Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 117-118 (Patreon)

Heavy breathing filled the cavern as everyone fought to catch their breath, broken only by the patter of Anna’s feet as she ran over to Rodrick and Olive to see if they needed any healing.

The Mesh flowed before Arwin, forming into the options for the skills he could choose to upgrade. He barely even got a chance to read the Acheivement before it vanished.

[Decapitated] has been consumed.

[Awaken] (Passive)

[Molten Novice] (Passive)

[Soul Flame]

[Arsenal]

Unlike the other time Arwin had been offered a skill upgrade, this one took him almost no time to decide on. He’d already promised himself that his next upgrade would be [Awaken], and nothing had popped up to change that decision. He selected it without a second of hesitation.

[Awaken] (Passive) – All items forged by your hand have the potential to take on a trait, determined by [Unknown]. The potential for the trait to be detrimental is [76%]. Materials with a higher chance to awaken will fight with you to exert their influence on the piece they are being made into.

At first, Arwin almost laughed. The upgrade to [Awaken] almost seemed ridiculous. Almost. The one thing that made him look closer was that the Mesh was honest if nothing else. If it promised an upgrade, then it gave an upgrade.

Making it so that his materials would all fight against him hardly seemed like an upgrade – or at least, it wouldn’t have been if it didn’t mean he’d be able to get something out of it. A memory of the Heart of the Devouring Prism flickered through Arwin’s mind. The crystal had put up quite a fight while he’d been trying to put into the bow, and it still hadn’t fully given in.

It had also made what he suspected would be one of the strongest things he’d ever crafted. If the Mesh had just made it so that even more materials could do what the Prism did, that almost certainly meant that awakened items from here on out would be considerably harder to make – and stronger as a result of it.

I’m not sure if I’m happy or disappointed I didn’t get this upgraded earlier. It wasn’t like Lillia’s armor was Awakened so it wouldn’t have changed anything in that regard… but if it had been, would I have been able to tame it? It was a close fight. What happens if I fail? Does the crafting just go nowhere, or does something worse happen?

At a bare minimum, Arwin suspected the material would be lost. That was how things worked with the Mesh, though. With no challenge, there was no reward. It had just given him a way to push himself farther.

And, in doing so, I got a warning as well. If I upgrade this skill again before I’m ready, I might actually make it impossible for me to make more Awakened weapons. I need to make sure I’m strong enough to handle anything [Awaken] throws against me before I upgrade it again. I just hope I don’t end up making a literal horde of items like Verdant Blaze. If everything has its own desires, it’ll be a nightmare taking care of it all. Zeke’s helm hasn’t really done anything beyond help me in fights, so I’m optimistic there.

Arwin finally pulled his gaze away from the Mesh and let the golden letters fade away. He was more than satisfied with the reward he’d just gotten from taking out the centipede – and judging by the looks on the others’ faces, he wasn’t the only one.

Reya and Olive’s eyes were both glazed over as they read something written out before them. Lillia was picking through the monster’s body to see if any part of it looked edible. She obviously wouldn’t have been able to advance her Tier from the fight, but it was likely she’d gotten the same Achievement that he had considering everyone present had worked together to remove the monster’s head.

Rodrick was also starring off sightlessly, which told Arwin that his guess was likely correct. Anna finished her checkups on him and Olive and headed over to Arwin, pressing her hands to his shoulder and sending energy flowing through him.

“Thanks,” Arwin said as the rest of the damage from the fight slowly pulled itself closed. “Much appreciated.”

“No problem,” Anna said. Her brow knit in concentration and she didn’t say anything for a few seconds. The energy coming from her hands faded and she let them drop. “I was strongly considering using the new ranged heal I recently got to try and patch you up again mid-fight, but it takes a lot more energy and I barely had enough to handle everyone as things were. You all had some internal damage, not to mention concussions.”

“Good call, then,” Arwin said. The relief that Anna’s magic brought was incredible. He hadn’t realized just how fuzzy the world had gotten until she’d healed him. “Did you get anything from the fight? You didn’t get to participate too much.”

“An achievement that let me upgrade the effectiveness of my ranged heal,” Anna replied. “I figured it was better to be able to start helping from a distance so I don’t have to run over mid-fight every time.”

Arwin rose to his feet and studied his armor. It had taken some dents from the fight. Nothing too significant – the magic had held it together far better than he could have hoped. It would take some repairs later, but those wouldn’t take long.

“That sounds like it might be a good idea,” Arwin said, dismissing the armor so only his greaves remained. “Glad you got something out of it. It would have been difficult to lure that big thing over to you so you could finish it off.”

Anna bit back a snort of laughter. “If you ever do that I’m never forgiving you. I don’t get that little energy from supporting you in the backlines. I’m a healer so it’s naturally harder for me to grow since I’m in a safer location in the fights, and that’s just how I like it. I’ll leave the nearly getting killed to you lot and level at my steady pace. I don’t have the reflexes to survive in a close quarter fight for a long period of time.”

It took a lot of intelligence and self-understanding to realize one’s limits to the degree that Anna did. Arwin had known far too many people that had been confident they could handle themselves in any fight if they believed they’d win hard enough.

The only one of them that was still alive was him. And now, Arwin knew that the only reason he’d even survived all the battles with Lillia until this point was largely because the Adventurer’s Guild had been using both of them as toy warriors that weren’t allowed to break until the time was right.

That brought thoughts of a black gem – thoughts that weren’t going to be answered in the depths of this cave. Arwin shook his head and brought himself back to the situation at hand. The others had all finished up with their messages from the Mesh and were starting to gather.

“Good results?” Arwin asked.

“New ability,” Reya said with a smug grin. “A really cool one.”

“Oh?” Rodrick waggled his eyebrows. “Tell me.”

She leaned in to whisper into his ear. It wasn’t exactly the politest way to handle things with Olive, but Arwin didn’t blame her in the slightest. Abilities were personal and giving too much information away was never a good idea.

Besides, it’s not like she’s offered to tell us her own abilities. I don’t know what she was doing with that sword swing of hers, but it looks like she’s got something that trades speed for either sharpness or power. Pretty good ability in the right scenario. Would actually pair incredibly well with Reya.

Rodrick’s eyebrows crept up his forehead as Reya leaned back.

“Whoa,” Rodrick said. “That is a cool ability. I’d have to see it at work to know if it was actually effective, but it sounds like it would be. Too bad you didn’t get it a bit earlier.”

“I doubt it would have worked here anyway,” Reya said.

“Now I’m curious,” Arwin said. “Tell me too.”

She shot a quick glance back at Olive before walking over to him. Arwin fought to keep the confusion from his face. Somehow, it felt like she was actually enjoying hiding the information from her rather than doing it purely for safety reasons.

Reya stood on the tips of her toes to whisper into his ear. “It lets me bind the energy of a monster I help kill as long as it’s within a tier of me. If I manage to bind it, I can basically summon a spectral form of the monster to help me fight temporarily. It doesn’t always work, and it’s easier the less difference in Tier I have to close between us.”

She stepped back and Arwin found the same expression that had made its way across Rodrick’s face infecting his own.

“Well, shit,” Arwin said. “That’s incredible. Is it…”

Unique?

Reya nodded, picking up on the unspoken question. “Yeah.”

“And I think I can cook this!” Lillia exclaimed, holding up a chunk of centipede meat. It didn’t look as awful as Arwin had expected and vaguely resembled a huge chunk of lobster. He wasn’t quite sold on it tasting anywhere similar, but he’d try it if Lillia was cooking. “It would go good with lemon.”

“Isn’t that what you said about the spider?” Rodrick asked. “The one that you dumped out on the ground behind us?”

“Do you want me to go back and get it for you?” Lillia crossed her arms and pursed her lips. “Because I can. It’s probably a bit mushed up and covered with grime now, but I’m sure I can wipe it off. I can put it on every meal I make for you if you’re so caught up on it.”

Rodrick hurriedly cleared his throat. “You know what? Centipede sounds fantastic. I’d love nothing more.”

Lillia beamed and stuffed the large chunk of centipede into her bag. “I knew you’d come around.”

“And I think that brings us to the most important question of the dungeon,” Anna said.

“Whether we should get Lillia more food to cook with?” Rodrick asked.

“No. Well, not directly, but that wasn’t what I meant,” Anna said with a huff. “I meant if we should go deeper or not.”

“You want to go deeper after that?” Olive’s eyes went wide. “You can’t be serious.”

“There was nothing to indicate that was a special enemy,” Arwin said. “Though it probably should have been. Given how large that was, it must have broken into the dungeon recently and not yet found the right room it belonged in.”

“You mean the actual gated monster might be weaker?” Olive asked, a thoughtful expression passing over her features.

“It’s possible,” Lillia said as she walked over to join them, her bag of centipede-meat over her shoulder. That reminded Arwin to check and see if the centipede’s plates would be of any use to him. He went to pull one off, but Lillia pulled the corner of one out from her bag. “Already got one.”

“Oh damn. Didn’t even see you do it. Thank you,” Arwin said. He wasn’t sure how much use the plate would be since they hadn’t been all that tough, but he suspected he’d be able to find something to make from it.

“No problem,” Lillia replied. “Though our query remains. I think we could recover a fair bit if we sit around for about an hour. Enough to go at least one more room.”

“If the Mimipede settled here, the next one is probably a purple-torcher. I figure it was just too lazy or fat to fit through the door,” Rodrick said. “But I agree. I’m for staying for one last room.”

“Same,” Reya said.

“I’m fine with it,” Arwin put in, and Anna nodded at the same time. They all looked to Olive.

“I haven’t even done all that much yet,” Olive said with a shake of her head. “If you’re confident we can keep going, then I’m fine with it. Let’s do one more floor.”

“It’s settled,” Arwin said. “Everyone take some time to cool off – Reya, can you come check the previous room with me? I want to make sure we don’t have any company coming up on us since there are other adventurers in the area.”

Reya blinked, then nodded. “Sure.”

Perfect. I want to know what’s up with you and Olive. If she’s a threat, I need to know.

Chapter 118

The room that they’d come from was, unsurprisingly, empty. Arwin hadn’t really expected anyone to be there. That hadn’t stopped him from coming prepared for a fight if need be.

He let himself relax slightly and turned to Reya as he stepped in behind him.

“Looks pretty empty,” Reya said. “Should we head back? Or are we going to stand guard?”

“I actually called you here as an excuse to speak privately. I don’t really think that we’re going to get someone walking up behind us. It looks like the guards at the entrance were pretty good at regulating who went into what path.”

Reya grinned. “Ah. You want to see my new ability, huh?”

“Well, yes,” Arwin admitted. “But that isn’t it either.”

Confusion replaced the smile on Reya’s face and she sent him a blank stare. “Oh. What is it, then?”

“Olive,” Arwin said, nodding over his shoulder. “It seems like something’s going on. You’ve been pretty hostile to her in general, and I was wondering if it was because you knew something. Are you familiar with her?”

“What?” Reya blinked, then shook her head. “No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“This is serious.” Arwin crossed his arms and held Reya’s gaze. “I got you not really liking it when it looked like Olive might have been freeloading off us, but she’s paid her debts back and is carrying her weight in the dungeon pretty well. You’re definitely trying to antagonize her. If she’s someone from your past–”

“She isn’t,” Reya insisted, running a hand through her hair and groaning. “Don’t worry about it, Arwin. I’d never met her before you did. I don’t know anything that you don’t.”

That only served to confuse him even further. His brow furrowed and he scratched at the stubble that was starting to grow on the underside of his chin. “I don’t get it. If that’s true, what’s going on? Did she do something when I wasn’t watching?”

“No.”

“You’re sure?” Arwin pressed. “She’s not bullying you, is she?”

“No!” Reya caught her voice before it could get too loud and carry down the tunnel to the others. She coughed into a fist and looked over her shoulder at the way back to the others, her feet edging toward it as if hoping to escape her body.

Arwin caught her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. “If something is wrong, you can tell me.”

“Would you please just let it drop?” Reya begged. “I’m telling you, there’s nothing.”

“The way you’re acting really seems to imply that it isn’t just nothing. I don’t mean to be pushy–”

“You’re being pushy.”

“–then I apologize, but I need to put all of our safety above that. I can’t just decide that I’m strong enough to handle the threats as they come anymore, Reya. We need to handle them together. That’s the conclusion I came to. The very one that I shared with you. You know my viewpoint.”

Reya bit her tongue and blew up her cheeks, letting it out with a slow groan. “What if I just promised you that nothing was wrong and there really wasn’t any reason for you to bother with this? Would that be enough?”

“I told you my real identity,” Arwin pointed out. He let go of Reya’s shoulders so he could cross his arms and give her the most fatherly look he could muster. “Can this possibly be any more problematic to share than that?”

“Goddamn it,” Reya muttered. She matched his stance, her cheeks flushing, and glared at him. “Fine. I think she’s pretty.”

Arwin blinked. Of all the answers that he’d been preparing for, that wasn’t one of them. He stared at Reya in mute shock. It took him a few seconds to process what she’d said.

“I thought you hated her?” Arwin asked, squinting in confusion. “When we first met?”

“I did.” Reya’s cheeks had turned the same hue as some of the tomatoes Arwin had seen in the market, but he didn’t suspect that pointing that particular fact out would be good for his continued health. “I thought she was just some girl who was gonna use her looks to get what she wanted, you know? I got over that once she brought the money back.”

“Oh,” Arwin said lamely. “Why are you acting like this, then? It doesn’t add up.”

“What do you mean? I’m not acting weird.”

“Yes you are. It seemed like you were mad at–”

Arwin trailed off as he finally caught on. Reya hadn’t been mad. She’d been trying to show off while acting standoffish in hopes that Olive would try to approach her. It took every ounce of self-restraint he had to keep himself from busting out into laughter. That would have completely crushed Reya, which was the last thing he wanted to do.

“You were trying to flirt?” Arwin chose his words carefully.

“Can’t we please change the subject or something?” Reya asked.

“Not if it’s going to affect the group dynamic. Besides, do you really think Olive is going to want to keep adventuring with us if she thinks you hate her?”

Reya blinked. “Why would she think that?”

“You do realize you’ve done nothing but glare or look away from her this whole time, right?”

Reya scratched the back of her neck. “Well, yeah. I guess. I don’t really have much experience with this. I’m not sure what else I’m meant to do. We didn’t really have the opportunity to do that kind of thing where I grew up.”

I don’t think living on the streets gives you much room to do much of anything, but there’s no way they flirted by glaring at each other. How would you know if someone liked you or wanted to put a dagger between your ribs? Then again, maybe that was the fun part.

“I think you could probably start by speaking to her,” Arwin suggested. “I might not be the best advice for this, but I’m sure that’s a good spot to start.”

“Wouldn’t it be weird now though?” Reya asked. “I haven’t even said anything until now! It would be even odder for me to just randomly start talking to her.”

“Better to fix a mistake halfway through than carry it to completion and live with the full results.”

Reya scrunched her nose in annoyance. “I – okay, that’s a good point I guess.”

Arwin nodded in satisfaction. This definitely hadn’t been anywhere near the problem that he’d been worried it would be. It kind of felt like he’d stuck his nose somewhere where it didn’t belong. Granted, now that he had, he couldn’t exactly pull it back without making Reya feel like he was leaving her to hang.

“Good. Besides, having a better relationship will be good for the health of the team. We don’t want to be wondering if we don’t like each other while we’re in the dungeon.”

“Whoa, who said anything about a relationship?” Reya protested quickly, holding her hands up. “I just said she was pretty! I wasn’t thinking about anything else. I really don’t care all that much either way.”

Arwin resisted the urge to look at her out of the corners of his eyes. She was certainly protesting an awful lot for someone who didn’t care too much.

“I meant your relationship as fellow adventurers on the same team,” Arwin said. “Not a romantic one.”

Reya blinked. She cleared her throat. “Uh. Right. Yeah.”

Arwin nodded sagely. They stood in awkward silence for a second. Reya hadn’t tried to actually escape yet, but he couldn’t tell if that was because she was so embarrassed that she couldn’t move or if it was because she wanted advice.

He couldn’t be bothered figuring out which, so he chose the direct route.

“Did you want advice?” Arwin asked.

“What? No,” Reya said. “Definitely not.”

“Fair enough. I’ll drop it then,” Arwin said. “Let’s head back to the others.”

Reya started to nod but paused and caught his eye as he turned to leave. She cleared her throat again. “Uh… if you were going to give advice, what would it be?”

“Oh. I was mostly asking if you wanted it,” Arwin said with a sheepish laugh. “I haven’t the faintest idea. Maybe give her a gift? Or just try to get to know her? I mean, what if you can’t stand her personality?”

“She’s a badass,” Reya muttered. “Have you ever seen someone fight like that with just one arm? And she cut the Mimipede like it was nothing. I’m sure you and Lillia could probably do something like that, but who else?”

I think there might be more to personality than how good you are at killing things, but who am I to point that out?

“Then maybe tell her how cool it was,” Arwin suggested, thinking back to when he’d taught some techniques to warriors that had been part of his personal guard. “Or ask her for advice on fighting since you like her style so much. Most people like teaching small things. It makes them feel appreciated.”

Reya tilted her head to the side in thought, then slowly nodded. “I – huh. I think that makes sense. I guess it could work.”

“It’s a way to at least try to talk to her,” Arwin said with a shrug. “You can both figure things out from there as they come. Who knows what you’ll think of each other, but it’s better than just glaring from a distance. I probably still wouldn’t tell her about your new ability though. Not until we decide if she’s going to stick around or not.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Reya said. She shook her head and drew in a short breath, letting it out through her mouth. “Okay. Godspit, I can’t realize I was this obvious. I’m really embarrassed. Do you think the others noticed?”

“I mean, I didn’t really notice. I just thought you hated her.”

Reya immediately reddened again and buried her face in her hands. “Damn it.”

“Hey, you’ll get there eventually,” Arwin said. “What matters is that you’re trying to improve. Now, shall we head back to the others so they don’t start wondering if something went wrong and come looking for us?”

“Yeah,” Reya said meekly. “That might be a good idea.”

Arwin nodded and clapped her on the shoulder. They strode back down the tunnel. Something told Arwin that, whatever the monster waiting for them in the next room of the dungeon was, it couldn’t possibly be as much of a challenge as trying to help navigate Reya’s love life.