Rise of the Living Forge
Chapter 442: Money money money

Evening had turned to early night when Arwin stepped back out of the Devil’s Den and into the street. The crowd had begun to thin out, but it was still fairly busy despite the lengthening shadows. Arwin suspected it would probably be another few hours before everyone had cleared out for the night.

After a quick check to make sure that Ida wasn’t hiding somewhere in wait for him to return to the smithy, Arwin slipped through the crowd and made his way over to the blocked door. The cart he’d put there was still in place. It didn’t look like anyone had tried touching the weaponry piled up in it either.

A small smile pulled at the corners of his lips. He didn’t believe for a second that Milten’s sensibilities had been what kept anyone from stealing something. Milten was a town full of thieves and criminals. Even if the Menagerie had garnered enough attention from the rest of the Kingdom to bring some new people to their street, there definitely would have still been people more than happy to take advantage of any weakness they saw.

No, the reason nobody had tried to steal any of the weapons in the cart was because they respected the Menagerie enough to realize that the benefits of stealing form them weren’t outweighed by the drawbacks of being caught. The fact that such an easy target had been ignored meant the Menagerie had quite a bit of respect indeed.

We’re really establishing ourselves well in Milten. I’m sure Koyu’s presence has given a lot of people pause, though. There are too many stories of people getting killed on this street. Anyone looking close enough is going to realize that the people that go missing tend to be the ones that cause trouble.

Arwin grabbed the front cart and hoisted it up with a grunt. Metal clattered as he shifted it away from the doorway and slipped into the Infernal Armory, only opening the door wide enough for himself to slide inside.

The main room was empty, but the door to the back swung open no sooner than Arwin had shut the first one behind himself. He strode into the smithing room to find Koyu and Wallace seated around the anvil in stone chairs that the Infernal Armory had created.

“What was that about?” Wallace asked, breaking his previous sentence off and rising to his feet the moment he spotted Arwin. “What happened? There was a dwarf?”

“You knew?” Arwin blinked. “Did the Armory listen in?”

“I did,” Koyu said. The lich held a hand up and his fingers turned a translucent blue before shifting back to their normal hue. “There is only one barrier that can hold me, and it is the boundaries of this street. I suspected you had a reason for blocking off the armory’s door, so I investigated for long enough to ensure you were not in danger.”

“But he hasn’t told me what happened,” Wallace snapped.

“I hold little interest in mortal affairs,” Koyu said wearily. “The only thing that mattered was ensuring that our arrangement was not at risk.”

“Bah,” Wallace said. “You had enough interest to let me know enough to drive me mad. All he’s said is that there was some dwarf outside challenging you. The smith was a dwarf?”

“The daughter of one of your councilmembers,” Arwin confirmed with a nod. “Her name is Ida. Daughter to—”

“Indrana,” Wallace finished, his features going grim. “Shit. What did she want with you?”

“Nothing,” Arwin replied. “Not directly, at least. It was you that she was after. More specifically, she was convinced I had a Dwarven Smith as a teacher. She came to force me to tell her who it was.”

“Damnation,” Wallace growled. “That’s bad. I didn’t think your work would have drawn attention from the dwarves, no matter how much the humans were getting interested in it. We’ve always been slow on the draw and overly confident in our own work. What did she find out? This could be very bad.”

“Nothing,” Arwin replied for the second time, his lips twitching in amusement. “She challenged me. She lost. I destroyed her hammer and kicked her off the street. I don’t imagine she’s just going to give up that easily, but she’s out of our hair for the time being.”

“You destroyed her hammer?” Wallace repeated. He frowned. “What do you mean? Her smithing hammer? How?”

“Ate it.”

“You ate her hammer?”

“Yes.”

Wallace swallowed. “By hammer, do you mean the same kind as the one in my smithy? The magical one?”

“Yes,” Arwin said. “The same one. She didn’t seem very happy about it.”

“That hammer was proof of her ascension to Dwarven Smith,” Wallace said, running a hand through his hair and shaking his head. “It should have been a powerful magical item specifically made to survive immense pressure and damage. You were able to destroy it that easily?”

I guess magical enchantments of protection don’t do much when I eat the literal enchantments. Maybe my optimal method of combat is just flinging myself at armored enemies and gnawing at them like an irate piranha.

“I was. Do you think her mom is going to be too pissed? I wanted to make sure that they’d stop looking for you. I’m fairly sure that part worked, but it might have worked too well. Something tells me Ida is going to like me even less now than she would have if she’d known you’d taught me.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“I would have said such a thing to be impossible, but destroying her hammer may very well do that. She’s definitely not going to be happy,” Wallace said grimly. “But if you managed to slip suspicions of being taught by a real Dwarven Smith, you’ve done well. The last thing you need is the council’s scrutiny. Not that you’ve evaded it. You’ve just changed the angle. Still — well done. A worthy reason to slam a door in my face. Now don’t do it again.”

Arwin snorted, then inclined his head. “I’ll do my best, but no promises. I get the feeling Ida isn’t done with me, but as long as we make sure she doesn’t connect us, I think it’ll be fine. Now, on to things I’m actually interested in… Armory, I’d like the gear I stored with you from the dungeon back, please. I want to take a look at it.”

There was a moment of silence in which Arwin feared the armory was just going to straight up ignore him so it could keep the magical items. Then a pillar of red mist twisted into being behind the anvil as the ground bubbled.

Stone flowed upward like a blooming flower, forming into a pillar with a circular container at its top. The pillar rose to chest height before the container peeled apart at the seams, revealing a stone box.

It was the item that he’d gotten from one of the earlier rooms of the dungeon. It was also most certainly not all of the loot he’d dropped off with the Armory.

Arwin’s eyes narrowed as he reached out and took the box. “Where’s the rest?”

“Do you want them delivered like a pile of rubbish?” the Armory asked. “I am not completely without restraint. I have only consumed the least important items that bore no value in regard to either magical power or craftsmanship. Anything of potential interest has been properly preserved.”

Arwin grunted. He did need to feed the Infernal Armory, and he doubted it would go lying about the value of the equipment it had consumed. Eating the unimportant items was fair play.

He flipped the stone box open and peered into it. Within the box, upon a dried up bundle of stained leather, sat a tarnished ring. The moment Arwin set gaze on it, the ring shimmered. Golden letters twisted into the air to form flowing words as the Mesh identified the item.

Acid Thumb: Epic Quality

[Reactive Body]: This item will draw a constant, minuscule amount of magical energy from its wearer to generate an intense acid from itself. This acid will only react with organic materials. It will not function if not in direct contact with organic material.

Arwin studied the ring for several seconds along with Koyu and Wallace. The three of them then exchanged a glance.

“Well,” Wallace said. “That’s a right piece of shit.”

“Can’t even get around the acid by wearing a glove,” Koyu observed. “Seems more like a trap than a useful tool. If you could conceal its purpose, some fool could be convinced to put it on and lose their finger. But that’s needlessly complex. All you’d manage to do is take their finger off. Not exactly worth the effort.”

“Items like this always have some kind of workaround,” Arwin said, his brow furrowed. “The description makes it seem like the acid is pretty damn powerful. It could be useful if someone with incredibly high resistance to acid used it.”

“That’s true,” Wallace allowed. “Do you have that?”

“No,” Arwin admitted. He scratched the back of his neck. Then he paused. He didn’t have a resistance like that… but he was pretty sure he knew someone who might. Esmerelda worked with potions all day. He didn’t know what kind of devious activities she got up to in her spare time, but if anyone had resistance to acid, it was her. Arwin closed the box. “Actually, I might know someone who could use this. I’ll give it to her tomorrow morning. What else have we got that you didn’t eat?”

Another pillar sprouted from beneath the ground, the container at its top unfurling a moment later to reveal a dagger, the Mesh already twinkling around it.

Arwin grinned.

***

Over the course of the next few minutes, Arwin and the others looked over the loot from the dungeon. They’d gotten a fair number of magical items that weren’t bad by any means — but they weren’t exactly groundbreaking for anyone in the room. The items would be best off being sold just to make a profit to invest in better materials.

The ring was by far the most interesting one, if only because it seemed so incredibly useless that Arwin was confident that it would have some manner of use if only in spite of its creation.

All in all, the dungeon run had netted them something around ten thousand gold according to Wallace’s best estimates. Arwin couldn’t help but feel like that number was ridiculous for a bunch of sub-par items, but he wasn’t going to complain.

It did, however, make him wonder just how expensive some of the materials that they’d arranged to be traded for the magical items he’d made were. Many of the pieces had been just as fancy as the ones they’d found in the dungeon if not more.

Holy shit. We might be rich.

Arwin didn’t get to think about that for long. The Infernal Armory summoned forth one last pillar — and upon it sat the crown that he’d gotten from the boss room. But the crown was not as it had been.

All the rust was gone. The Armory had cleaned it to reveal plain yet shimmering bronze studded with black gemstones. It wasn’t the most beautiful looking circlet that Arwin had ever laid eyes on.

Arwin’s eyes went wide as an intense scent slammed into his nostrils. It was like greasy meat and freshly baked bread baked into a piping hot pie. The magical energy pouring out of the item was intense.

And an instant later, the Mesh made itself known.

Band of the Vaultkeeper: Legendary Quality

[The Map]: This item was carved from the very door of the [Legendary] vault from which it is bound. The connection between it and the vault will persist regardless of the distance between them. Whoever wears the Band of the Vaultkeeper will sense the location and direction of the vault.

[The Key]: Inserting this band into its door will cause the door to unlock, destroying this item in the process.

Arwin’s eyes widened. He heard Wallace and Koyu both draw in sharp breaths.

“Now that’s an item,” Koyu murmured. “A Legendary vault? That’s going to have some incredible things in it.”

“Or some very dangerous ones,” Wallace said. “If you found this in the bottom of a dungeon, it’s very possible the entire dungeon was drawn to form around this very band. Was this the boss room drop?”

Arwin nodded, struggling to find words for a moment. “Yes. It was in a pool of acid.”

Koyu let out a whistle. “I think our material problems may be over. If you can get your hands on this vault and open it, there’s a treasure trove of some pretty damn powerful items waiting for you. The Mesh will likely give you an achievement for something of that scale as well.”

“Well, I know one thing for sure,” Wallace said. His eyes twinkled with amusement as he looked back up to Arwin. “The Blacktongues are going to be pissed if they ever find out what they lost. You’ve just found yourself a fortune, lad.”