Forge Master (Ring)
Short summary
A sealed magical world, and later a vast, dangerous jungle in another world with denser magic. After an unexplained breach, the sealed world's ruler suspected that Thorn had escaped and ordered a secret search for him.
Stranded with two companions, a wolf and a fiery female ally, Thorn relearned his weakened magic with the help of his artificial assistant. He joined a caravan to the jungle city of Droukna, where he saved a blind blacksmith's granddaughter, bought the old man's ruined inn and forge, and joined the dying Blacksmiths' Guild. He also became an adventurer and a student of the warrior Aciakko.
Thorn rebuilt his forge, cleared monster-filled mines with hired adventurers, and became famous as a Forgemaster of powerful artifacts. His fiery companion saved him from hired killers. Later, a monstrous plant attacked them in an ancient laboratory beneath the mines. She stayed behind to distract it, while Thorn escaped and gained darkness magic.
Thorn forged a spirit dagger and a staff, then led allies back to rescue her. After reaching her, they fled vine guardians. Aciakko struck from hiding with a cursed dagger, wanting Thorn dead. He trapped her before the giant plant so his friends could escape, but the curse left him dying. A pixie formed from his nanites beside him.
Finally, with a deep sigh, she lifted her hands and spoke in a voice no one could hear.
[I do not know if this will be good or bad, but it should not kill you.]
Elsewhere, a team of warriors infiltrated a naga turtle ship, but their mission remained unfinished.
Detailed summary
The division of the summary into sections is editorial.
Escape into a new world: the breach, jungle survival, and Eve's system
An unexplained breach disturbed a sealed world, and a powerful woman suspected that Thorn had escaped its bounds.
She ordered a secret search, while a distant stranger sensed the change and declared that events had begun. Thorn was stranded among gigantic jungle predators, with his familiar magic suppressed, and turned to Eve for help.
After escaping into a cave, Eve built him a personal system and began adapting his abilities to the world's denser mana. He gradually recovered his magical awareness, but the jungle gave him little time to adjust. A falling sloth attracted more predators, forcing him and his companions into a fight with two raptors before they could continue searching for a way out of the dangerous wilderness.
Wolf form and the caravan road toward Droukna
Thorn recovered his wolf form and escaped further jungle predators with his great wolf companion, Hati.
Their other companion, Akira, also helped him survive the unfamiliar wilderness.
They joined a caravan heading toward Droukna. Its captain warned that hunting could attract unbeatable monsters, but Thorn fought a herd of thunderstrike boars. A serious wound exposed the loss of his old protections. He killed the largest boar and helped finish the fight, earning the travelers' trust. Recognized as an artificer, he learned about the surrounding land and fashioned a boar bone into a sword edged with magical lightning.
A new life in Droukna: Kaili, Maido's debt, and buying the inn
In Droukna, a mysterious quest prompted Thorn to rescue a blacksmith's granddaughter from an artificer's first apprentice. The apprentice planned revenge, while the rescued girl remained frightened of Thorn's size. He escorted her home and discovered that her blind grandfather had been left unpaid by an artificer and burdened with debts he could not meet.
Thorn accepted shelter, realized he had no money, and later received twenty-two gold from Lady Maret.
For twenty gold, he bought the grandfather's inn, forge license, and guild membership, along with a protective charm for the girl. Only two coins remained. The purchase gave him a home and a place to work, while allowing him to stay involved with the family he had helped.
The failing Blacksmiths' Guild and Thorn's adventurer evaluation
After taking over the property, Thorn joined the nearly empty Blacksmiths' Guild and met its remaining guild master, Aciakko.
While clearing the inn, he learned about the city's dangers and Destiny Points. Eve helped reactivate the physical nanites in his body, which he sent into the rubbish to consume material. He became vice-guild master, helped Aciakko settle a bar debt, and witnessed a drunken adventurer insult her. Despite the guild's desperate condition, he stayed and proposed recovering its infested mines.
Seeking adventurer status, Thorn underwent an assessment that brought him before Gorrell Brightshield.
The Adventurers' Guild master had offered to establish his uncertain strength. Thorn surprised his evaluator with his speed, physical power, and mental endurance. After three and a half hours of memory testing, he was still fresh. He then selected weapons for the next stage of the examination.
Black iron rank, guild rivalry, and Aciakko's crushing trial
Thorn's magic provoked a recruitment dispute among the guild leaders. Aciakko defended her claim on him, and he obtained black iron adventurer rank and a year's food before demanding an explanation. He learned that the artificers had helped ruin the Blacksmiths' Guild and decided to assist its recovery. Aciakko explained that her commitment rested on the friends she had lost and her refusal to abandon what remained.
My greatest allies and strongest friends are mostly buried here. I stay because someone has to. I don’t want this guild to disappear, so if I’m going to be here, I might as well hold the guild master position, right?
Thorn asked her to train him, but her combat trial exposed the enormous difference between them. She overwhelmed him, recognized that he was an ascender, and accepted him as a provisional student. Returning to the inn, he arranged protection with Hati and began a paid forging job. His strength had impressed the evaluators, but it had not made him Aciakko's equal.
Thorn installed a disguised gateway to the Great Forge, replacing two sheds with a fully equipped smithy, and contained a collapsing ward. An artificer then threatened him over dusk silver supposedly missing from the previous owner, but Hati frightened her away. With his premises secured, Thorn studied resistance enchantments at Aciakko's forge and began improving the crude local rune designs.
He enhanced his training cuffs and used Eve's help to learn Aciakko's first martial form. He also advertised Titan's Forge and posed as a customer asking about artifact repairs to draw attention to the business. His teacher insisted that his advanced abilities did not excuse weak basics.
However, it’s vital that you do. I’m not exaggerating when I say that your degree of mastery over the basics is what will determine the height to which you can climb.
Runes and mirrors: bargaining with the Artificers' Guild
Although Thorn upgraded the forge, inflated ore prices left him short of metal. He sought adventurers to clear the guild's mines. When threatened with a blacklist, he provoked the Adventurers' Guild into posting his mission and pressured its master over their existing artifact agreement.
He also sought rune knowledge at the Artificers' Guild, where Zelix arranged an assessment.
An examiner warned Thorn against revealing his teacher's rare knowledge. Thorn negotiated a profitable mirror repair, decoded its illusion spell, and discovered its life-draining danger. Akira's unchanged reflection convinced her of her perfect beauty. He explained his guild strategy while pursuing repair work rather than surrendering to the artificers' pressure. Separately, Aciakko warned that Hati's power could attract god hunters, and the wolf agreed to conceal it before Thorn recruited help for the mines.
Clearing the mines: the centipede queens and the birth of the Forgemaster
Thorn hired Gorrell, Zelix, and the scout Aloxal Trueshot with promises of custom artifacts.
Before the jungle expedition properly began, fleeing Axaz brought a herd of shriek stalkers into their path. The party defeated the monsters and later camped together. Hati explained that he was a god beast, but not beyond death, and warned that a god hunter still pursued him. He also revealed that forging unlocked Thorn's power. To explain how his own growth differed from ordinary training, Hati described the importance of renowned deeds to his kind.
Where the other races grow their power through developing strength, skill, or magic, god beasts like me develop our power by growing our saga. Each time we complete a feat of renown, we grow stronger.
Inside the mine, Zelix froze pursuing centipedes and Thorn sealed a passage with stone. Two giant queens awaited them. While Hati and Akira held them back, Thorn recovered a powerful combat state, interrupted by a strange fluctuation before his strike. The party nevertheless destroyed the nest and returned to Droukna. Hati left to explore, while Thorn registered as Forgemaster, confirmed his generous artifact rewards, and celebrated.
A growing forge business and the hired ambush in the alley
Thorn organized his artifact orders and accepted a spear commission from a powerful cult official. He defended his efforts to rebuild the guild and redesigned five lightning swords so that their attacks could combine more flexibly. After arranging mining support, however, hired adventurers trapped him in an alley. The attackers outranked him and isolated him behind a barrier. He killed their spellcaster and broke her staff, ending the barrier, but suffered an axe wound and a cracked rib.
Thorn wounded two attackers with rapid spells and sealed the alley as his strength failed. Before their leader could finish him, Akira intervened with crimson flames and a mental attack. She saved him, allowing him to secure evidence and a confession before releasing the survivor. Thorn reviewed his mistakes rather than treating survival as proof that he was strong enough. He returned to the forge determined to improve, fully aware that a stronger opponent could have killed him immediately.
One wrong step, and he could be snuffed out. If he had been facing a bright-gold ranked adventurer or someone in the seventh tier or higher, he wouldn’t have even had the opportunity to attack.
Artifacts for the Silent Guard and the defeat of Levandi
Thorn completed lightning spears for the Silent Guard and spent seven milestones advancing his magic. The impressed official commissioned a personal spear and discussed battlefield-control enchantments. Thorn also demonstrated Gorrell's immobilizing shield and Aloxal's enhanced bow, astonishing his companions with the capabilities of their promised equipment.
When Master Artificer Levandi arrived with a hostile group, Thorn stopped Zelix from intervening and greeted him.
He repelled Levandi's challenge and continued expanding the business. He finished the official's enchanted spear, Silent Storm, gained rewards, and accepted further work. Only afterward did he remember a neglected obligation to another mentor, who urged him to forge a staff.
The sealed ruin beneath the mines: biogenesis lab, monsters, and Wilred's murder
The mentor advised Thorn to help his spirit adjust to denser mana. Lady Maret then reported a sealed ruin beneath the recovered mines. Guided by two miners, Thorn bypassed an enchanted gate and opened a magitech biogenesis laboratory. Familiar smells stirred forgotten memories of hospitals and laboratories, but exploration awakened a monstrous plant. Akira rescued him, and their escape ran into armored, catlike predators that drove them deeper underground and separated their efforts to survive.
Akira drew the plant away while Thorn fled the armored cats. His admission that he could not overpower them helped unlock a movement breakthrough. He changed into a wolf and turned toward the exit, trusting Eve's dangerous plan. Although he wanted to return to Akira, Eve insisted that he first escape his own pursuers rather than attempt a rescue he could not yet accomplish.
You are too weak to help, Thorn. You need to figure out how to survive for now and then work on helping Akira later. She is stronger than you think, Thorn, so let her be and focus on how you are going to stay alive.
A brutal transformation unlocked darkness mana. Thorn hid, enhanced his teleportation totem, and escaped. Outside, he found a miner murdered, detected signs of a stealthy intruder, and took the body back to report it.
Spirit Forging, the fifth tier, and the irresistible staff
Preparing to rescue Akira, Thorn spent his last Destiny Points on Spirit Forging. Creating a spirit-bearing dagger cost him part of his mental sense, but he discovered twenty-five available milestones and reached the fifth tier. He bought supplies, accepted Aciakko's recorder for repair, and joined Levandi's teleportation research to obtain powerful backing.
Training with his other mentor restored his mental sense. He designed a rune-enhanced staff and forged irresistible will into it, earning twelve milestones and greatly strengthening his magic. When Eve asked about returning to the ruins, he still insisted on further preparations.
[Your new staff increases your power by at least an order of magnitude.]
“Hah, no way,” Thorn said, shaking his head. “A weapon is great, but I need armor, friends, and a secret weapon. I’m just getting started.”
Return to the ruins: mercenaries, shadow-stepping, and reunion with Akira
Thorn made nanite armor and mana-masking brooches, uncovered a hidden message about the ruins, and equipped Gorrell, Zelix, and Aloxal for another expedition. He also promised Akira snacks. On the journey, Blood Clan mercenaries revealed that they had been paid to kill him, but his companions refused to abandon him. Thorn practiced chained combat spells while his allies eliminated the fighters. Their leader tried to flee, only for Gorrell to knock him down and strike his head with a mace. Afterward, the party entered the ruins, where Thorn carried his companions in wolf form and used shadow-stepping to evade the monsters. They reunited with Akira and reached a trapped hall before a locked door. Their preparations had brought them safely this far, but the deeper chambers remained guarded by unfamiliar dangers.
Aciakko's betrayal, the vine guardians, and the cursed dagger
The party bypassed the traps and recovered an ancient research book, then awakened nine linked vine guardians. Their attacks and restraints barely slowed the creatures. Thorn traced their healing to a vast plant and ordered a retreat. Zelix took a cursed dagger meant for him, and Thorn sent his companions away while facing the attacker alone. The enemy proved to be Aciakko, who explained her desire to kill him and pursued him through the ruins. Thorn armored his wolf form with stone and trapped her footing, but a vine hurled him away before he could strike. He eventually trapped her in the giant plant's reach, buying his friends time to escape. However, her dagger had also left him dying from a curse. A nanite pixie prepared an uncertain intervention, leaving his survival and the result of that attempt unresolved.
Epilogue: Mina's war and the unfinished mission to the naga realm
Elsewhere, a powerful fighter crushed a naga raid. Another veteran persuaded a teammate to pursue ascension after one final mission, arguing that exceptionally strong people needed to leave so others could grow. Their team infiltrated a turtle ship to seize access to the naga realm. The operation remained unfinished, with neither the mission's outcome nor the promised ascension yet resolved.