August froze, standing still and looking around.
He was standing inside what seemed to be a holographic sphere. The inside was mapped with lines of latitude and longitude.
Directly in front of him laid what seemed to be a mannequin, adorned with a few random pieces of armor.
August threw his head from side to side wildly, trying to understand what exactly this was. A question the organizer was more than happy to answer.
____
"[The Great Collector]"
"Skill aspect #1: The World Forge"
"A piece can only be valued by someone who truly understands the skill required to create it. The world forge allows the creator or permitted persons to manipulate, create and appraise works."
—
August took deep breaths, calmly reading the description provided by the lavender screen. He then sighed and ran his hand through his singed brown hair, turning around and taking a few steps, before turning around once more and taking a swing at the floating screen.
Sadly his arm passed right through it, as if it didn't exist.
"If there was something like this, why was it not the first thing I was shown?"
He did not intend to phrase it as a question, nor was it one he thought the organizer would answer. It seemed he was correct, as the organizer remain unchanged.
Suddenly, Alia's voice broke the silence
"Earth to August, what the hell is that?"
Her voice had returned to its normal monotonous nature, although he could tell there was a light hint of curiousity behind it.
He took a few more deep breaths to quell his annoyance at the organizer. Then he turned to Alia and answered her question.
"It is called the world forge apparently. it seems like an aspect of my ability made to help with the creation of new things." He said through gritted teeth, staring at the lavender screen.
The redhead looked at him, then shook her head lightly.
"Where was this, at like… any point before?."
"That's what I was saying!"
She frowned, then looked at the mannequin.
"That screams 'And now your watch has ended' man."
He rolled his eyes, ignoring her comment, at least until he started cracking up a moment later.
Alia must have noticed both his alarm and anger, since her comment had managed to get him to loosen up a bit. August took a few more breaths to calm himself fully.
Then he continued to look around the sphere.
It was no more than six meters in circumference, and various screens popped up depending on what he looked at. There was also a projected workbench and chair, allotted with tools that seemed just a bit more solid than the rest of the hologram.
He reached out and grabbed one, a small hammer, a sudden feeling enveloped his body, and he was almost instinctively pulled towards the holographic armor.
The entire thing was perfectly as he imagined, in fact, the chestplate was exactly what he had put all that thought into.
It was perfect.
He walked over to it and held the [Armored Rhinoceros' Legacy] in his hands.
August walked around the suit of light armor and studied it, delicately attempting to touch it with his hands.
Suddenly another screen popped up, this one yellow and solid instead of transparent.
August furrowed his brow, and suddenly the holographic suit of armor morphed into a grey sweater and pair of sweatpants.
Intrigued, he circled both the floating yellow screen and the set of clothing that had just appeared.
'Oh I see! Secondary form! So is this the form my armor will take when I'm not wearing it? Couldn't I simply unsummon and resummon it instead?'
Of course, he was not complaining. August's own clothes were haggard and desolate, surviving in the dark forest was incredibly taxing, and his clothes were one of the biggest indications of that.
At this point, his tank top was nonexistent, his shorts had holes burnt into them and were quite torn, not to mention his most trusted piece, his shoes, had finally been totally worn through by the uneven environment.
He wondered how exactly an armor would function, and while he was deep in focus, he noticed something else.
Inside the World Forge, he felt at peace, full of motivation and his emotions were much more controlled and steady. In fact, his focus was so steady that he believed he could create a brand new weapon as a side project whilst focusing on other things.
It was a feeling of controlled tranquility, more a state of mind than an actual change in his head. It was eerily similar to the lack of emotion he had earlier.
August decided that thinking of how something would work would be wasting his time when he could just as easily and much more quickly just do it.
But how would he? The creation process for armor was clearly different than what he had grown used to
So he called upon the organizer.
"Organizer, how do I generate this armor?"
This time however, there was no answer.
The organizer simply did not respond, and he was beginning to think he knew why. The organizer couldn't tell him what he did not know. At the very least, under certain conditions?
He was starting to wonder if the extraterrestrial apparatus was playing games with him.
If the organizer did not know how his ability worked, how could it possibly teach him to use it?
Both the tutorial and this brief explanation of the forge were filled with new information, maybe the organizer could only answer certain questions?
It was a perplexing thought, but since he had no way to know, August turned back to the holographic armor and the floating screen.
He scoured his brain, thinking and trying several things, even sticking the orb into the suit of armor at one point.
Eventually he gave up, and his eyes fell back onto the yellow screen.
"Occam's razor it seems"
After extensive thought he suddenly realized something. This yellow screen was probably not telling him what to do, but asking him a question.
"Yes, I select this second form"
Suddenly, the holographic yellow set of clothing turned back into a suit of armor, becoming more and more solid in front of his eyes.
He felt the orb of the [Armored Rhinoceros' Legacy] begin to get smaller in his palm, shrinking in size from the size of a lacrosse ball to the size of a marble, then it was no more.
And suddenly, he started to feel weight slowly press down on him, weighing him down until it felt more than a little uncomfortable to move freely.
The world forge had disappeared, and August was left standing there, decorated in the armor he had personally created for himself.
He smiled brightly and puffed up his chest a bit, looking in the direction of Alia, who had turned back to face him, shaking her head.
"How do I look?" He asked.
"Like you're looking for a heart tree." she respnded.
"Tch, you simply hate that you don't have one"
She raised an eyebrow, smirking at him.
"August, I assure you, I wouldn't want to dress like you."
August shook his head, Summoning the regular aura mold as a gift, having it sit right in front of her face, floating.
"So you wouldn't take one if it was offered to you?"