Rise of the Living Forge

The Mesh’s words rung in Arwin’s skull like a church bell. He stared at the impossibly average man before him, the blood pounding in his ears and the endless expanse of white that stretched out in every direction swaying like he was in a kaleidoscope.

“What?” Arwin managed to force out. “All the way to Adept Tier?”

I’m going to lose all the Achievements that I could have gotten through that time? The skills? The potential Titles?

“Yes, it’s rather problematic,” the Mesh said, holding his hands up. “And there’s the problem. You’ve created a ridiculous amount of potential energy with that item of yours, and you must be granted it. But if that happens, you effectively get punished for completing an enormous challenge. Normally, when people speed through the ranks, it’s because they’re impatient, stupid, or otherwise their fault. Nobody skips this many at once.”

“So… there’s something you can do about it?” Arwin asked, hope seeping into his words. “Can you delay the energy or something?”

“No. What’s earned must be paid. I cannot withhold rewards from anyone. They are yours, rightfully earned. What we must determine is how you receive them. As it stands, you should have gotten two entire skill selections before you reached Adept Tier. Both of them have been skipped.”

Arwin suppressed a groan. Two entire skills. Even if he got both of them at once as he leveled up, they’d be severely weaker than they could have been. There would be no Achievements improving their strength.

“That’s pretty shit,” Arwin said.

“And hardly a proper reward,” the Mesh said with a nod. “Thus, I come to you with an alternative. An offer that I have never before given anyone in the history of the world.”

That’s certainly a tempting way to phrase things. I’ve always been a fan of unique… but there has to be a catch with this sort of thing, right?

“Keep talking,” Arwin said slowly. Any alternative to just straight up losing all the potential that was about to get burned by his unexpected level-up was better than nothing. If he could get something out of this, then he would.

“What do you want?” the Mesh asked simply. “If you could have anything. What would you choose?”

“That… seems like a very open-ended question. An easily abusable one. You can’t expect me to believe that you’re going to give me literally anything I want just because I managed to pull off something you’ve never seen before?”

“Do you always argue against your own favor?” The corner of the Mesh’s lip twitched up.

“Only when I suspect something seems a bit too good to be true. Is this going to be some sort of trick question?”

“Relax, Arwin. You aren’t going to get everything you ask for. That would be breaking my own rules. What you deserve is an earned reward. It’s the spirit of your desire that I want to hear.”

That made a fair bit more sense. Arwin scratched at the side of his neck in thought. This wasn’t a question that he wanted to answer without being intentional about things. If the Mesh was going to give him a reward based on what he said, it could be an enormous opportunity.

But when it comes to what I want… there’s only one answer, isn’t there?

Arwin thought for nearly five minutes in search of an answer beyond the first one that came to his mind. None appeared. At the core of his heart, there was only a single thing he had ever truly desired.

If the Mesh had asked him this question a day before he had fallen as the Hero, his answer would have been that he sought to protect everyone dear to him. An ironic answer, as by then, he’d already failed entirely at that.

Every single person he’d cared about — everyone he’d fought to protect — had died. He’d been fighting for nothing but an ideal.

That ideal hadn’t changed, but Arwin’s answer had. He wasn’t the same person that had died on the battlefield together with the Demon Queen.

There was only one thing he could ask for.

“I want to be able to enable the people I care about to protect themselves,” Arwin said.

The Mesh tilted his head to the side. “That… is an interesting answer. You don’t want to be able to protect them?”

“No,” Arwin said. He shook his head and let out a chuckle. “That would be great, wouldn’t it? If I could be there every single time they got into a fight. If I could always keep the world at bay. But I can’t. I couldn’t as the Hero, and I can’t now. I am not some omnipotent being that can protect my little babies from the horrors of the world. They’ve shown me that. Lillia, Reya… all of them. They don’t want to be kept away from the world. They want to experience it. I just want them to be safe, and the best way to do that is to ensure that they’re equipped with the most powerful gear possible.”

“What a fascinating answer,” the Mesh said. “What led you to pick Cursed Dwarven Smithing as your class specialization when these were your motives?”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Power at risk is still power. They can take that potential and draw it out. We needed a trump card. Something that we can call on to beat overwhelming odds.”

“I see. You are willing to let them take great risks for power, even in spite of your desire to protect them?”

“It’s because of my desire to protect them. I have complete faith in every single one of my guildmembers. I wouldn’t ask for a threat to them, but if that’s what it takes, then I know they can handle it.”

“And if you could remove the threat from the items?”

“Would that make them less effective?”

“All things are a tradeoff.”

“Then I would not want that. I wasn’t lying before. Every single person in the Menagerie is capable of taking that risk and mastering it. I would not deprive them of potential strength just because I’m scared they might get hurt. As I said before, I want to give them the tools to protect themselves. That means they might get injured along the way, but they’ll be more powerful for it in the end.”

“Not a doting father, but perhaps a wise one,” the Mesh said with a slow nod. “I know your reward.”

“You do? So I won’t lose all the potential from reaching Adept? Are you going to use the magical energy for something else and keep me in Journeyman?”

“No. You will still advance to Adept. I will not stop that. You earned it. No Journeyman can create an ensouled object such as what you just made. It is a power that even those at the peak of Adept would be incapable of. But between you, the Infernal Armory, and… well, it matters not. What does matter is that you have earned the advance.”

Fuck.

The Mesh smiled. “Don’t look so disappointed. I have not gotten to the enjoyable part. As part of your advancement to Adept, you have earned a unique advancement to your Class Specialization. In addition, I will combine the potential of the two skills you would have gotten into one.”

Arwin’s eyes widened as every speck of distress he’d felt evaporated in a split instant. A single more powerful skill was always better than two weaker ones. That alone was a massive benefit. Getting an extra advancement to his Class Specialization along the way…

“How much energy would I have gotten?” Arwin asked, swallowing heavily.

“The peak of Adept Tier,” the Mesh replied. “Instead, you will be placed at Adept 1… though I fear it will hardly be anywhere near representative of your strength. You are quite the interesting one. Your magical hunger will also temporarily be sated. There was so much excess power that the Maw consumed some of it before I even got a chance to play around.”

“Deal.” Arwin gave the Mesh a hurried nod before it could even think about changing its mind. Its offer was leagues more than generous. Whatever core he’d made for his Soul Guardian… it was far, far more powerful than he’d thought it would be.

What the hell happened with it? Was that mysterious presence I felt while I was working the thing that the Mesh won’t mention? I’m so damn confused, but I’m not about to complain.

“Very good. Then only one thing remains, Arwin Tyrr. I promised you a single answer. Ask.”

Arwin opened his mouth. Then he hesitated.

The Mesh chuckled. “This isn’t a trick question. I am not going to deceive you. If you desire clarification, then you may seek it.”

“I can ask anything?”

“Anything. One question.”

“That doesn’t seem fair.”

“There’s that arguing against yourself again.” The Mesh crossed his arms and leaned back, supporting himself on an invisible wall in the empty white space that extended all around them. “You are not the first to be offered this. There are other ways to receive my counsel, and all information I can give is information that can be discovered of other causes. I will not tip the scales of balance.”

I guess that makes sense. But what do I even ask?

Who put the gemstone bomb in my armor? What the Mesh really is? The way to defeat the Adventurer’s Guild?

There were hundreds — no, thousands of things that Arwin would have given a great deal to have answered. But he didn’t have that many questions.

He only had one.

What’s the most important thing I can ask? It has to be about defeating the Adventurer’s Guild, right?

A pit formed in his stomach as his mind whirred. He didn’t know why, but something about that sat wrong with him.

And then he realized why. The corruption in Adventurer’s Guild had to be taken down… but it wasn’t his main priority. Their time would come as inevitably as the ticking of time. But he’d just told the Mesh his deepest desire, and that hadn’t changed.

There was only one thing he’d give anything to get. The Adventurer Guild’s time would come. The answer to all of his and Lillia’s questions would come. They would find it on their own.

“I have my question,” Arwin said, determination lacing his tone. “I want to know I can best help my guildmembers more powerful.”

There was a long second of silence.

“Truly? You won’t ask about who put the gemstone in your armor? You won’t ask about why you were summoned to this plane, or who did it?”

“No,” Arwin said. “None of that matters. I’ll discover it on my own someday.”

Then the Mesh started to laugh.

“Brilliant, Arwin. Absolutely brilliant. Then you may have my answer — and your rewards.”

Golden letters exploded through the air before Arwin with a roar like crashing thunder.

Title: [Questgiver] has been earned.

[Questgiver] – Your zeal to aid your allies has manifested raw power from mere desire. You may grant a challenging task to an individual at the cost of magical energy. Upon its completion, they will receive rewards directly correlating to the difficult of the task.

Arwin heard his heart beat once in his ears. He stared at the words before him, the blood freezing in his veins and his lips parting in disbelief.

“Rewards?” Arwin breathed.

“Achievements. Titles, if the Quest is hard enough,” the Mesh clarified. “But I suspect by the look on your face that you’ve already deduced that.”

And there was only a single line Arwin could say in response to that.

“Holy fucking shit.”

A laugh echoed through the endless white space. “I like you, Arwin. Not enough to bend rules, but enough to enjoy your victories. Keep taking care of your people. My world needs someone like you more than you could imagine.”

Before Arwin could ask what the Mesh meant, the world shattered. Huge planes of jagged white fell away and he found himself back in his body within the Infernal Armory, new golden letters slashing into the air before his eyes.

Your Tier has raised by 6 ranks.

You have advanced to [Adept 1]

New Skill Choice Available.

Your Class Specialization has evolved.