“Rise and shine my pupil!”, Vance woke me up by screaming in my face, I stood up as quickly as I could falling my first attempt to do so
“I’m…I’m awake”, I mumbled out
“How do you calculate dynamic torque”, he asked
“Product of moment of inertia and the acceleration of a gear”, Testing me already
“Good, here I thought you were an idiot, come on, we’re grabbing breakfast then after that help me pack the carriage, I need to grab stuff in the nearby town
I followed him into the house, where he asked me increasingly harder questions about gears, why in the feckin fek, is there so much to know on gears.
Grimmel just trotted behind me as usual, somehow his presence helped I don’t know why but it did.
Everything went as normal breakfast, did some work, then we loaded the carriage and off we went, sadly we had to leave Grimmel behind, something about how having a dire wolf as a pet would be considered crazy but who am I to judge, his family did try to eat me.
“You seem pretty good at his tinkerer thing, how’d you end up living around here”, I asked Vance, the question had been bugging me since I found out he was a tinkerer
“Well you see kid after you get really good at something people ask you to make things, you don’t make them your career is ruined no matter how it goes against your moral code”
“So how do I avoid that from happening to me”
“Become smart or strong enough to fight or disappear”
“Which one are you?”
“Neither”, he stared off into the distance
After some awkward minutes of silence, I decided to open the book and start studying until we reached the town.
“The towns ahead, pack the book away, first we’re hitting up the traders market and then a smith friend of mine, although it’s unlikely watch out for pickpockets”, Vance told me before entering the town
“Yes master”, it still felt weird calling him that
The town wasn’t all that huge, nothing like the capital but it was quaint, at most twenty no thirty thousand people.
“Hold it there”, A guard greeted us
My heart skipped a beat when spoke to us
“State your purpose for entering”, the guard asked
“Trade”, Vance answered giving him a tablet
“Okay, continue”, the guard motioned for us to go through.
“What was that about kid, you looked ready to run the second you saw him”, Vance asked me
“Bad experiences in the past”, That was all I said, he didn’t ask any more questions so that meant he knew I was not going to talk about it.
We talked to some merchants and exchanged some goods I mostly just hung around the carriage and carried the odd thing here and there, Vance was approached by more than a few women, now that I think about it he could easily be a model back home, the short but well kept brown hair, blue eyes, and well-defined features, damn, makes me look like a baked potato next to him.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
I swore a silent curse to all good-looking guys out there, “damn bastards can get a girlfriend without even trying”, I tried failed, tried once more afterwords swore to just give up, the only thing I needed was Soap, my video games, and the occasional Litrpg to read.
We hitched the carriage behind some tavern where Vance took me through some corridors, I felt uneasy walking through them, after getting hit in the back of the head I couldn’t feel safe walking in public anymore
“Here we are”, Vance said as he walked inside
“Smithy and Smothys Smithing Emporiam”, an interesting name
“Ah, Vance how goes it!”, a dwarve walked out to greet
“Good smithy, where smoothie I don’t see him around”, Vance asked
“Aye, Smothy’s gone to capital for some goods, you must be here for your parts, say did you fix that pump yet?”
“Sure did”, Vance brought out a sack from his pocket and pulled the pump that he was working on a few mornings ago from seemingly thin air.
“Great, how’d you fix it, thought you’d said it was unfixable?”, Smithy asked Vance
“The kid over here saw the problem”, Vance stood aside
“So got ya self a protege, never thought I’d see the day the great Vance Gearwright got himself a student, HA HA Ha”, the dwarves laughter made the floor vibrate
“Interesting times indeed, say you have yourself a helmet, one with clear sight, full face covering, not too bulky”, Vance asked eyeing me
“Sure, got some in the back”, the dwarve responded
Vance grabbed some other odds and ends, grabbed his parts, and headed off
“Cheers Vance and little student, till next time!”, The Dwarve yelled out as we left
“Interesting character”, I stated
“They’re all like that, loyal to a fault though, just never cross them or they’ll never trust you again. Besides that here you go”, Vance said tossing me a helmet
“Why?”, what was he planning to do to me with me that required a helmet
“Every time, we pass a corner you cover the back of your hear with your hand like someone’s going to smash your head in, you don’t have to wear it but I’d recommend you do”, Vance responded
The helmet looks pretty cool, pure black with one small slit through the middle, must be hard to see through it though.
Simple helmet(Light): This light helmet covers all parts of the head
Enchantments Clear site
Clear site: Allows the user to see all his surroundings as if he was never wearing the face covering, to begin with
I tried it on, and it was just like I wasn’t wearing it at all. Vance was right. Every time I passed a corner, I felt my adrenaline go up, and my hand raised up, so I guess he does care.
“Good it fits, You're going to have to work double for that.
There it was, “Will do Master.” Even though it felt strange to be wearing a helmet in public, I felt sort of secure. It reminded me of when we were forced to wear masks. Other people hated it, but I loved it. It allowed me never to show my face and I could hide behind. I don’t know; I always felt anxious at the mall, but when I wore the mask, it helped.
I also, admittedly felt cool wearing it.
“Okay wait here kid, I gotta go pay the tavern owner for the storage fees”, Vance said before he went inside
Like clockwork the second he left, four guys emerged from the shadows, something tells me this isn’t going to end well
“Oi, Here’s how things gonna go from yeer, give us di goods and ye live or don’t and ye die”, he’s English is atrocious, is it English, well the translator skill makes it sound horrid so it probaby is.
“Sadly I can’t hand it over”, I said readying myself for a fight
“That’s going to be a yee problem”, they chuckled in unison
The second the first one got in range the pocket sand went straight for him
You know, 3 months ago, I told someone my first reaction to a fight I knew i was going to lose was to fight back I would have had you locked in a mental facility but here I am ready to fight.
“A feckin wench”, the one in front yelled and not too long after that I went in for a punch
Ding…my head was suddenly accelerated to the right of me, looks like one of them had a metal rod, thank you for the helmet Vance
I fell to the ground, I probably got a concussion from that blow, as the other three rushed me pinning me to the ground as the ‘metal rod guy’ prepared for another swing, this time I wasn’t sure I was going to escape unharmed