Ken and Nicholas were at the gym. After hearing that Nicholas occasionally goes to lift some weights Ken set up a gym day for both of them. Ken's build was for a lack of a better word, pretty poor but he had some enthusiasm.

"Ah, this is far more satisfying with company." Ken said after a bit of benching.

"Benching?" Nicholas asked.

"No no, the whole gym thing. I've always wanted to start going but any time I try to pull myself here alone its doesn't end well." He explained as he waved his arms around.

"Ooh, yeh I can understand that." Nicholas answered as he lowered the weights on the bar.

He put extra weights on to go with what Ken was lifting. Ken stood behind the benching rack and kept check that Nicholas didn't hurt himself.

Nicholas lifted the bar 15 times and then put it down.

"Too light, is there a smaller weight anywhere?"

He increased the weights and did two sets of 15 until he had enough.

"Woah. You're really fit man." Ken claimed.

"I try to keep in shape yeh."

"You got any interest in coming here and helping me work out few times a week? I could really use someone who knows what they're doing to show me the ropes. Not to mention some company." Ken asked in a serious manner.

"Yeh sure, I come here few times a week so you can tag a long. I'll be your personal trainer"

"Awesome man. No more feelings of having heart attacks while walking up the stairs." Ken made a victory pose.

"Enough about that then. Next is squatting, you're gonna be walking up no stairs today."

Ken gave a questioning expression as they moved to the squatting area. Oh how he had no idea what was going to happen to his little legs today.

They went through Nicholas's usual training routine, lowering weights for Ken and letting him take a breather while Nicholas did his own sets, taking turns.

They were finished with the gym area but Nicholas still wanted to swim.

"Oh god, my body is dead." Ken cried out in the pool.

"Quit being a baby. Did you think muscles grow without effort?"

"I want my mommy..." Ken cried out again.

"Two laps in the pool, take it slow."

Ken started swimming and kept bitching for a while until his body felt better and he quieted down.

Their first gym session of the week was done and both Ken and Nicholas were on a bus heading to the city center.

"Got to say, props to you for doing this alone willingly." Ken said while sitting in the bus.

"Think it's just comes to getting used to it. Next thing you know you'll be at the gym the whole day and quitting the university to just build muscle." Nicholas winked at Ken.

"Haahaahaa. Comedian." Ken laughed slowly in a sarcastic manner.

They chatted around and set up their next session in a few days and once the bus got to the center they parted their ways.

It was a quiet day in Dvalfgar, surprisingly quiet. It was mid day and the crowd on the way to Camedyrs workshop was a lot thinner than usual.

Aleyn didn't think much of it as she entered the front shop. The shop had a few people looking at the merchandise, some looked more fit for fighting and some looked like nobles.

"Hello Aleyn." the lionkin greeted her.

"Hello Thucata."

After the first few weeks of working in the workshop, Thucata came to apologize and properly introduce himself to her. She wasn't bothered about how he had treated her, it wasn't that uncommon for 'secretary' people to do that after all.

As she was entering the workshop she noticed a few people heading up the stairs in to Camedyrs office. It rose some questions in her head but she realized they were probably just interested in getting something made by the students. She walked in to the workshop and found a spot where she could put her backpack to and start working on her project. That was until she heard a loud familiar voice.

"Aleyn get in here."

The voice definitely belonged to Camedyr so she thought he wanted something at the higher ranking side of the forge. To her surprise he wasn't there

"No you dummy up here!"

Aleyn looked up and saw Camedyrs office window open and he was sticking his face out of the window. Without further waiting she strode to the stairs.

When she entered the office she saw a nobleman sitting in the chair across from Camedyr. A huge well built nord man with a huge beard was bowing down besides him as he was too tall for the room.

"Yes boss?" she said as she ignored the pair and approached the table.

When she got next to the pair she noticed a huge hammer on the table and her eyebrows rose. The hammer looked like one of her previous experiments, though its head was more worn than any of the hammers she had last seen.

The nobleman and the nord at first didn't really understand why Camedyr had called a little girl in to the office but his next words pretty much explained it completely

"This is your work yes?" Camedyr said.

She picked it up and gave a swing or two in the air.

The nobleman was internally shocked when she saw the dwarf girl swing the hammer around so easily.

"Yeh this is my work, probably number five or six. Why?"

"This man here wants you to make another one."

And at that point the quiet nobleman interrupted their conversation.

"Pardon me, I haven't introduced myself. I am Mathias Eldering, you might have heard about me." the noble introduced himself.

Having been convinced that she was indeed the maker of the hammer he introduced himself with confidence.

"Nope. Never heard of, sorry." She answered bluntly.

The noble gave a slight frown but shook it off immediately.

"Well regardless, yes. I wish to have you make me another hammer like this. My bodyguard Garnot here came to like it and it's small enough for him to use a second one." he smiled and patted Garnot on the back.

Aleyn took a look at Garnot and his hands. He definitely could dual wield two of the hammers if he really wanted to.

"Don't wanna." She answered bluntly again.

"Case closed then, sorry to disappoint ya Mr.Eldering." Camedyr apologized to the nobleman.

"Wait wait, I'll supply the steel and pay you extra since you're unwilling." He sounded desperate.

The last part caught her attention.

"How much?"

"75gold.." nobleman said in a calm voice

"85, no less." She said with a stern voice.

The nobleman sighed.

"Fine, 85 gold."

"And do you want the latest version? If not then I need that one so I can see which one it is." Aleyn asked.

"Latest version?" nobleman asked in confusion

"Yeh, that ones probably five or six but its hard to tell unless I compare it with notes. Seven is the latest one I made and my latest master piece.

"Hehe yea. Took eleven hits for me to break it on my anvil, that was a nice hammer."

Garnots eyes shot open and he put his hand on the noblemans shoulder.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Boss.."

The nobleman took a look at the excited nord and thought for a moment.

"Could you make two of the best hammers for 170gold?" he asked.

"Sigh that'll take me all day... 180gold."

It was starting to feel like some form of extortion to Matthias as one side demanded more money and the other side really really wanted the hammers. Even though it was only a steel hammer it was still worth it for Garnot since they had never had any real use for a higher grade weapon.

"Sigh. You've been a good bodyguard for these years Garnot. Lets just call it a gift of my appreciation. Fine 180gold for two hammers."

"Deal. Pick them up tomorrow. Wheres the steel?" Aleyn asked.

"My carriage is outside, we should have enough material for both hammers."

A horse carriage was parked next to the door. It was an odd sight and Aleyn was surprised she had not noticed it when she entered the front shop. Garnot lifted a massive storage chest from the back of the carriage and brought it in. They placed the steel bars at her anvil and took off.

She had plans to test a few things with her hardened Mithril bars but since she was lacking in money after buying all of it in the first place she was very compelled to take the job.

She could only finish the first hammer today, the hammers quality was on target and all of its properties were fine. She sighed in relief, it would have been very frustrating if she had forgotten how to make the latest version after her few days of not making them. Being close to closing time she brought the left over steel bars in to Camedyr's office and called it a night.

The next day the noblemans carriage arrived at the workshop at mid day and he strode to Camedyrs office to ask if the hammers were done.

"She finished one of them yesterday and shes been going at the second one for a few hours. She should be done soon. Go and have a look, you can see her from the door."

Aleyn was working on the hammer's head, the whole thing looked done but after she gave it a few swings she reheated the head a bit and put it against the anvil again. Aleyn smiled after a few last swings, she felt that the hammer was ready and placed it on the table next to the other one and at that point she noticed the Garnot and Matthias watching her from the door.

"Your hammers are done sir." she yelled at the pair.

Garnot and Matthias approached her and Garnot picked up the two hammers and started playing with them.

"They good Garnot?" the nobleman asked.

"Very." He answered while spinning the hammers between his fingers like drumsticks.

"Good work miss. I'll be sure to tell my colleges about your work." He said as a noble gesture.

"I'd prefer if you didn't, though I'm not gonna stop you. I just needed some money for food." Aleyn answered in a very matter of fact manner.

"Very well then... Come Garot, let us be off." He said and sighed. This girl was very hard to please.

The pair left the workshop without much fuss.

Aleyn went to broken horn for a fast meal as she had not eaten breakfast in her absent mindedness and returned to the workshop to do some test with the hardened Mithril bars for the rest of the day.

The next day she decided to focus more on her project. Aleyn felt that she had gotten a good grasp of hardened Mithril, but instead of making the hammer she decided to make a new chest piece for herself to test out the difference between the materials.

She took a look at her notes from her previous work and started writing and sketching.

Kyrtaar entered the workshop, he had spent more than half of the day in the library asking for new candles so he could read for longer. His studies yielded some results and he was happy with his progression he was going to have ago at the exam today.

On the way to the top ranker side he noticed Aleyn pondering over her paper and got curious.

"Having trouble Aleyn?" Kyrtaar asked as he stood next to her looking at her drawing.

Her plans were good, but there were a lot of smudges around the armor like she had tried to erase something.

"Sort of. I'm ready to start with this but I wanted to decorate it a bit. It turns out I have very low artistic skills."

"Want me to try?" Kyrtaar asked.

"You any good?"

"I'm not bad." He said in a very relaxed manner.

She gave the paper to Kyrtaar who thought for a moment and then started to sketch on the design.

He only put very generic zigzag patterns around the collar and the skirt of the chest piece but it looked a lot better than what she had done previously.

"That's actually nice and simple. Thanks."

"No problem." Kyrtaar smiled and walked away.

She took a look at the overall armor design and cleaned up the mess that it was while thinking how she was going to make the patterns that Kyrtaar had made.

Few hour's before closing time, she was done with the chest piece. She had gotten quite a few odd looks when she stuck the finished hardened Mithril armor in to the forge to heat the parts for the pattern but in the result didn't harm the armor and it looked a bit better with a little art on it.

"Looks good Aleyn. Though I'm not gonna say the way you went about decorating it is the right way."

Camedyr had caught her in the middle of forging the chest and stood around to observe her. He had a huge episode of confusion and laughter when she stuck the completed armor piece in to the forge to heat it for decorations.

"How the hell would I make any patterns on it then?" She asked in frustration while looking at Camedyrs giggling face.

"Thats Rank two stuff right there girl. Speaking of which, when are you taking the exam? Kyrtaar over there failed his first attempt and is going to try again tomorrow."

"I'm not doing any exams until I complete my hammer." she said with an angry tone.

"You sure? I think it would be a lot better to make if you were higher rank." Camedyr claimed.

Aleyn took an angry look at Camedyr but after seeing his nonchalant smiling face she took a long deep breath and calmed herself.

"You going to tell me why then?" she asked.

"Nope!"

She looked at Camedyr with a very unimpressed expression. Sometimes she wondered if this guy was really trying to be a teacher at all.

But wait.. Didn't Cybil ask her something similar when she was figuring things out?

""You really want the weapon right now?"". She recalled back to after her duel with Cybil. He had definitely had said that.

Were they both trying to hint at her that she should wait with it? Was there some merit with making the weapon later on? All the signs pointed to yes, even if the signs were two weird men.

"Is the library free today?"

"No. Kyrtaar went there. I can put you in the queue though. " Camedyr said while pointing up at his office.

"You do that then. I'll take the rest of the day off."

"Will do."