"Shit," Rory muttered as he looked down at his knife. "Rule of traveling: You always forget something."

His knife was fine, unchanged even, but that was the problem. He'd forgotten to attempt to upgrade it before he left.

"Ehh, probably fine," Rory said as he looked back at Eia. "Can you hurry up?"

The large snake was currently in the process of choking out an elk with flaming antlers that had charged them rather territorially. Level sixty-nine, the flaming monster elk, was perfect for Eia to flex her muscles on.

Which she was literally doing as each flex of her coiled muscles crushed its neck further.

Without her crystal scales, it would have been considerably more dangerous. Instead, the flames emitted from the elk monster were whisked away, her scales drinking in the energy.

She appears to have a significant advantage over energy-based fighters.

It wasn't exactly a new observation, but tier-sixes were rare around Ehkorrus unless you traveled quite a ways away from the settlement or if you traveled to the third floor of the Maw; otherwise, everything had a bad match-up against her tier advantage. As Eia was a peak-tier-six, nearing the very cusp of being a pinnacle tier-six –half a step before tier-seven– even mid-tier-six monsters provided her far less energy to fuel her ascension than she needed. It was the entire reason the Tyrant of Earth and Scales had left them alone for so long; they weren't worth the effort that could be spent elsewhere, and by the time they were, it had become too late. Eia had made a point of avoiding its territory so that it never became aware of her presence, and Rory went on the offensive shortly after reaching tier seven.

"Seriously, I'd like to use its bones." Rory groaned as Eia continued to choke out the monster slowly.

Finally bored of playing games, Eia injected a hint of her aural toxin into the already near-dead monster, finishing it off. Uncoiling from around the massive elk, she glanced at Rory as her tongue flicked in his direction with a hint of annoyance.

"Considering we haven't seen anything lower level than mid-tier six so far, you'll have plenty of opportunities to play." Rory scolded, ignoring her non-verbal complaints. Approaching the corpse, Rory began his work of cutting it apart with his knife.

"Nice hide," Rory noted. Runic leather was an interesting material that fluctuated based on the hide of the monster from which it was sourced. Runic leather made from jackalope hide would be little better than mundane materials for a tier seven like himself, but hide from a high-tier-six was different. It also helped that the pneuma saturating the floating islands and mountains was heavier than what could be found in and around Ehkorrus; it was only due to the pneuma crushers that Ehkorrus had access to pneuma as rich as it was.

While the pneuma here - a name yet to be determined – was denser than Ehkorrus, it wasn't too heavy to be a handicap. That said, Rory could imagine a case where, with a thick enough saturation of high-grade pneuma, it would be like trying to maneuver at the bottom of a deep ocean of viscous liquid if you weren't of a high enough tier yourself.

With the high saturation of pneuma, the monsters here seemed to be generally more pneuma-attuned, with larger trace amounts present in their flesh and blood.

Continuing his field dressing of the monster, Rory soon had a pile of bone, hide, and meat that both he and Eia would chow down on.

Mostly Eia, she was a glutton.

Taking the bones, Rory tossed them inside his inventory as he sat around a pool of magma. There was no need to start a campfire here; there were more than enough pools of magma scattered that were perfect replacements.

Cooking some of the monster meat for himself, he sat and thought, amusing himself by watching as Eia quickly ate what remained of the monster.

So…. Where to set up shop?

His home in Ehkorrus had started as an extremely sad-looking lean-to made from branches, leaves, and packed mud before undergoing an ascension and becoming a living home. Eventually, it underwent further changes due to the exposure of the affinities around Ehkorrus and another hefty dose of post-wave ascension energy, uplifting it to that of a Star Blood Sequoia.

Rory didn't have any plans to copy that move here: First off, it had required a settlement to attract waves that he could then funnel the post-wave rewarded ascension energy into. He had no intention of actually starting a second settlement.

No tree house. Bone house?

He'd helped build enough of the structures in Ehkorrus that he could fashion a decent enough shelter with bones, hide, and even the strange coral-like trees nearby, but setting up shop out in the open when he had no idea just how dangerous some of the monsters could be felt like making himself a sitting duck.

Maybe… Is it finally time?

There had been something Rory had toyed with the thought of, a childish dream. Often, in movies, there were hidden mountain workshops or ancient structures. The idea of making one himself had always been something Rory found appealing, but the lack of mountains had been a bit of a hiccup in that dream.

Now, though, why not?

It would take some serious work; he would have to mine through a mountain, after all.

But.

But his inner child would not be denied. Looking about, Rory's eyes locked onto a particular mountain off in the distance, spewing flames and smoke with purple lightning occasionally striking the caldera of the mountain. It was tall, insanely tall; it had to be well over twenty miles, the tallest peak of this mountain range island.

It's perfect.

"There," Rory said, pointing to the mountain. "That's going to be the new home."

Eia stared at him, her eyes unblinking.

"Yeah, I know you're not a cave person. Cave snake, whatever. You can take the caldera for yourself if you want or something."

That seemed to appease the serpent, who partially coiled herself around Rory, presenting her head for him to stretch between her eyes.

"Probably enjoying all this heat, aren't you? Snakes tend to like that easily accessible warmth after all, and Ehkorrus could be damp and chilly a good part of the year."

Ehkorrus had two seasons: the summer season, which made up roughly a third of the year, and the dew season, where everything was perpetually covered in dew, much like an early morning. While the summer season was fine for Eia, he knew how she could get grumpy during the dew season.

Here? Well, Rory had a feeling that the seasons would be a bit more extreme here.

After they'd rested for a few extra minutes, the duo continued their journey toward the volcanic mountain Rory had pointed out. Given that Eia was a higher-tier-six monster, and Rory was tier seven, they had far less need for sleep or rest, meaning they could potentially continue for weeks on end with minimal or no sleep at all. It was great in a pinch and for covering a lot of ground quickly, especially when combined with their ability to move quickly, even at a controlled pace.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Still, Rory tried to avoid overdoing it when possible. Taking a two or three-hour rest to improve the efficiency of the next forty was just a matter of simple math.

Within a day, they had covered the hundred or so odd miles to the mountain even while maintaining a measured pace. Just a few miles short of the rising mountain, Rory put his hands on his hips, craning his neck to look upward as he let out a slow whistle.

"Damn," Rory said. Seeing it in person was even more impressive; he could only see the top due to the nature of his exceedingly superhuman eyesight.

"So… are we thinking base of the mountain, somewhere toward the middle, or near the very top?" Rory asked, glancing at Eia to his right.

Eia returned the look, her serpentine eyes rolling.

"Rude," Rory muttered. "But, you've got a point. Why pick one place when all of it can be mine?"

Already, he could see it in his mind's eye; the entirety of the giant volcano would be transformed into a workshop, partially hollowed out with an extensive assortment of tunnels and caverns.

It's perfect.

"For the time being, let's make our way about halfway up. If monsters begin to appear that are pushing the tier boundary of what we can handle, we'll hold back on climbing further."

In agreement, the duo began their journey upward. At first, it was of little issue, but a problem soon began to arise after they crossed three miles of mountain.

"Hotter than the devil's armpits," Rory groaned. "And I don't think it's just because of the physical temperature either."

Concepts were a strange thing; the very concept of something could empower or shape how the world around them reacted. Concept alignment could lead to the creation of more powerful items or magic and many other weird stuff that Rory had gotten used to over the last two decades. He had even encountered a bit of it not too long ago with the magma that seemed to embody the concept of magma without looking as if it had any of the 'dirty' earth elements, a contradiction only to those with an Earth-based, 'science-only' understanding of the universe.

What Rory hadn't accounted for during their ascent was that the concept of a volcano would begin to grow, smothering in its intensity. It wasn't just simple heat, either; everything, from the air quality to the temperature, seemed to embody the word volcanic.

A little over six miles up, Rory finally had to stop, as even Eia, with her crystal scales and energy affinity, could no longer climb any higher without the environment itself becoming an anathema or toxin to them.

"Here is good," Rory said as he plopped down on a small plateau, a flat bluff jutting out from the side of the volcano for roughly thirty feet. During the ascent, they had only encountered a few monsters: four level sixty-nine goats that, rather than attack, ran off, and a single level seventy-one black and crimson eagle that had spotted the two of them, circled overhead, and then flown off. As far as how far they'd climbed, they were still basically at the knees of the volcano, so Rory wasn't too surprised at the relative lack of monsters so far.

Resting on their perch, Rory glanced around. He could see quite a bit away, all the way to the island they had first appeared upon after stepping through the Null Window. In the distance, he could see quite a few smaller floating islands scattered, potential caches of resources, or maybe nothing at all. Aside from the smaller floating islands, for the most part, it seemed as if this mountain range was at the 'edge' of the region, with other mountain ranges being further 'in' as far as Rory could tell.

Once Rory felt rested enough to continue, he stood up, brushing the volcanic stone from his clothes. Suddenly, a pickaxe and a sledgehammer appeared out of thin air as he retrieved them from his inventory. They were made of stabilized steel, solid but unremarkable, perfectly replaceable tools.

"Eia, you keep watch," Rory said to his snake companion. "Time to make like a dwarf. Diggy diggy hole time."

While Seems Unseen had some nice secondary uses in combat, where it really shone was for crafting.

Or, in Rory's current situation, digging through the hard rock of a volcano.

Humming a tune to himself the entire time he worked, Rory's pickaxe always seemed to strike the perfect point, gobbling up the earth like he were an industrial earth auger or excavator.

Heh, I might actually be better.

Continuing his work, Rory occasionally swapped between a pickaxe, a sledgehammer, and a shovel. The other benefit of Seems Unseen was that Rory knew exactly where not to strike, avoiding collapsing the tunnel he was digging. With a one-track mind and a tune repeating endlessly in his mind, time seemed to flow faster until, suddenly, Rory stopped as the wall in front of him crumbled unexpectedly. Standing back, Rory crossed his arms, a smile on his face.

His tunnel had eventually led to a magma pocket within the volcano, the golden magma flowing from a naturally formed tube, spewing out over a rock shelf like a thirty-foot-tall lava waterfall.

"Lavafall? Is that a thing?" Rory briefly questioned, then shook his head.

Doesn't matter.

Aside from the lava fall, which spilled into a cauldron somewhere between the size of a large pond and a small lake, the cavern was marked by deposits of deeply red material with a faint luster, indicating that the unknown material was, at the very least, a metal.

"Jackpot."

Turning around, Rory made his way back outside, examining his tunnel more in-depth now that he wasn't in a digging haze.

The integrity is sound, but it wouldn't hurt to put some support struts just to be certain.

Continuing his journey out, Rory frowned lightly as he realized just how long it was taking him to leave.

Four, maybe five miles?

Rory had no idea how long he'd spent digging, but in the end, it didn't matter. Finally exiting the tunnel, Rory held back a snort. The bluff was covered in bones, as a somewhat lazy-looking serpent rested within a 'nest' of the bones.

"Jeez, don't extinct the local fauna, would you?" Rory jested as Eia perked up, noticing him.

"I found an interesting area. Want to see?"

Eia's response was to uncoil, trailing behind him.

"You know, I have to thank you for the bones," Rory said as they made their way through the dark tunnel. "I can use those truthfully."

Rory knew Eia hadn't been considering that when she'd gone on her murder rampage -she was a lot like himself in that regard- but it still didn't hurt to throw it out there that he appreciated it nonetheless.

Returning to the cavern Rory had stumbled upon, Eia once more perked up, slithering close to the small lava lake.

Magma? Lava? I can't remember which is which. One of them is when it's still underground, I'm pretty sure, at least.

Shrugging it off, Rory watched as Eia stared into the lake of magma before promptly coiling herself into a snoozing ball as she proceeded to nap next to the golden lava, taking in the heat.

"Glad you appreciate it," Rory laughed. Eia generally wasn't a fan of caves, damp, chilly, and dark, but caves in a volcano with magma and light seemed to be the exception.

Seeing as Eia was satisfied for the time being, Rory meandered his way to the closest deposit of wine-colored metal. Giving it a quick examination, Rory took note of the details.

???

Quality: Uncommon

A metal found only within the confines of volcanoes and other areas rich with concepts of earth and magma. It is notable for its deep red luster and high heat tolerance.

"So, not a lot to work with," Rory said, the description short. "But also, it's an unknown material, so there wouldn't be much to begin with."

Thinking for a moment, the interface updated.

???

Quality: Uncommon

A metal found only within the confines of volcanoes and other areas rich with concepts of earth and magma. It is notable for its deep red luster and high heat tolerance.

-->

Rubedo

Quality: Uncommon+

A metal found only within the confines of volcanoes and other areas rich with concepts of earth and magma. It is notable for its deep red luster and high heat tolerance.

"Better," Rory said. "Now, the other interesting thing… The grade."

To date, the number of uncommon materials in the penultimate grade was a big fat zero. Sub-grade and penultimate grade were the official terms they had given for anything that had a plus or minus sign tacked onto the actual grade.

Typically, they denoted that an item was either only technically qualified to meet a grading standard, such as unstable energized items, or that it was in a separate league from other items of the same tier, but not to the extent that a full grade increase would account for.

Both sub-grade and penultimate grades were almost always found with crafted items, though. Raw resources -anything with a 'quality' tag instead of rarity or grade in its description- had only ever been seen with sub-grades, never penultimate grades.

All of that was to say, Rory was confident that the material he was looking at was some good stuff. Common-grade enriched iron could be used to produce other metals, including rare-grade Night Copper, although this was a rather extensive and involved process.

So, what could a material starting from the penultimate uncommon grade do?

Rory felt a surge of excitement, but he quickly quelled it.

Don't get carried away. Who knows how hard it will be to work with?

The mention of it having a high tolerance to heat might be a problem in the future, making it harder to forge without a Stellar Forge to capitalize upon. Still, while he didn't have a literal star forge, there was another thing he did have.

And that was an entire damn volcano.

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