The carving took a little over thirty minutes.

Most of that time was spent checking the anatomy book, comparing its diagrams to the spider, and avoiding anything that looked too valuable to damage. By the end, I had separated the main carapace into several usable plates and removed both fangs intact. The workbench was still covered in smaller organs, fragments of chitin, and other pieces that IMR had happily agreed to keep.

There was more than enough usable material to divide with Ambrosia later. She had wanted nothing to do with the final carving, but I doubted she would object when her share arrived.

I packed the carapace plates, both fangs, and the other useful materials into my inventory, left the remains to IMR, and headed back toward the city.

It was almost midnight by the time I reached the lower district near the outer wall, but I heard the hammers long before I found the forge.

Most of the surrounding shops had closed for the night. Kevin’s workshop remained wide open, glowing orange against the dark street. Heat rolled through the entrance in waves, carrying the smell of coal, hot metal, and enough sweat to confirm that someone had been working far longer than was healthy.

Kevin stood over an anvil with a hammer in one hand and a glowing strip of metal held between a pair of tongs.

He had changed since the last time I saw him.

Kevin’s hair was tied back in a messy knot, with soot streaking one cheek and fresh scorch marks covering the leather apron over his clothes.

The forge had changed with him.

Finished swords rested in racks along one wall. Several round shields leaned against another, each slightly cleaner and better balanced than the one before it. A line of damaged equipment waited beside the counter beneath small repair tags: two chipped swords, three cracked shields, a bent spearhead, and one helmet bearing a suspiciously large bite mark.

Kevin struck the heated metal twice more before noticing me.

“Cloud!”

He set the hammer on the workbench and hurried over.

“You’re still here?” I asked.

“You’re still here?”

“I logged out for dinner.”

Kevin stared at me. “That sounds healthy.”

“It was.”

“I haven’t logged out.”

“That does not.”

He glanced around the forge with the satisfied expression of someone who had completely lost track of time and considered it an achievement.

“I started earning Blacksmithing XP about an hour after you left,” he said. “I watched the old smith work, copied each step, and made whatever he was making. Knives, swords, shields, nails, rivets—every finished piece gave me XP.”

“You made rivets?”

“Sixteen.”

“What are you going to do with sixteen rivets?”

“Make metal armor, obviously.”

A notification appeared over the furnace.

[Iron Ore Smelting Complete]

Kevin opened the smelter, removed a newly formed ingot with his tongs, and placed it on a cooling rack beside several others.

“The first dungeon has been incredible for business,” he said. “Terrible for everyone who went inside, obviously, but fantastic for me. Half the returning players need repairs, and the other half want new gear after watching the first group’s equipment get destroyed.”

“So the roaches created an economic boom.”

“Exactly. Giant insects are job creators.”

I opened my inventory. “I might have something more interesting than repair work.”

The first carapace plate struck the counter with a heavy clack.

Kevin froze.

I placed a second plate beside it, followed by a third. Finally, I set one of the Wolffang Spider fangs between them.

His eyes widened with every piece.

“Where did you get this?”

“Viridian Basin.”

“You went into Viridian Basin?”

“Briefly.”

Kevin lifted the fang and turned it beneath the forge light. It was slightly longer than his hand, pale near the base and darkening toward the curved tip—the right size to serve as a dagger blade once a handle was added.

“This is elite material.”

“Small Silver Crown.”

His head snapped toward me. “You killed a Silver Crown monster?”

“I had help.”

“With what gear?”

I placed what remained of my wooden shield on the counter. One side had split, the edge was scorched, and a strap hung loose where it had torn free.

Kevin stared at it. “That was a shield?”

“Technically.”

He looked from the wreckage to the spider materials. “You entered Viridian Basin in starter gear, killed an elite spider, and survived?”

“Yep.”

“What kind of hacks are you using?”

“The poorly planned kind.”

Kevin returned his attention to the carapace. “I’ve never processed anything like this before, but…”

He cleared part of the workbench and spread the plates beneath the light. The largest piece curved naturally, thick through the center and thinner near its cracked edges. He tapped it with one knuckle, listened, then repeated the test across several sections.

“This could work.”

“For a shield?”

“For a damn good shield.” He glanced at the fang. “And a dagger.”

Kevin pulled a sheet of paper from beneath the counter and began sketching.

The shield came first: a compact round design built around the dark carapace, reinforced by a metal rim and leather frame. A raised metal plate sat along the upper front like a crest. Instead of hiding the monster material, Kevin made it the center of the design. Pale spider hair fanned out beneath the metal and leather in layered streaks, giving it a rough, wild appearance without adding much bulk.

“Light enough to move with, but large enough to cover most of your torso,” he explained. “You won’t have to choose between mobility and actual defense.”

He moved on to the dagger.

Rather than carving the fang into a conventional blade, he preserved its natural curve and built the weapon around it. The sketch added a sturdy wrapped handle to the base, secured by a leather collar, with a small flare of pale spider hair matching the shield.

Placed side by side, the two designs clearly belonged to the same set: dark carapace, pale hair, leather, and metal, all taken from the same monster.

“My man, I didn’t know you were an artist too.”

“Thanks, bro.” Kevin grinned down at the sketches. “I love the crafting system in this game. Most MMOs give you a fixed recipe and spit out the same weapon every time. Here, I can actually design something.”

He tapped the dagger. “I’ll use the whole fang without reshaping it. That should preserve most of its natural piercing bonus.”

“Sick.” I studied the drawing. “Could you add something else?”

Kevin looked mildly offended. “Something else?”

“I read that spider fangs evolved to pierce the exoskeletons of their prey so they could inject venom.”

His expression changed immediately.

“Oh, that is going to be sick. I have an idea.”

He pulled the sketch closer and began adding details before I could ask what the idea was.

I looked between the shield and dagger designs. “What about armor?”

Kevin’s excitement slowed. “Armor is more complicated.”

“I want something light. Mostly leather, with metal or carapace protecting the important areas.”

“So mobility with actual protection.”

“Exactly.”

“That’s possible, but not with Blacksmithing alone. I can make the plates, rivets, and reinforcement pieces, but someone with Leatherworking would need to build the base and fit everything together.”

“You know anyone?”

“All the crafters have a group chat,” Kevin said. “I met a leatherworker there earlier. I haven’t examined any of her finished equipment, but she’s been posting progress videos, and she looks like she knows what she’s doing.”

“Can you contact her?”

“Probably. Let me finish the shield and dagger first. If those turn out well, I’ll message her about the armor.”

Kevin returned to the shield drawing and added several measurements along the edge. After a moment, his pencil stopped.

“What?”

“I’m almost out of iron.”

“How almost?”

He walked to a storage box beside the furnace and opened it. Three short bars rested inside with a small pile of scraps.

“How much do you need?”

“For the shield rim, internal frame, straps, rivets, dagger handle, and enough spare material in case I ruin something?” Kevin considered the question. “A lot more than this.”

“Can we buy it from an NPC?”

“Normally, yes, but every ore merchant in the city has sold out.” He closed the box. “Tell you what. Come mining with me after I sleep.”

“Why do you need me?”

“Two people means twice the inventory space and carry capacity. There’s an iron deposit outside the city that players can use. We gather as much as possible, bring it back here, and I use whatever remains after your equipment to spam-craft until my skills stop gaining XP.”

He tapped the shield design with one finger.

“I’ll waive my crafting fee.”

“Deal.”

I grabbed his hand and shook it before he could reconsider.

Kevin laughed. “Working with elite material should give me ridiculous Blacksmithing XP. I might even discover a new recipe or specialization.”

“So no labor cost?”

“Not from me. The leatherworker will charge separately.”

“I’ll deal with that when we reach it.”

I looked toward the forge entrance. The road outside was quiet, and the night air appeared considerably cooler than the furnace behind Kevin.

“We could go now,” I said. “Mine the iron, come back, and start crafting tonight.”

Kevin stared at me. “Cloud, I’ve been blacksmithing for eleven hours. My arms are tired, and my brain doesn’t care that they’re virtual.”

I glanced around the forge at everything he had made.

He had a point.

Kevin removed his gloves and flexed his fingers. “I need food, water, and several hours away from anything that makes a hammering sound.”

“Fine. After you wake up.”

“After I wake up,” he agreed.

He opened his portable UI, and a notification appeared in front of me.

[Kevin has sent you a friend request.]

[Accept?]

[Yes]

Kevin’s name appeared on my friends list.

I returned the carapace plates and fangs to my inventory. Before leaving, one more idea occurred to me.

“Do you know anyone who can make stealth equipment?”

Kevin looked up from the sketches. “What kind?”

“A cape, cloak, or something similar. Anything that makes it harder for monsters to detect me.”

“What would it do?”

“Camouflage, ideally.”

He thought about it, then shook his head. “No idea. Blacksmithing doesn’t exactly cover stealth capes.”

“What about your leatherworking friend?”

“Maybe, but I doubt Leatherworking alone would be enough. You might need Toolcrafting, Alchemy, or some combination nobody has figured out yet.”

“That’s enough to work with. I’ll have to experiment.”

Kevin smiled. “I’ll ask around too.”

“That works.”

He rolled up the shield and dagger designs and placed them beside the forge.

“After I sleep, we mine iron. Then I start the shield.”

“And the dagger.”

“And the dagger.”

“And possibly the armor.”

“One thing at a time. Some of us still sleep.”

I stepped into the cooler night air and checked the time.

12:18 AM.

I had logged back in planning to do an hour of light grinding and somehow ended the night excited about gathering ore.

Project Babel was getting its hooks into me.