Rise of the Living Forge

Early the following morning, Arwin and Reya made their way into Milten proper. Reya carried the weapons that Arwin had forged in a bundle of leather, a hood pulled low over her head to keep anyone from noticing her.

Arwin wasn’t sure exactly how many enemies Reya had in the city, but he didn’t want to find out right now. It normally would have been safer to leave her back at the smithy, but he didn’t put it past the thieves’ guild to try something while he was out.

With Reya at the lead, they arrived at the edge of the city markets as the other merchants had just started to set up. They made their way over to a corner that was a little less populated than the other areas – and on the opposite side of the market as Taylor’s storefront.

I do feel a bit bad stealing his business, but we’re far out enough that hopefully it doesn’t hurt him too much. Besides, anyone buying stuff from two dirty people on the side of the street probably isn’t looking to spend their entire life savings.

Reya set the bundle of weapons down and rolled it out, adjusting everything so it looked a little neater. It still looked pretty suspicious, but at least they actually resembled dirty merchants rather than thieves.

“Now what?” Reya asked. “We put it out.”

“Well, presumably, we wait until someone wants to buy something.”

Reya scrunched her nose. She glanced around at the few passersby that were already wandering through the market. Nobody was showing them very much interest. Arwin couldn’t say he was surprised. They probably needed to get at least one person’s attention before more would follow.

“It’s not working,” Reya said.

“You know what takes less time?” Reya’s gaze drifted to the coin purse of a passing man. Arwin pointedly cleared his throat and she tore her eyes away.

“We’re not doing that right now.”

“Why not? It’s faster.”

“We’ve got a perfectly legitimate business right here. We don’t need to get kicked out.”

“Need I remind you where the materials for that business came from?”

“Let’s not.” Arwin scratched at the side of his neck. “It might take a bit before we get any attention. If I had more magical weapons for sale, I’m sure that would be different. Unfortunately, the only one I’ve got is the one that explodes.”

“Maybe you could try to sell it as a throwing weapon?”

“It’s a sword,” Arwin said. “You don’t fling swords.”

“I’m sure someone does.”

He chuckled. “Probably. But, even if they did, the damn thing isn’t even guaranteed to blow up. It just might blow up. That makes it pretty useless for both hand-to-hand fighting as well as throwing. Completely worthless.”

And I can’t even eat the damn thing because it might blow me up too. At best, it’s a prank gift for a powerful adventurer. No matter. It’s only a matter of time until I get someone’s attention. It couldn’t be that hard to sell a few weapons, right?

***

Three hours later, Arwin was starting to wish that he’d just gone with Reya’s plan. He sat beside the roll of weapons, watching everyone walk straight past them without a second glance. Reya was beside him, very pointedly not pointing out how absolutely nobody was buying anything.

Arwin resisted the urge to heave a sigh. Half the problem was actually getting people’s attention. It wasn’t like his weapons were bad, but he’d never been that much of a salesman. Every time he tried to get someone’s attention, it looked more like he was threatening to stab them than sell them the sword.

Reya wasn’t much better, as she couldn’t so much as show her face. And so, the two of them just sat there, completely unable to sell a single thing.

“At least it’s nice out,” Reya said. “Although it’s kind of hot.”

“It’s only hot because you’re wearing a cloak.” Arwin rubbed his forehead. “But I must admit that this doesn’t seem to be working nearly as well as I had hoped.”

“Maybe you should try to show off your magic sword? Even if it’s just a liability waiting to happen, at least it’s cooler than normal weapons.”

“Not a terrible idea, but I’m not sure anyone would really be that interested in a magic weapon that’s just objectively worse than a normal one, especially if I don’t have any others for sale.”

And I’m not selling the last sword I just made. It’s actually useful. You know, the more I think about it, what’s the point of selling this trash? I have no desire to just be another smith – and do I even want to outfit adventurers that are part of the Adventurer’s Guild?

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“Arwin?” Reya asked.

He blinked, then turned to her. “What?”

“You were glaring. We’re not going to get customers if you scare them all off.”

Arwin grunted. He pushed himself to his feet and rolled the bundle of weapons back up, hoisting it over a shoulder and shaking his head. “Forget this. We’re leaving.”

“What?” Reya hurried to catch up with Arwin as he strode out of the market. “Why?”

“Because I realized this isn’t what I want to do,” Arwin said. “I’m glad nobody showed up. I have no desire to outfit more Adventurers that I don’t know – and selling subpar work rubs me the wrong way the more I think about it. When you make someone a weapon, aren’t they basically putting their life in your hands?”

“That seems a bit extreme. It’s just a weapon, and everything is about how the weapon is used, not what the weapon is.”

“To a degree, yes. But when you buy weapons or armor from someone, it means you’re trusting that they’ll hold. Your smith holds your life in their hands. Imagine if your dagger shatters midway through a fight against a powerful monster.”

Or if your smith plants a magical bomb in your armor.

“I guess I can see what you’re saying,” Reya allowed. She glanced over her shoulder at the receding market, then back to Arwin. “But what do we do about money? I thought–”

“We’ll earn it the proper way,” Arwin replied. “Forget selling trash or unstable magical weapons. We’re going hunting. Now.”

“But we don’t have any equipment or healing potions!” Reya exclaimed. She quickly realized she’d raised her voice too loud and lowered it back to a whisper. “Without classes and gear, there’s no way we’ll survive.”

“You have a dagger,” Arwin pointed out. He tapped the hilt of his sword. “And I have a sword. All we have to do is hit the monsters harder than they hit us.”

“You’ll have to forgive me when I say that I think the chances of that aren’t very likely. What about the monsters that are faster than we are? It doesn’t matter how hard we can hit them if we can’t land a blow first.”

“That’s simple,” Arwin replied with a shrug. “Just hit them first.”

Reya let out a series of displeased mutters, but she didn’t say anything else. The two of them continued out of the market, following the side streets until they drew up to the exit of the city.

It was still manned by a guard, but the man didn’t give them so much as a second glance as they passed him by. Once they’d put some distance between themselves and the city entrance, Arwin nodded to Reya.

“You know a little bit about the surrounding area, right?”

“Some,” Reya allowed.

“Great. Take us to the nearest area where monsters congregate. I trust you know of one?”

“I know of the dungeon. There are a lot of monsters around there, but the thieves’ guild is definitely watching it. I think there’s a valley that’s just a few hours away that we could try – but I’m telling you, we’re both going to get killed.”

“And yet, here you are,” Arwin said. “If you actually thought we were going to die, would you be here with me?”

Reya heaved a sigh and stepped off the beaten path, starting along the ankle-high grass and down the sloping hill. Arwin followed after her, the large bundle of weapons still slung over his shoulder.

The trip across the rolling hills took a little under two hours. Little was spoken throughout it, but Arwin didn’t mind. He enjoyed the sanctum of his own mind, and it was a nice day. There was no need to muddle it with fear.

He barely even noticed that they’d arrived until Reya slowed to a stop. They stood at the edge of a very gently sloping valley. There was a small forest within it, and Arwin could hear the chirp of birds and insects from where they stood.

“Here,” Reya said wearily. “I think the monsters in this area shouldn’t be that much stronger than Apprentice Tier. Maybe we could throw things at them in hopes of killing something before it gets close? You’ve got a whole bunch of weapons.”

It wasn’t a terrible idea, but Arwin couldn’t see any monsters yet, and tossing swords into the forest at random felt like a generally poor idea. He started down the valley, making for the forest. “Do you know how aggressive the monsters in this area are?”

“Not really. I’ve never done much more than look, and it was always when I was in a larger group,” Reya replied. She stayed behind Arwin, keeping the dagger out before her defensively. “I remember that there were some pretty big lizard things, though.”

“Lizards? Sounds like those could be useful.”

“Did you miss the big part?”

“Big means there are more spots to stab,” Arwin said. They drew up to the treeline a short while later and Arwin squinted into it. The forest wasn’t too dense at the edges, so he could see a good bit into it.

“Maybe we should be quiet,” Reya whispered. “What if they hunt in packs?”

“You know more about them than I do. Do they?”

“I don’t know. Maybe? I usually just saw one or two.”

Arwin shifted the roll of swords off his shoulders and set it on the ground. He unrolled it and took one of the plain swords he’d made in his left hand, drawing his magical one with his right. Reya’s eyes widened at the sight.

“You know how to use two swords at once? What kind of smith knows how to dual wield?”

Arwin didn’t respond to her question. His attention was transfixed on two motes of yellow light glimmering in the darkness of the forest. They were eyes, each roughly the size of his fist. Arwin bared his teeth in challenge. “I think I found one of your lizards.”

Perhaps it’s a bit late to think about this, but it’s been some time since I’ve actually properly fought a monster. It would be morbidly funny if I find out I’m nowhere near a match for them anymore, but confidence is half the battle. I will win because I must win.

Even if he couldn’t speak the same language as the monster, he’d spent enough time fighting them to know how to communicate – and direct eye contact was a clear challenge that few would ignore.

Reya stiffened behind him as fallen leaves and sticks cracked. The draconic head of a six-foot tall lizard poked out from the darkness, its red tongue flicking out to taste the air. The rest of the monster’s body followed after it.

It had long, curved claws that dug furrows into the ground and was covered with glistening green scales. A row of spikes ran along the back of its head and several crooked fangs jutted out from random spots in its mouth.

Arwin reached out to the mesh, and golden lettering shimmered above the lizard’s head, visible only to him.

[Forest Lizard – Apprentice 5]

The lizard’s mouth opened in a hiss and its tail whipped out, slamming into one of the trees. Wood shattered with a loud crash and the tree pitched to the side, slamming to the ground. The lizard’s head tiled back and it let out a hissing roar.

Only three levels above me in Apprentice and it can already do this much damage. Monsters really do have it lucky, but this thing isn’t the only one here that can hit hard.

“I think we might have made a mistake,” Reya said, clutching her dagger and swallowing heavily. “Can we run?”

“I don’t think that’s an option anymore. Remember our conversation about speed? Well, this thing is faster than me. I’ll do my best to keep its attention, but don’t get caught off guard. Fight or die, Reya.”