The art of craftmanship as a profession extends to various lines of working disciplines from tailoring, blacksmithing, engineering, and even some of the more creative arts.
For humanity, these production classes are a necessary part of their lives to earn money.
But for elves, it is more.
They are tools for survival. Creators of tools to murder, inflict pain, and cause irreversible death.
The crossbows, Molotov, and the books that his majesty writes are great examples for the elves. The book 'Random Ideas' are especially widely received among the Makers.
Maker is what the elves refer to as the professionals contributing to the development of various technology.
They are creators who invent, develop, and produce items for the sake of the whole elven race.
As elves wish to replicate the Elf King's creativity, more and more elves join in the endeavor to the point that is almost becoming uncontrollable.
There is a time when there is a rapid increase of injured elves because of the weapons creation fever. This necessitates the Elf Princess to organize the chaos.
This is where the Makers Guild comes from. It is an organization her highness, Princess Zorun, is founding with already over 27 Makers registered.
Among them, the most respected is definitely the great alchemist Allenwood.
Though he is a member of the Makers Guild, he is only an honorary member as he is already a 'master' that her highness has preferentially named as a show of prestige.
Other than him, there are also more respected members of the guild.
The blacksmith, Morenkai.
The tailor, Lamina.
The architect, Foro.
The woodworker, Pelena.
And more elves who graduate their apprenticeship and are now recent members of the Makers.
It is a competitive business. With the elf regime as their sole consumer, it might not seem the case, but with the incentives and threat of punishment, the Makers really have no choice but only to improve and contribute.
It is not like they will prefer humans to be their employer over elves if they find a chance.
Moreover, the 'brainwashing' of the citizens to hate humanity is going on a successful roll lately. The hate for humans is getting unhealthy, but it is quite a powerful driving force to move the elves.
It is just so convenient to use, and that's more reason why the elves are so eager to invent things that kill.
"My name is Trudviar, and her majesty has asked me to be the weapons tester from now on. The schedule remains the same. We will conduct the general weapons testing quarterly a year."
In an open expanse where the quarterly weapons testing occurs stands General Trudviar.
The Makers present for the testing suddenly go quiet at the appearance of a sudden celebrity.
General Weapons Testing.
It is an event where the military tests the weapons the makers wish to submit. If the military finds the weapon feasible, they will integrate it into the military.
The weapons tester as its name suggests, tests the products of the Makers.
While it can be done by other Einherjars, it has come to reason that it will be better if it is Trudviar who does the testing from now on.
The statistics of injured Einherjars during weapons testing are not in any good numbers.
It might be a risk to put Trudviar in this job if it is this dangerous. But the princess has confidence that he can do it.
Trudviar is a warrior even all before this. His knowledge and expertise surpass all of the elves in the Dark Forest.
He is not clueless of the stories of the Makers Guild's weapons testing all thanks to the account of his few subordinates.
So, Trudviar knows what he ought to partake in. He should be capable enough to react to the most unexpected situations.
"So who wants to go first?"
"Let me, general..."
Coming from the crowd is Morenkai, a relatively middle-aged elf hefting an axe with about half a meter of the handle and an axe head with a slight cave-in curve.
Trudviar knows the name of Morenkai. He has a workshop in his name calls 'Morenkai Hammer' with four other Makers in his employ and several apprentices. Currently, he has two contributions— Chainmail and Catapult.
Catapult is especially memorable to Trudviar as he knows the humans already have it. Trudviar recalls his one encounter with pirates when he has a strike of the genius of using a Catapult to propel a slime monster to the pirate ship.
Trudviar snickers to himself not showing it to the others.
"I hope that you liked the chainmail that I sent you, general."
"I do and am still wearing it. So what do you have for us?"
Morenkai hands his weirdly shaped axe to Trudviar.
"Hmmm... the axe head is weird. It looks like a small shovel."
The axe looks like a smaller square-tip shovel. While calling it an axe is generous, it is more of a hatchet.
"I call it a shovel axe," Morenkai adds. "Still effective killing weapon. Sharp and very durable. I heard the military includes digging in their drills. This is pretty much a weapon and shovel in one. The axe blade is a single perfect square to accommodate each of its functions— shovel, and axe. The only disadvantage to this weapon is it is not as easily throwable as standard axes. It is an original of Morenkai Hammer. We are trying to flesh out 'Random Ideas' and be more original. So we are starting with shaping out weapons for more versatile use."
Morenkai demonstrates how to use the shovel axe. The center of the axe is hardened tough steel. "This is a rotating ring bearing. We are still improving on it. But at this stage, it is already working as intended."
With a slight turning of the bearing and the ring latching the axe and the centerpiece, the square-tip shovel turns and becomes a diamond. "This is the axe." Morenkai turns the ring again, and the diamond turns into a square. "And this is the shovel."
Trudviar can see the practicality of the shovel axe. It can be a handy sidearm. He tests it by swinging it multiple times and using it as a shovel.
"Can you engrave a grip to the ring to turn the axe? It feels inconvenient to the touch if it becomes slippery from sweat or the rain."
Other than simply testing and giving qualifications of the weapons, it is also the weapons tester's job to offer valuable feedback for improvement.
Trudviar tests more weapons. The others are pretty much dud, but there are also more noteworthy ones like the Short Beddable Cape and Glass Slingshots.
Short Beddable Cape is a tensile leather work of a new and upcoming tailor. The cape is about an arm's length and can be used as bedding. It is warm, and resistant to the elements. Trudviar can see the lack of need for tents in favor of more sneaky operations like going behind the enemy lines covertly and of the sort.
Glass Slingshots is an idea of a glass worker to create glass bottles that can withstand relatively zero-distance impact but at the same time fragile during a long-distance impact. By using a slingshot, an elf can fire a potion using the constructed glass bottles. A glass bottle is fragile to momentum, but durable under pressure. Trudviar can only imagine the horrors this weapon can cause.
Of course, there are also weapons that are quite difficult to assess.
The first problematic weapon to come up is the Sword Whip. It is literally a flat flexible sword at least a meter long.
Prima, the inventor of the weapon presents the Sword Whip. The Sword Whip doesn't have a sheath, but a gartered pouch.
As a Maker with no affiliated workshop, Prima has quite a reputation for being crazy.
"Careful, General. The last tester suffered multiple lacerations from testing this weapon. Some of my colleagues call this more a torture device than a weapon." Prima eerily laughs.
Trudviar should reject Prima's weapon submission as the Princess instructs him to do. It is Prima's Sword Whip after all that renders the last tester to be injured.
But as a proud, responsible, and objective tester, Trudviar is not someone who will easily reject something as interesting as this.
Whips are also among the weapons that a warrior learns to use. A whip is not a deadly weapon as it is more of a tool for inflicting punishment.
But the warrior culture of the elf is one that desires versatility in all kinds of weapons. Trudviar has his fair share of training with the whip, and he can say with confidence, it has its uses.
It might not be deadly, but it is useful. Against lightly armored units, a leather whip is better than a shield in melee. Moreover, whips are difficult to dodge.
Whips are also useful tools to hunt giant herbivores.
The more creative use of it is to lace a leather whip with poison and a single elf can dance around a group of human soldiers and end up killing them.
But now. As a Sword Whip, the whip now has the potential to become a truly deadly weapon and not just a tool for inflicting pain.
"Give me some space."
After testing the Sword Whip for some time and getting minor cuts to the arm, Trudviar finally gets a hold of wielding the new weapon.
Slashing watermelons from a distance feels quite good to him. It is a bit more challenging to cut the tough wooden dummies, but by repeatedly striking the same area, Trudviar manages to dismantle a dummy limb for limb.
"It will be difficult to train them with a Sword Whip but it will be worth it."