Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 153-154 (Patreon)

“That’s it?” Reya asked, aghast. “What happened?”

Olive shook her head. “I don’t know. I woke up at the bottom of the dungeon with my wound patched, but my arm hadn’t been reattached. I never heard from any of them again. They left me there.”

“Assholes,” Rodrick said. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Olive arched an eyebrow. “I appreciate you trying to make me feel better, Rodrick, but it was my fault. I accepted the Challenge. If I hadn’t, I would have been able to back Jason up and he wouldn’t have gotten killed. I wouldn’t have lost my arm.”

“His death may be because of the Challenge, but you had no way of knowing that would be how it turned out,” Arwin said. “It was an accident. You can’t blame yourself for that.”

“I don’t,” Olive said, but it took her a moment longer than normal to answer Arwin. “The point is you need to stay away from Challenges. They’re curses. If you get an option to accept one, you need to deny it. The Mesh will wait until you’re at the worst possible spot and then spit on you while you’re down.”

“Whatever happened to your Challenge?” Anna asked. “Do you still have it?”

“No.” Olive shook her head. “And good riddance. It already took one of my arms. I don’t need to lose more. I haven’t seen anything from the Challenge ever since I woke up on the sand. I have to imagine the Mesh just decided I deserved nothing and took it away. But Reya… can you still refuse the Challenge?”

“I didn’t have an option,” Reya said. “The Mesh just gave it to me.”

Olive’s face paled. “What is it? What are the risks?”

“It hasn’t said anything about that. I’m just meant to find a way to master Wyrmhunger. It doesn’t say there are any consequences or anything like that.”

“That probably just means they’re hidden.” Olive’s voice had more than just a note of bitterness in it.

“Mine does,” Arwin said. “But, unlike what you were offered, mine is tied directly to my survival.”

“What? How?”

“I have a… condition,” Arwin said slowly. “It’s from my class. Yes, I can make magical items, but that isn’t without cost. I have to consume them as well. One every few days.”

“Every few—” Olive cut herself off and swallowed. “You’re a walking gold sink.”

“And one that just keeps getting worse,” Arwin said with a nod. “My Challenge gave me a chance find a way to fix that. Granted, the consequences of failing it are just straight up death. I suppose that balances it a bit.”

He hesitated for a second. There were a lot of things he felt he could have said about Olive’s story, but most of them came from experience that he’d yet to reveal. Experience he wasn’t so sure he wanted to reveal.

It didn’t help that nobody was speaking. They’d all fallen silent. Reya’s fingers twitched as she seemed to debate if putting a comforting hand on Olive’s shoulder would be appropriate. Rodrick and Anna looked indignant on Olive’s behalf, and Olive just looked concerned.

To be honest, from what Olive just told us, her former group doesn’t even sound that great. It’s hard to fully judge someone from just a short snippet of a story, but they didn’t seem like they really cared all that much about her. I suppose it doesn’t matter. Mentioning that won’t help anyone.

“You aren’t alone,” Arwin said, finally finding his words. “And even if you say you aren’t blaming yourself, you can’t take responsibility for others. I would have done the same thing you did.”

“That’s the reason I’m telling you this. Challenges aren’t worth it if you can avoid them. They’re just asking for the Mesh to lay a trap for you. Don’t make the same mistake I did.”

“You only made one mistake,” Arwin said. “And it wasn’t failing to stop the golem’s sword.”

Olive’s hand tightened at her side. “What was it, then?”

“Not telling your group about the Challenge. I don’t know what dynamic you had with them, but it’s difficult to fight together with someone when you don’t know what they’re dealing with. That said, I don’t know what your relationship was with them. Perhaps telling them wasn’t an option.”

Olive didn’t respond for a second. Then her shoulders curled forward and she let her hand loosen as she slumped forward and sighed. “It wasn’t. They wouldn’t have believed me. And, if they did, they would have been angry.”

“As I said. Assholes,” Rodrick said.

“Not the time,” Anna muttered. “Saying that doesn’t help anyone.”

“Then you did what you could,” Arwin said. He was all too aware of all the secrets he was still holding close to his own chest. The hypocrisy of his words wasn’t completely lost on him, but the one saving grace was that his secrets weren’t going to directly affect the outcome of a fight. “You’re only as good as the people around you.”

Even if Arwin had wanted to reveal the rest of his secrets now, he couldn’t quite bring himself to. Any talk of the Hero or demon queen after Olive had just shared something that personal just felt like it would overshadow her.

“I guess you’re right,” Olive said, shaking her head. “In the end, that isn’t what this is about. I wasn’t trying to get pity. I was warning you about Challenges.”

“We’ll be careful. As careful as we can be, at least. If we want to be safe, then we need to be strong. The key to advancing is the appropriate amount of risk. Not too much. Not too little. Just enough that we can all handle it.” Arwin said. “And, if we’re working together, we can take on risks that we can’t bear on our own, such as Jessen and his Wyrms.”

Olive gave Arwin a small smile and inclined her head. “Wise words.”

Something about her tone told Arwin that she didn’t quite buy what he’d said, but that was fine. He didn’t expect Olive to come around right off the bat. It would have been odd if she did. He’d certainly needed more time to come to terms with things himself, and it wasn’t fair to force her to higher standards.

“Maybe we should get the blood moving,” Rodrick suggested, sliding down from his chair and unwrapping Anna from their blanket bundle. “Who’s coming with Anna and I to bring shit back from the forest?”

“I’ll come,” Olive said.

“I’ll focus on making us money,” Arwin said, nodding toward the door of the tavern. “My smithy is waiting for me.”

“What about you?” Anna asked with a look to Reya.

“I’ll stay back and help for a bit,” Reya said. “If you guys need more help, I’ll head out and meet you later.”

“Sounds good.” Rodrick piled the sheets on a stool and gave her a sharp salute before joining Anna and Olive in heading out into the street.

They had the right idea. The day was still young and a certain anvil was calling to Arwin. He nodded to Reya and headed out himself. There was still quite a bit that he wanted to make and he had a number of materials to work with.

And a number of materials to figure out how to work with. I’ve got Jessen’s armor… I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it, but I’ll be damned if I don’t make it work for me. That’s not to mention all the bug bits and Wyrmling scales. I’m out of Brightsteel again, but I do have my Maristeel and around 300 gold with what I got from Jessen.

Arwin continued to muse to himself as he headed back to his new smithy and unlocked the door with the key. The anvil sat in anticipation beside his fresh earth, just waiting for him to start his next project — but the stone building was empty.

Ah. Have to get all my materials and bring them over.

That took just a few minutes, and he soon had everything piled into a corner and waiting expectantly for him to get back to work. There were a number of different items that were on his urgent-make list.

Gauntlets and greaves for himself. A reusable arrow. Armor for all the others. Objects to sell, and more items to eat in general. He’d gone through most of his bracelet supply as well. Those had proven invaluable for short boosts in fights.

It really is odd that I get more use from drawing all the power out of them at once rather than using them normally, but one method uses magical energy and the other doesn’t. Inefficient but powerful. Can’t complain.

He thought for a few more seconds. As it stood, everyone was starting to become quite powerful in their own right — and especially for their tier. Anna definitely needed armor the most out of everyone, but she needed something really light, even more so than Lillia’s gear had been.

What she really needs is leather. I don’t think she’s going to be well suited to walking around in anything I normally make.

He would try, of course, but he didn’t have high hopes for it. Perhaps if he found something that gave a trait that lightened something. Until then, the strongest net positive he could make would probably be an arrow. Until he had one, his bow was useless.

The bow’s already half-made of Maristeel anyway. Might as well finish that bit up.

Arwin summoned a ball of [Soul Flame] and tossed it into his new hearth. He took a second to appreciate it before picking up a piece of Maristeel and starting to polish the grime off it.

He got no more than a few minutes into his work before he realized that someone else was standing in the room. That was something of a surprise, as he was normally pretty bad at noticing just about anything while he was working.

Arwin turned to see Reya standing in the corner of the room. She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, then noticed that Arwin had spotted her.

“What’s going on?” Arwin asked, still scraping at the Maristeel. There was no reason not to multitask.

“I wanted to ask your advice.”

“Ah. About the Challenge?” Arwin asked. “I’m not sure how much I can say, but I meant what I told Olive. I don’t know what the Mesh’s goals are beyond generating challenge, but as long as we handle things as a team, I think we can get through them.”

Reya pulled her dagger free and idly rolled it across her knuckles. “Yeah. Uh… that’s not really what I wanted to ask about. I mean, I agree, but that wasn’t it.”

“Oh.” Arwin glanced away from the Maristeel. “What is it?”

“It’s about Olive. I’m not sure what I’m meant to do. You had good advice last time, so I was hoping you could help again.”

Chapter 154

Uh oh. I think I might have really given Reya the wrong idea about how much I know about anything romance related. It would be rude to tell her I can’t help, though.

“Let’s hear it, then.”

“Well… I don’t know.” Reya’s cheeks colored. “I just don’t know what to do.”

“It seems like you’ve been doing better. You’re actually talking to her. That was a step in the right direction.” Arwin tried to make sure his voice didn’t get too dry, but he didn’t do the best job at it. Reya’s blush intensified.

“You don’t have to rub it in. And I know that. I meant what I’m supposed to do about what she just told us about. Her past.”

“I don’t know if there’s a specific answer to that. Just be kind and try to help her if she needs help. Is it something specific you’re asking about? I’m not sure I’m following.”

Reya’s fists tightened and she tapped a foot on the ground as she searched for the proper words. “That’s not it. I know that. I mean… isn’t it cheap, or something?”

“Cheap?”

“Olive is clearly not feeling well. Even if she’s pretending like she isn’t bothered, it’s pretty obvious that she is. Wouldn’t it be wrong of me to try to do anything when she’s like that? I have ulterior motives.”

“That’s not an easy question,” Arwin admitted. Arwin lowered the Maristeel and brushed his hands off. This was definitely moving well past his pay grade, but he couldn’t just leave Reya hanging. “The fact that you’re thinking about it is probably a good thing. In the end, I don’t think there’s anything bad that can be said about being there for someone. You’re not trying to leverage this for anything, are you?”

“What? No!” Reya hurriedly shook her head. “Of course not! I just want to help.”

“Well, there. If you’re not trying to take advantage of her, then nobody is going to complain about a shoulder to support themselves on. It would be an issue if you expected something in return for that, but if you don’t, then I don’t see an issue.”

“But isn’t it manipulative?”

“Do you want to help her purely to get in her pants?”

Reya choked on her on saliva. She took a second to gather herself before shaking her head. “Who do you think I am? No.”

“Then you aren’t doing anything wrong. It’s good to think about this, but I don’t think life is secure enough to waste time on it,” Arwin said with a sigh. He leaned against his anvil and drummed his fingers on its edge. “Kindness is free. If someone has a problem with that, then they aren’t worth your time. Just don’t leverage it as some sort of favor and you’ll be fine.”

Reya ran a hand through her hair. Then, to Arwin’s surprise, she let out a small laugh.

“What?” he asked, confused.

“I asked Lillia about this before I came over here, and she gave me the exact same answer that you just did, just with different words.”

“Well, then it must mean we’re right.”

Reya rolled her eyes. She tucked a strand of hair behind the back of her ear and gave Arwin a slight nod. “Maybe. Thank you. That helps. I’ll ask Olive if she wants to talk more about the past later, once she gets back. Maybe I’ll go find everyone and see if they need help.”

“I’m certain they’d appreciate it. There were a hell of a lot of Iron Hounds that we didn’t get a chance to strip down. Wyrmlings too — we got their scales, but there are still claws and teeth.”

“Do you want all that?”

A vision of his new smithy piled completely to the brim with Wyrmling bones flashed through Arwin’s mind and he shuddered. He was confident the street wasn’t haunted, but it certainly would be if he brought that many bodies back.

“Maybe a bag full of them. Two at most. I won’t need more — by the time I run out, I suspect I’ll have moved onto better equipment anyway. I don’t want to become a complete hoarder.”

“Sounds good. Anything else?”

“If you’ve got free time, I could use some more Brightsteel,” Arwin said. He pulled his pouch off his side and tossed it to Reya. “It makes some pretty good armor, and I want to start getting our funds really padded. Do you think you could buy some for me? We really need a proper supplier instead of buying everything from Taylor, but that can come later.”

“Sure thing. And I’ll pass your request for stuff along to the others.” Reya headed over to the door, then paused and looked back at Arwin. “Thanks again. I never really had anyone to talk to about stuff like this. It… means a lot.”

She stepped out before Arwin could respond. Arwin looked at the spot where she’d been standing, a small smile pulling at his lips before he could quash it. He wasn’t so sure he should let himself feel good about this. He barely knew what he was doing himself. Giving Reya advice didn’t feel like the smartest move, but her question hadn’t been too focused on the romantic elements, so he felt like he hadn’t overstepped any bounds. And, if Arwin was honest with himself, it felt nice to be relied upon.

He got back to work on the Maristeel, the small smile still present on his lips. Time slipped by, properly this time. The rough exterior of crud covering the Maristeel steadily came off and he soon had a polished piece ready to work with.

Arwin set it into the flame and set about working it into a plate once it was hot enough. When he’d finished, he pulled it into pieces with [Scourge] and laid them out to cool.

“Right. Which of you want to be an arrow?” Arwin asked, looking out at the thick strips of Maristeel on his anvil. He’d started to get used to speaking to his materials, as odd as it was.

And, as usual, he was delighted to find that the Maristeel was amiable to just about anything. The metal was just so happy to be used after all the time it had sat around doing nothing that he was pretty sure it would have been thrilled to be a toilet seat.

Okay, that might be going a bit far. I’m not so sure anything wants to be a toilet seat. I should take care to never speak to the materials of one of those, or I may never be the same again.

Arwin gathered up the pieces of Maristeel and set them aside. With the metal handled, it was time to move on to the next, and arguably more important, step. He needed something to focus the magic.

“Let’s see,” Arwin mused, looking around everything he’d brought into the smithy. He still had the white gemstone from the Mesh’s Challenge. That didn’t feel like it would benefit an arrow much.

I need something that would give it traits that would… well, suit an arrow. Definitely nothing with [Brittle] since I want to reuse it. I don’t think anything from the spiders would be all that useful. I bet I could get a poison attribute from that, but I’m looking more for massive damage than that. The centipede pieces will also be a lot more useful for defensive purposes.

Arwin’s thoughts drifted to the Wyrmling scales. There were literal piles of them just waiting to be used. The scales themselves probably wouldn’t be of any use in an arrow… but their claws and teeth were a whole different game.

I think that’s what I need. I’ll just wait for the others to come back with the Wyrmling bits and I’ll use either a tooth or a claw for the arrow.

He turned, satisfied with his decision, and froze. Resting in the corner of his smithy behind him was a bag stuffed full of bone. He walked up to the edge of his workshop and squinted out the door beyond it that led into the street.

The sun was already shining down on the street. He’d somehow let hours slip away from him once more. It looked like the others had already completed their item run and dropped everything off without disturbing him.

“Good timing,” Arwin mused to himself, even though it was likely the bag had gotten dropped off quite some time ago. He pulled it open to see what they’d gotten for him. Within it was a mixture of bones, teeth, claws, and daggers. There were also a few broken swords.

Well, it certainly looks like they got everything they could. This was probably just one of the bags.

Arwin took out a tooth and a claw, then walked back to the anvil. Both of them were sharp — there was no doubt about that. The claw was considerably larger than the fang. It was rounded and curved to a thin point.

The fang, on the other hand, was sharp all the way along its edges. Even though it was smaller, the fang felt like it fit what he needed quite a bit more than the claw did.

Not to mention I’ve used a fang for an arrow before. Sure, it was a smaller fang and a worse arrow, but the idea is the same.

Arwin put the claw back and set the fang aside. He selected several pieces of Maristeel and returned them to the flames to heat. Once they’d grown hot enough, he set about hammering them together into a rod.

The process went relatively quickly. That wasn’t to say it was fast, but between the extra strength from [Scourge] and the [Soul Flame] that rippled with every strike, Arwin soon had the shaft of the arrow made.

He added the tooth to the head of the weapon, keeping himself focused on his end goal. The Maristeel would likely add in some form of water or sea related attribute. He couldn’t easily control that one without splitting his attention — perhaps that would be an ability that came with time.

It wasn’t one he had now. So, instead, he focused entirely on what he could control. He needed an arrow that would be sharp. An arrow that would shoot straight and fly as far as a rod of metal could reasonably be expected to fly.

Strike by strike, the arrow came together. Arwin poured magical energy into it. It was considerably more nerve-wracking to make something entirely without the Mesh’s guidance, but he didn’t want just any old arrow. He wanted the arrow. One that would serve him for the foreseeable future. Something that could survive being fired and resummoned over and over again.

Something that could channel all the power within Prism’s Reach without breaking, and something that could pierce through armor like paper.

The ring of Arwin’s hammer filled his smithy. It rang in his ears, going from individual sounds to a hazy blur. With every strike, his work seemed to blend more and more into the sound of rushing water.

And, as he lifted his hammer one last time, it struck Arwin that his work was complete. A glistening blue arrow sat on the anvil before him, humming with magical energy. He was done with the arrow — but the arrow wasn’t done with him.

A vision rushed up, darkening the edges of his vision so quickly that he barely had time to drop into a seated position before it swallowed him whole. It seemed like the arrow was eager to test his mettle. That was just fine with Arwin. He was equally interested to see what it had to offer.

I’m not settling for less than the absolute best that both the arrow and I can bring to the table. From here on out, anything I make for my allies will be the best it can possibly be or nothing at all.