Chapter 304: 304. Forging Plans

Finding Fire Sky turned out to be more difficult than it seemed. Initially, Nil had refused flat out. Then, when he had seen that Dallion was serious on the matter, he had reluctantly agreed, but under the condition that Dallion wouldn’t change guilds. Since Dallion had no such intention, the promise was easily made. It was at that point that the hunt began.

Initially, Dallion went to the Flameforge guildhall. There, a polite woman—Estezol’s equivalent—had explained that Fire Sky was unavailable and firmly refused providing any additional information on the subject.

It was by pure chance that Mord had stumbled on the whole thing. Dallion’s future rival was busy training for the tournament, so he happened to spend a lot of time at his guild—which had a proper training section, rather than a series of training items in the basement.

On his part, Mord was uncertain where his captain was at this time, but since Fire Sky liked to have echoes of her subordinates at all times, he attempted to use that to let her know. Furthermore, he used his position within the guild to gain access to the emergency contact ring Fire Sky had left, to have a chat with her echo as well. The conversation was long, even if it only lasted a second in the real world. In the end, all that Mord was able to provide as assistance was the name and location of the tavern the captain was having her lunch—the Squid Head.

The tavern in question was on the other side of the city and by the time Dallion reached it, she had already gone. Thankfully, since she was a regular, the service staff had heard her going for a walk near the city’s orchid lake, as she usually did.

Nil had insisted—and rightfully so—that finding any person among a crowd of hundreds was next to impossible. Dallion, however, persisted and went there nonetheless. Only after arriving there did he see the extreme difficulty of the task at hand.

The lake, usually a calm and serene place, was filled to the brim with people to the point that city guards were needed to handle the situation. No one in their right mind would come here for a relaxing stroll, and even if they had, there were too many people to check all of them out.

If nothing else, you did your best, Nil said.

I’m not quitting, Nil.

Dear boy, you know my thoughts on the matter, but even putting those aside, there is no way to find her among this crush of bodies. That is assuming she is even here. Sky was always the impulsive type, changing what she’s doing halfway through at a whim.

Finding her isn’t the issue, Dallion said as he leapt onto the roof of a nearby building. She likes to keep echoes of her subordinates at hand. Dallion took out his kaleidervisto and skimmed through the crowd.

To his relief, there were no new instances in chainlings. Also, after less than a minute, he found precisely what he was looking for—a large cluster of echoes among which, on further inspection, was Mord.

Pure luck, Nil grumbled.

It’s a good thing to be lucky, then. Dallion put the device away, and shoves his way to the spot in question. Upon getting closer, finally Dallion found her. The woman was sitting on a patch of grass at the shore of the lake. To no one’s surprise, the area of the lake was marked as Flameforge guild property as several signs contested along with a few city guards.

“Sorry, this is a private section of the lake,” one of the guards said as Dallion approached. “Please move along.”

“It’s fine,” Fire Sky said as she continued to stare at the lake. “He’s a guest.”

That seemed to do the trick, for the guard quickly stepped back, silently watching as Dallion walked past.

“Thanks,” Dallion sat on the grass next to the captain. “I wasn’t sure you’d have some time for me.”

“That’s a lie,” the woman said calmly. “After coming to my guild and getting Mord, use the emergency ring to ask for directions. You wouldn’t have taken no for an answer. I just decided to see the degree of your dedication. So, now that you’re here, what is it you want? Have you decided on my offer?”

“Not yet. I’ve come with a different offer in mind.” Now was the time to put into practice what he had learned during his leveling up. “And also, a question.”

“Offer and a question,” Fire Sky mused. “Please, continue.”

“I’d like to learn how to forge a dagger of iron,” Dallion said. “Enough to earn my hammer. In return I’ll owe you a favor.”

“Will you join my guild?” she asked directly.

“Another favor,” Dallion quickly clarified. “And I also won’t throw my fight during the tournament.”

“So, it’s a conditional favor. Why come to me, though? Your guild has more than enough crafters that could help you with that.”

“I need it to be done discreetly.”

This is a dangerous game you’re playing, dear boy.

“And I need it done by tonight.”

“Learning to forge takes a bit longer than that. Even if you’re a natural born talent, it would take at least a week to get a sense of things. There are vast differences between the real world and the realms. Here things aren’t as easy.”

“I know. That’s why I only need to know how to forge in the realms. I have someone to teach me in the real world.”

Fire sky turned to the side. It was obvious that Dallion was planning something, and she was curious to see what.

“You want to be able to forge in the realms only?”

“For now.”

“And for that you’ll owe me a conditional favor.”

“Or two.” Now was the time of haggling. Dallion had no illusions that what he thought he could do, the captain could do better. Not only did she have more experience, she was in a position where she had to manage arguments of subordinates every day. The point wasn’t to trick her, it was to get something that he needed while offering something he could afford.

“And your question?”

“What is the practical value of a healing artifact?”

The question took Fire Sky somewhat aback. Such items were valuable without a doubt. A handful of people in the whole of Nerosal had them. Having anything that would heal people within the realms was valuable since it massively decreased the time and effort needed to fulfil the destiny of an item. At this point, everyone knew about Dallion’s healing firebird, but if he had somehow managed to obtain a healing artefact as well, that would attract a lot of attention. Better still, if he had learned of a way to create one… needless to say that it was understandable why he needed discretion as far as forging was concerned.

“Depends on the speed and reliability, but everything capable of increasing health is valuable. Are you considering making healing items within the realms?”

“No,” Dallion said with a smile. “Not the realms. The real world.”

The woman’s expression froze. Faster than the eye could see, she grabbed hold of Dallion’s hand.

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ITEM AWAKENING

Reality shifted into a marble dais within an endlessness of frozen flames.

The RING is level 17

You are in a large marble room.

Defeat the guardian to change the RING’s destiny.

It took several moments for Dallion to adjust to the change. It was rare for him to be forcefully brought into a realm. This was unlike most he had seen.

“Flame sapphire,” Fire Sky said, seeing Dallion’s reaction. “Generally useless, but incredibly expensive.”

Dallion nodded. “I can see the appeal.”

“They also have one extremely valuable quality—they act as a blocker. That means none of my echoes will be able to listen to our conversation. Or yours.”

Apparently, there were more magical items that he was aware of, and not only artifacts from a bygone age. Magic was still being constructed in the world, just not here. It seemed that the armadil shield was right—Nerosal was a backwater city.

“I’ll ask directly. Do you have an artifact that can heal in real life? Because if you do—”

“To an extent. Before I say anything more, I want you to vow to the Seven Moons that you won’t share anything I’m about to tell you regarding that. Of course, that’s not related to my favor.”

“You’ve changed a lot since last time I saw you.” The woman said, fear and awe appearing throughout her. “No longer the innocent lost boy who would always get in trouble.”

“I’d like to think that I’m still the same.”

If Nil was here, he would probably have made a snarky comment about Dallion maturing, although not fast enough for the echo. Maybe it had to do with the stakes suddenly rising? If Dallion had remained in his village, he would never have learned of the complexities of the world, and by all indications, they wouldn’t have affected him. Or maybe he was driven here for some reason, like his grandfather before him.

“I vow by the Seven Moons that I won’t share the things I learn,” Fire Sky said. “Also, I will teach you forging myself.”

“You’re a forger?”

“All captains in the guild are. So? The item.”

“It’s not a magical item. Rather, it’s an item I’ve placed a healing familiar in.”

Clusters of doubt appeared through the woman.

“I’m serious,” Dallion quickly said. “My firebird is within an item and though it can affect the real world.”

Strictly speaking that was a lie. Dallion hadn’t healed anything using Lux. It was the Nox dagger he was referring to, although he had planned on using Lux to try and get well enough to attempt a leveling up later that night.

“You turned a sphere item into a home for your familiar?” Fire Sky sounded impressed.

“Yes, but he’s subject to limitations. I want to be able to forge an item of my choosing to maximize his potential.”

“Creating an item for a familiar. You are aware that no such attempts have been made.”

“None that you know of.”

“Dallion, if someone has succeeded, all the crafters in the world would be aware. If anything, the top ones would be competing for the right to build familiar homes. Unlike you, nearly all familiar owners are nobles. Doing something for them doesn’t only bring money, it also brings prestige.”

“Does that mean we have a deal? You teach me the basics and I’ll use them to create a healing item at some point.”

The woman considered her options. Dallion could see suspicions forming within her. She knew that wasn’t his entire plan, but at the same time couldn’t just ignore what he had said. Frankly, Dallion couldn’t either. Once he went through the preliminary rounds, he would be fighting in the arena itself. Having a healing item would be very beneficial at that moment, and that was just the beginning. If he was to face more chainlings, a healing item was the absolute minimum he required to have a chance of victory.

“We have a deal.” The woman snapped her fingers. A large and intricately decorated anvil appeared in the center of the dais, along with several hammers. “Let’s begin.”

Forging… of all the skills Dallion had seen, this was the only one that seemed extremely simple, while being exceedingly difficult. Looking back, even music skills were more straightforward.

When Fire Sky shaped an item using her hammer, it was like watching someone fold a napkin or arrange a ten-piece puzzle. The woman’s teaching method was completely different from that of Euryale. If anything, Dallion could see Nil’s influence. There was a lot more theory, everything was divided into small steps.

The first step was to visualize the design. That was simple enough, and Fire Sky even shared a basic short sword design with Dallion so he could learn the principle.

Next was the merging phase, as it was called. During it, the design of the final product was combined with the material, creating an ingot with markers sticking from it like pins on a corkboard. Euryale had referred to this entire process as fake, since it didn’t require any practical knowledge of metals or smithing. Up to a degree, the result reminded Dallion of his attempts to make something out of sky silver. The difference was that instead of hundreds of markers and indications, there were only dozens.

After that, things became complicated. As much as Dallion tried to follow the markers’ instructions, he always seemed to end up getting it wrong. Either the angle of the hammer would be slightly off, or the strength would be inadequate. In a way, this was opposite to the music skill. Their timing and precision were everything. With forging, perception and strength gauging were far more important. The closest thing Dallion could compare the experience with was solving a puzzle that was composed of mini-games. While each individual hit mattered, forging allowed all mistakes to be fixed, as long as an overall plan was kept.

The first few swords Dallion attempted to make were such disasters that Fire Sky deemed it more useful for him to restart from scratch. The following ones were comical, to put it mildly. These were followed by the deformed examples of vaguely sword shaped blades.

It was only after seventy attempts that the long-awaited rectangle appeared.

You have successfully created a SHORT SWORD made of IRON.

You are now able to summon SHORT SWORDS made of IRON at will.

Your Forging skills have increased to 2.

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