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Chapter 19-Questing

Upon waking the next morning, Sear walked back out into the inn. Once again the two men were there. Now that he wasn’t tired, he realized that the second man, the one that had told Gee, the inn keeper, to let him stay was actually the town leader.

Well, this is going to be easier than expected. All I have to do is become friends with him.

Walking towards the man, Sear spoke up. “Excuse my interruption, but would the two of you have any tasks for me?” He bowed slightly, attempting to not sound like the rude idiot he really was.

“Ye we’ve got some tasks for ya, but don’t expect any pay for them. All I would give you is food and lodging.” Sear was about to start arguing, but upon looking at the man realized that it would be too much work because the man seemed quite stubborn.

“No need for payment, I am only here to help.”

“Well then, for today your tasks will be quite simple. One, gather a total of 250 meters of wood logs at least 6 inches thick. After that, go to Jen the blacksmith and ask her what she needs. That will be all for today.” Handing Sear an axe, he went back to talking with the town leader.

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I can’t believe I’m doing this for free. I’ve cut down 20 trees and still only gotten 150 meters. I would use my powers, but I might either break the tree or scare the village, neither of which would make this easy.

Walking over to the newly fallen log, he began to slow chip away at all the branches until he was left with a 20 meter long log. Measuring it, he found the point that it began thinner than 6 inches and cut that part off.

This log was only 6 meters long now. He still had a long ways to go before completing the task. He piled the log on top of the others, and moved on to the next tree.

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By mid-afternoon Sear was done. Walking into the inn, he noticed that it had a few more people. On the way he also noticed that there were a few children running around.

He walked over to Gee. “I’ve completed your task. The pile of wood is behind the inn. I will go to the blacksmith now.”

Maybe the blacksmith will have me do something that’s interesting. I’m about to kill someone from boredom.

As he nears the smithy he begins to hear a rhythmic tap…tap…tap. He sits down outside the smithy and waits for the tapping to finish, knowing that talking to someone while making something is a pain. He learned from having people speak while he practiced magic.

Around half an hour later, he heard the tapping end. Standing up, he knocked on the door and waited for a response.

A few seconds later a mid-aged woman opened the door. By the ash on her face and hands and the apron around her waist, he knew that she was Jen. For a woman, she was extremely muscular and could probably throw him like a rock. “Yes, what is it you need?” She had a deep yet feminine voice.

“Hello, Gee told me to come help you after I completed his task.” She nodded her head and walked in.

“He tends to do that a few times a year. Well, I’m Jen, the blacksmith of this town. I produce all of the tools here.” Motioning around, she showed all assortments of different tools.

There had to be over 20 different tools, now counting the reproductions for each one.

“I’m Sear, a passerby that is here to just help around.” Looking back at her once more, he realized that her gaze had already gone away.

“Your task will be simple, sharpen all of the tools in that pile, and then after that you will help me smith. I am hoping you know how to sharpen tools?” He nodded, thinking back to all the times he was forced to back in his village. Every time he used to mess up, he would gain another lash o his back.

Sear walked over to the pile and picked the topmost tool. It looked like a normal scythe used to gather crops. One boring task right after the other. At least I’ll be able to help smith after I’m done with sharpening this stack of well over 50 tools. Such a pain in the ass.

Picking up a whetstone, he began his own rhythmic scrape along the tool’s edge. After doing this for a few minutes, he tested the edge along his nail and found it to be more than sharp enough to cut wheat.

This is probably sharp enough to cut a man’s arm off cleanly. Maybe I should sharpen it less. This continued for a good hour and a half before he was sure that he was done.

Seeing Jen walking over, he spoke up. “I’ve sharpened all of the tools in this pile.” He moved over showing the neatly stacked arrange of tools.

“Good job. They seem to all be sharpened. Now come here, we will now begin to smith. This smithy has 2 furnaces but I can only use 1 at a time. Your task will be to follow along and do what I do.”

She led him past a small crate full of clumps of iron and picked one up. He also picked one similar in size and went to one of the furnaces. Following along with her, he plunked the clump into a steel bucket and held it over the already burning furnace.

After a few minutes it was already melted, and he poured the liquid into a T mold. Letting it cool, he took it out and put it atop the anvil. Starting at the T’s, he slowly flattened them and elongated them while having to keep the width the same. After a few minutes it seemed to be good enough for Jen.

Next, He slowly elongated the long part of the T. After he was done with this, he slowly began to curve the top of the T on the curved edge of the anvil. Slowly, the head began to look like the head of a pickaxe. Now, he heated the very center of the long part of the T, and with 1 smooth twist gave it a small design.

Plunging the pick into a bath of oil, he waited till the pick cooled and picked it up once more. Getting a strip of leather, he slowly wove it along the bottom of the T and then nailed the ends.

“Not a bad job. Could have been better, but for your first it isn’t that bad.