Chapter Seventeen: All That To Be Just What I Am
Fourth Tower Year 4771, 8.6.3
The Holy Kingdom of Zah’paht Dur
City of Threshis
“Take it!” Marc insisted.
“That is not possible.” Hee-ssu countered, shaking his head adamantly.
“We were a party. This is your rightful share.” Marc felt a pang of guilt knowing that the small brick of Mythril ore he was pushing towards the Dwarf was actually only a tiny fraction of what Marc had recovered from the mine. Still, exposing the true size of the bounty he had recovered from the mine would be dangerously reckless, even to friends like Hee-ssu.
“No, we did not go with you. We do not deserve anything. You saved us and all those people. We did nothing. I can’t take it.”
After much internal deliberation and a lengthy argument with Kira, Marc had formed a one-kilogram block of high-grade Mythril ore from the large monolith in his inventory. He had not expected so much resistance from his party members, however.
“Those are the rules we agreed on when we formed a party. Equal sharing of the results,” another pang of guilt.
“Would you stand with me if I got in trouble for the damage to the mine?” He asked.
“Of course,” Hee-ssu immediately responded, then froze momentarily.
“Did you get in trouble?” He asked, visibly nervous.
“I probably should have. But no. Ba’eth and Buchee stood up for me. I was kind of surprised, to be honest, but they said that this is how the Guild works. So is this,” he said, forcing the large ingot into the Dwarf’s hands.
“You need this to finish reaching Expert level right?” Marc asked, trying to move on.
“Yes. But I doubt I will need this much.” Hee-ssu admitted.
“What about your sister?”
“She has already completed her proficiency. She just hasn’t gone through the formal evaluation.”
Marc had suspected as much after seeing the quality of the weapons that she had used in the mines.
“She… doesn’t do well in front of people, but she is a prodigy. Far more skilled than I am. The Masters recognize that.”
“She’s not that much further ahead than you are,” Marc tried to cheer Hee-ssu up.
“She’s twenty years younger than I am and she’s easily ten years ahead.”
“Huh? I thought you were twins.”
Hee-ssu squinted till his eyes were small beetles poking out above his beard.
“Sorry. No offense. I’m just really bad at guessing ages. Everyone always gets my age wrong too you know.” Marc babbled quickly, hoping to distract from his faux pas. Humans were well known for offending other races by mistaking their age and gender. Marc avoided pulling up people’s status windows because it felt like an invasion of privacy, but that also caused him problems. Pulling up Hee-ssu’s basic status he quickly glanced at the information listed.
NAME: HEE-SSU
AGE: 82
BASE LEVEL: 96
RACE: DWARF
AFFILIATIONS: THE GUILD
STATUS: HEALTHY
82? That meant that Hee-deh was over 60? Marc’s head spun. He still had no way of understanding age and maturity in this world. It was made all the more confusing by the fact that he was nearly 30 years old now, with the appearance of a 19-year-old human from his old world, and still looked more like a 13-year-old by local standards.
Brushing those thoughts from his mind he pushed back against the Dwarf who it turned out was old enough to be his grandfather.
“I bet you I make Expert before you do.” He said slyly.
Upon hearing Hee-ssu’s one-word response, Marc was glad he had registered that word properly in his translation matrix. It meant exactly what he thought it did.
“Winner pays for the celebration dinner.” Marc challenged.
“Done.”
The two smiths clasped wrists and the bet was made.
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More than a month later, Marc was making arrangements for the big dinner celebrating Hee-ssu and his own completion of the Expert Smith qualification. He despaired silently. The dinner was going to cost a lot more than he had expected.
In the end, he had finished only a few days after Hee-ssu had completed his qualification. Hee-ssu had also convinced his sister to complete her final examination as well. They had not shown their final works to each other yet, and Marc was sure that everyone would be shocked when they saw his graduation piece.
He felt a little guilty, as he had used some of the knowledge gained from the notes left by Isabella in order to complete it, but the smithing was his own effort. He just needed help from Kira on the runes and some of the finer points of Mythril conditioning. The result however was beyond his expectations. Patah was equally stunned by the finished piece and happily submitted it to the group of Masters tasked with judging the work of new applicants.
Kira had been happy to let him focus his energy on smithing. She seemed to be preoccupied with trying to decipher more and more of the knowledge left by Isabella in the library. She had discovered quickly that much of the information was indecipherable at Kira’s current understanding of dimensional mechanics, while the parts that she did understand still required real-world experience to process.
Luckily, she was able to do a lot using the personal space that she now had free access to. Even while Marc slept, she could create laboratories and test environments to experiment. With access to all of his experience working in the smithy and a healthy supply of raw materials in his inventory, she was soon able to fabricate items that stood far above what Marc could do himself. The first fruits of her labor were as shocking as it was disturbing for Marc.
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He awoke one morning to the appearance of an odd metal ball, floating in the air above his bed.
“Uhh.”
〈G..d Mo..in. .ar.〉
“Huh?”
〈Goo. M..nin. Mar.〉
The sound was almost understandable as language, but the scratchy noise sounded more like running a metal blade against a granite boulder.
〈Good .orning M.rk〉
“Kira?”
〈.es. .an you tel.?〉
“What the heck is this?”
〈Jus. a mom.nt〉
《Ok, I’m still working on the speaker. Pretty neat, right?》
“What is that?”
《What are you talking about? That’s me!》Kira’s normal voice projected into his mind.
The floating ball started to flit around the room.
“What? I mean Why? Is this what you have been working on?”
《This is just a test. A proof of concept. Still can’t get the speaker to work well.》
“Why? Why would you do this?” Marc demanded, knowing deep down the answer.
《Trust me. You will be glad. Look, watch this.》
The ball shot out the window like it was shot out of a cannon.
《Check your map.》
Marc looked at his map. He could see a glowing blue dot shooting away from his current position at high speed. It slowed, then stopped over the small market street a few kilometers away from his room.
《Focus on the homunculus.》
“Huh?”
《The ball. Focus on the dot.》
Marc focused his attention on the blue dot on his map. Immediately the camera view popped up in another window.
He checked and could manipulate the view like normal. Looking down he saw the market getting ready to open. Some of the food stalls were already cooking and…
Marc checked the window. This was not a static window. This was a live picture. He could see people walking around and moving.
“Kira? This is live?”
《See! I told you that you would like it.》
Marc was amazed. This indeed was a big deal. With drones like this, he could see things far away, and even communicate with people, well once the speakers were working properly.
“Okay. I’m impressed.”
《Just wait. I’m still working on it. The things I can do with the information from the library. This is just scratching the surface.》
Suddenly, the picture went out. Marc checked the map and the blue dot had disappeared.
“What happened?”
《Ugh. It ran out of power again.》
“Again?”
《Yeah. This is the third one. The Mana Crystals I used to power it are not good for more than a minute or so. If only we had another Catalyst.》
“What? Catalyst?”
《Yes. I found a lot of notes on the Catalyst. It was originally created as a replacement core for a homunculus just like this. I don’t think it would be easy to get the Mana cores needed to power one though.》
“You can make another Catalyst?”
《Well… not yet. Even if I had the cores, there’s a lot I don’t know. I’m trying to figure it out though. Isabella said she had copied the design from something left behind by another Traveler. She tweaked it and made some improvements, but supposedly these were all just an imitation of a true Catalyst.》
“What’s a true Catalyst?” Marc was excited now that he could see the value of little robots that he could control.
《No idea. There are some hints, but I haven’t figured it out yet.》
Marc was thinking about the possibilities when something occurred to him.
“Kira, what’s in those homunculus things you made?”
《I was in a rush, so it’s mostly some iron, some gold for the runes, and a bit of Mythril.》
“What? Gold and Mythril?”
《Yeah, not much. Just a few grams for the runes.》
“And where are they now?”
《Well, I didn’t want to hurt anyone if they fell from the sky, so I kept them floating over the canals.》
“You mean they are all sunk into the canals right now?”
《Yeah. You should really go get them. Those materials are valuable after all.》
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Between the other apprentices, family members, and a few guests including Ba’eth and some of the other Master smiths, there were nearly three dozen guests at the celebration dinner.
This was a tradition for new Experts and the night was full of food and drink, numerous speeches by Patah, complaining about the general ineptitude of his apprentices, followed by more food and more drink.
Marc had reserved the restaurant and could feel his gold reserves lightening with every minute the festivities continued.
Finally, it was time to display their work. Hee-ssu went first.
Hee-ssu’s graduation piece was a bracer, a simple and classic design. Marc felt it matched the straightforward personality of the dwarf perfectly. Still, it seemed a bit too simple for a Expert’s work. That was until he demonstrated it for the room.
After placing the bracer on his forearm, Hee-ssu channeled some Mana into the armor. Instantly the metal morphed and expanded turning into a buckler shield, similar to the one Marc had used in the mines.
The room broke into gasps and cheers. Transformation to that degree was incredibly difficult to control, but the quality of Hee-ssu’s work was clear. Marc strained to see the piece closely and marveled at the detail. The shield was small but well-designed to protect the arm up to the shoulder. Two blades extended forward from each side, creating a weapon that could both stab as well as protect the hand of the wearer.
Marc was more than impressed. Hee-ssu caught his expression and gave him a wide grin. He could see the challenge in the Dwarf’s expression. Eager to take him on, Marc stood and walked to the table.
Reaching under the table, he grabbed a large bundle that he had placed there before the dinner.
He unwrapped the cloth wrapped around the object inside to reveal an armored arm.
There was some confusion at first. It looked like an art piece more than anything else. An arm piece of armor perhaps, but it was not hollow.
“Unfortunately I cannot properly demonstrate my final project,” Marc admitted. There was mumbling around the room. It was strange that an unfinished piece was deemed acceptable for elevation to Master. Patah however could not hide his grin. His grin could have easily concealed a large canary.
“If I could get the assistance of another to show you the work that I have made, Guild Head, May I beg your indulgence?” He spoke while directing his gaze at Ba’eth.
She rose and immediately rebuked him.
“I am Guild Head no longer, but if I may be of assistance, then I gladly will assist you.”
To cheers around the room, Ba’eth joined Marc and Patah and the front table.
Kira had helped him work out all the details, all the way to a simple but robust harness that would allow him to quickly and securely attach the prosthetic to the point where Ba’eth’s missing arm aligned perfectly with his design. In seconds the metallic arm hung loosely at her side.
“If you could channel just a bit of Mana into the armor,” he instructed.
A green glow slowly spread down from her shoulder, golden lines appearing along the surface as the light progressed down to the fingers.
Ba’eth stared at the arm in amazement. Slowly, she lifted the arm, then flexed the elbow, wrist, and finally each finger.
Marc then reached under the table and in one quick motion he pulled out a sword, raised it over his head, and brought it quickly down on the Dwarf with all his strength.
A loud metallic clang resonated throughout the room as shouts and gasps filled the air.
Ba’eth stood there with the metal arm blocking the sword. She had raised it instinctively and without hesitation. Marc placed the sword down on the table and both Ba’eth and Patah inspected the arm for damage.
“Not a scratch!” Patah shouted triumphantly. The room exploded into cheers. People rushed to the table to inspect the arm as Ba’eth continued to flex and move it speechlessly.
Hee-ssu came up to Marc and was the first to shake his hand.
“I admit defeat. You win.”
The rest of the night was a blur. Patah was everywhere, reminding everyone in the room who had trained these two amazing smiths. Younger apprentices approach Marc with endless questions.
Finally, He had a moment of rest and Ba’eth came to speak with him. She was still flexing the arm and couldn’t seem to take her eyes off of it.
“Marc…”
“Guild Head. I hope you will accept this unworthy gift.” Marc could not hide his giant smile with false modesty.
“I am no longer Guild Head. Please refer to me only as Ba’eth”
“To me, you will always be the Guild Head, as well as my teacher, and friend. But if you like I will address you however you like.”
“This is… unbelievable. I have never seen its equal. I would never have imagined it possible.” As she spoke, she reached out and picked up a cup from the table. She swirled it around and marveled at how much it moved and felt like her own flesh.
“It would not have been possible without Isabella’s help. Her notes and Kira all were needed. I am sure that this is why Isabella left her legacy behind. To help people. To aid and heal the world wherever possible. At least that is how I hope to use it.”
Ba’eth raised the metal hand and placed the hand on his head, giving him a light and gentle pat.
“You are such a good boy.”
Looking into the eyes of the woman Marc saw something new that he never even considered was possible.
Ba’eth was drunk.