Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1793.12.12]

Zeph was shocked to the point that he wasn’t even trying to hide it.

That would explain a lot… I don’t have the same mental problems after killing someone as the people around. Be it a work of Greater Willpower, our upbringing in a Manaless world, or a mental trait of our race – all Gibbons share them all. I can see how they formed an assassination squad, but… why? He was silent, trying to understand what was this all about. The two people that weren’t intercepted by the churches after crossing… I hoped they were Alex and Alana. But if that is the case, why would they do the dirty work for the well-being of this city? But the chances for this group to work for one political faction are quite small… What other reason would they have…? Zeph could feel a headache coming. He never expected his companions to become assassins – every one of them hoped to find a better place, a better life on this side of the Fissure. Taking so many lives, whatever the reason or justification, didn’t seem to be the right direction.

He sighed. Nothing is easy. How am I going to contact them now? They could at least keep the symbol away from the assassination business. Would that be so hard? Just make a dojo and advertise it, so I can find you, dammit!

“For your knowledge – I am also buying information,” Ciriyal said intrigued after Zeph leaned back on his sofa.

He looked up at her, considering the offer. But in the end, he just shook his head. It was not worth it; he had enough money for now. It was better to leave things vague. For all of them.

Though, that reminded him of the items he prepared on the mountaintop. Is it even worth selling them at this point? They would only put holes in my backstory…

He looked appraisingly at Ciriyal. Better than burning them, I suppose. “How much exactly do you know about Aisha’s mission?”

She smirked. “You need to pay for such information, and it would be a lot. I was paid to not dig around the topic and keep silent about it. You are directly involved, though, so we can negotiate.”

“Hmm? Were you bluffing earlier then?” he asked incredulously.

“Don’t think there are no loopholes in my agreement with the Temple. And, theoretically, the contract is valid only as long as both sides respect it,” she deadpanned.

I am really bad at this… he thought ruefully, shaking his head. “Just tell me if you know where I met Aisha. I may have a small commission to give to you, just need to check if the information about it isn’t worth your gold.”

She squinted her eyes but relented. “High in the Torrent mountain range. And I have my suspicions about your true origin.”

He nodded. “I expected as much. I have some souvenirs from that place. Some feathers and… Talpa’s leather. Not sure how much they would sell for, but I would rather not risk asking around.”

“Ah, I understand. From the top of a mountain. How many goods we are talking about?” she asked, leaning back.

“Around… 2.5 kilounits of pressed feathers of local birds.” Comparing the weight to his armor’s, it should be around 5 kilograms. Unfortunately, Zeph forgot to weigh it. “Also, two sets of leather trousers, two jackets, and an overcoat with fur…”

He stopped using his self-crafted leathers in North Tarak, after getting normal clothes from Kwan’s gang. They were too eye-catching, in a bad way, as both sets were pretty ugly even before being damaged during his misadventures in the mountains.

“You can throw the leathers away,” Ciriyal lightly advised. “Even in pristine condition, they wouldn’t be worth much. But those feathers should sell for a few gold per kilounit… Just bring it to me and I will see what can be done with them.”

They discussed the details shortly and left the room. Zeph said his goodbyes and after retrieving his baggage and winter clothes, he stepped back into the streets of the Production District.

He showed the map to the driver, explaining that he wanted to visit all of the Alchemy Shops along the way to the mysterious craftsman that Ciriyal recommended.

The first shop they visited wasn’t anything special. It looked like a fusion of pharmacy and chemical supply store. The main difference was that almost everything was placed in glass bottles of different shapes, and placed in plain sight. Multicolored liquids, strange crystals, even monster parts – a client could clearly see the contents. Small notes were glued to the shelves, showing the name, price, and giving a short explanation of the bottles’ contents.

He shortly scanned what was available but lacked the knowledge to place the articles. Instead, he walked to the counter and asked if the alchemist knew his way around Mana batteries.

He hoped to work together with a competent alchemist to alleviate Gru’s Mana capacity problems. If he started to play with chemicals, he would probably spend years before achieving enough knowledge and proficiency to find a solution himself. Earth’s knowledge was useful, sure, but Mana was complicating the whole affair. The best example was the Iron isotopes in his armor. They were stable on Earth, but Mana was interfering with their atomic structure enough for them to decay. It was an easy guess that chemical reactions would work differently in Mana environments. Especially the exothermal ones, as Mana tended to conglomerate near energy sources for some reason.

Sadly, the clerk explained that this wasn’t in the purview of an alchemist and that he should seek an ingeniator instead. Which Zeph already knew. The problem was, ingeniators weren’t dealing with living organisms, but purely mechanical constructs. He had to find someone who could do both. Not to mention, he wasn’t going to pay a small fortune for a Mana battery blueprint. He would have to buy it from such a person even before they started the experimentation.

The knowledge about the materials and production methods of Mana batteries were selling pretty well to people who didn’t manage to gain the General Skill by themselves.

He tried to explain that he hoped for something slightly different but, obviously, innovating in that direction also wasn’t in the alchemists’ skill set. Creating new, suboptimal material would be a waste of time for them, too.

Resigned, Zeph left the shop. After preparing a better explanation in his mind, he tried again in the next one.

Then, in the next. And the next… until he was left only with their final destination and a mild depression.

He learned something new today and it was bad news.

Each alchemist used slightly different methods and Skills to create their products. They were actually so dependent on certain Skills and Soul contamination that they didn’t even try to hide the recipes, oftentimes selling them in their own shops. Because who would be even able to use them besides their apprentices? In other cases, specific, modified Spells, enchantments, and Magicule manipulation techniques were required. It was all too easy to have one’s own, inimitable brand. And those Skills, those Spells and combinations, had to be strenuously trained over the years. Only after mastering them, the System would add a Matrix version or EE of their form, further strengthening the brand.

It was also the reason Zeph only received ‘fully optimized’ versions of his Spells from the System. To freely use a modified version, he would have to master the base first.

He could almost feel System’s irritation for how those people were proceeding but, in the end, they were returning new knowledge, so they were left alone. It was headache-inducing, though.

When someone had an ingredient that could potentially be used in alchemy, they had to actually ask every accessible alchemist if it was useful for them. Because an alchemist could, at best, scan the material and intuit if it was useful. The prices varied wildly for that reason, too. It was a ridiculous and chaotic industry where people didn’t even try to understand what was happening in the processes they invented. By reading from their General Skills, they were finding new applications and learning about previously practiced methods. Then, by trial and error, they found new recipes and new applications to the existing materials. But no one, at least on this stratum, knew what they were doing.

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It was useless. Abhorrently different from how the Towers or enchanters operated. Zeph needed someone competent but landed at the starting line again. To have a contracted ingeniator, he would need a lot of money. But even then, the chance of success would be questionable.

Resurfacing from his dark thoughts, he noticed that they were almost at their destination. The buildings here were lower and wider, taking up much more area. No terraces were present, too. The setting was similar to the mansions near the walls, but without the gardens around – the structures took all the space between the streets around.

They stopped before a building decorated with gears made from multicolored metals. The owner evidently wasn’t trying to hide his presence in the city. At the front a porch was set, the only entrance in the middle.

After going inside, he was forced to walk alongside the building’s wall to find the entrance doors. Strange contraptions made from metal adorned the alcoves along the way. Glass surfaces separated them from the touch of the cold air, explaining how they were able to keep moving.

The double doors lead to a simple counter manned by a young man clothed almost like a porter. The interior was holding more of the decorative creations. The polished, moving metal was reflecting the warm light in mesmerizing patterns.

Zeph had no idea what the mechanisms were for, but that didn’t stop him from admiring the complicated systems. They looked almost like scaled-up clockworks.

“Can I help you?” the clerk asked, waking him up from the slight stupor.

“Ah, yes. Sorry. I am here to see the owner,” he said, showing the two letters of recommendation in his possession.

The man looked skeptic at first, but after making sure they were authentic, he quickly changed his mannerism. He activated something on the black plate built into the counter and spoke while making a small bow.

“Yes, honored customer. Ghrughah-jiji will see you shortly.” At that moment, a woman entered through the side doors. “Uliala will show you to a waiting room. Please make yourself comfortable, it can take some time for the Jiji to finish his work.”

“No problem. I didn’t make an appointment, after all. Thank you.”

He nodded to the clerk and followed after the woman. Surprisingly, her long, black hair had a slight green tint. It was a somewhat rare trait indicating that she had very high Soul contamination of a certain metal group. Or she just took the corresponding ‘visual’ body modification, but they were costly enough to not be bought if there was no real need.

She took him through a long corridor. As everything in the city, it was made from yellowish stone, but every door was made from silver metal, and additional, metallic supports lined the walls. He could hear heavy machinery at work, the sound coming from all around and hard to place. It was definitely a very busy place.

To his surprise, she directed him downstairs, to the underground level of the building. The staircase was big, its steps so wide that he had difficulties going down. From time to time, he had to make a double step to compensate for their length, making the walk quite awkward. Uliala didn’t have such problems, though. Her schooled gait was perfectly matching the strange staircase.

Two floors below, and one winding corridor later, he was shown to a simple room with a table and two seats. Everything here was stone and metal, but at least the chairs had comfortably-looking cushions.

“You will be able to speak freely here – I will turn on the safety measures at the time. Would you like some snacks while you wait?” she curtly asked.

“Um, sure,” he answered, hanging his coat on the hook bolted to the wall. There wasn’t anything else to do here, anyway, so he could indulge a little.

After moving the backpack to the table, he made himself comfortable and waited.

It took almost two hours, as far as Zeph could say, for the owner to come. But when he did, Zeph could hear him the moment he stepped on this floor.

Heavy, metal boots clanked loudly on the stone, echoing all the way to his room. Even before the doors opened, Zeph could feel the suffocating presence of the man’s Veil slipping inside through the gaps. It was so full of Metal Magicules that it almost felt physical upon contact with his own Veil, and his improved Mana perception wasn’t the reason he could feel it.

But the man’s physical presence was even more overbearing. He was at least 2.5 meters tall and had to crouch slightly to enter. But instead of being lanky, his body resembled that of a fantasy dwarf – it was almost as wide as tall. The muscles under his sleeveless shirt bulged out in too many places, indicating his anatomy was vastly different. His arms were almost as thick as Zeph’s waist. Almost. The man was bald but sported a long, white beard. The heavy, leather apron was folded in half at the front, freeing his torso.

Ghrughah-jiji entered the room moving sideways, then straightened slowly and took a good look at Zeph.

The silence lasted for an uncomfortable few seconds.

“A Fullangrarian? Ha! This can even work out this time,” he greeted rudely in a low, gruff voice, closing the doors behind himself. “Ghrughah the Greater Omni-Blacksmith and Biologist in training,” he said, nodding slightly.

Zeph stood up. “Zeph Einar Tabitalo,” he said, returning the gesture. The man was of a race he didn’t know anything about. It was the first time he saw someone so enormous, but what was truly terrifying was his Veil. It easily pushed back his own Mana, securing absolute domination inside the room within a few seconds. If he was a human of any normal kind, Zeph would have guessed he was a post-150 Manacaster. “I hope we can work together.”

“Sure thing,” boomed the giant. “Let’s hear about it. I was informed you were sent by Yallan’s?”

They sat down and Zeph took out his two letters of recommendation. After checking them for a moment, Ghrughah opened both and started reading the contents.

He seemed pleased if his slight smile was any indicator. After nodding to himself, he looked up at Zeph. At the same time, the paper in his hands started to crumble into grayish dust.

“Can I see the armor in question? I will pay in advance for its design in case it cannot be worked by me,” he said sternly, placing a small Manasolid on the table.

Zeph was taken aback for a moment but didn’t hesitate. A Manasolid would be extremely handy to have for the first series of tests he wanted to do on the Gru’s ‘egg’. He took out the broken-off armguard from his backpack. Ghrughah took it from him carefully, almost as if holding a delicate and wounded animal, then put it close to his face and started glaring at it from different angles.

It took a few minutes before he slowly put it back on the table. “Fascinating. I am unable to tell how some of the parts work or what that organism is! I think it has the potential to push me the final stretch!” he said with a wide grin.

Huh? “You are trying to level up a Skill?”

“Yes. For the longest time, before my Class evolution,” he nodded solemnly. “Two Skills to be exact. I am trying to generalize them, but they still want to just stay the same. Can I see the whole armor? I can guarantee we will have a deal.”

A shame, Zeph thought, glancing longingly at the Manasolid.

In quick order, the top part of his armor was laid on the table. The Blacksmith requested him to also remove the bottom part for the examination. Zeph had to change in the neighboring room and now felt especially vulnerable.

After checking the whole thing, Ghrughah started to think deeply while stroking his long beard.

“I must say, I don’t like this alloy… You have a contamination that keeps it stable?”

“Uh, yes.”

“And this colony…”

“It’s called Phleya.”

“Yes, the Phleya. It helps you channel your Veil through the armor and keeps the Magicule density at high values… But it works only because the armor’s structure isn’t hermetic.” The blacksmith stated. Suddenly, the discussion changed direction to the overall design of the armor. Ghrughah criticized the weak points and asked a few questions to clear his doubts about the intended functionality. All in all, he was surprised that it was mostly anti-Mana armor, while it could be so much more.

“Firstly, I would recommend changing the alloy. It is degrading too fast – I can sense the amount of the byproducts, and it doesn’t look good.”

Zeph shook his head. “That would be a new material altogether. The Phleya uses my contamination to manipulate the metal more efficiently and replaces missing material by taking it from the environment… I also like the Mana-resistant properties of it.”

“And how good is that working for you?” the giant asked skeptically. “You are not living underground. The trace amounts of this substance in the environment are not enough. Look here,” he said, indicating the place on the back of the thigh where a Heat-Mana beam hit him during the fight in the forest. “This area was overflowed with Mana. A beam attack, if I had to guess. The Phleya inside regenerated, but the metal lost its properties. There is nothing left of those unstable types. How long ago was it?”

Oh, shit… Now I have to worry about my armor deteriorating from attacks… At least the Source Net and Gru are safe inside my Body. “Around a month ago…”

“See? What good will that do to you if it can’t regenerate its properties after such a long time? Don’t worry, I won’t waste your Soul contamination,” he assured, straightening up. “We will test its compatibility for an advanced Magicule type.”

Zeph tilted his head. The what now?

Seeing his confusion, the Blacksmith elaborated patiently. “Some Magicule types are stable only in extreme environments or during very rare natural occurrences. Earthquakes, volcano eruptions, deep in the ocean, to give a few examples. If someone wants Soul contamination of such types before level 100, they had to find more basic components that are compatible with them, then slowly transform or fuse them into the one they prefer. Because it’s impossible to gain them from local fauna or by absorption—”

Absorption?! Aisha, you garbage teacher, why didn’t I hear about it yet?! No… she did tell me about animals’ contamination and the environment… Ugh, learning in such a manner is painful. Is this connected to the AMC? It is stuck for so long at level 99…

“—without killing yourself. Not to mention, most of them require corresponding body modifications before the contamination reaches the first threshold. They are destructive to such extent.”

Zeph shook his head hearing that. To get body modifications helping with certain Magicules, one needed firstly to have the contamination above the threshold. Well, normally, at least. He himself wasn’t the best example. “So, without… fusion or whatever, they are basically impossible to get?”

“There are methods, like using enchantments to produce them locally, but it’s hazardous. If one can easily gain ‘Heat Magicule contamination’ and ‘Glass Magicule contamination’, why would they ever try ‘Lava Magicule contamination’ from the beginning?” he said, shrugging. “We can abuse this method to modify your contamination. Don’t worry. Something has to be compatible with this alloy of yours. I will either find a replacement that can help you transform your contamination, or modify it. The latter can help you with gaining new contamination to fuse in the future. It will take some time, though. And I require parts of the metal from the armor for tests, as well as your regular visits.”

Zeph facepalmed. Great, more waiting… “I will have to come over every day, either way, to keep the Phleya from dying off…”

“Huh?” It was Ghrughah’s turn to tilt his head questioningly.