All in all, Ves beca incredibly satisfied with the gains he made today.
His coincidental eting and cooperation with Master Blacksmith Rogha Dunnerholm had taught him an important lesson.
It was not a waste of ti for ch designers to work together with other professionals who didn't necessarily have anything to do with the ch industry.
Hardly any ch designers bothered to collaborate with other professionals. In the Age of chs, the forr was in the ascendancy while the latter had beco more marginalized than ever.
As chs beca more popular and visible in human society, only a small minority of eccentrics and rich people still held a small amount of appreciation for traditional craftsmanship.
It was a rather sad state of affairs, but the demands of a progressing civilization dictated that any production thod that did not do well in the areas of efficiency and mass production had to be set aside.
ch designers were not only able to keep up with these demands and justify their existence, but could also take their jobs a step further and attain transcendence while incorporating more and more taphysics into their works.
All of these unique and powerful advantages made it seem as if ch designers stood on top of everyone else!
Why would any ch designer condescend to lower himself to the level of a re mortal craftsman?
This sounded as pointless as modern humans trying to treat a race of primitive, jungle-dwelling aliens as their equals!
However, Vesk knew quite well that even the less sophisticated alien races could develop their own unique strengths that may be of use to another technologically superior race.
It was the sa case with the dwarven blacksmith. Rogha Dunnerholm may not be a transcendent, but he had succeeded in getting close to approaching the extre of his own craft.
As far as Ves was concerned, the greatest benefit he gained from this experience was that he gained an even better feel and understanding of tal than before.
This was difficult to describe or quantify in scientific terms. Ves only vaguely felt that he could work with tal a bit more exquisitely than before. It was as if he had gained a small part of the benefit of spending many decades working with tal in a forge!
Of course, Ves also made a lot of practical gains as well. He felt a lot more confident in his ability to mimic a traditional blacksmith and work a forge. The only fault was that he lacked a lot of practical experience which could not be solved unless he spent a lot of ti in the forge himself.
The little hamr that Dunnerholm gifted to Ves was another little benefit.
After testing it out on the work table, Ves confird that it could provide him with a lot of help and convenience in applying his newly gained knowledge on acoustic tallurgy.
The living tool had been shaped in a way that made it seem as if it was only good for ringing a bell, but it could do so much more than that with the help of its taphysical properties.
pαпdα`noνɐ1`сoМ What was even better was that it could grow over ti and beco much more useful in the future!
The sa applied to the set of relic tools reserved for the master blacksmith himself.
As Dunnerholm reverently picked up the handles of the blacksmithing tools one by one, the grin on his bearded face could not be suppressed!
"Are you satisfied?" Ves asked as he skilfully twirled his second hamr around his fingers.
"More than you can ever know." The dwarf gasped in response as excitent coursed through his body. "I cannot wait to see how well I can channel Vulcan's blessing in making my next totems! I should be able to create magnificent works that properly honors the majesty and divinity of our god!"
"Uh huh. Just keep in mind that you need to earn your keep. Our clan literally fought alien battleships to secure the materials used to make your new set of fancy tools, and my expertise doesn't co for free either."
The old dwarf patted his chest with his strong fist. "I shall not squander these blessed gifts! You can count on that, patriarch! I will do my utmost to help your Creation Association obtain all of the totems it needs to spread the worship of Vulcan across the Red Ocean and beyond! The great works that I will be able to make with my new tools shall be celebrated among both humans and dwarves. This is my promise!"
Ves was satisfied with this earnest statent. This had been a highly productive experience for him today.
Through a half a day of collaborative work, he not only secured the loyalty of possibly the best totem maker for the Creation Association, but also empowered him to beco even better at his primary responsibility.
By now, Rogha Dunnerholm had completely forgotten about any of the ambivalence he held. He no longer felt bothered by the Larkinson Patriarch's culpability in the tragedies that had befallen the Vulcan Empire and its many dwarven citizens.
In the old dwarf's mind, perhaps Ves Larkinson had rely been acting as an agent on behalf of Vulcan himself.
The god may have grown so disgusted by the degeneration of the Vulcan Empire that he would rather strike down his own people than let the misguided dwarves wallow in their own filth!
"Would you like the honor of bestowing a na to our new equipnt set?" Dunnerholm asked the younger man.
"Hmm." Ves paused for a mont. "This is mostly your work. You should be the one to na the tools that you will be using for a long ti."
"Then I would call it the Harmony Smith set. Each of these tools are made for the purpose of helping my products achieve harmony with Vulcan. I have yet to use any of them as of yet, but I am convinced that I can apply my own strengths much better than before!"
The Harmony Smith set sounded good. It beca another set of living and growing heirlooms for the Creation Association.
The ownership of the tools was never in doubt. Dunnerholm already acknowledged without saying that he did not own the hamrs and other instrunts. He rely received the privilege of using them for as long as he was employed by the Creation Association.
If a day had co where Dunnerholm could no longer effectively lift his hamr, he would have to relinquish his right to use the Harmony Smith Relic Set. The clan would subsequently entrust the tools to another promising smith who could make good use of their distinctive properties.
The dwarf stared at the small hamr that Ves continued to twirl in his hand.
"If I may ask, have you considered a na for your own tool?"
Ves ceased to twirl his own new personal hamr and thought about it for a second. He smiled and lifted his other arm so that he could flick the surface of the delicate tool with his finger.
Ting~
The sound produced by flicking the hamr with his fingernail resembled that of a tuning fork. It was capable of doing so with the help of a hollow core along with carefully placed holes.
If he wanted to, Ves could even learn how to play the elegant hamr as a miniature instrunt by manipulating it in different ways.
It was an interesting toy if nothing else.
"Hamr of lody sounds fitting to ." Ves eventually decided. "It is a hamr as well as a musical instrunt. It's practically a little sister to the Hamr of Brilliance."
Now that they settled this matter and wrapped up their short but incredibly fruitful project, Ves was ready to leave.
He only stayed around long enough to issue new instructions and make a few matters clear.
"You have two main responsibilities. Your main job is to et the requests of Director Samandra Avikon and make the totems that she needs to expand the Creation Association. Your second job is to teach your craft and specialization to a number of apprentices."
The second responsibility caused the dwarf to frown.
"I am not certain I am ready to start ntoring apprentices again. The ones I taught before the fall of the Vulcan Empire did not et a good end. I am afraid... I might not be able to guide my next students well."
Ves crossed his arms. "What happened to your last apprentices?"
"They were younger and much more fanatical than . They did not stand by and let the fight unfold around them. Instead of heeding my advice and letting the soldiers do the fighting, they gave in to their youthful impulses and joined the fighting. All of my teachings had gone to waste!"
That sounded tough, but that didn't an that Ves wanted this highly capable dwarf to keep all of his expertise to himself!
"That is in the past. You are living in a different galaxy and a different ti now. Your skills and insights are too precious to be confined in your head. Go and select a bunch of young but talented smiths and teach them like you would do any apprentice. Make sure that they are not exclusively normal humans or heavy gravity variant humans. What you fear won't happen again if there is a greater diversity among your apprentices."
"I suppose you are correct, sir. I will need ti to adjust to my new tools and learn exactly what I can do with them. I need to learn how to make other sets of tools with my new equipnt so that my apprentices can begin to learn how to make their own totems in ti. That should be the goal of their studies."
With that, Ves settled the future course of the Creation Association. Totems of Vulcan played an essential role in the business model and the expansion rate of the non-profit organization under his clan.
Now that Ves finally ensured that he could liberate himself from this tedious responsibility, he could go back to concentrating his ti on his core research and design projects.
He finally exited the underground workshop floor after agreeing to et with Dunnerholm again at a future date for future collaboration projects.
Director Samandra Avikon awaited his return. "I see your ti with our master blacksmith has greatly satisfied you. Are you pleased with the state of the Creation Association?"
That was not as simple of a question to Ves than before.
"I guess it is not so bad." He conceded. "If more people like Dunnerholm co and work for us, then that would be great. We need a concentration of skilled and talented artisans to turn this arm of our clan into a facilitating influence that can further our footprint in the industrial sector of the Red Ocean."
"I understand your motives. It should be easy enough to build a following in most zones and colonial states by relying on the obvious benefits of our totems. Compared to many other faiths, the rewards for praying to Vulcan are much more tangible and noticeable. The main reason why our expansion has been so constrained over the years was because we were bottlenecked by the supply of totems. Once Dunnerholm and our other craftsn are able to resolve this issue, nothing will stand in the way of our spread through all of the lower and middle zones of the Red Ocean!"
"What about the upper zones?"
The priestess grew a lot more guarded at this ntion. "I would highly advise against encroaching in the territories of first-raters. The religious organizations that operate there are much stronger, much more established and much more capable of crushing any challenges to their reign. Many of the oldest human churches with legacies that span back to the dawn of human civilization have entrenched themselves so well that not even god pilots and Star Designers can shake their rock-solid hegemony over the most powerful masses."
"I see. I guess it is a good idea for us to maintain our distance from them." Ves conceded.
User Comments
0 comments from readers