"Not again." Nico was hammering away at his forge, the sound of ghostly metal hitting another revibrating throughout the stone caverns. In front of Nico was a small and incomplete sculpture, illuminating with an ethereal glow as it lay suspended in the air above the anvil. Nico struck it, then again, and then again with the hammer in his hand.
"Nico, it's been three hours already." Kai said, tapping his shoulder before letting out a loud yawn. "I'm heading to sleep now. You should too."
"In a bit." Nico wiped off the sweat dripping on his cheek. "I need to get the head right."
Kai left him to his own as he headed into one of the tents. Inside the cavern, no sunlight nor moonlight was present, and so the group had to rely on their own body clocks for timekeeping.
Nico felt his limbs and body tire with the hours passing him by as he continued on hammering in his forge. His sweat glistened against the red, blue, and green lights radiating from the orbs and the flickers of the torches. The light from the campfire now dimmed- near dead as the firewood breathed its last smolder.
"Aight, that's good for now." Nico hung his head, wiping off his face with a white cloth. He stared at the small sculpture afloat above the anvil. "I'll finish the rest tomorrow."
Nico left the forge and headed into one of the tents.
"Done?" Kai said, woken up by Nico's footsteps as he entered the tent. His voice was washed by a snoring Jason beside him.
"Not yet." Nico sighed, preparing himself a blanket and set it on the stone-cold ground. He then plopped himself on top of it, his mind still wandering as if he wasn't ready to sleep yet.
"Hey Kai."
"Yeah?"
"Why do you think I got this skill?"
"Because you earned it?" Kai said through Jason's snores. The inside of the tent was dim and dark, with only a few flickers of light finding their way inside through the door flaps. "Earning a new skill comes through hard work, and you were pretty much working hard in that fight with the goblins earlier. You even lost a hand."
Nico raised his new baby hand in front of his face, staring at the fingertips where there were no fingernails to be found.
"Yeah, but why all this 'life forge' thing?" Nico clenched the hand. "It's cool and all but, why couldn't it be like laser beams or death rays or Jojo Stands?"
Kai rose from his bed, his silhouette hidden behind the dimness of the tent as he turned to Nico. "Maybe it's because you want to balance taking away life with creating life."
"What's that mean?"
"You hate killing monsters. So maybe, somewhere inside you, you want to make life- not just take it."
Nico pondered on what Kai just said, staring at the dim ceiling.
"...Isn't that just sex?"
"Yeah, I have no idea what I was trying to say." Kai plopped back to his bed. "But yeah, there might be some truth to that. I'm just reiterating what Jason said, but the skills and powers you gain are, in a way, a part of you- they represent who you are. My red affinity and my flames, that's a part of me. You get what I mean?"
"Kind of." Nico said, hugging a pillow. "Aight, goodnight."
"Night."
. . .
The sound of ghostly metal striking another echoed within the goblin camp.
Nico continued where he last went off, shaping the small sculpture on the anvil. It looked like he was bashing mindlessly at a tiny toy with a hammer, but instead of breaking it, the striking and bashing only served to improve its features and design as if Nico was delicately sculpting with a chisel.
"Morning." Saira poked her head behind Nico.
"Good morning." Nico focused on the task at hand, not daring to look back. "Did I wake you up?"
"Yup, and apparently everyone else."
"My bad." Nico didn't budge, his gaze wholly focused on the sculpture before him. Saira took a glance at the work he was doing, keeping her distance so as not to distract Nico from what he was doing.
"It's coming together nicely." Saira said.
"Yeah." Nico's stomach then grumbled. He stopped in his tracks then turned to Saira. "Is breakfast ready yet?"
"Yeah, it's been a while." Saira gestured to the others who were huddled around the campfire with bowls in their hands. On top of the campfire was a cauldron burbling with soup. "You didn't smell the soup cooking?"
Nico took a deep breath, the smell of spices and boiled meat invigorating his senses. His stomach then churned again. "I was busy."
Nico dropped what he was doing then headed towards the other three with Saira. Jason handed him a wooden bowl as they arrived, fresh with soup and meat and mushrooms.
"Thanks." Nico said, sitting down on a wooden crate beside Jason and Kai while Saira went and sat beside Kristine.
"How's it coming along?" Jason turned to Nico before pointing back to the forge.
"Pretty good actually. It was hard getting the hang of it at first, but it's more or less actually just like sculpting."
"And sculpting isn't hard?"
"I've had experience with 3d modeling before- that was my job back on Earth." Nico stirred the bowl with a wooden spoon. "My last father had a very niche hobby of blacksmithing, so I naturally gained interest in it and all that."
"Your father's a blacksmith?" Kai said, joining the conversation. "It's no wonder why then you got that skill."
"Yeah- and he was very good at it too. He'd show me all the knives and swords and the process made when I was a little kid."
"You said he was your last father." Kai said. "How many fathers do you have?"
"Just two. Mom divorced him a while ago, settled for another person with more money than what she's actually worth."
"That must've been tough." Kai said.
"Nah, don't worry about it." Nico said, sampling a spoonful of soup from the bowl in his hands. "Anyways, is Hena up yet?"
"Not yet." Kristine said, gesturing to the tents. "Although she's doing far better now than yesterday. She's even snoring inside like nothing happened."
"That's nice." Nico turned to Jason. "You think we should move camp?"
"Why?"
"I mean, what if those goblins come back here?"
"There's no hiding inside this dungeon. If we move camp we'll only find ourselves into the hands of another goblin camp. Better to stay here and take our chances than end up fighting another army of them. Besides, at most the goblins would just send out a scouting party or two. If we leave them alone they'll leave us alone."
"Sorry." Nico said. "I should've let you finish those goblins off."
"I told you, don't worry about it." Jason let out a laugh. "I don't think I could've caught up to them even if I wanted to. I was pretty beat up already and with my heavy armor slowing me down, that task was next to impossible. I could've even died if I fought them, so in a way, you actually saved my life."