Reya brought Arwin the leather he needed just an hour or so before it was time to use it, and he put the finishing touches on Rodrick’s chestpiece shortly before nightfall. This time around, there was no vision.
The chestpiece sat, streams of blue metal running throughout a sea of silver. The Maristeel would be concentrated around Rodrick’s chest and sides. It swirled to gather around the shoulders and matched the patterns on the greaves perfectly.
The moment that Arwin took his hands off his creation, the Mesh rushed to acknowledge it. Energy gathered around the chestpiece and flooded into the metal before swirling forth as golden letters.
[Ripple Chestplate: Rare Quality] has been forged. Forging a magical item has granted you energy.
Achievement: [Smart Set] has been earned.
[Smart Set] – Awarded for forging a set made entirely of [Awoken] items. Effects: Gain guidance on a single class-related choice. This achievement will be consumed upon usage.
Arwin stared at the words floating before him. They shimmered innocuously, unaware of their meaning. He swallowed. Never before had he heard of an Achievement that gave advice. He didn’t realize something like that was even possible, and he wasn’t so sure he liked its meaning.
Good advice could only come from something that knew what it was doing. Granted, there was no guarantee that the advice would be good, but it seemed strange to give an Achievement that would give bad advice.
Achievements didn’t have any intelligence of their own. They were just one of the ways that the Mesh rewarded challenge. But, if one of them had advice rather than just a direct modification… it meant he would be getting the advice not from the Achievement, but from the Mesh itself.
And if I ask the Mesh itself for advice, that means it isn’t just aware. It’ll be aware of me in particular. I don’t know if that’s a good thing.
One of the Achievements he’d gotten recently had already been slightly suspect. [Decapitated] had felt a little more… personally addressed than the other Achievements he’d gotten.
He’d only gotten a moment to read it before it had vanished, but Arwin could have sworn it had said something about enjoying the show. Unfortunately, he had no way to verify that. The Achievement faded just moments after it had first appeared.
I’m willing to bet it really did say what I thought it did. And, if that’s the case, there’s no denying it. The Mesh is a lot more alive than anyone believed. Another secret that the Adventurer’s Guild kept? Or is this something that even they don’t know?
Arwin swallowed. He waved the Mesh away. Even though nobody else could read messages sent directly to him by the Mesh, leaving it out in the open felt dangerous. He glanced over his shoulder to look around the building.
Aside from his workstation, it was entirely empty. He shook his head and looked back to the armor. The Achievement implied that he’d succeeded at his work, but there was only one way to find out for sure.
Ripple Chestplate: Rare Quality
[Awoken]: This item has taken on life of its own. The echoes of a vast flowing river churn through it and empower its wearer. It will permanently bond to the first person to equip them.
[Rushing Barrier]: You are one with the raging river. This item will draw magical energy from its wearer whenever a blow successfully connects with them, reducing the attack’s impact with rushing water. The amount of energy this ability draws will scale with the intensity of the attack without limit. This ability is more effective when more liquid is present in the nearby environment.
[Crashing Wave] (Locked): Bring down the might of the churning river into a single blow. Use magical energy to draw in moisture from your surroundings before unleashing it in a strike. This ability is more effective when more liquid is present in the nearby environment.
[Ripple Armor]: This is a set item of [2] pieces. When the entire set is worn, [Crashing Wave] will be unlocked.
Arwin let out a pent-up breath he’d been storing in his lungs. The chestpiece had been a success. It had what could technically be considered a detrimental ability in the form of [Rushing Barrier]. Hypothetically, if Rodrick got hit hard enough, the armor could completely drain all his magical power in an instant.
That said, it was far better to be drained of energy than to be dead. The real test would be finding out just how much power the armor drew with normal blows. If it chewed through everything he had after just a few strikes, it wouldn’t be the best – but it would still be quite an effective piece for a tank.
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Looking past the potential detriment, the armor was fantastic. The set ability looked powerful and both the greaves and the chestpiece had powerful boons in their own right. He took one last look around the room to make sure nobody was watching him, then lifted his creation to his nose and took a sniff.
Fresh salt and seaweed greeted his nostrils. It was accompanied by notes of distant tropical fruit that made his mouth water.
Smells great. Doesn’t really give me any insight into [Magical Olfactory], though. I forgot to sniff the greaves, so I’ll have to do that before I give them to Rodrick. So far, everything I’ve tested with magic smells pretty good.
Arwin grinned and grabbed several uncut strips of leather to wrap around the armor and conceal it. He set the bundle down on the ground near the edge of the room before peeking out the door. It was darkening, but there were still a few hours before he felt he had to head back to the tavern.
Perfect time to make some bracelets.
He was out of new Brightsteel, but he had more than enough scrap and pieces that wanted to be various weapons lying around. He located a small strip of Brightsteel that hadn’t been large enough to put into the armor but didn’t seem too picky about what it turned out to be and got to work shaping it into a bracelet.
It was a process that Arwin had done so many times that it almost felt like second nature. He used [Scourge] to bend the bar once it was heated, working it into the proper shape like he was playing with wet sand.
In just under thirty minutes, he’d completely formed a bracelet. The Mesh rushed into the metal, filling it with power before filling the air with golden letters.
[Metal Bracelet: Average Quality] has been forged. Forging a magical item has granted you energy.
[Brittle]: This item has a chance of shattering on every blow. Upon shattering, the magical power stored within the weapon will be released in an instant, causing a minor magical explosion.
[Watery]: The memory of a flowing river runs in the flame that heated this metal, infusing it. This item can allow its wielder to move through the water at a slightly increased pace at the cost of magical energy.
It was far from the most useful bracelet that Arwin had ever made. Detrimental, with an ability that wasn’t all that useful. In other words, it was food. He lifted it to his mouth, then paused for a second to sniff it.
The vile scent of salt and what resembled burnt seaweed greeted him like a hammer blow. His nose scrunched in distaste and Arwin pulled the bracelet away from his face, gagging. It smelled wretched.
“What the hell?” Arwin asked, turning the bracelet over. He quickly sniffed at his hand to make sure none of the Maristeel scrap was somehow on it, but it was clean. The smell was coming from the bracelet.
Or, more accurately, it was coming from the magic in the bracelet. It was rancid. Arwin stared at it, his brow furrowed in confusion. It wasn’t any different from anything else he’d made, and it was average quality.
A chill ran down the back of his spine.
Don’t tell me that the Maw is telling me this isn’t enough anymore and that Average items are now too low in power to properly feed it.
He hurriedly grabbed some more Brightsteel scrap and brought it to the hearth, working it into a second bracelet. Another half hour later, he’d formed it into a second piece.
[Metal Bracelet: Average Quality] has been forged. Forging a magical item has granted you energy.
Metal Bracelet: Average Quality
[Toasty]: This item was made with such haste that it forgot to release some of the fire trapped within it. This item can grow hot at the cost of magical energy. Its wearer does not gain any resistances to its heat.
Arwin brought the still-hot metal to his nose and took a sniff. In complete contrast to the previous piece, it smelled like flowers and a grassy field. It wasn’t the most appetizing scent, but it was far from awful. The confusion knitting Arwin’s eyebrows intermixed with a relieved sigh as he lowered the bracelet.
It’s not the quality, then. The smell is coming from something specific about the bracelet, not its rank. That said, neither of these smell anywhere near as good as the rare equipment I made recently, so quality might have something to do with it as well. It isn’t everything, though.
And that meant the smell had to do with the magic in the bracelets. The first thought he had was the most obvious. [The Hungering Maw] didn’t want to eat items with bad detrimental traits such as [Brittle].
That couldn’t have been everything. The second bracelet only had a single trait and it was still at least slightly detrimental. Meanwhile, the first bracelet had a second trait that seemed just about as useful as the other bracelet’s – he just wasn’t anywhere near the water. He highly doubted the Mesh was going to count that against the bracelet.
“I wonder if it’s got to do with how bad the detrimental trait is,” Arwin mused to himself. “Brittle is just objectively bad, while Toasty could possibly be useful. Is it getting picky over the actual traits I eat rather than just magic in general?”
The Mesh didn’t respond. If he was right, he hadn’t made enough progress in his discovery to progress the Challenge. Arwin slipped both bracelets onto his wrists. Bad smell or not, they were both edible. He decided to wait to eat until the pain started in his stomach – with any luck, he’d end up using the bracelets in a fight and get two benefits for the price of one.
Even if the first one didn’t fill [The Hungering Maw], he was fairly certain that the two of them together would. He was tempted to make another, but it was already pretty late into the night.
I did promise Lillia I’d wake her up if I came back while she was sleeping, but it would probably just be better if I showed up before that. It’s not all that far from when I normally head over anyway.
Arwin held a hand out to the hearth and summoned the [Soul Flame] from it, then grabbed the bundle with Rodrick’s chestpiece and headed out to see if Lillia had made anything for dinner.