Rise of the Living Forge

Determining what Arwin wanted his armor to be was the easiest of the steps that he had in actually creating it, but it gave him a direction to start moving in. It wasn’t something he’d be able to start building today.

The Infernal Armory had given him a rundown of the materials that the Menagerie had kept it fed with while Arwin had been gone. There were a fair number of metals such as Brightsteel and Ivorin, but nothing that truly stuck out as being of exemplar quality.

And if Arwin was going to make a set of armor that could house the Infernal Armory itself, it was going to be of the absolute best material he could get his hands on. This wasn’t some temporary stopgap.

It was the end goal. A suit of armor that could evolve and grow along with him. It wasn’t something he’d never done before. His very first ability made it possible. Arwin had made quite a few [Awoken] pieces of equipment. Reya’s Wyrmhunger was a perfect example of what he had to create…

But it was only the start.

He needed more than just a single [Awoken] weapon. Arwin needed an entire set of it. And, on top of that, the set not only had to be a soul weapon, but it would likely need a core and also need to be able to house the Infernal Armory without somehow damaging the building.

There were a number of challenges that he’d never even considered before. And that excited Arwin more than anything else had in a long time. This wasn’t just about making a powerful piece of equipment.

Right now, I’m straddling the line between competent and lucky. I’ve made a few pieces I’m very proud of… but I’ve gotten so much help to get here that I can’t truly claim to be any manner of master smith. Necrohammer arranged to interfere with the Guild’s plans. The Mesh gave me a powerful class. It guided me through making some truly awful mistakes and used magic to patch over my weaknesses.

But if I pull this off — if I make armor entirely through Forbidden Soulmancy, with the potential to house the Infernal Armory without damaging it — then I think I can finally say I’ve become pretty damn good at what I do.

An expert of my own branch of smithing. One that nobody else in this world can do. And I won’t lie. I quite like the sound of that.

Arwin continued to work as he thought. There was no point debating the exact materials they’d use for the armor with the Infernal Armory right now. He couldn’t think of anything that would truly suit it, and that meant the Armory wouldn’t know of anything either.

I’ll need to put out a call for rare materials. That shouldn’t be hard. People will be coming here to commission weapons from me. They might already be outside, getting turned away by Reya and Madiv. I can offer to work with people that bring extra —

Wait. No, I can’t just go around outfitting everyone. That goes against our goals. I’ll interview them first. Or maybe I’ll have Reya interview them, then talk to the ones that make it past her. Then I’ll have them bring extra materials if they want to hire me.

Between that and the Merchant Guilds, I should be able to get a pretty good stream of rare materials flowing. Tack on a few occasional dungeons with the rest of the Menagerie and I’ll be set.

Arwin smiled to himself. The beginnings of a plan were starting to come together. The finishing touches would be setting up a quick meeting with Wallace and Koyu to get their thoughts and suggestions for the gargantuan task before him.

That would have to be done at separate times, of course. Arwin was pretty sure the dwarven smith was not going to get on well with an ancient murderous lich, no matter how much time had passed. Wallace definitely wasn’t the most yielding of individuals.

He was still lost in thoughts when the air before him shimmered. He’d just finished creating another piece of equipment and chilly energy was still pouring into his body from the magical power the piece had earned him. Arwin had already waved the notification from the Mesh of the item’s creation away, which meant this was something new.

Huh?

Strands of gold swirled forth before his eyes to twist into words.

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Achievement: [Banging Them Out] has been earned.

[Banging Them Out]: Awarded for forging 20 magical items of Average Quality within one day. Seriously, what gives? Could you at least try to make it look harder? Next time, try making something a little more challenging.Effects: One skill in your next Skill Selection has been upgraded. This achievement will be consumed upon choosing your next skill.

Twenty items? What?

Arwin blinked the notification away. He glanced to the side, where a pile of equipment sat in the corner of the armory. Time had been slipping by so fast that he hadn’t kept track of his work at all.

There were nearly four sets of armor there. The last few pieces of the one he was working on right now still had yet to be completed, but Arwin barely even remembered working on the pile before him.

He couldn’t exactly say the armor was anything groundbreaking. It was only of Average Quality — but his magical reserves had only dipped to around the halfway point. He wasn’t even close to tired, and he’d made multiple sets of armor that would probably sell for hundreds of gold if not more.

“Shit,” Arwin breathed as he lowered the helm clutched in his hands. “When did that happen?”

“You are an easily distracted man,” the Infernal Armory said. “Wings.”

Arwin blinked. “What?”

“Wings,” the armory repeated. “I want wings. I want to fly. Don’t you want to fly?”

“That — what does that have to do with what we were just talked about? You seem more easily distracted than I am.”

“Wrong,” the armory said. “I am still thinking about the matter we had been previously discussing. The one that is far more important than wasting your time making those shiny little toys. I want wings.”

“I don’t know if I can make wings,” Arwin said.

“We will make them,” the armory said without a scrap of doubt in its voice. “And then we will both fly.”

I… suppose that’s not an impossible request. I’m sure we could find a way to do it, and it isn’t really that surprising that a being whose spent its relatively short life bound within the confines of a single building to want to fly. I’m sure I’d want the same thing.

“We’ll see what we can do,” Arwin said. “But don’t get too ahead of yourself. We need materials to work with — and then a whole lot of time to test. This is not going to be an item we just toss together. Especially not when it’s meant to house you.”

The red mist surrounding the invisible presence that was the armory shifted in a nod. “Yes. We must be careful when working with incredible materials.”

“We’ll have to do a lot of testing and research. Careful probably won’t be one of the criteria. Nothing powerful is ever safe.”

“The important material I was referring to is myself.”

Arwin scrunched his nose. He supposed it was a little bit difficult to argue with that one. “Right. Well, feel free to think on it while I keep things moving. We’ll have some materials to play with soon enough, and I’ll have to practice with some of my newer techniques to make sure they work the way I want them to.”

“I will think,” the armory said. There was a moment of silence before the tongues of red mist shifted toward the door. “And you should probably deal with the crowd. They are getting rowdy. I do not like it.”

“Rowdy?” Arwin asked. He dismissed Caldera with a thought. “What do you mean by that? Is someone in danger?”

“My peace of mind is in danger. They are getting my walls dirty. Someone just spilled alcohol on me.”

Since when did the armory care about being dirty? Am I going to have to hire out one of Lillia’s maid imps to clean the place?

Arwin suppressed a laugh and shook his head. “Fine. I’ll head out for a bit. At least I’ve fulfilled a few of the requests from the list. This armor should suit some of them. Not sure who. I didn’t make it specifically for anyone… but I can just resize if need be.”

The armory didn’t respond. The red mist was already gone. A loud creaked marked the door to the main room swinging open. Arwin stepped past the pile of equipment he’d made and out into the room beyond.

It was entirely empty aside from Reya, who sat against one of the walls with a hand pressed to her forehead. The normally chipper girl looked looked like she’d just sprinted across the town and back. Her legs were sprawled out beneath her and her chest rose and fell with heavy breaths.

Arwin’s shoulders tensed instantly. “Reya? What happened?”

“Huh?” Reya glanced up at him. Relief washed over her features. “Arwin! Thank the gods. I didn’t want to bother you while you were working. I’ve held her off for as long as I could, but I had to let Madiv take over.”

“Held her off?” Arwin crouched beside Reya. “Are you hurt? Are we under attack?”

“What? No, nothing like that.” Reya hurriedly shook her head. “That would be way easier to deal with. If someone was attacking us, we could kill them.”

“What is it, then?”

“Another smith from out of town rolled up and set up her cart right on our street. She won’t leave no matter what we do. She said she’d leave if we beat her in a game of skill that we choose, but she’s beaten me every time I tried.”

“Seriously? Arwin’s eyes narrowed. “Does she think this is a circus? What does she want? Why come here? I really don’t care if someone wants to try and poach my customers. I’ve probably already got too many of them, and I’m planning to be picky. If anything I’ll be thanking her for thinning the herd.”

“She’s not here for your customers,” Reya replied with a shake of her head. “She’s here to challenge you.”