ever hope to make with any regular hammer, sledge, or otherwise.

“I present to you, Mule Near,” Handy said, “Living Weapon, and your new companion.”

Arron took in the beauty of the hammer for several moments, giving it a few more tests swings.

“Companion?” he asked, still in awe.

“Yes. Living Weapons are intelligent beings created in a time of great power. Each is unique. Sentient creatures who form a connection with their wielder, growing in power as the wielder does. This hammer will eventually be able to speak to you.”

“Speak?” Arron asked, incredulous. “Hammers don’t usually speak.”

At that, a wave of annoyance came from his weapon, shocking Arron to his core. He could actually feel its indignation.

“Um. Scratch that,” he mumbled.

Handy nodded, turning once more to his work. “Now go, hero, for you have a long journey in front of you. Travel to the Sea of Merchants and find Polyphemus. His evil must be removed from this world, and perhaps along the way, you may find more of your purpose.”

A resounding crack split the air, followed by the clinking scrape of chain sliding over rock.

Handy looked down stunned. His chain was in two pieces. Lifting his foot, he shook it back and forth, disbelieving that the short section of chain still attached swung free. He faced Arron, a hundred thoughts nearly tangible in his large eyes.

“You… you freed me?”

“Yeah,” Arron replied, shrugging. “That other thing sounded like it would take too long. And I got the feeling Mule here could break the chain, so I went with that instead. I uh, hope that’s ok.”

Handy was speechless.

Arron shifted uncomfortably under the giant’s gaze. This guy really liked intrusive staring contests.

“For what you have done, I release you from your quest,” Handy whispered.

A light mist rose off Arron’s shoulders, evaporating into the cavern, and he smiled at the notification that came with it.

Quest Complete! – Be A Sheep – You have freed Handy, and he has released you from your quest. That’s one way to do it.

“Freedom. Finally, I will have my vengeance on the land that has kept me restrained for these past centuries.” Handy grinned, his eyes beginning to glow. “Freedom! Beware, self-righteous insects who have been my warden, for a Titan comes for you!” Handy threw back his head and laughed a cruel laugh, his hands punching the air as a great scream ripped forth, shaking the very walls of the hall.

“Um. Ok, man,” Arron replied, taking a step backward.

“But not you,” Handy said, pointing fifty of his arms at Arron. “You. To you, I give a blood debt.”

Handy put the small joint of the smallest finger on one of his hands into his mouth. With a sickening crunch, he bit through the joint. Blood poured from his mouth, and dripped down the arm, but the titan ignored it. He took the piece of his finger and set it on the anvil.

Raising the hammer high, he struck once with enough force to flatten a building. Handy smiled at his work before plucking it up. He set a glowing red gem the size of a football in Arron’s hands.

“You have one debt of me, Arron, wielder of Mule Near. One time you may call on me, and I will arrive. Thank you for what you have done.”

And with that, Handy climbed over the ledge, dripping lava in his wake, and left the cavern.

Achievement Unlocked!

– Breaking the Chains –

Set free one of the Legendary enslaved!

I’m sure that won’t have any consequences…

Divine Blood Debt – Cottus the Hundred Handed One – You have been issued a blood debt by a creature of Divine status or higher. Sometimes it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

Arron smiled as he walked out of the cavern, ignoring the literal hundred-foot-wide path of fire and scorched earth that disappeared into the distance.

He held out Mule Near, admiring his reward. It felt good in his hand.

“What do you say, Mule, wanna go hit some stuff?”

His palm buzzed, as clear a yes as there ever was. Arron’s smile grew, excited to whack something with his new hammer.