[OP-F4] Christmas Comes but Once a Year...

[Mack 0]

OOC: This thread, in its entirety, takes place within the main city of the 4th Floor which is a safe zone and, therefore, PK is not possible in this thread.

Spoiler

OOC2: I'm back and I have more T1 mats than I know what to do with...

As yet another Christmas within the world of Sword Art Online came closer and closer, to say nothing of the other holidays that were celebrated during the season by people with differing belief systems, the giant ginger blacksmith of the fourth floor of Aincrad sat just outside the tent that housed his shop. The sky overhead was a cloudy slate grey and great fat snowflakes fell from the skies to coat the ground of the wintery wonderland. As for the smith himself, he sat silent and stony faced with the deep hood of his crimson cloak pulled up over his head and his arms crossed over his broad chest as the snow piled up upon his head, shoulders, and lap seeming for all the digital world as if he were wholly oblivious to the cold and snow falling around him while Chewie, the grizzly cub, gamboled about in the snow occasionally disappearing into massive snow drifts only to reappear seconds later in a powdery explosion of fresh snow.

Several days previously the blacksmith had placed a notice on several of the notice boards in the Town of Beginnings, advertising that for those players that could find him, and who were ob appropriate level, he would provide certain Christmas gifts for those that could use them. The note had been signed "Chewie" and an inky bear cub paw print had been used for the signature. In order to claim the gift or gifts those who wished would need to decipher the hints from the note and locate the shop, at which point they would be rewarded. As quests went, it wasn't terribly complicated or difficult, but even the low-level players needed to do something to earn their rewards. Even if it was only a bit of detective work.

[Aereth 1]

Some days ago, Aereth found a notice placed on a notice board in the town of beginnings. It said that the first ones that were to find a certain player would receive a sort of Christmas gift from said player. The notice was singed with “Chewie” and had an inky paw on it. Evn though this was not a quest Aereth decided to search for this player. He was a scout after all, and finding players was something he needed to learn sooner or later…

He had searched on the first floor as he found the notice, but unfortunately, wasn’t able to find anything related to the notice. After that he decided to do some research with the notice to extract every hidden information that was inside of this notice. The first thing obviously was the paw on it. “It’s definitely not from Ariel, since her trademark is a lion’s paw, and this most definitely comes from a bear…” he thought as he was walking home to his shop on the fourth floor, from his daily training.

Lost in thoughts, Aereth came across the tent that he passed almost every day, as he saw a grizzly cub playing in the snow. In front of the tent sat a massive man with a red cloak pulled over his head. “Bear….” He thought as he wanted to continue his way.

“Bear!” he shouted, and immediately turned around to walk over to the hooded man. “Excuse me. But may I ask you if your name is Chewie, and if it was you who placed this notice on the notice board on the first floor.” Aereth asked and fetched the notice out from his inventory, in order to show it to the man.

@Mack

[Mack 0]

With a spray of powdery snow, Chewie the grizzly cub exploded out of a snow drift. The rounded ears on top of his head swiveled in the direction of the one that had spoken his name. That one knew his name. People only called his name when they had food for him. Food he wanted... food he needed to eat. Squalling a battle cry at the top of his tiny bear lungs, Chewie began to rumble in the direction of @Aereth like a miniature freight train covered in brown fur. Reaching the adventurer the bear hopped up on his rear legs and swatted the highest part of Aereth that he could reach with his front paws. That would capture the man's attention. That done, the bear flopped down on his haunches, opened his mouth, and promptly directed one clawed toe from his front paw down his throat.

It was the universal sign for "Feed Me". Everyone knew that.

"I am not Chewie," Mack rumbled in a deep, resonant voice. The bearded smith tilted his head back slightly to consider Aereth through his storm grey eyes as a shower of snow cascaded down from the top of the hood. "Chewie is the bear and, since you called his name, he'll want feeding." The smith continued to speak in the same even measured rumbling tone. "I placed the notice on the board and signed it in the name of my familiar. What can I do for you regarding weapons, shields, and heavy armor?"

[Ignavus_veneficus 0]

When the notices had been posted Ignavus had picked one up right away, the promise of potentially free stuff was more than enough to convince him to risk meeting up with a complete stranger. It was easy to distinguish the print as bear, anyone who had spent as long as he had seeing ridiculous fantasy banners would be able to spot the difference. Since it was obvious this wasn't a system generated quest Ignavus figured it meant that whoever had set these up was either using a bear paw as a personal symbol or was a bear tamer. Unless it was all a joke Ignavus couldn't see another reason why someone would have included the bear print. It didn't take long to track down the bear tamer smith to his shop on the fourth floor. Not too many people had met the requirements of having an affiliation with bears or their prints and a shop so it really didn't take too long to track it all down.

 

"Guess I wasn't the first one to figure it out", Ignavus stated, a bright plume of white vapor billowing from his mouth as he spoke.

Edited December 21, 2016 by Ignavus_veneficus

[Shizua 0]

Shizua stumbled around the fourth floor as she stared at a note. Having been sent on a strange 'mission' of sorts by someone by the name of Chewie. She had been lead up from the first floor, which she had been looking for a reason to get away from anyway, up to the fourth. On said floor, her clues led her, somewhat quickly, to a man wearing a reddish cloak. As she approached the man who she would likely find out to be @Mack, her eyes occasionally darted down to the note, then back up to what was in her line of sight. After a few more steps, she noticed two others; Ignavus, and Aereth. She was not sure which of the three she was supposed to be searching for, so she simply stood in place once she got close enough, looking around at the group with a hesitant look on her digitalized face.

 

Edited December 27, 2016 by Shizua

[Aereth 1]

As the word Chewie left Aereth’s mouth the bear instantly started to rumble in the direction where Aereth was standing. Chewie then hopped up on his rear legs and tried to reach up to Aereth as high as he could. When Mack told Aereth that Chewie was the name of the bear that was standing in front of him, and that he wanted some food, Aereth chuckled.

Turning to Chewie, Aereth smiled, and fetched two items from his inventory. “You’re lucky I just went shopping, little friend. So what do you want? I have some honey here, and some steaks here.” He said with the two food items in his hands. “Sorry for being so rude earlier, when I called you Chewie. Let me introduce myself. My name is Aereth, and it’s nice to meet you.” He said to Mack.

After hearing that this man was a blacksmith, Aereth rose an eyebrow, and said: “How convenient. I was looking for a blacksmith to make me a new sword, since I’ll be reaching tier two in the near future.” He paused. “And since I’m not short on materials or Col, I’d even pay for the equipment, so that the weaker players that may find you, can get their presents.” He told the bulky man.

It was true, he just needed a reliable blacksmith for his new weapon, and he didn’t want that players, that were more in need of something than him, didn’t get something just because he found the blacksmith earlier.

@Mack

[Row 0]

Row was walking back to her favorite resting spot in the beginner city with a cute, small, cake in her hands. She had been spending days scouting out a desert shop and finally settled on this small one in a quiet area of the city. While it was not the best store ever, she was poor. Deserts were very expensive for some reason and this one was no exception. Given the limited business in the area, Row was able to barter the price down to an affordable amount. However that just meant she got a slice instead of the whole thing, a small slice at that. Still it was a victory in her books because she finally had cake. 

While walking back, she noticed a sign. She nearly dropped her cake upon reading the message. Is this an event quest, no better, its was a treasure hunt. She almost squealed in excitement. The only thing holding her back was the fact that she did not want to cause a scene. That would be embarrassing and would take away time from her new mission. With her new skill, battle healing, she was sure she could take on the fourth floor easily. The quest was on.

After a few hours of blindly wandering around she decided to use her head. Ok, the sign was signed by a person name chewy with a bear paw, so unless this person is obsess with classical space movies, this person had to be related to a bear or a bear man. She hoped it was the latter so she could take a... picture... screen shot... Was there even a picture function in this game. That would cool. She walked around asking the players around the town but none of them had any idea. However one person mentioning seeing a bear in the town from time to time. That had to be the clue.

She rushed to that area, slipping on snow because you should never run on snow. She peeked around a corner and saw 4 players and a bear talking. Sinking to the ground she pouted. To think she was not first. Still, maybe there was a... 5th place prize. She walked over to the crowd smiling. "Hi... umm... did somebody crack the code already?"

Edited December 25, 2016 by Row

[Dominion 0]

Dominion was still roaming the 4th floor, searching the different shops in the main town. His blond hair was digitally sprinkled with snow. He was wearing his usual, white shirt and jeans, some light armor pads beneath his shirt. He did not wield a weapon any more, being that his current weapon was so bad. He walked the corner of a street to see a group gathering around. Dominion had not read any notice signs, but he was a friendly guy. "Hello everyone! How are you all..." Dominion saw Aereth again. "Hey Aereth, how are you. It hasn't been that long since we saw each other in your shop." Dominion changed his voice to the entire group. "How has everyone been?" He looked at the large man sitting outside of a tent, which was set up behind him. He had never met this player before, so he reminded himself of his manners. He put one hand over another and bowed to the large man. "Hello sir, my name is "Dominion the monk"". Dominion raised his torso to face a more familiar player. "Ignavus_veneficus? What a pleasant surprise to see you on the forth floor. Have you leveled up much since our past incounter, friend?" Dominion did similar to Ignavus that he did for Mack. Two girls were standing near to him, but only one he recognized. However, he had no idea what her name was. Dominion greeted Row and Shizua in the same manner: "Hello, as you probably heard, the name is "Dominion the monk", and your names might be?" Dominion did this with genuine respect, as was custom to him in the real world. However, he guessed that this was just a small friendly gathering of players. 

Edited December 23, 2016 by Dominion

[Mack 0]

The bear's eyes grew wide as the food was produced, his greedy desire to devour the treats being hidden from exactly no one. As @Aereth held the treats up, most uncharitably out of reach for moderately sized bear cubs Chewie backed slowly away from the man as he began to speak with Mack. Aereth's attention was distracted, the time to strike was nigh upon him. Once the roiling mass of brown fur had backed up as far as he judged was necessary he bawled a war cry and charged across the snowy ground that separated him from Aereth and, at the last moment, Chewie leaped into the air and slammed the full force of his weight into Aereth's legs. There would be none of this "only one food treat" stuff. No, the bear wanted both the honey and the steak and he meant to have both of them.

While Chewie was readying his attack Mack regarded the adventurer from his still seated position on the ground. "Mack, former Vice Commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath. Might still be Vice Commander, I haven't checked on the guild in awhile," the burly axeman continued, shrugging his shoulders. "If you're looking for Tier Two gear, I can craft it for you but you will have to provide the materials as I have none above Tier One. I'm still one of the highest level blacksmiths in the game though, I doubt, I am the highest."

As they were speaking @Ignavus_veneficus wandered up to the group just as Chewie was engaging in the assault phase of "Operation Yum Yum" and launching his one bear attack on Aereth's legs. "Apparently not," the blacksmith allowed, shrugging his broad shoulders before pointing a finger past Ignavus to a small line of other players that were struggling through the snow in the direction of the shop. "Of course, it's not as if I made it difficult to work out," the blacksmith continued speaking and ignored his familiar as Chewie slammed into Aereth's legs. The bear's attack was, after all, Aereth's own fault for baiting the cub with multiple food items and, within the safety of the town on the fourth floor it wasn't as if Chewie could cause any real damage to Aereth.

"It's not much of a code," Mack rumbled in response to @Row his grey eyes sweeping the area to take in @Shizua as well as the other girl stood quietly a little bit off from the rest of the group. Mack laced his fingers together like a concert pianist and rolled his head around on his neck, which produced an audible cracking sound as @Dominion joined the group. At Dominion's introduction to the group Mack quirked an eyebrow. Monk, as a profession, wasn't really something that was found within the world of Sword Art Online. Still, to each their own. It wasn't as if the use of the title was hurting anything. Rising to his feet in a swift, fluid motion, the ginger giant peered down at the low-level players for a moment before sweeping aside the entrance to the shop, which greeted the assembled group with a warm blast of air from the lit forge within.

"Let's move this inside, I can't very well forge anything out here," he said in a gruff tone, waiting for everyone to troop inside. "Don't forget to feed the bear. If you don't he may start gnawing on your legs."

[Khrysaor 0]

Khrysaor was bored walking around on floor 1 wondering if there was anything for him to do. As he tried to think of ways to spend the time he passed one of the bulletin boards on the floor, and only looked at it disinterested  for a few seconds and slowly passed by until his face lit up with curiosity. He quickly ran back to the bulletin board and swiped a small paper from it and looked down to read it with interest. It said there would be a prize given out to the lucky players who are able to find where the message writer is located. At the bottom he could see a small paw print and signed chewie. He was thinking, 'This certaintly seems interesting. If nothing else I could have a fun adventure and brush up on some of my detective skills.'

He thought about it for a few minutes, and already got a few clues. One, it was Christmas, and another was the paw print looked suspiciously like it came from a small bear. The last clue which helped him was the name "Chewie" reminded him of Chewbacca from Star Wars, and it was a bear. Now he needed to figure out where to search for a bear, and the best place he could think of was the snowy wonderland, where Christmas is mostly celebrated and the most likely floor where bears would be located. With that he turned around and headed for the teleportation gate. Once there, and he was surrounded by the light from the gate, he stated, "Teleport-Floor 4", and off he disappeared in a swirl of bluish-white light.

[Aereth 1]

“Vice Commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath… One, if not the strongest guild on the front lines right now.” Aereth thought as Mack introduced himself to Aereth. After hearing that he had no tier two materials right now Aereth cracked a smile to the bulky man and said. “I’ve got no problem to supply you with materials. Just say, how many would you need to forge a +6 damage sword? And I have a question for you. If I want a status inflicting weapon. Which one would you recommend me to use?” Aereth asked, not noticing the huge mistake he made in ignoring the bear cub…

“What the..” Aereth managed to say as Chewie came charging at him and instantly swiped him from his feet, which resulted in Aereth falling into the snow. With Aereth now on the ground it would be an easy task to get the food from him. But fortunately, Aereth finally noticed what mistake he had made and held both of the steak and the honey in Chewie’s direction. “Sorry little friend. Here, you can have both.” Aereth said with a chuckle.

After Chewie’s assault, Aereth got back up on his feet, removed the snow that was left on his clothes, and nodded to Mack who said that they should all go into his shop to start working on the crafts.

@Mack

Edited December 25, 2016 by Aereth

[DrinkingGlass 0]

Max had gotten quite fed up with the first floor, the other new people wandering about blindly trying to kill things and fight for scraps, and as in most areas of his life, the call for money brought him to the fourth floor. He approached a old battered board filled with different papers, and took one, which was signed with a paw print, smiling at the signature he made his way to the black smith's shop which location was in the instructions. He a group came into view, with a bear cub seemingly mauling one of their legs. Max approached, feeling a bit out of place, with his starter chest plate and sword, but when in doubt, act like you belong. The southern man swaggered forwards to meet them, exuding confidence even if he knew that he could be splattered into little chunks of flesh by any one of the people standing there. As he finally made it to the group he introduced himself, "Howdy. Name is Max, came here regardin this note?" He says holding up the piece of paper, "Heard there might be a little," his mouth curved into his devious smile, "Reward for whoever completes it." He finishes and hands the smith the note, crossing his arms, and just his chin out in greeting to Aereth. He followed them towards the shop.

[Dominion 0]

Dominion saw a couple more players approach, but didn't think much of it. Dominion was invited into the tent with the tall ginger warrior saying, "I cant very well forge anything out here". Dominion was curious, for he had been thinking of buying something from Macradon, since he was the only smith that he knew could make something besides weapons, shields, and armor. "So, what kind of things can you forge? I don't mean to be rude, but I have been wandering around to different blacksmiths shops on the beginner floors and most seem to only sell weapons, shields, and armor." Dominion asked his question... but then he realized that this man might not be a blacksmith. A tailor could forge armor as well, not to mention it was the first time they had met. "Wait, are you a blacksmith?" He asked very quickly after the fact. He didn't mind going into the tent, which seemed to be rather warm, as there was not much snow on it. Beside him, Aereth was practically defeated by the little bear, falling back into the snow. He smiled when he saw Aereth give the little bear both food options.

[Row 0]

This place was slowly getting more and more crowded, not that it was a bad thing. It would be better if this crowd was in front of her shop but that was a thought for another time and place. Right now she had to respond to the blond man. She gave the customary bow, "Hello Dominion, I am Row. No title." When the man stated there was no code, Row felt very disappointed. She really wanted to crack it. However who could complain when the man mentioned forging. Maybe she still had a chance to get the free gear. She really wanted a one hand axe as she was not really fancying the spear as of lately. However once again a her hopes would die when the man mentioned they had to give the bear some food. The only food Row had was her cake. She she looked at the bear and then her cake. It was a tough decision but it was one that had to be made. She handed the bear the cake and then waked inside. The cake would surely be missed.

[Shizua 0]

Shizua remained quiet for the most part, opting to listen to what Mack was saying, rather than actually saying anything herself. After the large statured smith finished his explanation and invited what was basically a crowd at this point indoors, the lady followed at a slightly slower pace than everyone else had, since she had to offer a piece of food to Chewie. She made sure to give it to him at an angle, so that she could conceal exactly what it was she had fed to the bear. Afterwards, she turned back to enter the shop behind the rest of the low leveled players without a peep.

Being ever curious, Shizua of course had some questions about what exactly was going on. However, she also realized that most of the questions that first popped up would likely be answered quite quickly, so she opted not to ask them, even if she was left with a confused look on her face. A few seconds passed as she looked around the shop, deciding to slink over to a corner to avoid making any middle ground more crowded than it likely was.

[Ignavus_veneficus 0]

"Fair enough", Ignavus said nodding in response to @Mack's statement, it hadn't taken Ignavus too long to figure it out after all and he was sorely lacking in connections. Moments later Ignavus saw the little bear assault the stranger's legs, and couldn't help but chuckle at the scene. Looking back up though Ignavus saw a familiar blond player approaching, he could feel his shoulders tensing without thought as his old ally approached. The first day was something that Ignavus did his best not to think about, he had taken dumb risks, risking his own life before he realized it was on the line. Since then Ignavus had been utilizing his knowledge of video games to exploit the system however he could to survive. It was knowledge he had gained over a many years of not taking his life seriously and doing whatever he could just to have fun, no one thought it would ever amount to anything useful. Even Ignavus hadn't ever expected to benefit from the extensive hours he had wasted just trying to squeeze a little fun out of his boring life. 

"I've done what I can, only so much you can do solo", Ignavus stated in response to @Dominion's question. There hadn't been any bad blood between the two when last they had parted but Ignavus was always suspicious. It seemed like the words had hardly left his mouth before Dominion had turned to the other players for introductions. Which was fine by Ignavus, Dominion did seem like quite the social butterfly compared to Ignavus, his distrusting nature made sure of that. Before everything had come out about this world Ignavus had been more willing to play fast and loose with his affiliations, now though he was prepared for anyone to stab him in the back.

Deep down Ignavus knew he needed to make allies, having people watching his back would be safer but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. One of the reasons Ignavus was here was so that he could get some forward momentum again, he hadn't been sure what the presents would be when he first picked up the flier but he had suspected he would be able to sell it for some col at the very least. Mack was quite obviously a smith though and Ignavus could definitely use himself a proper sword, the one he had now was barely cutting it. It took only a few seconds for Ignavus to open up his inventory and select a proper treat, a few more strategic pokes and a small bag appeared in front of Ignavus. It started to drop but Ignavus snatched it before the bag could drop too far, in a few swift motions and Ignavus up ended the bag into his other hand. Resting in his palm was an assortment of nuts and berries, it was hardly more than a snack but it was all Ignavus really had with him. It was something simple that could be gathered in the forests, and Ignavus had found a few places to gather them without running into anything he couldn't handle. Laying the snack onto the bag Ignavus set it near the little bear and then turned to go into the tent hoping it would be sufficient. 

[Mack 0]

Once he had knocked @Aereth to the ground the bear scrambled up into the middle of the man's back and placed one front paw upon Aereth's head before squalling a victory call. The grizzly looked like nothing quite so much as an explorer claiming some new and unexplored territory for the mother country. In Chewie's case, the mother country was his stomach. Jumping down off of Aereth the bear snatched up the food offerings and scampered away to the entrance of the tent and, quick as a flash, the food was devoured. Soon enough the food offerings were pouring in. There was some cake, emphasis on the was since it was quickly consumed. Then something else, the bear didn't know what it was but he greedily wolfed it down all the same. Finally, some nuts and berries found their way into a new home, in his stomach. Greedily Chewie looked about for more food and, seeing none, he made a beeline over to the cake giver, @Row, who had gone into the tent. Reaching her side he popped up on his hind legs and held up both of his front paws in an unmistakable gesture indicating that he wanted to be picked up.

"The bear has a terrible sweet tooth," Mack rumbled in a dry tone, following everyone into the tent. "Yes, I am a blacksmith, one of the higher leveled player blacksmiths in Aincrad and if you have the tier two materials I can forge a plus six sword with no problem." The ginger giant thought for a moment before answering the other question that Aereth had posed. "As for status effects, I'm not a big fan. I used to use bleed but with all the rebalancing you're better off to just go for max damage with an accuracy boost."

As Max (@DrinkingGlass) entered the tent shop and held up the note the blacksmith snatched it from him. 'You heard right. I'm making gear for players. Back of the line and feed the bear," Mack rumbled, his storm grey eyes sweeping the shop and spotting Chewie now begging to be picked up by Row. "Blacksmiths can forge weapons, shields, heavy armor, and handwraps for martial artists."

"Now then, you will all form a line and you will tell me what you need. It may take some time to fill the orders, but I have about three hundred tier one crafting materials so I should be able to get everything done," the blacksmith said, hoisting an enormous smithing hammer up onto one shoulder. "And if you want yours you'll have to provide the tier two materials," the red-headed man said, leveling a finger at Aereth. "I'm fresh out."

@Ignavus_veneficus @Shizua @Dominion

[Dominion 0]

Dominion made his way forward into the tent but listened back to the blacksmith that came in behind him. Amazingly, Dominion found himself at the front of the group as Mack got further past everyone else. Well crud, the blacksmith just said he could only make weapons, shields, heavy armor, and hand wraps for martial artists... but he also said that he was one of the highest level blacksmiths in Aincrad. Well, I can only hope for the best. Dominion made his way, starting the line in front of Mack. "I need an instrument, specifically a perfect serpent instrument that is completely black and has a +3 CD enhancement. I know that you didn't say that the instrument was a option for a blacksmith, but I have no idea who else to go to in order to obtain an instrument for performing music." Dominion smiled hesitantly at the large blacksmith. 

Spoiler

Name: Black Serpent

Item Type: Tool, Instrument
Tier: 1

Quality: Perfect

Enhancements: +3 CD

Description: Black Serpent Instrument

Post Link: N/A

 

[Bhairyuu 0]

Bhairyuu was walking around the <<Town of Beginnings>> when he caught a glimpse of the notice board having a new note on it, which of course got his mental gears moving under the influence of the spirit of curiosity that had overtaken him once more. So, he headed up to the board and checked out the note only to find that it was some sort of small quest arranged by Mack, one of his distant acquaintances. As he read over the note, he muttered to himself

"Hmm...obviously this note is from Mack as can be seen from that little paw print at the bottom...if memory serves Mack is the only player I know with a bear familiar so far...and the note mentions Christmas festivities...that means fun in the snow and other related things...let's see, the only floor that has something like that going on now is...Floor 4...it's not much to go on, but hey...atleast it will cure my boredom..."

With that, he walked over to the teleport gate at a languid pace and once there, he declared with a long, drawn out yawn

"Teleport...Floor...4..."

As soon as he had said that, he disappeared in a swirl of bluish-white light and reappeared on Floor 4 and stumbled out of it, and to his great dismay, he did a fantastic face-plant into the thick layer of snow that covered the streets of the Floor 4 safezone. He lay there for a few minutes groaning and shivering because of the sudden sensation of intense cold on his gaunt cheeks, not knowing that @Khrysaor was also there a few feet away from him.

[Ignavus_veneficus 0]

"Pretty sure you can buy custom instruments from the high level merchants", Ignavus stated to @Dominion as he entered the tent behind his old ally. Ignavus hadn't picked up a profession yet but he had been gathering as much info about them as he could, mostly he had been focused on learning what he could about the merchant profession. The appraisal skill had seemed useful to him but he hadn't committed to it yet. "Not that you couldn't craft one I'm sure. Just for future reference", Ignavus said reddening around the ears a little. It just occurred to him that it might be have been a little rude if one interpreted his first statement as an unconfidence in @Mack's skill. Ignavus's eyes shot out the flap of the tent at the other's still outside and then quickly around the tent taking a quick account of what was around.  A lack of confidence was a lot of what was behind Ignavus's current skittishness.

"I'm just hoping for an accurate two handed sword, maybe a slight damage boost if that isn't too much trouble", Ignavus explained himself humbly. Ignavus hadn't initially hoped for much from this encounter, the smiths offer seemed almost too generous though, ignavus didn't want to feel like he was asking too much on the smith's generous offer.