The boiling magma in the lower level of the Crucible was now white hot at the center, surrounded by a red ring that slowly turned black near the tower walls. The world energy flooded the room from below along with the magma and the tower used the metals to dampen the flow before it reached the upper floors.
Next came the Crystal Mines where magic crystals were constantly refined. The walls of the room were now filled with white marble streaks that carried the world energy straight to the various crystal veins.
The tower also used the marble’s innate resistance to magic to focus the world energy around the growing crystals instead of keeping it evenly spread like in the past. This way, the refinement and growth processes were further accelerated.
“This is the first new underground floor, the Spark. It’s located between the Mines and our other newcomer.” Solus said.
“Wait, what happened to the Armory and the rest of the floors?” Lith asked.
“They have been rearranged to optimize the world energy’s consumption. You’ll understand once you see everything.” Solus replied, opening the reinforced metal door of the room.
It was magically and physically sealed, requiring the maximum clearance level of the tower to access.
Once Lith looked inside, his eyes went wide in surprise, all seven of them. The walls of the Spark were filled to the brim with world energy that was steadily accumulated and preserved for later use.
Countless cables, tendrils, and alembics coming out of the grey-white stone were the only furniture in the room. That and a stone pedestal placed at the very center of the Spark.
“I was going to say this is underwhelming but your mother’s creation has already fooled me more than once. What’s the catch here?” Kamila asked.
“Glad you asked.” Solus conjured the tower’s Hands of Menadion and placed them on the pedestal.
Lith noticed that the black working gloves had become more refined in appearance, looking less like badly carved stone and more like a piece of art. The right glove had now six out of seven mana crystals active while the left one only had four.
“This room cannot function unless the Hands are in position and before you ask, I checked. The other Hands, those we have gifted to Faluel don’t work. This will become important later.” Solus said.
“Now, please take off your Voidwalker armor and put it near the wall, Lith.”
“Okay.” Lith did as instructed, remaining stark naked.
“By my Mom, don’t you wear underwear?” Solus blushed wildly but never took her eyes off the prize.
“Yes, I do. They are also stored in the Voidwalker.” Lith shrugged. “Why so shy? Both of you have seen me naked plenty of times.”
Kamila too was staring, her face red and flushed by the blood rush along with other parts. Before giving birth, they had abstained from sex to not induce labor and after because she had baby blues.
The vision had given her something else to think about and a clear picture of how to vent her frustration.
“Yes, but… cover yourself, dammit!” Solus said.
“In a minute.” The moment Lith lined the Voidwalker armor against the wall, the cables moved on their own, latching on the metal.
The surface of the armor turned semi-liquid, allowing the tendrils to seep inside and then split themselves into smaller units that formed a complex circulatory system. The tendrils spread to the Dragon bones inside the armor as well as to the Dragon scales on the outside and the Adamant coating them.
The cables, instead, linked themselves to the violet mana crystals bonded to the armor.
“What’s happening?”
“Cover yourself!” Both Solus and Kamila said in unison.
“Fine!” Lith pulled clothes out of his pocket dimension yet once he put them on, the two women groaned. “Why are you groaning?”
“You see, the Spark has the ability to keep refining materials even after they have been Forgemastered.” Solus said, eager to dodge the question. “Right now, the Adamant is slowly reaching the Davross state, but if that was it, this would just be a poor man’s Crucible.
“What you don’t see is that even the Dragon bones and scales are being further refined!”
“What?” Lith looked at the Hands, noticing that not only did the artifact control the energy accumulated in the Spark, but it also focused it on the Voidwalker armor in a different way based on the affected components.
“Does it also work for Double Edge?”
“Bingo and more! Go on.” Solus waved at a still-free spot.
Lith shrunk the blade and it received the same welcome as the armor. Solus followed his lead, putting the Sage Staff there as well.
“Why are you doing that?” Kamila asked. “There’s nothing past white crystals and the wood comes from a World Tree that was about to die of old age.”
The Spark ignored the gemstones, making her objections valid.
“Indeed, but if we leave the Staff here, the Spark will further refine and age it, bringing the Yggdrasill wood to levels that no World Tree could ever reach due to their natural death. You see, the Spark exerts a mana flow on par with a violet-cored Awakened.”
“Are you telling me that Syrook’s bones and scales are being refined as if he was still alive and had reached the bright violet like me?” Lith said with a smug grin on his face.
“Better.” Solus smirked in kind. “The Spark works at an accelerated rate. My mother couldn’t wait centuries to get good stuff. If this works akin to the Mines and the Crucible, the refining speed is at least ten times that of a normal Awakened.
“In layman’s terms, one day in here is like at least ten days of non-stop body refinement! Our own Room of Magic and Time!”
“This is amazing!” Lith jumped like a little boy on Christmas.
“And there’s more!” Solus mirrored him in enthusiasm. “You have no idea how the wait for the tower to finish upgrading itself killed me. Do as I do and ask no questions, please.”
“What’s a room of-” Kamila asked and a quick mind link explained to her both the meaning of the official name of the room and of the inside joke about the unofficial name.
“Gods, you two are like kids. Yet now I want to see those cartoons-” She looked with agape mouth as Solus and Lith cut a bit of their hair, collected an ampoule of their blood each, and Lith even ripped off a few of his scales. “Eww!”
“Not ew. More like yay!” Solus said.
The samples were stored in the crystal alembics, receiving a strong flow of world energy as well.
“This is how my Mother managed to craft her Fury and the rest of her stuff despite being a relatively young Awakened.” Solus explained. “It also works on living tissues. If we leave them in the Spark long enough, we’ll have the amplifiers for our Forgemastering experiments that we’ve lacked until now!”
“Awesome!” Lith said.
“Feeling left out, again.” Kamila sighed.
Lith then explained to her that truly powerful artifacts were capable of storing and boosting the powers of their masters but to do that, the artifact needed to be fused with living tissues during the Forgemastering phase.
