“You guys have simply used the tower to not depend on anyone and have practiced diligently. Starting from the basics of Dismantle instead of going straight to the top of Phoenix’s Forge proves wisdom and humility.
“Working together without letting dumb pride or competition hinder your progress shows that you’re not obsessed with something silly like being the best, only in doing the best job you can. What’s next?” Salaark asked.
“We planned on recycling the artifacts in ascending order of difficulty.” Solus sat down to hasten the recovery of her stamina and mana core. “Now we do Thundercrash, then the Voidfeather armor, the Golems, and lastly Ragnarök.
“We are likely going to need your help for the last two. We have no idea how to preserve the information stored inside the memory crystals and we don’t want to risk damaging Ragnarök’s mind.”
“Correction. You need to leave the last two to me.” The Overlord shook her head. “Even I have little experience with memory crystals since I didn’t even know they were a thing until Balkor shared them with me.
“Yet I have plenty enough experience with Creation Magic to improvise the moment something goes wrong.”
“What’s the issue with Ragnarök?” Lith asked.
“That’s made of Davross.” Salaark replied. “Even though I used your blueprints, I used my skill to Forgemaster it. I’m sorry to say but based on what I’ve seen, even by working together you still lack the necessary skill to handle such a masterpiece.
“Remember that Creation Magic is an advanced branch of magic, even harder than Light Mastery. As you have experienced yourselves, even a tier one spell can drain you more than several tier five spells.
“To make matters worse, any mistake on your side would inflict Ragnarök pain and it might even compromise the unique blood bond that exists between Lith and the blade. Unless you’re willing to put them at risk, don’t even try.”
Lith nodded, clenching his hands in frustration.
‘Dammit, I should have taken into account that due to his semi-sentience, Ragnarök is closer to a patient than an artifact when it comes to Creation Magic. Any half-assed spell would be akin to torture and the poor thing wouldn’t even understand what I’m doing.
‘Ragnarök would assume that either I’m punishing him for something he has done or that I’m just that cruel.’ Lith looked at the blade feeling guilty for his lack of consideration while Ragnarök replied by bending its guard up in a smile to ease its master’s worries.
Once they got back to the peak of their strength, Lith and Solus proceeded to Dismantle everything. The Voidwalker armor presented no difficulty since it was similar to Double Edge. After that, they moved to the Sage Staff.
It proved to be the easiest piece they had recycled until that moment since the Yggdrasill wood answered meekly to the Solus’ healing spells while the Balor’s eyes were susceptible to Lith’s necromantic magic.
With just three elemental crystals and no tricky step, the process went without a hitch. At the same time, it helped Lith and Solus to appreciate how similar Forgemastering was to healing magic.
The process of destroying the enchantments with darkness magic while preserving the materials with light magic was similar to getting rid of parasites or a tumor in a living patient.
The Yggdrasill wood and the Balor’s eyes being enchanted organic materials acted as a contact point between two apparently different disciplines. Once Lith and Solus were done with the staff, it was time to build a better Thundercrash but this time Salaark had to intervene.
Its dual nature as Forgemastering and Alchemy tool made it easy to assemble and a nightmare to disassemble since the two parts had to be treated at the same time.
“Can I?” Solus showed Salaark the Eyes of Menadion before the Guardian started her work.
“No, you must.” She replied. “I’m giving you guys these lessons because I want to and the way you learn from them is irrelevant to me. Balkor has his talent, Lith has you, Solus, and you have your mother’s tower.
“Asking any of you to give up on their natural advantages wouldn’t be fair, just plain stupid. It’s not like I didn’t use my Guardian powers to master Creation Magic just because it would have been unfair to the other mages on Mogar.”
Much to Lith’s and Solus’ surprise, after dealing with Thundercrash Salaark sat down again and waited for them to recover their strength.
“I thought you would deal with Trouble, Raptor, and Ragnarök.” Lith said in confusion.
“That’s what I said and I’m going to do it, but I’ll do it using you guys as my Forgemastering tools.” The Overlord replied. “First, since you are recording the process with the Eyes I might as well give you a practical lesson.
“Second, I can’t deal with Spirit Crystals by myself. They bear your imprint, mana, and life force. Any external influence would replace your Spirit Magic with mine and throw your work down the gutter.
“With Ragnarök, it would be even worse since it’s semi-sentient so it would fight me at every step of the process. You are the only one who can make it compliant.”
When they worked on the Golems, Salaark had Lith and Solus keep working together and use the Hands. The trick for preserving Memory Spirit Crystals was that once the darkness cut off the roots, the light had to fill the now-open mana channels in the crystal.
It was a delicate process where Solus had to both plug the channels to keep the Spirit Magic from leaking and coat the crystal lattice so that the information stored would be preserved.
Solus’ light side of Creation Magic had to act akin to a life support system for a brain after it had been removed from a skull, keeping both the blood flow and the neurons vital. It was just one crystal yet her burden increased by tenfold forcing Salaark to use Mother Sun on her.
“I’d love to give you a bit of rest, but it’s much better to move on to the next golem while you have the impression of how to handle the mana still fresh in your mind. Repetition is the mother of learning.” The Guardian said and Solus nodded.
‘Damn, Solus has just a bright blue core, but she is attuned to the light element and has Grandma’s guidance. I can’t wait to see if I can do better or worse than her.’ Lith’s scientific curiosity and competitiveness were piqued, but there was too much at stake.
He set his pride aside and focused on what truly mattered. Preserving the years of labor he had put into the Golems and getting rid of the threat to his family forever.
Once they were done with the Trouble and Raptor, Salaark allowed them for a short break. Just in time for the kids to start crying and demand their morning meal. Lith inwardly cursed and split the task with Solus as well.
While Salaark fed Shargein with a full bowl of tenderized meat, Lith gave a bottle to Valeron while Solus brought Elysia to Kamila.
Lith experienced conflicting feelings while dealing with the toddler.
