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Chapter 74: Surprises

“I made something quick because I figured you’d be busy and not want to get interrupted after you got started. It pisses me off when I get halfway through a meal and then have to stop to do something else.”

“Has that happened a lot?” Arwin asked, sucking the [Soul Flame] out of the hearth and setting the metal down. He really didn’t need the food, but Lillia had made a plate of fried rice that smelled absolutely delicious.

“Surprisingly, yes.”

“Who’s bothering you?” Arwin asked as he accepted the plate form her with a grateful nod. He dug into the food while waiting for her to respond.

“Oh, it’s not someone,” Lillia admitted reluctantly. “It’s more that I’ve set fire to the kitchen once or twice. Kind of hard to keep cooking while everything is burning.”

Arwin’s eyes widened and he almost choked mid-bite. “Recently?”

“Look, I’m used to a much hotter environment, okay?” Lilla said defensively. “It’s not my fault there’s so much damn wood everywhere. My old home was all stone. Can’t set fires there unless you really want to. But here? Sure, there’s some stone. But that doesn’t help when the ceiling is half wood and everything between you and it is just as hungry for fire as your customers are for food.”

“I suppose that’s a fair point,” Arwin admitted through a mouthful of rice. “I didn’t really think about that. Were the houses you lived in that different from human ones? When you pointed out that we were similar, I think I kind of just assumed that your cities were the same as well.”

“How did you get this far without ever knowing? I know we’ve fought in some of my cities before.”

“I never paid that much attention to the décor. I was much more concerned with killing you, unfortunately. The only thing I really focused on was my immediate party and finding you as soon as possible. Did you really pay that much attention to human cities?”

It was a second before Lillia responded. “I… did notice that they burned rather easily, now that you mention it.”

Arwin grunted, then shoveled more rice into his mouth and swallowed before speaking again. “So you weren’t any better.”

Lillia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Our cities weren’t that similar, but they were less… fragile, I guess? You use wood in so much, and you have trees and plants scattered around. Even your people tend to be softer than monsters. Monsters don’t breed as fast as humans do, but they’re also considerably stronger on average.”

“So I found,” Arwin said. “But… no trees? Was it just stone and nothing else?”

“What? No. Don’t get me wrong – some of our cities are beautiful.” Lillia’s gaze drifted as she sank into memory. “Carvings, statues, all kinds of art. We just kept it harder for things to get destroyed. For color, a lot of places would have this beautiful moss.”

“Moss?” It was Arwin’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “The fuzzy green stuff?”

“Nothing like that rot you’re talking about. The moss I’m talking about is soft and fuzzy. It absorbs magic and glows with this soft, welcoming light. It’s hard to describe. You’d only really be able to appreciate it if you saw it with your own eyes.”

“Huh,” Arwin said. “I guess I’ll keep an eye out for it. I don’t recall much of it from the battlefields, but I’ll admit that my focus was on other things at the time.”

“I doubt you’ll see it anytime soon,” Lillia said with a sad smile. “The only locations the moss grows are in monster cities, and there aren’t any of those in the area.”

Arwin finished off the last of the rice, scraping everything off the plate and into his mouth before lowering it. “That’s unfortunate. It would have been nice to see what you were talking about.”

“Not while the war is going on. You’re a human,” Lillia pointed out. “Great way to get yourself killed.”

“Maybe I could open a human themed blacksmith.”

Lillia rolled her eyes and took the plate back from Arwin. “Right. Sure. I’ll let you get back to work, then. I’m still looking forward to those greaves. If you can actually finish the set, I don’t even know what I would say.”

“Probably thank you.”

“Oh, get off it.” Lillia pushed the door open, then paused and glanced back at him. “Good luck, though. And don’t stew on your own for too long. It’s not good for your health.”

Arwin gave her a small nod. “Thanks. I’ll do my best.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Lillia headed out onto the street, letting the door swing shut behind her. Arwin sat there, listening to it creak back and forth until it finally settled down. He shook his head to clear it, then summoned [Soul Flame] to his hands and tossed it into the hearth.

The mental break had been nice – and likely needed. He hadn’t realized quite how muddled his head was getting until after he’d finished eating, but he was ready to work again. Picking up the piece of warped metal and setting it into the fire, Arwin settled in to wait for it to grow hot enough to work with.

***

Arwin’s hammer rang against metal, and [Soul Flame] washed off from every strike, illuminating the partially finished greaves before him. After his conversation with Lillia, he hadn’t stopped working aside from when the heat got so high that he to stop and take a drink from the mug of water that seemed to refill itself whenever he turned his back on it.

The greaves were coming along well. Arwin and the metal had an understanding. It still didn’t have any real preference as to what it wanted to be, but it was more than happy to let him guide a larger portion of the process.

Arwin made the greaves in a similar manner to how he made the moving plates on Lillia’s chest armor. By adding segmented plates and pinning them at the joints, he was able to make the armor surprisingly flexible.

It still wouldn’t bend too well to the sides, but if someone’s leg was trying to bend in that direction in the first place, Arwin was pretty sure they’d have bigger problems.

Making the armor out of so many pieces definitely didn’t do any wonders for the amount of time it took him to finish it. Normally, Arwin was fairly confident that he could have completed the work in a day or two.

But, while he wasn’t exactly sure how much time had passed, he was pretty sure he’d seen night fall through the door at least three times. His efforts hadn’t been wasted, though. The Mesh tingled with every modification he made and sang as he quenched and cleaned the metal.

The Mesh pricked his fingertips every time he pressed a bolt into place and melted it with the heat of his [Soul Flame], and it sang as he inserted leather from the pile that seemed to refill itself just as much as his water did.

His work hadn’t gone without trouble – there was a large pile of burnt leather and damaged metal that Arwin had tossed to the side. The metal hadn’t agreed with his desires and was no good for the current project, but it had taken him nearly three hours of working it to realize.

As for the leather – well, he’d learned the hard way that there was only so long he could stick armor with leather already pinned onto it into the [Soul Flame]. That had been a mistake that cost him nearly two hours of re-working and reforging to make sure the armor wasn’t so much as stained from the mistake, but now he was nearly done.

He tapped at the metal with his hammer, limiting the energy that emerged from Verdant Blaze to make sure he didn’t do more damage than he wanted to as he smoothed out the last few imperfections.

The next step was inscribing the metal with his nail. It wasn’t exactly necessary, but making it completely plain didn’t feel right, especially since he’d done similar work to the chest piece. If it was going to be part of a set, it had to look the part.

Arwin reached back, not even looking. His fingers found the water mug and he brought it to his lips to take a long drink from it. By this point, he knew exactly where it was. As always, it had been refilled. He set it back down, his eyes fixed on the greaves.

Will this be the set item I need? I don’t even want to know how much time I spent making these greaves. Definitely one of my longest builds, and not even because it’s that much fancier. That’s just the amount of effort this set needed.

He wasn’t sure if he’d done everything correctly. Now that the greaves were nearly done, there were so many things that Arwin already felt like he could have done better. The inscriptions he was carving into the metal felt like they weren’t quite smooth enough, and some of the plates felt like they were just bit too large or small.

There was no point sitting around and endlessly trying to change the armor, though. What was done was done. And, as he put the final inscriptions into the metal and the Mesh’s buzz grew stronger, it struck Arwin that he probably didn’t have a choice in the matter. Verdant Blaze shuddered at his side, small arcs of [Soul Flame] crackling off it like electricity and scorching the ground.

Golden letters swirled forth and Arwin pulled his hands back, able to do nothing but watch.

The Mesh had acknowledged his item.

[Flowing Ocean Greaves: Rare Quality] has been forged. Forging a magical item has granted you energy.

Achievement: [Unified] has been earned.

[Unified] – Awarded for forging your first complete set. Effects: Your set’s concealed property has been [UPGRADED]. This achievement has been consumed upon creation of your first set.

“I did it,” Arwin muttered, barely able to believe his own words. Sure, he’d been pretty sure his theory of finding a balance between his desires and the metal’s desires had been correct, but actually seeing it work was a whole different thing. He waved the Mesh away and peered down at the greaves.

Flowing Ocean Greaves: Rare Quality

[Ebb and Flow]: This item flows like a raging river, shifting its defenses to reduce the damage of a single blow at a time. Repeated strikes in a short period of time will spread it too thin, causing it to draw high amounts of magical energy to sustain itself.

[Fragile]: This item has a high number of joints and moving components. Powerful blows have a chance of severely damaging it, dampening its magical effects until repairs can be applied.

[Forged For One]: This item was forged specifically for Lillian Los. Its abilities will not function for any other users.

[Armor of the Flowing Ocean]: This is a set item of [2] pieces. When the entire set is worn, a concealed property will be unlocked. When [Unknown] circumstances have been met, a concealed property will be unlocked.

It possesses [1] [UPGRADED] concealed property.

It possesses [1] concealed property.

Arwin’s eye twitched and he let out a laugh. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

He’d made the set even better than he’d planned – and still the Mesh hid the final abilities from him. At least one of them was only a single Lillia away from being revealed.

“I hope she likes surprises,” Arwin said, scooping the greaves up and turning to head back for the tavern.

The wait was over.

Lillia had her equipment, and he didn’t have the patience or time to spare to make anything else.

The Iron Hounds responsible for Zeke’s death had been living on borrowed time, and Arwin wasn’t willing to lend them a single second more.