[Getting competent] has been consumed.

As much as Arwin wanted to check out his new gauntlets’ stats, he had an equally important task to handle first. His information page floated in the air before him, all his skills laid out in wait.

[Awaken] (Passive)

[Molten Novice] (Passive)

[Soul Flame]

[Arsenal]

[Dragon’s Greed]

Every new skill upgrade got harder and harder to choose. It was a good problem to have, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t a problem. There was no doubt that [Awaken] was probably the ability with the most potential in it.

Wyrmhunger’s existence proved that. The weapon, just an average dagger, had formed such an intense connection to Reya that it had literally killed a Wyrm for her. Even though Verdant Blaze hadn’t done anything at that level, he had felt the weapon’s growing intelligence over the past weeks.

He wasn’t sure why it wasn’t at Wyrmhunger’s level yet, but there was no denying that the hammer was powerful and would grow stronger still with time. [Awaken] gave his weapons the ability to become truly legendary. There was just one reason to hesitate.

[Awaken]’s upgrades also came with the most drawback. The last one had made it so that every magical item he made had a chance to essentially fight back against him. It wasn’t every single time, and it looked like he’d managed to avoid a vision whilst making the gauntlets, but it was far too frequent to just completely ignore.

I can’t have it so that my weapons are so strong that I literally can’t control them. If I’ve learned one thing about smithing in the relatively short time I’ve spent as a smith, it’s that I need to be the one in control. I can’t rely on the Mesh and I can’t let the materials just do what they want.

If I upgrade [Awaken] here, I could end up making it so that I can’t handle the visions that come with any Awakened weapons. It would be wise to wait a little longer before upgrading it again.

That brought him to the next in line, Molten Novice. Given the discovery he and Lillia had come to just a short while ago, it was definitely a strong contender. If he could find a way to control or use lava to melt down his metal and purify it, it could change everything.

Given the fact the Mesh gave me an achievement for the gauntlets, even though I can’t see their stats yet, I’m pretty sure the crafting attempt worked correctly this time. I just have no damn idea what upgrading Molten Novice would even do.

I need a proper dwarven smith to teach me. Maybe I can put out a request for one?

Arwin shook his head before he could go off on too much of a tangent. Molten Novice was a good option to go with, if only because he knew it would eventually be useful. It wasn’t like an upgrade would make it worse.

[Soul Flame] was in a similar position. It had been his most consistently useful ability and was integral to just about everything he did. He wasn’t sure what the next upgrade would do to it.

Maybe it’ll get more energy efficient or the temperature it can reach will go higher? No clue. Definitely an option, but I don’t think my hearth can actually handle a higher heat than what I’ve reached. There’s another thing I need to the add to the list. Better hearth for lava.

The final two options were [Arsenal] and [Dragon’s Greed]. Of the two, [Arsenal] was the first ability Arwin was able to dismiss from the list of potential options on the spot. It was a fantastic power and had been integral to his success thus far, but it already did everything he needed it to.

Making it stronger wouldn’t give him any real benefits. [Dragon’s Greed], on the other hand, was a different story. It had proven pretty useful in the Journeyman Ranked dungeon. Being able to spot magical items was a fantastic power. Sure, it didn’t help in a fight or with crafting, but getting more magical materials or items was literally never a bad thing.

An upgrade to the ability would probably end up letting it sense more accurately or farther. There was a chance it would let him specialize or focus on what he was searching for as well.

That was rather tempting. If he wanted to continue making very specific enchantments, he’d almost certainly start to need very specific components. There was no way to guarantee that was what he’d get, but Arwin had a decent understanding of the Mesh after all his years in the Kingdom of Lian.

It was a common sentiment that, even though the Mesh wasn’t alive, it still existed as a way to screw people over. Arwin had never agreed with the latter half of the statement, and after recent events, now he knew the first half of it was wrong as well.

The Mesh wasn’t malicious. It simply sought challenge. It gave people exactly what they wanted — it just didn’t make it easy. The Mesh didn’t care if someone succeeded or failed. As long as the opportunity was there, it was satisfied.

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That said, he had three pretty solid ability upgrade options. [Soul Flame], [Molten Novice], and [Dragon’s Greed]. Arwin considered the benefits and drawbacks of each one for a few more moments, not letting his impatience to see his new gauntlets interfere with his decision-making process. The gauntlets would still be there once he chose.

The first option he crossed off was [Molten Novice]. While making it stronger wouldn’t have hurt, he still didn’t actually know the full extent of what it did. Advancing an ability he didn’t understand, especially keeping in mind how badly the Mesh had held back his crafting when he’d over-relied on its guidance, felt like a poor idea.

After another minute of thought, Arwin crossed [Soul Flame] off as well. It currently did everything he needed it to and [Dragon’s Greed] would likely be more useful in the near future. He could always put another point into [Soul Flame] later but missing potential loot in a dungeon couldn’t be undone.

Arwin selected [Dragon’s Greed].

[Dragon’s Greed] – Your hunger for magical power has begun to manifest itself in the physical world. Extend your senses to search the area around you for magical items at the cost of significant magical energy. The range of this effect scales with the amount of magical energy used. At the cost of extra magical energy, the focus of this ability can be targeted to a specific type of magical item or material.

He smiled. He’d read the Mesh correctly — or perhaps it had just humored him. Either way, he’d gotten what he wanted and there was no reason to delay any longer. Arwin waved the glowing words away and quickly turned to his newly made gauntlets to finally discover what his efforts had netted him.

The Ivory Executioner’s Hands: Epic Quality

[Reave]: The insatiable hunger of a Wyrmling pulses within the razor-sharp tips of this item. Any wounds inflicted by this item on a living creature will steal a small portion of their physical strength. This trait’s effects are reduced the greater the target’s tier is than this item’s wielder.

[Magical Storage]: Any power taken by [Reave] is kept within this item and can be released into a weapon to empower its attack. Stored energy will eventually deteriorate if left untouched for sufficient amounts of time.

[Executioner’s Promise]: This item’s wielder can draw the energy held by [Magical Storage] into themselves instead of pushing it into a weapon. Energy drawn in this manner will temporarily stem wounds and provide a burst of resilience. A significant portion of the energy will be lost in conversion when this trait is activated.

[Armor of the Executioner]: This is a set item of [?] pieces. When the entire set is worn, a concealed property will be unlocked.

Arwin bound the gauntlets with the last remaining slot of [Arsenal] before he’d even finished reading over their abilities. A smile, equal parts delight and relief, crawled across his face.

The gauntlets had turned out perfect. They were exactly what he’d been hoping for. There was only a single problem with them — unlike all his other items, there was nothing to conceal their properties from anyone else.

Once he managed to finish the Ivory Executioner set, that wouldn’t be a problem. There were just two things left to do there. Namely, making sabatons and remaking his chestpiece. He was already planning to learn how to make boots, so the former would be next.

The chestpiece would come after. Then he would be done. Arwin studied his new gauntlets with the gaze of a proud father for another minute before dismissing them and letting out a satisfied sigh.

He stepped out of the back of the smithy and into the main room. The sunlight spilling in told him that it was already slightly late in the day and somewhere slightly past lunch. Arwin hesitated as he looked around the smithy.

Something felt off, and it took him a second to realize what it was.

All the gold that had been piled up just beside the back door was missing. His eyes widened. His gaze shot around the room, but there was no damage to anything. The door was intact and there weren’t any signs of a forced entry.

He shot out onto the street, striding for the inn. The door opened just as he went to reach for it and he found himself face to face with Rodrick. Arwin opened his mouth, but the warrior spoke before he could.

“Relax, Arwin,” Rodrick said through a chuckle. “The gold is fine. Lillia said you’d probably panic when you realized it was missing, but we didn’t want to bother you while you were working.”

The words died on Arwin’s lips and he ran a hand through his hair. “I probably should have guessed. I was so focused on my work that I wasn’t really thinking when I saw it was missing. Good timing. I would have burst in there yelling about thieves. You moved the gold, I take it?”

“Jake showed back up asking for his payment. We aren’t an official guild yet, but we figured there was no reason holding off and getting him in hot water,” Rodrick explained. “We got him his money and moved the rest into an unused room. We really need a better way to store it, by the way.”

“Another thing for the list,” Arwin muttered as his shoulders slumped and he shook his head. “Damn. That was a burst of emotions I wasn’t expecting. So everything is fine?”

Rodrick nodded. “All fine. Lillia did ask that we not disturb her right now, though. She started some big test with her cooking or something and wants to be focused.”

“Noted,” Arwin said. “Do you know if anyone else showed up looking for me today?”

“A few adventurers, but we had ‘em put their name on the waitlist. Were you waiting for someone in particular?”

“No, that’s perfect. Just good to know the interest is carrying over. I need to make sure we keep capitalizing on it. It’ll take a little while for adventurers to test out the armor, so I should get some more sets prepared for after demand starts going up.”

“Already?” Rodrick raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know what a break is, do you?”

“There’s a time and a place for a break, but this isn’t it. We’ve got too many enemies and too many things that can go wrong. The path before us is open, so we need to charge down at full speed until we’re at a spot where pausing is safe.”

“I know where you’re coming from, but I’ve lived by those thoughts before,” Rodrick said with a note of warning in his voice. “The problem with them is, no matter how far ahead you get, you never feel safe.”

Arwin grunted in agreement. “You aren’t wrong, but for the time being, this is fine. I’ll probably head into town, then. I want to see if the Adventurer’s Guild has finished officializing us yet.”

“Sounds good. I’ll let the others know,” Rodrick said. “I’m heading out to do a little reconnaissance on how the Ardent guild took our sales yesterday, so I’ll likely catch you around tonight.”

The two nodded to each other before parting ways, and Arwin set off to find the Adventurer’s Guild once more. If there was any way to get their guild formally recognized faster, they needed it. The sooner they did, the sooner the street would officially be theirs.