The smile vanished from Reya’s face instantly, replaced by wide-eyed disbelief. Her mouth dropped open and her gaze fixed on the armor in Arwin’s hands. She started to reach out, then caught herself and pulled her hand back. “You made that for me?” “I told you I was going to outfit us, didn’t I?” “Well, yes, but you’ve only made yourself one thing so far,” Reya stammered. “And I didn’t think you meant you’d make me more magical equipment. I thought it was just going to be a leather cuirass or something!” “I haven’t figured out how to work with leather yet,” Arwin said. “And I did consider making myself some more scale equipment, but I already know how to make a chest piece and I haven’t figured anything else out yet. Do you want it or not?” “I can’t afford anything ,” Reya said. “It has to be worth at least a few hundred gold. If you sold this–” “I’m not selling it. I decided when we went out to the market a little while ago,” Arwin said. “I won’t be selling magical equipment to anyone I don’t know.” Reya blinked in surprise. “What? But you could be rich! If you can make stuff , the Adventurer’s Guild would pay thousands of gold just to keep you on staff! Or if you wanted to remain independent, you could probably earn even more.” Arwin’s features darkened and he shook his head firmly. “I won’t be working for the guild, and I’m not outfitting anyone that isn’t with me.” “It’s fake,” Arwin said. “What do you mean? I thought you said she should make it haunted.” “No. She should act like it’s haunted,” Arwin corrected. “Think about it. People can pretend like the tavern is haunted, and her servers can wear sheets or something and pretend to be ghosts. Maybe that’s too much, but you can see where I’m going with this, can’t you? She could have a spooky theme. The Monster Tavern, or the like. People love stuff like that.” “Huh. I never thought about that, but it would be kind of fun to get waited on by a giant hulking monster,” Reya mused. Her eyes lit up and she burst into laughter. “Wait. I’ve got it. Lillia could pretend to be the Demon Queen! Could you imagine that? Go to a tavern and have the Demon Queen herself waiting on you. I bet she could find some people to dress up as monsters from the horde. Adventurers would love it!” Arwin turned away from the forge to stare at Reya, but she was so busy laughing to herself that she didn’t even notice. His eye twitched. I can’t tell if Reya is an idiot or a genius. She somehow stumbled onto the actual truth of the situation and doesn’t even realize it. “Perhaps that would be funny,” Arwin said with a small grin. “I’m certain Lillia would find that idea fascinating. You should suggest it to her.” “I will,” Reya said with an excited nod. “Probably tomorrow, though. It’s kind of late.” Arwin pulled the metal from the forge and went back to work on it, pounding out the impurities. He once again worked until it cooled, then returned it to the flames. He glanced out the cracks in the wall at the dark purple night sky. Reya was right – it had gotten pretty late. “I’ll be wrapped up here soon,” Arwin promised. “I just want to get this finished up before tomorrow.” “What are you making?” “I haven’t quite figured it out yet,” Arwin replied. “I’ll let you know once I get there.” That wasn’t entirely true. He did have an idea of what he wanted to make, but he didn’t want to say it out loud yet. Saying it felt like a curse. Logically, he knew it wouldn’t change anything, but that didn’t change a thing. Reya just shrugged and watched Arwin silently as he pulled the metal from the fire once more. He set it down on the anvil once more, but this time, he wasn’t just trying to remove the impurities. He was shaping it. Faint shimmers of magic guided Arwin’s hands as he hammered the iron into form. He’d chosen this piece for a specific reason, and it wasn’t because it was the highest quality piece of metal he had. In fact, it was one of the worst ones. But, despite that, it had a desire. He could feel the faint draw the metal had – the longing to become something. But, unlike much of the other pieces in the pile, this one didn’t want to be a sword or a dagger. It didn’t want to be any sort of weapon. No, this piece wanted to be a pan. That was it. A simple goal, and while Arwin would swear up and down that it wasn’t the one he’d set out to make, it did happen to coincide with the request that Lillia had given him. Strike by strike, the piece of metal slowly flattened out and started to take a flat, roundish shape. It wasn’t perfectly smooth, nor was it even close to it. But, as the bed of the pan started to take form in Arwin’s hands, he still found himself satisfied with it. He returned it to the forge once more to finish shaping it, then set it down and grabbed another piece of metal. He heated and shaped it into a handle, then used two nails to connect the handle with the bed, putting it back into the flame and twisting the tips of the nails down into rounded nibs with [Scourge]. His work completed, Arwin took the pan from the fire and set it on the anvil to cool. It wasn’t magic – the Mesh didn’t recognize his work as anything particularly special, but he didn’t care. It was a good pan. At least, it felt like it would be. He was far from a pan expert. “Can you give this to Lillia when you get food from her tomorrow?” Arwin asked. “She asked for some utensils. I’ll look into making some utensils for her later.” “Okay!” Reya said. “Why don’t you give it to her yourself?” “I’ll be busy tomorrow. I’m going to be going hunting again.” “You are?” Reya blinked. “Am I not coming?” “Not until I get a better idea of what we’re fighting in that forest. You can come next time,” Arwin said. “I imagine that you’ll be given a Class fairly soon, but we can’t have you getting killed before that.” “Okay,” Reya said, a note of reluctance in her voice. “By the way… what is it that you actually want?”