Universe's End

Chapter 221: Rightful Claims

“E.O.N can be a scary fucker? You don’t say?” Zoey said, raising her eyebrows at Rory.

“Okay, perhaps the cosmic ‘closest-thing-to-a-God’ being able to be a scary fucker is obvious,” Rory grumbled, still struggling with his melted flesh.

“Yeah…. So, how long do you think it’s going to take to regrow this?” Zoey said, pointing at her missing arm.

“What, are you a gecko now?”

“Can geckos regrow arms?”

“No, they regrow tails,” Rory corrected before shaking his head. “Not the point. Regrowing the arm might not be possible as it is, but we can probably use a prosthesis and fuse it to your body. I did that at the beginning of tier seven to replace my hand after all.”

“Right, right, forgot about that,” Zoey nodded. “How long will that take?”

“Normally, probably a bit to get everything prepared. With your unique capabilities? I think we can probably do a barebones replacement, and your body will handle the rest. You can thank that moss in your body or whatever.”

“Dope,” Zoey nodded with a grin. “Hope your skin heals up fast, you look like a wrinkled asshole.”

“I…. thanks,” Rory sighed. With how intent the ‘King’ –or the King’s piloted corpse– was on burning itself up, it had begun spewing corrosive fire that was too much for even his best defenses to hold back. He’d hardly taken the worst damage here, but Zoey was a freak, so she’d probably heal before he would.

“Now, reward time?” Zoey asked, the woman entirely uncaring that she was missing an arm, after being informed it would be nothing more than a temporary setback.

“Reward time,” Rory agreed.

“Took you two long enough,” A new voice said as Aelia appeared. Aside from the iconic eyes, she had once more changed her appearance, looking like a swamp goddess, elegant curves marred by swamp mud sloughing off her body before vanishing. Adding to the image was that she stood nine feet tall, with rows of twisting swamp branches jutting from her back.

“Oh, you’re here. I thought you were only supposed to hand out the last rewards.”

“E.O.N. got me on the hook for a second time,” Aelia said, her eye twitching for a moment. “One can tell it is born from your mind, given the broken sense of humor it has.” Aelia turned to let her gaze linger on Rory.

“Not my fault,” Rory raised his hands. “Didn’t know what I was doing.”

“Rewards,” Zoey stuck her hands out, correction, hand, out, opening and closing it like a greedy child demanding candy.

“Have I mentioned that I preferred your attitude before you spent time around the Architect?” Aelia sighed. “Once there was one more irksome than you, and yet during her years she has relaxed, whereas you’ve gotten worse.”

“Uh-huh, very interesting,” Zoey said. “Rewards.”

Aelia waved her hand, and in doing so, several things happened at once. First, half of a key appeared that landed in Rory’s hand, obsidian in appearance.

“Rub two braincells together, and you can figure out what to do with that,” Aelia said before continuing.

From what remained of the King’s corpse, something escaped, something that Rory instantly recognized.

“Cracked Samsara Seed,” Rory answered.

“And how exactly do you know what this is?” Aelia asked. “I only just had the information grafted into my- you know what, why am I even asking? Clearly, you know what it is, so I’m not explaining.”

After that, only one more thing appeared, a piece of parchment, of all things.

“Uhh, excuse me?” Rory asked.

“Oh, just read it,” Aelia snapped.

Doing so, Rory’s eyes widened a fraction of an inch.

“Rightful claim of Octant Six,” Zoey read out loud. “Octant? Like, Quadrant?”

“Correct,” Aelia answered.

“That’s nerdy,” Zoey snorted, “Just say section.”

“What does the rightful claim of Octant Six entail?” Rory asked, purposely repeating octant so that Zoey would scowl in his direction.

“You should understand, you’ve seen it before,” Aelia answered. At the same moment, Rory’s interface appeared.

“Oh,” Rory nodded. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

“What?” Zoey asked. “Fill me in?”

Sovereign System Expansion

New Territory Acquired

“Given it’s not a mere expansion of territory you already own, there are some differences,” Aelia briefly explained. “There is no magical sharing of resources, for example. It does not benefit from the benefits of Ehkorrus, but inversely, it may have its own catalogue of benefits.”

“Nifty, another place to hand over management of,” Rory chuckled before looking at the actual ‘map’ of the area, his eyes widening once more. “Oh, that’s a lot of territory.”

“Land comes cheap here,” Aelia said with a hint of humor.

“Not quite our island in Hawaii, but it’s something,” Zoey said.

“Did you just say an island in Hawaii?” Rory asked.

Zoey, in return, glanced at Rory, winked at him, and said nothing else on the matter.

Rich kid.

“Look, as impressive as these rewards technically are,” Rory changed the subject. “I sort of expected more.”

“Why?” Aelia asked, seeming genuinely baffled.

“Well, we did have to go through years of challenges just to slay a tier eight territory alpha.”

“Uh-huh,” Aelia said, unimpressed.

“Shouldn’t we get like, magical super bones or scales or something?” Rory asked, waving at the corpse of the King, or what remained.

“Why? You can do that yourself,” Aelia snorted, before vanishing, once more having gotten the last word.

“Oh…. Right,” Rory sighed.

“I’m surprised you even tried that,” Zoey snickered.

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“Whatever,” Rory grumbled, annoyed. Walking up to the corpse, Rory gave it a quick pat as the entire thing vanished into his oversized inventory.

“Man, I wish I had an inventory that large,” Zoey said with an exaggerated sigh.

“No, don’t even start. You find me a Master-grade void diamond, and then we can talk. Actually, I’ll even downgrade and say with my current skillset, I could probably make do with a simple extreme-grade void diamond.”

“Phooey,” Zoey dramatically kicked at nothing. “So, how exactly are we supposed to leave? Oh, wait, never mind, leave it to E.O.N. or Aelia to be all about theatrics.”

The moment she’d raised the question, an orange portal had flickered to life in the middle of the platform they stood upon.

“Well, time to head home,” Rory sighed.

“I would say it’s time to see if they burnt the place down, but it’s a volcano,” Zoey said, eyes shining.

“You think you’re clever for that one?” Rory asked as the pair trudged their way toward the portal.

“I don’t think I’m clever. I know I’m clever.”

“Whatever you say.”

To say the last few years were the most productive years of Kai Rong’s life would be an understatement.

Oh, certainly, it was also the hardest few years of her life. She’d thought herself quite strong back in Ehkorrus, but the monsters of their not-quite-so-new volcanic home were something else entirely. Damage-wise, they weren’t that much more dangerous, aside from the sheer volume of tier seven monsters in comparison, but it was durability that was the huge difference.

She had been level seventy-three upon arriving, and only a few years later, just a shy short of eight years total, she was seventy-five. Two levels in just under eight years was nearly unheard of for a tier seven. Her rate had evened out once more, but on average, she’d still climb a level once every seven years, whereas in Ehkorrus, it was closer to twelve to fourteen years on average.

Big difference.

It was all thanks to the Lord Founder, whom Kai Rong found herself curious about lately. It had been around four years since he’d left with the Lady Ascendress, and neither of them had seemed to expect their quest to slay the peak’s alpha to take more than a few years. She’d only been near the peak a few times when the Guardian Beast Eia decided to bring herself and Flair along for a hunt, as a way to give them ‘hatchlings’ as she liked to refer to them, a bit of experience with stronger monsters.

There was something humbling about the experiences when she and Flair worked together to finally bring down a level seventy-eight monster, only for the Guardian Beast to simply pass by the same type of monster and kill the creature.

And that was a regular level seventy-eight monster. Not an alpha, or E.O.N. forbid an Alpha Variant.

Either way, it was a situation in which-

“Hi folks, we’re back.” A voice suddenly said as Kai Rong jumped so high she slammed her head into the ceiling, mid-bite of a piece of roasted monster.

“I told you not to do that,” The Lady Ascendress said, scolding the Lord Founder, who was wincing as he looked at Kai Rong.

“Oh, Ms. Rong, I see you’ve added another level since we’ve been gone,” The Lord Founder said with an approving nod.

“L-lord Founder!” Kai Rong stuttered, fist against her chest as she lowered her head and bowed. “I didn’t expect to see you back like this!”

Had it been most others, Kai Rong would have been shocked by how easily the pair were taking their injuries; the Lady Ascendress was missing an arm, and the Lord Founder had been badly immolated.

“Well, I’d assume not. We did teleport directly here,” The Lord Founder chuckled. “Killed the King. Took a while.”

“E.O.N’s fault,” The Lady Ascendress added.

“Do me a favor, would you?” The Lord Founder asked as he looked at Kai Rong. “Go fetch the others. I want to do a rundown of what we’ve missed, and to give a bit of an update on our side of things.”

“Yes, Lord Founder,” Kai Rong ducked her head once more as she bowed.

“Enough of that, now get going,” The Lord Founder chuckled.

Kai Rong nodded, not saying anything as she shot off, her meal entirely forgotten.

It looks like things will be moving again!

“Good to see you all again,” Rory said, speaking a tad bit easier several ossified blood gems later. He still looked like a burnt and wrinkled ass- prune, but it was an improvement overall. “I see we’ve seen a large amount of growth all around. Good, no one was slacking.”

The combatants had all gained around a level in the last few years. As for the crafters, each of them had broken through into tier seven, a growth rate that was normally only possible for combatants.

“So, because I’m not a huge fan of being overly formal, let’s make this a quick round circle thing. List me anything major that’s happened on your end over the last few years. You may start, Kai Rong.”

“Gratitude, Lord Founder,” Kai Rong bowed as Rory suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.

That’s disrespectful as shit, Rory.

“I’ve improved my overall capabilities, but more importantly, I developed the skill Mind Shelter. It is, in plain terms, what I believe to be a preliminary version of a proper Mind Palace skill.”

“Neato,” Rory said with a nod. When he’d fashioned her old rings into the mind training tiara, part of him had hoped it would help the woman develop a skill similar to his own. “Flair?”

“I also got a new skill,” Flair said proudly. “Spark Inhale. I can clash my aura against another fire-aspect aura and tear away fire resistances. If they’re weak enough, I can ‘inhale’ the entirety of their resistance in one; if they’re stronger, I’ve got to take little bites.”

“Nifty,” Rory nodded. “Harrison?”

“Also, a new skill,” Harrison said. “Solar Eclipse. For a short period, I can ignite my Lunar affinity, swapping the cold aspects for heat aspects.”

“Also nifty,” Rory said. “Everett?”

“While not a new skill, I did upgrade some skills.”

“Good, good,” Rory nodded. “Rana?”

“Guile and Grace, an upgrade from my Rapid Movement skill.”

“Cool,” Rory answered, with no idea what Rapid Movement even was. “Morales?”

“Silken Stride, an upgrade from my Rapid Movement skill.”

Two flexibility-focused fighters, two matching skills, but branching in different directions.

“Jharrel?”

The man crossed his arms, a somewhat smug expression on his face. “No new skills or upgrades, but I did develop a new ash affinity.”

“Ooo, that is quite a nice addition,” Rory nodded.

What was his original affinity again? Ehh, not important for the moment.

“Crafters, your turn,” Rory said. “Reese, Riley?”

“We’ve managed to achieve true folding of Promethium with roughly a thirty percent success rate. Ron, forty-five percent success rate.” Reese said, speaking on behalf of her, Riley, and the silent Ron.

“Perfect,” Rory said. “Annabeth, Elizabeth?”

“We both managed to upgrade our Inscription skill, though not to the level of a proper skill evolution. Working together, we believe we can begin creating derivative runes of minor runes.”

“Wonderful,” Rory nodded, preparing to move on before Elizabeth spoke up.

“Uh, one other thing, Lord Founder,” The woman said.

“Yes?” Rory asked, surprised to have been interrupted.

“It’s been more of a group effort between all of us crafters, but we believe we’ve managed to put together a prototype linkage to Ehkorrus.”

“Oh!” Rory’s eyes widened as he clapped twice in approval. “Wonderful, can’t wait to take a look at those blueprints!”

Is this what I’ve always longed for? For once, someone else did the heavy lifting in figuring something out?

“Well, that aside, Gon Rong?”

“Yes, Lord Founder,” Gon Rong bowed briefly to Rory. “I’ve had two main successes. First, a stockpile of durability brews to bring back to Ehkorrus, as everyone here has already consumed their maximum effectiveness worth of the brews.”

Oh, Irene will love to hear that.

“Second, a material science breakthrough.”

“Oh?” Rory lowered his head, gesturing for the man to continue.

“Promethium, as you know, given you were the discoverer of the alloy, is an alloy of rubedo and nigredo, with several minor variations. Rubedo and Nigredo, being sourced from this location, aren’t exactly something we can easily come by elsewhere… Or so we originally thought.”

“Interesting,” Rory nodded, the first person to have brought forward something that he found academically intriguing.

“Temporarily skipping some of the early parts, the blacksmiths and I had a realization that both rubedo and nigredo are the resulting formulation or metamorphic fusion of elements. In a sense, it is a form of naturally occurring alchemy. Rubedo is the elemental metamorphosis of ferrous and fire elements, whereas nigredo is the elemental metamorphosis of ash, stone, and structure. When alloyed, you get the super-dense promethium. Having broken down the base components, we had a thought that perhaps we could synthesize promethium.”

“And?” Rory asked.

“We did not succeed,” Gon Rong sighed, before smiling faintly. “Or, not completely. We failed at recreating promethium using just elemental components, but we did succeed in something else.”

The man whipped out a bar of metal, similar to promethium except missing the magmatic luster.

“Presenting….”

“Presenting what?” Rory asked, as Gon Rong frowned.

“Apologies, Lord Founder,” Reese spoke up, briefly taking the spotlight. “We never actually decided on a name.”

“Gravite?” Rory offered. It was just a play off of ‘gravity,’ the idea being the material was dense, ergo, gravity.

Was it the most inspired name? Nope, but it was the first thing that jumped to Rory’s mind.

“Gravite!” Gon Rong nodded furiously. “Yes, if the Lord Founder believes that the best name, then, presenting Gravite!”

“Traits?” Rory asked.

“Overall, it performs worse than Promethium in every area,” Riley said, her turn to speak. “With the sole exception being resistance to cold elements.”

“Grade?”

“Depending on the quality of the batch? Anywhere from sub-grade rare to rare.”

“And mass production capabilities?”

“Low,” Gon Rong admitted. “But, while not exactly easy to produce, it’s still easier to produce than Night Copper. If Night Copper takes a full year to attune to the properties of the Null Window, production of a relative amount of Gravite only takes three months’ worth of alchemical processing, and far less advanced processing than inversion processing.”

“Well,” Rory folded his arms, looking at the crowd with approval. “Seems like we’ll be bringing the milk back at least.”