Chapter 1570 (1/2)

Randidly took a few hours to study Wendy’s new plans. The Spriggit woman had outdone herself, of course. Then he once more sat in a meditative position with several bars of the Black Gold that he had obtained for his arm floating around him. He watched the tumbling ingots carefully, seeing how they behaved when they were exposed to increasing amounts of Nether. His Nether Sensation wrapped around each bar of metal, watching for the smallest bit of corrosion.

Luckily, there was no reaction from the Black Gold. From what Randidly understood from the hastily scrambled explanation included with the materials, Black-Gold was the new top-end metal that Wendy’s company had developed. It was an alloy with actually nothing to do with gold, but it was the result of exposing a certain brass alloy to the Netherite now found within his Alpha Cosmos.

Obviously, Randidly couldn’t witness the material himself, but Wendy’s messages assured him that the metal was quite beautiful, a completely black metal with thin, branching golden lines running through its core without lessening its resiliency. The aesthetics of the metal didn’t matter so much to Randidly, but he did like the obvious connections to the golden veins his image physicalizations caused in his body. It might just be superstition, but he believed the combination would be a good one.

Assuming, of course, that he could finish the arm without any hiccups.

Congratulations! Your Skill Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart (T) has grown to Level 301!

Randidly began to steadily manipulate the bars of metal, sensing their heft and density. He even unleashed an attack from the Grim Chimera, watching the way the Grim Chimera’s claws were slightly impeded by the metal and weren’t able to rip all the way through. That earned a small smile from Randidly. It might not be to the point where it would be able to stand up against Velio Dunn, but after Randidly refined the metal, it would certainly be sturdy.

Honestly, if there was a material that could stop Velio Dunn, I’d cover myself in it and just be done with it, He thought with a twitching mouth.

But while Randidly continued to steadily use his Skills to push the limits of the metal, he began his preparations for the forging. He brought out both Neveah’s letter and Wendy’s schematics to study them carefully together. Because if either was flawed, the entire creation would fail. His acute senses could sense the presence of ink on the page, giving him a full view of the information he needed. He idly cut a divet into his chest with a nail, allow two large pools of blood to form on either side of him.

He couldn’t use his eyes to see which was emerald and which was crimson, but the negative and positive energy thrown off by the pools of blood were more than enough to keep them clear in his mind. He was even rather surprised to realize that the reason that his blood could behave so differently was because of mobilized emotion. He silently clicked his tongue and shook his head. Perhaps such an explanation should have occurred to him a long time ago.

Then he closed his eyes. Alright. Now… it’s time.

Randidly’s right hand flexed and his heart began to pound. He could feel the little humidity in the air of the shaft rapidly turning to steam around him as the heat radiated by his body shot sharply upward. Randidly activated Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix, increasing the strain on his person but also increasing the heat further. Without any external source of flames, Randidly intended to rely on the heat that his body generated to melt the metals.

Seemed a bit silly to try and build a kiln floating here...

Very quickly, Randidly ceased pushing his body to become a furnace, because he could sense the edges of Neveah’s letter in his hand were beginning to smolder. So he maintained that state of near combustion of the paper and swirled the steam and thin tendrils of smoke around him with Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart. There was just enough of a substantive barrier created by the Nether Ritual that Randidly could accelerate that gaseous mixture until it flattened itself into a thin barrier around the edges.

Within those rapid flows of air, the temperature rapidly cooled. But that as more steam drifted off of Randidly’s skin, the temperature gradually began to climb back upward within that dense gas layer. Randidly’s lips twitched. Very soon, the temperature in that hyperdense layer was going to climb past its previous highs. He just hoped it wouldn’t rip through his Nether Ritual in the process.

In the meantime, Randidly drew a metal ingot to his hand and began to practice the Engraving given to him by Neveah. With his recent improvements, the Engraving she had made for him was complex, but not overwhelming. After attempting the engraving four times, Randidly felt confident enough to proceed.

Congratulations! Your Skill Architecture of the Primordial Way (M) has grown to Level 312!

These useless notifications are really starting to get on my nerves, Randidly barred his teeth, then forced himself to calm down. Being distracted right now would only lead to regrets down the line the next time his arm faced a force that could shatter it.

But before the Engraving came the metal refining. After storing away the scrolls for the Engraving and the designs for the arms, Randidly allowed the scalding layer of air to spread back out and fill the entirety of his Nether Ritual. As his body trembled, he forced his heartbeat to accelerate. His muscles began to swell slightly as his boiling blood surged throughout his body. More and more steam wisped off of him, to the point that he could sense the impending dehydration within his body.

Still, Randidly ignored the discomfort and pushed himself forward. His Willpower had been steadily been honed by the activities with emotions, giving it an unforgiving edge that he brought now to bare on himself.

Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 306!

Randidly couldn’t prevent his mouth from twitching in regards to the notification, but he ultimately ignored it. Then he cast his senses outside of his Nether Ritual, seeing if there was any movement among the Nether Beasts. Seeing that there was none, Randidly began to process of metal refinement.

Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold.