Chapter 116: Familiar Laughter
Three days after they returned from slaughtering the wyrms, Irwin stood inside a newly created expansion to their building. It was just a roof and a back wall with a table, but it doubled as his temporary forge area.
A towering Viridian stood on one side, looking at the spot before him. He raised his hand, the card on the back glowing, and the sand and stone before him shuddered. Then it seemed to melt into a puddle that began bubbling slightly. Invisible hands seemed to start pushing the mud up, and as Irwin watched, a round dome formed. With an opening at the top for airflow and another in the front, it took only ten minutes for a rudimentary forge to appear.
The Viridian stepped back.
"Smith Irwin, will this work?"
Irwin walked closer, inspecting the empty forge. It was exactly as he had specified, and he grinned.
"Perfect! If you bring the ore, I'll get started on refining it for you."
A wide smile appeared on the Viridian's face, and he nodded. "If it's even half as good as the cards you reforge, I'm the one who has to thank you! I'll have the boys bring it," he rumbled before walking out, still smiling.
"Are you sure you shouldn't just stick with cards?" Greldo asked from where he was lying in the shade of the building.
"Why? They are willing to pay us for it, and it's not like there are that many card missions left," Irwin said.
In the three days since they had returned, something had changed with the residents, and he'd been working on a dozen cards ever since. There were a few more left, but unless there were a hundred people hidden somewhere, all with card reforging requests and ready to jump out, he was pretty sure he was close to finishing all their requests.
"We could go hunting for cards?" Greldo asked.
Irwin stopped inspecting the new forge and turned to his friend. They had gone out one more time after the wyrm mission and had killed two much larger wyrms, neither of which had dropped a card. Still, there should be more things out there, and rumors had it that some sort of stone and metal being had been spotted not too far from the town. Besides, Greldo was getting bored again.