“Welcome back,” Loyid said as the trio entered his forge.

  Looking around, the group of red-tiers could tell that other Starborn had similar plans as them, as a lot of the merchandise that was on display a while back were now gone. Sold to Starborn who were able to put them to good use.

  Arden noted that the sex aid disguised as a set of armor, the one with a large open space in the stomach and chest area, was one of the casualties. Someone had actually bought it.

  “Business has been booming,” Arden said.

  “It always does during this time of the month,” Loyid said. “Every aspiring Starborn warrior tries to get themselves some personal equipment before the assessment.”

  “I’d imagine that you'd be very busy, then,” Vera said.

  “Surprisingly, no,” Loyid said with a shake of the head. “Most people get some of the pre-made stuff. Forging takes time and dosh, neither of which is available for new Starborn. At least, not to my main consumer base.”

  “Poor people?” Arden ventured.

  “Poor people.”

  “That's pretty noble of you,” Sya said. “I know a lot of Starborn don't give a shit about the regular person.”

  “I like to give the regular people a fighting chance,” Loyid said with a shrug. “Philanthropy aside, there's also a lot more lower and middle class people than upper class. It's a lot easier to work with a few of the lower class than managing to land one high roller.”

  “Ah,” the three fledgling Starborn said in unison.

  “Enough about that crap, though,” Loyid said, leaning against the counter with a look of amusement present on his face. “You're not here to discuss philanthropic endeavors or my relative lack thereof. You're here for weapons. Your new Satellites are ready.”

  The blonde blacksmith pulled five covered weapons out from a subspace module beneath the desk, next to the minifridge. Four of them were of similar lengths, while the last was nearly twice as long. Four straight swords and a polearm. Each of the swords were encased in a plain leather scabbard, while the guandao was wrapped in cloth.

  Loyid held up a piece of paper that had the order details written. He read them aloud.

  “Five red-tier Satellites. One guandao and four simple straight swords.”

  Arden was nodding along until he heard the next words to come from the Satellite smith's mouth.

  “Guandao and two of the straight sword are protostars, and the remaining two swords are main sequence.”

  “Wait, what?” Arden asked. “We agreed on protostars, didn’t we?”

  He didn’t see Sya’s mouth curl into a pleased smile. He would have been scared if he did.

  “I received payment for the main sequences, so it won’t cost you anymore.”

  Before Arden could properly process what he was hearing, Loyid passed out the weapons to each of their respective owners. The guandaou was first, given that it was the one that obviously went to Sya. As soon as Sya unwrapped the weapon and touched it, it turned into red sparks and rushed into her.

  You have obtained a red-tier protostar Satellite, Backup Plan.

  “Backup plan?” Sya asked. “Quite fitting.”

  “The description says it all,” Loyid said.

  He took a moment to unwrap the hilt of each of the swords, taking care not to touch them lest they be added to his soul cluster. Each of the hilts were nearly identical. They were designed simply, with grey being the color of the material. There were some colored detailing around the hilt with identical colors on the pommel that had the icon of a star. The only noticeable difference was the color of the detailings on each of the swords. One of them was red, the other was blue, and another was yellow. The last one had no color.

  “I had to make them slightly different so I could tell the things apart. The last thing we want is for a Satellite to go to the wrong person. Yes, you could give them to each other, but that just adds an extra step.”

  “So you gave yourself more work?” Arden asked, eying the weapons.

  “Like twenty more minutes of work,” Loyid shrugged. “It wasn’t much.”

  Loyid slid the blue pommeled sword to Arden. Arden reluctantly took it, feeling a bit disappointed that he wasn’t the red one. He was the RedShift, after all. It just made sense to have the red one. As soon as he touched the hilt, the sword broke down into sparks, just like the majority of his Satellites did. Arden read the name of his sword as Vera was given the red one.

  You have obtained a red-tier main sequence Satellite, Sub Sword.

  “Sub Sword?” he asked aloud. “Is that a type of sword, like a subset?”

  “Not that I’m aware of,” Sya said, barely managing to keep a straight face.

  Arden snapped his fingers in realization.

  “Oh, I see! It’s blue, so it must be pertaining to ice or subzero temperatures." He furrowed his brows. “Wait, wouldn’t this be better for Vera, then?”

  “No,” Vera said, grinning at the name of her sword. “It fits you just right.”

  You have obtained a red-tier main sequence Satellite, Domination Blade.

  She dismissed her Status notification before Arden could read it.

  “If you say so,” Arden shrugged.

  Sya grabbed her sword and it vanished into her soul cluster as well. She grinned at the name of her yellow pommeled sword.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  You have obtained a red-tier protostar Satellite, Sharp Tongue.

  She didn’t mind that her weapon was the only one to not be main sequence. She already spent four extra star cores on this joke, and she wasn’t in the mood to spend more. Plus, she already had a main sequence weapon-type Satellite in Rogier’s Tree as well as a supergiant Satellite capable of fire augments.

  “So what are the aspects?” Arden asked.

  “Glad you asked,” Loyid said, pointing to Sya. “Her weapons are both protostars, and both of them have the Unyielding Aspect. That goes for every Satellite I gave you actually. They all have that aspect. It just makes them more durable.”

  He turned to Vera.

  “The colorless sword is the third protostar, so that’s its only Aspect. Your red one though is where things get interesting, Aspect-wise. Its aspect is called Moment of Domination. The more you hit a single target, the faster you get. I didn’t do much in-depth testing, so I’m not sure of its limit, but given that the sword is only red-tier, I would say you can get around 15 percent faster.”

  “That’s pretty noticeable for red-tier protostars," Arden said.

  ‘Wait…Moment of Domination…Domination…Sub Sword.’

  He glared at his sister.

  “We’re bringing the sub joke back?” Arden asked.

  “I don’t see why not,” Vera answered. “I have proof now.”

  “I’m right here,” Sya said, slightly perturbed. “Save this for when you’re away from me.”

  “You’re the one who paid the man to make a joke,” Arden said. “You don’t get to back away from the fire now. You started it, now you get burnt.”

  “Anyways, that leaves the Sub Sword.” Loyid said, steering the conversation back on topic. “Aside from the standard Unyielding Aspect, it has a unique Aspect like Moment of Domination.”

  “I swear to god if it makes me hit harder after I'm called a good boy, I'm going to lose it.”

  “It doesn't do that,” Loyid assured.

  “That's fine,” Vera said. “He does that already.”

  “Hey, Loyid, what does it do?” Arden asked, trying to put as much distance between himself and the conversation as he could.

  “It's called Submissive Striker,” Loyid said. “Everytime you block, parry, or take a hit, you gain increased defense. Please note that blocking gives the weakest buff, while taking a hit gives the largest.”

  “That's odd,” Vera said. “Thats not submissive, that's straight up masochistic.”

  “It is if I let them hit me so ramp up my buff,” Arden said. “Do I lose the buff when I heal myself?”

  The smith shook his head.

  “The buff will only expire once you are out of combat. You are able to heal, so long as you are in combat while you do so, so you're a-ok if you want to down a potion half way through a fight. Summon them and tell me if they feel good.”

  The three Starborn summoned their swords with a cloud of red sparks. When the weapons materialized, they realized that the pommel wasn't the only part of the swords that had their unique colors. Along the center of the black blades ran a groove filled with a dim color respective of their pommels.

  Arden and Vera stood opposite of each other with their swords out, while Sya and Loyid leaned against the counter. There wasn't much room for the combatants to move, but that would be fine. They weren't full on sparring, just giving their new Satellites some test swings.

  “You go first,” Arden said.

  “You'd like that, wouldn't you?” Vera replied.

  She swung her sword in front of her several times, not even coming close to Arden. She was trying to figure out her base speed with the weapon.

  Satisfied, she walked towards Arden and swung at him a few times. Because he was once again in his armor, the sword of equal rank but lower tier did not manage to pierce it. He was perfect to test her new sword on.

  Loyid furrowed his brows at the scene of Arden letting Vera wail on his torso.

  “Aren’t they a pair?” He asked Sya. “Doesn't this seem wrong?”

  Sya shrugged.

  “Before they were lovers, they were friends, and before they were friends, she was his trainer. For them, sparring is a way they show love for each other. It shows that they've grown.”

  “And what about you? I'm assuming it's not just them who spar.”

  “Yeah, but it's not a turn on for me to see them fight. When they see each other fight, or when they fight each other, you can almost see the sexual tension.”

  As she said that, they noticed Vera’s speed had increased. Many strikes were directed at Arden, so her aspect must have been activating constantly while Arden stood there and took it. It looked to be a roughly five percent increase in her overall speed. Arden smiled as he watched her try to impale him on her solid, sharp pipe. She looked unimaginably attractive as she tried to penetrate him.

  “See?” Sya said. “He's into it.”

  Another minute or so of attacks passed, and while Vera had yet to penetrate his armor, she was significantly faster. Arden hoped that the 15 percent speed increase would carry over at higher tiers, when the average Starborn had inherent super speed thanks to their exponential growth. 15 percent here was noticeable, but 15 percent there would be night and day.

  Satisfied, Vera stopped attacking and backed off for a few seconds. She didn't know how she could describe the feeling, but she just instinctively felt the aspect’s buff disappear after a short time.

  Arden dismissed his Stoneflesh Shroud and immediately felt the sweltering heat of the forge. He didn't like it, but it needed to be done to test out the effect of his Satellite for real.

  Although they were just testing Vera’s sword, because she was repeatedly slashing him, stabbing him, and everything in between, his Submissive Striker aspect was activating as Vera's was. But with the armor, it was impossible to see how much his defense actually increased. So, he made the decision to disrobe.

  “Alright,” he said. “Give a good cut. Not enough to seriously injure me, but enough to hurt me a bit.”

  “Copy that,” Vera responded.

  Before Loyid could object, Sya explained.

  “Arden’s a bit of a tank. He'll be fine.”

  Arden groaned in pain as Vera cut diagonally across his shirt, spilling a worrying amount of blood.

  Loyid glanced at Sya whose expression remained full of confidence in her brother.

  “...Are you sure?”

  Arden clutched his chest and looked at the perpetrator.

  “Alright, now give me a bunch of attacks I can block or parry.”

  Vera smiled sweetly at him. Despite his injury, and the fact that more were surely soon to follow, he grew infatuated with her again. Vera’s sword flashed through the air every second, but it didn't carry that all important bloodlust that normally existed alongside a promise of death.

  Arden blocked every attack with ease, given that Vera wasn't actually trying to hurt him. It was just a coordinated effort to activate Arden’s Aspect. Vera's was being activated as well, but she was slowing herself down to adjust for it.

  “Are you ready?” Vera asked with her sword pressed against Arden’s.

  “Do it.”

  Vera slashed diagonally across his chest again, this time beginning from his opposite shoulder. It still cut into him, but the blood loss was not as substantial as it had been previously.

  “Alright,” Arden said.“I think we can chalk that up as a success.”

  Arden traced the wounds with his finger, feeling the warm blood. Actually, he was feeling the skin where he was cut. It didn't seem any tougher, but apparently it was.

  “The sword feels good. Really good,” Arden said to the man who made it. “If all your weapons are like this, then I can see how you stay in business.”

  “That's good to hear. Now please leave. I have to clean the blood.”