The short man was obviously a Dwarf. He had a muscular build, most likely from blacksmithing his entire life. Black hair that would have normally reached his shoulders was tied in a bun. A long unkempt beard that was tied in a braid was unraveling. He had on smithing gear and his hands and face were smeared in soot.
"Dis 'em kids you have me build this shit for?" The dwarf asked
"Yes Sir Brok. I am their instructor and this equipment will come in handy while training them." Glenn answered
"Hmmm, the girl has a nice build, perfect for being my assistant. The boy, on the other hand, doesn't have the build to be a blacksmith. Too skinny." Brok rubbed his beard while assessing Grace and Joren.
'I'm too skinny? Bitch I'm built better than most teenagers while only being ten and you're saying I'm too skinny? Fuck you! Blacksmithing sucks anyway.' Joren didn't dare say that out loud. He knew it was wrong to insult someone's profession, especially when that person's profession made him the things he asked for.
"I'm sorry sir. As cool as I think blacksmithing is, I want to be a warrior." Joren said proudly
"Oh, you know how amazing blacksmithing is? Humans usually don't appreciate our desired profession. They either ask us Dwarves to make powerful weapons or something else that would cause mass destruction." Brok looked at Joren with curious eyes.
"Of course! Without blacksmithing, a ton of things couldn't be achieved today. Without that job, society would crumble." Joren stated nodding his head.
"Ha! You get it! Finally, a Human can see how great our profession is. Sure I love my work, my race work, but no one appreciates our job, our passion. Tell me, kid, do you know what's the most important thing you should do after forging something?" Brok looked into Joren's eyes appearing to peek into his soul. He didn't expect a child to think so highly of blacksmithing, a Human child at that. Although he wasn't expecting Joren to know the answer, he still wanted to ask.
"Shouldn't it be giving it to the person it was made for?" Grace asked
"No, no, It should be testing it out to make sure the forging was done properly." Glenn retorted
Although Brok heard their answers, he disregarded them, looking forward to what Joren would say.
"Naming it, right? And I don't mean simply calling a sword, a sword. I mean once you finish forging a sword of fire or light, for example, you should name it, like Sumarbrander or something."
When he heard his response, Brok's eyes widened while his jaw fell to the ground. He wasn't expecting anything special from Joren, he just genuinely wanted to know what his answer would be. What he did not expect was for Joren's answer to be spot on, not to mention knowing Dwarven etiquette.
Grace and Glenn both looked at Joren with shocked but more so confused expressions. They didn't think naming the weapon would hold any significance but judging from Brok's face, they could tell he was correct.
"Amazing! This is truly amazing! Not only did you get the answer right, but you even know some of the dwarven traditions. Kid, you should pick up blacksmithing. And before you decline, I don't mean you should pick it up as your main profession. I mean that you should at least know how to forge. You have the spirit of a blacksmith, so you should definitely have the skills of one." Brok clasped Joren's shoulders and looked into his eyes with fierce determination
'Wow! To be honest, I didn't think my answer would be the right one. Thank you, God, for having me be a mythology nerd.'
"I think learning blacksmithing is a cool idea. But I want to become a warrior first." Learning a new skill is fine and all, but learning something that will take up as much time as his training wasn't something Joren wanted to do right now, or even afford. The Golden Lady told him that he needed to become strong in order to help her.
"That's okay, as long as you want to embrace the blacksmith spirit, then that's all that matters. Here let me give you something." Brok reached out and grabbed the side of Joren's shoulder. A bright red flash glowed from his palm and a slightly burning sensation riddled Joren's shoulder which lasted for a few seconds.
Once he let go, the symbol of a hammer and tongs crossing into an X shape inside of a circle appeared on Joren's shoulder before disappearing.
"That's the universal crest of the Dwarven race. It shows friendship and love for blacksmithing. Show this to any Dwarf, and they will help you out with any request as long as it's reasonable and doesn't go against their ways." Brok smiled before taking the workout equipment from his cart.
"Take care kid, I hope to see you sometime in the future, maybe we could get a drink? Haha" He took his cart and went on his merry way.
'What in the plot just happened?' Joren wondered
"Amazing! Not only did you get the utmost respect of a Dwarf, but he also gave you that crest. Joren, how did you know the answer to his question?" Glenn asked while Grace also looked at him with a curious expression
"I don't know. I just thought of when you name your children. When a child is born, their parents name them. So if Dwarves view their creations as their children, then the obvious answer would be to give their creations a name." He stated casually as he walked over to see. He noticed that they had weird markings on them that looked like a language that he couldn't understand.
"Runes, Dwarven enchantments," Glenn said. "The weights magically increase once they sense the user getting accustomed to it. Very convenient magic."
"That is convenient. I can't wait to get started! I want to try these right now!" Grace, being a battle-crazed person absolutely loved the idea of a magical workout machine that adjusted to her current strength.
"Alright you two, let's go over what we will be doing for the next three years." Both Grace and Joren's attention shifted to Glenn once he spoke.
"Every day, you will wake up early and start your morning workout. It will consist of stretching followed by cardio exercises. Once you complete that, you will stretch again and use the newly crafted equipment for strength training. Once that's completed, you will stretch once more."
'Wow, he's really emphasizing stretching huh? Well, that's actually a good thing, having a loose but firm body is important.' completing his thoughts, Joren continued to listen to Glenn.
"Once you complete your morning workout, you will start training. For you Joren, it will consist of sword swings. For now, it will be vertical sword swings but later you will move on to horizontal and diagonal swings. After that, you will learn sword thrusts. As for you Grace, you will continue to work with your aura, improving it and incorporating it into your style. Do you two understand?"
"Yup!" Grace responded cheerfully
"I understand" Joren responded
"Good, now let's get to work"
Just like that, Joren started his training to become the strongest warrior. Oh and free the Golden Lady I guess.
[A/N: Okay so now we 'bout to get into the juicy stuff and by juicy I mean action. By chapter 35, the first TRUE adventure will start. Hope you guys enjoy it. Remember to have a great day.]