Chapter 11: How I met my master.

Congratulations you have successfully mined Mithril ore and have gained the following: mining.

“Are you happy now.” Huffed Berlioz, picking up the ore and handing it to me. “come one, everyone’s waiting.”

After breakfast I had entered the dungeon mouth and discovered that dungeons, or at least fledgling dungeons were pretty boring to behold. In short, the place was just a dimly lit cave with the odd stalagmite jutting down from above and a few mossy boulders here and there. The interesting thing about the place was the few corridors that had been added by Cid and although my Cabinet waited for me by the dungeon gate, there was no way I was leaving before I gained the mining skill.

“Yeah bud, we can go.” I said depositing the ore and pickaxe.

We walked to the central chamber where an arched frame made of stone protruded from the curved cave wall. The cabinet members were standing in wait by the arch, and I picked up my pace when I saw their bored expressions.

“Did you get the skill?” Asked Lachi.

Berlioz spoke before I could. “He wouldn’t be here if he didn’t.”

“You’re just sour because you’re going to miss him.” Laughed Kali.

I patted Berlioz’s head. “Aww, I’m gunna miss you to bud.”

“It’s Anansi I’m going to miss.” Said Berlioz, pushing my hand away. “You could piss off for a year and I wouldn’t even notice.”

“I’m sure what he means to say is, we will all miss you, Oscar.” Smiled Cid.

Chef spoke up. “I really need to tend to the veggie pygmies before I hunt with my brothers.”

“You’re right Chef, I’ve held you guys up for long enough.” I touched the arch, and nothing happened. “Umm, how do we do this?”

“you just have to think about your destination, and it will open to the closest public gate available.” Explained Cid. “But before you go we all have gifts for you.”

“I’m coming back guys you didn’t need to…” I started.

Berlioz thrusted his hand towards me. “I got up early and mined three of each ore for you to sell.”

I took his hand, and he deposited the ore in my storage.

Next, Chef placed his hand in mine. “Nothing special, just some potions and some hot meals. Oh, and make sure you check the labels I made some poison as a byproduct of the mana potion.”

“Check the labels, got it.” I said with a smile.

Kali grasped my hand. “I was saving these monster parts for when Berlioz has time but now he’s the boss, I’m sure he’ll be too busy.” Her eyes lost focus as she picked though her inventory. “It’s mostly solider ant parts but there’s a few irone hides and a couple of fire tusk corpses.”

“I know it isn’t much, but I know how you love new skills.” He handed me a lute. “We still cant figure out how you two got the artificing skill so it just made of wood, but the strings are from a spider monkeys web gland so it’s still a little magical.”

“you guys are the best.” I said a tear coming to my eye.

“Put on your mask.” Said Berlioz. “No one wants to see an old man cry.”

I took out my mask and looked at it. “fuck, I don’t think I’ve actually seen this thing yet. It looks just like a mantis’s head.” I poked at the faux mandibles by the mouth section. “It’s kind of gross the way they come apart.”

“Just put it on, we don’t know how the allied races will react to a human.” Said Berlioz.

Cid cleared his throat. “if that’s everything.” He activated the dungeon gate, and a shimmering blue portal appeared within the arch. “All that is left is for you to walk through.”

“Well, everyone, I’ll see you soon.” I inched towards the gate. “This is one small step for man.” I stepped through. “And one giant leap for mankind.”

I thought something had gone wrong. When my body passed through the gate, I felt a sickening twist in my stomach and I appeared in an almost empty white void, reminiscent of the space I see before waking to the real world. Where the black void existed only in my mind, this place was very much real. All around me there was nothing but white, well, apart from the two people that stood before me. I couldn’t say what gender they were, as even though they were completely naked, there wasn’t anything to indicate a specific gender. The two humanoid beings were blue, hairless and lacking any definition to their tall frames.

One of them spoke in an oddly robotic voice. “Welcome gate traveller, unfortunately Firston of biome R1E42 is at maximum capacity. Please feel free to register your identity stone with us and we will alert you as soon as gate access is possible.”

The first Blue person spoke without even looking at me, while the second’s eyes seemed to look through me. “Oh, oh my.” They said nudging the first one. “Lize, it’s the human.”

“Really?” Lize looked me up and down. “It really is.” They patted the second one on the back. “looks like I owe you those essence gems after all, Tirno.”

I was completely lost for words, standing before two completely alien entities, in an endless white void and the befuddling sight made my mind go completely blank. At a whim I tried to scan one of them but there was no eye symbol above either of their heads. I’m not sure why but that really pissed me off.

“What the fuck is this shit?” I spat. “Why can’t I analyse you?”

“Come now Oscar, don’t be like that.” Said Lize.

Tirno’s lipless face bore what I could only assume was a smile. “We’re with the dungeon gate authority. Honestly, we weren’t expecting you to come through until tonight.”

“You have a pattern of fixating on skill gains and skill growth.” Said Lize.

“I’m surprised you didn’t try to craft with the mithril you mined.” Said Tirno.

My face went pale when I realised that they had been spying on me, no worse than that they mentioned logs, I had to clarify. “When you say logs, what exactly can you see?”

“We’re not allowed to answer questions.” Said Tirno casting his eyes to the ground.

Lize shrugged. “But we can tell you that we are impressed by the amount of humans that have figured out that ranking should always come before levels and classes.”

“Am I going to find any humans in Firston?” I asked.

“That’s a question Oscar.” Said Tirno firmly.

Lize looked like they were thinking for a second then said. “You’re the only human in this biome.”

That was a lot to take in and posed so many more questions, questions that I couldn’t fucking ask. Have I always been the only human, did all the rest die, did they leave. If I couldn’t ask a question then I would pose a simple statement, there was no point in being here anyway.

“I want to go to Firston.” I stated.

Lize looked at me sideways. “If you do, you’ll need an identity stone.”

“Ah, don’t ask for one.” Said Tirno holding up a hand. “I’ll just make it.”

“I don’t know.” Said Lize. “The last human that went to a Firston on their own got sucked into the adventurer’s guild and died like the next day.”

“I was actually thinking of editing it.” said Tirno pulling out a small spherical stone. “If people think he’s from the exile lands they’ll be less likely to prey on him.”

“It’s not against the rules.” Confirmed Lize.

I wasn’t about to say anything. they seemed to like me for some reason and with my confused rage cooling down I was beginning to look at things more objectively. They were giving me what I needed and letting me know not to mess with what I assumed was a group that went on missions to dangerous places. My thoughts were suddenly dismissed when my eyes fell on a tool Tirno held. I had seen it amongst the stuff on the shaman’s enchanting table. A small rod with a ridiculously sharp tip that was shaped like a fountain pen. What I saw next made me think my mask was fogging over. Tirno sprouted two extra arms, one from their stomach and the other under their left arm. The upper left arm held the stone, and the right arm held the pen, while a monster core appeared in the hand of the stomach arm and the lower left arm reached over and crushed it.

“let’s start with a name, something mysterious.” Said Tirno dipping the pen in the crushed monster core. “How about Phantom.”

“No, I think we should base it on the boss of his area.” Dismissed Lize. “Blade sounds good.”

“He doesn’t look like a Blade, could always go with Mantis.” Suggested Tirno.

“I like that.” I said trying it out, in a deep voice. “They call me the Mantis.”

“Mantis it is.” Agreed Tirno. “What about race.”

“could you take your mask off please.” Requested Lize.

I did as requested and Tirno eyed me curiously. “Oh, another ape variant.”

“I was hoping for something more exotic.” Said Lize sadly. “Weren’t lizards the dominant species on earth last time we checked.”

“Maybe like sixty something million years ago.” I laughed.

Tirno shrugged with all four shoulder joints. “Must have been a black hole in the way when we viewed it.”

“We’re getting off topic.” Said Lize. “He looks more like an elf than anything else. Maybe half dwarf.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mix like that in the logs.” Said Tirno. “I say we put it down anyway, stranger things have happened in the exile lands.”

I watched Tirno inscribe odd linking symbols into the stone and when they were done, they handed it to me.

“Oh, and if anyone asks why you don’t have a class tell them you’re a ranker from the exile lands.” Said Lize with a wave of their hand.

As their hand waved the infinite whiteness disappeared revealing the familiar rocky formation of the dungeons main cavern. Although this dungeon was completely unfamiliar, there were stairs made of stone leading up to a pitch-black exit, less corridors leading away from the central space and the most surreal thing I saw was a toddler, wearing a brown wax jacket sitting on the floor. The little guy had a tightly packed afro, reddish brown skin and in his hands was a monster core.

“For rock and stone to stand alone, is beyond thy systems will. Should I refrain to spread thy vein, lay mine level ever still.” Spoke the toddler in a lilting tone.

I watched the orb disappear and I kind of knew he wasn’t actually a toddler but for some absurd reason I still uttered. “Hey little fella, what you are doing down here alone?”

The kid turned around and revealed his face. I stifled a laugh at my own stupidity when I saw the thick goatee and obvious crow’s feet. Without wasting a second, I scanned the three-foot-tall man in an attempt to understand what I was seeing.

Name: D’ryan Dweldeep

Race: Halfling

Level: 32

Class: Dungeon master

Attributes.

Strength: 57

Dexterity: 57

Constitution: 79

Intelligence: 93

Wisdom: 93

Charisma: 57

Luck: 1

Status conditions: Sanctuary

Resistance: All Damage 100%

Weakness: None.

He pretty high levelled and it seemed like he had gained a goof few expert skills before levelling up, that or his dungeon master class only came with benefits. I must have been staring at his character sheet for a while too long because that lilting voice had a certain edge to it when he spoke again.

“Most people apologise after an insult like that, don’t you know.” Said D’ryan, his hands on his hips.

I snapped out of it. “Fuck, I’m so sorry from behind you looked like a kid.”

“Don’t mention it greeny.” He held out a hand. “The names D’ryan, I’m this here dungeons master. If you’re looking to enter the town upstairs, I’ll need to be seeing your identity stone for the records and entry is a common core.”

I placed the stone in his hand. “I don’t have any common cores, will a rare be ok?”

“Oh, shit on a biscuit laddy, you’re a ranker ain’t you.” He said handing back my stone. “Rare will be dandy, so it will. I can’t give you the change in cores, but we’ve got plenty of credits to spare.”

I guessed credits was money of some form or other and opted to gain something more valuable. “You could keep the change and not let anyone know I gave you a rare core.”

“A wise man you are Mr Mantis.” He said looking over the core I gave him. “I’ll not be telling anyone but the noble up high. He is my boss after all.”

“I can accept that.” I said pulling out another rare core. “Would this one be worth some information?”

“I’ll not be betraying my employers if that’s what your asking.” D’ryan said, eyeing up the core with greedy eyes. “But you give me that there core and I’ll give you the time of day whenever you ask.”

I handed over the core and asked. “What will I be walking into up there.”

“Oh laddy, you’ll be walking into a right show of shit, so you will. The orcs have spread across the level twenty zone, so the adventurer’s guild is as anxious as a tonberry in a crowd. There’s a feud between a couple of dwarven smiths and the mages guild have all but locked their doors.” He looked me up and down. “I won’t speak ill of my employer, but you did me a solid with these here cores, so I’ll tell you this one for free. The old elf up high is in over his head and if he doesn’t find a way to be rid of those orcs soon, this little town will belong to the warlord.”

“Not a great time for a vacation then is it.”

“You’re a funny one, so you are.”

“Can I ask what you’re doing down here?”

“Right now, I’m waiting for you to go up so I can give you the tour.” He put up his hands. “It’s mandatory and you won’t be bribing you’re way out of it. other than that, I’ve got a fledgling dungeon with nothing but common rooms and a bunch of salty Panthera rescues that wont cooperate for shit.”

“Panthera?” I said a little too eager. “Can I see them?”

“It’s not a zoo lad, I won’t be parading the orc’s victims for a good time.”

“I might be able to help.” I tried but he walked to the stairs and gestured for me to leave. “Fine but if you ever need help with them, I have experience with their kind.”

“To be sure Mantis, to be sure.” Said D’ryan pushing me. “Now up those stairs, my boy.”

I climbed the staircase and exited through the inky blackness. There was a brief pang of nausea and then I felt the heat of the sun on my face. We exited the dungeon in the centre of the town, looking back I saw that the staircase cut into the base of a great statue of a man with pointed ears, holding a sceptre to the sky while he looked down with a determined expression.

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“That man is the noble in charge around here.” Explained D’ryan, “His name is Lorean Thane of house Thane. If you ever meet him, be aware that he is a ranker like you and is the highest levelled person in this town.” He gestured ahead of us. “Shall we?”

It was weird being in an established town in the middle of the rainforest, with cobblestones underfoot and what looked like gaslit streetlamps on every corner. The tour started with the first of the four streets that led away from the main square.

“This here is mages row, on account of all the mages don’t you know.” Explained D’ryan with a skip in his step. “Every building from the edge of the square to the east gate belongs to the mages guild and if you look to your left you’ll see the mages tower.”

It was the only building that didn’t fit in with the motif of the street. Where all the rest were blocky two- and three-story buildings made of wood and stone, the mages tower was an impressively wide circular building that got smaller the higher it went ending with a pointed roof that looked almost as sharp as my spear tip.

“Should you find yourself in need of magic lessons you’ll be wise to bring a fortune to their doors before you knock.”

We walked back up the street and to the next, all the while tall slender men and women, with sharp pointed ears, eyed me with curiosity and an almost disdainful silence. The next street was filled with rows upon rows of shops and stalls. The that sold food stall displayed faux cuts of meat or vegetables with their prices underneath and I noticed that the going rate for any item was based on the scarcity value with common being as low as a single credit and rare reaching up to a thousand credits.

“Why’re you smiling so widely lad?” asked D’ryan.

I countered his question. “How much would a level fifty rare boar steak go for around here?”

“One steak of that quality would fetch at least a few hundred creds. The whole pig, now that would net you enough for a settlement stone.”

“That’s why I’m smiling D, that’s why I’m smiling.” Receiving a shrug from the little fella.

We passed by a quaint little open aired blacksmith’s forge that had a huge gleaming silver anvil proudly displayed outside the entrance to the shop itself. Strangely there was blood splatter across the floor and a blade had been left to melt in the forge.

“You might want to avoid any dealings with the dwarf that owns this place.” D’ryan gestured to the smithy. “He refuses to join the local guild and has assassins on him every other day.”

“These guilds sound important, if not a little criminal. How does he fight off the assassins?”

“He doesn’t. he dies all the time, him and his apprentice.” D’ryan pointed towards the next street. “from the looks of it he’ll be respawning over at the graveyard any minute now.”

Respawns were a thing, that was probably the most valuable piece of information I had learned so far. I wanted to push to learn more about it, but I was pretty sure lacking that bit of knowledge would have instantly outed me as a human. We moved on and D’ryan showed me the other blacksmiths building, which was much larger but looked way too corporate for my tastes and a few of the guild building at the end of the row. As it turned out the allied races relied on the guilds to regulate business across the conquered biomes. So far, the town had six guilds, the mages guild, the merchant’s guild, thieves guild, assassins guild, the lenders guild and the adventurers guild.

“So, if you’re looking to set up shop here, you best join with the merchants guild, pay your tithes to the thieves guild, bank with the lenders guild and never upset the assassins guild.”

“What about the adventurers and mages?” I asked.

“Ah well, they can get fucked so they can.” D’ryan span on his heels. “Right, moving on.”

We walked back to the top of the street and stopped by large building at the beginning of the next street over. From inside the building came an inaudible ruckus of many voices. It had to be the busiest place in town. I watched a few people of differing races cross the street and enter a pub only to return again with their flagons full.

“What’s that about?” I asked.

D’ryan gestured to the large building. “This is the adventurers guild. The pub across the road won’t allow anyone to drink inside before midday so the Adventurers usually get pretty wankered at their guild in the morning.”

“Are you gunna tell me why they’re drinking this early?”

“Lord Thane has banned the adventurers from leaving the town until someone volunteers to hunt the orcs.”

“Are the adventurers scared?”

“Are they fuck, the lazy bastards just want hazard pay.” D’ryan pulled my arm. “Come now lad, I’ll show you the residential row then it’s just the lords manor and you’re free to explore on your own.”

D’ryan took me down the residential street pointing out a few cottages here and there that were up for sale with the average price for one of the single-story dwellings being set at two thousand credits. I honestly thought that the price was a bit steep for the basic structures but didn’t want to comment on the poor quality of the halfling’s hometown.

“Whats the price for a night at the local inn?” I asked.

D’ryan gave me a solemn frown. “Have I shown you an inn?”

“Theres nowhere for me to stay is there?”

“If you don’t have the creds for a home, you can always sleep on the street.”

I sighed at that and continued to follow the halfling. At the end of the row lay a small cemetery with a central chapel. Entering the gates and walking through the cemetery I noticed that none of the gravestones that were littered around the grounds had names on them but before I could ask why, D’ryan ushered me into the chapel and stood by a book that rested atop an alter.

“If you want to respawn when you die in this zone, its best you sign your name in this book, so it is.” Explained the halfling.

I was glad I was wearing my mask as he would have seen the fear in my eyes as I stared at the book. “Does it have to be my birth name or will my alias suffice.”

He looked at me curiously. “If its on your system stone it should be fine, but we cant be sure until you die.”

“Yeah, fuck that.” I said jotting down my real name.

D’ryan gave me a sly smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Oscar.”

It turned out that I couldn’t keep my identity secret for more than an hour, but something told me it was safe with the halfling. His smile wasn’t vindictive and he didn’t come across as the type to blackmail me, I’m pretty sure he just wanted to be clear of the responsibility of answering any complicated questions I might have come up with.

“I guess we’re even now.” I said regretting the loss of the core I gave him.

He laughed. “I won’t be bought with cores but if you can help this town grow, I will support your efforts.” He gestured towards the exit. “Shall we move on?”

Just as we exited the chapel one of the gravestones closer to the cemetery gates glowed with a vibrant light. D’ryan held a hand on my side indicating for me to halt and a second gravestone began to glow. The light grew brighter and brighter until with a flash, a naked four-foot boulder of a man appeared. A second later another man appeared, this one was of similar build to the first but much, much taller. The six-foot plus sized man-mountain was more body than leg and had a lot less neck than he did head and shoulders. I was about to scan the naked man in the hope of discovering his race when the first guy started shouting at him.

“No more.” Shouted the first man. “I won’t be taken like that again.”

“You were so close, Torek, only a few daggers away from expert.” Cried the man-mountain.

As comical as it was to see the naked men argue in broad daylight, the man named Torek seemed visibly shaken as if he had gone through a great ordeal and it was only when he spoke again that I realised they had been killed before respawning in the graveyard.

“They waited for me to get close before they came this time.” Spat Torek. “I’m leaving your forge and working for Frimlay, I’m sorry but I’m not going through that again.”

Without shame he walked on, and the man-mountain followed, calling out. “I’ll double your pay. Please, Torek I need you.”

If it wasn’t obviously a work dispute, I’d have assumed the two men were having a rather heated lover’s tiff.

“There’s no amount of credits that will convince me to go through that again.” shouted Torek picking up his pace.

The big guy hurried behind him, his mighty backside jiggling with the effort. “I was skinned alive; I know it’s hard, but Frimlay will never help you gain expert rank.”

“Skinned alive, oh I’m sorry how in the name of our ancestors does that compare to having your dick cut off and force fed to you, inch by inch.” Torek’s rage grew with his rebuttal.

D’ryan burst out with laughter. “Look at the size of his todger, those assassins are wild.”

“It’s not funny.” I said looking at the man’s sizable penis. “Torturing someone like that over business is detestable. I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on the guy that did this.”

“Aye it’s wrong but they were paid to send a message, so they were.”

We followed the two up the residential row as they bickered and watched them get ridiculed by a few drunken adventurers that stumbled back from the pub with full pitchers of ale. I wanted to follow some more but D’ryan insisted that we see the lord’s manor. The manor was by far the most luxurious building in town, with four stories of white brick and stained-glass windows set in black wooden frames. The massive double doors were emblazoned with intricate metal inlays and outside them stood two burly guards dressed head to toe in stunning silver plate male.

“And here we have the manor of lord Thane.” Said D’ryan with a wave of his hand. “should you wish to purchase a dwelling, establish a titled building or leave the town he is the zones single authority holder.”

“Has he not assigned an inheritor?”

“Has he fuck, he knows if he gives anyone that power the assassins will dispose of him without a thought.” D’ryan sighed. “Alas as long as lord Thorne is the soul authority holder his death would mean the end of Firston. Even if the town is destined to meet it’s end at the warlord’s hands due to his inaction, no one has the cores to usurp him.”

“How many cores would it take to set the place straight after his death?” I asked purely out of curiosity.

D’ryan raised a brow. “How many do you have?”

I laughed. “I have enough to deal with back home, I couldn’t take on that responsibility.”

“If you can get fifty rare cores, I know a guy that will pay handsomely.” Whispered D’ryan conspiratorially. “Right, that’s the end of the tour, so it is. If you need a job that big fella seems to be short an apprentice. I know for a fact he has a room spare; I just hope you don’t mind dying every now and then.”

“I’ve dealt with worse things than a few assassins.” I said smiling behind my mask. “and I wouldn’t mind learning the skills he uses.”

With that said D’ryan took off before calling out. “Come see me about those Panthera tomorrow, if you can help, I’ll introduce you to the lord.”

I felt a little overwhelmed by all the information I had received since entering the gate in my dungeon. The blue entities that greeted me were far more than just a couple of guards, they had knowledge of the system that probably out matched anyone that lived within it. the state of Firston wasn’t great but that was only because of the orcs at their borders and most importantly those orcs had Panthera captive in the next zone up. I wasn’t going to be able to get out there and save anyone just yet, but I figured once I got used to the town and worked out how to get permission to leave, I’d be able to plan a way to rescue every Panthera that was still out there.

With my priorities set I made my way to the blacksmiths forge. Walking down merchants’ row I saw the man-mountain who was now dressed, mopping the blood from his forge’s floor. I hurried down the street and although I knew asking him for a job would put me at risk of brutal torture part of me was excited, either for the chance to gain more skills or perhaps for the opportunity to push back against the guilds and their criminal structure.

“Hey big man.” I said greeting the burly smith.

He looked at me sideways. “You seem to know my name; however, I’d remember if we had met.” He gripped his mop as if he were about to attack with it. “Which guild sent you?”

I was almost distracted by the fact his name was big man but thought it best to placate the situation. “No guild.” I said holding up my hands. “my name’s Mantis. I’m new in town and looking for a job.”

The big man huffed. “You better come inside.”

We walked through the outdoor forge and into his building. The place would have been a fantastic example of a blacksmiths shop if it hadn’t been completely ransacked. Shattered glass mixed with metal filings on the blood-stained floor and even the shop counter had been split in two. It was a horrible sight to see, and my heart sank at the look on the smith’s face.

“They hadn’t trashed the place last time.” He said sadly. “we shouldn’t have fought back.”

He looked over all the empty display cases and rushed to the back of the workshop area in the corner. I saw him pull up a rug and pry open a floorboard before wiping away at his brow in relief. While he got distracted checking over his valuables, I grabbed a broom and started cleaning up. After sweeping everything into a pile I found out that the fuckers had even taken the time to destroy the bins. Luckily, I had more than enough space in my storage, so, by placing a hand on the pile I made it disappear.

“What on earth is a noble doing trying to train as a blacksmith.” Said big man, staring at me with a familiar glazed glare.

Was he scanning me, did he know I was human. No, he thought I was a noble, but why.

“Are you going to answer me or what?” He was getting angry.

I looked him in the eye. “I’m no noble friend. What makes you think that?”

“I just appraised your gear.” He said coming closer. “pockets of holding, ridiculous resistances a price mark worth a level sixty zone and it’s clearly not made of any natural fabric. So, you’re either a noble or an artificer and I doubt an artificer would waste their time learning how to smith.”

“Actually, you’re wrong.” I said picking placing a broken chair in my inventory. “I have the artificing skill and I’m a ranker from a high-level zone in the exile lands.”

It appeared that he was considering the lie. “I’ve heard of rankers is it true that you have to kill for experience.”

“It is.” I said frowning behind my mask. “How do you gain experience?”

“I’m of the crafting class.” He said stroking his braided beard. “I gain experience from using the skill that come with my class.” He looked around with sad eyes. “But it’s going to be expensive getting my tools back from the thieves guild, let alone the materials they’ve taken.”

“The guild will sell you back the stuff they stole. That’s ridiculous.”

“I’ve got three days to make my claim, or they will sell it all on. If buy my things back from them it will be cheaper than trying to replace everything from a guild shop.”

“Can I ask why the guilds are against you?”

“I may have bragged that I was one expert apprentice away from ranking up to master in my class.”

“Yeah, I don’t get it.”

“Do you rankers not have any classers where you come from?”

“Only people with classes I’ve come across were some orcs.” I said shrugging. “And they’re all dead.”

“Ok, I’ll not frown at the death of an orc.” Smiled big man. “To put it short I need to teach someone the smithing skills, then they need to push up to expert under my employ and when that happens, I’ll become a master blacksmith and finally be able to petition a lord for an artisans guild.”

“and what’s an artisans guild?”

“Only a master crafter can establish one and the merchant’s guild does everything they can to stop it. with an artisan’s guild I would be in charge of setting prices and collecting taxes for any crafted wares in this or any other zone I move to. There’s also the fact that I would be able to assign any crafting class other than the magical ones.”

“and you just need to teach me the smithing skill and have me get to expert rank?”

“Correct.”

“Then teach away big man.”

“Why are you saying my name like that?”

Was I pronouncing it wrong, or did he miss here me the first time I said it. I fixed my confusion with an easy scan.

Name: Bigmin Runetank

Race: Half-Dwarf

Level: 28

Class: Expert Blacksmith

Attributes.

Strength: 42

Dexterity: 37

Constitution: 37

Intelligence: 59

Wisdom: 37

Charisma: 37

Luck: 1

Status conditions: None

Resistance: Slashing 40% Piercing 40% fire 60%

Weakness: None.

That made a lot of sense. Bigmin must have been a traditional dwarven name and with his surname being Runetank, I wondered if he knew the secrets to enchanting. The other thing I picked up on with the scan, was that he must have gained expert rank on a good few skills. I guessed it was around four or five depending on the level he hit expert rank. When the character sheet faded from my vision, I saw Bigmin staring at me.

“I’ve been analysed before; I know what you’re doing.” He said a vein above his left eye pulsing.

I took a step back. “I’m sorry I just wanted to get your name right.”

“You’re a strange chap.” He searched his battered workstation for a moment then came back to me. “I’m sorry Mantis, there isn’t a single tool left in my workshop. You’ll have to wait until I’ve forked over the creds to get them back.”

“show me what you need, and I’ll make it.” I said rifling through my inventory. “I’ve already got some ores and some hammers what else do we need.”

Bigmin’s jaw dropped at the sight of the mithril ore I pulled out. “Is that? Do you have more rare ores?” he snatched it from me and actually bit the side of it. “oh, and its pure as anything.” He grabbed me by the shoulders and spoke softly. “Alright my boy, if you can make the tools, I’ll gladly be you’re master.”

We started by utilising my artificing skill to it’s fullest. Bigmin walked me through the designs of tongs, chisels, punches, files, clamps and fullers. I spent hours in the zone pulling out ant parts, boar hides and bones, giving each of the items fire resistance, incredible sharpness and extreme durability when needed. While I worked, Bigmin tidied and prepared the forge between instructing me on the proper shape and design for his new tools. By the time I was done I had gulped down at least two mana potions and a stamina potion, that I didn’t really need to drink but the buzz was very much welcomed.

With the tools laid out on the only undamaged counter in the shop, we took a break for lunch. The kitchen area of the workshop had been similarly vandalised and when Bigmin started looking for something for us to eat he found that his tools weren’t the only things to have been stolen by the thieves guild.

It started with a slammed cupboard and a pretty furious, “Those blighting rock rubbers.” Being yelled after the third slam, then Bigmin cried out, “They even broke my cold box.”

“Hey, it’s alright big fella.” I said withdrawing a couple of plates of roasted boar meat. “I’ve got some food from home.”

We sat on the floor and had a little indoor picnic, and the man-mountain’s mood lightened as he ate. I’m not sure if he was just too hangry to process everything that had happened to him that day but after he had eaten the destruction around him didn’t seem to bother him as much. While we let out stomachs settle, we chatted about his time in Firston and how everything led to him and his apprentice being brutally tortured. I couldn’t believe the lengths the guilds had gone to ruin his business. It started with another dwarven blacksmith named Frimlay sniffing around his shop, looking for a way to steal his customers and when Bigmin threatened him with violence the dwarf ran to the guilds. The next morning a representative of the merchant’s guild tried strong arming him, using their connections with the thieves guild. The diminutive halfling merchant brought several elven thieves to the shop and pretty quickly a fight broke out.

“I’ve got a temper on me.” explained Bigmin. “So, when they started poking their long and pointys around, I lost it. after I gave them a thrashing, I swore that once my apprentice reached expert and I gained master rank. I would be coming for their jobs.”

Not only had he pissed off the merchant guild, but he had also broken one of the elves’ arms so badly the guy chose to kill himself and respawn. After that he had made himself the target of frequent robberies until he personally saw to killing three thieves that came in the night, the defence of his goods led to the assassin’s guild getting involved. The robberies turned into assassinations, with the two dwarves waking in the cemetery each morning until they laid a trap and fought them off. That led to this morning’s affair, with a group of assassins, thieves and merchant’s guild enforcers breaking into his store and ransacking the place.

“I must have killed at least five of them and Torek took out a couple more.” Bigmin’s eyes went dark. “But they overpowered us, and they took us back to the assassin’s guilds building. I could hear Torek’s screams from the next room.”

“We’ll get revenge big man, I promise.” I said with a murderous glint in my eye. “But first you’ve got some skills to teach me.”

With a forced smile Bigmin stood up and offered me a hand, “First you have to accept the apprenticeship.”

Expert Blacksmith Bigmin Runetank has offered you the title of apprentice smith.

Do you accept?

After I had accepted the apprenticeship, Bigmin gave me a quizzical look before he led me out to the forge and gathered up all of the tools required for the smithing process. We started by preparing the ore, crushing it down with the use of the new tools I made and heating the mithril in the forge. When it came to separating the slag from the molten metal, I realised what Bigmin meant when he said the ore was pure. There was very little waste material and in the end, we managed to refine a pretty beautiful blue silver ingot.

Congratulations you have successfully forged mithril ingot (rare) and have gained the following: Smelting.

We didn’t pause to celebrate instead we sketched out the design for my first blade and I chose to forge a weapon that was close to my heart. The shape of the blade was drawn out and set next to the anvil as a reference then we started work on the ingot. The mysterious metal had physics defying properties, it took a long time to heat in the blazing forge and was easy to mould when hot but cooled rapidly at room temperature and was cold to the touch within five minutes of pulling it out from the flames. This meant that there was a lot of back and forth from the forge to the anvil but eventually I had managed to make the required shape.

Bigmin had me craft a handle for the blade and I chose to use some of the wood from the guardian spirit. It took every ounce of will I had not to fall into the zone and rely on my artificing skill while shaping the handle but in the end, I managed it. affixing the handle and blade together, I realised that the effort it took to make the two components was what made the process enjoyable and was probably why I hadn’t really found any sense of accomplishment when artificing. After grinding the metal until it had a razors edge, filling away any rough or lumpy parts and polishing the wooden hilt I had crafted a pretty perfect mithril Kukri. The notch above the hilt was in just the right spot and the blunt spine had a perfect angle that gave the blade it’s beautiful curve. I believed the weapon would have made my stepdad proud and it seemed that the system agreed with me.

Congratulations, you have successfully forged mithril kukri (rare) and have gained the following: grinding, metallurgy, whittling, hammering, Smithing.

“Now master.” I said with a playful bow. “show me to my room and I shall rank up my skills.”

It may have only been midday, but the stamina potion was already wearing off and if had been a long enough morning for my eyes to fall shut the moment I laid down. The last thing that went through my head as I lay in Torek’s blood-stained bed was, “God I missed a good fluffy pillow.”