Rise of the Living Forge

With Melissa’s armor dealt with, Arwin and Lillia finally had a chance to get back to working on their heart-contraption. They hadn’t actually figured out a name for it yet, and Arwin was more focused on actually making it than naming it.

The Millstone Maw, the first part of the set that would process magical food into paste, was ready to get to work. They just needed the next two parts of the set. One to extract the magical energy from the paste, and another to house the heart.

Arwin was fairly certain that the former of the two would be the more difficult. The best idea he and Lillia had come up with so far was a device that would accept some form of liquid through an intake valve that could be mixed with the paste until dilution. The mixture could then then flow through the pipes and into the heart.

With that in mind, Arwin got started by making some pipes. He didn’t need much of Lillia’s help for that, so she headed back to the tavern to start preparing for the dinner crowd while he worked.

Making the pipes, fortunately, was a fairly straight forward task. Arwin went through his Brightsteel, filtering through it to find pieces that wouldn’t mind being part of… whatever it was he was making. It was a bit difficult to describe to the metal through just thoughts and feelings, but he eventually managed to get his point across.

Arwin wasn’t surprised to find that the Brightsteel wasn’t particularly excited for the task, but he eventually managed to filter out enough pieces that didn’t mind it. He then got to work purifying the metal piece by piece before hammering it back into a sheet with Verdant Blaze.

Once the metal for the pipes was ready, it didn’t take long for Arwin to turn it into rough tube shapes. He used [Scourge] and the heat of his [Soul Flame] to bend everything together, then spent nearly three times that effort actually rounding out the centers of the pipes to make them circular.

That had probably been a bit excessive. He was pretty sure the pipes would be fine even if they weren’t perfect, but every step toward perfection meant the final product would function better… and it certainly didn’t hurt anyone if it looked nice.

Arwin pumped the metal full of his magical energy as he worked, then moved on to forming a mixing chamber and a valve to pour liquid in through. That took a little longer than the pipes, and he ran into a slightly bigger problem in the process.

Unlike the pipes, having divots or other significant imperfections in a mixing chamber would mean liquid or paste could get stuck in the cracks and fail to flow on properly. That would mean extra time wasted taking everything apart or cleaning it.

I need to keep it as round as possible. How can I get a large piece of metal to be a good hemisphere?

Arwin looked around the smithy. Materials were gathered in piles along its edges and a thin layer of soot covered the ground, pieces of metal scattered throughout it. Nothing was exactly the sphere shape he needed.

His brow furrowed in thought, holding the sheet of Brightsteel in one hand while his other drummed against the stone bottom of his hearth, [Soul Flame] flickering around it. Then a thought struck him.

Arwin looked down at the metal in his hand, then glanced at the door. Nobody was watching. He stuck the Brightsteel into the fire, heating it until it was malleable, then lifted it to the top of his head and pressed down with the aid of [Scourge].

The metal warped and contoured to the top of his skull. He ran his hands along it, smoothing everything out as much as possible before lifting the glowing metal away and examining it.

It had worked. His method might have been a little unconventional and the result wasn’t a completely perfect hemisphere, but it had worked. There were just a few dents he had to work out of the metal before it would be as close to perfect as he was going to get.

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Huh. The top of my head is a bit less round than I thought it was. I wonder if I got the bumps from getting smacked too hard at some point. I’m sure those didn’t affect me negatively in any way.

Arwin worked the small bumps out as best as he could, continuing to pump magical energy out into the metal, and he soon had the bottom half of his mixing chamber prepared. He then repeated the process for the top half.

With the two halves of the chamber prepared, Arwin intensified the power pouring into his [Soul Flame] until it glowed a deep blue. He heated both pieces of the chamber and pressed them together. Their seams melted into each other, making a hollow sphere.

The [Soul Flame] faded back to its normal color as Arwin removed the mixing chamber and pressed a pipe into its side, leaving a faint mark in the metal. He drew on his magic once again to use [Scourge] and push out a hole for the pipe to go through.

He made a second hole next to the first and a third on the opposite side of the sphere. Arwin’s magic started to falter as drew continuously on it to infuse the metal, but he’d advanced in rank since the last time he’d worked this hard.

He had more energy now than he had before. It still wasn’t anything more than a drop in the bucket compared to the power he’d had as the Hero, but it was progress.

And if I’m honest with myself, I wouldn’t trade what I can do now for the powers I had then. Being a smith lets me do more than just kill. I just hope my power is enough to let me actually use this creepy heart. It’s going to be a real pain in the ass if all this effort ends up amounting to nothing.

Arwin pressed on. He made a funnel from Brightsteel using the horn of the anvil and pinching the heated metal together with [Scourge] infused fingers, then connected that to the top of a pipe.

The door swung open behind him and he glanced over his shoulder as Lillia re-entered the back of the smithy. She took a second to take in everything that he’d already done, then gave him a nod.

“Want help with the finish?”

“You’ve got timing,” Arwin said, not stopping his work as he used one of the gemstones that Rodrick had brought for Melissa’s armor and embedded it in the bottom of the mixing chamber. His words were strained with focus, but he managed to push them out without getting distracted. “Can you back me up on the mixing intent? I’ll handle the rest of it.”

Lillia strode over to comply and Arwin scooped up a Wyrmling claw, pushing it through the top of the chamber. Energy pulsed through his body and throbbed in his mind as he shoved it into the Brightsteel.

He connected the pipes to the mixing chamber in the same manner, his intent as honed as a knife. Power ran from Lillia and flowed through him before entering the chamber. The Mesh tingled at Arwin’s fingertips as he felt it intensify with every passing second.

It built behind the dam of his mind, held back by only determination to make sure everything was completely finished. Arwin straightened out a few connections and gave the odd sphere one last look.

Three pipes jutted out of it. One went straight back to connect with the Millstone Maw, another rose up to the sky and had a funnel at its peak, while the last jutted out horizontally on the far end of the sphere so it could run to the final part of the set once it was made.

There was nothing more he could do. Arwin finally relaxed, his shoulders dipping as he blew out an exhausted sigh. The Mesh burst forth to bring their work to life. All he could do now was sit and watch the golden words as they shimmered through the air, waiting to see if his and Lillia’s efforts had been successful.

[Churning Stomach: Epic Quality]has been forged. Forging a magical item has granted you energy.

[Churning Stomach: Epic Quality]

[The Stomach of the Forge]: This item is primed and ready to hold all the magic that enters it, but not for long. The magical energy of any organic materials that enter this item will be temporarily contained and kept from dissipating.

[Swirling Bite]: The hunger of a Wyrmling imbues this item. At the cost of magical energy, magical currents will churn within this item’s core and mix anything within it thoroughly.

[Dry Mouth]: This item cannot function without a sufficient supply of liquid. Its traits’ effectiveness will be reduced or entirely halted if it gets clogged by solid or indigestible matter.

[The Soul of the Forge]: This is a set item of [3] pieces forged by Arwin Tyrr and Lillian Los. When the entire set is connected, it will gain the [Awoken] trait and become active.

But that wasn’t all. Even as Arwin spun to Lillia and grabbed her shoulders, a delighted grin spreading across his face, one more message from the Mesh flashed before Arwin’s eyes. A tremor ran down his back as he felt something hidden away within [Arsenal] shift.

A deep, primal hunger met his mind like a river of fire. It twisted down his spine and purred in the back of his thoughts like a satisfied lion. Before the new words could even finish tracing out before him, Arwin knew what they would say.

Verdant Blaze has fully Awakened.