“Oh right, we already found the way out, well, it wasn’t very hidden,” Saria, walking around the stele, and coming back with three blue pearls in hand, “There’s a bowl full of those just there.”

“... I can’t believe I didn’t notice that…”

“Here’s the ID of it, by the way, just about what you’d expect.”

[Bead of Twilight]:

Allows one to return to darkness.

Consuming three beads will lead to irremediable consequences.

“The three beads thing must count both those and the others,” Sofia said.

“Yeah, we can leave but if we ever come back we’ll be trapped in the sanctuary forever probably. Or I’m overthinking things and it just makes us permanently Sunless.”

“Probably both?” Sofia guessed, “Either way I would rather not find out.”

Saria tossed a bead to Sofia and Pestle, and launched the third one in the air, letting it fall back into her mouth. “Hmm, bitter–” she had time to say, before she just simply disappeared.

“Guess we’re about done here,” Sofia said to Pestle, “Let me grab a few more of these and let’s go.” Sofia grabbed a handful of blue beads, throwing a side glance at the Abereth that silently floated next to the bowl, and ate one of the beads.

Strange taste.

The world seemed to fade to black even more than it already was, until light returned, and Sofia found herself at the maze of Zar’s entrance, at the bottom of the hole under the great tree.

“Not where I expected to be, but It’s nice not to have to walk back,” Saria commented, “Interesting that the ‘black sun’ is back into the floor, someone cleaned after us it looks like.”

“Likely a Sunless if I had to guess? I wonder what Everelle would think of this whole thing. Those Sunless were different, too, with red eyes instead of white.”

“Hmm, is that why you grabbed all of those?” Saria asked, looking at the extra beads in Sofia’s hand.

“We don’t know if they are anywhere in the sanctuary except for behind the stele. If we ever need to send someone back there at least we’ll know they have a way out without needing to go through the whole three questions thing,” Sofia explained.

“I thought you wanted to reduce the clutter in your storage ring.”

“Doesn’t mean I’ll stop picking up useful st-” Sofia stopped mid-word, seeing Pestle and Saria flinch and looking behind her. Sofia sighed, “Well, at least the description wasn’t lying, I really can’t escape the Abereth...”

“I almost struck the damn thing, it just appears out of nowhere. No spatial ripples, nothing.”

“Doesn’t matter if you do, It’s pretty fucking sturdy, couldn’t even scratch it with my dagger when it can even carve out Asterite now.”

“Wait, it can?”

“Yeah, it’s still not easy or fast, but it can,” Sofia confirmed.

“Tried it on mithril?”

“Like paper as long as it’s not too thick,” Sofia said, “Same for unenchanted Mithrium.”

“Well yeah, that’s not the point, though, how about your armguard?”

“It’s about where it was for Asterite before, I can scrape out some dust if I really try.”

“Damn, maybe it’s about time I try to upgrade my weapon too…”

The sisters continued chatting on their uneventful way out of the forest.

The building that looked closest to completion of the entire city was Erredis’ forge and workshop. Sofia had lined up the materials and the system’s [A certain saintomancer’s helmet enchantment guide] book in front of Erredis.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Will you do it for me, Grandma?”

Erredis stared at everything with narrowed eyes. “Two kilograms of mithrium, some leftover adamian steel, your own bones, an ingot of high purity gold, a block of midenicite, some leyline bark… Then Victory’s crown and the Saint headband… And then this book… It’s not even a matter of will I, but can I? This is the kind of project I’d plan for a century before even entering the workshop.”

“Does the book not help?”

“It makes things worse, if anything, to fit even half of the enchantment matrix described in this thing… I’ll need a lot more than this.”

“More?!”

“Ahahah. That’s right, sweetie. It might look like you already have enough materials to make three helmets, and you do, if I just make you ‘a basic mithrium helmet’. But this is never what anyone seeks to do with mithrium. I’m not making ‘a helmet’ I’m making the thing that will stay on your head until the day you die, or become strong enough that dying is no longer an option,” Erredis explained with conviction.

“What… What do we lack, then?”

“First and foremost, a piece of your soul.”

“That should be easy enough,” Sofia answered with a nod.

“And then… Hmm… How much money do you have?”

Sofia directly summoned her ‘money box’ with all of her stones.

“You sure made out of that trial like a bandit,” Erredis commented with a smile, she grabbed the two largest stones from the box, “Two old stones. This should be enough. The question is, do you want to invest that much into it?”

“One expensive helmet…” Sofia mumbled, thinking about it, “Four hundred million gold coins into one piece of equipment…”

“Not the most someone’s ever spent on a helmet… But probably not far. Mine is probably worth two thirds of that, if I were to sell it. So, what do you think?”

“What would we even use the money for, can I know?” Sofia asked.

“Of course sweetie, one is to buy some royal Kleptran wax, which is probably the only thing that can weld Mithrium, Dragon scales and asterite together properly. The other is to buy a Phageid filament. I’ll probably have to haggle a bit for that one to work, actually,” Erredis explained, an elbow on the table.

“W-Wait Dragon scales? Asterite?” Sofia repeated, confused.

“What? Did you really think I wouldn’t pitch in? Come on, kid, I’m not that greedy.”

“Y- You’re already making it! For free!”

Erredis shrugged, “Isn’t that what family is for? Did you make me pay for the new workshop?”

Sofia was left speechless, almost feeling the tears well up in her eyes, when someone else waltzed into the workshop.

“Does that mean I also get the service of the bone city’s best blacksmith for free?” Saria asked with a wide smile.

Erredis rolled her eyes shooing Saria away with a wave of her hand, “Truly the most shameless creature to have ever lived. You’ve already not been paying.”

“Oh! Wait, that’s right,” Saria answered, acting as if she’d just realised that fact, “So, what’s a Phageid filament, anyway?”

“If you just wanted to insert yourself into the conversation you could’ve just done that,” Erredis said with a smirk, “It’s the organ the bigger Phageid use to concentrate energy. We only got a few from their last full scale attack, and most have been used, so they are pretty expensive. As for why exactly we need it, we can talk about it again when you learn to handle Mithrium enchantments.”

“Bet,” Saria answered, “So, lil’ sis,are you paying?”

“Money is meant to be spent,” Sofia said without a second thought, “though this is getting me thinking… Maybe we could make the most expensive helmet?”

“Throwing more money at it is not going to help you much, I already have everything I could need aside from those two items,” Erredis said with a raised eyebrow, “What do you have in mind?”

“Well… We could make it a divine item,” Sofia suggested.

“Hmm… Not something I have much experience with, but that is a possibility. The crown of Victory already relies on Victory’s essence, however. Even with it not being a part of the item itself, it will be an issue, unless you use another one of His,” Erredis analyzed, seriously considering the idea.

“I was thinking more along the lines of having it be balanced with an opposite Recessed,” Sofia explained, bringing up the set of her shroud of Sorrow and the Wheel of Progress she still needed to find.

“That could work…” Erredis said after reflection, “but not only will you need to convince the Recessed in question, I will have to learn how to handle it. And this is after you determine which Recessed’s essence it is you will use. It cannot be just any one, it has to be conceptually similar or opposite, and of similar power…”

Sofia turned to look at Saria.

“I get it, I get it,” Saria said, turning back, “I’ll go get Cinthia.”

As Saria left, Erredis started storing everything away, confirming another time that Sofia was fine with spending the two Old Stones.

“By the way, grandma…”

“Hmmm?”

“Is there any way to know what exactly the final effects of the helmet will be with stacking all of those enchantments?”

“Perhaps,” Erredis said with a mad grin, “And I will not be telling you. Now get to work getting the last ingredient!” she said, throwing a flask in Sofia’s direction. It was an item of a design similar to one she had held in the past, the blood storage vial from Cardinal. “Fill that up! We’re going to need a LOT of Odalite blood.”