CHAPTER 2 – PART FOURI"m currently at a store called Alroe"s a general store. I"m shopping for what to give my son but I just don"t think anything ordinary is worthy of being worn by my son. I wonder if this is how parents feel when they want to give something special to their children.
So out of all that I could think of none really stuck to me as something special. What I"ve been thinking of are things that people from my previous world would find good enough to gift. However, this is another world so I guess I should give my son something of this world. In fact I could actually go and craft him something myself. Yeah, let"s do that shall we?
Walking around this city is making me feel as if my old world"s modern visage and this world"s middle-ages-like look feel refreshing. The streets have night lamps every ten meters or so and all of it is powered by magic. I wonder how Isaac had all this working.
The road is paved with stone slabs and is easy to walk in. The shops are lined up along the way and the road is wide enough to look like a 6-lane highway. Although there are also alleys that feel cramped but even the alleys are wide enough for cars to go through, which gives some shady stalls, s.p.a.ce to do business. I don"t really care as long as it"s not something that hurts people.
If it does, I will have Isaac remove it and the owner killed. I want a city that"s good to be in because everyone fears the law and respects the states. To do that, you make the foolish and brave people as examples. You kill them horribly in public and make it clear that their kind is not welcome. Sure, most people will react negatively, but that"s only on Earth where hypocrisy and false justice is rampart. In fact, there"s no place on Earth that fears the law, instead they use the law as a tool to profit even more.
That"s why politics is the Devil"s most powerful instrument on Earth.
I digress; let"s get back to the appreciation of the place.
The place I want to visit is acclaimed to be the best smithy around in Village. Gosh, I should probably make a proper name for this place later on. Establishing a village was supposed to be my first step, but unknowingly, I already rule a city instead. Well, there"s no use trying to stick to what I want when what I want has already advanced more than how I wanted it to be.
Village"s most acclaimed smithy is called Iron Fist Smithy. I know, it"s the direct English translation of Tekken, but let"s see why it"s called Tekken first.
I arrived upon the entrance of the smithy and I could already feel the heat of the forge that the blacksmith is using… not. With my stats currently treading on the path of the Divine, simple things like this no longer make me feel anything. Coupled with my skin or most specifically, cells that"s been compressed to an extent that not even atoms can pa.s.s through, oh I know it"s an exaggeration but I want to describe my own Man of Steel vibe as awesome as I can.
I entered the shop which had oddly wooden walls and frames; isn"t the owner afraid of his shop being caught on fire by his forge?
*Click* *Chime*
I opened the door to the shop and the door clicked with the mechanism of the k.n.o.b being worked, followed by a chime that sounded when I pushed open the door itself. Man, this is a very nostalgic sound. I want to try and hear it over and over again but I have to hold myself back.
[Welcome to the Iron Fist Smithy. What may we be of service on, to customer?] The shop keep stood across a tabletop counter and greeted with practice. Nice. A smile and slight tilt of the head and she already caught my attention. Maybe this is ordinary to them but for I who am from another world, seeing this kind of movement makes me remember anime shop keeps. Now I miss the whole shebang I left on Earth sigh. If only I can go back to earth. Let"s leave that thought for later I have to get what I want first.
The moment I fully stepped into the shop I was greeted and so I returned a smile to her. I then asked her about a material I am very curious about. The Magic metals that fantasy just can"t go without.
"I would like to inquire if this shop has the materials that I need, like Mithril, Orichalc.u.m, and Adamantine, if you are selling any?" I asked in hopes of these materials being here. However, the shop keep had a frown on the moment I mentioned those materials, is it after all rare here?
"What"s wrong is it too rare perhaps and you don"t have them?" I asked further. To my question, the shop keep shook her head and her frown grew deeper. I really am curious what"s wrong now.
[Mister Customer, I may just be a shop keep but please, don"t insult me or the shop by asking for those trashy materials please. Those materials are only used to inlay ornaments and for decoration. Sure they conduct magic and in the case of Adamantine, it"s really st.u.r.dy but the production of those have already been left behind because of new ores much more favorable than them being discovered each and every time the miners here in this city are able to uncover.
[Have you heard of the Moribor Mines? That"s where materials such as Obsidian Steel which we named as such because of its color being black and as hard as Adamantine with affinity already attached to it upon discovery. Do you know how the miners and metalworkers reacted to such news? The metal working industry begun a revolution and now, they left obsolete materials such as those you mentioned to rot in their shops.]
The shop keep became a chatter box as she explained to me the various new ores and metals that they have discovered that overtook the place of those magic metals that I mentioned from the highest ranking. She mentioned Obsidian Steel, t.i.tan Copper, Toxic Jade and the most recent discovery, Storm Clay. I liked how they named the last one with the same name as I have but the property of that metal also reflected my property of being long lived. It seems that Storm Clay has the property of repairing itself over time as it absorbs mana from the atmosphere. It"s called Storm Clay as they say that when it was discovered there was a storm that suddenly appeared the moment that the Clay was uncovered. As if the heavens itself does not want to have this clay exist in this world. Thunder and lightning snaked its way towards the Clay and destroyed it. Luckily, the miners who discovered it kept a bit of a distance when they noticed the storm. The Clay was destroyed but later on, the storm left and it started to repair itself by gathering the scattered and charred pieces of it. As if the Clay was alive.
It"s an awesome material. Maybe I can gather some for myself later, but I don"t really need much of it, I"ll leave it to the miners to do their job.
So I bought some of each metal and tried manipulating its shape and composition via Earth Magic as metal is still part of the earth. No matter what property it is, as long as it"s borne out of the earth then it has Earth Affinity. I should teach my people this information later.
I was successful of course and made the Obsidian Steel to bend and wave like it was alive same with the rest of the materials. The shop keep was staring at me with her mouth totally agape that even three apples would have fit right into it.
I paid for the ores and left the shop. Then I kept walking around to kill some time. I"m sure Isaac has already arranged things on his end already. Caltec and the other two should be done hunting for what we would eat for the festival.
Now that I remember it, that guy Gunter who told me all about this city when I woke up two years ago said he owned an Inn right, it"s called Moonreach? I wonder if it"s connected to Moonwink after all.
Let"s give it a visit. So I stopped another person on his way somewhere and asked about the direction where Moonreach was and luckily, he was a patron of the Inn. It seems the Inn accommodated travelers and even boarders who stay a long time as the man I just stopped and asked directions from actually was someone thinking of erecting a home here in this city. I"m happy that many people want to actually live here.
So according to his directions, I only have to go straight towards the fountain in the center of the square and go left from there. And I will find Moonreach at the middle of that road surrounded by the guilds. Isaac seemed to have this arranged so that the guilds are put into districts. The commercial district is where I am right now.
I walked towards Moonreach. Having a home atop the peak is good and all, but mingling with people also doesn"t sound so bad. Plus these people are good people as far as I can observe. I"ve been wandering around the commercial district for a while now but I never heard any kind of distress call or trouble anywhere within the city. I think that it warrants praise. Unlike cities on earth, trouble brews each second so Superman doesn"t have enough hands to save all who needs him. That"s why, I admire him, but his heroic attributes gets in the way of real peace in the city he wants to so much protect. If he were to kill the criminals in public and make an example a few hundred times then surely, criminals will start to fear for their lives and live a life in hiding, or better yet get forced get proper jobs to avoid being on his radar. This is just my way of doing things though, since Earth is a s.h.i.tty place for a hero to be in anyway.
Having power is very important in enforcing rules and protecting peace, but what really makes it stick is using that power to truly enforce justice. If a criminal kills someone, then anyone can also kill that person. A life for a life, that"s the way that should be. Not some hypocritical sense of justice where you use your power to save and save and save and save until such a time that you can"t save everyone and you bury yourself in depression because you feel weak. It seems and sounds stupid to me. Just kill every criminal you find and see where that gets you.
I have to teach Isaac, Caltec, Jon and Mor about the three most powerful tenets that they can use in governing their territories from now on. I have to teach them the discipline that "Fear" is the ultimate tool to use to keep peace add to that "Respect" for any individual"s interest and finally, "Love" for your neighbor. Having these three and making it a discipline to always observe them will keep any government afloat.
Well, if there are small time criminals present then they will still die. I"m not going to spare anyone that doesn"t follow my rules. That"s a betrayal to me already. If I start sparing anyone just because their crime is "light" then that would be hypocrisy yet again, I don"t want that. I want to step into a rule of terror so I will rule in terror; at least for criminals. I don"t want my domain to harbor criminals. I will be as hard as Adamantine on that.
Well, mulling over such things have already unknowingly made me lose track of time and my surroundings and now I find myself in front of the doors to the Inn I"ve sought, Moonreach; time to see if this Inn has any connection to Moonwink that got destroyed because of me. Tsk. I"m remembering the stupid royals again and my blood is starting to boil.