Hans stepped outside to greet them and was surprised by the number of sacks Ed unloaded.
“What’s all that?” Hans asked as he approached.
Uncle Ed beamed. “Today is move-in day.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Me, Kane, and Gunny. No one told you?”
Hans shook his head.
“The boys invited me to live with them up here,” he said. “And I didn’t ask or hint or nothing. In one breath, Kane told me he was getting a cabin at the dungeon, the next he said I should join them. Can you believe that?” The giant of a farmer moved like his joy made him lighter than air.
The Guild Master smiled. “I hear they’re good kids.”
“The best. At any rate, I’ve got one more run to do this season, then I’ll be up here for the duration. Merchants came, by the way. Left a bunch of stuff at the guild house for you. Left a big box for Gomi too.”
That must be the ward Devon mentioned.
“I thought merchants weren’t due for another week?” Hans asked.
“No, sir. Right on time as far as I know. Maybe you’ve been up here too long?”
Uncle Ed was probably right. He hadn’t been back to town since before the fall festival, and that was well-past.
At some point in his conversation with Ed, Tandis approached the wagons and began talking to the smith. Though Hans missed the first portion of the conversation, they seemed to be discussing the ongoing effort to repair the drawbridges in the dungeon. Hans now knew that the Luther Land drawbridge might never get fixed. Drawbridge mechanisms were neither light nor small. The journey that exhausted the two mules wasn’t possible for adventurers navigating a dungeon. They’d need at least that much muscle if not more to hump a drawbridge part to the bottom.
The current priority was fixing the main dungeon drawbridge.
As was typical of the Guild Master, Hans underestimated the difficulty of the repair project. The winch and pulley mechanisms were not incredibly complicated, but they were complicated enough that a layman shouldn’t be in charge of the project. Furthermore, the pieces they needed to replace were large and heavy.
The drawbridges also needed new chains. Currently, they had none.
By the sounds of it, Eduardo would be trying his hand at running their small bloom furnace solo to refine enough iron to build the length of chain they needed.
Seeing Hans finish his conversation with Ed, he asked Tandis to give him a brief minute.
“I’ve been dying to show you this, but you’ve been hiding up here,” the smith cut in, using a wagon wheel to climb up and reach over the edge. He produced a sword wrapped in cloth. He handed it to Hans and crossed his arms, waiting.
“Is this?”
The smith grinned.
Hans unwrapped the cloth, finding a shortsword within. In terms of its design, the sword was a standard, non-descript shortsword with a basic but functional guard, a grip wrapped in leather, and a plain rounded pommel.
But the metal.
The sword was the same metal gray as any other weapon, but when a ray of sunlight cut through the leaves and found the blade, it glimmered a pale blue, revealing a texture like hundreds of frozen lightning bolts had been painted into the sword, cracks layered on cracks like a dry lakebed.
Hans realized his grin was even bigger than the smith’s at this point. He reverently wrapped his fingers around the grip and assessed the swords weight, balance, and feel.
As soon as he secured his grip, he had the sensation of a heightening, like his every sense and physical attribute were slightly enhanced. If Yotuli’s Inspiration spell was a bucket of water, this sword was like a small cup. But it was enough to be noticeable, enough that it felt good to wield the sword.
Tandis and Uncle Ed watched Hans marvel at the weapon.
“Durability?”
“Seems comparable to any other sword, but I haven’t put it through its paces.”
Holding the sword felt so good that Hans found himself not wanting to disarm, but he had a test he knew he wanted to run.
“I know you came up here for the bridge, but do you want to observe some tests in the training room before you get started?” Hans asked.
“I got to get a look at what I’m working with anyhow. Eddy can get going on making those chains.” The apprentice blacksmith didn’t complain, but he was clearly unenthused by his assignment.
A few of the harvesters helped Uncle Ed carry his things to his new home while Hans, the smith, and Tandis went to the training room.
On the way into the dungeon, Hans asked how much material the smith used for the sword.
“If I gave you an answer in grams, would you know what that meant?”
“Not a clue,” Hans admitted.
“Fair. There’s roughly a cog’s worth in there.”
One valorite cog to make one sword didn’t sound all that awful to Hans given their supply. If the new alloy proved to be an upgrade from the standard materials, the scale of that upgrade would determine if they stuck with this blend.
As Hans had hoped, Lee was in the training room winding down one of her classes with the Minotaurs and the Crawlers. All of the Apprentices were on their backs in a circle, doing fifty crunches for every person in the circle–a total of four hundred. Everyone looked exhausted, but Young Charlie and Quentin had the most composure, keeping their faces hard and stoic.
“What do you think of this?” Hans asked, holding the sword by the blade to offer her the grip.
As soon as she took it from his hands, she said, “Oh,” and looked at the weapon with mild surprise. “I like this.”
“If you’re up for it, I’d like you to test a few things for us,” Hans said.
“What’s that?”
“Two spells you would use as a Spellsword, one buff and one attack.”
Lee thought about it and found an open space in the training room. “Casting Agility,” she informed Hans. “Okay. Done.”
“Feel any different?”
“Different how?”
“Different in any ‘how’ you notice.”
The Spellsword shadow dueled for a moment, sliding into and out of attacks, her buff making her movements superhuman. “I don’t think so.”
Damn.
“Okay, let’s do an attack spell next.”
“Pogo?” Lee called. “Can I borrow you?”
“No, no, no,” Hans said. “Please don’t use an Apprentice. Let’s use something like that crate.” Hans pointed to one of the empty crates the dungeon grew in the mines. No innocent Apprentices were anywhere nearby.
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“Does Push work?” she asked.
“Sure.”
Facing the crate meant turning her back to her audience. She assumed her guard and executed a sharp slash with such speed that Hans heard the blade slice through air.
Then the crate splintered into itself and rolled across the room, slamming into a pillar before stopping.
“What the hells…” Lee said, looking down at the sword. She turned around. “Hans, what the fuck?”
The man she addressed danced in place like an excited dog with an obnoxiously large smile. “That was different?”
Lee nodded, mouth agape.
“Can you cast Lesser Fire with a sword in your hand?” Hans asked.
She said she could. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, just don’t point it at anyone.”
Lesser Fire allowed a caster to launch a fist-sized fireball, the mana inside assuming the properties of heated rock to give the attack physical weight. When Lee cast Lesser Fire with the valorite sword, the resulting fireball was as wide as a wagon wheel. The blaze crashed into a pile of minecarts, and the blast sent splinters and rubble flying across the training room, forcing everyone to duck and shield their eyes. The Apprentices, who were still doing crunches, cursed and rolled onto their stomachs, covering their heads.
The commotion was so pronounced that Honronk came out of his house to investigate. He sighed and began casting Lesser Ice to douse the small bonfire left behind by Lee’s test strike.
“Explain,” she demanded. “Please.”
“The smith has been working on a new alloy. This is the first field test.”
Lee looked at the smith. “What’s this made of?”
Before Hans could answer, the smith got it first, saying, “I think we should call it Gruwalda iron.”
“Gruwalda? What’s that?” Hans asked.”
“Gruwalda was Galad and Galinda’s mom.”
Hans agreed. That was a good name.
The Gruwalda blade was the final push Lee needed to resume dungeon runs. The child in Hans wanted to keep the sword for himself. It would get actual use in the hands of a Silver Spellsword, though. Lee took care of her gear, but she wasn’t gentle about using her weapons, making her a good early stress test. Hans, however, was already certain the alloy was a success.
New Quest: Make and test valorite armor and shields. Bonus Objective: Think of more cool items to test.
The smith was right about Hans being away from Gomi for an unusually long time. Though Hans himself partially believed that was an accident, a deeper part of him knew he was avoiding going home.
The wagon pulled into Gomi under the steady fall of cold rain.
Hans did his best to stick to the edges of the streets where there was slightly more grass, but the battle was a losing one. He accepted his muddy fate and continued walking to the guild hall.
When he turned onto that street, he saw a statue down the way, blurred by thickening rainfall. Curious, Hans dropped his things inside the door of the guild hall and went to investigate what he believed was the kingdom-issued ward for preventing Blood magic manipulation. Gomi already solved that problem with tattoos, but he didn’t mind having a second layer of protection in place. This ward might even offer a wider range of protections given the expertise that went into its design.
The statue was taller than it looked from a distance. Hans looped around in front and looked up.
“Fuck me,” he said.
The statue featured Grandmaster Devontes in his full regalia–armor, flowing cloak, his sheathed sword on his hip. A child sat on his shoulders, looking down at the Paladin while he looked up. Both had wide, happy smiles. The smiles seemed too large, giving the figures an unsettling quality.
“Awe did I miss it?” Charlie yelled from under his front awning, squinting to see through the rain.
“Miss what?” Hans yelled back.
“I wanted to be here when you saw that thing for the first time.”
“Why?”
“Wanted to see all the faces you made,” Charlie said.
“Very funny.”
“Oh, don’t be such a pity party. You know that’s funnier than all hells. Galinda’s already talking about how to dress him up for special occasions.”
Hans sighed. Charlie was right. This particular statue appearing on Hans’ doorstep was pretty funny, considering. He still didn’t want to see it every day for the rest of his life.
Hans noted that his new safe was not a part of the most recent delivery. The merchant had warned him of that possibility, so it would likely arrive with the next caravan. A proof copy of his book on training adventurers up to Iron had arrived, however. Feeling it bound and seeing the blocky letters left from a printing press was gratifying. It was thinner than he expected, but that made sense given his decision to publish the manuscript in pieces.
Seeing the name Haynu B. Dumas on the title page made him smile. He wished Gret was here to see this.
When the rain stopped, Hans collected an armful of books from his recent merchant order. He had intended to contribute to the library and went to deliver them.
Olza, Galinda, and Willow were inside the building that was once city hall. The interior wasn’t all that much larger than the guild hall, but they maximized the use of the space as best they could. Instead of rows of desks, the library had three large tables. Galinda was still working on the chairs, she said. They would surround each table when they were ready.
Bookshelves ran the perimeter of the room. The construction looked fresh, Galinda’s handiwork he assumed, and most of the shelves were empty. A respectable bookcase and a half was already filled with books, but the library had room to grow.
Hans set his contribution on the table nearest to the door. When Galinda saw Hans, she gently ushered Willow out of the library. Willow asked why they had to leave. Galinda answered, “the adults are about to be awkward.”
Hans and Olza were alone in the library.
“This looks really great,” Hans said. “Anyway, these books are for the library.”
“Thank you.”
“Can I just–”
“Hans.”
The Guild Master held up his hands, asking for peace. “I just wanted to say that I’ve thought a lot about what you said. How I spoke was insensitive. I didn’t do enough to see the problem through your eyes. All that to say, I get it. You’re not wrong for being upset, and I don’t fault you for it. Gomi is kind of a small place, so I thought it’d be easier if you knew I understood.”
“Thank you for saying that,” Olza replied.
“Well, then I guess, uh,” Hans said, “Thank you for listening. If you ever– I mean, okay. Yeah, I mean good luck with the library.”
When he stepped outside, he found Galinda and Willow leaning against the wall, using the overhang to stay out of another round of rain.
“That was awkward,” Willow said, whispered, but poorly.
Galinda agreed.
Once the fire was at a respectable roar, Hans grabbed one of Chisel’s books on White magery, his bestiary of elementals, his general bestiary, and his notebook. He put his feet up on his desk and searched for the next empty page.
He wrote in his notebook:
If the mana discharge on death destroys gems in an elemental, is there a way to…
- a) Stop the discharge entirely?
- b) Halt the trajectory of the discharge?
- c) Assist the material in surviving a successful discharge?
Hans considered the questions and felt thankful when he remembered that Bel, Izz, and Thuz pondered the same problem up the mountain. He was skeptical of his own ability to solve this puzzle because of his limited magery experience. If he wanted to get Diamond quests for the lizardmen and later for his students, though, he needed that diamond to finish the Takarabune. A failed effort was better than no effort.
Making the diamond somehow able to withstand the death surge had the most potential in his mind. Hypothetically, the diamonds that did survive–a dozen or so stones that were large enough to moderately impress a jeweler–were the ones strong enough to withstand the force that reaction generated.
Hypothetically.
His best ideas were all spells:
-Harden
-Resist Magic
-Barrier
-Dispel
The elemental reflected some spells, but nevermind that right now.
He thought about the sound the elemental emitted because of the hammer strikes.
Golem tech to eliminate sound? Silence spell?
He crossed the idea out immediately. As he well knew, that method eliminated the sound waves that made a vibration audible, but not the vibration itself. Furthermore, that technique was necessary for creating the opportunity to kill the elemental.
Detached limbs affected by surge. How?
If the elemental’s death also affected the unattached pieces of its body–which it did–was that connection possible to sever before the death surge?
Preserving the entirety of the diamond elemental would have been the ideal outcome, but preserving a single leg or arm might be sufficient.
Quest Update: Investigate the connection between elementals and their severed limbs to find a method for preserving larger diamonds from the diamond elemental.
Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):
Progress from Gold-ranked to Diamond-ranked.
Mend the rift with Devon.
Complete the next volume (Iron to Bronze) for "The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers."
Explore the idea of training “dungeon lifeguards” to accompany adventurers in training.
Await the arrival of a safe for the Gomi chapter.
Complete construction of the Takarabune (still need diamond, scarlet steel, celestial steel, and mimic blood).
Fix the two broken drawbridges.
Investigate the connection between elementals and their severed limbs to find a method for preserving larger diamonds from the diamond elemental.
Make and test valorite armor and shields. Bonus Objective: Think of more cool items to test.