"Well, let's go. That girl Lina is waiting for us.", Prince Andew spoke, with a debilitating headache.
He didn't know what was happening, but he was getting weaker for some reason. When he consulted with his personal physician, he suggested to lay off sleeping with his maids.
True, he had been overdoing it these days. But he felt as if there was something else at play, he just couldn't prove it.
In the backdrop, Cid examined his gains.
[Steal successful!]
[You have stolen 1 STR from Andrew Bermont.]
[Steal complete. Steal is now in cooldown.]
Cid observed that the gains were diminishing. Either it was due to the fact that the Prince's stats were lowering by the day, or that Steal couldn't be used on the same target consecutively.
This was an interesting bit of information for Cid. He would have to target different people each time he used it, in that case.
Cid got up, inconspicuously following the Prince. The Prince's convoy was smaller today, and only had a few Adepts and an Expert Realm, which was the Tier 3 fellow next to the Prince.
The group moved towards the back of the mountains, advancing through the small forest. The guards were on full lookout mode, trying to prevent any ambushes on the Prince.
Of course, there would probably be no harm done to the prince with a mighty Expert Realm next to him, but the Prince was becoming increasingly paranoid by the day, both from the threat of his competing brothers and his deteriorating condition.
Eventually, they reached a place where Lina and her group was waiting for them.
"Greetings, Prince. Are you ready?", she bowed slightly as she forced herself to speak politely.
"Mm. Lead the way.", the Prince spoke, taking the initiative to walk by her side.
The journey to the forge involved walking down from a specific valley down to the mines below.
On the way, the prince kept making advances on Lina, getting shot down politely. This slightly worsened his mood. When had Prince Andrew not gotten what he wanted?
Just wait until the artifact is in my hands, then we'll see.
Cid followed behind them, occasionally setting up some contraptions on the ground. These things would come in handy later.
When the group finally reached the back gate of the forge, they came across a line of guards guarding the entrance.
The grand forge of the Blacksmith Association was located here. It was specially designed to be made in an area with rich deposits of minerals, and an easy access to flowing magma rivers of varying degrees of heat. And the fact that there was only one entrance to the forge made it easier to guard.
A bald headed man with a full brown moustache came up to Lina and the group and said, "Im sorry, Lady Lina. I can't let you, or anybody else in. Orders of your grandfather."
Lina looked perplexed. She spoke at once.
"How can that be? Grandpa promised to let me take part in the forging this time!"
The bald headed man shook his head, and the other guards got closer to the mine's entrance, as if to blockade it.
"I'm sorry, Lady Lina. But these are the orders of Sir Kaunga. I can't let you guys in."
"That's ridiculous!", Prince Andrew spoke.
Ever since he came here, his temper was only being challenged more and more.
"Do you know who I am? Are you ready to challenge the rule of the Greater Narid Kingdom?", he spoke with an ugly face, his character showing.
"No, we don't mean any disrespect, Prince Andrew. We are very sorry for the inconvenience, but we are not allowed to let anyone in.", the bald man bowed as he said.
"No! Let me in or else...", the Prince looked at the guards next to him, as if beckoning him to force his way in.
The expert realm, an old man wearing a knight's armour, whispered something into the Prince's ear, and he finally cooled down.
"Fine, this one will let this disrespect go, for now.", the Prince let out a huff of air, his headache amplifying.
As soon as this event was done, he would surely punish these people.
While this was happening, Cid had already managed to sneak in.
In a nearby bush, a man laid sleeping peacefully with his clothes removed and his mouth gagged, and the armour that he wore was being worn by Cid at this moment.
He picked up the box that the man was carrying and pretended to be one of the guards working there, whistling as he left the entrance and walked deeper into the forge, none suspecting him.
As he finally came down to the main chamber where the forge was to happen, he saw a gigantic carvern where mountains of ore rose to large peaks, and rivers of flowing magma went from the peaks to deeper into the caverns, to places unknown.
Huge contraptions of chains, and cobblestone bridges connected the entire place, and the walls were coloured black with ash and soot from the years before it.
Cid could already feel the heat from where he was standing. For an ordinary person, this heat would have been enough to send them into a heat stroke, putting their lives in danger. Only an entry realm professional could stand a chance at being able to work his way around here, and only an adept would be able to be at ease. Without the proper constitution, you could not last more than an hour in this place.
"Watch it! The forge is about to happen soon, get into position!", a supervisor came up to Cid and yelled at him, hurrying himself with great haste.
Cid nodded and then went closer down to the base floor of the caverns, where the temperature rose higher. There were chain driven pulleys carrying platforms of people and ore everywhere, and Cid made use of one to get down.
There, he could see the old man Kaunga yelling with great ferocity, instructing the materials and ore to be thrown into the large crucible.
Kaunga's way of constructing an artifact was one that was passed down from his ancestors. It was a rudimentary method by Cid's standards, but to the people of this realm, it was among the only ones that existed. It involved dumping a ton of spiritual materials and great ore into a crucible, and then forcefully melting it down and compressing it with the help of a divine rune made by an expert scribe, and inputting brute force into it by a group of adepts and experts.
It was complicated. Cid recalled that this method was very wasteful and time consuming, and had a lot of flaws. But, it was among the only methods available for now.
Cid waited for some time, watching man after man walking up to the platform and putting the materials in as required.
"Get going! You're next!", a man dressed in yellow yelled, looking at the box of grey ashed titanium Cid was holding in his box.
Heeding the call, he walked up to the platform, where Kaunga looked pensive, waiting for the right time.
"Now!", he yelled, as he looked at the bubbles of the concoction rise up to the surface.
The titanium acted as a supressant, calming the entire base of the metal down and changing its colour from a bright yellow to a more subdued orange.
Cid hurried up and walked down from the platform to allow the next person to come. Otherwise, he feared that the stern Kaunga would put him into the crucible himself.
Cid walked back to a corner of the platform where people were waiting for further instructions, watching the forging happen.
"It's quite a spectacle, isn't it? I've only watched this happen once in my life.", a younger apprentice watched the entire thing with awe in his eyes.
Cid nodded and watched. He the slowly vanished into the background.