To The Smithy

The long walk to the nearest town drained Iris mentally, and physically. He was not used to such distances but he decided it best to work on improving his mind and body before the exam. He had a month after all. The rain hadn't improved his mood. The downpour was still crashing into the trees and the path. 

Up ahead the town became nearer as he slowly made his way to it. Iris didn't know what the rapier had done to him. His palm was tattooed with intricate runes and the crescent moon at its center. Thinking about the blade his hand began to emit a soft glow. The soft purple hue lighting his face. A small blade suddenly appeared in his palm. 'Huh?' Iris thought. 

The blade was a small crescent moon shaped dagger. 'Was this the rapier? When did it become such a small blade?' Iris thought to himself. The blade as if sensing his remark vibrated. He looked at the blade questioningly. He gripped the blade and felt a small surge in power. However, it was only a little. Iris felt his spirit degrade when he threw it into the air. "Woah. That's cool." Iris said beaming at the blade. He frowned though.

'How do I put it back in my palm? Do I think about it?' He said in his mind. The blade, as if sensing his wish, went back into his palm. 

Iris stared at his palm for another moment and then started his way into the town. 

***

The town had a lot of houses in it. Though, the populace was mostly students of the Tower. Some people, however, had moved into the town to sell goods and other services. One of these shops was a smithy. It was run by a rather short man, most everybody called him the Dwarf. He took no offense to the name, and rather, embraced it. 

Iris started his way to the smithy to see if he could find himself a job. The Dwarf was always hiring. Nobody wanted to work for him because of the amount of work he gave. Iris, though, had worked for the Dwarf before. His experience with the tasks given to him by the Dwarf made his journey back into time that much better. He now had an easy way to make some quick credits. 

Most of the jobs were physical labor, some being paperwork. Iris also knew that state of the ore market and which blades would cost the most money at the time of forging. 

Over the years that he had worked with the Dwarf, he had become an intermediate forger, capable of forging basic armors and medium-quality swords. He was also adept at casting ingots and making fine-jewelry. Approaching the store, Iris heard some scuffling within the building. 

The door to the smithy burst open revealing a small man carrying a man by the back of his shirt. Throwing the man, the Dwarf says, "Get outta here ya ruffian!" Iris smiled to himself. 'He's the same as always.' Iris thought to himself. Approaching the Dwarf, Iris speaks up, "Hi sir, I was wondering if you wanted an extra hand to work the smithy?" The Dwarf looks Iris up and down. "Do ya know how to cast ingots?" "Yes, I do." Iris said in response. The dwarf stroked his beard for a moment. "Alright, can't promise the pay'll be good, but I s'pose I could use some help." The Dwarf says. 

Iris silently cheered. The Dwarf escorted him into the shop. The walls were lined with weapons, armor, and there were some small glass casings that held jewelry within them. Iris sighed. The shop felt comfortable. He spent most of his time here when he didn't have lessons at the Tower.

The Dwarf went into the backroom and sifted through some boxes. Grabbing some iron, he set the ore in front of Iris. "Show me what ya got youngin." The Dwarf said in a gruff voice. 

Grabbing the ingots, Iris made his way silently over to the furnace. He set them in a pot and shoved them into the furnace. Turning around Iris grabbed an apron and put it on, tying it with a deft motion. He heated up the flames to the exact temperature needed to melt the ore and waited for the ore to melt completely before taking out the pot with clamps and poured the ore into the cast. After about 20 minutes the Dwarf stood up and went over to inspect Iris' work. "Well I'll be damned. It's perfectly forged." The Dwarf said grinning. "If ya can do that with gold, well, hehe." The Dwarf said with a light chuckle. 

Iris had come up with somewhat of a plan for the entrance exam while he was forging. He needed some light armor. Students were allowed to wear armor below A rank. Armor was categorized, lowest to highest, as E, D, C, B, A, S, SS. SS armor was god tier armor. Only one forger had ever made it. It was grandmaster Hue. He had long since died, becoming one of the ten holy blades of the empire. His blade was one of the few that had ever become close to being god status. The first part of the exam was basic combat against a foe with a random sword of your choosing. Once the blade was chosen by the student the blade bound itself to them. Luna's rapier was the one she had chosen. This time, however, he had the rapier. Iris didn't know if the blade would be among those within the armory. Iris thought about how the blades bound themselves to the students. Maybe that was what the rapier did. 

Iris shook his head slightly. That didn't make sense. The blades at the Tower didn't brand the students. Iris looked at his palm and quietly thought to himself, "Is this a special case?" Clearing his mind of the thought he began to think about the challenge. Pandora's box, one of the holy relics of the Tower, summoned monsters based off of the students skill level, as well as spiritual energy. He had been given a small wolf last time. At that time he had barely managed to kill it. 

This time, though, Iris was confident he could kill it faster. After the first challenge came the examinees versus the first year students. The challenge was to capture the flag of the enemy team. The first years were given no handicaps except not to outright murder the fresh examinees. 

The examinees lost last time. But now Iris had remembered their tactics. He would lead the examinees to victory against the Tower's first years. Iris didn't contribute anything last time to the game. He was merely cannon fodder for the more powerful examinees as he was used as bait. Iris knew that he wouldn't succumb so easily to others this time. He would fight with everything he had, even if it ended up in him getting hurt. 

Coming out of his stupor, Iris found that the Dwarf had begun tinkering with a small pauldron in the corner. Iris decided that instead of asking for a month's wages when he got paid that he would instead ask to forge himself a chestpiece. His safety for the upcoming exam took utmost priority right now. "Sir, if I may ask, I would like to forge a piece of armor in exchange for my monthly wage." Iris said casually. The Dwarf stopped his tinkering. "You know what you're doing lad?" He asked. "Yes, I'm an intermediate forger." Iris said in response. "Damn boy, didn't think you knew your ups from downs. But I s'pose that a piece of armor couldn't hurt. What rank can you forge to?" The Dwarf asked. 

"I can forge up to C-tier sir." Iris said. The Dwarf looked shocked, "It took me till I was damn near thirty to forge C rank armor and weapons." The Dwarf looked shocked. "I had an able master, he taught me a lot before he became a blade." Iris said, looking a little glum. "Ok, what metals do ya need. Anything goes except mythril." Iris looked deep in thought. Indecision ate at him. 'Steel? No, magic iron.' He thought to himself. "Magic iron." Said Iris after coming to a decision. 

The Dwarf sighed, "Ok boy, better not let these ingots go to waste." 

The Dwarf went to the backroom once again and came out with 4 ingots of magic iron. This was going to be fun.