*Clang* *Clang *Clang*

“Whew, finally finished”

A tanned young man in his early teens carefully placed his hammer on the anvil in front of him, before slumping onto the recliner he liked to keep in his workshop. He let out a sigh, before drinking a glass of water in a single gulp. The young man was rather handsome at 6”1’ with a strong jawline, large and taut muscles and jet black hair. His large brown eyes twinkled with intelligence, and a smug grin was written on his face. His name was Marcus Vindictio. A weapon lay in front of him, made up of cheap irons and other metals. The weapon was of the COMMON quality, the lowest you could find in the Human Realm, and was the cheap option for regular citizens, hunters and others who required a weapon. Its typical selling price was about 70 to 80 silver pieces, which was enough for a month of conservative living for him and his sister, Alice. As if decided by the author, Alice, a young girl in her late teens walked in, holding a tray with a plate of crumpets and 2 cups of tea. She was a lot shorter than her brother, with a height of only 5”6’, however had a curvaceous figure and a playful, naïve gaze. She had large brown eyes, just like her brother and was wearing a skirt that fell to her knees along with a black shirt with the shop name “Kazekura’s Workshop”. The shop was named by Marcus’s father, Eric, who had been travelling to the east and fell in love with the culture there. The shop’s name translated to “the Darkness of the Wind”, which Eric felt showed off the constant strength of the family’s bond, even when things got difficult, or “windy”.

Anyways, she carefully placed the tray on the table by the recliner, then threw Marcus a wet towel to clean his hands and face, stopping his attempts to grab the crumpet with his dirty hands.

“Not just yet, unhygienic pig,” she chuckled.

“All right, fine. My hands are clean now. Let me have a crumpet now. All that work has me starving!”

He feinted one way, then grabbed a crumpet with his other hand, stuffing it into his mouth whilst spraying crumbs everywhere.

This was a regular day for the two, with Marcus spending majority of his time making weapons, finishing about 3 or 4 a month whilst Alice worked the shop front, selling and showing off the weapons to civilians here to buy them.

They had just opened shop half an hour ago, and they were still waiting for the first customer

“Hello? Anyone there?”

“Ooo someone’s here! I’ll get that!” And with that, she ran out of the workshop and into the shop front

~Alice’s Perspective~

“Finally! A customer! Alright, skirt’s looking good, so is the shirt. Let’s do this!”

I put on a brave front and went out to greet the customer. There were two of them. The one who had shouted was a middle-aged man dressed in purple and white robes with an insignia on his left breast pocket. He had a noble demeanour about him and seemed so arrogant that his nose was in a stare off with the sky. There was a young man besides him, in similar clothing, however rather than being arrogant, he seemed rather shy, but I could see his lustful gaze staring me up and down.

I gulped and proceeded with caution.

“Well, sirs, has anything here interested you?”

The weapons were behind weapon resistant magical glass, however being low quality, it could only prevent robberies using weapons weaker than UNCOMMON. This was fine however, as UNCOMMON weapons were already rare in our city of Savaria, outside of the 4 main families of course.

The insignia on their robes seemed to be a purple cobra with a man suspended between its jaws. I didn’t recognise their insignia, but judging by the way they carried themselves, I figured they must be of relative importance.

The middle aged one introduced himself, “I am Salvius Pontius, and I am the second in command of Master Zoxius, third on the board of the Anguis Family. My son here has taken a liking to you, so from now on, you are his mistress and the possession of the Anguis Family. Please pack your bags and come outside within the hour.”

I was shocked. Completely shocked. How dare he? How dare he come to my abode and try to take ownership of me like an object? Disgusting.

But, on the other hand, if he is who he says he is, it might not be a good idea to anger him. I contemplated carefully, thinking of a way to diffuse the situation, when to my surprise, my brother came in.

~Marcus’s perspective~

Anger. That’s all I felt when I heard that man’s words. I was curious as to see how the selling of my creations would go, but I never thought someone would come and try to take my sister from me.

Without a care as to who it was, I returned to my workshop and returned with the biggest hammer I could find.

“Who’s looking for my sister? If there are problems with the weapons, your problem is with me”.

I let out the most aggressive gaze I could muster (think a nat 20 intimidation check), and I could see the younger man buckle a little, but it would seem the older man was too cocky to care.

“Your sister, plebian, is now the property of the Ang- what are you doing?”

As he said this, I stretched out my arms, before putting my right foot forwards and bringing the hammer round to my left side. For those who haven’t figured it out, this is the prime swatting position. I slowly moved towards the two, and growled “You want to say that again?”

“Why you little – “ replied the middle aged man, but before he could say anything, he found himself on the other side of the room. Smashed by my trusty hammer. I had to acknowledge his strength, however, as hitting him hurt my wrists a little, and he didn’t seem hurt in the slightest. Just shocked. It went to show how strong rich people were by just buying their way to victory. They could afford more power packs and monster cores than us regular people.

~A little help from the author~

What’s a power pack, you ask? Well, simply put, in the 243rd year of the Equestrian Calendar, monsters that were later named “The Fallen Ones” appeared overnight. No one knows where they came from or what their purpose was, but they were out to destroy everything. Villages fell, cities fell, even kingdoms fell. Humans had nothing they could do to stop these monsters, until a month later, when strange packs were discovered in chests hidden around the world. There were also chests found, containing the worlds first magical equipment.

The packs couldn’t be opened, however, until you completed the objective written with magic on the front. Depending on the nature of the pack, and the rarity of it, a different objective would be given. For example, a common farming pack might require you to plant 10 trees, whilst a legendary beast taming pack might need you to tame a wyvern, or a hundred thousand beasts.

Using these findings, kingdoms were built and civilisation prospered. The superpowers in those battles were the following

• Tusian Dynasty

• Halon Empire

• Gridian Kingdom

• Ziria Dominion

Under the leadership of these forces, humanity was able to build its way back, fighting off the hordes of beasts for half a century before the enemy numbers finally stagnated and they moved off to other areas to make their homes.

“Through the blessings of God and the victories of Man, we live to see this glorious day. God bless the Aestria continent.”

That is what’s written in the official historical documentation of the history of the four Kingdoms. However things are not as they seem. Although these four kingdoms share a history and seem to be in harmony, they are actually always at each other’s throats, along with additional more recent kingdoms, however I won’t side-track too much.

~End of Author help~

The smug grin on Salvius’s face disappeared, replaced by anger. Pure rage and confusion were written on his face, as he was sat with his back to the wall after being sent flying by the strike from Marcus.

He had spent a good chunk of money on cores, armours and skill books so he wasn’t hurt in the slightest, but he had been caught off guard and found himself on the other side of the room. He could see the girl laughing and even his son was amused. Salvius’s face was flushed red in shame.

“Brother, you shouldn’t anger people for such a small matter!” Alice laughed, not bothering to hide her contempt for Salvius.

“Well I thought it was reason enough,” replied Marcus sheepishly. He had no regrets as to what he just did, but he j