The Boys down in R&D had been working in Sanctuary since Dash decided to take advantage of Sanctuary’s affinity for people who cultivate their crafts or trade-skills. They had a new build integrating the same M-tek that would be used in the production of The Black Ruby. It was completely ready for testing, save for the power supply. Obviously, they needed the [Power Source] I had salvaged from the orc’s crater; the Orc P.S. So we took the Mk. IV outside of the workshop I had accessed from the Mk. III and removed the Orc P.S. from it, and inserted it into the newest M-tek horse. I figured it really did need a name, and considering the speed of this thing; in addition to the power source; I called it Lightning. Actually him; Considering it could now simulate actual horse sounds, it felt natural to consider it as a male.

  The king played the role of sceptic pretty well, and rushed us onto our other tasks. So I headed off to my next appointment so we could begin work on The Black Ruby.

  I believe it was thanks to the dwarves that I discovered my disdain for bureaucracy, or paper work, or having to stand in queue or wait at a desk or counter; Whatever you would call those types of activities. Because what I thought would be a few simple tasks, turned out to be one of the greatest tests I had yet to endure. The dwarven guilds were not like the guilds found in the other regions. I met many helpful and friendly individuals, but they were powerless to accelerate the process at any step of the ordeal. I wished I could complete some kind of gauntlet or compete in some test of medal to circumvent the obstructive tasks before me.

  While I waited for the initial paperwork to go through I began initial pre-fabrication of The Black Ruby within Sanctuary. When I entered Sanctuary after the first long day Dash immediately set to work organising the workforce, and exited to complete tasks within the dwarven kingdom on her own. I spent a while tending to the fields, and admiring the evolution of the environment. The greenhouses now had an automatic water sprinkling system set up to activate automatically on a timed schedule. Truly remarkable; especially considering it seemed to be powered by wind alone.

  Before long Dash returned with about 30 people, even a few humans. We had discussed appointing Luseal to an official position within Sanctuary, so I began a soul communication ritual to begin work on the process I hoped to utilise.

  I started by establishing a connection with Luseal, I could feel Dash’s presence growing stronger as my discourse with Luseal began. I told her about the idea to make her the custodian of Sanctuary and she was eager to do so. As I was preparing for the next step of my plan, an apparition of Dash began to manifest in my mind. She began to speak to me as if addressing both myself as well as Luseal. She began to describe the energies that her father had used to hone her development. It sounded like the same chi or soul essence I was familiar with, but it was generated by dreams; As I had learned from the dragonic tome. She went on to explain that Sanctuary and the royal dungeons were crafted with the same energies. Energies gathered by entire flights of dragons sleeping for millennia. Dash then offered to host a lucid dream environment for us to interact within, which was almost too perfect for the next part of my plan.

  The next part of realising my plan was to invite Lilith into our little meeting. It felt rude just to ignore my vampiric symbiote so I invited Jr. to participate as well. Lilith appeared the same as before; As what I always imagined a succubus to look like, a demonic female humanoid. Dash had manifested as her humanoid form as well, but Jr. and Luseal only existed as foggy hazes. I asked Dash to render a suitable environment and she formed a large stone chamber around us, lit by large braziers hanging from the walls and ceiling. And Finally it was time to reveal my plan.

  I requested that Lilith share the technique she had used on me, when I saw her appear for the first time (when I was without Luseal’s protection) with Luseal. The idea was that Lilith had manifested in the real world, or at least seemed to. All I was hoping for was for a way for people to interact with Luseal while within Sanctuary. Lilith immediately started scheming over soul energy, requesting one of us allow her to feed once again. And promising to transfer the energy to Luseal, so that she could utilise it the same way Lilith had. But Dash jumped in and offered to help Luseal make use of her own dream energies, insisting her physical form would be much easier to maintain within Sanctuary. Simultaneously, Luseal's wisp-like form began to take a more humanoid shape; She must have been excited to begin.

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  I must have fallen asleep during the exercise but when I woke up I felt more well rested then I had in years. I must have used Dash’s dreamscape to cultivate my own dream energies. Maybe Dash had even allowed for that to happen. I finally figured that my inability to dream perhaps had more to do with my symbiote than I thought. So I made a mental note to communicate with him on the subject again later.

  I headed to check on the progress on my application with the guilds, and as I traversed the dwarven city Luseal updated me on Dash’s progress in Sanctuary. She was looking at the idea of importing fish, creating an artificial body of water; Even modifying Hellsing Corp. H.Q. in an attempt to add a water feature to Sanctuary that way. She also told me she had a surprise for me, but I would have to wait a little longer.

  After another gruelling day of paperwork and waiting I was finally able to make the payment to the smelter’s guild and begin approval for our schematics. And thankfully I was off the hook with the counsel, because Dash had been heading the progress of Hellsing Corp. by any channels she could devise.

  By the end of the day several dwarves were waiting at Lightning for me to reestablish the link to Sanctuary. I struck my portable forge equipped to my mechanical steed companion, and opened a portal allowing the others who had been waiting to enter before me. Once I entered I was met with a tall pale elven beauty. Felt out for her soul and immediately recognised her as Luseal. “Surprise!” She exclaimed.

  Turns out after I had fallen asleep there had been quite a few developments. Dash, Lilith, Luseal, and Junior had pulled an all-nighter. They decided to debrief me as a group. Junior revealed that he had indeed been consuming the soul energy I had been meant to generate in my dreams. He used this Chi to condense into structural reinforcements for himself, and I. Dash explained that Junior seemed incapable of regulating this process manually, and it would be unlikely that he would be able to take advantage of her dream avatar ability. Lilith further postulated that, by already possessing a biological vessel unlike herself and Luseal; Junior would be less likely to be capable of manifesting using her techniques either.

  So the previous night while I slept, stowing away within the dreamscape of another; They decided among themselves. They used several different techniques and experimented with different ways to exchange the latent chi Junior had gathered from me, and transferred some of it to Luseal. She was able to use this new energy imbued with my dream-force if you will, to manifest a corporeal avatar within Sanctuary.

  I pitched the idea of setting up a mannequin to hold the pendant containing Luseal, as a type of pedestal for her incase she ever needed or wanted to remain in sanctuary without my company. The gang proposed we instead craft a husk, or like a sort of blank chi clone. That way Luseal could potentially possess a corporeal form in addition to her amulet. The amulet served much like the soul-trap I had created from my katana, except Luseal had willingly chosen to inhabit her artifact. It was unclear even to Luseal if she had been an Elf, or another entity; Her memories were hazy preceding her activation while serving to protect me. But one thing was certain, she did possess a soul.

  While the other’s (Dash, Luseal and Lilith) developed their chi clone, they only required occasional contributions of chi from me and my symbiote. So I began assembly on a M-tek autonomous humanoid husk of my own. Well more accurately, I set the engineers down in R&D on the task and forgot about it.

  Finally it was time to begin work on The Black Ruby, and it was well worth the trouble. The smelters guild were able to begin producing steel plating and riveting them together before the framework and bulkheads were even complete. And with the help of the pre-fabs we had from our preparation in Sanctuary, by the end of the first day there were sections of floorboards already beginning to be installed in some areas.