"Dave! I have the material!" Beta shouted as the form of the knife crashed into the closed garage door, putting a hold on the terraforming conversation.

The smaller door next to where Beta had just impacted opened to reveal a giggling Elody. "Beta got a bit too excited on the way here. And to be clear, we may have the material. It's not refined soul plate. I'm not entirely sure what it is." Two ingots that looked similar to what I had asked for appeared in her hands.

"No, that certainly isn't, but I see why you brought it anyway," Karlinovo said.

"Any idea what it is?" I asked as I grabbed one of them to examine it.

"No. Well, at least not without the equipment to test it. There are many things it could be, but even from here, I can tell the charge in it is much higher than you'd find in soul plate, refined or not. Might work the same though, who knows," he answered.

I triggered Universal Bonds and took a look at it.

Analysis in progress…

Distilled Willpower

"Uh, so I used Universal Bonds to see what the ingot was made of. Apparently, it's distilled willpower. Does that mean what I think it means?" I asked. How did someone distill willpower? Hell, how did they form an ingot out of it? Then again, considering I had had an orb of experience before, who the hell knew what was possible anymore?

"You're sure that's what it said?" Elody's top set of eyes swiveled to the one in her hands as she asked.

"Yeah, what are you detecting?" I asked back, her eyebrows furrowed as she studied the ingot she was holding.

"I cannot tell what it is, no matter how hard I try. That isn't entirely unheard of. It's happened before, as I've done very little to increase the natural senses of my upper eyes, and if I had, I might be able to verify your reading. Though I have never heard of distilled willpower before," she answered.

"Neither have I. Where did they get this?" Karlinovo asked.

"It was something one of their traders had taken from someone for some mana orbs and food. They had just been left in the vault for years until they had to move again, not thinking anything about it. Glunderlin only remembered it existed because we were looking for something similar," Elody answered, shrugging as she passed the second ingot to Karlinovo.

"And they're really okay with us experimenting with them?" I asked. It was very likely they wouldn't get any of this back when I was done. Though, unless either of the Travelers were interested, I didn't have any other cores I could currently bond with. The newest one was nowhere near ready, and the lobotomized ones worried me.

"Glunderlin said to consider it the first of many gifts for all we've done. I told him you didn't expect anything, but you know what he's like by now, I imagine." I did, and I knew Elody was likely underselling how willing he was to part with it. He had probably offered her the entire vault.

"Well, I guess I may as well see if it will work. Any thoughts on if it's a terrible idea to try and make a couple of sockets out of this for the tools?" I asked, looking first at Karlinovo, then back at Elody.

"I say do it, then again, I once blew myself up. Though I suppose you did too. It was how we met. Yes, absolutely try it," he said.

"I thought your assistant had caused that?" Elody said, sounding confused.

"Well, yes, but I still should have been able to control for his tampering. Trust me, I blame him too. But I am the genius one after all," Karlinovo responded. Elody turned back to me and just gave a shrug.

"Guess we're trying this," I said as I moved over to my work bench, where I had last put sockets into the tools, bonding Beta and Gamma into my strange life.

"Ah, good, I've been wanting to watch how exactly you did this since I regained my memories," Karlinovo said as he started looking over my shoulder as I pulled tools off the table, and carefully started to shave part of the ingot.

Unlike the soul plate, this produced odd green sparks as I carefully cut off the material needed for shaping. It was also less pliable than the other material had been, leading to a lot more time spent hammering into the small circles I wanted. Finally, after nearly an hour of work, I had two of them ready to go.

I looked up from my bench, surprised to find Elody had also stuck around. It was probably for the best, considering I was yet again working with something new. Or at least something new to me.

"Beta, you get to go first if you'd like, since you found it. It only seems fair," I said, causing the knife to immediately drop down in front of me.

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"Yes, for the Empire!" they replied loudly alongside the thunk of them hitting the surface.

"Alright, let's get to work." I carefully pushed the new socket over the inset of the existing one that held Beta's core, working it gently into the space.

Once it was firmly in place, I pulled up my Mana Tinkering overlay and saw the new infusion point exactly where I expected it to be. I laid my hand over it and started the infusion. My core mana began flowing freely into it. That was when the first problem started. I tried to kill the feed and pull my hand away. Just like the first time, I couldn't.

I tried flaring soul energy in a desperate attempt to break away. Nothing seemed to happen. My hand was just as stuck as before.

I felt Corey attempt to shut it down, too. They failed as well. I was aware words were being said around me, but I couldn't hear them as I desperately tried to control the buildup. Dammit, was I going to blow up just like Karlinovo?

Corey: Dave, stop fighting it! Just let me take it all! It is our only chance!

I barely registered the chat window. But it was enough to get me to let my focus on trying to hold the flow drop. I felt Corey take charge of a huge rush of mana. My vision swam. Something felt like it exploded inside my core as a new pain rushed through my body. What was happening? Was Corey going to survive this? Was I?

As my panic set in, a System message popped into my view.

Core Fortification Underway. Affinity Evolution Underway. ~\Mana Tinkering\Core Investment {0} Through the use of the second core in the soul-core reaction, the host is able to contain immense core energy backlash from an infusion and use their own fortified core energy to return it back to the source of the backlash, greatly enhancing the intended effect of the infusion. Further ranks will allow for a greater amount of fortified core energy to be infused. Affinity Evolution Complete. Attribute Evolution Underway. The following attributes have merged into a new attribute. Spent attribute ranks have been returned to your pool. -\Luck\Cheat Death {1000} -\Luck\Mana Backlash Resistance {1000} -\Luck\Better Lucky Than Good {0} You should be dead. The fact that you aren't is somehow even more improbable than it was before. Thanks to your wise investment in Mana Backlash and Cheat Death, you were able to defy expectations yet again. Every point placed into this attribute will further raise your chances of not dying when the numbers otherwise say you should. Attribute Evolution Complete. Core Fortification Complete -\Core Grade {E}

My eyes snapped open as the pain started to recede. I was lying on the ground with Elody leaning over me, her healing magic flowing from her hands into my body. I could understand what she was saying again. "He's still alive, but I have no idea what happened."

"Same, well, kind of. I think I can guess now. Corey, are you still with us?" I asked, realizing I hadn't heard their voice yet.

"I am. I apologize, Dave. I had no idea that would cause your core to crack like that," they replied.

"I think it's alright. I'm pretty sure it's sealed again, and while I did lose a grade from that, I unlocked a new affinity, and two of my luck skills merged strangely enough," I explained as I started to stand up. Elody grabbed my arm and helped me to my feet.

"What do you mean you lost a grade? That isn't generally how anything works, unless you managed to transcend. Did you do that somehow?" Karlinovo asked, looking at me with excitement in his eyes.

"I'm not entirely sure what that is. Mel's said it before, and I assume it's related to core fortification, but no, I don't think so. I gained an affinity that lets me use my core fortification energy for my infusion points. I actually think I might have made Beta a lot more powerful than initially intended there," I said, just as the box cutter flew off the table.

"Emperor Dave has blessed me! He has granted me a socket capable of holding two mana orbs at once!" Beta yelled as they rocketed around the room in their joy.

"Well, I think we figured out how some people in Spiral manage to have more than one mana orb in a socket. This stuff must be a pretty well-kept secret," I said, pointing to the ingots.

"This is amazing, Dave. Somehow, we've just pushed my work further again. But yes, we must secure these materials. Put them in your System storage. Do not bring them out unless we are under guard and working on a project. They are far too valuable to risk at any other time," Karlinovo said, his voice going deadly secret.

He was entirely right.

Luck is one of those attributes that the skilled hate to talk about. It's because they believe it is beyond their control, but I'm not entirely sure that is true. The more I've studied into the people willing to let me see their attributes, the more I've been able to develop my own version of them. I believe that luck attribute development is primarily driven by near-death experiences, and even more so by those taken willingly by the person who developed them. Even the ones that seem untied to their own lives still seem to have formed from the experience itself. Why this is, I don't know, but I plan to study it further.

Breaking the Bank, a Study of Luck by Happyrock Heron

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