It was dark in the Myriad Beast Sect. The moons were hidden behind thick clouds, and cold wind blew across the land, and down the mountain slopes.
Two people met in the shade of a large jagged rock, just outside of the pavilion belonging to one of the Elders, both of them cloaked in black garb that practically devoured light, appearing like an entrance to the abyss.
“Shadow?” The first person asked.
“Oh, Luna, it’s you?” Shadow answered with a question of his own.
“I see you have received the summon. Good.”
“Master did not request we surrender the token when he kicked us out of the Order. Which brings up the question… Are we really banished from the Order, or can we somehow get back?” He asked.
The other figure by the name of Luna answered slowly. “It depends. Maybe if you do a good enough job here, you’ll be accepted back despite your… failure.”
“What do you mean? What job?”
“Still clueless, are you?” Luna sighed. “And to think you were one of the best… Gerald is suspicious, the Master said that. You have to keep an eye on him. Your task is to spy on that guy and relay any important information to us.”
“Oh, that… That’s what I have been doing this entire time. And since you are already here, we could exchange information.”
“Excellent! What do you have for me?” Luna said and took out a notebook.
“What do you need?” Shadow countered.
“Well, let's start at the beginning. How is his Cultivation going? How much does he Cultivate? At what times does he usually start? How long are the sessions? Does it seem like he’s advancing? You know, stuff like that.”
“Err… No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“I mean, he does not Cultivate.”
“What do you mean, he does not Cultivate?! It has been over a month!” Luna exclaimed, disbelief clear in her voice.
Shadow lifted his hands defensively. “I swear on my ancestors, I have been trailing him the entire time, and I had not seen him Cultivate once.”
“Body Cultivation then?”
Shadow nodded. “He does that, about three hours each day. But that’s usually during the evening and early night.”
“Then what does he do the entire day? Sleep?!”
“He…” Shadow hesitated. “He’s been building this structure the last month… He calls it The Forge. I didn’t speak with him, but from what I have been able to gather from his mumbling, it's for reinforcing rock.”
Luna remained silent for a bit, and Shadow could have sworn her face was scrunched up in disbelief, even though he couldn’t see it.
“Seriously? A forge? He’s alone, right? Is he mumbling to himself?” She almost sounded concerned. Mental illness was the bane of every Cultivator and was the most serious medical condition anyone could get.
“No, it’s worse! He’s talking to his golem. The Forge is actually for the golem as well. Something about reinforcing the body… I don’t know how much it must have cost, but it’s made of these two huge chunks of Void Stone.” Shadow gestured with his hands, stretching them out as much as he could. “Must have been a fortune!”
Luna paused again. “Are you sure the guy’s mentally all there? I mean… where did he even get the money? He’s been in the Sect for like what, just over a year?”
Shadow threw his hand in the air as a gesture of surrender. “I don’t know. I have no idea what he is or isn’t. Sometimes I think he’s a complete fool, yet he shows genius levels of intellect, and then other times I think he is clever, yet he shows such lack of basic knowledge that it’s…”
Shadow sighed. “Sometimes I think I’m going insane.”
“Well, just don’t!” Luna said firmly. “We still need you. Well, not me personally… or the Master… or anyone I know, but…” She took a deep breath. “What I’m trying to say is that you are doing a very important job! So… cheer up!”
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“Gee… thanks.” Shadow replied in a flat voice. He never realized he was so unimportant before. Not a single person needed, or even missed him? He was tasked with watching over a lunatic that defied all common sense, and for what? He was left in the dark about his own task!
Shadow was… not quite angry, but he was not happy about it either.
“Anyway… If you don’t have anything else…?”
“I don’t.” He replied.
“Then I’ll get back to report to Master. Oh, and say hello to that wench for me. I mean Darkness.” Luna released a short laugh and then disappeared before Shadow could reply.
“Oh, great… Now that her competition got out of the way, she thinks she’s the top dog. Just what I fucking needed! I need to get back my position in the Order and fast! And I’ll be damned if I let Gerald play me like a fool any longer.”
Shadow clenched his fist. “He beat me once, but that was luck. I underestimated him. It’s time to really show him who’s boss.”
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It was done!
After nearly 40 days, The forge was finally fucking done! God, I underestimated the difficulty and price of construction. I was even forced to sell one of my trophy daggers to finance the materials.
But anyway, the work was complete, and I was very satisfied with myself. A pride of a job well done welled up inside me. All that was left was to test it.
I placed the Spirit Stones into their respective holes and then placed a hand on the imprint on the bottom half. The Formation decorating The Forge came to life, glowing with a gentle blue glow. The top half levitated and rose higher, revealing the opening for the material to be shoved in.
[Well, that’s it, Tiny. In you go.]
I dismantled Tiny and tossed the chunks of stone inside. Only about half of his body could fit at once, and the cores stayed outside. I didn’t need any magical shenanigans messing with my programming.
After pressing on the imprint again and giving the command, the top half of The Forge lowered and powered up, ready for action.
I gave the command.
The Forge released a low hum and I could feel the Qi in the area rush toward it. The Spirit Stones created visible vortexes around themselves and the runes on the surface of the stone began glowing even brighter.
Utilizing my Arcane Eyes, I could see the density of energy increasing at a rapid rate inside The Forge, the Arcane Resonator specifically. The energy became blinding in my eyes, and I worried it might explode at any moment.
And indeed, just as I expected, something exploded.
A loud boom came from The Forge and the ground shook as simultaneously a wave of energy was released in all directions. The machine then powered down and cracked open by a finger, releasing the dust and heat from the inside.
I cautiously approached and placed my hand on the control panel. The top part opened fully and lifted up, levitating about a meter high. The body parts of Tiny sat inside, shrunken, but otherwise undamaged. They were really hot to the touch though. Scalding hot, some might say, yet I took them out bare-handed without any damage, and examined them for any cracks.
After I could find nothing wrong with them, I nodded to myself and placed the other pieces into The Forge, and closed it up again, ready for another round.
Checking the Spirit Stones, I realized they only used about a fifth of the energy inside for the cycle. On the one hand that was good, as I feared it would have been eight full stones for a cycle, but on the other hand, it was still crazy expensive just to compress some rocks!
But I had decided to do it, so I would go through with it. I powered up the machine once more and stepped back.
A few minutes later, another boom was heard, and the arena where I had built The Titan’s Forge shook once more.
I emptied all the pieces and reconstructed Tiny’s body. After giving him a core he came to life, and the body parts began to move as he straightened up and looked at me.
While previously he was just slightly bigger than me, after the transformation his head barely reached my waist. He had shrunk 4x in volume, yet kept the same mass. He was kind of cute, actually. And that was a problem. I needed a mean-looking guardian that would scare people, not a tiny statue women would like to pet.
[Alright Tiny, let’s see what you are made of. Follow me.] I ordered. He didn’t move since he was already beside me, so I changed that. I boosted my power with Qi and kicked him as hard as I could in the chest area.
I felt the transfer of energy as the many tones of stone were instantly accelerated across the arena and bounced and rolled to a stop some dozen meters away. Tiny then stood up, not much worse for wear, and quickly returned to stand before me.
As he came close, I whistled, pleasantly surprised. Where my foot landed, the stone was only slightly chipped, and no real cracks had formed.
[God, damn! Now that’s what I’m talking about, buddy! That’s much better!] I patted Tiny on the head. The results were good. Even better than I had expected, actually.
Before a single hit of mine could shatter him, yet after the improvement his body barely chipped.
Unfortunately, there came a different set of problems with the new, smaller body. Tiny weighed the same, so he used the same amount of energy, yet his body was too small to contain any more cores. He could fit at most three of the four I had, and that was by making the wall thickness slimmer. That was not ideal if I wanted him to be durable.
I either needed better-quality cores, or I had to increase his size so he could fit more low-quality cores. And since I couldn’t leave the Sect, and I was not willing to spend tens of spirit Stones for a single beast core, that left me with the second option.
I spent the next two weeks mining, cleaning, and refining the ore from the abandoned mine. I then prepared it for the procedure, and after exhausting all the energy in the eight Spirit Stones of The Forge, Tiny’s body over doubled in size. He could finally fit all four cores in his body, and with room to spare!
[Much better, much better!] I clapped my hands once and then rubbed them together. I was on the right track.
“Gerald!”
I rolled my eyes as the shout came from behind me, from the entrance to the arena. It was that clown again, Shadow. I nearly forgot about him since he didn’t show his face for over a month. I was hoping he died in some ditch. Well, too bad…
Anyway, I ignored him.
“Gerald! You and I are going to have a talk. I have some questions for you, and it’s time you answer!”