While Rieren had successfully broken through to the Late-Enlightened realm, Kalvia was still a bit behind. Not too far, though. Despite not possessing the same degree of knowledge as Rieren did, and despite not having anywhere near as much advancement in her class as Rieren, she did have a good deal of resources.

Rieren supposed that came with the territory of being next in line to the Elderlands’ throne.

“Kindly wait for me, please,” Kalvia said after Rieren had informed her that this Enlightenment Locale had been conquered.

She said it more like a command than a request. Not that Rieren would have been more impressed if she had implored instead of asked.

“I need to get to the next Locale,” Rieren said.

“I am not done, however. So if you wish for me to take you there, you’ll need to wait.”

“Of course. But I do not have to wait right here, now do I?”

That caught her off-guard. “You’d just leave me here?” A hint of her playfulness returned. “All alone, fending for myself?”

“An Empress must prove her mettle.”

“Alright, fine. I will need at least another week before I am finished. Perhaps two. Certainly not more. I cannot force you to stay here with me but…” Kalvia peered at Rieren with big eyes that almost seemed to glimmer. When had she learned that trick from Batcat? “I will appreciate it ever so much if you stayed. I might even make it up to you, however you wished.”

Rieren sighed. “I will wait. For now. I make no promises for long.”

Kalvia smiled brightly at her. “Good enough for me.”

It really was time for Rieren to get going. Instead, she waited while her companion continued her cultivation towards… Rieren realized she hadn’t even asked how far Kalvia had progressed through the Enlightened realm.

Batcat had gone off to find all that it could of the rest of the world. Rieren wasn’t simply waiting for Kalvia to be done. She channelled Essence and grew her elixir field some more. But after almost a day of doing so, and making little progress with it, she decided to pay attention to a different source of strength.

Enchantments.

Rieren had been forced to sideline the fact that she had achieved her Profession recently due to turning all her focus to her cultivation. Now that she was done with it, she could concentrate on her secondary class again.

She paused. It was starting to look like she had a bit of difficulty dealing with multiple things at once, and instead, had to hyperfocus on one thing at a time.

Whatever. Things getting done was the important consideration here.

To perform the exact kind of Enchantments she wanted with her sword, Rieren would need a different grimoire. She pored through the options in the System Shop, filtering down to water-Aspected grimoires.

The one she needed didn’t cost too many Credits, thankfully. Rieren was still left with a good amount after her purchase. Though, nowhere near enough for another Temporal Recollector. It didn’t really matter. Batcat’s Call of the Past was quite strong now. She’d just have to find and kill another Anachron or two.

New Item!

The Grimoire of Submerged Bladecrafting allows using water to change the shape and properties of a sword to nearly any other variant. Why smith and forge a new blade when one blade can be them all!

It was exactly as it said on the tin. With this little booklet in hand, Rieren could transform her Receptor blade into any of the vaunted legendary swords she was determined to collect.

That said, it wasn’t going to be easy. Simply acquiring a relic of the blade she wished to transform her weapon to wasn’t going to be enough. Each of the transformation Enchantments had their own requirements too, though these tended to overlap to make things a little convenient.

For instance, the current relic Rieren had was that of the Floating Blade. Not the best of among the cohort of legendary swords, but certainly nothing to scoff at. It would aid in her mobility a great deal, and in certain situations and against certain kinds of opponents, it would prove to be invaluable.

But simply possessing the old artifact wasn’t enough. To transform her Receptor sword, she first needed a pool of water. Easy enough. But then the pool would need to be stirred well with Silverfin powder. Once that was done, the sword needed to be carefully coated with Chimeraic Spinal Fluid. Only then could Rieren go on and carry out the Enchantment itself.

The ingredients weren’t difficult to acquire. Well, they would have been, had Rieren had no access to the System Shop. Fortunately for her, she had both the Shop and enough Credits to purchase what she wanted.

Rieren went and bought the Silverfin powder and the Chimeraic Spinal Fluid. This time, she did cringe just a tiny bit at how many Credits she had been forced to spend.

With all the necessary parts in hand, Rieren summoned her Domain. That would provide the pool of water she needed to carry out the Enchantment. Of course, that required her to exert her will on the surface to calm it down. Her Domain was generally rather stormy, which wouldn’t do. She needed some placidity for the Enchantment to work.

Though, all the excited motions of the water would certainly help dissolve anything in it faster. No reason not to release the Silverfin powder into the Domain water. The waves would help dissolve it and spread it around.

As the Domain water slowly calmed down in her immediate vicinity, Rieren covered her sword with the Chimeraic Spinal Fluid. The fluid was oily and wouldn’t be easy to get rid of once she was finished. Nevertheless, Rieren used her bare hands to apply a liberal coating of it on her Receptor sword.

By the time she was done, her Domain had turned into a still pool around her. Rieren bent down and placed the sword underneath the water. Then she placed the relic of the Floating Blade upon it.

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The Enchantment itself was simple. All Rieren had to do was channel Essence through the specific nodes in the meridians around her wrist. It was odd, if one thought about it a bit too much. Instead of being emitted from the fingertips, the Essence required here came from the wrists.

There was a certain reason for it. Rieren had learned it in her past life after some careful searching. Apparently, the Essence derived from the connection between the source of the sword’s power—as in, her arms and the rest of her body before her wrist—and the grip with which she held the blade was what gave the Enchantment its power.

Strange? Certainly. Somewhat sensible in a weird way? Yes again… if one didn’t think too hard.

Rieren performed the Enchantment as required. The relic of the Floating Blade slowly dissolved in the water, turning into glittering silver grains. These went on to superimpose themselves onto her Receptor sword. Or rather, the Chimeraic Spinal Fluid she had applied a great deal of on her sword.

A small flash indicated when the Enchantment was complete. Rieren pulled her sword out of the pool, letting her Domain dissipate.

New Achievement!

First legendary relic acquired! You now have the powers of the myth and lore in your grasp. Let it culminate in the peak of your abilities.

Rewards

* 1 Level

* 1 Skill point

* 1 Credit

* 1 medium bottle of Chimeraic Spinal Fluid and 1 small bag of Silverfin powder.

Oh, so the system decided to reward her with the resources she had spent on the Enchantment. It wasn’t a terrible bargain. This meant Rieren wouldn’t have to spend any Credits on her next Enchantment. The ones afterwards would still require that, but by that point, perhaps she would have earned enough Credit for it to not matter as much.

Now she was beginning to rue the fact that Kalvia had thrown the Avatar’s corpse into the Abyss. Rieren could have sold that body for a lot of Credits.

She was distracted by the blade itself. Now that her Receptor sword had been imbued with the properties of the legendary Floating Blade, all it took was a little moment of focus for the sword to switch between the two forms.

On their own, Enchantments from the Grimoire of Submerged Bladecrafting didn’t last longer than three minutes. Rieren had tested them once. However, there was no cooldown between Enchantments. As soon as one finished, Rieren could immediately begin the next. That was convenient.

And frankly, the use cases for each of the legendary blades were short and often instantaneous. Considering how easy it was to activate an Enchantment once the initial ritual was complete—and the fact that Rieren could switch between Enchantments with no restrictions at all—meant that Enchantments were highly valuable.

Just a little difficult to procure.

Thankfully, the Mortal Realms map made things marginally easier. She could input her wish into the fabric and it would guide her to her next location. Rieren remembered more than enough, but she would not turn down some guidance.

“New weapon?” Kalvia asked, eyes sparkling as she beheld the Floating Blade.

Rieren held up the sword. It was thin and silvery, almost looking transparent as though it was made of glass. Easy to think that one good blow would shatter it to chunks. But the sword was deceptively strong too. One didn’t become legendary out of vanity.

“Old weapon,” Rieren said.

“But new for you?”

Rieren smiled, recalling how often she had used it in her previous life. “No, still old. You are not yet done, are you?”

Kalvia looked away, a little abashed. “Taking a momentary break.” Then she hardened and stared back at Rieren challengingly. “It won’t be long now.”

“Take as long as you need.”

“I thought you couldn’t wait to get going.”

“Well, I will be leaving either way. It does not mean you should rush.”

Kalvia sighed. “I suppose I should get back to it.”

“That might be for the best.”

Rieren was trying not to be dismissive, but at the same time, she did intend to get a look around on the surface, and for more than just to see what exactly was going on. Kalvia’s intentions were more than clear. She wished to get closer, in more ways than one. Rieren had no wish for the same.

It wasn’t that Kalvia wasn’t interesting in her own right. Her perfection was as alluring as it was annoying. But better for the both of them if they didn’t indulge in such feelings. Rieren certainly had no space for them. Hers was a singular path, one that she needed to see through.

Once, if she’d been able to nurture that little hope that she could have a normal life, it might have been something she could explore. The gods had made that impossible.

Before she left, however, Batcat returned with interesting news. So, while her companion continued cultivating to get through the Enlightened realm, Rieren took a peek into the winged kitten’s recent memories.

She sat placidly with the cat napping in her lap for once instead of on her head. This allowed her to channel Essence through the kitten while still keeping it in her line of sight. Not that the direction of Essence being drawn mattered much. Rieren just liked having it in her line of sight instead of guessing which way to pull the Essence through.

It was strange seeing Amalyse again. She was still travelling all over the Shatterlands with Rollo in tow. Once or twice, Rieren was certain she saw Kerolast with them too, though the thickset man never partook in any missions with them.

The stranger thing was how Amalyse and Rollo were growing closer. She almost smiled at the times she saw them unwittingly in each other’s company or simply conversing when they had nothing better to do.

Even in battle, they worked quite fluidly together. Trust had been instinctually developed after all these weeks fighting side by side.

Rieren wondered how Amalyse actually felt about Rollo now. They had never gotten along together, back at the Sect. Their families weren’t in the best of relations either, as far as Rieren was aware. But that dislike had obviously thawed. Maybe they’d forged some sort of camaraderie through living their own lives instead of being at their clans’ disposal.

Maybe it was well more than camaraderie now. Good for Amalyse, if so.

News about Mercion and Silomene was more interesting. Mostly because Rieren was curious how they would carry on now that she wasn’t with them. It was perhaps a bit hubristic to investigate the exact effects of her disappearance.

But still. The three of them had forged a neat little trio. Effective, strong, turning tides and changing outcomes all over the Shatterlands. Surely Mercion and Silomene had been forced to go through some adjustments. Rieren had been a key cog in their little team. When she finally got to the memories that showed them, it was stranger than she would have thought.

Batcat hadn’t been able to acquire what had happened right after Rieren had left, of course. The little Spirit Beast had been with her during that initial aftermath.

And then, when it finally gone out into the wider world, it had first tried to locate Amalyse and Rollo. That meant the temporal progression of events that Rieren saw in its memories had Mercion and Silomene already adjusted to the change of Rieren no longer being with them. In fact, she couldn’t blame them for not having her on their mind at all.

It seemed in the weeks since Rieren had last been on the surface, the Shatterlands’ Abyssal problem had worsened. Didn’t matter that Rieren had helped kill an Arisen. Didn’t matter that the powerful cultivators of the region had thrown back an entire meteor shower.

The monsters were relentless. Their hunger for destruction was endless, their numbers unceasing thanks to the dungeons they had taken over, their combined power only rising as stronger and stronger Abyssals, Arisen, and even Aetherians here and there joined the invasion.

The defenders of the Shatterlands had been pushed back over and over. They had lost ground, had been forced to give up many of their outposts, had certainly made no gains on the lands now encroached by monsters everywhere. It wouldn’t be long before the unrelenting tide of monster showed up at the gates of Falstrom. Slowly but surely, the Shatterlands were falling.

“Kalvia,” Rieren said after pulling herself out of Batcat’s memories and walking over to the other woman. “I will be taking my leave, for now. However, I will be in Falstrom. Once you are done, come meet me at the Sealed Salt tea house.”

Kalvia pulled free from her cultivation as well. She looked like she wanted to argue, but Rieren’s expression must have been resolute enough that she didn’t bother. Instead, she nodded.

“Then I will see you before long,” she said. “Try not to get yourself killed.”

Rieren raised a single hand in farewell, and taking Batcat with her, she headed back into the capital of the Shatterlands.