Biter

The clangs and clashes of metal sounded throughout the night. Metal plates of a black star iron were created, individual ores were crushed by Sebas, until a fight broke out between the two, unsurprisingly initiated by Sebas. The resulting mass of the dense and compacted silverish flat metal with Octahedrite structure throughout the body of the rock had been a challenge to deal with. Several hours were spent by Sebas with a sledgehammer, and words of violent encouragement of Gis in the depths of a tankard of some sour dry liquid, and the remaining mass of near-solid iron was broken by Gis with an auto hammer. The revelation of an auto hammer broke out in another fight that ended in overwhelming victory for Gis, Sebas remained unconscious for the remaining crushing of unrefined iron.

Once awake, Sebas was put to work by his dwarven caretaker, portioning out charcoal for use in what is called “the pit.” Several dozen-thousand tiny pieces of metal and pulverized charcoal were allocated in large metal containers and complaints were made, and were properly answered with violent dwarven expletives. Once every single material was available, original attempts were made by Sebas to attend the smelting process, but was promptly removed once the fire nearly threatened some red hair.

Six hours were required for the process, which would normally take much longer due to natural factors like Sebas or natural temperature gain of the forge, but according to Jenva there are “family secrets” that can circumvent most of the process. Sebas made several theories, one including that his dwarven caretaker was a demon, fortunately that one made Jenva laugh, but it was shut down due to the fact that Gis has a (Holy Affinity)

Sebas was dragged back into the smiths shop room, where heat threatened his life. This time however, he learned his lesson and managed to tie his unkempt mane into a less than ideal man bun.

“Comere, you helped make it, you get to sign it,” Gis said to the boy while standing over the giant metal arm, making an indent with a custom chisel that left a small cross fleury with an angular letter G on the bottom of the tail.

“And how do you expect me to do that Mr short temper touchy fists?”

“You get to freehand it smartass, figure out a shape or just put an S on it somewhere,” Gis grumbles at him.

Sebas ran over, looking over the golden-orange glowing metal arm. It seemed to be made of plates that could be assembled with affixed anchor points, presumably left undone for an individual that could animate it for Sebas. He was unsure of what would make a “good signature spot”

“There’s a piece of soft metal you can practice a signature with,” Gis said, pointing at a small plate of metal, holding a chisel and wooden mallet to Sebas “it doesn’t have to be a letter.”

The first attempt at creativity resulted in Sebas striking through the plate, which resulted in him flinching when Gis slammed the table next to him, and calling him a dumbass. The second attempt was a very small S made up of five angled lines, but Sebas frowned at the letter, the fact that his name could be on there made him think about his family.

“Names are a social construct… I hate social constructs… you said I can just do whatever right?” Sebas asked Gis while looking down at his ID.

“I’d advise not drawing a pecker on your prosthetic.”

Sebas snickered and grabbed a small metal shaving, the closest one he could find that was triangle shaped. He made 7 firm dents, which resulted in a set of four fangs that made up the top row of teeth, and a set of three that sat on between the gaps.

Gis looked over his disciple’s shoulder, an effort that was made easier since Sebas’ head was perpendicular to the table while he focused on his indenting.

“An open maw huh?”

“The Biter bites, when I grab people by the face, the last thing they should see is my teeth.”

“It fits ye well, yer all mouth,” Gis grinned at his own joke.

He grabbed the plate metal, ripping off the corner of the plate, seemingly molding the pieces in between his fingers.

“I should be lucky you usually let me off with a single punch, shouldn’t I?” Sebas asked, watching the pieces of metal sink into the Dwarf’s hand, coming out as perfect little triangles.

“This is something called "Tirt"” it doesn’t have much use, so it’s cheap, and it’s malleable so I can do whatever I want with it. I’m not all brawn like ye, ya knucklehead.”

“And what does this Turt do for me, won’t I just be squished when we hammer it?”

“I can make a quick mold with it, and I’ll pour something in there to make ye yer own little chisel, babies first brand.”

“But I’m not a real blacksmith, isn’t that disrespectful to the craft?”

“Ye don’t peg me as the kind of bastard who respects anything Sebas, ya jumped off of my head to climb around the ceiling cause ye knew I was short, I should’ve got my broom and broke it over yer head.”

Sebas laughed distantly to himself, savoring the thought with a stupid grin.

“I mean, ye want to sign it don’t you? Ya worked on it, it’s kind of how this works.”

“If you would be so kind, yes I would.”

Gis squinted at him, “Don’t be polite, it sounds like yer possessed.”

Sebas rolled his eyes, and followed Gis as he poured a silvery metal into a small sand mold. The resulting piece of metal was a small piece of metal with two large fangs on the upper outside and two smaller fangs on the inside, while the bottom three all sat with similar designs.

Sebas pointed to the palm of the metal hand, after thinking over the idea of slamming faces with his metal hand, it made sense to him for the signature to take up the place, much to Gis disapproval, as a signature should be, quote, “visible to everyone ye fuckin idiot.”

Sebas was promptly kicked out after Gis helped him, and Sebas remained up front with Jenva, where he lay on the countertop with vigorous slothfulness.

A bundle and small notebook with intricate designs and bisected anatomical hand drawings was handed over to Sebas, he noted that many edits were made where an S was removed from the back of the arm’s hand and a shoddy looking bite mark appeared over its palm. Sebas failed to listen to most of Gis explanation, enamored by the drawings his friend was capable of, but got the gist of the fact that he was to give the bunch of plate metal arm bits to a man named “Quent,” who, from what Sebas could tell worked at somewhere called the Capitals’ Magic Society Headquarters.

“Do I get a map?”

“No you don’t get a fuckin’ map ye stupid twit,” Gis began in his gruff intimidation voice, “the thing was soaked when you got back, yer lucky it didn’t break or I’d break ye, plus you left my pickaxe in a fuckin’ cave you pillock.”

Sebas held his pointer finger up towards Gis, and he fell silent.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you have the attention span of a dog,” Sebas sputtered out before laughing.

Gis looked at Jenva with a dire expression, “I’m going to kill him.”

“He’s not wrong, you nearly sat down waiting for a treat, I’m surprised you stayed silent.”

Gis held his hands over his head, taking in a sharp breath before exhaling. He looked at Sebas before speaking, “I know I’ve told ye not to be yerself around Quent, but I know ye won’t listen, and I really, really do hope you don’t listen.”

Sebas grinned and hugged the Dwarf, “thank you Gis, this means a lot to me.”

The dwarf sighed and hugged him back, despite the veins that began to settle from his temples, his anger didn’t prevent him from squeezing the young adventurer in an embrace.

“You were right,” Sebas said to Jenva, “he does quit getting mad when you hug him.”

Gis shoved Sebas away, and looked at his lover, “what do you mean! Jenva, how could ye put up with this foolishness of this prick!”

Jenva smiled softly at him, holding on his hair with a soft hand, it slowly moved to the side of Gis’ face before she spoke to him, “because, beloved, you forgot my birthday, and I’m a bit petty.”

Sebas attempted to leave the encroaching dangerous levels of violence, saying “I didn’t know when your birthday was, may I be excused?”

Jenva smiled at him before nodding, “you may, you however may not.” She said to Gis who was tiptoeing after Sebas, he mouthed the words of help before Sebas closed the door softly, words of apologies left by wordless speech.

At the adventurers guild, Ito Jella had one too many customers for Sebas liking, and got lunch, which was a choice of fresh caught deer meat for half a silver or something that had something to do with mushroom for a few copper.

[CoinPurse: 43S 32C -> 42S 82C]

Sebas sat in line to Ito’s small floor-carpet shop, eating a small steak like one would a sandwich. Eventually he got his turn to speak with the silver haired human.

“Yes! Nice to see you in most of a single piece Biter!”

“Biter? Who the fuck told you my class?”

“Oh, we gotta show you this,” Ito began pulling out some magical stuff, Sebas was unable to focus on it, as Ito proved too erratic for his focus to stick to one particular object, he was saying something, but Sebas couldn’t be bothered listening with the merchant’s attention grabbing ramble.

“You, the Little Hero, and the Hawk, fought the behemoth, now your class as you’ve said has become something else, a moniker if you will.”

“Huh?” Sebas asked, grave tones implied in his voice.

“Yes! I’ve been selling them, the sight of Eruka’s most famous Rookies fighting a level 19 Mutant Midboss makes for proper capital, I’ve had to go to the bank ever week!”

Sebas nostrils flared and he cracked his knuckles, prepared to inflict his own brand of cardinal wrath, while Ito showed him the seven minute video with some sort of magic equipment that he was unfamiliar with.

Watching himself fight a giant monster put it into perspective how much of a bad idea it was, not to mention how he probably needed to thank Karri later for saving his ass, the appearance of his face and body after being sucker punched by a monster leg with the force of a miniature cannonball was… not pretty.

What was pretty, and made some patrons cheer was the fact that he ripped out the throat of a monster 4 times his size with his teeth after losing an arm was, impressive wasn’t the word that could emphasize how near-death it was, he should have died, however he got five levels from what his spare stat points told him, Adam came in at a clutch point, as it appeared the rabbit nearly fed him his own sharp-toothed medicine, and Adam’s broadsword destroyed it.

“I’m really glad I bought him that sword.”

“It was a good investment,” Ito acknowledged.

“Can you turn that shit off Ito, I’m trying to eat here, I don’t need to watch monster fights that brutal when I’m trying to eat!”

Sebas looked over at the heckler, and back to the film that quickly turned off, before the information that he and his crew found a chest got out.

“How did you get this?”

“The guild charges people ten silver coins to record their fight, it’s a training tool for visual learners.”

“I thought that was an entry fee?”

Ms. Raven walked by Sebas with a pile of books and documents in her arms, “Only if you want to record it, it’s a single silver for a regular entry.”

“Motherfucker,” Sebas mumbled.

“Anyway, you can buy a copy for a silver, I bought most of them and charged five for one of them. Anyway, how can I help you Sebas!”

“Do you have any magic maps that cover the capital?”

“Yes, but you surely can’t afford them, a single magic map costs 50 silver.”

“Fuckin hell…”

“What business do you have in the capital?” Ito asked him with a businessman’s curiosity.

“Arm.”

“What about it?”

“Magic prosthetic.”

“Oh! Delightful, I can introduce you to someone!”

“I have someone lined up already, he’s supposedly expecting me.”

“How long do you plan to stay in the capital?”

“Considering PERSONAL INFORMATION, I don’t plan on staying at all if possible.”

“Family?”

“Personal,” Sebas said through gritted teeth.

“I see.”

“I could take you, I have a few things I’ve been putting off, and there’s plenty of suckers out there who’re willing to buy things for a lot of money, unlike some people here,” Ito stared at Sebas during the last sentence.

“What’s the catch?”

“Young Aren-,” Sebas glared at him, and he coughed, pretending to clear his throat, “Young Biter, your bloody display has made me significant capital in this backwater wheat town, I can say confidently that selling these in the capital would benefit me and you, it is incumbent that I spread the word of the biter foradecentamountofmoney~”

“Scumbag.”

“Clean hands do not pay for the material goods of the mortal species of our world.”

Sebas snickers, “we wicked don’t know what we need, but we know we need money?”

“Precisely!”

“I can agree to that, give me a silver ever 2 copies you sell, I’m not flaunting my gory fight with no benefit other than your “gracious” transportation.”

“… half a silver?”

“How about 75 per copy?”

“I think that a silver every other copy is very generous of you, young Biter, this merchant is sorry.”

“Yeah whatever, I need my arm back and it won’t be speedy money making til I do, running around fighting rabbits sounds like a good way to be targeted by more thugs.”

“Very well! Let us leave on the morrow, I will meet you at the eastern entrance!”

“Hey, do you have an identify skill or something?”

“No, but I do have this monocle with an enhancement magic that gives it the trait (Observer.)”

“Just say enchantment… how much?”

“For you? 88 Silvers will do~”

“Yeah no.”

Sebas spent the rest of the day bothering Elimir, losing a game of arm wrestling to him, and sitting at the southeastern dungeon entrance booth, which had a surprising amount of foot traffic.

Night passed through the town, and eventually, Sebas met with Ito Jella as the pair of them left for the capital of Disel.

Through the wake dirt roads and bumpy paths the pair of horses led the carriage, Sebas sat against the wooden floor of the cart, snug between several dozen boxes that were aptly called “Magic Chests,” looking into the contents of each box.

[Magic Chest (Equipment) {Capacity 99.6%}:

22x {18x Gladius, 2x Falchion, 1x Arming Sword, 1x Two-handed Sword},

4x {3x Combat Knife (Needlepoint), 1x Combat Knife (Talon)},

12x {9x Heater, 2x Scutum, 1x Buckler},

6x {1x Rosary Ring, 2x Cameo Ring, 1x Thumb Ring, 1x Armor Ring},

15x {7x Choker, 3x Lariat Necklace, 2x Pendant, 1x Bib Necklace, 1x Locket, 1x Golden Chain}]

[Magic Chest (Monster Shit) {Capacity 98.2%}: 228x , 113x , 56 , 235x , 50(kg)x , 50(kg)x , 26x , 3x , 1x , 6x ]

[Magic Chest (Fuckin’ Potions) {Capacity 100%}: 10x , 1x , 1x , 10x ]

“You swear a lot,” Sebas yelled to the front of the carriage.

“Quit looking through my shit kettle, I don’t care if you are an ex-noble, I don’t have to pretend to be all high class here, I can and will kick your ass into the mud, Sebas Aren.”

“I’m just focusing on it, I haven’t opened anything.”

“Good, I don’t need some rich asshole complaining about “filth”… no offense.”

“Not rich, but none taken,” Sebas said to the misunderstanding.

“I gotta give it to Ito, he doesn’t strike me as the “fuck the rich” crowd, his acting has impressed me.”

“I respect you,” Sebas yelled back up front.

“Yeah whatever.”

“Can I use the observer monocle?”

“It’ll cost you a silver coin.”

Sebas sighed and yelled “heads up”, and surprise lit him up, watching as Ito caught the silver coin without looking away from the road.

A small bag was tossed backwards, a magic bag, there were more magic items inside, but Sebas thought Ito would threaten him again if he did anything exploratory.

“How did you do that with the coin?” Sebas ask-yelled Ito while affixing the opulent monocle to his eye.

“(Valuables Insight), makes it easy to find thieves, and coins.”

Sebas nodded, noting the information while attempting to use the observer trait on his hand.

Name: Sebas Aren

Species: Human LV 16

Class: [Biter]

Strength: 50 [+5]

Dexterity: 30 [+15] [+5]

Constitution: 30

Intelligence: 2 [+1]

Wisdom: 1

Charisma: 1

Free Stat Points: 0

Skills: [Bite LV 4] [Lowest-Rank Swordsmanship LV4] [Barter LV 3] [Ambush LV 2] [??? LV 0] [Parkour LV 1] [??? LV 0] [Multi-Hit LV 1{Weaponbound}]

Traits: (Valuables Insight ) (Risk-Taker) (Monster) (Observer {Itembound})