The kingdom of Vongard

The next day, Jay woke up to a bright sunny morning. As he prepared to get out of bed, he heard a knock on the door. It was one of the palace maids.

"Sir Hero, the king has asked you to come out and eat breakfast with them," she said.

Jay responded, "Okay, thank you. I'll be out soon."

As the maid heard Jay's response, she bowed her head and quickly went back to the king to inform him. Jay stood up from his bed, got changed, and immediately went down to have his breakfast.

As he appeared in the dining hall, he saw King Aether on a highly decorated chair, sitting at the front of the dining table. Princess Ember and three more people were feasting on the food prepared by the maids. There were two females and one male. The male had a big body and a very noticeable aura around him. He also had a very calm gaze that looked exactly like King Aether's.

"Hmm, I think that should be his son, and the mature-looking woman should be his wife, while the other should be his daughter," Jay thought as he went to the side of the dining table, sat down, and started eating.

King Aether was having a conversation with his son. He had already noticed Jay entering the dining room but didn't show any sort of reaction and just kept talking to his son. Then, after some time, when everyone had finished eating their meal, King Aether cleared his throat.

Everyone quieted down and focused on him, waiting to hear what he was about to say. He pointed at Jay and said, "This is the hero that was allocated to us by the other kingdoms. Even if his potential was very low, he is still the hero of this kingdom, and we must fulfill our duty as one of the kingdoms of Pantheon, which is to help the heroes to the best of our ability so that they may fulfill their duty as heroes."

As he said that, the expression of everyone in the room became sour. The other princess frowned and stood up. She looked at Jay in fury and shouted, "Are we still part of Pantheon? We, the monster kingdom, have been abandoned by Pantheon and the Ancients for many years, and now you are telling us to fulfill some useless promise that might bring severe consequences not only to us but to the entire kingdom just because of some stupid promise that was made by our ancestors?"

As tears started running down her eyes, her mother stood up and held her hand, trying to calm her down. She stared unwillingly at her father, wanting him to take her side on this. King Aether just stared back at her with his calm gaze as he spoke.

"We must adhere to the rules of our ancestors. A promise made is never to be broken," his calm voice resounded throughout the dining hall as he gazed at his unwilling daughter. The princess just stared at him for a while before aggressively walking out of the hall, her mother following behind.

King Aether then looked back at Jay and said, "You will be taken to tour the kingdom by my son. When that has been settled, you will be given some time to rest before you start your training."

Then he stood up and went out of the dining hall. As Jay stared at his leaving figure, he noticed a tinge of helplessness behind his calm demeanor. Jay sighed. Just as he was lost in thought, he noticed someone staring at him. It was King Aether's son. He started walking closer to Jay as he stretched out his hand with a calm smile on his face.

"Hello, young hero. My name is Theron von Oakheart, the son of King Aether von Oakheart, the king of this kingdom. I am also the next in line as the prince of this kingdom. Nice to meet you."

Jay shook his hand and responded, "Nice to meet you too. I am Jay, or as you all might know me as the Hero of this kingdom."

After the introduction, Prince Theron spoke, "Just like my father said, I will give you a tour of our kingdom. Please follow me."

Then he started walking to the exit of the dining hall, and Jay followed behind. As they went out of the castle, Jay was greeted by a bustling environment as the people of the kingdom all woke up early, setting up their shops and patronizing their goods for sale.

While the Buyers, some bringing their kids along, moved around and checked for anything they needed from the shops, while some kids ran around and played with one another. Jay noticed that Theron was being greeted by everyone.

"Looks like the citizens love him," Jay thought. "This was also the same look the people gave his father when he was coming into the kingdom yesterday."

Prince Theron said with a smile, "You will experience the kingdom better from walking rather than taking a wagon."

As they walked down the street, they came across a blacksmith shop. Theron suddenly introduced Jay to the owner of the shop, a short elder goblin with a beard. The goblin didn't look pleased when he heard about Jay being the Hero from Prince Theron.

He stared at Jay with a wary look but later calmed down when Prince Theron spoke something to him. While they were conversing, Jay was looking around the shop and spotted some pretty good weapons. Some were even high-tier weapons.

"His skills aren't bad, at least above average. Looks like he honed them himself through hard work, but still, any random official member of the Dwarven Kingdom could have made better weaponry with even higher success rates," Jay pondered.

He suddenly had the urge to check the goblin's status board. As he focused directly on the goblin, a familiar text of words appeared in his point of view:

[Skill (God's Eye) activated]

Name: Gorrak Ironfist

Race: Goblin

Age: 200 years

Title: Blacksmith of Vongard

Blessing: Blessed by the Ancient Ancestor of Vongard, also known as the legendary blacksmith of Vongard, Grizzle Ironfist

- Strength: 450

- Dexterity: 300

- Constitution: 400

- Intelligence: 250

- Wisdom: 200

- Charisma: 50

Skills:

1. Basic Forging: Allows the creation of basic weaponry and understanding of different metals and materials for forging. (Can be copied)

2. Goblin Flame: Allows the user to summon a magical green-colored flame that burns hotter than normal fire, which slightly increases the speed of forging and the quality of the finished weapon. (Can be copied)

3. Blacksmith's Hammer: A sturdy hammer made entirely from earth magic (gold and minerals) passed down from the Ironfist lineage. Grants the user resistance to heat and increases the chance of successfully crafting delicate parts, also adding a burning effect on the weapons crafted. (Can be copied)

4. Ancestors' Guidance: This is an innate skill that allows the user to hear the teachings of the ancestors on crafting and forging, putting the user in a state of enlightenment and significantly enhancing the skills of a blacksmith. Can be used three times in a lifetime. (Two remaining) (Cannot be copied)

"Yep, his skills are average, except for the Ancestors' Guidance. The rest are pretty average compared to the dwarves' skills," Jay thought as he kept examining the status board.

The goblin elder ended his conversation with Prince Theron and came to meet Jay. Jay snapped out of his thoughts and looked at the goblin elder. Then he stretched his hand and greeted him.

"Hello, sir," Jay said.

The elder looked at him for a while, then a smile broke on his face as he shook Jay's hand.

"Hello, little Hero, and welcome to my store. Here, you can get any weapons you want, and if you are not satisfied with them, I can craft private weapons for you. All I need is specific information on what exactly you want me to make."

Prince Theron also joined in, saying, "Yes, Jay. Elder Gorrak is one of Vongard's finest blacksmiths. In fact, his entire generation, starting from his ancestors, has been given the title 'The Legendary Blacksmith of Vongard.'

Albeit they are not as good as the dwarves in the Dwarven Kingdom, they are still pretty much better than any other blacksmiths in the whole of Pantheon."

As he said that, the elder looked at Jay with a proud expression on his face and broke into a fit of laughter. It seemed like he liked the praises from Prince Theron. Jay just looked at him with a smile.

"Well, except if I wasn't in the frame of blacksmiths in Pantheon. My skills are almost as good as the dwarves' king," Jay thought.

Then he spoke, "Elder Gorrak, thank you for your kind offer, as I will be pleased to be able to get my weapons made by a blacksmith almost as good as the dwarves."

The elder smiled as he heard Jay.

"Looks like I'm starting to like this young man," the elder thought while rubbing his beard.

As Jay saw that he was hooked, he continued, "But if the elder doesn't mind, I'd like to use your tools to test some knowledge of crafting brought from my world," Jay said with a smile. As he thought"I can finally test my skills!"

As the elder heard that, he first frowned a bit , then started contemplating. He looked up and stared at Jay with a wary gaze, then looked down again to contemplate for some time. He started nodding his head like he had finally come to a conclusion. He raised his head and then agreed, but only if Jay would allow him to watch, as it might widen his horizon on the knowledge of crafting.

Jay smiled, thinking, "Jackpot, he took the bait!" There wasn't really any knowledge of crafting that Jay knew; he was just an average student in his past world. He had made all that gibberish up so he could try the skills he got from the dwarves' king.

Jay responded quickly, "Of course, I'll be happy to."

As he heard that, the elder laughed, "Let's shake on it."

They shook hands while Prince Theron watched with a smile. After promising to visit the next day, Prince Theron took Jay to other places to get him accustomed to the kingdom. As they were going to the last place on the agenda, Jay couldn't help but ask Prince Theron a question. He was surprised to see temples in the kingdom since the Kingdom of Vongard doesn't worship the Ancients.

"Then what do they worship?" This question had been bothering him for a while now.

As Prince Theron heard his question, he answered Jay as they kept walking, "Well, it's not that we don't really serve any Ancients, but the one our ancestors once served had disappeared. We only heard about him in our history books; even his name has been lost with time. He was the one who blessed our ancestors during that period.

In fact, we were once known as a Divine race (God Race) with prosperity and a lot of power. We lived peacefully and were protected by the Ancient One, and we were also blessed with extremely powerful abilities—able to evaporate an entire kingdom in the blink of an eye. Even the royals among our kind could rule over all of Pantheon with no problem, but we were a very peaceful race—no violence, no war, just happiness."

As he said that, Jay could see a bit of yearning on his face. Then he continued, "But suddenly, our ancestors received a message from the Ancient One, like a distress signal. Then, suddenly, the powerful ones among us started evaporating, leaving only a small few out of our entire race.

Luckily, one of the royals survived with the help of some ancestors, rebuilt our race, and then made the next generation of our race start worshipping the ancestors that helped rebuild the race. And even if the weakest ones of our race were left, they were as powerful as the lower gods, so their blessings and skills were passed down to us, their future generations."

As he stopped talking, Jay realized they had reached their destination. Prince Theron entered a place that looked like a barrack for training soldiers, and Jay followed behind. Prince Theron did a quick introduction to Jay on how things worked here and introduced him to the commander, who welcomed him with a smile.

As Prince Theron realized it was almost noon, he sent a message to one of the stewards in the palace to bring a wagon to return them back to the palace. In the wagon, Jay started pondering on what Prince Theron had told him.

As they reached the palace, they were quickly approached by maids, and Jay was escorted back to his room. He went to take a bath, ate lunch, and went to bed, falling asleep immediately as he was stressed from all the walking around.