Rise of the Living Forge

Chapter 192: Name of the game

Arwin set to working out the bar of Ivorin into a sheet while he thought about how he’d make his gauntlets and what aspects he wanted to try to get into them. Defense was obviously important. That was the point of armor.

That said, he didn’t want to make it so that he lost too much dexterity when wearing them. He needed to be able to wield Verdant Blaze effectively, and if it was too difficult to keep a hold of the hammer while he had the gauntlets on, it would be less than ideal.

Sure, he could just summon and dismiss them at will, but the best-case scenario would be when he could use all his armor in conjunction rather than one piece at a time.

They do have to fit in with the rest of the Ivory Executioner set as well. I don’t want to go too far away from how the other pieces in it work. That means I’ve probably got to focus on trying to create an ability based off getting stronger from killing something.

That was an interesting conundrum, as it was a lot more specific than all the other traits he’d intentionally made in the past. The Mesh had handled making the more personalized traits, especially for set and Unique items.

Arwin finished hammering the Ivorin out and split it off into pieces. He then took a few moments to go through each one, querying it to find the pieces of metal that were the most willing to become gauntlets.

Flickers of memory passed through his mind as he spoke with them. Resting in the back of an old warehouse, unused for years. Passing between hands of smiths, but never being used. There were just other metals that were easier to get, cheaper, and more effective.

The smiths in this region weren’t concerned with making art. They were focused on making armor as cheaply and effectively as possible. Nobody on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Lian was looking to spend a ridiculous amount of gold on a fancy chestplate that did the same thing that a normal one did but cost ten times as much, especially when there were other metals that did the same thing Ivorin did but looked more stunning.

The frustration and longing to be used was strong in the ivory-colored metal. It wasn’t quite to the intensity that the Maristeel had, but it was getting there. There was no doubt in Arwin’s mind that he’d have absolutely no difficulty crafting with any pieces of Ivorin.

But, as the last of the memories slipped from his mind and he pulled back, he caught a glimpse of their latest memory. A certain vampire slipping into a warehouse and stuffing the bars of metal into a sack. Then there was darkness, broken only when they were pulled out in the tavern.

Arwin bit back a mixture between a laugh and a sigh. He supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised. Madiv had just stolen the metal. Sure, nobody was using it, but he really didn’t need people knocking on his door pissed off about stolen materials.

I wonder who he even took it from. I’ll have to make sure he starts establishing some proper connections to suppliers soon.

He shook his head. For today, it didn’t matter. The Ivorin’s memories told him that their previous owner definitely didn’t care all that much. Even though Arwin hadn’t gotten a look at the merchant or smith’s face, the Ivorin hadn’t been used once.

Okay. I’ll deal with that later. Right now, I’ve got half of what I need. The Ivorin is prepared and ready. Madiv is getting Brightsteel, so I just need to figure out exactly what I’m going to make for gauntlets and how I’m going to impart the right traits onto them.

Arwin’s gaze swept over his smithy, taking in all the monster pieces that he had lying around. Wyrmling scales, fangs, and teeth. Plates from spider and centipede monsters. The still-beating heart.

“Which of those would somehow let me focus on getting power from slain enemies?” Arwin mused to himself. “They’re all technically items taken from things I’ve defeated. That would imply that they’d all work… but I suspect there’s more to it than that. Intent is a part of it, but I don’t know if there’s any way to do this other than practice.”

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A rap on the back door yanked Arwin out of his concentration. He frowned and headed over to it, only to find Madiv standing on the other side with several bars of Brightsteel in his hands.

“You have incredibly good timing,” Arwin informed the vampire. “I was just hoping to get started now.”

“I am thrilled to be of service,” Madiv said in a dry tone. “Do you have my pay ready?”

Arwin took the bars from him and nodded to the pile of gold in the main room. “Just take it out of that. And… look, in the future, try not to steal everything. You need to buy it or something. We’re going to get into shit if you keep stealing.”

Madiv’s brow furrowed. “Why?”

“I — now isn’t the time,” Arwin said through a sigh. “We can talk about it later. Ask Lillia or Reya. Thanks for the delivery, though.”

Madiv nodded and Arwin shut the door again. He set the Brightsteel down, picked up one ingot, and got back to work in flattening it out into pieces. The Brightsteel was considerably pickier than Ivorin was, but he soon found several sections that were willing to become gauntlets.

He put the rest of it to the side and then got started forging a plain pair of gauntlets. Before he started getting fancy with their actual design, he needed to figure out how he was going to make his more complicated trait.

I’ll just try to make something simple, but still a step up on the previous intentionally made traits. Maybe something that makes me marginally stronger after every enemy I kill, similar to the pants with their movement speed increases.

Arwin focused on making his first prototype entirely out of Brightsteel. Using a single type of metal would let him separate it a lot easier and give him multiple retries without wasting material.

He’d made so many pairs of gauntlets the previous day that the process flew by. He forged small plates, rounding them on the horn of the anvil, and made the individual parts for each finger joint. Every piece was quenched in oil and polished off with [Scourge] empowered strokes.

He tapped away at small pieces of metal with Verdant Blaze to make caps, then used rivets to connect all the moving parts and tested their range of motion. Through every step of the process, he pressed magic into the metal, keeping his intent sharp.

Once the pieces were all ready and saturated with magic, Arwin took a Wyrmling tooth and pressed it into the back of each gauntlet. He used [Scourge] to work the metal like dough, pressing it over the teeth and then flattening it out.

Energy tingled at his fingertips and he let his hands drop. Arwin held his breath as the Mesh swirled forth and into the newly made gauntlets.

[Brightsteel Gauntlets: Rare Quality] have been forged. Forging a magical item has granted you energy.

Arwin waved the words away and immediately studied the gauntlets to see how they’d turned out.

Brightsteel Gauntlets: Rare Quality

[Broken Ravager]: This item longs to rip power from its fallen foes.

That was it. It wasn’t the most discouraging result — it proved that the intent had been correct. The trait was present, so it hadn’t completely failed. He just hadn’t had the necessary components to allow the gauntlet to properly execute the ability.

They didn’t have much smell either — not in either a good or a bad way. The gauntlets were just incomplete.

Arwin’s brow furrowed and he studied the gauntlets. If he wanted to store or steal energy, he probably had to give the gauntlets something to store the power in.

That made his thoughts drift to his chestpiece, where the large purple gem could store magical power from spells that struck it.

A gem definitely lends itself to storing power… but it doesn’t really sound like it would do much for actually taking power.

Arwin quickly made a bracelet out of Brightsteel. He set it and the gauntlets into his [Soul Flame] and lifted the trait from the gauntlet, shifting it to the bracelet, which went into a pocket.

Now that the gauntlets were nothing but plain Brightsteel again, Arwin hammered them out back into a sheet and sat there for a few moments as he considered his next step. A tooth or a claw felt like they’d both be good at ripping power, but not storing it.

Really, what I need is both. A gem to store power and a tooth to take it.

The thought was so simple that it was almost laughable, but actually executing it was a whole different task. Arwin chewed his lip. It already took a lot of concentration to make a trait with a single monster part. Using two would be exponentially more difficult.

Arwin pulled out the white gemstone he still had from the Challenge. A determined smile pulled across his lips and he gathered his Ivorin and Brightsteel. His prototype had given him the information he needed. The way ahead had to be by combining multiple parts in a single item — and if he could pull it off, it opened up so much potential that he couldn’t even fully begin to comprehend it.

He flexed his fingers, gathering himself and focusing his intent.

Harder is the name of the game, isn’t it, Mesh? Let’s play.

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