Pressing his sensors against the grand machine, Synexus could feel the inner workings and how brilliant its creator was. A feat of engineering that combined technology and magic into a work of art.

  He took his time getting into a meditative state and focused as much as he could on the task at hand. There wasn’t enough time to try again and again like the other two parts of Gene’s trial for him. No, he knew he needed to do this on the first try if he was hoping to have enough time left to finish the actual trial.

  Of course, he had walked through the steps every day for an entire year before attempting this and because of that his understanding of the process was concrete. However, this was the real thing, and it would be difficult no matter how much he practiced.

  Turning mana into aether and then turning aether into reality was a craft of the highest difficulty, but he was as ready as he’d ever be. In his mind he started to piece together exactly what he wanted to forge by pulling forth the entry for Progress Matter and then focusing it into the shape of a set of armor. Then he pulled in manifestations of the skills he wanted to associate with the armor. Finally, he started to create will pathways into the armor that would get the desired effect.

  While in his mind, his hand pushed the lever up to turn on the power for the forge. He could feel the electricity get pulled up from the core and start to fill the circuitry on its way up to the spire. Once there, mana started circling in the sky before being pulled down in a great whirlpool. The spire dragged it further down into the main room of the forge.

  Synexus felt the power of the mana around him and how the forge was condensing it right in the middle of the machine where his will would work as his hammer.

  The image in his mind started to get more detailed as he pictured himself in the armor holding Progress and how the armor would work as one with the sword to keep him alive.

  Power started to hum to life as more and more mana got compressed down. Synexus knew that you couldn’t rush this part. Every memory he had seen of Zunzutoxsian flawlessly forging items, showed that this step was crucial. If you didn’t collect enough mana, or you didn’t compress it down enough then the forge wouldn’t have enough aether to work with. For his project, he knew he needed a vast amount of aether.

  Once the mana intake started rapidly gaining speed and the compression took on a mind of its own, Synexus knew it was time to push the perfect image of his will into the forge. It gladly accepted as more and more details started to rush out of his mind and into the machine. Every little thing had to be perfect for the forge to successfully craft your intentions.

  His will continued to hammer the condensing mana in the middle of the grand machine, and he could feel it starting to take shape. Obscured armor of pure mana at first, but then it started to be refined into the exact image that he had in his mind. Each detail was perfect, but his will kept hammering to ensure the forge knew exactly what he wanted.

  The next step was another crucial one for timing and as the mana started to take a more refined form, he knew it was time. His mana started flooding out of his body and into the machine. He wasn’t sure if his pool would be large enough, but he would give every bit of it he could. It was directed into the outer ring of the forge where he could feel it being transformed by a filter and then pushed through a skill pathway from the creator himself. The fine pathways looked like circuitry running through the wall and the complexity was something he had never seen before.

  His mana continued to flow until he was empty, and the forge devoured it through the filter. At the same time, the mana had changed. The compression had finally reached the threshold, and the armor had become physical aether. It felt heavy in his Mana Sense, but he couldn’t focus on it. Even now he continued to hammer the aether with his will to beat away any imperfection.

  A flood gate opened as the forge let the filtered mana through and into the main forge area. Synexus watched through his Mana Sense as it covered the aether armor and started interacting with it in a way that he couldn’t fully comprehend. The aether sizzled in response and started to change. He felt like it would succeed, but even that stray thought could be enough to result in failure, so he pushed it down and continued to flood his will into the forge.

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  He wasn’t sure how long he had been working over the forge. In the memories of Zunzutoxsian, it took mere minutes, but he was the expert. For someone new to it like Synexus that didn’t possess the skill, it could take hours depending on how complex the project was and his was as complex as they came.

  His Mana Sense picked up the end of the filtered mana and could tell it had completely enveloped the aether armor. He kept hammering it with his will with a consistent intensity. The longer it went on, the more intense the aether sizzled. Synexus focused on the material and told the forge exactly how to make Progress Matter. More sizzling took place in his senses until the aether armor started to glow like red hot iron.

  The light became almost unbearable to his senses, but he couldn’t turn away. He couldn’t stop hammering his will into the forge even for a second. He wanted this project as close to his intentions as possible. His will increased as the intensity of the light continued to build.

  Suddenly, the forge tower started to shake, and he could feel the mana from outside being rapidly sucked in. It felt like the world was being pulled into the forge to help with the creation of his armor.

  The light continued to build until it was absolutely blinding, the tower shook violently as if the dungeon itself was shaking. Synexus could barely hear Gene yelling out and asking him if he was okay, but he ignored it and continued to feed the forge his will.

  He was completely blind by this point with his vision filled with the light of a star, his mind only focused on his will, his hearing was drowned out by the constant sound of the dungeon shaking, his taste and smell were overwhelmed with his own blood, and his touch only focused on the feeling from the forge. It had more power in a single point than he had ever experienced in his life and then, it didn’t.

  A flash of pure creation came when the forge struck down on the armor.

  Boom!

  The entire top of the forge tower blew up from the concentration of mana in the middle. He was nearly blown out of the side of the tower but grabbed something while flying back. His health points were just under a hundred and his vision started to fade.

  He managed to hang on to consciousness and when the dust settled, he got up and walked over to the main forge area to see what happened to his project.

  Gene flew up from the lower tower in a panicked hurry.

  “Synexus, are you okay?”

  “I think so. That took a lot out of me.”

  “I’d say so! What did I tell you about restraint? What even was that? You started to pull power from the dungeon itself. I think that significantly shortened our time here.”

  “I’m not sure. I just kept feeding it my will and it kept taking it. The mana built up to an intensity that I’ve never seen and then the explosion happened when the forge smashed into the armor.”

  “Incredible. So, you managed to succeed?”

  “I was just about to find out.”

  They walked over to the main forge and there wasn’t much left of the brilliant machine. However, cradled in the middle of the rubble was a strange looking armor giving up an incredible mana signature. Then the notifications came.

  Congratulations! You have successfully turned your will and mana into reality!

  Bonus experience awarded.

  Soul, Armor of Progress has been created!

  Soul, Armor of Progress (LV 1): Created from your flesh, blood, and will, Soul, Armor of Progress was born to protect. This sentient armor is tied to your soul and will read your desires instantaneously to meet your needs. Due to the living nature of Soul, the armor has been granted a level instead of rarity. As the level grows, so will the bond to the soul and it was become more effective. Collect more entries in any collection skill to level up this armor. Each level counts as a class level and stats will be rewarded accordingly. Additional effects will be available at higher levels.

  Mana Weaver Achievement has been unlocked!

  Mana Weaver: You’ve learned how to diverge from your initial class path to create your own. You can now read and understand will pathways of yourself and others. Your ability to manipulate mana outside of your body has significantly increased.

  Synexus nodded towards Gene and let the owl inspect the armor once he put it on with a thought. They were incredibly impressed and told him they had never seen equipment with a level before. Being able to basically double your stat points by gaining double the levels would be huge especially with his class giving so many stat points. On top of that he has been feeding his necklace a remnant magic item once a month and that would go up to a daily occurrence again once out of the dungeon. His stats were going to be ridiculously high for his level.

  He wanted nothing more than to lay his head down and rest for days after what he had just endured, but the System had other plans. A sharp tug told him he had to go down to the archives immediately. It seems Gene was right, and they didn’t have months of the dungeon left. They had a day or two at best.