Even though it was only their third day in the city, Arjun did not want to waste any time introducing himself to the man who would be teaching him the basics of bladesmithing in the place of his sworn Master. Honestly, he wanted to go even sooner. It would have been the perfect time while Pawel was handling his business at the Adventurers' Guild yesterday, but Pawel refused, arguing that if Arjun was allowed to go off on his own, the others would want to as well and it would be too much for Zofiya to try to handle all the other children on her own. Getting to go today while the others were out buying supplies and such was the best he could get.

The assorted smiths had their forges clustered together in the same part of town, on the west side not far from the Adventurers' Guild Hall. Much like the South Quarter in Axios, the west side of Weinsberg was the main part of the city catering to Adventurers. Each forge had a sign outside to let you know their wares. There were three Bladesmiths to be found, and Arjun figured the biggest forge would be the best place to start. The biggest forge was actually bigger than Black Tom's place, with four furnaces instead of two. There were also several people milling about assorted tasks, unlike the apparent one-man shop Black Tom was running.

There were three blacksmiths at work and Arjun approached the biggest one, figuring it would be the man he was looking for.

It did not seem like he was heard over all the noise of the forge, so he raised his voice and asked again, "Are you Rothkopf!?"

The blacksmith made what sounded like a bad strike on the piece of iron he was working before turning to Arjun. He gave him a once other and seemed to identify him as an Adventurer right off.

Arjun thought the blacksmith sounded like the Terminator guy, Arnold Something-or-Other. He was not the easiest to understand, but neither was Black Tom for that matter. Was it just something about blacksmiths?

Pawel had told Arjun that 'Rothkopf' meant 'redhead', but the blacksmith was notably bald. Much like Black Tom, he was covered in soot, but you could still see the red copper of his beard and his very hairy arms, so the nickname must have made sense once upon a time.

Rothkopf set down his hammer and took the letter, looked over it briefly and then looked to Arjun.

Rothkopf furrowed his brow.

He was expecting Arjun to work every day for a month?

Remembering the admonition from Black Tom, Arjun replied with a loud, "Yes, Masser!"

This seemed to please Rothkopf, who smiled as he shouted back, "Good ansah! You might maek a Blaedsmeeth aftah all. Fränzel!"

The boy then scurried off to whatever he was supposed to be doing.

Rothkopf then told Arjun, "Tomorrow moahning befoah dawn. You mees one dae, ahnless yoah on yoah deatbed, yoah aut and I'll tell Black Tahm and you'll be aut deyah too. Good lahk becoming a Blaedsmeeth den."

Arjun was told to leave, so he did not stick around. If he wanted to succeed here, and by extension, learn from Black Tom, he was going to have do what he was told. He did not imagine he was going to be allowed many mistakes. Based on how Pawel described it, the World was unforgiving and Arjun had no reason to expect the People of the World to be any different.

Since the first bell would not sound until sunrise, that did not help Arjun, who needed to be at Rothkpf's forge before then. However, he found help in an unexpected corner. The people working at inns started their days well before sunrise, so all it took was Arjun asking one of the kitchen boys to wake him up. He got dressed and slipped out without waking anyone. Except for Pawel. Arjun could feel his eyes on him as he was getting ready to go, but Pawel did not get up or say anything. They argued a little the day before about his decision to go forward with his apprenticeship before they were properly established, but the way Rothkopf was only making Arjun work in the early morning was enough to make Pawel relent and let him go ahead. The plan was not to do any long ranging until spring anyway, so there was not much reason for him to object besides the fact that it was not a situation he was in full control of.

While you had people like the inn workers already having started their day, the streets were rather quiet as Arjun made his way to the forge. When he got there, he saw the boy Rothkopf had called out the day before already going about his morning chores. He did not see any of the other Apprentices, but that may have had something to do with being at the bottom of the pecking order.

He offered the boy his hand, but only got a glare for it.

There were a couple stacks of buckets in the corner and some poles leaning up against the wall. Fränzel took a couple buckets and a pole, so Arjun did the same. The well was a few minutes' walk from the forge. As they were walking, Fränzel told Arjun, "Firs' thin' we do is draw water for the quenchin' troughs. These buckets hol' two gallons. The troughs hol' ten. There's four troughs, so that means--"

Fränzel furrowed his brow.

Fränzel laughed.

Arjun doubted that Fränzel was brave enough to call Rothkopf that name to his face. People had all kinds of courage when they did not have to worry about the consequences of running their mouth.

When they got to the well, Fränzel started to draw water, filling the buckets one after the other, even Arjun's. He was well-practiced at it, so it did not take him much time. He then put his two buckets on his carrying pole and hoisted it up on his shoulders, motioning for Arjun to do the same.

When he tried to pick up his buckets, though, he quickly found that he could not. After a few moments of him struggling, Fränzel asked him, "What're you doin'?"

It was something Arjun had noticed from a few other people already, a general sense of surprise that brand-new Summons like themselves were already here in Weinsberg. Apparently it was mostly common for new Adventurers to spend at least their first two or three months in Axios before setting out. He was beginning to question the wisdom of Pawel's decision to bring them here so soon.

Fränzel looked around impatiently for a moment before setting down his buckets next to Arjun's and said, "Alright, fine. We'll do it together. Get behin' me. Crouch down. Grab the poles."

He demonstrated the actions as he gave directions to Arjun. Arjun did as he was told, but he had his doubts about this working.

If they were truly bearing the burden equally, Arjun would have been in no better shape than when they started, but the older boy was doing more of the work, enough Arjun to be able to handle the remainder. It still was not easy, but this made it possible for them to carry the full load back to the forge. It was enough to leave Arjun feeling rather tired, but there were still four more trips to go.

Once they were done carrying water and filling the quenching troughs, there was no time to rest. As soon as they returned the buckets and carrying poles to their place, Fränzel got them brooms and said, "We've gotta clean up till the collier gets here."

And so they swept the floor of the forge for a while until a wagon piled high with coal rolled up to the forge. There were two men driving the wagon, or rather, one man driving and the other riding along who was the actual merchant. Fränzel motioned for Arjun to put his broom aside and go with him to fetch these big metal buckets. If the water buckets were two gallons, then the metal ones had to be something like four or five gallons.

Fränzel gave Arjun a critical look and said, "You can say that again. Maybe if he lasts, he'll put some muscle on him."

Arjun did not think it so wise to court a boxing of the ears so, but he imagined this sort of exchange was a regular thing between Fränzel and the collier.

Fränzel hopped onto the back of the wagon and scooped up a bucketful of coal and handed it to Arjun. However much a five gallon bucket full of coal weighed, it was more than Arjun could carry. It felt like his arms were going to be torn off. He dropped the bucket, spilling the coal all over the ground.

Arjun went about picking up all the pieces of coal scattered about while Fränzel filled another bucket or two. By the time Arjun was done picking up the coal, Fränzel told him, "You get up there an' get the shovel an' fill the damn buckets an' I'll carry 'em off."

Although Fränzel himself had just been scooping up coal with the buckets themselves, there was a shovel sticking in the load of coal, so Arjun climbed up and proceeded to fill the remaining buckets while Fränzel did the heavy lifting.

The collier tried beaning Fränzel with a lump of coal, but Fränzel was apparently well-practiced enough to dodge with relative ease. He then pointed for Arjun to go fetch the lump of coal.

By this point, the older Apprentices appeared and went to work getting fires started in the furnaces.

While they were doing that, Fränzel told Arjun, "You know you're on your way when Ol' Glatzkopf lets you ten' to the fires."

Arjun remembered that night at Märkburg and could not find much to admire about Monster hunting, but he did not imagine Fränzel had any firsthand experience to disabuse him of his romantic notions of Adventurers. As his own experience was exceedingly limited, Arjun did not feel like he was particularly well-equipped to counter Fränzel's misconceptions.

Arjun did not have to worry about continuing the conversation, however, as the older apprentices then started giving orders to the two of them. Fränzel rolled his eyes but did not hesitate to comply while motioning for Arjun to follow along. It reminded Arjun of what it was like at school where the bigger kids would boss around the younger ones. Arjun generally found it easier to do as he was told, but Fedor had a defiant streak to him and Arjun usually found himself caught up in it, so he seemed stuck with the worst of both worlds. At least Fränzel seemed to be a little more sensible about these things.

It was around eight when Rothkopf and the Journeyman smiths working under him showed up to begin the day's work. This meant more orders getting thrown about that were expected to be done with a prompt "Ja, Meister," and this continued until the clock struck nine.

When he heard the bell, Rothkopf paused his work to say, "You, boy, that's ahl foah todae." He then asked Fränzel, "Well, Fränzel, how deed he do?"

Fränzel did not seem to like the sound of that, but Rothkopf had probably seen enough Adventurers in his time to know how this worked all too well. It gave Arjun all the more reason to focus his efforts.

Rothkopf nodded to Arjun and said, "Geet going, boy. See you tomorrow."

Rothkopf thought about it for a moment before saying, "So eet ees. Den I'll see you Saturdae."

Arjun returned to the inn, where Pawel was waiting for him.

With a wry grin, Arjun replied, "Ja, Meister."