Ahhh the early days, forging swords with my Father he taught me many techniques and skills, not just with the hammer but also with the blade. He was a human, from a long line of blacksmiths and knights. He taught me to imbue magic into my craft with each strike, and how every metal had a different feel, and mass. They even smelled different when forged/smelted.

  My Mother was an elf and she was gifted with powerful magic. She used it to heal the sick and wounded. She taught me spells to take care of myself if she was not there to protect me, but only defensive magic. I learned quickly but wanted to know more.

  When I was a child, a meteor fell from the sky near my village, so my father and I went to inspect it. It turned out to be what appeared as a small girl, who somehow crashed into the earth unscathed. At first she seemed frozen, encased in a soft blue light at the center of a crater. But as the scorched gash in the earth began to cool, she gently lowered to her knees. My father took her in and raised her as one of his own, but as I grew older she remained a child. She already knew how to speak many languages, but she said the only thing she could remember was her name, Darkrose.

  By the time I was 13 not only was I fluent in English and Elvish but I could also read and write both languages. I had crafted hundreds of blades, so although most of them broke, I had a few that I had made just right. My father taught me a family technique to harden the material but I also used the magic my mother taught me to create new enchantments that could strengthen the blade and make it feather light, razor sharp. Apparently people wanted that in a weapon.

  Everyone said I was a natural, I had overheard travellers saying "The kid's not bad for a halfblood." I never knew what that meant at the time, and when my mother was gone away some elven nobles came to town and complimented me on my magical abilities despite what they called my "bad blood". Suffice it to say; it never took me long to figure out what outsiders thought about me and my family.

  My parents gave me 1 silver bar and 5 copper bars to get started with. I had 100g in a month and my own collection of swords but I wanted to craft some custom armour for myself like a real knight. I wanted to kill dragons my whole life.

  My father helped me learn to make armour but surprisingly my mother was the real help. She was a decent seamstress and showed me basic shapes and patterns that could be pieced together and with enchantments, I could be the best.

  I started by crafting adult sized gear just for practice and to try to make some of the money for materials back but it turned out so good that I made quite a profit. But for my ultimate combat set, I figured I would have to make it for a slightly larger person than myself so I could grow into it, and as a half elf it would be a one of a kind set of armour. I would fit into it by the time I was 19 and would not have to modify the size until after I was 25. I worked on the patterns, 8 obsidian stone, 4 diamonds, 2 gold bars, 4 silver bars, et cetera; 3000g.

  On my 18th birthday I had over 3000g saved up and every one in my village wore my seal on their armour, so I started making my own armour, I had 1 year to finish the craft…

  I had to travel to the capital city to procure the necessary materials. My father was worried for my safety so he hired an old friend of his to be my bodyguard; Chance, the Human Exotic Swordsman. My father trusted him more than anyone I had ever known. I grew to admire him greatly.

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  Chance travelled to my village to escort me to the capital. He and my father spent quite a lot of time together during the short time he Chance spent in our village. Before leaving town Chance insisted on teaching me a few techniques with the sword, so I figured I would teach him a few of my own. Of course he showed me how overconfident I’d become.

  After leaving the village, on our travels to the capital, Chance taught me many of his abilities, skills, and techniques. He was a remarkable sword dancer, proficient in many bladed weapons. The journey was rather uneventful, but Chance would occasionally challenge passersby to duels. Watching him do battle was indescribable. Well I could describe it as sword dancing, but it wouldn’t do him justice.

  As my pilgrimage continued, Chance taught me many more things. He studied my movements, and tailored a specialised training regimen for a half elf. He thought the katana would best suit my abilities and proceeded to carve me a training sword, or rather a kendo stick.

  As we approached the capital the roads became more populated. And as we passed the farmlands, we began to encounter wagons and caravans. I had never seen such incredibly intricate cobblestone roads before.

  Once we arrived at the capital city we saw many people waiting to be searched or maybe pay tolls of some kind, but Chance simply walked up to the guards (who I swear were about to salute him before he raised his hand in a rather aggressive manner.) and he said something I couldn’t quite hear before the guards he spoke to both glanced my way. I would have been worried but I knew my father trusted this man and I was pretty sure they went way back.

  We were allowed to enter the city, Denisea was the human capital city of the Denisea continent (Real creative, I know… Guess what they call the planet as well.). I would have been awe stricken had I not seen illustrations in the books my father had back at home. The city had an inner castle behind tall grey stone walls around the northern end of the city. And the southern entrance was surrounded by merchants, behind those were the crafting areas, and beyond that was the residential areas closer to the castle wall.

  I was easily able to find all of the items on my shopping list, and Chance bought me a strange trinket. I never saw him buy it anywhere but it looked like the kingdom seal, except rather than the Royal Scythe, it displayed a hammer and an anvil and I loved it!

  After spending the day seeing the city and getting some food we decided to rest at an inn. Chance got us a very nice room, but the woman running the front desk was repeatedly looking over at me. Later that night she came into our room, she told us that there would be free drinks for the next hour. Chance seemed reluctant, and due to my half elf blood he did not want me to drink too much, so we compromised and decided to have just a few.

  A barrel of mead later, everyone was pretty much shitfaced. Chance started to buy another round and I stumbled up to our room. Before I could fall face first into my bed, I noticed the woman from the front desk sitting on my bed. I scanned her body with my eyes and realised she had a stack of odd books in her lap. Before I could speak, she asked if I knew how to read. Offended, I immediately replied “of course!”. She then asked in what language. I gave her a sour look, and responded “common human, and elven. What is this abo…” before I could finish she stood up, straining under the weight of the books and pushed them into my arms. Looking into her eyes I could see the importance of this to her, but also she seemed afraid. And again before I could speak she rushed out of the room. Being drunk for the first time, I put the books with my things and passed out.

  The next day we left the capital to head back to my home. The journey was quite uneventful, so we decided to stop into an adventurer's guild and picked up a contract to deal with some whelps, and perhaps a drake.