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Chapter 274: Furnace and Fire

Helios tapped the side of his head, “You wish to start that today? Right now?”

I gave him a thumbs-up, “Yes, I do. Come on. Let’s go.”

I floated him along to Springfield, each of us crossing over the woodlands of Michigan. Once near the beginnings of Springfield, we viewed the aftermath of our battle with Yawm in its full light. Many of the buildings were collapsed, several gigantic craters sprawled across the city’s surface. New kinds of fungi and mushrooms cropped up, filling in some of the voided wildlife from before the porytian’s arrival.

By now, the forest crept into the town, no one coming back to this ghost town. Well, not most. My guild explored here often for the dungeons, most of them higher level than usual thanks to Yawm. Springfield was a breeding ground for stronger rifts, and its proximity to Mt. Verner made it the perfect place to train up veteran dungeon clearers.

We looked around for one of those dungeons, trying to get one large and secure enough for an elemental furnace’s fallout. It took a few minutes before I found the sewer system, exploring it once more to find a dungeon still there. I waved at Helios,

“Here, we’ll use this.”

Helios followed me into a tunnel leading to a jungled expanse. This was one of the first dungeons I ever entered, and I fought against two random mercenaries here. They used arcane magic, my first introduction to the violet beams of death. Initially, I wondered why those guys came to Earth as they had. After discovering how valuable dungeon cores were, it all made sense. They would have made a killing if they hadn’t met me.

Since then, the sewers evolved entirely. New, vibrant, and toxic growths splurted out of every surface. The entirety of the space expanded, along with the denizens that occupied it. When I came last time, I hadn’t even recognized that I’d waltzed into a rift because I thought every dungeon was like my first.

Instead, I discovered that few dungeons were guarded by Sentinels, and even fewer locked you inside and wouldn’t let you out. By comparison, this was average, only a steeled gate keeping the wildlife in. Of that wildlife, some new kind of mole species moved in, and they expanded the tunnels beneath Springfield. Their claw marks on their many burrows exposed their weapons of choice, along with their dominance underground.

At the same time, they warred with an insect colony of some sort in the distance. I could hear the sound of claws and keratin clashing, the insects and moles tearing each other apart. These ants were armored on their fronts, extra limbs growing out of their backs. These mirrored a praying mantis’s limbs, ready to grab and hold down anything coming nearby.

These armored ants defended their queen lying deep in their colony center. The moles kept their leadership dispersed, the strongest of them deciding how to approach the situation. These moles used creepy, finger laden noses to cast fire magic and enhance their healing. They matched with one another well.

This stalemate showed itself within the dungeon’s layout. Many tunnels led to other tunnels, each haphazardly spread about. This left the place in a state of utter disarray, most animals here needing to burrow just to move around. In these hallowed halls, life thrived amongst their chaos.

The roof of the dungeon sported some glowing fungus, likely some variant from Yawm’s invasion. These spore pods showered everything in a green-blue light.

If an animal swooped near a pod, it burst, coating the creature in gunk that quickly congealed. Soaking into the victim, the goo created these zombied, fungal creatures that served the greater fungal good. They fought over the corpses, the fungi benefiting from the mole and ants war.

Helios and I stepped into this veritable lion’s den, several ants passing us without realizing what we were. A few carried spore pods on their backs, each of them working with the fungus to eliminate the moles. On the other hand, when a mole rose from the ground beneath us, it noticed us right away. With a nose covered in squirming fingers, it wriggled as it dashed at us, its mouth opened wide.

Helios raised a hand, but I acted first.

“Stop.”

Like Yawm before me, the creature caved under the pressure of my voice. In the distance, the ants and moles ceased fighting, many of them beginning to hide. Helios scoffed,

“Cowardly, aren’t they?”

I shrugged, disintegrating the mole in front of us with Event Horizon,

“Eh, these guys don’t have a chance in hell of fighting us. Giving up is wisdom here.”

As the mana wafted to me, Helios eyed the stream of energy, and he shook off some discomfort,

“Hm, perhaps.”

He stared at the mana without needing to see it. In fact, Helios gestured about with a natural air that was downright uncanny once I thought about it. After all, the guy was blind. I wasn’t trying to be mean spirited here, but I believed blind people wouldn’t understand facial gestures well. Either way, Helios shattered that idea entirely, so I wanted to figure out why.

“Hey man, before we get to practicing, I wanted to ask something.”

“You will no doubt assault me with a plethora of questions, so do digress.”

I lifted my hands, “You’re blind, right?”

“Yes. You’ve seen my eyes. Your point?”

“How come you still make facial expressions, even under your mask?”

Helios raised his eyes, “Ah, I see. That’s a strange question. I expected something else rather than bringing up my disabilities. How polite of you.”

“I’m not trying to knock you down here. I’m genuinely curious.”

“Then I’ll give you a genuine answer. Facial expressions are not taught nor learned. They are largely instinctual. To that effect, I often articulate them without meaning to. If anything, I’ve had to learn to numb my expressions for the exact reason you mentioned. They are obvious to those that see beneath my mask.”

Helios raised a hand, “I learned long ago that those capable of interpreting my facial expressions could read me easily. I’ve taken my nonverbal communication under my control because of that fact, and this means enacting a measure of control over my actions.”

Helios pointed at me, “In time, my adaptations and awareness gave me newfound abilities. For instance, unlike most, I am often able to tell if someone is lying or telling the truth. Sentients often focus on the face when telling lies, not the sounds in someone’s voice. Hearing those gentle differences in tone and inflection, I can tell if someone is lying. My blindness makes spotting those fluctuations second nature to me.”

Helios crossed his arms, “Even with my sense for mana, I oftentimes find other people’s faces muddled as well. Their facial expressions don’t distract me for this reason, and I see the truth of what they’re saying instead of their faces.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Damn, so you’re like a lie detector?”

“In some ways, yes. I can also read the mana around me with great detail. That is why I can often read you with ease, though you’ve lied rarely if ever.”

I pointed at myself, “Do people look different because of your mana? What do I look like?”

“Your mana is blinding compared to what’s around you, especially when you release it. This makes you easy to spot and makes your outline far more definite and absolute. Most look faint by comparison.”

“Man, I never knew it was that involved. I thought you just used something like echolocation.”

Helios sighed, “Hah, echolocation is a method I’ve considered. However, controlling mana is far harder than controlling sound. For that reason, using sound as a second method for sight is fickle. If someone placed a silencing spell over me, I’d be unable to comprehend my surroundings if I relied on sound. Fighting in a vacuum or underwater would expose this weakness as well if I relied on something so unreliable.”

Helios made eye contact with me right after,

“This is why I use the will of other’s minds to find them.”

“So why do you make so much eye contact then?”

Helios raised a hand, “Most species find a lack of eye contact uncomfortable. I find that people associate a genuine connection with eye contact alone. I abuse this factor to the fullest. In reality, eye contact dictates very little of someone’s genuine emotions. As is the case with me, someone could mimic eye contact to trick someone into thinking they care when they, in fact, do not.”

I frowned, “Oh, so you’re pretending you give a shit?”

Helios gave me a sarcastic grin, “Ah, you’ve found me out. Perhaps you aren’t so blind after all?”

“Alright wise guy, could you teach me to do that?”

Helios tilted back, “Do your eyes not serve you well enough?”

“Not all the time. Plus, it’s always good to have several ways of finding someone. I know I end up with my head blown up in fights more often than I’d like. Being able to sense mana without my eyes might be helpful then.”

Helios crossed his arms, “You would need to suppress your other senses then focus on the life force and mana around you. Remember, mana is your will and intellect manifested in the physical world. Only strong minds manifest mana, and most creatures will barely register at all.”

He shrugged, “Outside of that, search for your own mana amidst the dessert of it floating around you. It shall shine like a sun in the middle of night, and that shall make finding it easier. Perhaps you shall uncover a hidden talent.”

He smirked, “Perhaps not.”

I pulled out my elemental furnace,

“I’ll give that a shot later. Let’s get this lesson started.”

Helios lifted his gauntleted hand, pointing at the cipher encryptions,

“You believe you’ll be talented at this?”

“I do. I can feel it.”

Helios raised his eyebrows, “There’s much that is required for furnace work, and few can handle it. What makes you believe you’re so different?”

There were several reasons, honestly. For starters, I used blood magic, meaning I was used to converting stuff into mana already. At the same time, being a dimension might help me out here. So far, working with the cipher was more straightforward than usual for me for that reason. That’s one of the main reasons I learned the inscriptions on my own when a genius like Torix couldn’t.

Combine that with my ability to work with high volumes of mana, and I had every tool I needed to succeed here. Helios didn’t need to know all that, though.

“Eh, I just have a feeling.”

“Very well.” He turned his gauntleted hand, giving me a better view of it,

“This is an elemental furnace. Simply put, you siphon mana into it, it splits atoms before converting the raw energy into usable mana. This requires a burst of energy to begin, then very slow trickles of it to maintain the ongoing reaction. Few would do so given the explosive volumes of mana these generate.”

“So it’s kind of like lighting a fuse?”

“In some respects, yes. A bomb is an apt comparison since a simple mistake in this energy generation process results in a colossal, nuclear explosion with you at the center of it.”

I peered at my black jade, “Sounds…fun.”

“Oh, it is. I’ve known seven others who’ve died from pursuing this venture. Be careful about this. Your success is my path to redemption, so your death would look unfavorable for me.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Now how do I make the generated mana useful?”

“That depends on you. The mana this object creates is untamed and wild. It requires tremendous willpower to contain it, and if one lacks that willpower, the mana will diffuse throughout them. In the end, you’ll lose your mind in the process.”

The more he talked about this process, the more tailor-made I seemed for the whole thing. I nodded,

“That makes sense. What next?”

“Once the magic is contained, a firm constitution is required. Without a durable body, the mana flow will result in the destruction of a person’s entire being. They will boil their blood and explode, unable to utilize the mana generated. That is why I and Obolis both have invested heavily in both constitution and endurance. Many Fringe Walkers are the same in that regard, at least those with access to a furnace.”

I raised my other hand, making it glow with mana, “So the mana flow would be like this, right?”

Helios paused.

“Uhm…yes, like that. Perhaps you are right. You do seem built for this.”

“Is there anything else to it?”

“Ahem, so you…you must then wield the mana as if it were your own. If you cannot hold the mana in place, you’ll be unable to restrain your spellwork. This can result in misfiring a cast, which will likely result in a horrific death.”

“So, if I’m already used to using large volumes of mana, I’ll be able to work with this no problem?”

“If that were the case, it would certainly help.”

“And that’s it?”

Helios grimaced, “I understand your confidence, but do not let it run wild. You could get us both killed, along with this ugly, ancient town we walked into. Schema wouldn’t even know why you brought us to this disgusting, filthy place just to perish in nuclear fire.”

I scoffed, “Come on, it’s not so bad. This was once my hometown.”

Helios stared up, “Ah, it has fallen into disrepair, it seems. Where you unable to protect it perhaps?”

I frowned, “Yeah, for the most part. I didn’t exactly help keep this place maintained.”

Helios shrugged, “Each of us has limits. We must accept that and move on with them in mind.”

I lifted my elemental furnace

“Well, let’s figure out my limits here.”

Helios took a few deep breaths, composing himself. Helios raised a hand,

“Wait a moment. We must first detail a contingency plan if the elemental flow of energy isn’t contained.”

“I doubt that’ll be an issue. Worst comes to worst, I’ll throw it into my dimensional shield.”

I spawned the shield before rolling my shoulders,

“Here it goes.”

Helios looked around, trying to find cover. Before he could, I channeled some mana into the furnace. The ancient runes kicked into high gear, my mana clinking in place to fuel a preset series of commands. Giving the device way too much energy, the runes glowed, and the jade shook in my palm. The air around me shifted dark, an umbral tone infesting it. This cloud crackled and popped with an eerie foreboding.

I clanked my teeth together, ready for the onslaught of mana. As the aura around me snapped into the jade, a vast, enormous wave of power poured out from the device. It rushed into my frame, filling me with energy and vitality. I devoured much of the mana, my armor grinning with glee. My blood boiling, I trembled at the feast.

Seconds passed, and my armor glowed a bright white. I poured more of the energy into my cipher runes, and they engulfed some of the incoming rushes of energy. These sources of reduction proved incomplete, and the energy poured into my mind like a waterfall crashing onto me from overhead. It was as Helios described – wild and untamed.

The mana slammed into me like some insane phantom wishing to possess my body. It’s entire being lacked anything uniform or coherent, yet the sheer size of its mind was behemothic. It was nothing like battling with Torix, more mirroring a mass of unleashed thoughts. These babblings and urges wanted to overwhelm me, pulling my concentration in a thousand different directions.

If anything, this entity of pandemonium mirrored an Old One, its mind profound with depth. These alien desires weren’t made for this world, however. They were the results of the cipher converting energy into something usable by a mind. This didn’t make it easy to use, however.

Despite this struggle, I’d wrestled with similar sensations before, both with Eonoth and Etorhma. My essential mind magic helped hold me together here as well. It allowed me to suppress this incoming, volatile entity. I took it head-on, tearing it apart from many angles. For the main rush, I stayed in place, unable to move or think of anything else.

It consumed me. It reminded me of when I was young and angry. My rage would be so blinding, I wouldn’t even be able to move. This was similar, the strain stretching me to the absolute limit of my mind’s ability to defend and my will’s ability to endure.

Yet endure I did. I planted my heels, and I tightened my fists. I narrowed my eyes, staring forward at this monster. That monster, the untamed mana, stared back at me and roared. Having condensed it, I waved Event Horizon over the mana. It shivered, the uncentered mind screaming out in agony.

I crushed it under my heel, telepathically roaring at it with the might of a dimension. I shattered its unformed soul, giving it only one place to find peace. It found that sanctuary by relenting, the energy assimilating into my frame. The mana converted into my own will and into my own wishes.

It gave me energy everlasting. It emboldened me with thoughts of madness. It whispered thoughts of eternal life and power. I quieted those voices, tempering the new ideas and will as if it were my own internal demons. As my battle settled down into a light whisper, I contained the mana with one last burst of will.

I won.

Falling back, I crushed rock underneath me while letting out a gasp. If I could sweat, I’d be drenched at this point. My heart pounded in my chest like a sledgehammer against stone, and I could feel my pulse in my ears. Helios gawked at me in the distance. At first, horror spread over his face. As I looked at him, he shook that off.

The albony whispered, his voice wobbling ever so slightly,

“Hmmm…That was a first.”

I lifted a thumb, “I didn’t expect it to be that hard. You were right. I should’ve taken it slow.”

Helios let his hands flop against his sides, “You’re ability to listen is perhaps a skill you should invest more time into. Despite your hubris, we’re alive. Thank Schema for that.”

I let out a deep sigh, my mind’s exhaustion fading, “Ah man, I definitely need to put in less mana than I thought.”

Helios shook his head,

“It is strange. I’ve never seen that done before.”

“Someone nail the furnace thing in their first try? How else can it be done?”

“You either succeed or fail in a fire. I wasn’t speaking of the furnace. I meant you forming a mythical skill with such ease. You must have formed a backbone of trees and experience for it already. Otherwise, this should be impossible.”

“Huh. A mythical skill, eh?”

I opened my status, and sure enough, Helios was right.

New mythical skill gained! 1,000 skill points rewarded for the skill’s creation. Matter Conversion(lvl 10) – By defying the will of matter, you’ve used the energy stored in the atoms around you. You harvest ash into light, and you enliven that which is most still.

Well done.

I raised a hand, a grin popping up on my face. This was an absolutely massive boon for me. I’d been working on a few tasks that I wasn’t skilled at recently. That slowed down my skill gain by several orders of magnitude, but despite that, I still made progress. Matter Conversion felt like something I was born to do in comparison, much of the difficulty involved similar to containing my own mana flows long ago.

It was like I was going into a battle I’d fought a thousand times because of that. That meant this wasn’t me getting a skill for free. If anything, this was just putting a name on something I already understood deeply. Mana was a mind’s will manifested physically after all. To rule it, you must contain the flow with your own mental direction. For that, I had plenty of practice.

Every time I used blood magic, it was using a process similar to this, but the scale and scope of mana production were entirely different. Before, I was working with pebbles, and this was like working with boulders. It required far less investment in health yet more focus from my mind. I imagined a furnace burning without my experience, and the idea made me shiver. That would be nearly impossible.

Turning to the guy, those realizations instilled newfound respect in me for Helios. To use a furnace, he risked his life and mind. That took some serious dedication, and he did it without needing to. Ambition and guts got him here, and I had to give props to that. I stared down at my jade,

“So, you’ve been doing that for a while now?”

“When necessary. I use it in large battles to fuel equally large incantations. I’m surprised you handled that surge of energy earlier for that very reason. For a beginner, that was an immensity of mana. How did you control it?”

“Well, I’ve been making a lot of mana for a long time. To control it, I’ve needed to direct and control that mana on my own. This isn’t that different, though I have to admit, I almost bit off more than I could chew just now. That comes with the territory of trying new things.”

Helios furrowed his brow, “You create mana with your mind. The mana from a furnace is like a beast by comparison. The device surges mana into your mind before you must tame it at that moment. That nameless monster it summons cannot be reasoned with. You must make it obey, else you’ll be consumed.”

Helios tilted his head, “This is often a desperate struggle for most since their own mana works differently. That is what I don’t understand. How is the chaotic entity a furnace summons like your own mana? Are you too aimless and hateful?”

I shrugged, “I mean, my mana’s always been like some monster as far back as I can remember. It took a lot of work, but once I got it under my control, it was mine to wield. This furnace is no different, honestly.”

Helios shook his head, “But mana is generated through thought, not suppression. You sound as though your mana is made elsewhere apart from your mind. How is that even possible?”

“Heh, it might be because I’m a dimension. I know I use blood magic, so that might be why.”

“Perhaps the sacrifice is similar, somehow?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Then this is merely an extension of what you already do. That explains why you’ve got a handle on it so quickly.”

I flipped the furnace above my hand before catching it, “Eh, I still have a long way to go. Let’s see just how much mana I can make.”

Over the next few hours, I worked with Helios on a more subtle use of the black jade. It took a while, but we worked out a few kinks in my application. I found that almost no mana was required to get the furnace started, and it generated a lot of mana even with next to no matter. That was good since I had every intention of having the device going full blast all the time.

After all, it would feed my cipher runes at a pace I couldn’t match. Balancing that influx required a lot of effort, however. This meant handling other tasks at the same time was pretty much impossible. Working around that caveat would require practice and creativity. Having the jade out all the time also meant someone could steal or smash it too. We brainstormed a few solutions to the idea.

My first idea centered around a gameplan to keep the elemental furnace safe. From here on out, I’d use my dimensional shield anytime I fought with anything. This was partly for practice using the skill, but it also let me throw the dark jade into my pocket dimension before combat. The stasis would protect the gemstone from the rigors of battle thereafter.

Every other waking moment, I placed the gemstone on my chest just below my neck. I covered it with my armor, creating a reinforced metal cage that surrounding the jade. From there, channeling small amounts of matter into the furnace required next to no effort. It wasn’t like using my own body as fuel was new to me in that regard. The jade was just a far more efficient method of getting mana than my own innate abilities.

My armor even stopped the crackling sound from escaping, keeping the magic somewhat hidden. According to Helios, anyone who could sense or see mana would pick up on this process from a mile away. He even mentioned that detail as if he was watching something outright horrific. I didn’t know what he meant, but if that was the cost of using the device, then I counted it as worth it.

Still, Helios wasn’t the only one horrified by me using the dark jade. The most obvious manifestation of that was the eldritch in this rift. They were outright terrified of me while the furnace fueled my inscriptions. I expected some of that, but they huddled into the deepest holes they could find. The moles and ants crushed each other trying to get out of here, and it threw me off a bit. I’d talk to Amara and Hod about it later since it might help with Blegara. For now, the furnace took priority.

After a bit of tweaking the flow, I maxed out my armor’s draining abilities and my cipher rune’s absorption rate with the device as well. This meant I could keep the furnace burning all the time to fill out those passive bonuses. It didn’t even require my own natural mana production, so I steadily added gemstones to my pocket dimension all the time now.

Of course, I wasn’t revving the device full blast, but I could keep it humming at all times. If I went over this base limit, the mana flowed right into my head, and before I knew it, I was fighting some formless specter trying to control my mind. It was a risky venture since overdoing it would render me paralyzed as I fought the thing off.

To gauge if the furnace was worth, I checked out my status. All my doubts faded in an instant as I saw an absolute motherload of mana coming in from the tiny gemstone.

The Living Multiverse(Lvl 15,000 | Current Influence: The Rise of Eden)

Strength – 46,576 | Constitution – 66,872 | Endurance – 141,686

Dexterity – 24,143 | Willpower – 98,789 | Intelligence – 53,146

Charisma – 17,502 | Luck – 27,029 | Perception – 18,807

Health: 160.1 Million/160.1 Million | Health Regen: 1.6 Billion/min or 27.0 Million/sec

Stamina: Infinite | Ambient Mana 4.001 Trillion

Mass: 8.7 Million Pounds(4.0 Million Kilos~)

Height: 15’11 (4.8 meters)

Damage Res – 99.17% | Dimensional Res – 100%

Phys Dam Bonus – 27.8 Million % | Damage Bonus – 40%

The Rise of Eden – enhances base stats by 30%, increased to 40% to allies within the radius of aura.

Mana Conversion – 4.0 Billion mana/min siphoned into runes and armor.

It was a massive boost to my mana generation. If anything, it made all my investment into endurance look silly. My own magic would never compare to this kind of production. Of course, the health and stamina were still useful at the time of investment, but one furnace already beat all those years of boosting endurance. The more I thought about it, the less true my initial line of thinking became.

The only reason I could generate this mana flow from a single furnace was because of my mana generation. If I hadn’t had my previous experience, this would be impossible. If anything, more investment into endurance would be wise, considering it increased my overall furnace potential. It gave me the willpower to contain the mana flow, and it still had all the other stat-boosting effects it always boasted.

I would need as much of that as I could get given the situation I was in. My guild stood at the very center of the Blighted Schism, and that required me to be in tip-top shape. Combine that with the fact Schema didn’t give me anything from facing Lehesion, and I needed a few boosts. In some ways, I understood Schema omitting an endless stream of attributes and stats for me. I mean, the guy had a lot on his plate at the moment. Still, this kind of stinginess blew my mind. I saved thousands of people by distracting Lehesion. I risked my guild, my life, and even my planet. For that, I expected some kind of level cap increase or something.

After searching every nook and cranny of my status, I found nothing. At least Schema couldn’t deny me my extra skillpoints from my skills. Knowing that, I checked out my trees. After pouring all of my gained points into the Sovereign tree, I passed the 7,500 mark and then some. I was almost there.

In many ways, to truly be sovereign is to control the use of all things you touch. The world will bend to your fingertips, empires will crumble, and no enemy will forget your name. It will be carved into their mind like words unto stone, the utterance unforgettable, the memory eternal.

Class Completion: 75% finished.

New Mana Type Unlocked: Entropy

For such an enormous investment, this wasn’t exactly the most rewarding tree. By now, I expected that, but I couldn’t help but scratch my head at the new mana type. Considering my Dimensional Wake ability, having a new mana type gave me a lot of flexibility. To my knowledge, entropy had a lot of different meanings as well, but in the end, most of those meanings revolved around degeneration.

After trying to will entropy into existence, I lost steam at the idea of it being its own unique mana type. Without any real help here, I hypothesized that entropy was a fusion of all three basic mana types: origin, dominion, and augmentation. To that end, I did my best to create all three and blend them together in my hand.

No new mana type spawned from it, all of the manas melding into a brown blob that wisped into nothing. Without that being an answer, my next best guess was fusing the three upper tiered mana types: primordial, quintessence, and ascendant mana. If that was the case, getting the most bang for my buck required learning primordial mana.

It was something I’d meant to do for a while, and this was the best lead I had. Searching through Schema’s internet got me nothing, and it wasn’t like someone would tell me in person either. Factions in Schema’s universe hoarded knowledge to get themselves ahead. That was something the rebels were right about, even if I didn’t want to admit it.

All that being said, I was sitting at over 9,000 points in my Sovereign tree. It wouldn’t be long now before it was completed, and that meant unlocking my class. For now, I would stick to making my last push to get that over with. At the same time, unlocking entropy mana also seemed necessary, and I needed a sovereign skill to go with my sovereign class. Those goals synergized, which outlined a plan ahead of me. Following this plan, I walked out of the dungeon with Helios, a new goal before me.

As we left, my grip on the moles and ants weakened. They ran out of their holes, and skirmishing began once more as we walked across an abandoned Springfield. It was sad seeing some of the landmarks so dilapidated, the city a relic of a foregone time. Without my immediate presence, the vibrations underfoot grew stronger. By the time I jetted Helios and me to Mt. Verner, the eldritch were back to tearing out each other’s throats.

Eh, an easy war leads to a hard peace.

Once I dropped Helios off at his place, I picked up Diesel from the floors below. After all the grinding with the furnace, I looked forward to doing something like my golem work. As we got up to the engineering area Diesel partitioned out for us, I scratched my head at the engineer’s changes,

“Doesn’t this seem…excessive?”

The quirky inventor shook his head,

“What? This is the least we can expect.”

I stared at three new engineering stations. It was like an industrial pipeline with several partitioned out work areas. Each site separated into three categories we needed for the supergolems. At the leftmost side, the magic department congregated mages that tutored under Torix. The lich’s students were ready for fieldwork, and Diesel gave the young guns a project they could really prove themselves on.

On the side opposite to them, many of the workers Kessiah tutored forever ago toiled on the physical movement section. These were combat specialists, and while they weren’t quite at my level yet, they freed me up from having to do that section myself. I appreciated not having a thousand tasks pulling me in different directions, so I counted their involvement as a blessing.

At the center of it all, Torix himself worked on the mind magic telepathic bindings. It made my little hobby project look like a joke by comparison. I laughed at myself when seeing it all. After my big moment with the furnace, this really brought me back down to earth. These guys already made more progress in two days than I had in two weeks.

Eh, nobody was perfect, so I just let it go.

What I couldn’t accept was how little they needed me. Every part of the project was now handled and in full motion. I, with my amateurish designs, would just slow everybody down. At least they still needed me for supplies and runic translations. They didn’t know the cipher, after all, but those specifics would come last after all the other work had been done.

That meant I had nothing to do with my time here, everything getting moved along nicely without my input. Though I enjoyed the rapid progress, this was supposed to be a time of peace for me. It kind of felt like Diesel upped and robbed my project from me. In the end, it was for the good of the guild, and that’s what mattered most.

But, yeah, it left me kind of sad.

I smothered that bout of melancholy, moving on towards my other work. It wasn’t like I was left wanting for other things to do. Ophelia needed rings for gravity and matter making, along with a charged blue core. None of that was difficult in the slightest, most of it taking minutes. With all this newfound time on my hands, I stepped just outside the work stations and started crafting.

Ah, peace.

I started with a bit of melted steel that the engineers had offhand. There was no way in hell I was about to use my own skin for Ophelia. That was reserved for my guildsmen. That was such a strange thought, but eh, so was being a dimension. I accepted that strangeness and moved on.

After getting the material, I melted the steel and molded it into four rings. I could do two for the barebones of what Ophelia asked for, but I wanted to do this right. If I half-assed my rings, Ophelia would half-ass her tutoring and golem assistance. With that in mind, I partitioned each ring out to accomplish different things.

The first ring would convert mana into gravitational energy. The next would offer up primary skills for using that gravitation. The third ring would help with making matter, and like the second, the fourth ring would then help the user create specific kinds of matter. These were elementary, simple inscriptions that would never rival my own abilities. They would allow the user to do something without any practice, however.

Considering Ophelia needed rings to handle these abilities, she’d need the backup rings for usability reasons. All these combined would sum up what Ophelia wanted well. For me, the difficulty involved paled compared to Torix’s new body or even Althea’s cannons.

In fact, the first ring took all of four minutes, the inscriptions simple and second nature by now. I trusted my abilities here, and I made no further adjustments. On the next ring, I put in five skills for gravitational magic. These were gravity and antigravity wells along with their matching panel magic. To top it off, I gave it a gravitational vortex ability. Yeah, they were pretty basic, but Ophelia would just have to deal with it.

After finishing the gravity side, I moved on to the matter generation aspect. Knowing my own limits, I took my time with this enchantment. It was a trickier inscription, requiring several rewrites. After my third attempt, I just let myself flow through the runic carvings, hoping it would work out. Holding the ring in my hand, I gave the metal band an IV drip’s worth of mana.

From it, crabs poured out.

I had no idea why this was the case. For some reason, the creation of crabs was just…second nature to me. I couldn’t comprehend it, but this, despite being utterly ridiculous, would totally work. Fuck it. I hoped Ophelia liked crabs because that was what she was getting.

With the ring of crab creation finished, I went on to the natural part of matter making. I molded the final ring so that it converted crabs into five other kinds of matter, from dirt to stone. None of it was useful to me, but she gave me a really airy request. I mean, it wasn’t like a matter generation ring was something simple and easy to do. She likely intended on a few limitations when asking for it.

And limitations she would get.

If she didn’t like it, oh well. I’d have to learn the whole conscious creation thing on my own. It wouldn’t be the first time. With everything ready, I sent a friend request to Ophelia, and she replied in an instant. I asked for her coordinates, mentioning I was done with our deal. After reading a sarcastic reply, I moved back towards the warps on Mt. Verner’s side.

Schema still powered them, and before I knew it, I was in a different world. The ionizing spray wafted off of me as I stepped onto a gilded walkway. Someone took an orichalcum base and gave it golden trim, the practicality of the green metal clashing with the indulgence of the gold ore.

That wasn’t the only weird design choice. Further down the platform, Massive windows exposed a massive city, red curtains framing a sunset in the distance. The Empire redesigned Schema’s warp so that it showcased the wealth and power of this specific city, which would be expensive. Why they would do that was beyond me.

That objective display of wealth showcased itself in many other ways as I continued outside the landing zone. Along the outskirts of this hyper futuristic city, faint, hexagonal plating surrounded the city. A blue core protected this area. Peering closer, I learned I was wrong. Several blue dungeon hearts protected this city. This barrier was multilayered, the sheer investment absurd. Beyond these central cores, colossal turrets aimed at a distant skyline. The clouds sauntered about above, this place protected from the elements entirely. As I walked out into another gilded roadway, even the air felt conditioned for comfort.

This was luxury incarnate. The city makers conditioned the air for an entire city.

Around me, many albony walked about, most of them red and orange masked. They waltzed in and out of stores, not a worry in the world weighing them down. It contrasted Mt. Verner’s pragmatic, raw feel, so much so that it almost gave me whiplash.

I mean, they used real giant diamonds as crystalline figures throughout the city. These figurines played with the sun’s rays, hauntingly beautiful shadows stretching out of them. Each piece was crafted for multiple angles of light to pass through it, each time of day considered in its design. For now, the light angled from a sunset, and longer shadows meant more room the artisan to work with.

This resulted in scenes of battle, victory, and prestige for the albony. From exotic, large creatures fighting to elegant birds flying, the shade cast images of a culture saturated in harmony and prosperity. It was a sight to behold, and I took my time soaking in all the various works and shops nearby.

I walked around these shadows, not wanting to disrupt their beauty. None of the other aliens here followed suit, nearly no one even giving the artwork a second glance. It was as if exposure to these artworks made them numb to the beauty around them. It was sad in a way, like throwing pearls before swine.

My rash judgments of other people aside, I passed a dozen cafes, teashops, and smoothie places. Among these competing franchises and specialty stores, I found Ophelia speaking with several other albony. She stood out amongst her compatriots, her eye for glamor drawing attention.

I couldn’t blame her since I drew my fair share of stares as well, probably more than her given my rugged, coarse appearance. Pulling my helmet off my face, several of Ophelia’s albony friends screamed as I stared down at them. Ophelia turned to me, and I lifted a hand,

“Yo.”

Ophelia facepalmed before speaking through gritted fangs, “What are you doing here?”

I floated the four rings I made to her, each fresh and polished. I pointed at them,

“I’m finished. I wanted to get our deal going as fast as possible. The rebels won’t kill themselves, after all.”

Man, my wording was awful. Either way, Ophelia grabbed her rings, inspecting them,

“How are you finished? Half of what I asked for is barely even possible.”

I gestured to each ring, “Try them out. They work.”

She put on the ring of crab creation, truly my favorite of the bunch. As she channeled mana into the ring, a flow of crabs poured out, covering the table and her friends. She stood up, letting out a girlish scream with her friends.

Ah, that was satisfying.

“What in Schema’s name did you given me?”

I spread out my hands, “I call it the Ring of Crab Creation. That’s the matter maker you asked for.”

She shook a crab off her sleeve before seething,

“This is a creature. How am I supposed to use this for…well, anything?”

I raised a hand, “For starters, you have no idea how many restaurants would kill for that ring. As grotesque as those creatures may look, they taste damn good when steamed. Add a bit of salt and butter, and man, they are good.”

She stomped a crab underfoot, the meat going to waste,

“What other surprises do your rings have in store for me?”

I pointed each ring out as I explained,

“That one turns mana into gravitation energy. That ring hones the energy into specific techniques. That last ring can turn the crabs into other materials. I didn’t know which materials you wanted, so I went with steel, soil, water, stone, and crab.”

She eyed me with a wary glance, wondering if this was an elaborate prank. That was fair. In many ways, this might as well have been an elaborate ruse, but hey, she got what she asked for. Ophelia used the paired rings for gravitation, lifting herself up. Using another round of crab creation, she made a bunch of stone crabs, each thudding against the ground like bricks. Her mana flow depleted, and she fell onto the ground, busting her ass.

Her friends laughed at their cafe table while Ophelia frowned at the rings,

“Ouch…Well, these aren’t actually useless, especially the gravity ones. They’re actually excellent. Very, very excellent.”

She poked one of the stone crabs, “They could use a few quality of life adjustments, though.” She stared up at me, “How did you make these so quickly?”

I offered a hand, “They’re my specialties, so I can whip them up whenever. You just need to take them seriously, and they’ll serve you well.”

She grabbed my hand, though she grabbed only two of my fingers since her hands were so small. She stood up, brushing off the dust from her robe,

“I…I suppose they’ll do. A deal’s a deal then. I’ll get ready to help you with your golem project. When will you need me to help?”

I evaporated the crabs near us with Event Horizon, bless their poor little souls,

“Right now, if you’re not busy.”

She turned back to her friends, each of the albony staring at us from behind red masks,

“I’m in the middle of something right now, but I can come in a few hours from now if you’d like.”

It was surprised me how agreeable she was being about this whole process. I shrugged,

“If that’s what it takes, then sure. You’ll be arriving at my guild during nights, and you’ll be working with a temporal specialist to teach me primordial mana. Let me know if the rings need tweaking after you’ve tried them out for a while, and I’ll work on them when you arrive. Also, I’ll need to warp you to and from there.”

She raised an eyebrow, “So no coordinates?”

“No. Right now, security is more important than ever. You know that.”

Remembering the rebellion, Ophelia and her friend’s carefree attitudes faded. I gestured around at everything, trying to change the tone of the conversation,

“So, where is this place?”

One of Ophelia’s friends spoke up from the table, “You weren’t kidding when you said this guild is new. So yeah, this is Olstatia, the Empire’s capital.”

I stared at the multilayered blue cores, all my questions about the investment for this place answered. I nodded slowly, “Ah, I’ll have to ask Obolis how he keeps his world’s defended.”

Ophelia walked back to her table, sitting down, “That’s an easy one. He doesn’t make the wrong enemies.”

I scoffed, “Eh, If that were the case, Obolis wouldn’t be putting himself up against the rebels.” I turned, leaving them,

“Cya.”

“Wait a second. Can you charge this blue core for this territory? You should already feel it draining your mana right now. I need you to power it up to full. That’s part of our deal.”

I stared up, “Oh, so you run one of the districts in the capital of the Empire, huh? That must be why your mask is both red and black.”

She shooed me off,

“Yeah, yeah, go finish charging the core and let me enjoy the rest of my evening.”

I left Ophelia and her friends, satisfied with the results I got. Halfway to the warp, I searched for the blue core tugging on my mana. I found a slight, minuscule tax being paid to the forcefield. Surging mana into that tether, mana rose from my frame, bursting into my surroundings. The sheer heat off my skin melted the orichalcum beneath me, and nearby diamond statues ignited.

They exploded, firing shrapnel nearby. Shop windows burst, and a few albony screamed. I raised a hand, pulling the mana back to me, willing the core charge to slow down. I didn’t expect that kind of chaos to erupt from just channeling mana, but at this point, it might as well have been a weapon.

Once I finished with that, I regenerated some of the broken glass and paid out a few shopkeepers nearby. It cost a few hundred thousand credits to repair the damages, but that’s what I get for not paying attention. After getting out of that complete mess, I got to the warp. It kind of surprised me that Ophelia changed her attitude towards me.

I mean, she wasn’t exactly the kind of person I wanted to be friends with, but we didn’t despise each other anymore. For her to share her skills, that’s all I wanted. After taking the warp back to Mt. Verner, I took one last glance at Olstatia. It was a beautiful, vast city. It was so large, it looked endless, and it might have been.

This was a megacity supported by several worlds worth of resources. It was an economic and political backbone for many societies all under one banner, and that reach showed itself with the sheer splendor displayed here. In time, maybe Mt. Verner would be the same for Earth, though I didn’t want to take over planets like Obolis had. I wanted my guild to give everyone a hand up instead of the Empire’s more imperial approach.

Either way, I got back to Mt. Verner with much of my night left to me. With a reasonable amount of time left, I sat within earshot of the golem project. This time, I left a wall of trees and stones between us, their machines and discussions only a faint whisper in the background. Chrona’s tutoring would begin tomorrow, and we’d be trying out a few new strategies on Blegara. This would be the only part of my schedule where I could focus on my own.

Knowing that, I contemplated how to get a Sovereign skill. It would require three legendary skills, and I already had two with Force of Nature and Apotheosis. These skills gave me a tremendous influence over the physical world around me, along with creation and rune carving. They suited me well for the most part.

Instead of just adding some random assortment of skills next, I wanted something to accentuate those two abilities. Hastening like what Chrona and Obolis did was a must; that would make me challenging to beat in direct combat. I was already taking on Lehesion in that regard, meaning any more oomph in that arena, and I would be dominant.

Outside of that, I was stuck on the whole golem creation thing. The idea of ending the need for dungeons kept bouncing in my head. If I could get really, really good at making golems, I could lockdown Earth and any colonies we made. We wouldn’t need to fuss over other people’s territories. I could go to a fringe world, golemize it, then make it an Earthen colony. Maybe I could lease my golems too, sort of like some mercenary company.

Those plans needed primordial mana for functioning. Otherwise, they’d bottleneck from a production standpoint. With this furnace, my mana production exceeded the rest of my guild combined. If I got a handle on the entire production process, I could make hundreds of golems a day. Territories would fall under my control, and I could let people govern themselves for the most part. I’d set up some regulation, but I didn’t want to interfere too much. Part of that was simply not wanting to be clogged up with leadership duties like Helios had been. Another part of me wanted to avoid the dictatorship that the Empire stuck with.

After seeing how they handled Blegara, I didn’t want to make the same mistake.

Either way, the core of those ideas rested on making golems. Thinking that all through, I racked my brain for memories of my time in the mythical compendium. In general, I learned skills quick there, and using that same template would work here again. For instance, the way I unlocked origin mana was by getting myself into a certain mindset.

The same could be said for ascendant and quintessence mana as well. Dominion mana was an outlier, my exposure to a dimensional tear unlocking that. I didn’t understand how that worked, so mimicking that feat stood as impossible for now. Therefore, the best way to get primordial mana was to get into the right mindset.

Considering origin mana was about being at peace and letting go, that had to be a part of primordial mana. Dominion mana, on the other hand, was all about enacting a complete and absolute control, one led by an iron fist and without compromise. To me, those mana types were polar opposites. I couldn’t understand how in the hell those mindsets meshed together.

I’d wait until my two primordial teachers arrived before I dived any deeper into the subject. I redirected my focus back towards my furnace for now. Tampering with the gemstone, I ramped up the mana production. To do so, I sat down and meditated, my legs crossed and my mind steeled. As I did, I sent a stream of mana into the jade at the center of my chest. It unleashed a violent, savage rush of energy as before.

I kept this brutish flow slow at first, trying to assimilate it without as much struggle. As time passed, I revved up this visceral inundation, practicing the newfound skill. For instance, I began using the furnace by burning some of the air around me. This dispersed the energy throughout a cloud, meaning I needed to condense it towards me instead of letting it leak out.

This time, I shifted my approach using minuscule bits of my armor. This smoothed out the process since it kept the mana condensed from the get-go. A few of the other tricks I figured out involved being calm. If the mana met my mind in a battle, it too battled me off of instinct. If I was serene when it arrived, that placated the mana some, making it easier to overtake.

These adjustments compiled until I found myself in a balance between stomping the energy out and inviting it to settle down. Stuck in this ebb and flow, I reached a sort of zen state. Everything blurred out of existence, this moment becoming all that mattered. It let me take a break from my worries, my concerns, and even my insecurities.

Minutes turned into hours, the sheer rush of mana from the furnace overwhelming. That rush crashed into my mind, but I met that cascade of energy like a brick wall against some raging tempest. In these moments, I did not yield. Over those struggles, I did not relent. Keeping my eyes closed, the dark void around me became comfortable. This rush of energy from the gemstone, it formed into a shifting shape, some monstrous beast.

Honing my mind against this onslaught, my awareness of my surroundings expanded. The energy flow turned visible, and it gained animation. It moved, writhed, and shifted. In its chaos, there was beauty among its everchanging nature. It wanted freedom absolutely, and there was something magnificent about that uncompromising desire.

It met my own mana, my body aflame with energy. It surprised me, seeing myself in this new light. At times, I forgot just how far I’d come. Compared to the dim trees, birds, and wildlife around me, I ignited my surroundings with life. I brimmed with endless vitality, the kind that overwhelmed with its intensity.

If I let that sheer lifeforce flood my surroundings, they would be submerged in the incoming flood. I chained that flood down using shackles forged from my will. These tethers were of iron, seeming unbreakable, yet they contained a monstrous, terrifying force. That was my own mana, I realized.

This is what the eldritch feared.

I comprehended their horror now. If this was how the eldritch saw, their subservience made sense now. The phantasmal machinations of my mana feasted on my physical body, the focal point centered on the furnace. These endless mouths were salivating, each of them starving for more energy. There was no end to their hunger, and they would feast forever or until nothing remained to be eaten.

As this delicate balance became clear to me, I gained a new skill.

New skill gained! Mana Sense(lvl 10) – Many can feel their own mana. It takes one with great reach to feel the mana of others.

It was a strange sort of perception. It scoped out everything in a blurry series of shapes instead of hard lines. This dynamic, flowing view left me confused as I stared down at my hands, my eyes closed. As before, my frame was ablaze. I raged in a swirling pit of fire, blinding when compared to the weak flows of the life around me.

Once more, I peered at myself with a clearer picture. I was a demon, a monster with an unceasing form. I squealed out into my surroundings, my jaws opened and starving. These twisting forms wished to feast upon all that was around me. Surrounding these monsters, the chains of my will suppressed the gnashing teeth and rabid maws. It was as if I was a delicate balance of two forces, one aimed at control and the other aimed at greed.

As I let my furnace rev down, the aberrations faded down, becoming less vehement. They were my mana, manifested outward in a way I could now see. Using my own mana, I fed the inscriptions of my cipher, these demons growing in size and scope once more. It gave me a few ideas of what I needed to do to get the eldritch under my control on Blegara.

I mean, if I could get really good at this whole furnace burning thing, I’d be a horror for anyone with a mana sense. Thinking of that, I thought of Helios. He sensed mana, and that’s why his blindness wasn’t much of a handicap for the guy. If that was the case, I must genuinely look like some monster to him. That might be why he stood back from me when I used the furnace. I’d ask him when I thought of it later.

Regardless of appearances, this was a solid way of spending time. I got the furnace burning full blast, my limit reached pretty soon. As I gained more and more control of the dark jade, I made more and more mana. This gave me a tremendous level of control over the furnace. Matter Conversion was no longer some foreign, strange skill. It reminded me of walking, a task I gave no thought yet was undeniably useful.

The merits of my many trees showed themselves here. Many of them enhanced my learning rate for mythical tiered skills and above. Those factors combined with my natural inclination for the furnace burning. Those factors culminated with my progress, and I shot forward in understanding by leaps and bounds.

It gave me confidence for my next fight with Lehesion. He’d never expect me to change my abilities like this all of a sudden. I’d show him where and how my magic progressed, and he’d feel my full fury.

In hours, I gave myself a notable increase to my cipher augments. My endurance increased by over 5,000 total points. Considering I exceeded 100K endurance already, that actually wasn’t an enormous increase. At the same time, weeks of this would result in substantial changes. Months of this progress would make me into a real monster.

The new influx of mana gave me more than just cipher augments, however. I no longer needed to stick with simple inscriptions for my cipher work anymore. Fueling them wouldn’t be nearly as tricky, meaning I could create far more complex changes to this body using the cipher. Hell, I had held back because I was terrified of warping my mind into mush like Yawm had.

A significant find I hadn’t realized earlier was Obolis mentioning my response to the cipher wasn’t normal. He said it was as if I was separate from my body altogether. That might be true, especially considering I stayed conscious even when I was a pile of mush. That meant I could experiment with the cipher without needing to worry so much.

Of course, I wasn’t about to go crazy or anything. That being said, giving this body a few new abilities wasn’t out of the question anymore. I mean, if I got a hold of the cipher inscriptions on the elemental furnace, I could carve it into my skin and use it on my own. It would be like cutting out the middle man. Who knew, in time, I might even improve on the formula.

I peered down at the furnace. Yup, incomprehensible gibberish. Based on how cryptic and obscure the inscriptions were, well, that would take a while.

Either way, the potential was there, and that’s what counted. I stayed deep in this meditative state until the morning, and the sunrise stirred me out of my concentration. Standing upright, I stretched my back before rolling my shoulders. Within the hour, I was back at my place, waking Althea up from her night of sleep.

We shared a morning breakfast together, and she talked to me about some of the Empire’s juicy gossip she learned from Caprika. I couldn’t have cared less, but I listened as well as I could despite that. Althea always listened to me even when I talked about runes or fighting, and I know those topics bored her. I kept my discussions short because of that, but I still wanted to return the favor in full for her.

This peaceful morning passed, and we met with Florence and Helios already grouped around their living quarters. Everyone arrived soon after, from Torix all the way to Hod. Our resident warper rested well last night, his general demeanor improving from before. He still wasn’t used to warping this much, but the guy was adjusting.

Soon we’d all be adapting to new circumstances on the ahcorus’s homeworld. For now, however, Blegara stood in our way. I smiled at the prospect. We all aimed to shake things up before we left the blighted world. In my case, I’d do more than rock the boat.

I intended to flip the whole world upside down.