Vivi woke up with her forehead resting on her anvil.

She'd never been as groggy as she was now. Lifting her head, a wave of nausea nearly made her puke. She didn't see straight. Her mind felt dried of all water, as if it'd been poked empty with a sharp stick.

"Eem?" Vivi asked. The fiend's blurry figure stood in the corner of the room, snarling at something.

A concentration of ether welled up in the opposite end of the room. Vivi squinted. One of the anvils was flying in mid-air. It looked as if it had gained a mouth and eyes. She rubbed her eyes. What was going on?

"Vivi, it's the monster!" Lucius shouted. "Wake up!"

Vivi blinked and her senses flinched to reality. A rush of adrenaline shot her to her feet at the sight of the monster.

One of the anvils had been reanimated into a monster. The anvil became twice its size. Ether oozed out of its gaping black eyeholes. The mouth was lined with sharp teeth. The anvil walked on pitch black stick-like legs.

Vivi picked up her war hammer and shouted, "Get off of her!"

The war hammer was fully completed. Vivi had even added finishing touches. The shaft was fully covered in white obsidian wrap to protect the ether root inside. A full metal shaft would have been stronger but creating one would have been impractical. A light layer of protection was enough.

The asmite hammer at the top was larger than Vivi's head. The face-side was shaped like a lump hammer with a large impact area. The backside was sharp with veins poking out from the metal. Ether couldn't be distributed into the hammer through the shaft, as the two were separate from each other. The hammer had its own veins poking out, where the runes had been carved.

Vivi pushed ether into the strife runes, and the asmite hammer glowed orange. It heated up hotter than magma.

With all her weight, ether filling her muscles, Vivi swung at the anvil monster.

The face of her hammer hit the anvil directly in its disgusting mouth. The sharp teeth cracked and shattered. The anvil stumbled back, its stick-legs losing balance. It tipped over and fell on its back, struggling to get up.

Vivi raised her hammer again, this time hitting from overhead. The wind-up was long; the hammer was far heavier and larger than something a girl of Vivi's size should have wielded.

The hammer crashed down with the weight of a storied mansion. The floor under the monster dented. The anvil's face and teeth were squished in.

The monster died. Sizzling ether rose from its body. All that was left behind was a dented anvil, cracked cleanly in half and pushed into the dented ground.

Lucius collected four hundred ether from the monster, placing it all against Vivi's debts.

The orange light was flashing above the doors. Vivi didn't have time to place the hammer into spatial storage before the doors opened, and two demons with shocked expressions rushed inside.

"Human!" one of them said in surprise. He was a large man with long hair and a build similar to Aang's, though he carried a lot less ether and wore a black jacket. "What are you doing here?"

"Um, sorry," Vivi said. She stood still with her hammer. "One of your anvils turned into a monster. I'm sorry for breaking it."

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The demons stood with baffled expressions. "You killed it? You broke the anvil with that?"

Vivi smiled awkwardly. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to say at this point. Her war hammer was large enough that just carrying it required ether. Vivi must have looked like an ant compared to her weapon. There was no doubt that the demons suspected she was a breaker.

Another demon rushed in after the two. It was Ven. "What happened?" Ven asked.

"That's… a good question," the guard said.

"A monster spawned," Vivi said. "I killed it."

Ven furrowed his brows but nodded. "You two, don't speak a word of this. If rumors break out, I know who to blame. You'll both be kicked out. Close the doors. I'll speak to her alone."

The two looked weirded out, but they nodded and shut the doors.

"Sorry about that," Ven said. "You look like you're made of metal, Vivi. Is everything alright?"

"It's, uh, the sign of hard work," she said.

Ven snorted, shaking his head with an amused smile. "What monster spawned? An anvil head?"

"Yes," Vivi said. She placed her hammer into spatial storage. Ven had already seen the trick happen; there was no use hiding it.

"I'm surprised you could defeat it. It has been a while since one of those spawned. Last time, we had to evacuate the building. Don't worry about the damages. Did you get to complete your work?"

"Yes, I'm finished," Vivi said. "Here's the katana again. For five thousand ether."

She summoned the two-runed katana and showed it to Ven.

"We're ready to buy it," Ven said, "but not here. Hide it and bring it to the tavern."

Vivi agreed. She drank a cup of water. With some hydration in her head, the nausea slowly started to fade, though she was far from calling herself awake.

Ven brought out the sack again. Eem and Vivi hopped in, and they were transported out of the smithy.

This time, the trip was longer. The sack smelled like metal. Although, the smell probably came from Vivi. Her fingers were nearly black with aspen dust, her forehead had rested on an anvil for the night, and strands of hair were sticking to each other. All around, she looked enough like a ruffian that even she would have been embarrassed to show herself outside.

If she was in Fellwater, that was. In Zand, nothing mattered. She could have stepped out with a bloody head and burned skin and nobody would have cared. As long as Vivi had her raincoat on, she didn't mind her appearance.

The sack opened after a few minutes of being carried deeper into the dungeon. Vivi found herself in the Hollows' private tavern. Aang and Rensfig were sitting by the counter studying a blueprint of sorts. When Vivi arrived, they folded the blueprint and pushed it aside.

"Welcome," Aang said. "Ven relayed the deal. He agreed on my behalf to buy your sword."

Hopefully they won't trap us in another lecture, Vivi thought. She summoned her sword and went straight to business.

"Five thousand ether," Vivi said. "I don't need this one anymore. I'd gladly get rid of it."

"And we can't convince you to show it to the Stewards?" Aang asked.

Why are they still so adamant on this… Vivi thought with a sigh. "No. If you won't buy it, I'll keep it as a backup."

"Just buy it," Rensfig said. The old runesmith looked annoyed about the whole situation.

"We can pay with a direct transfer," Aang said.

"That works."

The demons discussed payment amongst each other for a minute, until Aang transferred ether directly from his reserves. Her debts dropped to 68382. Vivi counted that the transfer was exactly five thousand wisps. She gave them the katana.

Aang bowed silently and accepted the offer. None of the demons were smiling. They regarded her sword silently, as if they'd just bought an illegal piece of contraband that would curse them if they looked at it wrong.

"Such weirdos," Lucius said. "Demons never make sense. They just don't."

At least these demons aren't trying to kill us, Vivi thought.

"I'd like to get going now," Vivi said. "Thank you for your hospitality. Using the smithy was a huge help."

"You don't need a bath before leaving?" Ven asked.

"I have things to do," Vivi said. "But thanks for the offer."

Ven looked at her weird. "If you're heading to the hidden dungeon, I'd be careful. Two guards went missing there a day or so ago. Nobody knows what happened. An investigation has been launched. It's not safe to hunt there right now. All of the gangs have agreed not to enter the hidden dungeon until everyone is a hundred percent clear of suspicion."

Vivi bit her lip. Well, we knew this would happen. This is why we left the first two rooms of the main dungeon untouched. Hopefully they don't investigate deeper.

"Thanks for the warning," Vivi said. "I'll wait before doing anything stupid."

Somehow, Vivi had a feeling nobody in the room believed her. Aang and Ven looked like they wanted to say something. But in the end, the Union members were just trading partners. It didn't matter if they thought Vivi was being reckless.

Let's go, Vivi thought. We'll clear the second level today.

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