Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 243-244 (Patreon)

Arwin was spared of the Mesh’s golden letters for a grand total of three seconds after selecting his Class Specialization. The very moment he let himself release a breath and start pulling his attention back to the real world, almost as if the Mesh had been waiting for it, a pinprick of light expanded to form into words before him once again.

New Skill Choice Available.

[Six of Sets] has been consumed.

You may select one of the following skills.

[Overdrive] – The heat of the forge burns in your heart. Let it free.  Temporarily increase your resilience and power as your muscles are infused with magical power. The duration of this effect scales with your Tier. When this effect ends, the increased strain on your muscles will hinder you for five times the amount of time you spent in Overdrive.

[UPGRADED][Shieldwall]: Your desire to protect your allies has proven itself time and time again. Grant it even more strength. When a creature you view as an ally is under attack, magic will infuse your muscles and accelerate your speed when moving in their direction. Furthermore, by spending increased magical energy, your skin will harden and absorb the damage from a physical blow. The amount of damage absorbed scales with the amount of magical energy used.

[Magmamancy] – Enhance your control of lava and gain the ability to manipulate it as effortlessly as you would an arm. The amount of magical energy needed to maintain this ability scales exponentially with the amount of lava being controlled.   

[Leech] – Twist the connection between yourself and magical items, temporarily ripping the power from them to empower yourself with a portion of it. If the item you are targeting has an owner, this ability's effects are reduced the greater your target's tier is than yours. 

[UPGRADED] [Unleash] – A master of cursed items never fights alone. Meld your power with that of an item bearing a soul, allowing it to temporarily manifest itself. The effects and duration of this ability depend on the strength of the targeted item. Stronger items will require increased amounts of magical energy to maintain their bond, and this ability is ineffective on items whose requirements exceed the magical energy you can supply.

The first two abilities being offered were old — he’d seen [Overdrive] and [Shieldwall] before. A berserker skill like [Overdrive] was never a bad idea, but there were just better options. [Overdrive] didn’t provide such significant benefits that Arwin could justify choosing it over any other ability. As for [Shieldwall], just like the previous time he’d seen it, the ability was a decent option. Anything that made him faster was always useful.

But, useful or not, Arwin’s attention was entirely on the final three options. He could see a very strong argument for each of them. [Magmamancy] may have provided the least direct improvement to his current abilities, but it had the potential to make his Dwarven Smithing techniques even better. More control of lava would let him prepare and interact with his raw materials much easier.

It also had considerable potential benefits in combat. Flinging lava around effortlessly definitely had weight behind it. Unfortunately, [Magmamancy] didn’t come without its drawbacks. It obviously needed him to have magma or lava present to work with in the first place. He’d also need to use more energy the more magma he used, so he couldn’t just bring down an entire volcano on someone. There was also the fact that Molten Novice gave him a small degree of control over magma already. As he improved, the extent of his control was likely to increase as well.

Arwin’s gaze drifted down to the second option. [Leech] was straightforward. It was essentially a version of [The Hungering Maw] that didn’t destroy the item, but it also didn’t take the full extent of its power and got worse the stronger his opponent’s Tier was.

 Okay, it’s kind of just a worse version of [The Hungering Maw]. Sure, I can’t reuse the items, but I have no reason to take Leech as I am now. It just doesn’t give enough of a benefit to justify not taking a different ability.

The last option was [Unleash]. It caught Arwin’s attention for the longest of the lot. He didn’t know exactly what an item manifesting itself would actually do. He also wasn’t so sure he liked the part where the skill description strongly implied it would work best with cursed items.

As for the item’s soul… is that like an Awakened item? Or do cursed items sometimes have an actual soul? The Mesh probably isn’t going to answer any of that. I did just specialize into cursed items, so I think this is probably the right one to go with either way. No point taking the step down a path if I don’t plan to continue walking.

Arwin took one more moment to look over the other abilities and make sure he hadn’t missed anything important before he made his decision and selected [Unleash]. The golden words shimmered and started to fade. He watched them suspiciously, half expecting more sentences to start forming.

A shimmer danced through the air and a mote formed. It drew a single line through the air, as if preparing to write a letter, then vanished entirely. Arwin blinked.

Did the Mesh just screw with me?

He waited for a second longer. Nothing more arose. He let out a small breath and shook his head, lifting his gaze to find Wallace and Lillia still staring at him expectantly. Arwin cleared his throat.

“Sorry. Awkward timing. Didn’t mean to be rude.”

“You were still getting shit?” Wallace asked, crossing his arms and cocking his head to the side. “Or are you just as slow at deciding your path as you are at making items?”

“No point rushing ahead without thinking things through,” Lillia said, sending a sidelong look at Wallace. “It’s smart.”

“Bah. Dwarves think with their heart,” Wallace said, rapping a hand against his chest. “And sometimes their—”

“Thank you, Wallace,” Lillia said dryly. “I think we’ve already figured that bit out.”

“The stomach bit?” There was a note of hope in Wallace’s tone.

“I already told you not to push your luck, but I’ll consider it if only so we don’t have to keep pestering Arwin with questions,” Lillia said. She sent a quick glance at Arwin. “That’s assuming everything is okay. You’re fine, right?”

“Ah. Yeah, I’m fine,” Arwin said with a nod. “I was just a little zoned out. Reaching Journeyman gave me a bit more than I expected.”

Lillia’s nose scrunched. “I’m jealous. Don’t even think for a second that you’re going to leave me behind. Better get ready to spend some time in the kitchen. I’m putting you to work.”

“Wouldn’t you get more experience if you worked on your own?” Wallace asked with a frown.  

“If there’s anyone that could get experience from putting other people to work, it would be Lillia,” Arwin said with a chuckle. “I feel like it would fit. An inn does have to have people working in it, after all.”

Lillia’s head tilted slightly in thought. Wallace grimaced.

“I think you might have given her an idea, lad.”

“Eh. I don’t mind.”

“It’s the rest of us I’m worried about.”

“Interesting,” Lillia said, mulling over the word as it left her mouth. “I’ll have to think that through. I take it you’re hungry, Arwin?”

“Starving,” Arwin admitted. A familiar pit was just barely starting to show signs of forming in his stomach. All that crafting had taken up a lot of magical energy. He needed to replenish his reserves soon, and there weren’t many ways of doing it better than Lillia’s cooking.

“Great. Come on, then,” Lillia said. She took a step toward the door and then paused to throw a look back at Wallace. “Since you’re here, I suppose you can come.”

She’s acting really reluctant about it, but having Wallace eat inside the tavern would also weaken him if Lillia decided to really get serious and start using the full extent of her powers. I can’t tell if she actually wants to let him eat or if she wants to improve her position against him. She can be really terrifying sometimes.

“Won’t object to that, but I’m going to have to hold ‘ye both up for a second first,” Wallace said, raising a hand to forestall them. “Well, I really only need Arwin, but I figure I’m not getting him alone around now.”

“You figure correctly.” Lillia crossed her arms in front of her chest. “What is it now?”

Wallace nodded to Arwin and tapped the shaft of his hammer on his shoulder. “You’re a Dwarven Smith now, Arwin. That’s a long path and you’ve only taken the first step along it. You’d be wise to continue to seek the tutelage of a master.”

“Another apprenticeship?” Arwin asked with a small frown. He didn’t have time to properly dedicate himself to studying and doing nothing else.

“More like a guide. There are a lot of twists that you wouldn’t think about. Some of ‘em are better dealt with yourself, but it’s still customary to have a proper master alongside a newly fledged Dwarven Smith.” Wallace hesitated for a moment, then blew out a long sigh and rubbed the back of his head. “Given your… past, it may be wise to be wary of the dwarven council right about now.”

“Can’t imagine why,” Lillia muttered.

“Are you offering?” Arwin asked.

“Aye. Offering. You don’t have to take me up on it. You don’t even need a mentor. You might be able to get away without one. It’s not mandatory. It’s just…”

“Tradition,” Arwin finished with a chuckle. “Right?”

Wallace nodded. “Yes.”

Arwin considered the offer for a moment. Wallace was rude but definitely knew what he was doing. His actions, misinformed as they were, had all been motivated by a desire to protect others. He also hadn’t actually tried to attack him at any point. At this point, the dwarf basically knew the important bits of his history with the Adventurer’s Guild as well.

“I’ll consider it,” Arwin said finally. “It might not be a poor idea. I imagine you might be swinging by every so often anyway.”

Wallace cleared his throat. “I was considering it. Hard to find booze like that anywhere, you know.”

“Then we’ve got time to figure it out.”

“Works for me,” Wallace said, and they fell in behind Lillia as she led them out of the building.

The group only made it a few steps into the street before Arwin spotted Reya approaching them with a large mug clutched against her chest. She glanced at Arwin, then turned her attention to Wallace.

“Rodrick said you might be getting thirsty, so I brought you a drink,” Reya said, nodding to the dwarf and holding the mug out. “Arwin’s is back in the tavern. I’ll go get it.”

“A right lass, you are,” Wallace said with a delighted grin. He stepped forward and reached for the mug. At the same time a loud cough echoed down the street. Rodrick emerged from the alleyway behind the smithy.

“Ah, Reya?” Rodrick called, hurriedly drawing a line across his throat with his thumb. “We’re good, actually. Turns out everything is fine.”

Reya blinked but pulled the mug out of Wallace’s reach. The dwarf sent her a confused look, and she studied him for a second before tossing the mug to the side of the road and sending its contents spilling out across the dirt. Wallace let out a dismayed cry.

“Why would you do that, lass?”

A shadow flitted through the air from atop the smithy and alighted on the ground beside Arwin without so much as a sound, dropping into a bow before straightening to reveal Madiv’s sharp features.

Anna stepped out from behind another alleyway along with Olive, who was hurriedly sheathing her sword, and an elderly woman’s voice echoed over the streets.

 “I brought that new anvil you requested up to the roof,” Esmerelda said from the top of the Infernal Armory’s roof, a note of delight in her voice. It seemed like it might have been meant to be a whisper, but her ears had failed her long ago and it came out just as loud as normal conversation. “Now where should I drop it?”

“We don’t need it anymore, actually,” Anna said. “You can keep it. Sorry for the trouble.”

“I hate all of you,” Esmerelda said.

A sizzle filled the alleyway. They all looked down to where Reya had discarded the mug. Its contents were currently eating through the stone and forming deep pits in the ground. The mug itself had started to disintegrate as well.  

“Earth Father,” Wallace muttered, glancing around at the Menagerie. “What is that?”

Rodrick cleared his throat. “That was an extra-spicy batch. Real strong stuff.”

“Good thing I dropped it,” Reya beamed at the dwarf. “Glad to hear you’re on our side now.”

“It’s better for your health that way,” Anna advised. She glanced up at the Infernal Armory’s roof. “Madiv, could you stop Esmeralda from pushing that anvil off the edge of the building? It’s going to land on Wallace’s head.”

The vampire vanished in a blur of shadow, and a hushed argument immediately broke out on the roof. Wallace stared up into the sky. Then he looked back to everyone else. For a moment, his face was unreadable. Then he let out a snort.

“You’ve got some dedicated friends, Arwin. I get the feeling I might not have left here alive if I’d decided to start something.”

“Oh, not a chance,” Lillia said with an award-winning smile. “I’d have you on the next night’s menu. Now, who was it that put poison in my mead?”

Anna cleared her throat hurriedly. “Is it time for dinner? Because I’m starving. I also simultaneously need to use the bathroom. Very badly. See you all soon.”

She darted off to the tavern.

Everyone fell silent for several long seconds.

“So,” Lillia drawled. “Dinner. You still coming, Wallace?”

“At this point? Might as well,” Wallace said. “I think I’m too invested not to.”

“That was the right answer,” Lillia said with an approving nod. “Come on, everyone. Excitement’s done for the night. Let’s go get some food.”

Chapter 244

The excitement might have been done for most of the Menagerie that night, but for Melissa, it had only just begun. About an hour and a half after the Menagerie had finished their dinner, she through the streets of Milten with one mission on her mind and a blade in her hand.

Orange-red evening sunlight spilled over the rooftops and cast long shadows over the streets behind her as she strode toward a three-story mansion near the center of the city. Towering hedge walls rose up around it, blocking out the garden that Melissa knew to be present behind it.

A black iron gate at the front of the house was locked shut; behind it, a stone pathway wound through neatly trimmed grass to lead up to an imposing wooden door inlaid with silver whorls that ran along its surface.

Melissa’s sabatons clicked against the ground as she strode down the center of the street in the direction of the mansion. It wasn’t just any mansion. It was her father’s — or at least, it had been. One of the Montibeau Estates. Not their largest, but the one in which he had met his end.

Now, she wasn’t even sure if the mansion even still held its name. She’d been away from home for several days. More than enough time for the Kererus Coalition to do irreparable damage to her people or wrest control of the building. Melissa’s heart ached. She was relieved their estate still stood, but walls meant nothing if her family had fallen.

It had been so tempting to return earlier. To strike out the moment after Ifrit had forged her the seemingly impossible armor she now wore. That would have been stupid. He’d given her a tool, but even the most deadly tool could do nothing when it wasn’t wielded by a competent hand.

The area where the Falling Blade assassin had stabbed her tingled. Melissa was all too aware of how close she’d come to death. A poison as potent as the one she’d been inflicted with should have been her end, but it hadn’t. They’d failed to kill her.

She didn’t plan to make the same mistake.

For the last few days, she had practiced tirelessly. Pushed the armor and herself to their limits. By no means was she the greatest warrior to have ever lived. She didn’t even have a combat class — but there was only so long she could wait. Melissa had a decent understanding of how to utilize the gift Ifrit had given her. The time for waiting was over.

Melissa came to a stop before the locked iron gate. There was no guard out. If she hadn’t already known that the Kererus Coalition had taken action against her family, then that would have given it away. There had always been a guard at the gate. She remembered his name well. Tobble. He’d played with her through much of her childhood. Tobble hadn’t exactly been the most competent warrior, but they’d never expected anyone to attack them so blatantly.

Her hand tightened around the hilt of her sword as she pulled it free of its sheathe and drew in a deep breath. But, before she could call out, the door to the Montibeau Estate cracked open and a middle-aged woman dressed in a dark shawl hustled out, her eyes wide with fear.

“Melissa!” the maid exclaimed, her voice a whisper laden with terror and excitement alike. “You live?”

“Alina?” Melissa blinked in surprise. “What are you — wait, you can recognize me through my helmet?”

“It doesn’t cover that much of your face, you daft girl. What are you doing here?” Alina asked as she rushed over to clasp the bars of the gate. “You must leave. I am delighted that you live, but your father—”

“I know what happened to father,” Melissa said, her voice going taut. “And I have returned to avenge him.”

“You cannot,” Alina hissed. “Please, Melissa. You can take revenge if you live, but—”

“I’m afraid it’s too late for that.” A voice rolled across the street like a waft of sewer air from a building on the street behind them. Melissa spun, raising her sword, and stared up in its direction.

A gray-clothed assassin sat at the top of another mansion, his legs dangling over the edge. He rolled a dagger across his knuckles before flicking it to the ground several feet front of Melissa. The instant it struck, a swirl of shadow rose up from it and the assassin took form.

Two more assassins emerged from the streets behind him. Even though Melissa couldn’t see the others, she knew all too well that there were at least seven more lurking somewhere in the darkness.

Alina let out a terrified whimper. “Run, Melissa!”

“It’s too late for that,” Melissa replied. She set her stance, keeping her back to the gate. It was far from as safe as a flat wall, but it was the best she had. “Where are the bastards that hired you, assassin? Too cowardly to try their own hand against me?”

“The identity of our employer is of no concern to you,” the man said with a raspy laugh. “I suspected you would return here. Noble brats are always the same. So convinced that they’ll claim revenge for some slight or another. They never do. I’d ask when you’ll learn that there’s a difference between political power and true strength, but you never will. Your life ends tonight.”

“Did the Kererus Coalition also hire you to flap your lips for ten minutes?” Melissa asked. “Or were you going to put steel where your words are?”

The assassin let out a bark of laughter. His two compatriots drew up alongside him, and Melissa caught a glimpse of another one on the roof across from her. The assassins weren’t even trying to properly hide their presence.

 “As a matter of fact, they did,” the assassin said. “There is one that wishes to see your death with his own eyes. And I have a few questions for you of my own. What happened to the last group of assassins that came for you?”

“I killed them,” Melissa replied, baring her teeth at the assassin. The last thing she wanted to do was bring the Menagerie into this. They’d already helped her enough. She couldn’t let the assassin’s suspicion fall on them.

“Liar,” the assassin accused. “You aren’t anywhere near strong enough. Who helped you, girl?”

“Come closer and I’ll tell you,” Melissa said, pointing her sword at the assassin. “Or are you scared? The others were too. They cried like dogs before I ran them through. Pissed themselves too.”

“Taunts will do nothing. You die tonight. I would choose your final words more carefully. The Montibeau house has truly fallen if its final heir can do nothing better than scream taunts like a tavern whore.”

“I bet you could show a tavern whore a thing or two about their craft. They probably go to you for advice on it,” Melissa replied, her eyes darting around in search of the other assassins. The armor was powerful, but it wouldn’t win her the fight entirely on its own. She had to figure out where as many of the assassins were as possible. Every surprise attack she couldn’t dodge was a chunk of wasted energy.

One of the other assassins snorted. The lead one turned to glare in his direction, then looked back to Melissa and flashed a dagger. “Laugh while you can. You’ll be begging soon enough. I’ll find out exactly who it was that helped you before our employer lets us put you down.”

Melissa fought to keep her heart steady. Her hands were slick with sweat and her heart slammed in her chest. She was terrified, but she refused to let anyone see the extent of it.  

Footfalls echoed through the orange-hued street. Melissa glanced over the assassin’s shoulder as a tall man stepped out from an alleyway, flanked by two more assassins, these ones clad in dark robes. The man had a large forehead and a head of thinning gray hair. He sported a faint potbelly and walked with his hands crossed behind his back.

Melissa recognized him instantly. The man was a member of the Kererus Coalition. She’d never met him in person, but she’d seen sketches of his face in her father’s office. He’d had her memorize the features of every one of their enemies.

“Ah. I see the Falling Blades were correct,” the man purred, his thin lips pulling up in a smile. “Hello, Melissa. I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“I know you,” Melissa spat. “Alcard. You were the one that killed my father?”

“Oh no. It wasn’t me,” Alcard said with a laugh so smug that Melissa was tempted to sprint across the street and plant her fist straight in his mouth. Alcard extended a hand to the assassins. “That would have been these fine gentlemen. Well, the last set of them. The first seems to have gone missing. I’ve heard they’re very eager to find out why. I hope you enjoy that. I won’t be able to stick around and watch the whole thing, I’m afraid. I’m a busy man, now. Your family needed someone to take over things. They’ve been running around like a headless chicken after you deserted them in their time of need.”

Melissa ground her teeth. “I’m going to kill you, and then I’m going to hunt down the rest of the Kererus Coalition and make them pay as well.”

“I’m sure you’d love to,” Alcard said with a patronizing smile. “I’ve been looking forward to this, especially after you managed to slip the Falling Blades the last time. I’ll make sure they put you down properly this time. On with it, gentlemen.”

“Hold on.” The lead Falling Blade pointed his dagger in the direction of the two black-cloaked figures that had accompanied Alcard. “We secured the area to ensure there were no witnesses. Who is that? Why did you bring people here?”

“Oh, these two?” Alcard let out a low chuckle. “They’re just here for my personal safety. Don’t worry. They’re bound to a guild contract. They’re no Falling Blades, but they come from a prominent assassin’s guild in the city. Fear not. They won’t be interfering in today’s events.”

“That isn’t what we agreed on,” the spokesman for the Falling Blades said. “How do you know they aren’t compromised?”

“Oh, they’re quite reliable. I researched them extensively. They’ve even got a recently completed mission that was in the upper pay brackets.” Alcard crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Go on. Introduce yourselves. Do an assassin greeting… or something.”

What an idiot. Assassins aren’t weird animals. They don’t have special greetings.

Neither of the cloaked figures spoke. Melissa could have sworn their gazes were trying to bore holes into her head.

“Your dogs are mute,” the Falling Blade said. “I don’t like this.”

“I ordered you to speak!” Alcard snarled.

“Shut up,” one of the black-cloaked figures said. “Leena, is that—”

“It definitely is. What the fuck is with our luck?” the other assassin replied in a distinctively female tone. “This is bad. What if he is here?”

“What are you talking about?” Alcard demanded. “Answer the Falling blade, you buffoons!”

All the Falling Blades in Melissa’s sight readied their weapons.

Both of the assassins flanking Alcard vanished in a flicker of shadow. Melissa flinched as they both reformed at her sides, but neither of them made any move to attack.

“Where is he?” Leena, the female assassin, asked. There was a note of panic in her voice.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. If you want answers, you’re going to have to pry them from my corpse.”

“Fuck that,” the other assassin said. “I’m quitting.”

“What?” the thin man exclaimed. “You wretched thieves! I paid you—”

“You can take your money and stuff it where the sun don’t shine,” Leena said.

“Well, you could if we didn’t already spend it all on hookers,” the other assassin said. “Hell of a night. You canfuck yourself, though. There’s no way this job is worth it.”

Alcard’s eye twitched. He looked like he was a few seconds from starting to blow steam out of his ears. The assassins at Melissa’s sides exchanged a glance.

“I’ll take my chances against the Blades if you keep the terrifying bastard that made your outfit from coming after us again,” the male assassin said to Melissa.

Godspit. What’s going on? Are they talking about Ifrit? Do they know he made this armor?

“I… uh, sure?”

“Kill them!” Alcard screamed. “All of them!”

“It’s going to cost you extra now,” the lead Falling Blade said idly, tossing his dagger from one hand to the other. “This is your fault, idiot.”

“I don’t care! Just kill them!”

“You heard him,” the Falling Blade said. He pointed his dagger at Melissa. “She’s mine. Deal with the turncoats.”

Shadows leapt through the ruddy evening light as assassins leapt into motion. A dagger flashed through the air toward Melissa’s neck with such speed that she couldn’t even track it, but her armor certainly could. A powerful gust of wind erupted from it, sending the dagger spinning over her shoulder harmlessly. The assassin sprinted toward her and she met his charge with a cry of defiance.

The clash of metal filled the street and the fight started in true. Nobody noticed the body of a Falling Blade slumping in an alleyway, their hands mutely grasping at their throat as thick, congealed blood bubbled from between their lips.