Rory stared down at the elemental, palming his forehead after a moment.

Not what I meant to happen.

First off, it wasn't meant to be anything fancier than a basic fire elemental, possibly a volcanic elemental if things went the extra mile. Instead, Rory had ended up creating an elemental of an element or affinity that he had never even heard of before, World Ichor or the like.

And now the little floating elemental was copying his movements like a child copying their mother.

"Shit… I can't just get rid of you, can I?" Rory muttered to himself. He hadn't expected the elemental to imprint on him.

I mean it's an elemental! Elementals aren't supposed to do that sort of stuff.

Just like snakes weren't meant to be intelligent beings.

Alright, maybe I didn't consider that angle well enough.

Sighing, Rory turned around and began to make his way through the tunnels, passing through several other cave-like rooms as he did.

And the entire time, the nascent elemental floated after him like a duckling following its mother.

World Ichor. I wonder…

In his main forging workshop, Rory had placed some runic inscriptions within the lip surrounding the magma pool. Amongst those runes, there had been runes meant to imbue a hint of blood essence within the magma, a sort of 'connection' between anything himself and the magma.

Now he was wondering if, rather than a sort of karmic connection, the magma wasn't undergoing a gradual metamorphosis instead.

Will it become World Ichor given enough time?

That was an intriguing possibility, though Rory wasn't exactly sure what the benefit would be.

Sometimes, the main benefit is simply the novelty of something new.

Feeling rather philosophical with that thought, Rory made the rest of his journey back in relative silence. Only upon returning to the main forge did Rory let out a deep sigh, cocking an eyebrow a moment later as the nascent elemental floated past him, before sinking into the swirling magma, splashing around like a child in a kiddy pool.

"Well, glad you're having fun," Rory chuckled before frowning. "Wait, do I need to give you a name?"

Rory considered it for a moment before shaking his head. "No, for now I think it's fine. Maybe Eia will have some clever idea."

It said something about his overall naming conventions when he was ready to defer the responsibility to a snake of all things. A second later, Rory shrugged his shoulders after taking a moment of self-reflection.

We can't be good at everything.

Putting the problems of naming the elemental to the side, Rory sat down in a chair he had fashioned, watching it splashing around in the magma.

I wonder if I should make another elemental.

If he did, he would hatch a 'clutch' of elementals together and then make sure to leave before they matured into nascent elementals, not intending to have a small colony of elementals all imprinted upon him.

Would they all be World Ichor elementals?

It was a possibility, but one that Rory didn't put too much stock into. Being the first elemental ever, Rory couldn't help but consider if the passive Foundational affinity of his essence inscription hadn't potentially had some specific interplay that had resulted in the first ever elemental being a more special variety.

Basically, I doubt I can make an army of special elementals.

"I think I'll hold off for the time being," Rory finally announced to himself. "First, I need more monster cores, and second, I'm not even sure I want to waste monster cores on making more elementals for no reason aside from my own belief that a volcano should have fire elementals."

Having settled that, it was as if Eon had been waiting for Rory to finish his deliberations as a notification suddenly appeared.

"Huh?"

Curious about the notification, Rory opened it as an interface that had only appeared once before flashed before his eyes.

Direct Title Acquired: Loew

Through consistent curiosity and a thirst for the unknown, experiments into the concepts of affecting life itself have led to the birth of things never seen before. Once per [variable] period, grants a Progeny boon, instilling a creation with large amounts of innate significance.

"A title. Haven't seen one of those since I first acquired the Genie's Apprentice title."

Unlike in most video games, where titles often gave bonuses to stats or the like, titles in their world functioned more like limited spell slots from something like a tabletop game like Dungeons and Dragons. One could only hold a single title at a time, and swapping between titles had a one-month cooldown. This hadn't mattered to Rory for the longest time, as he had only had a single title, but that had changed now.

Speaking of which, when was the last time I even used a Reinterpretation charge?

"At least a few years," Rory said out loud. They just weren't as prevalent as one would expect. Reinterpretation wasn't a Law; he couldn't cheat the 'system' with them, as if Eon didn't like his suggestion, it would veto it, end of story. For that reason, he rarely had anything he wanted to attempt to 'reinterpret' and as such, he'd barely used the title over the last few years.

But this title seemed more interesting.

"Large amounts of innate significance."

Rory pursed his lips as he considered that line. Significance was hugely important; it was the very basis of how one continued to progress and push their tier, ascending higher and higher. Every action was associated with some degree of significance, but the significance attached to most actions was so minor it may as well have been zero. For something to have an 'innate' significance was huge, therefore.

"Now what exactly is this variable cooldown- oh…. Oh."

Curious, Rory had tapped on the 'variable' component of the cooldown, only to frown.

"Current cooldown: Twenty years."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

With a twenty-year cooldown, that meant he'd only get four or so uses before Tier eight. As his tier climbed, Rory had a feeling that so too would the cooldown, as his ability to impart 'more' increased as well.

"Still, it's better than my reinterpretations," Rory muttered. Silent for several minutes, Rory leaned back, arms folded, as he stared at the ceiling overhead.

"Ehh, what does it matter?" Rory finally said with a shrug. "Titles aren't skills, and it's better not to think of them in that same fashion. It's a cool thing that I couldn't do before, so no point in spitting a gift horse in the face."

Feeling better about the situation, Rory put it to rest. Eia was currently out, and the nascent elemental was splashing about, leaving Rory little to do for the time being.

"Well, when you finish one thing, that just means you should start another."

Sweat poured from Rory as he hammered away at the piece of metal, frowning. In the background, an elemental was imitating him, its ghostly-magma body waving its nubby arms as if hammering something as well.

"Still not good enough," Rory muttered.

Rory had been hammering away at a metal bar, an ingot of Promethium, his arms aching and shaking from just how long he had been at it.

As for what he was attempting to make?

Nothing, actually.

"I know it must be possible," Rory frowned, the ingot frustrating him as it had been for some time now.

Still frowning, Rory glanced over at the elemental.

"Hey, Jinn, come here for a moment and help me out, would you?"

The nascent elemental, now level twelve, floated over. In the end, Rory had decided to be the one to name the elemental. It felt like a clever name, at least by Rory's standard conventions, as it was a play off the fact that right after 'creating' the elemental, he had received a new title to swap over Genie's Apprentice.

It was that consideration that had caused Rory to recall that genies, often referred to as djinn, were themselves frequently depicted as floating fiery beings, and as such, the name had come naturally to Rory.

As the elemental floated next to Rory, it reached its ghostly magma nubs out as Rory handed it the ingot with his prosthetic hand. While the elemental seemed almost incorporeal with its wispy appearance, it was a physical-type elemental, its body formed from World Ichor. Corporeal, it was more than capable of cradling the ingot close to its body as it began to glow, heating up in contact with its body.

Once the ingot was white-hot, Rory nodded to the elemental as he retrieved the ingot, once more relying on his prosthetic hand to ignore the issue of directly handling white-hot metal.

"Thanks," Rory said as the elemental bobbed its blobby head, floating away to play in the magma whirlpool.

Rory's gaze lingered on the elemental, observing it. When it wasn't imitating him, it could otherwise be found either splashing around in the magma pool or 'sleeping' within the golden lava. Somehow, just the act of submerging itself within the magma was enough for the nascent elemental to gain levels. While it was only level twelve, Rory didn't doubt that even tier two or potentially low-tier-three monsters would struggle to handle the little elemental just because of how damn hot it was, hotter than even the golden magma it played around in.

While the pure heat of the elemental would have made it next to impossible for most low-tier monsters to handle, that didn't make the nascent elemental particularly dangerous. Rory didn't even know if it knew what fighting was, but sometimes an insane natural defense was more than enough.

Meanwhile, when I was tier one, I was fighting for my life to survive against bunnies. There's no justice.

Not actually bothered, Rory went back to working on the ingot, hammering and folding and hammering some more, irritation growing with each strike.

Come on! I'm sure it's possible.

In theory, what Rory was attempting was something that had no reason not to be possible; the scales he had obtained from the Tyrant of Earth and Scales had suggested as much. Folding metal wasn't a new concept, far from it, but Rory wasn't trying to fold out impurities or the like. No, what Rory wanted to do was to fold the metal to the point that it took up 'less' space, compacting the material and increasing the overall density without changing the material's state itself. If he could take two ingots, for example, and fold them down into a single ingot's worth of space, it would, in theory, 'double' the strength of the material. Now, whether it actually doubled the overall strength or not was less important; Rory didn't really care about the material strength increase being double or only fifty percent, for that matter. It was simply the concept, the possibility, that mattered.

And so far, Rory was having no dice; he'd spent ages hammering away at the ingot and failing to alter the physical space it occupied.

Raising his hammer once more, Rory lowered it after a glance and a frown. The hammer was in rough shape.

"I think it's about time I make some new forging equipment first."

Rory had been using basic stabilized steel gear for his tools, but they were far from invincible; in fact, they were softer than the metals he was currently working with, and it was only due to heating them first that the stabilized steel tools worked as well as they had.

"You know," Rory pondered out loud. "Maybe it's time I make some personalized tools."

His knife had been his most loyal tool and creation; nothing else had lasted as long as it had, and its ability to be improved alongside himself was a significant boon. Rory wasn't sure he could recreate that very easily nowadays, as it had taken a rather massive amount of blood essence proportional to what he had.

"I'm not sure if it's worth it at this point; it would take a LOT out of me."

Prepared to leave it at that and make a regular tool, Rory paused for a moment.

Wait… That's fucking stupid. What sort of reasoning is that?

So what if it put him near the edge? It wasn't as if he was preparing to march off into battle anytime soon. Rory highly doubted that his fellow founder, the tank in human skin, would stumble upon the entrance to his base anytime soon.

"If that's the case," Rory said, mind already whirling with ideas. "What's the best way to do this?"

Rory spent several minutes thinking before shrugging, as he entered his Mind Palace, live models appearing as he tapped his chin. He could start by whipping up a hammer straight from Promethium, infusing it with blood essence as he worked.

Nah, a considerable point of a blood-bound tool is that it can be upgraded over time, so it's probably better to start from scratch.

His crafting knife had started as a simple stone tool and, over time, had been improved by carefully absorbing material to upgrade the blade.

Probably a solid foundation to work from.

On its own, that would have likely been enough, but that was… basic. Rory had come a long way since those early years, much less those early days, and there were two crafts he wanted to incorporate into the making of his newest tool.

Gem Crafting and Alchemy.

Planning it for some time, the early kernels of an idea began to form and bloom as Rory found his excitement rising.

That could work. Oh, that could SERIOUSLY work.

He had already recently tested a monster core's ability to harness inscriptions, so why not try to affect it with alchemy next?

I don't have many cores left to experiment with, though.

With that in mind, Rory realized his first step wasn't preparing materials. No, first he would have to go on a rampage, slaughtering monsters until he had at least a few extra monster cores to work with.

Now, I could either travel outside, or….

There was another option that Rory had recently 'discovered', and it had primarily to do with the fact that as his tunnels and base had expanded downward into the volcano, something had caught his attention.

Aura, and lots of it, and not the passive sort of aura that existed in high-energy areas.

Though there was an element of that as well.

No, it was clear that while the mid-section of the volcano was primarily solid stone with some scatterings of caverns and caves, the basement of the volcano was home to monsters. Now, he hadn't yet discovered them himself. Still, he knew the feel of a large collection of monsters when he felt it.

Alright, so tunnel deeper into the mountain, maybe pick up more materials where I can, and locate where all those monsters are. After that, go on a rampage, nab some cores, and then the hammer comes after.

Once he had collected some monster cores, he would begin some experimenting. The plan was relatively simple; using alchemy, he would purify and refine the monster core, removing all traces of monster elements, until it was nothing more than an extremely receptive pearl-like core.

From there, he would attempt to map upon the core, transforming it into a proper gem for Gem Crafting. While typically a gem was finite in usage, often requiring exchanges from time to time, he hoped that when made from a monster core that had been processed and refined, it would maintain the ability to 'grow', which would counteract the degradation that gems normally withstood.

Probably going to need to learn on some liberal application of a Living Rune array inscribed upon the core… It is a damn good thing I'm doing this AFTER I've already messed around with inscribing on cores, I can only imagine how rough trying to inscribe a Living Rune would be on a monster core had I not already gained some experience in that area.

With the refined monster core, from there, Rory intended to use it as the 'heart' of his new hammer, allowing it to potentially do-

Well… I'm not sure what it would allow it to do, but it can only be good stuff!

With the heart of his blood-bound tool, all that would be left was the usual affair of upgrading the tool, after which he would have a hammer that could hopefully last for many tiers into the future.

Sounds like a plan to me.

Exiting his mind palace, Rory stretched his arms overhead; the whiplash of time dilation took a few seconds to acclimate to every time.

"Step negative one, murder a bunch of monsters. Step zero: Make a new hammer. Then back to square one, working on this damned ingot."

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