The town was livelier than I could have imagined. The new years festival was beyond anything I expected. People danced through the street. Paper lanterns lit the entire route through the market. I made my way through the area and watched as men in costumes performed for the crowd. The large dragon puppet that led the procession was incredibly intricate. I absorbed the sights and smells around me. I walked along with food in my hand.

I hadn’t been planning to go to the festival but Long Fa forced me out of the house. I hardly recognize anyone now. I waved to the few that I had met before but it was a bit strange to be observing without understanding. Everything seemed to have a story attached. Even the food had a myth that the man serving them had been insistent on telling me. Children had been setting off firecrackers and towards the end of the night there was even a fireworks display. It wasn’t anything incredible but fireworks are great no matter how small.

As I wandered back to the edge of town where the smithy was, I noticed a shock of red hair. Min was seated on a crate by the road. She smiled and waved before pulling out a bottle. I smirked and she grabbed the edge of my shirt, pulling me to follow.

Thankfully I woke up in my own bed this time, once again Min Ryong was nowhere to be found.

I was woken up by the sound of striking metal. I went downstairs and found Hu. He was working on a chunk of steel that was far too big for him to move well even if he was strong enough. His movements were awkward but he swung with the force of a power hammer. I decided to check out what he was making. He was still trying to make a sword that resembled mine. He couldn't tolerate the heat well enough to work with the special materials and everything still went a bit slowly for him.

I went back inside to make coffee. As I entered I noticed Shu with a cup of tea in hand.

“Nice night?” He asked with a blank expression. I wasn’t in the mood so I simply grunted and went back to what I was doing. Once I had my drink in hand Shu spoke up again.

“I’ve been needing this done for some time now.” He pulled out a piece of parchment and placed it on the counter. It had an elegant drawing of a narrow chisel. It had quite a lot of writing accompanying it.

“If you need a chisel you can just borrow one.” I yawned as I spoke. He took a deep breath before continuing.

“It’s not a simple chisel. It’s a formation stele.” He said it as if I would understand. I nodded along either way.

“It requires perfect synergies and balanced formatio- You have no idea what I’m saying do you?” He pinched the bridge of his snout. I continued to nod.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this…” He sighed and passed the paper to me.

“Senior brother said that I should just let you work. So just make it nice.” Shu shook his head and went back to sipping his tea. I looked over the paper again. I had no idea what it said but the actual thing was simple enough. It was almost like a giant nail. I shrugged and went outside. Hu was laying on the ground breathing heavily. The kid didn’t have much stamina. I ignored him and got to work. I brought up the fire as high as I could. It had gotten much easier with the spirit now assisting.

I grabbed the strange dark metal. Apparently it was called deep steel, but it didn’t sound right. I worked quickly as I made the item I saw on the paper. Once I felt I was done I looked it over and it felt… Wrong. It was a chisel, nothing more. I looked closer at the drawing and tried to see if I was overlooking too much.

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“Ey, Hu. Help me with this.” Hu got up and noticed the paper in my hand.

“Oh yeah, I forgot you can’t read.” He grabbed the paper. He read it over quickly.

“Nothing important. Mostly just measurements.” He shrugged.

“This part is a little funny. Something about visible layers.” He passed it back to me. I looked him up and down.

“Like damascus?” He looked at me funny. Like the word wasn’t translating. I shrugged and decided to give it another try. I was soon disappointed again. I had tried to layer it and even got a few in but it was still wrong. I wasn’t sure why I knew but somehow I just did. I had already wasted hours on the failures.

I started again. This time I stopped thinking so much about the perfect product. I simply kept working. I lost count of how many layers I put in. I made a perfectly round taper and once it was complete I finally felt it was right. However the sun was already setting. I watched the glowing clouds for a moment. I was brought out of my revelry by a low whistle.

Long Fa was inspecting the chunk of metal.

“This is something else.” He placed it back.

“Do you know what this is?” He looked at me with honest concern.

“Nope.” I grinned back before yawning.

“What’s for dinner?” I asked and he shook his head.

“Whatever you end up making.” Long Fa laughed.

“I break my back earning money for this house every day and this is how you repay me?” I feigned being appalled. He laughed harder at that.

Thank god there is a restaurant in town now. There was no way in hell I was going to cook tonight.

_______________________________________________

A scrawny man stood before a group of strange individuals. The drunken man that looked like a beggar had brought them together. He was famous for causing trouble. The only woman amongst the group looked the scrawny man up and down.

"So he's the one that fucked it up?" She had an elegant voice.

"Instead of a fuck-up I think we should call it an interesting surprise." The craftsman smirked at her words. He changed his wager recently to be in favor of an upset. The same wager that the drunken man had made. They continued to banter without letting anyone else speak.

The young scribe sat in silence. He didn't have enough authority to even speak to these people directly. While they seemed jovial now it wouldn't be out of place for one of them to take his head. Especially since they knew that he had tried to hide the extra. Technically he was a member of the champions. He probably couldn't compare to the current favorites to win but he was still supposed to be monitored.

"Well, he is a champion even if he isn't blessed right?" The drunk man cut into the conversation. The others nodded along with him. He took a swig from his gourd and scratched his exposed belly.

"So even if we can't monitor him he should be added to the betting pool." The dark gleam in his eyes didn't go unnoticed. The god of alcohol's gourd poured a drink while floating in the air. At least it was these troublesome gods that found his mistake. If someone like the god of order had found it they might have executed the scribe on the spot. It would be troublesome to add him into the betting pool but the true competition had yet to begin and he could simply blame it on the drunken god if anyone asked. They did need to rush things since the champions were dying much faster than they had planned. At first it was a few of the aggressive one that died, but now they were dropping like flies as they explored this strange untamed world.

The scribe bowed to the three gods in front of him and began to back away.

"Also..." The woman spoke up, her dark hair and elegant voice nearly hypnotized him.

"Don't ever try taking things into your own hands again. You're lucky it's going to be fun this time." She waved him off as if he was a bug. He had been doing his best to avoid all the potential red tape and now he basically had a bundle of it dropped into his lap. It was nice that he didn't need to keep trying to hide things but that also opened a new world of possible problems. He also needed to deal with the human nobleman that was finishing the altar for the next event. The fool was easy to manipulate so things should go smoothly...