System Change

Darius nodded towards a dwarf standing close to him, and the man came forward and bowed to Derek. “If you would follow me, sir,” he said.

“Lead the way,” Derek said. He turned to Darius and nodded at the king. “I guess I’ll see you later.”

“Sure…” Darius said with a slight roll of his eyes, and Derek chuckled.

The next dozen or so minutes were spent with Derek following along behind the dwarf. The man led him out of the palace, across the street, and quite a ways through Stonehelm before they arrived at a stone building almost the same scale as the palace itself.

“This is our Smithing Academy,” the man said.

“Oh…” Derek replied with a look of shock. “I take it Shaemus is the head of the Academy or something?” he asked.

“No,” the dwarf shook his head. “He may tutor a particularly gifted student of the Academy occasionally, but, other than that, he doesn’t interact much with them.”

“Oh,” Derek said. “Then… why are we here?”

“Because Sir Shaemus is using the Academy’s facilities, as, though they are around the same quality, the work area is much greater, and, due to the project’s difficulty and time constraints, other smiths are helping him with whatever he needs,” the man replied.

“You sure know a lot about all this… what is it that you said you do?” Derek asked.“I am what one may call an adviser for King Darius,” the man said.

“Oh…” Derek said. “I thought you were a guard…”

“I am also that,” the man said. “I wear a few helms, but adviser is my most used.”

“I see,” Derek said. “So, I guess the other smiths are able to do all the basic stuff while Shaemus focuses on the really important things…”

“It’s… more complicated than that,” the man looked at Derek, but when he saw his face, he sighed, “But yes… that is the gist of it.”

“Gotcha,” Derek said.

“Now, if you would please follow me,” the adviser said. “I do not want to keep Sir Shaemus waiting.”

Derek then followed the man into the building. He expected to go up the stairs to one of the higher floors, as that was where he was used to important people being, but he was surprised when the king’s adviser instead led him downstairs to a massive smithy in the basement.

I guess this makes sense, Derek thought. Brandi also prefers her crafting on the lowest floor. You don’t have to worry about anything happening underneath it affecting you… though… a really bad failed craft could probably take the entire building down if enough precautions aren’t taken. Derek thought of the times when Brandi lost her eyebrows because of failed crafts and took in a breath. Did the remodel include reinforcing everything? he wondered. I may need to check in with Malorie.

After breaking out of his thoughts, Derek looked around and saw four dwarves standing around a workbench. Among them was Braxton. The other three must have been Shaemus and two other smiths. The dwarf standing directly in front of the workbench was about half a head taller than any of the other dwarves, and he was completely bald with near snow-white skin—some of which was tinged with a pinkish coloring due to the heat. Derek guessed that dwarf was Shaemus.

“I’ll leave you here,” the adviser said to Derek.

“Okay,” Derek turned and looked at the man and saw that he was sweating profusely with some labored breathing. Ah… yeah… I guess it is really… really hot in here. Of course, Derek was fine, as were the three smiths and Braxton. But the adviser must not have built up his endurance as much as everyone else.

“Derek!” Braxton looked over from the workbench and saw Derek standing there. “Well, don’t just stand there. Come and meet the best smith in the entire Great System.”

Derek lightly chuckled, then walked over to the dwarves. Sure enough, the bald, pale dwarf walked around the workbench and in front of Derek. The man eyed Derek up and down before finally speaking.

“You are the man who will be providing the new ale?” the man asked.

“It’s more of a brew,” Derek said. “But, with proper precautions, yes, I will get you some of it.”

“Very good,” the man said, then stuck out his hand, which Derek took and shook. “I’m Shaemus Ironhide, but everyone just calls me Shaemus.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Shaemus,” Derek said. “I’m Derek.”

“Oh, I know who you are… we all do,” Shaemus said. “You’ve gotten this entire continent in a tizzy with your warnings and whatnot.”

“Sorry about that,” Derek said as he rubbed the back of his neck in slight embarrassment.

“It’s no hair off my back,” Shaemus said.

“As if you had hair on your back,” another dwarf walked over and greeted Derek. “I’m Hartrick,” the dwarven smith said. “They say I’m the second-best smith in the kingdom, but that is debatable.” He eyed Shaemus. “But I am younger and better looking, so I’ll let Shaemus have the title of best smith for the time being.”

“Hey!” Shaemus blurted out. “Don’t make fun of my condition!”

“Your condition?” the remaining dwarf approached them. “Your condition is that you refuse to work with a lower temperature and keep burning all the hair off your entire body. Condition my arse!” the man said. “Anyway… I’m Smith.”

“Smith?” Derek asked.

“Yes…” the dwarf said. “Smith, the Assistant Smith of the Second Best Smith in the Kingdom.” He pronounced it like it was all one long title. “But you can call me Smith.”

“Gotcha,” Derek said. He then looked around at everyone and said, “So, I heard that you had a set of armor waiting for me to come attune?”

“Oh, do I,” Shaemus’s frown brightened, and all slights were forgotten as he hurried back over to his workstation. “We’ll have to attune it piece by piece, so it could take a while, but once we finish, I believe I will have created something great.”

“We,” Hartrick corrected. “We will have created something great.”

“Bah!” Shaemus waved Hartrick’s comment away, then looked back at Derek. “We are ready whenever you are.” He flicked his wrist, and a blue potion appeared in his hand. “I’ve found that you don’t want to take more than one Mana Recovery potion during the attunement or the results can be suboptimal,” Shaemus said.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Oh, I don’t need that,” Derek replied. “If there’s one thing I’m not worried about, it’s running out of mana. The last smith I did this for tired out well before I ran out of mana.”

“The Walking Forge?” Shaemus asked with a raised brow.

“That’s the one,” Derek said.

“Hmm…” the smith rubbed his chin. “He is a good smith. That is surprising. I expected more out of him. It seems that I overestimated him.”

“No,” Derek said. “You didn’t overestimate him, you are underestimating me. Everyone always underestimates me, and they always regret it in the end.”

“Well…” Shaemus muttered. “We shall see about that.” The smith then laid out multiple pieces of armor on the workbench and motioned to Derek. “Now, come and place your hand on this rune on the workbench. It will allow you to channel your mana into the bench and connect it to each piece of the armor—combining the set as a whole. It is also harder to maintain enough mana throughout the process of attuning armor than it is for a single weapon, as the quantity of materials involved is greater.”

“Alright,” Derek said, then placed his hand on the table.

“The quantity and amount of mana—or stamina, if we are speaking of your friend Avery—it takes is so much that you will not see attuned legendary armor connected to someone who is not at a very high level,” Shaemus continued. “That is also the same for weapons, even though it does take less.”

“If you say so,” Derek said. “I was only around level 200 when my legendary weapon, Void’s Harbinger, was created.” He held out his free wrist, and Harbinger appeared in his hand. The smiths around the bench all raised their eyebrows, and Shaemus even nodded his head.

“Well… I may have been wrong about The Walking Forge, after all,” he said. “I am specialized in armor crafting, so my experience with weapons isn’t as great as it is with armor, but that definitely looks to be a fine weapon. May I ask what the legendary attuned skill is? It is attuned to the void, correct?”

“It is,” Derek said. “And its skill allows it to basically eat material and restore its durability. I haven’t found anything that it can’t eat through yet, either, so it doubles as a pretty deadly attack, too.”

“Fascinating,” Shaemus said. “Weapon or armor repairing themselves isn’t anything new for a legendary item, but those are always passive. For example, a weapon with only fifty percent of its durability left that has that skill will be able to repair itself back to one hundred percent in a week or two if it is left out of the storage ring. However, in all my years and many legendary items, I have never come across an item skill that can actively repair itself and be useful during combat. The void is truly mysterious.”

“Yeah…” Derek said as he recalled Harbinger back inside his body. “It has certainly gotten me out of a tight spot a time or two.”

“Very good,” Shaemus said. “Now, I am even more excited to see what a set of void-attuned armor may provide.”

“In that case,” Derek said, “how about we get to it?”

“Of course,” the smith replied. “Now, all smiths are different, so this may not be the same as when you were creating your weapon. What I would like you to do is release your aura, then use any channeling skill you have to push your attuned energy into the bench. If you do not have a channeling skill, I can activate another rune that will pull it out for you.”

“No need,” Derek replied. “I have a channeling skill. But… uh… I’m not going to start with my full aura released. I’ll go about half, then release more as we go. A full release of my aura is different than the normal person’s.”

“If you want, you can start at half,” Shaemus said. “But I’m sure it won’t be a problem.”

Derek chuckled, then said, “Alright… prepare yourselves.” Then he released his aura. The whites of his eyes turned a deep purple, and his already purple-tinted hair was completely taken over by the deep purple of the void. A weird weight began to settle within him and increased as he slowly pushed his aura out. Once it hit about halfway, he stopped, then looked around.

“That is a very good aura, lad,” Shaemus said. “But…” the dwarf hesitated. “This is only… half?”

“Yeah,” Derek chuckled. “Like I said, my aura is a bit different from your typical aura.”

“That it is,” the smith replied with a smile. “My material cost may indeed be worth it,” he muttered under his breath, but Derek still heard. Then Shaemus said, “Okay, you may increase it until I say stop.”

“Alright,” Derek said, then slowly turned it up. When it was about 85% or so unleashed, he was stopped.

“That’s good!” Shaemus said. The dwarf didn’t look any worse for wear, and the other two smiths were holding up fine as well. Braxton was standing off to the side with a giant smile on his face and a mug in his hand. “We could handle more, but I’m afraid that when you push your energy into the bench, it wouldn’t be able to hold.”

“Oh,” Derek muttered. “Okay.”

“Now,” the smith said. “Let’s begin.”

Derek closed his eyes and activated Greater Meditation. Then he channeled his void energy through his body and into the rune below his hand. When he opened his eyes, he saw the bench grow the same deep purple as his void energy. Shaemus had both of his hands placed on the workbench, and his eyes were closed in concentration.

After a moment, he muttered, “You two, come help.”

The two other smiths seemed almost surprised as they placed their hands on the bench and also began concentrating on something. Derek watched as the runes all over the bench continued lighting up, and then all the gear laid out in front of him began glowing. Etchings began to appear slowly throughout the armor.

This time, his control over his energy was much better than when he helped craft Harbinger. Back then, pushing his energy into the glaive had been hard—almost sluggish. With the workbench, however, he was able to direct his aura, and the bench sucked it out with no problem. Thinking about it, Derek nodded.

After a good hour, he looked up. Braxton was still standing off to the side with his drink. When their eyes met, the assassin smiled and gave Derek a thumbs up. Derek grinned, then raised his free hand and did the same. He wanted to talk, but he didn’t want to disturb the smiths, as they were all concentrating deeply, and he was afraid of ruining anything.

Five more hours passed, and Derek still stood while injecting his mana. It had already been six hours—which was how long Tyron was able to hold out by himself. Derek looked over at the smiths and saw that the assistant smith was now struggling. The dwarf was breathing heavily, and sweat was pouring from his brow. The other two smiths seemed taxed, but nowhere near as much as the assistant.

Another hour later, Smith tapped out. The dwarf slowly opened his eyes, then quietly said, “That’s all I can do.”

Shaemus, with his eyes still closed, whispered, “That is enough.”

Finally, the assistant smith took his hands off the bench and looked around. When his eyes saw Derek’s smiling face, the man’s expression turned to shock. Derek gave him a thumbs up and a nod. Smith stared at Derek for a few seconds, then shook his head and walked away. When he reached the wall beside Braxton, the man leaned against it and then slumped to the ground. Thirty minutes later, Derek heard a light snoring coming from the exhausted smith.

In total, it took ten hours for them to completely attune his armor. They didn’t stop because the remaining two smiths were tired—which they absolutely were—they stopped because the workbench started resisting Derek’s energy. As soon as it happened, Shaemus’s eyes shot open, and he said, “Enough. That’s all the armor can take.”

Derek withdrew his aura and reined in his energy before pulling his hand away.

“Remarkable,” Shaemus said as he looked at the armor displayed in front of him. “The purity and amount of the energy contained inside… truly fascinating.”

“Thanks?” Derek said with a chuckle.

“You were correct,” the dwarf said. “I was very much underestimating you and your control over your energy.”

“I’m used to it,” Derek said.

“Even so, I am sorry,” the dwarf said.

“It’s fine.”

“Now,” Shaemus began again. “This is going to take some time…” His eyes then looked at the sleeping dwarf against the wall. “Smith! Get over here. Time to seal the aura in.” The whole time they were speaking, the two smiths never took their hands off the table. In fact, Hartrick was still concentrating with his eyes closed.

Smith jumped at the shout, then shot to his feet. “Y-yes!” the dwarf muttered, then ran over and got back into position.

“Now!” Shaemus shouted.

Derek watched in fascination as the runes on the table began to spin and shift, then slowly moved into the armor. It was even more intricate than when he had watched Tyron do it. He’s going to have to get one of these tables, Derek thought.

Finally, a blinding light shot out of the armor, and Shaemus said, “Whew…” He wiped the sweat off his brow, and the other smiths opened their eyes. “Truly… amazing,” the man said. “Thank you for this opportunity.”

“Well… I think I’m getting more out of it,” Derek said.

“That may not be so,” the smith replied. “This experience… is worth more than you know.”

Derek shrugged. “Yeah… but I get some really cool armor.”

“True… true…” Shaemus replied. “Anyway, it is going to take a few days or more to finish now that the armor is attuned. We will contact you when it is complete.”

“Alright,” Derek said. He expected as much. It had taken Tyron a few days after attuning his weapon to finish it off, too. “I’ll see you then,” Derek said, then started walking away. When he walked by Braxton, the assassin joined him.

“Now,” the dwarf began. “That was beautiful,” he said. “I don’t get jealous often, but I certainly am now. Shaemus is really putting his all into that armor. I don’t know how or why he chose your armor to do so with…”

“Just lucky, I guess,” Derek said with a chuckle. “Now… where’s the best place to open up the void and get out of here? I don’t think your brother appreciated me appearing in the Throne Room.”

“Eh…” Braxton waved Derek’s question away. “The Throne Room will do just fine.”