The path to the dwarven workshop was familiar now, worn by two days of constant traffic. Weapons lined the route—finished pieces waiting to be claimed, glowing faintly with the power of the cores forged into them.

"So what weapons are you two getting?" Seth asked as they walked.

Nyla didn't hesitate. "I'm sticking with my dual blades. They've served me well, and I know how to use them. Just want them upgraded with the advanced core—make them worthy of tomorrow's fights."

"Dual blades with ice enhancement would be devastating," Aria observed. "Freeze on contact, shatter defenses..."

"Exactly what I'm thinking," Nyla confirmed.

"And I'm keeping my longsword," Aria added. "Same reasoning. I've trained with it for years. My fighting style is built around it. Getting a completely different weapon now would be stupid."

"Makes sense," Akhil agreed. "Stick with what you know works."

They all turned to look at him expectantly.

"So what about you?" Nyla asked. "What weapon are you getting?"

Akhil smiled wryly, saying nothing.

The silence stretched for a moment.

"He won't tell us!" Seth cut in, gesturing dramatically at Akhil. "We've been asking all day and he just keeps being mysterious about it!"

"It's driving us crazy," Nibo added with a grin. "Even the chief blacksmith looked confused when Akhil described it."

"You're hiding your weapon choice?" Nyla raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"I'm not hiding it," Akhil defended. "It's just... not your typical weapon. I want to see if it actually works before I explain it to everyone."

Nyla rolled her eyes, a playful smile tugging at her lips. "Of course. You always like acting like you're different. Always have to be special."

"Says the person who insisted on using ice magic in the beta test," Akhil shot back immediately, "when literally every guide said fire was better for beginners. Remember that? You froze yourself solid in the first dungeon because you 'wanted to be unique.'"

Everyone burst out laughing. Even James, who rarely showed much emotion, let out a genuine chuckle.

"That was ONE time!" Nyla protested, her face flushing. "And I was experimenting! How was I supposed to know the ice would reflect back if I cast it in an enclosed space?"

"The tutorial literally warned about that," Ryan pointed out, still laughing.

"It said 'be careful with area-effect spells,' not 'you'll turn yourself into a popsicle!'" Nyla argued.

"You were stuck there for twenty minutes," Akhil continued, grinning. "The rest of the party had to leave you behind and come back later with fire scrolls to thaw you out."

"I was learning!" Nyla insisted.

"You were being stubborn," Akhil corrected. "Refused to admit fire was more practical just because everyone else was using it."

"At least I mastered ice eventually!"

"After freezing yourself six more times," Seth added helpfully, which only made everyone laugh harder.

Nyla threw her hands up. "You're all terrible! It was a learning process!"

"A very cold learning process," Akhil teased.

"Okay, okay, I can't beat the allegations," Nyla admitted with a defeated laugh. "But at least I never—"

"Speaking of learning processes," Aria cut in smoothly, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Remember when you and Nibo were running around the forest after you absorbed his blood? The one where they were both rolling around on the ground, grappling like their lives depended on it?"

Akhil froze mid-step. "How do you—"

"When Akhil was still in his mosquito form?" Aria continued, her smile widening as she watched Akhil's expression shift to shock.

The group went silent, everyone turning to stare at Akhil.

"You were the mosquito?" Nibo asked slowly. "The one that bit me and then I spent half an hour trying to kill it?"

"I..." Akhil's mind raced. "How did you figure that out?"

Aria scoffed. "Please. It wasn't hard to tell. You can take the form of different beasts, right? And you need blood to survive. You literally absorb blood from creatures and gain their abilities." She ticked off points on her fingers. "You can transform into different races after absorbing their genes. The mosquito was clearly one of your early transformations."

"I thought I was being subtle," Akhil muttered.

"You were not," Aria assured him. "The timing was too coincidental. A random mosquito appears right when you're supposed to be testing your abilities? One that's weirdly intelligent and fast enough to dodge Nibo's attacks? It was obviously you."

Nibo's face had gone red as the memory came flooding back. "You... you let me chase you for forty-five minutes! I looked like an idiot swatting at thin air!"

"You DID look like an idiot," Aria agreed, trying not to laugh. "We all thought you'd lost your mind."

"I was trying to survive!" Akhil defended. "You were trying to kill me! Do you know how terrifying it is being chased by someone fifty times your size when you're a mosquito?"

"You bit me!" Nibo protested.

"I needed blood to activate my ability! It was nothing personal!"

"You took TWO DRINKS! The first one wasn't enough?"

"The ability requires a certain amount of blood essence! I didn't know the exact threshold!"

"You gave me a bump on my neck for three days!"

The group was laughing now, unable to contain it anymore. The image of tiny-mosquito-Akhil desperately dodging massive-Nibo's attacks while trying to explain through tiny buzzing sounds was too much.

"At least I never froze myself solid," Akhil tried weakly.

"At least I never got chased around like a pest for an hour," Nyla countered.

"Both of you are disasters," Aria declared with a grin.

Akhil and Nibo exchanged embarrassed glances, both of them clearly reliving the mortifying memory.

"Oh, I see how it is now," Nyla said, her voice dropping into a dangerously sweet tone as she sidled up next to Akhil. She nudged him with her elbow, her eyes sparkling with newfound leverage.

"So, my 'big brother' was once a common household pest? A little blood-sucking parasite?"

Akhil groaned, sensing the shift in the winds. "It was a tactical transformation, Nyla. Drop it."

"A tactical transformation?" she echoed, clutching her chest in mock wonder. "You were buzzing around people's ears for snacks! Tell me, oh Great Monarch, why don't you turn back into one real quick? I just want to see if my 'swatter' reflexes from the beta are still sharp. I promise I'll only clip a wing."

"In your dreams," Akhil snapped, though his face was heating up. "I've moved on to much more dignified forms."

"Dignified? You have the audacity to lecture me about my ice magic when you spent your first week in this world looking for an exposed neck to land on?" Nyla let out a sharp, triumphant laugh. "I may have been a popsicle, but at least I wasn't something people kill with a can of bug spray."

Akhil stopped walking and turned to her, a sharp, playful glint returning to his crimson eyes. He leaned down slightly, closing the distance until he was looking her right in the eye.

"Careful, Nyla," he lowered his voice to a mock-serious whisper.

"You're getting awfully talkative for someone who's basically a walking blood juice box. I don't know why my favorite pack of emergency food thinks it has an opinion on my history. One more word and I might decide I'm 'hungry' again."

Nyla's smirk didn't flicker. She poked his chest defiantly. "Try it, bug-boy. I'll freeze my blood solid before you get a drop. Good luck trying to drink a slushie through a straw."

"You guys are actually hopeless," Aria sighed, though she was smiling.

"He started it!" they both shouted in unison, before immediately falling back into a bickering rhythm as the gates of the workshop finally loomed ahead.

The rest of the group was still chuckling, the tension from earlier completely dissolved by the shared laughter.

For a moment, walking toward the forges in the fading light, they felt almost normal. Like friends heading to do something mundane instead of warriors preparing for a death tournament.

The moment didn't last long.

Just as they were approaching the entrance to the workshop, a small dwarf stepped out. His face was smudged with soot, his apron covered in scorch marks, but his eyes gleamed with excitement when they landed on Akhil.

"You!" The dwarf hurried forward, nearly stumbling in his eagerness. "I was just about to leave and call you! What perfect timing!"

Akhil's heart skipped a beat. "Is it—"

"The chief blacksmith is done," the dwarf confirmed, his smile widening. "Your weapon is ready. He wants you to come see it."

The laughter stopped. Everyone turned to look at Akhil with renewed curiosity and anticipation.

The weapon was finished.

Whatever mysterious, unconventional thing Akhil had requested—whatever had made the chief blacksmith uncertain and worried about explosions—was ready.

Akhil took a deep breath, feeling the weight of everyone's eyes on him.

"Well," he said quietly. "I guess it's time to find out if my instinct was right."

The dwarf gestured eagerly toward the workshop entrance. "Come! Come quickly! The chief is waiting, and he's very eager to show you what he's created!"

Akhil started walking toward the entrance, his friends falling into step behind him.

Whatever waited inside—success or failure, brilliant innovation or catastrophic mistake—he was about to find out.

The mystery was finally about to be revealed.

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