CHAPTER 214: ARCANITE

Arriving at the Dark’s shop, Riven pushed the door and walked in. The bell rang, reminding him of the first day that he walked into this place. He took a deep breath as the warmth inside tickled the inside of his nose. He hadn’t been gone long, but it sure felt long.

He walked in and spotted Lucas behind the counter. Lucas looked up, his eyes flashing with happiness when he saw Riven.

"Heyyyy!" He waved, coming out from behind the counter. He threw his arms around Riven, lifted him up, and spun him around happily.

"It’s good to see you back," Lucas said while dropping him.

"Yeah, it’s nice to see you as well, Lucas," Riven replied.

"So how’s the academy been?" Lucas asked.

"We are still at the starting phase of the academy; we have barely learnt anything, to be honest," Riven replied. He looked inside the shop and spotted Dark already there, working on something new.

"Can I speak to your master?" Riven asked.

"Do you need to even ask? He is working at the back, go there," Lucas said. Riven nodded and walked to the back.

Dark was hammering another sword. He worked the hammer for a few rounds and then threw some sort of glowing dust on the sword, then hammered again. It ignited some sort of magical waves through the sword.

"What brings you here, kid?" He asked.

"I have a couple of things to talk about," Riven said.

"Hmmm? With me?" Dark asked.

"Yes, you’re the only one that can have the answer," Riven replied. He pulled out Twilight and held it with both hands.

"I want to talk about Twilight first," Riven said, and Dark’s hammer stopped mid-air. He took a deep breath, then gently placed the hammer down.

"Is something wrong with the sword?" Dark asked.

"No, it’s perfectly fine, but I want to talk about it, the origin of Twilight, the truth about it," Riven said.

Dark paused for a moment, his expression shifting into a calm one. "So you have started seeing the truth of this sword. It’s deeper than you think, kid, and if I explain everything to you, you might not understand," Dark said.

"Lay it on me, and if I can’t understand, I’ll never ask you about it again. But still, I want to know. I deserve to know," Riven said.

"Fine, then come with me," Dark said and left the hammer. "Lucas, finish the sword," he said.

"Yes, sir," Lucas replied.

Dark walked to the wall at the corner and placed his hand on it. A magical circle lit up under his palm, and the wall shifted back and opened like a door.

"I didn’t know there was somewhere like this inside the shop," Riven said.

"It wouldn’t be hidden if you knew, now would it?" Dark said before walking inside. Riven followed him in. There was a room behind the wall; it wasn’t large, but it was nice.

With a nice set of chairs and a small table, the air smelled fresh, and the entire place was well illuminated by a large white crystal that hung from the ceiling.

The rest of the room was used to store boxes that were open, showing some rare and very useful materials. But not only that, sets of powerful-looking armor stood there, along with swords and other weapons, engraved and very unique-looking.

"Whoa, what is this place?" Riven asked.

"It’s where I keep some of the best works I ever made. Some have unique concepts that you’ll never understand. Some are downright extremely powerful, but they also harm their user too much," Dark said.

He walked to the chair and sat down, signaling for Riven to sit down, so he did. He placed Twilight on the table.

Dark looked at Twilight. He ran his finger along the cold metal. "When I gave you this sword, I believed that you would be the only one capable of drawing the real power from it.

The day you walked in, I don’t know why, but I felt a similar aura from you that I felt from the sword, so I knew you would be the one to wield it.

The sword Twilight has two backstories that merge into one. The first is the origin of the sword itself.

In this world, there exist many special ores that are used for making weapons, metals and crystals: Orichalcum, Metyrle, Obsidian, many of them. They are rare, and they create heaven-defying weapons.

But there is one ore that is the rarest of them all. It’s both crystal and metal; you can smelt it into a sword completely if you have the right technique.

And that ore is called Arcanite, the rarest and most powerful ore that our world has," Dark said.

"Arcanite... that’s the best ore for practicing arcane blacksmithing," Twilight said.

"Hmm, I see. Then this might be good, Dark might know some things about arcane blacksmithing," Riven said to her in his mind.

Dark touched Twilight. "Twilight is ninety percent made of Arcanite, and the purest form of it. It was forged by the greatest dwarven blacksmith.

He was a peak eighth circle mage and a seventh-circle blacksmith. When those two things are added together, he had the greatest understanding of magic and weapons. He spent about three hundred years practicing before he could make something like Twilight," Dark said.

"Whoa, then Twilight is a very important sword," Riven stated.

"Important is far too much of an understatement , it was the pinnacle of blacksmithing, reaching heights that very few blacksmiths have.

It reached the height of something called arcane blacksmithing," Dark said.

"Bingo, he knows something about it," Twilight said.

"Mr. Dark, you know about arcane blacksmithing?" Riven asked.

"I do a little, but from how you sound, you know about it as well. Do you mind if I ask how?" Dark asked.

"Uhm... the sword did," Riven said, pointing to Twilight on the table, Dark’s eye moved to the sword.