I talked with each recruit, so that I knew what I should craft. Elisa’s item would be clothes made out of strong thin threads, and Chloe’s would be a warhammer with some serious weight issues. But, what would be best for Alvin? He asked for a storage device, but they’re finicky at best.
Storage bags were fairly popular, but they had some serious limits. The biggest item that could be put in them was limited by the size of the opening, and at the end of the day, it was a bag. Things would get jumbled around, and it was crazy annoying fishing through hundreds of items to feel for what you wanted. Even worse, those with short arms couldn’t reach the items near the bottom, so storage bags were just a quick fad, only being popular for a century.
They quickly died out when someone got the idea to put storage bags in other storage bags. Sure, at first it seemed to work. But the space’s inside were fracturing, and eventually, they would pop.
At first, everyone thought it was an assassin targeting people in high positions. People went missing, but a large spherical hole would be left behind. They called the assassin the vanisher.
Then one day, a bandit who somehow managed to get two storage bags came forward. Tensions were high from high rank adventurers, merchant leaders, and even some royalty from disappearing. No one believed the bandit, not until well after his head had been lopped off.
Eventually, some noble’s descendant who got lucky was able to record the vanishing. They gathered an audience and even hired an illusion mage to share the process. With all the irrefutable proof, the vanishing was solved, and they skyrocketed into fame, becoming a hero before retiring to some unknown location.
Storage rings came next. They had existed for a long long time, even from an elf’s perspective. They were made from a special type of stone deep in the border. An adventurer was found with a small rock in their hands as they left the border, dehydrated and starving.
They sold the rock for a day's worth of food, and it quickly passed hands. The owners kept losing stuff, and they would sell the rock to another, calling it cursed. Eventually, it ended up in the hands of a mage.
As it turns out, the rock had 2 layers. The outer layer, a lower quality storage stone, couldn’t fit much more than its size, but it passively captured items nearby. The mage found some bits of scrap, small figurines, rocks from someone’s rock collection, and a lot of lost socks in it. But the inner layer, the core, that was the good stuff.
It took some serious mana to operate, but the inside was much bigger than the core itself. The rock was quickly brought to us, in order to be crafted into an item. We recorded the process thoroughly, and every so often, more of these storage stones came into our hands.
The storage stone had a few consistent properties. The bigger the outside was, the bigger the inside was, and the harder it was to store and retrieve from the stone. If there were any blemishes in the stone, a crack or scratch, the space inside would be inaccessible. The space could be accessed again once the stone was smoothed out, but it ran the risk of losing some of the contents.
The Artisans had experimented with different forms for the storage stone. Due to the lack of material, and the need to keep the surface smooth, they ended up one of 3 shapes. The sphere configuration was unwieldy but had the most space inside. The disk configuration was much faster when it came to storing and retrieving items, but it also lost a lot of space inside for the material used. The ring configuration was a good balance of the two, but it took the most skilled workers to make. It also wasted the most material, since the dust left behind couldn’t store much of anything.
Truthfully, it was out of the budget, even for a stick from the Grand Library. The cheap rings couldn’t hold more than a few days of water, but that was the best those at the top could get. The high quality storage stone was a bit of a paradox. It could store a warehouse full of stuff, but it was also small enough that no one wanted to risk putting valuables in it. One bad bump was all it took to lose something.
There were only three quality storage rings made so far. One went to the human who brought the first stone. Another was given to the dwarves as part of the tribute, and the last was given to the highest scholar of the Grand Library. Few knew about them, and fewer knew where they were.
The ring that the human had disappeared with them. Theodore was a puppet maker, an extremely wealthy and accomplished puppet maker. He was a Grand Master of his craft, and yet he disappeared into the border. There were some rumors surrounding his disappearance, but the ring never showed itself.
The dwarven ring was at the bottom of the volcano, safely secured behind the 2nd most dangerous item, since the most dangerous was left in the ring. The most dangerous item was a secret even to me, although I knew one thing. The item was based on the idea of perpetual motion.
The Grand Library elves kept their ring to themselves, likely to store more of their books. The knowledge stored in the Grand Library was more valuable to those Grand Library elves, or Grand elves, than even their own families. None of the other elves I saw during the recruitment week was lugging a small library’s worth of books. Now that I think about if, none of the other elves could even be seen near Alvin.
If it weren’t for the Volcanopalis Agreement, we’d never work for them. Every nation gives us a steady supply of high quality materials, and in return, we craft items for their chosen. The human kingdoms raised a stink when we closed up, at least from what I heard. Still, they were always willing to keep giving, because no one would turn their nose up at our items.
In a similar way, we couldn’t turn down the Grand elves either. Those bookworms had heaps of information, and we even used it from time to time. They would supply knowledge on magic, the attributes, and any new materials their journeyman came across. In return, we supply their aspiring journeymen with any one item.
Every single time, they would ask for a storage item. For a bunch of elves who were at the top, they had no creativity. This Alvin seemed pretty strong as far as they went, but he had the same slightly upturned face that all the Grand elves did. Constantly looking down on their surroundings, even to the elves who weren’t from the Grand Library.
Still, what kind of Artisan would I be if I backed down. He wants the perfect storage device, then he’ll get one!
I spent the next month training the recruits. Just the basics, make sure they can maintain their own stuff. People had a misconception that magic items would last forever, that they couldn’t be damaged. Truth was, they were just like any other objects. In some ways, they were even more fragile. A magic item that wasn’t regularly maintained would slowly degrade, but a well made sword would last a long time as long as it was stored properly
I also taught them some basic knowledge, so that they wouldn’t make fools of themselves to another Artisan. Basic concepts like the elements, and ideas like Theodore’s puppet, Oscar’s Razorclaw, and Kekrov’s Mana stone.
Theodore’s puppet originated from Theodore’s war puppet 2 border wars ago. His battle puppet was made to scavenge after fights in order to repair itself. At some point, it had replaced every part of its body, bringing into question whether it was still the same puppet. It ended up disappearing near the border and Theodore disappeared soon after.
Oscar was a famous beastman who fought in the last border war. He kept fighting even when all weapons had broken, using his claws to puncture the hide of the border beasts. It brought a new wave of bare handed adventurers, who’s favorite motto was,” The only thing you can trust is yourself.” Highly unpopular among artisans, but a small number of young dwarves also followed Oscar’s path.
Kekrov was an elf who had made mana stones for the border war. They allowed mages to have extra mana for drawn out fights, but they had to use the mana or it would cause issues. Kekrov’s mana stones would explode after a couple months, due to the unstable nature of mana and trying to contain it to an inert stone. Those who tried to smuggle mana stones or save it for later were seriously injured. Kekrov’s mana stones were a reminder to be mindful of your resources, and to use them if you have them.
They also learned about a couple of the impossible crafts. An unbreakable shield was impossible, for how could a material both be shapeable and unbreakable. Infinite storage was another, since everything had inherent limits to storage, and overlapping storage led to the Vanisher. A device that could generate unlimited power was similarly impossible. Even the one stored underneath had a limit of some sort, or else they wouldn’t be able to store it.
They reached the basic level of a recruit, although I suspect Alvin was just being polite in listening along with the other two. I spent some more time discussing with them what I would be making, what it was made of, how it would work, and so on. It would be a shame to hand a craft to a fool who let it break or didn’t even know how to use it.
I got to work on the items I had planned. A robe made of a thin but strong thread would be like the spools that Elisa had, but much more adaptable. She would be able to manipulate the robe into any shape she wanted, as well have more than 10x the thread of her old spools.
The thread was a thin metal wire crafted from the red clouds of the inlet between continents. The air was heavy there, causing the clouds themselves to sink. They would pick up small amounts of sand, but when the clouds rose back up, only the lightest grains would remain. The grains were incredibly light, and decently durable. A weather mage would usually wring out the clouds, causing the sand to fall into a container before it was smelted into an ore known as red cloud steel.
I also applied illusory paint to the entire thread. The paint would shift colors by manipulating the material with fine tuned mana control. Another Artisan, Bob, lost a bet to me on whether I could make magic paint. He assisted me in refining the paint to its current version 3 Illusory paint. The first version could switch between preset colors, the second version could freely change color, and the third version could turn invisible.
I also sewed in a series of small storage bags to the inside of each sleeve. Elisa expressed a fondness for small weapons, and the various storage bags would allow her to draw them in a single motion, as well as keep everything organized. She could also store whatever adventuring gear she needed as well.
The trick would be making sure it was maintained properly, but red cloud steel holds up well to vibrations. She should be able to clean any debris or blood off by injecting rapid low power mana into the desired areas. I could tell during the test that her ability to manipulate mana was outstanding, so this would be the most complex tool to use.
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Conversely, the easiest to use would be the warhammer for “Chloe”. Well, the magic side of things anyways. The physical requirements were especially high. I would need some steady steel to make it though, or maybe an anvil made of it.
Steady steel was a malleable form of sinking stone, a natural resource found near the border. There was a type of rock found near the peaks that started small, like grains of sand. As it aged and absorbed the mana in the air, it would grow bigger and get heavier. The sinking stones would roll down the mountains as they got bigger, and eventually end up at the bottom. At this point, they were about the size of a head, and incredibly dense.
They kept growing, and sinking further into the ground. Eventually, they would completely sink into the ground and disappear. The farming process involved a team of adventurers to pick up the rocks within the same week after they fell, and a sacrificial plate would be slid underneath. Once the rock grew to the right density, the plate would crack and the stone would be rolled out of the border.
Sinking stones wouldn’t grow any more once they left the border, although they would grow if they were left in a mana dense environment for long periods of time. The sinking stones would be mixed with liquid metal excretions from a metal devouring slug, which would break down the stones and spread the weight evenly across the material. The result would be a malleable metal of immense weight known as steady steel.
The steady steel was usually used to stress test objects with its immense weight, such as a forge’s floor. It was also used as a foundation for operations where high amounts of force would be applied. The testing rooms had targets with a foundation of steady steel. It was also used on the floor of the arena where the hero tournament took place.
I communicated with Chloe as best as I could, to get an idea of how the warhammer would be used. She said that she would be fighting nearly daily with it, and hoped that it would grow with her. Chloe conveyed that she had a lot of room to grow, gesturing at her horns.
It would be rather embarrassing if the warhammer grew too heavy for her or anyone else to use, so I’d utilize the hungry broom. It was a nuisance, even if it took care of the trash. This mindless thing would munch on anything nearby with even a hint of mana. It did scare the dust bunnies, but I could make something else to keep them out of the forge.
Between the steady steel’s property to grow in mana dense environments, and the hungry brooms gluttony, the warhammer would be able to change its weight with enough mana supplied to either the head of the hammer or the handle. It would take an enormous amount of mana to make a noticeable change in weight, but the test showed me that Chloe had more than most, if not anyone I had ever seen. Even I would be unable to flood the stone in the sword with my vast mana capacities as a magic smith.
The Grand elf Alvin was a struggle to work with. A storage device was hard enough to make on its own, but making sure that Alvin would be pleased with it, that I would be pleased with it, was much harder. I made a prototype for him while working on the other two items, A bookshelf, shaped like a coffin. Lots of room, but not very transportable. It also wasn’t enough room either, even if it had enough room to store a house.
As it turns out, all of the bags that Alvin was carrying were storage bags. The actual number of books and scrolls he had was enough to fill up a house and then some. The only thing that kept him safe from thieves was the reputation that Grand Elves had.
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“What do you mean he has a Grand elf recruit!” Barry threw the report at an old carpenter. “S-sorry my lord!” The old carpenter, balding and slightly overweight, bows to Barry. “I saw an elf with a large number of bags and a clean robe with the beardless one. Perhaps I was mistaken.” Barry snorts. “Of course you were. No one’s seen a Grand elf since my grandfather’s generation. Now who were the others with him?”
The old carpenter wipes some sweat from their forehead with a dirty rag. “I saw a young adventurer who said she was in the hero tournament. She mentioned getting a low ranking, so she shouldn’t be a problem.” Barry barks,” There is no problem, remember? If anything happens to them, it’s purely coincidental. If you want to see your family again, you’d better not make any more mistakes.” Barry glares at the old carpenter, who’s name he never bothered to learn.
The old man drops and kneels, smashing his head into the floor. “Please sir!” Barry is disgusted by the amount of sweat pouring off the carpenter, but gestures to him to continue. “There was only one more spotted with him, an orc. I did some digging, and I heard that orcs with horns are considered children when speaking with the young woman. Despite their size, they should be weaker than they look.”
Barry ponders for a brief moment. “You can leave. Remember, if any of this leaks, you will never see your family again.” The old carpenter bows some more and walks backwards, never turning his back to Barry. “Thank you sir, thank you!” “Someone clean up the mess he made.” There is a small pool of blood where the old man had kneeled.
Barry Allen motioned to his knight and advisor, who had served his father Larry and his grandfather Harry. “How is the old carpenter’s family doing?” “Gary’s family is doing well. His son and granddaughter are healthy and active. We have guards around them to prevent any problems, and a doctor assigned to them. As per the agreement, Gary is granted access to Volcanopolis, and his family is protected and taken care of. Should he fail to fulfill his civic duty of learning from a dwarf, his family will be executed.”
Barry nods. James had faithfully served the family both as a swordmaster and a trusted advisor. “What are the odds that the elf really is a Grand elf?” “I was with Harry when we stumbled upon a Grand elf in the market. They had a large mirror with them and wore simple robes. We wouldn’t have known if they weren’t complaining to a shopkeeper about their wares. They were looking for some kind of rare oil for the mirror, and the shopkeeper told them that they had never heard of such an oil. The Grand elf insisted the oil existed, and pulled out a book to prove it.”
“Can you get to the point?” “Sorry Milord. The Grand elf was only revealed as such because they had a wealth of knowledge about ancient things. They also have a tendency to wear robes, but other elves wear robes too, so it’s nothing conclusive. Either way, I recommend that we stay away from the possible Grand elf.” “I’m sure we could find someone strong enough to take them on.”
“Removing the Grand elf will be a struggle in the first place. Grand elves are famed for their magical abilities, but their knowledge is even scarier. They may even be able to pick out who is responsible just from our equipment or voice. He also could know rare and mystical ways that could defeat us or report back to his home.” “I see. We’ll set aside that issue for now. What are our odds of removing the other two? We need to teach those dwarves what respect is.”
“The orc will be the easiest. I’ve fought one before when I was a young adventurer myself. My journeys in the southern continent led me to a lone orc who was feasting on a dagger snake. They charged at me, thinking that I would steal their prey.” James smirks underneath his helmet, but Barry thinks that the pause is just his age catching up to him.
“The thing fought like an animal. It just jumped at me, biting and scratching. It did take a while to put down, befitting their reputation.” “Yeah, they’re tough and heal a lot.” “Not just that. There were rumors back in my day that Orcs originated from the border, as a border monster.“ Barry rolls his eyes. His father told him that the nobles liked to spread rumors about others being inferior, but truly believing those rumors would lead one to ruin.
“And the adventurer?” James starts chuckling. “Heheheh. You know what the biggest difference between a knight and an adventurer is?” Barry sighs. James always avoids directly telling him anything, as if to teach him something. Barry answers, if only to keep the conversation moving. “Knights are well armed?”
James shakes his head in disappointment, but Barry fails to recognize it, having seen this hundreds of times in his life. “Adventurers are good at traversing terrain, and fighting monsters no doubt. However, knights excel at fighting other people.” James draws out his sword and shield, both with a dark sheen.
“You give a knight a strong enough sword and shield, and an adventurer will be unable to pierce through their defenses or handle their attacks.” James pulls out another weapon, a flat rectangular piece of metal sharpened along the edges. “You give a truly skilled knight an aura blade, and they can use their aura to control the weapons from afar. I can only control one aura blade, but even that is enough to make myself invincible to an adventurer.“
James channels his aura, a branch of magic that was closer to martial arts than traditional casting, to make the blade fly around him. It moves just as fast as it would in his hand. The sharp sheet of metal flys around James, stabbing out a short distance, and spinning, just to show some of his capabilities.
Barry is surprised for once, since James had never shown him the abilities of an aura user. James had been getting weaker in his old age, so Barry only heard about his capabilities from his ancestors. Even in his prime, James had never shown the capability to use aura. “Congratulations on becoming an aura user! We need to hold a feast to celebrate once we deal with the nuisance.”
James makes a graceful bow, perfected through the decades. “Thank you Milord.” James stands back up, sheathing his weapons. “There is still one thing we need to be careful about.” Barry cocks his head.” Isn’t it clear that we can crush them? Wait. the dwarves might take revenge!” James shakes his head. “No Milord. The dwarves are well known for not defending their customers. They have a doctrine that the best items should end up in the strongest hands, and the way it happens is not important to them.”
James takes a breath. “There is one thing we need to watch out for. Adventurers often have a sort of trump card, especially ones with an unclear past.” Barry shrugs. “What do we do then?” “The easiest thing to do is hire another adventurer, who has an equally or even more mysterious past. Luckily, I did find one who was willing to take the offer.”
Barry asked,” Is this one of those deals we don’t follow through with? Silence them afterwards as well?” James shook his head once more. “This adventurer ranked 2nd in the hero tournament. It would be wise not to increase the number of hostile parties we face. I’ll make sure that she doesn’t learn of your involvement, but we will work together to deal with the two recruits of that beardless dwarf.”
James did his best to keep track of the recruits, but as time passed, all the recruits went out less and less, focusing on their learning. The next few months were peaceful, although tension was building. Various fighters had started coming to the outskirts of Volcanopolis in order to challenge recruits for their new items. Others simply came to fight without restraint, or to even watch the upcoming fights.
About half way through the expected time needed for items to be finished, James got some very good news. The recruits under the beardless dwarf were leaving soon. While the details weren’t clear, it wasn’t hard to guess what had happened. A dwarf’s ability was closely related to the quality of their beard. The recruits under the beardless dwarf must have poor items, at least by dwarven standards, that didn’t take much time to make.
James quickly contacted Quick Draw, and they went to the front door of Volcanopolis. A few stages had been set up nearby, with various recruits and tourists around betting on the results. Everytime a non-dwarf left Volcanopolis, a few people would rush them asking for a duel. Those that declined would be protected by guards while they were in the city, but once they left, they had to be strong enough to protect themselves. James and Quick Draw would challenge the pair of recruits when they left the city.
Quick Draw was a young brunette woman, who rarely spoke to others. James would often hear the woman whispering to herself while she cleaned her blade, a one edge sword with a peculiar curve. While he couldn’t always make out what was being said, he often heard the words honor, bushido, and anime. He didn’t understand what some of those words were, but adventurers were known to speak weirdly. As for honor, he lost his long ago.
Speaking of which, the targets just walked through the door of Volcanopolis. A few people walked up to them for a fight, but they backed off when they saw the orc. The orc was a fearsome creature, nearly 8 feet tall and full of muscle. At some point, they had lost their horns, which was a little concerning, but James was sure that he would be capable of handling the orc.
In the orc’s hand was a warhammer, although it looked like the orc made it themself. The warhammer consisted of a simple straight pole, with some decorative horns on the butt of the handle. The head of the hammer was a jet black anvil, and appeared to be tied to the handle by rope.
The adventurer was even worse off. They resembled the type of adventurer who spent all their savings to get into Volcanopolis, and got a storage bag. They didn’t seem to have any weapons on them, and just carried a few small bags. From head to toe, they looked like a destitute adventurer. It was likely that they had a knife or something small hidden away, but they stood no chance against my armor.
We followed the pair until they reached the forest nearby. While official duels had been set up in the city borders, unofficial duels had always happened in the forest nearby. The biggest difference was that official duels had rules, ensuring that participants didn’t die or get outnumbered. Unofficial duels were just a nicer way of saying robbery, and oftentimes only one party walked away.