Rastel stepped into the scorching heat of the smithy with burning curiosity in his mind.
As the door automatically closed shut behind them, Myra flinched and turned around instinctively.
Rastel patted her head to reassure her before going down the short corridor that led to a large hall where the voices of the rest of the group was coming from.
The walls were a dark red and a bright orange light was constantly emanated from a piece of round metal that was lodged in the ceiling.
Rastel gave it a curious glance as he stepped into the large hall then,
GASP!
His breath was taken away.
Even though the building looked quite large from the outside, it was nothing compared to the size of the hall that was now in front of his eyes.
The hall he was staring at now seemed to be as large as a football field. The four walls of the hall were filled with various pipes made from different materials with some hissing as they poured out hot steam.
Around the hall, various large metal tables were set up with various smithing tools laying across them and mini furnaces with flames that seemed to boil like lava.
Workstations for the smithery's workers.
Although the smithery was now devoid of workers, Rastel could imagine how it would look like when all the blacksmiths are at their workstations. The various clanging sounds of hammer meeting metal and the hissing of beaten out ingots meeting cold water.
A truly wonderful scene.
'This is classic fantasy right here!' he screamed out in his mind.
On a wall to the left there were various weapons and equipment hanging on the walls or in display cases.
The weapons were made with various materials which Rastel was unable to recognize.
From swords to maces to axes to halberds to large great swords that seemed too big for an average person to wield.
There was the occasional metal bow or crossbow with exquisite carvings and designs that looked more like art to be admired than weapons of war.
There were also many elegant shields and full body metal armor on display. Leather armor with metal greaves and chest plates, bracers and helmets. Every piece of every type of armor equipment that Rastel could think of was there.
On the right, there was a very large furnace that kept on billowing heat. The furnace looked about as large as a truck with the insides overflowing with what Rastel could definitely swear was lava.
Attached to the furnace's open door was a long thick metal table that was a bright brown. The metal must have been something spectacular as it could tolerate the heat coming from the furnace.
Looking at the furnace, Rastel was sure that some sort of mechanism must have been put in place to mitigate the heat if only by a little. If not, normal people wouldn't be able to even stand within the hall.
But the amazing thing was, there was currently a figure standing near the furnace hard at work.
The figure was short, standing at a bit less than 5 ft and was dressed in a thick black leather top of some kind than went way below the knees.
On the figure's head was a long cap of similar material, the cap was long enough to hide the figure's eyes effectively covering half his face with edges of the cap extending even longer downwards framing the scruffy stubble that was barely visible.
Apart from those two pieces of clothing, the figure wore nothing else.
Bare handed and footed, the figure held a large hammer whose size was bigger than hiss head and was hitting heavily at a piece of metal that was glowing a bright blue.
KLANG! KLANG!! KLANG!!!
The group were currently in a reception like area that was immediately after the corridor. There were multiple large chairs and benches here that were covered in soft cushioned fur and leather.
Everyone was sitting down and waiting patiently for their host who seemed to be the figure by the large furnace.
The children were excited and were eager to run around but were held back by the older adults who themselves seemed nervous and even slightly excited.
After taking his fill of the view, Rastel found a seat beside Roxanne on a long bench with Myra following behind.
He took his seat and like many others around, began to watch the figure in the process of forging.
The figure eventually stopped beating on the metal and started scrutinizing it. He hit the metal a few more times with the large hammer and nodded a few times as if in confirmation.
Next thing, before Rastel could even react, the figure had picked up the scorching blue metal with his bare hands and tossed it into the furnace like he was just tossing over a book.
The furnace instantly turned a bright blue to match the color of the metal and the heat in the hall seemed to intensify.
"The hell?" Rastel was dumbfounded by what he just saw.
Seeing Vars handling a piece of hot metal was amazing but compared to this, this was just insane!
At least he saw evidence of Vars using a skill to achieve that feat but this person didn't seem to be using a spell at all!
"Are all dwarves that disturbingly monstrous? Carrying something that hot with their bare hands?" he couldn't help but ask Roxanne.
"No..." she frowned as she answered.
"At least as far as I know. Dwarven grandmasters are legendary beings in AOM, it is truthfully very amazing that we get to meet one here. In the dwarven city of Avalan, no one can casually meet with the dwarven grandmaster that heads the city. Unless you are a dwarven elder or a special guest of the city, meeting the grandmaster is basically impossible."
The level of dwarven grandmasters got elevated in Rastel's mind with this new information. It seems like they were really amazing people.
"As you can tell, meeting a dwarven grandmaster is really hard for players at this stage of the game as they are very rare. I have never met one before so I can't tell, but I have met a dwarven master before and I have never witnessed them pulling off such a stunt."
Just as they were discussing, a large figure entered the hall from a door behind the large furnace. This figure's presence brought a gasp from the mouth of Rastel and some of the children.
This was because, the figure's entire body was made up of rocks!
The figure was nearly three meters tall and was made up of numerous rocks from large to small to form the body's four limbs and a rather large head which was made of an entire large piece of rock.
There were two holes on its head for eyes and a large slit that was a mouth that both glowed with a bright orange light, its chest also glowed with a similar light that shone through the stone that made it up.
The figure looked so intimidating from a distance that Rastel nearly went on guard when he initially sighted it. But immediately after, his tensed body relaxed as he looked at the nearly comical sight.
The stone giant was pushing a large trolley filled with various ores towards the dwarven grandmaster by the furnace. It seemed to be humming a happy tune as it moved from the deep humming that was resounding the large hall.
Occasionally, it would wiggle a little bit before dipping a huge hand into the ore trolley and tossing a few into its mouth which it crunched down with obvious delight.
Rastel's jaw dropped as he could not connect the large intimidating figure to the behavior it was exhibiting.
Seeing the dumbfounded look on his face, Roxanne let out a small giggle and asked.
"You have never seen a Bal before have you noob?"
"What are they?" he asked, the surprise still evident on his face.
"A noob is really hopeless." Roxanne seemed to find huge amusement from his reaction.
"They are a race of stone men. Some people confuse them with elementals sometimes but they are fundamentally different. Bal have actual life and they reproduce like other races, although they are asexual."
Rastel wanted to stop her and ask about elementals too but decided to hold in his curiosity for now.
"They typically live in large mountains or generally places with abundant rocks and ore as that is their source of food. They are also very adept in finding and digging for ores, so they naturally became very close with the dwarven race. They have a sort of symbiotic relationship."
"Why though? Dwarves use ores to forge so they won't allow the Bals to feed on them, would they? What can the dwarves give the bals?" Rastel was confused.
Since the Bals can already easily find their food, they shouldn't have much other problems. With their intimidating build, he doubted they would have much difficulty defending their territories too.
"I understand what you are thinking but unlike what they look like, the bals are actually very peaceful creatures. They may have incredible defense and very high strength but they have basically zero combat ability."
"Considering how valuable they are, they were hunted down by various races in the past for their ability. It was only until the dwarves intervened did the hunting stop as no power would want to antagonize the dwarves."
Roxanne gave him a brief explanation of the relationship between the bals and the dwarves.
"So, the bals help the dwarves with their ability while the dwarves offer them protection?" Rastel nodded in understanding.
"That is how it is" Roxanne nodded.
Suddenly a loud voice echoed across the hall.
"Damnit Lolo! I told you to stop eating those, I need as much as I can get!" the voice came from the short figure of the dwarven grandmaster.
"Gruhuhuhu! These yenite ores are really tasty little Vul-vul." The huge bal chortled as he tossed more into his mouth.
The bal's voice was just as Rastle expected, gruff and deep.
"Argh! Damnit give me that trolley!"
The dwarf left the furnace and went to take the trolley from the bal called Lolo. As he took it away, the bal reached over his head and fetched another handful of ore and shoved it into his mouth. He crunched it with relish as he looked around.
When his eyes met those of the group waiting at the reception, his bright orange eyes widened in surprise.
"Ah! tiny Vul-vul! You have guests! Guests!" he called out to the grandmaster.
"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that" the dwarf's hidden face turned towards his guests.
He abandoned the trolley and walked towards them with the bal following closely behind.
Seeing them approach, the old man who was sitting silently stood up from his position to meet them.
The rest of the group followed, including Rastel, Roxanne and Myra.
"I must thank yer for offering us shelter. I realize we must be imposing." The old man greeted first.
"Bah! Shut up you old bastard! When did you become so courteous?" the dwarf retorted as he took off his large cap to reveal the rest of his facial features.
Rastel was a little bit surprised as he didn't look as old as he expected him to be.
He had deep blue eyes and a large forehead which seemed to have an ever-present scowl. Together with the small stubble on his chin, he looked like a man in his late forties at most.
But considering he was a dwarf who had far longer lifespans than humans, Rastel couldn't underestimate his age.
"Shut up fool! We are tired and wet from the storm, if yer don't give us a room before I blink my eyes five more times then I swear by Enki herself I will knock yer into yer own furnace!" the old man blasted back with flames in his eyes.
The dwarf chuckled heartily.
"That's more like it!" he then turned his attention to the rest of the group.
"I am grandmaster Vulcan, and I happily welcome all of you to Vulcan Hall!"