Forged Legacy

“You can fly?!” Hannah shrieked, hungry eyes turning towards him.

“I can.” He smirked. “I’m surprised more people haven’t tried now that magic is real.”

“It’s gotta be expensive, right? There’s no way F Grade is strong enough to soar around constantly.” Julian posed.

“Probably, but who cares!” Harvey laughed.

“I hope you run out of essence and fall just far enough to break your legs,” Hannah groaned.

“Aw. Thanks, Hannah! That was actually a lot nicer than what I thought you were gonna say.” Harvey crooned.

“What? No, it wasn’t.” She replied.

“Breaking your legs is better than becoming a human pancake,” Elena chuckled.

“Veilstrider pancake,” she corrected. “Besides, I don’t want Harvey to die. I’m just a little jealous.”

“Hear that, Buttercup? Your mom would trade you for a jetpack if she could.” Harvey taunted.

“Alright, settle down. I’m not sure I love your new class, Harvey. Seems like you’re going to be starting a lot of fires.” Julian teased.

“You’re one to talk, Mr. Human Torch.”

“I have to say, I’m jealous that almost my entire skillset is basically an afterthought of two of your profession skills.” Elena sighed.

“It’s just because you haven’t evolved yet. Your skills are going to be a lot more specialized than mine.” Harvey responded.

“That’s a good point. Are you getting close to F Grade?” Julian asked.

“Slowly but surely. I’m about to hit Level 25 with my Profession, but it’s going to take a while to make up for all the Race levels I didn’t get from my class.”

“You’ll get there. I guess now we need to decide what to do before the quest ends.” Julian suggested.

“Ugh, don’t remind me. I feel like we’ve been running around like chickens with our heads cut off ever since that timer appeared.” Hannah groaned.

There’d been an invisible timer hanging over their heads ever since the vision that first night in Veil’s End, but watching one tick down had put it all into perspective. War was coming… whether they were ready or not. The battlefield for their last stand would be decided in just over a week, and it looked like they’d all be checking into the Hell Hotel if nothing changed.

“I know. I feel like we’ve been so focused on evolving that we’ve ignored everything else going on in Veils End.” Harvey lamented.

“So let’s get our heads straight. What’s it going to take to get Veils End back on top?” Julian asked.

“I’m still not sure why we want to win,” Elena questioned. “I know you think we’ll get lazy, but the fact they overtook us proves they’re doing something right.”

Harvey couldn’t deny the allure of a warm bed and a hot shower. He’d been sleeping in his own muck for weeks and couldn’t spare a trip to the river to bathe with the anchor eels every day. Still, something inside him wasn’t willing to let go of Veil’s End, and the rest of the outpost seemed to feel the same way. Julian hadn’t kept the details secret, but nobody else wanted to leave.

“I’m not sure their first-place spot isn’t all from their numbers advantage, but even if it’s not, I don’t think it’s our best battlefield,” Julian contended.

“Why not? There’s not really anything special about Veils End.” Elena retorted.

“It’s built from old Earth materials that have no chance of standing up to that dragon,” Hannah explained.

“Exactly. The building will collapse the second the fighting starts. Trust me, you don’t want to be anywhere near a burning building.” Julian added.

“Ok. I don’t think you want to be in an empty mining town either.” Elena rebutted.

“You’re right. But this empty mining town has something the other outposts probably don’t. A mine.” Harvey added.

“Had... a mine.” She corrected. “Unless you forgot about blowing it up.”

“No, I didn’t forget.” He moaned.

“I never asked, but what made you think that was a good idea? I doubt a cave-in’s going to stop a few motivated elementals.” Hannah asked.

“It was the only thing I could think of! I had just gotten beaten so hard my weave cracked! Putting a few thousand tons of rock between me and another elemental seemed like a good idea at the time. And who’s to say it didn’t work? I watched that tunnel like a hawk while I was recovering and didn’t see a single elemental.” Harvey protested.

“They are probably just biding their time waiting for more to evolve before coming out to attack us,” Julian suggested.

“That doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence either.” Elena huffed.

“You’re right, which is why I think it’s time we let Veils End know about the mine. It probably shouldn’t have been kept a secret in the first place, but we can’t change that now.” Harvey sighed.

“Are you sure?” Hannah asked.

“Yeah. I still feel bad about destroying a bunch of sentient elementals, but I can’t ignore the fact that we need the ore. If we open the mine up now, we can use it as a proving ground for everyone to reliably gain levels while manufacturing all the armor, weapons, and defenses we’ll need to fight the Undead.” Harvey asserted.

“I’m happy you see it that way. I wanted to bring it up, but wasn’t sure you’d go along. We can’t just rely on the three of us to watch the tunnel 24/7.” Julian suggested.

“Exactly. So I guess step 1 is telling everyone else, clearing it out, and figuring out what kind of defenses we can build with the steel in the short term. Hopefully, killing a bunch of evolved elementals will be enough to put Veils End back on top.” Harvey affirmed.

“You guys suck,” Elena huffed. “I want to shower.”

“You’ll have plenty of time to bathe once we’re back on Earth.” Harvey chuckled.

“Yeah, whatever.” She whined.

“I feel you, girl. The boys don’t know what it’s like having long hair in the apocalypse.” Hannah commiserated.

“Exactly! Thank you, someone understands.”

“We could all shave our heads? Would that make you happy?” Julian asked, grabbing a chunk of Hannah’s white hair as his sword appeared from his slipsack.

“GET OFF ME!” She yelled, whipping her head away and climbing over Harvey to get away. Instead of letting her go, he wrapped his arms around and tried to contain her flailing body. “Harvey!”

Stolen novel; please report.

He eventually let go, a hearty laugh erupting from his chest as she scrambled away on all fours. Buttercup looked on with concern, clearly confused but not sensing any threat from Julian. It was good to laugh every once in a while. It was one of the reasons he loved Hannah. It may get annoying sometimes, but he couldn’t imagine how dark Veils End would seem without her shenanigans reminding them they were still human, even if they were all stuck in a Veilstrider’s body.

He could feel a weight lifted off his chest, the looming stress of his evolution finally behind him. Even if he’d accepted there wasn’t a right answer to the System, it didn’t stop him from worrying about finding a good one. He’d come so far as an arcanist, a blacksmith, and a person. He didn’t want to throw all that progress away by messing up his evolution. Even with John’s guide to the tapestry, they were basically feeling their way through a dark room, hoping that the potion bottles they found had power and not poison inside them.

They decided to share their plan at dinner and had a few hours to spare before setting anything in motion. Julian and Hannah decided to leave for a hunt, and Harvey and Elena got back to the forge.

The ingot he’d poured before Elena started screaming at him that morning was sitting on a workbench. The essence mold surrounding it had already disintegrated. Picking it up, he used Artificer’s Eyes to inspect it.