“Then where is the Candidate? I have some choice words for him! These resources belong to the Dwarven Oligarchy, not some-”
“If you want to live, stop trying to line your pockets,” Joe ordered the Dwarf as he breezed past him and immediately started setting a Field Array around the first pile of crystals. It solidified as the Dwarf sputtered, and Joe sent a touch of mana to test the material cost.
Item: Approximately 10 cubic meters of Artifact and below material.
Reduction value: unknown. Total mass: 410 pounds of material.
Reduction cost: 14,062.5 mana per second. Estimated reduction time required: 5 seconds.
Joe almost choked as he read the cost and time requirements. Then he was grabbed roughly and spun around, meeting the Dwarf face-to-face. He had seen him coming thanks to the Eye of Argus, but had been too stunned to react. “Human, I am General Information, and you will not insult me by-”
“Sir, we have only a few hours until we all blow our top. How about you wait until then to do it?” Joe cut off the General before he could continue. “I read the Elven shaper’s notes, sir. The walls of the Shoe are being reinforced by a backup enchantment that had been included in the Prismatic Evergreen. In the case of a malfunction, the excess energy would seal the walls and hold this place together until the pressure became too much and it detonated. It was intended both as an escape device and deadman’s failsafe.”
“Why are you telling me-”
“You have loyal troops digging. They’ve made no progress.” Joe’s words weren’t a question: he would have been doing the same thing in the General’s position. “More digging won’t help. What will help is bringing every mana-rich Dwarf here, right now, to help me make the solution.”
The General tried to stare Joe down, but the human turned and only let the eye on his head play that game. There was no eyelid on that eye, so it would win for sure. Joe narrowed the size of the Field Array, repeating until he squeezed it down to the smallest size that it would allow him to cover.
Item: Approximately .5 cubic meters of Artifact and below material.
Reduction value: unknown. Total mass: 20.5 pounds of material.
Reduction cost: 14,062.5 mana per second. Estimated reduction time required: 1 second.
No matter what he did to shrink the size of the array, the estimated time stayed at a minimum of one second. At six thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight mana in his personal mana pool, he could supply half of it himself if needed; but would rather not. The General seemed to make up his mind, and it appeared Joe had succeeded. A handful of Dwarves came forward, but they were all heavily decorated Officers, including Major Infraction.
Joe made the array glow red where they needed to touch it, and soon they began reducing the crystals one by one.
Nearly two hours later, they all had bags under their eyes and were shaking from fatigue. Joe checked his aspect list with trembling eyes, and found that they finally had enough. All of the crystal, all the Guardian, and a few Artifacts that had been forcibly ‘donated’ by the disgruntled Officers had resulted in…
Aspects gathered
Trash: 187,252
Damaged: 105,594
Common: 100,267
Uncommon: 92,300
Rare: 62,284
Special: 100 (Zombified). 1521 (Anima). 111 (Molten) 4,891 (Crystalline)
Unique: 19,428
Artifact: 10,357
Legendary: 0
Mythical: 0
Core energy: 5,498/5,498 (Rare-ranked Core)
“We made it above ten thousand,” Joe stated with relief, his words getting a cheer from the exhausted Officers. His follow-up stifled their excitement. “Now we can start on the dangerous part!”
The Dwarven Legion was in position. The materials were ready. The area was secure. Joe pulled out the Architect’s Fury and placed it on the ground, then set a Field Array around it. He wasn’t exactly certain how this would work, or how long it would work for, but he hoped that having the array in place would be beneficial.
He gazed around the area, at all the faces filled with hope as they looked at him, and steeled his resolve. It was do or die, and the heat was rising. Literally. Joe glanced up and saw that the top of the volcano was bright: the stone was starting to melt.
“Let’s go.” Joe placed his hand on the ritual and injected mana. The ritual lit up and started glowing with energy. He linked his Codpiece of Holding to the Array, then every standard aspect jar he had. After a long moment, he almost decided against any special aspects. The only one with enough quantity to be effective was the Crystalline aspect, but he didn’t know how that would impact this design. He didn’t have time to get this wrong, but it had seemed really important that the tree that had once stood on this spot be made of crystal.
Joe could only hope he would have enough; desperately, he added it to the mix.
He and practically the entire Legion that remained in the volcano were lifted into the air as the ritual began. Everyone was held in place, and soon, the gyroscopic effect began. Aspects began flowing from Joe into the array, so many and so fast that it looked like he was using a flamethrower to outline a building.
The first thing that materialized was a wire-thin framework of the brightest neon orange that Joe had ever seen; figuratively, the essence of the color orange. That thin wire stretched into more and more filaments; the only comparison Joe could think of was the capillary system of a body. It reached every point of the structure but was so delicate that it was practically invisible in places.
Joe could have screamed in joy when the flames shifted from orange to a deep indigo: the Artifact aspects had been accepted without a warning message. The Unique aspects flowed over and around the orange, shifting the glaring color into a starry blob that thickened and grew. The nerve system, if Joe continued the
