IM1: Chapter #42 (Patreon)

The clang of metal rang sharp in the early morning as Thorn brought his hammer down, causing the ingot on his anvil to deform. Raising his hammer again, Thorn slammed it down a second time, pouring his anger and frustration into the blow. Over and over, he hammered the ingot until it was little more than a misshapen lump of metal, just about useless for anything besides absorbing his overflowing emotions. With a grunt he tossed it into the forge and sat down on a stool, his mind spinning with a million thoughts.

[Thorn, you are wasting your time. There is nothing we can do about what has happened, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make a plan to move forward. What you need now is a goal and a clear plan.]

Staring at the glowing forge, Thorn reached in with his tongs and pulled the heated ingot out, placing it on the anvil. As he lifted his hammer again, his eyes caught a flicker of light and he instinctively glanced over, catching sight of himself in the reflection of a polished axe blade. Freezing, he stared at his reflection, his mind taking in the expression he had not known he was wearing. Slowly lowering his hammer, he stared at himself for a moment longer, taking in his hollow looking eyes and twisted frown.

His trip had been a disaster, resulting not only in the death of a miner and separation from Akira, but also in the revelation that for all his abilities, he was still pathetically weak. The emotions that squeezed his heart were jumbled together, making it hard for him to identify exactly what he was feeling. Slowly lowering his hammer, he reflected on what Eve had just said. Regardless of how he felt about his situation, she was ultimately right. What had happened, had happened. Right now, he needed to figure out his path forward.

“Priority number one, rescue Akira.”

*ding*

“In order to do that, I need to upgrade my strength. And maybe find some friends.”

[It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to increase your tier in the short term,] Eve said, dampening the excitement that was starting to burn in Thorn’s chest. [How are you going to increase your strength?]

Sitting in silence for a moment, Thorn suddenly smiled and held up his hammer.

“I’m a Voidforger Titan, and a mage, not a warrior. It's about time I started acting like it.”

Standing up, Thorn felt the spark of excitement transforming into a burning ember as he started making a mental list of everything he needed to do. He still had dozens of commissions, but all of those things would have to wait.

“Eve, I’d like a list of every earth and darkness spell you have. Enchantments as well.”

[Of course.]

As spells began to spool through his mind, Thorn hung up his hammer and walked over to his drafting table where he started making a list of equipment. Eve was right, there was no way that he would be able to make up the gap between his tier and the tier of the giant plant, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t use his own advantages. The one saving grace in his current situation was that the large plant did not seem to be particularly intelligent. Instead, it simply responded to the stimulus around it, using its high tier strength to squash anything that moved.

“From what we can tell, it tracks any sort of mana that is not darkness attributed, which means that physical abilities and darkness spells are going to be fine. Making some sort of concealment badge for Akira is top priority. In an ideal world, I should be able to sneak in, get her the badge, and sneak out without any trouble. However, we need to prepare for the worst. Which means a fight. Against the lantern-eye cats if not against the plant monster. Time to make that staff. And armor.”

Finishing his list, Thorn looked at it for a moment and nodded. He had three Destiny Points left, and even though he was loath to spend them, he had a feeling that if he wanted to find an edge, he did not have another choice.

“Eve, have you finished processing the contents of the shop?”

Hearing a snort in reply, Thorn grinned slightly. He had scrolled through the shop that the Great Forge gave him access to some time ago and asked Eve to evaluate the information for anything that he might find useful. Even though he had looked through nearly a thousand pages, he had not managed to reach the end of the store, proving just how huge the store’s reach was. Despite the volume of the information, Eve had no trouble categorizing it to create a shortlist.

[Please, I finished that task approximately fifteen seconds after you initially asked me to. I may not be able to interface directly with the Shop of the Endless Worlds yet, but dealing with data is my specialty. Of everything that I found, I’ve compiled the three items that will be most helpful that you can afford.]

[Starting from the least useful, the flame affinity flower will grant you a greater affinity for flame, providing you an edge against the plant monster. Not enough to light one of the elemental beads, but it will give you some progress toward igniting the flame bead. This is probably the worst option unless you can find a volcano with dense fire attributed mana to train in for a year or two.]

“That will take too long,” Thorn said, waving his hand. “Next.”

[The Book of Darkness. A grimoire containing the secrets of shadow magic. It is full of arcane secrets and mysteries. Studying it will increase your ability to manipulate darkness attributed mana significantly. Though it would take a lifetime to master the Book of Darkness, even a few months of study will improve your magic significantly.]

“Again, too long. I want to head back within two weeks at the very latest.”

[I suspected as much. That leaves one option. And even though I put it at the top of the list, I truthfully have no idea if it will be helpful or not. Spirit Forging Technique. A method of adding the will of the blacksmith to forged items.]

Frowning slightly, Thorn clicked on the window, opening up the description of the technique.

Even though the description was sparse, Thorn found himself drawn to it. There was no real information on how the ability actually worked, but what caught Thorn’s eye was the last sentence. Forging legends sounded powerful, and as someone with a deep desire to improve his craft, Thorn loved the idea. Furthermore, he met the requirements for the ability, in that he was both a Forgemaster and possessed Mental Sense.

“This looks like the one,” Thorn said, his excitement leaking through his voice.

[Be aware that I have no idea if it will actually be helpful,] Eve said, cautioning Thorn. [The lack of information makes this something of a gamble.]

“That is true, but I’d rather roll the dice on this than get stuck with other things that will take me a long time to leverage. Every moment we leave Akira in that ruin is a chance for something bad to happen.”

[Or we could wait for Hati,] Eve replied. [Given Hati’s affinity for darkness, he would probably rescue her without any trouble.]

“That’s our last resort. But I think it's important that I try to do what I can. I can’t just wait around for Hati and Akira to do everything for me, can I? My strength is already pathetically low compared to theirs, and I refuse to remain in that position. No, I’m going to try to do what I can to grow.”

Reaching out, Thorn selected the Spirit Forging Technique and felt his last three Destiny Points evaporate as information began to appear in his mind. It was as if the world had been peeled back and enlightenment had poured out on Thorn. Connections he never would have made in a thousand years formed in his brain and he suddenly knew how to infuse his will into the items that he created. Though the knowledge he had gained was only theoretical at this point, he could feel that as soon as he started to put it into practice, his understanding would continue to be refined and improved.

Unable to stop himself, he picked up the hammer that he had laid down and strode over to the forge, flipping the cooled ingot back into the forge. As he waited for it to heat up, he mentally reviewed everything that had just been revealed to him. Spirit Forging was a technique that used the mental energy of the forger to create an imprint on the item they were forging, both strengthening and expanding the function of the item.

Take a spear for example. A Spirit Forged spear would not only perform its function, piercing, better than a regular spear, but the desire of the forgemaster would also be applied to the spear, forming an nascent spirit that could, over time, grow along with the weapon. So long as the weapon’s wielder held the same desires, the spirit would continue to grow, eventually transforming into a full weapon spirit, able to add its own power to the weapon. The best part, however, was that adding a spirit did not prevent the weapon from being enchanted. Rather, as the spirit of the weapon grew, it would be able to control and refine the enchantment even further, strengthening the effect of the enchantment and reducing the cost for using it.

Pulling the glowing ingot from the forge, Thorn brought his hammer down again, compressing the metal in on itself. Turning it, he slammed his hammer down again, folding the metal over and hammering it together. Half an hour later, a short dagger had been formed, its shape still rough. Heavier than normal because of the amount of metal Thorn had compressed into it, the dagger had no hilt and a short, stubby tang. Stopping for a moment, Thorn closed his eyes to mentally review the Spirit Forging technique.

The first step was to understand exactly what sort of desire he wanted to imbue into the item he was creating. Focusing his mind, Thorn let out a breath and concentrated his desire for the dagger to fly quickly. He could feel his mental sense beginning to form around the dagger as he focused on pure speed. For a second, his mental sense wavered as he thought about the dagger hitting its target, but he knew that adding another desire into the equation would lower the chance for success so he banished the thought of accuracy from his mind and just focused on the dagger moving so fast that he could not even see it.

With his mental sense completely surrounding the dagger, he brought his hammer down lightly, tapping on the dagger. A vibration ran through him, as if his own spirit had just been tapped by the hammer blow. The shock of it nearly snapped him out of his concentrated state, but he managed to keep himself focused as he brought his hammer down again. The technique he was using was truly mystical and with each light tap he pressed more of his mental sense into the dagger, binding it into the metal.

With each stroke, he could feel the will he was carrying sinking further into the dagger. At the same time, his mental sense began to fracture under the blows. A fine layer of sweat appeared on Thorn’s forehead but he did not pause to wipe it. Again and again his hammer fell and the feeling the dagger exuded grew stronger and stronger. Nearly two hours later, Thorn brought his hammer down one last time and the dagger glowed with bright light, signaling the completion of the forging.

*ding*

It took Thorn a minute to read the window that popped up because he was so busy examining his mental sense. He had been so caught up in the flow of his new smithing technique that he had not realized he was consuming his mental sense to imbue the dagger with a spirit. Now that he was done, however, he felt the change. A full five percent of his mental sense had been stripped away, a change that was immediately evident as he found himself unable to extend his mental sense beyond ninety-five feet. Frowning, Thorn waved the window away without even looking at it and finished the dagger by giving it an edge and then carving a totem rune onto it.

Taking out a thin piece of metal, he carefully carved another rune on it and activated both of them, forming a connection between them by binding the mana together. Placing the plate on the table, he held the dagger in one hand and then injected mana into the plate. Instantly, the dagger flashed with a dark light and vanished from his hand, appearing on the plate. Happy with the result, Thorn tested it a few more times, even going so far as to toss the dagger to the back of the barn before recalling it with the plate. Once he was sure that it was working properly, he carefully bent the edges of the plate together until they touched, forming an oval. Testing it one last time, he was pleased to see the dagger appear inside the bent piece of metal.

“I need a leather shop. To make a sheath.”

[What you need to do is check your milestones,] Eve replied.

With a start, Thorn remembered that he had just completed a personal milestone and opened up the window he had dismissed earlier. Clicking on his Personal Milestones, he saw a number, and after blinking at it a few times realized that it was not going away.

“Is that a mistake?” he asked, pointing at the twenty-five hovering in the air.

[No mistake,] Eve said, her voice smug. [That’s the result of you finally doing what you were built to do. Some people grow by training, some grow by studying, you grow by learning and applying new forging techniques. Oh, and it didn’t hurt that you’ve recently overcome nearly dying a few times. Nothing like a brush with death to excite your potential.]