“I can show you in a second. You know how Silvia and I have been customizing some older retro tech together? Like cassettes, flip phones, those box TVs, and monitors.”

  “Ugh …” Runar groaned loudly. “That stuff is ‘older retro tech’ now? That was practically sci-fi for me when I was growing up …”

  “Wow, how old are you?” Liam asked bluntly, and Runar flinched lightly.

  “Hearing that from a kid that grew up while cosplaying the Middle Ages really doesn’t feel great …”

  Modak laughed awkwardly, “Uhm … either way, I was working on some stuff that Silvia asked for, and more recently, a lot of newer tech is integrating mana more directly, so I figured, why not give it a try and see if I can adapt some older stuff with mana-based tech? So instead of giving the actual tapes a magnetic charge to store data, I figured out how to do the same thing with mana,” the orc explained with clear excitement in his voice. “I mean, it’s useless in a practical sense, because even if the mana cassettes can store more data than regular cassettes, even a small USB stick completely shatters the amount of data that can be stored in comparison. It’s just a neat little thing I had fun playing around with.”

  “That does sound kinda cool, though. Doesn’t need to be ‘useful,’ ” Ryan pointed out. Though he didn’t really understand much about this kind of thing, he did know enough to realize that it was something pretty damn impressive.

  While they were talking and Modak explained a bit more about how it all worked, Ryan noticed that his uncle was paying pretty close attention to the whole thing. And not just that, it looked like he was thinking about something, and Ryan doubted that it was just him trying to understand what the orc was saying.

  Before long, the five made it all the way down the stairs, walking through the hallway to that large stone door. Runar pushed it open with his back, as he was still carrying that small crate in his hands. This time around, there weren’t any plants growing in the way, and the overgrown path had been trimmed down for the most part. And then, once they got to the other side, Ryan was able to see these ruins properly for the first time.

  It was a large cave that had clearly been cut out to accommodate this space; in parts of the walls, more ancient structures were sticking out above the tree line, some being used by the people living and working here, and others being taken over by some kind of bird’s nest. As he was looking around, it took surprisingly long for a very simple fact to dawn on him; it was incredibly bright in here, to the point where it was almost disorienting.

  But Ryan soon understood that this was due to the large crystals embedded in the ceiling. He remembered how this place looked last night; those crystals were also the cause of the “stars” that he had noticed here last night. However, the thing that he really did notice most of all was just how busy this place was now that it was daytime.

  Hiding between the thicket and the bushes and trees were dryads of many different types and forms. Some looked like people, others like animals. Along the roads, there were many geodes walking around, and though they were quite small, sprites were hopping around the walls and on top of boxes. There were also plenty of other people here, most of whom looked like any other person aboveground. In regard to their appearance, there was clearly no difference between them and other people, so Ryan wondered what exactly the thing holding them back from joining up with mainstream society really was.

  “Whoa!” Liam let out, looking around excitedly, for once showing some proper childlike excitement. “Now this is what I call a castle!”

  “You could call it that, I guess.” Runar smiled lightly, walking along the path as the others followed behind. The people in this small, hidden underground town were throwing glances at the group as they walked, muttering to each other curiously about these people that they had never seen before.

  “Alright, Liam,” Runar started once they got to the building that seemed to be his office, “Anders is waiting for you inside here. He’s going to show you around and introduce you to the couple other vampires we have here specifically.”

  Liam raised his brow, surprised. “There are other vampires here?”

  “There’s four others living here. None that are your age, but it would be nice if you got to know them, alright?”

  Liam carefully walked up the stairs, looking around as if trying to see if he could spot the other vampires from here. His demeanor completely changed the moment Runar mentioned other vampires, something that definitely didn’t get past Ryan.

  “Is he alright? I thought he’d be a bit more excited and say something like ‘Finally, some noble compatriots’ or crap like that,” Ryan pointed out once Liam closed the door behind him, but Runar slowly shook his head as he continued guiding the three others down the road.

  “I don’t think there were other vampires where he grew up. About 90 percent of the vampires in Riveria are here in New Riverside. There are plenty of jobs that allow them to live nocturnally to avoid the sun, and with how many people there are here, it’s hard to notice if someone is being ‘weird.’ ”

  “So he’s just nervous?” Ryan asked, and Runar quickly nodded.

  “I guess so. Anyway, let’s worry about you for the time being,” he replied. “It’s going to take a while until you can really figure out what you want to do as part of our family, and since we do a lot of different things, you’re going to have to test out a few things. I think this is also going to help all three of you figure out if you actually want to do this.”

  Silvia picked up her pace, walking up next to Runar, a bit confused. “Didn’t we already join? You gave us those coins, right?”

  “Those coins just mean you’re affiliated with me directly. It doesn’t mean you’ve joined us, just that you’re someone that’s important to the head of the family,” Runar quickly explained. “Frankly, I’m going to be dragging out any official announcements for as long as I possibly can. Luckily everyone here is in my faction, so they’ll stay quiet about it.”

  “Did you just say ‘faction’? As in, there’s more than one of those in our family?” Ryan asked with a concerned frown.

  “… Yeah, it … I was a bit worried that I played up the good side of our family a bit too much yesterday. The way things work, the thing I’m directly involved in … those are the ideals laid out by our founder that I fully support.” Runar turned around the corner, walking down a sloped road to a lower part of this large cave. “But not everybody in our family is convinced of those ideals … There’s a reason why I could understand that your father wanted to leave, though I obviously couldn’t support the way he achieved that. Our family has a lot of ugly sides to it, and depending on what you choose to do, you will face them more than you’re already forced to.”

  Ryan turned back toward Silvia and Modak. The fact he was worried was written boldly on his face. It was one thing to get himself caught up in something potentially dangerous, but dragging his friends into it was a whole other matter.

  “So … what will be the first thing we’re dealing with?” Ryan nervously asked, as Runar finally slowed down a bit. They were on the outskirts of that small, half-ruined “town” and standing in front of an old building that didn’t seem to be particularly in use. If it weren’t for the glowing coals in the forge at its side, it would certainly look like a completely abandoned structure.

  Runar finally put the crate down onto the ground. “Something that I feel would be a good introduction to some of the ‘weirdness’ we deal with on a day-to-day basis. So, I mentioned it briefly, but we don’t only deal with ‘people.’ We deal with animals as well. Usually, these are magic beasts who are treated horribly due to certain magical qualities they have. Other times they’re regular animals that have mutated to attain some magical quality. Frankly, almost all the beings that we deal with, whether person, animal, or otherwise, are in danger because they’re, in one way or another, ‘magical’ in some form.”

  Silvia’s eyes slightly widened in nervousness. “Wait, wouldn’t that also include changelings?”

  Runar thought about it for a moment, but in the end just shrugged. “Kind of. Changelings came to be because they evolved in an isolated valley that was practically flooded with chaotic magic. The way their bodies adapted to that was by allowing them some level of shapeshifting. And then, when the valley broke open for some reason or another, they came out into the world and met other people. They developed their abilities specifically to let them become part of the already developing civilization. So our help really wasn’t needed there.”

  “I see …” Silvia replied, thinking of Fae and the idea that she and her family and other people like her could have been in the exact same situation as all these other people walking around here if things had just developed a bit differently.

  “So …” Modak curiously looked around, trying to figure out why they were here. “What do animals have to do with a blacksmith?”

  Runar smiled lightly, pointing at the crate that he had just put down on the ground. “Ryan, go and grab a piece.”

  Obviously curious, Ryan walked up to the crate, then pulled the top off. And what was inside was nothing but finger-sized rods of metal. He picked one of them up, and slowly turned toward his uncle in complete disbelief. This much had to weigh literally a ton. But could those old wooden boards even hold that much weight? This was definitely genuine metal. “You carried all this down here? Dude, seriously, what level are you?”

  Runar laughed and stepped up next to the lit forge. “Not telling. Anyway, hold your hand out with that piece of metal on your palm. Like in a petting zoo.”

  Nervously, Ryan did as told, taking a step forward. He had no idea what was about to happen. Runar carefully ran his hand over the bricks making up the top of the forge. “Come on, wake up. It’s time for lunch.”

  With loud creaks and the sound of shifting stone, the forge at the side of the building started to move. As if unfolding, a form started to appear. Strong hind legs and large clawed wings, all made of stone, while its yawning maw held all the red-hot coals.

  The old forge that had just taken on the form of a dragon curiously tilted its head to the side as its eyes landed on the piece of steel on Ryan’s hand.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  The Living Forge

  The stone dragon stood in front of Ryan, curiously looking at the piece of metal on his palm. Though, looking was probably the wrong word; it didn’t have eyes, after all. But even so, Ryan could tell that it was focused on the small metal rod on his hand. It slowly took a step forward, its winged forelegs moving hesitantly, as though this hulking mass of rock that would tower over even a troll or cyclops was the one that was scared.

  Ryan’s body was completely tense and frozen. He knew that this creature wasn’t dangerous, otherwise Runar wouldn’t be standing there so casually, but it was still taking Ryan quite a lot to not turn heel and run away.

  As the stone beast approached, Ryan could feel the heat pouring out of its mouth. Beyond the jagged rocks that acted as its fangs, the glow of hot coals emanated outward. But somehow, even though the heat was growing horribly intense as that mouth came closer to Ryan’s hand, it wasn’t painful in any way, just uncomfortable. Ryan held his breath as the dragon’s teeth carefully bit into the piece of metal, quickly pulling it away. The heat that he felt then was somewhat like when you stuck your hand into an oven; incredibly hot, and if it lasted for a while, it would most certainly start to hurt, but because of how fast the living forge had pulled away, he was only left with a slightly warm hand.

  “This … What is this?” Ryan asked, watching as the dragon held the piece of metal up in the air, letting it slide into its mouth as if it were eating a fish. Ryan had seen this exact kind of thing before. Wyverns were rare, but he had seen one in a zoo in a large city before when he and his mom went on a trip for his birthday. This was the exact kind of thing that he saw then.

  Runar slowly ran his hand over the creature’s back. “It’s an elemental. As magic gathers in an object or natural force, it might attain some sort of intelligence. A gust of wind, a particularly dense cloud, or a stream of water. It’s very rare, but it can happen if a lot of things coincide. And similarly, when an old object gathers a lot of mana with in, it may turn into an elemental. This one is the ‘Forge.’ ”

  “That’s so cool …” Silvia let out, staring at the elemental wyvern with a broad smile on her face. “So why does it look like that? And what’s its name?”

  Runar shrugged, responding to both questions. “We still don’t really know why elementals take on the forms they do, and she hasn’t accepted an official name yet.”

  “Wait, what do you mean ‘accepted an official name’?” Ryan asked, glancing at the living forge, and Runar looked back awkwardly.

  “So … do you know how dungeons will have official names? Like the … ‘Abandoned Copper Foundry’ you went to. Since elementals are kind of similar to dungeons in some ways, they can also have official names. But this girl hasn’t accepted any names according to our appraiser,” Runar explained, “So, that being the case, she just goes by ‘Forge’ for now until we find a name that truly suits her.”

  “I don’t … I don’t even know where to start with that, so I’ll just ignore the fact that you said they’re like dungeons.” Ryan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “So, what is it that we’ll be doing for now?”

  “You’re going to help take care of the animals today, that’s all,” Runar responded. “It’s not easy work, but I feel like it’s a good way to get used to things and meet the people you need to meet.”

  “Awe, man … couldn’t you have told us beforehand? I’m totally not wearing clothes for that kind of thing …” Silvia looked down at her outfit; a skirt, black boots, and an expensive-looking blouse definitely weren’t the best fit to take care of animals all day. Runar glanced over at her and quickly replied.

  “We’ve got outfits for you all to change into. They’re just simple overalls and rubber boots, though.”

  “… Hm … What color are the overalls?”

  “I don’t know, black, gray, blue … we’ve got a couple different ones, I think,” Runar replied, a bit confused about why Silvia cared about something as trivial as the color of the overalls.

  “Alright … I can make that work,” Silvia replied as she got lost deep in thought. “Do you mind if I take some … creative liberties with them?”

  Runar let out a long, quiet groan. “I really could not care less. Do whatever you want.”

  “Yay~!” A broad grin formed on Silvia’s face, and both Modak and Ryan seemed to calm down a bit. Her mood was clearly being lifted as she became more distracted from whatever had her so down before.

  Runar continued. “Well, we’ll bring you guys to a spot you can change in a second, but first, you should meet our head animal caretaker,” he said, pointing to a figure that was slowly approaching. Forget overalls; what they were wearing was practically a complete hazmat suit covering them from head to toe. They walked up to Runar and quickly greeted him with a salute, keeping their distance.

  “Good day, Mr. Aglecard,” the woman’s high-pitched voice flowed out from behind the thick, darkened helmet.

  Ryan nervously looked at his uncle. “Do … do we need one of those as well?”

  “No, she’s just more comfortable wearing that around other people,” Runar replied before turning back to the fully covered woman. “Rose, this is my nephew Ryan and his friends Silvia and Modak. They’ll be helping you out for a few hours, so take care of them well, alright?”

  With a quick, exaggerated nod, Rose replied, “Yes, sir!”

  “Okay, perfect. I actually have some other stuff to prepare. I’ll just be in my office, so come over if you need anything,” Runar explained, letting out a long yawn as he turned around, muttering to himself, “So much shit to do. I just want to keep the café open …”

  And so, Ryan, Silvia, and Modak were left with the forge elemental and Rose. The girl’s muffled voice quickly spoke out as she nervously flailed her arms around.

  “It, it’s nice to meet you! I’m Rose!” she introduced herself properly again, and Ryan took a step forward, holding out his hand to shake hers.

  “Ryan, nice to meet you,” he said, but Rose quickly pulled away and built some distance between them.

  “Yes! Likewise!” she replied, clearly not comfortable shaking Ryan’s hand.

  Figuring that there was no need to force it, Ryan pulled his hand away, turning to the living forge next to him. She was looking at Ryan curiously, her mouth slightly opened and letting out a soft glow from behind her teeth.

  “So … Are there more elementals? Or what are we doing today?” Ryan asked, as Rose carefully walked up to the crate on the ground that had all the pieces of metal in it.

  “We do have a few elementals, but not only. Mr. Aglecard only asked me to have you accompany me on my lunch route, so I can show you all my babies today!” she explained, throwing a few of the metal bars from the crate into the air. The forge quickly reacted, catching them in her mouth with some smooth motions. Rose placed her hand onto the side of her snout, rubbing it carefully. “You know, this girl started out as just a little flame!”

  “Huh?” Modak let out, clearly confused by what he heard. He was already baffled by the revelation that elementals were similar to dungeons, but this was a whole other thing. “What do you mean? I’ve heard about elementals, but … they change?”

  “Modak, right? Mr. Aglecard told me you’re interested in these sorts of magical things already.” Rose carefully started picking up a few more metal rods to keep feeding the forge. “So, you know how dungeons have multiple stages? Stage 0 being that the seed of a dungeon settles into a space, a cumulation of tons of mana that interact in seemingly random ways. Stage 1 is when that seed sprouts and pours mana into the space that it inhabited. And then, Stage 2 is when you have a proper dungeon.”