47 Weapon Making

I made a mental note to return here someday and take a tour. The architecture all around the city was both massive, and majestic. It looked like what Europe would be if there had never been a dark age, and the massive stone and concrete projects of the Romans had just grown and grown for thousands of years. Only instead of being built by weak human Romans, it was built with the strength and durability of hardy dwarves over the course of centuries.

Now I'm not saying that the city was perfect. Unfortunately, there had been several attacks on the city over the past few centuries by the goblin hordes, and not even the robust construction of the dwarves was immune to the ravages of time. But that only added character to the city.

"Where are all the kids?" Miyata asked, squinting in the darkness. "Is this a city, or a fortress?"

"It's both." Elder Thrikrondromm grumbled with a nod to a passing warrior. "Or at least it has become both in the past few centuries. There have been constant attempts to set up colonies and fortresses to take back territory in the Goblin Wastes to push the border away from the capital, but they always fail, and the final defense of the mountains falls to Thindarohm. So procedures have been put in place to evacuate non combatants whenever the city is put into a state of war."

"So Gerde is technically the youngest person in the entire city?" I asked, patting Gerde on the head. She was keeping close to me, and clinging to my sleeve to make sure she didn't get lost.

Elder Thrikrondromm paused, looking over at Gerde, before chuckling. "Yes, I suppose she is. But that's likely the case in any room she walks into."

Around a half hour of walking later, not that it was easy to determine time in the near darkness of the dwarven city, Elder Thrikrondromm walked up to a stone house slightly larger than the surrounding ones. He then banged on the door with his hammer. "Elder Hunmarum, open up for your former master, Elder Thrikrondromm!"

The heat and banging that could be felt beneath our feet didn't stop, or even pause, but the door was quickly opened by a member of the household. "Greetings, Elder Thrikrondromm. I am Dumnuk Coalguard, of the Armour Clan. My grandfather is currently busy making runes for the coming struggle, but I'm sure he will be pleased to meet his former master again."

Dumnuk sat us all down in the eating area, and served us all traditional dwarven food. That is, hard bread, thin soup, and strong beer. I once again resolved to get a train system operational someday in this world so that fresh food could be shipped down into the deepest parts of the mountain.

We had to wait for Elder Hunmarum to finish his runes, because interrupting him in the midst of rune magic could prove deadly, both to him and to anyone in a two block radius. So while we waited, we chatted with Dumnuk, who was very curious about Gerde, and how she could speak our language.

Finally, after the evening meal was over, and Gerde was falling asleep in my lap, Elder Hunmarum emerged from the basement where his rune forge was located. He looked to be in his late five hundreds based on the length and thickness of his beard. With an exhausted and pained look in his face, that lightened somewhat when he saw his former teacher.

"Greetings, Elder Thrikrondromm. It gladdens my heart to see that you have come to aid our defense of Thindarohm. Your powerful runes will be a boon to our fighting forces."

"Greetings, Elder Hunmarum." Elder Thrikrondromm stood up and held out his hammer in a sign of mutual respect. "It has been many years since last we met, it is unfortunate that we are forced to meet like this."

"Indeed. But for tonight, let's break out some of the strong beer and talk about old times. I believe I still have a cask of Bugmans brew in the vault."

As Elder Hunmarum was about to call for one of his family to bring out the cask of beer, Elder Thrikrondromm held up his hand to stop him. "Hunmarum. As much as I would enjoy a cask of Bugmans Brew, I came here to assist my current apprentice to fill an order and to teach him further."

"I see. Well unfortunately, I have my own orders to fill so I cannot let you have full access to my rune forge, but you can use it from the evening meal to the morning meal when I and my apprentice sleep. I only wish that I could assist so that I could learn more from you." He then turned to my father. "I envy you, Kvalinn. Learning from Elder Thrikrondromm is an opportunity that makes the ancestors jealous."

"I couldn't agree more." My father said with a respectful nod. "But I am Ekgor, Kvalinn is my son over there."

Elder Hunmarum's jaw dropped beneath his beard as he looked between me and Elder Thrikrondromm. "Honored Elder, are you seriously teaching this beardless youth? When you taught me, you refused to look at a potential student unless they had a century of experience, this child barely has stubble upon his chin!"

"I told you in my letters, Hunmarum. Kvalinn has a unique ability, given to him by the gods, to create runes without me teaching him anything. When I took him as my apprentice, he was able to make runes that were Disaster class, and nearly got himself and the town killed multiple times. It was only after half a decade of training that I was able to teach him how to rein in his powers. Three years ago, he struck out into the world on his own, and in that time he has learned much from lost tomes. I can guarantee that he is worthy of being my apprentice, despite his exceptionally young age."

"Hmmm." Elder Hunmarum growled, examining me closely. "You are my former master, and I trust your judgment. But I feel hesitant letting someone so young into my rune forge."

"I understand your hesitation, my former apprentice. But there is no need to worry. I'll be closely watching Kvalinn, like a hell hound eyeing a lone goblin. He will have no chance to damage your rune forge." Elder Thrikrondromm gave me a meaningful glare, and I hastily nodded in agreement.

"Very well. May the ancestors see your work be successful in wresting the gods' power from them for your runes." Elder Hunmarum gave the Rune Guild's version of good luck, and sat down to dinner. A member of the house then led the way down to the rune forge.

The familiar sight of a well maintained rune forge greeted my eyes when I reached the bottom step. There was a large circular fire pit, with a low burning charcoal fire that put out a ton of heat. Above the pit, was a platform made of mithril, and an anvil made of orichalculm. The mithril platform would prevent the rune forger from boiling alive, while the orichalculm anvil would allow the heat of the fire to be transferred to the runes being worked on.

"Why are we here?" Miyata whined, interrupting my thoughts. "I wanna go to bed and sleep."

"You're here to shovel coal." Elder Thrikrondromm said as he shoved a shovel into her hands, before handing one to Tatsuki and Gerde. "Gerde, your father has taught you at least this much, correct?"

Awakened by the heat, Gerde nodded, her tail wagging slightly as she perked up at the prospect of listening to me sing the forge songs. "Yes, honored Elder. Papa's a good teacher!"

"Good. Make sure these humans do not fall in the fire. Kvalinn, you, your father, and the el- I mean, Delimira. Get to work at making the weapons. I'll supervise and make sure the forge is not mistreated in any way."

"You're not making the runes tonight?" My father asked, taking off his arms and armor, and setting them in a corner of the room. Elder Thrikrondromm shook his head.

"Tonight, you and Kvalinn focus on making the weapons. Tomorrow he and I will add the runes to them. Now get to work."

Not needing to be told twice to work, my father started gathering the materials to make the weapons. Delimira and I both followed his example after divesting ourselves of our armor. Delimira wore a sweatband that hid her elf ears, just in case someone came down to check on us.

"Hey, if I'm stuck shoveling coal, can I at least get a weapon out of this?" Miyata whined as she clumsily stuck her shovel into the coal pile, as if she had never touched a shovel in her life. Can you make me a cool bow? Or maybe a cool fire sword like Delimira has?"

"I'll think about it." I said, a few ideas popping into my head. "But without more heat, nothing is getting made. Now shovel the coal!"

We worked through the night making the weapons. Since none of us were stupid or suicidal, we worked on the Emperor's weapon first.

As per the Emperor's order, we made a long sword that looked straight out of a fantasy series. Of course, it was completely functional, and exceptionally deadly, unlike some of the excessively sized weapons you would see in anime. It was truly a magnificent blade.

When Elder Hunmarum entered in the morning, we were well satisfied with our work and went to bed contented with the results.