“What’s caviar?” Mitsy interjected.

Dollar stared at her.

“You are ruining my cool moment.”

Ignoring her rude interruption, Dollar placed Mitsy’s new tunic on the floor in front of him. The material, leather made from a Ghourmin’s hide, was originally bone-white in color, with swirls of gray lining throughout it. But the process of artifact creation would likely change that, thanks to a single ingredient.

The Violet Bloom.

Alongside the crimson gems he’d stolen from House Tiberius’ golems, it was his most valuable possession.

Dollar held the core material up to his eyes. The crystal was a decahedron, the ten faces on its surface each allowing for a new and unique symbol array. He didn’t need all ten, of course, but that just meant that the arrays he did add would be stronger and better, with multiple of the same symbols overlapping.

“No cracks or inconsistencies,” Dollar confirmed. “Good. I paid an arm and a leg for this.”

"This is the material you're using to hold the gravity symbol? Mitsy asked.

Dollar nodded. "And more. Much, much more. The Violet Bloom is special. It can hold a symbol's existence on each face. Which means its the only core material I have that will allow for multiple symbol arrays. Far more than the usual two I've been adding to my artifacts. And there's no risk of an explosion either. Maybe. Hopefully."

"Oho," Mitsy shifted forward, her eyes glued to the Violet Bloom. "I like the sound of that."

He placed the violet bloom onto the Ghourmin’s tunic, the leather and crystal not mixing at all. The crystal, for its part, was clearly too wide and long for the leather to hold properly. More importantly, it would be completely exposed. When Dollar had fought the bronze golems, he’d destroyed them by stabbing their internal symbol arrays. To avoid a similar fate for their user, these kinds of crystals were usually embedded within layers of armor so that the symbol arrays couldn’t be destroyed easily.

Bill lowered his head, tapping the tip of his horn against the side of the tunic curiously.

“Oink?” the grec asked.

“Yeah, this is where things get difficult,” Dollar took a deep breath. “But first, something else.”

Dollar opened up his status screen, gazing at the numbers within.

Available stats to assign: 60.

“Okay,” Dollar made his decision.

[Intelligence: 42 -> 72]

[Mana: 420 -> 720]

[Life essence: 118 -> 148]

Dollar trembled as his mind went blank, a stream of cool energy flowing into it. He had never paid attention to his intelligence stat, but the feeling he got from increasing it was different from his dexterity increase. For a moment it felt like he couldn’t think at all, his thoughts paused in place by the power of the System.

Then the moment passed, and he breathed a fine mist from his mouth. Which was strange because the dome wasn’t chilly.

Before he could ponder on the mist, he realized what was coming next. His life essence started to increase. He activated his [Aura Sense] to see the changes and was met with a wave of gold as his aura revealed the shape of his old self from back on Earth. He chuckled when he remembered that Levia had thought his aura had been shaped into his idea of a perfect self.

Golden light flowed through his veins, entering his muscles at various intervals and staying there. It was a subtle transformation, the glow of his aura strengthening but not overtly brighter than before. Instead of rapturous delight or chilly energy, he felt a tranquil peace of body, his fatigue draining away as his life essence increased.

When I gain my first bond, I suspect I’ll find more uses for this other than just acting as a new vitality stat, Dollar thought.

Waving his hands and tensing his body he dispelled the lingering effect of the stat increase.

“Don’t you need to cut a hole where the crystal goes?” Mitsy asked, softening her voice so that she didn’t startle him while he was experiencing his stat increase.

Dollar shot her a grateful look. “No, not this time. The Violet Bloom has a special property. Well, the ‘bloom’ part of the name will become self-explanatory soon enough.”

With a gesture of silence he brought out his notebook of the Unseeing…

…and another tool.

Long and made of steel, the device in Dollar’s hands looked like a thick metal walking stick with a door knob handle on the top. He handled it delicately, placing the notebook on the floor beside him, its orange eye watching his every move.

Ever since he had encountered the Unseeing, it had become more and more…intense… in its gaze. Occasionally, it even slipped up and moved when it thought Dollar wasn’t looking, but by the time he brought his gaze back to it the notebook was quiet again.

“That’s creepy,” Mitsy gazed at the notebook warily. “I swear I just saw it blink.

“Ignore it,” Dollar said. “It refuses to answer my questions, so it can be ignored in turn.”

“Fine. I still can’t believe you saw the Unseeing. I heard they last appeared when the latest Haldes of Morg died, and that was an event that shook the world.”

Dollar barely heard Mitsy’s words as he fiddled with the knob-like handle of the new device experimentally.

This is my first time using a tool other than my dagger to craft. Dollar grimaced. Good thing that I practiced in private when I could spare the time.

“Is that going to become another artifact?” Mitsy asked, her eyes shining. “I could use a good whacking stick.”

“This is a lot more important than a weapon,” Dollar shook his head. “The cane is only its surface appearance.”

Bill oinked low and soft as he tapped his horn against the metal. The clang of contact rang deep, but Bill let out a grunt of disappointment when he realized that it wasn’t an artifact.

"If it wasn't an artifact when I bought it, why would it be now?" Dollar snatched it away from the grec and held the device in front of him. With a twist of its handle the thick shaft broke apart, splitting into eight limbs. Each one was mechanical in nature, several jointed segments connecting to form a claw shape.

At the ends of the limbs were canine-like fangs, each sharp enough to cut through stone like it was butter.

“What the gods is that?” Mitsy stared at the instrument in his hand.

“This is called a spider-fang,” Dollar said. “It’s used to craft multiple symbols at once in core materials that can’t be scratched using ordinary iron or require more precision than daggers.”

Dollar had made the purchase after being convinced by Earl's pitch during his trip to the city of Tiber, but he’d been thinking about buying proper symbologist tools for a long time before then. The only thing that had stopped him was time and money.

“I thought you said you were worried about raising suspicion as a child buying a crafting tool,” Mitsy said.

“Ha, well, using your dad’s name makes purchasing tools easy. Everybody loves Grisham’s Artifact Dispensary,” Dollar smiled. “This is what a reputation gives us.”

“If he ever finds out about this, he’ll be so confused his eyebrows will fall off,” Mitsy shook her head. “At least nobody will notice if he loses a little more hair. Why not keep using your dagger?”

“Agni? No, I can’t keep using Agni as a carving tool,” Dollar’s tone was firm. “My dagger deserves more than that. I made it for battle, not crafting.”

“There’ll be plenty of that soon,” Mitsy said.

“Okay, okay, I need to make your artifact now,” Dollar interjected. “Let’s practice the art of silence.”

Bill snorted, and Dollar held the metal limbs up to the light and examined each fine point. The spider-fang was entirely mechanical, and inside there were buttons and triggers to lower or raise the limbs into different positions, which meant it could work equally well on flat surfaces or multi-angled ones. Once the fangs were properly adjusted, they would follow each other in identical patterns, carving multiple symbols at the same time.

Dollar couldn’t imagine the spider-fang existing on Earth. It was like using an eight-tipped pencil. Not only would it would take a lifetime of practice to use properly, it would also be made obsolete by other tools that were easier to manufacture and learn.

But this was Ioa.

And here, they had stats.

With an experimental blur of his hands Dollar pushed his two hundred and sixty-three dexterity to the limits, calibrating the tool in seconds and watching carefully as each fang moved independently into the areas he deemed best. His heightened stats mostly showed their worth in passive ways during the day, but as he worked the alien machine to the limits Dollar could see how much he’d changed.

The Violet Bloom glimmered next to him, illuminated by several light symbols that he had carved into the walls. It wanted to be used, begging him to be crafted.

He brought out a boulder instead.

I’m not risking making a mistake on an expensive material. Dollar chuckled to himself. When I can just use [Transcriber of Reality] to do the heavy lifting for me.

His forehead beaded with sweat as he lifted the spider-fang and used the eight limbs to carve lines into the boulder. Several adjustments had to be made instantly because the boulder’s surface was uneven. Dollar ensured that each fang was equal in depth before starting again. With his new dexterity upgrade he could feel more minor errors in the process and adjust to match them, the tool’s fangs sharp enough to make up for his low strength, and he soon fell into a trance.

One symbol crafted.

Two symbols crafted.

Five symbols crafted.

The ethereal concepts of reality filtered into Dollar’s symbols as he finished carving the final lines. With each new concept came the breath of life, causing each symbol to announce their presence to the world with their calls.

“[Transcriber of Reality]”

Called from the void beyond, the symbols felt a new power wash over them, and their position changed. Suddenly, they became aware of others. More symbols, each with their own concepts. So close together, they did the only thing they could. They fought for survival.

Concept clashed against concept.

Symbol battled against symbol.

A gentle force brushed against the symbols as they began to wage war. It wasn’t powerful, nor was it forceful, but this new force held will and intent that calmed the symbols down. They lowered their arms as this new force willed them to, and then they felt a change occur. The once-foreign concepts were reaching out to each other instead of fighting, and they quickly realized there was another option available. Cooperation, and peace.

Joy sprung up within the symbols as they accepted this strange new option. Clashing powers simmered into tranquil harmony, and each concept melded into a single being.

They were growing stronger. They were discovering new facets of themselves.

They were becoming more.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

When they completed their transformation, they were no longer individuals, but they weren’t a single whole either. Each one worked in conjunction with each other to reach higher heights than possible alone, and they greeted each other with joy as a balance was established between them.

None of them had thoughts. None of them could see. And yet, they all knew what their purpose was.

To protect against and overcome all their enemies.

“It’s perfect,” Dollar said. "So don't break it. We can't afford another one."

Mitsy didn't reply because her eyes were transfixed on the materials before her. Violet light cascaded across his vision as the Violet Bloom glowed bright from within. Five of its ten sides were completely covered in symbol arrays, each one containing a different effect.

The first was a wood array.

The second was a haste array.

The third was a movement array.

The fourth was a protection array.

The fifth was another protection array.

Five arrays. Five sub-arrays. Five different effects. Dollar had ensured that each one was as strong as the other, and that together they worked in complementary ways to make the artifact better than the sum of its parts.

Bill and Mitsy ooe’d and ahh’d as he worked, but when the final array was placed on the Violet Bloom, he held his hand up.

“I’ll need total silence for this next part,” Dollar said. "The gravity symbol."

His words brought a hush upon his companions, but Mitsy's mouth twitched. "You're not going to be able to do this with the other materials, are you?"

"No," Dollar confirmed.

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket," Mitsy said. "Isn't that what you told me?"

"I'm not hiding my eggs," Dollar shook his head. "I'm protecting the golden goose. And I trust you not to run away with the very awesome artifact I'm about to make for you."

Mitsy fell silent, and Dollar once again raised the spider-fang to the boulder, adjusting it so that the fangs were close together and formed a perfect circle. With a push he dug the fangs into the stone, carving a new symbol into it. This process was one he would repeat. Five times, in fact. The Violet Bloom had ten sides, and he needed to use them all to bring to life the concept he had in his mind.

All of the symbols he carved now were gravity symbols.

When the first symbol was finished, a single pulse of power flowing through the boulder was all the warning he had that he’d succeeded. Reacting instantly, Dollar transferred the gravity symbol array onto the Violet Bloom.

Crack.

The boulder was crushed instantly, destroyed under the weight of the array’s existence. Stone dust littered the air, sending Bill into a sneezing fit and causing Mitsy to cough violently. She waved her hand and the dust disappeared into her choker, clearing the air slightly, but Dollar could feel her staring at him as he refused to budge.

In front of him the Violet Bloom glowed with a sixth symbol array.

His plan had worked.

I wouldn’t have been able to react to that normally. My dexterity is high, but my thoughts aren’t that fast. Dollar stared at the array. My heightened intelligence stat. It has to be speeding up my thoughts. Maybe I underestimated the impact my intelligence stat has on the crafting process.

Dollar brought out another boulder, ignoring the stone dust and carving another array into it. With meticulous caution he activated [Symbol Variation] and was met with dozens of possibilities for crafting the symbols he had in mind. Each one had a slightly different effect from the other, and he made sure that each new symbol array he created was unique.

Five boulders.

Five gravity arrays.

In minutes the room was filled with a layer of stone dust so thick that Dollar couldn’t see through the window. The light symbols he’d crafted to illuminate the area had been covered and destroyed by the dust, but a new light had taken their place. A violet light.

The Violet Bloom glowed with the power of ten symbol arrays, one for each of its faces.

Mitsy held her fingers to it, then hesitated, drawing her hand back. “What happens now?”

“Now, it blooms,” Dollar said. "And my greatest masterpiece finds life."

Before Mitsy could ask him what he meant, Dollar pressed his palm against the top of the crystal, pushing it into the leather tunic. The arrays felt hot under his skin, almost searingly so, but he knew the symbols wouldn’t harm him. With a gentle shove he encouraged them to fall into the leather, and before his eyes the crystal started to melt, the arrays falling into a liquid state as they flowed over the tunic.

The Ghourmin’s leather was transformed by the liquid seeping into it, bone-white fabric merging with the Violet Bloom to become a bright gleaming violet layer of crystalline-leather fabric. The material softened, depressing and becoming more like a shirt, but one that could easily be mistaken for armor from afar.

Across the tunic’s surface the ten symbol arrays shimmered, unbroken by the transformation of the Violet Bloom. As one, they sunk deep into the tunic, appearing on the inside a moment later. Each one was protected by a veil of transparent armor, courtesy of the first protection array, and they were made more durable through the power of the wood array.

Together, the two arrays would protect the artifact from anyone exploiting the weakness of array destruction.

What is this feeling? Dollar’s eyes feasted on his newest creation, the best he had ever made.

On Earth, and on Ioa, he had often brought value out of something that was valueless. Before, when he crafted artifacts and earned dozens of gold coins with ease, he felt pride, and accomplishment. And yet, what he felt now was different. It wasn't the artifact that was special. No. He was enjoying the fact that he'd made something for someone other than himself.

This artifact wasn't a disposable bronze mask, or unusable gloves of haste. It was a treasure. An item that people would drool over and dream of wielding.

“Gods, it's beautiful,” Mitsy said. “Can I hold it?”

“Of course, it's yours,” Dollar’s voice was soft and hoarse. He didn't know if she understood the significance of his words. But he did, and to Dollar that was all that mattered right now.

Blue boxes threatened to blind him, but he pushed them to the side with a mental command. There would be time to view them later. When he breathed in, he became aware of the amount of stone dust he’d inhaled and with a wave of his hand his storage ring cleared the air around him. He turned to clear the area around Bill, but saw that Mitsy had already done so, the grec’s fur glistening cleanly as though he’d just taken a bath.

“It feels like a regular shirt,” Mitsy said.

Dollar glanced back and saw that Mitsy had already donned the artifact, the tunic fitting a little loose as she poked at its surface experimentally. She was clearly wondering what arrays Dollar had put into the artifact, and when she tugged the hem of the fabric the entire outfit fell into place.

The leather-crystal combination fit like a shirt across Mitsy’s body and moved like one too. Since it was originally a tunic, the sleeves were long, and there were still hints of white beneath the violet, the surface forming a lattice from the two colors.

“It’s more than a shirt,” Dollar replied. “Far, far more.”

“Oink,” Bill oinked.

“Yeah, tell us,” Mitsy’s eyes twinkled.

Dollar closed his eyes, using his inner senses to confirm his symbols were unchanged. “First, is the protection and durability arrays. The durability array is to strengthen the artifact itself against physical attacks. If it could withstand swords before, then ordinary steel striking with a death blow likely won’t graze its surface. A necessary precaution for our symbols. The protection arrays are twofold. The first is passive and strengthens the shirt further against other forms of harm as well as physical attacks.”

“How do you know that?” Mitsy interjected, ignoring his reproachful glare. “I need to know since I’m going to be relying on it to save my life.”

“Bill’s fire and Angi’s flames don’t go through the armor, and the paralyzing effect from that invisible monster didn’t get through it either. Well, not entirely.” Dollar hummed. “I haven’t really tested the protection symbol against genuine magic yet. So we’ll have to be careful.

However, that does bring up an important point. Protection symbols work by forming a veil of armor over your tunic. Basically, anything trying to break through will have to pass that first, at which point it’ll meet the fabric which is strengthened by the durability array. Try to make sure whatever breaks through the protection array’s armor doesn’t have the strength to also make it through the durability effect.”

“Easier said than done, but not impossible,” Mitsy nodded.

Dollar saw movement at the corner of his eye as Bill stepped forward, poking his horn into the shirt and squealing with delight as it shimmered with an invisible shield on impact. Mitsy raised her hands, gesturing at Bill to strike a little harder. The grec rose to the challenge, standing on his hindlegs and then dropping with a stomp onto the ground, using the momentum to dig his horn into Mitsy’s ribs.

She winced, but Dollar couldn’t see an injury. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I just had an old memory flare up,” Mitsy jutted out her pinky finger, which was Ioa’s equivalent of a thumbs up. “I did feel it a bit when he hit me, but I think that was the weight behind his attack, not the horn itself.”

Bill oinked at her words, brushing his front hooves on the ground as a dangerous gleam entered his opal eyes. His body blurred as he activated his haste symbol, and Mitsy cracked her knuckles in anticipation.

“No. No more testing,” Dollar stopped the fight before it began. “I need to tell you everything it does or else you could hurt yourself.”

“Okay, okay,” Mitsy sighed.

Bill whined, but a firm rub of his snout stopped any further complaints.

“The next array is simple, but powerful. I’ve added a haste array. It’s an activated effect, and it lasts for two minutes with a cooldown of ten. With all the gravity arrays I couldn’t make the timer any longer without risking the destruction of the material, sorry.”

“You mean I can finally run faster?” Mitsy couldn’t hide her excitement, her fingers trembling as she tried to figure out how to activate the array immediately. "My ankles won't explode?"

“No, that's not it.” Dollar saw her eyes widen in surprise. “I’ll still be making you boots of haste. This is different. The haste array in your tunic is a variation and when it's activated, you’ll be able to punch quicker and catch things you wouldn’t normally be able to.”

“Oh, I get it, you made my reflexes and reactions faster, not my body,” Mitsy nodded. “Fantastic.”

“Exactly,” Dollar grinned. "Now we can pair it with the gloves and boots I'm going to make you, and you won't rip your limbs out of their sockets every time you blink."

"Finally, no pain is the best kind!" Mitsy exclaimed.

It was a simple variation, but one that gave his companion a wide variety of options. Heightened reflexes were something they had discussed as an option beforehand, and he’d chosen it as the best fit for her because, unlike himself, Mitsy was used to fighting at high speeds and was more in touch with the limits of her body.

“Just in case, you also have the movement symbol array. That one is a passive effect, just like the durability and first protection array. Basically, it helps you move better.”

Mitsy waved her arms experimentally, confusion clear on her features. “I don’t feel anything.”

“Since you’re already so in tune with yourself its effect will be more noticeable when you’re actively being impaired, like when you enter the lake or have any haste or gravity arrays activated near you. At that point you should be moving like you normally do, or even better than that. Also, you’ll never trip. Ever,” Dollar clarified. “Finally, we have the second protection array. That one is an active effect that spreads across your body for one minute. It has a cooldown of ten minutes. Unfortunately, it had to be a little weaker than the others to allow two protection arrays to exist in a single artifact without overpowering their counterparts. So, the shield it forms covers you entirely, but we’ll have to test its limits and durability since it’ll be far weaker than the one that covers the tunic alone.

Which brings me to the final arrays. The five gravity arrays.”

Dollar’s tone took on a hint of reverence, his own creation stirring admiration within him. On Earth, he hadn’t been the creator of his own products. Not directly. Now, he felt attached to them in ways he couldn’t explain.

And the gravity symbols were the defining aspect of his masterpiece.

“The first gravity array is simple. It increases the downward pull of gravity on your body. You can adjust it up to three times your gravity, and I focused on making this effect the strongest, meaning it's indefinite. Whether you keep it active while you walk or keep it active while you sleep. It doesn’t matter. It’ll stay put.”

“Heavy gravity,” Mitsy nodded, a wise expression plastered on her face.

“The second gravity array does the opposite. It will counter the world’s gravity with its own counterpull, lowering the-” Dollar spotted Mitsy’s blank face. “-it’ll make you lighter. By about half. That one is a thirty second effect that can be deactivated at any time. Only a thirty second cooldown.”

“Light gravity,” Mitsy nodded sagely.

“The second and third are meant to be defenses against gravity,” Dollar said. “They will activate automatically if you’re attacked. One defends against increased gravity, the other activates if your gravity is suddenly decreased and you start floating. Both will cancel out any other gravity arrays you’ve got active, since those can interfere with their function. They can also be used to cancel your own gravity abilities, though you shouldn’t have to do that through them.”

“Anti-gravity,” Mitsy nodded, intelligence oozing from her pores.

Dollar didn’t comment as she beamed proudly at her new ability names. He also didn’t comment on why he felt the need to include an anti-gravity defense system. He hadn’t forgotten the identity of the person that had created the gravity symbol he’d studied.

I hope Mitsy never meets my uncle, but I’m not taking any chances.

“The final array is an emergency one,” Dollar said. “It will push you into a single direction of your choosing, but the force of the push will be so strong that you’ll go flying hard and fast in whichever direction you chose. You can only use it three times a day, with a twenty four hour cooldown, and I’ll be honest, it risks destroying the tunic if you use those charges in succession. It's designed to be a last-resort ability that can help you escape unbeatable pursuers or dodge wide-scale attacks.”

“Explode-y gravity,” Mitsy said.

Dollar nodded. “Yes. Explode-y gravity.”

Creak.

Dollar looked down as he heard a strange sound and saw that Mitsy’s fingers had dug into his bed sheets, squeezing the life out of the mattress underneath. Her excitement was palpable, and he knew she wanted to test the artifact out immediately.

“So, I can use it now?” She asked.

“No. There’s more. Hey, don’t pout. This is important. Mitsy, it’s very important to me that you understand you’ll explode if you use these effects in the wrong way,” Dollar warned her. “I don't want this lake to open up only for people to find themselves swimming in giant chunks of exploded Mitsy."

Mitsy's expression turned serious, and she nodded. "Tell me."

"Light and heavy gravity can’t work together. Never use them at the same time or you will harm yourself or damage the artifact irreparably. I added some safety features in there to prevent that happening, so you’d have to go out of your way to do that, and I want you to know that’s a terrible idea. Also, haste and heavy gravity won’t mix well so I made it harder to use them together. They mess each other up in unexpected ways, but if you practice with both I can remove the restrictions eventually.”

Mitsy leaned forward, her emerald eyes shining radiantly and her heels kicking against the floor as he spoke.

“Okay, now you can test it,” Dollar sighed.

Dollar’s world blurred as Mitsy slammed into him, her arms indenting his sides and her cheek squishing his own.

“THANK YOU!”

He wheezed violently in response to her hug of death, his life flashing before his eyes.

Grandma Muriel…Is that you? I’ve been wanting to see you again all this time.

By the time Dollar’s soul had come back from the threshold of life and death, Mitsy had raced outside and lined three boulders up on top of each other. Bill stood to the side, the uni-pig eying the blonde thoughtfully, activating his protection symbol as she stretched.

The three boulders quivered with fear.

Dollar could see her whispering words underneath her breath. “Light gravity.”

There was a nimbleness to her steps that told Dollar the light gravity array was working perfectly in conjunction with the movement symbol. With a gentle push she leapt into the air, barely shifting the sand underneath her.

First, she was as light as a feather, rising high like a majestic bird.

“Heavy gravity. Protection.”

Then, she was a bolt of lightning, her wristbands glowing bright red as she stretched her hand out and her body falling like a meteor. He saw her skin shimmering with a faint veil of armor as she activated the full body protection array.

“MITSY PUNCH.”

Sand blew apart as Mitsy fell from the top of the dome, her movements sped up by a combination of her haste-gravity powered jump and followed by a rapid descent powered by an increase of three times her normal gravity.

When the sand cleared and Dollar could see again, the boulders had vanished.

Not cracked. Not shattered. Not buried.

They had simply ceased to exist.

In the middle of the boulder-less crater was Mitsy, wriggling as she tried to pry her arm out of the ground. She yanked it out, but instead of flying back due to the force of the movement, she stepped away nimbly and elegantly. The protective veil had shattered on impact, but she was unharmed. Underneath her was a fist-shaped hole where she had smashed through the lakebed, and the nearby fish fled in terror as tremors rippled into the lake.

Dollar stared at the empty space in horror. Note to self. Don’t get Mitsy mad.

A lone shout reverberated throughout the dome.

“I LOVE IT!”