---

Dante

The Ancient one came for me at the crack of dawn and led me down a series of complicated stairs, leading me to somewhere they called the Forge of Kushala, named after one of the oldest Sorcerer Supremes.

It resembled the interior of what I’d expect of a mythical forge. Walls made from some alien stone with muted glowing symbols etched with ancient Sanskrit and other dead languages. I noticed the fire at the center of the forge too late. A bright roaring thing, around which the entire forge seemed to be built. Several feed stations packed with thick runes and spells surrounded it.

Some distance from it, there were other elements you’d find in a typical blacksmithing forge. Tons on Anvils, grinding wheels, Barrels, Cabinets, tables, and a tool station containing Tongs, hammers, chisels, and cutters.

I gaped in wonder at the mastery and sheer scale, spinning around and around, taking it all in.

“It’s good to see you so wide-eyed,” Yao observed. “Perhaps you will pick Blacksmithing up as quickly as you claim to learn everything else.”

“Oh, I already know how to smith,” I said casually as I wandered closer to a deserted station and ran my hand over an anvil.

“What!” Yao sputtered. “How—when did this happen? Jean told me nothing of the sort, and I’ve reviewed your life extensively. You’ve never held a hammer a day in your life—which is an impressive feat all on its own.”

My mouth twisted at the jab, but it was true. I was the noobiest of noobs at blacksmithing, and now I was claiming that I knew my shit.

I could’ve spun a wild tale, tried to gaslight her, and kept my secret to myself, but I was slowly becoming brutally out of the depth I was. A Lesser demon’s poison nearly killed me and Jean, and they were basically the lower rung of society over there. And don’t even get me started on the Phoenix, Quellitrax, Shin, and all of the other enemies I’ve intentionally and unintentionally made.

I had to come clean, at least partially. She’d been nothing but open, fair, and kind.

“I have a secret ability even the affinity spell did not reveal,” I said. “I can exchange souls for knowledge and select items.”

Yao looked at me like I had two heads. “That’s unheard of. Matter Creation on that level would require monstrous power, and while the soul is powerful, I doubt you have the ability to manage such a feat.”

Her explanation was eye-opening, and it was yet another evidence that Shin was a cheap son of a bitch. I was beginning to think that the only power he spent on me was shoving me into Dante’s body.

I shrugged. “I honestly don’t, but beings on the level of the Phoenix can,” I said. “You want to know why I’m different? One of them reached out to me a while back after a particularly reckless night and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” I explained. “My life for a handful of favors, and I’ve been involuntarily in their service ever since.”

It was a risk telling Yao of my situation, but she had experience fighting against creatures that fought way above her weight class. She might know something I don’t.

“That explains a lot,” she said. “I initially thought it was your time affinity interfering with my readings, but it’s the entity. Their interference has closed all paths to the truth. They do not want me meddling, but it’s not that is not what worries me. I know of every foreign entity that has breached, bypassed, or touched Agamotto’s seal in the last 500 years. Your benefactor somehow managed to evade my senses.”

That did not bode well for me. And here I was, thinking that I stood a chance.

“These favors he’s asking for,” she started. “Be wary of them and his gifts. If he’s taken this much care to hide them from me, they’re vital to his endgame, whatever that is.”

“Tell me something I don’t know. I’ve been avoiding his more tempting gifts,” I was, of course, talking about the classes and the Shard of Gluttony. “They’d make my life a hell of a lot easier, but he already has his claws so deep, I’m afraid he’ll have me completely.”

“Tell me more about these gifts?” Yao asked, and I did, holding nothing back. While it was tempting to hold onto all of my secrets, we were well past the point of no return. Jean would’ve told Yao eventually, as they were teacher and student, and it was just common sense to get help sooner rather than later if I could help it.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I told her about Shin’s store, the classes, my interface, skills, everything.

It was a long moment before she spoke. “This Shin would have utter control of you by the end of the year if you were anybody else.”

“What!”

“Your soul is far more robust than the average human because of your parentage,” she said. “That means you have a whole lot more leeway, but you’ve already lost a lot of ground. The Shard of Gluttony would’ve probably accelerated that timeline considerably, as would any direct infusion of power.

Purchased skills and life-saving measures are mere drops in the bucket, but a Class that conferred direct power would’ve shortened your timeline by a few years at least.”

I nearly pulled my hair out. This was so like him. Symbiotic relationship, my ass. He was smiling in my face while angling to stab me in the back.

“Fucking Shin. If I had taken the Gluttony Shard, how much time would I have had?”

“Given your description of its power and potential. Half a decade if you were lucky, likely substantially less.”

Fuck.

“So, you’re telling me that even the quest rewards, all of it, it’s slowly polluting my soul?”

“Yes, though I’d preface that they’re doing it at a considerably slower pace. As you’re spending now, you have three decades at most. The class could knock it down to twenty.”

“And the Shard could fucking burn it all down,” I finished.

“What about items? How much do they cost?”

“Drops compared to everything else. You’ll only have grounds for worry if you’re purchasing an items with a great corrupting influence.”

I sighed, rubbing my forehead. “Another fucking thing to worry about.”

To be honest, it wasn’t that big of a deal. I always planned to Divorce Shin sooner rather than later, but now that I had a timeline on all of this…I was even more nervous.

Choosing a Class suddenly carried more weight. I was beginning to fear that I might have to go it alone unless I found a class that was just perfect.

“Is there a way to reverse any of this?” I asked, desperation clear in my voice.

Yao shook her head. “Short of acquiring the Mind or Soul Stones, No.”

“That’s actually not as bad as I feared,” I said slowly. “But why the mind stone?”

“It can help expand and strengthen your mind, which in turn affects the soul. The soul stone provides more direct protection and strength.”

The path forward was becoming even more clearer. In a few years, I would either have to leave for Vormir with a sacrificial pawn or steal the mind stone. Both options worked for me.

Yao observed me with a fascinated look. “You’re taking this much better than I could’ve imagined. Having a multiversal being rummaging in your soul is never a good thing.”

I suppose she would know.

I shrugged. “I’m not going to agonize over things I can’t change right now. I’m going to watch my spending, buy and create tons of new skills, and prepare myself for the demon and eventual stone hunt. For now, I’m going to learn to smith. So, are we going to start or what?”

Yao spent the next hour or so testing me before leaving me to my devices. In that time, she gave me a thick booklet that contained all of the infernal runes they’ve accumulated over the years, all of which were largely tied to certain demonic race and their energy signatures. Hence, they were largely useless to the sorcerers.

They were also largely useless to me as well, but they did provide a partial framework that I could map onto my Arcane Blacksmithing skill.

The skill was fairly powerful despite being so cheap. It taught me how to use low-quality metal weapons from every class and how to infuse bog-standard fantasy enchantment into them. None of the runes provided elemental enchantments, though.

Rune of Impact: Increases a weapon’s raw physical damage, making each strike about 1.5 times more effective, and it works by channeling kinetic energy into the weapon and reinforcing the metal structure. I had a feeling this would go amazingly well with Adamantium and Vibranium…as soon as I could figure out how to make weapons from them.

Rune of Protection

Grants any armor of your choice increased durability, reducing the damage taken and impact taken by physical attacks. It worked by reinforcing the armor structure and providing additional protection to the wearer.

Rune of Precision

Increases the sharpness of your weapon of choice, allowing you to deal up to 2x as much damage. The rune works by sharpening the blade’s edge with arcane energies to improve overall effectiveness.

Rune of Accumulation

Provides the framework and storage site for the arcane energies used to power each rune. The rune required a gem of all things, and it was the most complicated of all of the runes.

I was not complaining, though.

Arcane Gunsmithing was a near One-to-one copy of Arcane Blacksmithing, with one obvious change. The base was Gunsmithing instead of Blacksmithing, and the skill taught me a great deal about guns, more than even my Gun Mastery skill. I knew how to clean, modify, and enchant them to deal the most damage.

I practically foamed at the mouth when I imagined how lethal the combination of Precision and impact could be for a rifle, shotgun, or grenade launcher.

The best part of all of this was that I could probably upgrade the skill with my knowledge in Infernal Blacksmithing.

Slowly, I was growing even more confident in my odds. I didn’t need a class, not really.

And I did not need Shin’s charity either.

Even the skill purchases were debatable. I’d barely scratched the surface of what I could really do. And don’t even get me started on my affinities.

The only thing I could say I needed for certain were the Stims and potions. Bloodlines, Weapons, Abilities, it was all a trap. A trap I’d have likely fallen for if I never had this conversation with Yao.

Unlocking Rebellion’s full potential will be a complete game-changer. I was looking forward to combining all manners of abilities, techniques, metals, and even people.

I looked up at the ceiling of the forge. Whether or not Shin would cut me off would be the real decider.