Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4)

by Luke Chmilenko

  “You did it,” Aldwin said with audible relief, a wide smile breaking out on his face as he looked up towards me.

  “We did it,” I corrected, matching the man’s grin with one of my own as I looked down towards the object in hand, my eyes landing on the rough shape of what was unmistakably the beginnings of a blade.

  An æthertouched iron blade.

  Chapter 55

  “There, that’s another one done,” I announced as I finished wrapping the handle of the azure-hued axe that I’d been working on with a length of leather, making sure the grip was right before I set it down. “You can add it to the others and bring me whatever’s next.”

  “No need,” stated the apprentice that had I’d been working with for the better part of the day. “That was the last one on the pile. Looks like you’re all finished.”

  “Really?” I asked, completely caught off guard by the man’s words, reflexively glancing to my right towards where the seemingly endless pile of armor and weapons had been stacked for me to finish. To my surprise, I found myself staring at an empty table completely devoid of anything, save for a few scraps of discarded leather. “Huh, look at that. I guess we are done.”

  Chuckling at my reaction, the apprentice simply slapped my shoulder in compliment before heading off to deliver the axe to its final destination. With his departure, and no other work to fill my time, I found myself free to clean up my workspace, sweeping the various scraps of leather, cloth, and other left-over materials into a pile on my workbench. As I did, it slowly allowed me to come out of the crafting haze that I’d fallen into and notice the small notification that hovered in the corner of my vision, my hyper-focused mind having ignored it until now. Checking it out of reflex, I saw it expand into the message that I’d been waiting for all day today.

  Your skill in Blacksmithing has increased to level 29!

  New Quest Received! Blacksmithing: Becoming a Journeyman (Tradeskill)

  Congratulations! You have reached the final level of the Apprentice Crafting Tier in Blacksmithing! In order to continue to progress to level thirty and reach the Journeyman Crafting Tier, you must show your skill and dedication to your craft by creating a single Mastercraft-quality item with an item level of 29.

  On completing this challenge, you will immediately progress to level thirty and the next crafting tier. In addition, you will unlock the Blacksmithing Mastery Tree, allowing you to further refine and specialize your skills.

  Good luck!

  Objectives:

  Craft a level 29 Mastercraft quality item: 0/1

  Reward:

  Journeyman Blacksmithing

  Access to the Blacksmithing Mastery Tree

  Wait, what? There’s a mastery tree? I exclaimed with a mental start as I read over the notification and corresponding quest that had appeared with it. Léandre didn’t say any—oh wait, was that why he was grinning earlier when he was telling me what to expect?

  Shaking my head at man’s secrecy, I couldn’t help but also appreciate it, knowing that had he told me that it would have spoiled the excitement that I felt now. Quickly skimming over the text for a second time, I felt whatever was left of the crafting haze that hung over me fade away, bringing me fully back into the present.

  Damn, now I wish I’d had the chance to keep up with carpentry now too before we tackle building that ballista. It would have been great to hit journeyman on both of those tradeskills, I thought, mentally kicking myself for somehow not finding more time to do so. Though as I considered that train of thought, I realized that it was because I’d neglected the trade in favor of blacksmithing that I was able to hit level twenty-nine in the first place. Which means if I’m going to keep up, I’m going to have to think about specializing in either two or three tradeskills past level thirty. I won’t have the time to keep up otherwise if I want to keep adventuring. Especially not if I pick up one of the advanced tradeskills that are supposed to become available past level thirty as well.

  “If only I didn’t need to sleep,” I muttered with an envious sigh as finished tidying my workbench, unable to help excitedly imagining what was waiting for me in the levels to come. “Then maybe I could manage the best of both worlds.”

  “Ah, are we at the point in the day where we are having words with our own thoughts?” Léandre’s voice suddenly interrupted from beside me, causing me to flinch as I turned my head to glance at him.

  “You could say that,” I answered back with a chuckle. “I was just imagining how much more productive I’d be if my ætherwarping removed the need for sleep instead of food.”

  “Ah, a familiar path that my thoughts have traveled as well,” the architect replied, matching my laugh with one of his own. “Though, I imagine that it would wear on one in its own way. There is something about being able to lay one’s head down to rest and wake with the previous day’s problems seeming smaller than they once were.”

  “That is certainly true,” I agreed, taking that opportunity to shift the topic of conversation back towards my earlier thoughts. “But in either case though, I’ve just found out about what you’ve been keeping from me after hitting level twenty-nine in a tradeskill.”

  “Ah, so now you know about the mastery tree,” Léandre replied, his smile only widening. “Exciting, isn’t it? You must have worked quickly, too, if you’ve already discovered it. I was expecting it to take you the entire day, if not into tomorrow.”

  “So did I,” I answered while motioning vaguely towards the empty table nearby. “But I only had little more than a half level to go before I capped out, and working with the æthertouched iron was a great source of experience. Even more than I expected it would be.”

  “For all the trouble that we went through to discover its secrets, I should certainly hope so,” the craftsman said, tilting his head thoughtfully as he spoke. “Though that is good to know in practice since I can no longer gain experience in the trade. I shall have my apprentices devote a portion of their time working with the metal so they too can soon progress into the journeyman tiers.”

  “That would be great. The more hands we have able to churn higher leveled stuff out, the better,” I said, knowing full well that we were on the leading edge of the crafting rush that would be hitting the town over the next few days. We were certain that there had to be other dedicated crafters in the town that were either close to or had already hit level twenty-nine in a tradeskill with the bulk of the others not far behind. Once more of them reached the end of the tier and word got out about what was waiting at level thirty, we were confident that it would spark a flurry of excitement as everyone tried to make their final projects in order to continue progressing.

  And that wasn’t even including the other crafting secret that Léandre and I were about to dive into, the craftsman barely able to contain himself as he looked at me.

  “My thoughts exactly,” he replied, his tone abruptly changing and suddenly becoming even more eager. “Anyway, I am not sure if you have been watching the time, but I believe that we have an appointment to keep.”

  “Ha, I suppose we do,” I answered, smiling at the man’s excitement, still recalling his expression when I told him about our upcoming meeting with Garr and the gronn’s promise to explain what the essences that we’d been finding where.

  And then demonstrate a process that he called essence melding.

  “In that case then, shall we?” I asked, sweeping the last pile of scraps on my workbench into a bin and motioning for us to get moving.

  Needing no further prompting, we made our way out of the foundry and through the crafting hall until we found ourselves back in the same warehouse where we’d started our day yesterday. This time, however, instead of going searching for materials, we made our way to the section that Léandre had cut out for the mages to store their things until a new place could be built for them. Arriving in short order, we found that the spellcasters had wasted little time in transferring all their various artifacts and other knickknacks out of
the now-broken laboratory, filling the entirety of the shelves that had been provided to them.

  “Hrm,” Léandre mused loudly as we entered the area, finding it empty save for Caius and Garr who were both laying out a series of glowing essences on the table in preparation for our meeting. “This was all in that cabin of yours?”

  “Hey, you’re both right on time! We were just finishing up here,” Caius replied as he looked up from the table, it taking a few extra seconds for Léandre’s question to reach him, his gaze shifting to the nearby shelving. “And ah, this is only the stuff that that was loose in the workshop, which speaking of, Halcyon and Donovan wanted to ask if there was any way we could get a little bit more space. We still have six or seven crates that we haven’t unpacked, and another row of shelving would be great.”

  “Six or seven…crates?” Léandre repeated, his eyes widening at the warlock’s words. “How can you possibly have that many artifacts? Better yet, where did you even store all of it in your shack before?”

  “Oh, here and there,” Caius replied with shrug. “Sure, it was a little cramped at times, but we managed. In any case though, now that we have a bit more space, we want to unpack everything, see exactly what it is and if it’s worth keeping and go from there. A lot of this stuff we pulled out of the ruins because it looked interesting and we didn’t want to risk Carver or the orcs getting it. Most of it might really be useless in the end, though.”

  “That is…understandable, I suppose,” Léandre replied, shaking his head at the explanation. “I believe I can find you a bit more shelving for a short while, but it would be temporary, understood? Once this orc business is finished, we will be needing to replenish our stores and require the space back.”

  “That’s not a problem at all,” Caius promised with a nod. “Once this is all done, we’ll do our best to be out of your hair here.”

  “Good. We can move onto new and more exciting things,” the architect said, his attention sliding towards Garr, who had been watching the conversation with a slight smile. “Such as the mystery behind these essences.”

  “We most certainly can,” the gronn said by way of greeting. “I take that you must be the Léandre I have been told so much told about. It is good to finally meet you.”

  “Likewise,” Léandre replied in a gracious tone as he indicated the table and the essences upon it. “And we appreciate you being willing to share your knowledge with us.”

  “Think nothing of it,” Garr said with a wave of his hand, his attention sliding over towards me as he spoke. “It is something that I am only too happy to do—especially when I can see that I have such eager students.”

  “Just a little eager,” I replied in a light tone, offering the gronn a mock indifferent shrug as I spoke. “I mean I’ve only had this on my mind since you said you knew what the essences were.”

  “So I can tell,” Garr answered with a snort followed by a chuckle as he waved us closer to the table. “Very well then, we shall not waste any more time and dive directly into the art of essence melding, lest your eagerness consume you.”

  As he waited for us to gather around the table, Garr reached out to grab a pair of the essences that he and Caius had laid out, handing them over to both Léandre and me. “To begin first, the most important step of learning essence melding is to know exactly what an essence is, which is that they are the physical manifestation of an ideal, not too dissimilar than that of a spirit. However, where a spirit is a living entity in its own right, an essence is not; it is instead the energy of an ideal condensed into a single orb. Here, look upon these essences and you should be able to divine my meaning.”

  “All right, sure,” I said, nodding to show that I was following along with his explanation as Léandre and I each took the glowing essences from him, seeing Caius also reach out and grab his own off the table. Feeling nearly weightless and oddly slippery in my hand as I grasped it, I had to force myself to maintain a firm hold on it as I inspected it, seeing a brief tag appear in my vision pointing towards it.

  [Essence of Celerity]

  “What ideal do you sense within?” Garr prompted gently after giving us a chance to look at the essence.

  “Celerity,” I answered as I took my eyes off the glowing orb and back towards the man, hearing Léandre echo out the same. “Which, unless I miss my guess, would be the ideal of speed?”

  “A vision of it, yes,” Garr replied with a nod, motioning for me to pass the essence I held to him, which I promptly did. “For as many varieties as we have in our own language, so does nature itself. If you are curious to know, this vision, in particular, would often be derived from animals or spirits that rely on speed to either catch prey or evade predators.”

  “Is it?” I asked, feeling a spark of curiosity bloom at that statement. “Hm, I suppose that makes sense when I think about it.”

  “Indeed,” Garr answered with a nod. “Now I could go on much further about the nature of essences, but for the purposes of learning, what we have just covered is enough. Especially since the actual process of melding an essence can be complex enough to grasp without additional details clouding your mind.”

  “To begin first with the end goal of the melding process, what we are setting out to do is to join the essence that we hold in our hands and to then meld it into a vessel of our choosing. But in order to do this, we must convince the essence itself to allow itself to be melded, for it wishes to remain in the stable state that you see before you.”

  “Convince it?” Léandre repeated, sounding unsure of what exactly that meant. “And how would we do that? I assume it’s not like cracking an egg…is it?”

  “Were it only,” Garr said with a chuckle, his head shaking from side to side as he shifted his grip on the essence until he was holding it directly in front of him, supported just by the thumb and forefingers of each hand. “In order to prepare an essence for melding, one must focus their will upon it and convince it to yield to your desire. Depending on the potency of the essence, this might be a rather challenging process, but one that also gets easier with practice.”

  “Uh, well, I’m happy to hear that it gets easier,” I commented as I tried to follow along with the man’s explanation so far. “But what do you mean exactly by ‘focus your will upon it’? Is there a trick to it or something?”

  “There is no trick,” Garr reassured. “But it is also difficult to otherwise explain until you attempt it yourself. Rest assured that it is not a task that requires any magical grounding in but simply one of discipline. Observe me now as I demonstrate the melding process in its entirety, then I shall leave you with an opportunity to try yourselves.”

  Without waiting for any reply from me, Garr took his eyes off of me and focused on the orb held between his fingers, concentrating upon it intently. He stared at it for several more seconds without anything visibly happening to it, at least until he started to pull his fingers apart, the orb then abruptly dissolving into countless strands of energy.

  “Whoa!” I exclaimed as I saw the essence peel itself apart, the whorls of magic traveling up Garr’s fingers until they formed into a swirling storm that enveloped each of his hands.

  Watching the man, the look of concentration on his face didn’t waver as he slowly turned towards the table beside us, reaching to pick up an iron shortsword that had been laid out on the table among the essences. As he lifted the blade, the essence in his hand began to visibly react, spreading outward from the hand holding it and moving to encircle the weapon. Holding the blade firmly, Garr brought the other hand closer towards it until it too reacted, the golden energy in his hands then completely enshrouding the sword until I could barely see it. Over the next few seconds, the energy surrounding the weapon began to spin faster and faster until I finally managed to see a gleaming outline of the blade from within the storm.

  Hang on a second, that wasn’t how it looked a second ago! I thought as I watched the magic begin to fade away and the still-glowing sword become more and mor
e visible until it vanished with a snap, leaving me staring at the now slightly golden-hued shortsword in Garr’s hand.

  Which looked subtly different than how it had when he’d first picked it up.

  “It changed,” I stated numbly, surprise still radiating through me as I looked at the weapon with wide eyes. “The sword looks a little different now than it did before absorbing the essence.”

  “That it has,” Garr replied with a wide smile as he offered the blade to me for my inspection. “A subtle change for certain, but one that reflects the new essence that has been melded into it.”

  Taking the weapon from the man once again, I had a second chance to look over it, my eyes traveling up and down its length. Before the melding process, the shortsword could have been best described as a thick and blunt tool, at least when compared to its sleek and deadly appearance now. Where the blade itself had once looked heavy and strong enough to withstand being thrust through thick armor, it now looked light and deadly enough to simply pass through it with a whisper. Glancing at its edges and tip, they each gleamed with a preternatural sharpness that hadn’t been there earlier, its every movement as I held it in my hand seeming to slice at the air itself. Even the metal of blade itself had taken on an even brighter golden hue, to the point where a too-quick glance could mistake it for being made of brass or bronze.

  But despite all those subtle alterations in its physical appearance, it was the feeling of the weapon itself in my hand that signaled the greatest change that it had undertaken. No longer did it feel like I was holding just a simple sword when I gripped it by the hilt, but instead it felt like I was holding onto something alive, the blade itself wanting to, or nearly demanding to move. It was a heady thing to experience at first, my mind struggling to understand the sensation that I felt as I gently moved the blade through the air, but one that I found myself instantly appreciating. It was only after having a chance to play with the blade for nearly a minute that I even thought to look at its description, my heart practically skipping a beat as I began to read it.