Chapter 53 (1 of 2) Lucy wants to throw a chair. (Patreon)

-An hour earlier-

[Status: ]

Name: Lucille Goldcroft (Lvl. 1̴̛̟͛͗͆̒́̈̾͑̉͐̚͝͝7̵̡͖̲̰͓͓͇͗͂̏̆͜)

Age: 18y

Race: Human

HP: 4450/4450 {+68/5m}

MP: 1100/1100 {+110/5m}

Stats:

Free Stat Points: 115

STR: &̸̧̨̖̦̩̖̥̪̅͑7̵̛͍̂̅̽̐̽́̄͠2̸̧̱̲͓̭̎̎̀̀̔̔ (33)(+10) SPRT: 7000

CON: _̷͕̫̦̟̖͓̳͈͊̌̋̏͋̍̀͋̃2̸̣̼͗͒̕&̵̢̛͚̘̖͎̣̰̗͊̀̓̎̈́̊́̉̏̅7̴̡̢̻͇͎̼̦̈́ (29)(+58) MENT:65

AGI: *̴̦̺̫̳̼̳́̍̈́̆̃̈́̀̔̈́͋̚͝2̶̢̼̬͖̰̭͕̬̥́̄̊̓̓̃̚)̸̛̩̩̃͂̑̀̀̒̓͗̈9̶̪͎̬̤̦̹̟̒͛͊͋͊́́̋͌̏̓͑̕̚ (43) CHAR: 5̶̡̛̼͇̪̩͈̝͉͍̮̠̏͜^̷̨̢̣̰̖̟̮̘͇̀̎̎̎͐̀̀̆͗̇̋͝͠7̶̨̼͍́̈́̽̈́̄̎͆̈́͊̂̽̒̊͝ͅ

DEX: 1̶̛̹͕̬͇̰͖͍́͋̿̋̇̉̄́̉̏͒͛̒̉̈́́́̀́̈́̄̚͘͝ͅ5̷̨̟͕̫̙̖̼̣̯͙̯͇͖̻̦̣̙̼͔̟̩̝̻̘̇͗͆̽͒̀́̿̈́͜!̵̛͍̥̯̙̲̀̒̾̀̌̋̐͑̕͘̚͝͠͠͠3̶̧̢̣͉͙͚̣̝̪̮͍͇̣̮̪̮͈̭̖̳̈́̏͂̉̓͋̌̆̆ (25) CHP: -̴̨͓͔̗̥̤̞̗̠̜͇̦͈̖́̀̂́͐̈́̇́̑̀̎́̉͌̈́̓̉̕͘͠

INT: 3̶̹͇̏̈́̄̄̒͛@̵̳͚̣̀̌̓͋͌̏͒̚2̴̧̬̜̦̤̞͔͊͒̃̌̅̕ͅ9̶̛̣̗̬̱̜̿̀̀̐ (21)(+2) HRP: -̴̨͓͔̗̥̤̞̗́̀̂́͐̈́̇́̑̀̎́̉͌̈́̓̉̕͘͠

WIS: N̵̛̙͖̄̉̓̋́̋̅̌̄̔̓͊͋̀͐̿̌̂̐̋͘̚3̴̡̡̡̛͎̠̹̖̰̥̳̘͇̯̾̄̇͊̾̍͛͗͊͑̈́̀̀̚̚͘͠͠$̷̨͚̰̖̜̥̝͈̲̥̆̀̀̐͊̑̎̎̈́̀̅͗̕͘̕͜ͅͅ8̸͕̗̯̫͕͕̪̠̓̾ (10)(+1)

[Origin Skill: Simulacrum Realm | Type: System/Spiritual/Realm

Desc: [Collapsed]

Subskills: [Collapsed]

Awakening: 100%. ]

Skills:

Primary Skills:

[Alter-Ego]

[Essential Mana Conduit]

Secondary Skills:

[Mark of the Primordial Demon ]

[Energy Anomaly Automated Indication ]

[Codex of Reminiscence]

[Memory Transubstantiate]

[Greater Illusion Manipulation]

[]

Lucille’s Status was still a mess. It had gotten even messier with the bonus stats, but at least that proved she now had some levels of strength. She could choose to hide the bonus stats and just add them to the stat totals with a bit of will manipulation, but this way she’d be able to see the impacts of her new abilities.

She had received the equivalent of 120 stat points through potions. She was still slightly weak due to missing out on the first 30 free stat points all humans received, but that was a small issue. She had added the stat potion stats and the eleven stats Ouroboros had collected during her and Scytale’s levelling session the month prior, so now it was time for her to alter her Essential Mana Conduit main skill. To do that, she needed to use the ‘Influence’ of other skills and add it to the main skill.

Influence as a concept was… difficult to explain at best. The simplest definition was that ‘Influence’ was a denser or more complex form of spiritual energy that contained information. Everyone in the Tower had ‘Core Influence’, or Influence that contained unique information about the individual. It was this ‘Core Influence’ that composed a User’s Origin Skill.

Only the System could alter Origin Skill and consequently Core Influence, but when it came to all the other skills in the System besides System skills, then a User could alter them as long as they knew how. To alter a skill, the Influence within the skill needed to be substituted with outside Influence.

That was why a primary skill required skills to be added to its subskill slots to tier up or evolve. Lucy was going to manually change her skill, however. To do that, she needed to gain the right strength and type of skills to make the Essential Mana Conduit skill suit her purposes. Luckily her brand new ‘Beloved Child of Mana’ Aspect would make things much easier.

Standing in the middle of the training room, she stretched out an arm and pointed a finger at the distant wall. She closed her eyes and visualised the image of a flame.

Her internal mana near the tip of her finger gained a fiery hue, and then the fire mana nearby collected into an orb at the end of her finger. The miniature fireball crackled and popped.

Unlike when Lucille had gained the manipulation skill for the illusion element, she was purposely taking this very slow. For the same reasons as she had explained to Scytale why his light manipulation was only ‘Lesser’ but his illusion manipulation was ‘Greater’, the essential elements were slightly harder to gain greater manipulation skills in. Manipulating an artificial element was far easier than manipulating a fundamental force of nature, after all.

She couldn’t brute force it with elemental runes, either, because the System wouldn’t give her a greater elemental manipulation skill if she used runes as a crutch. Her +15% fake elemental affinity from her Beloved Child of Mana Aspect made things far easier than if she had tried to do this before gaining the Aspect.

She could sense that the tiny orb of fire mana was enough for her to gain a Common rarity minor fire manipulation skill, but a Common skill contained nowhere near enough Influence to alter a primary skill. She suppressed the notification and began to move the orb around her in a circle. Making sure she wasn’t using the abilities of her Essential Mana Conduit skill, she used the atmospheric fire mana to add to the orb.

She could feel the strange tension around her as a lesser elemental skill was on the brink of forming, but almost as if it could feel her desire to enhance it, it didn’t announce itself. Then she used her spiritual energy to project the image of what she wanted onto the fire mana orb. It thinned and extended, turning into an arrow, and then more mana streamed into shape to form a bow.

Lucille grasped the bow in one hand and the arrow in another, slowly pulled back, shot the flaming arrow towards the mana lamp on the wall and…

The arrow exploded against the wall five metres from where she had wanted it to land.

[Available Secondary Skill: Greater Fire Manipulation]

Lucy rolled her eyes when she saw where it ended up.

Well, I was never an archer to begin with.

The fiery bow in her hands scattered and she tapped on the notification to select it before it disappeared and she would have to go to the Obelisk to find it again.

[Gained Secondary Skill: Greater Fire Manipulation]

Lucy used her new main skill to push away the fire mana around her to make her next steps easier. Repeating similar processes with wind, earth, and water, she gained the greater manipulation skills for the four elements when she managed to turn them into varying forms. There were only two more elements she needed to collect.

This time, Lucille made her internal mana take on the characteristics of bright light, attracting one of the elements present in fewer quantities around her. A small orb of yellow light formed on her palm and she manipulated it into smaller specks to swirl around her. She merged all the specks back into one orb again, and heard the notification.

[Available Secondary Skill: Greater Light Manipulation]

After selecting it she pushed aside the light mana and then visualised inky darkness, her mana turning black. Through her perception, she watched the strange sight of the dark mana being pulled out of her shadow towards her hand. Wanting to do something creative since it was the last manipulation skill she needed, she continued to gather dark mana until she had enough. Lucy used her spiritual energy to twist it into a long shape until floating in the air in front of her was a replica of her bond’s intermediate form, wings and all.

[Available Secondary Skill: Greater Dark Manipulation]

She smirked when she heard the notification and ruthlessly shattered the model of Scytale, gaining her last manipulation skill.

[Gained Secondary Skill: Greater Light Manipulation]

[Gained Secondary Skill: Greater Dark Manipulation]

With all six elemental manipulation skills gained, she sat down on the floor and closed her eyes. Focusing on herself with her spiritual energy, she could sense the sphere of her Origin Skill, the two smaller orbs representing her primary skills, and the eleven motes of light that were her secondary skills.

Lucille concentrated on her Essential Mana Conduit skill and with her spiritual energy she was able to search through all the information contained in the skill’s Influence to find what she needed to add, and what she needed to remove.

So, the skill was already created using the six essential element manipulation skills as a basis, but as I’ll be changing the way they’re used in the skill, I’ll need the replacement Influence available in my copies of the manipulation skills. But as it didn’t use an arcane manipulation skill in its construction, it doesn’t give me the ability to freely control non-elemental mana… hm…

She inspected the skill’s information and brought up the skill description to check again.

As non-elemental mana is the most common mana available, I’ll want to have the ability to change it into elemental mana. Non-elemental mana is the only mana the illusion element can’t mimic, so that will be something I need the Influence of the other elemental skills to affect.

Lucy inspected the Influence of her other manipulation skills.

I believe I have nearly all I need to reconstruct the skill, but I’ll also need an arcane manipulation skill.

Attempting to keep her mental image completely free of thoughts of the elements, she visualised shockwaves and other force-related phenomena. The nearly-invisible, transparent non-elemental mana gravitated towards her where it gained a silvery-white hue, becoming her signature brand of arcane mana. Not wanting to waste too much time, she shaped it into a cube and tested it by throwing it against the ground. It bounced and she heard the notification.

[Available Secondary Skill: Greater Arcane Manipulation]

After clicking on it, she was ready. Lucille set about reconstructing her second main skill, using the concepts and Influence in different ways and substituting for the Influence of her manipulation skills. While the System didn’t allow her to strengthen a skill using Influence reconstruction, nor did she have enough Influence from the Rare manipulation skills to possibly strengthen it, she was able to alter the purpose of the Essential Mana Conduit and the future path the skill would take.

She had leftover Influence remaining, but there wasn’t quite enough information for them to automatically reconstitute back into lower rarity skills. In an attempt at experimentation, she used her bond with her weapons to send the Influence over to her black dagger. As she expected, Apophis sent the Influence over to Ouroboros who used it for… something. She would check what had happened later.

Even with her accelerated thoughts, it took well over an hour before she was satisfied with her modifications. The finally, she pressed her will down on the main skill and locked it into place. The alterations became permanent and her skill was fundamentally changed.

[Epic Primary Skill: Essential Mana Conduit has evolved to become Unique Primary Skill: Essence Transmutation Conduit]

Feeling nervous, she opened up the skill description…

And smiled.

…

[Primary Skill: Essence Transmutation Conduit | Type: Elemental/Radius ]

Rarity: Unique

Desc: This Main Skill was created with a very specific purpose in mind. The creator intended for this skill to allow him greater control of the elemental ratios around him in his vehicular golem. You have taken this skill and fundamentally altered it to affect not only the mana around you but also the runes from spells that enter your field of influence and the elements themselves. This skill’s potential is indeterminable as the User has made preparations to alter the skill again at a later date, and so has been given a new rarity.

Subskills:

Field of Transmutation Mastery – An authority over all mana within your presence.

- Grants the User the ability to control all mana around them by branding their mana signature on mana within a certain radius. Radius is dependent on the size of their field of influence and limited by the density of mana in their field of influence.

- Grants the User the ability to gain limited control over spells cast on them by rebranding the mana with their mana signature.

Transmutation Conduit – Internal and external elemental harmony and disharmony.

- Grants the User the ability to freely move controlled external mana within their body, and internal mana outside of their body. As long as all mana within the radius has the User’s mana signature, this skill treats all mana the same.

- Grants the User the ability to transmute mana from one kind to another.

Skill slots:

- [Empty]

- [Empty]

- [Empty]

[ ]

Scytale was sitting on the floor next to her as he read her skill information. He turned to her. “So this is the main skill you picked?”

Lucille shook her head. “I chose one that gave me the ability to merge my mana pool with the mana within my field of influence, but this is the fully modified version.” She pointed at the subskill information. “I had to accept some limitations in return for my modifications. The size of the radius will be much smaller because the more mana within my field of influence, the smaller the radius I can control.”

“But if you have a ton of mana near you then what’s the problem?” Scytale said with slight confusion.

“The problem is that I won’t be able to use my control over the spells cast on me to redirect them and use them on others,” Lucy explained, gesturing to the second point in ‘Field of Transmutation Mastery’. “Because I’ve set the skill up so I can choose to gain control over spells cast on me before they hit my ‘anti-spell’ forcefield, I can now receive buffs as long as I sustain them myself.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t make it impossible for you to redirect them, right?” he asked sceptically.

She shot him a flat look. “Scytale, you know how much spiritual energy I have. Ordinarily, my field of influence would be massive.” Lucy pointed at the screen again. “While the reduction in the field of influence isn’t high enough that I’ll be limited to only a very specific amount of mana around me at any one time, there is a maximum limit I’ll reach eventually. Spells take up a massive quota of that mana density and if my radius of manipulation is so reduced that the caster is no longer within it, then I can’t redirect the spell back to them.”

Scytale glanced between the screen and her, then shrugged. “Your point? Everyone has some sort of limitation in their main skills, Lucy. You can completely ruin any mage’s spell and use the mana to enhance your own stats. While not perfect in your eyes, that is so utterly overpowered in my view that I almost find it unfair.”

“Says the snake who got access to a Titan-exclusive Heroic Power Aspect,” she retorted. Lucy shook her head. “I suppose my point is that this skill still has room for improvement. The Unique rarity doesn’t represent strength. It only reveals that the skill is the first of its kind and shares very few similarities with any other primary skill. I intend to alter it later on.”

Her bond nodded. “I caught that part of your skill’s description. Where do you plan on taking the skill?”

Lucy crossed her arms. “The first thing I need to improve is the lack of automation with the skill. I need to enhance its adaptive features so it will grant me better protection against skills and not just spells.” She hummed in thought. “I also want it to gain features that passively control my elemental saturation. It would be nice if the skill could permanently enhance my physical abilities like true mana-arts do…”

Scytale stretched his arms above his head. “Yeah, well, you do you. I’m nowhere near the stage of creating my own main skills yet, so good luck strengthening it I guess. I’m going to have lunch…” He grinned. “…and eat stat-boosting foods.”

Lucille shook her head wryly. “I see that has been your main goal these last few weeks. I suppose it is time for lunch.” She stood up from the ground and smirked at the silver-haired snake in human form. “Don’t believe I won’t ask you for another spar later on, however.”

Scytale smirked back. “I’ll be looking forward to it.”

…

The rest of the afternoon was pretty peaceful. Scytale had gone to terrorize Sedric like normal, and Lucille and Vincent were busy finishing up the last remaining paperwork before he headed to one of Alichanteu’s auction houses in Gilded Seat. Why?

Because it was finally time for all the useless garbage in the Founder’s Vault to be thrown out. Or at least traded for crowns.

Lucy wasn’t going, partly because she didn’t want to, and partly because this was an event that would give Vincent some time to shine as the ‘real Faction Head’. The auction would last a week, with Vincent commuting to and from Headquarters to keep her up to date on what was happening. It would still be a few weeks until Lucille and Scytale would be able to leave Gilded Seat to level up – Gilded Seat didn’t have any Dungeons – but she was content for now to just increase her stats through what she ate until then.

“…I’m finally done,” Vincent said with a sigh. He stood up from his armchair and table and walked over to pass Lucille a stack of documents. “Here are the last of the records needed for the Commission about the auction. I should probably head off now.”

Lucy nodded and scanned them before placing them back down. “I’ll make sure to pass these to Jacques to file while you and Caius prepare for the auction.” She raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t the auction begin at seven?”

“Yes, but I need to check that the venue has been prepared,” Vincent replied, checking his wristwatch for the time. “Many nobility from outside the Commission will be here tonight, and the slightest error could cause a conflict between the different forces.”

“Do I need to give you a higher wage to increase your enthusiasm for the event?” Lucy asked with a smirk.

Vincent chuckled. “As a member of the main lineage of a County, I have never needed money.”

Lucille hummed. “But was that your money or the County’s? Do you even have money that isn’t an allowance given by the County vassals?”

Vincent opened his mouth to respond then hesitated. Lucille watched with amusement as his expression changed several times. It appeared Vincent had never thought of that question.

“I see we have a true child of nobility here,” she said with a grin. “You’ve never considered that some people need to work for their income?”

Vincent gave her a flat look. “And I see you’re enjoying messing with me again.” He shook his head and turned away. “I’ll take my leave then.”

“See you tomorrow.”

Vincent shut the door after giving her a wave. Lucille completed the rest of her own paperwork before standing up and stretching. She wanted to begin gaining strength soon, but she doubted she’d be able to level until February. Right now, there was a promise to a certain crafter which she intended to fulfil. But she also wanted to discover why her bond had seemingly dragged along their resident red-haired ex-mercenary to the workshop as well.

…

“I’m saying that your workshop would look better if it was painted pink!”

“No!” Sedric exclaimed incredulously, staring at the snake in human form sitting on his workbench. “Why in the realms would I ever paint the walls of my workshop pink?!”

“To make it less bland!” Scytale replied, gesturing to the room around them. “Look! All I see is dull grey walls and dull brown benches and shelves! If it was painted pink then I’d be able to see some character in this place.”

“And I don’t understand why I’d need to care about my workshop having ‘character’,” Sedric said with his arms crossed. “This is a professional workplace, and as a professional crafter, I shouldn’t need my walls to be painted pink.”

“Professional?” Scytale pointed to a large open chest filled with miscellaneous failed creations. “You call that the work of a professional?”

The brown-haired crafter glanced at the objects and looked away. “W-Well, I- those were my prototypes.”

“Prototypes? Then where’s the archetypes?”

“Arche- there’s no such thing as an archetype in crafting.”

“Of course there is! If you have the prototypes being the bad copy, then the archetypes are the good copy.”

“No, an archetype means something perfect. You don’t ‘make’ archetypes in crafting.”

“So you’re admitting you’ve never made anything better than a prototype?”

“Ye- No!”

Lucille opened the door of the workshop and walked down the steps, sighing when she took in the view of Scytale and Sedric bickering over the next niggling stone on the roadside Scytale had managed to conjure up.

Sitting on a stool with his arms crossed, a bench away from Sedric and Scytale, was Hargrave. He was looking quite frustrated as he watched the two arguing. Lucy didn’t know why he didn’t just speak up if he had an issue, but she supposed she was going to find out soon.

Somehow, the ‘conversation’ topic had returned to the colour of Sedric’s walls by the time her boots touched the floor.

“Your workshop has just as much personality as you,” Scytale said loudly. “It just oozes an anti-social, unwelcoming vibe.”

“…what’s a vibe? You know what, never mind.” Sedric shook his head and narrowed his eyes at the snake. “This is the real point you’re making, isn’t it? Is this another one of your schemes to drag me outside of the workshop because I’m being ‘anti-social’?”

“As Lucy’s bond it is my responsibility to cover for any work she’s too busy to do herself,” Scytale stated proudly.

“No, you’re doing this to irritate me,” Sedric argued.

“The two are not mutually exclusive.”

Sedric groaned as Lucille arrived at the bottom of the stairs. Behind her, she saw Hargrave seemed to be relieved by her arrival, although he appeared slightly awkward too.

“You know what, if you don’t get out, then I’m going to go to Lucille and complain about your interruptions myself!” Sedric said with finality.

Scytale shrugged. “Sure. Hey, why don’t you do it now?” And then he pointed at Lucy.

Sedric slowly turned to see her, standing with her arms crossed behind him. Before he could say anything, Scytale spoke up again, “Hey Lucy, what do you think about Sedric painting his walls pink?”

Sedric whipped his head back to glare at the grinning snake, but Lucille walked up to the workbench and studied the diagrams Sedric had been drawing. “If Sedric wishes to express his hidden inner personality through such a flashy colour then who am I to stop him?”

Sedric turned back to her, looking incredulous, but she added, “However, I would offer him five times the wage he currently has to risk tipping said bucket of pink paint over your wings and scales while you’re asleep. Your reaction would be entertaining.”

Scytale narrowed his eyes at her but Sedric scowled. “Whose side are you on?”

“I’m on no one's side but my own because I’m equally against both of your ideas,” Lucy stated calmly. She picked up a large piece of paper with item sketches to look at it before placing it down again and glancing up. “But will either of you care to explain why you’re all gathered in here?”

“Ah, well, you see, I was following Jacques to see if I could shock him with my new appearance when I came across Hargrave. He wanted me to check with you about something, so I led the way to your study until I met Sedric outside his workshop and he suddenly suggested the insane idea of painting his workshop’s walls pink-”

Sedric turned to stare at the snake. “Hang on, I wasn’t the one to-”

Lucille felt an eyebrow twitch as the two immature individuals in front of her began to bicker again. She considered interrupting them once more but decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Lucy briefly attempted to investigate Scytale’s memories to find out what the ex-mercenary behind her wanted but to her annoyance, she found that her bond hadn’t even bothered to properly listen to Hargrave before dragging him along to pick a fight with Sedric.

Lucy turned on her heels and walked over to Hargrave, who seemed slightly on edge to receive her attention.

“It appears unlikely that I’ll ever get a clear answer out of those two, so maybe it would be best for me to hear it from you,” she said dryly.

He glanced between her and the arguing snake and crafter and let out a sigh. “…I was originally going to ask your bond if you had time to spare or were too busy. He told me to follow him… and ended up taking me down here…”

She sent a flat look over her shoulder at the loud silver-haired boy sitting on the workbench, but he either didn’t notice or just ignored it. She turned back to Hargrave. “From here on after, I suggest you never ask Scytale something unless you can’t find me in my study,” she said. “The worst answer I could give you is that I need a few more minutes before we can talk.”

He grimaced and nodded slightly. Lucy raised an eyebrow. “So what was it you wanted to discuss with me?”

“…I wanted to find somewhere to advance my levels further, especially after I’ve bought new equipment these last few weeks. But I-”

“-doubt that Lucille would actually listen to you if you requested me to be fired.”

“She so would! Well, okay, maybe not, but she’d at least consider it 10% seriously before giving me an answer.”

“10%? Are you sure that’s not an overstatement?”

Hargrave and Lucy’s conversation was interrupted by the renewed argument coming from the other side of the room. She glanced sideways at Hargrave as the red-haired man raised his head to look at the roof and ran a hand down his face in silent anguish.

“Hargrave, if they’re being too loud, please don’t try to be polite and avoid talking over them,” Lucille said drolly. “They’re not worth that level of respect.”

The grimace and frustrated look on the man’s face made her suspect that maybe the issue was something else. She glanced between him and the other two and then quirked an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you think it’s easier to just wait for them to stop talking before requesting anything?”

He stared at her like a deer caught in headlights.

Lucy narrowed her eyes at him. “Hargrave, that is the worst idea I’ve ever heard. I know for a fact that Scytale has been down here for an hour already, which means you’ve been here for an hour already. Do you really think they’re actually going to shut up anytime soon?”

“…I was going to interrupt them before you came here,” he said, although it sounded weak to Lucy’s ears.

She rolled her eyes. “Right. Well, to return to what you were saying-”

“-when it comes down to it all, you can’t fly but I can, so I am still superior to you!”

Lucille spun around and pointed a gloved finger at the speaker. A white orb was summoned to the tip of her finger and shot out to slam into Scytale’s forehead. He opened his mouth to shout in surprise… but nothing came out. He opened and shut his mouth soundlessly.

Sedric nervously glanced at her as she smiled brightly, placed a finger on her lips, and then slowly drew the finger along her neck. He gulped and she turned back to Hargrave with her smile still in place.

“As you were saying, Hargrave?”

Hargrave watched her unsurely before finally replying, “I had heard that nobles from outside of the Commission were arriving in Gilded Seat this week so I wanted to know when I should leave… if I’m allowed to…”

Lucille gave him a dismissive wave of her hand. “Of course you’re allowed to leave, nothing in the contract states that you must report to me before going anywhere. But as for the nobles…” She thought about it and nodded. “Some will stay after the auction to arrange meetings with various other nobles so to be on the safe side, I’d suggest waiting here for another two weeks. I believe you’d be safe from the last week of January onwards.”

Hargrave nodded. He stood up from the stool and froze up slightly as he registered her gaze. “…uh, if you don’t need me for anything, I’ll be…”

Lucy sighed. “Hargrave, I just told you that you don’t need permission from me to go anywhere.”

“…right.” He awkwardly walked past her and headed up the stairs of the workshop.

Once he had gone, she turned back to the snake and crafter at the other bench. Her eyes were narrowed. “Now then…”

Sedric stood nervously beside the workbench while Scytale gestured wildly to his mouth, glaring at her. She ignored her bond as she walked forward and turned to Sedric. “The real reason why I wanted to come down here was to talk to you, Sedric.”

He blinked. “Wait, me?” Then his expression stiffened. “Uh, I didn’t intentionally talk- I mean, am I allowed to talk now?”

Lucille let out a long sigh. “Yes, Sedric, you’re allowed to talk.”

He shifted awkwardly as he waited for her to continue talking. She pressed her gloved fingers to her temples, rubbing them, before finally beginning to discuss what she wanted to do. “I came down here because of what I’ve promised you.”

Sedric stared at her.

Lucy facepalmed. “…you’ve forgotten all about it, haven’t you.” She shook her head. “Sedric, wasn’t it you who complained you were bored and wanted to craft items?”

“Uh… I think? …maybe? Wait…” His eyes widened. “You have an item you want me to craft?”

“Not only one.” Lucille opened her dimensional bag and withdrew three large scrolls. She put them on a table and placed a hand on top of them. “I have here the blueprints for three items I want you to craft.”

Sedric eagerly came up to the workbench and watched as she unfurled them. He raised an eyebrow as he saw the diagrams. “These are…?”

“A blueprint for a pair of customised sheaths, a belt that uses the arcane mana-circles I taught you, and this final one…” She unfurled the largest scroll. “…is an amplification arm guard.”

He studied the blueprints and then pulled back when he saw the complexity of the last item. “That is far above my current knowledge.”

Lucy nodded. “I’m aware. I’m expecting the arm guard to be a project that lasts three months or longer. That will be what I’ll focus on helping you with after you create the other two items.”

Sedric frowned slightly but returned to looking at the diagrams for the sheaths and the belt. “I’m… slightly confused about what the purpose of the sheaths is.”

In response, Lucille unsheathed Apophis and Ouroboros and let them roam around the room. Sedric watched with an eyebrow raised as she gestured to the two levitating daggers.

“You may not be aware of this yet, but I have two sentient weapons,” she began to explain. “The black one, Apophis, is a demonic weapon but Ouroboros, the white one, is a spirit weapon.” She placed a hand on the sheath blueprint. “These two items are intended to allow my two weapons to refill their mana pools passively when sheathed.”

Sedric nodded and looked down at the blueprint again. “That makes more sense. I was wondering why some sort of mana circuit was incorporated into the sheaths to absorb mana…”

“And as for the belt,” Lucy said, pointing to its blueprint. “That is to help reflect the physical force of projectiles and weaponised attacks sent my way. As you can see, the gem on the buckle will be responsible for containing the mana-circle you’re familiar with. It also drains the mana around me to function.”

Sedric nodded thoughtfully, but then they heard a voice in their heads.

“Aren’t you worried you’re making everything too reliant on your new skill, Lucy?”

They turned to look at the silver-haired snake in human form sitting on the workbench with his arms crossed. He narrowed his gold slitted eyes. “What? Did you think I’d just stay silent forever? I may have a silencing spell on me right now, but that doesn’t mean my mental transmission is gone!”

Then Scytale looked at Lucy. “But can you please remove that now? It’s getting annoying.”

She sighed and snapped her fingers. He grinned and jumped off the table. “There, that’s much better!”

“Just stay quiet, would you?” she asked wearily. “The belt design has a function to toggle the energy repulsion mana-circle, so I don’t need to worry about it draining the atmospheric mana when I don’t want it to. And there’s no convenient way to store enough mana for the device on only a belt.” She turned back to Sedric. “The belt itself is additionally made out of a dark element leather so it has a mild force reduction effect applied too.”

“Hmm…” Sedric’s gaze moved over to the final and most complex diagram. “But what does that one do?”

“Well, it-”

[Initiating Communication Channel with User Lucille Goldcroft]

Lucille stiffened up as she received that notification and her eyes went wide. Scytale saw the notification too and paled. He reverted to his serpent form and flew upstairs.

Lucille suddenly whirled around and dashed for the stairs as well.

“Huh? Hey, wait, where are you going?” Sedric called out.

“Something happened. I’ll talk to you later.”

The door of the workshop slammed shut behind her and quickly walked the path to her study, feeling nervous.

It hasn’t been a month yet. Why does he want to contact me now?