Master Of None

While Walker worked in the garden he suddenly found a shadow had come behind him. "Oh, I thought you were working on your tools?" The wandering blacksmith had a hammer in his hand and a serious expression. 

"This won't work. It's too weak." There was an unhappy and annoyed tone to the words the wandering blacksmith spoke. He had been hard at work creating better tools and found that his hammer was not going to be tough enough to craft the way he needed to craft the parts of Walker's weapon. 

This was not good news for Walker. He had realized what the wandering blacksmith meant by this when he was told and that there would be an even greater challenge now that he could not use the hammer to create the parts of the weapon the wandering blacksmith had created. It also meant that waking up Fluer was a pointless action since Walker would just be bothering her rest without a task at hand. He wanted her to rest and absorb as much natural mana as she needed before he asked her for help. 

"What do we do?" The answer had to come from the wandering blacksmith since Walker was not sure about what they would need to improve or even make a new hammer that could take the abuse they would put it through while crafting. 

There was a pensive look on the wandering blacksmiths' face before he nodded a few times, "The cooling runes are not enough. I need centennial ice shards." The cooling that was needed for the forging process was not powerful enough. If they were unable to control it well enough then the weapon could have dangerous defects. Such defects in metal could cause there to be explosions or imbalances of mana causing wild spells. 

"I take it we need to move up your trip to the mountains then? That is the only place where the ice and snow never melt fully." It was clear that instead of a learning trip to the higher mountain that they would be going there for materials instead. 

The wandering blacksmith gave a sharp nod and waited for Walker to tell him the plan. It was clear that this was unexpected and that they were not ready to push themselves forward just yet, however, he knew that most of the things that were going on with the party could be changed or adjusted as they went. 

"I will get everyone together and we will see about getting there. We might be able to ask Elise for some help with the travel to the base of the mountains. The giant hawks are still around and she is planning on being here for some time." Walker headed inside and found that Remey and Su were trying a row of new tea blends with some regenerative herbs. "Good thing you two are here. I have to ask if you two are willing to head on the mountain trip earlier than expected?"

There was a silence in the room since Walker did not pause. He just opened with the serious portion of the conversation and jumped right in to it causing the two to think immediately. 

"Yes, I can go. I have no plans and it will benefit me to train in the cold of the mountains. They are also windy so I can work on wind resistance as well. It's safer to go now than months later when there would be too much snow to get there and back." Su saw the benefits of going there now and was willing to go as a training trip on top of their other goals. 

"I would say no if it was a month later. I want to be at Genesis sooner than later to help with the alchemy guild. This could be the ideal chance to bring down winter herbs so that they can become the first seeds to grow in the greenhouses during the winter. It would be a valuable start for the guild." Remey was worried that she would be needed but knew that the old master alchemist could travel in her stead. She was also one of the best people to get the herbs that grew there. Especially since the high mountain winter herbs were hard to acquire. 

The wandering blacksmith lowered his head in thanks. "Thank you two. We need materials to improve his hammer and it will be better to get it all done earlier." Knowing that the two girls were ready and wanted to go sooner helped. "Have you two seen Gil?" 

"He has been training with Zephyr outside. He wants to get his double shot and triple shot skill to use the wind elemental mana. Something about his arrows being too weak and that he needed to grasp the wind element better." Remey had barely paid attention to Gils' training rant but remember this part easily. 

"And Midnight is out there too, perfect. I will have a plan by dinner." Walker left the two to the tea experiments and found that Midnight was still hard at work with Onyx watching. 

"Midnight, Onyx. We are planning to leave early on the mountain forging trip. Are you two able to go? Or would you want to stay here and train more?' Walker almost thought Midnight would not want to. However, she was thinking about the chances she would see another dragon in the mountains and could not resist nodding a yes. 

"I will go, brother. But I will need to stay in the tattoo form during the trip. The cold is dangerous for me." Walker did not have any qualms about this. 

"Alright. I will make sure you can be protected with thicker layers whenever possible." Walker made a mental note to put more clothing in to his storage for everyone because Onyx could shift from person to person as he needed. At the end of the day, it was also smarter to have more spare clothing in case the mountains were snowy and wet. "Now for Gil." Walker looked toward the opposite end of the training area at Gil.

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