Chapter 15: The Forge

Volume 01: Start Again

Chapter 15: The Forge

Walking straight out of the alleyway I made my way along the near side of the buildings trying to hide my movements from being seen. I made my way to the end of the alleyway only to peek out around the corner.

Seeing new bodies of shredded creatures, I only shook my head as these creatures must have been the rest of the beast tide. But as I looked on at their bloody figures, I could only think about how right now they were nothing more than food before the wyvern. A silver beast tide would not be enough to stop the descent of a wyvern as they were almost equal to that of ruby-tiered players.

Shaking this thought I moved around the building now on the final street that led directly to the town's square. I could now see at the end of the street the large circular street that surrounded the large relay building.

I began to slowly make my way along the edge of the dark street that was littered with bodies of all types of creatures and NPCs.

Walking down the street unhindered I arrived before the outer ring of the circular road looking upwards towards the large building where I had seen the wyvern earlier. Thinking this I shook my head and was about to take a step onto the street before a sound made me halt in place.

*roooooaRRRR*

'Fuck me did it already fly around the entire town.' Hearing the roar of the wyvern coming from the south area I had come from I gave out a small smirk as I thought about something interesting.

Running to the best of my ability I reached about three-fourths the way down the street when I finally heard the cutting of wind coming from down the street behind me. 'Why is the fucking wyvern so fast. Any other creature and this would have been so much easier.'

Still running forward my head began to move from right to left analyzing all the buildings that were on the street. As I did this, I finally found the building I had been looking for as I watched large clouds of smoke coming from the top of the building. 'Oh man, luckily the building is still standing.'

'I am almost there.'

I ran forward as I could hear the cutting of air close in closer and closer behind me.

A cold feeling began to tingle down my back as I could feel the cold feeling of death closing in on me.

*SWOOOSH*

'I was so close.' Still running I prepared myself to die of damage and be sent out of the arches in my own city.

That cold feeling was cut off by the sudden appearance of burning heat. Feeling this sensation suddenly appear out of nowhere I turned to look over my shoulder as I continued forward. The scene that filled my eyes shocked me as there was now a massive inferno wall standing behind me.

'Where did this come from? Was there another player hiding away in the town like I was?' I could not see any person around me as I quickly looked around.

*ROARRR*

As I listened to the roar of the wyvern, I noticed that the direction it was aimed towards was no longer towards me but was back away from me towards the western part of the town.

'They must be hiding out buying me some time to escape.' Thinking about this I just continued forward toward the forge.

Making my way toward the forge I moved between large stone blocks that lay before me fallen from the other buildings around the square. Jumping and sliding across the obstacles I made my way up the front steps of the forge to see its front door was destroyed allowing me to peer right inside.

Sticking my head in through the outside doorway I could feel the heat emitting from deep within. Not having much time as I did not want the wyvern to come back and attack the forge prematurely, I just moved directly inside. Passing scattered papers and steel tools tossed around the room I made my way to the metal counter where most inquiries and customers would be seen I stepped past it.

Stepping behind the counter I could see into the large doorway that led to the backrooms where the forging was done. Standing before the doorway I could now feel the hot air that was being circulated in this small opening of the doorway trying to escape.

'Why does it have to be so hot.' Pushing forward through the invisible curtain of heat I stepped into the backroom and was immediately met with the sight of four large metal forges but sadly only one of them was still burning as the others seemed to have been damaged as they were not burning anything.

'Woah. Who would have thought so many forges would be found in such a small NPC town.' Looking over the forges I knew that what I had planned could defiantly work now.

Making my way over to the only working forge I began to analyze the control system. Standing before the large forge I could feel the heat around me start to cause my clothes to stick to my bones which annoyed me a bit but ignoring this slight annoyance I began looking over the valves around the forge no longer looking at the control panel.

Looking at the silver-looking values on the side of the forge I began to squint my eyes as the plan I remembered called for the overheating of the forge and the retention of such force inside the forge causing it to quickly implode causing a large explosion of metal. But this plan seemed to be inching further and further away as in my last life the player who had achieved such a feat of using a forge to quell a beast tide had been a master forger and used this method to kill the beast tide's commanding creature in the small town's defense, but I was currently facing a wyvern who could fly.

I was no forge master, and much less did I think the wyvern would get caught in this act and would only distract it for maybe a minute at best unless I could figure out a way to get all the forges to blow up at different times.

Shaking my head, I knew I could not do this as I knew nothing about this field and would settle for only blowing up a single forge as getting any greedier may just end up killing me.

Looking over all the values I began to weigh my options on how I could get this thing to blow up. Reading the small valves, I came across one that seemed to be what was the fuel for the fire as it read [Coal Gas Release Valve] and had two arrows pointing to show whether to increase or decrease the valve's flow. Reading this I just cocked my head sideways then reached out for it and began turning it to what I assumed was the max. Feeling the heat in the room significantly increase I went to each forge and turned all the same valves to their max.

I walked back to the front of the blazing forge to see if there was an immediate reaction and by the looks of it, the forge itself was starting to expand as I watched the metal casing of the forge grow wider. Seeing this I had a sudden thought to set everything off at once, 'Maybe the gas needs more space to move as the fire was too hot.'

Grabbing a water bucket that was placed off to the side I picked it up and tossed the water into the raging fire. As the water made contact with the fire, I noticed something inside the fire immediately change. Seeing this a sense of fear arose in me as I knew I had to go now so dropping the bucket I shouted out.

"[Frozen Mirror]."

*tink*

As the small mirror appeared in my hand the scene before I changed as a loud noise came from the inside of the forge and the sides of the metal forge began to whistle as it expanded.

*BOOOOOOOM*

My eyes widened but before anything else could happen, I found myself standing inside a crumbled room. Looking up I could once again see the hole in the ceiling as I was once again back in the room where I had hidden from the wyvern before. Letting out a heavy breath I moved my clothes off my heated body allowing them to breathe.

*ROARRRRRRR*

'Ah, it is coming back.'

*BOOOOM*

'Hmm, I should probably get out of here.' Chuckling as I heard the explosion sound out once again, I made my way to the kitchen where the woman was still lying on the floor.

Ducking out of the building I appeared back in the alleyway and instead of heading toward where the town's square, I turned and began sprinting the opposite way down the alleyway.

*BOOOOOOOM*

'That's three? Are all the forges going to explode?' Running out from the safety of the alleyway I crossed the intersecting street quickly and made my way into another alley.

*RAAAAAA*

Overhearing this loud noise sounding from the direction of the forge I knew the wyvern must have taken some damage from the previous explosion. Knowing this was not enough to kill it I ignored the sound and continued running through the alleyway as I wanted to make it to the eastern gate to escape.

*BOOOOOOM*

'Four?'

Making my way to the end of the alleyway I noticed that this time there was no sound from the wyvern even with the fourth explosion.

'Did it die?' This thought moved through my mind making me hesitate in the alleyway.

'No…no. We can not risk it we need to complete the quest it is free levels and I need to catch up to the high-ranking players if I want to change anything.' Smacking the back of my head I woke myself up from my greedy thoughts and continued to shift from alleyway to alleyway moving towards the eastern part of the town.

As I moved through the fourth alleyway, I could now see the stone wall barely standing in the distance. Seeing this sight, I felt relieved as I knew I could escape this stupid wyvern.

Stepping out of the extreme darkness of the fourth alleyway and onto the main street I came to the sight of a small red cat walking between two plant-like things before me. This site would not have forced me to stop had the two things been anything normal, but these two things were attached to a large tree man. (Also, will be called a treant.)

"Was that you?" The mouth part of the tree man moved as the slight rustling of his wooden arms lifted to point out in the distance towards the large billows of smoke created by the four large explosions.

"Why?" Not sure of the purpose of the tree man I hesitated to answer him.

"Save people. Same team." The tree man seemed to have a hard time speaking as he pointed to the small red cat moving between his legs and himself.

'Same team? What does he mean?' Still confused I looked between the small cat that I had seen earlier on and the tree man.

As if sensing that I was still confused the tree man pointed down at the cat, "Firewall…safe."

Hearing these words, I immediately knew what the tree man was referring to as it must have been these two who had saved me and drawn the wyvern away before. Looking between the man and the cat now I nodded my head before answering, "Yes it was me."

"Good. Follow us." The slow words of the tree man spoke out once again as the tree man bent down to stretch out his hand allowing the red cat to hop up onto his shoulder. After the cat lay on the shoulder of the tree man he turned around and walked into the alleyway I had been planning to run into before.

Seeing the tree man head into the alleyway I just shrugged my shoulders and followed after him.