The trio cautiously entered into the vacant room that was fashioned similar to a cave. While other rooms they had seen had pillars possibly and the elevated platform for the throne were done away with. Rather there were scattered at the random across the floor and ceiling stalagmites and stalactites of immense proportions that are rarely seen anywhere. The thickness and all were uncommon. The length not seen often. Instead of a throne platform there was rather a hole with coals and fire. A clay pot of water near to it. A large hammer resting on what in the dark can not be made out.
A workplace for a blacksmith it would seem. But there was no such person here as of now. That was what Jet was first to look into. The whereabouts of such a man.
Adven meanwhile was happy that no one was here and started to snoop around. Touching the hammer and playing with instruments. "I bet making a weapon would be easy. I could make a strong weapon if I tried."
"You think you can handle that hammer?" A short man in the dark laughed cheerfully. "Go ahead and take it up and do as you may."
Adven's hand lingered over the hammer. He was not sure what quite to do. The three of them were found out and yet they were not scolded at. Adven went for the hammer just to show he was not weak, but the hammer did not rise. "Uh…I didn't quite get a good grip on it just yet." He went about it with two hands. Pulls and tugs did not matter and in the end he only gained sweat on his brow. "What the Hell is this made of?"
"It is obviously made of sterner stuff than you are made of." The short man comments as he comes from the shadows to stand in front of them. A short being of only three feet with a head of short black hair that seemed to stick outward at the bangs. His gi of green and gray slacks. "Who are you to call my job an easy task?"
"Heh, I'm Adven Bok, of course. That is who I be. And I will not bear the fracture to my pride." He defiantly declared.
Jet shook his head and Mizu looked to Jet. "Since when does he have any pride…and why does he sound like a knight?" She coolly remarked.
"Adven Bok, so I see. Never have I heard of you. Must not be very important." The small man replied.
"Of course you haven't heard of me! You are so distant from the civil world that you know not of anything aside from making swords and other weapons."
"How dare you insult my craft? I do more than simple weapons. What I craft is that which Gaea inspires me to. I do not make objects often just for the wants of myself or another. I craft a piece and hope to have one that is even greater the next time." The vertically-challenged being remarks.
"Break it up you two verbally challenged idiots." Mizu interrupted. "Seriously…why do you speak like you like in the 'Olde' times of darkness and beauty." She gives an abrupt laugh.
Jet zeroes in on the short man. "Are you Gnome? We have something ask of you to do for us."
"I am Gnome. Tell me what you want and I shall see if I can give it." The short being replied with a nod. "If you desire the legendary item that I hold I will be more than happy to hand it over as long as you give me the other three. I have spent centuries here with the only desire to fuse the four items together again."
"Fuse them? So…it is a weapon?" Adven wondered. "The fire we will get from Sa will heat the fire…so then what is the material that can only be heated with the Ever-Light?"
"This." Gnome presented two large balls of metal the size of cannonballs. "This is a rare metal I created named Neo-Titanium. It is the strongest metal around, but it can only be heated by the Ever-Light and cooled by the Water of Life." He explained. "But there is one more item, you are aware?" They nod. "So give here the first two items and I will start the process while you get the last one." Gnome placed out his hands.
Jet nervously rubbed his neck. "That's the thing…we don't have the Ever-Light yet. We need you to go to Sa's hall and fix his name that is printed on the wall."
Gnome blinked and left the three to begin on a sword. "So…are you going to help us?" Mizu wondered.
"Of course not. It would be wise of you to leave this place then."
Jet moved forward. "You won't do it?"
"No."
Mizu kept Jet back to wait for an explanation. "Why won't you do this for us?"
"Because Salamander is a jerk and I never liked him. He always was beating me up and melting my creations…and then there was his temper. Plus, he tended to pick up the majority of the mortal women leaving me with the ugly ones." Gnome announced as he kept himself busily working away.
Adven waved his hand. "That's rather unfair. And you're very rude, you dumb troll."
Gnome's brow creased as he stopped working. Jet shifted himself away from Adven as Mizu looked to Adven. "I think you offended him."
Adven let a scoff leave his lips. "Like I'm afraid of the munchkin here." He even moves his forearm pointing out the still Gnome with his hooked thumb. "He's probably just a big pussy, and that's why he won't help us. I bet Sa was the big bully and Gnome was the stupid nerd who got shoved around a lot."
"Are you aware of the term, divine judgement. A divine action." Gnome mutters. Adven stops a second thinking it over.
"I have never heard such a phrase before." Adven remarks as he ponders over it.
"That's because you'll be the first to feel it!" Gnome suddenly held a large hammer whose handle went on longer than Adven's entire body. As Jet grabbed Mizu and pulled her aside they let the phased Adven stand still as he watched in amazement the hammer owned by Gnome.
Adven did notice however that the mallet seemed to be getting larger, but then he noticed that it was not getting larger, but rather closer. But by the time he realized this he could only move his face out of the way and have his thick skull hit instead.
Stumbling like a drunkard, Adven made his way backwards. His head nowhere close to recovery. As his green headband soaked up some blood and became a bit red and darker in color the man stood strong following his stagger.
There was a grin passing on Adven's lips as he regained his footing. "Oh," Gnome said in amusement. "It seems that your skull is tougher than some of the strongest metals. But…these things have to be worked at, don't they, before they become malleable."
"Pheh." Adven blinked, bringing Gnome back to one small being of earth rather than the three he had been looking at. "I bet if you weren't so vertically challenged you could have actually broken something. But my brain can't be damaged. It's just cushioning to begin with."
Mizu nodded with Jet. "I had my suspicions."
"Vertically challenged?" Gnome questioned. "You make it sound like I can't jump."
"Well, can you?" Adven laughed. "Listen, let's make a deal. If I can survive one more strike from you, and if I can forge a better weapon than you in five minutes, you must help me and my friends get all four of the items and then forge the inevitable weapon we will use against the Cane of Calamity."
"What happens if I win though?" Gnome wondered.
"That'll be up to you. But, I know it'll be impossible." Adven said with confidence.
Gnome nodded. "Right, then if I win I will take your girl there and the vial of water that you got from Undine's room."
"Agreed."
"Hold on!" Mizu was quieted quickly by Jet's hand over her mouth. She broke free and looked at Jet as if he weren't serious. "Why'd you do that?"
"I don't know what Adven's up to, but he obviously has some plan. If we do something it could kill us all…besides, wouldn't you like a blacksmith as a boyfriend?"
"You can't be serious?" She sighs. "I won't do it." She squirmed with images of kissing Gnome floating through her head. It made it even worse that he winked at her at the same moment. "I won't! I won't! I won't! I won't! I won't!"
"So…let's get started." Adven lamented as attention went back to the two. "I've got better things to do today."
"Right, so, you say you can survive another swing of my hammer onto your head?" Gnome chuckles.
"Of course. That way I'll prove to you that I'm stronger than you really think me to be."
Gnome shook his head with his hand to his face. "I never said you were weak, but you are stupid. Terribly stupid."
"I wouldn't get too cocky." Adven grinned.
It was with that Gnome sent his hammer for Adven once more, and Adven never bothered to move one inch. Instead, he took the blow to his head. Like a nail his body was pounded into the rocky ground. As Gnome lifted his hammer away he looked to Adven to see if he were dead, or now permanently handicapped.
To his amaze Adven simply dug himself out of the hole and brushed his clothing off. "Was that it? The first one hurt so much more."
Gnome wasn't sure what to do, so he sent four multiple strike of his hammer forward and kept pounding on the idiot's head. But when it was all done and Gnome was gasping for air Adven still remained tall. "That was cheating. I said only one hit." Adven remarked.
Mizu just stood in awe. "How…how the Hell did he not get hurt a bit?" She roared. Though, she was happy he kept up the first half of his bet. Otherwise…she could be…shudder…Mrs. Gnome.
Jet simply remained with unchanged features as usual. His neutral look. Though, he should be grinning being that he was the only one who knew what happened. Adven may have let the being hit his head, but he always covered his face over, and it was then that he would deter the hammer. Hidden amongst his sleeves was two wooden sticks that Jet had noticed him steal from Gnome's workshop here. Every time Gnome struck Adven blocked it with the three-inch thick wooden pieces, thus softening the powerful blows from doing any long-term damage like the first hit to his head had produced.
"Are you ready to put your skills to the test, blacksmith?" Adven questioned the awe-struck Gnome. "Let's see if I can make a better weapon than you."
Gnome came back to reality and let out a nervous laugh. "You intend to beat me at what I do best? Go ahead. Let's see you be foolish and then I can win."
"Right, then let's get started." Adven stepped near to the coals and waited for Gnome to start. With a smug face he let out a yawn as Gnome began forming a blade in the fire. Adven didn't act at all.
"You think you can start late and make up the lost time? No one's skill is that great." Gnome scoffed while pounding away on his project.
"No, but I'll win anyway."
Jet began to become agitated. He had to question what the Hell Adven was up to. He kept bragging that he would win, but was still far from proving anything.
Mizu let out a sigh when he finally started working. She did NOT want Gnome to win. Her chastity was not going to belong to…that…thing.
Adven's sword was coming along crappy while Gnome was showing his best work. They were at work so long that Jet sat in a corner and went to take a nap while Mizu started playing a game of Solitaire. Suddenly though, the short man stopped. "Hey! You're cheating!" He declared.
Adven scoffed, never stopping his work. Meanwhile, Mizu looked over to them while Jet just rolled over and continued his nap. "How dare you say that I'm cheating?" Adven wondered in response to the absurd accusation. "If I'm cheating how am I?"
"I don't know, but you are. Somehow I'm not getting enough heat." Gnome explained. "It seems like someone's cooling off my sword."
"Ha! You're just being a sore loser!" Adven argued. "I don't have any ability to cool anything like that."
Gnome simply sneered and continued working as Adven did as well. Gnome knew Adven was cheating, but he could not prove it, and thus, as it was, Adven was not cheating. Even though he was. It seemed that Adven was beginning to get a hang of the attributes of his Negative Cannon attack. It was all about controlling negative energy, and as it is, negative energy is cool. If Adven paid less attention to his sword-making, which he was sure he can do right, and paid more attention to controlling negative energy around him, he could cool Gnome's sword so it couldn't get hard, and thus the metal would begin to crack when Gnome would touch it with his hammer.
In the end, Adven was done and so was Gnome, and even if they weren't, the five minutes was over. "Time to test them." Adven commented. "We should have Jet swing them into something and whichever holds together and cuts the smoothest should be the winner."
"Pheh. Fine." Gnome replied. Not trusting a bias arm, but Jet looked like he didn't care so Gnome thought he was the closest to unbias that he was going to get.
Jet sighed and walked over to them. "You know…I was having a good nap." Jet relented and took Adven's sword. "What should I hit? Adven's head looks like a suitable object."
"Yes, aim at that." Gnome interjected, to which Mizu nodded.
Adven let a sweat out. "Uh…we're in this all together, remember?" He hoped.
"Pheh." Jet waved it off. "How about we slice through a stalagmite?" They all nodded in agreement. Jet let Adven's sword loose on the rock and cut it in two. It wasn't the cleanest of cuts, but it was rock, which really shouldn't be able to be cut by a human with one simple swing…but…Jet is not human technically, so…yeah. "This one passes. Can't believe that it does."
"What's that meant to mean?" Adven huffed.
"Let's just finish this off." Jet groaned and tossed Adven's sword aside. He was handed Gnome's blade and swung it at the next nearest stalagmite of closest similarity. This time however, the process was opposite, in that the stalagmite was the one that did all of the cutting. "O-kay. That's a pretty pathetic sword." Jet commented.
"I told you he cheated!" Gnome fumed.
"I'm sure Adven would…never cheat." Mizu chastised.
"Right, he's too much of a loser." Jet agreed. "Besides, we never saw him cheat. I never heard him cheat. So…if there is no proof, we can't accuse him of it."
Gnome let out some mumbles and fumed. "Fine. You win. I'll fix the name along the halls of Salamander's area."
"Ah, you gotta make the weapon as well and help us get the last item." Mizu reminded him.
He moaned. "Fine!" He picked up his hammer. "I'm going to go fix up the name on the wall. The last being you have to meet with is the wind being, Sylph. You shouldn't worry about him so much as the item you'll be after. That's the thing you need to worry about."
"Why is that?" Adven questioned. Gnome ignored him. "Oh, I suppose you are just going to ignore me from now on?" No reply.
"Why shouldn't we worry about Sylph?" Mizu interjected.
"Oh, well, I should really let Sylph explain it, he does it the best. I've basically done all I can for you." Gnome answered.
The trio stood silently as Gnome disappeared. Each of them eyeing one another as the questionable cloud of mystery hung over them.