18 Blacksmith Challenge

Waking up to the sound of thunder crashing around him, Sydra opened his eyes to find himself sitting on a floating asteroid in the middle of space. Looking around, he noticed a large storm approaching him. The storm was the same one inside the crown and leading it towards Sydra was a woman with long flowing purple hair and fiery red eyes. She was standing on top of a glass panel that was in the shape of a sword the same size as a car.

Standing up on the asteroid Sydra peered at the woman's face, wondering if she meant him harm.

"Who are you, and why have you brought me here?" Sydra asked her as she floated over to him. She simply smiled after inspecting him and floated away.

"You will know once the red sand in that hourglass all reaches the bottom. Just a heads up though, you need to be much stronger for what is coming five years from now." She said as she floated back into the lightning storm and disappeared. Seeing that she was gone, Sydra laid back down on the asteroid and thought about what she had said.

'Five years from now... Isn't that the same time that the Arbre Council is supposed to meet. It would be bad if the two problems weren't connected.' Sydra thought as he drifted back to sleep.

As morning approached Sydra woke up to the sun shining down on his face. Getting up out of bed, Sydra headed over to the blacksmiths forge to see if the two daggers he had requested were finished. As he was leaving the Inn he accidentally knocked over the maid that had fixed his toilet on his first day here.

"Oh, I was hoping to run into you today." Sydra said as he helped her back up off the ground.

"So you were trying to knock me over?!" She asked infuriated. No one had treated her this way before, and it was starting to get on her nerves.

"Yes... I mean no, I wasn't trying to knock you over, I actually wanted to find you so I could give you this." Sydra said as he pulled out a brush that was similar to the one he sold at the auction house. He had managed to obtain two of them, and planned to give this one to the maid as an apology.

"Is this the hairbrush that was sold at the auction for over two hundred gold? You bought it for me?!" She squealed grabbing the brush from him. "No that's not right, I heard the guy who bought the brush was really big and hairy, like a man should be. Did you steal this?!" she asked appalled, quickly trying to hand the brush back to Sydra.

"Haha, no I was the one who sold the hairbrush. I actually found that one and this one inside the temple ruins, and I would have sold both of them but I felt bad for making you clean my bathroom. So I kept this one, to give to you as an apology." Sydra said, refusing to take the hairbrush from the maid.

"Oh? Well if that is what happened then I can only go ahead and accept this from you." She said happily running away before Sydra could change his mind.

'Woman, they are more difficult than a labyrinth to understand.' Sydra thought to himself as he left the Inn and headed to the blacksmith. While he was walking down the street he saw Robert and Cidre leaving the tailor shop and heading towards the Guildhall.

"Robert, Cidre, come here," Sydra called out to them as he crossed the street to them.

"Hey, Sydra, what did you need?" Cidre asked as Sydra stopped in front of them.

"I'm sure Robert already told you, but we are meeting up at the Wild Cinder Tusk today for lunch," Sydra said before directing his gaze to Robert. " I told Erich to meet us there when the flame hits the twelve mark, that works for the two of you right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I just finished picking up a new pack at the tailors for the trip we will be going on, and Cidre needed to test his rank at the Guildhall. He believes he has reached the C-rank after that battle you two had with the spider. I was walking him over there, since I need to set up someone to watch over the guild while I'm out." Robert said, patting Cidre on the shoulder.

"Right, Sydra I meant to tell you that Pop-pop has finished the first batch of Spider pouches, and he wants you to stop by and pick one up when you get the chance." Cidre said excitedly.

"Wow, that was quick. It hasn't even been a full day and he already has some done?" Sydra asked impressed at the speed the old man worked at.

"Well he did stay up all night experimenting on the new pouches so he was able to finish two of them. Robert just bought the first one, and the other one is for you, so you should stop by before Pop-pop passes out from sleep deprivation." Cidre said, scratching the back of his head embarrassedly. He had tried to get his great-grandfather to bed, but he just wouldn't listen saying he had to mush work to do and not enough time.

"Sure, I'll stop by after I finish up at the blacksmiths." Sydra said smiling. "Alright, I will see the two of you at lunch then." he said as he continued on his way. Reaching the blacksmith forge, Sydra was surprised to see a large number of dwarves surrounding the place and yelling.

"What's going on here?" Sydra asked as he pushed through the crowd and reached Echo.

"These bozos keep trying to take over my forge, and when they saw the hammer I was using they went crazy with greed." Echo replied pulling Sydra over to her side.

"That's because such a beautiful hammer belongs with an equally beautiful blacksmith!" shouted the dwarf that had bought the hairbrush yesterday. Now his hair was flowing in the wind, and he looked like he belonged anywhere but a forge.

"Your hair is so long it would just get in the way when forging things." Echo shot back venomously, slightly jealous of the dwarves flowing locks.

"I demand a challenge, if I can forge something better than you can with that hammer then it will be mine!" Shouted another dwarf, loudly. Hearing this Sydra's ear perked up with a good idea forming in his mind. Interrupting the comeback that Echo was about to say, Sydra took her off to the side.

"What are you doing? I need to teach these dwarves a lesson." Echo said bugged about not being able to respond to the dwarf.

"I just had a brilliant idea, you should accept the challenge." Sydra said quickly.

"What, why would I do that. You know dwarves are really good when it comes to forging, so it wouldn't surprise me if one of them could beat me." Echo said confused by Sydra's odd statement.

"Don't worry, none of them will even be able to lift the hammer. After all, it can only be wielded by a true blacksmith, and true blacksmiths don't go around challenging others, as they are to busy forging." Sydra said smartly.

"Hmm, that makes some sense, but what should I ask for if I win?" Echo asked, warming up to the idea.

"Ask for rare metals of course, I am positive that every single one of them is carrying some on them." Sydra responded, guiding Echo back over to the dwarves. She nodded her head and faced the restless dwarves.

"Alright, I will accept your challenge. If you can forge a better weapon than I can using this hammer, I will allow you to have it. However, if you lose then you have to give me metal of equal value to this hammer. Basically the five best pieces of metal you have on you at this moment, and you have to show it before you come up here." Echo said to the dwarves, as they mumbled among themselves.

"Deal, I will take you on." said a young and cocky dwarf, pulling out five pieces of Diamondic Steele and placing them on a table. Echo smiled and placed the hammer on the anvil and stepped back as the dwarf walked up.

"Hurk." The dwarf let out a weird sound and attempted to lift up the hammer. "What the hell, I can't pick this hammer up?" The dwarf looked incredibly confused and gave it a few more tugs to no avail. "What have you done to this hammer?!" the dwarf shouted getting angry at being embarrassed.

"I have done nothing to the hammer, it was already enchanted to not be picked up by someone who is not a true blacksmith. That includes you, now get out!" Echo shouted kicking the young dwarf out of her forge. The other dwarves laughed at the young dwarf as they all knew what Echo said was true. What they didn't expect was that they couldn't pick up the hammer either, and when they called in a master dwarven enchanter to check the hammer he said the same thing as Echo. This worked to further upset all the dwarves, and before Echo realized it her table was crushed under the weight of precious metals.

"May I try it?" an old dwarf asked as he passed by and saw the challenge going on. His interest was peaked and he wanted to give it a go. As he walked up to the hammer, the crowd parted on either side of him and the dwarves gave a small salute. Blacksmithing was the only thing dwarves gave full respect to, and the better a blacksmith one was the more respect they would have from the dwarves. The old dwarf that was walking up to the hammer right now was called Old Forge Wanderer, and he was well known in all three of the Dwarven Kingdoms.

"If even he can't lift the hammer I will tear down this forge for lying to us. There is no way Old Forge Wander is not a true blacksmith." Whispered one of the dwarves with the others all nodding in agreement. Everyone was watching carefully as the old dwarf wrapped his thick hands around the hammer.

"This is a good hammer." The old dwarf said, easily lifting up the hammer and giving it a few swings to the delight of all the other dwarves who had been humiliated. Pulling out a piece of metal Old Forge Wanderer began forging away until a beautifully crafted dagger appeared. The old dwarf was using Icelandic Meteorite and Devouring Abyss Stone to create a dark dagger with a light blue hue in the edge. Placing the blade into a Soul Tree handle, and sliding it inside a black leather sheath, the old dwarf handed it to Sydra.

"You use daggers, don't you boy?" The old dwarf asked, looking Sydra up and down.

"Yes, I do. How did you know?" Sydra asked admiring the dagger in his hands.

"A true blacksmith can always tell these kinds of things." Old Forge Wanderer responded, smiling to Sydra.

"I must admit, that dagger is much better than anything I can craft at the moment. The hammer is yours." Echo said, looking slightly downcast at losing an amazing hammer after only one day.

"Nonsense child, I am to old to be taking things from promising people such as yourself. I just came over to teach these young brats a lesson." The old dwarf said looking sternly at the other dwarves.

"You should all be ashamed of yourself, calling yourselves true blacksmiths. A true blacksmith is able to tell what type of weapon a person is proficient in, and the only way to do that is to focus your time on forging, not out bothering other people who are trying to forge themselves. Now get out of here, and go practice your forging!" The old dwarf yelled shooing all the others away, before heading out himself.

"Well, would you look at that, you made a huge haul today as well. It should be years before you run out of metal to forge with." Sydra said to Echo as he gazed at all the huge pile of precious metals.

"I know!! And its all thanks to you, so thankyou. From now on, whenever you need something forged just bring the materials to me and I will forge it for you." Echo said blushing slightly at Sydra. This was the second time he had given her a large amount of metal and he was looking more handsome every time he did so. She felt that if he did it one more time she just might fall for the guy.