“Make yourself at home,” Euryale said as they entered her workshop. “I’ll change and be right with you.” The gorgon went into her private room.

Dallion looked around. There were quite a lot of changes since last time. The clothes that he had seen were gone. Stacks of worn down armor were in their place, from leather sets to plate mail pieces. Judging by the materials, the armor was quite high end. Jiroh hadn’t exaggerated when she’d said that Euryale was good in her craft.

“Did you make all this armor?” Dallion asked.

“Moons, no.” The gorgon laughed. “I just repair the stuff. You’ll never catch me making such chunks of clunk. I just fix them up.”

“Nice.” There was no telling how much they were paying her, but it had to be a small fortune. Even now that mending requests had started to dwindle, Dallion could learn a comfortable life—far more comfortable than back in his village—and he was just a low-level no-name awakened who worked part time in a tavern.

“Found your boots yet?”

Dallion looked around some more. Among all the equipment, there was a single pair of boots. They were much bulkier than he imagined, not to mention asymmetrical. The right one went up almost to his knee, while the left stopped mid leg. There was little doubt that a lot of artistic work had gone into it.

I’m an anime character now, Dallion thought. Still, he took the long boot and looked inside. It didn’t take long for him to see that it was, in fact, a combination of two parts. One was identical to the left—thanks goodness for that—while the upper part took the role of a holster. Curious, he took out the dartbow and placed it inside. The weapon fit perfectly, while also ensuring contact with the skin.

“Was a bit of a challenge getting that done,” Eury said a few steps from Dallion, startling him into a jump.

While she found it amusing, Dallion didn’t. Having people be able to sneak up to him unnoticed was becoming more and more concerning. Sooner rather than later he was going to have to learn how they were doing that as well as what to do in order to detect them.

“I don’t have all the money I promised yet.” Dallion opened his money pouch. He had arranged to consolidate his earnings into two gold coins. Hannah didn’t seem to mind in the least. In her line of work, she was used to handling all sorts of denominations. Golds were usually reserved for taxes and serious purchases. “This is all I’ve got.” He handed Eury two gold coins.

“Don’t worry about it. At least you paid something. Jiroh and the rest of those losers think they can get away with favors. See all that?” She pointed at the shelves of armor pieces. “All require fixing. Good thing they bring me materials, at least.”

That explained why she hadn’t moved to a bigger workshop.

“Anyway, put them on, I want to show you something.”

Unable to refuse, Dallion took off his shoes and did as was told. The new boots felt remarkably comfortable, as if they had been made specifically for his foot. Even with her perception level, that was more than impressive.

“Walk around a bit.” The gorgon said, holding a finger to her chin as she critically scrutinized her work. “Do they hurt as you walk?”

“I don’t think so.” Dallion bent down, jumped it, then tiptoed for a few steps. Everything seemed perfect. “They’re great.”

“They’re okayish at best,” Eury said with a surprisingly sharp tone. When it came to work, her personality suddenly shifted, becoming somewhat similar to Hannah’s. “When I have time and materials, and you have enough money and know what you want, I’ll make you something great. Can you feel the dartbow?”

“Yeah.” Dallion moved a bit. The sensation was somewhat strange, as if he had a torn pocket and some change was touching to his skin.

“You’ll need a new set of trousers. Those I can make for you. I’ll add it to your tab.” Eury smiled, returning to her usual self. “I’ve made the boots for awakened fifths, so don’t go getting in trouble on the street. If you ever get a bolt clip, keep in mind it’ll take you several seconds to draw the dartbow and at least as much to put the clip.”

“I don’t plan on getting in trouble.”

“No one ever plans to…” Eury shook her head. To Dallion’s fascination, the snakes kept their relative position, as if they were stuck to the air itself. “Are you up for a test?”

“Sure, I—”

Before Dallion could finish, Eury gently put her hand on his cheek and entered an awakening realm.

Item Awakening

The RING is Level 23

Dallion instinctively blinked. At his present level, it still took him a few moments to get used to the new reality. The gorgon clearly didn’t have that problem.

You are in a vast metal domain.

Defeat the guardian to change the RING’s destiny.

“Now, that looks much better.” All the gorgon’s snakes turned in his direction.

Dallion felt compelled to look down, and he had to say he agreed. The leather boots had been fine before, but now they were truly magnificent. For one thing, they weren’t leather anymore; here they were solid pieces of metal that would make most mecha artists jealous. And the best part was that they remained just as flexible as if they were made of leather, even more so.

“Is this liquid metal?” Dallion tapped on them. They definitely felt hard on the outside, as if he had put on a pair of greaves.

“Liquid metal,” the gorgon mused. “I like that. Now all you need is a proper buckler and you’ll be set for some real fighting.”

A real buckler, Dallion thought. At present that was the only one of his possessions that didn’t have physical form. Of course, it was becoming useless in battle. It was okay when facing weak opponents, but here it was the same as fighting elite monsters with starting gear. Thinking about it, though, made Dallion’s heart hurt. There was no way he could earn that much in a month from the inn alone. All his thoughts about living comfortably on a part-time salary quickly disappeared when faced with the costs of decent equipment. The sad truth was that he needed it. Regardless of profession, an awakened relied on battles in the realms to progress forward. Maybe it was different for crafters, but looking at Euryale and his grandfather, Dallion doubted they were an exception.

“Can I use them to attack?” he asked.

“Yes and no,” Eury replied, walking further away from him. “It’s possible, but you need acrobatic skills to do any actual damage. Anyway, let’s try a few things.” She reached into the air. A throwing knife appeared in her hand. “You said you wanted to learn? I can teach you a thing or two, but I had a condition.”

Dallion nodded. He was prepared for that. In fact, he was surprised she hadn’t brought it up earlier. Despite her funny and flirty nature, the gorgon was a solo artisan which meant she had to have enough trading skills to stay in the black.

“You’ll owe me a favor for each thing I teach you. Okay?”

Not the best deal, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“Do questions count as teaching?” Dallion asked.

“Depends on the question,” Eury laughed. “But generally, no. You can’t do what you don’t know. But knowing isn’t the same as doing.”

“As I am now, do you think I can break into double digits?”

COMBAT INITIATED

Before Dallion could blink, the gorgon had disappeared. A circle of green markers surrounded him, trapping him like a wall. Boots and bucklers filled the air, not to mention all the steps had created a green spot on the floor.

Dallion’s mind went into overdrive. So many options were the same as having no options at all. He couldn’t even determine where Eury was going to attack from. Before he could make up his mind, the gorgon appeared again, a step away. One of her hands grabbed his buckler while the other split the air, thrusting forward until it barely touched the tip of his nose.

“This was a critical attack,” she said. “It would have knocked you out and prevented you from using guard skills for half a minute, maybe more in your state.” She let go and disappeared again.

Shock froze Dallion, prettifying him as if he had glanced in the gorgon’s face-eyes.

No! he told himself. I won’t lose so easily!

His body moved again, letting him draw his dartbow. As he did, an after-shadow of Eury appeared. It lasted less than a split second—long enough to indicate she was attacking, but too short for him to do anything about it. Instinctively, Dallion squeezed the trigger.

Before the bolt was released, Eury was next to him once more, pushing his right hand up. Her right hand took the dartbow out of his hand with such ease, as if she was taking a flower from a vase.

“This could have been a critical attack,” she explained, holding Dallion’s dartbow. “Pain is brief in the realms, but it’s possible to render an arm or leg useless for a long period of time. Having an arm disabled for a minute is the same as having lost it.” She disappeared again.

This was outright embarrassing. Even March hadn’t toyed with Dallion like this. Could that mean that Euryale was stronger than March? That was highly unlikely.

Concentrate, Dallion told himself. A gorgon’s greatest strength was perception. She could tell what his field of vision was simply by the way he held his head. It wasn’t her speed he had to worry about, but rather the direction of her approach.

Jumping to the side, Dallion looked to his left. In his mind, he counted to five. That was the time limit in which he thought Eury would attack. Once it was gone, he leapt forward, then abruptly spun around. Images of the gorgon appeared in front of him. No longer invisible, she was running towards him. Without question, her speed was twice his at least, but at least now he could see her approach. On cue, the vast majority of defense markers disappeared, leaving him with a dozen options—still a lot, but nowhere as many as before.

Got you, Dallion smiled.

Just as he thought that, the image of the gorgon split into four instances. Each charged at him, attacking from a different direction. This was nothing new. Dallion had experienced the phenomenon in battle before. Unfortunately, just as before, he had no way of determining which attack she would choose. Gambling, he decided to go with the one he could defend against… and was wrong. Euryale slid past his defense, her fist stopping an inch from his face again.

“Good logic,” she said. “But this would have been your final hit.”

Euryale lowered her arm. All the markers around Dallion disappeared.

“You think of your feet and have good instincts, but that’s what it would take to fight a double digit,” she said. “The dartbow gives an advantage, but you’ve still to master its techniques.”

Adzorg had said something of the sort as well.

“Without learning a few basic things, you won’t even make it to your level ten trial. Fortunately, I can teach you a few tricks that you won’t find in books, plus a lot that you would.” Maybe it was Dallion’s imagination, but he could have sworn that he saw half of the gorgon’s snakes wink at him in synch. “One question. How did you guess where I was going to attack from?”

“I knew you attack from where I couldn’t see, so I made sure not to look in that direction for long enough,” Dallion replied.

“You baited me?” The gorgon seemed amused.

“The patron moon of your species is Emion,” Dallion recited. For once, the scroll Nil had made him read was good for something. “That means your strongest attribute is perception.”

“Cute and smart? Yes, it is. But as you saw, you cannot rely on knowledge alone. You seem pretty good in the theory department, but you lack practice.”

Are you kidding? Dallion could cry. Nil was going to give him an earful after this.

“And I’ll tell you where to get it.”