Chương 10: Interesting
The taxi pod then sped off at incredible speeds, in less than a couple minutes it stopped, and dinged to signal that they had reached their destination.
As Darius got out, He looked all around him, there was nothing. he simply found himself standing in an empty field. This seemed to be the only part of Sahid that wasn't illuminated by various bright lights. Darius looked up, the moon's faint glow dimly illuminated his surroundings. The first thought that came through his mind was that he had been taken to the wrong place, But just before he called another taxi, he realized where he was, in an empty, wide-open field with no other people around. The tiny pebble-sized anvil had been feeling rather heavy and warm, meaning it was time for Darius to begin striking it again.
"As good a place as any." He muttered to himself as he withdrew the anvil from his pocket and placed it on the ground. Afterward, it grew back to back to its original size. Darius stared at the anvil, the disdain clear upon his face, with just a hint of hope. Ever since he was twelve years old it was his burden to strike at that anvil ten thousand times a day, but he knew he was close to something, he could feel it whenever the hammer vibrated in his hands now after striking the anvil. He could hear it in the way it sounded each time he struck, yes, it was sounding more and more like the old man had said it would....
Darius reached for his hammer, releasing it from its strap. He sighed and then took a deep breath in, raising the hammer up slowly.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The sound of Darius hammering relentlessly at the anvil echoed throughout the night. Waves of energy radiated from where Darius struck it. Many thoughts went through his mind, but he pushed them away, now was not the time for that, he needed to focus. If only he'd known what this routine was really turning him into...
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Far off into the night sky, Darius failed to notice the silhouette of an old man wearing a long martial robe. All the old man did was stroke his long beard, humming the word 'interesting' the whole night, all the way till Darius was finished...
Darius woke up later that day, his hammer still where he'd left it, next to the large anvil he had just assaulted with it. he had managed to finish all ten thousand strikes earlier before the sun had come up, although now that it was bright and sunny out and the light hurt his eyes he wondered just what time it was. His eyes took a few minutes to adjust, and once they had it only took him moments to find a sign he hadn't noticed was there before. It was quite a distance away, so it was no wonder Darius could not see it at night, even with his impeccable eyesight. Darius looked at the sign, the words 'Spirit-smith guild' were engraved on it.
The sign itself was in the shape of an arrow, pointing to the direction the guild was in. Darius walked up to the anvil, once again shrinking it down to the size of a pebble, and placing it in his pocket. He picked his enchanted hammer up and slid it into its strap. He put the strap on, picked up his duffle bag and began walking to where the guild was supposed to be.
As Darius walked on he began to notice he was climbing uphill, although it started becoming particularly steep Darius didn't seem to mind, his mind was too busy teaming with expectation. As he walked on he began to hear a humming noise. The humming noise became louder and more defined as he came closer to the guild. He couldn't quite make out what exactly it was but it kept getting louder.
Finally, Darius reached the top of the hill. A large, barren plain stretched on for a few hundred meters in front of him. Far off in the distance, an enormous castle held up by four crouching metal giants stood tall and adamant. It was directly above what seemed to be an incredibly large anvil. It was also about the size of a large city and each one of the giants had one hand supporting the platform that the castle itself stood on and the other hand holding a large hammer in mid-air, as if they were about to strike down onto the massive anvil at the centre of it.
As Darius approached the Guild he could barely breathe. He stopped just in front of the castle, wondering just how exactly he was supposed to get up there.
As he stood there, in complete awe of what he saw the giant in front of all the others began to move. Its head was turning slowly to look down on Darius. Its sheer size alone was more than enough to completely intimidate him. As the giant gazed upon him Darius felt rather quite insignificant.
It began to slowly open its mouth, and although the giant didn't actually speak a loud voice rang out through Darius' mind. It said, "Why have you come here?"
Darius tried his best to speak and reply but at that moment he found he had completely lost his voice.
"You would do well to answer me now. Why have you come here?"
"I, I came to apply for the position of Spirit-smith" The words were barely audible as Darius said them.
"Very well. You may enter." several wide platforms began to come out of the giant's mouth. they began arranging themselves like the ones on the taxi, going all the way up to the Spirit-smith castle.
Darius slowly began to make his way up the stairs, each step no different from the wobble of a drunkard. The giant had scared the young man witless. The humming sound he could still hear was coming from inside the castle, which itself was a magnificent display of architecture. It had an archaic feel to it, one could tell at a glance that this structure had stood for thousands of years, and when everything else had turned to dust it would continue to stand for countless more.
As Darius reached the top of the stairs, The size of the castle took his breath away. Great columns stood tall reaching mind-numbing heights. The whole thing seemed to be made completely out of marble as Darius took a deep breath and walked forward through the front entrance, which itself was a great marble door roughly twelve meters high. The word 'Reception' was engraved on the arch just above it.
As he made his way past the front desk countless people were standing in several lines that seemed to stretch on forever. Darius walked quickly past them, making his way to the front of the line. He was in a white hallway, the roof was so high that simply looking at it was enough to make Darius feel dizzy. At first glance of the room, one would feel like they were in some sort of sacred library, with thousands upon thousands of scrolls embedded in countless diamond-shaped holes that had been punched into the walls.
Darius wondered what all those people were doing there as he walked on, oblivious to a sad truth he would soon be forced to swallow.
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