Previously in NWC-
Luna and Reno finished laying out the general idea of their battle plan. They woke up to find the King's men had come to Bambadale to collect the quarterly taxes. Reno then got his very first payday, much more than he felt he was worthy of. The mayor informs Reno about his next mission- collecting wood for a bonfire and the storage building. Reno, with his new goal, quickly sets off for the woods near Bambadale...
He notices a couple farmers working hard in the fields, absorbed in their work. A couple more stand underneath a stable as they take their break out of the sun. One of them notices Reno and waves, jogging over.
"Hey there, Mr. Carpenter!" One of the farmers greets Reno with a friendly smile.
"Hey there, Mr. Farmer," Reno replies awkwardly, not expecting them to approach him.
"I see you got an axe… cuttin' some trees?" The farmer eyeballs the axe with a curious gaze.
"Yeah. The mayor asked me to cut some trees for a bonfire in a couple of days."
"The celebration of life? You're really gonna' cut the trees fer' us?"
"I don't have anything else to do, so I might as well."
"Well then I suppose I should let you at it! Thank ya' fer' that! It can be a bit of a hassle cuttin' trees after you've been in the fields all day!"
"Yeah, that sounds kind of… terrible. I'd never make it as a farmer. Well, I should probably get to cutting before I procrastinate. It was nice meeting you!" Reno waves to the farmer as he finishes his short journey to the forest edge. "Which one of you little fuckers is getting cut down today…" Reno looks around at the trees, trying to spot one that seems smaller than the others. Finally, he's decided on his three victims. "These one's look pretty small compared to the others…" He begins hacking away at the tree. Before long he's managed to cut down three like sized trees. As the last tree falls to the ground, sending a loud thud into the air, three farmers come over.
"Looks like we're just in time!" The three farmers begin loading up the wood that Reno had cut, throwing it in the sizeable pull-along their horse was leading. "We'll take it from here. Why don't you head back and tell the mayor? He'll be happy fer' sure!"
"I mean… if you don't mind, then I guess I will." Reno sets off for the mayor's office.
Luna, from within her hiding spot in Reno's shirt, pipes up. "It is quite refreshing to see so many people working in unison!"
"It's definitely not what I'm used to." Reno's trip to the mayor's office was short and painless. He enters the building, waving at the mayor. "Hey, Old man! I'm all done with cutting the trees!
"That was fast! I'll have to go inventory it and make sure it's enough… Your help means a lot!"
"I'm simply giving back to the community." He gives a half assed joke salute, which makes the mayor chuckle. "I should probably go look at the place across the street while I'm on a roll!"
"Be safe!"
Reno heads to the building across the street, taking caution as he enters. To his pleasant surprise, the building wasn't in that bad of condition. "This is doable…" He looks around, trying to find out why they stopped using it. He finally spots a hole in the roof. The hole was by no means large, but it was large enough to justify thinking twice about storing important resources there. "I see the issue… I see a little second floor area, but where's the access?" He looks around trying to find anyway to access the second floor. He finally discovers a ladder that appears heavily worn. "That thing is gonna break… how did they even store stuff up there?" He tests the ladder out, placing his foot on the first step and shifting a gradually increasing amount of weight on it. It creaks but doesn't break. "Here goes nothing…" He begins climbing, questioning his actions the entire way up. After what felt like an eternity to him, he finally reaches the top. "I almost want to risk breaking my legs jumping off the ledge rather than using that thing again…"
"Please don't hurt yourself, Reno…," Luna says, her voice tinged with concern.
"Don't worry, don't worry. I'm not going to ACTUALLY do it… maybe." He begins inspecting the hole closer up. "I MIGHT be able to reach it from in here with something to stand on… Damn hundred foot rooves…" Reno, while standing in at 6 feet tall, still couldn't quite reach the work area. He notices a pile of large crates sitting in the corner, covered in dust. "Did they just forget these?" He walks over and tries to push one. "What the heck is in here?!"
"Perhaps we should open it?"
"Way ahead of you." Reno opens the first box, the hinges squeaking and screaming. "It's a bunch of… rocks?" He picks up a chunk of the rocky substance. "It might be an ore… someone might know. I'll ask the old man." Reno, unable to move the cases as they are, carefully traverses the dinky ladder. He scurries across the street to the town hall. "Hey, old man!"
"Welcome back, Reno! Did you need something?"
"Yeah, actually."
The old man stands to his feet. "What do you need?"
"There's a container of some, like, rock or ore or something on the second floor of the storage room. It was covered in dust, so I wasn't sure if anyone knew about it… There's three of them too."
The mayors eyes shoot open. "Are you serious?"
Taken slightly aback by the mayors reaction, he finally responds. "Y-yeah? I can show you some of it, I didn't want to throw any of it down because it's somewhat heavy and it'd probably damage the floor."
"Well let's not waste any more time! Let's go, let's go, young man!" The mayor ushers Reno back towards the storage house.
Reno climbs up the ladder once more, feeling less nervous this time around. "Here's some." He holds out a skull sized chunk of the rock.
"There it is!" The mayor sounds both shocked and happy at the same time. "By golly you found it, Reno!"
"What'd I find?" He stares at the mayor, with a dumb confused face.
"That there's iron! We stored it up there to make it harder for bandits to steal it… I guess we forgot about it after the stairs collapsed…"
"Sounds like there's a little bit of a bandit problem around here…"
The mayor sighs with frustration, squeezing the bridge of his nose. "You're damn right we do… Those bastards attack us AT LEAST once a month!"
"Really? And nobody does anything to help you guys?"
"A long time ago we TRIED to ask the king for help. He basically said 'too darn far, ain't none of my concern', then left us to fend for ourselves! That's when we started to hate the bastard! He sends his damn wage slaves using their fancy-dancy portal magic to tax us but won't use the same magic to protect us!"
"Let me guess… the magic costs too much money to use so he only uses it for collecting money."
"That's exactly what he said! I swear on my life… I'll see that bastard of a king kick the bucket before I do!"
"The more you tell me about him the more I completely agree. I haven't even seen what he looks like, and I already hate his guts."
"I'm sorry… I got a lil' heated there, back to the iron! We were lookin' for that stuff for months! We thought the bandits made off with it, but I'm glad we were wrong! Kent will be happy to hear about this!"
"Who's Kent?"
"Kent is our blacksmith! He's got a place in the corner of town where he works on farm equipment and other odds and ends. Since you haven't met him yet, this might be a perfect chance for you! Why don't ya' go tell 'em about what ya' found?"
"Sounds like a plan." Reno climbs down the ladder, trying his best to hold the chunk of iron. "I'll go show him right away."
The mayor points towards the south-west corner of the village. "His shop is over there; you'll hear it when you get closer."
"Got it. I'll be back!" Reno begins jogging towards the blacksmith's, his speed slightly reduced from the rock. He quickly begins to hear the sound of metal-on-metal pounding as he draws closer to his destination. The first thing he notices is the door being wide open. Even standing a few feet from the entrance he can feel the heat pouring out. His forehead is wet with sweat by the time he's taken the first step inside. Even though the equipment scattered throughout the room is nothing new, it still appears just as complicated as modern machinery. A middled aged man with a strip of grey hair and a scruffy and patchy beard hammers away at a bright red piece of metal. Reno stands awkwardly in the doorway. After a minute of being watched, the man notices his guest.
The man sets the metal back in the furnace to keep it warm. He takes his gloves off, revealing scars of varying sizes. He wipes the sweat off his forehead as he walks towards Reno. "You don't look familiar… Are you that carpenter my wife was talkin' my ear off about to me?"
TO BE CONTINUED...