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Chapter 73: Flowing Ocean

[Ebb and Flow]: This item flows like a raging river, shifting its defenses to reduce the damage of a single blow at a time. Repeated strikes in a short period of time will spread it too thin, causing it to draw high amounts of magical energy to sustain itself.

[Fragile]: This item has a high number of joints and moving components. Powerful blows have a chance of severely damaging it, dampening its magical effects until repairs can be applied.

[Forged For One]: This item was forged specifically for Lillian Los. Its abilities will not function for any other users.

[Flowing Ocean Chestpiece]: This is a set item of [2] pieces. When the entire set is worn, a concealed property will be unlocked.

It possesses [1] concealed property.

“Your full name is Lillian Los?” Arwin managed.

Lillia ripped her gaze away from the armor to send a glare at him. “Why? Got something against it?”

“No, nothing like that,” Arwin said, raising his hands defensively. “Just surprised me. For some reason, I never thought…”

“I’d have a last name?” Lillia arched an eyebrow, then shook her head. “Forget it – we made this, and the first thing you take notice of is that my name is longer than you thought it was? Something’s wrong with your head.”

“Well, it didn’t turn out quite how I wanted it to,” Arwin said. “There are detrimental traits.”

“Bah. Are you kidding?” Lillia asked, picking the armor up. A faint ripple of dull blue washed through the metal like a wave trapped within it. “You’re talking about the Fragile part? Who cares? The item says it itself – we’ve got moving pieces in here. There’s no way it would be as solid as a solid block of metal. That’s the point.”

She pulled it over her head, then sent Arwin an expectant look. Suppressing a small laugh, Arwin fastened the armor onto her. When he finished, he took a step back so Lillia could test the armor out.

She twisted to the left and right, then reached down to touch her toes. Straightening back out, Lillia shook her head in mute disbelief.

“This is ridiculous. It almost feels like a second skin. It’s not stopping my movements at all,” Lillia said.

“That’s because we stopped it at the shoulders, so you aren’t getting much of your arms covered,” Arwin said. “It’s not the most defensive piece of gear I’ve ever made.”

“But it’s a set item,” Lillia pointed out, running a hand along the side of the armor. “And one you made in just a day. I don’t want to be greedy, but do you think we could make the other one as well?”

“If you’re certain you don’t want me to reforge that–”

“Don’t even think about it,” Lillia warned, thrusting a finger in Arwin’s direction. “Don’t touch it. It’s perfect.”

“Fine, fine. I won’t. I’ll see what I can do for the other item,” Arwin said. “I’m guessing the other part of the set is greaves, but I have no way to know for sure.”

“It’s a safe bet. Most 2-piece sets are a chest piece and greaves,” Lillia said with a shrug. “Do you need any more supplies?”

Arwin glanced around the forge. He was running a little low on scrap, but he still wasn’t near out. He still had some left-over sheets and the crumpled remains of the other pieces of armor he’d made for the market.

His supplies of leather were fine as well, thanks to Reya’s delivery.

“I think I’m probably good on just about everything,” Arwin said. “Rodrick went out a little while ago to figure out where Tix – the woman from the Iron Hounds – was. Did he return?”

“Yeah. He came by while you were doing some of the solo work on the armor. He’s got the information you need, but we’ve been holding off on telling you to avoid distractions,” Lillia said. “Do you want to talk with him?”

“Not yet,” Arwin said. His hand tightened around the shaft of Verdant Blaze. “I don’t know if I’d be able to keep myself here if I knew where she was. I need to get your armor finished, and then we’ll head out afterward – unless you want me to try and make you gauntlets and a helm as well?”

“I think the two pieces will be more than enough,” Lillia said. Her cheeks reddened faintly.

“It’s not just for you,” Arwin said. “It’s for Zeke.”

“Oh, I know.” Lillia’s features hardened. “I’m more than aware. That’s the only reason I’m letting you make me this for free. If it were any other situation, I’d refuse to accept it until I was making enough to cover your costs and then some.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Your help dealing with these assholes is all I’ll need,” Arwin said. “And, after that – and once we’ve dealt with the Wyrms as well – I want a damn break.”

Lillia shot Arwin a look that matched what he felt deep inside. The chances of them getting a break probably weren’t too high, but he’d be damned if he couldn’t carve out at least a week to relax and live his new life the way he wanted to.

“I’ll go make something to eat, then,” Lillia said. “If you’re okay with making the second piece on your own, that is. Smithing is nice, but I feel like I like cooking more.”

Arwin chuckled. “I can finish up the second piece on my own no problem, so I certainly won’t object to some food.”

“No,” Lillia agreed with a small smile as she pushed the door open. “You wouldn’t.”

She stepped outside and let the door swing shut behind her. Arwin watched the doorway for a few seconds, then looked back to the [Soul Flame] in his hearth. He drummed his fingers on the hilt of Verdant Blaze, then dismissed the weapon and reached out to the Mesh.

Name: Arwin Tyrr

Class: Living Forge (Unique) (Tier: Apprentice 4)

New Skill Choice Available.

[Topple the Strong] has been consumed.

[Better Together] has been consumed.

Two of your Skill options have been upgraded.

You may select one of the following skills.

[Overdrive] – The heat of the forge burns in your heart. Let it free. Temporarily increase your resilience and power as your muscles are infused with magical power. The duration of this effect scales with your Tier. When this effect ends, the increased strain on your muscles will hinder you for five times the amount of time you spent in Overdrive.

[UPGRADED] [Molten Novice] (Passive) – You have spent enough time working immersed in fire that you have begun to understand it. Unlock your potential to prepare for the first steps in the path of Dwarven forging.

[UPGRADED] [Quench] – Even the greatest of fires must meet their end. Draw the heat out of a nonliving target, rapidly cooling it with magical energy.

Arwin’s brow furrowed as he studied the options floating in the air before him. The Mesh certainly didn’t like making his options easy. All of the skills – again – were tempting. He could see pretty good use cases for literally every single one.

[Overdrive] would pair perfectly with [Scourge], making his short-term fighting abilities even more powerful than they already were. Berserker skills were, in general, some of the strongest self-buffs due to the drawbacks that came with them.

The skill doesn’t say just how extensive being ‘hindered’ is, but if its anything like the skills I once had, it’ll be pretty brutal. I can basically count myself out of the fight until the debuff wears off.

As it currently stands, without [Scourge], I still have the benefits of my armor. I imagine those benefits will only continue to go up so long as I survive and can keep crafting stronger weapons, but having a winning move to whip out certainly wouldn’t be amiss.

[Molten Novice] barely has any description at all. From what I can tell, it literally doesn’t even give me anything yet. It’s clearly a multi-stage ability that starts from basically nothing but could give me much better bonuses in the long haul.

That’s an interesting gamble. I don’t get all that many abilities to work with before the Mesh stops handing them out like candy and makes me really earn everything, so committing one of them to something that might not even work… that’s a big risk. It probably wouldn’t help me at all with the Iron Hounds.

Then again, it’s not like I’m trying to live purely for killing them. The Iron Hounds that had a hand in what happened to Zeke will be dead soon enough.

That leaves me with [Quench]. Obviously useful for crafting but sucking all the heat out of something in a fight could be pretty effective as well. It’s unfortunate it doesn’t work on something living or I’d take it in a heartbeat.

Arwin tapped his foot on the ground as he examined all of the abilities. He wasn’t sure if he was happy that all his options were this beneficial or annoyed that the choice was going to mean he’d have to always wonder what he’d missed out on.

And, in thinking that thought, he realized that he’d probably made his decision. Arwin let out a huff as he gave the other abilities one last look, not wanting to miss out on something that could come back to bite him later on down the line.

[Overdrive] was powerful, but it wasn’t the best berserker skill he’d ever seen. As strong as it would be, he wasn’t sure he wanted to completely sacrifice future strength for a boost now. [Quench] was also powerful, but all of his abilities were already leaning toward fire.

While diversifying his strength would be useful, the Mesh expected people to focus in on a motif as they grew stronger. It didn’t force anything, but having a good vision of exactly what he wanted to be was imperative.

Granted, I’m a smith. Part of smithing is quenching the shit you make, and relying on a scuffed old barrel is hardly ideal. But… it’s not like there are any smiths in the world better than the dwarves.

Their gear was some of the best I’ve ever seen, and the more I learn, the more I realize I probably haven’t seen all that much at all. Even if it doesn’t give me anything now, I think the potential of [Molten Novice] is just too high to pass up on.

His mind set, Arwin chose his skill. The Mesh shimmered, then swirled into new glittering letters.

Your core skills have been chosen.

Arwin waved it away. That was nothing of surprise. He’d gotten his freebies. From what he remembered as the Hero, his levels from here on out would provide a variety of things, but they wouldn’t always be skills anymore. Level 5 would let him choose a skill to specialize in, and advancing his Tier to Journeyman would give him his first class advancement. After that, every 5 levels would provide skill related boons while the other ones were – well, whatever he managed to wring out of the Mesh.

He reached out to see if he could feel anything from [Molten Novice]. The skill was a passive, so it wasn’t like he could up and activate it. There was nothing apparent, but that changed little. He was confident in his decision. There were only so many things he could take for the immediate future. He also had to focus the long term, and the Mesh wouldn’t give him something completely worthless. Molten Novice would come into play – probably once he found something related to how the dwarves actually forged. He made a mental note to keep an eye out for any dwarven forges in the near future.

Arwin pulled up [Arsenal]. As he’d expected, the skill’s limit had raised from 3 pieces of equipment to 4. He summoned his helmet, releasing it from the temporary bond, and established a proper bond with it before banishing it once more.

He then took a second to study the new skill he’d gotten, but as he had expected, the passive didn’t seem to be doing anything. Not yet at least.

That’s fine with me. I’ve got some greaves to forge.

And, after that, I have some people to kill.