As days turned to weeks and weeks turned into months, Rory fell into a pattern of being part-time dad and part-time mad scientist. The efforts in producing enough liquid renewal pneuma were far from easy, and it was something which made Rory glad that he'd offloaded-

Delegated. I did not offload, I delegated.

-Delegated the rest of the alchemy activities to Mariah.

After nearly ten months of work, Rory was seated cross-legged in the core room when a presence approached. Given that it was the core room of Ehkorrus, it could only be one of two figures.

Or, as it turned out, both of them.

"Rory," Apostolos said as he entered the small cavern.

"Apostolos, Irene," Rory nodded to the two. With just Apostolos and himself nearby, Irene made no point in hiding her genuine aura as a tier seven. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"We were-" Apostolos began before Irene cut him off.

"I'll cut to the chase. The next wave is approaching soon. We had been hoping that the walls would have been updated by now. No, I'm not faulting you or anything like that; this isn't an attack. The point is, we are going to need you to intervene once more."

"Oh, sure," Rory said, waving it off.

"Sure?" Apostolos said, sounding uncertain.

"What, did you expect me to get all enigmatic and aloof and say it was up to you guys?"

"Kind of?" Apostolos said.

"Hah, no." Rory shook his head. "My fault anyway. But, how about I split the difference? I won't directly involve myself where possible, but I will ensure things go smoothly. I've noticed you've got some sneaky little ritual sites that seem like they're meant to interface with another's will, a joint ritual if you will."

"Aurora Astraeus," Apostolos said with a nod. "I'm surprised you noticed the locations; they were meant only to become noticeable when utilized."

"Hard to hide stuff like that from me," Rory said as he tapped just beneath his eye. "Truth be told, I noticed them pretty early on when I would walk around with Roxy."

Rory hadn't exactly become a common sight throughout the city, still mostly an elusive figure, but the addition of Roxy meant that at least he was spotted enough to be more than a myth.

As far as the nearly invisible ritual sites went, they were almost like faucets into Ehkorrus itself, capable of drawing from the excess life energies infused within the very itself. Based on his observations, when used in tandem with external magic, it would allow a blanket 'field' of boosted energies to become accessible to those within the city.

"What about it?" Irene finally asked.

"Well, I can improve it. The inscription work was decent enough, but I can sense the depth of conceptual understanding within those runes was only surface-level, lowering the overall efficiency of it."

"And that will be enough?" Apostolos asked.

"No, not at all," Rory laughed. "But that's only part one of three. The second change is I will add a secondary 'valve' not to the life reserves of Ehkorrus, but to this core room itself. The pneuma reserves themselves won't change, but you'll be able to draw upon much denser pneuma, allowing for some far more potent magic to be thrown around while it lasts."

"And the third part?" Irene asked.

"I'll act as the secondary conduit. I'm assuming you took on that role before, Apostolos?"

"Correct."

"Well, I can handle that. That way you won't exhaust yourself simply by maintaining the ritual."

"And that will be enough to withstand the next wave without your direct intervention?" Irene probed.

"No, not at all," Rory laughed as he repeated himself. "But the general empowerment will mean the tier sevens won't have to be scrambling to plug nearly as many holes. What will make the difference is that, outside of improving that wide-scaling boosting ritual, you send me five people, and I will make them the best damn weapons and armor they've ever seen. Oh, and Apostolos, you're a part of those five, so let's call it four others."

"Marcie, Violet, Edward, and….?" Irene stopped, frowning. There was clearly a name she wished to say, but who was no longer with them, a certain shadow beast tamer.

"We can make it an event," Apostolos snapped. "A tournament or something along those lines, where the winner will receive gear from the Lord Founder himself.

"You know… that's not a bad idea," Irene said.

Rory nodded in agreement, pausing after a moment as a single thing suddenly stood out to him.

"Who the hell is Edward?"

Focusing his senses to a razor's edge, Rory locked onto any single speck of dust or debris, no granule too small, as he ejected them from the space in front of him.

Cleared.

"Bound Space, trial number…. Two thousand, eight hundred and sixty-seven. And…. Go!"

Holding his hands out in front of him, strips of red crystal began to slowly extend both latitudinally and longitudinally, forming into a sphere or globe. On the surface level, it seemed like it was little more than every other time he temporarily projected some of his blood lattice crystals, but that was only at the surface level.

The reality was that each concentric circle was the same circle. At nearly ninety percent formed, for a single instant, he wavered as the entire thing collapsed a moment after.

Sighing, Rory shook his head.

Close, but not quite there.

A bound space, as far as Rory understood, required several layers of containment, three-dimensional versus a bound circle's two-dimensional. The problem, as always, was that the pneuma needed to exist simultaneously in multiple spaces, which required a space that was equally multiple across physical reality. If Rory were higher-tier, perhaps he could have done it with just his intent alone, but as a tier seven, forming and containing parallel 'clones' of pneuma, that were all actually the 'same' pneuma, wasn't feasible without an external vessel. His way of 'cheating' had been to project the same projection in multiple spaces simultaneously. Not similar, not alike, the same projection, which meant that nothing could be misaligned, not even a single speck of dust.

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He was closing in, but not quite there yet. Having fulfilled his daily quota of tests, Rory finally dusted himself off. Roxy was at school as usual, not that it really mattered because he was already scheduled to meet with someone else shortly.

Not much time.

Rory wasn't referring strictly to the meeting he had planned, but the upcoming wave. True to his word, he'd already retrofitted the Aurora Astraeus ritual markers scattered throughout the city, a relatively straightforward process; the most challenging part, in truth, had just been locating them, as they were usually hidden underneath subtle coverings, such as benches, statues, or even just shrubbery.

After that, he'd taken care of providing new gear for Marcie, Violet, and the 'Edward' person, whom he'd heard about a few times.

The man had been… well, shockingly dull.

Well, dull might be a rude way of saying it.

Quiet was the correct term. He was a weapons expert, but he preferred spears, unsurprisingly given that several of his skills referenced his fellow founder, the Spear of the Precursors.

Rory wouldn't lie; a petty aspect of him had led to him recreating his spear, or an approximation of it, for the man.

You might have skills that reference this Spear person, but in the end, it's MY spear you're using. Hah! No, I don't sound like a crazy ex.

There were only two sets of gear left for him to craft: one meant for whoever would win the highly anticipated upcoming tournament and the other meant for Apostolos.

As the tournament would be taking place in a little over a week, there was no way to begin working on it yet.

Hence why he was meeting with Apostolos.

Making his way to the foundry, Rory gave a single wave to Gil, who had noticed his aura, before he made his way to the locked-down heart of the Stellar Forge.

"You're late," A voice chirped at him as he passed through the security measures.

"Well, I don't live here," Rory pointed out at the glowering Astra, who was floating around Apostolos's head.

"He was probably still messing around with his other projects."

"Bingo," Rory said, shooting Apostolos with the finger guns. "You brought the stuff?"

"Yeah, but I'm not sure what you need them for?" Apostolos asked, pointing at his long-used armor, which was placed delicately upon an armor stand.

"You want some kick ass armor, or not?"

"I guess," Apostolos sighed before glancing at his old armor. "It feels… wrong, though. My old armor served me for decades."

"And that's why I need it," Rory snapped. "Alright, folks, it's about time we start. Astra, you already know the deal."

"Ugh, fine. Did you bring me a treat?"

In response, Rory withdrew a vial of clear liquid, giving it a shake before tossing it to Astra. Zipping into the center of the room, Astra's body exploded outward in a flash of light, reforming into her real form, that of a young star. The vial of clear liquid, un-aspected liquid pneuma, was sucked into her fiery depths.

"Tasty."

"You need anything else?" Rory asked.

"No, I have enough."

"Good," Rory nodded. "Alright, Apostolos, time for a quick explanation."

"Must you?" Apostolos asked.

"I like the sound of my own voice too much not to lecture," Rory joked as he crossed his arms. "The quality and power of something can be derived from several areas. The most obvious is the literal materials used. Making an item from rare-grade materials versus mundane will obviously result in something stronger, all other factors equalized."

"Uh-huh," Apostolos mumbled, making it a point to space out.

"Next up is the skill of the crafter, both their skill as an artisan, and their skills."

"Yep, totally," Apostolos said.

"Third, intent. The stronger the connection to their intent in their creation, the stronger the result. Usually it's marginal, but with enough oomph, items can transcend tier and level restrictions."

Apostolos, only half-paying attention, nodded along.

"Finally, significance. Perhaps the most important aspect of everything is significance."

While Apostolos had been trying to zone out, for a moment his attention returned.

"The same significance involved with ascension?"

"Basically," Rory agreed. "Sacrificing equipment that has a storied history, especially equipment that you have personal history with, can result in some serious oomph as that significance is reused. I've used it both in creating new items, as well as firing off attacks more powerful than what I should regularly be capable of."

"Like when you fought off the Blight Khan."

"Fought off might be putting it too generously, but sure."

"So, the reason you need my old gear…"

"Recycling it," Rory said, confirming Apostolos's suspicion. "Now, watch the magic unfold."

The 'magic' was honestly rather dull, in Apostolo's opinion. Aside from the gut punch of watching his trusty armor disassembled and reduced into molten metal that was then incorporated into an alloy of stellar matter, some red metal, and a few other things that Rory withdrew from his incorporeal inventory, it was essentially nothing more than ordinary forging that Apostolos had seen in the past.

Hell, the only reason Apostolos was needed was that Rory occasionally requested that he bathe the forged ingots in a stream of liquid sunlight, his aura given form, like a magical fingerprint directly infused into the metal. Rory would likewise bathe the metal in magical flames, but whereas Apostolos's was like liquid sunlight, Rory's flames looked more like burning blood, manipulated expertly and deftly.

Hours passed in this manner, with most of what Apostolos saw meaning nothing to his untrained eyes, but either way, he was certain it was high-level stuff. However, it seemed that his former master was difficult to please, grumbling under his breath and occasionally cursing.

It wasn't until hour seven that Rory turned to look at Apostolos.

"Alright, you can leave, your part is done."

"You sure?" Apostolos asked. In truth, he was happy to leave, but he wouldn't leave one second sooner than was appropriate.

"Yes. At this point, I think I've woven your aural signature into the metal as much as I possibly can, while burning off any excess opposing concepts."

Only vaguely aware of what Rory was referring to, Apostolos shrugged, standing up from his seat in the corner where a folding chair had been set up.

"Do you want any grub sent here?" Apostolos paused one step from the door, briefly asking.

"No, you know I don't need much food. Anyway, I don't want to be disturbed for the last part of this part of the process."

"If you say so," Apostolos said, before promptly leaving.

Alone, or 'technically' alone if one ignored Astra in her star form, Rory took a moment to sit in the chair that Apostolos had been sitting in over the last few hours.

While Apostolos hadn't been able to make much sense of what he was witnessing, any other blacksmith would have been blown away. True Folding, alchemical flames, metallurgy, pneuma manipulation, Rory was doing it all.

Well, I wasn't lying.

Reusing old equipment was a solid way to squeeze out more power, but, dear mighty, the difficulty was off the charts. Of any item Rory had ever 'recycled' in the past, his old illusion spear was without a doubt the most storied item. Yet, given the nature of how Rory tended to fight, the spear wasn't really that commonly used; it was just another weapon in his arsenal, older and more potent than most, but nothing that Rory would call a signature weapon.

Compared to Apostolos's armor, the only set of armor he'd been using for decades, the golden armor of the Chief Protector that embodied the significance of what a Chief Protector was to the city?

Yeah, totally different magnitude.

Recycling that armor into the creation of new armor was like trying to wrangle a wild stallion; it was as if every single action was being resisted. It wasn't alive, not exactly, but there was clearly a form of 'ego' within the armor that then seeped into the new metal he was working with.

Something to investigate in the future.

Whatever the mechanics involved were, it made the entire damn thing significantly harder to work with, but Rory wouldn't be quelled. Every single hammer stroke wasn't just a simple reshaping of metal; it was like a philosophical debate, his intent forced to convince the metal to obey his will or otherwise wrestle it into submission.

After hours of that, Rory needed at least a small break, but it wasn't without success. Tucked away in his inventory were several bars, radiant like the sun but also carrying a physical weight like a celestial body.

Daybreak Ingot +1

Rarity: Rare

A material forged from the matter of a young star, the volcanic bones of a planet, and the resplendent ego of prideful solarite armor.

"Volcanic bones," Rory snorted as he examined one of the bars. "Quite a fancy way to refer to promethium."

That was another reason for the difficulty. Promethium was a material that was earthbound in nature, whereas solarite was celestial, and the two did not get along. He'd been forced to 'align' the materials with his own intent, show them that they were one in the same, or otherwise risk the material never reaching its full potential. Perhaps a lesser artisan would have skipped that step as unnecessary, if they were even aware, but Rory refused to make anything less than his best for Apostolos.

Only a little more to go.

While Rory could continue to lament the difficulties involved in making the ingots of Daybreak, the reality remained that in the end, Rory had been the one to triumph.

Now, all that's left is to finish this.

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