Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 533 - 534

Haley didn’t stick around for long after the deal had been agreed upon. She simply promised to return with the Dwarven Council’s human guild representative in two weeks and asked to ensure the grand opening of the Auction House was delayed until then.

Arwin and Lillia had absolutely no problems agreeing to that. It meant they’d have enough time to bring the building to life with the Dungeon Heart and finish a few more preparations in the meantime.

And with that, their meeting was over. Haley strode out of the room with her two silent guards, leaving the Devil’s Den without another word. Arwin remained behind in the not-torture room together with Lillia.

“Okay,” Lillia said several seconds after Haley had left. “She’s gone.”

The serious air in the room evaporated instantly. Arwin let out something between a laugh and a sigh. He ran a hand through his hair and blew out a terse breath.

“Shit. That was close. How long was she here before we made it back?”

“A few minutes. You had strikingly good timing,” Lillia said. She shook her head. “How did you get back so quickly? You weren’t meant to make it back for… what, at least a few more hours, no? I was running out of ways to distract Haley. It almost got hairy.”

“Things went faster than expected,” Arwin replied. “We made good time… and Sunsetting is absolutely ridiculous. The difference in strength is just incredible when you can actually use the power exactly how you want to. Body improvements… they’re much stronger than just letting the Mesh distribute your power.”

“Yeah,” Lillia said thoughtfully. “I’ve got some plans there. You’re certainly talking it up a lot, though. I’m going to get jealous. I take it this means the dungeon went well? You didn’t have any trouble?”

“Not much,” Arwin said. “It was fairly predictable, honestly. Kien read the dungeon like a book. I guess that’s what happens when you have a bunch of ancient stuff that everyone else learned by copying. All the cool new tricks just become old tropes.”

Lillia shrugged. “Can’t complain about that. Life is hard enough as it is. Getting an easy win is always nice. And Godspit, it’s definitely a win. I can feel those items from here. How much did you guys take?”

“Not even half,” Arwin admitted. “Kien said there was a good chance the room was trapped to punish the greedy. The whole place was gold. You should have seen it. Like an ocean of coins. It was… well, it was something. We tried to pick out the best items over the nonmagical valuables.”

 “Damn,” Lillia said. She scrunched her nose. “You’re kind of making me wish I went. Don’t get me wrong. I love the Den. But I don’t want to have to stay back every time the Menagerie does something big. Maybe I need to look into ways to leave the Devil’s Den for longer.”

“You’ll find a way,” Arwin said. “Even if you hadn’t Sunset your class, I know you would. But now that you have… I’m not worried at all. And don’t worry. We’ll have more than enough shit to do in Milten that should be more than exciting enough to keep our attention.”

Lillia snorted and rolled her eyes. “I don’t know if that’s exactly the kind of excitement I want, but I suppose I can settle. But we can worry about it later. We’ve got two weeks to prepare for the auction.”

“Raen and Melissa already sent word out about everything, right?”

“Yes.” Lillia nodded. “We’ll have people coming in from all over the kingdom. They’ve let slip word that you’ll have a few of your own pieces up for auction. That’s doing some heavy lifting. I know we don’t want to let your work end up in the wrong person’s hands—”

“I’ll make something that can justify being put up for auction but won’t cause a problem if we find ourselves up against it,” Arwin said. “Putting a failsafe into something shouldn’t be too hard for me to do anymore. I’ve got it covered. Don’t worry.”

Lillia smiled. “Perfect. Then all we have to do is make sure the Auction House is all loaded out and the finer details are polished up. Do you think you can handle making the Dungeon Heart modification to bring it to life without my help this time around?”

“Easily. I’ve still got the Armory, Wallace, and Koyu,” Arwin said with a nod. “Don’t worry about backing us up. You’ve got more than enough on your own plate. Do you have something in particular you’re thinking about doing?”

“Yeah. I want to push my own abilities a little farther, and this is the perfect opportunity for it. I think I might be able to extend a few of the Devil’s Den’s effects outside of the den and into the Auction House once we finish building it.” Lillia fell silent for a few moments in thought. Then she shook her head as if to clear cobwebs away from it. “But I’ll deal with that later. I need to plan a little more first — and I should probably improve my own abilities first as well.”

“Well, we’ve got two weeks,” Arwin said. “More than enough time to figure things out.”

“Yeah,” Lillia said.

The two of them fell silent for a few moments.

“Wait,” Arwin said. He blinked. “Rodrick is back, isn’t he?”

“Oh, yeah!” Lillia exclaimed. Her eyes lit up. “Shit. I can’t believe it almost slipped my mind. I was so caught up with the Dwarven Council business. I need to get back to the kitchen to keep an eye on everything, but I’ve got time to go see how things are going with him. I wonder how his Sunsetting went.”

“Only one way to find out,” Arwin replied with a grin.

***

Everyone was waiting for them in the shade of the massive demon tree growing in basement of the Devil’s Den. They had gathered into a small semicircle around Rodrick, who stood before the tree showing off his newly made armor.

“It’s awesome,” Reya was saying, her eyes sparkling in awe. “What else can you turn into?”

“Just about anything humanoid,” Rodrick replied with a huge grin. “This is the best armor I’ve ever had.”

“Keep going,” Wallace said. “Tell us more. How much better than everything else is it? Don’t feel the need to hold back.”

“You’ve got problems, Wallace,” Arwin said as he and Lillia walked up to the group. He grinned at Rodrick. “Welcome back. It’s good to see you again.”

“Likewise,” Rodrick said, stepping forward to pull Arwin into a quick hug. “Thank you, Arwin, Lillia. I’ve been told about how much effort everyone put into the gift. It’s… a lot. More than I think I’ve ever gotten before.”

Anna coughed.

“Other than my lovely wife,” Rodrick added hurriedly. “She still takes the prize.”

“But only by a little,” Anna said with a laugh.

“I’ll try to get something equivalent made for everyone,” Arwin promised. “And I’m sure Wallace and Koyu will be more than willing to keep helping. It wouldn’t be possible without them.”

“It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do,” Wallace said with a grunt, clearly displeased that his compliment session had been disrupted.

“I have to say, you took a little longer than I thought, Rodrick,” Arwin said. “Everything go okay with Sunsetting? Is your class…”

“Fine,” Rodrick said. He was silent for a moment. Then he shook his head. “It wasn’t what I expected. Not at all. But it was fine. Maybe better than fine. I feel more like me than I ever have before. I’m not a Fallen Paladin anymore.”

“Then what are you?” Olive asked curiously. “Did your class name change?”

“It did,” Rodrick confirmed. “My class has been changed to Infiltrator. I’d say it fits me a whole lot better than my previous one did.”

Infiltrator, huh? That does suit him.

 “Good,” Lillia said. “I can’t think of anyone who had been more deserving of a change. You were stuck with that old class holding you back for too long.”

“Now he’ll be even sneakier,” Art grumbled. “Just what we needed. He’s going to scare the life out of me by appearing out of nowhere someday.”

A shadow shifted beside Art.

Eleven slipped into view right beside him, her face only a few inches away from his. “Like this?”

“Shit!” Art exclaimed, somehow launching himself to his feet. Vix doubled over cackling as his surprise was quickly replaced by annoyance. “Seriously?”

“I have to have fun every once and a while.” A small smile slipped over Eleven’s features before vanishing as quickly as it had come.

“Eleven,” Lillia said. “I still can’t sense you.”

“I would hope so,” Eleven replied. “I’ve been at this for a while. It would be really embarrassing if you could track me so soon after Sunsetting. At least give me another week. Look, I’m sorry to interrupt the reunion. I won’t be around long. Schedule to keep and all, and I’ve got a bed waiting for me. Schedule to keep. You understand. But I don’t need to go back alone.”

“You mean…” Arwin trailed off for a moment. “You’re here to take another person to Sunset? Already?”

“There were some slight discussions on our end,” Eleven said. “Rodrick performed better than expected. With the way things are moving, One agrees that it would be wise to keep allowing the Menagerie to Sunset so long as things continue progressing the way they have been. If you have someone prepared — and I do mean really prepared — then they can begin. Today.”

Arwin blinked. That was faster than he’d been expecting, and the expressions on the rest of the Menagerie’s faces made it clear that they thought the same. He exchanged a glance with Lillia.

Rodrick was a shoo-in with his class holding him back. We obviously can’t turn down a chance for someone to Sunset…

But who should go next?

Chapter 534

Everyone watched Eleven in silence for a short while. It wasn’t that a single one of them had misunderstood her. At this point, they were all aware of just how significant Sunsetting was. The difference in Arwin alone was more than enough to make that abundantly clear.

But there was only a single slot available. Even if Setting Sun was willing to keep helping them, going first meant stopping someone else from getting that opportunity.

Or, in other words, everyone was way too damn considerate.

They all just turned their eyes to Arwin. He didn’t know how that was meant to solve anything. Just because he was guild leader didn’t mean he knew the answer to every single problem. He had complete faith in every single one of his guild members.

Arwin also wanted every single one of them to get the chance to Sunset. And, unlike Rodrick, nobody was stuck with a class that was objectively holding them back. That made things a hell of a lot harder.  

“You know, someone could at least volunteer,” Arwin said. “Staring at me isn’t going to solve anything.”

“You’re the guild leader. That means this is your problem,” Anna said with a shrug. A small grin flitted across her lips. “This way, we can all grumble about who you choose without having to take responsibility for it ourselves. For the record, I’ll be mad if you choose me right after Rodrick got back. But I’ll also be mad if I get passed up for no reason. I want to Sunset my class as well.”

“What am I supposed to do with that information?” Arwin asked, throwing his hands up into the air. “It’s useless!”

Anna just grinned.

“I volunteer Olive,” Reya said.

“Yeah?” Olive asked, glaring at Reya. “You trying to get rid of me?”

“What? No! I—”

“I volunteer Reya,” Olive said, crossing her arms in front of her chest and sending the other girl a smug smile.

“And you have both also proceeded to be entirely useless,” Arwin informed them. He glanced to Kien.

The former hero didn’t even blink. That didn’t mean he wasn’t interested. Kien was just completely unreadable. He was just that kind of person. Guessing what he was thinking was functionally impossible.

At this point I almost want to choose the damn Infernal Armory. Unfortunately, I can’t shove an entire building through one of Eleven’s portals.

Lillia wasn’t being of much help either. A grin had parked itself on her lips as she watched on, not even bothering to hide her amusement. She didn’t look like she was going to be of much help either.

There wasn’t an obvious answer, which meant the only winning play was to let someone else either volunteer or make the choice while sitting back and enjoying the show.

“I have no need to Sunset my class right now,” Art said. “Given what we know about the intensity of the process, I’m not certain I’ll survive — or it might hurt Vix. We’ll both wait until you’ve had a chance to fix her heart.”

Arwin nodded. “And that’s next on my list of tasks. I think I’ve actually got enough experience to attempt something at that level… but it still doesn’t help me right now.”

“I could leave and come back after a nap,” Eleven offered.

“No,” Arwin said. “Just wait a moment, please. You’ll be gone for at least a day if you do that. Two weeks is a lot of time, but I don’t’ want to go wasting days.”

“A day isn’t wasted if you’re sleeping,” Eleven advised. “But it is wasted if you could be. Figure it out. My bed is waiting for me.”

“Okay,” Arwin said, raising his hands palm-first. The Menagerie had a fair few people in it. The easiest way to choose someone was probably to figure out who shouldn’t be chosen.

Thane was at the top of the list. The boy was too fresh. Out of everyone in the guild, he had the least experience fighting. It would be best to let him keep growing and getting stronger before plunging him headfirst into a stream of concentrated Mesh.

Art and Vix had excluded themselves, and Eleven had told him that Esmerelda had already Sunsetted her class some time ago. Madiv hadn’t really shown any desires for change, and he had the Auction House to worry about. Adding something else onto the vampire’s plate right now would probably be a bit much.

And Wallace… well, Wallace was a smith. There was a good chance he’d be interested in Sunsetting. But it didn’t feel like he really needed to rush into it either. Arwin was pretty sure there was a better option than him.

That narrowed the options down a fair bit.

Arwin let his eyes drift over everyone in the room one more time. Then a thought struck him. A grin pulled across his lips. The more he thought about it, the more it fit.

Yes. That will do quite nicely, I think.

“Okay,” Arwin said. “I’ve got it.”

“Who?” Eleven asked. She snapped her fingers, pulling a dark portal open at her feet expectantly. It was clear she had no desire to waste any more time.

Arwin pointed. Not at any of the people who had volunteered each other or those who had requested not to be picked. For that matter, he didn’t point at a person at all.

He pointed at the Menagerie’s one and only Lich.

Koyu turned to glance over his shoulder. Then he looked back to Arwin.

“Who are you pointing at?”

“You,” Arwin replied.

“That has now become apparent,” Koyu said dryly. “Is it possible you were struck on the head at some point during your trip to the dungeon? Why would you choose me?”

“Because I promised to make you a new body,” Arwin replied. “But there’s more to a body than just the casing. You want to be free. That’s what drove that request, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Koyu said. “But have you forgotten? Even if I were willing to Sunset, I cannot leave this street. I am bound here. That is the very reason I asked you to create me a body in the first place.”

“Right,” Arwin said. “But that’s the thing. Why do you think that having a metal casing around yourself is going to change anything? If this binding is really that unbreakable, giving you a body wouldn’t change anything at all.”

“Perhaps,” Koyu said. “I know not the answer. What does that have to do with this?”

“A lot. If you were really that convinced you couldn’t leave the street, then you’d never bother asking for a body. It wouldn’t matter. That means a part of you believes there’s a way to real freedom. And I don’t think you’re getting there without meeting the Mesh head on to purify yourself. After all… if you change from Lich to something more, then what would be left to bind you?”

“Or I could cease to exist.”

That gave Arwin a moment of pause. He hadn’t actually considered that possibility. It felt like a bit of a cop-out, though. The Mesh didn’t hurt people. It restricted options and arranged things for the world’s survival — but it had never taken direct actions to actively give anyone anything but what they desired.

“I don’t think you’re going to die unless that’s truly what you seek,” Arwin said.

“He’s right,” Eleven drawled. “I mean, we’ve never Sunset a Lich, but Sunsetting doesn’t weaken you. It perfects you into what you want to be. So long as you manage it successfully, you shouldn’t die. Probably.”

“Even if I were to believe that… very convincing assurance, it changes nothing,” Koyu said. “I am bound here. There is no way for me to attempt Sunsetting in the firstplace.”

  “I’m not sure that’s true, actually,” Lillia said. “You said you were bound to the street, right?”

Koyu inclined his head. “Yes. This street and the surrounding area. I cannot leave. And, though I desire the ability to walk freely again, I am not so certain I would leave if I could. What I desire is the option to choose.”

“Then choose,” Lillia replied. She knelt and picked a piece of loose stone off the ground near the corner of a wall and the floor. Then she held it out to Koyu.

“What am I meant to do with this?” Koyu asked, staring at the rock in confusion.

“You’re bound to the street,” Lillia said. “That’s part of the street.”

“So it is,” Koyu said. He lifted his gaze to Lillia and narrowed his eyes. “Are you really trying to imply that I can cheat the curse by taking this rock with me and just… walking through the portal?”

“There’s no cheating involved,” Arwin said. “You’re bound to the street. Like you said. So bring the street with you. The Mesh doesn’t work differently for you, Koyu. It’s meant to help people. That’s its purpose. It isn’t cheating. This is just playing by the laws of the land.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Koyu said. “Such a trick would never work. I won’t even be able to step through the portal.”

He approached the dark disk of energy at Eleven’s feet. The long-haired woman watched him curiously.

“Only one way to find out,” Lillia said. “It’s not like you lose anything.”

“That is true,” Koyu allowed. He hesitated for a moment. Then he shook his head. “It’s still ludicrous. I refuse to believe the Mesh—”

Eleven pushed him.

It was only enough to send Koyu back an inch, but that was enough. The Litch stepped back into the portal and plunged into it, vanishing without another sound.

“Huh,” Eleven said, looking down into the darkness. “Who woulda thought? See you in a bit.”

Then she stepped into the portal behind Koyu. It snapped shut behind them both, leaving behind nothing but silence and a somewhat stunned crowd.