As metal sings, I reminisce about the start of my new life. The circus proprietor was more generous than I'd expected. He offered me a blessed skill in either a weapon or magic, and some helpful advice in how to make the most of it.
Since I'm a dwarf, I'm already skilled with axes, so it's better to pick magic. Between those, he recommended fire or earth, as either would enhance my crafting. I chose earth, for the obvious reason that it would help me source minerals!
So here I am, drowning in exotic ores, which I lack the ability to forge. This was an inevitability: if I had picked fire magic, I wouldn't have the ores to begin with. So I need to either partner with a fire mage, or craft something to solve this problem.
Speaking of crafting, grinding through these ordinary ores has taught me a lot about axes. Did you know that warhammers count as axes? Pretty much anything you attach to a stick and swing at people counts as an axe. So, in search of the ultimate weapon, I've been making lots and lots of axes.
Battle axes, bearded axes, dagger-axes, throwing axes... I've got an idea of just how creative I can get before the result stops being an axe. Which leads to what I'm working on now:
twin hand-axes,
steel from haft-head to axe-head,
with a tonfa-like handle mid-way through the pole,
and bearded heads.
This is my masterpiece, and I would trust my life to nothing else. The tonfa grip allows using the forward axe defensively like a shield; the standard grip allows using the back axe in the same range as the forward axe; the bearded heads enable hooking an opponent's weapon or foot; the all-steel construction is self-explanatory.
The only way I can think of improving them further is to craft them with mythryl or starmetal. So, until I have a way to refine those metals, my gains will have to come from combat training.