Lorenz Elms

The entire group was shocked and even swallowed his saliva in anticipation of seeing the owner of the voice.

"Dear god! He sounds like his voice is already deeper than Erik's, can he be bigger? Hahaha, surely there's no way."

The village head had to yell out his lungs just for the sounds to overcome the clanging and hammering noises coming within the small forge.

"WE GOT VISITORS COME OUT AND GREET THEM!!"

The deep voice erupted once again from the forge.

"WHAT'D YA SAY POPS?!"

The village head had to take a couple of deep breaths like a free diver who was about to dive.

"I SAID WE GOT GUESTS!!!"

The clanging and hammering finally stopped and a shuffling of footsteps could be heard from the inside of the small forge. A loud sound was heard and a clanging sound from a piece of metal falling vibrated throughout the forge.

With a muffled voice, the man inside picked it up and set it down with a clang.

"Whoops, gosh-darned small forge."

The door opened and everyone in the group looked in astonishment., if human anatomy allowed it their jaws would drop to the ground. To Tomoe, Arwin, and Tecia, the guy in front of them was the biggest they had ever seen in person as Erik didn't go out in public too much as he was always busy.

The man, if you could call it that, came out of the door but had to duck almost his entire upper body underneath the door like he was playing limbo. When he stepped out, everyone was shocked to their core.

Standing fully upright, the man put his dirtied hands on the back of his neck while looking a little bit embarrassed.

"Heyo, my name is Lorenz Elms. Where are y'all from?"

Seeing as no one was speaking due to the surprise of how big Lorenz had turned out to be, his father spoke up.

"They are from Verin, can ya believe it?"

While the two of them talked, the group was processing everything. Tomoe, Arwin, and Tecia were the most surprised as Leon was already one of the tallest people they had ever seen. Although they had heard Leon's guild master was even bigger, they had never seen Erik with their eyes so they didn't take it to heart.

However, the guy in front of them was at least 214 cm (7'0ft) and besides that, he was incredibly muscular only losing to Erik. It was as if you took Erik's archetype and cut the height by 10% and muscles by 25%, even with those cuts Lorenz looked like he could lift a mountain.

Even Leon himself had his eyes widened. Leon knew that Erik was still quite bigger, but he never thought he would see anyone taller than him especially out in the countryside. Although to anyone who didn't know about the heights in Partha, it would seem tall people like these were common solely based on who Leon has seen. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

In Partha the average height for females was 157 cm (5'2ft) like Sasha, the average height for males, however, was around 170cm (5'7). This meant people like Leon who stood at 193cm (6'4) were considered to be being very tall. That's why people would already glance at Leon as he would most likely be one of the tallest people most people would see in their lives.

However, this was why whenever a person like Lorenz or Erik came around. Anyone would turn around to take in their height which was only amplified by the fact that both of them were built like bodybuilders. Most people would rub their eyes or check to see if they were hallucinating when they saw Erik or Lorenz.

Lorenz looked over at the group who looked like they were statues in awe and tilted his head.

"Are y'all okay? Is it because of my height?"

All four of them gave a nod and Lorenz looked a little embarrassed.

"Ah, I get that a lot. In fact, most people think I'm a big-shot adventurer or fighter. Unfortunately, I'm too shy and timid to be on the battlefield, when I first grew pops sent me to be a fighter but I accidentally punched my comrade and from then on I never tried it again. That's when I discovered that my huge physique gave me great strength and despite my hands being big they are quite dexterous, which made me a very good blacksmith."

Everyone, including Leon, had their brains once again scramble. It seemed like common logic and the only possibility for anyone that tall to be at least a good fighter or even outgoing. But he described himself as shy and timid?

Leon felt his horizons broaden.

'He's built exactly like Erik, but his personality on the other hand is the complete opposite. It's like whichever god built these two did a complete 180 on their personalities.'

After a few seconds, the first person to snap out of the surprise was Leon, which Lorenz saw and took as an opportunity to try to clear the awe from the rest of the group.

"So pops told me y'all are from Verin and cleared out those gosh-darned goblins near us?"

Leon gave a nod and seemed to recover from the shock.

"That's right. I hear you are going to the capital to work under a blacksmith there? That must mean you are a prodigy!"

Lorenz looked embarrassed by the compliment and looked at the ground in front of Leon's feet.

"Ah, I wouldn't call myself a prodigy, but the teacher did say that my talents would be wasted out here."

From then on, Leon and Lorenz had a full-on conversation about everything and soon the rest of the group came to their senses and also participated in the conversation, but they mainly asked about Lorenz's height and upbringing.

Leon noted that during the entire time he observed Lorenz was in fact very shy and timid.

After a healthy conversation, Lorenz saw the sack of old gear that Leon had on his back.

"Do y'all want to get rid of that?"

Leon finally came to senses of why they had sought out the blacksmith.

"Oh, right. We did want to get rid of these at a decent price since any merchant would undercut us for the shabby gear and blacksmith's in Verin are usually too busy to buy off these cheap materials."

After some thought, Lorenz finally gave a response.

"I would love to take those off your hands."

Hearing the fact that gear, they would have had to sell for pretty much free was being sold. The group looked a bit happier, then Lorenz continued.

"Unfortunately, I don't really have any money on me right now…."