Chapter 83: Dragon Bracelet

My eyes narrowed slightly. “Ancient ruins?”

“Yes,” Colleen grinned, knowing she had caught my interest. “Including a strange, locked iron book that no scholar in the empire has been able to translate or open. I thought a master of locks might find it interesting.”

She turned and stepped out into the bright sunlight, her two wolf guards following closely behind. “Six days, Master Silvester. Do not be late. I will have a carriage sent to your shop.”

The mahogany door closed behind her, the brass bell chiming softly.

Tink.

The showroom was quiet once again.

Tibbar dropped to his knees behind the counter, clutching the heavy pouch of five hundred gold coins against his chest while staring at the silver badge on my coat with wide, dazed eyes.

“Five hundred gold coins…” Tibbar whimpered happily, tears of joy streaming down his furry cheeks. “A silver noble crest… zero daily taxes… Silvester, we are powerful! We are untouchable!”

I stood by the counter, looking down at the silver badge on my chest, then looking toward the basement door where my dragon-fueled furnace was humming softly in the dark.

An ancient locked iron book from underground ruins.

I had a strong feeling that book was connected to the black thread mana, the corrupted dragon, and the suit guy who had vanished into the spatial tear.

“Tibbar,” I said, a dark, determined glint appearing in my eyes.

“Yes, little master?” the old rabbit asked, wiping his tears.

“Clean the showroom and prepare my fine suit,” I ordered, turning toward the basement stairs. “We have six days to forge something special for the upper city.”

The basement beneath The Earthen Vault was silent save for the quiet, rhythmic hum of the dragon-fueled forge.

I sat on a wooden stool in front of the brick furnace, my face illuminated by the bright orange light escaping through the tiny ventilation slit.

Sweat trickled down my forehead, but my hands remained entirely steady as I held a pair of heavy iron tongs, gripping a long ingot of refined star-iron.

Star-iron was an extraordinarily dense metal, mined only from deep subterranean meteor craters in the far north. To a standard blacksmith, it required days of continuous hammering and thousands of pounds of burning coal just to soften.

To my dragon core furnace, it took less than thirty seconds.

I turned the brass control dial on the furnace wall two notches to the right. Inside the brick chamber, the contained dragon core flared softly, releasing a jet of pure white thermal energy.

The dark star-iron ingot turned glowing orange, then bright yellow, and finally melted into a smooth, liquid pool inside the heavy graphite crucible.

I pulled down my magnifying loupe over my right eye, activating my Locksmith’s Eye skill.

A bright overlay of blue structural lines filled my vision. I didn’t just see molten metal, I saw the atomic mesh, the raw heat density, and the tiny flaws hiding within the glowing liquid.

“Time for the finish,” I whispered.

Reaching into my wooden tool chest, I pulled out a small glass vial containing a refined mixture of pulverized dragon scale powder and pure liquid silver. I poured it directly into the glowing ceramic.

A brilliant flash of purple flame erupted from the liquid metal, filling the basement with the faint, pleasant smell of iron.

Using my golden mana, I guided the molten alloy into a custom graphite mold I had spent two days carving.

Close.

I commanded in my mind, tapping the edge of the cooling mold with my finger.

My refined mana surged into the metal, forcing the star-iron and silver atoms to snap together into an absolute, flawless atomic weave. The cooling process, which normally took hours, concluded in three seconds.

The glowing red metal turned jet-black, instantly settling into a sleek, cold polish.

I tipped the graphite mold over onto my leather working pad. A soft metallic clatter echoed off the stone walls.

Sitting on the pad was my newest creation, the Dragon Bracelet.

It looked like an elegant, ultra-thin bracelet made of dark, polished star-iron, decorated with paper-thin silver line work. But beneath its sleek exterior sat seventy-two microscopic gears, eight spring-loaded tension wires, and four sliding pick shafts thinner than a human hair.

I picked up the black metal bracelet and snapped it onto my left wrist.

Click.

The inner circumference of the bracelet adjusted automatically to fit my arm perfectly. I closed my hand into a fist, channeled a tiny pulse of golden mana through my palm, and flicked my wrist downward.

SNIKT.

In a fraction of a second, four ultra-fine star-iron needles extended three inches from the edge of the bracelet, hovering just over my knuckles. One needle was an acoustic resonance probe, one was a tension wrench, and two were flexible multi-stage pick shafts capable of changing their shape inside a keyhole.

I flicked my wrist upward, and the needles retracted back into the star-iron bracelet with a soft, seamless click.

“Perfect,” I murmured, running my thumb over the smooth black surface. “Completely unnoticeable, completely non-magnetic, and light enough to wear under a silk sleeve.”

If I was going into a room full of high nobles, grand mages, and imperial delegates, I wasn’t going unarmed.

To a locksmith, the right tool wasn’t a sword. It was the ability to open any door, disarm any trap, and crack any vault without anyone noticing.

A sudden, loud thud sounded from above, followed by the clatter of falling wooden crates in the showroom.

“Silvester!” Tibbar’s frantic voice echoed down the stone staircase. “Silvester, get up here! Kino is back, and he brought two muscular ratmen with crowbars!”

I closed my tool chest, pulled down my coat sleeve to hide the star-iron bracelet, and walked up the stone stairs into the showroom.

The afternoon sun was pouring through our front glass window. Standing in the middle of the shop was Kino, the skinny ratfolk landlord. He was wearing his greasy green vest, flanked by two towering rat beastman thugs holding heavy iron pry bars.

“I am telling you, old rabbit!” Kino was sneering, tapping his skinny finger against our mahogany counter. “The monthly maintenance fee for corner shops went up yesterday by order of the district market board! You owe me another ten gold coins, or my boys will start dismantling those fancy window shutters!”

Tibbar was standing behind the counter, holding a heavy brass candlestick like a club, his long grey ears laid flat against his head in pure rage. “You greedy little parasite! We signed a contract for twenty gold a month! We paid you two months upfront!”

“Contracts change when prices rise!” Kino laughed, his long whiskers twitching arrogantly. “What are you going to do about it? Call the guards? The market inspector is my second cousin!”

I stepped out from behind the counter, walking smoothly between Tibbar and the two rat thugs.

“Is there a problem here, Kino?” I asked in a calm, clear voice.

Kino looked down at me, letting out a loud, mocking snort. “Ah, the kid artisan! Listen to me, human boy. Pay the ten gold coins, or we start breaking floorboards right now.”

I didn’t answer with words. I simply reached up to my dark brown coat, unbuttoned my outer flap, and turned my chest slightly toward the afternoon light.

The silver Crest of Felis.

The gleaming emblem of a leaping cat holding a golden key caught the sunlight, flashing brilliantly against my lapel.

Kino’s eyes locked onto the badge.

His long whiskers froze. His long, pink rat nose twitched once, twice, and then his entire face drained of color until he looked like a fresh sheet of white parchment.

“Is… is that…” Kino stammered, his small black eyes bulging out of his head. “The… the High Noble Crest of the Marquis?”

“Lady Colleen van Felis gave it to my boss personally!” Tibbar chimed in, suddenly stepping forward and puffing out his chest with immense pride. “The Earthen Vault is under the official patronage of the Lord Governor’s house! We pay zero daily taxes, zero extra market fees, and if anyone bothers our business, border knights will personally throw them into the salt mines!”

The two rat thugs behind Kino looked at the silver crest, looked at each other, and instantly dropped their heavy iron crowbars onto the floorboards with loud, clattering thuds.

“My… my deepest apologies!” Kino shrieked, instantly dropping to his knees and bowing his head so low his long nose literally brushed against the dusty floorboards. “I did not know! I had no idea Master Silvester was a noble patron! Please forgive my foolishness! Forgive me!”

“What about the extra ten gold coins for maintenance?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Forgone! Canceled! Erased from memory!” Kino squeaked desperately, waving his skinny hands in the air. “In fact… rent is fifty percent off for the next year! Please do not tell the Marquis! I have a mother and seven younger brothers to feed!”

“Get out of my shop, Kino,” I said flatly. “And if I see your thugs near my window again, I will have Lady Colleen audit your property taxes.”i

Enjoying the journey? Don’t let the adventure stop here!