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Chapter 104: What do you want to be?

Either way, nobody had been willing to take his money. Arwin grumbled in annoyance under his breath as he continued down the street of the crafts quarter. It was beyond him how there were so many masons in the city and how absolutely none of them had the balls to work on a supposedly haunted street.

Who’s even keeping these rumors up? I’ve been there for a while now and there hasn’t been a single instance of a haunting. Some candles getting snuffed out do not constitute a ghost. These people must be terrified of their own shadows.

He was still shaking his head when he came up to yet another mason’s store. There wasn’t a plaque on the wall or any sign to identify it. The only way Arwin could tell the store belonged to a mason was the stacks of stone and tile he could see through the window.

Arwin stepped in and the door creaked in announcement of his arrival. A short man poked his head out of a room at the back, his balding head desperately holding onto the last few strands of hair at its top.

“Are you open for work?” Arwin asked.

“Depends on the work. And the pay. Mostly the pay,” the man said. He stepped fully into view and leaned against the doorway, arching an eyebrow and crossing one leg over the other.

Arwin stared at him. He wasn’t quite sure what the man was trying to do. The mason seemed to realize his attempts weren’t working, because he straightened back up and let his hands drop. He gestured impatiently.

“Go on. Out with it. What do you want?”

“I need a building made. I’ve got the material already,” Arwin said. “And I’m willing to help as well. You can just tell me what you need me to do.”

“Simple enough,” the mason said. “How big?”

“A smithy. Nothing too crazy. One story, a back room to work in and the other a storefront. I’ve got plans to eventually expand it, though. I’ve already got a plot of land.”

Technically I don’t, but I don’t see anyone showing up to try and take it from me.

“I’d consider doing it for 200,” the mason said.

Ouch. Heftier than the other masons by a fair margin. Most of them dropped their prices when I said I’d help and I had all the materials I needed.

“Do you care where it is?” Arwin asked carefully.

“Not particularly. Why?”

“It’s on the haunted street.”

The mason scratched the bottom of his chin. “Okay. Is the ghost going to help?”

“Unlikely.”

“Then 200. You don’t help, though. That’ll interfere with my class progress. 100 up front, and then 100 once it’s complete. No modifications, but I’ll follow any instructions that you give me so long as they’re realistic. How’s that sound?”

It sounded pretty good. Arwin thought for a few seconds as he tried to see if there were any loopholes or other problems in the offer. Nothing immediately jumped out. There were always ways to get around things, but it didn’t seem like the short man was looking to try for them.

“200 is good, but I don’t have that much gold on me right now. Would you be fine with starting for 50, then getting the rest of it a little later?”

The mason’s eyes narrowed. He studied Arwin in turn, then crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I’ll work until a quarter of the building is done for 50, but I won’t do any more until you pay me a minimum of 100.”

“I can work with that,” Arwin said. He pulled 50 gold out of his pouch, leaving him with just 9 silver to his name – He’d spent the rest of it on materials – and handed it over to the mason. “Deal?”

“Deal,” the mason said, offering his hand. “Name’s Ridley. You are?”

“Arwin.” They shook.

“When can you get started?” Arwin asked. “The sooner the smithy is done, the better. I’m currently working out of an old shack.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Today. I’ve been a bit low on work as of late. Milten used to be growing at a rapid rate. It was the whole reason I moved here,” Ridley said with an annoyed huff. “Things were great for a little while, but then most of the work dried up out of nowhere. The city just forgot it was trying to expand and now all the jobs are tiny repair ones or guilds that try to underpay you. Lead the way so I can scope out what I’ve got to work with.”

Arwin headed back out onto the street and Ridley followed him. The two walked silently, their conversation dried up, until they’d made their way back to the smithy’s lot. Ridley crossed his arms and pursed his lips once they arrived.

He walked around the land and studied Arwin’s work with a skeptical eye. Once he’d made a few loops around it, he headed back over to rejoin Arwin.

“You already started working on it?”

“That was what made me realize I needed help.”

“Well, you were right. I can work with this, though. I think it’s easy enough to tell what you’re going for. Any other specific requests?”

Arwin thought for a second before shaking his head. “Nothing that comes to mind. I’d like if it looked nice, but I don’t really want to pay more than the agreed upon amount. I need the money for other purposes.”

Ridley nodded to himself. He turned back to the smithy and tapped a finger against his chin. “Yes, that’s quite fine. Where are the rest of the materials you said you had?”

“In the cart next to that tavern.” Arwin pointed and Ridley followed his finger. “When you run out, the first smith on your road is holding more material in store for me. I’ve already purchased it.”

“Doesn’t look like much of a tavern. Where’s the sign?”

“It’s a work in progress.”

“Emphasis on in progress,” Ridley said through a snort. “Let me know if they need some work as well. You could tear the place down and make it look far nicer. The ghost would probably thank you.”

“There’s no ghost. It’s just a rumor.”

Ridley turned back to Arwin. He craned his neck back to pierce him with a sharp look and arched an eyebrow. “You’re delusional if you think that. I just reckon the ghost doesn’t bother people that don’t bother it.”

“What makes you so sure?” Arwin asked. “I’ve been here for a while and I haven’t seen a single sign of a ghost.”

“Do you know how many people have gone missing on this street in the last few weeks? All ruffians, mind you. An entire gang got wiped out. A local thieves’ guild started moving in, then lost a bunch of their men and immediately thought better of it. And you’re telling me there’s no ghost?”

Arwin nearly burst into laughter. He fought to keep a straight face and hurriedly wiped at his face, clearing his throat. “I suppose you may have a point. I just never thought about it since the ghost didn’t bother me.”

Ridley shook his head. He knelt by the laid bricks and ran his hand across them. Arwin had no idea what he was doing, but he thought better of asking. Ridley didn’t seem like the type to entertain questions.

“Is there anything else?” Ridley asked. “If not, I want to get started. Make sure you’ve got that money sooner rather than later. I don’t want to be sitting around and waiting for weeks on end to get paid.”

“I’ll have it,” Arwin promised. “How long until you think you’ll be a quarter of the way through?”

“Three or four days. I work fast.”

You can build a quarter of a house in three days? Holy shit.

“I’ll be ready.”

“Make sure you are.” Ridley set off to the cart without another word. Arwin took the clear dismissal and headed off to his temporary smithy. If Ridley was going to insist on building the smithy himself, that meant he had more time to figure out what he was going to work on next.

Arwin didn’t have any shortage of options. The other members of his guild could always use more equipment. He’d still yet to make any gauntlets or boots – and then there was The Heart of the Devouring Prism. It likely held secrets to mastering [The Hungering Maw].

It wouldn’t be long before the Wyrm Horde became a problem. Everyone needed equipment. But, if [The Hungering Maw] got bad enough to kill him before that happened, equipment would be the least of their worries.

Arwin pulled the crystal out and held it before him. The Mesh shimmered and bloomed before him as its information appeared, but he dismissed it. He’d already read what the crystal did.

Reading the same information over and over again isn’t going to get me anywhere. What I need is testing. I can’t exactly just start testing this thing, though. I don’t fancy the idea of somehow bringing it back to life on accident.

He could always eat it. It was a magical item. Arwin grimaced at the thought. Eating it was definitely at the very bottom of his list. The skeleton had tried eating it as well – and things hadn’t gone too well for it. It seemed as if the crystal had a way to infest its host.

I can’t eat it. I can’t just start randomly feeding magic into it to see what happens. Both of those give the crystal a chance of doing something I don’t want it to. So… how do I study it?

Arwin squinted at the crystalline heart. He turned it over in his hands, running fingers over its polished surface and down its ridges. Minutes passed. His annoyance grew.

“It’s a bloody crystal, not a puzzle,” Arwin grumbled to himself as he pulled his gaze away and shook his head. “Staring at the damn thing isn’t going to solve anything.”

That left him with a pretty big problem. If he couldn’t study the crystal, he couldn’t progress the Challenge the Mesh had given him. There was always the option of trying to find an entirely different item that would somehow give him insight into how [The Hungering Maw] worked, but he had no clue where or when that would happen. And, with the way things were progressing now, the most urgent matter he had other than the Wyrm horde was finding a way to keep his own abilities from killing him.

The Mesh didn’t give impossible tasks of its own volition. That much, Arwin knew. There had to be a way to figure this out. There was a tiny chance that the Mesh’s solution was for Arwin to eat the crystal and turn into a monster. He wouldn’t put that past it.

It always gives options, though. That could be one path, but it isn’t the only one. Sure, maybe I wouldn’t transform, but I’m not taking that risk.

As Arwin dug through his mind in search of a plan, one finally came to him. The very same plan that he’d originally had when he’d first seen the crystal. A grin spread across his face and he let out a bark of laughter.

Of course. If I can’t use the crystal as it is now, I’ll just change it.

“You’re going to be part of a weapon,” Arwin informed the crystal, holding it up before his eyes. “But that begets a question. What kind of weapon do you want to be?”