"Can you get me a variety of metals to try out?" I ask Thavim.

"Aye, lad. But how 'bout I g't ye tha' variety o' metals in th' form o' swords an' whatnot?"

I look up from the metallurgy book I had been skimming through and see Thavim wiping his treasured hammer clean and placing it back in his toolbelt. He's had that same hammer since childhood and had me put a strengthening enchantment on it so he could continue to use it.

"If you want, I just figured that would be more expensive," I reply.

"Aye, tha' it would lad. Though I'm fairly certain King Thrumgar will buy all o' em," he replies nonchalantly.

A wide grin splits my face, "Are you suuuure? I'm going to want lots of different materials!" I exclaim in singsong.

"Anythin' short o' orichalcum th' crown can afford," he replies unsurprised, "Th' King an' I already discussed this some months back, lad. I figured ye'd be wantin' t' experiment again."

"Awww, but everything I read tells me how legendary it is for enchanting!" I pout.

"Aye, legendary - as in nigh impossible t' find, let alone enchant. I'm off t' work." Thavim stands up from the stone couch and heads toward the door.

Things settled into a bit of a rhythm once I delivered the sword and shield to Thrumgar. I think he decided to take my presence in his mountain a little more seriously once he had a product designed specifically for him. Soon after there appeared a few too well equipped dwarves wandering the area where Thavim lives. That's also not to mention the human maid that moved in with us, Samantha - or as we call her Sam. Sam is always, and I mean always professional, and wears an entire arsenal of enchantments. It's almost impossible to not know where she is at all times while in the house. I really need to figure out how to turn this power off, or at least turn it down.

The day progressed more or less without incident. I had my language studies and then self studies in enchantment for the remainder of the day. I have continued a small bit of smithing here and there, but Thavim and I both agreed it's not where my focus should be. Since I don't need to smith the metal to enchant it, I shouldn't devote too much of my time learning the trade, regardless of how much Thavim loves doing it.

Thavim arrives home at his standard time and dumps a sack of swords in their scabbards onto the table in front of me.

"Here ye go, lad," he says with a huff. "Ne'er though' I'd be playin' courrier f'r a child," he grumbles walking off to his room while unstrapping his toolbelt.

"Why don't you just leave the tools at work?" I ask while sifting through the pile of swords. Oh, a few daggers and bangles too. I guess some metals are impractical as swords.

"An' let sommat night shifters touch 'em withou' my consent? Ne'er!" He shouts from his room.

I start arranging the swords, daggers, and bangles by type of metal, at least by the types of metal that I think can recognize. Just to be sure I pull one of Thavim's smithing books off the shelf to double check descriptions. Copper, iron, bronze, steel, gold, titanium, adamantium, and mithril. Once they're all in their respective collections, I try to start at what I would consider to be the least expensive: Iron.

Just the same strengthening enchantment that I put on Thavim's hammer should do well enough for an experiment. These are the experiments that I'm fairly confident will not blow up half the house.

After I put the enchantment on, I try to see if I can take it back off - and I'm just imagining the steps of placing an enchantment but kind of in reverse. As it does, the blade seems to dematerialize in my hands and just crumbles apart. Interesting. I repeat the process for all of the other metals. Adamantium and mithril are the only ones to survive, but the adamantium looks a little worse for wear after the fact. I wonder if this means I could strip someones enchantments out from under them mid-fight. This is probably something I should test in the field, though.

"Hey Thavim," I call from the living room table to whereever he was in the house.

"Aye lad?" returns his wall-muffled voice.

I start walking towards the voice while still shouting my question, "Is there somewhere besides all the way outside the mountain to test something mild to moderately dangerous?"

Thavim sticks his head out of his bedroom door, "Now when ye say mild t' moder'te..." he trails off.

"Yeah, so might blow out a wall of a house but it's doubtful that it could destroy a whole house. Oh, and definitely would remove the arm of the wielder," I reply.

If it's anything like my earlier experiments, all the energy from mana being channeled to it has to go somewhere once I remove the enchantment. Now there's another thing to consider. Can I enchant something to remove enchantments? And could I enchant something to enchant other things? Enchant-ception!

"Hmm...There migh' be..." Thavim grouses.

"Young master."

"Holy jeebus! Stop doing that!" I startle. Sam is standing directly behind me, hands clasped in front of her standing stock still. I have no idea how she does that so silently. Maybe I can ask her to let me look at her enchantments some day.

"There is that fighting arena where King Thrumgar tested out the sword and shield you gave him. Perhaps that could serve your purposes," she intones quietly.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Aye, tha' coul' work. I'll speak wi' th' king t'morrow an' find out."

"No need," Sam responds, "I already have unrestricted access for whatever needs I may find, though we might have to work around others that are currently using the facilities."

I mull it over for a moment, "I'm not sure this is something I would like the general populace to know of just yet."

"Then we would have to show up and just wait for everyone to clear out on their own," Sam replies. "We could go tonight, but they'll likely be using it until in the early morning hours. It's turned into a sort of sporting event. People head there to settle their differences and the crowds drink and make bets on the fights."

So it really has turned into a gladiator arena. "So it will be unlikely that they'll be using it in the mornings?"

"Various groups use it during the day for training and sparring, but yes, there should be a free time slot somewhere in there," she says. She still hasn't moved from that same pose, hands clasped in front, speaking in mostly monotone. Honestly, she weirds me out a little bit.

"Alright, can we go tomorrow then?" I ask.

"If ye c'n take th' lad withou' me Sam, it would b' much apprecia'ed," Thavim says sounding exhausted. "The men down at the forge seem t've gott'n lazy what wi' my repeat absences an' all."

"Yes master," is all Sam replies with.

----------------------------------------

We arrive at the arena just a little before noon and there are two people in the arena still fighting. I've my own backpack filled with all sorts of swords, daggers, and bangles. Sam assured me this morning that the arena would clear out around lunchtime. Each of them has a bronze shield and axe as they go at each other. I wonder if I should learn some swordplay at some point. It would probably be beneficial.

"Hey Sam," I start to get her attention. She slightly turns her head in my direction but doesn't take her eyes off the fight. "Who would I need to speak to to receive some sword training?"

She arches her eyebrow at the question, which honestly might be the most emotion I've ever seen her show.

"Why would you need sword training?" she asks quietly. The sounds of axes on shields below almost drowns her out.

My eyes drift back to the fight, "I've almost been kidnapped my and killed in the first year that I've been here. I'm probably going to need to protect myself at some point rather than relying on you and Thavim all the time."

She turns back to the fight and says nothing for a few moments.

"Tomorrow before breakfast," is all that she says. I guess that means she'll train me? I have no illusions that she is only a maid so I don't doubt that she would be more skilled than myself in almost any form of martial combat. I took a tiny bit of Tae Kwon Do as a child...well, my first childhood, but I doubt I remember any of that, much less retained the muscle memory from it.

Finally the two in the arena finish up their fight and start clearing out. There are a few guards standing at the entrance to the arena, but Sam makes some kind of hand gesture and both bow to her and leave, leaving us and the arena to ourselves.

I flop the heavy backpack to the ground and start taking out swords. Iron first, same as last night. I unsheathe it, stick it in the ground, and slide one of the bangles onto my wrist - the only bangle that had a gem. The bangle itself is enchanted as the lock and the gem is keyed to it with a disenchantment enchantment on it. I need to enchant each of the swords right before I test them. I can't have twelve swords all enchanted to the same thing and have them all activate at once. That might end up bleeding me dry. I enchant the iron sword with the key and the same strengthening as last night.

I climb over the short stone wall that separates the fighters from the audience and crouch down below it. Sam wordlessly copies what I do, and I activate the bangle. The sword glows briefly to my eyes but then begins to disintegrate, just as last night, except this time it's shooting off little burning pieces like a very short lived sparkler.

Well now. I was expecting an explosion. Nothing for it but continue the tests! I go through each of the other swords. Seems the reaction happens based on the enchantment rather than the material as each one disintegrates like a sparkler save for adamantium and mithril. The adamantium sword was the same one I tested last night, so I re-enchanted it with strengthening. It survived this disenchantment as well, but now has noticeable cracks running through it. The mithril dagger, however, took no damage whatsoever, but instead of a sparkler seemed to disenchant more like a flashbang. I pull out a notebook and jot down some of these findings in english.

I have an extra iron and steel sword with me. I retrieve the dagger and enchant the iron sword with the same one of King Thrumgars sword. I then get back behind the stone wall and activate the bangle once more. The sword turns white hot as it disintegrates, throwing pieces of molten metal all around it. This reaction took a bit longer than the others. I go out to check it and find two meters of sand has turned to glass. Shit.

"Hey, Sam?" I call out.

"Yes young master?" she replies from right behind me.

Jeezus, can you not? "Can you get a warning to the King?"

She narrows her eyes. "Yes."

"This was the same enchantment that I put on his sword. I'm afraid this is a vulnerability that I've overlooked," I say as I nudge the glass with my foot.

----------------------------------------

"What do you mean no one? It's a simple process!" I exclaim at Thavim across the dinner table.

"No one can disenchant sommat tha's already been enchanted," he replies matter-of-factly, making swirly motions in the air with the sausage on the end of his fork.

"But I've done it!" I exclaim with more heat in my voice than I mean. I gotta get these child emotions under control.

"Destroyin' th' item doesn't coun'," he replies and takes another bite of sausage.

"The mithril dagger held up fine from it," I reply.

"Lad..." Thavim pauses, "D'ye have any idea o' how much tha' dagger cost?"

"Nope!" I reply flippantly, "but hey! Check it out!"

I pull the dagger from inside my jacket, unsheathe it, and push mana to it. The blade all but disappears leaving a slightly warped indentation where it once was. It may not work for self invisibility, but it will work fantastically for a weapon.

Thavim emits a half cuckle in astonishment and only shakes his head while he chews his sausage.

He swallows hard and chases it with his mug of meade. "Ne'er have I heard o' a successful invisibility enchant either." He pauses and places a hand on his chin, "I reckon a couple o' rings wi' tha' on i' woul' sell quite nice like."

"Nah," I respond between chews of my own food, "doesn't work on a person, only objects."

"Thrumgar woul' likely pay a hefty price f'r tha' dagger alone."

"It's not really finished," I say as I wipe the enchantment off of it. "That's something I was hoping to consult you on, anyway. Can you take a look at it and see if disenchanting it gave it any structural damage?" I resheathe it and hand it to him handle first.

Thavim takes the blade out and looks down the edge. He then puts on a pair of eyeglasses(!) that I've never seen him wear before and looks down the flat of the blade. Then he holds it up to his ear and thumps the blade making it output a high pitched ringing.

"Looks fine," he says as he resheathes it and sets it on the table.

"As neat as it is, I don't really want an enchantment like that on something without some kind of lock on it," I say as I start to really tuck into my own dinner.

"Aye," he replies and finishes his meade, slamming his mug to the table with the accompanying belch. "F'r what it's worth lad," he pauses to make sure I have his attention, "I think you're doin' pretty amazin'."