"Prepared? What's there to prepare for? This realm has taken away all the options. What can be worse than living the rest of my life stuck here?" Oscar asked rhetorically, moistening his mouth with fresh fruit juice. He exhaled in relief from the sweetness.

Dangers and risks were always beside him from the moment he became an Exalt. Whether it was training in Reis, Awaken, Prinstyct, or in general, everything had inherent consequences. Even after hearing the gravity in Gol-4's words, Oscar didn't care and was resigned to his fate.

What would be the point if he didn't struggle for the last chance until the end?

"The pain will be unimaginable, and the time will go by slowly. It will be a tortuous procedure with an iota of a chance. But if it works, you'll become a Knight Exalt." Gol-4 said, gazing into Oscar's eyes. "I see you are resolved. Then let's head to Tectusen."

"You didn't tell me what you're planning." Oscar liberated himself from the bed and put on his makeshift fur coat. Carefully, he placed Calvin's journal into his space pocket. It offered nothing else in knowledge, but Oscar wanted to return at least one memory of Calvin. If a chance existed to return home, then a part of Calvin should be returned to his family.

Meanwhile, Gol-4 woke Erden up from its deep slumber. For an Exalt Beast, Erden was unlike other living creatures of Ashen Grove, preferring to sleep most of its time away. Erden sneezed and stood on all fours, stomping out of the tent.

Oscar mounted his fellow beast companion and tapped on its antlers, hearing the slight ringing from the crystal structures. After tying Gol-4 to his shoulder, Oscar patted Erden to begin a slow walk out of the encampment. He wished to take in this view before leaving. Confused, Oscar's eyes trembled at the sight of heaping piles of rotten vegetation.

"These are Grovekeepers' remains. When did they enter the encampment?" Oscar said. He noticed the marks of battle spread all over the entrance. Gol-4 was a powerless head, and Erden lacked the strength for this much havoc and destruction. Only one suspect popped into Oscar's thoughts.

'Will you stop taking over my body at night? No wonder I had a headache and felt even more tired.' Oscar sent a thought to Demon.

'Only your mind needed the rest. Our bodies can carry on for a while. I only cleaned up the trash.' Demon's icy voice pierced through Oscar's innermost thoughts, ringing loud and clear in his head. 'Thanks to me, you continued to improve quickly.'

'...Thank you, I suppose.' Oscar felt his headache growing and rubbed the bridge of his nose with a pained expression.

"Already talked with Demon, huh? Yes, he went out and slaughtered the Grovekeepers. I am also pondering a solution for you. Be patient, and I might have an idea." Gol-4 bobbed his head around at the surrounding trees as they exited the encampment.

"Never mind him. Tell me about your plan. How can I enter the Knight Exalt in this realm? Restrictions force everyone never to advance. Only the red root could advance because of the Divine–" Oscar cut his words short, and slowly his eyes rose in the realization of Gol-4's plan. The prior claims weren't false; it truly was a maddened plan.

"Realize it now?" Gol-4 chuckled for a while; his mechanical teeth chattered in Oscar's ears.

"That small petal I snatched from the Divine Essence….Hold on. I didn't feel anything around it. Once detached, it no longer held the same divine aura as the main plant." Oscar was still doubtful about the validity of this petal and its means.

"Eat it."

"Eat it?"

"Eat it raw. The power is contained within it. The small petal won't grant you the same area to weaken the restrictions. But ingest it, and the power will flow within you and should lift the shackles of this realm. That's the gambit."

"One golddew fig was painful enough, but now you suggest eating an entire petal of the Divine Essence." Oscar became silent, frozen on Erden's back. After a short while, Oscar sighed and nodded, resigning himself to his madness. "There must be ways to withstand parts of it, right? A great Primaere like you won't skimp on the details of such an important task."

"Which is why we're heading to Tectusen. First, forge a new armament from the renewing resources of the underground foundry. The battles outside will be easier with an armament in hand."

"How long will it take me to train until my core is at the crux of advancement? Hopefully, there are enough resources in this realm." Oscar groaned, not enjoying the notion of being stuck for an unknown number of years.

Several hours later, they arrived at the entrance to Tectusen, where he exited the city with Orden, Austin, and Erik years ago. Oscar gazed fondly at the small, unassuming doorway lodged between craggy boulders. Still riding on Erden, Oscar descended the dusty stairways as the sunlight dimmed, replaced by the glittering of crystals like stars in the ground.

"Ah, this place is where I heavily emphasized forging, as you might have figured out, haha! My wife, Wendy, was my senior as a fabricator when I was young. We had such fun times together." Gol-4 hummed, swaying his head from left to right.

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"Yes, and Sandra was the alchemist, and Rebecca was the daughter of the kingdom of your home. Can we talk about anything other than your wives? My ears have been falling off from mentioning their names for five years now. Though, you never mentioned Evelyn before." Oscar grumbled, wiping his ears.

"I'll have lots to talk about when you begin forging. Don't forget I was a Primaere and a six-star fabricator, the highest ever in this world!" Gol-4 boasted.

Gol-4's self-praise echoed across the empty stairways, reaching the door to the main square of Tectusen. Oscar heard footsteps skittering around, endless and fast tapping of light steps. These steps were familiar.

Oscar summoned his deer anima and ordered it to charge into the door. The gate swung wide from the forceful thrust of his anima's antlers and revealed the ghastly sight of the main square. Swarms of the parasitic vines, the Zeno Vines, stopped their mindless crawling, and their blurry sharp finger-like legs paused. The legs extended out, turning into thin tendrils, and they all shrieked.

"Can we purge the entire city while we're at it?" Gol-4 requested.

Oscar leaped off Erden, throwing himself toward the mass of writhing tendrils and skittering grotesque vines. From a single massive Ripple Shroud of Oscar's fist, many parasitic vines were squashed and crushed into purple pulps on the floor.

Oscar witnessed massive hordes of parasitic vines from the crevices and homes.

Heavy footsteps knocked a few parasitic vines flat on the floor. Behind the mass of vines emerged four unnaturally large Grovekeepers, the same he fought in Tectusen long ago, only they were Greater Elite Exalts. Oscar swung his arm, slicing through incoming parasitic vines.

"We might have to go into the mines," Oscar added to Gol-4's request. The Grovekeepers' influence reached far into the unknown depths of the mines, and Oscar suspected something amiss within the wretched tunnels.

One of the large Grovekeepers swung its mighty arms and landed a resounding strike on Oscar, rumbling like thunder. Avoiding terrible damage by moving along the flow of power, Oscar lifted his leg and struck the large Grovekeeper on the dome of its head, slamming it on the floor. Before the Grovekeeper could recover, Oscar pierced into its chest and took out the core.

As the other two large Grovekeepers and swarms of parasitic vines charged, Erden stepped forward with a burst of Ein. It raised its front legs and stomped on the floor, quaking the floor with an unsettling Ein. The Ein caused everything to stagger, an opening fit for Oscar to use.

'Good!' Oscar praised Erden's technique. He had hoped Erden would start to tap more into its potential, and his hopes weren't in vain. Thanks to Erden's support, Oscar stabbed through the hard rocky skin of the large Grovekeepers without much resistance while his deer anima mowed down rows of parasitic vines. His Eirin Silver Lances created large holes in their chests, exposing the cores.

Their battle lasted for a long time. Oscar and Erden fought for several hours, resting briefly in intervals. Behind them were trails of corpses and purple blood, which dyed the floors and houses. Oscar rushed ahead after feeling the temperature increase, a dry heat spilling from the entryway.

Passing through a flight of stairs, Oscar finally relaxed at the sight of towering silos that spewed hot steam and a city free of the forest's taint.

"The foundry district. We have made it at last. Now, forge your weapon. I can't wait to see the Reis-forging you mentioned before." Gol-4 was practically tugging Oscar forward, still attached to his shoulder. The excitement of new techniques excited the Primaere fabricator.

"Ok, ok." Oscar yawned, expelling the cold underground air. The dry heat filled his lungs, feeling comfortable and relaxed.

Oscar barged into the workshop, glancing at the workstation in the corner. He remembered his contest with Orden and his loss against the prodigal fabricator. The anvil, previously clean, was covered in dust and soot. From a single swipe of his hammer, the anvil released a high-pitched sound, vibrating to knock off all the excess.

With a clean anvil ready, Oscar changed into his torn fabricator uniform and fanned the flames for the kiln and furnace. Everything was now set up, and Oscar sat on the chair to look through his space pockets. He took out a hard armored plate of the Great Sharaka he killed in the Desert Realm and its core.

"Good choice. A very sturdy creature, and its armored plates are perfect." Gol-4 nodded, staying afloat while Erden rested by the entrance to keep watch.

Oscar got straight to work. He heated the Great Sharaka plate, unraveled its formation, and overwhelmed the beast's resistance to reduce the material into a fine powder. Tossing the powder into the kiln, Oscar also placed some grade-two ores in the furnace, waiting for the two components to finish.

He didn't have quenching oil, so he used lots of water. The higher the grade, the more water he needed to quench it. Oscar had an absurd amount of water in his space pocket and used it to douse the kiln. He retrieved the pellets of Great Sharaka, setting them aside.

His hammer bashed against the grade-two ore, releasing sparks like fireworks onto the floor. His refinement had increased significantly from five years of training thanks to completing his Adamasreis and growing in control of his strength. Oscar smiled with pride at the 100 percent pure grade-two ore, melting it with the pellets in the crucible.

"Gol-4, watch carefully. Reis-forging."

Oscar followed the methods, creating thin plates sandwiched between layers of his Ein. Many times he failed, only succeeding after a long while. After a trip to the furnace, Oscar started the next step and twisted the stacked plates like a coil. Again, failure after failure, retry after retry, Oscar carried on until he finally held a completely coiled bar.

The beast's will was nothing to Oscar. He cut out the part linked to its defense and placed it upon the heated coil. He closed his eyes and thought of the stars, recalling the lessons Gol-4 had taught him about creating a formation. He thought of the Aegis constellation with an array of stars that resembled a shield and pictured himself in it.

The image of stars shifted to fit himself as part of the constellation, and Oscar thought this was good. Eagerly, Oscar smiled, pounding away at the metal and placing nodes that shone brightly. With a final strike of his hammer, the shield was complete and pulsed with Ein.

After a heaping dousing of water, which all evaporated into hot steam like a sauna, Oscar pulled out the shield, a clean copper shine reflecting the fires and his face. It could pass as a mirror if he needed it to be. To test it, Oscar punched as a thundering quake of a Shattering Wave expelled from its surface.

"Good shield. Only took the whole day." Oscar took off his helmet, wiping the sweat to no avail. "How was it?"

Gol-4 remained silent.

"Gol-4? What's wrong?" Oscar tapped Gol-4's head. Did something go wrong?

"I never thought of such a technique, but even now, I can think of so many new golems and applications of that Reis-forging. Oscar, I know you don't wish to spend too long here, but may I teach you how to craft golems?"

"What?"

Gol-4's sudden request caught Oscar by surprise. He put down his hammer and shield to stare at Gol-4. He wanted him to inherit his golem crafting?