Chapter Ninety One - 091
Fifteen minutes later, Felix found the smithy. A wide but squat building, built of dark, heavy stones, it was unlike the rest of the mostly wooden buildings around them. The roof was tiled with red clay, and a lacquered sign hung from a peg above the door. It featured a series of squiggles below a huge furnace filled with a blazing white flame.
Obvious enough, Felix smiled. If it weren't, the plume of dark smoke rising from a large chimney would have been.
The door opened on well greased hinges, and immediately Felix was hit with a wall of sound. Inside, the air was filled with the scent of char and hot metal, an odd mineral note that Felix couldn't quite place. And it was very warm, at least twenty degrees hotter than the summer air outside. It wasn't uncomfortable to Felix, not exactly, but he was very aware of the heat pressing against him like a big blanket. The one and only room of the smithy was divided into three sections. The first was what Felix would call the customer area, where people like him waited or browsed through a selection of arms and armor along the walls. And there were plenty of those. The left wall had suits of chainmail and scalemail, even a fully articulated set of plate, all made of shiny steel. The right wall was covered in swords, hammers, spears, halberds, and many others that Felix could not name without aid of his Eye.
Two counters divided the room, one on the left and one on the right, each seemingly dedicated to armor or weapons. Beyond them was the real show, where several Dwarves labored over anvils and steaming barrels of liquid. Perhaps six or seven of them were packed into the work area, each focused on some portion of the smithing process. A Dwarven woman, perhaps five feet tall with brilliant red hair, crowed as she lifted a piece of metal from her anvil and stuck it into the large forge in the back. Said forge dominated the entire back of the building. A white fire blazed in its depths, and even from the front of the shop, Felix felt the threat of its heat.
Turning toward the front, the red-haired Dwarf smiled at him. "What can I help you with?"
Felix started, caught staring at the white flames. He smiled in turn and nodded. "I couldn't help noticing your forge. The fire is beautiful."
The Dwarf paused and quirked her head to the side. "That's different than the usual lines I get."
Felix blinked and immediately blushed as he suddenly noticed the smith's fully covered but curvy figure. "What? Oh, no. I'm-uh--"
"You Humans, always so easy to crank up," the Dwarven woman laughed. She waved at him. "Don't worry about it. I could tell you actually appreciate the forge itself, not the sweaty Dwarven gal heaving around hot metal."
She winked at him and Felix decided he wanted to die, just a little. Clearing his throat, he focused on looking anywhere but at her. "I uh, Jacinda sent me to see you. Said you could help me get some armor."
"Jacinda, eh?" A rougher voice came from behind him, and Felix turned to see another Dwarven woman walk into the smithy with a heavy burlap sack. She had dark brown hair and darker eyes, and was even shorter than the redhead. "You got money, right? That old softy is always sendin' us charity cases!"
The burlap sack hit the ground with a muffled thump Felix could feel from six feet away. The dark-haired Dwarf eyed him up and down, clearly not impressed. Felix smiled at her.
"Yes. I have money. Plenty of crowns. I'm--"
"Crowns?" The dark-haired Dwarf grinned, and Felix felt a twang of apprehension over his bond. She eyed him and his clothes up and down, though she frowned a bit at his canvas jacket. "You've money to spare, right? Or did you spend it all on your fancy clothes and satchel?"
"I have--" he narrowed his eyes. "I have enough."
The dark-haired Dwarf laughed, not unkindly. Then she paused. Her eyes were arrested by his feet, and Felix realized she was looking at his Far-Afield Boots. "That metal...how'd a boy barely past level 15 end up with those boots?"
Felix fought hard not to show his surprise. What did she see when she looked at him? He Eyed himself, something he hadn't considered doing before. He felt a strong resistance and naturally didn't push past it.
Name: ???The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.
Race: Human
Level: 15
HP: 194/194
SP: 153/188
MP: 220/220
Lore: Humans are multitudinous on the Continent. They are statistically weaker than most Races, especially at lower levels.
Strength: Stronger than average for level.
Weakness: Slower than average for level.
The amulet doesn't just hide, it gives me a fake ID! That's cool. He was annoyed that he hadn't thought to check before. When he realized the Dwarf was still waiting for an answer, he cleared his throat and thought fast.
"These old things? A dead aunt left them to me. She was crazy but she had some nice things." He smiled and, distantly, he thought he could hear a muffled scream of rage.
"Crazy huh?" The Dwarven smith straightened up and narrowed her eyes at Felix. "She didn't tell you what those were?"
"No? Are they valuable?" Felix played it as dumb as he could. Of course he had no idea of the boots' value, but as a reward for defeating the Maw? They had to be special, somehow. "They're quite comfortable, which is all I care about. Any armor I have I'd like to tailor it around them, if that's possible. Though if you have something better, then..."
Deception is level 6!
"Better?" The smith sputtered before obviously mastering herself. She pursed her mouth and looked to her side, at the redhead, who nodded. "We can figure something out."
"Indeed we can!" Said the redhead brightly, before putting out her hand. Felix shook it, surprised at the gentleness of her grip. "I'm Eldruna, and this hag is Rafny."
The dark-haired Dwarf spat to the side, still eyeing his boots.
*coo*
Felix hesitated, hand over the bell, and slowly turned his head back...and up. Above the books and shelves, there an absolute forest of exposed rafters. Atop those, perched birds. Hundreds of them, of all shape and size. From robin to barn owl, they sat still and silent above him.
All of them were watching him.
Whooooa, no. That's too many birds, Felix gulped before looking back down at the books. Why isn't there poop everywhere?
"Yes yes! I am here!"
The voice was loud and boisterous, no-nonsense in a bright and jovial sort of way, were that possible. And it was, remarkably. A woman perhaps in her sixties came out from a back room, the door to which Felix hadn't spotted before. It had been almost completely obscured by another leaning tower of books. The woman was familiar, or at least her coloration was: sea-green hair tied neatly back into a bun, and dull ochre skin. She was a Naiad, further confirmed by his Eye.
Name: Zara Cyrene
Race: Naiad
Level: ???
HP: ???/???
SP: ???/???
MP: ???/???
Lore: Naiads are descendants of the primordial elements of creation, namely the spirits of fresh water. Considered capricious at the best of times.
Strength: ???
Weakness: ???
Felix had felt no resistance to his query, so assumed it was likely the level difference that caused Voracious Eye to fail. Zara fixed him with a bright blue eye, squinting. Though there was no gray in her hair, her face was traced with lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth. Laugh lines, hopefully.
"Little Human. What do you want?"
She was not bigger than Felix, in fact was rather slight. Yet he couldn't argue with her presence, which pressed against his senses slightly. How escaped him, though Felix had experienced the sensation before multiple times. Her mouth was filled with triangular shark teeth, and grinned when she noticed his attention.
"Little Human came to stare at the terrifying Naiad, hm?" She leaned forward, and Felix leaned back almost instinctively.
"No, no, that's not it. Jacinda sent me. She said you had the only good bookstore outside the Librarium--"
"Fu was venna!" She suddenly spat. "This is no Librarium, little Human. It is a place of business. Do you have business with me?"
"Uh yeah," Felix was taken aback, but pushed forward. He'd been through worse than social anxiety. "Jacinda, from the Drum Tank? She said to come to you--"
"Ah! My help! Yes, good! You've come just in time." She clapped her hands and laughed. A sudden immense ruffling sounded above them. Felix flinched and looked up, but the birds had not moved an inch. "Just got some new crates in, and you're...good enough."
She grabbed his arm lifted a section of the counter, pulling him back beyond it in the same motion. She was very strong.
"Your help? I didn't come for--" Felix pulled back, but Zara's grip was like iron. "What are you--Where are we going?"
"This way, this way. My you're a heavy one, aren't you? Don't step on the books. Careful!" She guided him beyond a few more tilted towers and into the back room. Said room opened up expansively, nearly the same size as the shopfront itself and filled with crates of various sizes. The air was filled with the earthly perfume of newly cut lumber.
"Here," she handed him a crowbar and pointed at a small section of crates, these no larger than four by four foot square. "Open those crates, move the contents inside the shop, and find a place for them."
Felix looked at the crates, quickly counting all eight of them, before turning back to find Zara already walking out.
"Hey! How am I supposed to do this? Why--?"
"You do some work, I teach you what I can. No such thing as a free meal kid," she stepped out the door before turning back and grinning her shark grin. "Anyone who says otherwise is lying."
Zara waved and kept walking, disappearing from sight. A distinct jangling bell sounded before the sound of a slamming door made him realize she had actually left.
"But I can't read..." He looked down at the crates. "How the hell am I supposed to do this?"
Pushing down his frustration, Felix breathed deep. He flared his Meditation and focused on his problem. He had a corner full of work to do, or else he wasn't going to get what he needed.
"Right," he clapped his hands together and walked forward. He was going to do what he came here to do. "Time to learn."
RECENTLY UPDATES
