Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 497-498 (Patreon)

“Delivery,” Olive said, stepping over the bisected body of the lizardman to hold her bag out to the exhausted group of adventurers in the corner of the watery dungeon boss room. “Seriously, though. Why are you ordering this in the middle of a fight?”

“I — what? We didn’t… who are you?” one of the men stammered. His face was splattered with blood and his shield had been sheared clean in half at some point during the fight. He, along with the three other adventurers that made up his party, stared at her in a mixture of horror, awe, and confusion.

“What do you mean?” Olive asked. “Of course you did. Damned stupid idea, by the way. If you’re fighting, focus on fighting. Not eating. Now just take this already. I have a schedule to keep.”

The four adventurers exchanged a baffled glance. Then the woman at their back who seemed to be their leader slowly pushed herself to her feet and swallowed.

“I… we didn’t order anything. I don’t know who you are. But I think you just saved our lives. Thank you. That boss—”

“Delivery,” Olive said irritably, resisting the urge to shake the bag in front of them. “Don’t think you can wait the time out to get free food. I’m here. That means it’s on time.”

The adventurers stared at her.

“Where’s the egg? Come on. There’s really no point in playing dumb.” Olive said in exasperation. She looked down to her wrist, where her bracelet was still indicating the direction of her delivery. It was pointing right in their direction.

All four of the adventurers shook their heads in mute confusion.

“Are… are you with the Adventurer’s Guild?” the woman asked. “Or is this some kind of rescue? Did our guild pay for this?”

A chilling thought struck Olive.

She stepped to the side.

The bracelet continued to point in the same direction.

Olive strode straight forward. The adventurers all pulled back, but she ignored them, walking right past the group and over to the edge of the room. The bracelet’s indication didn’t so much as twitch.

She’d stopped at the wrong room.

You have to be kidding me. You’re telling me I cleaned out this whole room to deliver the food properly and it wasn’t even the right one? Damn it.

“Ah, shit,” Olive said, pinching the bridge of her nose between two fingers. “Uh… sorry. I didn’t mean to interfere. I might have mixed you up with someone else. My bad. I’ll be on my way, then.”

“Our guild didn’t send you?” one of the other adventurers asked in the stunned silence that followed Olive’s words. “Wait. You’re actually delivering food? Like, actual food?”

“Yeah,” Olive said. She cleared her throat and edged toward the door.

This is so awkward. It’s a really good thing they were having a tough time with this fight. If they hadn’t been, I basically would have just stolen their kill for absolutely no reason. I don’t think we want that kind of reputation.

“Who delivers food in the middle of a dungeon?” the female adventurer asked, aghast. “Are you serious? I—”

“The Menagerie,” Olive said, darting for the door and pulling it open. “Sorry. I have to run. Schedule to keep, and there’s only ten minutes left of the thirty. We operate out of Milten.”

“You have a thirty minute window to deliver the food?” another of the adventurers asked, staring at her back in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? How is that even possible?”

None of them got an answer. Olive was already gone, racing deeper into the dungeon and leaving the adventurer team staring in stunned silence in the spot where she had once stood.

“What kind of delivery service kills the monsters in the dungeon for you?” one of the men muttered. “Is she bringing food or a rescue?”

“Did you guys smell that stuff?” the woman asked, swallowing. “I think it might have been both. I swear there was heaven trapped in that bag. What group did she say she was with?”

“Menagerie,” the fourth of the group said. “She’s with the Menagerie. That’s the group with the demon themed tavern and the crazy smith, isn’t it?”

They all exchanged a glance. Then they looked down to their tattered armor. One thing was for certain. They weren’t making it any deeper into the dungeon today.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” the woman muttered. “I think we might need to go pay the Menagerie a visit.”

***

It had been three days since the Menagerie started their delivery service. And, in that time, Arwin had made twenty more eggs. It was little wonder. Reya’s promise of thirty minute deliveries had clearly been enough to get everyone’s attention.

They must have all been confident that the Menagerie would mess up on their timing and they’d get a free meal. Lillia had been forced to put a limit to the number of deliveries they’d do a day because they’d yet to re-locate Vanessa and physically couldn’t keep up with the demand.

Even still, it didn’t take Arwin much effort to make the eggs. He’d barely had a single chance to speak with Reya or Olive over the past few days. They were constantly out running deliveries, but they both seemed to be having a fun enough time of it.

Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter if we lose some money by being late with the deliveries. Reya might have come up with a brilliant plan. Even if we can’t actually get the food to people within the window every single time, it gets a ton of attention. We can eventually raise the time limit or limit the range we deliver to. This is a great way to get the word out about the new program, and that’s all that matters in the end.

And hey, Reya and Olive seem to be enjoying it. We just need to find a way to scale so this doesn’t stay so limited for too long.

Lillia would handle that. This was her project, and she’d made it clear exactly what she wanted from Arwin. His job was to make eggs and ensure that the system enabling the deliveries functioned. Everything beyond that was hers. The more of it she dealt with herself, the more energy the Mesh would reward her with.

And Arwin had jobs of his own to attend to. He’d been getting a number of more complicated requests recently. The past three days had been a haze of work as he created armor for many of the clients that Rodrick and the others had already vetted for him. That, in turn, earned him a rather sizable pile of rare materials that he gave to the Infernal Armory for safekeeping.

They would come in a lot of handy for some personal projects that had been lingering on his plate. He still needed to make more armor for the Menagerie. They’d also given false information to the Blacktongues, telling them that they’d discovered a key in the Expert Dungeon and planned to use it in a week — now 4 days.

I still don’t know exactly what we should do with that. I’ve got no desire to get into a pissing match with the Blacktongues. There isn’t anything to win there, but perhaps there’s an angle where we can put some of our problems together and get them all out of our hair. I’ll have to meet with the Menagerie sometime soon to follow up on that — preferably before Eleven shows back up and takes Rodrick with her back to the Setting Sun’s hideout.

They also had the actual key they’d discovered in that dungeon to use. More accurately, a crown that granted access to some vault. A vault Arwin very much planned to get his hands on… and there was one more piece still in play.

The door to the Infernal Armory creaked open.

Arwin turned away from the anvil and the piece of golden metal he’d been examining as Madiv stepped into the room, clearly invited in by the forge.

“Madiv,” Arwin said with a nod of greeting. “Is something amiss? You’ve got a look on yoru face.”

“I don’t believe so. The matter can wait should you prefer… but Ida has returned with an update on the doings of the Dwarven Council. It seems her mother is holding up her end of the deal.”

Arwin grinned. The universe must have heard his thoughts. The other piece in motion had made itself known.

“Oh?” Arwin asked. “Anything important? Or is it just a routine check-in? That was more of Lillia’s territory, so I don’t want to step on her toes if she’s planning something.”

“Lillia was the one that requested I retrieve you, so long as you weren’t too busy,” Madiv replied. “It seems Ida believes this is fairly important. It may be worth coming if you are not busy. It seems that they have caught wind of our plans to open an auction house. After the attention that your work has garnered… it seems that has their interest.”

Arwin’s lips twitched.

Gee. I wonder how it made it to them. I guess Lillia wants some extra eyes on the auction house. That’s a good idea. If we can get some other powerful parties to participate, then we could draw a lot of extra attention to our first auction.

“That’s good enough for me,” Arwin said. He turned away from the anvil and started for the door. “Let’s see what she’s got to share with us, shall we?”

Chapter 498

Ida was already in Lillia’s special torture room when Arwin and Madiv made it back to the Devil’s den. Calling it a torture room really didn’t exactly feel like the most savory of things, but he still wasn’t sure what else to call it. The dark room only had a single beaten up table in it that always seemed suspiciously splattered with questionable substances — and every time they’d been inside it, they’d been trying to get information from someone they were very much not friends with.

Lillia and Rodrick were there as well. They stood on either side of the dwarf, who didn’t look comfortable in the slightest. She just stood by the table, fidgeting uncomfortably as she shifted from one foot to the other.

“Ah. Good timing,” Rodrick said. “I hope we aren’t interrupting anything too important. Ida has some updates for us.”

“Sorry we’re doing this discussion here,” Lillia said, looking down at the other woman. “It’s just the most out of the way area I’ve got in the Devil’s Den. The others are all being used for something or another, and the kitchen isn’t big enough for everyone to fit into without messing with my work.”

“It’s fine,” Ida said, swallowing a lump in her throat and shaking her head. Her gaze lingered on the table for a moment before pulling away. “I’m not unused to threats.”

“Oh, this isn’t a threat,” Lillia said. She gave what was probably meant to be a reassuring smile to Ida. It, unsurprisingly, didn’t work. “If it was a threat, you would know.”

“Right,” Ida said. She swallowed.

“Relax,” Arwin said. “If we were going to kill you, we’d have done it already. None of us have time to play games, nor do we take any joy in what we had to do. Your mother made her bed, but there’s no reason for you to lie in it. Our relationship is strictly business right now. So long as you keep it that way, you have nothing to fear from us.”

Surprisingly, that actually seemed to help ground Ida. The dwarf inclined her head and blew out a short breath as she gathered herself.

“Okay. I have updates from my mother about the state of the council. They’ve discovered your plans for building an auction house.”

“Can I ask how?” Lillia asked. “Was it just rumor?”

Ida nodded. “Yes. The Council likes to keep track of anything like this. It’s the same as the Dwarven Smith stuff. Auction houses are a huge source of access to rare materials. They also tend to draw a lot of attention. Whenever a guild powerful enough to establish one pops up, they start checking things out.”

“Powerful enough?” Madiv asked. His head tilted to the side. “What does power have to do with an auction?”

“If you’re selling rare things, then you need to be capable of defending them,” Rodrick said. He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Would you say the Dwarven Council is interested in our auction house because they want some kind of access to what we may be selling? Or because they think they can take it from us?”

“Both,” Ida admitted. “The Menagerie is definitely a known name now. They don’t think you’re incompetent at this point. But you’re still a pretty small guild. An auction house is going to draw a lot of attention from criminals. And if you can’t hold them off…”

“Then the Dwarven Council will be right among their number,” Rodrick finished with a nod. “Unsurprising. They win either way. If we’re good enough to actually set the building up and draw attention, then there will be things worth their attention in Milten. Either they try to buy it or they steal it. They’d be happy with both. Did they say anything else?”

“It doesn’t seem like they’ve decided on what course of action to take yet,” Ida said. She shifted her weight again. “I think they’re waiting to find out more information. It doesn’t seem like the auction house is too close to finished yet.”

“It’ll be at least a week or two, even at the speed that Ridley works at,” Lillia said. “This is the biggest building we’ve ever had made on the street.”

I’ll probably have to make some more Soul Guardians. Now, more than ever, the Menagerie is going to need defenses in case someone decides they want to outright attack us. Soul Guardians are pretty much the only thing that we can count on to fight without caring about if they die or get hurt — and they can’t be paid off.

Arwin added that to his mental to-do list. Making the Soul Guardians would be a lot easier now that he’d created the Gehenna armor with Wallace and Koyu. He had a lot more experience working with Cores and soul weaponry now than he had been when he’d made his first guardian.

“Hmm,” Rodrick said. He tapped a finger against his chin. Arwin could practically see the thoughts passing through the man’s eyes. A moment later, a grin stretched across Rodrick’s lips. “Huh. Now there’s an idea.”

“What?” Lillia asked.

“Let me make sure this can work before I get ahead of myself. I wouldn’t want to get our hopes up for nothing. Ida, how interested is the council?” Rodrick asked. “Do you think there’s a chance they’d be willing to jump on some advanced information? A pre-action offer? Something to secure their funding, and perhaps some defenses to help with our first auction, in return for access to some of our rarer offers?”

Ida blinked. “I… I don’t know. They might be interested if the offers are good enough. There’s an equal chance they’d try to backstab you, though.”

“Of course there is,” Rodrick said. “But they won’t. We can account for that. I think I know a way to handle two problems at once, and it won’t even be all that difficult. All Ida has to do is have Indrana pass some information along to the council. She won’t even have to let them know that we’re privy to their internal discussions. Just have her say she heard a rumor that we’re planning to have a small, private auction to a group of close allies. An auction that we’ve just gotten some rather fantastic items worthy of interest for.”

“Oh?” Arwin asked. He had an inkling of a guess as to what Rodrick was getting at. “Are you thinking…”

“The Blacktongues are waiting for us to show up around Thornhelm with the rewards from a certain vault. Sure, the vault isn’t anywhere near that, but the vault does exist. And it has very real rewards that, I suspect, we will not even need many of,” Rodrick said with a grin. “Perhaps we should offer first shot at buying some of those rewards to the Council.”

Lillia let out a bark of laugther. “That’s devious. They’re going to take very poorly to someone trying to steal from them. Even if its purely on principal… the council would destroy them, wouldn’t they?”

“Shit,” Ida muttered. “They absolutely would. Nobody steals from the Council and survives for long.”

“But do we really want to give the council access to what we get from the vault?” Arwin asked, scratching the side of his neck. “It could be important.”

“We don’t need to give them the best stuff.” Rodrick shrugged. “But you can’t tell me there won’t be at least some shit in there you won’t need that’ll be worth selling or trading for. Establishing trade with the council will make them considerably less likely to try messing with us too much, and they may even offer some materials you need up in trade. It’s a win-win.”

Arwin thought for a moment, but the suggestion was just too good to pass up. A grin stretched over his lips as Lillia nodded in agreement with Rodrick’s words.

“Then I think we have a plan,” Arwin said. “Though we should consider one more thing. If the council just deals with the Blacktongues, then they might turn their attention to us and try to take everything by force. Why wouldn’t they? If we can’t protect our winnings from the Blacktongues’ hired mercenaries, then we certainly can’t protect them from the council.”

“A very good point,” Rodrick said with a nod. “Which is why some of us will have to make an appearance as well. The Dwarven Council will need to see a show of our strength. Enough to make it clear that we do not tolerate those who try to steal from us.”

Madiv’s pale fangs flashed in the darkness.

“A good idea. A ruler must not permit an insult to her face,” Madiv said. “We will make an example of them.”

That might be taking it a bit far… but he’s not wrong.

“Then I think we have ourselves a plan,” Arwin said. “I almost feel bad for the Blacktongues. They’re not going to have any idea what hit them.”

“Oh, they most certainly are.” There was a cold glint in Rodrick’s eyes as a thin smile passed across his lips. “We’ll make sure of that. A message doesn’t mean anything if there isn’t anyone left to share it.”