Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 111-112 (Patreon)

Arwin’s estimations had been correct. He’d had just enough metal left over to make a chestpiece and a helm, and he finished the both of them well into the night.

It felt like an entire day had been consumed in the blink of an eye. Arwin couldn’t complain. He was pretty sure that his rate of production was ridiculous. Verdant Blaze and his [Soul Flame] drastically cut down on the time it took him to make anything, not to mention all the aid the Mesh gave him.

Seeing him complain probably would have brought tears of blood to a normal smith’s eyes. Arwin was intentionally hampering his work to avoid letting magic enter it and he was still finishing multiple pieces in a single day.

Then again, it was unlikely that a normal smith would have been able to use Verdant Blaze as a smithing hammer. Swinging around a huge chunk of metal for hours on end was beyond the limits of what a normal man could do.

Arwin dismissed Verdant Blaze and picked up the new pieces of armor he’d made. He left the makeshift smithy and headed over to the tavern. The street was, as it always seemed to be, largely empty.

But, when Arwin drew up to the tavern, he was struck by a very stark difference. Where there had once been only a pool of darkness in a doorway, there was now a door. It was made of plain but well-crafted wood.

A good door. Glad she finally got around to getting one. There’s something about a building that just doesn’t feel finished without a door. Maybe I’ve just got a door obsession.

Arwin pushed the door open and stepped inside. As usual, he’d showed up so late that almost everyone else had already retired to bed. Clinks from the kitchen told him that Lillia was still up. It sounded like she was working on cooking something.

She must have heard the door open because she poked her head out of the kitchen a few seconds later.

“Give me a second. I’m finishing up dinner, but it’s just about done,” Lillia said. “Rodrick and Reya made it back okay, by the way. They were both pretty worn out but it sounded like they got the information they were looking for.”

She ducked back into the kitchen. Arwin made his way over to the counter and set the armor down beside it. Part of him wished he’d had enough metal to make more than just two pieces. Going to the market just to sell two pieces every single time felt like a bit of a waste.

If I had more time, I’d try to make ten or fifteen before setting out. I just don’t have the leeway. Not yet. Once the Wyrm horde is dealt with, things will be different. Until then, I have to focus what’s urgent over what feels good.

Lillia hadn’t been joking about just needing a second. No sooner than Arwin had pulled out a chair and sat down did she step back out of the kitchen. “Okay. I’m done.”

“That was fast.” Arwin stood back up and pushed the stool back over to the counter. “What did you make? More sandwiches?”

“Yeah. I was frying up some thinly cut meat to put in them. You seem to finish your work at pretty much the same time every night. I guessed when you’d come back. Looks like I was right.”

“Am I that predictable?” Arwin asked with a soft laugh. “Wait. Why do you say meat? That feels… suspicious.”

“It was cheap.”

Arwin snorted. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. I’m sure it’ll taste good. I see you’ve been hard at work with the tavern as well. The door is a good addition.”

“I had some remodeling done to the upper floor as well,” Lillia said as she led him back into the kitchen and stuck a sandwich into his hands. “There are now five fully functional rooms, and the sixth is pretty close to being usable as well. Once I figure out a name for the tavern it’ll be ready to draw some people in.”

Assuming there are actually people in the area to draw in. Still need to work on that. That’ll be a problem to deal with after the wyrms.

“It’s looking more and more like an inn with every passing day,” Arwin said.

“That’s the goal. I’m glad to hear it’s moving in the right direction.” Lillia stepped past him and snuffed out the candle in the lantern. A second later, she took Arwin by his arm and led him into her room so they could sit down on her bed.

They sat in silence while they ate. As usual, Lillia’s cooking was fantastic. Arwin wasn’t sure what it was about her food, but the more of it he ate, the more he wanted. It was too bad that he couldn’t somehow flavor the magic he needed to eat.

Maybe I can grind up a sword and stick it into her food.

“How is it?” Lillia asked.

“Can’t even tell that the meat is mystery flavored,” Arwin replied as he polished off the rest of his sandwich. “It’s great, as usual.”

“Thanks,” Lillia said. “Sandwiches are good tavern food. Easy to eat without utensils. They’re pretty simple to make as well. It’s a good balance between flavor and time spent. Granted, I don’t have enough customers to worry all that much about the time of each meal yet, but I need to be ready for when I do.”

“That’s definitely wise. There will be a lot of changes on this street once the wyrms are handled. Preparing for them now rather than scrambling to adapt is going to save a lot of headaches in the future.”

“Speaking of which, how close are we to being ready for that? It feels like there are so many things that we need to prepare, but I don’t think we’re going to have time to get them all.”

“Not as close as I’d like to be. It’s fine. We’ll make it work. Tomorrow I’ll sell the armor I made today and make Rodrick some new greaves. The information Rodrick and Reya got today will be pretty helpful in figuring out how much leeway we’ve got to work with. I’d really like to get my bow functional before we have to take on the horde. That’ll probably involve going to Olive’s dungeon – though I think we should aim for that either way. Getting stronger before the horde hits is almost mandatory.”

“Yeah. It certainly couldn’t hurt. I think Rodrick wanted to think over what he’d found before he said too much on it, but from the way things sounded, we’ve probably got at least a week or two left.”

“That’s good,” Arwin said with a nod. There was so much that had to be done that a few weeks hardly felt like enough, but it would have to be. They had to handle the Wyrms themselves. It was imperative that the Adventurer’s Guild didn’t come anywhere near Milten.

The farther away from them we are right now, the better. We can’t afford to let them anywhere near us until we’re strong enough to challenge them. A bunch of overgrown lizards are nothing in comparison to the guild.

For now, all that matters is just focusing on doing what I can.

There may have been a lot they had to handle, but that would come with the following day. For the time being, it was night and the only thing that either of them had any plans of doing was resting until the morning came.

***

Arwin hit the markets early when the next day rose. He lugged his cart out along with the two pieces of armor he’d made the previous day. It almost felt like overkill, bringing an entire cart just to carry a set of armor he could move with his hands – but the cart legitimized him and made it look less like he was just some random person on the side of the street trying to sell armor to anyone that would look twice at them.

He was a bit apprehensive of his chances at selling anything without Reya, but it turned out that he needn’t have worried. He was still in the process of hanging the chestpiece up on the pegs at the top of the cart when he caught a glimpse of a dark-haired man clad in leather armor standing at the base of the cart.

“You’re Ifrit, aren’t you?” the man asked.

“I am,” Arwin said, turning to face him and holding up the helm in his hands. “I only have two pieces today. This and the armor. Were you interested in buying?”

“We don’t get a lot of new smiths around Milten, and I’ve heard some decent stuff about your work. How much?” the man asked.

“120 for the armor and let’s say… 60 for the helm?” Arwin offered.

“180 total?” The man tapped a foot on the ground in thought, then shrugged. “Fair price. Done.”

Seriously? That was easy.

“You aren’t part of a guild, are you?” Arwin asked as he took the chestpiece down.

“No. I’m a solo worker. Never been a fan of guilds,” the man replied. “Why? You recruiting for one? I’m not buying if you’re going to try to make me join up.”

“Nothing like that,” Arwin promised. “Don’t worry about it. 180 for the lot.”

The man shrugged and pulled out his coin pouch, counting out the requested amount in stacks before sliding it over. Arwin handed him the armor.

“Pleasure doing business with you. If you need any modifications or want repairs done for cheap, feel free to come find my smithy. It’s on the haunted street. You can find me by going to the tavern at the street’s end.”

“On the haunted street?” the adventurer repeated, a chuckle slipping out of his mouth. “Interesting. I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.”

Arwin nodded in response. He scooped the coin into his pouch and the man headed off without another word. Arwin hadn’t even learned his name. That was quite fine with him. He’d learn it if the man came back.

All in all, he’d been at the market for less than ten minutes. Arwin hopped down from the cart and picked it up. He headed back to the tavern with it in tow, stopping to buy two more Brightsteel ingots for a total of 60 gold and leaving himself another 120 to work with.

With the extra 120 that Olive was bringing him – assuming she survived the dungeon she was working at – he’d be able to pay Ridley off to finish the smithy and have some left over to buy more metal when the time came.

I really want to go to that dungeon she’s in sooner rather than later. Brightsteel is useful, but I don’t know if I want to make the entirety of Rodrick’s greaves out of it. I want something harder for some of the parts. I could work in the Maristeel, but I’d rather save that for trying to make a whole set rather than just a temporary job to keep him alive until I can get something really nice made.

Arwin made it back to the tavern and set the wagon down at its side. Ridley was working on the smithy once again – he’d made pretty good progress, and it looked like he was nearing the quarter completion mark.

He headed over to the mason. Ridley paused his work and looked up at Arwin as he counted out fifty gold and held it out.

“I got the rest of the pay for the first half.”

“Many thanks,” Ridley said as he took it with a nod. “The construction is going well. It’s been good for my class as well. I’ll come find you again when it’s time for the second half of the payment.”

Which is another way to say, ‘screw off. I’m working’.

Arwin hid a smile and nodded. He knew how Ridley felt. Getting interrupted was far from fun, even if it brought money with it. Raising a hand, he backed away and walked over to the tavern.

It was time to find out what Rodrick and Reya had learned about what the Wyrm horde.

Chapter 112

Everyone was awake and in the common room of the tavern when Arwin got back. Lillia had made breakfast while he was gone and they were already well into eating. She wordlessly handed him a plate piled high with eggs and fried mystery meat.

“Thank you.” Arwin took the plate with a smile and walked over to the edge of the counter to set it down and start eating.

“Did you go to the market?” Reya asked through a mouthful of food.

“Yeah. Sold some more stuff pretty easily. I think word is getting out about my name,” he replied with a pleased grin. “Not to say I’m releasing you from your job. You’re a great saleswoman.”

Reya grinned. “I am, aren’t I?”

“Don’t get too stuck up,” Anna said, flicking her in the back of the head with a laugh. “Now why don’t you tell us what you found out already? You’ve been making me wait until Arwin got back, which I assume means that we’re not in any immediate risk, but my patience is at its limit.”

“It’s like you guessed,” Rodrick said. “We’ve got some time to work with. We found some adventurers in some other taverns – sorry Lillia – that have been to the forest. None of them mentioned anything about a Wyrm, and there have only been one or two reports of people going missing, which isn’t too far off from normal.”

“When we checked out the forest, we didn’t see too much out of the ordinary either. Nothing like a bunch of little Wyrms running around in the trees, at least,” Reya added. She dabbed at her mouth with a napkin and restrained herself from eating more until she could finish speaking. “We didn’t actually go into the forest, but from what we could find, it looks like not much has changed yet. That probably means the Wyrm hasn’t given birth yet.”

“Meaning we should have at least a week before the optimal time to strike,” Lillia said. “Wrymlings are born able to fight, but their mother will be weakened shortly afterward. If we can strike any time roughly a week after the mother births them, they’ll all be at their weakest state.”

“A week… I think that should work,” Arwin said after a few moments of thought. “It gives us time to hit the dungeon at least once. I should also be able to finish the armor for Rodrick. I’d imagine we can all hit the next level in our Tier by then as well so long as the dungeon run goes well.”

“You’re making me armor?” Rodrick asked, his eyes lighting up.

“Considering what happened to your last set, I feel partially responsible. We can’t have you running out to fight your enemies ass naked, even if that’s likely how you’ll end the fight.”

“He’s got a point. You really do have a penchant for losing your pants in fights,” Anna said, rubbing her chin. “Is there something you aren’t telling me?”

“Oh, bugger off,” Rodrick grumbled. He shoveled eggs into his mouth as they all laughed.

Knowing that they still had at least a week to work with took a lot of weight off all their chests. A week really wasn’t all that much, but at least it meant the horde wasn’t going to show up at the city the next day.

They all finished breakfast in relative silence, then brought their plates to the kitchen. As they were returning to the common room, there was a knock on the door.

“You think that’s the mason?” Reya asked. “I saw him working on the smithy this morning.”

“I just spoke with him,” Arwin said with a shake of his head as he headed over to the door. “Maybe it’s a new customer? I’ve been trying to send people here.”

Or it could be someone considerably less welcome.

It wasn’t likely that anyone from the Iron Hounds would try anything here and Arwin didn’t have any other enemies that would have been able to find him here. That didn’t stop him from preparing to fight.

Arwin was still wearing his greaves, as he couldn’t rebind to them until he reached the next level in his Tier, but the rest of his armor was only a thought a way. He reached for the handle and pulled the door open.

It wasn’t a member of the Iron Hounds or Ridley that stood on the other side of the door. It was Olive. Her armor had several scratches running along it and she had small bags under her eyes from lack of sleep. The sword that Arwin had made her rested at her side and she held a leather pouch in her hand.

“You made it back faster than I expected,” Arwin said as he took a step back so she could pass by him. “Did the dungeon go well?”

“Yes. Your work is great, especially for its price. I’ve got the money I owe you here.” Olive stepped into the tavern and held the pouch out.

Arwin took it from her. It felt like it weighed a good bit more than it should have. He used the light from the lantern to peer inside it, but the only thing present was gold.

“Did you count this correctly? It feels heavier than it should.”

“I included an extra 80 gold,” Olive said. She pushed her hair back to reveal a thin scar running along her forehead. It looked fresh. “I was reminded of the importance of a good helmet – and a competent healer.”

Judging by the wince Anna made at the sight of the cut, she agreed with the second half of that statement.

“You got scammed,” Anna said. “If you made it out of the dungeon with a wound, it shouldn’t have been so bad as to justify a scar.”

“I know,” Olive said with a sigh. “But I was in the process of bleeding out. In his defense, had some other wounds as well. He definitely cut corners, though. That’ll teach me to go for the cheapest option. But that’s in the past – I’m more concerned with surviving my next cut. So… is 80 enough?”

Considering I just sold a helm for 60, I’d certainly say so.

“It is, thank you,” Arwin said. “I’m glad you liked my work. Any difficulties with it?”

Olive shook her head. “No. It performed exactly how I wanted it to. That’s more than I can say for most pieces I’ve bought. The sword was especially nice. It swings better than I thought it would.”

Great. I tried to make it lighter so it would be easier to swing with her worsened balance. Glad to hear that worked out.

“That’s good. I can definitely get a helm made for you, but it might take a little bit. I’m a bit low on materials right now, so my team and I were planning on heading into a dungeon as soon as possible,” Arwin said. “Was the one you were going to restricted?”

“No, the guild that owns it lets anyone enter for a fee. It costs ten gold a person,” Olive said. A thoughtful expression passed over her features and she tilted her head to the side. “I didn’t realize you had adventurers here. How many of you can fight?”

“All of us,” Arwin replied.

Olive blinked in surprise. Arwin was impressed that she resisted the urge to say, even you?

“Why do you ask?” Anna asked.

“There’s only so far a solo adventurer can make it in a dungeon,” Olive said. She paused for a second before correcting herself. “Well, most solo adventurers. Unfortunately, I’m not one of the ones that gets to claim anything special. Even having a few more bodies at my side would let me get a lot deeper.”

“How deep have you gone?” Rodrick asked.

“Three rooms are usually my limit. The dungeon isn’t an easy one. It’s Journeyman Tier, and I’m only Apprentice 6.”

Arwin resisted the urge to cough into his fist. Olive was a higher level than any of them – but there was no need to point that out. Rodrick sent him a questioning look, likely trying to figure out if they actually wanted to do the dungeon together with Olive.

More bodies can never hurt as long as we can still fit into the room and avoid pissing the dungeon off. I don’t see why not.

He gave the warrior a slight nod.

“We’ve gone through a Journeyman Tier dungeon in its entirety,” Rodrick said. “And as you said, more people definitely can’t hurt. We can do an even split of anything we earn and figure out how to distribute anything unique when the time comes.”

Olive thought for a moment before nodding. “That would work. I’m more interested in gold than anything else right now, and I highly doubt we’ll stumble into something that works perfectly for me. If we do, I might be more concerned with getting it.”

“If we find something that suits you and none of us, I don’t think we’ll have any objections,” Arwin said, ignoring the narrowed eyed look that Reya was sending at Olive. “How soon are you able to head into the dungeon?”

“If you were planning on going today, I’m sure I could handle it. The only reason the last run took so long is because it took me a fair amount of time to actually find a slot to get into the dungeon. The guild running it prioritizes larger parties, so waiting around to get a spot wasted a lot of time.”

“Couldn’t you have joined another party?” Reya asked.

“Most parties don’t want to let someone they don’t know in together with them.” Olive’s lips pressed thin. “And fewer want to rely on someone that they don’t think can handle themselves. People think I can’t fight because I’m missing an arm. Idiots. As if missing one that me unable to use the other.”

Arwin bit back a laugh. Anything that Olive might have supposedly lacked in fighting ability, she definitely made up for in spirit. “I don’t think any of us will have much trouble with that. You’ll be entering the dungeon with a smith that doesn’t even have a combat class, so I’d say having one arm is still a step up from that.”

“If you can handle yourself, I don’t care. Classes are only as useful as the person using them. If you can swing a big hammer at a piece of metal, then you can swing a big hammer at a monster’s head. At least, I hope you can. It would be a shame if I found a good smith only for him to get killed doing a dungeon.”

“I reckon I’ll be alright,” Arwin said with a chuckle. “I’ve done one or two dungeons in my lifetime. I have to quickly make one last piece of armor before we can head out. If nobody has any objections, why don’t we get going in about 5 or so hours?”

“That works for me,” Olive said with a shrug. “I’ll be ready.”

“Perfect,” Arwin said. He sent a glance at the others to make sure they all felt the same, then nodded. “Then I’ll get to work and get return as soon as possible. We’ve got a dungeon to clear.”

“Clear? You might be being a bit optimistic,” Olive said.

“We’ll see,” Arwin said noncommittally. “I’ll be back soon. I’m eagure to get this started.”