Rise of the Living Forge-Chapter 436: Success is subjective
Arwin emerged into the inn room a few moments after the others. Thane’s guard still stood by the bed, leaning against the wall with his staff tucked under an arm.
The guard seemed slightly surprised to see them back. Or, perhaps, he was more surprised to see that Thane had survived the trip. Arwin wasn’t much a fan of that. It meant the guard had known full well what was happening and had been entirely satisfied to allow for it.
Scum prosper when good men sit back and do nothing. Anyone who would be okay with sending a young man to their death, regardless of it’s part of their job description or not, is not someone worthy of respect.
“You’re back,” the guard said, his eyes lingering on the massive piles of loot they had in their arms.
“So we are,” Arwin said. He jerked his chin toward the door. “Come on. Let’s get a move on. I don’t want to be carrying this around all day.”
They all started to move toward the door. The guard stepped forward, raising a hand. “Hold on. Thane, you need to—”
“He’s helping us carry our loot,” Arwin said. “Tag along if you want… but he’s coming with us. I can assure you that Milten is most certainly less dangerous than an Expert Tier Dungeon.”
The man blinked. Then he grunted. “Very well. He’ll be your responsibility until you bring him back. But… does this mean you succeeded?”
“You sound surprised.” Arwin leveled a flat gaze at the other man. “Does that mean you thought we would fail?”
He didn’t wait for an answer. The four of them strode out of the room, leaving the guard behind them.
Anna gave Arwin an approving nod as they left the inn and made for the Menagerie’s Street in the light of the rising moon. The healer might not have been one to waste words, but she definitely wasn’t much a fan of the Blacktongue family. None of the Menagerie were.
Somewhat predictably, the trip back was uneventful. Arwin hadn’t been lying. Milten was many things, but with the Iron Hounds gone and the Ardent Guild losing a trade war to the Dawnseekers, it wasn’t anywhere near as an Expert Ranked Dungeon.
And if anyone was trying to go after Thane’s life because of some feud with the Blacktongue Family, they’re not going to be stupid enough to try it when he’s traveling with us. The Proving Grounds made way too much of a name for our guild. It would be much easier to go after Thane when he’s only got a single guard watching over him.
They made it back to the Devil’s Den, where Arwin separated the rarer organic materials they’d brought back out for Lillia. He didn’t know how useful they’d be. Arwin couldn’t think of anything he’d actually want to eat from the dungeon — but Lillia was the chef, not him.
He then led everyone back to the Infernal Armory, where they deposited everything else they’d gathered. It was too late into the night to bring Thane around speaking to the rest of the Menagerie. So, despite his disappointment at missing a chance to pry more people with questions, they headed back to the inn to drop him off.
Arwin was actually pretty sure that Lillia had still been awake. But, the less of the Menagerie Thane got a chance to speak with, the more likely it would be that he set out to seek them again himself.
That might have been slightly underhanded. But he had no problem using slightly underhanded tactics when it came to pulling a kid out of the thumb of a family that only wanted to use him to further themselves. That wasn’t what a family was meant to be.
They bid Thane farewell before returning back to the Devil’s Den to retire for the night. The guard didn’t seem too surprised. He had no way to know just how extensively they’d completed the Blacktongue’s request… but something told Arwin he’d hear about it soon enough.
He doubted the noble family would be too thrilled to find that their dungeon had been fully cleared.
That thought kept a grin on his lips all the way back to the Devil’s Den. He was quite looking forward to filling Lillia in.
***
The next morning came quickly. Perhaps that was because there really wasn’t much left of the night — and there had been even less remaining after Arwin finished telling Lillia about everything that had gone down in the dungeon.
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But with the morning came opportunity.
Ridley had already arrived by the time Arwin set out on his way to the Infernal Armory. The mason was midway through an inspection of the closest building to the Devil’s Den. He was too absorbed to even notice Arwin as he passed, but that was just fine. There was no reason to delay him.
The Devil’s Den had been growing at an incredible rate in recent days. Getting another large expansion in would be an enormous boon for her and would help manage the huge crowds that had been gathering on their street in recent days.
And speaking of the people gathering…
Arwin discreetly glanced around for any signs of the smith that had supposedly been showing up every day to try and challenge him. It was still early, he saw no sign of them. At this point it was almost impressive that he hadn’t run into them.
Seriously. If someone wants to challenge me so bad that they show up every day, haven’t they considered popping up slightly earlier once? Not that I’m complaining. I have no interest in challenging every random person that shows up trying to make a name for themselves. I’d be concerned that this person might have some ulterior motive if they weren’t right under Rodrick’s nose.
He wouldn’t let them pull anything off right on the Menagerie’s doorstep.
Arwin strode into the Infernal Armory and entered the back room. The door closed behind him as he approached the waiting maw in the center of the room. He couldn’t help but notice that not a single trace of any of the materials they’d brought in the night before remained.
The armory had, predictably, eaten everything.
“You’d better have left enough of that for me to work with,” Arwin said crossly. “It’s for your own good, you know.”
“I am not a fool.” Red mist twisted to life behind Arwin and flowed past him as the invisible form contained within its flowing currents shifted across the room. “I have maintained all of the important components you brought. The only parts I consumed were the unimportant ones. But there was more. Anna bore magical items. Will you give me those as well?”
“We can’t use finished magical items to create things. Can we?”
“Not as far as I am aware. I just want to eat them.”
Arwin suppressed a laugh. “No. You can’t have those. They could be useful. I’ll have a look at them when we’re done for the day to see what it is we pulled out of the dungeon. That crown in particular was interesting — but I want to strike while the iron is hot and your armor is still on my mind.”
“The iron is cold,” the armory said. Even though it didn’t have a face, Arwin could just tell that it had turned to look in the direction of the anvil. “You have been asleep.”
“It was a metaphor,” Arwin grumbled. “I meant I’ve got ideas and feedback from the test run we did in the dungeon. I’d imagine you do as well. Let’s get started on the next set while it’s still fresh. Koyu and Wallace will show up soon enough and can pitch in themselves, but we were the only ones actually there.”
“The connection was unstable,” the Armory said immediately.
“Yeah.” Arwin nodded. “That much was apparent. The idea of using a bunch of scrap also meant it was really hard to communicate. It was too busy. I’d imagine that contributed significantly to everything blowing up.”
“Yes. That is very likely. But the discord between the elements also seemed to delay the collapse of the armor once it started. There were too many individual pieces to fracture and all blow up at once. It turned out being somewhat beneficial.”
“Beneficial if we’re building it with the purpose of failing,” Arwin said. “Worked out, but I think we should try to make sure the armor doesn’t detonate when it gets damaged. Getting damaged is kind of the whole motif of a piece of armor.”
“The core effects functioned, albeit poorly,” the Armory observed. It shifted to move past Arwin. “I believe that means we are on the proper path. I do not believe it will be possible to create the a mechanism that allows for my presence to manifest itself without having a very large amount of energy stored within it. And a large amount of energy will react very disruptively if damaged.”
“Layered armor, then,” Arwin said. “Parts on the outside that can take damage, with an internal skeleton that needs to be more protected. Maybe a kill-switch as well.”
The Infernal Armory let out a thoughtful hum. “Layered. Yes. That seems apt. Each layer composed of a single element to avoid interference, but the different layers being of different elements to ensure a balanced whole.”
Arwin nodded. “We could try to store the majority of the power in a core to limit the parts of the armor liable to explode on impact.”
“And connect the core to the innermost layer, having it act as a second mind for the armor beyond my own,” the Infernal Armory said, excitement building in its words. “I could greatly increase my processing speed in combat. Three minds in one would be practically incomprehensible for your opponents. But for that to work properly, the skeleton would have to be more than support. More information would need to be transmitted throughout the armor at increased speeds. It would have to be—”
“A central command system,” Arwin finished. “Something that runs throughout the armor. Like veins. It shouldn’t be made of metal. It should be malleable.”
“Yes. Something able to absorb the shock of blows that pass through the exterior components of the armor,” the Infernal Armory mused.
“Where can we find a material like that?” Arwin asked, his brow furrowed. “I’ve never heard of something that fits those requirements.”
“Perhaps the answer is already at our door.”
Arwin looked over to the twisting pillar of mist. “You have an idea?”
“No. I was being literal. Rodrick is on my doorstep, and it seems he is carrying a list of potential clients for us to deal with. Some of them may have offered up something we can use.”
“Oh,” Arwin said, his cheeks reddening in embarrassment. “That works too. Let him in, then. You should have done it already. I’ve got nothing to hide from Rodrick. Let’s see what he’s got for us, shall we?”
