Before Balt could slip in something slick about me being a child, I cut him off.

  “Yup. We’ve come for your Task. I just have a few questions, and then we’ll be on our way if that’s alright with you?”

  A flicker of surprise crossed his bruised face, as though he’d expected me to say something entirely different. He recovered quickly, masking it with more composure than I could have managed at his age, and gestured toward the forge.

  “Fine. We can talk over there.” The boy was limping as we followed him to the cold forge. I didn’t waste time.

  I summoned Ember. The blade materialized in my hands, its fire licking at the edges before I forced it down, suppressing the flames until only a faint glow pulsed beneath the steel. His eyes widened, fear flashing for a heartbeat before he steadied himself.

  I held the weapon flat across my palms and extended it toward him. “There are no Merit points tied to the Task you set,” I said evenly. “And I am sorry for your loss. But I need to confirm this isn’t a waste of my party’s time. The reward promised is no small thing, but my particular sword is not a normal weapon, as you can see. I need you to prove you can actually upgrade it.”

  He put his hand on the blade, and a notification came into my vision. “Both participants ready to proceed with the upgrade? Yes/No”

  I dismissed the notification and Ember. “Good enough. Now, for my other questions. When you say exterminate, do you mean down to the last monster? Because if we go in there, clear everything we can see, and one’s hiding twenty feet underground, does that mean you won’t honor your word?”

  He looked up at me. “They’re swarm creatures. Anything that goes too deep into the ruins draws them out of the crevices. You’ll have to kill all of them just to get out alive. When you do, I’ll know the task is complete.”

  Balt spoke up. “What’s stopping someone from just going in, saying ‘screw it,’ and coming back claiming they couldn’t find any remains and that the Task was finished?”

  The boy gave a bitter smile. “Someone already tried that. I even attempted to upgrade their weapon, but the System ruled the task incomplete, so the boon wouldn’t work. He punched me in the face, knocked me down, then put the boots to me, trying to force me to use it. But it doesn’t work like that. My mother shouted what was happening and ran for help. The bastard fled before anyone could make it to me.”

  My Anchor flashed, and I produced a low-level healing potion. I handed it to him.

  He tried to give it back. “We have no money. I can heal with time.”

  I waved him off and forced it into his palm. “I’ve got plenty of those, and I’m not hurting for credits. Me and Balt can’t have our future blacksmith in disrepair when he’s supposed to be upgrading our weapons, can we?”

  The boy lowered the potion at a loss of what to do, but Tucker padded over, nudged it up with his nose, and coaxed a smile from Wayne. Finally, he drank.

  A few moments later, he was back in shape. “Alright,” I said. “Now that you’re healed, tell me about your father’s hammer and why you were in a place everyone in town knows is dangerous, with creatures that you stated will swarm you as soon as you're spotted.”

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  Da and I have gone there a few times. There’s a special metal in the walls of the old building that can be smelted into something finer.”

  He walked over to the tool wall, took down a pair of tongs, wiped them clean, and held them up for us to see.

  Dark obsidian-like veins ran through the metal. “It displaces heat more efficiently, conducts magic well, and is stronger than most other metals. With the tournament coming up, Da thought if we gathered enough, we could forge fine weapons and sell them for top a boatload of credits. But we went farther in than usual, trying to find more, and…” His eyes welled with tears. “We disturbed the Naga.”

  I nodded my understanding. “I see. What building did your dad lose the hammer in, and are there any distinguishing features, color, size, that might stand out while we’re scanning the area?”

  Wayne returned to the toolbox and lifted a small hammer. Obsidian veins ran through its head, and the wooden shaft was wrapped in a crisscross leather grip.

  “It looks almost exactly like this, only three times the size.”

  Tucker sniffed at the hammer curiously before returning to my side.

  “Alright, that’s enough questions from me. Balt, Tucker, you got anything?”

  Balt shook his head. Tucker’s voice brushed against my mind.

  “Ask him if his father used something often. I might be able to track him by scent.”

  I relayed the question. Wayne fetched a leather apron that was lying on an anvil. “Da used this every day in the forge.”

  Tucker padded over, gave it a long sniff, then looked up at me with a nod.

  “Okay, I guess we’re off. I’ll see you soon, Wayne.” I extended my hand. He smiled and shook it. Balt followed, and to Wayne’s delight, Tucker did the same.

  We started walking down the road and heard Wayne call out. “Good luck to you all.”

  I waved back, and we set off on the short journey marked on the map toward the ruins.

  A few hours later, we crested a hill and froze at the sight below. A vast lake stretched out before us, its far end hemmed in by sheer cliffs and jagged rock formations. The water shimmered crystal clear, reflecting the sky like polished glass. But the settlement on the near shore told a different story.

  The remnants of stone buildings slumped in decay, their walls cracked and leaning, roofs long since collapsed. The wooden beams that once framed doors and windows had rotted away, leaving hollow gaps that stared like empty eye sockets. Moss and ivy crawled across the stone, reclaiming what time had abandoned.

  A wide stone street cut straight through the heart of the town, leading down to the lakefront. Broken cobbles jutted unevenly, and weeds sprouted between them. Rusted lantern posts leaned at odd angles, their glass shattered, as if the town had been frozen mid-breath.

  Here and there, toppled statues lay half-buried in the dirt. A collapsed fountain sat in the square, its basin dry, but faint carvings of serpents and waves hinted at the town’s devotion to the lake.

  The air carried a faint tang of minerals and damp stone, and the silence was heavy, broken only by the occasional cry of a distant bird echoing off the cliffs. It was a place that felt both sacred and forsaken, a town swallowed by time yet still whispering of the lives once lived here.

  Balt summoned his staff and leaned on it, eyes fixed on the ruins below.

  “This place gives me the creeps. Let’s get in there and kill the damn things before the sun goes down. I don’t want to be fighting snake monsters in the dark.”

  “I hear that,” I replied. “The streets are wide open, so we’ll make our stand there. where we can keep our enemies in the line of sight. No venturing into the buildings, too many blind corners. Tucker, stay close to me and Balt. With any luck, we’ll get you a few levels today and maybe even a class.

  Alright then… I summoned Ember. Let’s go kill some creepy snake people.”