Chương 52: The Castle Blacksmith

After returning to the surface, we all visited the castle blacksmith to check our scrap allowances and check what we had available. Besides, I needed to get some better protection for my legs. Brawl led us to the smithy, which was a large complex located in the outer wall. There were a few furnaces and hearths blazing, and I identified at least three anvils located under a tarp out front. I approached the front counter, with my squadmates close behind, and a blacksmith approached to meet us.

He wasn't the only one working, but given his age (I would've put him in his late forties and early fifties) he was probably the most experienced. The others struck me as apprentices, and they were about the same age as me. But they all wore pendants. The blacksmith ahead of me had to be a Steel, and his apprentices were Irons—except one, a young Dupe with burn scars on the half of his face and his shoulder. The boy was a Copper.

"Can't say I've met you lot before," the blacksmith said, drawing my attention away from the apprentices.

"You're new in this batch?" I nodded, then reached out and shook his hand. He seemed slightly surprised by the gesture, and I realized that people here didn't seem big on handshakes. After a few seconds, he said, "Ah, then. You're the Atoning."

"Yeeeahh." I sighed.

"You don't hide it very well," Sage said.

"Shall I teach you better tact?"

"It's fine," I grumbled. Everyone already knew anyway. I sighed and turned back to the blacksmith.

"Sorry, I'm not sure if I got your name."

"Drywsone," the blacksmith said.

"And my company." I nodded.

"A pleasure. We were looking to check on our scrap allowance…"

"Ah, yes, give me one moment," Drywsone said. He nodded, beard shaking, then walked back through his shop until he pulled a book from the shelf—almost exactly like the one Maurifus had carried.

"We updated our ledger earlier this week, so you may not appear yet…ah, no! We have the new names. You lot are…?"

"Levi, Brawl, Anchor, and Sage," I said.

"But I won't be needing armour," Sage replied.

"Correct, young lady," Drywsone said, scanning the sheet.

"I have your squad—squad seventy-six—here. Seventy-six, huh? They must not have expected you to pass."

"Yeah…" I replied.

"How are you ranked now?"

"... Decently," I replied. I didn't want to give away too much or make him think that I was trying to brag.

"Well, let's see. Levi and Anchor, you two have leftover allowances from your previous battalions, which I'll have to add to this, but I can work it out later. What are you folks looking to craft?"

"I'm looking for some greaves," I said.

"And…" I reached into my haversack and pulled out the soul crystal I'd taken from the mud wraith.

"Any chance you could use this?" Drywsone picked up the crystal, examined it, then nodded.

"Indeed, I could. Did you get this with your old battalion?"

"Yeah. I know it's not terribly strong—""I can still imbue armour with it," he said.

"We are, after all, Path-walkers in this here company. I'd say we can get you two extra points in whichever attribute you're looking for." He closed his scrap ledger with a snap.

"Could I get Agility?" I asked.

"And for a backup—""We don't need a backup here," he interjected.

"Unless, of course, you doubt our smithing ability."

"No, sir," I replied.

"Uh, apologies. Not 'sir'." After the others gave their orders, we returned to the inner wall. Since it was the delving day, we technically had the afternoon off—to rest—but I wasn't planning on taking it easy. I had a few ideas that were going to pair perfectly with my new Art (once I got it) and I needed to figure out if I could make them work. As we walked to the archery range, Sage asked me, "How did you get a soul crystal like that?"

"I stole it from a mud wraith."

"Stole it, brother, or earned it in combat?" Brawl said.

"Is there a difference?" Anchor asked.

"I mean, really. You steal it, the wraith dies, so there's not much of a difference." Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"I fought the wraith and killed it by taking the crystal," I said.

"And you did that alone, while only an Iron?" Brawl asked.

"Well…I was technically only a copper."

"I keep telling you he's a mothbrain," Sage replied.

"And no one seems to want to listen to me."

"That's because you're annoying sometimes," I replied with a grin.

"Sometimes? She's annoying all the time," Anchor muttered." Anyway," I said.

"Anchor, I meant to ask. Archery—does it have to be with a longbow, or can it be with any type of bow?"

"Basic archery—at the Novice tier—can be any type of bow," he replied when we reached the archery ranch.

"So, in theory, I could use a crossbow."

"You could," Anchor said.

"It takes much less practice."

"Hm?"

"The crossbow isn't meant for experienced archers. It's meant for the draftmen of the old, pre-Dupe army."

"So that's a good thing?"

"It's less accurate at a high level. It takes less skill to use, therefore it's a more difficult Skill to increase the tier of. I've never heard of anyone getting any higher than Novice with a crossbow skill."

"Has any Dupe ever tried?" I asked.

"I mean, if it's not encouraged, no one seems willing to try. And no one aside from Dupes advances in the same way that we do. Because if someone takes the archery path, of course they want the one that you know you can gain Skills in easily. But if it's a secondary weapon for me…" Anchor snorted.

"I suppose. But I don't recommend it." His denouncement of crossbows tingled my brain in just the right way.

"Now…doesn't that kinda create a paradox? Because it's technically simple to learn, it makes it more difficult for the System to give you a Skill for it, which makes it actually harder to increase the tier of and make more powerful? So it takes more skill, but simply a different kind of skill."

"Why are you like this?"

"Am I wrong, though?"

"We can get Drywsone to make you a crossbow if you want. And we'll see how it goes. You may be good at messing with the System, but you're not that good."

"We'll see." I picked up a training longbow.

"But for now, my Skill is just archery. In theory, at the low levels, it doesn't specialize between types of bows. So I can practice with a longbow and apply the same principles to a crossbow."

"But why?"

"Well, thinking about squad composition," I said.

"Look, if we have a specialized archer…I'll never be as good as a hyper-specialized archer, because I'm just not. I have to split my time between other areas of training. But if I could have a crossbow on-hand just in case, it would be easy to whip one out, blast a tough enemy if you're busy, and then keep going with my spear for the rest of the fight." Anchor raised his eyebrows.

"Interesting proposal." He paused, then nodded.

"I see the logic."

"How high can I take a regular archery skill before I have to specialize it?"

"Journeyman."

"So I've got time," I said.

"Then I could transfer it over to a crossbow specialization if I wanted."

"You've got time. And you'd better use it." He was right. Since I had so many different Skills, it was going to take more time and effort to level them up to a competitive degree. So we spent the next few hours practicing. It wasn't the same as practicing archery in the Labyrinth, and for a moment, I wondered why they didn't send us down there more. But they still had to restock it. Training in an empty Labyrinth didn't help anyone, and clearly, killing things was helpful for levelling up a weapon skill.

At the end of the day, though, I still managed to hit three shots in a row, all in the target's chest area.

"Pretty good for a soulstealer," Anchor said. Later that evening, as I was heading to the library to study and plan my skill routes (while hopefully increasing my Focus), I stopped in front of the keep. A convoy of wagons had rolled through the castle's consecutive gates and parked on a well-trodden road in front of the keep. Horses whinnied and pranced, agitated but well-trained enough to not bolt.

The facility staff and older sappers unloaded the wagons, pulling off cages filled with ruin-hounds and other monsters. There was an entire box packed full of skeletons, probably from a different section of the Labyrinth, lined up front to back as tightly as they could fit, and though they were still 'alive', they could only chatter their teeth with how little room there was to move.

"Don't feel bad for them," Sage said, stepping up behind me—or, more accurately, Morph carrying her.

"They're creatures of vorghul now. Their souls are long gone—they already made the crossing to Welkinmere centuries ago."

"I'm more impressed with how much effort they're putting in to train us," I replied. She sighed and nodded.

"And there were plenty of druids who were far more qualified than me." I winced.

"Hey, that's not—""You know it's true, though."

"I kinda thought you were fishing for compliments," I said.

"Just being mopey."

"At least you're aware of it."

"I'm working on fixing it," she said.

"No matter what the others think I should do, I'm going to stand on my own two feet again."

"Fair enough," I replied.

"Did you need something?"

"I heard you were heading to the library. Can I join you?"

"Of course," I replied.

"After all, it's best if the whole squad stays knowledgeable and keeps working on our growth, not just me."

"And I have to make sure you're doing it right. You being a Dupe and all." I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever you say. What's it that you think is wrong with us?"

"N—nothing." She looked away.

"You just…unnerve me. With you all having the same faces and all."

"There are some slight differences, if you look closely," I said.

"And I'm pretty sure as we get stronger, the differences become slightly more pronounced. Plus, I'm one of the few people here with short hair. Everyone else either hasn't cut it in months, or is bald." Sage looked back, and I caught a soft smile on her lips before her expression hardened.

"Whatever you say. Let's just get reading."