Arwin held up the efforts of the last two hours of work — a pair of Ivorin and Brightsteel gauntlets, spiked at the fingertips. The white gemstone had been inlaid in one gauntlet, the wyrm tooth in the other.

Even though they weren’t in the same piece of equipment, the Mesh saw handwear as a single item, so Arwin hadn’t seen any reason why that wouldn’t work.

Ivory Brightsteel Gauntlets: Rare Quality

[Broken Weeping Ravager]: This item longs to rip power from its fallen foes, but the powers it desires lie beyond its reach. It can both rip and swallow, but it cannot maintain.

Arwin’s fingers drummed on the table as he studied the gauntlets. Something had obviously gone wrong. The Mesh had acknowledged that both the claw and the white gem were hypothetically capable of doing what he wanted, but the gauntlet had still failed.

Not only was the trait wrong, but it didn’t look like the metal had imparted any of its own desires on the gauntlets as well. While he didn’t mind having more control over the result, normally there was at least something from the metal.

There was a possibility the flaw was in the combination of Brightsteel and Ivorin itself. But, if that were the case, then it would be impossible to make the gauntlets of the Ivory Executioner Set.

Maybe the set doesn’t have gauntlets? But that wouldn’t make sense. It’s clearly a large set. I’ve got a helm, greaves, and chestpiece already. There’s no way this isn’t a six item set. Gauntlets have to be part of it. So what did I do wrong? My intent?

That didn’t seem likely either. The intent clearly showed through in the item description. It was trying to become what he wanted. There was something else missing. The problem was figuring out what.

Arwin blew out a breath and set the pair of gauntlets into his Soul Flame together with a Brightsteel bracelet, transferring the trait over and adding the bracelet to his collection. He then removed the gemstone and Wyrmling tooth from the gauntlets. He hammered them out and set them to the side — the metal was mixed now, so he’d have to use it for a different purpose.

“If I assume that both the tooth and the gemstone are functional, then that only leaves my intent and the actual metal I used,” Arwin mused to himself. He ran a finger along the flat edge of the Wyrmling tooth, then turned it over in his hand. “Brightsteel and Ivorin have both worked for the rest of the items. Even if the gauntlets aren’t part of the Ivory Executioner set, I refuse to believe I can’t make this trait. It’s clearly possible.”

Arwin shook his head and stepped away from his [Soul Flame] to start pacing around his smithy. It wasn’t that making Ivory Executioner gauntlets was impossible. He was just missing something.

Right. What are the possible components that go into any item? There’s the metal, the monster parts, and the intent. Three things. Simple. The monster parts are almost certainly correct — or if not correct, viable. I should be able to make something that functions with them, even if it isn’t exactly my goal.

Intent had been addressed as well. The fact he’d made gauntlets that tried to rip energy and store it proved that. So, unless there was another variable he was overlooking, that only left the metal.

Arwin walked over to the Ivorin and picked up an unworked bar. It definitely felt like Ivorin. Madiv hadn’t inadvertently given him a fake. The Brightsteel was no different. They were authentic.

A flicker of frustration rolled through Arwin’s stomach and his jaw clenched.

“I don’t get it,” Arwin muttered. “Why the hell won’t this shit work?”

There was a faint tingle at the nape of his neck, almost as if the Mesh was laughing at him. That — or it was about to offer him another challenge. Arwin’s eyes narrowed.

“Hell no. I can figure this out on my own. I don’t need you to hold my damn hand through everything. Get lost.”

The tingle faded.

He blew out a breath and forced himself to relax. Getting pissed off wasn’t going to help him out. Arwin stepped out of the smithy and headed over to the tavern, where Lillia was at work in the kitchen.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

She had a large piece of Wyrmling meat cut into ribbons on a board before her and was studying it intently, her tongue protruding slightly from her mouth. Arwin waited patiently at the side of the kitchen for nearly a minute before Lillia noticed him and nearly jumped out of her shoes.

“Oh, Arwin! I didn’t realize you were here,” Lillia said. “You should have said something.”

“You looked busy. I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“It’s fine. I was just trying to figure out what the best way to marinate meat was,” Lillia said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Is everything okay?”

“I’m having a bit of trouble figuring out a problem, so I figured an outside perspective might be useful,” Arwin admitted as he rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grin.

“I can certainly try. What is it?”

“I’m trying to make the gauntlets of my Ivory Executioner set, but to do that, I need to use two different monster parts. One for each task the gloves have to do. The problem is they won’t seem to work together. The Mesh has acknowledged that the components should hypothetically work, but the gauntlets don’t function.”

Lillia took a step back from the meat and sucked on the insides of her cheeks as she thought for a few seconds. “The materials are the same as the rest of the ones in the set?”

“Aside from the monster parts, yeah.”

“And you aren’t messing up the ratio of metal or something like that?”

“I don’t think so. It’s no different than the amounts I used for the rest of the set.”

“Intent is correct as well, I take it?”

Arwin nodded. “Yeah. I’m also using metal that actually wants to be gauntlets, so it’s not like I’m fighting it. It should be helping me.”

They both fell silent for a few more moments. Then Lillia tilted her head to the side, her gaze returning to the meat on the counter. “You know, when I think about a recipe, the result is only as good as all the ingredients that go in. There’s more to an ingredient than just the type.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’m not sure it’s a complete one to one comparison, but take this,” Lillia said with a nod. “Wyrmling meat is a good ingredient, but I tried marinating one piece in water. It didn’t turn out very well.”

“Why did you try marinating something in water?”

Lillia’s cheeks colored. “I wanted to see if it would get juicier. It just got watery. That’s despite the point. You can have different qualities of the same ingredient. I ruined the piece of Wyrmling meat by marinating it.”

“You don’t marinate metal, though,” Arwin said. “It’s just a brick of Ivorin. I haven’t done anything special to it.”

“Maybe that’s the problem. It could need preparation or something,” Lillia offered.

Arin considered the idea for a few moments. It wasn’t a bad one, but he had absolutely no idea how he was meant to prepare metal. Metal was metal, after —

Wait. Impurities. I’m an idiot. No piece of metal is just pure metal. There’s shit in the Ivorin and Brightsteel that lowers its quality. I don’t know how much that could affect something, but lower quality metal is a worse material, and that means the item as a whole is worse.

“You might be a genius,” Arwin exclaimed. “Thank you!”

Lillia blinked. “I — uh… you’re welcome?”

Arwin was already out the door. He shot back into the smithy and over to his hearth. He had no clue how much impurity was in a piece of Brightsteel or Ivorin, but there was definitely some.

All he had to do was figure out how to remove it.

That, unfortunately, immediately stumped him.

How do I completely get crud out of metal? Now that I think about it, that was the whole point of banging the crap out of the metal before I start working with it. I was kind of just mimicking the smiths I’ve seen before. Was there another way they cleaned metal up?

Arwin’s brow furrowed as he dug through his memories, but nothing came to mind. He started to pace again. There had to be a better way to purify metal than smacking it.

Logically, what even are impurities? Probably dirt or stone or the like. Doesn’t that melt slower than metal?

His eyes flicked over to the [Soul Flame] in his hearth. It wasn’t nearly hot enough to straight up melt metal… but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do it. One of the upgrades he’d gotten for [Soul Flame] allowed him to increase its temperature at the cost of drawing more energy.

Arwin grabbed a piece of Brightsteel and used [Scourge] to break off a palm-sized chunk. He glanced around the room for anything to hold it, then quickly realized that he had no idea what Brightsteel and Ivorin’s melting points were. It was hard to make a holster to melt something if the holster ended up melting first.

Eh, I suppose my hands will do.

He took the piece of Brightsteel to the hearth and cupped his palms beneath it as he brought the metal into the warm fire.

I wonder how hot metal needs to get to start melting.

Another thought struck Arwin and he paused for a moment as a piece of a puzzle he hadn’t even been actively considering clicked into place.

Is this why dwarven smithing uses lava? It would explain a ton. It’s not just to look cool. It’s damned hot. Great way to melt metal. I don’t know how I didn’t see that earlier. It’s too bad I don’t have that magma ball anymore, but I already put that to a good use.

Arwin started pouring magical energy into the [Soul Flame], bringing its temperature up as high as he could take it.

There was only one thing left to do.

He had to melt some metal.