"Well, isn't that damn nice?" Rory whistled as he took in the reward for slaying the Tyrant of Earth and Scales. Having their region 'contested' by Ehkorrus and the Tyrant had rendered some of their 'claims' less effective, or something along those lines.

"I'm sure Irene and Apostolos will appreciate this," Rory nodded to himself. He'd probably ask them for their input before making any choices for the awarded Perk and Decree. That aside, it was the least interesting part of the reward. The actual reward was the deceased body of the Tyrant.

"Some damn fine materials, if I do say so myself," Rory said as he looked at the fallen corpse. He'd caused some damage to its scales, but there was still more than enough for his plans to make a final armor set. He had overcharged his fatigues, and before the day was out, they'd burn out entirely.

"Normally, I'd have to drag this entire thing back, but…" Rory glanced at the corpse before looking at his vambrace. Touching it with his hand, the entire thing vanished.

"Nifty," Rory said, appreciating the inventory for the umpteenth time.

With nothing left to do in the area, Rory was prepared to leave until suddenly, having an idea, he activated one of the functions of his eye skill. Like a glowing trail, Rory felt drawn toward the inner earth, the tunnels the Tyrant had dug underneath its home.

"Gotcha, going to have to give Irene a heads up," Rory said to himself. Using the former Eye for Potential aspect of his Eyes of the Architect, he quickly realized there was a rather considerable assortment of interesting goodies beneath the earth.

Probably ores and usable minerals, if I had to guess.

The second floor of the Maw was where they collected most of their earthen materials over the last two years, ever since they'd fully cleared the floor and 'unlocked' the hidden resources. As useful as that was, it wasn't unlimited, and as Ehkorrus grew, they'd use up those hidden caches faster and faster.

This left them with two options: either search for ore deposits and similar resources in the areas around their city or risk exploring the third floor of the Maw. Given that only Violet had breached tier six, it was likely going to be some time before they could tackle that more head-on, especially with Rory's impending departure; the next strongest would have been Apostolos, who couldn't afford the luxury of vanishing for days, if not weeks or longer at a time.

If Rory's guess about what was beneath the former home of the Tyrant was correct, then that would help hold over Ehkorrus until the rest of Team MVM reached tier six, allowing them access to the third floor that wasn't outside the acceptable range of risk.

"Look at me, doing one final service for Ehkorrus before I leave," Rory said, patting himself on the back both figuratively and physically.

With nothing left to do in the area, Rory made his way back to Ehkorrus, not quite taking his time but not returning at a full sprint either. Spending the better part of twenty minutes, Rory soon returned to find Apostolos standing almost exactly where he'd left him.

"Did you wait there the entire time?" Rory questioned.

"Don't kid yourself. Had you taken much longer, I would have returned to any of my more pressing responsibilities," Apostolos rolled his eyes at Rory. "I figured it wouldn't take you all that long either."

"Fair enough," Rory said with a nod. "Not going to ask if I prevailed?"

In response, Apostolos stared at Rory as if he were an idiot.

"Right, not much of a question," Rory sighed. "Oh, quick heads up, two to be exact. First-"

Rory flicked over an interface to Apostolos, who raised his eyebrows in response.

"Decree, Perk, settlement capabilities enhanced, and claims maximized." Apostolos whistled. "Damn."

"What's your call on what to do with those?"

"One of the decrees should go for a Fertility Credit," Apostolos said instantly, to which Rory raised his eyebrows.

"We've already got a Fertility Tax. If we want Ehkorrus to grow, people will eventually have to have kids. This will enable all reduced fertility to be offset by a higher success rate among those who want children."

"Fair enough," Rory agreed. "I just didn't expect you'd go for that so soon."

"No idea when our next Decree will be earned, I'd rather grab it now rather than be forced to wait years."

"Fair enough," Rory repeated. "As for the Perk?"

"We've already got stuff like Star Land or Savage Jungle." Apostolos remained silent for several moments before nodding to himself. "Another point to Blood Swell."

"Huh, didn't expect that," Rory said, surprised. "Why?"

"You're the main contributor of vital energies with the use of the Blood Sacrifice decree. With you leaving, we need to offset that. Blood Swell can ensure an easy supply. Additionally, although not a direct boost, stimulating blood flow enhances the capabilities of those residing in Ehkorrus. Maybe not as much as a direct boost, but it still exists."

"I see your point," Rory said.

"Do you approve?"

"I don't think it matters if I do or not," Rory laughed. "You and Irene are the ones who call the shots in that department. I'm more like a mascot."

"Sounds good to me," Apostolos said. "I'll inform Irene."

"Sounds good to me," Rory said, throwing the words back at Apostolos. "While I'm at it…"

Fiddling with his interface for a moment, Apostolos half frowned as his own interface popped open a moment later.

"You can give me permission to handle this stuff?" He said after a moment, reading through a prompt that had informed him that he had been given the ability to select and alter Sovereign System features as he pleased, no longer requiring Rory's consent for some of the features.

"Guess so. Just never bothered to try until now," Rory snorted.

"You're an idiot." Apostolos sighed. He was the only one in Ehkorrus who would willingly call out his master for being precisely that, an idiot. Maybe not a true idiot, but the older man was prone to putting on blinders to anything outside his direct concern.

"I am what I am," Rory said, not bothering to refute him. "Anyway, I've got to get some work done."

"Being?" Apostolos asked.

"I've got a monster to dissect," Rory said, glancing toward his vambrace,

"Well, have fun with that. Just drop off anything usable at the warehouse after."

"Sir, yes, sir," Rory saluted as Apostolos rolled his eyes, flipping him the bird before he left to do whatever it was that he spent his time doing.

"Alright, time to get to business…"

Rory stared at the corpse, now lying in his 'basement.' He wasn't sure if that was the technical term, but it was the space beneath the main floor of his home that had begun hollowing out as the roots of his treehouse began to grow deeper and deeper.

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Armed with his trusty crafting knife, Rory was currently flipping the knife through the air rather flippantly. With any other knife, it would have been a poor idea. His crafting knife was a different story; it was physically incapable of inflicting harm, some weird conceptual shenanigans at play.

"Where to begin?"

The Tyrant wasn't that large, the size of a bear, far smaller than many other monsters he'd encountered, such as an Ash Worm or the Khan of Blue Lightning. At most, it would take him two, maybe three hours to handle.

Hmmm. Probably two, just looking at the state of things.

A decent amount of its scales had been damaged during their battle; it wouldn't take quite as long as if it were in perfect shape. Given its size compared to how many scales he needed, there wouldn't be much of an issue; there were still enough scales for at least a few sets of armor.

"Well, may as well start from its back," Rory said after a moment of further contemplation. Now that the monster was dead, it was far easier to strip it of materials. The vital energy acting as a sort of 'glue' or hardening agent that boosted its physical attributes had long since dissipated.

That didn't make it easy, but at least he wasn't trying to carve through scales and flesh that had required a rare-grade spearhead that could partially sever space to dissect it.

Spending two hours shuffling around its corpse, Rory soon had a pile of scales to the right of the off-brand Godzilla-looking monster. In truth, it was the only part of the monster that he really wanted; the rest he was more than okay with handing off to others to make use of. Greg would surely appreciate experimenting with dishes made from the flesh of a Territory Alpha, and Mariah or Gil could probably put its bones to good use.

But not my problem.

Storing the corpse once more into his inventory, the scales were gathered a moment later. Taking a detour to the gradually growing warehouse of Ehkorrus, Rory intended to drop off the corpse. When he arrived, Irene was nowhere to be found, her assistant in training there in her stead.

"Founder Rory," The young man lowered his head to Rory as he appeared. "To what do we owe the pleasure?'

"Just dropping off a monster corpse," Rory answered with a shrug as the de-scaled Tyrant corpse landed on the ground.

The young man's eyes widened as the corpse appeared. If he was curious about how the corpse had appeared from thin air, he didn't ask. Instead, he glanced at Rory, awe in his eyes.

"Is this the Tyrant? I've heard mention and description of it before. Did you manage to kill it?"

"Um, yes?" Rory answered. He often forgot that most of the run-of-the-mill citizens weren't privy to everything he was up to, unlike Apostolos, with whom he frequently shared his plans, or at least the gist of them.

"Wow," The young man said, staring silently for several seconds before shaking his head. "Once others learn of this, well, I'm sure everyone will be excited. Knowing that this monster was lurking only a few miles away was always a bit daunting, and it was only the walls and your presence that had put the minds of everyone here at ease. With this, there is nothing to fear."

Well, that's not exactly true. Rory wanted to point out. This world was massive, and their controlled region extended maybe ten miles in any given direction now that the Tyrant had been slain. With just a bit of mental math, that came out to an area of roughly three hundred and fourteen square miles. Considering Aelia was approximately -and approximately was doing a LOT of heavy lifting in this case- the size of Earth's sun, that meant the surface area of Aelia was somewhere in the trillions of square miles in size. They may as well have controlled a single speck of sand on a beach for all that mattered.

Rory had absolutely no doubt that monsters were roaming at this point that would eat the Tyrant of Earth and Scales up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Hell, the real only limitation was Aelia herself; once she had established her 'equilibrium,' there was nothing to stop her from seeding more and more powerful monsters.

Rory, not being a total asshole, wasn't about to scare the poor kid. Instead, he nodded.

"It wasn't much," Rory said with a shrug, trying his best to play to the expectations of what an enigmatic founder of the first city would behave like.

Leaving the warehouse behind, Rory directed himself not to the forge but to their runic facility, where their bound circle and other conveniences could be found. It was thankfully empty of anyone else. While Ehkorrus was growing, it still only numbered fewer than fifty people in total, and not everywhere was it constantly occupied. Taking the scales, he examined them for a moment.

Scales of Earthen Tyrants

Quality: Rare

The scales of a would-be Tyrant. Each scale has the strength to resist the crushing weight of miles of earth and stone pressing down upon them. Due to the pressure of the ground pressing upon the Scales of Earthen Tyrants, the physical space they occupy has been compressed, enhancing their durability.

It was par for the course of what a description of any potent material often had, overly flowery language, and probably at least somewhat embellished.

Still, there was one aspect of the description that Rory found intriguing, the mention of how the 'physical space' they occupied had been compressed. They were dense; that much was evident from simply picking up a scale, but the idea that the 'space' they took up had been compressed was a curiosity that piqued Rory's interest. His recent work on creating an inventory space involved many 'space-y' elements. Most of it had been quasi-esoteric, consisting of weird, conceptual fake regions of non-real space and other gibberish that would have sounded insane to Rory back on Earth.

The scales felt different because they were different. They weren't weird, fake spaces inside real space or any other strange, esoteric possibilities. The sheer density of the scales suggested that it was the literal space that had been compressed.

"Well, if I remember my science courses correctly, most physical matter is made up of something like ninety-nine point nine percent empty space. Maybe it's referring to the idea that these scales have reduced that number?"

It was his best working hypothesis for the moment. Over time, the scales of the Tyrant had not grown thicker outwardly. Instead, due to the pressure from the ground above, they were forced to expand inward, utilizing some of the abundant empty space.

"If that's possible… Could I replicate it?" Rory questioned out loud. If he could forge an ingot that had the density of two ingots, for example, while only taking the 'relative' space of one, it could massively improve the state of gear or items he made.

Easy there. Thoughts for the future.

A curiosity, but not an immediate one. Instead, Rory intended to perform a bit of Alchemical Transmutation. The scales were impressive, yes, but they weren't what he was looking for. Something he'd learned over the years of working alongside folks such as Gil, Mariah, or Viviann was that there was a significant element crucial to creating something truly powerful. On paper, Gil and Mariah were both more practiced artisans than he was, with their singular focus. He had a tier advantage, but from a purely technical skill aspect, he reckoned they were as good, if not better, than he was.

So why was it that anything he made solely by himself was better than what they could do as a group?

The answer was harmony. Being a single craftsman who handled everything from sourcing the alchemical components to forging pieces and adding inscriptions, he knew exactly what his intent was. That harmony brought about a resonance that uplifted the entirety of what he was doing. In contrast, when his three counterparts came together to work on something, there were rough edges where the non-continguous aspects of their individual skills didn't meld properly, like two pieces of metal poorly welded together.

That understanding of harmony was what Rory was seeking now with the Scales of Earthen Tyrants. It carried a rather intense sense of the earth, of heavy stone and shifting tectonic plates.

All of that was great and potent, but it wasn't what Rory needed.

Simply put, it was too heavy. Rory liked the density that the scales felt, but he could realign the overall aspect of the scales.

I need something more…. Me.

Rory had two affinities under his belt; his first affinity was that of blood itself, an affinity he used far less over the last few years than he had in his initial years. His second affinity was the 'lattice' affinity. It was an affinity that seemed to represent as a sort of crystalline aspect most readily. It wasn't actually crystal, but when Rory used it externally, it was easiest to project it outward in crystal form.

"Alright, no more delay, let's get to work."

Tossing a few crystals into the braziers surrounding the bound circle, Rory quickly took hold of the space. Concentrating, he felt the scales, using his deepest perceptions to lock onto the aspects at play within the scales. Years ago, it would have been an hours-long process, if not days. With an improved bound circle and plenty of practice manipulating the 'hidden' aspects of their world, now it took the better part of a measly half an hour for Rory to lock onto the sense of the deep earth.

Alright, well, let's just… tweak this a bit.

Like he was playing Jenga with metaphysical bricks, Rory imagined drawing out the sense of the 'earth' from the scales while at the same time replacing it with his own lattice affinity. In real-time, Rory saw as the scales began to transform, changing from looking like shale to resembling roughly hewn geodes.

So far, so good.

There was another aspect as to why it was so much easier than in the past: he had a proper skill for what he was doing now, leveraging his Alchemical Transmutation skill. It was hard to say exactly how that worked, other than it seemed to reinforce what he was already doing, as if there were energies at play that made his life easier. The catch was that it exhausted him faster than brute-forcing it, but that was to be expected from using any skill.

Having transmuted roughly a third of the scales, Rory paused what he was doing. If he so pleased, he could have called it there and have been satisfied. Transmutation was more difficult with living things, and the scales, thankfully, were not classified as living things. Therefore, the entire thing had been relatively quick to finish. Furthermore, realigning something like an earth affinity to a lattice affinity was surprisingly simple, the affinities sharing aspects that made the crossover far easier.

As it stood, the scales were good enough.

But 'good enough' wasn't enough for Rory, not when he had the chance to go beyond that without much comparative hassle. He wanted to take the scales a step further. After all, he'd already realigned the scales without much struggle.

Now, it was time to corrupt them.

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