After I got scolded by Sam for not knocking we went to the blacksmith. Hargo was sitting in his smithy with two hammers in front of him. One was quite large and crude while the other was small and ornate. He looked at us.
" Seeing as I have found someone able to withstand the ghost fire.... I would like to take you on as my apprentice." He bowed to me. He stayed that way for a bit till I realized I was supposed to say something.
" Before I do any learning. I want to know something." He sat up. "What is it you wish to know?" He said rather quizzically. I sat on a stool opposite to him.
"I met Garishe and the others. I wanted to know... Why you haven't set them free?" I looked him in the eye sockets. They were dusty and in much need of cleaning. He sighed and I heard the wind rattle through his ribs a bit.
" I could not." He paused and even for a skeleton I felt like he changed slightly. Like some weight was suddenly added. "Ghost Fire doesn't send souls away. It purifies them. They themselves are responsible for staying here. If I put them through the fire... they would cease to be. My family and friends would no longer exist. That is why I abstained."
I stared at him for a moment before I looked at the hammers. "So which one are we starting with?" He lifted his skull and faced me. He got to his feet and opened a safe he had in the corner. " If you're working with me you have to wear something fit for smithing." He tossed me a leather set of clothes. A shirt, A loincloth, and a mask , kindof like a masquerade mask designed to look like a monsters face. He directed me to a room to change while he talked with Sam a little.
I came back after leaving my garb in the other room. My mask covered the top half of my face and had lenses that protected my eyes. My shirt exposed my arms and some of my chest where the scales were. My loincloth covered everything important. My dragon legs were fully covered in scales so I didn't really care if fire or sparks hit them.
Hargo stood up and threw the big hammer to me. "Now we Smith." He started by having me breath fire into the normal furnace to heat the coals and bricks. After it was hot enough we started dealing with metals. Iron, silver, gold, etc. I forged with him for some time. it felt like forever honestly.
After my first day my arms felt like they were going to fall off. Smithing takes alot of muscle and I had to build alot. Luckily for me they had quite a few monsters that snuck into the city. Sam had been showing me to use a bow on the road and wanted to test my hunting skills.
Boreas Dogs as they were called are two headed monsters. One head breathes Ice while the other breathes Lightning. Perfect target practice for me considering these buggers are really dumb. I lifted my bow and aimed. I waited and shot.
I missed several times before I finally got one. I injured it's shoulder and it was being pretty savage after that. Like a cornered rat. My next shot hit it in the chest.
That night was fairly good for supper. And I managed to gain ice breath from the hounds. I never had dog before. It didn't taste all that wierd. It was mostly the awkward thought of eating a dog that got me.
I kept meeting with Hargo and forging. When we finished every day he would melt down what we had done. Kinda made me feel like what we had been doing was pointless. But at the very least I was learning alot.
What Garishe told me is that Hargo was one of the only dwarves able to handle every metal known to the dwarves. In his prime he hunted dragons and other beasts with only an iron spear. This was considered a huge feat for a dwarf. It later became a rite of passage for dwarves. Slaying even a small dragon with a spear proved adulthood and capability. Most dwarves would immediately be able to find a wife due to that fact alone. With all this info I often called Hargo "Hargo the Great". He was furious when I told him what Garishe told me.
" That son of a 3!+€#! When I get over to the next world I'll skin him!" Is what he said if I remember correctly.
On another note my muscles were developing well. In comparison to when we had arrived I was twice the man. My muscles had been fairly thin before. Now they were growing and were quite pronounced. Hargo actually had to make another leather shirt for me because I was getting thicker and it was getting harder to work in.
My chest was thicker and my arms were comparable to the terminator if I had to give a reference. All because I spent most of my time smithing. My nights were spent talking with the dead though. Even the women and children started talking with me. Many had suffered greatly.
The children followed the women around like a puppy follows it mother and often stayed quiet. ( They have suffered much.) I thought. After talking with them I kept thinking about necromancers. (Can I actually release them?) I thought.
Classes in this world are given randomly. The experiences of people greatly influence what class they get and also the skills that they acquire. I'm not an evil man. Neither have I tried to wrong anyone with the intent of killing or humiliating them. But Necromancy is generally viewed as an evil art is what Sam tells me. But the thing we both understand is that I recieved this class due to the Ghost Fire.
The small green/gray flame danced in my palm. ( How powerful are the other flames if this one can force a class onto me.) I thought to myself.
I had many sleepless nights over this. Enough for me to gain the titles Sleepless One and Night Owl. Literally useless titles unless you want to pull all-nighters. But that is something else.
We had been here for close to 3 months when Hargo called us for the last time.
As per usual he sat by his anvil. This man had taught me everything he knew. From iron all the way to mithril. Unfortunately Mithril was such a small quantity he could show me only how to make arrowheads out of it. But I know how to deal with them.
In regards to everything else in the town... well. Sam spent most of her time cleaning the settlement. At my request some of the ghosts started possessing items like brooms and mannequins to help her with the cleanup. Most of the fallen buildings and rubble had been cleared away and the streets were clean.
I wasn't fully able to use my earth abilities outside of my dragon form. But I was able to make some bricks out of the rubble and used them to start reconstructing one of the destroyed houses.
The time passed quickly. We had been there for close to 6 months when snow started to fall. Most of the places were fully rebuilt with exception for the glass.
The air was crisp and cold. And despite what people might think my legs were extremely cold. Lizards are cold blooded beings. Cold is not our friend. Thankfully Hargo made a set of coverings for my legs that absorbed magic to keep them warm. I naturally supplied it seeing as I have alot.
Then the day came for my graduation. Hargo was different from usual that day. Instead of always sitting on the stool next to his anvil he was standing before the hearth with the ghost fire.
I knocked on the door frame as I entered. He turned his head and saw me.
"Ah! Ignis I didn't hear you coming....." He slowly turned back to the flames. The silence between us seeming to stretch out. The air around this dwarf which had normally been bossy and lively had now become quiet. And that was unnerving.
"I have one last lesson to teach you before your travels." He said
"Ghost Fire does not melt metal. Neither does it make it possible to destroy ghosts with whatever you put in. What it does do however.... Is imbue a soul into whatever you heat up with it. The soul will enhance the materials and give them a self repair function. But unlike most other metals Iron will not allow for it. Iron is soulless and magic cannot pass through it. Meanwhile you can still use magic if hit by say an iron arrow. But no soul can enter iron." He said as he walked over to a chest and pulled out something wrapped in cloth.
He unfurled the cloth revealing a set of clawed gauntlets covered in runes. " If you wish for a soul to enter the thing you've made it has to be covered in runes that seal the spirit within. No spirit can speak, feel, touch, or hear. Essentially they sleep within the material until it is completely destroyed and are set free." He sat down after handing me them.
He hunched over slightly as I examined them. I turned left and right in curiosity before I asked him. "Is this my graduation exam? What soul am I going to be putting in these?"
After a small moment he answered. And his answer was only one word. "Mine"