Come morning, Shel woke up to the sound of clashing metal. Her groggy state only allowed her to get a blurry view of her surroundings but the metallic reverberations which constantly assaulted her ears made sure this was only temporary.
"Ed?" She asked rubbing her eyes. Ed's figure turned to face her. His face was soaked with sweat yet filled with vigor and excitement.
"Good Morning" Ed said before stopping and placing his recently crafted hammer aside.
[Volendrung (Ebony Hammer)]
{ Made using the orc Ed's omitted Ebony Greaves, Volendrung is one big hammer }
Making armor for all or even just most of the orcs in the settlement was tiring work. If a better hammer could help ease that pressure then Ed had no faults with the idea, and it had, the piece of armor he made for Shel was proof.
[Shel's Armor (Orc iron Armor)]
{ An armor set crafted by the orc Ed with the Orc Shel in mind, it boasts non-scantily clad protection. }
Ed summoned it using area withdrawal. The armor was held being worn by a loose metallic skeleton. A mannequin of sorts.
The piece of equipment was made of regular orc iron but the craftsmanship that went into it was nothing small. With the help of Ethereal Spark Ed managed to level up his craftsmanship twice over the course of one night.
The sheen full plate mail was smooth and sturdy, the shape was tailor-made to suit Shel's body.
'All it took was a little grinding to come up with this' This iteration of Shel's Armor was obviously not the first.
"I made this for you" Ed said showcasing the set in full. From the greaves to the helm it all looked basic yet glamorous. It was an interesting juxtaposition that left Shel who preferred function over charm completely enamored.
"R- Really?!" Shel practically screamed out excitement oozing from every syllable.
"You made one for me, it's only right I return the favor no?" Ed said with a smile. Seeing this caused the muscular Shel to blush slightly but she controlled her emotions and stepped forward like a warrior heading off into battle. The sudden shift in mood caused question marks to form all around Ed.
"Did you make one for Sharog?" Shel then asked after grabbing and examining the set from Ed's hand. It was actually quite heavy but Shel managed to remove and hold each piece from the mannequin with ease.
"...no" Ed replied not lying at all. He technically didn't make Sharog any armor given that she was a mage.
"I see" Shel said with a smile on her brutish face. She then, however, noticed the piece of scrap that she made in a corner of the smithy and her smile froze The disparity in talent was too large here as well!!!!
Under normal circumstances, Shel would feel depressed and even think about finding another way to help Ed but she knew that there weren't many such opportunities available. This time, she would have to simply try her best to catch up!
Shel instantly started to search for Ed's old hammer to get some smithing done. The forge was luckily still hot and all she needed was some orc iron…?
"Where did all of the orc iron go???" There were approximately three carts full of orc iron there previously but now… they were all empty!
Not bothering to say a single word of explanation. Ed began to summon some armor.
[Fine Orc Iron Armor]
{ Finely processed and refined orc iron was used to make this fine set of armor }
Some was perhaps an understatement as Ed began to summon many orc fine orc iron armors. The fire in Shel's eyes was thus quickly doused.
"..." She couldn't even come up with a single word of response. She only turned away from the pile of full armor and gave Ed a blank stare devoid of any emotion.
"Umm… Shel, do you want to join today's meeting?" Ed asked intending to bring Shel back from whatever world her soul had vanished to.
"...Meeting!?" Shel took a moment to react but once she did Ed could tell she was excited.
"Yeah, since you are in charge of the smithy I think you are fit to attend" Even if she wasn't no one would say anything but Ed wanted to make it clear to Shel that she was worth something.
"I'll join you!" Shel said before pounding her chest confidently. Ed smiled before storing away all of the pieces of armor.
"Let's go then" Ed said while motioning Shel to follow him. She reacted almost instantly as she followed in his footsteps.
The meeting location was designated to be the settlement's walls. It was much easier to plan things out while having a good understanding of the layout of the land. A map could usually fill this need but unless Ed returned to the crypt there was no way he was getting any paper. He wasn't a cartographer either.
"Hm?" After walking for a good ten minutes Shel and ed could see the figures of Sharog and Vorgarag who were gazing into the forest.
"Hello" Ed said as he approached from behind.
"Where is Gurln?" He then added realizing that he was missing. Sharog said she wanted him to attend before, no?
"Ah, I changed my mind" Sharog who didn't see Ed coming responded briefly. She then raised an eyebrow as she saw a fully kitted knight behind Ed. This was Shel who insisted on wearing her armor to the meeting.
"I made this armor for Shel and… she wanted to wear it now" Ed was caught off guard when Shel first started stripping in the middle of the road with the intention of wearing the armor. Who wore armor naked!?! Most orcs were pretty much naked considering the rag-like clothing some wore but still…
"What about us?" Vorgarag who had all the while continued gazing at the forest turned and ask.
"Well, will get to that later" If he revealed his arsenal right then and there he was afraid that Shel would want to hurt him.
The four of them then waited for about five more minutes.
[Dakgu]
{ Ex-Chief of the Thunder Cry tribe. Now works happily under Sanctuary tending to boar. Dakgu holds a strong conviction to revive his dead tribe. }
Dakgu arrived with an air of meek confidence.
"Good Morning" He said to all of them before standing around and waiting with the rest. It only took two more minutes for the last orc to arrive.
"Hah... Why did we meet here?!" The final orc to arrive was a tired Bulwud. He was used to commanding others and taking it easy even when in battle so he was rather out of shape for an orc. To be fair, the sacred tribe's walls were imposingly tall.
Hearing this question, Ed immediately took to the forefront. He used earth manipulation to create a simple table and chairs atop the wall and addressed the main concern as everyone sat down.
"We need a plan to defeat the humans" Ed cut straight to the chase and inspected the facial expressions of the three new additions to the discussion.
Bulwud's reaction was confusion and while Dakgu tried to maintain a calm appearance the way his body tensed up gave away his real thoughts. For the third, Well, Ed actually couldn't see the face of the helmeted Shel, only her tusks.
"We were considering yesterday to build a smaller wall in the center of the settlement" Vorgarag pitched in seeing that no one intended to present anything fresh or new. Hearing this Bulwud finally perked up.
"That's no problem! How long do you need, a week?" Bulwud stood up and asked confidently.
"Three days at most" Ed responded and Bulwud's confident face broke into tiny bits. These bits were then washed up by a river and dispersed into the wide ocean never to be seen again. Bulwud sat down and tidied himself.
"Impossible" He said without giving room for discussion. To build a settlement wall out of stone was already a pipe dream yet they wanted three days!?! Bulwud could have never dreamed of meeting such irresponsible planners.
Ed rapped his finger on the stone table trying to think of a way to make Bulwud change his mind.
"What if you lower the quality-?" "Why even build a wall then" Bulwud responded before Ed could fully finish his sentence.
'This will be tougher than I thought' All their plans would end up half-baked at this point.
"Well, we don't have to build a full wall" Sharog said after thinking about the matter more deeply. Rerouting the path of the enemies was enough on its own and could make room for traps.
"Ah! It might be possible then!" Bulwud yelled out, Ed got the impression that he was the type to value work. In truth, what Bulwud valued was his life. He nearly crapped his pant after flat out rejecting Ed's proposal.
***
W's mind was foggy but he seemed to faintly recall waking up in a concealed dark room. After that, his mind lapsed once more and he was left with only the present.
'Where am I?' Which W didn't actually know where it was. He recognized that he had somehow gone deeper into the forest but he couldn't recognize anything else.
"Bandages…?" The confusion only seemed to thicken, did the assassin have a change of heart so it bandaged him up and dropped him off in the middle of nowhere?
'That's definitely… not it!' "Urgh…!" W stood up, the pain from his thigh instantly made its presence known.
"Should I head to Sanctuary now then?" W couldn't see any human around him no matter what direction he looked at. Could it be a bad decision?