With my masterwork done for Nau Xiaolin. I just spent the rest of the next few days healing from the wounds caused by overusing more blatant magic which turned parts of my body into stone.
The following day, when I was feeling better... As in not drunk on the ale I drank yesterday, I got cleaned up before I paused as I washed my jaw with some homemade soap.
'I am like fifteen now. Sadly I won't start growing a good dawi beard till I am like thirty.' I thought with a slight scowl of annoyance as being a smooth-chinned dwarf making his own decisions and ESPECIALLY having my own shop at my age.
I had never gone through the proper coming of age ceremonies besides my father gifting me some ale he made for making my first hammer. And likewise Snorlot gifting me the helmet I wore to this very day that was enchanted to provide me some protection from arrows.
I ran my hand across the immitation of the Spear of Telesto I made before I sighed softly as I imaged how proud Snorlot would have been of this spear... Though he would have grumbled about the spear being more fit for the shitty Elgi's hands or even the Umgi horse fuckers of the far western lands of Bretonnia ."
"Hmph, another good reason to have not gone to the Empire either... I may have had to meet with more of those damned Britonian's. Those backwards Umgi fools would have driven me to cave their tiny minds in with a forging hammer." I grumbled to myself with heat.
As Bretonnia... Was not my favorite place, nor was it a place that my fellow Dawi appreciated. Because at the best case, it was a whole massive kingdom, arguably one of the strongest in the world that had a fetish for the Elgi Silverhelms to the point they made it their entire culture.
And then there was the fact that I myself knew the so called Fay Enchantress tho blessed the Grail Knights with their great powers was actually... A fucking dirty knife ear!
I huffed and then with a grunt I left my personal quarters and forging area to enter the larger factory. And once I found a whelp who was busy moving the corpses of several shamans and cleary tainted spiders I paid him to go send a message to Nau Xiaolin.
"Haaa... That boy is going to spend those silvers in the red light district you know." The foreman said with clear amuesment.
To which I looked at him flatly and said with a plain tone. "And you will not guide him to do better?"
The man gave me a look like I was the one who was crazy and stated cooly. "I am not his mother who would scold him or a father to beat the foolishness out of him. Why would I do such a thankless thing."
It wasn't a question, it was a statement of fact that he wouldn't do such a thing. Still the Umgi's stupdity grated at me. In the Barruk clan if someone was fucking about, anyone who was their senior would cuff them upside the ear to knock some damned sense into them.
If the boy was trusted to work in this area why not help the boy become better then he was? And then it hit me as I recalled more of my past life as a human and how human's cared so much less about their fellow man compared to how the Dawi would care for clanmates.
Soon enough however, I escaped the foolish Umgi's who thankfully couldn't fuck up the production of the dwarven automatons, as all the components were cast made and each person was in charge of only making three or four major pieces at most.
All so that they would learn how to make acceptable pieces that could then be put together later on.
The ride to Nau Xiaolin's estate went well besides the servant's blanking in suprise at seeing me moving the large pieces of armor that would be covering the Longma into the cart.
Oh and of course their blatant suprise and greed at the sight of the masterwork Spear of Telesto.
The ride itself was uneventful and without any fanfare we arrived at her estate that looked even more empty then last time without even a door guard.
With the servants actually leaving to go back into the city which told me they weren't even servants of Nau Xiaolin and instead just porters.
Soon enough however a maid brought the dragon blooded heiress to me and her eyes as they landed on the armor and spear made my heart swell with a sense of accomplishment as I knew she realized the value and craftsmanship of the tools of war.
"This... Is much more then I expected. I hardly have the gold to pay you for such a tremedous accomplishment Kharn." She said as she gently dragged her gloved hand across the drake leather wrapped handle of the spear.
I gave the orphaned dragon blooded would be general a look before I stated flatly. "Aye... But I don't do half jobs. You asked for a masterwork weapon and armor to fit your mount and ye got it. You pay me what I am owed and agreed upon along with fullfilling your promise. And your side of the business is done."
There was a pause before she looked upon me and said with a wry smile. "The noble courts have mentioned you last night at a small feast celebrating the quick purge of those greenskins. If you were die while fighting beside my meager forces... Lady Miao Ying would tear me apart."
And with a small huff I said with the typical stubbornness inherent to my race. "That is ma problem thank you very much. You focus more on fixing your noble house as ye don't even have a gate guard to announce people's arrival after all. You need all the help you can get."
Nau could only nod slowly in agreement before she replied quietly. "Even your words ring like a painfully loud bell to the ears. They bear only the truth. Now with the armor and arms ready, I will have my men marshalled by next week's end to go on an expedition to earn my household funds."
I raised an eyebrow and asked bluntly. "And how do you plan to make some quick money?"
To which she gave a wane smile and said bluntly. "I suggest we hunt a small clutch of drakes and look for wild Longma's that were born of drakes and horses mating. Both things would be of great value if collected."
Either way worked for me. Though hunting a group of drakes would be a good way to get a lot of EXP, and the thin draconic blood in the drakes would be good for my smithing work.