74 House of Hammers and the Chaos that Ensued

The second option was undoubtedly scarier than the first. 'In this region of the Highkeep kingdom, no in the entire kingdom. There are a few Houses capable of doing this but most houses only have their elders or patriarchs at Squire (Tier 2) level. I doubt they would be the ones to kill and deliver the meat. They would keep it for themselves,' the butler thought.

The kingdom of Highkeep could be considered average in terms of strength; if it were compared to the Kingdom of Naloria, it would fall short by a large extent.

The butler made sound judgments, and his thoughts were not far off. The kingdom of Highkeep did have some strength to it, and publicly, they only had a few Houses with the strength of [Sanctuary] to their name, but nonetheless, even the hidden houses would not show it so openly.

Nonetheless, the butler did not know of such things and only believed that not many houses were capable of such feats.

The butler saw a young man working at the stand and asked, uncertainly, "Young man, are those really Dire Novice grade meat?" His voice stuttered ever so slightly.

The young man smiled at the butler. Ever since opening, he had to confirm almost all of the customers' suspicions, as they had also reacted the same way. Now, he was quite accustomed to it and answered politely, "Indeed, those are real." 

The butler nodded absentmindedly, and only after a long time of silence did he speak, "Young Master, I think we should leave." His whole demeanor seemed more listless than before. Today was quite an adventure; the sight of so many different rare products that he could not afford made his heart.

The young man nodded in response, and the two men started walking away slowly. They walked somewhat lustfully, and it was only when they arrived at the stairs leading to the second floor that their full attention returned, well at least to the butlers. 

The young man was less experienced in matters as he was only around 13 years old. He did not know the value of many of these things, so his mind only wandered for a short time on the meat before his youthful attention was somewhat attracted to a board leading to the second floor.

It was then that the butler's mind cleared, and he read the sign, 'Armoury.' His gaze followed the arrow, and he followed the arrow up the stairs towards the second floor.

They slowly made their way upstairs. The butler was busy murmuring something about how he should quickly return and report his findings. Meanwhile, the young man had already made his way up and had started walking towards the glass cabinet where the [Frostforged Warhammer] stood.

His eyes did not even wander to the massive amount of weapons and armor behind the glass cabinet; he only had eyes on the hammer. But the butler did not have the same idea in his mind.

He did not have the Warhammer in his sights; he could only see a vast array of weapons before him, almost blinding him. He quickly made his way into the ranks of the weapons, carefully observing each area. 

The total number of weapons, including swords, axes, longbows, and spears, amounted to roughly almost a hundred. The armor was a little less, only about 50, and it was not the Rank 2 [Winter's Grace] but the usual standard [Knight Armor] that Caspian had made for the merchant group to sell.

 When he finished walking through the whole armory, he decisively walked towards his young master and said in a rather stern voice, "Young master, it is time we return. We should alert the Patriarch immediately!" 

The young man was reluctant to leave but knew that the faster his father was informed, the better. The two made haste and quickly returned to their home.

The butler and young man were part of a relatively small household that has some fame in Silverpeak. The House of Hammers, or to be precise, the Stonehammer family. They were a knight family who, as could be guessed from their name, was a family who battled with hammers more often than any other weapon.

The young man was the first son of the Patriarch, Throin Stonehammer. He was the only son of the Stonehammer family, and as such, the butler, who was a Peak Man-at-Arms (Tier 1), was his protector.

The Stonehammer family was similar in strength to the Balmore household, the only difference being that the House of Hammers was much smaller.

The butler had left Throin to his own devices and quickly went to speak with the Patriarch, Borin. The butler narrated everything from start to finish, and the command was quickly given to the family to send out some people to buy what they needed.

What happened in the House of Hammers was a summary of what happened in almost all the houses that could afford even a little bit of what was in the shop. It was total chaos in the city. The Northern Star Commerce could be said to have made a windfall, although the crops and ores were by far the most common and least valuable products in the shop.

It was sold out; none of the food or ores remained, and out of those sold out, the first to go was the salt. The salt had caused so much chaos that the Northern Star Merchants had to permanently station two late-stage Man-at-arms (Tier 1) to ensure order.

After the salt was the beast products, many were already out of stock. The only that remained was the Dire Novice meat; the products were more valuable than the meat, and due to the energy residing in the meat, only knights at peak Man-at-arms (Tier 1) at least would be able to safely eat the meat.