Chapter 49: I Unlocked FORGE. Now I Have to Choose: Eat It or Build With It.

Raven spent almost twenty minutes deciding he wasn’t hallucinating from blood loss.

The word was still there.

«"SECONDARY AUTHORITY AVAILABLE"

"FORGE"

Status: LOCKED

Initialization available.»

Valeria was busy recovering the Crimson Blood Core when Raven read the description for the fifth time.

The Mirehorn’s organ had survived inside a hardened membrane behind the sternum, exactly as she’d expected. It was roughly the size of two fists pressed together, dark red and threaded with luminous lines that continued pulsing even after the creature’s death.

Valeria held it like she’d just recovered a sacred relic.

Raven looked at it.

"How much is it worth?"

She looked up.

"I just extracted an extraordinarily intact Crimson Blood Core from a creature we spent two days hunting, and that’s your first question."

"Yes."

"Between eighteen hundred and twenty-five hundred crowns, depending on purity and buyer."

Raven looked at the organ again.

"Now I understand your enthusiasm."

"It wasn’t about the money."

"That reduces my understanding."

Valeria laughed and began placing it inside an alchemical case lined with layers of reddish crystal. Roland helped her, though he kept glancing toward Raven.

Probably expecting him to pull another organ out of the Blackmaw and start eating it.

Raven had no intention of doing that.

He’d gotten what he wanted.

Predatory Regeneration was already working inside him. The wound on his forearm was slowly closing, and the pain in his ribs had gone from unbearable to merely unpleasant.

In exchange, he was hungry enough to find the distance between himself and the food personally offensive.

But first came FORGE.

Raven moved several yards away from the others and sat on an Orbrecht crate that technically belonged to nobody sufficiently alive to argue about it.

He looked at the window.

"Initialize."

The response came immediately.

«"Initialize Secondary Authority: FORGE?"

WARNING:

FORGE creates no matter.

FORGE creates no energy.

FORGE does not replace missing knowledge.

FORGE cannot reproduce functions unsupported by available materials, Traits, Skills, or magical principles.

Proceed?»

Raven frowned.

That had lowered his expectations remarkably quickly.

"Proceed."

A cold sensation moved through his hands.

Not pain.

More like pressure traveling from his fingers into his forearms, then directly toward somewhere behind his eyes.

The interface changed.

«"SECONDARY AUTHORITY INITIALIZED"

"FORGE — Level 1"

Primary Function: Externalized Trait Integration

FORGE permits the construction of artificial vessels by combining:

1. User-supplied design

2. Compatible physical materials

3. Functional magical/biological components

4. Sufficient understanding of intended mechanism

Construction success is not guaranteed.»

Raven read the last sentence twice.

"Naturally."

Valeria looked up from the Core.

"Bad news?"

"The system discovered liability waivers."

"What does that mean?"

"FORGE doesn’t build things for me."

"Were you expecting it to?"

Raven looked at her.

"For approximately thirty seconds, I had hope."

"What a beautiful moment."

"It’s over."

Raven opened the new Authority.

The interface no longer looked entirely like Predation.

Predation showed organisms, compatibility, tissue, and biological probabilities.

FORGE displayed empty spaces connected by thin lines, as though waiting for components.

«"FORGE WORKSPACE"

DESIGN: None

STRUCTURAL MATERIAL: None

FUNCTIONAL COMPONENT: None

ENERGY SOURCE: None

INTENDED FUNCTION: Undefined

RESULT: CONSTRUCTION IMPOSSIBLE»

Raven raised an eyebrow.

"Very useful."

He tried something simple.

He thought of a knife.

Not a generic one.

One of the combat models he’d used for years.

Fixed blade.

Simple geometry.

Full tang.

No moving parts.

The interface reacted.

An incomplete representation appeared.

«"Design concept detected."

Object classification: Cutting Tool

Mechanical complexity: Low

User understanding: Sufficient

Required structural material: Missing

Special function requested: None

FORGE unnecessary. Conventional manufacture recommended.»

Raven stared at it.

"It just told me to go find a blacksmith."

Valeria stopped working.

"Your grand new Authority is insulting you?"

"With disturbing efficiency."

Roland smiled.

Raven ignored both of them.

That answered an important question.

FORGE didn’t exist to replace craftsmen.

If something could be made normally, the system wasn’t going to waste an Authority making it magically.

It needed integration.

Functions an ordinary object couldn’t possess.

Raven thought about the knife again.

This time, he added Stonehide.

He wanted a blade capable of temporarily mineralizing itself.

The interface changed.

«"Special function detected."

Desired property: Temporary structural reinforcement

Potential functional source:

"Stonehide" — Host-integrated Trait

ERROR: Host Trait cannot be externally transferred without extraction.

Alternative compatible biological source required.»

Raven stopped reading.

That was important.

He couldn’t freely duplicate his own abilities.

If he wanted a weapon with Stonehide, he’d need to acquire the Trait from another creature and preserve it instead of eating it.

The system confirmed.

«"HARVEST protocol available."

Compatible Trait-bearing biological structures may be preserved for FORGE instead of consumed through PREDATION.

NOTICE: Biological source committed to DEVOUR cannot also be committed to FORGE.»

There it was.

The choice.

Eat.

Or build.

Not both.

Raven smiled slightly.

He liked that better.

Power without decisions would’ve been boring.

Valeria watched him from a distance.

"That expression again."

"I found a useful limitation."

"I’ve never heard anyone sound pleased about a limitation."

"It means the system isn’t going to let me turn every corpse into an infinite collection of abilities."

"And that’s good?"

"It means I have to think."

Valeria smiled.

"Then perhaps you can still be saved."

"Don’t use Church vocabulary around me."

"That’s extremely specific."

Raven looked back at the Blackmaw.

Now he saw it differently.

Not only as meat.

Material.

The black plates could withstand impacts that shattered stone.

The tissue feeding Blood Furnace converted magical blood into energy.

Its sensory organs detected mana.

Elite tendons endured forces that would tear human muscle apart.

Predation had shown Raven what he could eat.

FORGE was beginning to show him what he could build.

Raven placed one hand against a plate on the corpse.

«"Harvest analysis available."»

The interface opened.

«Blackmaw Tyrant remains

Potential FORGE materials:

Obsidian Carapace — Structural Integrity: 92%

Tyrant Tendon Bundle — Integrity: 78%

Mana Scent Bulbs — Integrity: 81%

Blood Furnace — Integrity: 19%

Regenerative Marrow — Partially consumed

Hepatic Mana Reservoir — Committed to DEVOUR

Predatory Regeneration — Unavailable for FORGE from this specimen»

Raven nodded.

Exactly.

He couldn’t take regeneration into himself and then demand another copy from the corpse for a weapon.

But he could preserve other components.

"Roland."

The guard looked up.

"Yes?"

"I need containers."

"For what?"

"Organs."

Roland looked at Valeria.

Valeria looked at Raven.

"How many?"

Raven turned back toward the Blackmaw.

"Probably too many."

---

They spent almost an hour dismantling what remained of the Elite.

Valeria insisted on calling it dismantling after hearing Raven use the word.

"It’s not a machine," she said as she watched Raven separate a section of plates.

"It has specialized components performing specific functions."

"It’s an animal."

"Those aren’t mutually exclusive."

"Promise me you’ll never describe my anatomy that way."

Raven cut through a tendon.

"Don’t ask questions you don’t want answered."

Valeria remained silent for two seconds.

"That was intentional."

"Yes."

"Good. At least you’re learning humor."

Raven preserved several materials.

Not everything.

Transporting a creature that size back to Greyhaven was absurd.

He took the best plates, a section of tendons, teeth, two claws, the Mana Scent Bulbs, and what remained of the Blood Furnace.

The system evaluated every piece.

Some were excellent.

Others useless.

A fractured plate might still be worth money, but FORGE identified internal microfractures Raven never would’ve noticed.

That was useful too.

Predation analyzed biological value.

FORGE analyzed structural value.

Together, they turned a corpse into something resembling a technical inventory.

Raven began to understand why the second Authority had only appeared after Predation reached Level 3.

First, he had needed to learn how to consume.

Now he could learn how to preserve.

When he finished, he sat down with one of the Blackmaw plates across his legs.

And thought.

What could he build now?