Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 433-434 (Patreon)

The Nightfang Nestmother bore down on Arwin like a train. Its scream tore through the room around him with enough force to make the webs covering the walls tremble in preparation of its charge.

Arwin was strong. He knew that. But, in an instant, he realized that he was nowhere near strong enough to knock a monster this large, moving this fast, entirely from its path. Dodging was no more an option than knocking the Nightmother to the side. 

Anna and Thane were behind him.

No, he had to stay right here. There were only a few moments to react. Fortunately, that was all Arwin needed. He sent a quick thought inward through the faint connection at the back of his mind. 

How long do you need?

Seconds.

That was too long. So Arwin took the fourth option.

Arwin ignored the gathering energy in the air and the stones floating around him amidst arcs of buzzing magic. He banished Caldera and braced his feet as he re-activated [Arsenal] to summon forth a different weapon.

The Wyrm’s Revenge materialized upon his arm within an instant. Emotions drove into his skull. Fury. Hunger. Defiance. And, above all, the refusal to back down before any other monster, no matter how powerful they dared to be.  

It had been some time since Arwin had last used the powerful shield, but it felt right in his grip. He drew on his magic and sent it pouring into the shield. Black energy ignited within it with a roar like that of a Wyrm. 

The Nightmother dashed closer still. 

Standing still when an enormous monster was bearing down on him rarely felt like the smartest move. That was doubly so when he didn’t even have a proper set of armor. But if the blow never made it through to his skin, it wouldn’t matter.

I just need to block on time. Which hand will it attack with?

With a screech, the massive Nightmother leapt forward in a streak of black, droplets of corrosive liquid spraying through the air around it in a fine mist. Its claws streaked down toward Arwin. 

Arwin swung the shield into place. 

A resounding clang tore through the room. Arwin was forced a step back by the sheer force of the strike. Even though the Nightmother didn’t seem like a physically powerful monster, it was still an Expert Tier monster — and it was huge.

But none of that was going to stop what came next. 

[Avenging Strike] activated. The power stored within Arwin’s shield ignited with a furious roar. Scorching black flame erupted from the shield in a gout, slamming straight into the boss monster’s face.

It screamed and lurched back, thrashing as its leathery skin was burned by the Wyrm’s Revenge. Arwin felt an instant of smug satisfaction from the shield before he banished it, summoning Caldera back in its place. 

He strode forward, swinging the hammer to press the advantage he’d gotten — but the Nightmother leapt back, dodging out of the way of his strike before it could connect.

Surprise shot through Arwin. The monster should have been blinded. At the very least, it should have been distracted. But it had reacted perfectly to his attack even through its pain and confusion. 

What? How is that possible?

The electricity arcing between the stones floating around Arwin intensified. More and more pieces tore themselves up from the ground, jerking and twitching around in the air as they tried to slot themselves properly into place. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Arwin saw Olive squaring off against two of the Nightmother’s brood. Another one of them had hatched… and more would soon be on their way if they couldn’t find a way to end this fight soon. 

Another screech split through the room as the Nightmother charged him once more. 

Arwin gritted his teeth. He swapped Caldera to his shield once more, but there was no time to imbue it with energy this time around. Arwin barely managed to get it between himself and the large monster’s claws before they slammed home.

He staggered a step back, digging his feet into the ground to keep from losing his balance. 

“Behind you!” Thane yelled.

Arwin spun, reacting to the boys’ warning instinctively. Caldera took the place of the Wyrm’s Revenge just in time for its head to connect with the skull of an Enfuried Nightfang Hatchling with a loud crunch.

The monster yelped as it was sent tumbling across the ground. Olive dashed over toward it, breaking away from the monsters she was fighting to draw its attention — but it was clear the situation was worsening at a rapid pace.

Arwin summoned his shield once more, predicting the Nightmother’s next attack and raising it just in time to keep himself from being bisected by its massive claws. The blow still sent him skidding several feet back, but he managed to keep his balance.

Stones floated after him like the slow-moving trail of a meteor, still pulling themselves into shape. 

Shit. Couldn’t you move a little faster? 

The connection is bad. You are farther than expected. If I move faster, your armor is more likely to explode. The synergy is too low.

Noted. Still, hurry it up. Things are going to go south at this rate.   

Arwin spun Caldera in his hands and charged the Nightmother with a roar. He leapt into the air, clearing one of its claws as it carved past where he’d been standing moments before, and brought the hammer down for the large boss’s skull. 

The Nightmother lurched to the side. It barely managed to pull itself free from the path of Arwin’s strike, leaving his hammer to strike nothing but air. He landed on the ground with a grunt and swapped Caldera back for the Wyrm’s Revenge. This time, he managed to inject magical energy into the shield once more.

Claws blurred toward him even as black energy ignited within his shield. The Nightmother was fast. Arwin didn’t get a chance to properly brace the weapon before the blow connected. 

The roar of flame tore through the air once more. It scorched across the Nightmother’s face for a second time, sending the monster lurching back with an agonized cry.

Arwin was moving before the flame had even dissipated from the air. He summoned Caldera back to his hands and drew on [Scourge], empowering his legs as he bounded across the ground toward the boss as it writhed in pain. 

“Don’t!” Thane yelled. 

Arwin skidded to a stop — and a claw slashed through the air mere inches before him. If he’d still been running, the blow would have caught him right in the side. 

 The Nightmother had seen him coming through its pain. Again. It made absolutely no sense. There shouldn’t have been a way for the monster to react to him while it was blind. Even if it had been using hearing or scent to smell, it should have been distracted.

And how did Thane know it was going to be able to attack?

Arwin skipped back to keep space between himself and the boss monster. 

“You’re reading it,” Arwin yelled, not daring to take his eyes off his target. “How?”

“It’s a hive monster!” Thane yelled back. “I’ve read about these! They’re a really rare variant of—”

“Skip to the important bits!” Arwin roared, summoning the Wyrm’s Revenge once again and pouring magic into it as the Nightmother bore down on him. And then something odd happened.

The monster stumbled. It seemed to trip over its own legs — but it righted itself almost instantly, almost as if its head had shut off for a split second. The boss closed the last of the distance to Arwin in a blur and brought both of its clawed hands toward Arwin’s head in twin streaks of black death. 

That second the Nightmother had lost bought Arwin enough time to activate [Scourge], reinforcing his body as the blows slammed down on him. A resounding clang echoed through the room, but he’d been prepared for the strike. 

Black fire erupted from the shield as [Avenging Strike] activated. It poured over the Nightmother, igniting the monster’s already-charred fur. The boss screamed in pain. It leapt back and dove for the bubbling pink pool in the center of the room, submerging itself within it — and sending acid spraying everywhere around it in a large wave.

Four eggs instantly started to melt. Their inhabitants thrashed and snarled, adding their voices to the cacophony ringing through the room. Olive had already managed to kill a few of their number, but more kept coming. 

Shit. 

“It shares its senses with its children!” Thane yelled. “That’s why it can see you attacking! All the monsters share the same thoughts. You can’t catch it off guard if any of the small ones can see you! At least, I think that’s the case! It could also be a subvariety of—”

“This is not the time,” Anna said, grabbing Thane by the shoulder. “Weakeness, Thane! Do you know any?”

The lake bubbled. A clawed hand burst back out from within it and dug into the land. Another followed suit, and the Nightmother dragged itself back up from within the lake. Corrosive pink liquid poured off its rough hide as its eyes burned with fury and it let out a bubbling hiss.

Whelp. It’s certainly angry.

A thought cut through Arwin’s mind. 

I am prepared. But the connection is bad. These materials cannot properly hold my form. We will have seconds of activation at best. 

He grinned. 

Then we’ll have to put them to good use.

The Nightmother started toward Arwin again, picking up speed and shifting into a charge.  

“The connection is weaker from the child to the parent, but it goes both ways,” Thane called out. “Olive killed one of the smaller monsters when the Nightmother stumbled! If she does it again, you should be able to get an attack off!”

“I’m on it!” Olive yelled.

I need one good blow. That’s all. The Nightmother is strong, but it isn’t going to survive a full strength strike to the skull from Caldera if I can get one off. I just can’t both attack and block at the same time.

Then you will have it.

Then the time they had to prepare was up. The Nightmother was upon Arwin once more.

But this time, instead of calling the Wyrm’s Revenge, Arwin kept his grip on Caldera. He reared back, pouring magic into the weapon and making absolutely no move to dodge or otherwise attempt to avoid the blow coming for him.

Huge claws streaked toward his skull in a dark blur. 

A wave of heat exploded out from Arwin. Black lightning arced through the air around him as it grabbed the stones floating around him and yanked them together like they’d all suddenly become magnetized.

They slammed into his back, rapidly melding together to create a rough stone tendril. Black Soul Magma erupted within it and rushed through the stones. The tendril lashed out to meet the claws descending for Arwin — 

And the Wyrm’s Revenge materialized within its grasp.

The Infernal Armory had activated [Arsenal] on its own. Claws rang against Arwin’s shield, bouncing off harmlessly. Intense power coursed along the lone tendril to the beat of a thundering heart. But that power didn’t belong to Arwin. It came from an entirely different reserve. A far, far larger reserve.  

Arwin didn’t pay it or his rapidly heating armor any mind. His full focus was on the magic pouring into Caldera — and into the swing that he was now putting his entire body behind. He let out a roar, letting the superheated head of his hammer streak through the air like a meteor.

The crack of wood preceded several pained, dying whimpers as Olive’s cursed arm tore through several of the young Nightfangs at once, killing them instantly. 

The Nightmother flinched. A second was stolen from it.

And, in that second, Caldera drove home straight into the boss monster’s head. 

There was a wet crunch. Then the roar of an erupting volcano tore through the room as the hammer unleashed its full might. A wave of black lava poured out from within it, searing any life that remained within the massive boss.

The stone tendril connected to Arwin’s back cracked. A snap echoed out as one of the skeletal pieces in his armor shattered. All the energy running to the tendril was severed instantly as his connection to the Infernal Armory evaporated.

His shield evaporated, returned to [Arsenal]’s safe space before it could hit the ground. 

Before Arwin, the Nightmother swayed. The motion in the eggs all around the room abruptly ceased. Small thumps marked the life leaving all of the hatched Enfuried Nightfang Hatchlings. 

Then the Nightmother’s legs gave out. It collapsed to the ground, dead. 

They’d won.

Golden letters twisted through the air before Arwin’s face before he could even finish processing the boss’ death.  

The First Clear of this Low-Expert Ranked Dungeon has been claimed by [The Menagerie].

Chapter 434

Arwin released Caldera and allowed [Arsenal] to take the hammer from his grip. The golden letters of the Mesh shimmered before him, proof of their success. It was proof that would be carved into the obelisk outside the dungeon forevermore, a permanent middle-finger embossed into the Blacktongue’s property.  

Relief and amusement bubbled up in his chest, but there was something he had to take care of before he could properly allow himself to relax.

There was more than just relief on his chest. There was also a very-rapidly growing heat. A heat that even his resistance was unable to completely repress. One that was currently burning through his clothes. 

Arwin was on fire.

Or, more specifically, his armor was. 

Arwin yanked his shirt off as a slew of curses fell from his lips. The prototype skeleton of his armor covered his body like a metal lattice — and it was glowing cherry red. Cracks ran throughout the metal, stretching to cover more of it by the second.

[Soul Flame] coated Arwin’s hands as he grabbed onto the broken equipment. He tore it off his body, throwing the pieces as far away from himself as he could in case they exploded. The whole thing must have looked like some odd form of victory dance, hopping from foot to foot as he literally tore his own armor to pieces and flung it across the room. 

“Arwin?” Olive asked, watching him with a mixture of concern and amusement. She stepped toward him. “Are you okay? Do you need help?”

“I’m fine,” Arwin said, tearing the final pieces of the prototype away from his chest and flinging them into the pink lake. The parts landed with a sizzling hiss, sending bubbles bursting all over the thick liquid before they sank beneath its surface. 

“You don’t look fine,” Anna said, walking up beside him with a concerned frown. The armor had burned lines across Arwin’s skin. He poked at one, then winced. 

How hot did that thing get? That’s definitely something to improve on. The Infernal Armory said the connection wasn’t very good. There must have been interference from all the different bits of scrap making the protype. Maybe that caused it to overheat?

“I’ve had worse,” Arwin said. 

Anna shook her head. Gentle white light illuminated her hand as she held it up to his body. Cool energy washed over Arwin as Anna’s magic worked through him. He let out a relieved sigh as burnt flesh reverted, turning pink and then starting to shift back to its proper hue. 

Arwin activated [Dragon’s Greed] while she worked. Strands of power materialized throughout the room. A few of them ran back into the dungeon above them where they’d passed by some of the weaker magical items.

But as he had expected, strongest ran somewhere right in this room. Arwin was less pleased to find where it ran. Based on what he felt, he was willing to bet that the magical item they were after was right in the middle of the bubbling pink lake. 

“There,” Anna said, letting her hand drop from Arwin’s side and shaking her head. “How did you take more damage from your own armor than you did from the boss?”

“It’s almost impressive,” Olive agreed with a small laugh. 

“Mostly because the first actual blow in that fight was going to be the last. This dungeon wouldn’t have been too bad if we’d actually been at the Expert Tier or if I had some proper armor,” Arwin said, letting out a laugh of his own. He let [Dragon’s Greed] drop for the time being. There would be time to collect their final rewards in a moment. “It’s unfortunate that fire wasn’t more effective on the Nightmother. If it had been, we would have had a much shorter fight. But it worked out. And the thanks for that largely goes to Thane.”

They all turned to look at the boy.

Thane, for his part, was staring mutely into the air before him, his lips parted slightly in a mixture of awe and disbelief. It barely even seemed like he’d heard a single word they’d said. He was complete checked out.

“You okay?” Olive asked, giving his shoulder a small nudge. “That was a pretty intense fight for your first dungeon. You made some great calls, though. I don’t think we would have managed to take that anywhere as easy as we did if you didn’t know that whole hive-thing. Well done.”

Thane blinked. Then he swallowed, his eyes managing to find focus on his surroundings again.

“I didn’t do that much.”

“No, Olive is right.” Arwin shook his head. “One of the hardest things to do in a fight is think on your feet. Even I tend to just focus on hitting things as hard as I can and hoping for the best. There aren’t many people that can keep the wits about them to come up with a strategy in the middle of a fight for their lives. This was your first dungeon. Being able to recognize a weakness in the monsters we were fighting and identify a way to capitalize on it is commendable. You did far more than any of us expected.”

“It was just some stuff I read,” Thane stammered. His eyes darted around the room. “I really didn’t do that much. This doesn’t make any sense. Nothing I’ve read has ever said anything about this being possible. It shouldn’t be. What did you do? Can you control the Mesh somehow?”

Arwin’s brow furrowed. It really sounded like Thane was talking about something entirely different to what they were. “What exactly is it that you’re talking about, Thane? I can’t control the Mesh any more than you can. Are you okay?”

“How can you ask that?” Thane breathed. He gripped onto the straps of his backpack like he was trying to strangle them. His eyes bored into Arwin’s skull as if to squeeze his gaze into his skull to see the secrets hidden within Arwin’s thoughts. 

I’ve seen that wild look before. 

“Is he okay?” Olive asked. “Anna, maybe you should—”

“Hold on. This isn’t something that healing magic is going to be useful for. He’s not injured,” Arwin said. He put a gentle hand on Thane’s shoulder. “Sit down.”

“What? I don’t need to sit. I—”

“Sit down,” Arwin repeated, his tone firm but kind. “Breathe, Thane.”

Thane slowly moved to follow Arwin’s command. His chest rose and fell with fast, sharp breaths. It was little surprise. In the excitement of the fight, Arwin had almost forgotten who it was they were escorting.

Thane might have had a great amount of knowledge about dungeons and adventurers, but he’d never seen the real thing. The boy had come here today fully planning to die. He’d held himself together incredibly well through the dungeon and been instrumental in dealing with the boss — but there was only so long someone could hold emotion like that within themselves before reaching a breaking point.

That point had been the end of the dungeon. Thane had probably never really registered the fact that they could actually clear it out. And, now that they had, all those emotions were catching up to him all at once. 

Thane’s breath came in sharp, fast gasps. His eyes darted around the room as if in search of an answer. He wouldn’t find it. Arwin knew the look in the boy’s eyes because he could remember it himself, from the first dungeon the Adventurer’s Guild had brought him through. 

“What’s happening?” Olive asked, crouching beside them. “It’s done, Thane. You don’t have to worry. The dungeon is finished. We won.”

Thane blinked heavily. He swallowed again, as if trying to eat the disbelieving words that came out of his mouth. “I’m alive.”

 “So you are,” Arwin said. “Part of you, at least. Congratulations on clearing your first dungeon. An Expert Tier one at that. There aren’t many that can boast of such a thing. Fewer still that can say they were actually useful. But don’t take it too fast. You’ve got a lot to process. Not all of it has to be at once. We can spend some time here.”

“Arwin’s right,” Anna said. “We’re here to talk. I still remember my first dungeon. It wasn’t anything like this one, and I was considerably less beneficial to my team than you were. I just spent the entire time hiding behind my mentor. Didn’t say a word or heal a single person. You should be proud.”

 “I’m alive,” Thane muttered, staring down at his hands as his eyes started to water. No more than a moment later, a laugh bordering on hysterical bubbled up from his lips. “I’m alive!”

“And you’ll get your share of the earnings from the dungeon as well,” Arwin said, clapping Thane on the shoulder. “You’ve more than earned them. I’d say you’ll make a great adventurer, but you’ve already become one. I don’t think anyone can deny that now.”

“After dealing with a boss like that, getting you your class will be easy,” Olive added. “We’ll just go find something lingering in the dungeon behind us. It’ll be a piece of cake compared to what we just did.”

Thane swallowed again. A flicker of emotion passed over his face. First it was fear. Then it was determination. A small grin pulled at his lips. It wasn’t the grin of an untempered who had never seen battle, nor was it quite the confident smirk of an experienced adventurer. It was the look of a man well on his way to making something of himself. 

“Yeah,” Thane said. He let out a slow breath. “Yeah. I’m alive. We can do this. I passed your quest, by the way. I’d love to ask you some more questions about how it worked. I — I’ve never seen anything like that before. It really motivated me. What kind of magic was it? I’ve never heard of anything that lets you fake messages from the Mesh. Some kind of fancy light magic that you all pretended not to see?”

“Fake?” Arwin’s brow furrowed. “There was absolutely nothing fake about it, Thane.”

Thane’s brow furrowed. “What? What do you mean?”

“The Quest was real,” Arwin replied. “Why do you think it was fake?” 

“I — well, I just thought it logically had to be. I mean after finishing the fight, it popped up to motivate me. Right? That’s what all the stuff complimenting my research capabilities was about,Right?” The boy stared at him. Arwin didn’t respond. He just stared back at Thane. The boy’s lips slowly parted into an O shape. “It… wasn’t just a way to convince me that everything would be fine?”

“No,” Arwin replied. A small grin tugged at the corner of his lips. “I’m afraid not. Entirely real. What exactly did the Quest tell you?”

Thane mutely swiped a hand down through the air. 

Then his face went as pale as a sheet. 

“Shit!” Thane yelled, launching to his feet like he’d been bit on the ass. “My class! I finally got a class! And I swiped the message from the Mesh away without even looking at it because I didn’t want to get distracted in case there was something else that would attack us!”

The Menagerie exchanged a glance.

Then they all burst into laughter.