After many assurances that there was a method behind my madness—and a quick demonstration of the utility of my whirling—Aerion finally fell silent, watching me work on the armor pieces, though I got the distinct impression it wasn’t entirely out of respect… I might have gone a little overboard showing off our new capabilities.

  I glanced at Aerion. Okay, maybe a lot overboard. I was pretty sure that look was a mix of awe and fear. But it wasn’t me she needed to fear. It was our enemies. Because this upgrade was a double whammy.

  Not only did those swords grant an immediate stat boost when held, but Aerion could now finally tap into a bit of what made my Blessing so powerful—its versatility.

  While her ceiling wouldn’t increase when swapping gear like I was able to, she still received the immediate boost from Soulwoven gear. Just by using the mythril swords I’d forged, she could alter her specs quite a bit. Not as much as I could, but it was definitely not insignificant.

  The only hindrance to her versatility was her Essence reserves. And not just her, either. The stats brought by the soul could apply to anyone. Galia, other friends… maybe even Champions. Anyone using my weapons or armor would gain the stats bestowed by that soul, and if I wasn’t wrong, I’d reap the benefits in the form of faster leveling.

  Incidentally, we didn’t get any of the stat bonuses unless we physically wielded the weapons and armor—having a sword sheathed and dangling didn’t work. Ditto for when they swirled around me.

  It was hard to keep my mind focused on Aerion’s mythril armor with all these thoughts swirling in my head, but I somehow managed it, concentrating on the various colors to give her a somewhat more well-rounded build than before.

  With her being able to wield my swords for additional stats, the strategy had shifted somewhat. Her armor would give her a solid base, while her weaponry loadout would dictate what she specialized in.

  After heating and hammering the thing over and over, the cavity for the small sphere was complete. I put it on the inside, of course. Regardless of how tough these crystals were, it felt foolish putting it on the outside.

  Especially given the gravitas of the crystal I was hoping to insert.

  I cleared my throat.

  “What’s the matter?” Aerion asked, seeing my hesitance.

  “So I could put an [Epic] soul inside your armor, but I was thinking… you know that Soulkeeper you have around your neck? The one with Emma’s ancestor?”

  Aerion’s eyes widened. “You can’t mean…”

  “I didn’t dare suggest it before, because it felt like blasphemy to shatter the soul inside. But now, we don’t have to. Her soul can live on, intact, though I can’t be sure it’ll give you as good a power or stats as an [Epic] crystal.”

  While I couldn’t be sure, I had a feeling it might recognize Aerion as belonging to the bloodline the Aralez protected in life. That had to count for something, right?

  “I understand if you don’t want to,” I began after seeing Aerion’s hesitance, but she cut me off.

  “No, it’s fine. It was… thoughtful of you to consider this. I think… I think I’d like that,” she said with a smile. “I’d like that very much.”

  I nodded, taking the pendant from her and popping out the crystal inside before embedding it into the armor’s socket.

  There was only one step left.

  Initialize Soulwoven Mythril Light Chestplate [Epic]? Essence Cost: 33. Available Essence: 657 / 850

  I confirmed, inwardly wincing that Aerion couldn’t use my Armor Sets. We’d tried earlier, after getting back to the Sylvan Guard. The suit refused to close around her. That, it seemed, remained a Greg Special.

  As such, the benefits weren’t nearly as good, though even still, I couldn’t exactly complain.

  Soulwoven Mythril Light Chestplate [Epic]

  Resident Soul: Senara (Aralez) (Rare)

  Stats (Soul):

  Vigor: 44

  Grace: 27

  Dominion: 55

  Stats (Armor):

  Vigor: 120

  Grace: 89

  Dominion: 143

  Abilities:

  — Summon Astral Guardian (Foundation - 0): Manifests the soulbound Aralez Senara as a being of pure Essence. Senara will continue to exist until dismissed or until the user’s Essence runs out.

  The armor’s innate stats were lost on Aerion, but interestingly, the soul’s stats perfectly matched the armor’s. Convenient. Being a [Rare], however, it didn’t grant nearly as much. That was more than made up for with its ability, though, which made even me, the armor’s creator, gawk.

  “Uh, Aerion?” I said as I slipped the sleek chestpiece over her head. “You better see this ability.”

  Aerion’s reaction when she brought up her System was about what I’d expected.

  Her eyes went as wide as saucers, and if I wasn’t mistaken, I heard a small squeal of joy get past her lips.

  “Why don’t you try it—ah.” My words were unnecessary. In the next moment, a large winged dog coalesced in front of us, looking very much like an incorporeal Emma in its blue-and-white energy form.

  “Really wonder how strong it is,” I muttered, walking around the creature as Aerion pet it. It seemed solid enough to pet, and even hug, as Aerion was currently doing, tears running down her face.

  Emma’s ancestor didn’t seem to mind one bit, nuzzling Aerion in silence.

  They spent a long moment like that before Aerion finally broke loose, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

  “Thank you, Greg,” she said with more emotion than I’d ever seen. “Thank you so much. You truly do not know what this means to me.”

  “Think I’ve got some idea, at least,” I said with a smile. “Just happy for you. Though, uh, I’m guessing Senara’s Essence drain isn’t anything to laugh at. You sure you want to keep her summoned?”

  Aerion’s happiness dissipated when she saw her remaining Essence, but after a moment’s consideration, shook her head. “I’ll dismiss her when I can’t sustain her any longer.”

  I nodded. “Not like we’re in enemy territory, anyway.” While this wasn’t Emma, Senara meant almost as much to her as her own Aralez, and this was their long-overdue reunion. I completely sympathized.

  “And this breastplate! It’s marvelous,” Aerion said, moving around in her newly Initialized and Soulwoven light armor.

  I was happy for her, though a part of me really wanted her to have a [Legendary] set. Not that it would’ve been possible, regardless of the soul crystal used. Elven light armor, it seemed, couldn’t be enhanced to Legendary no matter what I tried. The configuration itself just capped out at [Epic].

  Apparently, it operated under a similar logic to my Blessing’s own evolution—gear couldn’t exceed the base material’s rank. I couldn’t Infuse a [Legendary] soul into [Epic] armor any more than [Common] armor abilities leveled beyond [Foundation], no matter how much I wanted to. The System just refused.

  Even so, this was by far the best armor Aerion had ever worn, not least because of the stats she gained from the soul.

  “I feel powerful, Greg,” she said, throwing punches and kicks as she moved around.

  “I made it to boost Grace, Vigor, and Dominion,” I replied. “I figure you can supplement with the other stats through soulwoven weapons.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  While I still couldn’t dial in exactly how many stats I wanted, my control over the process was a hell of a lot better than before, and I had to say, watching Aerion move in that sleek silvery armor gave me more satisfaction than I wanted to admit.

  “This is incredible,” she said. “Between the whirling blades, this armor, and these weapons you’ve crafted, I feel like we could take on the Archon himself!”

  I laughed. “Nothing that grand. But yeah ‘skyrocketed’ might be an understatement when it comes to our combat potential. And if I’m right, your [Origin Reave] state should stack on top of all these stat bonuses. Which means you’re going to be a walking nuke when it triggers.”

  Aerion grinned. “I assume this ‘nook’ is something quite powerful indeed, then!”

  “Oh yeah, absolutely. Maybe even as terrifying as you in [Reave].”

  I watched Aerion prance around for a few minutes, just admiring her rare moment of pure joy, before I finally forced myself to return to my own armor sets. Not that I needed much coaxing. I could barely contain myself at the monstrosity I was about to create.

  Having already Uninitialized my old [Uncommon] Basecrest City Guard armor and Initialized and Soulwoven a Mythril light armor set to replace it, the heavy armor was the last item on my plate today. The light armor set was [Epic] just like Aerion’s, but that was where the similarities between mine and hers ended.

  To say that it was a night and day difference between an individual piece of armor and a full suit with 70% of its stats redistributed to target one stat was a heinous understatement.

  Soulwoven Elven Mythril Light Suit [Epic]

  A lightweight suit made from the most exotic Elven silk, interwoven with Mythril. As stylish as it is functional. Be careful, or you might have the elven beauties checking your derriere!

  Resident Soul: Void Wraith (Epic)

  Condition: 4000/4000

  Stats (Soul):

  — Grace: 460

  Stats (Armor):

  — Grace: 1301

  Abilities:

  — Spacefold (Foundation - 0): Folds space to teleport short distances.

  Even having created it, I still couldn’t believe just how ludicrously good this thing was. Nevermind the 460 stats I got for free for simply equipping the damn thing, the 1300 it boosted my ceiling would have my Grace soaring through the roof! Quite literally having my cake and eating it too. I got the stat boost and the development, too.

  And since the Soul’s stats were its own, it didn’t even count against the difference between my current stats and the maximum—my growth rate wouldn’t suffer one bit.

  It was so good that I’d already Uninitialized my old Uncommon Basecrest suit, broken apart the Set, and reclaimed the Essence.

  In doing so, I’d learned that Uninitializing Armor Sets actually destroyed them, vaporizing them into thin air. Somewhat surprising, but I didn’t sweat it. I wouldn’t miss the old one considering how amazing my new one was, and it was good that I found out on that rather than something actually valuable.

  As for its ability, well, the abilities of each piece were quite impressive in their own right, but teleportation synergized so beautifully with the Grace build that there really wasn’t any competition.

  All in all, I had quite the incredible suit. Thanks to the immediate boost, my movement speed was off the charts—so much so that my brain almost rattled at the sudden acceleration. I’d have to retrain my senses to get used to this.

  Not a bad problem to have, all things considered. I doubted many enemies at even peak Convergence could keep up with me as I was. Once I packed on 1300 more points to the stat? I’d be the fucking Flash himself.

  The craziest thing was how I wasn’t even done—I still had a Legendary suit to craft, and what a beauty it was.

  The armor itself was beyond impressive. Where the Light Mythril suit looked something halfway between a silver jumpsuit and fabric gambeson armor, this was unquestionably plate armor.

  Shimmering silver with thousands of tiny segmented segments of Mythril alloy, it culminated in a helmet that was entirely steel, with a few dozen holes poked through to see through. The face shield and the lower half both articulated, allowing me to essentially take it off without actually removing it. Despite being otherwise unadorned, the thing screamed exotic.

  Which also meant it'd give me a lot of trouble in the Initialization department, and I was glad I’d asked the Sylrithar to procure as many suits as I had, because my Initialization failed more often than not. I admit I panicked more than a few times, thinking I’d run out of parts and have to go beg the elves for more.

  Luckily, that didn’t happen, and I soon had five distinct Legendary Mythril heavy armor pieces, which I combined into a full set.

  Given that I hadn’t crafted these myself, I couldn’t tweak their base stat distributions, but I could redirect 70% of their stats however I wanted. I poured them all into Vigor, leaving the rest untouched before Soulweaving the single [Legendary] soul I had, courtesy of the Cilian Fae.

  A pure defensive build. And the ability that came with it? Almost as good as Aerion’s Origin Reave.

  Soulwoven Elven Mythril Heavy Suit [Legendary]

  Condition: 12,000/12,000

  It’s heavy. It’s legendary. And it’s got the soul of something truly heinous in it. I don’t know whether to be terrified or impressed?

  Resident Soul: Dreadspawn Progenitor, Lord of Gloam (Legendary)

  Stats (Soul):

  — Vigor: 4674

  Stats (Armor):

  — Vigor: 1456

  Abilities:

  — Reflect (Foundation - 0): As they say, the best offense is a good defense. Or was it the other way? Passively reflects [1%] of incoming damage back onto foes. % Reflected increases 0.5% per level and 2% per rank.

  The description was honestly not too far off. With a title as impressive as that, I didn’t even want to think of how terrifying this Dreadspawn Progenitor was… Or the army of Cilian Fae Reavers that must have killed it, but holy shit was this in another realm entirely.

  Everything from that utterly insane stat count to its cheat-like ability was such a massive upgrade, I was honestly speechless.

  If my math was right, Reflect would shoot back almost 50% of all damage by the time I leveled it up to its max potential.

  “What’s the matter?” Aerion asked.

  “I’m… honestly kinda scared to put this thing on.”

  “Why?” Aerion asked, pulling up the suit’s stats. “Is something the…!?”

  Aerion’s jaw dropped and her eyes grew as wide as saucers. “This can’t be. This can’t be!”

  “Right?” I chuckled. “It’s insane. It’s utterly broken.”

  “Four thousand!?” she squeaked. “What will that do to you?”

  “Make me a god? Or at least, give me the durability of one, I imagine.”

  “Well? Put it on!” Aerion said, sounding almost more excited than I was.

  “Right.” No sense in delaying.

  Heart pounding, I stepped up into the suit as it rippled and sealed around me.

  Immediately, something about me changed. Like Cosmo himself had breathed divine energy into me, I felt more alive than ever before. Not faster or stronger, per se, but more durable. It made complete sense, yet the sensation was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.

  Death felt like such a distant, funny thing.

  “What do you think?” I asked, suddenly feeling more confident than I ever had in my whole fucking life.

  “It’s marvelous,” she said. “You look like… well, like a knight.”

  “I technically am one. And so are you,” I said.

  That earned me a giggle from Aerion. “How do you feel?” she asked.

  “In-fucking-vincible.”

  “Hmm. But was it wise to put everything into Vigor for this build?” she asked as she circled me, not even realizing she was using my own gaming jargon. It almost brought a tear to my eye.

  “Think so. Mostly because of the weapons,” I said through the helmet that afforded surprisingly good visibility despite its tanklike construction. “Turns out I can dual wield and still get the benefits of both weapons. Plus, they’re both pure Dominion builds. That gives me the offense I need while maximizing defense. Or anything else, really.”

  Not even close to the degree of the suit itself, but the versatility was much appreciated, seeing how I couldn’t exactly swap suits midbattle.

  “Smart,” Aerion said, nodding approvingly. “Still, to think you could craft a Legendary set of armor by sheer brute force. It’s unbelievable. I doubt many would have even thought of subverting the System in such a way. Can anything get past a suit as impressive as this?”

  “Hopefully not,” I said, hefting the tower shield in my left hand. Not exactly the lightest thing, but it might as well have been a feather thanks to the Dominion boost my weapons gave me. “That’s kind of the point. I’m hoping I can offer myself up as a human shield. With this, I can now draw the attention of our enemies while you dice them up from behind.”

  “I see that you have spent your time well,” came a deep voice from the corner, causing both Aerion and I to look at our guests. “Quite the impressive armor. Even I can tell as much from here.”

  The Sylrithar stood with his hands clasped neatly behind his back, with Syrril next to him. “I truly wonder if I could best you in combat as you are now,” the battlemaster mused.

  I laughed. “We both know you can. That’s the power of the soul, isn’t it? No matter how much armor we stack, you can always hit us with soul attacks.”

  “Not if I fail to connect the attack,” he countered, nodding at the Grace armor build. “I suppose you’ve prioritized speed and agility with this one, as you said?”

  I nodded. I’d bounced most of my ideas off Syrril before heading down here. At this point, he had a pretty good idea of my Blessing, but barring one obvious secret, there wasn’t much distance between us anymore.

  Claiming Aerion as the Champion had felt like a smart move at the time. If Reavers ever made contact with the Sylvan Guard, the last thing we wanted was to trigger a war because we’d lied about the identity of Order’s Champion. Lies were best kept simple.

  There were other perks to letting Aerion take on the Champion role, too. Being an elf, she just fit the part better than some random human like me ever could. That would be useful when we eventually announced the existence of Order’s Champion to the world. She was also better able to play politics with the elves of Order, and was less likely to be invited by her old enemies to be paraded around as a trophy.

  “Then I suppose you’re ready to set out?” the Sylrithar asked.

  I glanced at Aerion, who nodded. “Really wish we could’ve stopped by the estate to check on Rogar and Philip, but there’s no time for that. Also the weapons we were promised at Dominium. Guess we’ll have to raid the capital another day.”

  Aerion grinned. “Perhaps that is for the best, no? If we rank up during this dungeon, we’ll gain even greater spoils for ourselves.”

  “True that.”

  I was so thankful we hadn’t rushed off to Dominion when we’d been granted that reward. With my Soulweaving ability, any weapon or armor I got for Aerion could be made far more useful anyway.

  “I bid you fleet feet and fair winds,” Syrril said, stepping forward. “We’ll provide escorts to the northern edge of the Sylvanglades, as well as two of our finest horses. May they serve you well.”

  “Thank you—both of you,” Aerion said, meeting each elf’s eyes in turn. “While our relationship may have started somewhat inauspiciously, I am glad to call you both friends. We are in your debt.”

  The elder elf shook his head with a faint smile. “No—it is we who are in yours, Champion. For the first time in history, Axius has hope for a better tomorrow. For an end to these terrible Cataclysms.”

  “Then fear not,” Aerion said. “For this is our goal. No matter what, I shall see to it that these Cataclysms are ended, once and for all.”

  While it might have sounded like bluster coming from anyone else, I knew there was no lie in her words.

  Of course, I knew better than to believe it would all work out the way we wanted. But maybe—just maybe—with these new abilities, we’d stand a chance in this upcoming dungeon.

  No matter how lofty our goals, it’d mean all of jack shit if we up and died to some monsters.

  I turned my gaze toward the horizon, where this tower was said to sit.

  It was time to wreck this thing.

  - - End of Arc Five - -