Chronicles of the True Wizard

The city of Arkade, the first city within Felix’s Mind, looked drastically different than the last time Felix had visited directly. It wasn’t just the city itself that had changed though, it was everything. The landscape was now varied all the way into the distance with no horizon because the entire land was a projection, so there was no need for planet curvature.

There were mountains, trees and deserts all visible from the city along with massive islands the size of countries floating around in the sky above, so distant their shadow was obscured by the source-less light of the sky and the refraction through the clouds beneath them. The weather was no longer completely tied to Felix’s emotions and so the floating islands drifted through a sea of clouds and though not visible, Felix could tell there was a vast network just below their feet as well.

All of this, was just in Arkade. Felix could feel there wasn’t just the desert city of Rakyt anymore, there were thousands of settlements, not all big enough to be a city and none as expansive as Arkade. Some of them were simply a few nomadic Souls deciding to live by themselves, others were small towns and villages that had dedicated themselves to Alchemy or the care of beasts, which also now roamed his mental world.

Within the city itself, the number of buildings alone had multiplied, like thousands of epochs had passed. In a way, that was exactly what had happened. The perception of time within his Mind was drastically different from outside. Luckily, his Mind Residents didn’t really age or die at the moment unless they decided to split their Soul or asked to die, which some had. They weren’t suicidal, they simply felt satisfied and wanted their Souls dispersed, like they knew their time had come. With death as rare as it was, meant there were still some original residents, keeping everything in check and making it effectively, a never ending empire.

Kairune looked around in confusion, unsure what he was looking at and where he was.

Fin however, had more context and was somewhat aware of Felix’s mind, “Is… This is… in your head?”

Felix nodded to him, “It is.”

He felt a little odd standing in front of the massive statue of himself within a fountain that had grown into a massive architectural statement but, he also wasn’t going to just tear it down. Plus, this was the center of the city as he knew it so when he brought people in, this was where he brought them. No where else really made sense to him.

Felix gestured for the two of them to follow and headed down one of the streets, through some of the weirdest buildings he had ever seen. Some of them were architectural marvels like cathedrals and monuments. Others weren’t even physically possible, they either floated or were split down the middle as if space was torn. In reality, all the buildings were made from an Anima projection and could essentially be anything.

Without any physical constraints and the freedom to build without having to put in much work to do so, the buildings became odd and disjointed. There was no cohesion to the city. Felix didn’t mind it at all though. He was more than happy to have a building that looked like one of the ancient wonders of the world next to a building that looked to be partially made of light and constantly disintegrated towards the top.

Fin, who understood where they were, was mostly experiencing shock and wonder as he looked around. Kairune on the other hand, was deeply confused as it didn’t seem he had figured out where they were, or seemed to believe Fin’s words.

Felix led them into one of the newer buildings, a structure that visually split itself into strips near the top, like pasta, that then looped back around to rejoin the bottom. Inside though, the building looked nothing like the outside. Instead, it had a small lobby along with various halls and walkways littering the height of the building.

He didn’t bother heading to the reception and simply willed them to move up a few levels, thoroughly confusing Kairune even more, then led them to a specific room.

After knocking to announce his presence, Felix opened the door to reveal a large bird with navy feathers and large talons wearing gold jewelry.

Felix smiled and gestured to the bird as they bowed, “Professor, Chancellor, meet Thoross.”

Fin smiled and waved then quickly looked up so he could watch Kairune’s face as he finally realized what was happening.

Kairune, did not disappoint. He looked at the bird for a few seconds, emotions blank. Then, all the pieces began to fit together and his emotions roiled. Felix was slightly astounded at how many emotions he was feeling at once and seriously wondered how anyone went on with their daily lives being so emotional.

It wasn’t unique to Kairune, he knew that from everyone living in his head, he just rarely paid much attention to the emotions of others.

Kairune’s jaw dropped a little, not out of shock but out of desire to say something but not being able to say anything. He looked at Fin then at Felix then at Thoross who stood back up and nodded, “It has been a dream of mine for hundreds of epochs now to learn the Culinary Arts in the outside worl-”

“You’re Thoross?” He looked back at Felix before Thoross could answer, “This is in your head?” He turned to Fin before Felix could answer, “You knew about this?”

Fin shook his head immediately, “No. Not really.”

“Head and Soul. It’s mostly an Anima projection but the logical consistency is entirely because of my Brain.” And Mark.

Kairune looked at Thoross, “So what are you?”

“He’s a construct. Mostly. He’s a Soul and a Brain contained within my Soul.”

“Then… the body outside… in the real world.”

Felix gestured into the room with his head, “He’s controlling it like a puppet.”

Thoross stepped to the side a little and gestured behind him towards what appeared to be a completely black room. Like the void of space lay behind him, “When the door is closed, this room completely overrides my senses and everything I do, get’s forwarded to the body. I can’t even tell the difference.”

Kairune looked at him incredulously so Felix, in the physical world, activated his Replicate Construct Skill on Thoross, creating a second body then he placed a puppet soul within it, using his tendrils.

Then, he gestured for Kairune to follow and led him to an empty room, gesturing for him to enter. Kairune didn’t hesitate, his feet carried by his confusion.

Felix closed the door behind him and released Fin so he could watch from the real world.

Looking over at the new body next to Thoross, the body Quinefremore was recoiling from, the one Kairune was controlling, Felix watched him look down at his hands. He stared at them for a moment then looked over at Thoross’ body then over at his own, real body. He walked over and examined his body, currently motionless and still grasping Felix’s hand, then he poked it.

Felix could tell he felt it and Kairune moved his limbs a little more before looking around once more and finally leaving the body.

Felix released him from his Mind City and pulled the leftover puppet into his Soul Space as Kairune opened his eyes, released Felix’s hand and turned to Quinefremore, “Sorry.”

The Professor’s eyes widened even further as he began shouting nonsensically.

Kairune raised his hand to stop him and when that didn’t work, Felix felt the most oppressive Aura he had ever felt coming from Kairune. His own Aura instinctually to protect himself and Kairune immediately glanced at him before turning back to the raging Professor and trying to reason with him, “What Felix is doing is within the rules. I cannot stop him. I also cannot force you to teach Thoross here, if you do not want to.”

“DAMN RIGHT I DON’T WANT TO. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YO-”

“Enough” Kairune walked forwards and took hold of the Culinary Professors wrist, dragging him out the door of the office and essentially throwing him into the classroom, “If you are this angry, then simply leave. You have no other students to teach so if you will not teach Thoross, you are not needed at Eramith.”

Kairune closed the door to the office with more force than necessary then sighed, “I cannot force them to teach your Mind… Constructs… People. Unfortunately though, the rules protect you and so, I am obliged to deal with all the complaints myself.”

Felix nodded, “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“I do not.” He grumbled a little then offered a genuinely apologetic look to Thoross, “I’m sorry about your dream.”

He nodded, “We all knew this was a possibility. It also isn’t over quite yet.”

Kairune cocked a brow and Thoross smiled as he turned to Felix, “Grim suggested I talk to Melody.” Thoross looked back at Kairune, “She can probably convince him to teach me.”

He snorted and shook his head, “This entire generation…”

Thoross smiled and nodded to them in farewell then cautiously opened the door and left when he saw that the Culinary Professor had vanished.

Kairune looked back at Felix as he stepped towards the exit, “I take it some of them are entering The Abyss?”

Felix just nodded.

“See that they do well in the first dekad at least. It will likely convince a number of the Professors and quell their complaints.”

“I will.”

Kairune nodded to them both then walked out.

Once they were alone, Fin turned to Felix, his eyes now wide with excitement and anticipation, “You mentioned introducing me to your familiar?”

Felix nodded and opened an Aether Tunnel to Ked’s lab that they both stepped through.

After a slightly awkward period of Nova taking Ked’s slightly more humanoid feline form, Felix had Nova use the materials from the tree in his Pocket Home to make a completely flawless crystal.

Then, he manually prepped it to become a battery and handed it to Fin.

They spent the rest of the day just experimenting with batteries and Felix was mostly correct. He could produce larger batteries with Anima but it introduced other problems. Mainly, the Anima cost and the fact that the Anima often bound itself to the Mana such that pulling the Mana out of the battery, pulled out the Anima as well.

It made them less usable in general, despite their larger capacity.

However, they used their discoveries to fuel other research.

Once they were mostly certain what was happening with the batteries, Felix turned to Fin, “So, hear me out. I have an idea. It’s… absurd.”

Fin nodded, “I’m listening.”

“On my planet, we had these things we called Particle Accelerators…”

After spending almost a day talking through the theory, the plan and the logistics of everything, Fin readily agreed to spend his epoch outside of Felix’s mentorship and his other classes working on their research. Felix on the other hand, would split his free time between his project with Ked and Sal, The Abyss and Fin depending on where he was needed most.

Fin would also have the support of Rewdan and the other constructs when he needed it. The first issue they had to overcome though, was finding the space to build what they were planning.

Professor Fin said he would deal with it though so Felix didn’t worry about it and instead moved on to the other things he had on his plate.

The first of which, was messing with his Class skills.

The first thing he did was completely drop Soul Reap. There was simply no point in him having the skill at all. It didn’t do anything he couldn’t do himself at this point. The whole passively running thing had even stopped working-except within his ring-when he had strengthened his Soul but, it didn’t matter because he never harvested anything automatically anymore. It was all manual because he either preserved the Soul and stuck them in his Mind City or saved the Anima to pay for a Skill.

Reaper’s Aura on the other hand, did help him. Mostly because he was still learning about Auras and how to properly use them.

Class: [Reaper’s Aura (Legendary) Project the Aura of the Reaper in an area around you. Project your will and intent around you in an attempt to control Anima within an area. The effect of the aura is entirely dependent on the Soul and intent of the user. Some Aura effects may be impossible for certain user’s to wield. Strength of the Aura is highly dependent on the strength of the user’s Soul and their ability to wield that strength, their will power. This skill incurs a cost in terms of exhausted will power.]

Reaper’s Presence was the upgraded version and he was hoping to get it before he had to enter The Realms of Annihilation.

There was also an upgrade to Body and Movement which he wanted to test out but otherwise, despite Reaper’s Bond not being useful to him anymore, he didn’t bother with anything else. He was already so close to the next grade, he figured he might as well just focus on how he was going to get a truly custom Class.

The Nucleus’ only instructions so far, were that he would need to perform as many title worthy feats as he could manage.

He wasn’t entirely certain how he would achieve more of those but, he decided to figure it out at a later date.

The next few days were spent partially convincing Sal of what they wanted to do but mostly working on various prototypes for the more complicated portions, like the Soul Forge or the Computer Farm. Which, helped massively in convincing Sal.

The only reason Felix left the lab at all, was that one of the Residents in his mind had delivered him a message from Melody that she needed to see him.

He immediately doubted the necessity of her request but he returned to campus anyways where he only had to wait a few minutes.

Instead of flying into him at top speed this time, Melody skipped along through the grass to join him in the center of campus, “Hiya! I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“What’s up?”

She pouted, “Grump.” Then, she dropped the facade and her demeanor completely changed in an instant, “Follow me.”

He sighed and flew along beside her. Despite her constant attempts to out pace him, he never once left her side even a little. She even tried to mess with his perception using some Soul Magic shenanigans but nothing worked. He remained directly beside her the entire time.

As they began circling the planet, cresting over a mountain range, Felix realized what she was leading him towards.

Ahead of them now stood the biggest arena Felix had ever seen. It was a building rivaled only by the Mega Structures in Telviras and Osgard itself. Looking at the stands alone, Felix estimated it could hold high tens to low hundreds of millions. Even then though, that was just counting the arena seats themselves.

The entire arena was built into a building around it, like someone had dug an arena out of an existing building. Considering how massive the arena itself was, the building around it seemed completely impossible.

Neither the building nor the Arena looked complete yet. They were both structurally complete but they looked like a brand new house without any paint or tiles. It was completely void of decoration and entirely bland.

As Melody led Felix down to the ground outside then into the outer building, the sameness of the entire thing exacerbated the feeling of confusion Felix had. All the halls and rooms and doors looked identical. If it weren’t for his brain and The System map keeping track of where they were, he was certain he could have gotten lost in the building.

The lobby they had passed through was void of furniture or directions of any kind so Felix had no idea how Melody had any idea where they were going but, he followed anyways.

As they headed down a number of halls, staying on the ground level, the building around them went from feeling like am empty construction site, to a slightly less empty construction site. Instead of deafening silence interrupted by the pitter-patter of their steps, Felix began to hear loud but distant sounds. Like massive explosions from kilometers away. They got slightly louder as they walked, but not by much.

Turning a corner and walking down a new hall, their surroundings finally changed and after walking through endless blank halls, they finally had a window. A long stretch of clear material completely replacing the left wall as they walked.

Through the window though, was the real show.

The distant noises Felix had been hearing, weren’t distant at all. They were just significantly dampened and muffled by the building. Just on the other side of the window, was a large muscle-bound woman. She wasn’t nearly as big as Felix was expecting, as the daughter of a Giant but she was still larger than Rhonan by a noticeable amount.

Otherwise, she had greyish skin, black hair and some kind of black warpaint on her face. Everything else about her was largely humanoid, just like the Giant they had killed.

[B - Legendary] Uphi (Lvl 2453)

She was in the process of launching herself at a normal sized humanoid that looked to be made of the brightest fire Felix had ever seen.

[B - Ancient] Romar (Lvl 2386)

Manually adjusting his eye sight and using a simple Spell to block out the majority of the light, Felix saw Romar’s body legitimately looked like the surface of a star. It was a hot red liquid with spots, flares and prominences across the surface.

“I guess he hit his evolution?”

Melody nodded, “He won’t go through any other evolutions but he’s not done yet. He’s red now but as he levels, he’ll start shifting towards blue.”

Felix nodded as he squinted and turned up his light blocking spell in response to Romar being thrown against the wall in front of them and blasting out even more light in the process.

“I take it they’ve both already done the Realms then?”

She nodded, “Remember we were talking about how generous Rhonan’s offer of using his leveling worlds for an hour a day was?”

Felix sighed, “And how expensive it would be just to have it so I could level non stop? I take it their parents could afford that?”

“Yup. Zeraxes too.”

Felix groaned a little, “Did you bring me here just to show me how far behind we are?”

She smiled wide and nodded, “Yup.”

“This is where you’re going to tell me we need sponsors and you need me to participate in events?”

“Oh.” She looked upwards thoughtfully for a couple moments, “No, actually. I wanted to give you context and convince you we need to go on a shopping trip. I didn’t really think you’d need much convincing in that department but I did want to get you thinking about what we need to buy.”

“I don’t know about you, but I definitely need new robes. These are only C grade and I’ll be outgrowing them pretty soon.”

She nodded, “Yeah, Adaline at least will need new armor soon too. Peace… I don’t really know. Start thinking about other equipment too though.”

“I guess I could swap out my bracelets, rings, earrings, amulet and hat in combat.” Felix’s head started heating up suddenly, “Not hat. Sorry… geez. It’s not like you really do anything for me anyways.”

Melody looked at him like he was crazy and he just shook his head indicating she shouldn’t ask, “Issue is, I haven’t found much that would be beneficial to me. Batteries are small and don’t need to be equipment anymore now that I can’t use charms and my last one inspired my new Mana Core. Most magical effects I can replicate with my own Mana so…”

“Yeah, unfortunately, despite your obstinance we will get sponsors and they will gift us equipment. Most of it will be useless to you.”

Felix mentally adjusted his plan as he watched Romar and Uphi fight.

He had really been hoping to put off upgrading his equipment until his Mind Residents became experienced enough that they could create something unique and tailored. Unfortunately, it seemed that would have to wait.

In the large training room in front of him, Uphi leapt at Romar’s tiny molten form and laughed as she slammed both her feet into him, shaking the room and crushing him against a wall. He took the attack and seemed largely unharmed as he gripped her ankles and began slowly cooking her flesh.

As to why the star man wasn’t slicing through her limbs, Felix seriously couldn’t tell if he just wasn’t very hot, or she was ridiculously durable. Considering her lineage, he was assuming the latter.

She used the entirety of her body to drive her dual warpicks into Romar’s wrists but he didn’t bleed. He didn’t even seem to care much as he lifted her up then slammed her entire body into the ground repeatedly.

Felix could barely follow her swinging body and he wasn’t sure she had a way out but a few smacks later, Romar simply tossed her across the room into the wall. She smashed into it with a collateral boom as Romar started to brighten himself.

Melody immediately cowered into Felix’s side and it took him a moment to realize she was cowering behind his Spell.

With a burst of light, Romar released a targeted explosion in Uphi’s direction that looked like a sun flare and completely covered the other end of the room. Felix had no way to know how hot the flare was or how much damage it would have done because he had no frame of reference. He was pretty confident, given Romar had mastered the Concept of Fire though, that it would have probably killed him.

Uphi on the other hand, was smoking and looked a little singed but otherwise, was smiling wildly.

They continued to wrestle in the most super human way possible for a few more minutes as Felix continued to think.

He was interrupted not but the fight itself, that showed no signs of slowing down, but by the casual steps of another, walking down the hall towards them. He looked almost exactly the same, even after his evolution. The only changes were that his eyes now appeared brighter and his body looked to be cracked all over, the cracks themselves made of faint blue and white light.

Melody mostly righted herself and waved in Zeraxes direction, causing him to flash over next to them in an arc of Lightning.

[B - Divine] Zeraxes (Lvl 2310)

When he reappeared, he was already looking through the window, down at the fight, “You come to scout what you’re up against?”

Melody smirked, “Something like that.”

He nodded, “Well. I have no issue with you guys watching us train. It’s good for you.”

Felix’s immediate reaction was to ask how but he held himself back and didn’t bother. It wasn’t worth his time.

“Definitely.” Melody nodded along, just a little exaggerated. Felix could tell she was being sarcastic but it seemed as though Zeraxes was too full of himself to realize anything.

“I take it neither of you have tried your hands at the Realms just yet?

“Nope. Not yet.” Melody answered with a perfectly kind and unassuming demeanor.

“Well, good luck. I suspect the both of you will do well. Melody with the social situations and Felix, you’re quite the combatant yourself.”

Felix grunted a little in acknowledgement at the pseudo-complement. On the one hand he was pointing out their strengths explicitly. On the other, he was pointing out their weakness implicitly, through omission and comparison. At least, what he perceived as their weaknesses.

In a fight between Zeraxes and Melody, Felix assumed Zeraxes had more raw combat ability but he also wasn’t entirely sure Melody would lose. He still wasn’t sure she couldn’t cook his brain or distort his perception enough for him to kill himself. He was pretty sure his own Soul strength made that impossible against him but, Zeraxes didn’t have nearly the same Soul Strength. Especially once Felix noticed the Aura he was giving off.

At first, he hadn’t noticed it at all. It was decently impressive with three solid convictions in place. It was relatively strong.

Felix also only barely felt it.

Zeraxes pressed on, with his facade of friendship, “You know Uphi here made it all the way to the 1200th realm.”

Okay?

Melody nodded with slightly wide eyes, “Impressive. I hear Romar reached the 1600th.”

Zeraxes nodded, “He did, 1634 to be exact. I made it to 1640 before I left, so more or less the same.”

“Ah.” Melody sighed a little forlornly, “I really figured one of you would reach the Dragon.”

Dragon?

Zeraxes twitched a little at that, “I… was hoping to. It seems I was little too eager in entering though. I definitely could have shored up-”

“Yourself?” Melody nodded quickly, “You probably should have.”

“Well, there was a lot going on. What with The Tournament coming up and all that. I couldn’t very well spend hundreds of years in seclusion.”

Felix almost let his emotions show, Don’t act like you knew about The Tournament during your recruitment. Judging from the timeline, Rhonan didn’t even start putting this together until he was healed.

Melody shrugged, “I guess… or maybe, you just aren’t quite as strong as Tam, Ameryl, Kotia, your father, I mean even Nyrrasil made it to the Dragon.”

Zeraxes twitched again, a couple times, when she mentioned his father, “Maybe. Luckily, I have a second chance to prove myself in the Abyss.”

She nodded, “Yeah damn, you must be soooo thankful for that.”

He gritted his teeth and nodded then turned to them and smiled politely, “Speaking of, I have some training to do. Please, enjoy watching us.”

Zeraxes nodded to the two of them then, the moment Felix was waiting for. He felt a surge of Mana within Zeraxes’ body and he flashed his own Reaper’s Aura. It wasn’t impressive by any means. In fact, Zeraxes Aura was tighter, more controlled and more purposeful with his convictions.

By comparison, Felix’s Aura was still a bit of a mess. He didn’t have full control of it and he was still figuring out the whole alignment thing. However, it was dense and more than enough to make Zeraxes flinch and nearly trip as he faltered in trying to zip out on a bolt of Lightning. Felix immediately deactivated it and didn’t react at all, as if it wasn’t him.

Zeraxes quickly righted himself and vanished a moment later.

Melody giggled just after he left, “Your Aura’s definitely coming along.”

Felix sighed, “It needs a lot of work.”

She shrugged, “It’s still pretty effective as is.”

“Sure. Imagine how much more useful it would be if I mastered it.”

“Or added in another two convictions.”

He nodded, “About the Realms. There’s a dragon?”

She nodded, “Yeah. The Realms are… kind of like The Abyss but less… straight combat. Basically, each floor will have a number of ways to beat them, combat or social. Each one has an intended solution though and if you have the skill for it, then you’ll have a much easier time getting through. The realms also get harder and harder as you move through them.”

“How do people know there’s a Dragon?”

“When someone leaves the Realms, there’s like an… explosion of… light or… an Aura of magic? That appears behind them. We just measure how big it is and we can get a pretty good idea of what floor they got to. Within a couple floors. The color though, indicates the type of floor, or the intended solution, and those follow a pattern.”

“So you know the approximate floor by the size and the color lets you nail it down exactly?”

“Yeah.”

“Who’s killed The Dragon before?”

She shook her head, “No one.”

“Then…?”

“At first, you’ll have no idea what’s on the next floor. As you get further though, you’ll get more hints from the residents of the floors. You’ll also start to get a… vibe, from the door until you’re pretty much just told outright what’s on the next floor.”

“No one we know of has gotten through the Dragon then? Everyone who’s lived, that we know of, stopped before it?”

She nodded, “Exactly. We know it’s on floor 2000 though.”

“That’s… quite a bit further than Zeraxes and Romar then.”

“Yeah. I was just teasing Zeraxes though because he’s an ass. It’s nearly impossible to reach the Dragon and getting as far as they got is super impressive especially considering they probably both just focused on combat alone.”

“You mean they ignored the optimal or intended solution?”

“Yeah. Political mysteries, botany, resource gathering quests, logistics, economics… you really think either of them have some hidden talent in an academic field?”

Felix nodded along, “Gotcha. Seems odd, doesn’t it?”

She tilted her head, “What do you mean?”

“The Realms seem like… from what you’ve told me and what I’ve read… like they’re trying to teach us something.”

“Like they’re trying to make people well rounded individuals?”

“Yeah. Something like that. If Romar and Zeraxes had spent time to study all of those other fields, how far do you think they could have gone?”

She scoffed, “Pretty close to 2000 if not there.”

“I take it Ameryl and Tam were well rounded enough then, even if they were… as strong as Romar and Zeraxes combat wise when they entered?”

Melody tilted her head back and forth, “Ameryl was stronger, Tam a fair bit weaker. Zerathus, Zeraxes dad, was a lot stronger so he probably just blasted right through the floors.”

“Right. Just seems a little… odd. Why would it do that? What’s the point? It isn’t System based so is it from another Universe and it just found its way here?”

She shrugged, “No one really knows.”

“I know. I’m just thinking aloud.”

“Why? Don’t you have tons of people to talk to in your head?”

Felix just cocked a brow as he stepped back, done watching Romar and Uphi endlessly smack each-other. He already had a pretty good idea of where they stood in relation to each-other and knew he had a lot of work to do, even if his stats were already considered monstrous.

“Did you want to go shopping now?”

Melody spun to look at him, “Uh… Sure, I don’t see why not. We just need to go and grab the other two.”

Felix gestured for Melody to lead the way because he had no idea where to go and she curtsied to him in response.

She first led them to the same building they had previously gone to to get an amulet from Adaline. While it was a professors office, it looked more like a wooden shack in the middle of the woods. Like a cottage, and not the kind with plumbing or functioning bathrooms.

Melody walked up the front steps to the door and knocked. Nothing happened though.

She waited a moment then knocked again. No one responded.

“Are you sure there’s anyone inside?”

She groaned and tilted her head back a little, “I can feel them in there.”

He nodded then stepped forwards towards the door. He wasn’t sure if there was anything he could do without Adaline’s amulet. The entire hut was heavily spatially enchanted. Not only had he seen the effects of that the last time he was there but he could feel it now. The mana coursing through enchantments that were amongst the finest work he had ever witnessed.

He still after dissecting Adaline’s research for dekads, along with his Mind Residents doing the same constantly, didn’t have the requisite knowledge to break in.

However, he had the requisite Mana Senses and Mana Control to feel out the enchantment on the door itself. He also finally had the theoretical knowledge and experience from his time with Rathelius and it was enough for him to be able to sift through at least some of the enchantment.

Felix could only safely disregard three quarters of the enchantment, all of it performing a similar function to the spell he used to calculate coordinates. It was all dedicated to slightly adjusting and modifying itself to its surroundings, the state of the Aether, Anima, and thousands of other minuscule factors that had to be considered.

At that point, with just a quarter of the enchantment left to consider, he began carefully eliminating things not based on their nodes, but based on their location and proximity. He considered common patterns he knew, followed the channels and was able to sift through most of what remained until he was left with just a few small areas.

With nothing left he could confidently eliminate, he began manually pushing Mana into all of the sections. At first, he pushed into them one by one, following the flow of Mana. He started with a tiny amount then slowly increased it as he blocked off the necessary sections of the enchantment.

What he was doing was technically dangerous, messing with a spatial enchantment. However, he was using so little Mana and was isolating so much of the enchantment that he wasn’t too worried.

However, he wasn’t confident he was going to get anywhere, he just wanted to try.

Within a half minute since stepping up to the door though, he surprised even himself when it unlocked and creaked ever slightly open.

Gripping the handle, he swung it the rest of the way and made a bit of a show for Melody who merely curtsied once again then turned to enter and stopped herself.

Looking in himself, Felix realized why.

Even with his Mana Control being what it was, he wasn’t sure he felt entirely safe walking into the office.

Inside, where before there had been many desks and every flat surface covered in research, now there was one of the most complicated and unstable looking rituals Felix had ever seen. There was somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 to 100 billion Mana being channeled through it and Felix estimated half of that was leaking back out into the air.

It wasn’t being put to waste though because they had surrounded the unstable center ritual with Mana Collection rituals to reabsorb and pump the Mana back into the main ritual. In a way, it was idiotic. In another, it was genius.

All they really had to do was make the center ritual more stable. Felix assumed, both the Professor and Adaline being very Intelligent people, that that wasn’t possible. So instead, they were working around that.

Even with the Mana recycling design though, they were losing billions of Mana a second as all the rituals in the room had some amount of loss. On top of that, Felix could immediately feel the Mana Collection rituals were all nearly overloaded as the entire system tried to approach some kind of equilibrium before it catastrophically exploded.

As with the door Felix really wouldn’t call himself an expert with any of this. This was magic that still remained beyond him. It was completely possible all this was accounted for. Still, he was certain he didn’t want to walk into that room.

With the door now open, Adaline and the Professor inside instantly noticed them. The Professor looked back to the ritual almost immediately, uncaring towards anything other than his research. Adaline on the other hand spent enough time thinking about what she was seeing to look at them questioningly then, realize who they were.

With the deafening whirring noise of the ritual system pumping Mana around in circles, Adaline had to yell but still, Felix heard her, “Felix! Pump as much Mana as you can into this ritual, get out your Pocket Home too.”

The Professor yelled back, “It won’t be enough. We need at least 25 billion more.”

A part of him didn’t want to listen to her. A much larger part of him was fascinated by whatever they were doing and so, he opened his Pocket Home against the outer wall of the hut and siphoned Mana from the Engine atop his tower, directly into the ritual on the floor.

With his newly expanded Mana Control range too, he didn’t have to run back and forth and simply had to stand between the two. Given the angles though and his precaution of opening his Pocket Home on the outside of the hut, he couldn’t actually see what was happening.

He could feel it though and he figured that was enough, given how likely he thought it was that the entire thing exploded.

The Professor yelled out, “Adaline, it isn’t stable enough. We need to shut it down.”

“NO! Keep going. It will work. It has to.”

Felix almost laughed at her determination but his general excitement was dampened when Melody walked into his Pocket Home and walked over to him, “Felix. Can you make it stable?”

He looked at her for a moment, “I don’t know.”

She nodded, her expression more serious than Felix ever expected from her, “Can you dismantle it without exploding?”

“Probably.”

“Do it.”

He looked at her with confusion, “Why? You don’t trust Adaline?”

“No, I don’t. That’s besides the point though, I’m all for dangerous risks. Right now though, she doesn’t think it’s going to work. She’s certain it’s going to explode.”

Felix slowed the flow of Mana he was directing into the ritual, “Why’d she say to keep going then?”

Melody leaned in a little closer, not actually worried they would be overheard over the sound in the room already, “She feels like she’s running out of time and that this is her last chance.”

“I don’t even know what this does but, running out of time for what?”

“I can’t tell you that. It’s not for me to share.”

He nodded, “Fine. I’ll see if I can stabilize it. Worst case, stay in here, I’ll close the portal if it seems like I need to.”

She nodded to him then stepped back towards the tower.

Felix, refocused his attention entirely on the ritual now and instead of just funneling Mana into it and trusting that Adaline knew what she was doing, he instead started to pay attention to the ritual. His first step was figuring out if what he perceived as problems, were actually problems. He didn’t want to ruin things because he was too inexperienced with what they were doing.

He didn’t exactly have a ton of time though so as he scanned it and modeled it in his head, recruiting anyone he could from his Mind City, he also tried to identify the biggest problems.

Though they didn’t spend a lot of time examining things, both his Mind Residents and he agreed, everything he identified was very likely a real problem and not something they simply didn’t understand. As for which was the worst, he had no idea. They all seemed equal. Choosing one at random though was not an option because plugging a leak in one section would increase the pressure everywhere else.

He was getting very close to just manually dismantling the entire thing but he decided he would try just once to actually stabilize it.

The best attempt he could make was to carefully control the entire thing at once. He didn’t outright plug any leaks or completely fix any areas but he made small improvements to as wide and general an area as he could.

It helped, at least it seemed to at first. The Mana staying in the spell was going up and it was rapidly approaching the equilibrium point. Felix did what he could to both stabilize the ritual and fuel it with more Mana because it still didn’t have enough but as he did so, he realized it was impossible. Even he couldn’t manually stabilize the ritual even if he dedicated the entirety of his focus to it.

Once he realized that, he began carefully dismantling it by pushing the Mana safely out of the ritual. The massive outpouring completely overwhelmed the collection rituals around the outside and they all fell apart one after another with a loud pop. Once they had, all the Mana in the room quickly began to dissipate as the center ritual began to wind down.

Felix funneled a bunch of the Mana back into his Pocket Home where the excess would feed the ocean and his World Tree Sapling, which was less sapling and more small tree at this point.

That only took a few moment after which he stepped back out of his Pocket Home and closed it, just in time to catch the majority of Adaline’s meltdown.

“DAMNIT! IT SHOULD HAVE WORKED!” She smacked the wall of the hut to no avail as she screamed.

Luckily, it seemed neither her nor the Professor realized it was Felix that had manually dismantled the ritual. He didn’t mind if they did, but it was easier if they didn’t which was why he dismantled things in the way he had.

Felix looked at Melody, wanting to question both of them but well aware she was much better equipped to handle Adaline’s emotional state. She nodded to Felix in understanding then walked over to comfort Adaline, both physically and Spiritually.

“I… Melody… I’m out out o-”

“You’re not. You have time.”

“Constructing this the ritual alone took dekads. Now we have to go over the design again, try and stabilize it. That could take epochs. Then we have to collect the Mana all over again. Why the fuck is the fourth time going to be any different?”

Melody nodded and spoke softly, “You can always ask for help.”

“Who could I poss- Sorry.” Adaline took a deep breath, “You’re right. I have time. I’ll make time.”

Melody smiled, “Good. In the meantime, our team for The Abyss needs new gear.”

Adaline took a moment to completely switch tracks in her mind then she looked at Melody in completely confusion, “Our what for The what?”

Oh lovely. She didn’t even know about the Abyss let alone that we’re on a team?

Adaline and Melody stepped out of the office as the Professor rambled on like a crazy person, sifting through the research all over the place. It seemed they didn’t have the same deadline as Adaline.

As they approached, Adaline made eye contact with Felix and just nodded, the gesture communicating more than enough for him, then she looked away and continued walking alongside Melody. Felix followed along as they flew back to campus and Melody explained The Abyss to Adaline. On campus, Melody managed to locate Peace in a matter of minutes, using her unique talents.

He readily agreed to go shopping with them and so the four of them headed over to the portal and into Telviras. As they walked out of the Teleportation Hub, stopping on one of the balconies in the air, Melody turned to them, “First things first,” She looked right at Felix, “we need to visit Raidran’s.”

Felix nodded, “We do.”

She looked at the other two then back at Felix, “Wanna drive us?”

He nodded and walked over the ledge, summoning Erevos and hopping into the front seat. Erevos was a two seat vehicle and Melody hopped into the seat next to him. Neither Peace nor Adaline seemed to mind sitting on the back and simply holding on though.

Looking back to make sure everyone had secured themselves, Felix cautiously accelerated and made sure no one was going to fall off but found his caution was misplaced.

Both of them were easily able to hold on no matter how fast he dared to go. He wasn’t trying to kick them off and avoided hard stops, quick acceleration and tight turns but he was also flying as fast as he normally would.

Flying that fast, they reached the garage to Raidran’s which, was completely empty. Felix took note of that but didn’t worry about it too much since it was just as empty the first time he had entered through the garage. When he tried to get into the building itself though, he began to wonder if something was wrong.

The door was closed and despite the fact that Felix was supposed to have access to the building, he simply couldn’t get in.

He needed their permission to buy new equipment though and mostly from his other senses, was beginning to suspect something was wrong. At least, that was how he justified the Aether Tunnel into the building. Luckily, the garage and the building itself were under the same spatial enchantment, and he knew that because of the enchantments around the door.

Stepping through, the rest of his party in tow, Felix arrived in the same open store he was familiar with. The furniture was still there, if a little dusty and that was it. That’s all he expected in the main room though.

Walking through and checking the hidden rooms with his Matter Senses, his frown deepened with each step.

They were completely empty.

The only other person who recognized something was wrong, was Melody, “No one’s been here in… half an epoch?”

Felix spun to look at her, “You can tell that?”

She nodded, “Not… super accurately but… it’s been at least half an epoch.”

He gestured to the blank wall next to him, where Melody knew there were rooms, “It’s been completely cleared out.”

“Huh.”

“So… is my contract void now?”

She shrugged, “You can check which contracts you’re still under.”

He saw Adaline frown a little then flinch, for whatever reason while Peace was having fun pushing a few inches of his hand through a wall by becoming more transparent. Felix ignored his shock for the moment.

“It’s still here.”

Melody’s face dropped a little as she fell into thought, “You could always offer to end it…”

“Yeah. First, let’s go talk to Aldahn and see if he knows where Krinitor is. We’re getting ahead of ourselves, maybe they just moved locations.”

She nodded and they both looked to the other two. Peace was distracted and didn’t seem to care and Adaline just met both of their gazes.

Taking Erevos to Inscripticae was overkill in many ways. It took them barely a minute to get there, now that Felix was less cautious with his flying.

Heading into the lobby, they were greeted by a young looking blonde woman with a smile so wide, her eyes were closed, “Hi!” She waved vigorously, “Welcome to Inscripticae.” She stretched her arms out and gestured all around her, like she was watching it snow for the first time in her life.

Felix nodded to her, “Aldahn in?”

Her smile dropped just a little, “I think so… I’ll go to his office and check if you could just wai-”

Felix waved her off, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll check myself.”

“Wai-”

He was already all the way down the hall before she finished a single word and knocking on the door.

“Just one second.”

A moment later, the door opened to reveal an initially very confused Aldahn. As soon as he saw Felix though, his face lit up in realization and joy, “Ah, I was wondering who would be knocking on my office from this side.”

“Good to see you.”

“You too.” He looked over Felix’s shoulder, “And you, Melody.”

Melody smiled and he looked down the hall, “You brought others?”

“Yeah. We’re going shopping before we head into The Abyss but we couldn’t find Rainoth or Kordran. Have you seen Krinitor?”

Aldahn frowned a little, “He disappeared… two terms ago now?”

Felix looked back at Melody, impressed she had been so accurate with her assessment then looked back at Aldahn to nod, “I take it by ‘disappeared’, you have no idea where they went?”

He shook his head, “Not a clue. His personal clients have been harassing me about it ever since.”

“I see.” Felix immediately sent the offer to terminate his contract with them then turned back to Aldahn when he realized he wasn’t going to get an instant response, “How’s the shop going?”

He nodded, “It’s been good, all things considered.”

Felix nodded in understanding and Aldahn walked out of his office, closed the door behind himself then led them into the shop itself.

Melody followed closely behind with Adaline and Peace a bit further back.

The shop itself, looked exactly as Felix remembered it. A large open space, multiple desks, the design room with specifications and notes written all over them. The only difference were the people behind the desks.

The overly jovial blonde woman who had greeted them stood off to the side and watched them, her face friendly and welcoming with a wide smile but Felix could tell from her poor Soul Control she was dying to know who they were. He let her wonder though as he followed Aldahn up into the design room which was empty save for a couple of items left in there to be assessed and commented on before being handed off to the client.

Felix took a seat across from Aldahn and Melody sat on the table next to him. Peace took a seat at the end and began playing with the solidity of his hand again using the table while Adaline, walked into the room and wandered over to the boards on the wall which she examined.

“You say, The Abyss?”

Felix nodded, “Should be opening next dekad.”

He nodded, “I take it you already went through the Realms?”

“No. Not yet. Melody and I will go soon.” He looked over at Peace.

“I’ll go but I might not be able to get in given my whole level bouncing around thing.”

He looked over at Adaline next but she didn’t look away from the board either purposefully ignoring him or simply not aware of his attention.

Aldahn waited a moment until he was sure Adaline wouldn’t answer, “Are you all students at Eramith?”

Felix nodded.

“Do you have any idea how you compare against the other students?”

Melody smirked and tilted her head back over her shoulder to look at Aldahn, “We’ll win.”

Felix cocked a brow at her confidence and Peace chuckled, though Felix wasn’t sure if it was in response to Melody or not.

Aldahn smiled just a little and nodded, “Which is why you need to find Rainoth or Kordran.”

Felix nodded.

“I wish I could help you but I suspect…” Aldahn looked over to the left at Adaline who had finally turned away from the board and items in disgust, “You’ve long since surpassed my enchanting capabilities.”

“I was just hoping you knew where Krinitor was.” Felix looked between him and Melody, “Can we check if they still rent their store front?”

Aldahn shook his head, “That informa-”

Melody nodded, “I know a guy.”

Felix stood and nodded to her then turned to Aldahn, “Before I go, mind if I review the items going out?” He gestured towards the board with his head.

Aldahn nodded vigorously, “You are the most senior employee here now, unless you count me. Even then…”

“You still consider me an employee? I haven’t done any work for you in epochs.”

Aldahn snorted, “Of course I do. It would be-”

Felix nodded and interrupted him because he didn’t need to hear it then stepped over and took the items in hand to examine them. In truth, he had already passively scanned and examined them when they stepped into the room. What he didn’t have, were Adaline’s thoughts.

It seemed she either needed a distraction or was so disgusted by the enchantments themselves that it wasn’t difficult for Felix to convince her to write out her thoughts.

As she did, he sifted through and mentally combined all the changes from his list and hers then used his Mana Control and Matter Control to manually modify the item itself. Felix had been expecting Adaline’s list to be completely overkill, detailed to the extreme and necessitate a complete rework of the item but that wasn’t the case. Instead, she seemed to be perfectly capable of balancing feasibility and necessity.

These items didn’t need to have complex enchantments and using them would increase the grade and rarity of the items too much.

Felix handed them both to Aldahn when he finished, “I don’t have time to walk anyone through, mostly the changes she suggested, so I just modified the items myself.”

Aldahn took them like he was accepting a fragile treasure and gawked at the Sword and the box which essentially amounted to a megaphone with some somewhat complex effects, “You changed them?”

“Yup.”

“You never did seem to need all the tools but…”

“I’m going to send some enchanters your way to do some work. Consider them an extension of me and feel free to consider them a single entity when it comes to splitting credits. Or don’t pay them at all, they happen to have found themselves a… beneficiary.” Felix subtle glared at Melody with his eyes alone.

She smiled and shrugged sheepishly.

Aldahn nodded, still examining the Sword in his hands, “How will I know…”

“Ask them something only I would know.”

He frowned in confusion and finally looked up at Felix, “Anything?”

Felix nodded, “Yup.”

He left Aldahn in his confused state as he walked out of the Design Room, the rest of his party in tow. As they walked through the workshop-the blonde receptionist staring them down the entire way and hurrying off to talk to Aldahn after they passed-Felix spoke to those behind him without turning his head, “Sorry about the detours. Just one more.”

Peace waved him off and Adaline grunted, it seemed neither of them minded much.

It turned out, Melody’s contact that could get them information was an attendant in the administration building she had previously ‘helped’ in the same way she had Ayred. They waited in the lobby as they disappeared to check for them.

While they waited though, their need for the attendant vanished.

Contract Cancellation Accepted

“Huh…”

I feel like I used them. They made me an impressive and expensive set of equipment free of charge as an investment into my future. In the hopes I would bring them great materials. All I gave them were young Dragon Scales though.

Adaline and Peace looked at him with confusion but Melody, being who she was, picked up on what was happening immediately, “They cancelled it?”

Felix nodded.

“Huh…” Melody squinted in thought for a moment, “I guess let’s wait and see if they still rent it anyways, now that we’re here.”

Felix nodded again and the other two went back to waiting.

It didn’t take much longer for the attendant to return and confirm to them, that Rainoth and Kordran still paid for that unit in the building, nothing had changed.

As they flew off to a store of Melody’s choosing, she turned to Felix, “I guess… they ran away then…”

“They couldn’t have been kidnapped or something?” Felix questioned.

Melody shook her head, “Not likely. Payment in Telviras is System managed. It comes right out of their credit inventory. It’s… possible if their kidnappers had someone high up in administration hiding things for them but they’d… I’m not even sure if that’s possible. They have everything verified by multiple accountants that are selected at random.”

Felix nodded, “So even a God would have trouble.”

“Yeah. I really doubt they were taken.”

“So they ran away and don’t want anyone to realize for as long as possible?”

She nodded, “Any idea why?”

Rainoth knew about Arthur… maybe she’s scared of the rumors?

“No idea.” Felix lied.

It only took them a few minutes to reach the first store, a massive store that was actually spread throughout an entire building in Telviras. They used the various units to split up the store into departments.

With Erevos’ unique enchantments, Felix didn’t have to find parking and they simply walked in through the front entrance into what reminded Felix fairly heavily of a massive department store. There were sections on the first floor for all the generic forms of equipment. Generic Plate, Robes, Leather, Scale, Chain, Profession Clothing and more mundane clothes.

Then, there were various portals that were all labeled with the departments reachable from them.

On display was mostly D grade equipment with some low rarity C grade equipment mostly for show on the mannequins.

Melody turned to them once they were all inside, “Okay, so. You’re definitely not going to find perfect equipment here. We came here first though, so you could see what’s out there. Try to narrow down the style and maybe get some ideas for what you’re looking for. Don’t just focus on armor, consider jewelry too. Even if you can’t find what you want, we can basically advertise what we’re looking for and sponsors will try to fulfill that, often making completely custom items to show off their abilities.”

They all nodded with various degrees of seriousness and smiles on their faces.

“Normally, I’d say we should split up but I, one, don’t trust you all to search seriously and, two, think it’s better if we all see everything so we get more ideas. I think we should start with Adaline, because she mostly wears Medium Armor. The rest of us wear Robes and Cloth.”

They nodded again in agreement or acceptance then followed Melody through a serious of portals into the more boutique, custom and higher level equipment sections.

Those sections contained Epic C grade equipment and everything from Common to Rare B grade, but nothing higher than that. That meant the materials and the effects were nothing extraordinary and Felix was certain his own robes, would have been worth an entire department, or more.

Melody squinted in thought as she examined Adaline, “So, Adaline. You don’t seem to heavily enchant your armor much…”

She nodded once, “I try to only enchant my cloak and my jewelry. It minimizes interference and makes it so I’m not reliant on enchantments. I also have a lot of experience with failing enchantments and I’m not nearly crazy enough to have anything complicated pressed up against my body.”

Adaline side eyed Felix and Melody smirked, “So if the enchantments do fail catastrophically, your armor will protect you at least somewhat?”

Adaline nodded and looked down at her chest, fingering the various scars across the leather on her chest and metal plates on her shoulders. Stretching the scars with her fingers, Felix noticed the glint of metal beneath the leather on her chest and he noted that she was wearing something closer to medium and approaching heavy armor, not leather with some metal plates like he had initially suspected.

Melody nodded and began to lead them towards a specific boutique, “That makes things pretty simple. I think we can definitely also get you something that repairs itself too.”

Peace snickered a little and for the first time since meeting her, Felix saw Adaline show something other than Frustration and Annoyance on her face, she was ever slightly bashful with barely pink cheeks.

Reaching over to a nearby mannequin as they walked through, Melody cocked her head a little, “Where’s your preference on armor hindering your movement?”

She shrugged a little, “If it protects me more, I’m okay with it being heavier, making it harder to move and bend my limbs.”

Melody nodded, “What about this one?” The one she was pointing at looked to be entirely metal and some kind of scale mail.

Adaline’s cheeks grew every slightly redder as she quietly said, “Metal on skin’s too… uncomfortable…”

Melody nodded without judgement then twirled towards a few others and narrowed down her requirements until she finally stopped and thought out it for a moment, “How do you feel about Bone?”

She shrugged in response, “Never really considered it but… doesn’t seem as strong as metal to me…”

Melody smiled, “Alright, I think I’ve got yours figured out. Let’s see about Robes then we’ll go over jewelry and accessories.”

They followed Melody along through the store, like a mother with her children shopping in preparation for the school year.

The Robe and Clothes department was by far the most diverse and was spread out over multiple floors. Not only were there traditional robes, like the ones Felix wore and more Martial Artist style robes, like Peace wore, but there were also dresses and various normal clothing outfits. They were made with higher grade materials, enchanted with defensive and mobility enchantments but they were still, clothes.

They focused on Felix first, because his requirements were the easiest. Peace was a Spirit now, though Felix still hadn’t told him yet, and he needed robes that wouldn’t hinder him. Ideally they helped him in some way too, but they weren’t entirely sure if that was possible. Felix had Mark ask and coordinate with Rewdan just in case though. He didn’t tell anyone else immediately, and wouldn’t unless they managed to come up with something.

Melody already knew what she wanted and needed and didn’t need ideas.

So, that left Felix, despite his not having any idea what he wanted.

“What about this one?”

“Too much fabric.”

“Okay…. what about this?”

“That would restrict my movement too much.”

Melody sighed, “These are nice, basically just simple clothes.”

“That looks too much like a suit from Earth. I’m not wearing that in a fight.”

“Fine, what about this?”

Felix responded despite knowing she wasn’t serious, “Too little fabric. Way too little fabric.”

“Really?” She teased a little more before half sighing-half screaming and dragging him through most of the sections.

His opposition quickly morphed from real complaints to, “That doesn’t feel right.”

Which was perfectly valid, just not helpful to Melody. Eventually though, she just gave up and began looking for clothes for herself, using the others as sounding boards for every outfit she tried on.

“What do you think of this one?”

Felix frowned, “That seems… excessive.”

“Looks like a ball gown.” Peace chuckled.

“Okay, fine fine. What about this?”

Peace guffawed, “Way too skimpy.”

Felix just shrugged, “If you think that outfit represents who you are, you should get it.”

She stuck her tongue out at him and Adaline actually giggled, exactly once.

After trying on a number of others and teasing the entire group, Felix a little more than the others, they finally checked out some of the jewelry.

For Felix, it was mostly useless. He could cast any of the spells they contained himself and preferred to most of the time. He did see value in automatic shields on earrings and belts but every one he saw, he could have easily created and enchanted himself to be vastly stronger.

Adaline was in a similar boat but, they both looked around just in case there was something they hadn’t thought of.

Peace couldn’t really use most jewelry but Melody claimed she had a solution at the next store they were heading to.

Melody herself, seemed to just be trying on pieces that she thought were cute.

Once they wrapped up there, Melody trying on a number of items again, they headed over to a store Felix could only describe as a taxidermist’s heaven crossed with an equipment store.

There were armor and cloaks made from hide and bone along with jewelry and weapons. Felix didn’t understand how that was going to help with Peace’s spiritual nature but first, they were shopping for Adaline.

Melody knew exactly where she was going and picked out what looked like tailored plate mail made from treated leather, and bone. It was also seemingly the only item in the entire store that didn’t look to Felix like a cannibal cult had made it. The leather formed multiple plates, like plate armor. Then the bone, added protection in specific places on top of and between the other plates.

Once Adaline had it on, Melody smirked, “What do you think?”

Adaline was at a loss of words, “This is… awesome.”

[B - Epic] Beast Plate

[Regenerative]

Equipment created from the corpse of a high B grade, slain beast. It retains some of their massive Endurance, making it tougher and massive Vitality, allowing it to regenerate.

Melody’s smile grew, “Thought so. So, we could get this, or we could wait and ask for something even better from sponsors.”

Adaline shook her head, “If you think this is strong enough, let’s get it. I’m going to complete that ritual then The Realms. I don’t have time to wait on sponsors.”

“Okay. I’m going to request some basic modifications then we’ll pick up a cloak for you in the cloth stores.”

She nodded and Melody disappeared to find the owner of the store while Adaline removed the armor for the time being.

As she returned, she held a few pieces of jewelry in her hands and handed them to Peace, “Try these.”

Peace looked at her curiously then approached and equipped the bones that looked like they were slices of a rib turned into a ring and amulets that were large fangs and tiny skulls.

“What are these?”

Melody smirked, “The big advantage to using beast materials, is they can come bound with some amount of Anima. Pieces of the Soul from the original Beast or even something entirely new. They bind very well. These, have the entire spirit of the animals they had once been, but the Soul is now dead. Some people wear them as trophies that enhance their auras. For you…”

Peace looked at her questioningly but she didn’t finish. Once he realized she wasn’t going to, he began testing things which visually looked like he was just staring at the rings. With his Anima senses though, Felix watched Peace poke, prod and pull on the Souls within.

It took him a few minutes but once he more or less knew the limits of the rings and how far he could push them, instead of pulling the Soul out of the rings, he pushing part of his own Soul into the ring. As soon as he did, the hand wielding the ring transformed into a much larger claw with fur and everything.

Peace’s eyes widened dramatically, “Oh yeah.”

[B - Epic] Kargora’s Fang

[Spirit]

An amulet made from the fang of Kargora, containing their spirit. Some say, the fang still salivates in battle.

Gross.

After screwing around for a little bit with the items, Peace handed them back to Melody, “Thank you. I’m going to see if The Cult can give me anything similar.”

She smiled and nodded then returned the items where she had found them.

Felix debated taking a look at them himself, but even from a distance, he was almost certain the best he could get out of them, was to harvest the Souls within.

After that, they headed to more clothing oriented stores where Melody tried on a number of other items and Felix came to the conclusion that he wasn’t going to find anything. Peace was in a similar boat but Rewdan had already thought of something special for him.

All Felix had to do, was stop by a specific store on the way back and pick up an extraordinarily expensive material. Luckily, Melody didn’t ask too many questions and her father seemed to like handing her money.

Even though he didn’t end up getting anything, Felix was rather satisfied with the whole trip. He had gotten a number of ideas for items he wanted to create for himself.

Melody ended up with the most out of everyone but, she didn’t buy anything she would wear into The Abyss, at least not on any of the later floors.

Back on campus, she stopped them before they all split off, “Try to come up with something you want that I can tell the sponsors. The more specific, the better. They will get us things, you’re better off asking for something you want or need so you don’t end up with random garbage. Even more importantly though, a good wish list attracts specific sponsors. For example, if we ask for specific robes for you two-” She pointed at Felix and Peace, “We’ll end up with a Clothier who focuses on Soulful Robes.”

They nodded in understanding.

“Alright then. See you all in a few days, if not sooner but I suspect… you two are going to isolate yourselves to enchant things and you’re going back to see The Cult. So, do not miss opening ceremony or I will kill you.” She looked at them very seriously and they all nodded once again.

Her serious expression immediately shifted to jovial as she smiled wide and waved to them then skipped off.

Adaline opened a portal with her gun and headed back to her mentor’s lab and even though Felix was immensely curious about the ritual they were performing, he had something else to deal with so he turned to Peace, “Come with me before you go.”

Peace shrugged and followed Felix through an Aether Tunnel to Ked’s lab.

Walking inside, Peace was mostly confused as he looked around, unsure what was happening and Felix, shared his sentiment. He had picked up the necessary material but he wasn’t sure entirely why he had done so. Rewdan hadn’t explained himself in the slightest.

The small rock he held was mostly stone with a bit of glinting metal shining through. The metal Felix saw was little more than a sparkle though, meaning there likely wasn’t much within the stone itself.

[S - Ancient] Essence Vein Ore

[Unprocessed]

Ore extracted from an Essence Vein. A rare material that is nearly impossible to work with due to its incredibly hard nature and with little use, due to its incredible weight. It was once one of the most valued crafting materials, but the methods to utilize it properly have long since been lost. It however, remains valuable due to some unique properties and its extreme rarity.

Felix grumbled a little and used Arcane Identify more intentionally, which had consumed his Identify Arcane Material skill.

[S - Ancient] Essence Vein Ore

[Unprocessed]

Ore extracted from an Essence Vein. Considered to be a metal impossible to forge by traditional means, excels as armor if used correctly. Very few in the history of the multiverse can properly work with his material. It is often considered to be the original Soul Steel.

Wait… this is Star Metal?

Rewdan stepped forward and snatched the stone out of Felix’s hand before he examined it thoroughly with his other senses and tossed it to Nova who leapt into the air and caught it in her mouth.

It took hours for Nova to produce what they needed, mostly because it was exhausting and took a ton of material for her to consume and transmute. It was still cheaper than buying a pile of the stuff though. What helped quite a bit, was Rewdan insisting Nova didn’t have to shape it at all. So, they ended up with a large pile of marble sized metal chunks of various shapes.

Once it was out of the stone and roughly processed, Felix noticed it had a very dark Navy color, almost Black.

Peace had stuck around patiently with no idea what was happening but once they had enough, Rewdan stepped forwards, “I hear you’ve gone through a change recently.”

Peace nodded, “I did. Still figuring everything out though.”

Rewdan nodded then looked at Felix, Can I tell him what he is?

Felix nodded, having fully intended on telling Peace himself at some point, he just hadn’t gotten around to it.

Rewdan smiled, “Do you know what I am?”

“You’re one of Felix’s brain people?”

Rewdan smiled wider, “No. In fact, I am not. I am a Spirit Felix summoned from The Spirit Realm.”

Peace’s eyes grew wide, “Woah… cool. Reaper’s told me about it but… I’ve always wanted to visit.”

“You should. Especially considering you are one now.”

Peace cocked his head a little and opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it, “Huh.”

“Let me guess, that explains a lot?”

“No.” Peace shook his head, “Not really. I don’t really know anything about Spirits so…”

Rewdan coughed, “Oh. Well, allow me to teach you something.”

Peace nodded eagerly and approached Rewdan who held out a piece of processed Essence Vein, which Felix’s identification called, Asphellum.

Rewdan handed it to Peace who happily took the small piece of metal and waited for instruction, “This metal is… rather unique and quite rare nowadays.”

Peace nodded, “Considering how much Melody paid for a tiny piece of it, I know. Why though?”

“Push some of your Spirit into it.”

Peace looked down at the piece and contorted his face in concentration for a few moments, his teeth clenched, “Now. What.”

“Keep going with the rest of the pile.”

Peace released his Spirit from the chunk and guffawed, “What?”

“You’ll need to do it a number of times but… it shouldn’t take you more than a few days… 30 or so…”

“I have to do this for 30 days? Why.”

Rewdan gestured to the pile, “This is your new robe.”

Peace looked down at the pile with a frown then over at Felix to see if this was a joke.

Felix shrugged, “He’s not wrong. You know of Soul Steel? Star Metal?”

Peace nodded, “Of course. We use it all over the place in The Cult.”

“That’s what this is. This is the rarer, higher grade version of it.”

Peace looked down at the rock with much more appreciation and less hate, “But… first, why have I never heard of it?”

Rewdan grumbled a little, “It seems to be nearly impossible to find in any large quantities. Last time I had a body, it was rare but not this rare.”

“Okay…” Peace didn’t seem entirely convinced but moved on anyways, “Second question, Soul Steel isn’t that flexible. We use it for utensils and other hard objects but it’s always hard.”

Rewdan smirked, “I don’t know what Soul Steel is, but have you used any of it since your transformation?”

Peace cocked a brow, “No. I guess I haven’t.”

“Either way, this becomes much more… malleable? Obedient.”

“Okay. Fine. I’ll trust you for now… funny Spirit man.”

Rewdan looked at Peace with a weird look as he vacuumed the pile into a spatial storage then had Felix Aether Tunnel him back to campus so he could visit The Cult.

Once he was gone, Rewdan turned to Felix, “I’m not sure why Asphellum is so rare nowadays… but your familiar is-”

Felix nodded and held up a hand, “I know. I got some very good advice early on. As for the Asphellum, is there any reason I shouldn’t use it for my own robes?”

“You should.” Rewdan nodded, “For you though, you probably don’t want a Robe of just Asphellum. It’s a solid material, you could handle the weight. The issue is it doesn’t handle energy attacks well. Spells, temperature, electricity.”

“Won’t Peace suffer from that too?”

“Spirits have a great time against energy attacks.”

“Oh. I see.”

Rewdan grew a little more serious, “It’s a little too complicated for him to manage, but for you… you want to weave the Asphellum with other materials.”

“Why?”

“You can weave in about three, as long as they’re similar quality, without losing anything.”

Felix cocked his head, “How does that work?”

Rewdan shrugged, “Look at your robes now. They weren’t woven perfectly but the total is still more than the sum of its parts.”

“What should I be looking for then, to weave in?”

“Definitely something regenerative.”

Felix nodded, “That makes sense. Something else to handle energy based attacks then?”

“That sounds reasonable. You’ll have to experiment to find the right weave.”

“Why’s that too complicated for Peace?”

“Because when you’re morphing your robes, you have to maintain the weave the entire time. You don’t just weave the robes then forget about them. For him-” Rewdan gestured towards the door with his head, “Who fights mostly on instinct, he’s better off just having it naturally move and morph with him.”

Felix nodded, satisfied with Rewdan’s judgement, “I appreciate your help. I understand this was outside the realm of our contract.”

Rewdan waved him off, “This is easily just as fun.”

“When did you previously walk the material realm?”

Rewdan shrugged, “I don’t know. Things are vastly different now. I remember a System but this one… feels a little different. It might be the same one though. Everything else has… changed though. A lot.”

“Do you remember an Integration?”

Rewdan nodded, “I do… Multiple… I don’t remember any numbers though… Sorry, Spirit memory isn’t quite as impressive as computer memory.”

Felix snorted, “Uh huh. So anyways, how are things coming along?”

“Wonderfully, I just finished up the initial designs for the Mana Accelerator.”