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Chapter 126: Ivorin

“What can I – oh. You again. Still trying to get into the smithing business?”

“I’m doing what I can,” Arwin replied with a small shrug. He walked up to the table to stand across from the other smith. “It’s been fun. I suppose that’s all I can say. I’m flying blind a bit.”

“Not the way to go about smithing, I’d say. You should probably go find someone willing to teach you if you ever want to sell anything.”

“You definitely aren’t wrong. It’s on the cards in the future.” It was good advice. If Arwin didn’t have other responsibilities right now, it was advice he’d be taking on the spot. Fortunately, the Mesh’s guidance was enough to patch over his lack of a proper teacher for the time being. “I was hoping you could identify something, though.”

Arwin set the armor on the countertop, then tapped a streak of the ivory metal running through it. “This metal right here. Do you know what it is?”

Taylor’s gaze sharpened. He reached down to pick the helmet up, but Arwin kept his hand on its top, not letting it off the table.

“Mind letting go so I can take a closer look?”

“It’s got personal significance to me. I’m clingy,” Arwin said. He held the helmet up for Taylor. “I’d like to hold onto it.”

Taylor shrugged. He squinted at the metal, then tapped a fingernail against it. The smith studied it for a few more moments, muttering under his breath as the interest in his expression grew.

“Where’d you get this?”

“It was a gift from a friend. Do you recognize the ivory metal?”

“I do,” Taylor said. He sent one last look at the helm before letting out a small whistle. “That’s a fancy piece. It’s… odd, actually. Some parts of it seem expertly forged, but others are… unique, I suppose. I can’t tell if this is an art piece or a deadly weapon. If I saw it in a dungeon, I’d assume it were magical.”

Oh, it is. I’m just not telling you that. I like its stats nice and hidden.

“Could you tell me what the metal is, then? I’m trying to get more of it.”

“That’s no surprise. Anyone who’s worked with it always wants more. This is Ivorin. It’s not a common metal to work with, but it’s tough. Good stuff.”

“I don’t suppose you’ve got any you’d be willing to part with?” Arwin tried. It was nice to have a name to put to the metal. He needed as much of it as he could get – between his greaves, gauntlets, and boots, there was a chance he’d need up to a dozen bars depending on how poorly his efforts went.

“I have some. It’s not cheap, though,” Taylor warned. “I’ll give you a bar for fifty gold. If you’re just starting to learn the basics of smithing, I’d probably stick with something cheaper. Roughsteel goes for one gold a bar – or maybe just scrap, for that matter. Wasting that much gold on metal isn’t a good idea when you’re not going to get a return.”

“I appreciate the concern,” Arwin said with a smile. He took the armor off the table and tucked it back under his arm with a grunt. With his other hand, he dug through his pockets and took fifty gold out. “But it’s okay. I’m a fast learner. Do you have more Ivorin you’d be willing to sell?”

“Hey, it’s your money.” Taylor swept the gold off the counter. “And I’ll check the back to see what I’ve got.”

He headed off. Arwin waited by the counter for a few minutes until Taylor returned, a bar of ivory metal in his hands. Taylor thunked it down on the counter and pushed it over.

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“That’s all you’ve got, I take it?” Arwin guessed.

“Yeah, afraid so. It’s a good metal, but it isn’t irreplicable and it’s a bit rare. Not worth me keeping a lot of it around. The only reason I’m selling it is that I’ve got others that fit my projects better and I hate to see good material go to waste. I suppose this one will just find its purpose in training.”

Arwin tried not to laugh at Taylor’s complete lack of confidence in him. He wasn’t particularly bothered by it. Taylor had seen him functionally begging for scrap metal just a short while ago. All he needed was for the smith to sell him what he needed.

I do need to look into getting a proper supplier at some point soon if I want specific stuff that I’m not just finding in dungeons. I’ll have to keep an eye out. If I remember correctly, I think Reya managed to find someone else to buy stuff from. Maybe they’d be of use. And, if not, a merchant that visits larger cities that can buy stuff for me in proxy.

“I appreciate it nonetheless,” Arwin said. He picked the bar up and inclined his head. “Thanks for the help.”

“No problem.” Taylor raised a hand in farewell as Arwin headed out of the smithy and down the street.

He returned to his street without delay, using [Arsenal] to banish his armor as soon as he was into an alleyway. It was far too unwieldy to just waddle around carrying it under an arm, and it was going to end up drawing too much attention.

Arwin made it back to his makeshift smithy and set his new Ivorin bar down on his anvil. He tossed a ball of [Soul Flame] into the hearth and pulled out his Brightsteel. There was enough metal between them to make his greaves.

There wasn’t any reason to wait any longer, so he got started. Arwin brought the Brightsteel and Ivorin over to the flames to heat them, then summoned Verdant Blaze and tapped his fingers on its haft as he waited for the metal to get up to temperature.

I can’t wait until I have my real smithy up and running again. It’s not even like [Soul Flame] takes all that long to warm stuff as it is, but having a bellows would go a long way in making things even faster.

Unfortunately, that was still a few days in the future at the absolute minimum. Arwin was forced to suffer the torture of waiting a few more minutes until his metal was a ruddy orange and ready for him to get started.

He began by hammering the Brightsteel out into a plate. Flame rolled off every strike that Verdant Blaze drove into the metal, making short work of it. It wasn’t long until hammerscale was flaking off the metal.

Arwin used [Soul Flame] and [Scourge] to split the plate into several sections once it got thin enough, then set everything to the side and repeated the process with the Ivorin. It unsurprisingly took nearly double the time to get the ivory metal worked out.

Eventually, Arwin had everything he needed. He put several pieces back into the flames and cleared the surface of his anvil of any remaining black hammerscale. Once the pieces were hot enough, he set them down on the anvil and started folding them over each other.

The metal came together slowly, the [Soul Flame] pouring out of Verdant Blaze’s head forcing it to merge with every blow. Arwin folded the metal over and over again, working to make sure that it was completely integrated.

As before, he repeated the process for every workable piece he’d set aside. Time slipped through his fingers like grains of sand, but he was too focused on his work to so much as notice. The only thing that lived in his mind was the ring of his hammer.

When every piece had been prepared, Arwin set about the most embarrassing part – holding each one up and trying to figure out if it actually wanted to be part of a set of greaves. He had enough of the melded metal that he didn’t need all of it to play along, but if too much was against the idea, he’d be in trouble.

Fortunately, the first few pieces were all aligned. The Ivorin had been sitting around in Taylor’s shop for a while and was eager to be used for just about anything, and the Brightsteel seemed roughly indifferent to anything he did.

He set the largest parts that were willing to work with him aside. With them secured and the intent appropriate, the only thing he still needed was the metal to make the finishing touches – the clasps, bolts, and any other small components that he had to pin together.

That proved to be slightly more difficult.

“Being a horseshoe is a complete waste,” Arwin informed the small piece he’d picked up and had been talking to for the past few minutes. “That’s a noble use, sure. But there are no horses here. Nobody would use you.”

The metal was faltering. That was the only reason he was still working at it. If it had wanted to be anything he could have conceivably needed in the near future, he would have been fine to set it to the side.

A horseshoe was not one of those things.

“Come on. Think about how fun it would be to be a nail,” Ariwn said. “You’d pin everything together. The armor wouldn’t be complete if you weren’t there to hold it together. What would life be without the pins that hold everything together?”

A flicker of acceptance came from the metal – or perhaps it had just been exasperation. Whatever the reason, it had given in enough for Arwin to be confident that it would probably play along when it came time to add it to the armor.

Thank god it wasn’t actually magical. If it was, I don’t think there’s any way I would have won the argument… especially after that new [Awaken] ability I got.

Arwin set the piece to the side and looked over all the metal he’d prepared. All of it lay in wait for him. Everything was set up and there was no more prep work to be done. Even though the sun was starting to set outside, he couldn’t help but smile.

It was time to give his best shot at making the next item in the Ivory Executioner set.