Chapter 110 – The Titanic Smith (1/2)
As we went back out to the settlement, I had Claret hide herself again.
While for her, it was just more of the same, for me, it was of a far greater concern. Claret simply stood out too much around here, beyond simply being someone who floated rather than stayed grounded.
I was probably just delaying the inevitable, but I desperately needed the extra breathing room. Time to figure things out before things got too crazy.
As I was worrying about what the future would bring, Elli led me through the town. Frey and the kids she was with were following behind.
The settlement itself was quite unusual, far different from any that I had been to before. It wasn't just the fact that it was built into existing ruins, most of the structures being quickly built temporary housing or work units, but even those temporary housings were things I was able to put into distinct categories.
The most obvious were the ones that were taller than the rest. It wasn't like there were multiple floors or anything, but not so few number of them were almost twice the height of the others despite being single story buildings. The fact that the doors and windows were also larger was quite telling.
Most of these houses were thatch roofed and their walls were made of dried mud with lots of leaves, grass, and sticks embedded in them. Extremely crude, but effective as a hastily built home. A tiny minority of the XXL sized buildings were made of stone. Thick and sturdy looking walls with clay shingles covering the roofs. Or at least it looked like it from below. Even from a distance I couldn't see the top of any of the buildings due to their size before the view was obstructed by other buildings.
Even in a ruined settlement you couldn't get far before anything you were looking at got obscured by a building it seemed.
I could hear the sound of heavy banging from one of the complete stone buildings. Despite how heavy the metal on metal banging was, it came quite fast, as if someone was tapping a pen on a desk or something. There was a lot of smoke rising from a chimney.
As we approached, I realized I could see inside. One side of the building was actually open to the outside with extremely large window shutters opened up to reveal the insides. It was a titan hunched over a metal block. His muscular body glistened with sweat as he slammed what looked like a sledge hammer on a piece of red hot metal. Except due to his size, the sledge hammer looked more like a small hand hammer which he tapped lightly and quickly against a tiny red bar held by a pair of large tweezers.
The piece of metal was quickly changing form before my eyes, from a nondescript bar to a flattened sheet, folded on itself and cut off from the unused metal then reshaped into what was clearly an axe. Probably a Dane axe, if the Danes had existed in this world. Its bit was wide and thin, about five times the height of the butt.
As he finished his hammering and stretched his neck, the huge titan noticed us standing outside of his smithy.
”Oh? An outsider? How unusual for someone to take interest in my work.”
The titan's voice was so deep that it could be felt almost as much as it was heard.
”Ah, umm, hi. I've never seen any blacksmithing in person, so I got curious.”
”I hope I was entertaining then. Your robes are an impressive work itself. It must have been made by quite the artisan.”
”Ah thanks. I think she'll be happy to hear someone compliment it.”
I couldn't help but smile sheepishly at his words. Even though I had virtually no part of its production, it still felt good to have my favourite robes complimented.
”Hmmm...wait a few minutes.”
Glancing at the other members of my party, he spoke those slow but short words, then turned back to his axe head.
He quickly heated the axe head again, before dunking it into a bucket of some sort of oil, flames bursting out. Once the flames extinguished themselves, he quickly cleaned it up on a flat stone then put the axe head back into the flame for a short while. Finally, he dipped the head back into the bucket, then after a few moments, he took it out and polished it to a silvery shine. Finally, he took it to a series of flat stones and quickly ground both sides the blade against the surface.
Using an unfamiliar tool that resembled a pen but with a flat head instead of a point, he etched lines on the cheeks of the axe as he channelled a small amount of mana into it. It was only then that I realized that there was a hole set into the middle of the cheek. The etchings first started of as a series of concentric circles and little symbols in between, but then branched off like thorned ivy radiating out from the outermost circle.
Once he finished that, he rubbed oil onto the axe head, the face darkening slightly and the etchings turning into a dark blue.
Next, he retrieved a long pole and set it into the axe head before trimming the excess off. Even after that it was still quite long, almost as long as I was tall.
Surprisingly, the pole fit in perfectly without the need of adjustments.
(Just how long has this guy been doing this?)
Removing the axe head, the titan blacksmith got to work on the long rod. Using the same tool as before, he quickly carved intricate patterns of vines and flowers throughout the shaft, his hands were almost a blur with his speed and incredible accuracy.
Once he was done, he rubbed a different oil from before onto the wooden shaft using a leather cloth, darkening the light wood to a rich reddish brown. Finally, he reattached the axe head to the shaft then pinned it into place.
But against my expectation, he wasn't finished. From a bag placed nearby, he pulled out a small gem.
Or rather, it was a mana crystal.
Taking the mana crystal, he placed it into the hole in the face of the axe and worked it with another unfamiliar tool. After a few seconds, the mana from the crystal flowed out and infused with the weapon.
He gave the large axe one last inspection, then came closer, stepping up to the large window.
”A person bearing such good armour deserves a good weapon.”
The titan held out the Dane axe.
”For me?”
He nodded.
”But why? I'm not even that much of an axe user.”
”Perhaps. But a weapon can protect just as much as it can harm. Especially vampires tend to forget about their defence.”
It felt a bit ironic that he was offering me a weapon as a way to remind myself about keeping up my guard.
”I don't know if I'll find a time to use it, but thank you. It's very beautiful.”
It may have been a weapon, but it certainly looked like a work of art. Though the mana that swirled within it suggested it was quite a powerful weapon while enhancing its beauty even further.
”May it provide you with shade when the light is at its harshest.”
”Umm...I don't know if it'll be enough, but I need to give you something in payment.”
”That's not needed. Having one appreciate the art in addition to the product is payment enough.”
”I insist!”
Reaching into my bag over my shoulder, I pulled out an ingot. One of the few I had left after using so many up since leaving my home.
I handed over the pearl white ingot to the titan. His eyes grew wide at its sight, apparently the slab of metal weighing many times its mass in his mind.
”Is this...mithril?”
”As far as I know, it is.”
I had used [Scan] to check it out, but even then, there was the chance that the name in the database was different from the common perception of the word. Though the chances of that was slim to nearly nonexistent, I didn't want to forcibly overvalue the thing. It was of little use to me, and getting more wasn't really a big deal in the first place.
The titan closed his eyes for a minute before wrapping his fingers around the ingot which looked tiny in his massive palm.
”I understand. My name is Njordr.”
”I'm Scarlet.”
Njordr's eyes widened once again for a moment before he calmed down.
”I see. You seem to live up to your name.”
”Thanks.”
While my feelings regarding my predecessor was complicated, it was hard to take words like that as anything but a pure compliment.
It was rare for even me to get such a nice one.
”And thanks for the axe. I'll treasure it, and try to put it to use on occasion.”
”That'll be good. Any tool will feel happiness when being used.”
That line of thought reminded me of some eastern faiths. While I doubted that those feelings of his stemmed from similar beliefs, it was possible that this was just a universal feeling that came from all artisans.
And with those words, the titan Njordr picked up another slab of metal and got to work heating it up in his furnace.
I bowed my head to the smith before turning to my companions.
”Sorry about that...”
But there was only one person behind me. Aside from Elli, everyone else had gone at some point.
”It is of no consequence. It only brings me joy that you would find yourself so intrigued by the work of one of our craftsmen.”
”It really is good work.”
I ran my fingers along the shaft of the axe I had received, tracing the darkened grooves that ran along its surface.
”Umm, but what happened to the others?”
”The kids got bored so Frey took them back home. She should be able to prevent them from talking about you until at least tomorrow morning.”
It seemed like Elli had no illusions as to the fact that those kids would spill the beans regarding Claret.
”Ah, they got bored huh? I guess that's no...huh?”
At that point my eyes were gathered on the shadows casted by the buildings around us.
”How long had I been watching the smithing?”
”Oh? Probably about three hours I believe?”
It didn't feel like it at all. I must have been quite engrossed in it. No wonder the kids got bored.
Or rather, it was quite amazing that Elli didn't show any signs of being bored herself.
”Sorry.”
”For what?”
”Making you wait for me so long.”
”I said it was no problem. The fact that the one the great Claret serves again would find interest in our town is something for me to be proud of.”
”I'm not someone so amazing though.”
This automatic presumption that I was someone who deserved such insane levels of respect and admiration was something that was quite difficult for me, who used to live near the bottom of the totem pole, to accept.
”That mithril ingot. How did you get it?”
Elli took off slowly and I followed, continuing our little tour of the town.
”I killed some golems in the dungeon and it was one of the drops.”
”I believe that was close to the hundredth floor, correct?”
”Yea.”