“No, you scaghead! You let it rest fo' a moment after bringing it up to the precise temperature, then you start hammerin' again,” Vandrick grumbled, swatting Archie’s back with a fly-swat-shaped plant he firmly held in between his cybernetic arms. "Now start hammerin'."
Archie ignored the stinging sensation from the plant that had somehow bypassed his armor entirely and continued hammering away at the Cold Iron Gear in front of him.
In just a few short minutes of trading information with Vandrick, Archie had learned far more than he expected. Vandrick didn’t just explain the mechanics of cybernetics - he went further, teaching Archie the proper way to forge using mana tools.
“Ya gotta grab it like a bottle o’ gin - gentle but firm,” Vandrick had said, watching Archie struggle to hold a bar of Cold Iron with a pair of mana-forged tongs that looked ready to collapse at any moment.
Mana shaping was difficult, even with his improved mana manipulation abilities. At first, it took him minutes just to form something resembling tongs, and even longer to keep them stable enough to grip a bar of metal.
Once he finally managed to secure the Cold Iron bar within his mana-crafted tongs, he moved on to the next step - tempering it in fire, something he assumed to be the next tier in difficulty.
But to his surprise, the Forgesmith’s Flame
Vandrick chuckled at his shock, reminding him that Forgesmith’s Flame
Of course, it had its limitations - such as having zero effect in combat, it was why he used the cores of creatures that wielded fire to wreath Thornscourge ExpansionForgesmith's Flames
As he started to fill a crate full of multi-sized and shaped gears with Vandrick overlooking the process, the sturdier his mana construct became. Once it had become stable enough to resemble a generic-looking tong and didn’t twitch with every strike of his hammer, Archie created a second mana construct, a chisel.
Controlling two mana constructs and keeping them stable was very mentally taxing, more so than creating mana platforms.
Mana platforms required him to solidify his mana in a specific location and maintain its stability. In contrast, the tongs and chisel he crafted from mana needed to be dense and hard enough to withstand the force of his strikes without cracking or breaking, all while continuously shifting to both his and the metal’s immediate needs.
Sometimes he needed the tongs’ jaws to be slightly more curved or the hinge plate to be a little more bent so he could better hammer the metal. It was the same with the chisel; sometimes he needed the tip to be flat, diamond, curved, or round nosed, so he would have to shape the construct constantly.
With every clang of his hammer, Archie felt both his mana manipulation and smithing skills improve.
Not enough for Mana Smithing Mastery to upgrade or evolve, of course, but enough to get his adrenaline pumping a bit faster and make his clenched fists itch every time he brought his hammer down.
Raising up the triangular gear to his face, Archie smiled as his eyes flickered to a notification he received.
*Your Profession has reached Lv 82 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*
, Archie mused as he sent away his hammer and the crate full of gears, including the one in his hand, into his spatial storage. Turning around to face the circular window attached to the blast-proof double doors of Vandrick’s forging room, Archie saw Aoife sitting on a chair, cradling a pair of cybernetic arms and wearing new clothes.
Whether it was half-cast or full-cast, he wasn’t quite sure as she was slightly hunched over and nodding off, the bottom of her face covered by her black turtle neck shirt.
And with the sun that peeked over the enormous walls of the city, he’d been forging and talking with Vandrick for hours while Aoife remained seated and silent, not wanting to barge in.
We came in here looking for a better cybernetic arm for her, and I ended up getting forging lessons instead of helping her look for a better cybernetic arm, Archie sighed.
“Oh, look at the time,” Vandrick burped as he took out another bottle of brandy. “And looks like your missus has been waiting for you to finish all night long… someone’s gonna be on the coach tonight, Hah!”
“She’s not, we’re not-” Archie stuttered before dodging a swipe of Vandrick’s fly swatter-shaped plant he was gnawing on.
“Yeah, yeah,” Vandrick grumbled before smirking as Archie turned back to look at Aoife, who waved at him, seeing that he was now finished. Seeing that Archie was now distracted, he gave Archie a playful slap on the thigh with the Eukelian Sugar Root he held in his cybernetic hand, prompting Archie to yelp in surprise.
“Alright, you’ve been here long enough now,” Vandrick said with the Eukelian Sugar Root in the corner of his mouth. “You should be worried about payin’ me for all these lessons instead of your little Sync right there.”
“How much d-” was all Archie got out before he was kicked out of Vandrick’s shop’s forging room and stumbling forward colliding with one of the glass displays that knocked all the air out of his lungs as he face planted onto the glass and stared at the cybernetic chest weave his face was on top of.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Pushing his upper torso and face off the glass display and standing up, Archie rubbed his stinging forehead.
“Are you okay?” Aoife asked with concern as she faced the dwarf standing behind the blast-proof double doors, her back to Archie. She was torn between brandishing her spear at the chuckling dwarf, who stood a grade above her, or grabbing Archie and rushing out of the shop.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Archie chuckled, before turning around to stick up his middle finger to the giggling, drunk dwarf. “Vandrick’s just an ass.”
“Sorry for making you wait,” Archie said as he turned to Aoife, looking apologetic. “One thing led to another, and both he and I didn’t realize how fast time passed.”
“It's alright, you seemed very much enraptured by your conversation and your forging that I did not want to intrude,” Aoife answered, rubbing the pair of cybernetic arms with her remaining hand that she held to her chest.
“I don’t normally get distracted as fast as I did, but Vandrick…” Archie said, trailing off before he caught himself. “Either way, you have my full permission to drag my ass out of whatever it is I got myself distracted with. Don’t wait for me to finish when we came in here to get your equipment.”
“…Okay,” Aoife nodded, staring into Archie’s eyes, whose eyes flickered up to see Vandrick atop a stool and kissing his bottle of brandy mockingly, staring at him.
, Archie grumbled before smiling back toward Aoife. “So, what did you choose?”
“I chose a half-cast CA-LC105D-T795 as well as a CW-LC105D-T652,” Aoife answered, slightly lowering her arm and slightly raising the hem of her shirt to reveal tanned scarred skin that glimmered iridescent for a moment. “I paid for it and received help putting it on as it was…” she said before trailing off.
CA-LC105D-T795 (Uncommon):
Half-cast Cybernetic Arms for those of Lancer Class. Forged by Vandrick Skath, an Expert Cyberneticsmith. Once properly attached and configured to the wielder’s Cybernetic Socket, the wielder’s right arm can now transform into that of a Deepiron Scutum, while the left arm can now transform into that of a Deepiron Lance when activated. Provides: +120 Vit, +100 End & +65 Str. Effect: Soul-Bond, Self-Repair, Scutum Protection. Status: Perfect & Ready for Link. Requirements: Lv 115+, Lancer-related Class, Cybernetic Sockets, & Humanoid Race.
, Archie noticed.
CW-LC105D-T652 (Uncommon):
A Cybernetic Weave for those of Lancer Class. Forged by Vandrick Skath, an Expert Cyberneticsmith. Once the nanofibers have been properly threaded into the wielder’s skin and configured to their Cybernetic Socket, the wielder’s entire torso will gain the toughness and durability of Deepiron. Provides: +135 Vit, +110 End & +45 Str. Effect: Soul-Bond, Self-Repair & Grit. Status: Perfect & Linked. Requirements: Lv 115+, Lancer-related Class, Cybernetic Sockets, & Humanoid Race.
, Archie thought with a grimace. …
“...I have the remaining amount here,” Aoife finished, her left arm still clutching her newly purchased cybernetic arms while she extended her palm, offering a leather coin pouch that hadn’t had prior to entering the shop, nor had she had it in her palm when showing him her cybernetic weave.
“I believe I remember saying that the amount we earn is split between us evenly so long as we are a team, and last I checked, we are a team,” Archie replied amusedly, staring at her left arm that held the pair of cybernetic arms along with a leather pouch.
“Your arm looks like it’s about to burst. Why don’t you put everything down and…” Archie said before rummaging through his spatial storage and taking out the Spatial Ring he’d purchased from the System Bazar. “Here, use this to put in your stuff.”
He would have offered her Laer’s Spatial Ring, but it was even smaller than the first one he had received. Not to mention, giving her something that reminded her of her tormentor was probably not the best idea.
“T-Thank you, but it is fine, the Pouch of Holding I received from Mr. Vandrick’s wife, Seral, acts the same as a Spatial Ring,” Aoife stuttered with a faint blush on her cheeks while placing her newly purchased arms and Pouch of Holding atop the chair she sat on previously.
“Was she the clerk I saw you talking to when we first came in?” Archie asked, leaning on a glass display and looking at the window of the shop, giving Aoife a bit of privacy as Aoife began to roll up her right sleeve and deactivate her capped right arm before de-socketing it.
“No, she was the one by the register,” Aoife answered, while socketing in her new right arm.
“M-May you help me with my other arm,” Aoife asked, stuttering slightly as she turned to face Archie, her eye glancing to the female elf in front of the register who raised a thumbs up. “I-I cannot move my right arm until my left one is changed.”
“Sure,” Archie said, before walking to Aoife, who offered Archie her left arm.
After rolling up her sleeve, Archie saw her Cybernetic Socket pulse gray before it detached the last remaining pair of her cracked and barely hanging together CA-LC100D-T721s.
"Placing her detached left arm onto the chair, Archie took her right CA-LC105D-T795s, carefully aligning the neural ports with her Cybernetic Socket before pushing it into place. He watched as the sockets pulsed gray, and the glass-like veins running from both elbows to the tips of the pinky and thumb turned the same color, reminding him of a lava lamp.
“That looks really cool,” Archie said as his eyes remained fixed on the lava lamp-like movements on her new arms.
“They’ll only be there for a few minutes,” Aoife blushed before rolling down her sleeves in embarrassment. “They need a bit of time to calibrate themselves to my body.”
Archie opened his mouth to retort, but the words never left his lips as his throat suddenly locked up. His vision wavered, and the world around him started to flicker.
The floating lanterns that lit up Vandrick’s Synthtech became blurry streaks reminiscent of what he would see atop the glass display cases whenever he activated Gaze of the Forgefather
A sharp, unnatural stiffness locked his body in place as his breath hitched before he suddenly lost control over his limbs, and his eyes started to cloud over.
In the split second before everything went black, he caught two final glimpses of the world around him-
Aoife’s eyes widened in alarm, her arms shooting forward to catch him as he crumpled. "Archie!"
And the glowing notifications that filled his vision, their messages lost to the encroaching void.
You have been cursed by Seeth’four the Witch of Dreadmire!
Due to your status as a Tut-
You no longer have the Protection of the System.
You have been cursed with Echoing Pain.
You have been cursed with Veil of Silence.
You have been cursed with Hollow Slumber.
You have been cursed with Scent of the Hunted.
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