The mood of Vugh Tarim's inhabitants was murderous. The instigators invested heavily in propaganda and their agents moved among their fellow dwarves spreading their vitriol. At the rate things were going, the dwarves wouldn't just secede but attempt to invade Windere too.
I had to act. I had Alfondric's soul but the dwarven patriarch would not be enough. What could I do to finish this with the least amount of bloodshed? Assassinate the leaders before they staged their coup? They would be quickly replaced by soone else. All this pressure needed a vent to escape before it blew up.
If I wanted the dwarves to stay as part of Windere, they needed a lesson. I could force it down their throats and earn their grudge, or let them taste their own poison. Let them stage their coup and then taste the drawbacks that ca with it. Once they saw it wouldn't be all flowers and rivers of gold, they would recognize the error of their ways.
Or not, and then the rivers of gold would prove to be rivers of blood. Either way, I needed to wait. Bide my ti. And spend so quality ti with my father.
Headmaster Marlowe gave student Haru two weeks of leave to calm my nerves from almost being killed to summon demons. I spent two days helping Helger and Baritono set up and operate their joint smithy in the thirty-seventh layer of the dwarven hold. The stout fellows dug deep in all these centuries. I hoped they didn't awake an ancient evil of fire and doom that required so wizened old wizard to defeat.
Just kidding, there wasn't such a thing nearby. Tuisto's valley nearby guaranteed that these mountains around it were peaceful.
After they were satisfied with my grunt job and work discipline, I was allowed to borrow a hands--down anvil from the masters. To a dwarf, their anvil was more personal than their sex life. I checked my item box and I had enough anvils to run a few seasons of Looney Tunes cartoons without repeating them. But I decided to refrain from abusing the item box this life. The ease with which I killed Mirina and my ntal excuses were frightening enough now that I reflected on them. I was slipping and turning into sothing inhuman.
I needed to beco Clark Kent, not Bruce Wayne. They both have a civilian and a superhero persona, but the forr has the superhero as the alter-ego, while the latter uses its civilian identity as little more than a cover. Just think of it. We know a lot about Clark Kent. What he likes, who he was growing up, his values, and his personality. Bruce Wayne is just a playboy billionaire, and each reboot twists his in-between years as they see fit. It's usually shown in three steps. The Alley murder, Finding the Cave, and then there's adult Batman camping on the gargoyle-infested city. Alfred Pennyworth is more well-rounded than the main character out of his costu.
Enough of that. I had to pay attention to my smithing instruction.
"Here's the ingot you'll be using today, Haru. You'll heat it up, hamr it down to lengthen it, heat it up, fold, heat, hamr again, heat, fold, hamr, heat. Until you can't lift your hamr anymore, you'll hit this ingot like it's a goblin's skull. If it breaks, you'll slt it, cast, then do it all over again," Helger told and gave a wrought iron ingot.
"The trick here is your mindset, Haru. There are several Proficiencies to choose from when you're a smith. You have [Blacksmith], [Weaponsmith], [Armorsmith], and [talsmith]. Do you know the difference between them?" Baritono asked.
I nodded. "Yes. it has to do with specialization. [Blacksmith] probably works only with iron and steel. A [Weaponsmith] makes better weapons, sa for the [Armorsmith], while the [talsmith] seems the most generalist of them all."
"Yes. The System will only let you have one of them as they are too closely related," he continued. "You should keep your mindset fixed on the one you want, otherwise you might lose so progress when you finally assign a proficiency pick to the one you want."
"[talsmith] it is. Let's get hamred, I say."
My dwarven joke didn't translate very well.
Physical exhaustion was strangely handled by the System. The body would get tired, and if you kept working, you'd take damage and reduced Attribute values. But if you could recover from the damage, one could keep going as the System interpreted healing this damage as removing the exhaustion. I think there was a Stamina or sothing like that pool that was removed and badly patched.
When Helger ca back to check on , my ingot was half the original size and I kept hamring with the sa enthusiasm as when I started.
"Haru, where's the rest of the ingot? Did you cut it in half?"
I hamred and pointed to a crucible next to the anvil. All the slag and tal burr from the ingot was in there. I also cut so steps from the heating procedure as I could just shove my hand in the forge to put and retrieve the ingot. The tongs went unused but for holding the ingot in place. My squishy at fingers were a bad choice to do that because I couldn't exert the right amount of pressure.
I also used the [Baker]'s {Temperature Gauge} and [Alchemist]'s {Recycle Leftovers} to cheat a little bit. Such was the power of interdisciplinarity.
"You already hamred this much?"
The glow of the tal dimd and I put it back in the forge. While it heated up, I collected the burrs and put them in the crucible. Only when my workspace was impeccable I addressed him.
"This is the 67th ti I'm reheating the ingot. I think I'm slting it all by the 80th."
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Let guess," my father sighed. "You're immune to fire, right?"
"Fire heals ."
He cursed then asked, "Did you earn any proficiency?"
"Twelve points."
"Faster growth?"
"Almost three tis."
"I'd be surprised if you gained two points. But you are working twice as fast as the fastest dwarf ever on their first day. So it adds to what it should be."
I bowed, "Thank you, master."
"Now you'll craft a dagger. I'll make one, to show you how to do, then it's your turn."
We worked at the underground smithy for another two days, then went even deeper in the bowels of the world to find so ore. Baritono's specialty was mining and prospecting so Helger and I were following him and I did the best to learn all I could. The caverns we delved through were almost free of monsters, the underground Dungeon didn't extend around or near Tuisto's valley.
"Ah, This way," he led us down a natural cave.
Down we went for half an hour. Then he pointed at the cave wall. "Here! Let's dig!"
The two male dwarves and I hacked away at the wall with our picks. With enhanced tools and System-empowered Attributes, things were sort of cartoonish. I also used the item box to reduce the amount of debris but not clean it all entirely. We found a silver vein and mined it in a few hours.
"Damn, I was so sure," Baritono, the master [Miner], cursed.
"Master, what are you looking for?" I asked.
"Truesilver! I can swear that ever since we entered this cave I'm slling truesilver!"
Damn it.
"Truesilver?"
"Yes, it is a type of magic-imbued silver that is absolutely pure. You don't even slt it, and truesilver doesn't tarnish," Helger explained while Baritono lanted and sniffed at the cave air.
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