Chapter 8: 06 – [First contact]

"Okay, I can guess what the job does given the name. But I should check my new skills to see if anything else was unlocked and read what my new skill does."

I opened my Skills window to see what had changed in my Job Skills section.

Job Skills:

Dungeon Interface System: S Rank

Dungeon Teleport: A Rank

Create Dungeon: S Rank

Godly Craftsman's Eyes: S Rank

Craftsman's Finesse: S Rank

Soul of a Craftsman: S Rank

Maybe each Job only grants three skills, but time to read up on these.

Godly Craftsman's Eyes: Allows the skill holder to view the system given name, status and skill bonuses of any piece of equipment.

Oh, I didn't know that equipment can boost stats and skills. I will need to look at my equipment later, but first I should finish my king's armor and look at all of them together.

Craftsman's Finesse: Increases the status and skill bonuses applied to equipment after their creation according to how much intricate decorative work has been done on the piece.

Another useful skill, I don't want to deliberately make a bland piece of my equipment. So maybe I will test what the bonus increase numbers look like on some basic equipment like pickaxes or tree axes.

Soul of a Craftsman: Allows the skill holder to form a bond with any arms or armor that they use and maintain, increasing the rank of the piece in accordance with the treatment of the equipment.

And another skill that boosts equipment performance, but only for myself this time. These two last skills together will make me pretty strong if I wear well designed and maintained equipment. Since I am still here in the forge I should use these skills to my advantage while crafting the decorative and battle armors I will wear.

First up is the battle armor, which needs to be as tough as possible so I am using the last of our current supply of orichalcum, we should have more since I made a mine room that produces about 10 pounds of it per day, more if I flood the room with Ether to speed up the regeneration but that will be used only in emergencies.

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I will make a chain mail shirt from orichalcum and use a mix of orichalcum and another metal I have decided to name Brimstone, after our home mountain and due to its brilliant flame like red and orange colors. This metal has the added ability of heating and weakening metals that come into contact with it if it is supplied with Ether, enough hits and your sword becomes partially molten and bent.

Speaking of which, I never went over the attributes of orichalcum when I was crafting my first items with it. Orichalcum is like bright gold but with hints of dull red when viewed from angles in the light and is rather unique as far as abilities go, it cannot interact with Ether outside of extreme levels of heat, so you can only inject Ether into orichalcum during the refining process. Injecting Ether, or just using Ether related spells on the material like when I use Ether to levitate the material in the furnace, will make it even more difficult to damage once it forms a completed piece of equipment. It has the ability while in ingot form so it can be stored, but the added strength only takes affect once the object has formed a piece of equipment as recognized by the system.

So, as I work on refining these two metals into a perfect mix in the refinery I make the orichalcum much stronger by using Ether to move the mixture between the anvil and the furnace. But I also end up increasing the heat in the furnace to be much hotter than just magma given the strikes I am using to refine the material and brimstone's property of releasing heat when struck. If I didn't know how to handle my hammer I would have destroyed it by now with this much heat and Ether flying around the hammer and anvil, luckily my Smith's Instinct taught me how to coat my hammer and anvil in a thin layer of Ether to protect them from damage. Doing so also transfers that Ether to the materials I am striking, but here that is only a bonus for the end result.

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A full day later, two completed sets of armor rest on stone manikins in front of me. The one on the right is my completed set of decorative mithril full plate armor sporting golden fur at the neck, wrists and hips, complete with engravings matching my crown on every metal piece and the royal coat of arms for our dwarven nation on the breastplate. I decided our coat of arms would be comprised of a thick stone anvil being struck by a hammer of vivid flames imposed on the backdrop of Brimstone Mountain.

The one on the left is a brilliant gold with shimmers of red and orange when moved under the light, this set is my completed battle gear. The sword breaker pauldrons will increase the damage that weapons take when landing on my shoulders. The chainmail hauberk that drapes down to just below my hips can withstand an Ether loaded strike from my mithril hammer-axe without the chains deforming even slightly, swords can never hope to scratch my skin under it, though the impact would still pass through to me and leave bruises or break bones. The chest armor is a cuirass formed from several layers of metal plates riveted together, to allow for more range of movement. The arms and legs are covered by a simple set of bracers and thigh guards. The whole outfit is completed by a set of leather gloves with metal plates to protect the back of the wrists, hands and fingers. And with knee length leather boots covered in metal shin plates and finished with a short sharpened spike on the toe plates of each foot.

"Sire, the hunting party has encountered humans on the mountain. We instructed them that this is the domain for the dwarven people and that they should leave at once, but they claimed they cannot leave as they were instructed by their King to investigate the massive spike in Ether that occurred around the mountain roughly one week ago. We have requested that the humans remain where they are and the rest of the hunt party is guarding them as we speak, what shall we do my lord?"

Looks like our human neighbors have come to us first, not that they knew we were here, but no matter since I have prepared enough of the entrance to the dungeon to not disgrace the pride of the dwarven people. I begin putting on my decorative armor with the help of the male dwarves, two of which have unlocked the smith job, and tell the scout golem to lead our visitors to the audience chamber just inside the gateway I made recently. I was already planning on using the gate and the tunnels behind it for welcoming humans into our city for trade and tourism as I have moved the crystal to the caldera where it now floats deep within the lake of lava, the other levels are naturally going to remain off limits.

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Roughly an hour later I was told that the human guests had been guided to the audience hall and were awaiting my arrival. I ensure my crown was straight on my head and strapped my sword to my waist along with my hammer-axe in the sheath on my back, displaying the heavy instruments of death and the large red jewel that sat between them just above my left shoulder.

I walked with measured and steady steps towards the royal entrance for the audience hall as I can't go entering through the same door the visitors did, they would look down on me. I reach the large double doors that connect to the rear corner of the hall, with direct line of sight to my throne, crafted from the best cut of marble in my territory and inlaid with mithril filled engravings similar to all my equipment so far. I could see two of the dwarven women, Tristyn and Gwendi, standing a few steps below the throne and facing the guests. These ladies really were good with clothes, the ones they now wore we mostly leather and fur but looked as noble as any I had seen in fantasy movies, since it looked like they were able to use the gold thread I made for them to beautifully engrave these leather outfits. I bet they asked the hunting party to bring back flowers with them as well, since a few pieces of the set appear to have been dyed.

I sent a mental command to the knight golems along the walls and they stood at attention while one of the mages stepped forward from the rear of the room and announced my entry.

"Now enters His majesty, Anwirn Gemmolder Brimstone. The High Dwarf Lord of Brimstone Mountain and the dwarven people. All bow!"

After his voice finished echoing through the hall I stepped forward towards the doors as they swung open in time with my steps. I did not move my gaze from the throne as I made my way to it, neither glancing at my subjects or my guests. Any weakness or humility here would find its way back to the human nations, I could not have them looking down on my people because I showed that these guests were more important than my throne. Upon reaching my throne I unsheathed my hammer-axe, a breach of etiquette in a way, and placed the head on the floor while leaning it against my chair before sitting down and placing my chin on my right fist. This was a warning that any infractions would be met with a blade, and that these visitors were granted an audience but not our respect or trust.

"I am King Anwirn Gemmolder Brimstone, first of the dwarves and lord of this mountain. You may introduce yourselves and state the business that brought you to my lands."

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