When Ken opened the door the first thing he felt was the heat engulfing the room, then his eyes locked on the sight of a kid that couldn't be older than 12, holding a piece of a red hot metal with a tong on the anvil and constantly hammering it into shape.
Before he could form thoughts about the situation, his eye caught sight of another piece of metal in the hearth and another near the sharpening mill and another that was being cooled into a bucket of water and finally there was an empty wooden box with the Army insignia on and a symbol of dagger carved on the top of the box and said box was empty.
Then he understood why Gren refused to show him the kid and why was he so nervous.
Not only was the kid too young to be an apprentice, he was the one forging the whole patch and in less than a day. This was slavery not mentoring.
" I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU DAMNED BLACK BELLIED DWARF, ARE YOU INTO SLAVERY NOW?!! AND YOUNG KIDS NONETHELESS!!! " Ken was roaring as he held the still disorinted dwarf in the air from his shirt and start shaking him back and forth.
The bloodlust emitting from Ken sobered Gren a bit and he knew unless he provided an explanation this won't end like their usual scuffles.
" WOAH WOAH, STOP SHAKING ME YOU DAMNED HUMAN AND HEAR ME OUT." Roared Gren as he broke free from the death grip Ken had on him.
" First of all, NEVER! EVER! lump me with those scums again. Do we understand each other?." Hissed Gren as he fixed Ken with his own glare, which stopped Ken in his tracks and cooled him a bit.
He knew slavery was a sensitive subject for Gren even after all these years but he needed an explanation and he was getting one even if it meant pushing Gren's buttons.
" second of all, do you see and kind of collar, shackles or chains on the kid's body ?" Questioned Gren as he walked toward the forge door and started observing Ryder who was still hard at work despite all the racket.
" then explain to me how a 10 years old kid is trying to meet a deadline that even you may have some trouble with."
" He is 11 ye- don't give me that look, everything the kid doing is his own choice. He needed gold and i was willing to give him a chance, if he manage to finish this patch in time, i will pay him enough money so he can buy medicine for his siblings at the orphanage."
" Are you really this miser? Even the most expensive drug in the capital won't make a dent in your coffers, let alone some cold medicine. Do you really have to work him to the bone before you pay him ?"
"You think i didn't try that!!" Exclaimed Gren in frustration as he threw his hands in the air.
"That kid has more pride in his bones than a damned dragon, he won't accept a bronze coin that he didn't earn, i had to threaten to kick him out if he didn't eat the food i provided for him in his breaks and even then he didn't eat it all and smuggle some half of it to the orphanage." Like a damn that has broken, complaints and frustrations started coming out of Gren mouth.
" The closest he came to begging, was when he asked me to become his mentor which he did by waiting for me in the freezing rain Infront of my shop in the middle of the damn night!!!! And when i did accept- more out of frustration than anything - he refused to kneel and only bowed his head a little." Gren face was red and he was panting a little as he finished ranting.
Ken face was a mixture of shock and disbelief as he stared at Ryder who was putting the last touches at the first dagger he managed to finish.
" But why take him as an apprentice didn't you swear that you will never take an apprentice ever again, wasn't giving him a job and some occasional guidance enough." Questioned Ken as he remembered the oath Gren took after what happened to his last apprentice.
" W-w-well, that..., i di-...." Stammered Gren as his face turned red and kept averting his gaze.
" what? Was he that talented that you are lost for words?" Ken raised his eyebrows at the sight of his old friend lost for words which didn't happen much.
" Talented my hairy ass!! The damned brat tricked me!" Shouted Gren before he clamped his hand over his mouth as he realised his blunder. Alas it was too late.
"YOU?! HE A brat still wet behind the ears tricked YOU a renowned dawrf blacksmith. And you still didn't crawl into a hole and die, HAHAHA, I am starting to like this boy."
Ken started laughing as he pointed at Gren increasingly red face.
Fuming, Gren started stomping towards the counter and started rummaging through the drawers until he found a rectangular box and threw it at the still laughing Ken, Who easily caught the box in one hand.
" HAHA, you starting to lose your edge, old dwarf." Ken's chuckles died down as he looked over the rectangular box curiously while as he felt it weight was quite heavy for a small box.
Opening it revealed a short blade. Holding it close and giving it few swings while noting it's characteristics, Ken's brows furrowed as he gave his evaluation.
" this is trash, the balance is all wrong, the edge isn't dull, hell the blade isn't even straight in the first place, even someone who knows nothing about weapons can te- wait a moment! Is this ?!!!"
Ken exclamated in shock as he finally noticed why the blade despite it small size was unusually heavy and it didn't has anything to do with forger's ability.
"Took you long enough, yes this blade is forged from a high quality high grade steel."
Gren gave a pained smile as he confirmed Ken's doubt.
" were you drunk when you decided to forge this?! How could you waste such a piece of high quality steel ?! This thing is worth thousands of gold!!!"
" do you think i don't know that?! I have been dealing with this loss for 8 months now, i have been forced to cut down on my expenses and take more jobs than i usually do, this is actually the first day i take off in 8 months!"
Gren was on the verge of tears as he unloaded all his greviences for the past 8 months on Ken.
" 8 months ? You mean it has something to do with this apprentice of yours ?" Ken felt sorry for this guy but he didn't understand how Ryder got anything to do with such a valuable piece of steel.
He doubted the kid tried to steal since Gren kept him around and he still has all his limbs and he couldn't believe that Gren messed up that bad in the forging process, he can do a better job while drunk which he actually did before.
"It has everything to do with that brat! At first i refused mentoring him but i liked the kid personality and gave him a job and taught him a little when i am free, but the greedy bastard wasn't satisfied and kept pestering me everyday to become his mentor and to teach him more. The kid wasn't some kind of heaven defying talent as you imagined but he was persistent... WAY TOO FUCKING PERSISTENT!" Gren roared the last words with so much regret and his hand pulling at his prizes mustache.
" I couldn't take the pestering anymore but i didn't want to take him as an apprentice either. So i made him a deal." Strength seemed to drain from Gren's body as he leaned against the wall.
" if he managed to forge a weapon, no matter what quality from this piece of high grade steel i would teach him everything i know."
" If you didn't want to take on an apprentice you should have told him from the start, why give him an impossible task ?" Asked Ken a frustrated voice.
"You think I didn't, everytime i tried talking sense into him, he would respond by ' i will have to change your mind then', so while knowing it was a low method i still gave him an impossible challenge and if he failed he would drop the matter and he did he agreed to it."
" Did he you even teach him the between a normal steel and a graded one ?"
" Do you think i am like those trashy mentors who withhold information so their disciples won't surpass them ? Of course i taught him the basics and even showed him an example of every type, yet he didn't even frown and accepted my challenge, he only asked for no time limit."
" you expect me to believe he actually did it. Just how ?"
" i don't know, i closed the shop that day and watched over the forge, half expecting someone to try sneak in and help him or steal my materials, but through the day the hammering didn't stop once and no suspicious person came either, by midnight the hammering stopped and no sound was heard from inside the forge." Gren looked like he was remembering something mystical story as astonishment and disbelief covered his face.
" I tried calling but there was no response, so i slowly opened the door and peaked in and saw the kid on the floor breathing heavily mumbling something, while burn marks covered his body and the skin on his hands was charred black, i still remember the smell of burnt meat and the panic i felt when i saw the state he was in, thankfully i had a high grade healing potion made by the Python clan's elders so the kid didn't die or have permanent injuries. But do you know what he said after drinking an elixir worth hundreds of gold ?! ' I win ' with a shit eating grin before falling unconscious once again." By now Gren was sitting on the floor in depression while covering his face with both his hand and Ken mouth was agape as he took in the unbelievable story.
"By that time i was afraid of looking but i had to, so after settling the kid i started looking everywhere for the metal i gave him, but it wasn't on the anvil or by the sharpening mill, it was still the damned furnace and the hammer was on the ground close by, after taking it out of the fire i doused it in water and observed it and it was trash, there wasn't even a handle! But it did has the most basic primitive shape of a weapon, so by all accounts the kids passed the test and he FUCKING KNOW IT TOO! " Screaming was the only outlet for Gren rage but it did little to help.
" you can't expect me to believe this, even i know that to forge a high grade weapon, extreme strength and heat were the most basic requirements and you have a limited amount of time to hammer the impurities out before you must put it back in the flames, otherwise the metal will adapt to the heat and you would need a stronger flame to reforge it, so the longer the forging process the harder it gets, no matter how i look at it the kid doesn't have the strength to pull that off." Ken shook his head in denial.
" that would be normally the case, but what if he never pulled the metal out of the flames?"
Gren looked at his friend straight in the eyes and asked an unbelievable question.
" what are you talking about ?"
" i am saying what if the kid never pulled the metal out of the furnace? What if he hammered the damn thing while it was inside the furnace?!!"
" I-impossible!" Shouted Ken in shock at such an absurd question.
"Is it really impossible? It explains the burns on the boy's body, he can't do anything about his strength but if he increased the heat and kept on hammering eventually even a high grade steal will yield. It's not perfect and it's impossible to craft something good this way but for winning the challenge it was more than enough."
" but the heat from the furnace would be unbearable, not mentioning the flying coal due to the hammering, there is no way he managed to withstood it for hours." The more Ken thought about it the more impossible it seems.
" I think he did. Look at him right now, despite working for sometime his body isn't sweating and his focus never wavered so far, i believe he felt his hands burning but he pushed through the pain nonetheless, that's why i accepted him as my last disciple." Gren kept watching Ryder's work as an exasperated smile spread across his face.
" do you he is a distant relative to one of the ancient clans ?" Asked Ken.
" maybe, i will find a way to test his blood in the future, but for now, nobility or not he will call me master." Gren was smiling as he muttered these last words while playing with tip of his mustache.