We walked to the forge they had set up quietly. As promised, it was an underground cavern with a shoot leading up. They had a full furnace already blazing, and my face was slammed with heat as soon as I entered. Garnet seemed completely unphased by the heat, making me wonder if Deep Dwarves were immune to fire as well as miasma. She immediately looked through all of the hammers they had ransacked over the years, which turned out to be a nice rack of about fifteen hammers.
The way she ran her hands over them, picking up one, testing it out, and then putting it back, really showed how meaningful this was for her. I could tell that blacksmithing was something very important to her. In the past when I had talked to her, she had always acted silly and flippant, but when it came to doing her job, I could see that she was all too serious.
“Master, you might want to get an apron on. Get the fire ten degrees hotter.”
Although she had called me Master unexpectedly, she also gave out her words like a command, leaving no question on whether I should complete the task or not. I grabbed an apron and then approached the fire. After five seconds of staring at it, I realized that the support role I had prepared myself for wasn’t the support role that she needed. At the very least, I was very adaptable. I unequipped Hero, and then I equipped Cook instead.
Cook didn’t just give me Fire Control, but it also gave me Temperature Gauge, Create Flame, Combination, and Mixing. In a lot of ways, cooking had a lot in common with blacksmithing. I started to get to work with the flame. It was much hotter than what I used with cooking, but it wasn’t much different in principle.
Garnet had finally selected her apron and hammer and then came up to the anvil, glancing over my shoulder to look at how I was tending the flame. She made a noise of surprise and then nodded.
“I didn’t think Master would be able to do this so well.”
“I’m a man of many skills,” I responded jokingly.
“I’ll say. You’ve been full of surprises. I feel surprisingly good right now. I wasn’t confident that we’d be able to complete this before, but after becoming your slave, a refreshing feeling has flooded through me. I feel strong and capable. I’m starting to understand why so many women wish to be your slave.”
“I’d like to think they like me for my personality,” I responded wryly.
She chuckled. “I did offer you my virginity before, didn’t I? I already saw you as worth my time from the moment I met you on the road outside the Miner’s town all those years ago.”
“For me, it was only months.” I reminded her.
“Either way, I never forgot about our first meeting, and I always wondered why that was the case. I think now, that it was perhaps fated. We were always meant to get together, for this moment.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Oh?” She raised an eyebrow.
“With me, this is just a moment of many. We’re working with some legendary metal, but I’ve already come across orichalcum and mithril too. I have a feeling that this won’t be the last item I need forged. You haven’t even compared notes with Terra. She’s a girl in my party. You saw her once.”
“The one with the flat chest?”
“You’re one to say that.”
“What about her?”
“She’s a golem. An artificial creature…”
“Seriously! Is it true!”
“Ah… so close!” I cried as Garnet ended up right up in my face as her eyes excitedly sparkled.
“To be able to create such incredible things, that would be awesome…” She sighed.
I hadn’t thought about it much before now, but a collaboration between those two women might create some pretty incredible things.
“The furnace has reached temperature.” I reminded her as I checked it with my thermal vision.
Her face grew serious once again. “It’s time to begin.”