Hera and Insomniac dashed across the estate. The Fighter quickly understood why the Ophidianite was so pressed to reach George as fast as they could. It was very rare that someone, anyone, found something in the MAZE that promised an upgrade.

More specifically, it was very rare to find items that offered that kind of possibility. Unless they were dropped by a dungeon and had very restricted ways of use. Even then, it was rare to see that kind of rewards.

He had heard Hera talking about the times that she did get a reward that allowed her to upgrade other items, but to the strongest man in the MAZE, those were all outliers. Situations that were extremely hard to come by and that no one should be expecting to find.

Yet, here she was, getting another opportunity to do just that. To upgrade an item that was completely unrelated to the room where she got the upgrade.

Then again, there was nothing saying that this primordial Blossom Flower was going to actually allow Hera to upgrade the Chainsword. But considering the item's description, Insomniac felt that there was a good chance for the upgrade to happen.

After all, what would be more intrinsically linked to you than an item that was being tailor made for you. It was a dream come true for the crafter who was making it. And something that only happened because a very specific set of circumstances were falling into place.

If Azure Chain was not killed. If the centaur attack had gone differently. If Morgan had not decided to take Azure's Legacy when he did. If Hera wasn't participating in the war. If her friend was not captured. There were so many events that had to fall into place for the Empress to be even offered this chainsword that it truly felt like fate.

In just a few minutes, the two of them arrived back at George's workshop. The man was sitting on a chair in front of a large wooden table. His legs were shaking as he stared at something that was hidden beneath a large piece of cloth. And the moment the two people who he was waiting for walked into his workshop, he quickly got up.

"You two got here quick," he guessed.

"You can't tell me that you just finished my custom-made weapon by the way, and not expect me to come running here," Hera replied with a chuckle as she stepped forward.

"That's fair," George nodded. "Here."

He stepped to the other side of the table and grabbed the cloth. "I have to say, I was not expecting things to go this fast, neither to end up this good. I hope you like the end result." He took a deep breath as if he were steeling himself before removing the tarp and unveiling Hera's chain blade.

As he had discussed, the entire thing was made out of a particular type of metal that they had in this room. It was sturdy, durable and, more importantly, something that George knew how to use exceedingly well.

That was the one material that he said wouldn't be that expensive, but it was also the thing that he was more confident about using than anything else. That metal was the baseline for most of the rest of the weapon.

The entire casing of the blade was enveloped in that blue metal, with the chains being a golden color thanks to material called golden malachite, which had properties similar to obsidian but was much sturdier and better at conducting mana. The sides of this sword were just that. Blue metal plating with some golden details framing it. Simple, but elegant.

Then came the chain. Made with some old type of ore that was only discovered deep in the mountain near the invisible wall of this room. According to George, this was one of the most sought after resources that the room possessed. As the mineral was akin to mythril.

Or at least the closest thing to mythril that anyone had ever seen, outside of the Dwarven kingdom at least. They still kept the method of creating such alloys a closely guarded secret. It was extremely sturdy and malleable to the point where some people were not even sure if it was really a mineral or not. In a way, some experiments revealed some properties that were similar to bone, but no one could really understand how that was possible.

Hera had an idea. After all, during her conversation with Seth, the guide of this room, she came to know that the mountains on the side of this valley were supposed to be wings of a giant monster. Meaning this mineral composing the chain was likely the bones of that ancient creature. Fossilized or not, it would be an incredible addition to any weapon that she had.

The tiny blades that were attached to the various chain links were created using a special method that was only recently unveiled by some of the Dwarves. It was something that allowed people to mix various alloys together with Mana in a way to heighten each material's more powerful attributes. The Empress remembered hearing about this through some of the dwarves that were in Zaxalam and they were all sounding very excited about the prospect. But she had to admit she couldn't really understand all the intricacies of this particular creation.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on NovelBin. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

What she understood was that by combining the various materials, they were able to create something that was being called fake new metal. The name given due to the fact that this wasn't really a new type of metal. But an amalgamation of various already existing methods only to with their specialties heightened and mixed together. And since the process would always give the same result, which was to have all of the best properties of the materials to be placed in this new material, the metal gained that name.

George was explaining things as he went along, and he added that this process was still very experimental and there were combinations that could make the entire thing unravel. Luckily, he was able to use the right amount of magic and raw materials in order to create those blades. They turned out to be not only extremely sharp but highly durable and capable of withstanding exceedingly strong blows. Which were all requirements in order to function with the chain.

Then came the motor. The mechanism that would cause the chain to spin. And how the blades would be folded to the side once they reached the top of the plate to avoid letting them break inside the shell.

This was the motor that he already had made some years ago. It was already legendary by itself and allowed for the three speeds that they had discussed along with a quick swap of those speeds. Meaning that if Hera wanted to change from completely stopped to top speed, she would only need a tenth of a second for the chainsword to reach the desired RPM.

Lastly, came the handle. Which, unlike the rest of the chain sword from which had this gold and blue motif, was black and gray with the gold and blue only serving to highlight some of its areas. The handle itself was made with the snakeskin of the black tortoise's tail. And in there was the core of the black tortoise, which would allow the Spirit Claw to be activated.

At the very bottom of the pommel was an elongated part coming back and wrapping around the handle, forming a wrist guard in the form of a coiled snake that was biting the edge of the handle to stop anything from removing that protection.

"This looks amazing," Hera said, already pulling up the vial with the primordial Blossom from her pouch.

"Thanks, I'm very proud of it," George said. But he paused when he noticed the flower inside the glass. Not just that, but he noticed that the moment Hera opened up the vial, the flower started to glow and raise from it, floating in front of the Empress. Showing a notification in front of her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Would you like to upgrade the nameless chainsword?

As it is bound to you, it has been recognized as an item intrinsically linked to Hera Quetzaveth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She blinked once and turned towards George, asking, "Is this already bound to me?"

He nodded, "Yeah, sort of, I mean. If you're a good crafter, there comes a point when you can bind items in general to a person. So they are kind of pre-bounded to someone and, as a result, they get a bit better than you might be expecting. Which was very much the case here. If needed, I can remove that, but then some of the stats will drop. But what is going on right now?"

"I got this Primordial Blossom in a room nearby. And it's now offering me to upgrade the weapon. I don't know if it's going to turn into something beyond legendary. But an upgrade can never be bad, right?"

Both George and Insomniac nodded their heads.

"I don't think so," the crafter replied. "Legendary items are the ultimate rarity. There's nothing beyond it. But getting an upgrade from the MAZE is always good."

"Some people have speculated about the existence of mythical items, but none was found so far. Although there are legendary items that are much stronger than others," Insomniac added.

"Okay then, I'm going to accept the upgrade."

"Don't you even want to see the stats first?" George asked with a slightly frustrated expression.

"Do you have them saved?"

"I mean, I do… " George said.

"Then you can show me later so we can compare. The timer is running out, and I'm worried that the process is going to take longer than it has to work with," Hera quickly replied.

"Oh, yeah. Go ahead, please."

He stepped out of the way to allow Hera an unimpeded view of the weapon. The Empress saw the notification asking if she was going to accept the upgrade. She knew that there was no need for her to physically touch it. She could just mentally accept it, but there was a part of her that liked to enjoy the physical motion of saying yes to something the MAZE was offering.

The moment she did, the primordial blossom started to wither away. Although withering was not exactly the right word for it. The large petals became tiny ones that flew into the sword and landed gently everywhere on it before dissolving and becoming engraved on the weapon itself.

This happened slowly at first and then picked up speed as if a loose wind was pushing those tiny petals towards the blade. After a few moments, the petals slowed down once fewer and fewer of them were present in the air.

About 3 minutes later the Primordial Blossom was gone and was now sitting all over the sword, which kept its colors and didn't change its appearance but now had peppered pink blossoms and purple blossoms all over the casing and the blades with only the handle being freed from those specs of color.

Instead, the black and gray skin of the black tortoise now had some splashes of a deep brown that was almost invisible unless it was looked at under the light. While the rest of the blossoms were the branches, spreading all over this sword.

The Empress took a long look at the weapon, checking its stats, and was floored by the results. She asked to compare the attributes to what George initially created, and they both realized that the upgrade was significant.

According to Insomniac, that was the case because of the initial rarity of the weapon. Generally speaking, if a weapon was going up in rarity, it would have significant upgrades, but a part of the magic available to upgrade it would be spent just changing the rarity. This, since it was already at the legendary stage, could only spend that magic into making the weapon even stronger.

The Empress really wanted to add this to the core already, but there was one more thing she wanted to do. One thing that was going to take Hera, Vulcan, and even George. By adding a sigil to the weapon so it could truly reach its final form.