The High Elf's Journey: From Boredom to Blacksmithing

THE HIGH ELF IS BORED, SO HE GOES TO EXPLORE THE WORLD

CHAPTER 1

An elf is sitting in a tree and thinks to himself that the life of an elf is the ideal slow life. There is no shortage of food or the need to hunt food; even the bows are just training their skills in it. Talking with the spirits and learning the truth of the world is boring for him.

He was born with the memory of his thirty-year-old past life and feels like this life is too boring. High elves live for a thousand years, and when their physical form expires, their spirit remains until the end of the world. The elf doesn’t want to spend the next eight hundred years like this because he has already lived a hundred and twenty years. He decides to go out and experience new things, so he cuts his hair and prepares because the High Elves live in a sea of forests and also have a barrier protecting them. He is not sure what he will find beyond the barrier.

He packs a bow, arrows, and a knit-ivy bag full of food and leaves, as he has no one to say goodbye to. The moment he leaves, he recounts how the outside world is simulating him because, from the moment he came out, he had been attacked by forest wolves, monsters, and even fish. But he wonders what could be done with the wolf’s fangs and claws and what could be created from them. He thinks about learning a craft.

He sees a city on the horizon and runs to it. On getting there, he is asked if he has been in a human city before and that he has to pay an entrance fee to be allowed to enter. The price is twenty copper pieces if he has an ID and one sliver if he doesn’t. The guard asks him if he understands the concept of money and explains it to me. The elf does understand the concept of money but has none. He is also asked if he knows anyone in the city so the person can be called and take him inside. He considers asking if he could sell his wolf fangs and claws until he is approached by a female elf who asks to borrow his time takes him to a corner and asks if he is a high elf.

It turns out that regular elves see high elves as covered in a shimmering glow because of their soul immortality. He nods in affirmation because he has no plans of hiding it, and she asks what he is doing in a human city. He replies that he got bored of the forest and wanted to look around. She could call him Aesir because that is why he was called back to the village. He watches her expression change multiple times and thinks to himself that maybe staying in the outside world can affect Elf.

The female elf tells him that she believes that fate has brought him here for her to be of assistance to him. She treats him as if he is a noble, and he makes plans to ditch her after they get into the city. She tells the guard at the gate that her six-star White Lake team can vouch for his character and would pay the entrance fee for him. A member of her party explains to Aesir what the rankings are, which go from 1 star to 7 stars. And their being a six-star team makes them the highest-ranked team in the area. Aesir fills out a form and promises not to get in trouble, and he is admitted into the city of Vistcourt.

On entering the city, the female elf suggests that Aesir register as an adventurer. Which he refuses and asks where the best blacksmith in town can be found, and she tells him that the blacksmith is a dwarf and that he won’t want to sell to them. He recalls that elves hate dwarfs because they believe that dwarfs stole fire and trapped it inside a forge. He tells Irena (the female elf) not to worry that he won’t detest someone he has never met before and that she would want to buy some of his fruit because he has no money. She refuses, saying that the fruit is too precious that she will teach him about money the next day, and that the blacksmith will wait until after that.

CHAPTER TWO

Aesir heads to the blacksmith’s shop and on getting there starts to look around only for the blacksmith to come out to talk to him and get upset at the fact that he is an Elf. the blacksmith told him that he was not going to sell him anything, but Aesir replied that he was not there to buy. He proceeds to describe the knife that he wants while also offering the dwarf a drink as a gift. The dwarf got agitated and asked what he knew about Good Brew and that if he was not here to shop then what was his purpose here and if it was for trouble he would be thrown out. Aesir brings out the fang and tells him that he wants to make a knife from it, that he killed it and didn't want the parts to be wasted. The dwarf tells him that the fang is from a grand wolf and it is not something a beginner could work with and to this Aesir replies that this is why he wants to learn from the best, so that he will put them to good use. The dwarf tells him that he would make quite the adventurer with the strength that he has, but Aesir tells the dwarf who he has taken to calling rock muncher that he doesn’t want to be an adventurer just yet. That he wants to learn from him and that he's willing to use up to 20 years to learn from him. The dwarf is shocked but agrees to teach him.

Irean comes to the shop and is surprised as to why noble Aesir is managing a dwarf shop and he tells her that it is because he will earn money as he does it. He tells her that the Inn he was put in is expensive and that he can't right now but will pay her once he has the money. Iran tells him that it is not the point that what if the stench of iron gets on him and he frightens the trees that the spirits would abandon him, he replies that the spirits don't hate the stench of iron even if they are been chopped down by axes, that they are not that fragile. He thinks to himself that the spirits hated mine pollution at one point and that elves took it to mean that they hated metal. He asks Rock Muncher if he could keep a plant in the shop to prove that trees don't hate metal. He tells Irene that he would teach her more about spirits but only if she got something from the shop and he recommends a knife. Irean is impressed and says that you can tell that it is dwarven-made and if Aesir is okay with him buying it. But he tells her that it is only if she doesn't maintain it that he will have a problem with it. Irean tells him that he sees what she did not try to see and goes on to buy the sword. Aesir thinks to himself that even if this purchase doesn't make them closer as a species it makes him happy.

It had been over a year since Aesir came to live in the city and he had learned how to make nails, but there seemed to be a shortage of iron in the town and some neighbors were asking if he would get some pots for them if when he told them that he couldn’t make them. On asking Rock Muncher he was told that if he wanted to help them, he should do it himself. Aesir feels that even as he is making more money, Irene still handles most of his living expenses and he was worried about that. He spoke to his guard friend and was planning on telling Irene when she came back from her mission that he was moving out of the inn she had found for him. Mertena came into the store crying and asking for Aesir's help with a spirit on their mission. Aesir takes her aside and asks to be told the whole story and she tells him that their party was requested because the mission dealt with a spirit. A water spirit of the town river and that the water was making people fall ill and the fish were dying, but the vegetation was not affected. Aesir realized that the problem was probably pollution because a water spirit wouldn't pollute their water. He asks what type of town is it and how is the mayor and he is told that the town started mining operations around 10 years ago and that the mayor is a newly established noble looking to expand the mining operation. Aesir thinks that the mayor is just blaming the water spirit for the problem which is an environmental issue. He is told that Irene stayed back to think of a solution, while Creias stayed to protect her and Mertena came back to ask for his help. He decides to go and asks the master rock muncher to refer a guild member who will follow them to fix the issue and he says that he will go. They try to stop him but he says that dwarves are held in high esteem in the blacksmith guild, but no dwarf will listen to an elf so he will go. They packed up and made plans to go and fix the problem.