“That’s… a really nice sword,” Olive said, swallowing heavily.

“Yeah, it’s nice,” Arwin agreed noncommittally, watching her carefully. There was a very, very small chance that she would be stupid enough to try and take someone captive to claim the sword for herself. It wasn’t one he suspected she would take, but it never hurt to be prepared.

“If Rodrick doesn’t want that… would you be willing to sell it?” Olive asked.

Arwin blinked. “What?”

“I know I can’t afford it now,” Olive said hurriedly. “But an elemental weapon… that would let me fight so much more effectively. If it’s less than a thousand gold, I’d give you all the money I earn from the dungeons until I pay it off. If nobody else wants it, that is.”

Arwin tilted his head to the side. There was some significant desperation in Olive’s tone. She wanted it for more than just because it was a fancy sword.

Are magical items actually that ridiculously rare? A thousand gold? That’s…

“I know a thousand is cheap. I could maybe try for higher,” Olive offered weakly.

“We’ll discuss loot later, once we’ve seen the rest of it,” Arwin said – half just to see how she would handle the rejection.

Olive bit the insides of her cheeks and nodded. “Okay.”

She wants it, but she’s handling it pretty respectably. Not too pushy. Good sign for her possibly joining the group in the long run.

Arwin set the sword down by his side and pulled the bag open to peer inside it. He was expecting gold or another weapon but got neither. Instead, he found a sheath for the blade at his feet, a bundle of black herbs, and a small stone vial covered with craggy orange lines that glowed with faint light.

The Mesh activated once more – not for the sheath, but for the dry plants and the vial.

[Smolderweed] – A magic-infused herb that grows exclusively within volcanos. Considered a delicacy by many earth dwelling races, this plant requires immense temperatures to ignite. But, when it does, it burns hotter than most can handle.

[Portable Molt] – A vial stuffed full of magma and sealed with magic… but not very well.

Something told Arwin that the Mesh’s idea of burning may have been more than just spicy. As for the vial – that sounded like something he wasn’t going to touch until he was absolutely sure he wanted to.

Having a way to get some lava sounded like it could be pretty useful for his [Molten Novice] skill.

Great stuff. Now all I need to do is lug some of this metal back and I’ll be the happiest bloke alive.

He left the plant and the vial in the bag as he pulled the sheath of the sword out and slid it over the blade. As soon as it was covered, the information about it vanished.

The herbs go to Lillia. I’m sure she can do something fun with them. I might keep one or two for myself in case there’s any use for them in forging. I’m keeping the vial myself. As for the sword… well, let’s see.

“Okay,” Arwin said with a grin. “Now we can talk about loot. I don’t personally use a sword, so I don’t need this. It’s between Rodrick, Reya, Lillia, and Olive.”

“You use a sword?” Olive asked, looking at Lillia in surprise.

“Not as much as I used to, but I know how to,” Lillia said with a small shrug. She sent a glance at Arwin, then shook her head. “I don’t think I need this one. I wouldn’t get nearly as much use out of it as anyone else here would.”

“I want my dagger,” Reya said firmly. She paused for a moment, then cleared her throat. “Well, if we can get it back. If we can’t I’ll take a different weapon. I don’t think a sword would be that great for me though. I don’t know how to use anything but a dagger, so giving me a magic sword is a waste.”

“I could use it,” Rodrick said, scratching the side of his neck in thought. “Haven’t ever had a chance to get my hands on anything other than a plain sword.”

Olive bit her lower lip keeping herself from saying anything more. She seemed resigned to accept any decision that they came to. It was certainly a nice sword, but Arwin wasn’t all that impressed.

I’ve made considerably better magical weapons myself. Granted, this one has no detrimental traits and its buff is actually quite interesting, but is fire on a blade really going to do that much? The magical damage will be good against monsters that are immune to normal weapons, but aside from that… a fiery sword isn’t all that useful if it’s just normal fire.

At some point, I want to make everyone in the guild a powerful set of equipment. If I make Rodrick something any time soon, that sword is almost certain to get invalidated.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

He took another few moments to think, more to continue observing Olive’s expression than anything else. The sword really didn’t matter to him – or anyone in the guild, for that matter. It was much more useful as a way to judge the one-armed swordswoman’s character.

And, as far as Arwin could tell, she’d handled everything better than most would. He could have given the sword to Rodrick anyway to really test her reaction, but that felt like it was going too far.

She hadn’t even asked to join the guild. Putting her through a bunch of tests beyond this one would have been ridiculous.

“How much did you say you’d be willing to pay for this?” Arwin asked, turning the blade over in his hand and looking to Olive.

A flicker of hope passed through her features before she quashed it. “I could try to do twelve hundred and fifty gold over the course of a few months, depending on how dungeons went. It would take me a while, but I’d make the money. You already know I’m good for it.”

“Is there a reason you want this sword so badly?” Arwin asked. “It’s not the strongest magical weapon I’ve ever heard of.”

Olive snorted. “Yeah. Legends are great, but you can’t kill things with them. I’ve seen a few magical weapons before, but it all boils down to the fact that it’s an advantage. I need every single one of those that I can get. It’s a rolling stone, you know? A little bit of power leads to a bit more, and then that leads to more. It’s always worth trading money for it.”

“It’s not just money,” Arwin pointed out. “It’s time. You’re offering to dedicate months of your time to us.”

“It gets me stronger, doesn’t it? That’s my only goal. I’d be paying just as much if not more if I was trying to buy a magical item from another adventurer or merchant but I’d have to earn all the money beforehand and then carry it around with me. That’s basically asking for something to go wrong.”

Olive made a good argument. It was a bit invalid for Arwin, but it did give him even more of an idea as to just how rare magic items were. Olive really wanted this sword. He could tell from her voice that she completely meant every word she said. It wasn’t that the blade was secretly the key to something stronger or it was more than it seemed to be in any way.

It was just a slight edge. A tiny step forward. And, to Olive, that was enough to trade away months. Power begot power. A logical decision – for anyone that didn’t know about what he could do.

Arwin spun the sword around so that he was holding it by the sheath and held it out to Olive, hilt first.

“I’ll make you a sword later,” Arwin told Rodrick. The former paladin shrugged in response. He didn’t seem all that torn up about the loss of the weapon. Arwin got the feeling he was probably already envisioning the weapon he’d ask for.

Olive swallowed. Her eyes were transfixed on the sword like it were made out of pure gold. “I can really have it?”

“Two months of running dungeons or whatever else it is we need you to do. Not gold, just the time. We’ll split shares equally as we have been.”

Olive tore her gaze away from the sword as a suspicious frown crossed her lips. “What? No gold? Even shares? What are you aiming for here? Those terms don’t make sense at all.”

If I’m actually going to recruit Olive into our guild at some point, I can’t scam her out of a thousand gold when I’ll be making weapons for the others for either free or the cost of materials. I don’t exactly have much choice without giving away more than I want to.

“Those are the terms. Take them or leave them.”

“What kind of things would you be making me do?”

“Nothing that a normal adventurer wouldn’t,” Arwin said with a dry laugh. “There isn’t anything hidden in the deal. We’re not going to try to turn you into an indentured servant or some shit like that. I won’t say it’ll be safe, but it’s going to be more of what we were doing today. Just… probably bigger enemies.”

That proved too much for Olive to resist. She reached out and took the sword from Arwin. Her thumb ran along the plain sheath and she stared at it for a second before shaking herself out of the stupor and attaching the sheath to her belt just above the other one.

“Done,” Olive said. “Looking forward to working with you. That might have been the cheapest magical weapon ever sold. Now that I’m trapped, was there really no trick? Was the sword damaged or something in a way that only a smith could see?”

“Trapped?” Arwin raised an eyebrow. “Not that I disagree, but nobody’s forcing you to carry through the deal. It isn’t magically enforced.”

“I gave my word. As long as you act according to what you promised, then I’ll do the same.”

Arwin inclined his head in respect. It was looking more and more like he’d made the right choice in looking to recruit her. “There’s nothing wrong with the sword as far as I can tell.”

“Then why…” The befuddlement on Olive’s face was so thick that Arwin couldn’t help but laugh.

“Does it matter? Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Arwin jerked his chin over his shoulder. “Now, let’s get going. I have things to craft, and I’ve been sitting around in this dungeon for long enough. And Olive, needless to say, keep that sword sheathed.”

“Logically,” Olive said with a nod.

“Great. Then let’s get out of here.”

Between his bow, learning how to make gauntlets and boots, and figuring out the secrets of [Molten Novice], he had a lot ahead of him – and he wanted to get as much of it as possible done in the next few days.

The chunks of metal in the forge were far too large for Arwin to actually try and bring back, though it wasn’t for lack of trying. They felt like they’d been welded into the ground and they stubbornly resisted any attempt to break chunks off them.

After working at it for a few minutes, Arwin was forced to give up and follow on his earlier promise to head out.

They took the armor off the large man as well, though it was a little too bulky to actually carry out without looking incredibly suspicious. Arwin spent a few moments studying it. The metal seemed decent, so he didn’t want to waste it.

At the same time, he had some materials to work with already and their bags were pretty full. Striding out with someone else’s armor just held in his hands would be pretty suspicious — so he chose a different path. Arwin stashed the man’s gear in the chest that they’d taken the loot from before closing it.

He doubted that anyone else would be making it to this location anytime soon. The key to it was still in the door, and it was unlikely that there was more than one.

With everything secured, they headed out and back into the dungeon proper. Arwin closed the huge doors behind the group once they’d left the strange workshop, pulling the key out from where it rested and tucking it into his pocket.

As long as he had the key, he’d have a way to get back into the room. It looked far too out of place in the dungeon to not have been artificially made. The room would almost certainly still be around the next time they returned – even if the way back was slightly different.