“That it would,” I agreed, knowing full well what kind of adventurers and guilds there were in the aforementioned regions due to my watching of various feeds. As easily as we could find people to help us, we could also find others looking to take advantage of our situation, causing distractions or worst case, disasters that we couldn’t afford to have. “I’ll see what I can do at any rate. Hopefully, we can get something rolling and get us some help.”
“Hopefully,” Lance said, a hand coming up once more to stifle a second yawn even fiercer than the first. “And speaking of rolling, I’m afraid I’m going to have to drop from the chat and find my bed. I’ve been up since yesterday, and I have about three hours to get as much sleep as I can before I need to be back online to switch out with the others.”
“That’s fine, Lance,” I said to the man, more than understanding his exhaustion. Between all of us, we were each running on less than five hours of sleep in the last twenty-four, and I doubted that it was going to get better anytime soon. “Thanks for the update in the meantime. We’ll make sure to pass it on to everyone who needs to know.”
“Works for me,” he replied, offering us one final nod of farewell before vanishing from the screen. “I’ll catch you guys later. Good luck in the meantime.”
With that, Lance then signed off from our virtual meeting, the split-screen stretching itself back out so that only Gavin’s face was displayed on it.
“Well, I guess we at least know what we’re dealing with now,” Misha announced, her eyes moving between me and the screen. “If only a little bit.”
“That we do,” Gavin agreed, his face tightening as he continued to speak. “Which I guess now brings me back to my earlier point. I know we made plans to head back to Eberia right before all of this was dropped into our laps, but given everything that’s happened…is that really the best idea right now? You guys need all the hands that you can get, and we’re more than happy to stay around a bit longer.”
“I really appreciate that, man,” I replied in a sincere tone, despite slowly shaking my head. “And believe me, we’d love to have you three around, but I have a feeling that this is only going to snowball. A ‘bit longer’ could end up being weeks, or even months depending on how things go. That’s assuming you could even get back to Eberia by then too. As much as we’re having our own problems, so is the city.”
“I’m sure we could find a way,” Gavin countered, though it was clear that his heart wasn’t completely in it.
“You guys probably would,” Misha agreed, taking over for me. “But regardless if things go good or bad here, we still need eyes on both Coldscar and Eberia. Both so that you guys can try and steer it in the right direction…and also to advocate for us if we end up needing help—either from adventurers or from Veronia’s father, Marshal Tarius. If push came to shove, I doubt he’d leave his daughter out in the cold with orcs on the loose.”
“Are you guys sure?” he asked one last time, more out of formality than anything else.
“We are,” I replied firmly, glancing over towards Misha who nodded in agreement. “Not only is this the best way for you three to help us, but you also have people counting on you back in Eberia. Not to mention, too, we’ll definitely be keeping in touch as best as we can offline to coordinate our efforts across the board.”
“Okay, then,” Gavin said with a resigned sigh as he finally gave in to our arguments. “We’ll start heading back today and make sure to do everything we can to support you all from Eberia. Maybe having orcs appear back on the horizon again will get everyone to put aside their differences and work together.”
“Here’s to hoping,” Misha replied dryly, her tone signaling that she doubted anything of the sort. “Though if they decide to keep being pains in the asses, feel free to educate them on the benefits of cooperation as forcefully as needed.”
“Oh, I definitely plan to,” Gavin said in an eager tone. “We don’t have time for kid gloves anymore.”
“That we don’t,” I agreed, my eyes taking that cue to drop down and check the time in the corner of the monitor, seeing that the morning was steadily wearing on. “And more importantly, we don’t have the time right now. We need to get back into the game and get things rolling, or more specifically, I need to find Léandre and figure out what we’re going to do to fortify Valor’s Point.”
“And hopefully find us a way past the construct’s damage reduction too?” Misha asked in a hopeful tone. “I know I’m miles away at the moment, so that doesn’t help me, but we’re going to need something on that front if we’re going to stand up to those things in battle. We’re not going to be able to rely solely on you and the mages to take them all down. Then there’s that bit with the corruption too. We still don’t know what we’re dealing with there.”
“It’s all on the list,” I said, mentally tallying all my various tasks in my head. “Léandre and I are going to try and churn out what we can with the æthertouched iron that we have, and I plan to have Jenkins cut down as many branches as he can from the oak tree. Hopefully, I can repeat what I did with Splinter and carve them into weapons for people to use. Past that, I’m leaning on Donovan and Stanton having an answer regarding the corruption, though honestly, I’m not too hopeful about it. We don’t know enough about what it is to even start coming up with an explanation, let alone a solution to it.”
“At this point, anything will help,” Misha stated as she leaned forward in her seat, getting ready to stand up. “Because with what Lance has just told us, I doubt that we’ve seen even the tip of what Carver and the orcs have in store for us.”
“I don’t doubt it either,” I agreed, moving to mirror Misha as I gave one last look to both her and Gavin. “Okay, I think we’re winding down here, is there anything else to cover before we go our separate ways?”
“I don’t think so here, Marc,” Gavin replied with a shake of his head. “I have a couple things to sort out here, then I’ll be logging back on to get ready for the trip back to Eberia.”
“Same here,” Misha replied. “I need to see who’s made it to Shadow’s Fall by now and then get moving to catch up with Lance and his guild. The sooner we can meet up with them, the sooner we can figure out what we’re dealing with.”
“Then it sounds like we all have our jobs to do,” I said as our meeting came to an end. “Let’s get back to work.”
Chapter 18
The Crafting Hall
Chaos greeted me as I logged back into the world of Ascend Online, the endless darkness that surrounded me during the login sequence resolving itself into bright colors and sound. Blinking at the disorientation, I had enough sense to step over to the side of the road before coming to a stop, just narrowly missing being hit by a passing wagon. Wincing at the sight, I shook my head and rubbed my face to clear what few cobwebs still floated in my vision, my new reality finally snapping into focus when I reopened my eyes.
Looks like everyone’s gotten a good start so far today, I thought as everywhere around me I saw countless rushing bodies going into and out of the crafting hall, many of them hauling various supplies needed inside or already bringing finished products out to be loaded on a waiting wagon. In the center of the laneway was a belabored adventurer shouting out to everyone nearby as she tried to make sense of and organize the sheer quantity of moving bodies and vehicles.
“Lyrian!” a familiar voice suddenly called out, just close enough to be heard through the cacophony of shouting and movement that filled the air. “Good, you’re finally here! Let’s get you to Léandre so he can get you working!”
Stepping into view mid-speech, I saw a coal-black dwarf appear out from behind a pair of players carrying a crate moving past me, already beckoning for us to follow him.
“Thorne! You’re one of the ones that stayed back?” I asked, having left it for Freya and Drace to solicit a handful of volunteers to remain behind to help with the crafting.
“Aye, I did!” the dwarf replied as we pushed through the
bodies around us and entered into the crafting hall, the place already hot and humid despite the early morning. “Figured you’d want to have some familiar hands around to make sure things run smoothly. And truth be told, I think I’m starting to get a bit old to be chasing orcs through the hills.”
“Psh, you’re hardly old! You just want a comfortable bed to sleep in, don’t you?” I said to Thorne, seeing a broad smile break out across his face.
“Hrm, saw straight through me right away, didn’t you?” he answered with a chuckle before continuing to speak. “Anyway, you’ve not got just me though to help and run herd on things, two of the lizards, Helix and Cadmus, stayed back to help as well as Ameron and Edanea. Between us five, we have enough to keep everyone moving in the same direction.”
“Great!” I replied, feeling a wave of gratitude towards the guildmembers in question surge through me. It likely hadn’t been an easy decision for any of them to stay behind and do something as simple as craft, especially when the rest of the guild was going to fight the orcs and try to keep them at bay. But if we were to have any chance of winning, it was going to happen with a coordinated effort across all fronts.
Cutting through the main hall and into the foundry, it didn’t take us long to find Léandre, who was steadily hammering away at a large red-hot bar of metal with a sledgehammer.
“Rah!” the Tul’Shar exclaimed as he brought the hammer heavily down on the bar, causing it to ring out loudly. Exhaling sharply, the craftsman inspected the metal with a single glance, then motioned towards a nearby assistant. “Good, it is taking shape. Back into the forge for a sixty count.”
Letting out a grunt of acknowledgment, the man obeyed, hefting the heavy bar effortlessly in a pair of tongs and sliding it into the mouth of a nearby forge. As he did so, it allowed for Léandre to set his hammer down and turn his attention towards us, having clearly noticed our arrival.
“Good morning, Lyrian,” he greeted, panting from his exertions. “Welcome to our battlefield.”
“It does seem like that today, doesn’t it?” I replied, taking the opportunity to glance around the foundry and seeing that each of the ten other forges set up were all occupied by no less than two adventurers each. “Anyway, I’m sorry I’m late. But I’m here now to help wherever you need me.”
“It is no worry, we are yet still finding our stride this morning too,” Léandre replied, inclining his head towards me before indicating the forge at the center of the foundry. “As for a task, I was thinking to leave you and Thorne in charge of both the ætherforge and the foundry itself today. I have too many other needs pressing elsewhere in the crafting hall, and I hope to find the time to draft out a design for the idea that we spoke about last night.”
“That works for us,” I replied, my attention shifting over towards the magical forge, seeing that while it was stoked with a low-burning flame, it was currently unused by anyone. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to get the thing to cooperate with me today.”
“Hopefully,” Léandre agreed in a wistful tone. “Though truthfully, I will settle for there being no catastrophic magical event to add to our burdens. You will be careful in your work, yes?”
“As much as I can be,” I replied, already preparing myself for the dangers of working with the ætherforge.
In our experiences so far, working the æthertouched iron was an exercise in both frustration and patience. For reasons that we still hadn’t figured out, there was a risk when trying to shape the metal that it would suddenly react with a random magical effect, potentially causing harm, or if not, chaos to everyone and everything around it. So far, surprise fires, flash freezes, random teleportations, living rainbows, and a small indoor thunderstorm were only a handful of the things that had spontaneously occurred while working with the metal, with newer and even stranger events occurring each and every time we tried to experiment with the metal.
“Then that is all that I ask,” Léandre stated, the man moving as the iron bar that I’d seen earlier returned, now red hot from its stay in the nearby forge. “In the meantime, I shall finish this last piece here and leave you to your work. Should you need anything during the day, send a runner to find me, else I will see you later on tonight in my workshop.”
“That works for me,” I replied, seeing the man give us a brief farewell wave before shouldering his hammer and turning back to his work, the loud sound of metal on metal ringing out a second later. Taking our cue from there, Thorne and I left the old architect to his work and headed directly towards the ætherforge.
“So, I don’t suppose you have any ideas of how we’re to tackle forging this metal?” Thorne asked as we walked. “I’ve heard rumors about your earlier…challenges, and I’m not going to lie, they make my hair stand on end. Is it really true that Jenkins ended up getting transfigured into a lizard after trying to shape an ingot?”
“Huh?” I grunted, looking over towards the dwarf in disbelief. “No! That didn’t happen at all!”
“Oh, phew, that’s a relief,” the man replied, shaking his head slowly from side to side. “It’s just hard to—”
“It was a chicken he got transfigured into,” I said, interrupting the dwarf and seeing his expression instantly freeze. “But it only lasted for like five seconds.”
“W-wait, what?” Thorne asked as he turned to look at me incredulously. “You mean that really happened?!”
“Just once,” I replied, giving the dwarf a shrug as if the question didn’t matter. “And he was fine afterward. Besides, it’s not those events that we need to worry about, it’s the random teleportation ones. Did I tell you about the time I got ported to the foundry’s roof? Or rather three feet above it?”
“Um, I’m pretty sure you didn’t,” he answered hesitantly as we reached the ætherforge. “But, uh, maybe before you get into that story, we can come up with a plan how we’re going to tackle the forging today? Preferably in a way without any unexpected teleportations, transfigurations, transmutations, or other magical events starting with the letter T that I can’t remember right now affecting me?”
“We’ll be fine,” I assured the man with a chuckle, enjoying his discomfort perhaps a little bit too much. “While we’re still learning as we go, we’ve managed to work the worst of the kinks out now. The trick is to take things slow and steady.”
“If you say so,” Thorne replied in a dubious tone.
“I do,” I stated, motioning for him to pick up one of the bronze cylinders that we used to store and move æther in. “Now, here is what I was thinking for the day…”
Launching into a long explanation from there, I began the process of bringing Thorne up to speed on all the experimenting that we’d managed to do so far with regards to the æthertouched iron. Since he was already familiar with our difficulties, it thankfully didn’t take me long to catch the man up on the basics of the forging process, and before long, I was outlining what my crafting plans for the day were. Based on our trial and error so far, we’d learned that the risk for a magical event tended to increase drastically with the size of the metal being shaped. It seemed that smaller pieces, for whatever reason, tended not to react unexpectedly when being worked, whereas larger pieces, say those the size of a sword blade or axe head, almost always did. But given our need to find a way through the corrupted constructs’ damage reduction if we were to put up a solid fight, we had to figure out a workaround and fast.
Fortunately, I had an idea of just how to do that.
Since we only needed the æthertouched iron on the parts of the weapon that would make contact with the corrupted constructs in order to bypass its resistances, I’d come up with a plan to try to craft them out of multiple pieces. Instead of forging an entire blade, axe head, or spear tip from the magical metal, my plan instead was to use it for the edges, using a collection of smaller pieces joined together to a wooden or iron base. As simple as the idea was, however, it was also a rather ugly solution. Forging dozens of finger-sized shards of metal and then somehow at
taching them to a weapon’s base was going to be a tedious and laborious process, taking much longer than it would otherwise.
But since we didn’t have a better solution on hand, and we really needed the weapons available as soon as possible, we pressed on to the best of our ability.
Working steadily in the hours that followed, Thorne and I busied ourselves with the task of churning out a starting batch of æthertouched iron pieces to first prototype my idea, the dwarf proving to be a quick study. So much so that between us, we mercifully managed to limit our total magical incidents to just one each, with both instances being more amusing than dangerous. But in addition to the work itself, the crafting challenge that we’d set for ourselves also proved to be a steady source of experience for us with our skill in blacksmithing rising steadily until we both hit level twenty-three. Eventually, by the time that lunch hit, we found ourselves with enough sharpened æthertouched blade edges, spear tips, and sword fragments to move onto the second part of the process: making the rest of the weapon they would attach to.
Splitting up at that point, we then commandeered a pair of the mundane forges in the foundry along with a handful of workers each, and we set about another round of crafting. Aided by the capable core of helpers, the process from there on out sped up drastically, allowing us to forge a handful of sword, axe, and spear cores to work with.
“I think that these should do fairly well,” Thorne said in an optimistic voice as we assembled our first prototype weapons, the dwarf fixing an edge to an axe while I did the same to a sword.
“I’m thinking so too,” I agreed as I carefully inserted a razor-sharp shard of æthertouched iron into what would be the spine of the sword and fixed it in place with a rivet. Modeled after a “tooth” sword that I’d seen on the internet, the blade was shaping up to be a vicious-looking thing, its serrated edges looking ready to bite deep into flesh. “I’ll admit I wasn’t exactly sure how this would turn out when we first started it, but it’s looking like we’ll be able to put weapons in the hands of a few people at least.”
Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4) Page 24
