Mary didn't take very long to clean the clearing out. With a much, much higher Credit limit, she could sell a lot more. The full list ended up being the entire mundane skeleton of the fenroar, the mana conductive bone crown, the shards of crystal that remained after Cole took his fill, and a few interesting plants that had grown due to the crystal.

The smith filled the few-minute break by consolidating his thoughts on mana specters. It was... strange. The shapes were impossible, if still only barely. He could fool himself into thinking they were merely optical illusions, not forms of geometry that exceeded three dimensions. He couldn't wait to work with them. Going from a one-word vocabulary to two was massive, and with the flexibility intent gave, he had opened up innumerable new options.

The weapon he would be making was gauntlets. They were sometimes seen as just a part of armor but were far more than that. Although Cole did plan to make a full set of armor, hopefully funded by Mary in exchange for helping her get the alchemy equipment set up, his gauntlets would be more. With his still small mana pool and insufficient understanding to make the enchantments run on atmospheric mana, he would have to power his creations. So the gauntlets would be the only runed piece of equipment, along with being the part that he made with Grand steel.

Gauntlets as a weapon, much like claymores, were about weight and momentum. But unlike the broad sweeping swings of claymores that held enemies back and more used the body as a grounding point, gauntlets were about using the whole of the body with every punch and grab, using yourself as leverage and turning your weight into just another tool to be used.

It was also a very close-quarters weapon, and so long as you could survive getting up close they were an amazing way to disrupt your opponent's ability to do anything significant. Besides for daggers, and some other very small weapons, almost every weapon required room to properly set up a swing, thrust, or line of fire. If that room was suddenly full of an armored man trying to tackle you, not only was it very hard to leverage your own weapon, it is difficult to block his.

And even then, there were runes to consider. Cole felt confident that he could handle a two rune enchantment so long as it was on the simpler side. He wanted to do something with the rune for 'control'. It was at the same time a very nebulous and a very rigid concept. Nebulous because the second word would entirely change the effect, and rigid because it was entirely locked into the domain of what the second rune was.

He first thought of what the ideal runic phrase would be. Things he would never have to mana for in his current state, but that would just be too interesting to not consider.

'Control gravity' would be an absolute monster on a weapon like gauntlets. He could invert the gravity on his fists, sending a devastating uppercut. He could create a gravitational pull to the gauntlets, making his grip almost inescapable. He could invert that pull, giving him functional, albeit very simplistic, telekinesis.

'Control strength' was, well, strong. If his intent got through well enough while making it, he would be able to control the physical power of his own fists or whatever he was holding. He could burn through all of his reserves in a second but his like the fist of someone three times his Rank. He could get an enemy into a chokehold and sap so much of their strength that they couldn't even try to escape. He could weaken a physical barrier with one fist and break it down with the other.

The final powerful phrase that he knew he wouldn't be able to use but had to consider, was 'control control." Intent would help shape the second rune into the concept of dexterity and bodily control. He could make his own fist so easy to control that he would have more precision than the greatest of artists and calligraphers. He could make an enemy ever more disoriented when he got too close. He could get them in a headlock and take away so much dexterity that their throat didn't know how to breathe.

But sadly, he had to be at least a bit realistic in his rune choice. His claymore had been enchanted with 'reinforcement'. But with the gauntlets... any form of physical resilience would be utterly overkill. Mary's spear and the small amount of Deep Iron Cole still had in the Forge were already at the limit of his strength in an ideal situation, with perfect tools, a Mortal Two body, and decades of forge work. Grand steel? It was likely that the stuff was at least five times stronger than tungsten.

So, he already had resilience. He didn't feel as if directly increasing speed would be making full use of the potential of two rune phrases, as much of gauntlet's ideal fighting style was grabs and holds. He really liked the idea of 'control gravity', so perhaps a simpler form of that? Instead of the full concept of gravity or attraction, a consequence of them. Weight. Yes, 'control weight' would do very well.

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He could make the gauntlets lighter, letting him get a little bit more speed. He could increase the weight right before an impact, greatly increasing the power of a hit. Or, his favorite idea of them all, he could get an enemy into a hold and slowly ramp up the weight until they were crushed under it. Strength, speed, and versatility. Yes, that would be good.

"Mr. Vance, we've been ready to go for ten minutes, stop staring off into space."

Ah, right, getting back to society. Why did they have to do that again?

Mary glared at him. "I can see you thinking about staying out here," She said. "You're an open book. Seriously, people aren't that bad. Especially when they can buy things from me. You don't even have to talk to them, I already know you'll spend all your time in the Forge. I'll toss you some rings and materials for armor, and you can stay in there for a week if you want to. But I need to sell things, and Jace wants to play knight in shining armor."

She knew him too well. And he assuredly would be taking her up on the offer to stay in his forge the whole time. He would be coming out with his gauntlets, armor, alchemy equipment, storage rings for Mary, and likely a better broomstick for Jace. No people for a week, just him and the forge. It would be heaven.

They all gathered up, and Jace took out the token. It looked simple, just a wooden coin with an absolute mess of a symbol engraved on the center, but Cole could see further. The token's mana specter was a twisted and winding thing, looking like a labyrinth suspended in a puzzle suspended in a shattered mirror. His new insights into runes helped him realize that he was staring at something functional, but he still couldn't even make out a single word. The phrase was likely a full sentence, and complex at that. Along with the actual function, the mana needed for its effect meant that it was either storing and hiding a massive amount or that it would have an immense pull on the ambient mana of the world.

"Doutrix said that the transport wouldn't be the most pleasant experience," Jace said. "So brace yourself for discomfort. Or pain. She didn't say whose standards we were using. A God's idea of not pleasant would probably tear us to shreds though... Ah, just be ready."

The Overseer crushed the token.

Space collapsed around them in less than an instant. Jace's portals had gotten faster even with his little practice, but they still took several moments to form. The token's pieces hadn't even fallen halfway to the ground before a rush of purple mana surrounded all three of them. The smith felt weightless yet heavy at the same time, like he was being compressed and stretched, pulled and pushed across an expanse far too large to comprehend.

But far worse than what he felt, was how his mana reacted. He had been in the face of large amounts of mana before, primarily with the fenroar and the life crystal. The two Gods he had met had their power heavily restricted by the System, so they hadn't been a good representation of their power. But this wasn't a System function. They had knowingly and willingly used an item gifted from a God, and were exposed to that God's power. The absolute ocean of spatial mana around them was tinged with an undertone that felt like staring into the sun. A tinge of divinity.

Forcefire roared to life in his veins. It had grown slightly more active after the Void God's gift, and even before that, it had seemed to at least partially have a mind of its own. But now it surged up with a distinct and intentional rage. It was not some force being disrupted, or energy seeking to be used, but a beast whose territory had been challenged.

Quality. That was forcefire's territory. It was the mana of a Chosen, with five affinities, and born from a smith's passion. It had been overcome or drowned out before, but always by quantity. By a power that outnumbered it, not outperformed. It had the opinion that it was the greatest, the strongest in the world. And it was not alone in that. The reason for Cole's incredible regeneration was the quality of forcefire. It was so much better, so inherently superior, that ambient mana rushed to become part of it.

But for the first time, something dethroned it from its position. That undercurrent of divinity smothered forcefire almost accidentally, like it hadn't even noticed the obstruction to its path. Forcefire was defeated. It writhed in his veins petulantly, like a child throwing a tantrum. It was upset. Very upset.

So when they landed in a field of Monsters, it decided to make that tantrum a bit more literal. With the smallest pause to obtain his permission, as even with its newfound personality it still bowed to its Creator, it burst from his hands.

A golem a few meters away melted before it could even turn to look at them. A trio of small green humanoids wearing rags and holding stone knives was torn to shreds by a wave of silvery force. A far taller and more muscular green Monster got a minuscule marble blasted through its eye. Another one of the small monsters wearing a robe and holding a staff covered in small skulls could only begin gathering mana before a fleck of full forcefire destroyed it.

The power settled slowly, with a sense of exhaustion operating it. It seemed the new sense of self wasn't permanent yet. Cole felt the 'mind' of his mana fall asleep as he looked to survey their landing spot.

It was a football field. They were near the base of one of the goalposts. The rest of the field was parsley populated by slightly larger than human golems, and what would best be described as goblins and orcs. A few goblins looked to be more magic-oriented, with robes and staffs aplenty.

They were within sight of several large buildings, a few of which were destroyed. One, the largest, had a rudimentary barrier of cars and furniture around the entrance. They started running towards that one, as forcefire's little outburst had cost Cole more than two-thirds of his mana. As they did, they could see in greater detail the signs scattered about and on the buildings.

'Benmout University'