Chapter 312 - Veil Ignition Station (Patreon)

What lies inside the huge hidden section are shelves full of items. There are dozens, hundreds of mana stones. There are big crates with food. A massive tanker with water. There are rooms with beds and other utility facilities.

Clothes, weapons, armor, a lot of things that would make it possible to survive just here for probably years. But these rooms are empty, everything perfectly stored and never used.

Then there is another panel and a mana crystal two times my height, most likely a reserve core.

The man once again sends his mana towards it, and I observe it. His reserves do not seem to be that big. He is moving it skillfully too, but it feels different from the way I do it. It's hard to describe.

"So 99 years have passed," he mumbles and then turns back to us, "You, how old are you?"

"From after the war, 22 years," Clonthaniel answers instead.

The man glances at him. "I asked the original, not a duplicate," he says simply and turns his gaze at me, "What even went through your mind to use one of the duplicating items that way? They were never intended for living beings."

He doesn't even wait for the answer and continues examining the core that seems to have some information stored in it.

"So that's how it is. I warned them so many times, but why would they listen..."

After a few minutes, he takes a step away from the crystal, and it loses its light, "I need to know what you found in the Veil Ignition Station number five where I was."

The way he asks that sounds like he is expecting an answer. Like someone used to authority.

"Nope," both me and my duplicate say at once.

"I see." Not saying more, he walks towards us, then instead of attacking, he passes by and, after taking a few steps, exits the hidden rooms.

An extremely weird type of detection fires up from him, and then he heads towards the room we used to store items we got from the bunker he called Veil Ignition station.

Like two kids, we just follow him and observe what he does curiously while questions run through my mind.

The man takes a few ingots of metal, some items, and other stuff we got from the bunker and then heads to a different room. He doesn't seem to mind that we follow him and ignores us as he finds the facility that we identified as a blacksmithing one. There is a house-sized forge with multiple openings. It looks too simple, and examining it some time ago, I found that most of the forge is built inside.

Blowers, openings for some sort of fuel, leads for molten metals, and much more.

The man sends his senses at it again and then activates one of the crystals, throws it into one of the openings, and afterward touches the panel. It's broken, and the man looks at it and then ignores it.

Rolling his sleeves up to his elbows, he touches some sort of emblem on the inner side of his forearms, and the heat starts radiating from him. In waves, this heat crashes into the room, melting the surface of some tables, and when it reaches us, we absorb it with [Redistribution] and turn it into thermal energy that gets stored in the Vortex Core.

Right after, he redirects all of the heat he generates, and it gets concentrated into the forge through one of the holes. As the massive forge heats up, inscriptions light up all over its surface, and even some of the blowers or whatever they are seem to be working as they take that heat and send it toward the spot underneath.

With our eyes, we can see that heat is even more concentrated, and the man pushes a table there and does something to stop it from melting. Then he throws some metals on the surface where they melt nearly immediately.

Without worry, he steps closer, his powerful body ignoring all of that heat, and using the mana he starts shaping that metal while adding more different pieces, creating some sort of alloy.

“Do you remember that movie where they kidnapped the dude and in a cave he built an iron suit and escaped while killing plenty of his kidnappers?” the duplicate asks. “Do you think he is planning the same and we are letting him?”

“Do you want to stop him?”

“Not really, the stuff he does is cool as heck, especially with his mana. It seems much better than just using arms to try to form it.”

“I tried my best back then, okay? And they still ended up being rare. So, blacksmith?”

“Probably? Maybe he just has a powerful body and a non-combat class and that's why he doesn't attack us.”

Activating our trait once in a while, we watch and learn from the man. It takes a few hours that we could’ve used to train, but neither of us leaves, what we are seeing now is fascinating to us and useful for the future.

When it's done, the man touches emblems on his forearms again, and the heat dies off. What fascinates me is that the emblems used his mana and something else to create heat. But the man's mana reserves aren't that big, and he shouldn't be capable of keeping them up for so long.

Taking a few steps, he stops in front of me and offers me still–red-hot items he holds in his hand without getting burned.

“In exchange for your help and answers,” he says simply.

Mana Radiation Absorption Rods (epic): Long, slender rods that can be placed around areas of high mana radiation to absorb and contain part of it. They reduce overall levels and make the area safer for short-term exposure.

Quickly, I take the three rods from his hands, absorbing the heat so they do not burn me. “Ask ahead.”

“The same question as before.”

“We went to check the place you call Veil Ignition Station, only knowing that it was one of the stations where they dealt with the Veil. There we found plenty of corpses, some of them in robes with dozens of inscriptions and mana stones. We found you as well. At first, we thought you were dead, so we brought you here to examine. Then you woke up,” I answer.

“How does it look out there?”

“From what we found, the second Pairing happened and you guys fought for twenty years against the other planet. Then, around a hundred years ago, the Enchanter Guild created the Veil that was supposed to encompass the entire planet and defend every city. It was to help you against invaders. Something went wrong, the Veil turned against you and killed most of the humans, then before it finished the rest, it started fighting against your invaders. Your Absolute is most likely dead and the Champions are the same or hiding somewhere. People outside seem to rarely reach level 200, probably because of the defensive mechanism of the Veil that hunts them. Most of the survivors live in bunkers from before the war or in remains like Bastions. Plenty of them know very little about the war.”

I pause after a long answer and then look at him, “That's what you get for the rods.”

“Quite expensive.”

I nod in agreement.

“You can ask me something.”

Oh. I like it.

“What are the emblems on your forearms?”

For the first time, he smiles ever so slightly. “What a thing to ask out of so many possible questions. They are emblems created and gifted to me by our Absolute. What is the Enchanter Guild doing?”

“We have no information on that. What I just told you is most of what we know.”

“So the Veil Ignition Station still has a broken core and mana radiation makes it difficult to reach central parts?”

“Yes, we were able to stay there only for a while. Is it dangerous even to you? Don't you have a powerful body?”

"As if something like that would help you against radiation caused by this grade of broken core. Champion Niall spent weeks filling it with her dynamic mana."

“How did you survive?” I ask my question.

“A single-use defensive emblem from the Absolute,” he says.

“How many emblems did you even get from that Absolute?” the duplicate asks.

“A few,” the man answers. “Bring me the null collars you used before, I will smelt them so they will help us against mana radiation, then we can head to the station again.”

“It was always the plan to return there, but when he says it that way I somehow want to refuse to go there just to piss him off,” the duplicate sighs.

But the man doesn’t hear him, already activating the emblems gifted by his Absolute and heating up the forge.

***

The decision wasn’t that difficult, and we gave both of the null collars to the man. In exchange, he created three simple-looking epic pendants that take in some of the ambient mana radiation and redirect it away.

What’s interesting is that the man rarely uses inscriptions, only when really needed. Most of the effects of the items he created come from the combination of multiple materials to create alloys.

Is it possible that he isn’t that good of an enchanter? Enchanting requires a specialized set of skills, so it's possible that he is not. As for me, I’m quite lucky that most of the ways that I go about controlling mana also allow me to create inscriptions.

Getting ready to head back to the Veil Ignition Station, the man collects a few more items we bought from there. He just takes what he needs, and seeing the corpses in beautiful robes we sent there, he turns to us, waiting.

My duplicate and I exchange a look, both of us thinking the same. We could leave him here and just go by ourselves. We have rods, pendants, and even our skills. But at the same time, the man seems useful, even though not very talkative and probably used to being respected or listened to.

I make a final decision, and after placing my hand on the man, he reduces his natural defenses, and I teleport us inside the station. The duplicate follows and reappears between us.

The man looks where we are and then at the cut-off arm with the bracelet I’m holding. His expression betrays that it's the arm of someone he used to know. Yet he doesn’t show much emotion and just takes a few steps, stabbing two epic rods in the direction where most of the mana radiation comes from and a third one on the opposite side.

Nearly immediately, the mana radiation lessens, and his weird senses are sent into the area.

“The radiation is even worse than I thought,” he says simply. Then he takes a few pieces of metal and ingots and heads towards the corner of the room where there is a small forge.

Emblems on his forearms activate, and he starts working again. Looking at the way he works, it's most likely for more rods to block Mana Radiation.

My duplicate is already at work as well, grabbing some of the more valuable mana stones and doing whatever he does lately.

I, meanwhile, grab a few upper-rare spears made of white metal. The spears are finished, beautifully crafted, sharpened, and ready for use. The only thing missing is the empty mana stones imbued near the blades. All of the weapons are ready for inscriptions. There are even circuits made of conductive metals leading from the mana stone through the weapon.

Surrounding one of the spears with my [Mana Domain], I activate [Infusion] and then use [Mana Manipulation] and [Resonance], all while under the influence of [Focus].

The item I work on is the best possible for me as I lack the skills to do this kind of thing on my own, but what I can do is inscription, enchanting, or whatever the official term would be. I'm good at that, and a lot of my skills allow me to do so.

Then there are also my eyes that I could use for a better result, but not here. Surrounded by all this mana radiation, it would be too much.

So, I get to work, and time starts passing while I work. Nearly immediately, I waste two of the weapons because of my mistakes, and then three more. But I do not stop and do not hesitate. If someone saw me using upper rare weapons as fodder, they would be mad, but for me, they are just things. Useful items, yes, but never worth more than my life or too important to be sacrificed.

The items can be separated from me, they can be destroyed, they can be stolen. My personal power, and the knowledge I will gain, will stay with me no matter what.

So, I waste even more of them, even getting a look from the man, but I ignore him and continue in my experiment. And then, after hours, my effort is rewarded, and I create the first epic item.

It's not entirely my creation, but I can say that I did a part of the work. A big part.

It makes me happy, even though it is a low epic grade.

Kinetic Pulse Spear (epic): The spear that accumulates kinetic energy and magnifies the force behind each strike. Movements and thrusts charge the spear, allowing the wielder to release highly concentrated kinetic blasts.

“I want to sell it,” I say immediately.

Do you really want to sell the following item for 1900 shards?

Kinetic Pulse Spear (epic)

Yes/No

I confirm and then check my shards.

Shards: 13,792

Two and something days until Vega comes back, and then two weeks until the end of the floor. I wonder how much I will make.

***

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