"Sure, ask me anything. We're going to be business partners very soon, and if you have a craftsmanship skill of your own, I'm sure I could teach you a few things."

I nod, thinking about what exactly I'm going to ask her, but she responds before I do.

"And your ranked-up buff? It can help me craft better items? Is it some kind of team buffing skill or something?"

I respond.

"Kind of, but not exactly. I guess that's a good place to start."

I concentrate on my Rising Emperor's Domain buff, expecting to see a list of skills available to give Bri pop up above her head, but nothing shows up.

My gaze tightens and I raise an eyebrow as I try to concentrate more intensely. It looks as if I'm staring at Bri's forehead in the silence of the dungeon for no reason at all from an outside perspective.

After a few seconds pass, I stop trying as there's clearly something I'm missing.

"Maybe a hidden condition...?"

I activate my All-Seeing Eye and stare down at the buff's description to think harder.

________________

Rising Emperor's Domain [Hidden Ability]

Info:

This is a hidden passive ability for a spell caster with the traits of an Emperor in the making. The Rising Emperor's Domain allows the caster to share skills in their status with any party member who has sworn their loyalty. A copy of the exact skill shared will appear in the party member's status. If this member betrays the caster or leaves the Domain's range, the skills will be deleted from their status.

________________

The only two requirements so far that I can see necessary for this buff to take effect are swearing loyalty and joining my party. I've used this buff on Maria, Abby, and Ember.

However, it's not like I have a system status to show they're in my party or a checkbox where they can swear their loyalty...

I think harder, then shrug.

"Maybe you have to say it out loud."

Bri looks at me with an awkward stare.

"Say what out loud? What are you talking about?"

I reply quickly, realizing I've just been thinking and talking to myself this whole time without explaining at all what my buff does.

"One of the conditions to my ranked-up buff seems to be that you have to verbally accept me as your party leader. If you do that, I'll be able to share an upgraded version of your crafting skill."

I've come to this conclusion because Abby and Maria have often called me the team leader in conversation, and Ember refers to me as Master many times over. None of them have explicitly sworn loyalty to me, though, so I think this is a condition that is more action or feeling based rather than verbal.

Bri nods, still with a confused look on her face.

"Sure, we couldn't have gotten here to train today without you. You're the party leader."

The moment the final word leaves her lips, an assortment of blue text hovers over her head and I feel the Invisible Domain around me accept her as an ally instinctually. My gaze tracks down to my Mythic Grade Craftsmanship skill and I equip it on her status.

"Take a look at your skills, what you see is only temporary, but you'll be able to use it freely as long as you're near me."

Bri checks her status, wondering what my words mean until her gaze falls upon the blue glowing text of the new mythic grade skill in her grasp.

Her eyes widen, and she immediately takes miscellaneous items out from her item box.

Flashes of light cover her hands and her eyes dart back and forth across her status screens popping up one after another.

After almost a full minute passes, and half a dozen new high C-Grade and B-Grade items are produced in the blink of an eye, she turns to me.

"It's real... Mythic Grade Skills are real..."

As I nod and begin to explain how my buff works, making sure it's not to be confused with a skill upgrade buff, but a skill-sharing buff, Bri puts the pieces of the puzzle that is my time in the dark continent together very quickly.

"So, that means the Sector 2 Leader is actually dead and this is why he was able to craft such items beyond that of anyone else's capabilities. He must have been insanely lucky to get a Mythic Grade rating from an upgrade crystal... I've never heard of anyone getting anything over a legendary grade..."

She pauses.

"Other than a few element users upgrading their Advanced magic to Extreme. But that's an incredibly rare scenario too... It seems if one is over level 600, the chances of upgrading to that second rank increases drastically."

I look over at Bri again, taking away the mythic grade crafting skill in her possession and granting her access to my All-Seeing Eye ability.

"It's not as luck-based as you may think. Check your skills for yourself. There are hidden point systems within our system, upgrade crystals just act as an override feature. If you haven't stacked up enough Proficiency Points on your own, an upgrade crystal won't work. There's a reason the Association waits until after level 300 to give upgrade crystals to new hunters, and over 400 for those that have elements awakened too. Only 1 PP is awarded per level, so you'll be able to upgrade your skills on your own if you stack up enough."

Bri's eyes light up as she scrolls through her status and comes to see the upgrade options.

"1 per level... huh. It says here I need 1000 more points after my last upgrade to obtain a Mythic Grade Craftsmanship skill myself. So that means...someone would have to reach level 1300 for a skill like this. The Sector 2 Leader was over level 1300 and you killed him?"

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Her eyes sharpen and look up from her status, while I remember the Red Hydra Imbued, Demonic Energy Aided, Kamikaze move I pulled to self-destruct and decimate the craftsman back in Solara with my body double.

"I did... It was, an interesting battle to say the least. I caught him off guard, and used some very unique energy attacks. To say the least, I got lucky..."

There's a pause of silence before Bri responds.

"Well, it doesn't matter now. That's the past, and we're working with what we have in the present. What did you want to know about crafting? You may have had some time to play around with a higher grade skill than mine, but I have years of experience that will surely make up for it. Anything in specific you were hoping to learn?"

I nod with a resolute gaze, shifting my shared skill back to craftsmanship from the All-Seeing Eye so she'll be able to test it out more and explain things better.

"Everything. From the basics to expert level, tell me everything. I need a crash course in crafting."

"Very well..."

Over the next hour, we wander through the dungeon to allow Bri to grind up more levels as she explains the basics of crafting to me.

From what I can already see in the crafting interface, most of the things she teaches me are already what I assumed are common knowledge, but apparently [No Grade] and [Special Grade] craftsmen don't get such a fancy interface that shows them which items are available to craft, bond, or upgrade. On top of that, the legendary grade interface is much more basic and rudimentary.

Most of Bri's knowledge comes from books and experiments.

Considering this, and the fact that many new slots, stats, and skill imbuing options are now available that never were before, the basics are all just in front of me explained in simple terms. However, in Bri's explanations, a few things stand out that can't be seen in my interface.

The first is a deeper explanation of cursed items and why they come about.

It's best to craft with materials within a 20-30% variation up or down of one's mana control and level. It's not only best practice to keep improving and making greater items, but it's also dangerous to imbue large amounts of power into lower-grade material.

A B-Grade hunter imbuing their top-ranked skills or mana readings into E-Grade crafting material can only lead to disaster. The lower grade gear will compensate for the higher grade mana inside it and either break before use and release the built-up mana or do harm to the user trying to control it. If an actual curse mark on the item's name within a user's status is made, it will act in irrational and unpredictable ways.

This gives me a better idea of why some of the items I tried to craft earlier gave off such odd readings and abilities. Some even severely downgraded the Mythic Grade Plunderer skill to fit the base material grade.

This means if I want to safely and consistently produce lower grade items for trade with the other regions, I'll have to make sure not to overlevel the craftsman that will be working for Bri.

I always assumed the higher the level the better, but it seems there are uses for people at every rung of the ladder.

Next, Bri explains how to properly make element-bonded weapons. The more blood that is used in the bonding process, the closer the spirit of the element stone will attach to the user. Usually, 8 ounces is more than enough, like my sword and dagger used, but for boots like Bri's she had to use over 20.

When the element in question is not already controlled by the user, more blood is needed to make the bond, and a higher mana control to suppress the spirit of the stone is needed even afterward to keep it in check. Another interesting feature is that the more blood used in the bond, the higher the odds of the item becoming unique and awakening special perks or hidden abilities.

"See, just like this!"

Bri makes her boots glimmer with mana before they turn semi-transparent for a split second.

"It's a small cloaking perk, it's because a portion of my light magic was bonded in through my blood."

I nod and think about this too, as it opens up many options for making unique bonded weapons in the future.

As Bri continues, most of the information she states is common sense, but I still make mental notes of it and even wrote a few tips down in the journal I kept from my time in the Titan's domain.

However, nothing interests me more than our last topic.

Transport crystals and transport platforms. My eyes and ears are laser-focused on her words as she explains.

"There are only two crafting materials for these items, really. One of them is just a large amount of mana crystals. The other is a rare ore called Luminite."

I raise an eyebrow and reply.

"That's it? Only two items are needed to craft these... Mana crystals are the easy part, but Luminite? Is it a rare dungeon drop? Or popular on the open market, or maybe the black market? I've never heard of it before... Where can I get my hands on it?"

I scratch my head, waiting for her response.

"It's not available on the open market, no. And incredibly rare on the black market. It's a highly regulated ore, only the Association has access to it. It is, after all, part of the power source used in transport magic for dungeons themselves."

Bri pauses as she lets me think it over for a moment, then continues.

"Every time you defeat a boss room, you're transported back to the same place in a dungeon. Even when a dungeon fully breaks, all foreign matter is teleported out if it hasn't fully dissolved into the dungeon yet. Luminite is the term the Association gave it because of its bright white glow. If enough mana is bonded with a large amount of this ore, an experienced craftsman with a high enough mana control base could create a teleport platform and become its owner."

"Its owner?"

"That's right. Just like your blood-bonded weapons, every teleport platform has an owner, and only they can make paired crystals to go with that platform. Making the crystals to go with the platform is an easy task. It really only takes trace amounts of Luminite, the platform is the hard part."

My mind races at this new discovery.

Having teleport platforms in places that I desire could limit my travel time even more and make it so I don't have to walk around in open cities. It'd be like setting dungeon walker points out here in the real world.

"I need to get my hands on some of this Luminite."

Bri laughs a bit.

"Yeah, don't we all. I've only seen it in private auctions 2 times in my whole life, and the price always skyrockets way out of my price range. It's farmed strictly from collapsing dungeons after all, and it's highly volatile. If left out of a special containment case for mere minutes and not crafted with material, it will evaporate into the atmosphere. There's a minuscule chance that small amounts of the Ore will fall from a dungeon portal when it disappears, but even given that chance, the Association has control over more than 90% of the dungeon portals in the world."

She sighs.

"Maybe your friend Lith back in Sector 1 could help you get your hands on some, but even then, It'd be difficult to not have the Association involved if you're looking to buy enough to craft platforms. Trust me, if it were easy, I'd have plenty myself."

I nod slowly, letting the gears shift in my head and acknowledge all of the new information Bri has shared with me.

"Well, I'll keep it on the back burner. Even so, I'm very happy with the information you've shared. It'll help a lot with my future crafts."

Bri nods and turns her head to a deeper region of the dungeon. It's been about an hour since she started sharing, and we've run into a few monsters on the way, but it's been more of a leisurely stroll.

She speaks up.

"How about you let me do some farming alone in here. My mana control and skill far surpass these creatures, I'd like to level up as fast as possible so my level matches my control. In the same vein, I can see that look in your eyes, you have somewhere you need to go to, don't you?"

I nod.

"I have to meet back up with my teammates in a few hours, but there's a few things I need to check on before I do that too... You're right."

She smiles.

"Well then, perfect, maybe I'll even check out the 29th Floor. How about you come back and get me in an hour."

She twirls her blades and points one in the direction of an approaching monster as I respond.

"Sounds good to me. I'll be back soon."

I dungeon walk away in the blink of an eye.

My teleport point brings me high above the clouds of the Great Plains.

In the same moment, I open my item storage and let Ember come out. We are soon both soaring through the sky, but I don't say a word as I'm still thinking.

With the new information about crafting, and the half-success of my cursed windstone test, there are a few new things racing through my mind. The reason I did the test was to see if I could collapse the Titan's domain without Ember present.

It didn't exactly show that it wasn't possible, it just showed that if it is, it would be incredibly dangerous.

While deep in thought, Ember opens our telepathy link and is the first to break the silence of the passing wind high above the clouds.

"Master, the Rift is closing."