Although Vars was irritated by Baluu's obnoxiousness, his face made pale by the cold was covered with a deep red blush.
Rastel couldn't tell whether it was from the compliment or from the hot soup he was drinking.
"Come on little viper, help here these good friends of ours that gave us warm soup on a cold rainy day. Tis the right manners you see?" Baluu egged him on.
Vars mumbled a bit as he took a deep draught from his bowl. When he finally lifted his head, he looked reflectively at the bowl for a few moments before finally speaking up.
"Even if I was to help you, I would need an anvil and hammer to work with. And you know I couldn't have brought mine with me since we were going hunting."
He shrugged his shoulders.
Rastel calmly opened up his inventory and took out the small anvil and hammer he had bought at Laron and dropped it in front of the now wide eyed Vars.
"S-summoned?" Baluu stared at Rastel with a bit of interest.
Rastel waved his hand absentmindedly before pointing to the anvil and hammer.
"Would this be enough?"
"Er.... I-I would need a..."
THUMP!
Rastel dropped the small cauldron he had bought on the floor too.
Vars immediately shut his mouth when he saw it. He looked at Rastel with a perplexed look and was raving in his mind.
'These damned summoned just hauling off anvils and hammers and cauldrons like... like.... what is this!?'
Resigning himself, he turned to look at the amused face of Roxanne and held out his hand.
"Let me see it, the thing you want me to fix."
Roxanne and Rastel shared a laugh at his previously confounded face as she handed the piece of metal over to him.
"Open your eyes and look closely people! Looking at little viper smith is like watching a master painter at work. It is art!"
Baluu exclaimed as he finished off the last of his soup.
Everyone around, including the old man surrounded Vars to see him smith.
Lana and Myra who was still clutching Amba's tiny form also came closer to view the process.
First of all, the anvil in AOM was not the same as a typical anvil you would be used to outside the game.
This anvil had a round surface set on a thick cylindrical body that had a compartment within. There were a few holes around the neck that separated the body from the flat head and it was a dull black which reflected no light and was significantly heavy.
The hammer was also as heavy as it had a metal handle and a thick heavy head.
The cauldron was just a small container that could be filled with water that was made out of metal sheets.
The cauldron was first taken outside by one of the settlers who came to watch. He went and gathered some cool rain water to fill it up.
As he was doing this, Vars took a good look at the cylindrical piece Roxanne had given him. He picked up the hammer and hit it a few times and observed the density of the metal.
Smithing was an art that required a decent amount of knowledge and skills.
Everyone around looked with interest as they saw the amber eyed Vars emit some energy to cover the metal before he hit it once again with the hammer and looked at it closely.
With his basic knowledge, Rastel could tell he was doing something know as constitution identification.
If a blacksmith was to encounter a metal they couldn't really recognize. This was a skill that they could use to get a rough idea on the metal's constitution and properties.
By looking for certain things only a qualified blacksmith would know, they could determine how to treat the metal like to what temperature to heat it up before hammering or whether it had a lot of impurities.
"Fine metal" Vars muttered under his breath.
By this time, the man sent to collect water had returned and he dropped the cauldron beside Vars.
Vars tested the temperature of the water with a finger before he opened up the compartment of the anvil.
The compartment was small as these kinds of small anvils were made for travelling smiths in mind so that they could use it to do small jobs or repairs and such.
It was the perfect size to fit an ingot in to melt it down as that was exactly what those compartments were for.
Vars shoved the cylindrical piece into the compartment and closed the door firmly shut.
Grabbing both sides of the anvil with both hands. His hands lit up with a red light as he concentrated on the anvil.
The body of the anvil heated up considerably in a very short time and the holes on its neck started emitting white steam.
This was a method of heating up the anvil using a skill that all blacksmiths had to master. Depending on the type of spell as there were different variants or the blacksmith's mastery of the spell, heating up any ingot or metal can take from a few seconds to as long as several minutes or even hours.
Everyone subconsciously took a step back as the heat became a bit harsh around Vars.
After a few more seconds, Vars stopped the heating and took his hands off. He used the hammer to tap on the compartment door and it popped open with a hiss of white steam.
With his hands still covered by that red light, he reached into the blistering hot compartment and fished out the now red hot metal and placed it on top of the anvil.
Grabbing onto one end of it with his left hand, he meticulously hit on the damaged part of the cylindrical tube to straighten out the now soft metal.
DING! DING! DING!
His movements were careful and gentle and everyone there had to agree with Baluu, there was some sort of artistic pleasure in watching Vars work on the piece of metal.
After a while, the tube was looking mostly straightened. He picked it up carefully and dipped it straight into the cold cauldron which made it hiss while emitting a thick steam.
He didn't let it stay in for long and took it out almost immediately. Dropping it back on the anvil, he started hitting it again with vigor.
CLANG! CLANG!! CLANG!!!
The now hardened metal took the heavy hits for a few more seconds before Vars took it and dipped it in the cauldron again, this time for much longer.
Rastel was fascinated by the entire process and he stared with wide eyes. He was deeply curious about the skill Vars used to heat and hold on to the metal with his bare hands. As far as he knew, there was no such convenient method.
Although the smithing tradition in AOM was a bit different to that of the real world's due to the influence of magic, there wasn't really much difference in the process.
Vars took out the finished product and gave it a close look. His brows were sweaty from the process and his hands trembled slightly but he still had a look of satisfaction on his face.
He passed the tube to Roxanne who accepted it and looked it up closely too, she gave a satisfied smile and looked up to him.
"You are really good at this! Your master is a dwarf?"
Vars nodded.
"Although master Vulcan is mostly a drunk old fool, he is extremely skilled in anything smithing or forging."
"Master Vulcan... hmmm?"
Roxanne had on a thoughtful look.
Rastel came over to Vars side with an excited look.
"So little viper here is actually really talented!"
"Wait, hey... what!?"
"Is that what the Vulcan in your name is for? Like volcano?"
"No that is actually master Vulcan's name. He is my father."
Rastel who was tapping out a rhythm using the hammer on the anvil paused and looked at him quizzically.
"You were adopted? Or are you a halfling of some sort?"
Although it was rare due to the constraint of race, there were actually a few very rare instances where race cross breeding was successful.
The child would end up taking up traits from both races in a random manner so most of the time, there were cases in which what people would consider an abomination would be born.
Children who took on extreme parts of both races and ended up looking badly disfigured or with dysfunctional bodies.
For this reason, inter-race relations were mostly frowned on and children born out of such relationships were heavily discriminated upon.
Vars frowned deeply.
"No, no I am not. He.... adopted me."
"Oh really?" Rastel looked slightly disappointed.
"Would have been really interesting if you were. Imagine how amazing a, say half-elf half-dwarf would look like. Or maybe half-muan half-devil? Would their tails fuse together to form some cooler version or something? I'm really curious! They would probably be twice as powerful as a normal muan or devil."
He sighed regretfully as he finished his little fan-boy moment.
"I wish I could meet one you know, a halfling."
Vars looked at him with a meaningful gaze, his amber eyes glistening slightly.
"Hey the rain is easing up!" a voice called out from the entrance.
A bunch of them stood up and went to look outside.
It was really true, although the storm clouds were still covering the sky in thick layers, the rain was reducing at a gradual rate that was visible to anyone observing.
Baluu smacked his lips loudly and clean his ears with a finger.
"Well we won't get a much better chance than this. The town of Eadon is not far off now, we could make it if we go at a double march."
The old man wanted to refute but after thinking about it, decided it was for the best.
They didn't know when the storm would continue, it would be better if they could move now and make it to the shelter of the town before any unfortunate accident occurred.
Looking at the red light filtering through the clouds, it was like the moon was teasing him about forgetting the fact that it was the time of the blood moon.
Rastel also looked at the receding rain and patted the head of Myra who was also peeking curiously at the entrance.
Amba was sleeping snugly in her arms, as if all that was happing in the world was too mundane for him.
They would have to move quickly and make it on time to this town called Eadon.
Vars was also looking out with them, he took a quick glance at Rastel's face before turning his gaze back at the blood dyed storm clouds.
His faint red eyes that reflected the light twinkled slightly.