Swiss Arms
Chapter 6
-VB-
I hacked out coughs like an old man with asthma as I sat outside my tiny vertical mine. Grabbing the candle miner hat, I dropped it to the ground and kept coughing.
Having spent the last four hours underground with only a candlelight to show me the way, I came back out with a very meager return. I had hoped to find some good things, but unlike my hopes, most of what I had found underground so far have been smattering of minerals and base metal ores.
I checked the reinforced burlap mining bag to check what I had.
Gold Ore x2
Raw Malachite x1
Raw Garnet x1
Raw Jet x90
Feldspar x522
Low Grade Hematite x201
High Grade Hematite x43
Coal x728
Dirt x5090
Cobblestone x3111
With each unit being one cubic centimeter, I supposed that cobblestone could be used for construction, and all of the Hematite could be smelted down for their iron. Coal would help with that.
As for the gold ore and the raw gemstones, they needed to be smelted or cut, so the end result would be far less than what I had now.
And what was feldspar for?
[Feldspar (Ore)
Despite being an unassuming ore, it is used in glassmaking and ceramic making both its aluminum’s hardening properties and flux capabilities, respectively.
*Available Quest: Porcelain
*Available Quest: Glassmaking]
… That’s new. I’ve never had an ore give me a quest before.
[Quest: Porcelain
Porcelain is a very valuable trade good that all of the world is willing to have. Learn how to make one yourself.
Time Limit: 6 months]
[Quest: Glassmaking
Don’t you want glass windows? Start learning how to make one and make one!
Timelimit: 6 months]
They were very vague quests, too, and showed none of the rewards or requirements beyond a time limit, but then I paused my thoughts as my System pinged me, and saw that the [Miner’s Dust Lungs] debuff finally ran its course, which meant it was time for me to head back into the mine.
I hefted up my [Iron Pickaxe], which I had forged from two iron swords.
[Iron Pickaxe]
A proper tool for rock mining!
Grade: Moderate
*+8 Damage
I turned back towards the mine but then stopped. I just spotted something in the periphery of my vision and turned to look.
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To my surprise, it was the Travaos chief.
‘Umm… what was his name again?’ I thought to myself before setting down the bag and the pickaxe before walking up to him, meeting him near the boundary of my so far claimed land.
“Hey, chief!” I greeted him with a wave of my hand, and I also noticed that he was with a few others. “What brings you here to my corner in the gorge?” Calling this tiny valley a gorge was doing it disservice but it also wasn’t wrong. The widest portions of the valley was only two hundred yards across and fifty yards at the narrowest. In my opinion, this “valley” was narrow enough to be considered a gorge.
“Just checking up on you, Hans,” he greeted me with a gruff and smile. The smile felt uneasy to me.
I looked over his shoulder. He brought with him a young woman and two young men. “And who are they…?”
“Ah, these are two of my children that you haven’t met yet, though they have seen you in action when you sparred with that man-at-arms at Travaos. The girl here is my daughter, Alvia, and the boy here is my oldest, Arnold.”
Arnold bowed and Alvia curtised, and I nodded back to them.
Wait, wasn’t Arnold older than me? Why was he bowing?
“Well, welcome to my humble abode,” I greeted them with a wide gesture towards my house and more.
…
Alvia looked around this place.
It looked … too much like her village.
For someone whom papa had sung praises in fear and respect about, Hans lived a very normal life. He lived just as she and her family did. He farmed (odd garden plots with odd plants), hunted (fish traps and a bear hide being tanned), and … mined?
His house was different. It wasn’t a house; it was a tower. It was also constructed using stone for the first floor and wood upwards.
“Didn’t your house used to be completely made out of wood, Hans?” papa asked him.
“Hmm? Oh yeah. I changed it up a little.”
Papa looked at him oddly.
“... Right, from wooden walls to stone walls within a week.”
Hans laughed nervously. “I’m just … strong!” he tried weakly.
Papa looked at him suspiciously now. “If you say so.”
“What do you do out here?”
Alvia turned to her brother, who looked around in confusion. “I don’t see farms in the making or enough fish traps to feed you.”
“Oh!” Hans smiled. “I mine.”
The three of them looked at the odd man.
“You mine?”
“Yup. I dug a hole in the ground, and, well, I haven’t gotten much,” he replied. He reached into a pocket in his pants and then pulled out -.
Her eyes widened as she saw the uncut green rock shining between his fingers.
Oh my.
“I don’t know who can facet the gems,” Hans spoke as if he wasn’t holding the yearly wage of their family in his hands. “So I guess I’ll have to do it.”
“... There are gems in our mountains?” papa asked quietly.
“I mean, all rocks and mountains have gems,” Hans shrugged. “It’s just hard to find the right place for a profitable quantity. And let me tell you, these mountains are not worth the gem hunt.”
“Then why dig a hole, as you say?” her brother asked.
“Because I wasn’t looking for a gem, not really.” Then he crushed the gemstone between his fingers. Alvia froze at the casual disregard for material wealth. She watched as she rubbed his fingers together and showed them his colored fingers.
“I am looking for pigment.”
“... Are you sure you’re not some noble?”
“What? What made you think that?” Hans asked cluelessly.
“Regular folks don’t go mining for colors.”
Hans paused and shrugged. “I guess we don’t. No, I just have a lot of free time, that’s all. I mean, I am not a farmer, so when I pay tax, I’ll be paying in either iron or random gems I do find.”
“How…”
Hans turned to look at her.
“Yes?”
“How would you turn them into gems?” she asked.
“Ah! You would need a few tools for it, but I know how to make basic tools, so, yes, tools.”
“Can you tell me more?”
She found what she wanted to do for her life.
She wanted to be gem cutter.
…
I wasn’t sure what happened. One moment, I was having a conversation with the chief and his two children, and then in the next moment, the girl was right up against me, holding my hands, and asking to learn more about gem cutting.
I looked panickedly at the chief, who blinked in surprise as well.
“Um, Alvia-” I spoke up.
“If you agree, then I will let her stay here.”
I turned to Kraft in shock. I thought medieval parents were supposed to be stricter than their 21st-century counterparts!
“But why?” I asked. “I’m not even a gem cutter!”
I did not like the way Kraft shrugged. It felt like he was foisting her onto me. Was she an unwanted child or something?
“While you’re taking my daughter, can you also train my son?”
Bruh.
“Maybe if you get me five bags of wheat a month, sure-”
“Done.”
Fucking what?
“What?”
“Five bags of wheat, yes? For making food? Done.”
I looked at him incredulously as he walked away, leaving the two kids - adults? - in my care.
What in tarnation-?