Rise of the Living Forge-Chapter 429: Liar

The bag slipped from Thane’s shoulders to thunk to the ground behind him as his arms went slack. His mouth dropped open as his eyes widened and he stared straight ahead. He looked straight in Arwin’s direction, but his eyes didn’t see the smith.

They were looking at the golden letters of the Mesh that were drawing themselves out through the air before Thane, visible only to him.

“What is this?” Thane stammered. His eyes re-focused on Arwin. Disbelief held his features in a vice grip. “Is… the Mesh speaking to me? Because of you? I’ve never heard of anything like this. Ever. How can a Smith—”

“Piece of advice,” Olive said, cutting in and putting a hand on Thane’s shoulder. “Don’t try to think about it too hard. It’s just going to make things more confusing.”

“I… I don’t understand. Nothing I’ve ever read about says anything about this. There would be records. Rumors. Something. Nobody has ever once mentioned anything like this could exist,” Thane whispered. He read over the invisible words in the air again. Then he swallowed. His eyes snapped back to Arwin. Hunger lit within them like a spark catching on dry grass. “How?”

“There’s a whole lot more to life than what you can read about,” Arwin said. “Or what anyone can tell you about it. More than anyone can understand. I’d say it’s a safe bet to assume that anyone who tells you they’ve got everything figured out is probably lying. There’s always more. Much, much more.”

“But… I don’t have a class!” Thane exclaimed. “And you — aren’t you a smith? This is incredible! Your class… is it a trick? Are you something else? Is that why your guild is so strong? Are you like a smith of men or something? And the Mesh lets you modify other people?”

Arwin chuckled. That honestly wasn’t a bad guess for the information Thane had. “No. I don’t work with living beings. I use monster parts and metal. Just like every other smith.”

Thane stared at him. His eyes flicked down to the letters before him, then back up to Arwin. His finger darted out and jabbed into something invisible. It only took one look at the boy’s eyes to tell what he’d selected.

He took the Quest. Good. I can tell he’s really fresh by the fact he actually tried to physically accept the Quest. You should be able to just will whatever decision you want.

“How?” Thane asked again. It looked like he was physically trying to bite back more words from forcing their way through his lips. The sheer effort of it made his eyes bulge until he resembled an inflating frog. His efforts ended up proving futile as a deluge of questions burst free anyways. “I won’t tell anyone, I swear! But I have to know! This doesn’t fit in with any of the information I gathered. I shouldn’t be able to interact with the Mesh like this without my class. So—”

“Slow down, bud,” Olive said with a laugh. She gave Thane a small shake. “You can’t expect Ifrit to answer anything without giving him a chance to respond.”

Thane blinked. Then he sent a pleading look at Arwin.

“I was under the impression you liked gathering information,” Arwin said, scratching at the bottom of his chin. “You want me to just go and tell you? Seems like it’s going to take all the fun out of it, but sure. If you want me to spoon feed you, then I don’t mind. The Mesh—”

“Wait!” Thane exclaimed, throwing his hands up and clapping them over his ears as he cringed back. “No! Stop! I changed my mind!”

Awin smiled. He gestured for the boy to lower his hands.

Thane, after a moment to make sure Arwin had stopped speaking, obliged.

“Then you work on that,” Arwin said. “And we’ll do this dungeon in the meantime. Sound good?”

It was a moment before Thane nodded.

“You should definitely keep everything you see here to yourself, though,” Anna said in a gentle but firm tone. “There are some things that I think we’d all prefer not getting out. It’s going to make it really difficult for us to do our jobs if we have to watch our moves around you.”

“Are… you really serious about thinking that I’m going to live through this?” Thane asked. Something almost akin to hope had entered his tone.

“Nope,” Arwin said cheerfully. “We’re still speaking to the old Thane. He’s done for. Probably already has one foot in the grave. But the new one? He’s got a glimpse at a new world. I reckon he should be right as a feather so long as he follows our instructions.”

The corner of Thane’s mouth twitched into a smile. The seed of hope planted in his gaze grew into a sapling. “How incorrect was my information? Are you actually Expert Tiers? Did you manage to reach it after the Proving Grounds?”

“During the dungeon,” Arwin said gently. “We do have some ground to cover… and I do believe we’ve got to get you a class for this to be considered a successful trip.”

“Oh. Right. Sorry. But… how?”

Not that I blame him, but I wonder if Thane is capable of ending a sentence without squeezing a question into it somewhere.

“By starting with this,” Arwin replied, swinging the sack on his shoulder off and plopping it down on the ground before Thane with a thunk. “Take that crap your family gave you off. Put this on instead.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Thane practically dove for the bag to shove his entire arm into it. His hand came out clutching onto a chestpiece and his eyes went as wide as dinner plates. “You made me armor? Ifrit made me armor?”

“It’s a loaner,” Arwin replied. “Don’t expect anything too crazy from it. And certainly don’t go sprinting into a fight and get yourself killed because you think you’re immortal. This is to just provide a little extra protection in case anything manages to get past Olive and me.”

“What’s it do?” Thane asked as he pulled the pieces of armor on — and did it completely wrong. Olive gently took the armguard from him and spun it around to fit it on the right way around, then helped him pull the rest of the armor on.

“The only thing you need to be worried about is not getting hit and staying as far back as possible,” Arwin said as Olive popped a plain metal helm over Thane’s head. “You are not to ever engage anything in a fight. That’s not what we’re here to do.”

Thane looked down at himself. The armor fit him well, even if it did look a bit out of place on his scrawny body. It normally would have been a fairly heavy set of half-plate armor, with coverage of pretty much his entire body and leaving only a few gaps beneath his armpits, elbows, and at the backs of his knees to allow for mobility.

A few feathers had let Arwin imbue the armor with a trait that made it considerably lighter so the kid wouldn’t just be a sitting duck. It was made from Brightsteel, which really wasn’t the most effective of the defensive metals, but the real key was in the armor’s traits rather than its components.

The magic stored within the armor was considerably more powerful than the metal allowed for. Like the creation that Arwin currently wore beneath his clothes, Thane’s equipment wasn’t going to live to see the sunrise. It would fall apart long before then.

Arwin gave the armor a quick once-over to make sure everything looked like it was sitting well, then nodded.

“That should do. Now, I know Olive and Anna already went over this with you, but just to reiterate — we’re going to be clearing this dungeon out. Your only job is to stay near us but away from the fighting. If something gets close, you call for help. That’s it.”

“Understood,” Thane said with a sharp nod. He hesitated for a second. “But… how do I get my class? I need to fight something in here. If I come out of this dungeon without one, my parents will come after the Menagerie and—”

“Just leave that to me,” Arwin said. “Don’t you worry. What do you know about dungeons, Thane?”

“A lot!” Thane exclaimed. “They’re made when the Mesh layers over itself, creating regions of hyper-focused energy that attract monsters and—”

Arwin raised his hands. “Sorry. That’s on me. I should have been more specific. How much do you know about delving dungeons?”

Thane hesitated. “I’ve researched a lot about it. But you just said the real world was different than reading, right?”

Arwin grinned. “You learn fast. Good. Much of what you learned is probably right, but that doesn’t make up for seeing the real thing. This isn’t safe, Thane. There are no guarantees. Things can go wrong. Plans fall apart. So don’t worry about seeking a fight out. If it’s meant to be, then a fight will find you. Don’t seek the damn thing out. Not in a place like this.”

“Okay,” Thane said. He clenched his hands, then nodded. “I won’t. But be careful. I appreciate you doing so much for me. I never could have imagined I would have actually had the chance to be doing a dungeon with one of the best Adept Tier teams. But you’re a smith. Please don’t get hurt because of me.”

Seriously? He’s in an Expert Tier Dungeon without a class and a hope in the world, and he’s worried about us rather than himself? This kid is wasted on his family.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about him,” Olive said with a snort. “Arwin, should we get started? We don’t have forever.”

“Give me a moment. Can you clear the hallway?” Arwin called on the magical energy swirling in wait within him. He still had the vast majority of it to call on due to his recent improvements in smithing efficiency and the help he’d gotten from Wallace and Koyu earlier in the day. There was more than enough for him to make sure that this trip was profitable.

With a thought, Arwin activated [Dragon’s Greed].

Invisible threads slithered into being and tugged at his mind. They pulled him deeper down the corridor before them and into the earth, where the treasure of the Expert Tier dungeon awaited them.

Where House Blacktongue didn’t think they’d be reaching.

The corners of his lips twitched.

We’ll see about that.

Olive approached the hall, her sword at the ready. She peered into the darkness. For a moment, she was still. Then she carefully took a step back. She kept her attention focused on the hall.

Anna hooked Thane with her staff and pulled him behind her.

“Something’s there,” Olive said. “The wind flow doesn’t feel like it’s properly matching with the shape of the tunnel. I think there’s a monster hiding in the shadows. What should we—”

A blur exploded out from within the darkness without so much as a sound. The black streak headed straight for Olive’s neck, moving so fast that it was impossible to make out its form.

She brought her sword down with both hands. A thunk cut through the dungeon and something flew past Olive, slamming into the wall behind her as the barbed tail of a scaled monster fell to the ground with a wet splatter.

“Godspit!” Thane yelled, jumping back in fear. “What was—”

The blur shout out from the darkness again, this time accompanied by a furious yowl. Arwin caught a glimpse of yellow eyes within the tunnel as the monster lashed out at Olive again, this time with a scaled paw, clearly planning to avenge its injured tail.

But this time, Olive wasn’t the one that met its blow.

Arwin blurred forward, his hands shooting out as he summoned Caldera with a thought. He activated [Scourge] and let out a snarl as he drew on every scrap of strength he could gather in the short amount of time he had.

A shimmer twisted through the air as words coiled to identify the monster now that it had been spotted. Arwin didn’t wait to read them. He swung the hammer before it had even finished materializing in his grasp. Waves of heat coiled into the air as a loud crunch thundered through the enclosed room.

A tremor rolled down Arwin’s arms as he felt his hammer strike home — and a second crunch echoed out a moment later as Caldera continued on its path, driving the monster’s skull straight into the rock behind it.

Cracks stretched through the stone like a spiderweb.

The monster fell to the ground, limp, its skull splattered into a fine paste. From the looks of it, it had been some manner of black-scaled panther creature with claws the length of bananas.

Now it was dead.

Smug satisfaction trickled into Arwin’s mind from Caldera as he stared at the corpse at his feet in surprise. Sure, ambush predators were far worse at tanking strong blows than most, but he hadn’t expected to kill it quite so easily. He’d accidentally gone overboard.

He slowly turned back, blood dripping from Caldera’s head, to find Thane staring at him in disbelief.

“You’re no Adept Tier,” Thane whispered. “And you’re definitely no smith. Who are you?”