Chapter 60: From Forge to Field
Darius sat at his workbench, the soft glow of the completed metal piece and the embossed leather hide casting a faint light. His fingers traced the intricate runes and patterns, each detail a mark of countless hours of intense precision and craft.
"Now, the final step." Darius reached to his pouch, materializing a fist-sized, high-quality mana crystal. As he turned it in his hand, the crystal's six vibrant colors danced across his face.
The crystal's core swirled with the colors of all five elements—red, blue, yellow, green, and purple—each hue vivid and distinct. At its base, a pure white light shone with equal intensity, brightening the crystal's nearly flawless internal structure.
Taking a deep breath, he focused his lightning mana, channeling it through his hands into the crystal.
With precise control, he directed high-frequency vibrations into the crystal, targeting the exact points where he intended to cut. The vibrations coursed through his fingers into the crystal, causing it to hum softly, almost unheard. Darius's eyes, glowing with concentration, followed each line he had mentally mapped out, ensuring the vibrations did not stray.
The mana crystal responded, the lines of potential fracture glowing slightly under the force. With a series of small, controlled enhancements to the vibrating energy, he made the final adjustments, deepening the energy at strategic points.
Suddenly, with a soft series of clicks, the crystal obeyed, cleaving into 18 oval shards, each the size of a pinky nail, flawless and uniform. Darius ceased the flow of mana, and the shards fell gently onto the velvet cloth he had laid out on his workbench.
He exhaled slowly, a slight smile crossing his face as he picked up one of the shards, admiring the precision of his work, "good thing these will stay out of sight; Haku would never let me hear the end of it if he saw me wearing these."
As Darius began the process of setting nine crystal shards into the metal piece and another nine into the leather, his mind was abuzz with the intricate details of his creation. "Ten arrays, split across two components, aligning to forge a singular artifact. Even in my past life i had never forged a formation treasure like this," he mused. Setting the final shards precisely in their place. "These crystals, powered continuously by the Elemental Nexus Array, will sustain the arrays indefinitely." Focusing on the most critical component, he reflected, "The Beastial Tether Array I created, will not only tame and bind the beasts to my will but will also enable me to store and summon their very essence from this armor."
With the last shard set, Darius began assembling the leather and metal pieces, his excitement building. "The Elemental Forge Matrix will serve a superficial role for now," he noted while aligning each component with obsessive care. "If nothing goes wrong, the illusions will project simulated environments for the beasts, allowing me to provide training or stimulation as needed. As I advance this array, theoretically it should create a real tangible space—a secondary world for them." He began to secure the last rivet with a few, final twists. "The stealth and defense arrays are straightforward, designed to conceal the treasure's functions from prying eyes and fortify its resilience, nothing special but this should do it...My first..."
As Darius finished securing the last rivet, a blinding white light burst forth from the piece of armor. Darius recoiled, his arm instinctively rising to shield his eyes.
Stumbling backwards, Darius's arms raised against the onslaught of brilliance. His retreat halted abruptly as his back met the cool surface of the forge. Meanwhile, the armor levitated, turning slowly in the air, its surface emitting waves of intense light that painted the walls.
As Darius's vision began to clear, a dense, heavy click sounded through the smithy. Lowering his arm, he focused intently on the levitating armor. 'What is that?' A moment of surprise flickered across his face as he spotted a floating archaic diagram encircling the piece.
Another thunderous click echoed as the array surrounding the armor gained further detail, but suddenly, it's light began to falter. Darius, noting the struggle, dropped swiftly into the lotus position. "The Elemental Nexus Array and the Beastial Tether Array are imprinted but unstable," he murmured, urgency threading his voice. 'If this continues, the arrays will explode due to the conflicting energies.'
Focusing intently on the flickering diagram, he circulated his Iightning mana, recalling the creation of the Elemental Forge Matrix. 'Revisit that moment!... the merging of two worlds, my own paths converging.'
CLICK! The diagram intensified, its glow warming his skin, but now accompanied by a grinding, ear piercing screach.
His focus sharpened, he revisited the precise instant he had crafted the array, desperately grasping for the feeling, the ethereal connection between two realms.
CLICK! In the silence of his mind, the critical moment of his first brush of true creation, hung suspended like a vivid painting.
"Origin," Darius's voice echoed clear and strong.
CLICK!
The diagram snapped into full clarity, its light erupting through the smithy. Amidst the swirling energy, Darius sat unmoved, eyes closed, as a spark ignited within his soul, touching his system of Origin and merging with the armor. "This treasure shall be named Immortal Beast Codex, the first of its kind. Not an artifact, but a Immortal Treasure!"
As Darius finished speaking, the chaos in the smithy instantly stilled as the armor froze mid-air. He opened his eyes, his aura composed.
Summoning the now gently hovering Immortal Beast Codex, he watched as the light emanating from the treasure began to fade as it floated towards him. The archaic diagram, intricate and glowing moments before, melded into the armor's surface. It integrated smoothly, like sand sifting and settling, until the entire design imprinted completely, vanishing along with the light.
Darius extended his hand, securing the armor onto his left bicep. He bit his fingertip, drawing blood, then dragged the droplet across the armor's surface. As the blood touched the metal, it was quickly absorbed.
"Bind."
At his command, the armor molded seamlessly to Darius's arm, establishing a tangible connection with the Immortal Treasure. "Success!" Darius exclaimed, his excitement causing him to leap into the air. He landed smoothly, a flush of triumph on his cheeks.
Regaining his composure with a hint of embarrassment, he strode to the center of the smithy with a satisfied grin. As he reached the central array, it sparked to life under his command. "Empty," he announced, watching as the room responded, shifting back to its original state.
The room was stripped bare—only Darius's scattered sketches and the enigmatic anvil remained. "Wish I could stash this behemoth in my pouch," Darius muttered, glancing at the anvil. "But for now, it stays. Once Haku's through, he'll handle it no problem."
His aura shifted to a fiery red as he flicked his finger, sending a small spark leaping to the papers. "Don't need these anymore," he remarked casually as the sketches ignited, leaving no trace behind. Satisfied, Darius turned and made his way to the 6th door, stepping through into the vibrant expanse of the Beast-Farm.
"Taming...little sister..." Darius voiced, shaking his head with a slight grin. "Should simplify the egg dilemma. Once she's within the Codex, no more eggs to worry about."
Stepping into the sunlight of the Beast-Farm, the Immortal Beast Codex on his arm caught the rays, its silver metal gleaming. On closer inspection, folded lines of dark green traced through the material. Notably, the armor's surface was smooth, devoid of any visible arrays or crystals, maintaining a deceptively simple appearance that hid its intricate design. The quality of the metal alone might catch an eye, but nothing about its design screamed for attention.
Deciding to check on Haku first, Darius found the slumbering beast. Encased within a cocoon of flames, only the outline of Haku was visible, his body rising and falling with each deep, ragged breath. "Don't worry, Haku, I should be back before you're done," Darius murmured softly.
He walked away, leaving a note on the ground next to Haku. It read, "Wait for me to return. I will enter the Vault regularly to see if you have succeeded. If i do not return after a year. Use this incantation below to leave. Remember, only after a year, if you leave the Vault without me, you will end up stranded with no way to return."
Now positioned before the hatchery, Darius observed the Swamp-Roach swimming, it's internal aura denser than before. "Seems you've been eating well," he noted. "Let's try the Beastial Tether Array first, without persuasion."
With a swift motion, Darius plunged into the hatchery waters, reappearing instantly next to the Swamp-Roach. He seized it firmly by the back of its neck using the arm encased in the Immortal Beast Codex. As the creature thrashed helplessly, Darius focused intensely, his command of 'Submit' sounding within the roach's mind. Activating the array, he felt the Codex pulse against his skin.
A circular array ignited on the surface of the armor, its glow intensifying as it began to spin, mirroring onto the back of Darius's hand that gripped the beast.
He felt the array forge a connection between his soul and the roach's, a bond momentarily taking hold before it faltered and quickly vanished. The array on both the armor and his hand fading.
Darius's resolve hardened, 'Stubborn little sister, seems first big brother needs to try something different.' His threatening words projected into the simple mind of the swamp-roach.
Darius released a controlled surge of his killing intent, calculated, just enough to instill pure terror.
The swamp roach, previously thrashing wildly, instantly became still, its escape attempts ceasing as it sensed the overpowering aura. Darius watched the beast settle, his gaze intent and focused. "Now, let's try this again."
Darius, his hand still gripped tightly on the swamp-roach, activated the Immortal Beast Codex once more. The array spun to life, its intricate pattern emerging on his hand as the armor itself hummed with energy. This time, as the array connected with the swamp-roach, a profound sense of submission emanated from the creature, replacing the previous defiance. The magical pulse of their connection resonated through the Codex, marking the beast's surrender.
As the bond solidified, the swamp-roach's form began to dissolve into motes of blue light, swirling and coalescing around Darius's arm. The lights, vibrant and energetic, streamed towards the Codex, absorbed swiftly by its hungry array. The beast's essence, once tangible and wild, now flowed into the Codex, leaving no trace behind in the physical world.
A sudden rush of foreign memories flooded Darius's senses—the overwhelming darkness of the hatchery's depths, the sporadic glimpses of the illusions he had cast, and a pervasive, gnawing hunger that clawed insistently at his consciousness. This violent need for sustenance, a primal urge that had driven the swamp-roach, was now a vivid imprint within the Codex, forever linked to Darius.
As the last of the beast's essence vanished into the armor, Darius felt the unbreakable bond seal into place, a permanent tether between his will and the creature's newfound existence within the Immortal Beast Codex.
Darius focused his thoughts, channeling them through the newly established link with the Codex. "Let's see what environment the Elemental Forge Matrix has generated," he murmured, probing the connection.
His mental view suddenly expanded into a vast void, an engulfing darkness broken only by a distant cloud of dark green and purple miasma. "This isn't what I expected," he commented, slightly puzzled by the sight.
He pushed his consciousness deeper, moving towards the strange miasma. As he drew closer, the cloud seemed to swell, growing until it enveloped his vision, stretching across a vast expanse nearly a kilometer in diameter. "What kind of environment is this?"
Darius entered the cloud, his conscious mind cutting through the illusion with ease. What he found was the swamp-roach, swimming lazily in a bubbling, stagnant pool of mud intermingled with decaying corpses that festered in the murky waters.
Recoiling mentally at the sight, Darius thought, 'This is its idea of an ideal home? Little sister certainly has some... unique tastes.' He swiftly withdrew his mind from the Codex and abruptly willed the swamp-roach back into the hatchery.
As soon as it reappeared in the water, the swamp-roach looked around, seemingly startled, before it thrashed violently and dove toward the bottom, crashing against the barrier. Darius, observing the spectacle, remarked, "Well, I can't feed you in there! Couldn't you see through the Elemental Forge Matrix? Then why didn't it affect you in the first place? Do you lack any sense of familial bonds whatsoever?" He gazed at the roach with a mix of pity and exasperation, sighing, "Hopefully, you'll gain some intelligence as you evolve."
Darius tossed a few more bones into the feeding area before turning and heading toward the door to the All-Room, his stride purposeful. 'Haku can catch up once he's awake. He shouldn't be too upset... Well, regardless, I can't predict how long his breakthrough will take, and I'm not about to just hang around here babysitting a swamp-roach.'
He strode into the All-Room, shutting the door behind him with a sense of determination, and walked to the center array. His voice calmly echoed, activating the runes, "Exit."
A starry portal flickered into existence. Darius paused only briefly before stepping through, disappearing into the swirling lights.
Emerging from the portal, Darius found himself under the night sky, standing before the giant split boulder. His eyes, ignited by his Arcane Gaze, darted across the area. Once satisfied it was clear, he touched the brooch on his shoulder, summoning a dark green cloak that flowed outward and draped a hood over his head. With a mere thought, his form shifted into that of Xue Feng, the elder sage. He chose a somewhat younger visage for himself; rather than frail and skinny, he stood firm like a sturdy oak, his white beard solid and his long white hair tied back.
"This should work. Now, to choose the right aura," Darius wondered, appreciating an additional function of the brooch. It could surprisingly mimic auras as well, though its use was confined to passive displays; active manipulation was beyond its capability.
He opted for a robust but discreet presence, emulating the aura of a Tier 3 Iron Knight. Deciding on the fire element for his affinity, he ensured it was strong enough to be respected but not so vibrant as to attract undue attention.
Darius set off with a sly grin, thinking, "Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but here's hoping for a clue to the resources I need. If not, maybe Haku will just have to rampage until he stumbles upon something." His steps quickened through the shadowy woods, the idea amusing him. "And while I'm at it, why not add a few more beasts to the Codex?"
He let his imagination roam as he moved silently among the trees. In his mind's eye, he saw an army of beasts, all led by a colossal fox wrapped in blue flames, its presence towering. He envisioned towers and strongholds succumbing under an unstoppable tide of teeth and claws.