Rise of the Living Forge

Chapter 129: Golden hamsters

The following morning came sooner than it was welcome to. Lillia, albeit reluctantly, kept to her promise of getting to work early. Arwin did the same. They headed out of her room and into the common area when the sun had yet to complete its journey above the horizon.

Arwin wasted no time in heading out to his smithy to get back to work. He had too much he wanted to do to sit around and wait, no matter how comforting the embrace of darkness was. As soon as he arrived, he tossed an orb of [Soul Flame] into the hearth.

He had a fair amount of Brightsteel to work with along with some scraps from his work with the Ivorin in addition to the Maristeel and all the monster parts they’d taken out of the dungeon.

If I’m making Rodrick some good armor, I might as well go all out. Maristeel it is. I’ve still got some cleaned Maristeel from the bow, so I’ll use that for the areas that are most likely to get hit. Blue and silver go well together anyway.

Arwin gathered the metal he needed and set it into the hearth to heat. He then leaned against his anvil and drummed his fingers against his leg as he thought. After all the time he and Rodrick had spent fighting together, he still couldn’t place a particular fighting style for the other man.

It didn’t seem like Rodrick favored anything in particular. He wasn’t overly fast, nor was he slow. He wasn’t someone who sat in the front and took every single hit, but he didn’t shy away from getting hit when the time called for it either.

In summary, he was a fighter that sat perfectly in the middle of the road. Arwin’s frown grew deeper. There was nothing wrong with that, but he couldn’t help but wonder if Rodrick had become such a fighter out of choice or if it had been because he’d Fallen and lost access to advancing his paladin abilities.

Every paladin I’ve ever met was always the sort to stick themselves in the frontline and draw as much attention as possible. They usually weren’t the fastest fighters because their abilities let them hold ground and heal themselves from the worst attacks.

Rodrick definitely fights as if he’s protecting others, but none of his abilities lend themselves to it anymore. I shouldn’t just build him something that lets him continue as he is now. The armor I make should bring out the best in people – it should let them fight the way they really want to fight.

A shape started to take form in Arwin’s mind. Plate greaves, similar to his, but a little lighter to allow faster movement. Rodrick didn’t have a good way to get around and couldn’t banish his armor like Arwin could. It was important for him to be able to move quickly.

Arwin took the Brightsteel from the forge and laid it out on his anvil. He summoned [Verdant Blaze] and got to work hammering it out into a flat plate. His mind swirled with thought as his body worked on its own.

If there was one thing he’d gotten good at with his very questionable smithing practices, it was hammering a piece of metal out into a flat plate. With the aid of the [Soul Flame] bursting from every strike, it wasn’t long before Arwin had the Brightsteel workable and ready for him.

He brushed the last of the black flakes away from the metal, then split it out into segments before setting the majority of them to the side and picking up the largest.

“Well?” Arwin asked, holding up the still-warm metal. “Greaves. How bout it?”

The metal seemed to be fine with it. There wasn’t much else to say. Brightsteel wasn’t the most communicative of the materials that Arwin had worked with before. It was pretty impassive about almost everything for the most part, which made it great to work with.

He nodded to himself and set the piece aside before picking up the next one. He went through all the pieces, splitting them into two piles. The larger one was more than happy to be made into a pair of greaves, while the considerably smaller one seemed more interested in being a weapon.

Arwin was pretty sure he could have convinced them to be something else. He didn’t bother – it wouldn’t be long before he’d need a sword anyway. There was no reason to spend effort making the metal change its mind when he had more than enough to work with right now.

He moved the Brightsteel out of the way and turned back to the heating piece of Maristeel. He was pretty sure that there was enough there to make all the additions to the greaves that he wanted to.

I won’t actually need all that much Maristeel since I’m mostly using it to highlight and reinforce key areas than I am to make giant plates. I’ve got to be a bit conservative with it because I have no clue when I’m going to get more of this stuff. Just a little will go a very long way, though.

Arwin picked up the heated Maristeel. He tapped a finger on its warm, glowing golden surface. “So? What about you? Greaves sound good?”

The blue metal was slower to respond than the Brightsteel was, but the feeling that it gave him was complete agreement. It was just as grateful to be used for greaves as it had been to be used for a bow. The chance to be anything other than rotting on the corpse of a monster was like gold to it.

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I wonder if metal understands the concept of money. Would it be weird to think about how some metal is more valuable than other metal, or that most people trade specifically with one type of metal?

Actually, for that matter, what would money want to be? I almost want to ask a gold coin what it would want to become. I’d feel bad if I couldn’t actually make it, though. What if it wants to be a giant golden statue of a hamster or something like that? It would cost way too much.

One day, maybe.

Arwin put the Maristeel back at the edge of the hearth to keep it warm, then rewarmed the Brightsteel before getting to work on the first piece. The Mesh shimmered across the metal, guiding his hammer strikes and helping him form it.

It was far from the first piece of armor that he’d made for Rodrick, so it came rather easily to him. The Mesh’s help only made things go even faster. He followed many of its suggestions, only deviating in the parts where he planned to add in the Maristeel.

As far as he could tell, the Mesh didn’t account for the other materials he had waiting around in most situations. It only considered the ones he was currently working with.

I wonder if that’s why relying completely on it results in Unique items more often than not.

Now wasn’t the time to test that particular theory. Whether it was true or not, he’d already determined that the most effective way to make anything was a partnership with the Mesh rather than complete reliance.

Hours slipped by as they always did. The ring of Verdant Blaze against metal echoed through the house as a pair of greaves took shape beneath Arwin’s steady hands. He set the individual pieces to the side as he made them, going through his Brightsteel relatively quickly.

Once he’d made the rough shapes of all the parts he needed to, Arwin brushed the anvil off and headed over to the hearth to retrieve the Maristeel. He split it into several parts and got back to work.

He first made the kneecaps, working entirely with Maristeel to make sure the joints would be as protected as possible. Blows to the kneecaps were some of the most dangerous because of how they could cripple a warrior, so making them from a tougher metal was a no-brainer.

That didn’t take too long. The Maristeel wasn’t as easy to work with as Brightsteel, but Arwin still made good time on it. Once the caps were complete, Arwin set them aside and drew in a deep breath.

Now came the harder part. He collected one of the upper-thigh pieces of Brightsteel and set it down beside a thin piece of Maristeel, chewing his lower lip in thought. He needed to merge the two pieces of metal together to make a line that ran through the side of the metal that would help stop any slashing blows from cutting through the Brightsteel too easily.

Whelp. Easiest way probably can’t hurt. I can’t imagine this is the proper way to handle things, but [Soul Flame] is great at combining stuff pretty effectively. It’s worked before, so I can’t see why it wouldn’t work now.

Arwin set the Brightsteel into the hearth and heated it, then used [Scourge] to empower his fingers and pull it apart down the middle. He kept as much of the original shape as possible, but still had to spend a few minutes hammering it back out to smoothen everything again.

Once the two halves were prepared, Arwin formed the Maristeel into an odd T-shape, leaving the top of the T thin. The branch running down from it was considerably thicker and was just as long as the width of the Brightsteel.

He then laid everything on top of each other, sliding the pieces of Brightsteel in on either side of the branch and leaving the head of the T showing on the outside of the armor. Arwin got to work striking the metal with Verdant Blaze, using the [Soul Flame] that poured from its head to weld the metal together temporarily.

It wasn’t the strongest bond, but he was far from done. Once the metal was stuck and as merged as two different pieces of metal were going to get, he made several pins out of Maristeel. He poked tiny holes through the newly-bonded metal, then pushed the bolts through them with help from [Scourge].

Picking Verdant Blaze up once more, he got to work hammering everything out to make it as smooth as possible before bringing the piece over to the oil barrel and dunking it in. Flame rolled up with a loud hiss, but he ignored it and pulled the section of the greaves out once the fire had receded.

He cleaned it off, then studied the fruits of his labor. A rippling line of blue ran down the outside of the armor like a wave. The seam between it and the Brightsteel was almost nonexistent. Arwin grinned to himself.

He still had the rest of the armor to repeat the process with, and that was exactly what he did. Everything was considerably faster now that he knew what to do. Unfortunately, considerably was a relative term.

By the time Arwin had finished melding the Maristeel and the Brightsteel to form a single pair of nearly complete greaves, much of the day had already passed and night was already at his doorstep.

That only made him work faster. The metalwork was done, but he still needed to add some padding on the inside. Arwin took leather from his nearly depleted supplies, making a mental note to ask Reya to get him some more, then got to work pinning it into place. His mind was split between the actual work and the greaves’ eventual purpose and owner. It wasn’t enough for them to be good or effective. They had to be right for Rodrick.

The Mesh gathered at his fingertips. It had been present throughout almost all of the process, but it grew stronger with every move he made. The humming energy could sese that he’d nearly completed his work. It wanted to see the final result just as much as he did.

Finally, Arwin pinned the last piece of leather into place. He released the greaves and set them down as power flooded out of his hands and into the metal, preparing for the Mesh to burst forth and reward him for his work.

Instead, a different power met his mind. What felt like a freezing cold wave slammed into Arwin’s spine and he drew in a sharp breath as power swirled around the greaves and flooded – not out of him, but in.

A vision swirled at the edges of Arwin’s eyes and he dropped to the ground, sitting before he could fall over.

The greaves were trying to awaken, and he could already tell they weren’t nearly as receptive to his goal as the metal had initially been.

“Pick up an attitude while I was forging you, did you?” Arwin asked, gritting his teeth. “Let’s see what you’ve got to say.”

He threw himself into the vision and the world went white.