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  Beyan opened his mouth to protest again, most likely to argue that once the Magic Core was used, then there wouldn’t be any point to talking about the Cauldron anymore. Richter just held up his hand to forestall the argument and told the gnome to have faith. Looking over, Richter saw Krom with an overly smug expression on his face. Seeing that smarmy grin, Richter couldn’t help responding to that as well. “And Krom, I’ll thank you to let me speak for myself. If you are so obsessed with what I have to say, then you can give up your position as village smith and become my secretary!” Richter raised his voice to a yell at the end. Not because he was actually angry mind you, but because Krom seemed to respond better to it.

  With a pull on his beard, a chastised Krom bowed his head slightly, “Of course yer Lordship! Didn’t mean to speak on your behalf.”

  Feeling that everything was right with the world again, Richter looked to Beyan one more time, “Please find me after the evening meal. I believe you are our most senior potion maker, and I will need your help with a project.”

  Beyan nodded his head in near pantomime of Krom, but then corrected Richter, “Er, alchemist, my Lord.”

  “What,” Richter asked confused.

  “I am an alchemist, my Lord. The skill is called Alchemy, and it actually covers the making of potions, salves, powders, medicines and many other useful items. Alchemist is the correct term.”

  Shaking his head and the bald and officious gnome, Richter just decided to take another tact. He analyzed the gnome.

  Name: Beyan. Arcane Gnome. Level 9. Health 130. Mana 400. Stamina 110. Disposition: Friendly. Arcane gnomes are obsessed with knowledge. Increased dodge and sneak. Gifted in magical arts. Bonus to Intelligence each level. Arcane Gnomes get three points to distribute per level and each level gives +2 intelligence.

  Richter raised an eyebrow. That mana pool was more than respectable. It was almost the same size as his and his level was twice as high. Of course, Beyan would have gotten his racial Intelligence bonus of 180 mana points, but that still didn’t explain all of it.

  “Why is your mana level so high,” he asked. “Are you a caster?”

  Beyan’s face froze a bit before answering, “No, Lord Richter. I always wanted to learn to cast, but I don’t have any affinity unfortunately. I invested points into Intelligence hoping that I would one day be able to cast some type of spell, but I was never so lucky.”

  Richter’s eyes narrowed slightly as he regarded the gnome. The man was clearly lying. He was deciding how to proceed when Krom spoke up again.

  “So yer Lordship, do you have something for me?” The dwarf was rubbing his hands together in gleeful anticipation. His smile was somewhat hidden behind his black beard, but Richter still saw the flash of white teeth.

  Richter continued to stare at Beyan for a second, somewhat enjoying the fact that the gnome was now squirming under his scrutiny. Richter didn’t mind his people having their own private lives, but he hated being lied to so blatantly! It was most likely because he personally enjoyed lying so much and really didn’t appreciate it when people didn’t take the craft seriously! He decided to put in one more dig before just getting Randy to investigate the gnome, “Yes Krom, one moment though. Beyan, I see that you are only one level away from being able to get a noncombat profession. We will be making groups of fighters and casters to hunt in the surrounding areas soon, and I will personally be tackling some of the lower levels of the catacombs. I think you would be a great addition to the team.”

  Beyan’s eyes grew somewhat wide, “I’m not a fighter, my Lord! I don’t think-”

  “Nonsense,” Richter said cutting him off. “You can just hang in the background. Perfectly safe but you will get experience from the kills. Right? Good! It’s settled! Krom, let’s make our way to the smithy.” Richter started walking away with the village’s smith in tow, effectively ending the conversation. His recent experience with Yoshi had taught him the truth of Hisako’s words. There was no better way to get to know someone than in combat.

  After Richter had put a bit of distance between himself and the gnome, he leaned in towards Randolphus and said, “See what you can find out about Beyan. His mana pool is fairly large and he’s clearly hiding something. Also, get me a list of our best fighters. I plan on doing some scouting around the area in the next few days, and I want several teams of five. There should be two casters in each group for support. And tonight, gather everyone at the Quickening.” Randolphus nodded along with each order.

  Krom hadn’t spoken again since Richter told him to wait, but the loud dwarf was not known for his patience, “Well what have ye got, yer Lordship?! Were you able to find some cobalt?”

  Richter smiled. He was really enjoying dragging this out. It was Krom after all, who had put him on the spot a couple weeks ago. The dwarf had asked him to either get the metal or basically punk out, in front of all of the other dwarf smiths.

  “Simma down na! We will talk when we get to the smithy.”

  Krom grumbled, but seeing as how they would be there in just a few short minutes, he let the matter drop.

  Richter heard the clanging of metal on metal once he got closer to the blacksmiths’ workshop. The structure was very rudimentary. It was more a series of stacked logs with a roof than a proper building. It was four sided, but there were also multiple large openings that let the air flow freely through the smithy. It helped to combat the intense heat of the forge and smelter. The floor was laid stone.

  When the trio walked in they saw two dwarves hard at work. One seemed to be making a sword and the other a woodsman’s axe head. A third was by the smelter breaking rocks with a sledgehammer.

  “What’s he doing?” Richter asked, indicating the last dwarf.

  Krom gave a grunt, “To get the iron out of the ore we have to remove the impurities. That’s what the smelter is for. We get a better result if we break up the ore into small pieces first. That’s a large part of what we have been doing since you’ve been gone, yer Lordship. That’s how we have been able to make all of that.” Krom gestured to the back of the smithy. There was one four-foot-tall pyramid of blue high steel ingots and two more pyramids of simple steel. There were even two small piles of dark iron and dull bronze.

  “Have you guys been working nonstop?” Richter asked impressed.

  “Well, yer Lordship,” Krom replied, “it isn’t often that we get large amounts of free time and get paid for it. Now SOME of these slugabugs thought that they should just use the time you were gone to just sit around and drink ale, but we… negotiated,” he finished with a grin. One of the dwarves at the anvil glared over at him. Before the dwarf turned back to his work, Richter noticed that he had an almost healed black eye.

  Richter gave his smith a clap on the back, “Where are the others?” There were at least three other dwarves with some smith training in the village.

  “Either exploring or mining, we’ve had to do it ourselves since you left. Those mist workers have been sorely missed. Now, milord,” Krom said with some impatience and irritation, “what did you bring back?”

  Richter smiled, still enjoying dragging this out. He reached towards his Bag of Holding, but just before putting his hand in, he stopped as if he had just remembered something. Krom ground his teeth together.

  “What does the difference in metal really mean,” Richter asked. “I mean, I know you said that it could make stronger weapons, but what do higher level metals actually do? What do the metals that you have here do if they make a Magic Forge?”

  Krom visibly calmed himself. He had caught on that Richter was playing with him, but since slugging his liege lord was probably not the best idea, he had to play along. After a long suffering sigh, he answered, “We’ve been checking just that milord. That’s why we took the time to make those bronze and iron ingots. All you need to do is hold the Core and an ingot near an anvil, and it will give you the information about the type of Forge that would be created.”

  “You would only need one ingot
for that?” Richter asked. “Why did you make a whole stack of iron and bronze.”

  Krom shrugged, “We had the raw ore, and like I said, we had some time to kill. Also we weren’t sure if higher or lower quality ingots would make a difference. Depending on the purity of the smelting process, the ingots can affect the quality of weapons or armor that are made with it. Didn’t seem to make any difference. I didn’t let them make too many bronze ingots though, I figured you could sell the copper.”

  “You found a copper mine?” Richter asked excited.

  "Sorry to say that we didn’t, yer Lordship,” Krom replied. “Just a small vein in the iron mine. It was strange, though. The miner that found it swore he had been in that particular shaft just days before and hadn’t seen anything except rock and iron.”

  Richter still smiled at hearing that news. He couldn’t be sure, of course, but it looked like the level two benefit from the Quickening was already helping the village out. It specifically made it 25% more likely to find rare resources, while at the same time increasing the yield of already discovered resources by 25%. Copper wasn’t exactly a rare resource, but it was still money in the bank! And besides, the copper gave him an… interesting idea. He looked over at Randolphus with an inquiring expression.

  The chamberlain understood the unasked question, “The copper is in a locked chest in the armory, my Lord.” He checked his clipboard, “That was item #312 for us to discuss.”

  Richter shook his head in irritation. Eager to do anything that would keep Randy from dragging him back into his bottomless hole of “honey do’s,” he walked over to the ingots. He grabbed one ingot from each pile. A check showed that all of the ingots were above average quality or better. Richter asked Krom about it.

  “That’s the other reason we made so many ingots, milord. If I’m the village smith, then this is MY smithy. And in my smithy, we won’t have inferior products. So if someone makes an ingot that is average quality or worse, then we resmelt it until they do better.”

  Richter smiled again, knowing he had found the right dwarf for the job. Enough stalling though, he thought. Even he was eager to get the Forge made. He asked Krom for the Core.

  The dwarf called all the other dwarves over from their tasks. After a few minutes they stopped what they were doing and walked over to an anvil. Richter and Randy shared a confused look. The dwarves each grabbed a corner of the large anvil, and with grunts all around, picked it up a scant inch. They moved to the side together before placing it back down in the center of the smithy. Krom then reached into the top of his shirt and pulled out a key that was strung on a chain about his neck.

  Richter and Randolphus walked closer and they saw that a space had been hollowed out under the anvil’s previous location. A metal chest that had the blue gleam of high steel had been set into the hole. Krom reached down and lifted the chest, before setting it down on the ground and inserting the key to open it. Once he threw the lid back, Richter could see that the Magic Core rested within.

  “THIS is the other project that’s been occupying my time since ye left, my Lord.”

  “Abrams and Whedon, Krom! Who were you protecting this from,” Richter asked. He was glad that the Core had remained safe, but this seemed a bit overboard. Except for the prisoners that had been brought through the mists, the only other people here were fellow villagers.

  “Pff,” Krom pffed. “I wouldn’t trust any of these jackanapes! That enchanter kept going on about a Creation Table one of the human builders keeps droning on and on about a golem, and Beyan wasn’t the only annoying gnome that I’ve had to deal with! Basically every one of those little bastards has an idea about what the Core should be used for; weapons, force shields, stasis nets, summoning circles, gah! They have been driving me crazy!”

  Randolphus gave a cough that sounded surprisingly like, ‘Told you!’ When Richter looked though, the man was just holding his clipboard, looking innocent. Richter squinted one eye at his chamberlain, but the man remained unflappable. Shaking his head, he said, “Enough! Let’s do this.”

  Richter took the Magic Core from Krom and then walked over to the anvil. He set all of ingots on the ground except for the bronze. He held the Core in one hand and the copper colored ingot in the other and placed each on the anvil. A prompt appeared.

  You have brought the components together necessary to make a: Magic Forge. Would you like more information? Yes or No?

  Richter selected ‘Yes.’

  Know This! The metal that is used to create a Magic Core will determine the Traits given to forging offensive and defensive items. You have supplied the metal: Bronze.

  Offensive items: Decreased Weight

  Defensive items: Decreased Weight

  Would you like to create a Magic Forge with the component’s you have supplied? Yes or No?

  Hmmm, not bad, Richter thought, but really not impressive. He selected ‘No.’ Krom looked at him and said, “Now you see why I wasn’t in a rush to make a Forge out of base metals, yer Lordship. Might as well move onto the rest so you can finally show us what ye’ve brought.”

  Richter nodded and picked up the others in quick succession.

  Know This! The metal that is used to create a Magic Core will determine the Traits given to forging offensive and defensive items. You have supplied the metal: Iron.

  Offensive items: Increased Durability

  Defensive items: Increased Durability

  Know This! The metal that is used to create a Magic Core will determine the Traits given to forging offensive and defensive items. You have supplied the metal: Steel.

  Offensive items: Increased skill leveling with the skill relevant to that weapon

  Defensive items: Increased skill leveling with the skill relevant to that armor

  Know This! The metal that is used to create a Magic Core will determine the Traits given to forging offensive and defensive items. You have supplied the metal: High Steel.

  Offensive items: Increased maximum charges than would otherwise be gained from a soul stone

  Defensive items: Increased camouflage

  Well, iron wasn’t that impressive either, Richter thought. If increased durability could be applied to walls or defensive structures then it might be useful, but otherwise it would be a waste. Steel could be impressive though. It would make training a militia a lot easier and much faster. High steel would be great for training quick strike groups. Being able to use the magic powers of an enchanted weapons more often and at the same time being able to hide more effectively… it screamed spec ops! Definitely a real contender!

  Richter called out each combination to Randolphus who jotted down the statistics. As he saw his chamberlain record the valuable information, it made him realize that one of the buildings he needed to have built was a library. He didn’t have many books now, but it never hurt to plan for the future. He would also have to get Randolphus to bind his notes into a series of books. They could probably serve as an early history of the village. That thought made him realize that he should probably assign someone the task of being the village’s historian. Why was there always so much to do?

  “Okay Krom,” he said. “AREEEE YOOUUUU REEADDDYYYY?”

  Krom’s only answer were his nostrils flaring over and over. It was actually kind of impressive that he could do that, Richter thought, but the slow reddening of the dwarf’s face made him realize that perhaps he had pushed this particular joke too far. Even though he was Master of the village, it wouldn’t necessarily protect him from an irksome dwarf’s oversized fists.

  Richter pulled the first ingot out of his Bag. It was moonstone. Holding both it and the Core close to the anvil earned him a prompt.

  Know This! The metal that is used to create a Magic Core will determine the Traits given to forging offensive and defensive items. You have supplied the metal: Moonstone.

  Offensive items: Increases both natural recharge rate of enchanted items and the amount of charges gained from using soul stones.

 
Defensive items: Decreased mana cost per item (cumulative per piece of armor).

  “That’s awesome,” Richter exclaimed.

  “What?” Krom and Randolphus asked together.

  Richter realized he hadn’t told them what he had found. “This is moonstone,” he said shaking the white metal slightly. Krom nodded like that was obvious, impatient for Richter to share the perk. Randolphus just made a notation and held his pen ready to continue.

  “Offensive items get a bonus to natural recharge and soul stone recharge. That could come in useful, but listen to the defensive Trait. There is a cumulative reduction in mana usage for each piece of armor worn! That could be huge!”

  Krom wasn’t so excited, “Ay, I could see that being a boon to someone like yerself, yer Lordship. You seem blessed with high affinities in both weapons and magic.”

  Richter kept his face passive. A piece of advice he had gotten from Xuetrix upon first arriving to The Land was to keep his Limitless ability to himself. Apparently an ability like that was extremely rare and could make him even more of a target than he already was. Even though he thought Krom was a good guy, and his villagers were becoming like an extended family, Richter believed in playing things close to the chest.

  Krom continued on, unaware of Richter’s silent reaction to his words, “I don’t know if the benefit would be that great for most casters though. As I’m sure yer Lordship already knows, most armor has a spell casting penalty. Low level spells might not be affected by the light armor you’re wearing, but more complex spells require complicated gestures. Medium and heavy armor would be even worse. The only ones who could really use this trait would be mages that were also highly skilled in the type of armor they were wearing. The high armor skill would remove or lessen the penalty. Otherwise, I think ye would be wasting the Trait. Most casters will only be able to wear cloth or leather armor.”