The plan worked brilliantly. Arwin kept waiting for something to go drastically wrong, but it never did. No rival smiths popped up and tried to burn his cart down. None of his customers showed up complaining about something.

He sold the first five sets of his armor, including the one he was saving for Vivian, and announced where the remaining five could be bought before setting off with his cart in tow. A number of people actually followed after him all the way back to the street.

Some broke away when they realized he was serious about the whole haunted street bit, but the final four had no problem trailing him up to his new smithy.

“I thought you said there would be a sign that said the Infernal Armory,” a woman said.

“I haven’t gotten around to hanging it yet. It’ll be up by tomorrow,” Arwin said. He set the cart down and started gathering his armor to bring inside. “By the way, now that you’re all here, I highly suggest the tavern down the road.”

Everyone turned to follow his gaze.

“The Devil’s Den,” one of the adventurers read, a note of amusement in his voice. “You lot are really leaning into this, aren’t you?”

“Sure are.” Arwin shrugged. “Why not? You can’t tell me you wouldn’t like to get served a meal by monsters. They’re normally trying to kill you. It’s a good change of pace.”

“Are you telling me there are real monsters in there?” the woman who had spoken before asked, disbelief crossing her features.

Arwin set the armor down so he could take his key out and unlock the door to the smithy. He turned back to the female adventurer and raised an eyebrow. “What do you think?”

“Idiot,” one of the men said with a chuckle. “You’re too gullible, Tiffany. Thank the gods your meat headedness translated into your class. You might be an idiot, but you’re a damn good sponge for damage.”

“Get too cocky and I’ll accidentally let a monster slip by me,” Tiffany said, flicking the man in the shoulder.

Arwin headed into the smithy and the four adventurers followed him in.

“So, can we buy something now?” Tiffany asked as Arwin started hanging the sets of armor from the hooks around the smithy.

“Yep,” Arwin said. “How many sets? Are you all together?”

“Yeah. Do you do guild discounts?”

“Depends on the guild. Probably not.”

“Jumping Tigers,” Tiffany said.

Isn’t that the guild that Ted and Leon are in? They must be growing — or just all have good taste. I suppose the people that were in the Iron Hounds had to go somewhere.

“No discounts yet, but I’ve sold to some of your members before,” Arwin said. “Good people. How many sets do you want?”

“I think two should be good, so long as you can modify ‘em,” Tiffany said. She held a chest piece up, then grimaced and lowered it again. “My ladies don’t fit in this.”

“It wasn’t made for a woman, so that’s hardly a surprise,” Arwin said. “Put everything on and follow me into the back so I can mark what needs to be modified.”

***

A little under an hour later, the group of four headed out of the Infernal Armory with two sets of armor. Tiffany’s modifications hadn’t taken too long and the other set had been fortunate enough to fit its new owner so well that the tweaks had only taken minutes.

The two new sales had netted Arwin another 600 gold. That brought his funds all the way up to over 2800 gold, which was the most he’d had since arriving in Milten by far. It almost felt unfair.

That said, gold was almost completely worthless to me in my past life. After a certain point, you can’t really get the things you really want with gold. You need resources that are far more valuable. But still… this much gold is incredible.

“You’re rich,” Reya said, holding up several bulging coin pouches. There was far too much gold to just fit into a single one. “You could kill a man if you threw this at his head.”

“You can kill people with most things if you throw them hard enough,” Arwin said idly. He peered out the door to watch the adventurers leave and was beyond pleased to spot them entering the Devli’s Den. “And it looks like Lillia’s got some customers.”

“For real?” Reya squeezed past Arwin to peer out the door. “Oh, this is awesome! Should we go check out how things are going?”

“Not yet. We don’t want to make them feel stifled, and the environment definitely sets you on edge a bit,” Arwin said. “Let them enjoy it on their own for now. Do you think you could just watch over the smithy in case the Oddjobs crew or anyone else shows up?”

“Sure, but why? Are you going somewhere?”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“Yeah. I’m going to go track down the merchant’s guild and let them know I’ve got a physical location for my shop now. I don’t want to deal with them trying to fine us or some shit.”

“Paying them money for doing nothing is stupid,” Reya grumbled. “But yes, I can watch the smithy.”

“Thanks,” Arwin said. “I’ll be back soon.”

He set off, banishing his armor as he left the street behind. There was no need to stride around drawing attention on an errand like this, and it would be a bit difficult to ask for directions when he looked like he was about to stride into battle.

Arwin had no idea where the Merchant’s Guild had set up shop. Fortunately, it didn’t take long to find out. He only had to ask one person to point him the right way before he located their building.

It was a quaint two-story hall tucked in between similarly sized buildings on either side of it that Arwin suspected to be the bases of other crafts guilds in the city. The door was open when he tried it, so he stepped inside.

A counter sat in the center of the room. There wasn’t anybody manning it, but the door behind it hung open to reveal a hallway beyond. Arwin headed down it until he came to an open door with a nameplate on it that he recognized.

“Jake?” Arwin asked, stepping into the room.

The merchant’s guildsman sat at a small desk, his chin in one hand and spinning a quill between the fingers of the other. He glanced up at Arwin, straightening and lowering his hands.

“Ah. I remember you,” Jake said. “The smith. What brings you here so soon? We don’t do refunds.”

“Not that. I opened up a physical storefront,” Arwin said. “You said I had to get that registered, so I figured I’d drop by and let you know about it sooner rather than later.”

Jake blinked. Then he scratched the back of his neck. “That was rather fast. Did you buy or renovate the building?”

“Renovated,” Arwin said. “It’s on the haunted street.”

“I see,” Jake said. “Well, I’ll come by to take a look at it tomorrow. You don’t have to be present for the inspection. I’ll just leave a note with the amount you owe and you can swing by to pay whenever you’d like within a week.”

“That works perfectly. Thank you. I’ve actually got a follow-up question to that. Do you know how much it would cost to just… buy the land of that whole street?”

“The haunted street?” Jake’s eyebrows rose. “That’s a lot of land.”

“A lot of entirely unused land,” Arwin pointed out. “Do you see anybody doing anything with it?”

“No,” Jake admitted. “But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be cheap. Land is land.”

“So you guys do have the right to sell it?”

“For your purposes, yes,” Jake said. “But no. Not really. We can facilitate the trade of land up for sale, and the haunted street’s land is up for sale. So technically, I can sell it to you. I’d just have to figure out what the going price for it is.”

“Well, I’d greatly appreciate that. I’m putting in a lot of work renovating the place and I’d be pissed as all hell if some prick tried to show up and take it from me.”

“Understandable. I suggest you start saving some coin, then,” Jake said. He adjusted the papers on the desk in front of him. “I’ll look into pricing as soon as I can. It will be at least a few days.”

“That’s all I’m asking. Thank you.”

Jake nodded in response and Arwin left the Merchant’s Guild. As far as guilds went, they actually seemed quite decent. He’d withhold his final judgement until he found out just how much money there were going to ask for the land, though.

Brokers or not, they’re going to have some level of control over the street’s pricing. If anyone is selling the area, then they’re probably desperate to be rid of it. Land isn’t any use when nobody is willing to enter it.

He traveled through the city and back over to his street, returning to the smithy. Conversation coming from within it greeted him as he approached. Arwin summoned his armor and opened the door to find Vivian and Reya speaking while Taylor and his brother sat in a corner.

“Oh, there he is,” Reya said.

“Sorry,” Arwin said. “I was taking care of some business. You showed up a bit later than I was expecting.”

“Tracking the merchant down was more difficult than expected,” Vivian said with a disgruntled huff. “They’ll swing by sometime tonight before it gets too dark. Do you think we could get the size-fixes done quickly? I want to get to the dungeon as soon as possible.”

“Sure thing. Follow me.” Arwin picked up a set of armor and led her over to the back of the smithy and into his work area.

He handed the armor over and waited while she pulled it on, then set about marking it up. Once he’d finished, Arwin waved Vivian back into the main room and got to work modifying it. Vivian’s changes were a little more extensive than Tiffany’s had been. They ended up taking him around half an hour, but he was still satisfied with the results. It wasn’t exactly anything groundbreaking. The armor was still mundane. He hadn’t gotten any help from the Mesh either, but he was pretty sure it would fit Vivian and do its job. That was all that mattered.

Arwin brought the armor back into the main room. Vivian, who had joined the brothers in their corner, hopped to her feet and hurried over.

“Is it done?” she asked.

“Yeah. Give it a try and see if everything fits.”

That was exactly what she did. Vivian fastened the armor on. Her mouth parted in a small o as she tested out her range of motion. “Whoa. You actually got it.”

“Is that a surprise?”

“A bit,” Vivian said with a laugh. “I’ve barely heard of your work before. I wasn’t too optimistic about some random new smith that makes his business by yelling at crowds, but your work looked shiny enough to take a risk on. This is pretty comfy too. Well, as comfy as armor gets.”

“Thank you. I hope it serves you well,” Arwin said. “If you’re satisfied—”

Vivian wordlessly held out a pouch of gold. Arwin took it with a smile. “Pleasure doing business. Good luck in the dungeon.”

“Given how you’re dressed, I don’t feel weird saying likewise,” Vivian said. “Something tells me you hit monsters just as much as metal.”

Arwin gave her a small shrug. “Forging materials come in all shapes and sizes.”

“I’m sure they do,” Vivian said with a laugh. The brothers both rose to their feet and nodded to Arwin before the trio headed out the door and into the street. They headed back into town instead of checking out the Devil’s Den, but Arwin wasn’t particularly surprised. They’d had plans, after all.

That’s probably for the best. Lillia hasn’t had any real new customers yet, so limiting it to just a few for the time being is ideal.

“Why don’t we go check in on Lillia?” Arwin suggested.

“You don’t think she’s having trouble, do you?” Reya asked with a concerned frown.

“Only one way to find out,” Arwin replied. “But I’ve got faith in her. I just wanted to leave her in her own element for a bit before we stuck our noses in.”

“Works for me,” Reya said with a shrug. “I’m getting hungry anyway. I hope Lillia saved some food for us.”