Chapter 90: Price of progress

After a bit of back and forth, Eldrian decided to simply go in. Quietly opening the door, Eldrian almost let the door slip as he felt a heatwave assault his face. Taking a deep breath he sneaked in, finding himself unable to stand the heat after closing the door.

Struggling to breathe Eldrian slouched against the wall, turning his head to Boran who was in the middle of a fiery storm.

This fiery storm was in the shape of a sphere. A swirl of flames surrounding him; some looking light and ethereal, others looking similar to molten metal. From time to time sparks would fly, connecting these flames. Forming snaking, shining patterns. Similar to lighting.

With each spark, Eldrian felt his vision worsen, similar to when one looks into the sun. Entranced by this sigh Eldrian kept looking, even as his eyes started tearing up and he slowly slid down the wall.

Boran was holding a sword with his hand, the sword giving off a soft silver glow, visible even through the fiery sphere. His hand was covered in a strange blue metal, which was slowly being molten. Fizzling down the metal melted into his arm, yet his only reaction was a slight twitch in his eyes. His full concentration on the sword.

Eldrian finally managed to breathe after having slid completely down to the floor, every breath feeling like breathing in flames. Yet being able to breathe was such a relief that he did not mind it too much. Sure the heat only felt similar to barely manageable hot water, at the limit of where it would burn someone.

Feeling this inside his lungs though was not nice. Nor was it feeling this heat on his eyes and in his throat.

After some time Eldrian grew used to the heat and sounds. Starting to hear something other than furious winds with a sharp clacking sound connected to each spark. Preceding which a deep voice was speaking softly. Eldrian felt himself shiver as he heard this voice, it reaching the depth of his body and soul.

Eldrian stayed in this position for almost an hour, before the fiery sphere finally seemed to be calming down. In the end, it swirled a few more times. All the flames then suddenly sparked and connected, brightening the room like a mini sun.

After which the sphere imploded, all the flames being pulled into the sword.

As it imploded Eldrian was pulled from his position, falling onto the ground. The air in his lungs was also pulled, leaving him gasping for scorching air. He could even feel his throat being burnt, the burnt pain being limited to the feeling of hot water did not help much. Since this burn traveled through him and inflicted all over.

Beaten and in pain Eldrian simply lied on the ground, hearing Boran's voice. "That wasn't very smart. Well, you can't die so I guess you don't care too much about the stakes."

Eldrian slowly recovered and managed to roll over to his side, allowing him to look at Boran. Ultimately the pain was not too much, but the feeling was unbearable. He now realized that he would rather take an option to remove feeling than pain. Especially the feeling inside his body. This was the second time he had been tortured by limited pain in very uncomfortable locations.

As the air slowly cooled Eldrian managed to breathe more and started recovering. Sitting up he saw Boran at the forge tending to the sword.

Not to his hand which was bleeding badly.

Boran seemed to sense Eldrian getting better as he chose to speak at this time,"I am glad it was you and not one of the others." Setting the sword down carefully he came back to Eldrian and asked, "How bad is it?"

"Ha, ha..." Eldrian laughed, trying to get the heat out of him, "Not too bad, what about your arm?"

"This, this is the price..." Boran replied absentmindedly with a sigh. Finally, he started tending to his wounds. His first task had been making sure the person who had entered had lived and making sure it was not someone who was trying to steal his techniques. The next had been ensuring the sword was in perfect condition. Only now did he have time to mind himself.

"Fuck, this is bad." Boran cursed as he threw water over his arm. Causing Eldrian to see below the blood. Boran's arm now had that strange blue metal melted into it. Causing his arm to look like a cruel mix of human's and robot's, the fusion having gone wrong.

Shocked Eldrian wondered how Boran managed to focus when that was happening to him. In a few places, he could even see Boran's bone showing. His flesh seemingly having burnt away.

"You do know you could have died." Boran said as he tried pulling one of the pieces out. Gritting his teeth he soon gave up, it was stuck. He did not want to break his bones by pulling the piece out.

"I could have?" Eldrian asked rhetorically as he looked at his stats, mortified to find his HP at 12. "H-How can blacksmithing be so dangerous?"

"It isn't, not until later that is. You really shouldn't enter a blacksmith's forging room uninvited, especially not when they are in the middle of forging something."

"Sorry." Eldrian looked down, ashamed at what he had done. He could have cause Boran serious damage by what he had done.

"I know you are. I am just warning you, if you were not my apprentice then I would likely have to arrest you."

"What?"

"Do you think what you saw was normal? That was actually a new forging technique I discovered today. I still need to learn how to handle it. I certainly can't allow someone to take that knowledge."

As the silence grew Eldrian started wondering about something Boran had said, "What price is worth that damage?"

"The price of progress."

Eldrian took a few seconds to try and comprehend this. "Do you mean, you managed to reach the next Tier?"

"Correct! I am now a Tier 7 Blacksmith and Runesmith."

Tier 7, god. That is insane... Eldrian lost himself in thought, he knew that this would put Boran almost equal to a king. Especially since he was a creator and not a fighter. People who could make were far fewer than those who can destroy.

"Now, Eldrian. Why did you enter my forging room?" Boran asked, his hand had stopped bleeding. Yet somehow this made it look even worse.

"I forgot to tell you something earlier." Eldrian scratched his head in embarrassment, it was truly not worth him interrupting Boran. Luckily it did not turn out too bad.

"Oh?" Boran wondered what would be so important Eldrian could not wait until the next day.

"During the mission I helped in killing an Alpha Direwolf. I actually stored the corpse in my inventory and am wondering what to do with it."

"That is a nice bounty. What are your plans?"

"I don't really have any. I hoped to wait until I managed to actually learn magic and blacksmithing. But that took longer than I had planned, I am worried that the corpse will spoil."

"Don't worry, if it is stored in your inventory then it should work similarly to dimensional storages. They generally slow the time effect on things by a thousand times or more. Some even completely stop an item's time. The larger your dimensional storage the more it will lean to the later."

"That is a relief." Eldrian sighed in relief. Happy that he did not have to worry about it. If a simple cubic meter had a thousand slowing effect, then his three cubic meters should be near ten thousand or more. Well depending on if it is the volume that rules this or something else, it could naturally vary greatly.

"When you are ready to process it, I will help you." Boran winked at Eldrian as he said this. He wanted an easy project after the one he had just completed. He wanted to especially try the technique on beast materials and he currently did not have any good quality beast materials.

Boran could easily get some, but he felt this would be more fun. It would also allow him to train Eldrian more personally, having something he could also learn would enable him to connect to Eldrian easier.

"Awesome!" Eldrian burst out, unable to hide his excitement.

"Now, if that is all, I need to go to the temple of life. This wound is not healing."

Eldrian hurriedly stood up, finding that most of his strength had returned by now. After which he headed out with Boran. As they left through the shop the shopkeepers were all shocked to see the state Boran was in. They cast a look to Eldrian, wondering if he was the cause. If this was the case though then it was strange that Boran was still friendly with him.

"Relax, I should be fine. In the worst case, I should be able to remove my arm and get it regenerated." Boran said, seeing the worry in Eldrian's eyes.

"R-Right..." Eldrian stumbled over his words, caught unprepared by such a thing being said casually.

"Come tomorrow morning to me first. I want an update on your magic training. And really don't worry, this might even be a blessing in disguise."

Confused by the last part, Eldrian watched Boran as he speedily disappeared into the streets. Shocked by how quick Boran had run.

How the hell is he so fast? That does not fit his style!

Eldrian spent some time wondering how Boran was so fast and some more time wondering how such a grievous wound could be a blessing. In the end he decided to just forget it for now, heading to the magic tower to log out.