Urmom led the way out of the room, with Urist and Snorri walking side by side behind him.

"Tell me what happened in detail, Urmom." 

Urmom cleared his throat, unnerved by Urist’s stare. 

"Well Boss, we were practicing spearmanship with Sir Volt when he suddenly stopped and sat on the ground. We didn't know what to do, so we left him and decided to get you, Boss."

"You just left him on the ground?"

"His breathing seemed normal and thunder began to gather around him, so we couldn't draw close."

"Oh, could it be?" Snorri muttered.

"Do you know what's happening to Volt, Snorri?" Questioned Urist.

Pushing her lush blond hair backward, she mysteriously smiled, "I might, but without seeing it first hand I’d rather not say. Besides, it would ruin the moment if I said anything."

Although not satisfied by her answer, judging the way she acted it seemed that it wasn't something harmful. At least he could only hope so.

…

Out of the cave and into the open air, the first sight Urist saw was a pillar of lightning pulsating rhythmically. His eyes then fell lower, as a large crowd had gathered around the lightning pillar. 

Those in the front were sitting and those behind them were standing, but the crowd had one thing in common, for they were all in a daze.

Urist was about to speak when Snorri covered his mouth and held two fingers up to her mouth.

Confused, Urist let her drag him a bit away. When they had gained some distance Snorri spoke quietly, "We must not interrupt that man's enlightenment. In fact, we should study it while he's in such a state."

"Enlightenment?"

"You don't know what enlightenment is? How did you even make your slayer art without going into such a state? Whatever, the point is that when someone undergoes enlightenment they have a good chance of increasing their power dramatically. But in what direction is left to anyone's guess. Judging by the strength of his soul, he’s trying to break into Stage Five?"

"Stage Five? I’ve never heard of that, but I know he's a Peak Tier Three Magic Swordsmen."

"Oh, was he suppressing himself intentionally? Wait no, I can see the faint traces of a chained oath. Pity he won't break through to Stage Five without his soul cleansed of the fragments. At least he has a chance of reaching Stage Four."

"Cleanse the soul? What do you mean?"

"You don’t know such a simple thin-. Ah yes, I forgot about different worlds. Cleansing the soul means to wash away impurities. And impurities can be several things such as inner demons, chain oaths, soul poison, soul scarring, over taxing medication, and other things.

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For that man over there, he has a few choices. He could start over from scratch in a different element, take a high-quality soul refinement potion, or soul sacrifice, which I wouldn't recommend. Necromancers are hard to come by and a crafty bunch. More likely to turn you into a meat puppet than to help you."

"Any other ways to help him?"

"There are, but I assume those would be out of your reach with your current strength. But if you come across them I tell you about them."

"Thank you for being so insightful, Snorri. I'll leave Urmom in your care as a guide since I wish to deal with this before someone ruins Volt's chance for advancement."

Smiling seductively, Snorri chuckled before leaving, "Anytime, Urist. It's been a pleasure. If you were stronger than me, well... I might fall for you, a madman who made his own slayer art. Ha. If only the rest of my clan could see this."

Snorri walked away with Urmom in tow, hoping to get a nice vantage point to watch Volt’s meditation.

For Urist he sighed, wondering if his life would ever be normal again... or was this now the new normal for him.

…

After telling the dwarfs to give Volt some space and marking the area off with a do not disturb sign, Urist headed over to the smiths.

Heading back inside the cave, he took a few turns to enter the smithing wing where the dwarfs inside worked hard... with the promise of tea and booze. 

These light oxygen crystals truly are a blessing, since when combined with the ventilation system they help the flow of air for the fire and the smiths. Although we have to make sure no fires can grow too big, it’s worth the risk with the production rate. Now, I wonder what the smiths need from me.

Entering the room, he saw one of the head smiths, Hot, teaching his apprentices how to beat the metal into the desired shape. Keeping the center thick, he spread the material thinner towards the end to make an edge for the spearhead. While changing the position of the metal and reheating it every so often, it didn’t take him long to finish the shape and quench it in water. 

Holding and inspecting his work with tongs, he smiled at the small group. “As you can see my apprentices, it isn’t that hard to make a good spearhead out of good materials. But this here is the true effort, to take shit materials and make it into a quality piece. Oh, boss! How long have you been standing there?”

Urist chuckled and waved off the panicked Hot, “I didn’t wish to interrupt your teaching session,  after all I feel we’ll need more smiths to help better arm our people. Now, you sent a messenger to me. What did you wish to speak of?”

“Ah, yes one second. I’ll gather the other heads and we can take this to the guest room. Apprentices, you are to go into self-study and make arrowheads while I’m away.”

“Yes, master!”

It didn’t take long before Hot gathered the others, namely Ajan, Baikm, Grim and another rune and regular smith.

Sitting in the cool room next door, the seven sat down with refreshments.

The first to speak up for the group was Grim, the Mechanical Adept. “Boss, I’ll be frank with you. We’ve been talking and we need to retake the mines up north.”

Confused, Urist asked, “Why? Isn’t the store’s metal enough for now?”

Grim shook his head, “Boss, you might not know this but the store's quality is quite poor compared to the mined metal you brought back. It takes double the effort to work out impurities in the ores from the store compared to the stuff from the mountain. We can show you examples if you want.”

Urist shook his head, “No, I trust you to tell me the truth. I wish we could retake the north, but we just don’t have the manpower yet to make an outpost up there. Also, with this weird event coming tomorrow, I don’t want us to make any rash moves. When it’s over we’ll decide on a course of action, although I am leaning on taking the north before the south. That’s all I can tell you for now.”

The six chewed on his words for a bit then looked at each other before nodding. They turned to Grim with light in their eyes, making Urist feel uneasy.

Grim nodded to his fellow dwarfs then opened his mouth, “Boss, besides the procurement of good metal I wish to ask your approval of a project.”

Urist raised an eyebrow, “Oh? Pray tell, what is this project.”

“I wish to make mechas.”