Zzzz... Zzzz...
I had a great sleep right there on the grass. The horses grazed peacefully nearby, snorting and plucking the juicy shoots, when suddenly I felt a signal from my golem.
"Oh yeah!" I jumped up, dusting off the clinging blades of grass. "Looks like we have guests!"
I darted around the camp, trying to tidy up at least a little and "spruce up" the place, so as not to scare off the first settlers in the very first minute. I rembered the beet syrup—grabbed the jar, deciding that a treat would help establish contact.
Soon, my two-ter ice golem appeared from the fog, and behind him—so guy. All by his loneso.
I happily headed toward him, but the guy, catching sight of , imdiately jumped into a fighting stance.
"DEVIL!" he yelled, thrusting his shaking hands out in front of him. "STAY AWAY!"
I froze in my tracks, arching an eyebrow questioningly.
"What do you an, devil?" I snorted, offended. "You're a devil. Here I am, you know, being hospitable, and he resorts to na-calling..."
Slowly, trying not to make any sudden movents, I stepped closer.
"Hey man, want so sugar? Beet syrup, an all-natural product."
The guy, not taking his wild gaze off , babbled:
"The golem... told ... He said that everyone is accepted here. And that I would be under protection."
"Yep," I nodded, putting the syrup away. "So, you're our first resident? You can call
the master of these lands. Or the king. Whatever you prefer."
The guy hiccuped from the surprise.
"You?! A kid?! You're the owner of these mountains?!"
"Hit the nail on the head," I waved off the golem. "Dismissed, keep looking."
The ice guard turned around and silently walked off into the fog. I gestured for the man to follow . He walked behind, keeping a distance of about five ters, and looked as if he was ready to jump off a cliff at any mont.
"Well, what are you afraid of? I don't bite. Mostly."
"Are you... are you even human?" he muttered.
"Well, yeah, human. What's wrong?"
"Your eyes... they are completely black," he pointed a trembling finger at my face. "And your skin... it's all cracked, and bright light is coming from the cracks. Are you... are you sure you're okay?"
I looked at my hand. It was true. The skin resembled parched earth, with blinding white mana shining through the faults.
Looks like an overload, I thought.
"Don't worry about it, man," I waved it off. "It's nothing, it'll pass soon. A standard mage tan."
We walked into the mountain. I led him to one of the caves carved into the stone.
"Here, this will be your room. Although, you can choose any other one—for now, you're the first and only guest here."
The man stopped at the threshold, looking at
with disbelief.
"Are you really taking
in? And... you won't even ask about my past? You don't care who is hunting ? My presence could bring danger upon you!"
I turned around sharply. The smile slid off my face, replaced by sothing hard and cold.
"Oh, man, almost forgot the main condition. The rule of my state is simple: forget your past."
I took a step toward him, and the light from my cracks grew brighter.
"Forget it completely. Who you were, what your lineage is, your lands, your enemies, and even your friends. Discard everything: language, culture, history, traditions. Be ready to beco a nobody. Only by discarding the past can you step into the future. Do you accept this condition?"
I froze, waiting for an answer. The man looked into the black hollows of my eyes, and it beca very quiet in the cave.
The man thought for a mont. "Forget my enemies?"
"Yep."
"Alright," he said. "I accept the conditions." He extended his hand for a shake, but I ignored it.
"Alright, man, tell
about yourself. Maybe I'll find you a job."
"My na is Algur Rov. I..."
"Can we make it shorter?" I interrupted.
"Yes, alright. In my youth I worked part-ti in blacksmithing, and then I decided to beco a knight. That's where I..."
"What happened there?" I asked with interest.
"That's where I found my love. We loved each other, but she was the daughter of..."
"Blah-blah-blah," I drawled, twirling my hand to urge him to speed up the story.
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He stumbled, but continued: "Basically, she was from a rich and influential family. She had a child by . In his anger, her father killed his daughter for disgracing his lineage. And I, in my anger, killed her father. I was trying to run as far away from those places as possible... and that's when I t your golem."
"Wow, cool story, man! Oh, I an, Algur. So, you're a blacksmith? What did you forge?"
He chuckled: "Mostly swords, but I dabbled in other weapons too. My master made them. Maybe I could..."
"ALRIGHT, I GOT IT," I didn't let him finish. "You'll be the blacksmith. And how old are you?"
"Twenty-four."
"Perfect, let's go, I'll show you the forge."
We walked down the corridors. For now, there are problems with the lighting, but that will sort itself out in the future. Finally, we reached an empty hall.
"This will be your workspace."
"I can't see anything," he answered in confusion. "It's dark in here."
I held out my palm, and small, bright fire golems flew out from it, brightly illuminating the entire hall.
"But it's empty in here," Algur said.
"Yeah, you're right. What do you need? Give
a list, I'll make it all for you."
He absentmindedly began to list things off: "Well, for starters, we'd need to build a forge and a hood so as not to suffocate. Need coal, and specific types at that—different ones for different tals. I need water, and also a special oil. An anvil and a hamr. You can bring the stone, I'll build everything myself..."
I walked up to the wall. The stone under my hand flowed like hot wax.
"Why carry it if you can just make it?" I said.
The floor trembled. A massive stone table, about three ters long, began to grow right out of the rock. I imdiately molded a deep bed for the coals into it, and then raised my hand up. The stone from the ceiling descended, forming a giant exhaust hood over the hearth. I punched a vertical shaft straight out from it so the smoke would go up. Because of the pressure difference, a low hum imdiately sounded inside the pipe—the draft was simply ferocious. Smoke definitely won't linger.
Suddenly, a terrible cold wind blew from the newly ford hole.
"Ow! That's cold!" I imdiately made a stone door; it turned out like a damper-window. Since we are at the wall of the mountain, closer to the inner ring, there won't be any problems with the air.
"Alright, what about water... Water is essentially everywhere here. The mountain is hollow, and there are plenty of places where it gathers." I molded sothing like a faucet out of the stone right in the room, turned the lever—water noisily flowed into a stone tub. "And I'll fetch the coal right now, man."
Pop-pop. Space blinked, and an enormous black mountain of coal, which I teleported from the lower layers of the mountain, tumbled out right in front of him with a crash.
Algur walked over, picked up a shiny black piece, rubbed it in his fingers, and shook his head: "This is stone coal, my lord... It'll do for a stove to keep warm, but you can't forge swords on it. It has the earth's taint, sulfur. The blade will beco fragile like glass. I could use so wood to burn..."
"Wood? Takes too long and isn't cool," I answered.
"And as for the taint... watch this trick."
I held my hand out over the pile. In my head, I simply imagined the coking process—heating without access to oxygen to burn out all the sulfur, moisture, and impurities. The coal hissed. Thick, acrid yellowish steam billowed from it, which was imdiately sucked into my new giant hood. A few seconds later, the pile changed. The stones beca porous, light, and matte-gray.
"Here," I tossed him a piece. "This is coke. It gives off so much heat that your old furnaces will seem like winter frost to you, and no sulfur."
Algur caught the piece of coke. It was hot, light, and didn't dirty his hands with soot at all like regular coal.
"Just be careful, it gets extrely hot. And later we'll get you your charcoal too. The air into the forge theoretically cos from outside anyway, and there's a hell of a wind out there. But if anything, we'll make you so bellows later, or you can build them yourself."
"And an anvil..."
I sighed. I had to teleport for ore again and slt it right with my hands.
"Here's your hamr, and here's your anvil. What else is there? Here are your tongs."
Only now did I notice Algur's crazed look. "Are... are... are you a mage?!"
"NO, DAMN IT, A KNIGHT IN ARMOR! Oh man, Algur, these things happen. Alright, man, get settled in here, and I'm going to sleep. Later, when the ti cos, sothing will need to be forged, and I'll ask you. Or they will ask you, I don't know."
I sat down in the corner right on the stone floor and started drifting off.
Through my sleep, I heard a confused voice. I opened my eyes.
"Sir... but I have nothing to light the coal with. I could use so firewood..."
I sighed heavily. Pop-pop. Space blinked, and I teleported an uprooted tree right into the forge, tossing it into another corner of the room. Thankfully the hall wasn't small: fourteen ters long, ten wide, and a full four high. Plenty of room.
Algur jumped, but quickly recovered. He began fussing about, breaking branches, throwing them into the hearth, then arranging and sorting sothing else in there for a long ti. I didn't have the energy to watch this commotion. I just snapped my fingers. A shower of sparks flew from my hand and struck right into the forge, into the pile of wood and coal.
Everything flared up instantly. Because of the ferocious draft in the pipe, the fla roared as if it were alive. Algur imdiately rushed to the damper-window, regulating the airflow so the fuel wouldn't burn up too quickly. Convinced that the heat was stable, he picked up the remaining iron ore from the floor and carefully placed it into the fire.
I watched as Algur darted around the forge. First, he was mind-blown that the coke heated up to a blinding white light. Then he put the iron ore in there, waited, and when he stuck the tongs in to pull out the tal... it just dripped. It lted into liquid! Algur started running around the forge in a panic because he was seeing this for the first ti. The iron was literally burning with sparks. And an hour later, the fla choked, and only terrible stone slag remained at the bottom, permanently blocking the air.
"Alright, Algur, leave the coke for the future. For now, use the charcoal," I said.
A little fire man jumped out of my hand and landed on the edge of the anvil. "If you need help with the temperature, ask him. Just keep in mind, he'll go out on his own in five hours."
I turned toward the exit, but Algur spoke up: "Excuse , but I also need powders... minerals, so to speak. Flux and borax. They are needed for..."
"Yeah, I know what they're for," I waved him off. Actually, I didn't rember, but I felt like I should know what they were for.
Pop. I teleported into a mine, ripped a chunk of gold from a vein, jumped to so city, tossed that chunk to the first person I saw with bags, bought or robbed—I still didn't understand if it was even a rchant—and pop—found myself back in the forge.
With a heavy thud, I dropped the sack at the blacksmith's feet. "Here. Take this. Is that all?"
Algur blinked in confusion. "I also need leather gloves, a thick apron..."
Pop. City. Pop. Forge. I threw an apron and a pair of excellent gloves right into his hands.
"IS THAT IT?!"
Algur sighed heavily, clutching the things to his chest, and looked at
almost pleadingly: "Sir... excuse . Maybe you'll listen to the whole list to the end first, and only then go get all of this?"
"I need thick paper or parchnt for sketches," Algur started bending his fingers. "Writing implents. asuring tools. Materials: sturdy wood, leather, wire, wax, oil. A set of whetstones. As for tools, I still need acids and salts. And also a place to sleep, dishes, food, and a washing trough..."
I pressed both hands to my face. "AAAAAAAAAH!" I yelled in despair.
Pop.
I don't know what happened to that city I teleported to, but I tossed gold around there big ti. I think I bought absolutely everything that caught my eye.
Pop.
I dumped a giant, motley mountain of junk right in the middle of his forge.
"I bought everything for you!" I exhaled. "And you can make a set of small tools and whetstones yourself! There are scraps of various iron ore lying around sowhere down there, you'll figure it out. That's it, I'm going to sleep. See ya, Algur."
"Thank you..." he uttered, dumbfounded, looking at the mountain of boards, leather, food, and troughs.
And I just turned around and left.
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