It wasn’t an easy decision. [Soul Flame], [Awaken], and [The Hungering Maw] were all equally viable. It took him quite some time to figure out which one he could even think about crossing off the list first.
Arwin eventually managed to cross off [Soul Flame]. While it was powerful, completely specializing into it felt like a bit of an overcorrection. He was a smith, not a fire mage. That left the two skills that basically made up the core of his class. Creation and consumption.
Life and death – except Arwin wasn’t sure which was which. Both of them had the potential to completely screw him over if they grew strong enough. He drummed his fingers against his upper thigh and sucked on his cheeks as he thought.
Finally, he heaved a sigh. The Mesh had given him a challenge to learn how to use [The Hungering Maw]. Sure, it had given him a direct upgrade offer to the ability, but that didn’t mean it was a good choice. He’d learned that following exactly what the Mesh wanted resulted in Unique weapons, not necessarily good ones or the ones he wanted.
That didn’t seem to be the case this time. [The Hungering Maw] was already ruling his life. It was time to try and take back some of that control. Even if it came at a big risk of requiring him to make even stronger items to survive, it was a risk he had to take.
He selected it. The Mesh’s golden words shimmered and changed. Something twisted in the center of Arwin’s chest. A tendril of pain wove into his stomach and stretched out through his body. It faded as quickly as it had come, bringing with it a new message from the Mesh.
[The Hungering Maw] – An enormous burst of energy has permanently infused you with magic, but not without cost. You must consume objects or items with Magical Energy equivalent to your current Magical Power every week to survive. Consuming an item temporarily grants you some of its properties. The Hungering Maw’s palate has advanced and it has a significant chance to ignore detrimental effects of items that it has eaten.
Title: [Magical Olfactory] has been earned due to [The Hungering Maw]’s advancement.
Arwin let out a breath of relief. Nothing about the upgrade had indicated that the Hungering Maw would require stronger items from here on out. It had just been a pure upgrade – and an interesting one at that.
She read over them, her eyebrows lifting, before raising her gaze back to meet his and giving him an impressed nod. “I can’t wait to see that in a fight against a bunch of little runts. Rare item as well. Guess you figured it out?”
“Kind of. It’s not perfect yet, but it works a lot better. I think I’ll have even more luck once I find a proper smith to learn a few things from, but I can’t ask Taylor. I think that would be a bit much.”
“Considering we’re going to be directly competing with him pretty soon? Almost certainly,” Lillia said with a small laugh. “You’re just lucky he doesn’t know that you’re Ifrit.”
“Yeah,” Arwin agreed. “I definitely need to look into getting a supplier. I need to do a lot of things.”
“They never seem to end, do they?” Lillia gave him a knowing look. “I feel the same. Did you know there are suppliers for inns? That’s great for normal food, but if I want to work with materials from monsters, everything suddenly gets way harder. It’s so expensive that I might as well just get everything myself. Which is, granted, what we’ve been doing thus far.”
“Are you worried about supply shortages or something?”
“Maybe at some point in the future,” Lillia said. “Mostly just trying to make sure I’m completely ready to handle new people when they start showing up. Do you like the new tables?”
“I was just thinking this place is starting to look like a real tavern,” Arwin said. “Are the rooms upstairs doing just as well?”
“They’re on their way to it.”
“Then all we need is names. We’ve been pushing that off for a while, haven’t we?” Arwin asked with a laugh. “For both the tavern and the guild.”
“That too,” Arwin said with a grimace. “Problems that can wait for the sunlight.”
“Yeah.” Lillia nodded. She looked over her shoulder into the kitchen, then back to him. “Hungry? I made sandwiches.”
“You already know the answer to that. Just give me a bit to get ready,” Arwin said. He dismissed his armor and headed over to take a bath.
When he came out, Lillia was already waiting for him. They wordlessly headed over to her room and sat down on the bed to eat. Arwin tried sniffing at the sandwich to see if it had any magic in it, but it was just a sandwich. A very, very tasty sandwich.
They both finished their meals, not speaking a word until they were done.
“Thanks for the food,” Arwin said as he polished the last of it off. “It was fantastic. As always.”
“Thank you,” Lillia said from her spot leaning against his side. “I saw someone walking by the street today, by the way. Just an adventurer. He didn’t actually head in, but I think he was considering it.”
“Sounds like we might have some customers soon.”
“Maybe,” Lillia agreed, a note of hope entering her voice. “That would be nice.”
She yawned, and Arwin heard her shift beside him. “I’m probably going to try to get up early tomorrow. I’ve got a carpenter coming in to help with some basic decoration for the rooms.”
“Probably a good idea. I’ve got a lot of work tomorrow as well. Going to try and get Rodrick some more armor made. Do you want anything yourself?”
Lillia let out a soft laugh. “The armor you made me is more than enough for someone who fights on the backline. Don’t worry about me right now. All I need is rest and the dark – or the closest I can get to it, at least.”
I remember she said a while back that she didn’t get the benefit of pure dark that I do when I sit in her room. Never would have thought that such good darkvision would actually be a detriment.
“Do you mind if I try something?” Arwin asked.
“For your vision problem – or rather, lack thereof.”