Chapter 252: Cursed

Wallace and Esmerelda returned in time for breakfast. Judging by the frazzled look on Esmerelda’s face and the mild annoyance in Wallace’s, the old woman’s marketing pitches had been no more effective than they normally were. Any further argument they may have had was quickly silenced when Lillia emerged from the kitchen with food for everyone.

The Menagerie mowed through their meal, and it wasn’t long before everyone dispersed to get to the respective work that their days held. Anna and Rodrick headed back to their room, while Olive and Reya broke away to train. Esmerelda and Madiv, as they usually did, got locked in an argument that marked their place in the city long after they’d strode away from the Devil’s Den.

Lillia and Arwin split ways as well. Arwin set off to the forge while she temporarily closed the inn and headed for the market square to locate Ridley and figure out if he was still in search of work.

And, for the next few days, the Menagerie slipped back into a routine. They all had more than enough work to keep them occupied. Arwin had a number of old orders to finish making for people on the waitlist. It wasn’t the most inspiring work, but it paid incredibly well — and money never hurt anyone.

Lillia got the construction with Ridley started up. She kept the inn open in the meantime, as he was only working on the second floor. A few familiar faces started showing up in the tavern throughout the day. Word of the Menagerie and their street continued to spread through Milten.

Reya and Madiv alternated taking up post outside his smithy and telling everyone that swung by that he’d be accepting orders at some point in the near future, though they made no promises as to when or who. That proved to be enough to placate the crowds. Arwin doubted he could keep that strategy up forever without losing interest. But, even if he did, that would be fine. It wasn’t the interest of the masses he truly needed anymore.

Arwin needed to push himself to grow. And if he wanted to do that, he needed to be making magical items, not normal ones. He needed quality clients. Ones that had the money to pay for something truly worthwhile — and also ones that he wouldn’t regret arming.VIssịT n0(v)eL/b(i)(n).com for the best novel reading experience

Unfortunately, he had precious little time to spend doing anything other than working. When Arwin wasn’t dealing with the backlog of orders, he was practicing Dwarven Smithing. He wanted to get a much better handle of what he was doing before he started adding Cursed items into the mix.

Wallace occasionally swung by from his smithy to check on him, but the dwarf largely left Arwin to his own devices. Much of the awkward air had dissipated over the last few days. Lillia clearly hadn’t completely forgiven the dwarf, but she hadn’t banned him from the tavern either. Wallace respected that enough to avoid sticking around all day — and he probably had better things to do — but he still swung by almost every night to get himself a bottle of ale. That suited all of them just fine. His advice was more than welcome, and if Arwin had been planning to continue down the path of a pure Dwarven Smith, he strongly suspected that he would have had few reservations in becoming the dwarf’s official apprentice.

The days were hectic, but they were peaceful. Not much of any real excitement happened and that suited the Menagerie just fine. But the light of peace did not come without a shadow. Rodrick continued to keep tabs on the Ardent Guild, and Arwin wasn’t so sure he liked the reports they were getting.

The Guild was still in search of something. Rodrick had yet to figure out exactly what it was. He didn’t know if the guild leader had somehow figured out that their sources were compromised or if they were just being extra-secretive, but whatever they were looking for was somewhere in Milten. Arwin and Rodrick both had a sneaking suspicion whatever they were looking for probably had something to do with Jessen.

It was the best guess either of them could come up with. The Ardent Guild had shown up shortly after Jessen had and immediately gone after the dungeon to which he’d had a key. It wasn’t a huge stretch of imagination to assume that Jessen might have been wrapped up in something a little more significant than they’d thought.

If that was the case, there was only a single thing that Arwin could think of that might have drawn the Ardent Guild’s attention. The Dungeon Heart he’d used to accidentally bring his forge to life. That particular heart probably wasn’t getting found anytime soon. It was still buried within the walls of the Infernal Armory and Arwin had no plans of taking it out. He wasn’t sure why the Ardent Guild would have wanted it in the first place. It was obviously a fairly powerful magical item, but it didn’t seem like it was worth the amount of hassle that they were putting into locating it.

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“I hunger for more than energy. I hunger to create,” the Armory said, its words growing insistent. The smoke twisted up to the celling as the veins filling the building thrummed with energy. “You gifted me life. I hunger to use it. Why do you seek to do anything but the peak of what you are capable of?”

“I’m working on that!” Arwin snapped. He nodded to the spot where the knife had fallen. “It wasn’t right. I could feel it. That just wasn’t good enough. I can do better.”

“You can do better,” the Armory agreed. “But you will not let yourself. The existence of a Cursed item concerns you. You treat Cursed Dwarven Smithing as if it is a continuation of Dwarven Smithing.”

“Is it not?”

“I do not know. I am an extension of you, not a well of knowledge. But if it were an extension, then it would have simply been called Dwarven Smithing, would it not? A unique name implies that it is unique. It should be treated as such.”

Arwin pursed his lips. He’d been working on this same knife for quite some time. Nothing he’d made felt anywhere near as what he’d done together with Wallace. He’d assumed that had just been because he’d had Mithril to work with that had helped him along... but there was a good chance the Armory actually had a point. He’d been getting faster at making things with the techniques he’d learned from Wallace, but he hadn’t noticed any significant improvement in quality.

I’m not making as much progress as I want to... perhaps I’m really just beating my head against the wall trying to do something that I’m not specialized into. I’ve got the Titles to resist cursed items.

“Huh,” Arwin mused, turning the word over in his mouth as he thought. “That might make sense. I was pretty sure the paths would be really heavily related and progressing one would help the other... but that’s looking like it might not be the case. Then the reason I’m not getting any significant advancements or rewards from the Mesh might be because I’m not pursuing the path I chose.”

The smoke twisted past Arwin and bobbed. “Perhaps. I do not know. Even if you make a cursed item, we do not have to use it. It can be destroyed.”

“Are you sure?”

“No. But most things can be destroyed. Myself included, though I would not make the process simple. I doubt you will mistakenly invent something so powerful that it transcends even me. You do not have such a talent.”

Arwin chuckled. The Infernal Armory definitely had at least a bit of an ego. There was more than a little annoyance in its words, but their conversation rung true in Arwin’s head. He wasn’t sure if jumping right into making Cursed Items was the right choice, but he wasn’t getting enough advancement as things were right now.

It was time to change things up.

“Right,” Arwin said, rubbing his hands together and letting out a short breath as adrenaline started to build in his stomach. “Let’s see what we can do about making a Cursed item.”