Mystic Metals

All in all this week had been fun, more fun than I've had I think ever in my life.

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Once the weekend started I didn't really have anything to do. I started by wandering around the place and bought a small brown leather satchel like bag so I could pull things out of my inventory in public, and it had a pocket for Oreo on the front. With nothing else to do I decided to look further into my disaster of a shield. I brought it to the guild shop to see if I could get it appraised, thankfully I was now strong enough to at least maneuver it a bit better. The shield was destroyed, so they couldn't tell me much about it other than it was a mysterious, broken shield, which even I could figure out. They said broken magic items have a tendency to do that. I was recommend to bring it to a blacksmith, to see it they could tell what it was made of, that way I could tell what it was worth, and any way to possibly salvage what I could from it.

I had the issue of Finding one, so I simply decided to just ask around. I have a few friends and I'm sure someone could help me, if not I could just walk into a random shop.

I started my trek to the place I think that would be most helpful and start searching. I asked around and eventually Grant told me he came from a line of dwarven blacksmiths that dated back as far as anyone could remember. He said he even knew the trade and planned on continuing the tradition even if it wasn't his occupation. Wouldn't hurt to check, so I went to meet Grant's Father.

Grant lives in decent size house, that was also a blacksmith shop. I wasn't sure what to expect, but from what I heard from Grant I'll probably be fine. I just need to be open and accepting to physical contact, or so I was told.

" Hey, Dad I'm home." Grant called out while walking into the shop.

" Ah, missed your ol' man that much did ya? Aw shucks you'll make me cry." A man emerged from behind a door, while responding to Grant

The man looked like a bigger version of Grant, they were proportional but grants dad was just bigger. He has a beard that hangs down to about his mid chest level and he had spots and streaks of black and a faint, occasional white hiding among his hair.

" Now who's this young lady? Don't tell me she's your girlfriend, I know we're smaller than normal people, but that doesn't mean we can't be with them. Besides she looks rather illegal, and what about that elf girl, you aren't cheating on her are you?" The man had wrapped his arm around grants shoulder and was looking at me, while laughing.

" I do hope you realize there were a lot of things wrong that what you just said. ~sigh~ Put simply, she's not my girlfriend, and she's not as young as you think. Also, stop with the jokes about me and Jacklyn they were never funny in the first place." Grant said peeling his dad's hand off from his back, letting it fall back to his dad's side.

" Yah, I'd go for Blake anyways." I said to add on to the conversation, ya know remind them I'm still here.

" Could you maybe not admit those things In front of me, it hurts my ego knowing that I'm being bested by a Trap." Grant said

"My boy, look how much you've grown." Grant and I look back at his dad to see the dwarf in tears. " I remember it was only last year I first met that little elf girl, and started teasing you. Now you have the balls to talk back."

" Why does everyone think me and Jacklyn are in a relationship?" Grant basically cried out, embarrassed from his dad.

" Because you fight like your married." Grants dad and I say in perfect monotone Harmony.

"..." Grant failed to respond

" Ha ha! I like this little girl. Say, you have a name don't cha? My name is Kalerjourd, I know weird name, but you can call me Kyle almost everyone does."

"Ok then, Nice to meet you Mr. Kyle, I'm Alice."

" Well hello to you too, little miss Alice. How about we drop the formalities, they can be rather inconvenient. Just call me Kyle."

" Ok."

" Now grant, what did you bring this sweet child here for, I know you didn't just come back to visit because you miss us."

" Alice here wanted the help of a blacksmith with something, I just brought her to the best one I know."

" Your words flatter me, but I know you know some that are better than me."

" I know one, and you know he will completely ignore anything I say if it doesn't interest him. He's stingy like that, dang old geezer."

" Now I won't have you be disrespecting your grandfather like that, You may be right, but he is still the best at his job, and you and I know it."

" I don't know any more than you all tell me. He hasn't worked on a project in years. Says he's not found anything worth his time. So, no I don't know he's the best because I've never seen him do anything."

" And he probably won't. It gets boring after a while of mass producing the same things over and over again, I for one love a good challenge, your grandfather more so. Like you said before, He's an old man, let him do what he wants. There's no reason to be rude."

" Whatever Pops"

" So kid what did you need?" Kyle asked turning back toward me.

" I would like to know if you'd be willing to look at a shield I have, and tell me what it's made of. It is a little tattered." I warned

"The guild typically runs appraisals, I don't see what you need me for?" Kyle said confused at my request.

" I tired but it didn't work. They told me to seek the advice of a blacksmith."

" Ok I guess a look wouldn't hurt so where is this thing?"

" Oh, um just a Second." I quickly ran outside and hid where I thought no one could see me and took out the shield.

" Here it is." I called back while carrying the piece on metal. Even with my full strength I strained to keep the shield off the ground for long.

" Holy ... I thought you said it was a little tattered, not completely shredded! Not to mention the shield's bigger than you are." Kyle exclaimed in shock

" That shouldn't matter if your just testing the type of metal does it?" I asked in confusion.

" You know you have a fair point. I suppose I could help you out. Come follow me, I can take the scrap metal"

" Jesus, what is this thing made out of?"

Going back into an open area of the forge, behind the shop, Kyle got to work identifying the metal. After much trial and from Kyle's frustrated grunts and muttered curses, I can assume many failures, he all of a sudden up and leaves. Me and Grant are now all alone.

" Where do you think he went?" I asked grant

" No clue."

" What could it possibly be that you think I would be curious about." An annoyed gruff voice called from above us.

" I need your eyes, I don't know what this is, thought you might."

" Oh, seems I need to help you refresh you metal testing skills. Heh, I'll humor you, where's this hunk of junk?"

" Right over here."

Walking through the door, Kyle originally left through, Two men come out. One was Kyle and the other looked older, had completely white hair and a beard that reached his stomach, split into a cascading V-shape and tied at the bottom. He looked really grumpy, and a little tired, but you could see the sparks of youth in his eyes. He may be old, but just one look and you could tell that wasn't stopping him, at least if he didn't want it to.

" My word, they're certainly dead. Now what did you want from me again, you were interrupting tea time, so please make this quick."

" It's this shield here, I can't tell what it is." Kyle laughed rubbing the back of his head.

" Oh, so that's a shield, I don't Think that scrap metal's protecting anyone! Ha ha! Just a look at the thing and I can tell it's black iron."

" That's what I though too, but it absorbs Mana instead of rejecting it. it's a lot heavier, and it is a whole lot harder, too."

" Black Iron that absorbs Mana ..." The old man's demeanor completely changed to a serious one.

" Follow me, Bring the shield."

We walked further into the forge and came to a large anvil

" Put the shield on the anvil" the old man said before grabbing two different hammers, one was a normal hammer, the other was a black hammer with a bunch of carvings on it.

The old man began striking the shield with the basic hammer in an attempt to, reposition the shield back I to roughly it's original form. Three strikes in and the hammer snapped at the handle and the tear hadn't moved at all.

He then grabs the other hammer and hesitates for a moment. Pushing through he begins hammering away and slowly but surely the shield began to roughly reform.

" Well I do have to say the craftsmanship on this thing is incredible." the old man said as he backed away.

I looked at the shield, then at the old man, then back to the shield. In my opinion, it looks like a paper that was torn apart then taped back together. Like when you get a bunch of junk mail, and are really upset and need to let off some steam, but you can't let it out on anyone or you'll be arrested or charged, so you brutally tear the mail to shreds bit then realize one of the papers was a bill due in like three days, so you desperately attempt to tape the tiny pieces back together in hopes of salvaging the paper to a recognizable state.

That being said you could tell the shield was once a piece of art. The shield seemed to be rather plain but in the center was a beautifully crafted insignia of a lion the detail was astounding and it felt, even with it torn to shreds that the lion might jump out of the shield.

" Why would you say that Grandpa?" Grant asked

" Because, I'm the one who built it."

" You built this?" I asked astonished

" Kid, where did you get this?" The old man turned towards me and I felt like the world suddenly stopped turning and fell on my shoulders. The feeling of Fear I got was more intense that the bear in the forest. I was also far stronger now so my reaction was a little better but I still couldn't stay on my feet.

[Skill: Fear Resistance: Aquired]

" I got it from the guild vault." I said shakily under his intimidating gaze.

Eventually his ferocity seemed to dissipate.

" So, that's it then."

" May I ask who this shield was for?"

" What do you mean?"

" The shield, you seem proud of it, and from the way you got mad, I'm assuming I shouldn't have it, so I was wondering who it was for."

" Sit down and let me tell you a story. A long time ago, when I was just an up and coming blacksmith, probably close to your age, grant, I met a friend. Me and this pal of mine ventured far and wide. He was looking for an adventure and wanted to venture across the world to become the strongest swordsman in the land. I traveled because I wanted to be the best too. My father was a very strict person, and I felt like my abilities as a blacksmith couldn't grow any further under his teaching so I left in hopes of bettering myself and one-day showing my father that I had grown to be better than him and his dumb rules."

" We traveled far, and fought together forming a wonderful team. I would make all of his armor, and with the rate at which I had to repair it, I got plenty of practice. He told me that I would have to get better and better because I was the only person he deemed worthy to make him weapons. Actually it was more like only I was worthy of having my weapons used by him. He was a bit of a conceited ass, but I still cared for him. One day we were fighting some devil worms near the boarder of Scotland. We came cross a cavern and decided to try some good ol' spelunking. We didn't find much other than an impossibly heavy mass of metal positioned in a peculiar opening in the cave systems, but there wasn't enough monsters to suggest a dungeon. We decided to bring it back and what we thought was just normal black iron was something else completely. We tested many things on the metal, and eventually I had to make an entire hammer out of it before I could start to meld it how I wanted, and lord was that was a nightmare. It took so much time, I think we were working on it for about two months and the only time we stopped was if we fell unconscious, needed more hammers, or food for the following week."

" The amount of trouble we went through to make that one little hammer was laughable, and showed us we still had a lot to go before we could proclaim ourselves the best."

" We put aside our metal we still didn't have a name for, and compounded our efforts, striving even harder than ever before to improve and after many years we had finally made progress. I was on the cusp of reaching the highest level of Forging or so I thought. As you all know There are several steps for skills, basic, intermediate, advanced, expert, and master. I had finally made it to the edge of expert blacksmithing, so as the final price to the puzzle I made my friend a set of armor and that shield. The shield was made to be able to withstand anything and protect him and those around him with unwavering stability, he always prioritized defense. They were my greatest creations, I presented him with his gift and the news that I had finally made it to the apex of blacksmithing, and we celebrated."

" The next day I woke up and he was gone. He left a note thanking me for the wonderful journey, and said that he was now off to find his mystic metal. His key to reaching Mastery in Magic and Swordsmanship. I never saw him again."

" I decided to return home and present to my father what I had accomplished, but I returned to find I had been gone so long that they had left. The village I had once lived in had been razed to the ground, and abandoned for a while. I searched and searched but never heard word from my parents or the rest of my family. I didn't know if they're alive or dead, and still don't. All I had was the knowledge that I had made it over the last hurdle to the top, all I needed to do now was walk to the peak."

" I then realized their is a level above master. I couldn't call myself the best yet. I spent years again attempting to jump the gap to no avail. I had lost all motivation, and realized I needed something hard and challenging, something to put my very soul into. I needed another price of that metal and an individual equally as unique to make things work. Eventually I came to despise the work and decided to settle down and only work on projects that interested me. I met my lovely wife and had two troublesome children who had decided to take on both my best and worst qualities, and soon after they got married and had kids. One a kind sweet girl who is an absolute angel, the other a bullheaded dumb grandson that reminds me of myself at that age almost perfectly."

" The point I'm trying to get to is if you have that shield, especially in that condition, I'm afraid it's too late for him. That truly is a shame, we came so close, but just couldn't reach the stars."