Rise of the Living Forge

The group hightailed it out of the forest as quickly as they could, only pausing so Arwin could grab the scale he’d broken off the Wyrm. Anna had used just about all the healing magic she had to repair Arwin’s leg as quickly as she had, so she had to sling Reya’s arm over her shoulder and help her stumble through the trees.

Rodrick offered similar help to Arwin, but he refused it. He was dazed and completely drained of energy, but not to the point where he couldn’t walk on his own. And, even if he’d needed help, he was too curious about what class Reya had been offered to consider it.

They continued until they’d left the forest and put about ten minutes of travel between it and themselves. Reya and Anna finally flopped to the grass, lying flat on their backs. Rodrick and Arwin sat down beside them.

“I can’t believe we’re alive,” Rodrick said, laughing into the palms of his hands. “The gods damned Wyrm. Can you believe that?”

“What in the Nine Underlands was it doing outside?” Anna demanded, sounding considerably less happy. “Wyrms don’t go above ground! Everyone knows that!”

Arwin would have loved to correct her, but Anna was right. Everything he knew about Wyrms agreed with her claim. They were wingless, basically large dragon-lizards that relied on idiots stumbling into their nests rather than proper hunting.

“You’re right,” Arwin said. “I don’t know why it was so aggressive, but there’s nothing wrong with celebrating life.”

“You know what I want to know?” Rodrick looked over to Arwin. “How in the world did you take a bite out of a bloody sword?”

“With my teeth.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Rodrick said. “I didn’t see that wrong, did I, Anna?”

“No, he definitely ate his sword,” Anna said with a disbelieving laugh. “I figured we were kind of just going to ignore it. I’ve seen stranger things in life.”

“Have you?” Rodrick asked.

“No,” Anna admitted. “I was trying to be polite. Maybe it’s just a hobby.”

“Who eats swords as a hobby in the middle of a fight with a Wyrm?” Rodrick asked, aghast.

“I’m right here, you know,” Arwin said dryly.

“Don’t eat my sword, please. I like it,” Rodrick said.

“No promises.” The corners of Arwin’s lips quirked up in a smile and Rodrick hurriedly put his hand over the hilt of his sword, much to Anna’s amusement.

“Odd hobbies or not, we won’t tell anyone,” Anna promised. “It just took us by surprise.”

“It’s appreciated,” Arwin said, meaning it. It probably wouldn’t be a big deal if people figured out he could eat metal – a lot of classes could do some pretty strange things – but it would give away that he had either a Unique class or ability.

“Reya, how are you doing?”

Reya poked at her damaged armor. “Alive. It stings really bad, though.”

“Good,” Arwin said. “You damn near got yourself killed. You’re incredibly lucky to be alive, Reya. Don’t get me wrong – I deeply appreciate your help and you gave me the opening I needed, but you need to be careful. Your life is worth more than using it as a sacrifice to draw a monster’s attention for a brief second.”

Reya swallowed and nodded. “Yeah. I just didn’t know what else to do. It looked like you were about to lose and the only idea I had was… well, that.”

“As long as the lesson was learned, then that’s all that matters. Just don’t do it again. What’s done is done, so there’s no need to dwell on it any further. There are much more interesting things to speak on.”

“My class,” Reya finished. She touched her bleeding stomach again and winced slightly. “What do I choose?”

“You haven’t told us what you got yet,” Rodrick said.

Reya sent a glance toward Arwin, and he shrugged in response. Anna and Rodrick had returned to save his life when they hadn’t had to. If Reya wanted to trust them, it was her decision, not his.

“I’m sorry I don’t have any more healing left right now,” Anna said apologetically. “We could cover our ears if you’d prefer?”

“It’s fine,” Reya said after a few moments. “You won’t tell anyone, right?”

“Not a soul,” Rodrick promised, pressing a hand to his chest. “But I will be telling the story of how a girl without a class charged a fucking Wyrm like she was the Hero himself. I don’t think I’m ever going to forget that sight.”

Reya’s cheeks reddened. “Arwin needed a distraction to hit the Wyrm again, and it wasn’t going to do anything if we kept throwing rocks at it. I figured drastic measures were in order.”

“What, did you plan on getting stuck in its teeth while it chewed you?” Anna asked with a mixture of humor and admonishment. “You need to live through the fights you win, you know. Arwin was right.”

“I lived!”

“Barely,” Anna muttered. She rubbed her arm, then shook her head. “Whatever. I’m not your mom. But, if you’re going to say what classes you can choose from, do it quickly. I’m going to die from anticipation.”

“I got three options,” Reya said. “The first one is Warrior.”

“Good class,” Rodrick said.

“You’re biased,” Anna replied without missing a beat. “Warrior can be a good choice if you’re interested in being at the front of a fight, but that didn’t sound like what you were hoping for. What about the other options?”

“The second one was the Berserker,” Reya continued. “It’s Unique.”

“Holy shit,” Rodrick said. “I’ve heard of that one. The normal version of it, at least. Real strong warriors, very difficult to stop once they get going. That’s a really good class. I can see why you got it, considering you charged a Wyrm with no way to fight it.”

“What about the last one?” Arwin asked. Berserker still wasn’t what Reya had been looking for, and he’d known his share of berserkers. The class was definitely powerful, and a Unique variant of it would be even stronger, but it didn’t fit Reya’s personality at all.

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“Warden,” Reya said, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Unique as well.”

Rodrick let out a whistle. “I’ve never heard of that. Anna?”

“Same, but let me remind you that Unique doesn’t always mean good. It’s just been differentiated by the standard for some reason or another. A lot of Unique things can be pretty damn bad, so don’t go choosing anything just because it’s different,” Anna warned with a shake of her head. “Do you know what it is, Arwin?”

To Arwin’s surprise, he hadn’t heard of it either. It wasn’t like he knew of every class in existence, of course, but he’d expected to at least recognize the name if not understand it perfectly.

“I’ve got no idea. Never heard of it,” Arwin said. “What does the information about it say?”

“It’s a class meant to control and restrain opponents rather than outright killing them by pitting our willpower against each other. It isn’t very descriptive.” Reya bit her lower lip in thought. “None of them are what I thought I’d get.”

It sounds like she might have actually gotten Warden because she chose to spare the other lizard. I wonder if the Wyrm fight had anything to do with it. Interesting. I don’t want to influence her choice, but a class that I’ve never heard of is pretty interesting. Then again, if the berserker has some form of draconic or Wyrm influence on it, that could be pretty nasty.

“What are you thinking, then?” Rodrick asked. “You’ve got some really good selections there. I could see all of those being very powerful in the future.”

“I didn’t think I’d get the chance to choose at all,” Reya admitted. She touched one of the wounds on her stomach and winced slightly, pulling her hand back and rubbing her fingers together, smearing the blood across them. “There’s only one of these that I think I could see myself doing, though.”

She reached out, touching something invisible in the air. Faint golden sparkles swirled around her, sinking into Reya’s skin and flaring behind her eyes. She stiffened, then drew in a slow breath as her eyes unfocused, likely reading information about her new class.

“What did you go with?” Rodrick asked.

“Warden,” Reya replied, tearing her gaze away from the invisible presence of the Mesh before her. “I don’t want to be a warrior and running around with my top off didn’t seem very appealing.”

Anna let out a snort. “Can’t say I blame you. Berserkers all have a death wish anyway. It’s a good class, but I think you probably made the right choice. You might have a little difficulty finding anyone to train you, but I suspect it’ll be worth it in the long run.”

“I hope so,” Reya said. She touched the wound on her chest again, and Anna smacked her hand away.

“Stop doing that. You’re going to get dirt in it, and it’ll be harder to heal. Infections are much more difficult to repair than normal injuries.”

“There’s a difference in healing wounds?” Reya asked.

“Yeah. The worse the damage is, the harder it is to heal. Pretty straight forward. It gets more complex when viruses and diseases get involved, though. You can get little living things running around in your body wreaking havoc, and healing magic can’t kill stuff. It’s not pretty.”

Reya swallowed and pointedly stuck her hands beneath her backside to keep herself from touching the wound again. “Okay. Can you heal it soon?”

“In a few minutes. I don’t have enough energy yet, and I want to get it all at once rather than sealing the wound over and leaving something behind that’ll scar too badly.” Anna glanced over her shoulder at the forest, then shook her head. “My legs are still shaking. I don’t understand why that Wyrm was there.”

“Monsters don’t change their routines unless something makes them change,” Arwin said with a thoughtful frown. “And for the Wyrm to change how it typically acts means that it’s likely we aren’t seeing the cause but rather the effect. Something happened in the forest.”

“The Wyrm is the strongest monster in there,” Rodrick pointed out. “What’s going to be enough of a threat to it that it would have to start being more aggressive?”

“I don’t know,” Arwin admitted. “I’ll be honest – I’m just happy to be alive and that Reya got her class. I’m sorry we didn’t actually get to do any proper hunting, though.”

“Are you kidding? I think I just witnessed a legend in the making,” Rodrick said with a burst of laughter. “I wouldn’t trade that for anything. Also, I’m begging you at this point. Introduce me to the smith that made Reya’s armor. That thing held up against a bleedin Wyrm

.”

“Technically, it broke.”

“Are you kidding? That armor was made out of Forest Lizard scales, wasn’t it? Those things have no right standing up to a Wyrm in the slightest, but it managed to stop a blow and didn’t even have any magic infused into it.”

“I’m not sure I’d say it stopped the blow,” Arwin said, sending a critical glance at Reya’s armor. “She got injured.”

“She should be dead,” Anna said. “Rodrick is right. Forest Lizard scales couldn’t have done that on their own. The smith made them harder whilst forging the armor. That’s a really impressive piece of gear. We’d understand if the smith isn’t interested in new clients right now, though.”

Anna sent Rodrick a pointed glance when she said the last sentence, making sure he wouldn’t push any more. Arwin kept a laugh from passing through his lips as Rodrick sheepishly nodded his agreement.

For a few seconds, he considered the two adventurers. He didn’t truly know them that well, but if he wanted to start a guild, he needed people. These two had more than proven themselves, and they weren’t aligned with the Adventurer’s Guild.

They came back to help me when they had no reward from it. If I can’t trust them, then I don’t know if I can trust anyone ever again.

“Are you in a guild right now?” Arwin asked.

Rodrick and Anna exchanged a surprised look before shaking their heads.

“No,” Rodrick said. “We’ve stayed away from them after our experience in the Adventurer’s Guild. I know there are smaller ones, but they’ve all got recruitment requirements that I haven’t met. They’d take Anna in a heartbeat, though.”

“Except I’m not joining them without you. They’d just use me as a mobile health station anyway. I don’t want to lose my autonomy.” Anna crossed her arms and shook her head. “Why do you ask? Are you part of one?”

“Technically, yes.”

“Technically, no,” Reya said, glancing at Arwin out of the corners of her eyes.

Arwin cleared his throat. “Okay, technically no. But in spirit, yes.”

“What’s that meant to mean?” Rodrick asked.

“I started a guild myself. It’s just a few people in it right now,” Arwin said carefully. “We aren’t official or anything, but there aren’t any of the restrictions that other guilds have. It’s pretty much just us right now.”

“The blacksmith is part of your guild?” Rodrick tilted his head to the side. “Damn. How’d you pay him to join? Are you secretly rich?”

Arwin burst into laughter. “Money is the one thing I don’t have.”

Not yet, at least.

“I take it this is an invitation to join, then?” Anna asked.

Arwin nodded. “Yes. I don’t plan to grow fast, but you’ve both more than proven yourselves. I honestly don’t know how much we can offer you, but I can promise that we won’t screw you over.”

“We’d be able to hire the smith if we joined?” Anna asked.

“I’d say so.”

“What about term limits?” Rodrick asked. “Is there a set amount of time we’d have to stay?"

Arwin hadn’t put much thought into that. He hadn’t actually been planning on recruiting new members quite yet, but the words had left his mouth before he’d properly thought through them. “No limits. Leave if you want, but I’d ask that you keep anything you find to yourselves. It’s not like I can enforce that, but I’d ask it nonetheless.”

Rodrick leaned in closer to Anna and whispered something into her ear. She thought for a second, then looked back to Arwin and gave him a small nod.

“If there aren’t restrictions on it, then I think we can tentatively accept. You’re the first one that hasn’t tried to cheat or otherwise get an upper hand out of partnering with a healer.”

“Is that common?” Arwin blinked in surprise.

“You’ve got no idea,” Rodrick said. “Half the people we join up with try to convince Anna to leave me and join their party. Bunch of assholes.”

“It’s a pain,” Anna agreed. “But you know what you’re doing. So, for the time being, we’ll join. It’s not an official guild yet from the sounds of things, so it’s really not that much of a commitment. I promise we won’t share anything you don’t want us to, though.”

Anna held her hand out and Arwin took it, shaking once. He’d never had trouble getting healers as the Hero, but every day he spent in his new life reminded him of just how different things really were.

“So, about that smith…” Rodrick hedged. “When can we meet him? I probably can’t afford anything he makes yet, but I’d love to have a look and start daydreaming.”

Arwin grinned. “The only people in my guild are Reya and I.”

“Wait, what?” Rodrick’s face creased with a frown. “But you said…”

“That you could meet the smith,” Arwin finished with a nod. Rodrick’s eyes went as wide as saucers as Arwin held his hand out. “Pleasure to meet you. I’m the smith.”