Hammering that reality into shape...

Briggs was pretty sure he’d be a better smith than Sama once he reached Ten, if for no other reason than that he was a Hammer Grandmaster, and so could ply one more quickly than she could. They’d probably be near-identical on QL, but he should end up faster by a good chunk.

He was seeing some of the Rank difference now as they forged and cast the armor for him. She was working with anticipated measurements of what he would be as an adult, just in case. Then they’d melt it all back down and recast it closer to his real size, with the Compressed metal across the backplate for the auto-adjusting as he grew older.

The whole process was just another way to imbue Quality Karma into the metal. 9k of Innate Value, coming up!

Watching the pair of them going at it over a suit of armor had the smiths among the dwarves, nigh every one of whom considered themselves an expert, falling over themselves.

They’d watched those Hammers pounding down, and they knew how much force was being exerted. They’d also seen the results of that work, and if they wanted to say something to the wee slip of a female who could forge such things, her glare made it totally plain she was working and wasn’t going to tolerate interruptions.

And, well, seeing a set of QL 35 skinplate coming up there made for an Ancient was a first for just about everyone.

Briggs couldn’t keep the grin off his face at the expressions on the faces of the few outsiders who had lingered behind, and his fellow tribesmen.

He was finally about to get some proper armor…

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Giant hide was scraped, cured and cooked, alchemically soaked and diffused for the underlayer of padding. Hair from the former owners of the hides was used to stitch the required Runes into the skin, moving with dazzling speed and surety in Sama’s Diamond Vajra, her nails acting like scissor-cleaver-stilettos. The tribeswomen who watched her at work gawked in awe at her speed and the perfect lines Sama could stitch.

“See, this is why you really want a Diamond Vajra,” he cajoled them, and heads nodded despite themselves. She was a terrifying little thing, but damn, she was good!

The pieces of armor came off, were doused in Lightning Water, and polished by bare hands exuding ki that could split steel. Not that he was going to be running around in shiny armor unless he wanted to, of course. They still had to Slake it, but she didn’t have all the components to do a blueslake, and it could wait, regardless.

Shadowslake, now, they had.

Black as polished obsidian, the pieces came out of the slake baths, and were dried in seconds over Forge. It was time to fit them on.

She had eyeballed his measurements, and took great delight in fitting everything on him. From tassets to helm, she put it all on, linking the pieces together, chains and hooks, leather fitting on leather, and it all fit as perfectly as QL 35 should. High-carbon treated alloy steel, as grim and fearsome as anything popping out of a dwarven forge, hiding away the thick muscles, body hair, and power of an Ancient, and wrapping it in cold, hard steel.

She fit the black as night helm on, linking it up with his gorget and breastplate with veils of chain, and stepped back.

It was a wonder of smithwork, angles and patterns to slough off blows, curving instead of flat, and customized for an Ancient’s physique. With his massively heavy build and overlong arms, he looked like almost like an automaton, save for the pale violet eyes glowering under the edge of the helm.

He spread his arms wide, and clenched his whole body suddenly.

With a clang of meeting steel, the armor flattened to his skin, flowing over it as if it were a part of him. The crowd gasped despite themselves at the obviously magical effect.

He flexed his arms, and the steel bulged and moved with him. The thick plate on his back rolled as he circled his arms, sections of chain stretching smoothly as he bent and flexed, moving with energy and poise that wasn’t always apparent when he was hairy and wild-eyed. He still hard gorgets and pauldrons and a skirt and whatnot, all the extra joint protection, but the metal below was mostly welded to his skin…or, more accurately, the skin of the giant along the inside, which would use its natural Damage Reduction to soak the force of blows, better than any natural leather or cushioning could.

The helm snapped shut over his eyes, not even a slit visible for him to see through, but since the entire faceplate was transparent from the inside, it wasn’t an issue.

He went through a set of calisthenics, then some simple tumbling maneuvers, moving with speed, energy, and poise with no difficulties. The tribe gawked to see him moving so easily clad in such heavy metal, and Sama stood by, nodding in approval as he went through the full suite of movements, before snatching up a pole and snapping into guard against him.

They sparred for half an hour, working through multiple weapons and the motions needed against them, and he smashed on her and her shield as he worked through combat outside of katas.

There were no issues. It was magical skinplate, one of the two highest level of armors that could be forged, at a nigh-superhuman QL 35. Even given the speed they were working at, there was almost no way they could mess up given Sama’s level of skill.

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The armor plainly unsettled what was left of his tribe. Many of the hunters had departed with the dwarves, working as guides and scouts, as was their calling, in time of war. The warbands from the Warp were all over the place, and the dwarves were sending out their armies to meet them and get rid of them, trying to drive a path towards their source in conjunction with the elves. As loyal thanes, the Ancients of these mountains went with the dwarves to do their part.

They had no doubt they could catch up with the main force, regardless of dwarven stamina. They could simply run a whole lot faster.

Briggs said his goodbyes to his tribe and his aunt, his cousins who were treating him with even more awe than before, and the elders who could not hide how impressed they were by him. Sama took the time to demonstrate and record all the Potion recipes and Gear formulae for the women to use in the future, insuring that there would always be a place for the remains of ogres and giants henceforth, for the good of the tribe.

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His goodbyes said, they left before sunup on the third day after the slaughter of the warband that had threatened the cliff tribe. While he thought dearly of all of them, and respected his tribe for the path they preferred, Briggs was excited to finally truly be able to leave.

Meeting up with Sama was a godsend. Just the full set of Smithing Gear would be of so much help, and having a trusty partner along for what was going to be some very dangerous situations was priceless.

A ten-year-old Ancient and barely older Hagchild (albeit one who’d gone through her Curse Awakening). Briggs guffawed despite himself.

He wasn’t slow on foot, but Sama moved like the wind, coming in at a cool 110 move and able to catch the fastest of magical horses, even outrun some birds on the wing. She had made up a little glider suit for the brownie Mikle, who was swooping and diving all over the place excitedly as he kited behind them, having figured out how to control it with amazing speed and enthusiasm.

Briggs contented himself with riding on Sama’s second Disk, crouched there with his new Hammer in front of him. He was itching for some long, protracted combat against things it was worth it to kill.

There was no shortage of monstrous beasts buried in the canyons and ridges of the Worldspine. The dwarves weren’t everywhere, and didn’t care to be. The Ancients actually provided a valuable service hunting such creatures down and tracking them for the dwarves, who could dispatch a Titan Slaying team if such creatures were truly dangerous.

They actually weren’t intending to catch up with the company on the march today. They were going to kill one of the beasts that had holed up close by.

“No, I’m not sure it’s a Warped beast, but the timing is too coincidental when it arrived. It’s incredibly strong for a beast like it is, but the lair is far enough away and hard enough to reach that the dwarves didn’t want to press the issue.”

“Up in the ice cap is a pain in the arse,” Sama agreed, eyes fixed on the peak of the mountain ahead. “Chimeras are definitely eligible, however. You got any idea on the template?”

“Legendary?” he wondered aloud. She turned a hairy eyeball on him. “Seriously, the hunters have never been able to land a decent wound on it, and you know they aren’t weak, and hunt magical beasts all the time. I’m guessing at least 30 points of DR with fast-healing, if the stories I heard are true. Everybody hides when it’s in the air. Getting caught in the open is sure death.”

“Legendary with DR 30/+3 and fast healing? Energy resistance?”

“Not so much. It shoots some acid poison that wreaks havoc on flesh, but they’ve wounded it with fire, so it never came near the Cliff, and doesn’t seem to want to test out the dwarven firebelchers.”

“So, a variant dragon head, too. Bull head, or gorgon?”

“Mmmm. I think the bull head breathes the shit out too, and the lion has a roar which can crack stone and deafen people.”

“Mmm-hmmm. That sounds like a mutated Androsphinx, Briggs…”

He blinked. “Yeah, that would be just like the Warp Gods, wouldn’t it?” He couldn’t shoot any holes in that. A magically powerful lion’s roar… “I think it’s the center head, too.”

“Wonderful. You do know how to pick them!”

“Hey, it’s not like you can’t hurt it!”

“Yeah, but you’re the one that has to hurt it, not me. Can you?”

He looked down at his Hammer, Endure humming softly in his hands. Soulbound, with Blooding its Primary in Zvei, with Throwing as a 1k add-on, of course! At a mere II, even with Penetrate Damage Reduction… “Yeah, I can wound it, but I’m not going to be winning any speed races if it’s got Epic DR.” Needing a +VI Weapon to hurt it was some serious protection. Even 50/+5 was going to be a long, slow fight.

“I can hit +X on Tremble with something like that, so it’s not an issue for me.” He winced. Damn, she was so far ahead of him! “Don’t wince like that. We’re going to be closing in on the equivalent of a video game battleground as we get close to the Rift they’re using to get here. I don’t know the rate they are going to be coming out of the thing, but it’s certainly going to be pretty damn fast. You’re going to have a river of Karma coming in soon enough.

“You better get Vivic soon on Endure, ‘cause we’re going to be feeding a lot of Warp power to the Land, and you know how hungry She is for this kind of stuff.”

He grunted despite himself, but couldn’t keep the expectation off his face. “Yeah, it doesn’t make sense for you to clean up after me, giving the amount of killing that’s coming.”

“And unlike me, your Grandmastery goes up with every Level, in addition to other stuff. I have to wait for Fifteen before I see another improvement from Sage of Swords. I didn’t have any kind of bonus like that at Five.”

“Why didn’t your Grandmastery piggy-back Warsmith’s benefit on to your blade?” he wondered aloud.

“Mine works with Feats, not Class Features.”

“Oh.” He cleared his throat. “Too bad, so sad.”

“Didn’t like that feeling of my Sagedom swallowing your Grandmastery?” she laughed.

“It did occur to me. I like being the big guy with the Hammer, you know.”

“And I’m so totally willing to wait another seven years or so to see Briggs at Ten swinging Endure around and watching Warp marauders shit Pink Twinkies when they see you, I am,” she assured him cheerfully. “+80 damage before any other modifiers, Heavy Over-sized Greathammer wielded with Profound skill… mwa-ha-ha-hah!” Those damn blue eyes of hers were dancing. “That will look so ridiculous and awesome at the same time…”

He had to agree, it would look pretty awesome. Eventually, Endure, eventually, he promised his Hammer.

He had a long road ahead of him on Gear acquisition, and even having Sama here wasn’t going to solve the issue, as there were limits with what pure skill could give them. They needed Karmic Flow to Names, and then goldweight value, be it precious metals, gems, or power comps.

This chimera was going to find out that the drive for power and the ability to get stronger a LOT faster meant it had just become salvage…