Frid had set himself on his path a decade ago. At eight years old, he had been the the sixth child of ten, but he had more siblings by the time he was twenty. Like any man of this harsh world, at the age of eight, he chose a path. Frid’s path was that of a Hammersman warrior. As the ancient texts demanded of a Hammersman, he joined the smithy of Master Shaff. Shaff had been a Hammersman, but retired after losing his left leg. He’d forged a prosthetic.

In the smithy, Frid swept the floors, cleaned the shop and learned discipline under the kind ministrations of Master Shaff’s rod. As he grew older and bigger, and more enduring, he gained further strength pumping the bellows in the smithy. At age eleven, a bit ahead of schedule, he was allowed to use the hammer.

On the first swing, the three pound hammer was light enough. But on the hundredth swing, it turned out that a three pound hammer weighed more than he would have thought. That night, he ate his bread-and-stew left-handed..

A year later, he could swing the hammer for a full day without disability. Had he just been hoping to be a blacksmith, this would have constituted the first big milestone, and stabilized his practice. But Frid wasn’t going to be a blacksmith. Frid was going to become a hammersman, pursuing the path of the hammer warrior, not just the hammer wielder. He forged a new, heavier hammer. And he got stronger. And he forged another.

In his 16th year, Frid was a bit above average at six-foot and two hundred pounds, and he didn’t have a speck of fat on him. He left the smithy with many thanks to Master Shaff, and started training with the warriors under Master Liggo one-arm, who could beat any . Liggo taught him to run better and faster. Frid learned to use a warhammer and a maul and a lucerne hammer. He was taught to use a shield with his warhammer, and how to fight with companions. With a warhammer and shield, he could crack enemy armor without being hurt. With a maul, he could bring down a charging bull. And with his polearm, he could crack the shell of a giant beetle from the second rank of warriors.

On his eighteenth birthday, Frid passed the test for warriors. He’d gained another two inches and fifty pounds. He could lift four hundred pounds from the ground to over his head. He was strong enough. He could run a hundred yards in eleven seconds. He could last thirty seconds in a fight with any other warrior in the group. He graduated from individual training, and was ready to move into team training as a man at the top of his game. Also, he coupled up with his childhood sweetheart Myriam, and his first child was on the way quickly.

When he turned eighteen, and graduated from the rigorous individual training, he spent ten days in seclusion, locked in a stone room in the halls of improvement with aught but a metal cup and the stream of water dripping from the corner of the ceiling. And in that ten days, his ten years of work were rewarded. The gods saw fit to grant him his first rank. Naturally, he allocated all his blessing of growth to Body, and became two and a half times as physical in an instant. He was more than twice as fast, twice as strong, and twice as enduring. And as with all rankings, he received one of the stronger, albeit active blessings available to the hammerman: [Repeating Hammer]. He could now produce the force of a dozen strikes with his hammer in a single blow, while calling forth his magic. Of course, with his focus for the prior decade being Body, the 10 mana points it cost allowed him to use the feat only once an hour or so.

While there were a few thousand each year who successfully graduated from training in the city of Bridgeton, there were only several dozens who had both graduated at eighteen and achieved their blessings. That rare group of elites gathered together, and found for themselves hunting parties of five that could enter the portals that led to glory.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Frid joined a team, and they named themselves Flamewulf. Uro was a spear user. He was fast as a snake, and twice as deadly, with his [Curving Spear] blessing that permitted his spear to curve around shields and attack from strange angles.. With a shield-user before him, protecting, he could hit you six times before you noticed. Fineas was a Ranger. As with most rangers, that meant a focus on Mind: archery, tracking and woodsmanship skills,, and a pet wolf named Fingers. His passive blessing [Doubled Shot] created a second arrow every time he fired his bow, draining only a point of mana a minute. Clarence was the alchemist, master of firebombs, and he still had all his fingers, indicating great expertise. His blessing [Discernment] permitted his bombs to damage only those he chose, allowing bombs lobbed into combat to damage only the enemies. And finally, there was Guthrie, the Earthsoul. Ten years of soul training allowed Guthrie to move earth and stone, and his blessing [Density] allowed Guthrie the ability to change the hardness of nearby rock or stone temporarily.

Two more years they trained together, sometimes fighting in the magically protected arena against other teams, and sometimes against beasts captured beyond the portals. The team, having stopped growing, went back to their professions as well. Frid produced metal armors and weapons that fit their new muscular frames, and Guthrie mined the ore to make the metal. Fineas brought hides to protect the group’s skins from the hard metal edges. Clarence prepared bombs, bandages and bottles of other foul, helpful liquids, and Uro handled food.

As the team turned 21, all rather famous youths with a couple young tots each, except for Clarence, who was a bit too fire-obsessed for the girls, and Fineas who was pretty, well-spoken, and promiscuous. Finny had six brats, with three different lasses.

The team entered the portal, and appeared in a grassy plain. Grass up to the hips, taller than the wolf, Fingers. Their gods-given goal was to recover an orb of fertility for use in improving the fecundity of the crops around the city. The grass Cobras that blended so well with the underbrush were a bad match for Guthrie’s earthen ramparts and Clarence’s firebombs. It took them a week, and they returned home barely worse for the wear.

Their exploits were the best among all the first years, and the essence they gained in the portal allowed them another trip to the halls of improvement. Frid again devoted his blessing of attributes mostly to body, and his lifting capacity surpassed a ton. His 4th blessing point, he devoted to Soul, thus increasing his mana and regeneration by a quarter. His hammer became again more powerful with the passive [Phantom Hammer] blessing, producing a much larger head whenever swung. There was much rejoicing, much partying, and the after party involved much alcohol and little clothing. The Firewulves each, even Clarence, had another child on the way by the end of the night. The orb they retrieved was shown to provide more food than fifty extra farmers could.

Another year of practice happened before a second trip to the portals. They had to get used to their new skills. On their next excursion, they journeyed to the rank-two portals, which took them to a ten-mile trek up an enormous metallic staircase to uncover an ore-seed. They faced couatl-looking winged snakes as the primary enemy, which mostly fell easily to their teamwork and impressive skills. On the ninth mile, though, Uro was swarmed by seven snakes at once, and with his mana and stamina and health depleted by the exhausting climb, he was helpless as he fell off the miles-high side of the stair. The other four completed the quest. Ten of the other top twenty teams had died in portals. But the ore-seed was planted, and then mined, and all the heroes began to get better weapons and armor. Eventually, the farmers might hope to as well.

The essence from the stair had permitted the team to advance to rank-3 heroes, which placed them among the strongest folks in the city. With glory came the pleasant duty of repopulating the city’s fighting losses, and the company of women willing to do most of the work. Frid upgraded his Soul and Body evenly this time, doubling his original Soul strength, while reaching eight times his teenaged bodily stats.

They had 2 years of retraining-time as they integrated Ugo’s replacement, Shin, who had a completely different style as a twin-bladed melee assassin-type who used extensive misdirection to remove obstacles.

On the second day of the Frostwulves fourth mission, Fingers sprinted back through the portal, carrying a leash and the part of Fineas’s forearm that was still attached. None of the others ever returned.

My name is Cory. This is my world.