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Chapter 14: In a corner

Normally, Arwin was pretty sure that making armor from scales was best done by stringing the scales together like chainmail, but he didn’t have the leather to attach them to, nor did he have the talent to work with leather yet.

The only thing he’d really figured out how to do was hit things with a hammer – and that was exactly what he continued to do. He was confident there was a way to work with them, but if he didn’t find it before the next day ended, it wouldn’t matter.

Arwin chewed his lower lip as he stared at the scale on his hearth. It rested in a bed of [Soul Flame], glowing faintly with heat. He picked the scale up, bringing it over to the anvil to try again.

Almost as soon as it left the embrace of the fire, the scale’s bright luster faded away. His lips pressed together in annoyance. It had only taken seconds for it to lose the majority of the heat that it had been building up, and attempting to change it would lead to the same result that he’d been continuously earning that day – another broken scale.

A thought struck Arwin and he turned back to his forge, putting the scale back in. He picked up one of the other scales within the flames, then pressed it between his fingers without taking it out of the fire.

He felt the faintest amount of give. It was so little that there was a good chance he’d hallucinated it entirely, but Arwin latched onto that feeling. He activated [Scourge] and sent energy into his fingertips, squeezing the scale again.

This time, it warped around his thumb. It was far from a perfect bend, but it had moved. Arwin pulled it from the flame, delight spreading across his features as the scale started to cool. He waited for it to lose the rest of its heat, then tapped the scale with his hammer.

It remained firm. Arwin gave it several stronger strikes, but it took a blow with his full, normal force to finally crack the scale. A laugh slipped from his lips and he turned back to the hearth.

Looks like this project will be one without a hammer. I’m going to have to put everything together by hand without taking it out of the hearth. The next problem is figuring out how to connect the scales.

Arwin tried just pressing them together and repeatedly striking the scales in attempt to get them to meld together, but it amounted to nothing. They weren’t metal, and they held their shape far too well to merge together.

His next idea proved considerably more fruitful. Arwin made nails from normal metal, then slowly but steadily worked them into the scales. It was a fine line to work on. He did his best to move quickly and keep the nails from getting over-heated, but that meant he had a very limited amount of time to work on each piece before the nail lost too much of its strength and became soft.

If he struck it too hard, the nail would bend or break before the scales would. If he struck too light, the nail wouldn’t even get any deeper into the scales. The key turned out to be a steady, constant stream of firm taps.

Nothing too hard, but nothing too soft. And, in that manner, one scale became linked to two and two became three. It was slow, tedious work, but Arwin loved it. Every single scale he nailed together felt like another step along his journey, and it filled him with delight.

He didn’t even bother keeping count of the number of rows he’d need to make to outfit himself. Arwin just kept tapping away, sweat dripping down his forehead and rolling down his back.

There was only a little more than a day left before the time would come to use the armor. He didn’t have time to fail. He didn’t have time to take a break – and he didn’t want to. There was only one possibility in his mind, and he was determined to achieve it.

***

“I told you that I’m not serving meals outside of the tavern,” Lillia said, pressing her lips thin as she glared at Reya. The young woman shifted uncomfortably beneath her gaze, averting her eyes.

The Hero is avoiding me? Perhaps it’s for the best. I just about had a heart attack when I saw that oaf standing at my counter like he belonged there. I can’t believe he was actually the first one to call a truce.

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“Could you do it just this once?” Reya pleaded. “Arwin is really busy. He’s… making stuff.”

Lillia raised an eyebrow. “Then he can take a break from making stuff and come here. If I want to build a group of regular customers, I need to make sure they come to my tavern, not summon me like some harlot.”

“He can’t take a break! But, if he doesn’t eat, I’m worried he won’t have enough strength to fi – uh, to help.”

To fight? Who in the Nine Underlands is he fighting? There’s no way he actually managed to keep his Hero class, is there? I didn’t feel the strength that he used to have, and if my own Class was destroyed, I can’t see why his would have survived.

Does that mean he’s planning to fight someone without his powers? I suppose that lines up pretty well with him, actually.

“Perhaps he should do a little less fighting and focus a little more on the finer things in life,” Lillia said with a snort. The mere idea of running back off to fight after she’d finally broken out of that endless cycle made her want to retch.

The Hero clearly enjoyed the slaughter far more than she had, but that was little surprise. Humans had always reveled in death.

“It’s not his fault,” Reya protested. She wrung her hands together and threw a glance over her shoulder. Lillia nearly let out a derisive snort. It wasn’t like anyone else was going to be there. Despite her words, aside from Reya and one drunkard that Lillia had yet to learn the name of, she’d had absolutely no customers.

“How is it not his fault if he’s running off to kill people? Sounds like it’s entirely his fault.”

“He’s doing it because I need help,” Reya muttered. She stared down at her feet, clenching her hands. “He’s trying to make armor because I’m in trouble with the thieves’ guild.”

“The what now?” Lillia blinked in surprise. “I think I’m completely lost. What do they have to do with any of this?”

“I’m in trouble with a lot of people,” Reya said, flopping down in Lillia’s chair and burying her face in her palms. Her hands dug into her hair and she pulled at it with a groan, sinking down and letting her head thunk against the wood.

Lillia held a hand out, then pulled it back. She’d dealt with a lot of things in life, but not one of them had ever been comforting someone. It had been so long since she’d cared enough about someone to even think about their feelings that she could barely remember the feeling.

Everyone I’ve loved is dead at the hands of the Hero.

And yet, sitting in front of her was quite literally Lillia’s only customer. The tiny spark that gave her hope that her tavern might one day become a true business. A place full of joy and laughter, where she could live peacefully.

If I don’t do something now, how will I help my future customers? I need to help her.

“Maybe you could start from the beginning?” Lillia tried to make her tone as gentle as possible, but she wasn’t so certain it was working. “I think I’m missing a lot of information.”

“I ran into Arwin a few days ago,” Reya said, her muffled words spoken into the countertop. “I was with a group of thieves that got mad I wasn’t giving them my life earnings. Arwin killed one of them.”

Sounds about right.

“They were part of a guild?” Lillia asked.

“No. They were just some assholes. The rest of ‘em showed up, and Arwin dealt with them too. I realized he was pretty strong, so I decided to hang around. Thought it would be safe. It was stupid. I should have kept moving. But I didn’t, and the thieves’ guild found me, and then Arwin got involved defending me, and now he’s trying to forge armor that will let him fight them!”

Reya’s words quickened until they were spoken so fast that Lillia could barely make them out. The fact that she was face down on the countertop certainly wasn’t helping her audibility.

“I see,” Lillia said slowly. “So he’s getting ready to fight the thieves’ guild because they’re after you?”

“Yeah,” Reya mumbled. “I feel like such a piece of shit. I know he just wants to be left alone. He shouldn’t be the one solving my problems, and I know I should just leave so he doesn’t have to deal with them. I guess I’m just selfish. I don’t want to keep running, but I’m not strong enough to change anything myself.”

Lillia’s back tickled in alarm. Reya couldn’t leave – that would get rid of one of her three customers, and there was a good chance it scrapped Arwin as well. That would knock her all the way down to just the one homeless man, and she was pretty sure he’d only stumbled into her tavern on mistake.

“There’s nothing wrong with being a little selfish,” Lillia said hurriedly. She reached out, cringing slightly as she set her hand on Reya’s shoulder. She half expected the woman to knock her arm away, but to her surprise, Reya didn’t budge.

“Easy to say when you aren’t the one being selfish,” Reya said. “There are thirty of them. How is Arwin supposed to kill thirty people?”

Nine Underlands. Thirty? At the peak of my power, that would have been a heartbeat of effort. But now… that’s not possible. Maybe in a few months, but now? What is Arwin thinking? Is it possible that he retained more of his powers than I did?

“Perhaps he’s stronger than you think?” Lillia asked. She went to take her hand back, but the moment it lifted off Reya’s shoulder, the girl stiffened. Lillia quickly put her hand back.

“He’s really strong for a smith, but he’s not going to be able to take out thirty fighters. We just went hunting and he just barely beat an Apprentice 5 Lizard,” Reya said miserably. “What should I do? Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t help him fight aside from maybe distracting a few people and gutting them from the dark. That’s not going to do an ounce of anything against thirty whole people.”

He took out an Apprentice 5 monster? I’d guess that’s pretty close to what I should be able to handle as well. Shit. He’s just a moron, then. There’s no way he’s going to be able to handle fighting thirty warriors.

That left Lillia with a pretty large problem. Arwin had never been one to back down from a fight, and Reya didn’t have a choice. That meant two of her customers were headed straight to their deaths.

Damn it all. I can’t believe what I’m about to say, but I don’t think I’ve got a choice.

“I might be able to help,” Lillia said.