Walking up the path towards the mans house was a new traveler.

This wasn’t uncommon. Anyone who walked along the north forest trail would inevitably investigate the structure. But the traveler was uncommon. Although not the first of his kind that the man had met.

"Hello!" The man lightly waved shutting the door behind him carefully. The sound of the millstones was loud so he had made it a habit.

"Mhm." The dwarf nods towards him with an incredulous look.

"What brings you?" The man further asked stepping down from the porch and down towards the dwarf.

"This mill. It’s impressive." The dwarf lightly replies without turning an eye towards the man. Instead staying focused on the churning windmill before him.

"Mhm. Thank you, a man by the name of Autly designed it." The man explains with a grin.

The dwarf spouts a laugh. "Figures."

"You know him?" The man asks.

"My brother." The dwarf replies monotonously. "Strange design sense. Pretty much figured it was his the moment I spotted it from the trail."

"Your Autly’s brother! Sit down, sit down." The man demands, leading him to the nearby table. "So your going to visit him then?"

"Pah, no! I have my mission, he has his. There’s no meaning in us meeting. Just seeing his construct is enough of a meeting for me."

The man frowned at this sentiment. The man had nothing like a brother in this world, so he had imagined this dwarf would stop at nothing to see his brother. That seemed like the natural response so the man felt stumped by the denial.

"Mission?" The man asks picking a piece from the earlier statement carefully.

"S’long story." The dwarf sighs.

"We’ve got time." The man smiles. "How about some lunch?"

Stubbornly the dwarf agreed. He named himself as Bronly. The mission he spoke about was the qualification he needed for his father to accept him as a candidate to be king. Apparently all 10 brothers had been sent on such a mission. The brothers were to use their skills to improve the world around them as they traveled.

Autly used his construction, Bronly was a metal smith. Any shape in the world could be created by him, a chunk of metal, and a hammer. He claimed he could even smith a blade without fire.

The man was impressed as Bronly talked. It seems all dwarves are skilled. Flipping the kebab and drizzling rendered fat atop it he turned back to the dwarf.

For the last few minutes he had been silent. Something seems to have shocked him.

"That…" Bronly says pointing with one hand towards the man’s hands. "That blade… Where did you get it?"

"I found it in the woods." The man says holding the mithril blade aloft carefully. "It’s a good knife. Great for cutting vegetables."

"Vegetables…" Bronly says with a sigh. "A blade of the purest mithril on the planet and its used for Veg prep…"

"Mirthil?" The man asks, inspecting the knife under a beam of light. "So that’s why its blue?"

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"Mm." Bronly nods. Unclasping the bag from his back. "Pure mithril has a deep color like that. Less pure looks like this."

Revealing the massive chunk of mithril from within his backpack he held it up carefully for the man to inspect.

"It’s pretty." The man says gazing over the block carefully.

"It’s yours." Bronly says without another word.

The man was taken aback and nearly dropped the kebab he was flipping. "What?! Why? I don’t want it."

"No, I insist." Bronly says holding the block out towards the man. "That blade, its made with a technique I had only heard about in rumors. If you let me inspect it for one hour I will make anything you want from this block of mithril. Please! If I can inspect that blade my own skills could reach an unprecedented level."

The man honestly had no reason to refuse. Originally he had thought the dwarf just wanted him to have the chunk of mithril. Such a thing is worthless to the man so he had planned to deny him but now it was different.

What could the man possible need made from mithril though? Swords, weapons? Again those were meaningless for the man. A paring knife would be nice but this chunk was far to large for that.

"Man this is delicious." Bronly says ripping another chunk of meat from the kebab the man had presented him. "Ohya, would you mind letting me see the mill’s inner workings."

The man agreed without much hesitation. Bronly’s brother had created the mill so the man saw no reason to keep it hidden from him.

Bronly followed the man like a dog following the smell of dinner.

Secretly Bronly was a bit intrigued by the mill. Human construction was typically very simplistic but knowing his brother he knew this mill wouldn’t be so simple.

Seeing the mill stones the dwarf laughs heartily. He then carefully moves up a ladder to inspect the drive shaft.

The long timber, wrapped in fibers and glue churned at around fifteen rotations per minute. From there the rotation transmitted to two belts which spun small pulleys at an incredible speed. That speed then ran several other mechanism, only one of which lead to the mill stones below.

"Crazy fool." Bronly says after lowering his head from the ladder. "Half that stuff isn’t even in use. I suppose he built it expecting an upgrade in the future. Heh. I guess I'll give it to him."

Clapping his hands together without another word Bronly stepped from the mill room and back towards the table where the mithril sat.

Instantly he began assembling a small workbench from within his over-sized pack.

Hammers, anvils, even a small portable forge. All were assembled in the yard rapidly as Bronly began to exercise his design.

The chunk was first rounded on the anvil. In the end it was around a foot wide by six inches thick. Once in a nice cylindrical slug Bronly began cutting at the center to split it in half.

He worked quickly and soon two pancake shaped mithril slabs lay on the workbench. He etched them both with fine lines and groves.

The man had seen this design before. These stones were mill stones. Autly had built something very similar with stone from a nearby quartz quarry. But these were mithril.

Bronly seemed proud of himself as he carried both stones towards the mill room.

Measuring carefully he cut a hole in the ceiling and inserted a rod he had crafted in the same fashion Autly had.

He then mounted the lower stone firmly to the ground and hung the other from the wood shaft.

Then, after installing the controls in the auxiliary gearbox he stood proudly in front of his creation.

Anyone knowledgeable would instantly realize the value of this mill. The stones alone were worth millions of coins most likely. A slab of mithril that large is rarely found, but Bronly had happily paid it in the exchange.

As agreed Bronly then took a long hour to inspect the man’s knife.

Even within the first minute Bronly began to understand more about the construction of the blade.

After a half hour Bronly grew somewhat worried. Where had this blade come from? No being on the planet has these sort of smithing abilities. The inscription on the blade resembled elvish work but it also differed greatly. If it was the elves, it was definitely an ancient one.

When the hour finished Bronly was in deep contemplation.

He had countless ideas. He laughed at his previous self who was so focused on mithril. He now knew that to truly master mithril, you must first master the less desirable metals. If he could make a blade from lead that could cut steel. Then and only then would be feel confident enough to walk the path of the blade-smith.