Following the directions he received from that mage, Kirou was now standing in front of a stone house that was obviously designed differently from the surrounding houses. Thinking back on the words that he received from the mage at the end, Kirou couldn't stop himself from chuckling.
"He was definitely right. I couldn't miss this." As Kirou said this, he went up to the door of the house and was about to knock.
"Just get in here already," came a voice from the inside of the stone house. Kirou raised an eyebrow in response before he shrugged his shoulders and entered the house.
As soon as Kirou entered, he was greeted to the sight of an elder dwarf hammering away on a piece of metal on a large anvil, situated a few feet away from a large furnace. This was what Kirou saw upon his entry and this was only one section of the room. As soon as Kirou turned his head in another direction, Kirou saw a well ventilated resting area.
Besides the fact that this stone house was a bit smaller than what he was used to, Kirou realized that this stone house shared the same design as Bladesmith's home back in Elderwood Village.
'This obviously isn't a coincidence,' was Kirou's thought as he stared at the eerily similar house interior with a blank expression on his face.
"Go sit on the couch until I'm done," came the voice of the elder dwarf hammering away at the piece of metal in the forge area.
Kirou just stared at the elder dwarf blankly while listening to the similar words that he was used to before completely ignoring the contents and joining the dwarf in the forge. The elder dwarf saw Kirou's actions and was about to admonish him, but kept his tongue the moment he saw Kirou take out an anvil and hammer of his own from his inventory and started hammering away as well.
The elder dwarf looked at Kirou with a peculiar gaze before going back to minding his own business, completely ignoring Kirou's presence. Kirou, for his part, decided to use his 'free' time to create some more shells for his gunblade tonfas. As usual, it would be made from different materials but Kirou got some inspiration from his previous fights with those golems from earlier.
And like that, Kirou and the elder dwarf spent over an hour in the forge section of the stone house, completely ignoring each other's presence.
****************
Outside of Stone Mount Village's entrance, a human dressed in mage apparel was currently staring back at the village with eyes filled with confusion. If Kirou was present, he would realize that this was the person whom he received directions from earlier.
Currently, this individual was replaying the events that just took place between him and Kirou inside of the village and he couldn't stop the confusion that came about as a result.
'That player.... who was he and why did he call out to me?' This was what the human mage-like player kept repeating in his mind over and over.
This player goes by the name Mistaken Fox. Due to his plain looks, he's normally treated as one of those people you go to when you have problems. Because of this, he was plagued with such scenarios all of his life. He originally joined Immortal Era, hoping to escape this fate, even for a while, but alas, that was just wishful thinking on his part.
Since the day he joined Immortal Era, Mistaken Fox has been approached by no less than a few hundred people, thinking that he was an NPC when he clearly has a player name above his head. At first, he did his best to avoid such players but they never stopped. Some people even thought him to be a rare NPC that you could get information from. Seeing that he couldn't escape, Mistaken Fox then made it a point to avoid areas with a large congregation of players, which surprisingly turned out to be libraries and other such institutions filled with information present in most villages and towns.
Because of this, Mistaken Fox, who had started the game as a simple rogue, to not stand out, had managed to uncover one of the many hidden gimmicks of Immortal Era, stat increasing areas.
Hidden all over Immortal Era's many continents are areas where one can gain stat points just by entering and staying for a while. Should the person be making use of the area as it was meant to be used, the stat point increase would jump by a few levels and when the area has been used fully, the person would receive a bonus along with the stat points the person had gained during their entire stay.
Mistaken Fox had accidentally done just that and never realized until he was forced to take a quest from the village head of his starting village. While the contents of the quest could be considered to be generic, the reward for it allowed him to change his class to the one that fit his stats better. In the end, he was given the choice between three classes: the grand magus, the arcane summoner, and the divine priest. Those classes are advanced variants of classes wizard, summoner, and priest in that order.
Due to him taking his time in doing the quest, it wasn't until the previous day that he obtained the advanced class and the one that he chose was the arcane summoner. With him obtaining that class, he was now one of the few players with an advanced class, and a hidden one at that. Not that it matters since he still has to avoid players mistaking him for an NPC, this time being worse since his advanced class has him donning a spectacular-looking mage robe, an item that's normal for NPCs.
Mistaken Fox eventually shook off his confused expression before turning away from the entrance of the village. He had to leave before he was swarmed by players once again.
'Let's hope I can find somewhere else where I can practice using this class. I don't have the time to be thinking about other people now.' As Mistaken Fox thought this, his figure vanished from the village entrance. That was obviously the stealth skill, a skill belonging to the thief class that he just executed. It seems that he retained the skills he had obtained before the forced class change and could still use them as well.
Now if only someone was there to see that player pull it off. Well, there was this weird looking human with tribal tattoos nearby when the whole thing went down but that human ignored it and kept his eyes on his masterpiece, a wire version of Big Ben, the clock tower.
**************
Having finished hammering their respective pieces of metals, both Kirou and the elder dwarf were now sitting on the couch in the resting area, cooling off while facing each other. As they sat there, Kirou cast his eyes over the dwarven elder. Though he knew nothing about dwarves besides the information given by the game and normal media, Kirou could tell that this old dwarf matched the descriptions that were often used to describe their looks: short, muscular, and covered with facial hair.
While Kirou was doing that, so too was the dwarven elder looking at Kirou. From his eyes, he could see a young man with tribal tattoos depicting a wolf, identifying him as a halfling of the werewolf lineage. Besides that, he could see that the young Lycan was wearing a set of armor that he couldn't recognize. This signified that the armor was either given to him by a being with greater skill than him or that the armor is something that the young Lycan made himself. The elder dwarf was willing to bet on the latter option as opposed to the former since the armor, while expertly created, was made from materials craftsmen at his level no longer used as the centerpiece of equipment. Then there was what he did earlier.
The elder dwarf had just planned on testing Kirou's patience for a few minutes to determine if he was worth seeing. Had the young Lycan thrown a tantrum, he would have dismissed Kirou from his premises immediately, while if he decided to wait, he would have just hammered for another few minutes before listening to the youth. What the elder dwarf never expected was that Kirou would have joined him in the forge and started hammering away as well. Seeing this caused the elder dwarf to reevaluate this young Lycan. With that said, since the young Lycan had joined him, he decided to finish up his work first before getting down to business.
The duo stared at each other, sizing each other up and making their observations for over five minutes before the dwarven elder finally spoke up.
"What can I do for you, lad?" asked the elder dwarf while leaning back on the couch. Kirou watched the elder dwarf's actions and could only mentally shake his head at the dwarf's actions.
'It seems that it truly wasn't a coincidence. I wonder if this is how all the blacksmiths I'll meet from now on will act?' was Kirou's thoughts as he stared at the elderly dwarf before opening his mouth.
"Greetings Elder. My name is Kirou and I hail from Elderwood Village. My reason for disturbing you today is to deliver a package to you from the head of my village, as well as passing on this message from the head of Thousand Wood Village." After saying this, Kirou took out two items from his inventory; a package from Old Wolf and the letter from Old Oak. He then handed over both items to the dwarven elder and kept quiet.
Seeing Kirou's reaction, the dwarven elder raised an eyebrow before speaking, "Well said, lad. It seems that Old Wolf has been raising his pups properly. For that, I'll read his message first. By the way, you can call me Old Copper." After saying this, the dwarven elder now identified as Old Copper opened up the package from Old Wolf and read the contents of the letter contained within. As he read, Old Copper gave Kirou a curious gaze from time to time. Kirou saw the gaze but just kept quiet as he waited for Old Copper to read everything. After he read everything, Old Copper gave Kirou another gaze before nodding his head.
"Wait here, lad." Just like with Old Oak, Old Copper went into a side room and returned with a package and a letter. He then passed them over to Kirou before speaking, "Since that bastard wolf has finally managed to find a successor and the bastard elf already gave his blessing, I'll do the same." He gave Kirou a peculiar gaze as Kirou placed the items he recently received into his inventory.
"May I ask what's on your mind, Elder?" asked Kirou, noticing Old Copper's peculiar gaze on him.
"Lad, that set of armor, who made it?" When Old Copper asked this there was a hidden glint that appeared in his eyes but it vanished before Kirou could notice it. Seeing the dwarven elder staring at him like that, Kirou could only shake his head before speaking.
"While the design was something that I was given..." Old Copper nodded in understanding as he heard this but Kirou's next words caused him to narrow his eyes slightly. "The design itself was incomplete, so after swapping out a few materials from my prototype model and adding the headpiece, this suit became the finished product, causing the tailor who gave me the original design to gift me some more to finish."
When Old Copper heard his words, besides his eyes narrowing, his heartbeat started to increase as well. 'If it's the wolf bastard that I think it is, then this lad before me truly ain't a random pup bragging.' As that thought passed through Old Copper's mind, he tapped on the armrest for the couch for a few seconds more, as if hesitating over something.
Finally, after a minute, the dwarven elder retrieved an item from his pocket and gave it to Kirou as well. Seeing that Kirou was confused upon receiving the item, Old Copper spoke up, "Just consider it a little something extra for getting that tailor's attention." After saying those words, Old Copper turned his eyes towards the letter that was from Old Oak.
Kirou was about to speak up but when he saw Old Copper's actions, he resumed his quiet persona, once again waiting for Old Copper to finish reading the letter. This time, however, Old Copper's eyebrows were furrowed quite a bit and by the end of it, he crumpled the letter to dust within his bare hands.
"Tell me everything that took place and leave nothing out," was what Old Copper said to Kirou as he turned towards the young Lycan. Kirou took a second before he figured out what the old dwarf was asking, following which he retold the events of that dungeon run as it took place. By the end of it, Old Copper's grip on the couch's armrest had caused said armrest to be bent out of place.
Old Copper eventually released a sigh before turning away from Kirou and heading back to the forge. Just as he picked up the hammer, he spoke without turning around, "Watch and learn, lad. I'll only be showing you this once. Afterward, leave here and inform the rest." Having said his piece, Old Copper took out another piece of metal from the forge's furnace and started hammering on it.
Unlike before when Old Copper was hammering on the metal with a constant rhythm, this time the hammering rhythm took on various sounds and the hammer moved in mysterious ways. While a normal person wouldn't have noticed anything different from how the dwarven elder was wielding his hammer, as a blacksmith himself, Kirou could see the various things going on. As he watched, his focus was completely absorbed into it and it was only when Old Copper dropped the hammer did Kirou wake up.
[System Message: You have watched Old Copper's display of the hammering technique
[Due to your affinity for blacksmithing from the 'Crafting Master' Class, you have learned the skill