Chapter 29: A Seemingly Impossible Task

Alex and the others spent their extra time during the week coming up with enchantments for their weapons and armor.

Alex also went without sleep on both Tuesday and Thursday. He spent Tuesday night in the forge sharpening their training weapons. Thursday he spent placing enchantments onto their weapons.

For now, it was all they had. They had decided that these weapons should do well enough for the tournament, now they just needed armor.

This would be where Gavannon came in.

Saturday morning Alex once again met Gavannon in the forge.

As Alex walked in the large smith was standing over the coals of the forge. Gavannon slowly and meticulously made sure that the forge had heated properly and was now ready for use.

"Smith, I wonder if I could make a request?" Alex asked cautiously.

Seemingly unsurprised, Gavannon turned to give Alex a bored look. As if to say, lets hear it.

"Me and my friends want to compete in the tournament next weekend. We were wondering if you could help us with some armor for the competition?"

Gavannon sighed heavily. "You wish to have me make you gear, so that you can easily win over your opponents." A deep sadness seemed to settle into the smith's eyes.

Alex was surprised by the look on the smith's face. He immediately began to feel that there was a misunderstanding.

Seeing Alex's surprise, Gavannon was sure of his guess. "I thought better of you. It looks like I was wrong again." The smith's eyes now were harder than stone. "You may go. Don't come back." With this he simply turned back to the forge and ignored Alex's presence.

Alex's thoughts blurred for a moment, his mind moved faster than it ever had before. He replayed their entire conversation in less than a second. Every small detail, every twitch of the eye was replayed.

He understood immediately what the misunderstanding was. It was such a small and stupid misunderstanding that it seemed ridiculous. The smith had thought that Alex wanted to leverage the smith to his benefit. That he was only working in the forge to get close to a famous person and to make use of that connection.

It was so ridiculous that Alex laughed. It was small at first, just a chuckle. But that was simply the calm before the storm. Soon large and deep burbles of laughter erupted from down in his stomach.

He couldn't help it. It was just to strange.

The person who had forced him, under threat and coercion to stay here each weekend to learn, had just accused him of being here only for benefits. What kind of strange logic was that?

Slowly Alex's laughter died down. When he had caught his breath and wiped the tears from his eyes, Alex stood talk and met the, now furious, smith's eyes. "I think you may be misunderstanding." Alex tried his best to stay calm and not be intimidated.

"Oh really? And what exactly am I misunderstanding?" There was a warning in his tone. One that promised pain and punishment.

"Please calm a bit and take in my true meaning." Alex asked politely. "I don't wish for some godly gear to use in place of my own skill. Nor do I actually expect you to personally make the items we need." Alex saw that the smith was listening to his words, this gave him hope of salvaging this horrible situation.

"We need help, because we don't know what is needed to make equipment, nor do we know people to make it for us in time. Not to mention the fact that we have no money to pay for the work." Saying it outright, Alex now realized for the first time, just how much they were asking of the smith.

Wide eyed Gavannon stared at Alex in confusion. He did not know if he should believe him.

"I know you would need some proof. If you don't mind could you take a look at this?" Alex took a book out of his pocket. It was the same book that the blacksmith had given him over a month ago.

Taking the book, Gavannon flipped to the later pages. There he saw sketches of a breast plate, and three differently designed leather chest pieces. Next to each one was a paragraph describing the dimensions and enchantments that would be put on them.

Gavannon knew at once that he had been wrong. This gear was inventive and interesting, but it would never guarantee a win. It was also not of the quality beyond that of a normal smith. Meaning that even if Gavannon made the gear, it would only be a bit better than normal.

With this Gavannon knew that he had been mistaken. He felt slightly ashamed over the misunderstanding. That was until he remembered the boisterous laughter of this insufferable student. He could only take a deep breath and calm down.

"You will need quite a bit of material to make all of this. Not to mention, you will need to gather extra as payment since you are all so broke, that you need ask favors of me." Alex knew two things immediately. The first was that Gavannon would help them with getting the armor. The second was that Alex was about to pay for his laughter earlier, and in a big way.

"Lets see. With time, materials, and it being a rush job. You would need to provide four times the required material for the creation of this gear." A dangerous smile began to creep onto Gavannon's face. "Oh I almost forgot. Time will be needed to craft the gear, so you would need to get it all by tomorrow night." This time a large toothy grin glistened at Alex through the smiths beard.

Alex took a sharp breath in. That much material would not be easy to get. "What kind of material would we need to gather?"

"For the leather gear you want made, wolf pelts are best. They will be difficult for you to get, and you will need 12. For the breast plate, it would be better to make a hard armor from the hide of a rank 2 reptile, the stone hide salamander. Four should do nicely."His tone was light, as though this was a simple shopping list. "Oh and you must hunt them yourselves, think of it as training."

"The wolves are bad enough! How are we supposed to kill a rank 2 monster?" Alex was nearly hyperventilating.

Seeing that he had teased Alex enough, Gavannon walked to the work table and began writing and drawing.

He sketched out a rough map of the woods near the east side of the city. This was an area that the smith often hunted for materials in. That was where he spent a few days each week.

The smith also began sketching out locations of wolf packs, danger zones and the possible locations of stone hide salamanders. These reptiles would only inhabit areas that had large amounts of stone and light. Since this was a forest, only a portion it met these criteria.

After reading everything and talking with the smith about any important information, Alex felt much better about their chances. He soon left to find the others.

After all, they had less than two days to get all of this done.