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Chapter 204: Couple of crafters

“What are you doing?” Lillia asked as she watched from a safe distance over his shoulder.

“I recently discovered that the purity of the metal affects the results of what I make a lot. Melting it down lets me remove a lot of the crud,” Arwin replied as he picked out a piece of dark debris from the glowing watery metal pooled in his palm. “I was going to ask Madiv to get me a better way to melt it down but it completely slipped my mind. I got distracted.”

It took him a little under an hour to finish preparing the rest of the metal. It went a little faster now that he’d done it once before already, but it was still longer than he’d hoped to make Lillia stand around and wait.

She didn’t seem to mind. Lillia watched him intently, taking in every move he made and likely trying to figure out if there were any more parallels between his craft and hers. When Arwin finally finished melting everything down and reforming it, he turned the small ingots back to a single piece and hammered it out with Verdant Blaze to hopefully remove any last specs of impurity that had managed to evade him thus far.

He then set about forming the metal into the closest thing he could get to teeth. From what he’d observed with Lillia, the majority of the chewing process was grinding. That may have been because she was trying to eat something that was only a step away from being a piece of charcoal, but making something that ground food down sounded considerably more straightforward than a full functioning jaw replica.

“Okay. I’m just about ready for you to help. I’m going to begin shaping and pushing intent into the bowl,” Arwin said. A thought struck him and he froze. “Wait. How can you touch the metal? It’s going to be hot.”

“Oh, shit. I don’t know how, but that slipped my mind as well. You just hold it with your bare hands.” Lillia’s brow furrowed and she chewed her lower lip. “I don’t always use my hands when I cook. It still works when I’m passing the intent through a knife or the like. I can’t swing your hammer, but can I somehow pass it directly through you? If I’m in contact with you then it might work.”

“Can’t hurt to try. Just stay back. I don’t want any hot metal getting on you.”

Lillia moved to stand behind him and pressed herself to his back, wrapping her arms around his waist. “How’s this?”

“Your arms are exposed. They could get burned by sparks.”

Lillia adjusted her position and stuck her hands under his shirt, pulling it over them. “There. That should be enough, right?”

“I should really get a leather apron or something, but this should be okay. I don’t need to use the hammer too much anyway,” Arwin muttered. It was slightly harder to concentrate than he’d expected with Lillia completely pressed against his back, but he refused to let himself get distracted.

“Then let’s do it. We’re focusing on imbuing the intent of eating and getting a lot of energy out of it, right?”

“Yeah. I’ll focus on the aspect of breaking things down and consuming them,” Arwin said. “You focus on making this prepare the energy to be extracted. It’ll be a set item, so try to visualize that as well.”

“I don’t think food comes as set items, but I’ll do what I can. I’m ready when you are.”

Arwin nodded. Then he got to it. He opted to lean into simplicity and started by preparing the flat piece of Brightsteel with his hammer, folding it over to thicken the metal. He worked slowly at first to make sure Lillia wasn’t getting hurt. When it became clear that she was fine, he started to move faster.

He used [Scourge] and the heightened [Soul Flame] in the hearth to form the metal like taffy into the rough shape of a large, high-rimmed bowl. Throughout the entire time, he kept his intent focused and pushed magic from his palms into the piece.

His stomach tingled where Lillia’s arms touched his bare skin. He couldn’t tell if that was due to energy passing from her into him or if it was just because of their position. Arwin didn’t have the liberty to wonder which one it was.

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Breaking his focus would result in ruining the item they were making, and so he pushed any unrelated thoughts to the back of his head. All he could do was believe that their efforts were working and press on.

Once the bowl was roughly formed, Arwin scooped up several Wyrmling fangs. When he envisioned hunger, nothing fit that more than a group of starving small Wyrms. He focused on those feelings as he pressed the teeth into the bowl and worked the metal around them. He then made a second, thinner bowl out of Ivorin and melded it with the first by pinning it in place with several Ivorin bolts and pressing the metals together with [Scourge] while they heated in the roaring flame of the hearth.

Ivorin was a tougher metal than Brightsteel, so it would hold up to being used as a millstone for longer than the latter would. Once the bowl was roughly complete, Arwin moved to the second piece. Even though they were separate, he viewed them as two parts of a single object.

The Mesh complied and made no move to attempt to make itself known beyond the growing tingles at the tips of his fingers. Fortunately, Arwin didn’t have to make it wait for long. The second piece was much easier than the first.

It was little more than a large, heavy Ivorin ball. Arwin made it exclusively with [Scourge] and the heat from his [Soul Flame]. He put another Wyrmling tooth in the center of the ball, just to make sure that the entire piece was both connected and completely focused on the proper goal.

I’ve generally used the monster parts a lot more literally. Teeth and claws for sharpness or ripping elements, not for hunger or more personality related things. That personality has kind of shown up sometimes, but it wasn’t intentional. If this works, it’ll widen what I can craft even further.

Arwin continued to pour energy into the bowl. Lillia pressed against his back, her fingers pressing into his skin. The tingling sensation around his waist had spread to cover his back as well, and there was no doubt about it being more than just her presence now.

The Mesh sparked and swirled all around them. It poured through Arwin’s body and down his hands into the ball as he shaped it. Sweat rolled down the side of his face and he dragged power from his reserves like a dehydrated man kneeling at an oasis.

Surprisingly, even though this was one of the most energy-hungry projects he’d taken on, Arwin found that his reserves were still over half-full. There was no time to wonder about it. Energy hummed around his hands and the ball he’d finished.

He set it down in the bowl, then pressed out a small hole in the bottom of the bowl. He quickly made one last piece — a Brightsteel disk. He pinned the disk into the bottom of the bowl with a pin that didn’t quite go all the way through, leaving the Ivorin on its top untouched.

The Mesh pulsed in conjunction with the beat of the heart they’d moved back to the corner of the smithy. It was finished.

Arwin let his hands fall. Lillia poked her head under his arm as the Mesh rushed forth and poured into the piece they’d made together, giving it life.

[Millstone Maw: Epic Quality] has been forged. Forging a magical item has granted you energy.

Your Tier has raised by 1 rank.

The magical energy filling your body has grown dense enough to reinforce your physical form. You are now harder to injure and injuries will heal at a slightly faster rate than those of a normal man. Minor poisons and illnesses are no longer able to take purchase in your body.

Achievement: [Couple of Crafters - I] has been earned.

[Couple of Crafters - I] – Awarded for forging your first item by linking your desires together with your partner. Get a room. Effects: The dissonance between you and your partner’s intent has been reduced for the first item you made together. Repeated instances of this Achievement are possible and rewards scale with its tier.

“I got an Achievement!” Lillia exclaimed just as Arwin finished reading his own achievement. He felt the tips of his ears redden and cleared his throat.

“Yeah. I did too. Ranked up as well. You also got the Couple of Crafters one, I take it?”

Lilla nodded. Arwin got tired of keeping his arm in the air and let it fall around her shoulders.

“I wonder what the other rewards are,” Lillia mused, resting her head against his shoulder. “Do you think we could replicate this for cooking? I’ve already got so many new ideas I want to try.”

“I can certainly give it a shot, but I’m no chef. We should probably finish this first. Have you taken a look at if it works yet?”

“No,” Lillia admitted sheepishly. “I’m a little scared. It wasn’t really easy to make. What if we screwed up?”

“The message from the Mesh implies we didn’t screw it completely. But, if we did, then we just make it again. I wouldn’t mind. Every attempt is a step along the road of becoming a better smith.”

Lillia scrunched her nose, then grinned. “I guess I wouldn’t mind doing it again. You haven’t looked either yet, have you?”

It was Arwin’s turn to look sheepish. “No. I was distracted with the Rank up and the achievement. And you.”

“You’re allowed to be distracted by me. I’m taking that as a compliment.”

“It was one.”

Lillia laughed, then nudged him with her head. “Come on. Let’s find out if this thing is useful. The anticipation is going to kill me.”

The two of them looked away from each other and directed their gaze toward the bowl on the anvil beside them. And, as the heart continued to thump away in the corner of the Infernal Armory, the Mesh swirled forth to reveal the fruits of their efforts.