A giant horned head looked down on central square. Below it countless shapes of men, beast and monster merged together in the hubbub, withmen carrying their prey on their strong shoulders and upper body in display, for it to be processed and women accompanying them directing the proceeding. The horns on their head identified their race as demons. In this village men were symbolically the carriers, and while women did participate in the hunts, they were spared from the dirtier deeds, like carrying the bloody corpse, courtesy of man.

Both men and women were adventurers here and the widespread village occupation of adventurer, caused the demonic village to attract adventurer after adventurer. For the cities were razed to the ground, many adventurers left without a home. Here, they made a new life among the traditionally adventurer culture of the demonic barbarians.

In this warring time, the priests and healers, who lost their holy abodes were especially welcome, as with the destruction of the dwarfs, armor smiths could not cater to the demand. The few smiths that were left were outclassed and only had the most basic designs for weapons as well. A mana gun was out of their league, the craft was lost with the dwarfs.

Anyone was welcome in the troubled times.

The quests were aplenty with monsters raging in the uncontrolled environment left by the death of elite knight, who suppressed their incursion. The elvish capital Gilara had opened their vault resolute on sponsoring any adventurers to stand against the empire. Else, the land was completely overrun by the monsters, the races would stand no chance against the Empire.

Junk was admiring the designs of the armor. He was especially entranced by the fabled bikini armor, the horned girls wearing it had some big weapons. Indeed.

Surrounded by the tide of adventurers, Junk was getting fired up. With his cat ear hood up, he was blending in successfully among the mostly monster leather clad adventurers.

“Yay! Adventure!” Rasta was feeling very pumped up. It was the first time she had seen so many people! And they were all adventurers.

Junk took a quest from the quest board. He was still an E-rank adventurer and would need to grind for a bit against weaker monsters. However, the grind was what he needed, and Junk while he fought many battles on his journey till now, still felt that he did not have enough experience to rank up into C-rank and fight safely against stronger monsters. He had his hammer, the wrench and a few spells at disposal. Yet, none of those would be any use against a stronger target.

As his companion on this journey Rasta also needed to become stronger, with the information that was included about monsters inside his bag that Pom gave him.
Alrunes in general were capable of controlling nature, trees and plants as well as animals. They also possessed a great affinity for nature magic that unlike the control of nature was a genuine magic, which had amazing support spells like regeneration, strength and defense buffs.

Monsters, rarely learnt spells and mostly just used their inherent abilities. For example dragons used fireballs and did not cast magic. Some, older ones used magic to enhance the fireball and it could explode, not only burn.

There were also depictions of how goblin kings could become so strong to ruin a kingdom, some of them wielded magic and some just used their weapon and monstrous body.

Anyhow, alraunes were strong creatures, but required centuries to grow to the size of a humanoid. Rasta was a vampire alrune, Junk did not see any entry of such a creature in the hefty book. They would have to experiment and see how Rasta could grow.

The two were currently resting after subjugating a lair of sewer rats. Rasta figured a way to apply a strength buff and caused Junk to decimate the rat King, while his cat took care of the remaining rats.

At this rate Junk would reach D-rank the next day if everything went well. It did not go well.

Right now Junk was running away from a giant lump of fat that caused a loud thump to reverberate and waves to spread over the sewer water that splashed into the air with its every step.

An incredibly fat rat Queen that was big enough to almost completely cover the dirty tunnel.

The rat made it impossible to go around.

The planet of fat left no choice for Junk but to run away, lest he be squashed underneath its weight and dirty body.

“Fuck! Noooo!”

Junk’s cat slipped on the greasy sewer water and got crushed underneath the rat in an instant.

“Meow!!!”

Junk did not dare look back and speed up, just a bit more and he would have escaped the rat Queen.

But a rat corpse was underneath his leg.

“Shit...”

“Yah!!!”

Junk slid with one leg on the rat corpse but luckily didn’t fall into the sewer water. Rasta was feeling like a tree that had been chopped down and crashed onto the ground, because of the momentum.

Having gotten enough of a beating on his face by the skeleton for a lifetime Junk managed to stop himself from landing fast first with his hands, while the dizzy Rasta held onto the pocket.

A shadow towered over Junk. The rat Queen attacked using her body.

Junk jumped away and threw himself into the dirty water. He became dirty in an instant, the cold water soaking his shirt and trousers. Rasta was submerged into the dirty water. It seemed that it was full of nutrients and the content stunned Rasta, as she was a plant, however she did not want such a dirty fertilizer.

“kzek kzek”

The giant rat howled and rolled onto her feet. Junk had enough of this dirty rumble and the rat was not nice to look at. It had also smashed his cat into water droplets…

He felt sick just imagining the way the cat ended up merging with the dirty water.

The rat advanced tumbling with its large body and small legs. Junk stood up.

Now is not the time for meaningless thoughts and hygiene…

“Freeze!”

Junk ran ahead and jumped out of the water and froze it. Then quickly ran around the close corner. He turned and now ran a bit further.

“Glegh gik!”

The Queen slipped on the ice and crashed into the wall right before the corner. Rasta pointed her finger at it and laughed. The sheer momentum of the queen crashing into the wall made the wall bloody and caused cobwebs on the bricks that made up the wall.

Then Junk stood before it and brought down his golden hammer. Rasta buffed him before and his strike had some extra momentum.

He hit its head and it splintered like a watermelon. After three strikes that is. It had a sturdy skull but the position of being plastered against the wall with its tiny limbs made it unable to move or defend.
Junk went back to report and cash in his quest. However the rat was so fat that they had to get a few particularly strong demons to remove it. Junk was close to ranking up to D-rank, but he decided that that was clearly enough rat for the day.

The quests paid more than they did in the desert, back when he started adventuring. However, the Inn and resupply expenses from his forest travel combined with the cleaning of his clothes, made his total wealth only amount to a pitiful 20 silver and 33 bronze coins.

He went to the bustling market. The village had many traders, some sold monster meat, some were blacksmith’s selling equipment, an alchemist selling potions and the others sold jewelry. It was not made out of gold but monster parts like teeth, that were acceptable currency in addition to gold.

“Hey… Do you have a love potion lady? Cuz I’m in love!” A charming demon rogue tried to court the alchemist. The alchemist was an elf with a huge chest, she was amused by the rogue’s attempt.

“Hahaha, so what’d you like?”

“Ohohoho”

A young demoness clad in dress laughed at the blacksmith that she was bargaining with.

“Do you got the goods?” A man in a hood was handing the money to a jeweler. It might have seemed suspicious but perhaps he was just buying a ring to propose to a lady? He took the wrapped package, checked if anyone was onto him by looking left and right, and then ran away into an alley.

“What a nice bustling market!” Junk leaned on the counter of the shop, beside the “ohoho” -ing demoness.

“How much for a sword?”

The blacksmith looked half heartedly towards Junk.

“A new custo-”

The blacksmith was stunned. He used to live in the dwarven kingdom, where he learned his craft as an apprentice. That was a genuine dwarf! The horned smith was moved to tears, he did not think any dwarfs would have survived. However, there was hope yet!

“Y-you! Come with me please! I have just the thing you need!!!”

“H-huh? Why does he get to skip! I was here first!”

The smith gave her a serious look that said, I’ll be back but don’t worry it won’t be long. He took Junk to the back, and showed him the swords he was proud of.

The smith clasped Junk’s shoulder.

“I don’t know how but I’m glad you survived. You dwarfs taught me about the craft!”

“Eh? How did you know? No one noticed?”

“I know a dwarf when I see one. Especially those hands. Dead give away.”

The smith looked junk in the eyes and offered: “If there’s anything you need… I’ll make sure to help you. To the best of my ability!”

Junk was taken aback. The smith didn’t know him at all and Junk was sure that he hadn’t met the smith before. It seemed that, while the dwarfs died, their deeds stayed in the people’s hearts, the kindness moved Junk.

“If you wish to forge I can offer you a place in my smithy. You can you the facilities as you wish. I can give you some materials for free as well, having a dwarf forge in my smithy is a great honor.”

“Well...”

The kindness was great and Junk did need some armor that could protect him, as well as a stronger weapon. While the hammer and wrench were useful, they weren’t meant for combat. He also wished to craft an amazing sword and armor for himself.

“The truth is… I only know how to make repairs. I haven’t crafted before.”

The smith was astonished, he pondered and decided that while he was busy crafting at this time of great demand to cull the monster ranks, teaching a dwarf how to craft would be a great boon to their situation.

“You want me to teach you to learn crafting? Are you-”

The purple skinned smith facepalmed. He was asking a dwarf of all things and questioning their desire for the craft…

“Sorry about that pal. I’m sure you will learn quickly… My name is Heftee. I’ll be glad to teach you!”

“I’m called Big Junk! Pleasured to make your acquaintance!”

Junk was excited to learn crafting from a professional, who made a living as a blacksmith and learned the craft from dwarfs. This Heftee fellow was also loaded judging by the rich decor of the shop. And also had wealthy customers, Junk thought remembering the rich looking demoness.

Heftee and Junk shook hands, they shared a firm handshake that was the start of their partnership and friendship. It also symbolised the start of Junk’s way to becoming a crafting grandmaster, and it all started here, right in the village of Dabar.