“Dammit!” Izabel stabbed the blade in frustration, teeth gritted at the failure. “They really are—“

“Calm down. I know how you feel right now. Do you have any where they’re heading to?” Alice held Izabel’s shoulder, tight enough to ensure the latter did not rush headfirst into trouble.

“Most likely the 91st, we saw them there first, after all,” Izabel replied. “I can’t waste time here. They’re getting farther with every second…”

“I’ve heard a conversation between the intruders. They most likely need her alive, considering they mentioned a lady is looking for her. I know how you feel, but you’re not nearly strong enough take them without a plan.”

Alice ordered the tower to pull Izabel’s stats and showed it in front of her.

[Izabel Viator]

[Class: Provocator]

[Strength: 35]

[Intelligence: 15]

[Endurance: 15]

[Fortitude: 10]

[Agility: 21]

“You’ve seen their movements. You can’t catch up in your current state, let alone save someone. For now, if you want, I’ll give you the spirit stone rewards now without doing the other levels. i can’t do anything else for you.”

“Tell me, Alice, are you really… unable to leave?”

“I can’t, as much as I want to help you. Which is why I am doing this,” Alice shook her head. “I’ll demonstrate it to you later. For now, can I borrow that blade?”

“You mean this?” Izabel handed the blade-stick to Alice. She ordered the tower to perform a quick scan of the blade.

[High-Carbon Biosteel]

[A versatile material made by converting selected biological matter. Connection to a specialized core is required for the steel to display its full potential.]

Upon reading the notification, Alice remembered the defeated opponents, then ordered the tower to bring the two corpses to the ground in front of them. A portal appeared on the ground, then the two corpses rose from the portal. Alice saw the second corpse’s head being deposited next to the headless corpse, before the portal stitched shut.

Izabel frowned when she saw the second corpse’s mangled state. Meanwhile, Alice looked at the beheaded corpse and gulped.

“Vuer, can the tower perform a scan to see whether there’s a core inside?” Alice pointed at the corpse. “I don’t mind peeling it, per se, but…”

“… you caused this, you know. Now you’re afraid?” Vuer asked, its tone incredulous, while floating on top of the corpse’s torso.

“Less that, more ‘I don’t feel like digging around for something that may or may not be in there’,” Alice replied in a flat tone.

“Alright. Okay. From what little I can sense, there’s an energy source in here. It carries a trace of divine energy, in fact, but unlike those replicators, it’s so little it’s not even enough to be absorbed.”

“Okay, that’s understandable. So, we cannot use these things?”

“No, we can. The divine energy I managed to sense is so low, it’s not even worth mentioning if divine energy wasn’t scarce. All you need to do was replace the core’s energy with another type of energy when you recreate this core, and it should still function.”

“Alright. Izabel, I’m going to do something kind of… gruesome. If you’re not up to seeing it, do look away,” Alice warned.

Alice cut off the black garment covering the corpse, then she lengthened the claws on the tip of her index and middle fingers. She took a deep breath, then, she slid the glossy, skin-like material covering the corpse. It felt smooth to the touch, less like actual skin and more similar to a carved and sanded rock.

Contrary to what she expected, there was no blood seeping out of the wound. Instead, the skin opened to reveal machine parts that had since stilled. The blood she saw was mostly contained in bundles of small pipes winding all around the body, and now, after they died, the blood no longer flowed.

What caught her attention was the glossy sphere tucked in where their heart should have been. The color was a deep, rich cobalt blue, and it refracts light as if it was an oversized glass marble.

[Core Type A - Biosteel Reactor]

[Synchronizes with High-Carbon Biosteel, allowing the material to change forms. Faint energy emanated from it.]

Seeing the name, Alice decided to approach the second corpse, only to find nothing but gears, destroyed pipes, and shining shards that looked like glass. She tried to take one shard, and a notification appeared in front of her.

[Core Type B - Kinetic Reactor (incomplete)]

[A shard of a Core Type B that allowed the wielder to redirect a chosen target by force. It does not contain any energy, and is functionally useless]

Well, darn it.

Deciding she was done with the corpses, Alice ordered the tower to absorb them, cleaning the mess in the process. Then, she opened the tower’s storage, ordering the tower to use [Fragmentation and Creation] on it before closing the dimensional storage.

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A quick look at the current notifications revealed that the fragmentation of the food items was complete.

“Izabel, can I borrow this for a while?” Alice raised the weapon she borrowed. “I think I can make something better for you, but it’ll take time, and you’ll be left without a weapon for a bit.”

“I plan to stay here anyway,” Izabel nodded and said. “You’re going to help me get stronger, right?”

“Of course.”

“Then, you can have that thing, I’ll just take out a random tree branch while you’re at it.”

“Wait, actually no need for that. I just realized something,” Alice said, “How did you manage to get this?”

“I ambushed one, then broke the blade arm when they died. I just tied it to the branch I carried so it’s easier to use.“

“Okay, my question, can you break off a section of it, then? I just needed enough of the material to analyze it.”

“I got it,”

Izabel walked to the flat rock she sat on before, then she untied the blade, placing it on the rock save for a little bit sticking out. She held the blade with one hand, then pressed on the small section.

With a loud, audible snap, the small section broke. Izabel then handed it to Alice.

“Will this be enough?”

“It should be, thank you.” Alice took the piece and did the same thing she did with the core.

“Okay, on another note… tell me about the third floor,” Izabel asked, “I am allowed to finish this by myself, right?”

“You are, yeah. Okay. Let me take you to the third floor, and you can either go at it or do the first floor for the rewards.”

Alice opened a portal in front of her.

“I’ve moved the third floor puzzle to the second floor, but it still works the same way, since I haven’t had time to remake it. That aside, this is the third one. Consider it as a bonus round, if you will.”

Both of them stepped into the portal, right to the front part of the third floor room. Izabel glanced at all the boxes. As of now, they were currently still empty.

“The easy explanation is, when you take another step from where we’re currently standing, slimes placed in random locations will start attacking. Your job is to dodge and kill them all. Each kill will give you two extra spirit stones, or you can skip and get your rewards, though you’ll be forgoing the additional stones from this round.”

“Ah, so it’s like a fancier version of that game where you hit rats coming out from holes,” Izabel said.

“I’m actually surprised you know what it is.”

“To be fair, I do like playing old games in the ROOT system database. Not to mention, it was free,” she shrugged. “Anyway, I get it. I can deal with the monsters myself.”

“Alright, then I’ll get Vuer to supervise you, just for safety’s sake,”

Alice opened another portal, taking Izabel to the first floor, then she went back to her room to open the pending notification.

[Pseon Armor fragmentation process - 100%]

[Wheat bread fragmentation process - 100%]

[Strawberry jam fragmentation process - 100%]

[Creation unlocked!]

A new menu appeared in the system, displaying the materials she currently has access to. Upon selecting the [Pseon Armor], a few options appeared below it.

[Use material for weapon creation]

[Use material for armor creation]

She selected the second option, then another set of options appeared in fromt of her eyes.

[Elemental Fusion]

[Fire - Increase wearer’s Strength by 20%]

[Water - Increase wearer’s Intelligence by 10%]

[Earth - Increase wearer’s Endurance by 10%]

[Wind - Increase wearer’s Agility by 10%]

[Light - Increase wearer’s healing received by 15%]

[Dark - Increase wearer’s Fortitude by 15%]

[Available Fusion slot: 1/1]

[Note: Elemental Fusion strength is determined by [Fragmentation and Creation] skill level]

That was certainly quite the imbalance.

It seems that Fire element gives the most bonus, followed with Dark and Light, while the rest tied for the last slot.

“Hey, Vuer, do you know why the elemental fusions are like this?”

“Like what?” The dragon asked. “Oh, I get it. Each tower has different affinities, and Vuerga system in particular has a high affinity to Fire. The second highest are elements you have a medium affinity for, and the others have low affinity with the tower, and you by extension.”

“So in other words, it’d be better for me to create offense-based equipment,” Alice nodded.

“Equipment fused with fire element, to be more precise. Each element might have different effects when applied to different items, but you will always get the best results when you’re fusing Fire element into something else.”

“Got it, okay. How is it going there? You can stop the enemies if you feel it’s getting too dangerous. Don’t let any guests die.”

“Understood. Everything is fine for now.”

Alice focused back at the creation screen, then selected the fire element.

[Processing…]

She could feel energy spilling out of her at a faster rate, coalescing as a floating ball of light. The light sphere started white, before red started to bleed from its core, covering all its sides in a distinct crimson shade. With each bit energy it took, it then started to change form, turning into a lightweight armor.

[Pseon Metal Armor - Fire Aura]

[Armor made of similar metal as the protective shell of a Pseon Replicator.]

[+Strength 20% (Fusion effect)]

[+Endurance 10%]

An attempt of touching the material revealed it was light and flexible, and it was not too heavy at the cost of being less durable. It would be perfect for Izabel.

Alice decided to put the armor in the treasure room as a reward. With a quick wave of her hand, a portal was opened, and she placed the item in.

Then, she went back to the item creation interface, selecting the weapon option this time. Upon selecting, her screen was flooded with options, ranging from a simple sword to even a morningstar. She decided to start simple this time, selecting the sword on the topmost option.

The elemental fusion effects were still the same and once again, she chose Fire.

[Processing…]

Though the energy still spilled out from her, Alice felt that she didn’t expend as much as before. As the sphere of light was completely overtaken by a flood of red, another notification appeared in front of her eyes.

[Would you like to imbue Fire element effects to the weapon?]

Seeing no harm in the offer, she decided to pick [Yes].

The ball of light started absorbing energy again, only for a few seconds before it finally took shape. It looked like, well, a standard short sword, with a blade around 80 cm in length. A faint reddish-orange glow surrounded the sword, and the blade felt warm to the touch.

She did a test swing with the sword, and—

The blade fell apart into chunks of glowing metal scattered on the ground.

[Material unsuitable for weapon creation]

[Constant heat has caused the material to fall apart]

Well, she certainly didn’t consider that. She decided to find out more about the effects later.

She ordered the tower to reabsorb the broken pieces, then to display what Izabel was doing.

The girl was busy at the third floor, dodging attacks from wind and plant slimes while attempting to run as many through her makeshift blade as she could. As Alice observed a bit longer, she saw that Izabel wielded the blade like how one would wield an oversized one-handed sword.

It was no wonder she suffered a lot of damage. Though Alice did make sure the slimes used for that challenge were unable to launch direct lethal attacks, it was still able to do some damage. From her expression, it was clear that Izabel looked exhausted, too.

Her legs were trembling, too, even as she leaned to the side to dodge a vine lashing towards her.

“Stop,” Alice ordered.

With her command, all the attacks stopped in mid-air.

She opened a portal on the spot she was standing on, then dropped herself to land in front of Izabel and Vuer.

“I can still continue. It’ll be fine,” Izabel said, her tone curt.

Alice looked at the holes in the wall, and saw there was around ten or so of them left. She shook her head and replied.

“You have to rest. I don’t have anything to help heal you if anything happens, so you’ll need to depend on your own natural healing. There’s a bed here. You can sleep there if you want.”

Izabel opened her mouth to protest, but as if agreeing with Alice, she lost the strength to stand moments after, and she would have stumbled if she didn’t use her blade-stick as a makeshift cane.

“See? You can’t save her in one day. Rest. I have a bed in this place, so you’ll be safe,” Alice said as she opened a portal beneath the two of them. “No buts. I’ll store the rewards you earned from your hard work, so others can train, but you should rest first.”

Izabel was deposited straight onto Alice’s bed on the top floor, while Alice landed next to the bed. “If you need anything, tell me. I’ll do my best to help. Oh, by the way, this room is normally only accessible to me, so there’s no doors. Just call my name and say your request out loud.”

“… Has anyone ever told you that you’re like a mother hen, Alice?”

“I’d rather keep my guests alive. If that’s what it takes, so be it,” Alice shrugged.

“But… being taken care of like this is pretty nice. So… thanks?”

“You’re welcome,” Alice nodded, then opened a portal to the area just outside of the tower. Right as she landed, she felt the presence of three people entering the place. Not wanting a repeat of the last time, she opened the tower’s interface and ordered it to focus on the three.

The first one to arrive was a man in his early twenties. His hair looked neat and combed, and the same could be said about his clothes. However, despite his nice appearance, his tone was nothing short of entitled.

“What are you doing back there?!” he shouted. “Get moving!”

“I understand, sir. I’m sorry,” another voice replied. It belonged to a woman around similar age and clothing, but unlike him, her hair was damp with sweat and clung to her body, while her clothes were torn, revealing still healing wounds marring her back. The wounds looked rough, three similar crescent curves suggesting a monster had gored her.

The last one to arrive was another man. Seemingly unaffected by the first guy’s taunt, he placed his hand on the woman’s shoulder and shook his head.

Alice gave a silent agreement at the last man to arrive, her eyes narrowing at their so-called leader.

Time to teach someone a lesson.