Sell you a Bridge chapter 95 (Patreon)

The Clock Tower September 4th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

We'd  done it. We'd found the anvil of fury. In point of fact we'd found the  greater anvil of fury, Zee had been right on the money. Being the first  to hit the level had given us a huge advantage in that it created a much  more powerful version of an item that other people could also get.  Combined with Artemis having access to a master class in forging diablo  style magic items we were sitting pretty. I was also sitting at nine  hundred plus points, and I was saving all of the ones I didn't need for  combat to get that lair.

Up to level fifteen at this point  and rocking ninety points per day, I would have cleared a thousand  except I kept having to burn points in battle. The dungeon had become  much larger and more dangerous at ten, easily five times the size of  nine, and though they were tearing through it even with the increased  monster power, it was burning a ton of points compensating for the  difference. Our stash of coins had skyrocketed, much to Reggie's  delight, and my translocator friend was almost the first one to push for  a dive every day.

Despite that he was also one of the  most balanced of us. Reggie had a very live in the now mindset and he  tended to just focus on what he was doing and leave the future for the  future. While the rest of us were constantly thinking of delving when we  were at school, Reggie seemed totally at ease. It had allowed him to  keep his relationship with Bette pretty healthy. They spent every day  together, and he called her every night before and after we got out of  the dungeon, it was really sweet to see them both so happy.

Now  though, we were all back the the clock tower with the anvil. Kent had  brought Zee over and Jim and Madame Xanadu were here, and I thanked the  gods I'd picked Artemis for the magic smithing skill because her long  history with Teague seemed to just magically hand wave any and all  questions about how she was able to create magic weapons. Granted she  hadn't actually started yet, we'd just brought back the anvil about an  hour ago and she'd had to get everything set up where she needed it.

She'd  arranged and actual forge and everything to use and fuel it quite a  while ago, with a grudging investment of gold coins from out groups  treasurer, and the only thing she was missing was a hammer. She'd  refused our offers to buy one for her though. She'd been slipping over  to Teague's when she could to ask him about smithing, comparing her  knowledge to his (he didn't ask about her new skills, weirdly she said  he just seemed to assume people spontaneously becoming master craftsmen  was normal) and learning to refine her abilities as best she could  before the anvil showed up.

The biggest thing he'd had to  tell her was simply that every proper smith should make their own tools.  Tongs and a crucible were fine, but you needed to understand your  hammer like a part of your own body, it was an absolute necessity to  have perfect control and to design it to fit you flawlessly. At the  higher levels of crafting even a tenth of an inch too far to the side or  a few degrees shy on the angle of an impact could seriously lessen the  magical structure of a piece of gear, rendering it subpar even if almost  every other aspect of it was perfect.

Artemis had spent  the last hour locked up in her forge making her hammer before she  finally opened the door and let us all inside to watch her first attempt  to craft gear. The room we'd set up for her was pretty nice. I didn't  understand half of what was actually done, but Zee had helped a ton with  magic for ventilation and heat management, and Jim and Madame Xanadu  had chipped in a bit with some help from Kent to set up a powerful mana  forge that could be used by pretty much anyone with any skills. They'd  all been around crafters before and Teague had apparently given Artemis  some advice too.

She also had a few trinkets Madame Xanadu  had given her as a gift with the promise of some free gear to study in  return, a necklace that kept the wearer cool, a ring that kept the  wearers skin from being burned without limiting touch sensitivity past a  certain level, which meant she would be able to handle much more  delicate procedures. Artemis was over the moon, and I hadn't seen her  this happy since we'd given Paula her potion a week ago, though  admittedly her joy at that far surpassed any sort of crafting. Seeing  her mother stand and walk had Artemis basically in tears.

I  had expected the toughest part of this to be materials, but Artemis had  informed that couldn't be further from the truth. In point of fact  diablo style gear was incredibly easy to make in terms of material  consumption. All you needed was the skill to make the actual item,  magical power to use as a medium (which could be gained with  intelligence boosting gear if you didn't have it already) and some kind  of focus to combine them together under the aegis of the dungeon's  authority. With the anvil here we didn't need the last one so we could  literally merge any magical substance into an item.

Unfortunately  while Artemis had master level knowledge and skill she didn't have  master level experience. Unlike my ninja skills the forging manual had  just been a lesson plan, with no memories included in it. Or maybe  Artemis had only gotten part of the effect. Regardless she insisted that  there would be serious waste and inefficiency in the process that would  mean her items would mostly start out pretty weak. For today she was  starting with something fairly simple, just using a normal potion to  create an effect. She didn't need to use dungeon loot for the magic  component but we had a hundred of the things floating around so it  worked as well as anything.

Because she was an  unbelievable showoff Artemis drew out an ingot with a flourish. "So, for  our first piece of gear we'll be making a dagger. Simple, elegant, and  it wont take me forty hours to put the finishing touches on it. First up  we have our good old fashioned Gotham iron, courtesy of the iron works  downtown." She gestured grandly at me. "If my not especially lovely  assistant would be so kind as to test the material to see if it's in  good condition?" I glared at her for the comment but rolled my eyes and  walked over the the ingot, looking her in the eye as I raised it up and  bit down on the metal.

Then I handed it to her, smirking  the grimace as she wiped her hand off on her shirt. I informed her in  saccharine voice. "Seems like metal to me. But if you want me to try  another taste test feel free to pass it back." For an uber badass war  elf princess Artemis was way too squeamish, and she refused to let me  near the ingot. When I saw she wasn't going to give it back I just  shrugged. "Well, guess you don't need me to do any more. I'll just get  out of your hair." I saw annoyance in aura sight and grinned at foiling  her plan to use me as grunt work as I walked back over to put my arm  around Zee.

With the metal "approved" Artemis walked over  to the forged and tapped a symbol on the side and a glowing blue flame  roared to life inside the housing. Without waiting for any of us to  react she then shoved her hand into the flames, still holding the ingot.  The thing started glowing blue and Artemis pulled it out with a smug  smirk. "Man this ring is awesome. I worked on some stuff at Teague's in  those big bulky smithing gloves and this is so much better. Especially  with my high dexterity making my fingers so nimble."

She  put the glowing blue metal onto the black anvil of fury and part of the  magical heat drained into the anvil, imbuing the whole thing with a  much weaker blue glow, then pulsed brighter and was sucked back up into  the metal. This happened several times, until the metal was glowing at  least five times as bright as it had been before, and then Artemis  started to hammer. Her hammer smashed down on the glowing metal,  flattening it out and then literally folding it with her fingers, like  she was handling dough with a rolling pin.

Despite  that she looked like she was using real techniques mixed with her  supernaturally dexterous fingers to produce something...not pretty  really but very functional looking. It took her about a half hour to get  it into even remotely reasonable shape. Finally once the blade looked  halfway decent she looked up at the rest of us. Her earlier levity was  gone, but since she'd explained most of it already she clearly decided  to let us in on how the rest of it worked, at least in broad strokes.  "Now as you saw the anvil can attune the mana inside the object to the  dungeons style of crafting. If I didn't have it I would have had to use  personal mana to imbue it, or use a dungeon catalyst for the last step."

She  carried the blazing blade over to a basin and poured in a potion of  full health she had sitting off to the side, still talking. "The potion  is a dungeon catalyst, you need either dungeon mana, a dungeon material,  or a dungeon catalyst to make the process work, and the anvil subs out  for the mana. It also does other things, but they're kind of nebulous to  me so let's just say it upgrades the end result. Since this uses  dungeon mana AND a dungeon catalyst the anvil will have an even more  pronounced effect, since it's quality boost mainly applies to the  dungeon born portion of the magic."

She  dipped the blade into the healing potion as she spoke and as the  health's red liquid mixed with the blue mana the metal turned purple.  With a wink to use Artemis channeled heavenly punishment lightning into  the dagger and the lightning merged with the light of the mana,  amplifying it and boiling off the health potion into some fairly  unpleasant smelling steam. Once the steam cleared she walked over to a  nearby bench and began the process of putting a hilt on the dagger and  wrapping it, the actions being childs play to an elf with super  dexterity.

Finally  she turned and presented it to us. The gleaming metal was black, with  lightning like traceries along the length and a black leather wrapped  hilt with an amethyst set into it. She grinned at us proudly. "I cheated  a bit, since I got my lightning from the dungeon I was able to use it  to purge some of the impurities from the metal making it basically  dungeon iron. Since that means all three factors were dungeon related it  got the full benefits of the anvil it gave the whole thing a huge  boost.

She  brandished crackling blade. "The dagger of heavenly purification has  increased damage against demons, lightning damage, and a health boost  for the wielder. All three of these factors grow continuously as it  kills, though once it stops shedding blood the power drains away, and  there is a cap. Still, not bad for my first real magic item." She  grinned widely around at everyone in the room. "Now the question is, who  else has some other catalysts I can try, ones that aren't from the  dungeon?" I didn't think I'd ever seen Zee look that excited around  other people before. This was so going to cut into my cuddle time. Damn  it Artemis.