After spending the better part of several days resting from the relentless blood essence drain and literal bloodletting, Rory was ready to get back in the saddle and tackle his initial goal.

Which was all well and good, until another few days later, his hammer went flying through the air, cracking into the stone wall of his cave workshop.

"I just don't get it!" Rory shouted, wanting to tear out his hair. "This should be working!"

Jinn the elemental stared at Rory, before diving into the magma once more as it decided it wasn't worth the attention.

He had spent all that time crafting up one hell of a hammer, only for it not to matter.

Probably shouldn't toss my tools like a pissed off sixteen-year-old.

Flexing his fingers, several threads of Pneuma snapped forward, yanking the hammer back to Rory, who caught it with a frown.

What am I missing?

His goal was to physically compress some metal, thereby reducing the space between atoms and doubling its density as the empty space was reduced.

And he'd made no progress.

He had tried cold hammering, hot hammering, hammering under the effect of Pneuma, everything he could conceive, but nothing seemed to work. He would have given up, assuming the idea was impossible, if not for the implication that the original scales from the Tyrant of Earth and Scales suggested it was possible.

So, what am I missing?

Seams Unseen hadn't been useful, striking weak points just broke the metal. Inscriptions did nothing; they were worn off almost immediately as he began to hammer away at the metal. Nothing seemed to work.

Part of him wanted to go on a walk, take a break, and get some fresh air, but a nagging sense in the back of his mind made him give up on the idea.

That lunatic might be out there.

Snorting at the thought, Rory paused after a moment.

Huh. That might be an idea.

Rory had been putting so much thought into how to hammer the ingot just right, what technique to use, that perhaps there was no technique, just pure, annoying persistence, much like the durable beast of a woman that had nearly kicked his ass.

Well, more than nearly.

"Well, humans and persistence hunting and all that jazz."

Rory grunted, agreeing with himself, clearly Jinn wasn't about to, as he set his mind to his new task.

Hammer metal. Then hammer it some more. And then even more.

Taking a moment to stare at his hammer, Rory contemplated whether it was necessary to upgrade it already.

Ehh, maybe afterward.

Unlike his knife, which had undergone two evolutions, his hammer had only been treated to one, leaving more room for immediate growth. It was something he would likely address soon, but he had spent enough time working on the hammer that he decided against it.

Anyway, this might be how I plan to improve the hammer further.

Feeling like he had direction, Rory snagged an ossified blood gem from his inventory, frowning momentarily.

Huh, I haven't replenished these in a while. Going to have to spend some time on that.

Shrugging it off, Rory took the ossified blood gem, a slow-acting variant, and popped it into his mouth. It wasn't meant to heal himself, but rather to sustain him as he began to work.

And work he did, focusing entirely on hammering away at the ingot.

Day.

After day.

After day.

After day.

Time seemed to pass in a blur as Rory fixed the entirety of his attention on his singular task, Eia coming and going. Even Jinn the World Ichor Elemental gradually gained a level or two from passively absorbing volcanic energies.

Finally, Rory triumphantly held the ingot aloft. Or what had been an ingot, as it was now roughly half its original size.

"I did it!"

Stroking his beard, now looking like a proper dwarven hermit, Rory grinned maniacally.

Pneuma-Enriched Iron

Quality: Common

A metal found most often near the surface. It is mildly infused with Pneuma.

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Pneuma-Enriched Iron +1

Quality: Uncommon

A metal found most often near the surface. It is mildly infused with Pneuma.

"It worked!" Rory celebrated. Throughout his years, they had never managed to improve Enriched Iron itself.

Alloying it into something better?

Sure.

Alchemically treat or alter it?

No doubt, it had been done many times.

But a linear grade improvement where the metal was still recognized as regular Enriched Iron?

Never seen.

At least until now.

Aside from the fact that he now seemingly had 'half' the metal to work with, the lump was heavy, weighing about twice as much as it should have.

Or, in other words, half an ingot worth of Enriched Iron +1 weighed the same as a regular bar.

It wasn't as if Rory had an electron microscope. However, he was reasonably confident that the reason for such was precisely what he had been going for; he had cut down on the wasted space between matter, folding an ingot's worth of matter into the space that half an ingot usually comprised.

I wonder how far I can take this?

Rory genuinely wasn't sure he could push Enriched Iron much further than this. Not because it might not be possible, but because his attributes weren't up to snuff, it had taken striking the bar with nearly all his strength, even to fold inward once, a second level of 'True Folding' was simply beyond him.

True Folding… Hmmm, I like that.

Settled on the name for the new technique, Rory glanced once more at the half ingot.

Can I turn this into stabilized steel, or is it locked in at this point?

While the ingot of +1 Enriched Iron was nifty from a proof-of-concept standpoint, it wasn't much stronger than Stabilized steel from his elementary assessment.

+1 Stabilized steel, on the other hand, could be far more interesting. It had once been the strongest material Rory could craft outright, so it would be fitting if it could reclaim that title, even for a short period.

Why not?

With nothing else to spend his time preoccupied with, Rory began the next phase of his testing immediately. During his experimentation, what jumped out at him immediately was that while the temperature at which the Enriched Iron melted hadn't changed, just how long it needed to be exposed to continuous heat had.

Any True Folded metal is going to be resistant to attempts at flash melting, if that's the case, meaning a dedicated forge is necessary, and a bound circle won't be enough.

It was good to note for whenever he next planned to relocate, but that wouldn't be for some time, so Rory neatly filed that tidbit of information away.

The next part of the experimentation was the actual infusion of trace elements to alter the enriched iron into properly stabilized steel. Again, the actual process hadn't changed; just the overall period of exposure, as well as the amount of any given resource Rory needed, had been significantly increased.

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When he had finally finished, Rory could only frown as he held up the freshly made partial ingot of stabilized steel.

"No extra tag," Rory muttered. Rather than a +1 variant, it was still a 'base' variety. It felt heftier than other ingots of stabilized steel that he had made in the past, but not quite double like it should have.

Alright, folding then forging loses some of the effect. Noted.

If all he had to do were True Fold the lower-grade metals and then alloy them into higher-grade metals, maintaining the same +1 tag, it would have been far too easy.

No shortcuts. Got it.

Feeling like he had enough information to work with, Rory prepared several ingots worth +1 Enriched Iron. While he eventually improved his speed at making the improved ingots, it was still a process longer than nearly any other. Once he was satisfied with how much he'd processed, he quickly began setting up a ritual for infusing his hammer with the +1 Enriched Iron.

Unlike infusion rituals of the past, this ritual was far more extensive, utilizing a monster core or two as temporary pneuma batteries alongside the regular affair of bound circles and runic arrays. Knowing how long the +1 enriched iron needed to be exposed to heat to melt down fully, Rory had needed a much more advanced setup to maintain that sort of heat for an extended period, it wasn't as easy as melting the metal down at a regular forge since he needed to directly infuse his hammer with the molten metal at the same time.

What should have been an easy matter ended up taking over two weeks of preparation. Rory decidedly did not want to find out what would happen if it failed midway through.

Finally, the day had come as Rory placed his newest hammer with the ingots of +1 enriched iron together. Expecting the unexpected, the unexpected truly occurred.

Which was that nothing unexpected occurred. Which itself was unexpected.

I'm starting to lose meaning in the word unexpected.

Having gotten his hands on his improved hammer, further improved to be exact, Rory began the task of working on making +1 stabilized steel. It wasn't an overly exciting process; he made ingots of stabilized steel and then attempted to pound them into submission, folding and hammering them endlessly until they eventually compressed into the +1 variants.

Taking those same ingots, Rory repeated the infusion process with his hammer and the ingots, having to expand the entire ritual setup again. Fully supported by an array of pneuma crushers, monster cores, and numerous bound circles, it was just enough to sustain the extensive heat needed to flash-melt the metal ingots while also maintaining it over an extended period.

Blood-bound Artisan's Hammer

Grade: Uncommon

The tool of choice for many professions, the hammer can be used for a wide range of purposes, from forging metals to driving nails through architecture. This hammer has been directly bound to the blood essence of its crafter and has withstood its first advancement. How many more it will see has yet to be determined.

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Blood-bound Artisan's Hammer

Grade: Uncommon+

The tool of choice for many professions, the hammer can be used for a wide range of purposes, from forging metals to driving nails through architecture. This hammer has been directly bound to the blood essence of its crafter and has withstood its second advancement. Composed of two layers' worth of True Folded ingots, this hammer is noted as being exceptionally heavy for its size.

The description wasn't lying about how heavy the hammer had become. Its first layer of advancement had been solidified with an extra infusion of +1 enriched iron, and its second advancement had utilized ingots of +1 stabilized steel. Without the attributes that came from several ascensions, Rory doubted he would have even been able to lift the hammer back on Earth without needing full-body leverage.

"Alright, Mjolnir," Rory joked, staring at the hammer.

Which was all fun and games, until the display updated again.

Mjolnir, Hammer of the Architect

Grade: Uncommon+

The hammer of the first Architect. It has a wide range of uses, from forging metals to driving nails through architecture. This hammer has been directly bound to the blood essence of the Architect and has withstood its second advancement. Composed of two layers' worth of True Folded ingots, this hammer is noted as being exceptionally heavy for its size.

"Wait… ah shit," Rory muttered. Sure, having a hammer named Mjolnir was badass, but it was also a hammer that couldn't be used for fighting, which took away from how badass a name it was.

Can I name all my tools? Scratch that, naming things probably only works with special items.

Armed with his newest named tool, Rory stood proudly, hands on his hips, beaming.

"Now…. What was I doing again?"

He'd spent such a considerable amount of time working purely on his hammer and the process of discovering True Folding that he had totally forgotten whatever his last goal had been.

Running his hand through his rather long beard, at least one thing stood out to him.

First things first…. I really need to shave.

"Seriously, where the hell is he?" Zoey muttered under her breath.

She had been lingering around the original volcano where she had discovered the Architect for months, if not at least a year or two. She knew it was easy to lose track of time, lord knew she'd spent enough years trapped in the floating isles for long enough to understand that, but this was beginning to become a little silly.

She had just inched past the halfway mark to level seventy-two in the last few months, so roughly fifteen percent of the way through tier seven, meaning she'd been hanging out at the floating isles for a good eight or so years at this point. She thought she knew patience, but the fact that this Architect could seemingly vanish for months at a time made her reconsider if she understood the meaning of patience.

Hell, the only reason she hadn't suspected the Architect of running was his serpent. She thought she was sneaky, and generally, she was, as her camouflage was almost impossible to see through. Still, her method of hunting was unique compared to that of other monsters on the mountain. It made it relatively easy to put two and two together, and enough persistence stalking on Zoey's part that she had spotted the snake on a few occasions.

Zoey had attempted to track the serpent back to their lair, or whatever they called it. Still, the snake was smart enough to activate her camouflage before taking efforts to lose the trail of anyone who might be following her. It was a manner of behavior that Zoey suspected had been a result of the Architect's prudence, warning her that she was still out here.

Zoey would call it paranoid thinking, but given that was precisely what was happening, she couldn't blame him, as he was one hundred percent correct in his assumptions.

Which left Zoey unimaginably bored. Her entire shtick was exploring and experiencing new things. She'd spent so much time within the floating volcanic isles that she had felt like she'd discovered everything of interest so far. Sure, there were some… peculiar areas, but until she felt like she could overwhelm a high-tier-seven monster, maybe even a tier eight, they were off limits to her.

So, she was left murdering monsters in her days of endless boredom, waiting, praying, for something interesting to occur eventually.

Eventually, her wish came true.

Standing atop a floating island that could have been mistaken for an asteroid locked in an interdiction beam, Zoey had spotted something unusual. It was a glowing red mantis, a monster that Zoey had never spotted in this region before. Curious, Zoey couldn't help herself as she attempted to check it out.

A mistake, as within moments of creeping closer, the mantis snapped its focus directly to her.

"Oh, fuck!" Zoey shouted, already aware it was too late. She knew exactly what the monster was, a monster that E.O.N. claimed to be her nemesis.

Her Chosen Bane.

The mantis rocketed toward her like a firework launched from a tube, its mantis arms swung toward her. Gritting her teeth, Zoey met the monster's attack upon her shield, the entire item shuddering as the monster's arms began to saw through with serrated spikes that glowed red.

It had been some time since she had last seen the Bane. Mid-tier six, to be exact, when it had decisively beaten her down and claimed victory for the tier-six bracket. Usually, Zoey felt confident in her ability to withstand all but the most powerful monsters who were above her in tier. The Chosen Bane –and the Architect, most recently—were some of the only things to have managed to overcome her durability as equal-tier opponents. Unlike the Architect, her Chosen Bane seemed to ignore her durability freely, each of its attacks piercing armor or durability in some fashion.

It was a bad match-up, but that was also the point; the Chosen Banes were meant to be their antithesis, their arch-enemies, or whatever E.O.N. chose to describe them as.

Catching another strike from the monster on her shield, Zoey frowned lightly.

Huh.

The first few times the Chosen Bane had defeated her were through the same method it was utilizing now, gradually beating her down with attacks that slowly chewed through her defenses, her lack of damage potential biting her in the ass.

Except.

Except this time around, something was different, something that the Chosen Bane seemingly hadn't accounted for, a new skill in her repertoire, a skill she had gained in her efforts to prepare herself for the battle against the Architect.

For minutes, their battle dragged on. It wasn't an exciting confrontation, but then most battles against her weren't all that exciting. Without a raw tier advantage, it couldn't simply rip through her defenses with a huge attribute disparity.

Content to wear down her defenses, the Chosen Bane played exactly into her new advantage as the charge on Strong Counter built.

Zoey knew exactly the moment she would turn the tide. Once the oversized mantis tore through her shield, leaving her 'defenseless,' the monster would be free to go on the offensive without anything impeding its attack.

That would be the moment Zoey struck back with her Strong Counter skill, before fully inverting her attributes to beat down the momentarily stunned Bane.

Another three minutes passed as Zoey began to worry. Not because she had started to doubt her plan, but because the charge, the potential energy within the skill she planned to turn the tides with, was beginning to grow unwieldy. If things held out much longer before the Bane broke through, she'd be forced to release the power growing within her counter skill early.

Sweating, Zoey ground down her teeth, holding out for the moment, her mind beginning to ache with an unfamiliar feeling as energies taxed her brain.

Luck ended up being on her side, as at last, her shield gave out, the mantis screeching triumphantly as it raced forward to defeat its softened target.

Only to have its head knocked back with a staggering strike, Zoey's ruined shield was still capable of delivering a decisive blow even while split in two.

Staggering back in surprise, the hit had been stronger than any it had ever received from Zoey in the past, and it was too slow to react as Zoey inverted her attributes, going purely on offense as she leaped atop its back. Grabbing it from its arms, Zoey began to heave back as powerfully as she could. Even after it recovered from the stunning strike, it was too late as Zoey was already pulling back on its arms like she was attempting to get a hell of a pump in for her arms.

Muscles straining with all her might, at last, the Bane screeched in agony as Zoey ripped its arms off, leaving it unarmed.

Literally.

The Bane was a dangerous foe, that much was undeniable, but it had failed to adapt much since its first two battles; it had found a method of attack that was perfect for countering Zoey. Except things had changed, and without any real adaptations made, the monster was a sitting duck without its armor-shredding arms.

Knowing that the only thing she had to be wary of was its pincer-like jaws, Zoey methodically beat the monster down; her fists and stomping feet were enough to reduce the monster to a barely recognizable mass by the end.

Gleeful to finally be on the winning end of their encounter, Zoey was ready to crush its head underfoot, until with one final lurch of effort, the monster lurched itself off the edge of the floating rock they'd been battling upon. Watching it fall, Zoey could only frown as the Chosen Bane ignored the rules surrounding the gravity of the floating islands, instead falling far below, until it vanished out of sight entirely, perhaps into the ink black ocean.

Sighing, Zoey turned off her attribute inversion.

"A win, I got a win."

The next encounter with the Chosen Bane would be a long time from now; this had been their first encounter in tier-seven, with the following 'scheduled' encounter around mid-tier-seven.

Looking away from over the edge of the suspended rock, Zoey's eyes turned toward the largest landmass nearby, the volcanic island the Architect called home.

"Here is to hoping that you crawl out of your hole before I next meet my Bane."

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