As Deorer left the room with a giddy Alka right on his heels, Vin could only stare at the now empty doorway as he tried to process everything that had just happened in the last thirty seconds. Based on the lava literally pouring off him, Deorer had to be the lone dwarf they had witnessed smithing within the lava flow on their way down here. Which meant according to what they’d read in Turmal’s journal, he was the sole surviving master smith in the entire town.

  Of course, he would have lost his levels just like everyone else. But having seen the other dwarves’ reactions to him, and the fact that he was literally unfazed by lava, obviously he’d regained at least a significant portion of what had been lost.

  While Vin was still reeling, Nohral sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and quietly grunting.

  “Pillars help me, that man is going to be the end of me one of these days…” Seeming to collect himself after a moment, Nohral gave them a weak smile and gestured to the open door. “Perhaps we should reconvene in another room? One that isn’t currently melting or on fire?”

  Once they’d all evacuated to the foyer and Nohral had called for a few other dwarves to take care of the burning room, Vin turned to the exhausted looking dwarf before he could bring them to another meeting room.

  “If it’s all the same to you, I’d actually prefer going with Alka and making sure that dwarf doesn’t end up dismantling her out of curiosity,” Vin said as he watched the small team of dwarves start pouring some sort of loose gravel into the lava filled room; the small rocks seeming to absorb much of the heat and helping the lava cool down faster. As durable as Alka’s new body looked, if anyone would be able to actually damage it, it would probably be some form of master smith.

  “Well, I have no doubt Deorer took your friend straight to his workshop within the lava flows to ensure I couldn’t chase after him,” Nohral sighed, as if this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. “Meaning unless you are a lot more durable than you look, you’re not interrupting whatever it is those two are getting up to right now.”

  Vin paused, wondering just how high one’s vigor would have to be in order to shrug off wading into lava of all things. His Resistance skill was getting pretty high lately, but it probably wasn’t high enough for that. Deorer had to have at least a couple passives or even Capstones that allowed him to work within the heart of the volcano.

  “So… What now then?” Scule spoke up, having shifted over to Shia’s shoulder when they evacuated. Reginald was currently curled up in the Druid’s hands with his eyes closed, seemingly unconcerned about the recent fire.

  “As I was saying before we were interrupted, I’ll lend you a room for the night, but I ask that you please remain inside and don’t go around exploring the Crater,” Nohral said, frowning as if he knew precisely what Scule would try to get up to the moment he took his eyes off the Rogue. “We don’t… entertain outsiders, here. Other than the few Heroes and those claiming to be them over the centuries, we haven’t had any form of guest enter the crater in quite some time.”

  “Really? Even within the past few months?” Vin asked, thinking back to Forpurt and the other wanderers that had been within the library the same time they were. While the majority of people seemed to prefer to stay within their home fragment, clearly there were others that suffered the same urge to explore this new world just as he did.

  “You must have encountered the dropbeaks beyond the Crater, yes?” Nohral asked, raising an eyebrow. “I’d imagine those monsters deter most travelers from even attempting to get up here in the first place.”

  Vin paused, remembering the shockingly fast avian monsters and the corpse they’d stumbled upon during their steep hike. It wasn’t hard to imagine other corpses just like it scattered around the volcano as a warning.

  “Suffice to say, no, we still don’t get any visitors. Which is why it is vital you remain indoors and out of sight,” Nohral stressed.

  “But we had like a hundred dwarves creeping after us on our way over here,” Scule pointed out.

  “Just because some steel has spilled out of the crucible, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stop it from tipping,” Nohral said, shaking his head. “I ask that you please don’t fight me on this and respect our rules. Otherwise I will have to ask you to leave here and now, regardless of the fact that your friend is busy.”

  “Scule…” Vin warned, not wanting to leave Alka alone in the literal heart of a volcano with a powerful stranger.

  “Alright, I got it!” He grumbled, throwing up his hands. “I’ll stay in the damn house!”

  “Thank you,” Nohral smiled. “Now if you’d excuse me, I have some other matters that require my attention. Myndra will show you to where you’ll be staying.” Bidding them farewell, the de facto leader of the dwarves hurried off and left them with the armor-clad woman, who promptly grunted and gestured for them to follow her.

  Vin cursed as they were once again brought back out into the face-melting temperatures of the Crater as Myndra led them down a string of back alleyways to a small building that was relatively close by. The three of them eagerly rushed into the semi-temperature-controlled house, sighing in relief when they discovered that like the impressive building they’d just come from, this house was also only uncomfortably hot.

  “I’ll post some warriors outside the house in case you need anything,” Myndra told them, her frown as prominent on her face as the first moment they’d arrived. Not giving them a chance to ask any questions, she slammed the door, shutting them inside and out of sight.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “What a lovely people,” Scule drawled, hopping off Shia’s shoulder and glancing around. “Not a bad place though. Besides the heat obviously.”

  Looking around, Vin had to admit Scule was right. He’d half expected Nohral to shove them into some abandoned storehouse somewhere to keep them out of sight, but this was clearly someone’s former home.

  It wasn’t all that surprising seeing as a large portion of their population appeared to be Blacksmiths, but the dwarves were clearly all about metal. The chairs, the tables, even the couches were made solely out of metal, and were finely crafted pieces at that. Vin could only admire the craftsmanship and tiny designs engraved along the different pieces of furniture, mainly in random patterns to make everything a bit more appealing to look at. It certainly wasn’t runic engraving, but it was pretty nonetheless.

  “So what’s to stop them from just eating their own furniture?” Scule asked, peering at one end of the couch as if expecting to find bite marks on it. “I mean, if I sat on a couch made of bread all day, I certainly wouldn’t be able to stop myself from taking a nibble here and there.”

  “I don’t know much about metallurgy, but I’d be willing to be those small chips they snack on are smelted for the very purpose of being eaten,” Shia shrugged, carefully sitting on the metal couch and frowning at the lack of cushioning. “How do these people live like this? This isn’t comfortable in the slightest!”

  “Remember their hardened skin?” Vin pointed out, eyeing up one of the iron chairs himself and deciding against it for the moment. “They probably can’t feel a whole lot I’d bet.”

  “Man, being a dwarf must suck,” Scule said, rapping a knuckle against the metal couch. “It’s absolutely roasting all the time, nothing is comfortable, and you’re short. Poor guys.”

  Vin and Shia shared a confused look for a moment, as if waiting for the other one to point out the hypocrisy of the petian calling the dwarves short. But after seeing Shia merely shrug, Vin just shook his head.

  “Well… So long as we have the downtime and are stuck here, we might as well be productive.” Taking a deep breath, Vin prepared himself and turned to his first ever magic instructor. “Shia… Will you watch over me as I try dipping into an artifact again?”

  Ever since escaping the library and getting both his magic and focus to 40, Vin had begun contemplating trying his hand at learning from an artifact once again. They had quite a good number between all of them after all, and all those potential new spells he could learn were just too enticing.

  According to Shia, his initial attempt to study and learn from Alka’s sword had been reckless and incredibly stupid. Despite the fact that it had resulted in him learning Sense Magic, Shia made it clear under no uncertain terms that his early success had largely been a complete fluke. Apparently, it was only due to the fact that the sword was the lowest tier of artifact, the spells within being remarkably nonlethal, and an impressive amount of luck that he hadn’t hurt himself. She’d made him swear to her that he wouldn’t try learning from an artifact again until she deemed him ready.

  But that was then, and this was now.

  After everything he’d been through Vin was practically an entirely different person at this point. Not only were his magic and focus leaps and bounds above what they once were, he now had a Capstone that helped him better understand runes, he’d leveled up his Spellcraft skill to the point that it had evolved into Runecraft, and he’d read through an entire book on the basics of runic formations back in the library. On top of all that, he’d even recently risked delving into Madam Trebella’s charm after realizing it felt easier than a true artifact and had managed to learn from that successfully.

  And if all that wasn’t enough, based on what he’d experienced so far, he had good reason to believe even if he did make some major mistake that would kill or severely maim him, his divine boon should kick in and save him like it had when he’d overcharged his Sense Stone spell to map out to Rebel Queen’s tunnels.

  Finally, he felt confident enough to ask Shia if she thought he was ready.

  Yet despite his confidence, Vin stood there nervously; his request seeming to hang in the air as his original magic instructor stared at him. Shia had a blank look on her face, as if she were trying to shove aside all her own personal feelings on the matter and judge his ability solely on the facts. After a few long, tense seconds, the elf finally sighed, giving him a resigned nod.

  “I still don’t like it… My master stressed just how dangerous the act of learning from an artifact was,” she explained, her expression pained. “…But I do think you’ll probably be okay at this point. Worst case scenario, I think your divine boon will save you after all.”

  Vin couldn’t help but pump his fist, letting out a boisterous cheer as Shia rolled her eyes.

  “That doesn’t mean I’m just letting you just dive headfirst into this however you want. I don’t care which of our artifacts you’d rather start with, you’re picking the absolute weakest one we have and doing this slowly, okay?”

  “Fine by me,” Vin grinned, simply excited to get the chance to add even more spells to his collection. As Scule and Reginald went off to do who knows what in another room, Vin worked with Shia to put together a list of artifacts they currently had, categorizing them via strength and potential spell. In the end, he had two options to start with.

  “So the ring of barkskin is a minor artifact and, surprise surprise, you should be able to pick up Barkskin from it,” Shia explained, looking at the ring Vin had placed on the small coffee table before shifting over to option two. “The waterskin you received from Erik however seems like an easier start. It’s also a minor artifact, and it has to be imbued with Create Water, which of course is one of the two building blocks of all water-based spells if water affinity follows the same rules as most of the others.”

  “Thanks to your master, one of my now five nature spell slots is filled up with Familiar Pheromones of all things,” Vin frowned, shaking his head. “It’s hard to be mad when it literally saved my life, but it’s just such a useless spell compared to what I could have learned instead!”

  “So Familiar Pheromones, Entangle, and Replenish,” Shia listed, ticking his nature spells off on her fingers. “You’re lucky that the System has a weird definition of what constitutes nature magic versus life magic and that they’re close enough to build off one another. Thanks to that, you’ve got two slots left at the moment unless you want to risk a nature affinity. Want to fill one with Barkskin?”

  “Not yet,” Vin decided, picking up the ring and nimbly sliding it back onto his finger with one hand, shivering slightly at the strange sensation of his skin hardening once more. “Seeing as I have the ring, I can’t help but feel like it would just be a waste at this point.”

  “I guess that makes this an easy choice then,” Shia grinned, sliding the waterskin toward him.

  “Ready to learn a new affinity?”

  Probably!

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