His gaze was naturally drawn to the five sources of darkness he placed near the sun channeler. Neither seemed even closer to finishing, and it would likely be sometime into tomorrow before he could use them. He muttered, “I do have two slivers left… No harm in using them. But on what?”

Both the sun well and solar circlet required two sun slivers… And while he realistically wanted both, only the latter seemed to be truly useful at the moment. Though, he didn’t ignore the possibility that the sun well simply worked as a night-time light source.

Even if it did, could it be as useful as one he carried around all the time?

The sun well was a rather large thing in the images, at least knee high and thick like a barrel. Meanwhile, the circlet wasn’t just an uninspired band of bronze. Polished and shined, it reflected with the yellow hue of the sun slivers as well, not to mention it’d been shaped by the cube to appear like braids of metal interweaving into one another. Naturally its appearance appealed to him far more. And so, with four bronze ingots, he crafted the circlet. Worst case scenario, he waited till tomorrow to create that sun well.

When he held the lightweight metal loop in his hand, it was far more delicate than he imagined the thing to be. It gently flexed with a push, and he felt like the weaved cord-like metal would snap like a twig… Maybe he really hadn’t grasped how strong this body was?

And the two sun slivers socketed into the circlet’s face like two cat eyes. He gently touched them, but found the two stones no different from any other sliver he’d interacted with. Was this purely for decoration, or did the equipment hold some special magical attributes?

It easily slipped over his head and rested on the crown of his head. Rather interestingly, the moment it laid in place he felt it ‘meld’ to his skin, perhaps magnetise was a better descriptor as a bit of force still painless removed the circlet.

Clearly some effect to keep the equipment in place, and he said, “How though? Is the shape what causes that, or did the cube do something to its internals?” He almost wanted to bend it apart to see how the hell it worked.

The possibility that this was the magical power it granted existed for just a moment, but as it rested on his head for a while longer the item’s true use couldn’t have been easier to grasp. A tool very similar to the lightning necklace, although from a completely different type of magic!

It told the time.

Sort of…

In his mind, the time left in the day was presented like a glass of water, slowly leaking as the time of day did as well. There weren’t any proper markers on this glass, and so the time of day could only be identified relatively, but this gave him some sort of way to identify night. Because the sun moved beyond the zenith a while back, and rested just a small angle above the horizon, that glass only seemed about a quarter-full.

Certainly not a huge amount of time, but not the smallest. However, he did raise a small complaint about this circlet. “How the hell do I stop them from sending messages? Just stop!” He clutched his head as the two sets of soundless thoughts filled his mind with the upcoming weather and remaining daylight.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t find a way to quieten either of them, and settled on taking the necklace off. It would rain two days from now, but that didn’t particularly matter.

Anyway, he took off everything besides the leaf skirt when it came to this ritual. The oven’s lingering flame made it easy to ignite the bonfire, and before long its full potential encouraged his start.

Another new rune.

The ox faced totem gently entered the fire, and it clearly worked as he saw the wood catch on fire, but only the ox’s defined features charred, creating an outline in the wood akin to varnish. However, this charring did not end, as it brought the totem to life, a blazing red appeared in the ox’s eyes, and it seemed to heat up his very body… But with that he began the ritual.

Shaking the chimes in a set pattern was the easy part. As was the circling… But then he closed his eyes to see which result came about.

The notes did say that the worse effect was rare… But how rare?

And who’s to say his case wasn’t special for whatever reason?

But that concern turned to dust as the waves of heat flushed over him, clear to distinguish and in just a few cycles he felt the rhythm well enough to follow along. Minutes later he matched the totem perfectly, and he simply followed as long as the heat continued, a sign that the step remained incomplete. All the while, the totem’s blackened outline transformed into a black ox face, on the beast’s nostrils two streaks of flame could be seen ejected outwards towards Joey. The waves of heat he felt were this precisely.

And lastly, the red glow from behind the black char broke forth. As though lava melting the very totem, he saw it melt into a black and red magmatic mess, reformed into a single droplet shaped piece of wood.

On that wood was an ‘X’ composed of two wavey lines.

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The engraving itself was not simple though, as its depth fluctuated just as much as the line travelled from side to side.

As the waves of heat finally left, Joey’s eyes opened to the sight of that single rune laying on top of a pile of logs… Awaiting its owner to grab it from the clutches of the flames around it. They lapped at him, taunting his inability to grab the piece of blazing wood. And slowly, his hand approached the fire, its heat not only remained great and painful… But it even grew hotter as his will hardened.

“Just a single second, Joey. Reach in and grab. That’s… All– Fuck!” A wisp of flame flashed across his hand and the heat suddenly rose to an unbearable degree, his arm almost retracted on reflex, but every ounce of will forced it to stay there, clearly unharmed.

Then he tried to move it forward. To quickly reach into the fire. To quickly grab the rune.

But he couldn’t. He couldn’t take the pain.

Just this short distance to the fire, mere inches, left his hand sweating and begging to move back.

Another inch and it’d likely sear itself on the great pillar of flames. Meanwhile, the rune itself was in the middle of that fire, no more than a foot away but a distance which appeared unimaginable to the man. This was…

Something he actually couldn’t do.

No amount of ingenuity overcame this. Either plunge into the fire, withstand the pain and torment, or give up here and now.

Not that he really had a choice in the matter.

Joey walked away. Unsure how anyone could possible complete this ritual. To say that he had to withstand the searing rage of fire is easy, but to do so… It was like asking someone to willingly place their hand on a hot grill. Who’d actually be willing to do so?

With every step, he felt as though the face of an ox flashed in the flames for but a moment before vanishing right after, like a ghostly apparition of sorts. No part of him could tell if it was his mind playing tricks or a real effect of failing this ritual.

And as he took the fifth step away… The bonfire went out.

He saw the single piece of wood with that engraved cross remain alight, but quickly burnt to ash. It marked this ritual’s end.

The first he failed.

Who’d possibly blame him for that though? Sticking your hand into fire is inhuman!

When he approached the bonfire again, his hands ran along the blackened sticks used to encase it all and he said, “It just isn’t possible. There has to be a trick I’m missing… But I don’t have any fragments.”

When he travelled into the tin mine again, he saw a few more fragments in the walls, but at no point had they been a clear focus. As a result, he collected none, but found himself in need of the village’s help. Or rather, Diavolo’s help with this ritual.

With the rune of the boar made, he could at least show off some progress. He chose to wait off for now though since a large supply of options remained.

Without any better thoughts on what to do, he just went back to the room and carved another set of shoddy owl totems to make use of the rain in a couple days. The chisel required an owl rune, and it was the only one he lacked after making the lens of nature.

On top of the failed ritual though, he found himself far too drained after this carving process and went to sleep near instantly. By tomorrow the hide would be ready as well…

It was not a peaceful night though. Thankfully he got inside early, avoiding the danger which occurred.

Growls and roars from beasts that’d never been seen passed through the plains around midnight. Black shadows dashed across the grass covered fields but left just as quickly, in their wake all that lived were attacked. The passive were slain and consumed, but those who fought back earned the group’s wariness, surviving the sweeping.

* * *

In the morning, he walked to the tree in his full set of armour but titled his head when passing the tree line and seeing an oddity in the plains. “Aren’t there usually more animals here? Like a lot more… And these are animal tracks? What the–” His mouth refused to make more noise as the realisation of the tracks grew on him.

It wasn’t just a few packs moving by, but thousands of footprints covered the whole plains from the surrounding forests all the way to his oak tree. While the canopy of this tree was oddly untouched, keeping all his equipment safe, the sight of markings in all directions left him speechless. Not to mention, he saw what happened to all those animals. Tens of corpses all over the area stood out in this more central area, and he didn’t doubt that so many more existed.

Horses, pigs, boars, donkeys, sheep, cows, and a variety of smaller game which he hoped had escaped.

“Why did they come last night though? Was it just a random migration, or…” His eyes turned to the directions from which the tracks came from. The seemingly endless brown tree forest to his south, where he previously found some poppies but little beyond that.

His spine shivered for a moment, and Joey twitched in response, but his shaking head brought him out of the matter and to reality once more.

From the cube, he placed the sun channeler and sources of darkness back into the light, hoping they finished their process in the next few hours. The circlet told him that the day was barely even one-fifth to completion, from his rough estimate at least.

Well, that worked to his benefit in the end as the leather finished tanning. He touched the cube against it after removing the strings, then jumped into the recipe tree to finally complete this final step. This hide gave 15 leather according to the cube, more than enough to finish the last two recipes. Leather pants and a chest piece.

Both of them used the same recipe as hemp pants and shirts, respectively. Leather strips to replace the rope, with actual leather to replace the fabric.

It cost him 11 leather and 4 strips to complete it, although it is noted that he lacked enough spare strips and crafted another set of them with 3 more leather.

The leather pants were a lot tighter than he realised they would be, close to a snug fit although his legs hated how clammy they felt against bare skin. It went on a bit better with hemp pants beneath, from there mobility proved a small issue, but not so much that he couldn’t fight anymore. It was more like trying to move in wet clothing, heavy, uncoordinated movements which took some time to adjust but weren’t actually that restrictive.

Anyway, the extra layer of protection gave him an ounce of further safety, not that he believed it to be highly effective against real weapons. Unlike his brigandine with metal plates sewn into it.

“Anyway, time for the important part! Energetically picking up the cube once more, the first recipe tree stood in front of him once more, imposing as ever, but he looked upwards as the new level only contained a single recipe. “Seems to be about three quarters the way up. And the 10th was halfway. Hopefully I get something good at twenty.”

Expectantly, he focused on the single point of light on the 15th level and saw what it was. The recipe itself confused him, but the result left him ecstatic.

Another upgrade card.

And this gave five more inventory slots.