I Can See Evolution Paths

Chapter 61: The Hall of Iron

They heard the Iron Hall before they saw it.

Not because the building was close, but because the sounds coming from it didn’t need proximity to reach them. A clang that hit the sternum and a boom that followed two seconds later. Then a voice echoed out. "It exploded again."

Then smoke.

Arthur stopped walking. "Should we help?" he said.

"I don’t think that’s unusual," Mithra said.

A professor emerged from the smoke, walking at a pace with no urgency, writing in a small notebook.

"Prototype Thirty-Seven," the professor said to himself. "Slight improvement."

Arthur looked at the smoke. "Slight," he said.

Inside, the Iron Hall was organized chaos, run by people who’d made peace with constant failure and kept going anyway.

A student near the entrance raised a sword above his head. "I DID IT!" he shouted.

He swung it once.

The sword flew from his hand, spun completely around in the air, and started moving back toward him with clear intent.

"WHY ARE YOU ANGRY?!" the student said, running.

Five students from a nearby workstation joined the chase, either helping or just curious.

Arthur simply laughed at this.

Across the room, a student announced he’d solved the recoil problem with his new gauntlet and punched a training dummy to prove it. The gauntlet punched him back, and he hit the wall.

The instructor didn’t look up from his notes. "Better than last week," he said.

The student, from the wall. "Really?"

"Only one broken rib this time."

Someone threw a spear. It curved, came back, and struck the thrower in the shoulder. He sat down on the ground, thinking about it.

Then across the floor, a crystal shield formed clean and complete, holding its shape without flickering. The three nearest students clapped. A fourth, further off, looked up and nodded approvingly.

Arthur watched all of this.

"I like these people," he said.

Mithra tilted her head. "They’re strange."

"They’re engineers," Athena said.

Arthur looked at her. "Same thing," he said.

...

The Hall’s culture showed in the small moments.

When one student’s weapon exploded badly, nobody laughed. Five people ran over immediately, recognizing the problem, not just the situation.

"Crystal alignment?" someone asked.

"No," the student said. "I forgot the third rune."

"Oh," said the first. "That’ll do it."

Everyone was already helping before the conversation finished.

A professor walking past paused at a student sitting in front of a failed prototype.

"You failed?" the professor said.

The student lowered his head. "Yes."

The professor smiled. "Good."

"Good?"

"It means you’re still trying," the professor said, and kept walking.

Arthur grinned quietly. "I really like this Hall," he said.

Athena nodded. "I thought you would."

Nobody had to say the rule out loud.

Failure wasn’t embarrassing here.

Arthur watched another failed weapon explode. "Nobody gets angry."

Mithra smiled. "They’re trying to improve."

Arthur nodded. "I really like places like that."

...

The shadow arrived before the man did, which made sense given the size of both.

Forge Master Ivan looked like someone shaped by years of hard work rather than born this size. Soot covered most of his visible clothing. A hammer rested on one shoulder like it had been put down there years ago and never moved since.

He looked at the cracked spear Vedas was carrying.

"Which welp broke this?" he said.

Arthur raised his hand on Vedas’s behalf. "My buddy."

Ivan took the spear and studied the cracks like he was reading something in a language he knew well.

"Dragon," he said.

"He tried to pierce dragon scales," Arthur said.

Ivan looked up slowly. "You let a Goblin attack a dragon."

"Of course," Arthur said, in the tone he used for things that seemed obvious to him. "That’s what weapons are for. If they can’t hurt something stronger, they’re not much use."

The Iron Hall kept up its noise around them.

Ivan stared at Arthur for a long moment.

Then he started laughing. Not politely. Properly.

"I LIKE YOU!" he said, loud enough to turn heads.

He pointed at Arthur with the hand holding the spear. "Exactly. A weapon doesn’t care about the odds. It exists to be used."

Arthur nodded, then added, "Although I should correct one thing."

Ivan raised an eyebrow.

"The dragon isn’t stronger than Vedas," Arthur said. "It’s just refusing to fall behind."

Vedas lowered his head slightly. "Arthur."

Ivan stared at Arthur for several seconds. Not because of the words, but because Arthur clearly believed them completely. No hesitation at all. "...You really think your Goblin is the equal of a dragon?"

"Obviously," Arthur said. "What, you thought he was weaker?"

Sun and Athena opened their mouths. "Well, to be fair—"

"Don’t be silly," Arthur continued. "He isn’t inferior to anyone."

Vedas smiled quietly.

Then Arthur casually pointed behind Ivan. "...Not even her."

Ivan turned. "So," he said. "You noticed."

The lava near the back wall had gone still enough to look like stone. Now it moved, and what rose through it was not small and not quiet about arriving. Six eyes opened, each a different shade of red that read as heat rather than color. Scarred crimson scales, each one marked by something that had tried to end her and failed. Lava ran down her sides in slow rivers and pooled where she displaced it.

The Crimson Salamander looked over the room.

One pair of crimson eyes drifted slowly toward Arthur.

She didn’t growl. She didn’t move. She just watched him.

Arthur blinked. "...She really does have pretty eyes."

Every sound in the Iron Hall stopped.

Students froze mid-swing. Instructors froze mid-sentence. The student chasing the sword forgot about it entirely.

The pressure was real and total, and Arthur’s instincts placed it just below the Unknown Beast above the convoy, and well above everything else he’d faced. Through their bond, he could feel Vedas’s reaction. Not the full terror from the convoy, but instinctive recognition that this creature was vastly stronger than him in every way.

Beside him, the beasts lowered their heads.

Melo’s ears dropped first. Athy’s wings pressed close. Kong moved to Sun’s shoulder and went very still. Even Vedas, who’d stood in front of Mephistopheles without flinching, began to bow.

None of them had chosen to bow. Their instincts had chosen for them.

Arthur frowned. "No... I don’t like that."

His eyes narrowed, and then the system registered his thoughts in the next moment.

[Title Changed: Great Leader]

"Stand up," Arthur said.

Nobody moved.

Arthur looked at his team, at the beasts, at the expressions of people doing something they hadn’t chosen to do.

"Stand up," he said, louder. "What was the disaster training for? What was the willpower training for? We’re going to spend the rest of our lives walking into places with something bigger in them than we are." He looked at each of them in turn.

All of them trembled, then gritted their teeth.

"If we’re only brave in front of things weaker than us," Arthur said, "then we were never brave to begin with." His voice stayed calm. "Our journey isn’t supposed to get easier. It’s supposed to get bigger."

A pause.

"I’m planning to take all of you around the entire world," he said. "So stand up."

Sun’s head came up first. "Who said I was going anywhere with you?"

"I haven’t agreed to anything," Athena said.

Mithra laughed. "He’s right, though. Breaking here means the road ends."

Sun turned to Mithra. "Stop agreeing with him!"

"We both said stop!" Athena added.

Vedas straightened completely, and the War Shout came from somewhere deep and certain.

"I WILL NOT BOW."

The shout echoed through the Iron Hall. Not the loudest sound the Hall had ever heard, but one delivered with total conviction. Every student turned toward him instinctively. Even the instructors paused.

One older student quietly lowered his hammer. "He actually stood..."

An instructor smiled. "Good."

Another student whispered, "...Against Ira?"

The Crimson Salamander slowly turned all six eyes toward him.

Silence spread through the forge.

The Crimson Salamander continued watching Vedas.

One second.

Two.

Three.

Nobody breathed.

Then she slowly blinked, and the pressure disappeared. Vedas and the other beasts stumbled forward.

Ivan was laughing again. "Not bad," he said, resting one hand on the Salamander’s side. "It seems we have some stubborn idiots."

Arthur nodded proudly. "I agree. We’re too stubborn to lose."

Athena pressed two fingers to her forehead. "That isn’t what he meant."

Ivan looked at Arthur. "But it isn’t wrong." He was grinning now, the grin of someone who’d done this for years and finally found something worth grinning at. "Iron Hall takes students with one requirement. Iron will. How about joining?"

"Does every student who joins have to survive your partner’s pressure first?" Arthur asked.

Ivan paused. "Well—"

"That’s incredible," Arthur said. "This Hall is full of terrifying people."

He looked around with admiration. "No wonder your weapons are so amazing. You all endured something like that."

The nearby students immediately straightened.

One proudly crossed his arms.

Another puffed out his chest.

Someone muttered, "...Did you hear that?"

Another nodded. "He called us terrifying."

"I knew joining Iron Hall was the right choice."

"See?"

"We’re pretty amazing."

One student nodded proudly. "I knew all those explosions were worth it."

Another crossed his arms. "I’ve always said pain builds character."

"...You complained all week."

"I’ve grown since then."

Even one of the instructors smiled to himself, then pretended nothing had happened.

Athena blinked, then opened her mouth. "Arthur—"

Mithra clapped a hand over her mouth. "Keep going."

Athena rolled her eyes and sighed.

Sun watched all this. "You love fanning flames," he said.

Mithra smiled. "Very much."

Arthur was still thinking. "But wait," he said. "If everyone here can survive her pressure," he looked at Ivan, "doesn’t that mean your partner isn’t actually that impressive?"

The students froze.

The instructor’s smile disappeared.

The student who’d been standing proudly lowered his arms.

One hammer slipped from someone’s hand.

CLANG.

Nobody picked it up.

"He didn’t."

"He did."

"He actually said that."

Ivan stood completely still.

The Crimson Salamander turned slowly to look at Ivan directly.

She gave him an annoyed look, made a scoffing sound, then sank back into the lava with the dignity of something that had decided this conversation wasn’t worth continuing.

Arthur waved at the lava. "Bye!"

The Crimson Salamander flicked the tip of her tail once, then disappeared beneath the molten surface. Deep beneath the lava, a quiet rumbling laugh echoed once.

Then silence.

Ivan stood in complete silence. Then his laughter shook the entire forge. "HAHAHAHA!"

A few students looked between Arthur and Ivan.

Then one snorted.

Another started laughing.

Before long, laughter spread across the forge.

Even a few instructors shook their heads, smiling despite themselves.

Arthur blinked. "...Did I say something funny?"

Ivan wiped a tear from the corner of one eye and rested the hammer back on his shoulder.

"You really are one crazy welp, aren’t you?"

Then a mischievous smile crossed his face. "But you’re mistaken about something."

"Huh?"

"That little test I gave you..." He paused. "I only ever gave it to you guys."

Arthur nodded. "I understand."

Ivan smiled. "You do?"

Arthur pointed toward the students. "So they haven’t taken the real entrance exam yet."

All of the students froze.

Ivan laughed and said. "They have. You truly weren’t meant to withstand the pressure."

Arthur’s eyes widened. "I see. Then everyone else in here isn’t that special after all."

Every student blinked, with some rubbing their eyes or picking their ears.

"I should really apologize to her then. What’s her name—"

"Ira."

"I should apologize to Ira." Arthur nodded, then added, "...Wait."

One student’s eyes narrowed. "...What do you mean by we aren’t that special?"

"It should be obvious." He smiled at them. "But don’t worry. With enough training, I’m sure you’ll all get there someday."

"..."

"..."

Arthur smiled. "I’m cheering for you."

Nobody knew how to respond.

Mithra completely lost the fight against laughter.