Chapter 71 - Kaleem and Saleem(1)

Walking down an alley on Crutal Kingdom, was a little ill.u.s.tratian boy. Well not exactly "little".

He was 17 years old.

His name is Kaleem. He has been working on his father's side ever since he was 9 years old, in BlackSmithery.

He started off with tasks as simple as they could be, such as making it easier for his father named Saleem who currently is 46 years old, to reach Iron Ingots.

Although the names are very similar, everything else about them is different.

Let's start with height for example.

Kaleem is 5.5 foot tall while Saleem is 6.4!

Not to leave out, Saleem's arm only, is as big as Kaleem's waist.

Kaleem is more kind hearted, while life has turned Saleem's heart a bit cold.

However, getting to the point. As Kaleem grew older, his responsibilities grew along with him.

Apart from being a bit cold, Saleem cares a lot about his son. So he does not wish to burden him with too much responsibility.

But Kaleem is known as the most ambitious ill.u.s.tratio in Crutal Kingdom.

Taking his father as an example who works almost 12 hours a day, he insisted to share the same amount of burden.

Saleem of course never allowed it, but Kaleem worked after midnight to ease the burden on his father the next day, even though Kaleem himself is busy at the forge a good part of the day, assisting his father.

In some days he even did half a shift throughout the strongest insist. He even does deliveries almost daily.

It is no doubt that Kaleem is overly ambitious for someone so young.

However, as Blacksmiths are rare and weaponry is very valuable, any Blacksmith would be overwhelmed with work.

A cart of iron ore usually being very heavy, bringing it from the mines to the forge is mostly Saleem's task.

To him that heavy cart is like carrying two bags of wheat. The man is abnormally strong, Blacksmithery made him stronger but he lost his hair(or weeds, both terms acceptable) because of it.

It doesn't plague his appearance though, he looks much better without it. It matches with his body shape.

Saleem being once again overwhelmed with work, forgot all about picking up the cart of ores from the mines, which is done twice a week.

Guess who used the opportunity to help without being told too.

You guessed it, Kaleem. But it wasn't a good idea at all.

Kaleem can't hit a plate of hot iron with a hammer 20 times without killing all of his stamina.

A cart of 50 iron ores, well it would be a miracle if he was able to move the cart for a meter.

Disappearing as in mid air, he was used to sneaking just to force in more work in the forge. This was his second skill.

Running his way to the mine which took him about 10 minutes, he lied to the Miners that

"His dad sent him to bring the ores since he doesn't have nearly enough time."

Kaleem, doing deliveries and sometimes bargaining, gave him some abilities of speech craft. So it was easier for him to manipulate Miners.

He grabbed the cart and was actually able to lift it off of the ground after trying 6 times. Perhaps hammering iron time to time has given him some sort of strength. But he also wanted to help his father in a large scale so that was his main motivation.

To his advantage, the mine was on top of a hill. The road wasn't too steep but it would make moving the cart full of iron ores, way easier.

He had to turn the cart to the left bit by bit as he took a left turn which connected the short mine road to the wide main road.

Through a bit of effort he was successful but trouble began once he made his way down the hill.

A full grown man can lift and keep the cart under control down that hill but under great effort that would tire the entire body.

For Kaleem, his first 20 feet of pulling were stable. On the 30th foot it became twice as easy.

As he reached his 50th foot, he was practically running with the cart at full speed.

He ran for 10 minutes straight before picking up the cart and he didn't stop to catch his breath.

So his stamina depleted quickly, making it impossible for him to keep up with the speed of the cart who was getting faster and faster.

To his very bad luck, he tripped and fell face first on the ground.

The cart having wheels big enough to support a heavy shipment, was very lucky of course.

Thanks to those big wooden wheels, Kaleem was able to slide underneath the cart without the cart causing any fatal damage but a couple of small bumps and bruises.

As he fell face first in the dirt, he heard a loud crash shortly after.

By the worst ever luck, the crash was caused because of his father, Saleem.

Saleem saw the fast approaching cart, and given no time to clear the way, by instinct he grabbed the two wooden cart handles.

Due to his abnormal strength, he was able to stop the cart.

The Cart after making contact with Saleem, it arose from the ground and leaped over Saleem and was thrown 30 feet away from him, and tumbled for another 60 feet.

The cart itself didn't damage Saleem itself. But the ores, brought havoc.

Over 20 of the ores fell on his head and body.

The impact on his body was nothing but a bit of bumps and bruises but the impact on his head were fatal.

The iron ores knocked Saleem out cold and left a bloody wound on top of his head.

Due to more miss fortune, only Kaleem saw what happened. The closest Guard was a kilometer away and he wouldn't be of help when it comes to lifting a 300 pound man.

Kaleem ran towards his father, being in shock, not believing what just happened, this felt like a nightmare.

He yelled for help several times with all of his lungs and with tears in his eyes, seeing his father in such a condition. And blaming himself for this condition as well.

Lifting the ores from his father one by one, he threw them away from his father as he was throwing feathers.

After removing the ores, he tried to lift his father.

But it was like moving a boulder. Kaleem is only 90 pounds. He could never lift a 300 pound man. At least, not without "special assistance".

A moment after he felt a huge sensation of pain all over his body. He could feel every vein on his body pumping strong like hell.

He grabbed his father's right arm with such power, he almost ripped it off.

Grabbing his father's left leg after, he was able to actually lift him off of the ground as well and putting him above his shoulders.

His body wasn't breaking in half due to the weight even though his feet sank a couple of inches in the dirt, his father felt like a bag of wheat to him now!