Born From A Divine Gamble

Now that there were so many people around him, Emp saw that he wasn"t all that tall. Most of them, including Galana, were taller than him, making it so that he couldn"t see very far into the crowd.

Emp understood because of the knowledge imparted to him at his creation, that normal people were not born tall but instead very small and would grow into their optimal form with time. He wondered if he was created at his optimal height or if he would still grow. He hoped it would be the case because this current height was making it hard to see.

Around him, all kinds of people wearing all kinds of things walked around like the previous day. Tall and short, young and old, wearing long thin boots, large work boots or heels, colorful clothing, armor, dress, s.h.i.+rts, hats and trinkets of all kinds, so many different things.

He also saw what he a.s.sumed to be cursed-bloods, there was always something wrong with how they looked, betraying the fact they were not human. Sometimes it was their eyes with strange pupils or color, sometimes it was the hairs that had something strange, sometimes it was their skin, either showing a wrong color or being covered in scales, he even saw someone who was pale purple with large fin-like wings attached to his arms. They all walked through the crowd like the rest but people had a tendency to get out of their way so as to not meet them.

Emp didn"t examine anyone in detail because focused on not losing Galana in the swarm of people.

"Here, the shops are selling high quality gear but the price is much higher than elsewhere. Is it all right with you?" Said Galana speaking more about the area than a shop in particular.

"My life will depend on my weapon and armor, I"m ready to put down as much money as I need."

"In that case, the rich people usually buy their equipment at Tiberius"s shop. He is a pretty good smith and knows a lot of others, many times more talented than him. He sells all their works in a building annex to his forge over there at the end of this street."

She explained all that while bringing him to the annex in question. Just pa.s.sing by the forge itself, Emp could feel the heat spreading out of it, proof that Tiberius was at work. The adjacent shop didn"t have any windows but the door was wide open.

Emp entered behind Galana and was immediately impressed by the quant.i.ty of things exposed here. Daggers, swords, spears, s.h.i.+eld, bows, all kinds of armors and all sort of things he couldn"t recognize were sprawled across shelves and racks so numerous it was hard to move inside.

A woman, tall and muscled, welcomed them in the common tongue and Galana answered for them both.

While Galana was speaking to her, Emp made a mental list of what e needed here once again. Since he had a lot of money now, he wasn"t afraid to put a lot of things in said list. They expected him to learn fencing so he needed a sword. The reach of a spear could save his life so he wanted one too. If he had a bow as well, he could practice and maybe improve but since he did not plan on using one, he would settle down for a cheap one.

He also wanted a war hammer because after wielding the Great overburdening hammer so much, he had gotten used to it. It was also the weapon he used to beat his first opponent. Since he couldn"t use the one he already had in combat very well, he wanted a new one that could actually be wielded.

Aside from that, a s.h.i.+eld he could just bring out of the bag if he needed and an armor not too heavy to let him travel more easily, would complete his list. It was a pretty long list but since everything would be weightless once in the bag, it wasn"t all that unreasonable.

"She would like to see your hunting card to confirm you can buy anything here." Said Galana from the counter.

Emp interrupted his thoughts to show the card to the woman who nodded and asked something else.

"She wants to know what you are looking for and how much you are ready to pay for it."

Emp just repeated to her the list he had just made. Galana seemed exasperated and the woman surprised by the length of his answer.

"Idiot, what are you even going to do with all that!"

"The hammer is the most important but the sword can be practical as well, the spear is just there for a very specific kind of situation and the bow is just for training, I don"t need a fancy one."

Galana let out another sigh and the woman asked her something she took a long time to answer. She laughed hard at the answer and brought them to a bunch of blunt weapons that were leaning against a wall. There were maces and clubs, small and big hammers, in metals or strange materials most probably taken from monsters.

"She says to try and lift those that catch your eyes to see if the weight is right for you, if it is, she will tell you about their specifics."

"All right."

Emp proceeded to lift every hammer starting by the one who seemed the lightest, slowly raising the weight as he went. He didn"t know about what others looked for in a hammer but he himself felt that its weight was the most important. The heavier it was, the stronger the impact would be. He had witnessed it clearly in his fight against the woodland horror, the impacts of both the cliff and the hammer against the creature still rang in his bones.

So, he was looking for the heaviest hammer possible, with a handle long enough to wield it with both hands. While he was checking them one by one, Galana started questioning him again.

"Why a hammer instead of a sword? Do the Muracier have a secret hammer technique?"

"No, at least, I do not think so. It is more because of what I learned on my way here."

"What is it?"

"When I fought against the woodland horror, I would have died if I had used a sword. Its skull was its only weak point but you have seen it in the auction yesterday right? A foot thick stone at least, impossible to break with a blade or a spear. If I did not have the right tool, I would have died. This is why I need both a hammer and a sword, only having one of those two could lead me to my death."

"Wouldn"t a sword sharp enough to cut even stone do the job?"

"That would be a great blade if it was able to cut into stone as thick as a wall without getting stuck or chipped. I am sure it does exist but I am also sure it would cost a fortune. Why bother with it since I can get the same result with a good hammer. Speaking of a good hammer, this one has a great weight."

Emp had just weighted a hammer with a long leather covered iron handled. It"s head seemed to be a tooth as large as his own head. He raised it at the height of his torso and made it bounce a couple of times in his hands to feel its weight and balance. The woman, seemingly pleased, said something that Galana translated.

"She says that it"s surprising for someone of your height to be able to lift that. It"s a hammer made from the tooth of a Thunder-chew. She says that it"s worth a lot but it"s very durable, you shouldn"t be able to break it by hitting anything with it. Aside from that, there"s no enchantment to it and has nothing really special to it."

"I like it"s weight, I will take it." Said Emp satisfied. "The swords now."

"You want me to hold it for you while you check the swords?" Asked Galana while presenting her hands.

"I thought you said you weren"t a servant?" Said Emp, confused.

"The one time I try to be nice!"

She was making her usual pout now, she seemed displeased with his answer.

"Fine, but are you really sure you can hold it?" Asked a skeptical Emp.

He would have just put it in the bag but he had not paid for it yet. Since he did have to check the blades, he was tempted to accept her offer.

"If you are able to hold it, there"s no reason I wouldn"t be able to as well." She said even more displeased.

Maybe she was right, he didn"t know what sort of strength to expect from anyone yet. He held the hammer in his palms and placed it in hers but every time he tried to lower his own to release it, hers followed with the hammer. He raised it back up and tried to release it two more times but Galana wasn"t able to keep it in the air. The shopkeeper laughed when she saw the confused face of Galana.

She started swearing in the other tongue and the shop keeper explained something to her while laughing.

"How can you be so strong?"

"I am not that strong though."

Just beside them, there were many more hammers he could not lift, way heavier than this one. If they were all sold here, did it mean the woman could hold them all? After all, someone had to place them there. He doubted the woman was considered that strong, meaning that there was many more weapons even her could not lift. He still had a long way to go until he became the strongest like Strength wished.

Since she could clearly not support the weight of the hammer, he took it back and presented it to the Woman instead. She took it with one hand and nested it on her shoulder as if the weight didn"t bother her at all.

"See? I"m far from strong, she is much more powerful than me."

Galana seemed to want to yell at him again but managed to hold back as the group moved to the many racks of swords. They had a much larger selection of them, a good half of the shop was left to blades of all sorts, choosing one from all those would be a long task. He took a good hour talking about swords with the two girls and check dozens of them.

"If you only want a sword to look good in that school of yours, why take all this time to choose? Just pick a pretty one and be done with it." Galana told him, ten minutes in.

"No, I am pretty sure I will use the one I bought a lot. Choosing it for its appearance alone would be dumb."

"What are we looking for then?"

"I want something light and fast to cover all the hammer cannot do. I want a well balanced long sword that will leave my left hand empty to use anything else. Aside from that, I want it to be sharp, durable and of good quality of course."

"Didn"t you just describe all swords? What else could you possibly want from a sword?"

Emp had only received the basic teaching of Chinui but it seemed Galana knew even less than him. Luckily, what he knew was enough to answer her question.

"Every blade has a specific use, they are useful in very precise area. This one for example is curved toward the outside to ease combat from horseback by helping it slide on the enemy instead of bouncing off which would probably break the balance of the rider and leave him open for counter attacks. This one is thin and flexible, it"s made to bend instead of break and is very useful either against really soft targets or to slide into the smallest of weak points but it would never pierce a good armor."

Without noticing it herself, Galana came closer to better listen to the explanation. She didn"t know much about it all but was clearly interested so Emp just kept talking.

"The blade of that one seems weak but all those dents are used to catch the blade of your opponent and break it with a sharp move of the arm. This one has a hook at the end that hampers trusts with it but, in exchange, it lets you go around the opponent"s s.h.i.+eld, rip it off his hands if he is not paying enough attention or even trip him by pulling at his ankle. The guard of this one cover the whole hand of the wielder to better protect it. It is made for duels were the winner is often determined by who can disarm the opponent first. This one on the other hand, has a weirdly curved guard that can lock the sword of the other. This one is heavy and has a long handle made to be held two handed."

End Emp went on like that for the largest part of the hour. Sometimes, he had no idea what a blade was for and maybe sometimes he was wrong but he had a great time touring the swords none the less.

"So, to finally answer your question, all those blades have a different use and they are all very interesting but I need something that I can use in many different situation rather than a very specialised blade."

After their long talk, Emp chose to buy two different swords, unable to choose which one he preferred. The two were made as a pair, their blades were around a meter long each. One was made out of steel infused with silver and the other made out of cold Iron. (1) They were both single bladed swords but their backs was as deadly as the blade as it was made out of a long many spiked bone.

The shop keeper told him through Galana that the bones were the ulna of a mountain shredder. They supposedly were a bipedal lizard specie that could grow as big as a bear. They used their forearms as both a protection and a weapon, using their overgrown ulnas as a s.h.i.+eld and shredding their attackers with the spikes coming out of them. (2)

The bone spikes were placed on the sword to point towards the wielder like how they would be placed on their original owners. They could be used both to destroy the internal organs of the target and to parry other weapons more easily by locking them between the spikes.

The handle wasn"t long enough to put two hands on it and the last spike had been shortened to stop at the guard for ease of handling. Aside from that bone, they both seemed like cla.s.sic straight swords.

Both had a large triangular pommel to balance the weight of the blade. Both of them were also covered in runes engraved into the bone and the metal, they were both enchanted. The one infused with silver was enchanted to be lit on fire the moment it was unsheathed and the one made out of cold iron could spread out a light powerful enough to break shadows and destroy evil spirits. The pair was named quite simply, Flame and Ray and was worth a fortune. (3)

What interested him the most about them though, wasn"t their enchantments or their special look or even their edge. What really got his attention was that they had the same kind of feeling to them as the sword Chinui used.

Galana Paled when she heard their price but for Emp, it did not matter as long as they did their job. Both of them were made to be effective against a very particular kind of creature but even against other things, Emp felt these blades would do the trick.

The rest of his buying was done swiftly. He chose a long wooden spear with a cla.s.sic steel point and the most ordinary of bows with a good quant.i.ty of arrows. He took a large wooden s.h.i.+eld reinforced with steel that didn"t display any coat of arms. The s.h.i.+eld was enough to cover most of his chest and around half of his legs. If he came across something strong enough to break such a s.h.i.+eld, the chock alone would be enough to knock him out anyway.

Armors were not a subject he had any knowledge in so he just took the one the muscle woman recommended. Apparently it had been made by the same person who had forged the two swords and the hammer he had bought.

The creator was named Marcellia and lived in Dark-glint village. Marcellia was the sister of the shopkeeper"s husband, Tiberius. She was very talented but disliked to be disturbed and never took orders. She just made the item she wanted whenever she felt like it and sold them in this shop in exchange for more interesting materials she couldn"t find in Dark-glint.

The armor she made was very impressive to look at.

"It looks like the clothes of a barbarian." Commented Galana, a little disturbed as Emp tried it on.

It was made out of the thick skin of an unknown creature reinforced with large red scales covering important parts. It covered the whole length of his arms and the main body of the armor fell all the way to his knees. The borders were made out of red fur and the open helm was decorated by it as well. Large bones were added to the torso, the forearms, the shoulders and the legs with a row of tightly packed fangs raising from the armor around his neck to protect it.

The whole thing was quite heavy but not enough to disturb him. It took a while for the woman to adjust everything to his size.

"If you really wear that, you will look even more of an idiot than you already look."

"I don"t really want to look like an idiot in town but outside, monsters don"t care about what I"m wearing." Answered Emp. "I would rather stay alive than be well dressed. Still, I would like to ask her, is it effective as an armor?"

She answered by explaining to him that the bones were as hard as iron even if they were lighter. The scales, taken from a giant lizard were almost impossible to pierce by conventional weapons and the skin beneath was tougher than the leather generally used in armors. Only top quality materials were used to craft the armor.

To prove it, once Emp had removed it, she took a sword from a nearby rack and slashed at the armor resting on the counter. A loud but m.u.f.fled bang was heard but in the end, the skin between the counter and the sword was merely scratched.

It was enough to convince Emp, he added the armor to the pile of what he was buying. The woman went over the goods on the counter once more and announced that the total cost was fifty-three gold crowns and a couple of silver coins she was willing to ignore if, of course, he was able to pay the rest.

Emp had enough money of course but not enough crowns so he gave her a dragon instead. After she went over her surprise, she smiled and started looking for some change bellow the counter.

Meanwhile, the gaze of Emp got caught by a dagger hanging near the counter. It was a simple dagger, as ordinary as it could be and probably cost almost nothing. He asked her through Galana if he could take it as well and the woman nodded saying she would give it for free with the rest. It must have been a good transaction for her to just give out things freely with a smile.

He wanted the dagger but not for himself. He had instead brought it for Galana. He had noticed she wasn"t wearing any weapon and it was annoying him. This was not right.

He gathered all his new things aside from the dagger and stored it in the bag. Then, he took the remaining item by the blade and presented it to Galana handle first.

"Here, I give it to you."

Galana furrowed her brows and asked him why.

"I noticed you did not have any weapon on you."

"So? What does it matter? How is it in any way related to you?"

"What will you do if you ever get attacked and you do not even have a weapon?"

"Why would I be attacked! We are in Red-water here not in your mountains!"

"That does not mean anything. That it never happened to you before doesn"t mean it is never going to happen in the future. Even if you have been very lucky until now and never got soaked by the rain in your entire life, there is nothing to guarantee you that the sun will s.h.i.+ne upon you until your death."

"Argh, you are so annoying, you even sound like my father now! Why does it even matter to you if I get killed or not! What is it you expect to get in exchange for that d.a.m.n dagger?"

By all the G.o.ds! Was thinking Emp. How could someone ever be so annoying and bull headed! Could he not just want to help? He would have to try something else.

"I would be really displeased if one of the only people I can talk to just died because they were too much of an idiot to just take a cheap dagger with them. Can"t you see it didn"t even cost me anything? Asking for something in exchange would be nonsense. I find it really annoying to see you walk around unarmed. No one should ever let his own security in the hands of others. If misfortune ever strikes you and you do nothing just because you think the guards or whoever else will be there for you, you won"t even have the time to regret it. If you do not even try to protect yourself, you lose the right to complain no one is trying to help you because even yourself didn"t lift a finger, why should the others do? So just take it and stop arguing against me for nothing."

He pushed the dagger into her hands and before she could think of an answer to his long tirade, he waved to the shopkeeper and left the shop.

***

(1) Cold Iron: I know it"s a trope and that iron is weak and that cold iron doesn"t make sense, it doesn"t even have a clear meaning or way to make it. I just didn"t want to have to make so crazy fantasy metal just yet. We are just in the beginning of the story, those are entry level weapons. Who knows if cold iron is actually useful against anything. I just don"t want to make the cla.s.sic mistake of saying something like: now this metal is the best and can do all those marvelous things. Then, later, have to make a better metal for story reason and come up with a cheap reason.

(2) Those spikes are actually mainly used as climbing tools by the mountain shredder but when someone sees enormous spikes on the forearm of a creature, they are bound to believe they are weapons instead.

(3) They were named fire and light but then I realized there were most probably G.o.ds with those name already so I changed them. Why am I having trouble with the names of all my pairs of swords?