Chapter 108：Friends

The forges were a collection of over 10 smithies. Each one of the Smithies was large and Stanis could see in the distance that the furthest away ones, the ones deepest within the defensive structure, were much larger than the rest. But before he got to say anything about it, another figure he recognised came out of the closest forge.

"What's the shouting 'bout Ruun?" Kevin asked. He looked at Omar and then at Stanis. "Who're these—"

He stopped.

"Stanny-boi?"

"Hey Kevin," Stanis said. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of the lanky man. This was a man who had no interest in power struggles, no interest in fighting- for the most part, anyway.

Kevin ran forwards and shooed Ruun off. He glanced at Omar, then at Stanis who nodded. "Rikkey's going be soo excited, you should see how much she's changed. Heck, you should see how much you've changed."

Stanis laughed, much to Omar's distraught as he realised Stanis was a lot more nuanced a character than just a stupid, killing monster.

"Forget about me or her, look at you man. Where's the threads, where's the leather?"

Kevin laughed this time, to Omar's distraught once again. This time it wasn't due to a realisation but rather just because the spluttering laugher was a rough thing to bear.

"Thing's changed Stanny-dog. I always thought I'd go forwards and she follows me, y'know what I'm sayin? But naa, you just had to help her out, didn't ya? Now she's basically the jewel of the village. Y'know, she needed support, I weren't just gonna leave her to herself at that point."

Stanis's attention wandered for a moment as they passed by an eye-catching smithy. It was filled with jewels of different colours and shapes. Some of these mentioned jewels were embedded in armour or on weaponry. Kevin noticed his eyes wandering and answered his unsaid questions.

"Impressive, ya? I remember when they first brought this 'ere, focking amazing I'll give you that. But I thought it was just full showy, y'now what I mean? Turns out na, 'parently it powers the stuff up or something,"

Stanis raised an eyebrow but didn't let his eyes leave the jewel-encrusted armours. "Is this what Rikkey does nowadays?"

"Ha, course not. She's far 'igher than this,"

Stanis looked at Kevin and raised both eyebrows at him.

"Na, I'm being serious," Kevin explained. "Y'know the five you blessed, all of 'em are now at the top. And my babe Rikkey's at the top top,"

Stanis's interest in the jewels soon dissipated and they began to walk towards the largest forge once again. "I'll have to see that," Stanis said. "Maybe she can fix me up with something; my current threads aren't very good,"

While this was happening, Omar was doing his best to stay unnoticed. He didn't know who Kevin was but from the way he walked around the forges, it was clear he was someone with authority. But it was when Kevin had mentioned "his babe" that Omar realised where Kevin got all his power from.

Rikkey was the grandmaster, the person with the greatest forging ability in the entire village. She was valued even higher than the leadership of the village, which said quite a bit as it was the leadership who valued people in the first place!

Either way, he knew that he was currently getting a once in a lifetime chance right now. Under normal conditions, he would have no chance of coming all this way into the forges and even meeting the grandmaster, but with the common sense-less Stanis, perhaps his luck was about to change.

Time slowly ticked by as Kevin and Stanis kept bouncing thoughts of each other. Stanis's hidden crude side fit Kevin's normal personality well and so it made the journey far worse than should have been for Omar…

****

Stanis looked up and gasped. The largest Smithy was as tall as 2 houses stacked upon each other, and several times wide. It had solid pillars holding it up, and despite being an open Smithy, the air was still stuffy and unbearably hot. It wasn't so much the grandeur that shocked Stanis, after all, the classer's hall in the village was even grander than the smithy in front of him.

But the difference was that one was built by a prosperous race of people and the other had been built by a very stingy leadership group. If nothing else, the grandness of the smithy told him how highly the village valued this industry.

Kevin bumped his back and Stanis came back to reality. He walked inside and was met by a whole another scene. If the outside of the smithy showed importance and grandeur, the inside proved the passion of the blacksmiths. Inside, tens of blacksmiths heaved and roared as they banged away at their respective works.

All Stanis could hear were the shouting of the blacksmiths, and the clanging of their hammers, and the fizzling of the water as it was let loose on the warmed steel. He didn't even want to look at the rest of the weapons and armour after seeing the first few but his curiosity overthrew him and devoured the sight of every visible metalwork. Each and every one of them were of high quality and Stanis could even see a few similar to his grade from 2 months back.

"This way," Kevin shouted at Stanis. He led Stanis past several workspaces until they reached the biggest one at the centre. Unlike the other workspaces, this one was walled off with only the roof being free. Kevin walked Stanis towards a door and let him in. Inside was the woman they had come all this way to see.

The roofless room was quite spacious with plenty of room for a crowd to fit in, even with all the blacksmithing equipment lying around. And yet there were only 6 people inside. The first person Stanis recognised was Rikkey, who was incidentally in the centre of the room and at the centre of attention. All gazes were on her as she worked her magic. She still had her hair cropped short and littered with soot and dirt. Her arms were beginning to bulge out and her stocky figure didn't help much with her appearance.

Stanis then looked around and recognised the others. The one currently holding another piece of metal over the coal-littered furnace was Calu, the quiet, African man Stanis had blessed. Helping Rikkey with her hammering was Giang and Duong, the two Vietnamese who Stanis had similarly blessed. And currently heating up another forge was Valentina, whose good-looking appearance shone through even the worst of grime and soot. And near the edge of the room, out other's ways, was Caleb with his arms crossed over his chest.

It took him a second to recognise Stanis but when he did, he straightened his back and walked over. He was as large as ever, perhaps even larger, at 6'4. His corded, bulging muscles were like snakes strangling each other. His head was now shaven clean and he had a few new scars from the last time Stanis had seen him.

"Hey," he said as he held out his hand. Stanis clasped it before letting go.

"Are you tier-four now then?" he asked. It took a second for Stanis to realise he was talking about Mosyte rank.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I'm going to follow the trail and challenge it," Caleb replied while pointing at the blacksmiths hard at work. Stanis followed his finger and realised that the blacksmiths were actually creating a greatsword, the exact type Caleb used.

Stanis turned to look at Caleb, who in turn met his gaze head-on. Stanis searched his eyes and saw a lot more than he had seen in the past. He saw an unwavering pride; he didn't remember Caleb as being particularly prideful but he had clearly changed. He saw a dim light; the Caleb who had been a friendly and good leader now looked tired and in pain.

It seemed he only wanted to reach tier-four because it was expected of him and nothing else. But Stanis also saw recognition; Caleb still knew who was on top, he knew what Stanis was. And that was enough for Stanis.

"Don't worry about it, you'll finish it in a breeze. Just be sure to finish it quickly though. Not much time till another wave of enemies come," Stanis said, much to Caleb's amusement as he started chuckling.

Omar watched the scene proceed in front of him like he would a movie. The people he was watching were movie-isque characters, especially Caleb who the whole village knew for better and worse.

"Where're the others?" Stanis asked.

"Orena's already gone to follow the trail. I thought of joining her but decided a good bit of protection wasn't overrated. Sil's…" Caleb stopped. He looked at Stanis and his expression before carrying on. "She's moved on from you. Jayesh I think it is. Either way, she's still strong but she's changed, if I was to say the least, that is,"

Stanis nodded. "I'll find out for myself soon enough,"

Kevin interrupted the two at this point. "Sorry Stanny, looks like she's really into it. Don't think she'll be out till a good bit of times passed,"

Caleb nodded and added, "Yeah, I heard when she's like this that it'll take some time for her to come back to reality. Best if you come back later,"

Stanis looked at Rikkey and the utter focus she worked with. He could tell from one look that her blacksmithing ability had far eclipsed his. He smiled and looked around the room once more.

"That's fine, I'll come later. I'll just go visit the leadership now, I guess,"

"If you want to meet them all in one place, you better go now. I heard they're in a meeting right now,"…