Alex left the tavern through the front door. The road right in front of it was tiled with cobblestone, and wide enough that two carriages could be driven side-by-side. Looking up he saw that the tavern had a very well made painted wooden sign on its front with the name 'The Greenhorn' painted beneath a depiction of a young male humanoid drinking out of a green mead-horn. On the other side of the street there were some other two story shops and a bit further up the road there was what seemed to be another tavern, he could faintly make out the sign as it read 'Milo's Flytrap' beneath a painting of two nude women confiding in each other, their bottom halves covered by numerous flytrap leaves.
He had seen the forge from his room's window before, so he knew it was close to the tavern, and as he rounded the corner he found it on one of the minor packed dirt alleys that stemmed from the main road. As he approached he noticed the Blacksmith hammering away at an anvil at the very front of the smithy. Behind him, Alex noticed, the forge was bustling with life. Most workers were dwarven, but more than a few were from other races as well. As he approached he started hearing muffled hammering noises, and as he crossed some unseen threshold the noise of the forge truly came alive, as if there were some kind of soundproof barrier that prevented the rest of the town from having to put up with the deafening clangs that Alex only now started hearing in full volume.
He approached the Blacksmith. The dwarf was maybe 1,50 m tall at most, the top of his bald head coming up to Alex's collarbones. What he lacked in height he made up in width, the man was massive, his delts were the size of his own head, and his biceps were even bigger than that. His pecs jutted forward in a shelf and his big dark nipples slipped through the sides of his apron and capped his slight moobs that rested on top of a big furry belly, covered by a heavily decorated black leather apron. The apron had a golden, shiny embroidery all through its edges in all sorts of art deco-like patterns interspersed with what seemed to be runic writings. From behind the apron, Alex could see that the dwarf's butt was just as big as the rest of him, leading down to his tree trunk thighs that were wide enough the man had to wobble around as he walked back and forth while he worked. Massive defined calves ended inside heavy leather boots, those, the apron and heavy oven mittens were the only clothing items the man seemed to be wearing while he hammered away at some sword at the anvil.
His face made him seem to be on his forties, although Alex didn't really know how age worked for other species of humanoids. He had a full, but short black beard, extremely dense and very delicately trimmed to perfection. As he stopped hammering to look at the approaching stranger, his eyes a burning orange. He quickly left the forge he was on and moved to reach the lost looking human before he could get much closer and hurt himself on the heat. As he got away from the searing temperatures his eyes faded to a bright honey-like color.
"Hello, I'm Alex, I'm... looking for a job..." Said him tentatively as the dwarf got close enough for his voice to be heard over the noisy smithy. "The tavernkeeper Dharron told me you had an opening..?"
"Dharron sent you then... You must be a newcomer then?" The smith said, as he inspected Alex, like he was sizing him up. "Can I see your stone then?"
"Stone? Do you mean this one?" Said the human, pulling his sleeve back and exposing his bracelet and the dark red gem adorning it.
The dwarf took off his gloves, revealing two large, stubby hands. Their skin surprisingly soft, as he took Alex's arm and lifted it so he could look closer at the stone.
"Dark red... It's been a while since I've seen this color. You're bound to be an interesting one, Alex the Newcomer!" He said with a grin, white teeth showing through his black beard. Turning around, in a presenting motion he continued. "Welcome to Garamund's Blessing: Smith-it and Fix-it! I'm Thabergalund of Lake Ignir, forgemaster and blacksmith. You can call me Thabe. It is a pleasure to meet you. You're hired!"
Alex was taken aback by how welcoming the smith had seemed to be. He was still somewhat weary though. What could have caused the last guy to quit. But his weariness quickly diminished as Thabe gave him a tour of the smithy that, as it turn's out, also had a plumbing and other miscellaneous metalwork-related services. But for the time being he was to work with Thabe as a personal assistant and apprentice. Which he was fine with. Thabe seemed to be a likeable guy, very cheerful, easygoing and beloved by his employees. Eventually Thabe also started just calling Alex a newbie, and then a newb, and that was just very funny to him in ways Thabe would probably never understand.
And so he spent his day getting to know the basics of how the forge worked and seeing his boss do the things he would eventually need to learn to work there. Seemed like a nice enough job... Weird how he had just woken up in this strange place, and yet the idea of living here, of building something here was just... It seemed so natural. Like it was the natural conclusion to being transported to an unknown dimension where magic, and disembodied tutorial voices, and dwarves, and elves, and tieflings were real.
One thing that he noticed throughout his day at the forge was that whenever he got to do small stuff and practice what Thabe had been teaching him he felt... A sense of progression..? It felt as if he was getting closer and closer to something. But the day ended. Workers started to finish up their work and file out as the Sun started setting.
"So, I guess you're staying at The Greenhorn, right? For Dharron to have directed you here." Said Thabe, as he cleaned his workbench, also preparing to leave for the day. "What do you say, wanna maybe grab a drink over there? If you don't have any other plans, that is." Asked the dwarf, candidly.
Alex thought about the invitation. The boss certainly was pleasant to be around, it would be nice to have some time with him away from the smithy.
But he also has so much going on right now, maybe he could use this time to get his bearings, maybe explore the town a little more.
And he is feeling very horny. Having spent the day among semi-nude stocky dwarves had left him randy and raring to go. He really wanted to get off and maybe he could either just go to his room deal with it, or maybe he could look for a brothel...