Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 174 (Patreon)

Arwin slammed into the mass of red flesh like a runaway cart. Blades rang off his helm and chest, scraping against the metal of his enchanted armor harmlessly. Verdant Blaze was considerably less kind.

The massive hammer pulverized another hobgoblin. Arwin only had to use a little extra power from [Scourge] to strengthen his swings. The hobgoblins were ill prepared to go up against something that could hit as hard as Verdant Blaze.

Screams and roars filled the air; familiar sounds that brought him back to times that he didn’t care to remember. Arwin’s teeth clenched as an oppressive magical aura rolled off him. Every swing his hammer made accelerated his next one.

He didn’t even bother trying to block any of the monsters’ attacks. Blades cut into the outside of his arm, leaving behind long, scoring wounds that wouldn’t be fatal anytime soon. The screams mixed with the crunch of bone and the thump of blood in his ears.

Every kill lent itself into the next. The aura coiling off him continued to intensify as it drank in all the death around him. None of the monsters had any magic, but the sickening power roiling off Arwin’s body was still enough to hinder them.

Verdant Blaze seemed to sing in his mind as the weapon devoured the life of the monsters that fell under it. But, despite all the power coursing through him, there were a lot of hobgoblins.

If it hadn’t been for the others fighting them at the sidelines and drawing their attention away, Arwin suspected he would have been overwhelmed. Weapons clanged off his armor and sought to pierce into the openings between it.

Unfortunately for the hobgoblins, he wasn’t alone. Every glancing wound they managed to land on him was already reduced by [Indomitable Bulwark], and he made the hobgoblins pay its cost in their blood.

The battle was over in just seconds. Arwin spun in search of the next hobgoblin, but there was nothing but a field covered in corpses and blood. He let Verdant Blaze lower, his breathing heavy, and dismissed his helm.

Anna pressed her hands to his back, sending healing energy flooding through his body to patch over the cuts he’d gotten. Arwin gave her a nod of appreciation.

“Was anyone hurt?” Arwin asked.

“Nobody other than you. Sprinting right into the middle of their horde is bold to say the least,” Anna said, a note of admonishment in her tone.

“It was the plan.”

“He can handle it,” Lillia said, drawing up beside them. “Everyone did a great job. If anything, this was a really good test run. Hobgoblins aren’t the biggest threat, but that could have gone a lot worse.”

“I got an achievement for killing a group of monsters whose average Tier was a whole level above my own and went up to Apprentice 4,” Reya said, rubbing a small cut on her hand. It closed up even as Arwin watched, sealing shut over the course of a few seconds. “I took an ability called Warden’s Patience that lets me increase my reaction timing and understanding of an opponent’s moves if I spend enough time staring at them. The other skills weren’t great and this one got upgraded… and it also seems pretty useful if I can stay out of the fight for long enough.”

Arwin pulled his thoughts away from the dead monsters for long enough to think about Reya’s new skill. It sounded like a berserker skill that needed her to prepare beforehand instead of suffering a debuff after it wore off. Considering she was already generally fighting from the backline, it seemed like a pretty good way for her to secure a kill on an otherwise superior opponent.

“Sounds like a good skill,” Rodrick said before Arwin could speak. “Moving faster is always pretty good. I’m pretty close to getting to Apprentice 6 myself, I think. It’s been a while since I went up a level.”

“What did you end up specializing in at Apprentice 5?” Arwin asked curiously, finally shaking the last of the fight thrills off.

“Liberate.” Rodrick flicked the blood from his blade and returned it to his sheathe. “The ability that I used back in the fight with the Bonehemoth. I try to avoid using it excessively because it can have some drawbacks on my body and it’s not great midway through a dungeon, but having a huge burst of power can be pretty good for major fights.”

So it’s more than just a debuff remover. It’s a berserker skill. Definitely not a skill that a paladin would have normally taken. I really want to know more about his past.

“We should check the camp out,” Lillia suggested. “The adventurers that were here before us might have had something useful.”

They all nodded and left the dead hobgoblins behind to look into the scattered tents. Arwin shoved the campfire over and kicked dirt over flame, not letting himself spend too much time on thinking about what had been cooking.

He studied the armor, but there was nothing special about it. It looked to be made of Roughsteel and had below-average quality. It wasn’t worth bringing back — but he made care to check every surface to make sure nothing valuable was hidden within them.

Something gritty brushed against his fingers on the inside of a chestplate. Arwin used [Scourge] to crack it open, revealing a small woven badge that had been pressed into the padded armor’s interior.

The badge had nothing but a woven spiral pattern on it. It was poorly made and done either hastily or by an amateur hand. Arwin frowned, then tucked the badge into his pocket. There was a chance someone would recognize it and he’d be able to give the adventurer’s surviving relatives some closure as to their fate.

He turned and walked back over to the tents. The others had all gathered around the largest one, where Lillia had a small pouch in her hand. As soon as Arwin’s eyes drifted over it, the Mesh shimmered to life and scrawled letters through the air.

Minuscule Spatial Storage: Average Quality

[Bigger on the inside]: Spatial energy has warped this item, causing it to be five times larger on the interior than the exterior. Any objects placed into this will remain in the state that they are put into it for 1 week, after which they will begin to rapidly decay. Attempting to place living creatures into the bag will destroy the magic that holds it together.

“Huh,” Arwin said. “That’s not bad at all. Basically a pouch that can carry the amount that a backpack can. Good find.”

“More than a good find,” Lillia said. “I can use this to store food we get in dungeons. Anything we get, really. Up until it’s full of course. But food is the most important one. Things won’t rot for up to a week as long as I use this. The adventurers that had it before were using it to carry fresh rations around.”

“I think that settles who gets it, then,” Anna said with a small that faded away as she looked over to where Arwin had come from. “It’s sad to think about how many people have already died here.”

“It’s part of the job,” Rodrick said. “I don’t mean to be callous. That’s just how it is.”

“I know.” Anna shook her head. “That doesn’t make it less sad. Should we keep moving? We don’t want to linger long in one area.”

“Yeah. Just give me one second,” Arwin said. “I want to see if there’s anything strong in this camp that we’re missing before we continue.”

He closed his eyes and activated [Dragon’s Greed], using the smallest amount of energy he could get away with. Unlike the previous time he’d used it, he wasn’t trying to scan the whole dungeon. That would be useless right now. All he wanted to see was the immediate area.

A faint line tugged at his left shoulder. Arwin turned in its direction and followed it into a nearby tent, where it brought him down to the ground near a matted bed of dirty straw. Arwin ran his fingers across the ground and they caught on a small piece of metal.

He pulled it free of the grass. It was a tarnished brass ring with a tiny gem twinkling in its center. Thin designs ran along its surface in a plain but well-done pattern depicting a swirling wave.

Flowing Water Ring: Average Quality

[Glittering Wave]: This item was made with the sea in mind and quenched within its waters. Activating this item will cause it to glint like the sun off water, potentially blinding anyone looking in its direction for a short period of time.

“Huh. This is nice,” Arwin said, turning the ring over between his fingers. He raised it to his nose and took a sniff.

The ring smelled pleasant. It wasn’t amazing, nor was it rancid. There were notes of warm sand and distant ocean, but not overwhelmingly so. It was relatively weak.

“Nice little ring,” Rodrick observed. “These adventurers weren’t random nobodies if they had two magical items.”

“We don’t know they came from the same group,” Arwin pointed out. He tucked the ring into his pocket. Something about wearing someone else’s ring just wasn’t right, and this one was far too small for his fingers.

He could, however, use the ring to try and learn how to make some of his own. The magic in it looked quite limited. If he could replicate it, he could start making bracelets and rings for the others that wouldn’t completely drain them of all their magical power when they went off.

“Good point,” Anna said. “We should—”

A massive roar split the air, cutting Anna off and tearing through the camp like an explosion. All of them spun toward the source, but despite the intensity of the cry, there was nothing nearby.

“What in the Nine Underlands was that?” Rodrick asked, drawing his sword. “Sounds like a big bugger. Doesn’t bode well for whoever pissed it off.”

Arwin reactivated [Dragon’s Greed], putting more power into it and casting his senses out. His lips pressed thin as lines of energy attached themselves to him. Several of them were coming from the direction that the roar had.

“There’s magic there,” Arwin said. “And a decent amount of it. Three pieces. Unless whatever made that roar just happened to be sitting on three magical items or materials, there are adventurers with at least a little strength fighting it.”

“It’s not from the same direction we were heading,” Lillia said. “We could just start moving faster.”

“What if the adventurers get themselves killed? If they’ve got decent magical gear, they might be a little stronger than random people. Their death could end up causing the dungeon to collapse,” Olive said with a concerned frown.

Arwin cursed under his breath. “Olive is right, and they aren’t that far off the path in the first place. We should interfere with the fight and make sure they don’t get themselves killed. Picking up the kill for ourselves certainly won’t hurt either. It’s too dangerous to just hope they survive.”

“Then we’d best be fast,” Anna said. Another roar shook the air, marking her words. Whatever the massive monster was, it was angry.

The magical energy in the dungeon was already teetering, and it would only take one firm shove to send everything toppling down. They all broke into a sprint, running as fast as they could to stop the monster before anyone else could die.