Rory fell over a mile before he crashed back upon the hard ground of the volcano; the shockwave of Dragon's Fall had launched him further from the mountain than he had intended to leap.

"Ow," Rory groaned, choosing to remain still on the hard ground for a moment, an oversized serpent sprawled atop his body.

Recovering some, Rory sat upright, examining Eia. Now that he had time, it was apparent she was still breathing, just in rough shape.

"I can see how you lost that fight," Rory muttered. If that woman's aura was as durable as she was, then Eia never had a chance; her aural toxin was her main way of clashing with others who might otherwise be too powerful for her. Even her ability to snuff out opposing energies would have been useless; his fellow Founder had shown only a single ability of a more magical nature, her Air Shield, which had hardly been a vital part of her kit.

That could have gone better.

The first half of the battle hadn't been that bad; while his ability to damage the woman was nearly nonexistent, truthfully, she was far from being a genuine threat, at least to him, who had a far less disadvantaged match-up than Eia.

It had swung even more into his favor when he had worked out that his arrows could pierce her defenses if well aimed.

And then everything went straight to hell. The scale of her boost was too much; the only boost more potent than that, at least pound-for-pound, was Violet's All Monarchs Burn, and that was a boost that couldn't be left active without it killing the user.

His fellow Founder, meanwhile, seemed more than capable of sustaining that boost indefinitely; the only negative was that it seemed to come at the cost of her durability as her attributes inverted.

Knowing that, one would think Rory had the advantage in a future confrontation, but he wasn't so sure about that.

She knows I can get through her durability, meaning she won't just tank any attack willy-nilly.

Then there was Dragon's Fall. She'd basically walked straight into it, and even then, it had required stunning her with a brief illusion, which would likely be less effective the next time, given she had already been exposed once and broken free in an instant.

The only saving grace was the state of her equipment; at a glance, Rory could instantly tell it was nothing more than an assortment of either high-end common-grade gear or low-end uncommon-grade gear. Her shield was probably the best piece of equipment on her, and judging from the feel of the item, it couldn't have been much better than halfway through uncommon grade.

Grumbling, Rory tossed the serpent over his shoulder as he began to trudge across the mountain, avoiding any monsters and doing his best to suppress his aura.

Thankfully, by now, he had already dug another entrance to his volcanic base, this one closer than the main entrance. Feeling like he was a mouse scurrying under the scrutiny of a hawk flying high overhead, Rory darted between safe spots until, at last, he found his way back, heaving the still unconscious serpent through the entrance hidden amongst boulders, rubble, and coral shrubs.

Closing the trapdoor behind him, the hidden entrance seemed to vanish as the inscriptions powering the illusions reactivated. Only once he was inside did Rory let out a deep breath.

"Damn,"

Rory had understood tier seven was when encountering some of the other Founders would be a possibility. Still, he hadn't expected it to happen like this, an almost random encounter.

"I need to do better,"

All the gear in the world, all the expansive workshops, didn't matter when in the end, he still had his ass handed to him.

What are the chances she camps out on this mountain?

Not zero, but Rory also believed it would be difficult for her to track him. It was still a big, fuck-all sized mountain. With his entrances hidden under some locational illusions, she'd have to search the entirety of the mountain. The only reason Rory had stumbled upon her was that she was near Eia, whom he had years to recognize her aura signature.

"Need to plan around this for the future," Rory muttered. The simplistic side of him latched onto the thought of making some AP-style weapon, but it was a childish thought. Cracking her insane durability was only half of the battle; the other half was her attribute inversion boost.

Plus, she might have had other skills still in reserve.

Unlike him, the other Founders had no such restriction on earning combat skills. While Apostolos also couldn't gain combat skills through ascension, it was as if his abandonment of crafting whatsoever had weakened the effect of Scholar's Retreat; he could at least gain combat skills through self-taught methods far more readily than Rory, who had still not managed to self-teach a single non-pseudo combat skill.

Hell, I doubt her Air Shield was a skill she took upon a tier-up, not something that plain.

Still deep in thought, he was only pulled from his contemplations as the large serpent began to stir.

"Oh, finally awake?" Rory said, pretending he hadn't been concerned.

"I apologize for shaming you."

"You didn't shame me," Rory said, rolling his eyes. "Bad match up."

"I was taken by surprise and believed myself far more capable, thus requiring you to save me, so it seems."

"Happens to the best of us," Rory deflected.

"Did thou defeat them?"

"Er, not quite," Rory said with a sigh. "In fact, I was the one forced to run off."

"Had I not been in the way-"

"Nah, even if you weren't there, chances are I would have had to run either way."

Eia was silent for a moment before lowering her head.

"I see. She did not truly show her depth in our battle, did she?"

"No," Rory answered, wincing. The idea that Eia had been defeated without her assailant having shown their true abilities would sting, that much he was certain of. Not just that, it wasn't as if it was some high or even mid-tier seven monsters that had bested her, but a low-tier seven human.

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"What shall be our course of action? Shall we hunt her together?"

"Nah," Rory waved off the suggestion. "I'm not entirely against a bit of underhanded tactics, but then I just don't think it would work. You wouldn't be able to do much until I forced her boosting skill out, and even then, if we didn't execute things perfectly, she could easily just kill you."

While Rory had dropped a meteor on her head, he had doubted it would kill her, as he'd managed to survive the shockwave of the same attack in the past and with much less durability investment.

In fairness, I wasn't directly beneath it, but then again, durability differences and all that jazz.

In the same vein, Rory hadn't missed that the woman hadn't gone for any kill shots; she could have just as easily attempted to smash his face in with her fists but had instead opted to strike his protected chest.

Would she extend that same mercy to Eia if they ganged up on her? Rory wasn't so sure, nor did he want to find out, not after the close call they had already gone through.

"What else then?"

"You will lie low for some time. I have no way of knowing if she is the vindictive type. Now, even if she is, I doubt she will be snooping all over the mountain for a single serpent that can camouflage itself. Also, now that you know she is here, I doubt you intend to expose yourself flippantly."

"…. I do not."

"Good. Anyway, you need to take some time to rest and heal," Rory pointed at her scales, which had been shredded and shattered while in their crystal form. "As for me? Well, for now, not much changes. I've still got my fair share of things to handle."

Eia lowered her head as Rory left her behind. There was only so much to say to the serpent; he couldn't forcibly make her feel better, so he would instead attempt to address his issues.

Mainly the existence of his fellow Founder.

There might have been some misunderstandings involved, I admit.

In her eyes, she was probably trying to hunt a rare-looking monster, only to be sucker punched by a pissed-off man.

But.

But that didn't mean he was about to run off and apologize. At the end of the day, they were still rivals, with only one of them meant to 'win' their little 'competition' as Aelia had framed it. While Rory had no qualms working with others, he could already imagine a world where, if he were beaten, they'd want to stick him in some forge, having him slave away as their personal armorer. Given the poor state of equipment that his fellow Founder had, it didn't even seem far-fetched to Rory.

Yeah, how about no. I prefer being my own boss.

Lost in thought, Rory wandered to the main workshop, crossing his arms and staring into the magma whirlpool.

How do I handle this?

That was fundamentally the problem. It would be fine if he could just overpower the other Founder. The issue was that her base durability made it damn near impossible to wear her down, and in her boosted state, he couldn't keep pace.

So, how?

She was a unique grindstone that he would have to refine himself from, lest he risk shattering.

"Maybe a little melodramatic," Rory muttered, rolling his eyes at himself. "But the sentiment stands."

Circling the pool, Rory finally sighed.

"Well, when in doubt, try, try again."

Zoey found that she seemed to be in a constant state of annoyance lately.

"A meteor. He dropped a meteor on me."

It was hard to put into words what that felt like, having a dragon-headed meteor dropped on you by someone else.

"Well, if I had to put it in words, it hurt, and I don't mean in the emotional sense," Zoey grumbled, popping her broken bones back into place as her rapid healing continued to put herself back together. "Seriously, a meteor. Who does that?"

She'd made a mistake, a big mistake. She had completely mistaken his identity, which had led her to feel way too confident when he had seemed unable to do significant damage. She'd just assumed that if someone called The Spear couldn't directly wound her, she had nothing to fear.

But no, it was the goddamn Architect, not the Spear.

"How was I supposed to know that?"

Over the years, she had only learned the names of a few of her fellow Founders, references from E.O.N. proclamations or updates.

"Of course, it had to be the stupid ass Architect."

Zoey was lying at the bottom of a rather large crater, not surprising given the meteor that had landed upon her. She'd been forced to activate her damage nullification ability to withstand the initial impact of a meteor landing on her.

Seriously, a meteor! If you told me someone would be dropping meteors on me even a few years ago, I would have referred them to an institution.

While her damage nullification skill had prevented the initial instance of damage, the ensuing explosion had managed to cause some significant harm even with her insane durability investment restored.

"Stupid armor,"

Her tier-six skill selection had resulted in taking a skill called 'Skin and Steel,' and it directly amplified the effect of her durability based on the strength of her armor.

Except, her armor was clearly rather shit now that she had seen what real armor looked like. With her affinity for durability, the second she had spotted the Architect's armor, she had known how outclassed her gear was.

With gear like that, I bet I wouldn't have even needed to use First Through the Breach.

At the time, she had assumed he had lucked into it, which had also led to the mistake of underestimating the man, as she believed his gear had carried him; now she knew better.

Next time, I won't make that mistake.

As much as she didn't like it, it had essentially been her loss. The Architect had vanished, clearly not interested in prolonging the battle. Had he remained, it would have been a bare-knuckle brawl, with First Through the Breach having incurred its one-day cooldown. Even her attribute inversion was out of the picture, taking as much damage as she had, while in her defense 'form' meant inverting her attributes would pretty much cause an instant KO to herself.

Now, it hadn't been a one-sided slaughter. The Architect had also taken some pretty damn heavy hits himself. While the meteor had banged her up good, she still wasn't out of the fight if it came down to it. The main issue was that with her damage potential lowered without the use of her attribute inversion, it would have come down to stamina, who could outlast the other.

But that was why Zoey felt like she had lost. Because while she thought it would come down to stamina, she wasn't an idiot; the Architect had been making weapons and other things appear out of nowhere, like pulling them from a bottomless bag of tricks. What was to say that he didn't have more? Even if her hits had injured him, he had shown the ability to overcome her durability.

"Stupid," Zoey finally grunted as she hauled herself out of her literal pit of depression, ignoring her creaking and groaning bones.

He had won this round, but next time, it would be her win. She usually wasn't someone to get so invested in something like a glorified dick-measuring contest, but that had been humiliating.

Plus, she also had other ulterior motives aside from her bruised ego.

Could he make me some gear like that?

Looking down at her mismatched gear, she could only frown. The individual pieces were usually prizes spawned as a reward any time she cleared out any small-scale delves.

Delves were basically mini-dungeons, ranging from one or two floors to the deepest delve she had cleared, which was the delve that had rewarded her the now-useless Horizon Mirror, which had been five floors. For someone without the ability to make top-grade items, they were basically loot pinatas, assuming you could clear them.

If you could clear them, that was the key point.

Ignoring the floor count, not all delves were created equal; some barely increased in strength per floor, and others jumped entire tiers. There had been one delve she had promptly forgone exploring when it had jumped from tier four to tier six monsters in a single floor; another two-tier jump would result in her being slaughtered by tier eight monsters.

I'm getting distracted.

The point was that most of her gear had come from clearing delves, and it showed - it was essentially charity equipment. Even now, everything except her shield was either destroyed or on the verge of destruction.

She had thankfully encountered quite a few delves within the region; in fact, nearly every single one of the islands or volcanoes was a delve of some variety.

New gear, then I'll probably have to set up shop nearby and keep watch for that Architect.

There was also the matter of the serpent that had started it all. The stubborn part of her wanted to hunt it down once more, but Zoey shook her head after a moment's consideration.

Considering his reaction, it had to be like a pet or something, and I'm not about to go murder someone's pet snake.

"Also," Zoey said as she looked at the size of the crater she had dragged herself from. "It's probably best if I don't let him draw circles on the ground in the future."

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