Thunder roared within the Infernal Armory. Arwin’s hammer rose and fell in conjunction with the throbbing beats of the heart in the walls of the smithy, every strike sending a crashing shockwave tearing through the room. The metal-covered head of the modified Verdant Inferno crackled with fire and lava dripped along its shaft, sizzling as it fell to the stone. [Soul Flame] wreathed Arwin’s hands to protect him from the heat rising off the hammer. Cracks had spread throughout the ground centered around the large anvil before him, formed by the immense force of the strikes he’d been raining down on the nearly flattened piece of scale that had once been a pile before him. Ripples passed through the stone as it continued to shift between every strike. Red smoke continued to pour into the ground, pulling Enjoy reading on NovelHub - your free online novel platform. It had been no more than five minutes since Arwin had started smithing. It felt like it was hours. For once, it wasn’t his energy that had gone first. Arwin still had magical reserves abound, but his physical strength had been sapped harder than it had ever been before. Even with [Scourge], the hammer was heavy. Impossibly heavy. The weight it carried was far more than the metal making it up should have been able to manage. Every single muscle in his body ached. Every movement felt like were trying to heave an entire house, but the Infernal Armory bore the hammer together with him. Power thrummed in the black lines connecting both him and Verdant Inferno to the teeming black mass in the wall, pulsating to the beat of the heart. Arwin finally let the hammer lower. The metal covering it sloughed away like rushing water, turning molten and pouring into the cracks in the ground before vanishing. He dismissed Verdant Inferno and reached down to inspect the results of his efforts. The air around it was still hazy. He could smell the heat in the air and his lips were dry, the excess moisture in his body and the room alike all having been burned away. The pile of scales had been more than just flattened. Blemishes of oily color washed across the plate’s surface as it heated. The faint stench of burnt hair and coal mixed with the smell of sulfur hanging in the air. Flickers of fire danced out from within the tube and slipped by the protective [Soul Flame] covering Arwin. It brushed across his skin, but failed to burn him. He wasn’t sure if that was because the [Soul Flame] was somehow an extension of his own powers or if the Infernal Armory had a way to control it. That did little to make the fire much more bearable. The heat was so intense that Arwin had to fight for every breath he drew in. His eyes hurt from even trying to look in the direction of the blindingly hot furnace. Arwin averted his gaze down to the pieces of metal he’d left on the ground. A section of the stone rose up, bearing the metal up to him. He took the steel first and stilled his thoughts, stilling his mind so he could hear the metal’s desires. Visions flickered through his mind of the metal’s past. It was nothing that he hadn’t seen before. That didn’t make it any less important. The more he understood his materials, the better he could forge them. He was unsurprised to find that the metal bore desires to be a blade. A dagger, a sword, all were fine with it. None would do. Arwin did not seek to make a weapon, and this metal had never truly considered anything else — but its desires weren’t so strong that he was convinced they couldn’t be changed. “You could be that,” Arwin murmured. “You’d make a good blade. I could do that. I could turn you into a weapon. One that rips and kills. One that takes. Or I could make you into something more. Something that is looked upon with awe and desire. Something that is remembered. Your choice.” He envisioned the dream he had for the metal, pushing it back through their tenuous bond. The visions slowed. It would have been wrong to say the metal was considering Arwin’s offer. It didn’t have that level of intelligence. It didn’t truly consider. But, after a few moments, there was a new vision. He set the prepared metal down on the protruding stone tendril to swap it out for the bar of Mithril. But, when he extended his senses to try and read the Mithril’s desire, there was nothing. He could feel something deep within the metal. It didn’t lack desire. He simply couldn’t detect it. Arwin’s brow furrowed and he tried to pry deeper, but nothing came. The Mithril was unreadable. So be it. You’ll just have to work as is, then. Arwin set the Mithril to the side and returned his attention to the scale plate that he still held within the furnace. He grit his teeth and squinted, giving the piece of scale plate a test squeeze with [Scourge] empowered fingers now that the flame had a little bit to work its way in. It gave. Not much, but enough. He grabbed the steel from where it sat in wait and brought it into the furnace, letting it heat. Arwin set the scale plate to the side for a few moments to roll the steel out between his palms like a piece of dough. He then pressed it against the scale plate. Arwin pinched their ends, squeezing scale and metal together in the intense heat. The Mithril came next. He rolled it out as well, surprised to find how easily the metal let him shape it. It was like working with putty. In just moments, he had it prepared. Arwin pressed it together with the other two components and started to braid them over each other. With every movement, he poured magical energy from his body into the trio of metals and scale. He’d been expecting making something with Mithril to be a long, laborious process. A major test felt like it should have taken hours. It didn’t. Within minutes, Arwin had wrapped the metal tightly and run it through his hands, removing any irregularities and smoothing out small bumps. A bracelet, far too small to fit his own wrist, rested hidden from even his own eyes within the flames of the forge. Magic tingled like a raging river beneath Arwin’s fingers. The bracelet would be finished the moment he pulled his hand free of the flame. “Remove it,” the voice whispered, eager steps pattering behind Arwin. “Reveal our first creation.”