A few days later, Sofia was with Ihuarah and Erredis in her workshop, standing around a mannequin wearing the work-in-progress mithrium helmet.

“If we want to make it a divine essence, the essence needs to be bound now,” Erredis explained, “Are you certain Sorrow’s essence is compatible?”

Ihuarah nodded, “Indeed. Victory is elation at something you achieved, while Sorrow is generally pain at something you could not prevent, they could not be more opposed concepts.”

“How do we do it, then?” Sofia asked.

“We only need prepare the recipient, and our merciful mother will do the rest!” Ihuarah said without a shred of doubt, “I shall do it right away, assuming you have a suitable receptacle prepared?”

Erredis nodded and dumped a few things on the table, “Not too sure what works best for Sorrow, so take your pick.”

Sofia was not too sure what she was even looking at, there were claws and other monster parts alongside a collection of jewels and rocks. Ihuarah seriously looked them over one by one, letting his hand slowly glide through the air above them. After some hesitation, he grabbed a tiny fingernail-sized black feather.

“This one seems most compatible with the essence,” he said.

“The deathbird crest feather? Not what I would have guessed. I only got one, are you sure you won’t ruin it?” Erredis asked.

“I have ample experience working on that scale so you need not worry. It will only take me a few hours to engrave the necessary rituals, assuming I am not interrupted.”

“Let’s go to Zangdar, then. There isn’t a calmer place to work,” Sofia declared, “We’ll be back in a bit, grandma!”

“Go ahead, I will be preparing the Odalite pit in the meantime, sweetie.”

Ihuarah spent the next three hours in Zangdar, working on the feather at a microscopic scale, looking at it through a dozen glass lenses. He very carefully engraved it with mana blasts directed through a thin golden needle that he needed to replace every few minutes as it kept melting in his hand.

“I’m surprised you had all this already prepared,” Sofia commented as Ihuarah wrapped up his work.

“Why, there is nothing surprising about it. These are the same tools I used to engrave people’s skin with, for the storage magic of my time. Now these rings do the same thing,” he said, raising one of his fingers covered in multiple rings, “the engraving work on those is thousands of times smaller and more precise. The work of a true master.”

“No wonder Richard has a monopoly on those… So, now this feather is ready to receive mother’s essence, just like that?”

“That is right. The hardest part in the making of a divine item is most often convincing the divinity of giving away the essence itself. In your case mother was always intending to give you four more, so you would hold more of Hers than of Sun’s. No convincing needed.”

“Wait, four more?! That… Can She afford that?! Sun is fine because she’s a celestial God, isn’t she? Wouldn’t that put mother in a bad position?”

Ihuarah warmly laughed at Sofia’s worries, “Your concern is commendable, lady Sofia. Yet our merciful mother is brighter and wiser than I could ever hope to be. Were She here right now, she would tell you that it is not a child’s lot to worry about their parents.”

“Hmm… Hopefully you’re right… Do you know anything about that feather, by the way?”

Ihuarah shrugged, his jewelry clinking together, “I have not heard of the deathbird before, but much can be inferred from the name and the feather alone. No reason to speculate, however, master Erredis can surely sate your curiosity on the front.”

“True. Give me a second to check on Rem and we’re out.”

“Take all the time you need.”

When Ihuarah and Sofia returned to the physical plane, the minuscule feather briefly shone with a cold light.

“Transfer successful,” Ihuarah noted, the feather carefully resting in the palm of his hand.

“Just like that?!”

“Yes, the essence will stably rest in there until the day this feather is destroyed. Now the brunt of the work, making sure our mother’s power is channeled and used in a fitting way, is all in the artisan’s hands,” he explained, nodding at Erredis who just entered the room from outside.

“This is new territory for me. It might take some time. Beyond that, are you satisfied with the design, Sofia?” Erredis asked, the feather flying up to her extended finger drawn in by a thread of mana.

“It looks great,” Sofia said, “The only thing I don’t like is the Mithrium itself, green and pink is just ugly, but what can you do…”

“Oh, don’t worry about this,” Erredis casually said, ”It can easily be covered-up. A lot of us like the Mithrium’s raw aspect despite the garish colors, but that’s not the case for everyone. Not to mention, the Odalite treatment should alter the colors anyway.”

“Right, you still haven’t told me what it does…”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Ah, if you want to know so badly, let’s treat your staff right now and you’ll see. I need to embed the feather first, so you two can wait for me outside.”

Sofia and Ihuarah left the room, returning to the workshop’s courtyard, where the hole Erredis had asked Sofia to make before was now plugged by a strange cylindrical contraption made entirely of Orichalcum, completed with attached blue-glass tubes and flasks.

Sofia stared at the machine, unable to understand how it was supposed to work.

“Do you understand this?” she asked Ihuarah.

“Not in the slightest, my lady.”

“You don’t need to understand!” Erredis said from inside, “just take your staff out and remove all the things on it.”

“Even the catalyst?”

“Especially the catalyst!”

“Oh alright…”

Erredis was out a minute later, while Sofia had detached Ormocleth’s bell, the catalyst and the ring from her scepter.

“Perfect, now pull that lever, and put your staff inside… Hmm, actually, put it upside down. That’s right, good. Now close the door.”

Sofia followed the instructions, and Erredis took over from there, starting to fill the glass flasks with different liquids. Finally, she emptied hundreds of liters of Odalite blood directly into the main tank where the scepter was.

“There we go!” Erredis said with a wide smile on her face, “Now, sweetie, put your hand right there,” she guided, placing Sofia’s hand on an orichalcum orb, “and pump this baby full of mana! Don’t hold back!”

The machine absorbed Sofia’s mana million by million like a greedy black hole. The liquids in the flasks started to bubble and boil, a mix of putrid scents and colorful smokes hissing out of the machine, as its central tank started to glow with mana and heat. The entire contraption started to shake as the liquids disappeared, and just when Sofia was starting to worry that she might not have enough mana, it all stopped with a loud clank. The main tank opened by itself, releasing a hot cloud of steam and magical fumes. The scepter floated in there, still upside-down, changed.

“Great success!” Erredis proudly announced, immediately sharing the new Identify result with Sofia.

[Tempered Lumian Royal Hand Scepter +1] ♢ :

A weapon that is eager to serve its ruler.

Has the capabilities of a Mithrium club for skull-cracking purposes.

* Absorbs the backlash of forcefully canceled channeling.

* Is continuously repaired by the user’s magic.

* -60% channeling time.

* -60% mana cost per second of sustained magic.

* Inflicts [Thunderbolt] on hit.

* Can hold and use the passive effects of 1 Ring (applied to itself).

* [Greater Beautify]

Catalyst :

Accessory :

Ring :

Woah! An extra ten percent?!

With the catalyst… That brings the total reductions to channeling and cost from 75 to 84%!

This…! Activating all three tiers of runeforged overlord is only 0.4% of my total mana per second now! That’s just under 800 thousand mana a second! And my regeneration without sunlight is already 850!

I can afford to always leave it on!

Ah… Well, after I repay my mana debt…

Sofia grabbed her scepter from the machine and put all the accessories back on. It looked slightly different, while still golden white, it now shimmered in darker hues under the sunlight.

“What do you think? Worth the skill evolution, right?” Erredis said with a wide grin, her arm on Sofia’s shoulder. “From my testing, it almost always improves magical effects by a good twenty percent, and makes the item sturdier in the process.”

“Thank you so much, grandma!”

“Hey, hey! People are watching,” Erredis said, lightly reciprocating Sofia’s hug, “don’t be too happy about it, now you’ll have to keep supplying me more blood to keep the world’s only Odalite forge running!”

“If there was ever any doubt this city was going to thrive, we can consider them null and void,” Ihuarah commented, “Even in my time I would have run from the other side of the world for such a powerful and universal upgrade. You just have to price it accordingly.”

“That’s right, but you can let me handle that! And now that this is done, time to finally upgrade my own weapon. Hah, it’s been a while since I could perfect you, my baby,” Erredis said, smiling uncontrollably as she slid her Mithrium halberd upside-down into the tank.

There was no stopping her as she refilled all the flasks at the speed of light and emptied what she had left of Odalite blood into the main tank.

The machine shone like the sun as Erredis filled it with her mana, blinding the entire city for an instant.

The rune covered halberd came out of the machine like the scepter, similar but different. It had taken on the same reflective hues, and the green and pink mithrium had turned into a more sober mix of different purple-ish tones with visible mana coursing through the grain.

The halberd’s blade seemed to rip space open as it moved.

Sofia was dying to know what the weapon was really capable of, but it felt a bit too personal a thing to ask, even to Erredis. Not everyone was as open about their equipment as she was.

Without saying a word, Erredis shared her weapon specs.

[Tempered Devourer of Planets +12] ♢ :

A weapon forged and tempered in the blood of all races.

[Ultimate enhanced cutting]

[Ultimate enhanced piercing]

[Ultimate enhanced shattering]

[Ultimate enhanced armor break]

[Ultimate enhanced magic pierce]

Hits with this weapon affect all planes.

Hits with this weapon are repeated onto the closest 16147 enemy targets in range.

Hits with this weapon grants the user +120% Speed for 0.012 second. Stacks up to 10 times.

Damaging hits with this weapon heal the user for 120% of the damage dealt.

Damaging hits with this weapon steal 12% of surviving targets’ mana.

Damaging hits with this weapon inflict : [Curse of rot] (Prevents 120% of healing)

Embed Catalyst: [Eye of the elder fairy] : Apply 10000% of the user’s damaging aura effects on hit.

Sofia stared at the system window, her thoughts too numb to even curse.