Path of Dragons-Chapter 66Book 8: : A Project Complete

Carmen had saved her primary hammer for the last piece of her toolkit. She had four other hammers of differing sizes, but they had very specific uses. This one was about eight inches long and heavy enough that most normal people couldn’t even lift it. That was due to a combination of the volcanic mithril’s density as well as the sheer volume of ethera she’d shoved into it. If it was less than five-hundred pounds, she would have been extremely surprised. More likely, it weighed closer to a thousand.

Which was just perfect, given her high Strength.

The design of the head was simple enough – just a cross-pein shape without much in the way of ornamentation – but she’d taken great care to ensure that every line was perfectly symmetrical. In the old world, she’d have had difficult convincing people that it hadn’t been machined.

And finally, there was the enchantment. She’d spent hundreds of hours and more money than she wanted to think about researching the perfect combination. Durability was a given, but she also wanted power. The hammer needed to be a conduit for her abilities, and for that, she needed something special.

In the end, she’d settled on four total glyphs: impact, durability, channeling, and heat. She’d spent countless hours marrying them into a singular whole – a design that looked both aesthetically pleasing and allowed those glyphs to work together without losing any of their characteristics. It was both an embellishment and an enchantment rolled into one.

Her other tools used different glyphs. Durability and heat were constants, but each of the other implements had vastly different purposes. For instance, she’d used a control glyph for her tongs. And the anvil had gotten two instances of the durability glyph, as well as one for hardness.

Regardless, the whole process of enchantment had involved far more research and artistry than anything else. But it had all come together in the crafting itself. More than once, she’d forced herself to start over, but now, she had a whole set that maximized the materials’ potential and far exceeded even her lofty expectations.

When she’d begun, she hadn’t dared to hope for such good results.

But now, despite her fatigue, she was almost giddy with excitement. She wanted nothing more than to jump right into her next project. However, she forced herself to step back and take a long, deep breath.

As she did, she took a few moments to appreciate the haft of the hammer. Like all the others, it had come from Elijah’s grove. Ignon, the council’s Woodworker representative, had nearly fallen all over himself for the chance to work with that high-quality stuff. If he’d seen Elijah’s staff – or more importantly, felt the ethera running through it – the goblin might’ve had a seizure in the middle of his shop.

Either way, Ignon had outdone himself with the shaping as well as the runes, and when Carmen had finished the construction, she’d been forced to adjust her own plans for the etching so as to create a more unified whole.

But it was done now.

Reverently, she picked up the hammer and gave it a couple of experimental swings. With its immense weight, it could move a lot of metal in a hurry. With that tool in her hand, she could do a fair impression of a power hammer, though with far more control. It felt like an extension of her arm.

It was, in a single but profound word, perfect.

Finally, she allowed herself to use Blacksmith’s Appraisal:

Congratulations! You have created a unique item [Hammer of Creation]. It is compatible with set [Tools of Creation].

Add now?

[Yes] or [No]

Overall Grade: Sophisticated (low)

Enchantment Grade: B

Description: The Hammer of Creation is the pinnacle of the Blacksmith Carmen Rodriguez’s ability and is at the peak of what a mortal smith can achieve.

Attribute Bonuses:

+50 Strength, +50 Constitution, +50 Regeneration

Traits:

Channeling: Increases ethera channeled through the tool by 25%.

Heft: Variable weight depending on blacksmith’s intent. Limit based on user’s Strength attribute.

“Goddamn,” Carmen breathed. The other tools had been good, but the Hammer of Creation was, as the description labeled it, the pinnacle of what she could accomplish. Hastily, she chose to add it to the set, which added another trait called Unified Purpose. It increased her Constitution by an additional hundred points. Unfortunately, it also came with a caveat – those attribute bonuses were only available within the Forge of Creation.

Finally, she placed the hammer in its spot, then took another step back to admire the entire set. First came the tongs, which glistened with ethera and glittered red and silver from the Volcanic Mithril. The same could be said about her hammer set. Five in total, each with different heads, weights, and purposes. She knew she’d overdone it, but she also wasn’t willing to compromise. Even if most of them would only be used in very rare circumstances, she’d rather have them and not need them than for the opposite to be true.

After that came her collection of files and rasps. Etching tools came next. And then, her grinding wheel, which she’d created from a sort of stone the miners had found deep underground. It was incredible durable, which meant that it would hold its grit for far longer than anything else she’d found. The Stonemason Mikela had assured her of that. The rest of the contraption had been made from Volcanic Mithril, which had been an absolute pain due to how many tiny pieces she’d been forced to forge.

A collection of various grit sandpapers came after that. Then, dozens of barrels of oil. Some came from whale blubber, but most of it came from various seeds Biggle had grown in his grove garden. The Alchemist’s services hadn’t been cheap, but Carmen refused to cut corners even when it came to quenching oil.

She also had a few barrels of water that had come from Elijah’s hot spring.

Carmen glanced around the smithy, taking in its sweeping curves and vaulted ceilings. There were four forges – one in each corner of the room – all of which were powered by the crystal Elijah had donated to the cause. The others had spent weeks routing its energy throughout the Forge of Creation, and the results were obvious. Not only did it power the mundane features like lights and climate control, but it also gave her forges – as well as the kilns and other features in other parts of the facility – a nearly infinite source of ethera. It had changed everything, and it had allowed Carmen to create her space exactly according to her plans.

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That included a coal repository where ethera was constantly infused into the fuel. Before using it, she – or another Blacksmith – would still need to finish the job, but the repository reduced the time necessary to shove the coal toward saturation by quite a lot. For that, Carmen was more than thankful. If there was one thing she loathed, it was just sitting around and holding a lump of coal while channeling energy into it with Ethereal Infusion. She would do it – because of course she would – but that didn’t mean she liked it. So, having that tedious task cut down to almost nothing was a godsend.

The forges themselves had been built into the structure, so they’d been constructed of etched dragonstone just like everything else. It wasn’t a perfect material for a forge – she’d seen some on the Branch’s Marketplace that were lightyears ahead of it – but it was the best she could find within her budget.

It did highlight that just because she had established herself as one of the best crafters on Earth, she was far from the peak. The same was true with her wealth. The armor she’d sent with Atticus to Seattle had been purchased for an obscene price that had netted her an entire platinum ethereum. Some settlement’s leader had almost assuredly emptied their entire city’s coffers for that set.

But even with that influx of cash, Carmen had quickly depleted her funds by purchasing the mithril needed to create her tools. Ramik had offered to shoulder the cost, but with Ironshore’s situation, it would have been detrimental to the city’s growth. Carmen had instead opted for a lower tax rate for goods she created. In the end, it would work out in her favor, but for now, her reserves were tapped out.

As the exhaustion of the last few days of constant crafting settled onto her shoulders, she realized that expression probably applied to more than just her bank account.

Just before she resigned herself to heading to the grove so she could get about three days of sleep, a new notification appeared before her inner eye.

Congratulations! You have satisfied the requirements to complete a unique structure: [The Forge of Creation].

This requires your consent. Do you wish to officially complete the structure?

[Yes] or [No]

Carmen blinked, but panic suffused her heart. Complete it? She didn’t know. She hadn’t even inspected some of the lower levels, though everyone had reported that they were finished. In addition, there were hundreds of other small details that required her approval.

Octavian Biggle has given his consent.

That notification was followed by another – this one from Donogal. Then another. And another after that. Nearly a hundred messages – all from people who’d worked on the Forge of Creation – followed in quick succession, flashing before her inner eye too quickly for her to see the details.

Then, the avalanche of notifications slowed to a crawl before finally stopping.

But Carmen still hadn’t answered the original query. Did she give her consent? There was still so much left to do.

Suddenly, someone burst through the door.

“Did you get the message?” demanded Biggle, his white hair just as wild as ever. In fact, he was dressed in a long, striped nightshirt that tickled his toes and nothing else. He hadn’t even donned his thick glasses. Oddly enough, he still smelled vaguely of chemicals, though. “Answer me girl. Did you get the message?”

“I…I did,” she answered once her mind had caught up to the situation. “Your name is Octavian?”

“What? No. I mean, yes. Obviously. But that’s not the point! The Forge of Creation is complete! All we need is your consent!” he exclaimed, marching toward her with purpose.

“But it’s not done.”

“Of course it’s done! The system wouldn’t have acknowledged it otherwise.”

“But there’s so much left to do,” she argued. “I still have two anvils to forge. And I want to make a set of tools for each forge. I’ve also got to make Ignon some new sawblades. He’s already given me the materials. We want everything to be perfect, right?”

“You didn’t read the rest of the notification, did you?” he asked.

“What?”

“Just concentrate on it.”

She did just that, and she was absolutely floored by the A-Grade enchantment. However, when she looked at the overall grade, she was floored.

“Growth? Really? What does that actually mean in this case?” she asked. The obvious answer was that the grade wasn’t fixed, meaning that improvement was still possible. She’d seen it once before with the Circle of Spears she’d helped create outside of Seattle, but she’d thought it was just something to do with Druids.

“It means we can complete the project and still make improvements. If we put enough work in, it’ll increase the grade,” Biggle explained. “It’s normally only possible with structures, but there are rumors that at higher levels, it’s possible with other items. Not that that matters. The point is that we can complete the Forge of creation and start getting benefits from it without compromising on your obsessive perfectionism.”

“But –”

“And the more this place is used, the sooner we can start to improve it. Growth items are weird,” he revealed. “Some get stronger just by being used. All items have something like a legacy, and in some cases, they can improve if they pass a threshold of feats. However, with growth items, it’s practically guaranteed. Even if we don’t make any improvements, it’ll start growing. Just a little each time it fulfills its purpose, but that starts to add up after a while. Combine that with other improvements…well, I don’t have to tell you what that could mean.”

Carmen frowned.

It went against every instinct to declare a project finished before it was perfect. But then again, she had to acknowledge that she would never be completely happy with it. There would always be something they could improve, and that wasn’t even considering that Elijah might one day drop another problem in her lap. The enormous power crystal had definitely helped, but it had also caused an incredible amount of work. Who was to say he wouldn’t do something like that again?

No – if perfection was the goal, she had to resign herself to knowing it was an unachievable mark she would never reach.

So, with that in mind, she said, “Fine. But we need to establish dedicated efforts to continue improvement. A schedule or something.”

“That seems reasonable,” Biggle said. “I’m still waiting on my glassware made from the sands of –”

“I know, Octavian.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“It’s your name, Oct.”

“Ugh. Please…”

Carmen grinned. “Fine. Fine. That was the last time,” she said. “Alright, here it goes…”

She gave her consent.

And immediately, she was inundated by a host of notifications. The first was predictable:

Forge of Creation

Overall Grade: Sophisticated (Low) (Growth)

Enchantment Grade: A

Description: The Forge of Creation was created under the direction of the highest-level Tradesman on Earth and is the culmination of cooperation between hundreds of other Tradesmen. It is a monument to creation and a wonder of the new world.

Attribute Bonuses:

+25 to All Attributes (only applicable for non-combat archetypes within the facility)

Traits (only applicable while inside the facility):

Mental Tempering: Reduces Mental Fatigue

Memory of Creation: Increases Concentration

Elemental Warding: Increases resistance to elemental ethera.

Forged Vitality: Increases the effect of Regeneration by 25%.

Carmen gasped, and Biggle’s eyes widened.

“This…”

“I know,” Carmen said, already feeling the effects settle onto her. It was like a weight had lifted from her mind – no doubt due to Mental Tempering – and she felt as if she could jump straight into another project. She also felt slightly stronger and more coordinated, and with every passing second, the ethera she’d spent forging the hammer was replaced.

“Amazing. Absolutely amazing,” Biggle said. “I never expected anything like this. A trait or two perhaps. Or maybe something more ephemeral. But this…”

As Biggle continued, Carmen tuned him out. Because that notification, as impactful as it was, turned out to be only the tip of the iceberg. One level-up notification after another appeared before her inner eye until, at last, it stopped at one-oh-one.

“I just got over twenty levels,” she breathlessly revealed.

“What? I only got one!”

“I did a lot more work here than you did,” Carmen stated. Indeed, Biggle had worked a bit on the alchemy laboratory, and he’d provided some chemicals used in the mortar as well as various other compounds used throughout the Forge of Creation. However, his efforts were among the least of all the participants. By comparison, Carmen’s fingerprints were on the entire facility – from design to implementation – so it wasn’t unreasonable that she would be more significantly rewarded.

“Unfair,” Biggle stated. “The experience should have been split between the whole council. Without my efforts…bah! No sense complaining about the system. If you’ll excuse me…”

With that, the nightshirt-clad gnome marched out of the forge, probably on a mission to take advantage of the facility’s traits. Carmen spared a moment to wonder whether he would stop to get dressed.

Probably not.

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In any case, she was far more interested in the next notification she received:

Archetype: Tradesman

Class: Blacksmith

Specialization Options

Forgemaster

Forge Administrator

Disciple of Creation

Permanently increase the potential grade of all forged items by 10%. Also grants an additional point per level to the Strength attribute.

Permanently increase organizational abilities, fortifying the mind against the mundanity of administration. Also grants an additional point per level to the Ethera attribute.

Permanently increase the potency of all traits tied to the Forge of Creation by an additional 5%. Also grants an additional point per level to both Ethera and Regeneration attributes.

Carmen was shocked by her specialization options. Certainly, she’d done a little research into the subject, but she’d thought she was a long way off from having to make what would become a defining choice for her future. Still, the options were not what she’d been led to expect.

Obviously, the third choice was there because of her role in building the Forge of Creation, and she expected that the process had influenced the other options as well. She quickly went to her office, where she settled down on her old, worn couch to consider the decision before her.

The first option, Forgemaster, was by far the closest to what she envisioned when considering her future. She was a Blacksmith, and one that valued perfection above all else. So, having the potential of her creations raised by a flat ten percent was an incredible boon. Certainly, it wouldn’t do a thing if she didn’t push her limits, but if she did, the potential grade she could achieve would always be much higher than it would otherwise be.

She glanced through the open door to see her tools hanging in their places. If she’d had the Forgemaster specialization when forging her hammers and files, she might have pushed their grade slightly higher. Maybe not enough to achieve an official advancement in grade, but still – it would have been a step in the right direction.

The second option was easy to dismiss. As much as she would’ve liked a little help with the administrative duties that had been heaped upon her the second she’d roped the other crafters into the Forge of Creation project, she had no intentions of taking anymore on. She couldn’t imagine a worse fate than shifting her focus to running the Forge of Creation.

Though, she had to admit that freeing her mind from some of those mundane duties would probably help her focus on smithing. However, she feared that if she chose the Forge Administrator option, it would put her on course for the wrong kind of class evolution at level one-twenty-five.

And she refused to take that chance. So, it was easy to eliminate Forge Administrator from consideration.

Next, she moved onto the final option – Disciple of Creation. It would assuredly have an impressive effect on her crafting, and what’s more, it would scale with the power of the Forge of Creation. As it grew in power, so would that specialization.

Still, Carmen hesitated to tie everything to the facility, and not just because she didn’t like the notion of depending on an outside source for power. That disdain was there, certainly, but there was another consideration that she didn’t like to think about.

Ironshore had been attacked multiple times in the past few years, and it had nearly fallen twice. Once to the orc horde, but also to the dark elves. People like Kurik and Essex had taken steps to prevent that eventuality in the future, but the possibility remained. On top of that, Carmen had already been forced to abandon one home, and she did not discount the possibility of being forced to do so again.

And if she chose Disciple of Creation, moving on would be much more difficult. And if the Forge of Creation happened to be destroyed, she’d effectively lose the specialization.

No – she couldn’t choose it.

That left only the Forgemaster. However, she wasn’t disappointed with that choice. In fact, it felt right on a level neither of the others had. So, it was with some excitement that she made her choice.