5.19 – Blacksmithing III

5.19 – Blacksmithing III

The following hours passed in a blur. Shara cleared her schedule and immediately started experimenting.

Since she was working with an unknown ore, she started with small samples. Testing composition, melting point, other common properties. To her delight and relief, the ore yielded without struggle; it was an extremely easy material to work with. Nearly as much so as iron, the lowest tier and most common ore found in the dungeon.

She fell into a sort of fugue as the hours ticked by. First, smelting progressively larger samples as she became more comfortable with the task, separating the metal from its impurities, then refining it, purifying through both natural and alchemical means.

When she'd finished those preliminary stages of the process, six ingots of the lustrous pink metal laid in a row, refined to the best of Shara's ability. Normally, she might have taken a moment to admire the results, especially the lustrous sheen of the novel material, but a trance had taken her over. She kept working without pause.

Natalie had suggested that Shara take liberties with forging the material, but had mentioned, specifically, a breastplate, should she lack an intuition for what the metal wanted to be molded into. And Shara did lack an intuition, but only because she got the sense that erotite was a versatile metal: something that could take any shape.

While most metals had specialties—iron for armor, silver and gold for accessories—there was nothing stopping a person from doing what they pleased with any given metal. Sure, golden armor might be weaker than its more durable counterparts, but it would manifest unique stats and associated effects in exchange. Likewise, iron trinkets and jewelry would probably take on fighter-type stats, such as tenacity and stability bonuses. Where erotite would fall on that spectrum, Shara had no idea; but regardless, she felt it was versatile.

As Shara worked, she fell deeper and deeper into her haze, almost losing her sense of self. She discerned quickly that her typical breastplate molds would be inappropriate; she needed to create something custom. She would make chest armor, yes, as Natalie had requested, but the metal—unique as it was—called for a specialized design.

It was as if the metal talked her through the process. This was a job far beyond her expertise; a material that deserved to be worked by a master, not her. But it was eager to guide Shara nonetheless. A part of her was unnerved by how deeply she lost herself in her work, how completely submerged she became, and how little conscious effort she put in. Her class, or the metal, or both in tandem, took control; Shara was simply a conduit.

Many hours later, Shara had finished. Her body was slick with sweat, despite night having arrived and cool air wafting through the forge. She looked down at her creation. While aware to some degree of what she'd been painstakingly forging, she had been so invested that it wasn't until just then, gazing admiringly at the result of her hard work, that she realized what, exactly, she had created.

The deep, thrumming sense of harmony and connection with her class faded. The metal stopped singing to her. She stared down at ...

At ...

The armor she'd made.

If it could be called that.

Shara paled.

Her thoughts froze in disbelief. It was armor that belonged on a torso, yes. As Natalie had requested. But a breastplate designed for a heavily armored fighter?

A tantalizing metal piece of armor forged from erotite. Cups the wearer's breasts but only partially obscures, revealing cleavage and undercurve in an immodest display. A single piece of an ensemble set.

***

There was a lot to take in. Her head spun as she digested the information revealed to her.

A rare? She'd forged a rare item? She'd held high hopes for an uncommon, considering the material and the connection she'd felt, but a rare was far above what she had expected—on the edge of plausibility, even, for a low-level smith like her.

And just as surprising, the effects. A large tenacity boost? Without some mitigating factor? Though, she supposed, the sheer lack of coverage—how much skin the bikini-armor-bra exposed—of crucial internal organs was the mitigating factor itself. From the standpoint of, well, being armor.

But such a significant Tenacity boost made up for it. While probably not as protected from a blade as if the wearer had actual metal defending her, the other associated effects of Tenacity—a larger health pool, better stamina, magical resistance, and physical stability—easily outweighed the singular downside. At least in most cases.

The bonus effect also sounded great for a tank. Being hit would sometimes snare her attacker? The utility of that went without saying. It was one of the better peripheral effects Shara had seen on a level-two piece of gear.

And finally, the non-specified set bonus. More erotite armor would culminate in another benefit. And, knowing how set bonuses worked, probably a significant one. Shara glanced at the spare pink ingots: she had plenty more to work with. Enough to make a full set, easily, and with ingots to spare.

Okay. Maybe this debacle wasn't as bad as it seemed. While strange, the armor seemed exceptional: the expected result of such a rare material. Perhaps even exceeding expectations.

Still, the design was so scandalous. How was she going to explain it to Natalie?

And why had erotite insisted on a lewd design in the first place? Under what circumstances had the woman gotten this ore? A boss fight against a succubus?

In any case, Shara figured that the inappropriate designs would be more forgivable the better the armor turned out. Maybe the full set bonus would be great enough that Natalie didn't regret leaving the ore in Shara's hands.

So. A full set. That was her goal. Boots, gloves, and a lower-body piece as well.

Shara just hoped the upper-body piece was the worst of it. Even that might be too much. There was an understanding with clients that items couldn't always turn out exactly as they requested—and Natalie had even explicitly granted Shara creative liberty—but this strained that leeway. Class and instinct determined a lot about the shape and type of item, but a part of it—and not all that small of one—should be the craftsman's hand. So, it would seem to Natalie that Shara had tried to make something perverted. Though that most certainly wasn't accurate; Shara had fallen into a fugue. But maybe she'd accepted her class's guidance and the influence of the rare metal too freely.

Either way, Shara had some explaining cut out for her.

For now, she got back to work.