Path of Dragons

Carmen’s file scraped against the block of dragonstone, removing only the tiniest bit of material. In a lot of cases, it would have been frustrating, but Carmen had long since fallen into what she referred to as a worker’s trance. It wasn’t a skill or anything – just a tendency to dive so deeply into a task that everything else sort of faded away. She’d done it often enough before the world’s transformation, and it had become more common in the wake of the World Tree’s touch.

She could have used her abilities to make it easier, but that would take attention away from Ethereal Infusion, which she’d resolved to maintain at all times while working on what she’d begun referring to as The Great Forge. Even one lapse, and she felt that she’d create a weak link. And while that might not completely ruin the final product – or even be noticeable to most people – when she had taken on the project, she had told herself that she would cut no corners. So, Carmen kept to the original plan, regardless of how tedious it was.

Gradually, the carving began to take shape. She’d roughed it out with a chisel, but refining it required a much defter tool, which was where the file came into play. It had been made with sun copper and enchanted to be much harder than even the magical metal would normally be. As a result, it was on the verge of being Complex-Grade, and like all the other tools she'd made over the past few months, it possessed an ability.

Crafter’s Imbuement

Using this tool upon raw materials imbues it with a small trickle of ethera.

When she’d created the first tool in the set – which was a hammer – Carmen had been ecstatic. Until that point, she hadn’t been able to focus the ability of any items she’d created. Instead, the system seemed to assign them at random. However, while helping Elijiah with the Circle of Spears and creating the Temple of Virtue, she had learned that her intent while crafting could guide the final product in certain ways. It wasn’t foolproof, and there was still some variance – especially with weapons and armor – but tools were simple enough that she could get the result she wanted.

It wasn’t easy, though. One stray thought while crafting, and she might’ve ruined it. Still, throughout all her experiences, Carmen had learned to focus, and the results were precisely what she’d intended.

But those were just the tools. A means to an end. The real work came when she’d started to work on the dragonstone. She was no stonemason, but like every other crafter – aside from people like Elijah, whose abilities in the field were very limited – she’d begun her journey as a Tradesman. As such, she could achieve passable results with a wide variety of materials.

So, Carmen had spent days carving the huge dragonstone blocks into large bricks. Then, she’d begun the purification cycle, which included using Decontaminate and Refine Materials. Over and over, a dozen times for each brick, she broke those pieces down until they were completely uncontaminated by anything that wasn’t dragonstone.

Thankfully, she’d had plenty of help with that – mostly from the town’s Stonemason, who was a dwarf named Boryn. Otherwise, Carmen wouldn’t have completed more than one of the blocks a week. But with Boryn’s – and his apprentices’ – help, they’d managed to purify and shape a third of the dragonstone into usable bricks. The rest was up to Carmen.

She could have pawned the carving off on someone else, but she felt in her soul that doing so would weaken the personalized effect of the Great Forge. She’d thought a lot about her conversation with Elijah, about how to create a cultivation environment dedicated to her attunement of Creation. And she’d gotten it into her head that, in order for it to resonate most strongly with her, she needed to be the one to do the bulk of the work. Carmen wasn’t certain why she felt that way, but she did all the same. And she’d learned to trust those instincts.

Finally, she finished the carving, then leaned forward to blow the dust away. One of her helpers would come in and sweep the detritus up. It was still useful for other crafters, after all, though Carmen wasn’t sure where it would end up.

In any case, the carving was only one more step. There was one more stage to copmlete before she’d count the brick finished. So, without further hesitation, Carmen retrieved a long rod of blood tin. It was silver, but with a slight red shimmer. More importantly, it too had been through multiple rounds of purification, so it practically glowed with ethereal potential. Carmen set the thin rod on the first carving, then placed her finger on the end before activating Smolder. The blood tin melted, filling the carved recess and spilling over the edge. That was perfectly normal, so she ignored it as she slowly moved the rod along, inlaying the ethereal metal into the brick.

Without her abilities, it would have been useless. The moment the tin cooled, it would detach from the brock. However, once she’d completed the process, which took almost half the rod, she used Bond to fuse the two materials. It took an incredible amount of ethera, which nearly drained her. However, that was expected.

The next step was a lot touchier, and it would require every point of her Dexterity attribute. Thankfully, her class had enhanced it quite a bit, but more importantly, she’d already completed the process a dozen times. So, by that point, she was an expert. Still, it required a steady hand and as much focus as she could manage.

Brick in hand, she approached the grinder. It was a contraption she’d built herself, though the belt had been created by a local Tinkerer. Carmen didn’t know what he’d used for the abrasive belt, but it worked well enough to grind even the excess tin – which was unnaturally durable – from the surface of the brick. The only issue was that it would also cut into the dragonstone if Carmen wasn’t careful.

And given that the bricks needed to be absolutely identical, any variance created by the grinder would render the brick unusable. Too much effort and too many expensive materials had been used for her to let that happen.

The good thing was that using the grinder, which consisted of a series of wheels, around which the belt had been strung, was almost meditative. Sure, she had to operate the thing with a pedal, but with her stamina – and Crafter’s Endurance – it was no great strain. Indeed, it was extremely satisfying, seeing the rough belt grind the metal away, bit by bit.

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It was time-consuming, though. So, it was hours later before, at last, Carmen had finished. She held the brick out, inspecting it closely. The designs – which were all symbols associated with enchantments meant to condense ethera. She hoped it would result in much thicker ethera inside the forge, which would simultaneously enhance any item created within and provide an appropriate setting for cultivation.

Congratulations! You have created a unique component [Enchanted Dragonstone Brick]. Overall Grade: Complex (Low) Enchantment Grade: D

“Yes!” she breathed, pumping her fist in celebration. It was the thirteenth time she’d created one of the enchanted bricks, but each success came with a burst of experience as well as satisfaction. When she turned to set the block aside, she saw that someone had invaded her smithy and gave a start. “What are you doing here?! How long have you been sitting there?”

“Huh?” Elijah asked from where he was sitting on the pile of other, raw blocks that were waiting to be enchanted. “Oh, about two hours or so? I don’t know. I’m guessing you decided to take my advice and run with it, huh? Doing everything yourself?”

She nodded. “It’s easier for combat classes,” she said. “All they need to do is find a battlefield or something. Maybe a dojo? I don’t know. But with crafters, it’s harder. Nerthus’ advice has been helpful.”

In truth, she probably could have cultivated in her current smithy. It would just take a while, and it would have dubious usefulness after she reached the first stage. Of course, Core cultivation was still largely impossible on Earth – except for people like Elijah, she amended. Perhaps she would be able to clear that hurdle once she’d finished the Great Forge.

“Do you need any help?” he asked.

Setting the completed brick down next to its identical siblings, she answered, “No. I need to do as much of this as possible myself. Otherwise, it’ll be diluted. I think.” She wiped the sweat from her brow. “I’m kind of just playing it by ear right now, but my instincts tell me that the more help I get with this, the less it will help me with my cultivation.”

“Fair enough.”

Carmen crossed to where Elijah was sitting, then joined him atop the stacked bricks. With her legs dangling, she asked, “What’s up? Are you back? Or is this temporary?”

Elijah answered, “I don’t know. With the Trial of Primacy coming up, I know I have a lot of preparation ahead of me. This can’t just be like a tower run. If I go in unprepared, I’ll end up dead.”

“What do you need?”

“Levels. Cultivation. Equipment. I’ve been thinking about armor. I mean, when I’m in my bestial forms, I have scales, but I can’t help but think that I’m missing the boat with armor. Even if it doesn’t make me more durable, a lot of it still has abilities that would help me, right? I don’t know. I have Atticus keeping an eye out for a good Leatherworker, but he hasn’t found anyone yet. So, I might just use that gnome that works across town. I can’t remember his name.”

“Rikin,” Carmen provided. She’d met most of the higher-leveled crafters in Ironshore, largely because most worthwhile projects required cooperation between a wide variety of professions. For instance, when she made armor, it would turn out better if the padding was made by someone used to working with textiles or leather.

“Yeah. Him. Is he any good?” Elijah asked.

“He’s in his forties,” she answered, referring to the gnome’s level. It wasn’t as impressive as it sounded. He was more than sixty years old, and he looked it, too. The only reason he’d come to Earth in the first place was because he wanted to help his daughter – who was a farmer – develop. However, his advanced age as well as his low level, which had been under twenty-five before coming to Earth, showed that he wasn’t terribly talented. But he was the highest level leatherworker in the city. “Personally, I’d use Gavina. She’s lower-leveled, but she’s not even twenty-years-old yet. Much more talented. I don’t know if that would translate into the final product, but it’d pay off by helping her gain some levels so that next time you need her, she can do something even better.”

Elijah nodded. “Not sure if I can afford to make a choice based on developing someone I don’t even know,” he admitted. “This trial is going to be extremely dangerous.”

“Even for you?”

“I’m not invincible, Carmen. I almost died only a few days ago,” he admitted, which surprised her. Then, he told her what had happened in Seattle, ending with, “It just highlights that we can’t rest on our laurels. Even if people are lower-leveled, there are so many different abilities out there that could make them even more dangerous. I mean, I’ve spent most of the past four years punching up. There’s nothing to say that other people can’t do the same thing. Which brings me to Miggy.”

“What about him?” she asked.

“I came up with a training program for him,” Elijah answered.

“He already trains every day.”

“He does,” her brother-in-law agreed. “But it’s not focused. I know he doesn’t have an archetype yet, but it’s coming any day now. He needs to decide what he wants to do. For instance, if he’s going to be a Warrior, then all of his training with Kurik will be useless. And if he wants to be a Druid –”

“I thought you said that was a bad idea.”

“It is. Probably. It’s not an archetype meant for fighting. Maybe that’s a good thing, but I think we both know that Miggy will never be happy sitting in the grove and gardening with Nerthus,” Elijah stated.

“That’s true,” she agreed. Even if she wished it was otherwise, Carmen knew her son well enough to recognize that the life Elijah described would be hell for Miguel. “What do you suggest?”

“I’m going to talk to him. Ask him what he really wants.”

“Good luck with that.”

Carmen had tried to talk to her son about his impending archetype choice, and on dozens of occasions. To date, he’d been noncommittal.

“But maybe you can get through to him,” she conceded. “I’m guessing you’re going to structure his training based on what he says?”

“I have a generic schedule, but that’s the plan,” Elijah answered. “Plus, I think Nerthus might have some methods to prepare him for cultivation. But I didn’t want to overstep, so I thought I’d ask you before I did anything.”

“Of course,” she said. With anyone else – except maybe Colt – she might have refused. But she trusted Elijah, and what’s more, she knew that he had Miguel’s best interests at heart. Besides, he was the most powerful person in the world. If he wasn’t an expert, then nobody was.

“Alright then,” Elijah said. “What about you? Are you okay?”

She answered honestly, saying, “This is the most at peace I’ve been since Alyssa died. Maybe since before that. I’m not saying Ironshore is perfect. It’s not. There are still people here who don’t trust humans. But it’s so much better than what I left behind. I think I’ve found a place here.”

“Good,” he said, reaching around and wrapping his arm around her shoulder. He pulled her close, saying, “You and Miggy are the only family I have left. And Nerthus, but he can take care of himself. I need you two to be okay.”

“You know that goes both ways, right? You’re all we have, too. So don’t go and do anything to get yourself killed. It would break Miggy.”

“Just Miggy?”

“Me too, idiot,” she said with a smile. Her own family – from before she met Alyssa, at least – had mostly abandoned her after she’d come out. Partially as a result of that, she’d latched onto Elijah as something of a little brother. And though her instincts told her to protect him, she knew that he was so far beyond her in terms of power that such efforts would be useless. All she could do was offer her support, which she wholeheartedly did. Then, she said, “You want to get a drink? Talk things out?”

“Wish I could,” he said, sliding off of the stacked bricks. “But I’ve got a lot to do. Plus, Miggy just got back to the island, and I want to get that done. Tomorrow’s going to be the start of something important, I think.”

With that, Carmen said goodbye, and he left the smithy behind. After, Carmen went back to work. She’d completed thirteen bricks, and she had thousands more ahead of her.

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