[Getting competent]has been consumed.
As much as Arwin wanted to check out his new gauntlets’ stats, he had an equally important task to handle first. His information page floated in the air before him, all his skills laid out in wait.
[Molten Novice] (Passive)
Every new skill upgrade got harder and harder to choose. It was a good problem to have, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t a problem. There was no doubt that [Awaken] was probably the ability with the most potential in it.
Wyrmhunger’s existence proved that. The weapon, just an average dagger, had formed such an intense connection to Reya that it had literally killed a Wyrm for her. Even though Verdant Blaze hadn’t done anything at that level, he had felt the weapon’s growing intelligence over the past weeks.
[Dragon’s Greed] – Your hunger for magical power has begun to manifest itself in the physical world. Extend your senses to search the area around you for magical items at the cost of significant magical energy. The range of this effect scales with the amount of magical energy used. At the cost of extra magical energy, the focus of this ability can be targeted to a specific type of magical item or material.
He smiled. He’d read the Mesh correctly — or perhaps it had just humored him. Either way, he’d gotten what he wanted and there was no reason to delay any longer. Arwin waved the glowing words away and quickly turned to his newly made gauntlets to finally discover what his efforts had netted him.
The Ivory Executioner’s Hands: Epic Quality
[Reave]: The insatiable hunger of a Wyrmling pulses within the razor-sharp tips of this item. Any wounds inflicted by this item on a living creature will steal a small portion of their physical strength. This trait’s effects are reduced the greater the target’s tier is than this item’s wielder.
[Magical Storage]: Any power taken by [Reave] is kept within this item and can be released into a weapon to empower its attack. Stored energy will eventually deteriorate if left untouched for sufficient amounts of time.
[Executioner’s Promise]: This item’s wielder can draw the energy held by [Magical Storage] into themselves instead of pushing it into a weapon. Energy drawn in this manner will temporarily stem wounds and provide a burst of resilience. A significant portion of the energy will be lost in conversion when this trait is activated.
[Armor of the Executioner]: This is a set item of [?] pieces. When the entire set is worn, a concealed property will be unlocked.
Arwin bound the gauntlets with the last remaining slot of [Arsenal] before he’d even finished reading over their abilities. A smile, equal parts delight and relief, crawled across his face.
The gauntlets had turned out perfect. They were exactly what he’d been hoping for. There was only a single problem with them — unlike all his other items, there was nothing to conceal their properties from anyone else.
Once he managed to finish the Ivory Executioner set, that wouldn’t be a problem. There were just two things left to do there. Namely, making sabatons and remaking his chestpiece. He was already planning to learn how to make boots, so the former would be next.
The chestpiece would come after. Then he would be done. Arwin studied his new gauntlets with the gaze of a proud father for another minute before dismissing them and letting out a satisfied sigh.
He stepped out of the back of the smithy and into the main room. The sunlight spilling in told him that it was already slightly late in the day and somewhere slightly past lunch. Arwin hesitated as he looked around the smithy.
Something felt off, and it took him a second to realize what it was.
All the gold that had been piled up just beside the back door was missing. His eyes widened. His gaze shot around the room, but there was no damage to anything. The door was intact and there weren’t any signs of a forced entry.
He shot out onto the street, striding for the inn. The door opened just as he went to reach for it and he found himself face to face with Rodrick. Arwin opened his mouth, but the warrior spoke before he could.
“Relax, Arwin,” Rodrick said through a chuckle. “The gold is fine. Lillia said you’d probably panic when you realized it was missing, but we didn’t want to bother you while you were working.”
The words died on Arwin’s lips and he ran a hand through his hair. “I probably should have guessed. I was so focused on my work that I wasn’t really thinking when I saw it was missing. Good timing. I would have burst in there yelling about thieves. You moved the gold, I take it?”
“Jake showed back up asking for his payment. We aren’t an official guild yet, but we figured there was no reason holding off and getting him in hot water,” Rodrick explained. “We got him his money and moved the rest into an unused room. We really need a better way to store it, by the way.”
“Another thing for the list,” Arwin muttered as his shoulders slumped and he shook his head. “Damn. That was a burst of emotions I wasn’t expecting. So everything is fine?”
Rodrick nodded. “All fine. Lillia did ask that we not disturb her right now, though. She started some big test with her cooking or something and wants to be focused.”
“Noted,” Arwin said. “Do you know if anyone else showed up looking for me today?”
“A few adventurers, but we had ‘em put their name on the waitlist. Were you waiting for someone in particular?”
“No, that’s perfect. Just good to know the interest is carrying over. I need to make sure we keep capitalizing on it. It’ll take a little while for adventurers to test out the armor, so I should get some more sets prepared for after demand starts going up.”
“Already?” Rodrick raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know what a break is, do you?”