What the hell is that? Hana, I don’t understand what I’m seeing here.

What do you mean?

There’s an attribute here that I don’t recognize, but there’s something else-

“Boy,” the forgemaster glowered at him. “I let it slide earlier, but I’ll not stand here and let you whisper about me. Not in my own forge. Now out with it.”

“It has three attributes including one I’ve never seen before along with something called ‘affinities’,” he spat out.

The woman’s eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open. Quietly and gingerly, she took the vambraces back and placed them in the box she retrieved them from.

“What is this, Magwi?” Hana questioned. “We didn’t come here to be tested.”

“Hush, child.” The woman quieted Hana before speaking. “You’ve never seen the ‘Bear’ attribute or affinities…”

“The both of you need to understand something,” she started. “For a smithy to identify an object, they need to work on it. Sharpen an edge, replace the leather handle, polish a gem, but we have to do something. The trouble is, changing anything can reduce the attributes or boosts of an enchanted item.”

“But you knew what the dragon’s scale was just by holding it,” Hana said.

Magwi nodded. “Yes, as a forgemaster I can identify a wide variety of items by physically handling them.”

The woman paused and stared at the two siblings expectantly.

Finally, it dawned on Jinyoung. “Shit. I can [scan] it from a distance.”

The forgemaster nodded excitedly. “Yes, boy! But more than that, you can see all the attributes and descriptions, can’t you?”

When Jinyoung nodded, the woman exploded with laughter.

“That’s insane! Even the technomancer doesn’t have that!”

The forgemaster calmed herself down and explained that there were multiple classes that could unlock identification skills. These skills allowed players to discover information about items, monsters, environments and even other players. But each skill was imperfect in the same way.

“They require you to build a database of terms. For example, those vambraces have class affinities, but until you’ve identified enough items with class affinities, you can’t see that!”

The forgemaster was fairly dancing with excitement before she slowly started to calm down.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“I knew the system had some secrets, but this takes the cake,” she whistled.

“So what does this mean?” Hana asked.

The old woman took a deep breath and smiled. “It means, child, that the second word gets out, your brother will have a target on his back. It means that unless you want every corporate dog on your trail, you need to be better at keeping this quiet.”

***

Cyrus hated hospitals. He spent days by his father’s hospital bed. He was tired of doctors, nurses and the scent of antiseptic that permeated the place.

“Sir?”

The boy’s voice reminded Cyrus of why he had come. He smiled reassuringly at Jonas.

“Are they taking good care of you here, squire?”

“Yes, sir. A-and I feel great, too. I think I should be back to fighting shape in a few days, sir,” Jonas stammered out.

Cyrus did his best to smile warmly. “No need for all that. Take your time, the clan’ll take care of any bills and your family will be properly compensated. Just rest up.”

He had a busy schedule, but Cyrus insisted on visiting the squire. It was the least he could do.

“Thank you, sir!”

But Cyrus knew better. Jonas’ injuries resulted in spinal damage to his nerves. If he was lucky, the recovery would take months if not years. The halls of the hospital were pristine and lifeless. The few nurses and doctors he came across bowed their heads low and scurried to remove themselves from his path.

“For the good of Society,” he muttered under his breath.

“There was a time when you believed that,” Seah said. “You don’t have to visit every injured rookie, you know?”

Cyrus turned around to see his wife standing in the hall. He must’ve walked right past her and not noticed. She flashed him a warm smile, but Cyrus was in no mood to be comforted.

“He wouldn’t be here if you’d just showed up at Seorak like you were supposed to,” he countered.

Seah just smiled. “You know as much as I do that heroes are forged through fire. You can’t build a flame without some collateral damage.”

“What about the others, Seah?”

A flicker of emotion shown on Seah’s face, but only for a moment.

“Guildmaster Muho nearly died out there and the Arcane Fox clan lost a squire in the dungeon!” he shouted. He looked back down the empty hall.

“We do what we can, Cyrus. That’s all we can do.”

Her voice was cold. Cyrus had become accustomed to this version of his wife. Frigid and calculating, not unlike his grandfather. But over the past few weeks, he could see cracks in her armor. A small twitch or a bit of sadness in her eyes when she smiled. He could see it now.

“Where were you just now, Seah?”

Seah smiled again, the mask firmly back in place. “I delivered a message to Hana and Jinyoung. They’re headed north to search for Hana’s estranged husband.”

Cyrus was quiet for a moment. Not because he didn’t suspect Seah of foul play, but because he hoped he was wrong.

“Since when does the Director of the Player Society act as a carrier pigeon?”

“Since your grandfather asked,” she answered simply.

***

“We found the dungeon source of the Seorak Outbreak and defeated the boss,” Jinyoung said. Magwi had been full of questions, not just about Jinyoung but the dragon’s scale and its origins.

The blackened forgemaster’s eyebrows raised upon hearing that. “Gigan Corp’s been milking that one for years. It’s about time someone stood up to them.”

The two siblings traded confused looks before questioning the wizened woman.

“Yeah, didn’t you know, girl? Rumor was, Gigan Corp’s had the mining rights to the Seorak dungeon since the first outbreak,” the forgemaster replied, still inspecting the scale. “The few players who still go looking for the dungeon either get warned off or disappear. Haven’t you heard the stories?”

Hana and Jinyoung looked at each other. Each trying to digest the information and both trying to decipher what this meant for them.

Shit.