After Dream put his hands on the steel sphere that was Aegis, mana began to pour out like a broken dam.

Dream instantly dumped 70% of his mana into Aegis, while Aegis also dumped huge amounts of mana into the empty center. Once the mana began to conglomerate, Dream and Sophia began compressing the mana.

Immediately after attempting to compress the mana, Dream could feel the pressure on his soul that he had never been a fan of. But he didn't shy away and continued.

<[Magic] has leveled up!>

<[Magic] has leveled up!>

<[Magic] has leveled up!>

Notifications appeared in his mind, but Dream disregarded them for now.

Instead of compressing everything at once, Dream and Sophia took it chunks at a time. They would compress one chunk, then another, then another, and then put them together. After going through that process, they would continue to compress those dense chunks.

It was slow, steady, and controlled. Dream never had to worry about supplying mana since everything was being funneled in by Aegis. All he had to do was provide raw strength and compress the mana.

It actually wasn't long before they could see results. After going through several series of compressions, Dream could sense a fog inside the sphere center. It was physical, meaning it was present in the 3rd dimension instead of just the 4th. He smiled.

"We've already hit the first checkpoint, getting it into the 3rd dimension. Now we just keep going."

Dream grabbed a hold of that fog and maintained its compressed state. Though this wasn't easy and he let out pained breaths every so often.

While constantly producing more fog, Dream compressed it and tried to make it liquid. He brought more fog into the space and stuffed it along with the rest of the fog. It got denser and thicker until he could finally sense what this fog looked like.

"...It's transparent. I can see it ripple and bend light, but it's not visible otherwise."

[Not the time to worry about that.]

"...Indeed. I've run into a problem."

Dream stood there with a strained and confused expression. He had made the mana into a dense fog, but he wasn't able to move any farther. No matter how he tried to compress it, the fog wouldn't become any denser. He wasn't sure what to do, and he was losing his energy by the second.

"...Damn. What else is there? Diamond? But that's only a container...Am I just not strong enough? I can't compress it anymore."

[Maybe it needs to bind to something.]

"Bind...It can't be a metal. Attractive force...Flux! Where's the silver cells?"

Dream whipped his head around and saw the floating conglomeration of Aegis' previous skin. He forced over the cells and shoved them into Aegis' sphere into the center where the mana fog was.

"Blow it!"

*Thud!*

A low shockwave was released through the sphere. Depleted silver was dumped out as Dream watched the fog.

"...It's working..."

Dream could see the mana fog slowly accumulating. Though some of the flux escaped into the steel sphere, that which didn't remained in the mana fog and bound it together.

Soon, there was a small pool of liquid mana inside the sphere core. After all the fog was bound and formed into liquid, Dream released his compressive force.

"...Huuu..."

A long, tired breath came out. Dream sat back on a chair and recovered his mana as Aegis reformed into a humanoid, bringing up another smaller flask filled with the liquid mana.

"Congratulations, my lord."

"...Heh. Sure."

Dream took the flask and looked inside. He couldn't see anything, but he knew that there was liquid mana inside. It was just transparent, like the fog. Though it was also smaller in volume than the black liquid mana.

"Let's see...I've formed maybe 3/4's of the volume of the black liquid mana. Not too bad for my first try. Though it took a good chunk of energy out of me. I'll need a day to rest."

Dream made sure not to push himself beyond the brink. He didn't want to pass out for 4 days again.

[Your magic skill leveled up some.]

"How much?"

[9 levels. It is now level 80.]

"That's it? Not gonna lie, I was kind of hoping for more. That wasn't easy stuff."

[Well you have to remember that it's not about effort as it is improving the technique. Doing new things is what's going to level up the skill. Through leveling up we develop a more efficient and perfect skill, and it becomes more powerful through stats.]

"*sigh* Yea. You're right. Can't be too greedy. Anyway, I wonder why this mana is clear."

Dream poured out some of the liquid mana into his hand. It felt as if he poured out air, and he had to use his mana sense to even know the mana was there.

[That's a good question, but not one we can answer now. Let's continue with Aegis.]

"Right. So where were we? We needed to integrate the liquid mana now right?"

[Correct. And after making it for ourselves, I have a better grasp on how to do this.]

"I was also thinking about it. I think we can integrate the two by infusing this liquid mana with the enchanted mana that's anchored to the steel particles. That way the enchantment will become stronger since the mana comprising the enchantment is stronger. This will enhance everything Aegis does."

[...That's actually better than what I had in mind. Let's go with that.]

"What did you have in mind?"

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[Something not much different than last time where we use the liquid mana as a separate source.]

"Oh."

[Exactly. Anyway, I've plotted how to carry out your method. We should start now before you decide to doze off.]

"Sure."

[Then, Aegis.]

"Understood, my lady."

Aegis retrieved both flasks of black and clear mana and brought them into his body. The liquid mana was then spread thin towards all of his particles, though the problem immediately became apparent.

[There's not enough liquid mana to go around.]

"Wasn't there enough for the silver cells?"

[Yes, but each silver cell was much bigger. There are trillions of particles making up Aegis' body, and this liquid mana can't be stretched thin enough.]

"Hmm... Then reduce the spread and only enhance a portion of the body. We can create more liquid mana over time."

[Alright.]

Sophia did what he said and drastically reduced the spread of the liquid mana. She enhanced a small percentage of particles within Aegis' body and left the rest untouched. The particles that had their enchantments upgraded became much more powerful than the rest.

This took another few hours before it was completed. Finally, Dream fully relaxed into his chair while scanning Aegis' body.

"Very nice. You've grown drastically in power."

"All thanks to you, my lord."

"Hm, I can't help but wonder if you would ever be able to have a mind of your own. Though for me to give that to you, that requires understanding the soul, so it's not something that'll happen anytime soon. But it may happen through the development of your AI. Isn't that what a singularity is? When the creations of humans finally achieve independence and are capable of advancing beyond them. Though this concept was something before we learned about souls and such. I wonder how that would incorporate itself."

Dream delved into thought for a while, thinking about how something like superintelligent AI would cooperate with this new magic system of the universe. Would an artificial life have a lifespan? Would they be able to gain levels? Would they have a soul? And if they do have a soul, wouldn't that mean they eventually have to die despite their undying bodies?

Many philosophical questions and hypotheticals flowed through his mind. Though at a certain point, he stopped thinking and smirked.

"Heh, I remember when I asked myself all these questions back on Earth. I was so full of hopelessness since I would never be able to find such answers. The questions were only something I wondered about to escape the world around me. But now...Now, it's something so much more than a concept to fantasize about. It's a mystery to unravel. A problem to solve. A secret to discover. It's...a paradigm to which I can finally understand."

Dream looked at Aegis, who now represented his first big step into the world of the unknown. His eyes flamed with intellectual passion, and if he hadn't just spent a big chunk of his energy to make him, Dream might start tearing down Aegis in some kind of experiment.

[Calm down there. You'll scare him.]

"...Heh."

"Do not worry, my lady. I cannot be scared. And this body can be used however my lord sees fit."

"..."

Dream's eye twitched. The way Aegis said that sounded...weird.

"Anyway. Aegis is upgraded, and I'm tired. We should also head back. When are they reaching the land bridge?"

[In about a day. Though before you head back, I think it's about time we did some upgrades for yourself. We can replace your bones with the grade 8 steel particles. There are also many of your body systems and enchantments that can be enhanced.]

"I'm not opposed to that. Though would we use the steel particles as is or reforge them?"

[That depends on what kind of defenses you're looking to have. The particles would make your bones more flexible and it would obviously then be impossible to break them. Reforging the particles into solid steel would make them more rigid. Not that the particles aren't rigid when bonded, but you get what I mean.]

"Hmm...I guess the particles would be better. And we can always make it solid later if it proves to be worse."

[Alright. One more thing related to your enhancements. Since we're able to reliably distribute flux to other materials whether through magic or explosions, I thought we could increase the flux concentration of your body.]

"What's it at now?"

[Well, ever since I enchanted your body to maintain a highly dense mana environment, the flux levels have actually gone up and allowed the density to increase along with it. But they still aren't very high, and if we're comparing it to the mithril, I would say that it's at about grade 6 all around.]

"Ouch. Yea we should up that number. Now would we have to encase myself in metal and blow it up?"

[Not really. I would just have to gradually move it over using the new technique we developed with the bones.]

"Oh. Alright. Well, if we're going to do all this then we should start now."

[I was planning on having you sleep for the day and wake you up when I'm done. Sound good?]

"Sure. I could use a good rest."

Dream felt a wave of tiredness washed over him at the mention of resting. He was still fatigued from making Aegis and the liquid mana.

[Then go ahead and sleep. See you in a bit.]

"See you."

Dream didn't bother getting up from the chair he was in and let the tiredness overtake him. Soon, he fell unconscious.

............

........

.....

Not more than a day later, Dream began to wake.

"Huuu...I feel great."

When Dream woke up, he found himself on the same chair that he fell asleep on. Only now, Aegis was on him.

"How long?"

[10 hours.]

"Not bad."

[Aegis helped.]

"Oh. Thanks, Aegis."

"Of course, my lord."

Dream stood up and Aegis flowed off of him like a liquid, disappearing into his clothes. This was how Aegis was usually stored other than in the inventory.

[The expedition is going to be coming up on the land bridge in a few hours.]

"Alright. And since we're coming up on the land bridge, does that mean we'll be close to the ocean?"

[It does.]

"Sweet! A dip in the ocean would be nice. I used to go to the beach all the time back on Earth. It's been so long."

As he spoke, Dream made his way out of the space factory. An orbital drop route was quickly plotted in his vision and he followed it to return to the expedition. He was soon turned into a flaming meteor in the sky.

"Hm?"

Both Ciroc and Idona looked up while inside their carriage. The others who were with them noticed their change, but didn't sense anything.

"I guess he's finally decided come back." (Ciroc)

"And he does it in such a magnificent way every time. I'm really curious about his workshop of his that's supposedly in the sky." (Idona)

The other mages nodded as they heard them talk. Everyone knew that wherever Dream went was up in the sky, and while they didn't know what he did, he seemed to be a little stronger every time he came back.

*Woosh*

Air was stirred up as Dream came to a sudden stop. Everyone nodded to him as he walked into the moving carriage.

"You've come just in time, Dream. We're going to be coming up on the land bridge soon."

"I know. I saw it while I was coming down. By the way, are we planning on making a stop at the coast?"

"The coast? Why would we stop there?"

Ciroc asked in confusion. The other mages also wondered why such a weird question would come out of Dream's mouth.

"Have you never been to the coast before?"

"I have, but it was to fight some sea monsters. Did you want to go fight sea monsters?"

"Uhh, although that sounds very fun, no, that wasn't why I asked."

"Then why?"

"So we could relax? I used to go to the bea- coast all the time to have fun in the water and chill on the sand. The hot sun, cold water, maybe a barbecue and some nice drinks. Kicking back in a chair with some good music....Jeez, is that not a thing here?"

Dream was surprised as he looked around. Everyone's face got increasingly weird as they listened to him.

'I know it's a different world and all, but how could the beach not be popular?'

[This world hasn't sought entertainment as thoroughly as Earth. Not to mention how not everyone has the means to go to the beach.]

'Apparently.'

Dream sighed inwardly as Ciroc and Idona pondered.

"I guess a bit of rest wouldn't be bad." (Ciroc)

"We have been on the move for a week straight. Some time to move around would do us some good before we head straight into enemy territory." (Idona)

"Very well. Then let's do that."

"Great!"

"Though we have the problem of not knowing where a suitable place on the coast is."

"Oh, don't worry. I'll handle navigation."

After saying so, Dream created 8 streams of mana and connected them to the enchantments of the carriages. Not long after, one of the mages across from him put on a confused face, and all the carriages changed directions.

"Oh? You really are a powerful enchanter."

Idona spoke as she had seen how Dream took control of the carriages. Although it wasn't like they were protected, it wasn't easy to forcefully take control of 8 enchantments at once from 8 different users. This was the reason why one of the mages had a weird face.

"This much is simple. If you'd like, I can rewrite the enchantments and make them better."

"Well that's not really up to me as these carriages are the property of the Mercenary Empire. Ciroc?"

"I think I'll decline. The enchanters back home wouldn't be pleased if they knew a random kid had tampered with their crafts."

"Heh, alright. We'll be at the coast in half an hour. My ship is also on its way."

"Your ship?"

"Ooo, that's good thinking, Dream."

Idona smiled to Dream in satisfaction after remembering the comfort she had felt. Meanwhile, Ciroc was left wondering what was so great about this ship to give her such a pleased expression.