Exploration- Chapter 44

I'm gonna try to do one more chapter today. I'd hoped for 4 chapters today, but just not gonna happen. The creative well has to be refilled and I need to watch some football.

Wife and daughters will be back late tonight, so tomorrow will be a completely off day.

Chapters will resume on Monday.

Chapter 44- Delivery

Despite the absence of light, I felt warm and surrounded. I knew that my soul was communing with Urg’s as the spell was evolving.

“Image is always making enemies too big for him. This must change. Image must become bigger. Image will become bigger, but never stop being Image.”

“I’ve missed you Urg. I tried to summon you as soon as we got here…”

“Between us never is need for sorrow. Connected we always are.”

His words complete with their particular grammar gave me greater comfort than I would have expected. “What happens now?”

“Legendary spell is peak of mortal realm. Just as racial and class evolutions were bigger, so to this is bigger. It touches our souls and must reflect that. Urg will be able to be more as Image grows stronger. This part of that.”

There was power all around me, but it didn’t scour me, nor surge through me. It was part of me. I felt the spell evolving and leaned into it.

Your spell Summon Eidolon is evolving. It is your anchor to the Astral Lord to Be, Urg. This will expand your soul.

Primordial Aspect noted. Mortality accepted. Potential calls to potential.

The upgraded spell can add one of two benefits.

Summon Eidolon: Pocket Dimension- Your soul has been judged to be strong enough. The evolution will create a pocket dimension connected to both the Astral plane and your soul. Urg may reside there and thus be summoned to you despite system barriers because he is already wherever you are.

Summon Eidolon: Unrealized Potential- Urg is more than he seems and may become even more. By choosing this ability, with Urg’s agreement he may become a portion of his true potential- significantly greater than his current form for up to 1 minute. Then he must return to the Astral Plane for 30 days.

The tactical advantages of the second were tempting, especially because I was worried that the order had an Ascendant here, but it wasn’t enough for me to give up on always having Urg around. I asked him but in typical Urg style, he deferred to me so I went with the pocket dimension option.

Summon Eidolon has evolved to Summon Eidolon-Pocket Dimension (Legendary 1%)

You gain Will +1000 as your soul is stretched to accommodate the bond.

Urg’s Abilities are Updated to more closely reflect your soul.

Ability Imitation (Legendary 6/7):

Here Not Here

Blood is Life

Hunter’s Tether

Force Projection Mastery

Spirit Singing

Lightning Arc Mastery

Spell Imitation (Legendary 4/5):

Celestial Restoration

Cloud of Mana Disruption

Line of Sight Teleportation

Primordial Surge

Abilities:

Thunderous Taunt

Bastion of Sound

Protective Encasement

Astral Ideation

Blip

You also gain the Active Ability: Blip- this ability allows you to skip 1 second forward in time. You will not experience that second nor will any force less than Divine tier be able to affect you during that second. Your position will remain the same in the physical realm although if you would be harmed by reappearing in the same spot then you will be shunted to the closest location which will not result in instant harm.

You will adapt to the blip in time, but everyone else around you will be slightly disoriented unlike if you had simply teleported.

Note: You will have to trade this out for one of your current active abilities if you wish to use it.

Urg’s stats are updated to 400% of your current stats with the same proportional assignment.

For tinkering with a system outside of the Heavens your title: Tinker with the System is upgraded to Tinker with All Systems. This extends your power but does not give you full architect privileges with other systems.

I sucked in a deep breath and squeezed Urg in a hug. “I missed you so much buddy.” Then I pulled myself up, and he stood with me.

“Urg missed Image as well. Now, Urg not ever be cut off from Image. This is the way.”

I did a double take. “Did you just quote the Mandalorin?”

“Did Urg do it wrong?”

I laughed. “Not at all. I just wasn’t expecting it from you. This is gonna be great.”

“Powerful foes in this place. Urg feels better that he is here to protect Image now. Has been watching as best as possible. Urg not had chance to say, but approve of choice of other half of heart. Already feel a nascent connection with her.”

“Wait, you’re saying that you and Selena will establish a connection like we have.”

“Never like this, never full soul bond, but as two halves of heart grow together, emotions provide a bridge and connection. Will make Urg better. Will make heart half better.”

I was dumbfounded by that for a moment, but happy. I found a chair and sat down. I needed to decide what to do with Blip. I might have normally pushed it off, but I needed to stop punishing future Silas. So I looked over my current list of active abilities.

Active Abilities:

Here Not Here (Epic 90%)

Force Construct Mastery—Persistent (Legendary 13%)

Lightning Arc Mastery (Epic 55%)

Self-Propagation (Epic 32%)

Inheritance: Spirit Walk (Legendary 3%)

Inheritance 2: Spirit Singing (Legendary 62%)

Inheritance 3: Terrakinesis (Epic 92%)

       Inheritance 4: Mana Body (Epic 8%)

Hmmm… I didn’t feel like I could get rid of Here Not Here, Force Constructs,  or Lightning Arc as they were the foundation of my build in battle. Something inside of me said not to get rid of Self-Propagation. It had proven how deadly it could be, especially in conjunction with Blood is Life.

So that left me wondering if I could substitute Blip for one of the Inheritance slots. I chuckled, but only inside my head. I was an architect, if I couldn’t manage something like that then I might as well give up. Still I couldn’t’ give up Spirit Singing, it was too powerful and too important. Spirit Walk was something I rarely used, but it was very powerful. Terrakinesis also felt like an under utilized ability but it had the potential to be more powerful than any of my others, at least when on Earth.

It would have to be Mana Body. It was useful enough, but it was my least progressed ability. That was all it took. With the decision made, I shifted out Mana Body and shifted in Blip.

Inheritance 4: Blip (Legendary 1%)

I was glad to see that it was already at legendary tier and even happier to see that Mana Body wasn’t lost, it simply was marked as inactive.

Finally, I took a look around. The summoning of Urg and the evolution of the ability had taken hours. A glance at my system clock said that it had been nearly 20 hours since Oliver and Clay had left.

A short time after my updates, Selena and Samvek came back with the team. They’d both gained a paid or levels and the elves were all sitting at level 246. It was impressive to say the least. When I walked over to Selena, I could see that once again, she’d been pushing hard. On instinct, I cast Clean and watched as it washed over everyone around me.

Selena sighed. “Yeah, that’s the good stuff. I should probably keep you around just for that spell.”

I laughed, hugged her, and soon it transitioned to a kiss, but I could feel how tired she was. She suddenly did a double take. “Urg? How… never mind.” She let go of me and walked over to hug the eidolon.

“I felt like he was closer. I even mentioned it to Samvek a couple hours ago, didn’t I?”

He nodded.

Urg said, “Heart half is connected to Image. Urg is connected to Image as well. This makes sort of connection between Heart half and Urg.”

If she was confused by what he said, she didn’t let on, but hugged him tighter. “I’m glad you’re here Urg. I need all the help I can get keeping Silas from doing stupid stuff.”

After that, I managed to get all of them to lie down and rest. By the time that was accomplished, the door open. Lexa sprang into action, but then immediately stood down as Oliver and then Clay came in. Both looked worn in that particular way that came from sustained tension rather than combat, shoulders tight and eyes constantly flicking as if expecting pursuit even now. What they didn’t have that I could see was any iron.

Both Tad and I gathered around them. Oliver flexed magically and I felt a spatial disruption. Suddenly there were four large pallets of iron ingots and he said, “12,000 pounds of iron as requested, although we wiped out much of the supply in the city.”

Oliver’s shoulders finally loosened a fraction once the iron was out in the open, as if seeing it physically present proved the danger was over. Clay leaned against the doorframe for a moment, hands on his knees, breathing out slowly before straightening. Neither of them looked injured, but the strain was written into their posture, the kind that came from holding yourself rigid for hours at a time while waiting for something to go wrong. The iron ingots sat there in neat stacks, dull and unassuming, belying how much effort it had taken to get them here unseen.

“That wasn’t easy,” Clay said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Not because of the weight. Oliver’s magic took care of that, once he figured it out.” The way he looked at the mage the mage sorta grumbled told me there was a story there, but I didn’t press. Instead, Clay continued. “It was more because of how jumpy everyone is. The Order’s presence has people on edge, and iron doesn’t exactly disappear quietly. I’m halfway convinced that some of the smiths assume that I’m trying to build an army from the guild to fight the Order.” He glanced at Oliver, who gave a tired nod in agreement.

Oliver took over the explanation without being prompted. “I couldn’t risk moving it in pieces. Too many trips, too many chances to be noticed. Instead, I collapsed it into a layered spatial containment, something like a nested pocket, but anchored to my own mana signature so it couldn’t be detected easily.” He winced slightly. “Holding that much mass compressed like that for hours is not something I want to make a habit of.”

I let out a low whistle. “I have an ability that gives me a spatial container and know many people who have rings and such for them, but I’ve never considered the idea of making one myself. I bet that was tricky.”

Tad crouched beside one of the pallets, running his hand along the iron as if greeting an old friend. “This is more than enough,” he said, relief bleeding into his tone. “Silas, you were right to ask for extra. If something goes wrong mid-forge, we won’t have to stop.”

“That was the idea,” I replied. I felt a familiar itch in my hands already, the urge to start shaping, refining, turning raw material into something purposeful. “Once we start, there’s no backing out halfway. Better to have too much than not enough.”

Oliver exhaled and leaned back against a crate. “Good. Because I don’t think I could repeat that trick tonight even if my life depended on it.” His eyes flicked toward the door, then back to us. “We weren’t followed, but it’s getting harder to move unnoticed. The Order isn’t just watching obvious targets anymore.”

“That won’t change,” Tad said quietly. “Not until this is over.” He straightened and looked at me, then at the iron, then toward the space Spot had already begun reshaping above us. “Are you ready?”

I glanced around the warehouse. Selena and Samvek were asleep, sprawled with the careless exhaustion of people who’d pushed past their limits. The awakened elves rested nearby, power still settling into them in subtle ways that made the air feel charged. Urg stood silent and watchful, wings folded, eyes following everything without comment. This was as good a moment as we were going to get.

I walked over to the forge and the other followed. “Once, we start this we’re both going to have to be completely focused.”

Tad met my gaze, serious now. “Agreed. This isn’t something to rush.”

Clay pushed off the wall and stepped closer, curiosity winning out over exhaustion. “So this is really happening. We’re building iron golems.”

I smiled despite myself. “Looks that way.”

Oliver shook his head with a quiet laugh. “As exciting as this is, I need some sleep. These old bones weren’t meant for cloak and dagger operations.”

Both he and Clay went to some of the other sleeping areas that were set up. They were out before I’d even finished going over the designs one last time.

I rolled my shoulders, feeling the familiar blend of anticipation and responsibility settle in. The iron was here. The forge was ready. The design was final. Whatever came next, there was no more theory to hide behind.