Carth sat inside the forge workshop and started to write fliers for basic training in defense and combat. It also declared that each person signed up will receive a weapon of their choice made by him. He was never one to say he was a great smith, but since people of this village knew of his name he thought it might be a good incentive. Eliza looked over his shoulder to see what he was writing

“Hey Teach” Eliza began to say, “you are willing to train me in smithing AND train people how to fight? How are you planning to teach both?” This was an honest question, but Carth already knew the solution.

“Simple, I will teach you during the time I have to forge the trainees weapons, but first I will teach them the basics before training you, and hopefully Shela knows a thing or two about swordplay” Carth answered making it brief, “ Either way we need to get to work. Can you hang these fliers? And ask the ones you know to see if they are willing to join? While you do that I am going to find Shela” Eliza nodded her head.

While Eliza began to hang the fliers Carth found Shela chatting with Braith next to the well. Shela glanced over and saw Carth approaching. “Oh hello Master, how can I serve you.” Shela greeted Carth, putting up with the slave facade.

“Shela, how well can you fight?” Carth said immediately getting to the point.

Shela laughed in amusement at the question. What shek does not know how to fight? "Of course I know how to fight, we were raised to fight, encouraged to fight, if we failed we were mocked until we fought!" The shek are always raised to be tough, they believe the tougher you are the more fit to be a leader you become. 

"Good to hear! I need help training some volunteers to fight." Carth then pulled out a large, fragmented axe. This is a heavy class blade. It's a huge axe built to work like a sword, stupidly heavy for an average human warrior. If you can wield the axe well, you would impress the ladies, shek ladies mostly. "Here, for you."

Carth swung the axe and stuck it in the ground. Shela quickly ran over and looked at the weapon. These weapons were everywhere where she was from. Seeing one again, she began to tear up but sucked it right back in because a shek should not cry. The large axe reminded her of home and all the friends she had. She grabbed it by the hilt and lifted it, it was as heavy as she remembered them to be. 

"Where did you learn to make this? This is only found in our region," Shela swung the blade, it was the exact way the axe felt when she was young.

"I receive weapons from defeated enemies to be smelted or refined, your cultures weapons were just among them. I learn by taking them apart or trying to smith a copy, just to learn new types and variants" Wiping his brow just dragging it to her. "These things are just so damn heavy. How do you even wield that thing?"

"With sheer strength" Shela blatantly said, lifting the weapon with a light grunt. "I'll do it, as long as I am not looked down upon." 

A few hours have passed. Carth was in the forge teaching Eliza how to properly mold the blade when one of the guards came in "You got about twenty waiting at the meeting place for your training offer." It was Lilith, the guard they met when they first arrived. She led them to the meeting place where there were nineteen people waiting. Lilith mentioned that she was the twentieth person. Shela showed up a moment later and stood beside Carth. 

Carth stood up and began his announcement "Split off into five groups!" The group began to reform into the 5 separate groups. "Look around at your members, these will be your new squad, get to know them well as you will be in these squads until we are finished with the entirety of all the training courses!" The squads looked at their new members and began to talk to one another.

Looking into the crowd Carth saw many guards in the mix, many of the crowd was young, only three elders. Everyone formed a line as Carth instructed. He walked down the line and got everyone's weapon requests. "Alright today we will let all of you get to know each other, teamwork and understanding weaknesses and strengths will be the priority, DISMISSED."

 The crowd started to scatter in their designated squads chatting among each other to learn as Carth instructed. "Hey, you alright? That is quite the stern look you have," Denz stepped out of the shadows. "You seem to be really stressed." 

Carth nodded his head "yeah I am, I am a capable smith, but never had a knack for fighting. I'm just hoping Shela can do it, though they may look at me for teaching. I hope that they will listen to Shela." Denz understood his worry, to be looked up as a hero for actions he cannot perform. He was just a simple smith who is looked upon as a great soldier, though he is not. 

"You'll do fine, just be honest and utilize that servant to better our community. I believe in what you are capable of, I just hope my sister will listen to you." Denz chuckled.

"Your sister is in the crowd?" 

"Ahahaha, no she would not survive, she is the smith you're teaching, Eliza. She's a huge fan of your work. I'm glad Braith and I could get you out. Say, you can forge any type of blade? I've heard many tales." Carth thought of his question, and decided to answer as honestly as he could.

"I can forge most blades and weapons but there is one currently that I cannot make well, the naginata katana." This weapon is a polearm class with a katana at the end. The key to making this blade was the balance of both ends, the problem is either making the pole light, but making it weaker, or making the katana heavy, which also is counter intuitive. "Other than that I don't struggle on forging blades and weapons." 

"I like your honesty, let's hope the others like it just the same" with that comment both separated to begin their jobs.

In the morning of the next day Carth woke up to something warm in his bed. His eyes shot open to see Shela was lying in the same bed looking at him, right when he was about to say something she covered his mouth with her hand. "Shhh, the others were onto me about not being your servant, they said a real servant would attend to their master through the night, so I was pressured to come in here and sleep. I hope I did not wake you." 

Carth got up a bit flustered and laughed. But when he looked around the room and saw a pile of her clothing, he suddenly turned bright red. He averted his eyes when she sat up. 

"Master, why are you looking away?" She looked at the last place he was looking and started laughing. " I am not naked you idiot! I wear bindings and a pair of undergarments" she paused before she finished her sentence. " They said that a servant stays with her master no matter what." 

Carth opened his eyes, relieved that she's not naked, "Alright, I don't know anything about servants so I'll play along, just… be careful, let's not go too far, only far enough to put up a good facade." Shela nodded, also flustered from the current scenario. They both got dressed and headed to greet the squads that were made yesterday. 

Carth went to the front of the gathering and began his second announcement, "today will be technique day! My servant Shela will teach you techniques of your favorite weapons, it will be basic, but still effective when used in large groups." 

Each group lined up in straight lines all taking turns attacking the dummy, Shela and Carth went first as the demonstration, but afterwards they corrected the others on their  errors and showed them what went wrong. After hours of repeating this everyone got it down and could do it easily. They cheered in the success of mastering a basic technique. Next they moved onto defence. Carth and Shela demonstrated by a duel to show easy avoidance, deflection, and blocking. The trainees were extremely restless. They worked for over three hours with little to no break to show Carth that they are ready and willing to defend this little village. 

Moll came to see how the progress was going and was astonished at the progress, "You really inspired these people, never seen them this willing to help, guess you hit their soft spot, having them believe in this cause. I congrat you on your progress, if you need anything I'll be happy to help."

Carth quickly jumped on the offer, "actually, there is one thing I need from you. Can you send a person to go buy me some better forgers tools, a new set will go a long way on forging armor and better quality weapons." 

"Will do," Moll put a hand on his shoulder, " you better not get my people killed. Oh by the way I gave Stun the job to keep our resources organized and ready to use, he wanted to thank you personally, he should be coming around soon." Then promptly went about her day.

Carth continued to train the trainees when Stun came around the corner. Everyone took a break as Carth went to go speak with him.

"This place treats me so well! This new hive treats me as one of their own. The job they gave me is perfect. I hope my skills are suitable to the leader." Stun rattled off praises and hoped everything would go well.

"You'll do a fine job Stun, just do your best and try not to get into trouble." With that they parted ways. Carth looked off into the crowd of trainees.

Carth told Shela to continue their training as he needed to start teaching Eliza the way of the smith, something he is more comfortable with. He found Eliza hitting a heated metal pole. 

"What are you forging this time? Make sure the strikes are even, any uneven strike will cause the blade to be weakened." Carth immediately started guiding her on how to properly hammer down the metal, "remember, you can take as long as you wish as long as the blade gets reheated to the same temp. Don't try to shape it quickly, if you make a mistake too hard the reshaping will take much longer the larger the mistake." Elize slowed down her hammering to more precise strikes. After about an hour she finally finished shaping the blade and was surprised at the nice shape instead of the usual dull lump. 

"I-I'm doing it! Thank you for all your help!" Eliza was giddy, jumping up and down.

"Your not done yet, we still have many more steps to go."