“In a month…You really made a bet like that?” Vilar asked as his four mantid feet tapped out an uneasy rhythm.

“Yea,” Jayce affirmed, nodding lightly. While he spoke, his eyes remained glued to a holographic screen in front of him.

A couple days after his second excursion into the Frozen Expanse, Jayce had gotten up early to visit the library. Today, old Verne would be giving him a test of sorts and he wanted to spend some extra time preparing. Verne’s son, Vilar, was coincidentally on duty in the library and had struck up a conversation with Jayce.

“And you didn’t have any refining experience before starting your apprenticeship? How are you so calm?”

“Verne was the one who told me to aim for a month. As long as I don’t slack off, I should be fine.”

Even though he had casually mentioned slacking off, Jayce’s eyes carried a fervor that made Vilar wonder if he had ever relaxed since coming to Snowdrift.

From Jayce’s perspective, the bet he made with Leon was rather safe because only he could affect the results. Even if he failed to make his companion tool, with a month of accumulation from constant Soul-Guided Forgings, Jayce was absolutely confident that he could make something that wasn’t shoddy.

“Hmm. That’s…” Vilar’s feet kept tapping and Jayce eventually turned to stare at him. Under Jayce’s questioning glare, Vilar continued, “Listen, you know Marin is a genius, right? If we’re talking about making artifacts from scratch, she’s probably only equivalent to a grade 1 refiner, but in terms of rune engraving, she’s reached grade 3. Her former teacher, Egan, is a fully-fledged grade 3 refiner, but he can’t beat her at her specialty.”

“Egan was her teacher?”

“Yea, that’s a whole other story.”

When Jayce thought about it, he was able to immediately fill in some blanks. Egan was Leon’s father and mentor. Jayce had seen Leon’s naked contempt for Marin, and he was pretty sure that some of that hatred had been projected onto him as well. After learning alongside a monster who had surpassed her teacher in less than three years, it made sense that he had a bit of a complex.

Vilar looked deeply at Jayce. “Marin has always been interested in technology, but she only started learning refining at sixteen, when her apprenticeship began. Everyone was surprised when she refined her first artifact from scratch after only two months.”

Jayce stared blankly at Vilar for a few seconds before he asked, “Then why did Verne say I could do it in a month?”

“Dad, uh…” Vilar hesitated. “He kind of hates refiners.”

Folding his arms, Jayce turned away from Vilar to think for a moment. He had felt a hint of Verne’s feelings towards refiners during their first conversation. Back then, Verne had dismissively asked why Jayce wanted to learn refining, and he had also dismissed the value of his own skills. Jayce had worked under Verne for over a week now, and he had almost forgotten this oddity because Verne had an excellent work ethic. His teacher was very knowledgeable and never cut corners, which made it hard for Jayce to believe that he held any contempt for his profession.

“He accepted you as his student, so he definitely won’t cheat you,” Vilar hastily assured Jayce. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted to humble you a bit, since you actually believed that one month was a reasonable timeline.”

Jayce felt some sweat accumulate on his forehead. The bet he had casually made had suddenly become a serious problem. Losing Spirit Nail by itself was…acceptable. Spirit Nail was a novel artifact that was worth studying, but it would rapidly become obsolete as Jayce continued leveling up. Once his refining skills reached a certain stage, Jayce planned on taking it apart to see if he could gain any insights from it. The real problem was the spirit of freedom. Without those nails, Jayce had no way to contain it.

“Well…knowing that doesn’t change what I have to do.”

After settling on his answer, Jayce turned back to the screen and continued studying. He could reflect on his actions after he tried his best.

---

A bright golden flame blazed proudly at the center of Verne’s cylindrical forge. As the rings on the surface of the forge lit up, the nearby air rippled, sending waves of hot wind into Jayce’s face. Squinting, he watched closely as a bar of metal on the table turned red hot. Verne was controlling the forge, and at his command, the raging fire pulled back once the metal reached an ideal temperature.

Jayce gripped a set of tongs and a soot-colored hammer with dim veins on its head and started hammering the metal. Creases formed on his brow and his breathing grew shallow. Even though his actions looked simple, Jayce was concentrating extremely hard.

“Keep your hammer arm steady,” Verne advised from the sidelines. “The force of your blows is inconsistent.”

“Wow…You’re doing great. Keep at it,” another high-pitched, vaguely feminine voice added. Their words were encouraging but their tone was absolutely soulless. This wasn’t the sound of sarcasm. Instead, it was a noise made by someone who was genuinely tired of living.

As Jayce kept hammering the metal, it began to deform in ways that didn’t conform to physics. This was the advantage of working in a world with mana, mental energy and artifacts. A lot of steps in the smithing process could be commuted with artifacts like Jayce’s hammer, but it was still exhausting work. Every swing required careful thought, draining both Jayce’s stamina and mind.

Eventually, the finished product was quenched and examined by Verne, who shook his head. “You tire too quickly. If you can’t put enough force into your swings, then the hammer can’t distribute it properly. As for the shape, there are far too many uneven spots, along with…” Verne analyzed everything meticulously, tearing Jayce down without a shred of mercy before handing over the metal.

The vessel was a simple curved plate that could potentially be used in a gauntlet.

“This was just normal iron,” Verne continued. “Remember that materials with aspects have their own unique quirks and requirements. That’s particularly true for high-grade metals. You need to have an unshakable grasp over the basics, otherwise you won’t be able to handle them.”

Jayce nodded and they moved onto the second step of refining, purification. He sat at a table while Verne placed a chunk of crystal in front of him. The crystal was milky white, and it glowed with a deep, enchanting azure light. Crystalline materials were generally the easiest to purify.

Placing his hand on the crystal, Jayce focused for a moment before reporting, “Blue sea quartz. Purity of water aspects is F- with 20% harmony.”

“Very good,” Verne praised for the first time that day.

“Yay…” the other voice droned. “That’s incredible.”

Jayce couldn’t feel too proud because this was purely the result of his Sense Aspects ability.

For refiners, sensing the aspects within materials was a vital skill. Normal refiners achieved this through careful control over their mental energy, but Jayce didn’t need to bother with this technique. His second Soul Forger ability gave him detailed information while also allowing him to cast his senses out in a range of at least 10 meters. From there, he only needed to learn the system of measurement that Verne taught him.

A glittering silver tuning fork with gold stripes appeared in Jayce’s hand and he slowly began to tap on the quartz. Ten minutes passed with Jayce intermittently tapping the quartz while his brows drew together. Just like when he was hammering, this simple-looking action held surprising complexity.

“Harmony increased to 35%,” he eventually reported.

“A material with less than 70% harmony is practically guaranteed to produce a shoddy artifact,” Verne reminded him before launching into another spiel detailing the flaws in Jayce’s process.

Jayce listened carefully, but the techniques Verne described were too esoteric. Fundamentally, the goal of this step was to harmonize the various aspects in an artifact. Doing so would allow mana to smoothly conduct with the vessel’s aspects, making the artifact’s effects more potent. The process itself was a purely mental exercise and the specifics varied based on what kinds of aspects were present in the vessel. Of the three steps, this one was the least related to anything Jayce had learned on Earth. At the same time, it was a skill he was very eager to learn. It was said that excellent purifiers were masters at controlling the energy in their bodies, which allowed them to use their class abilities in more nuanced ways.

Finally, Jayce moved onto carving runes. He held a quill-like engraving tool and pressed it into a dark crystal tablet. Once again, he struggled, as drawing even the basic runes that he used during Soul-Guided Forging was a challenge. Runes could not simply be memorized. If purification was lubricating a pipe, then engraving was placing pipes to create a steady flow. Understanding how to guide this flow was much more important than remembering specific shapes or patterns.

“Keep your hand steady. You need to have conceptualized the path before you draw it,” Verne called out.

“So good. I’m wet for you,” the feminine voice added, prompting Jayce to stop what he was doing and look over at its source.

Standing beside Verne was another weaver who was only one meter tall. Unlike Verne and Vilar, her antennae curved behind her back and had white hairs like a moth’s. Her sickle arms were also only one size away from being needle thin. This was Vorona, the daughter that Verne was desperately trying to marry off, and despite her appearance, she had finished maturing years ago. Though Jayce was still unclear on the details, he had learned that the drastic differences between these weavers was the combined result of sexual dimorphism and genetic engineering. The weaver race didn’t have caste systems like eusocial insects, but they used science to create something similar. Out of the three of them, Vorona was actually the closest to a ‘pure’ weaver.

Compared to her father and brother, Jayce could admit that she was somewhat ‘cute’—in the same way that a jumping spider was ‘cute’. Unfortunately, even if those air quotes were removed, there was still her personality to deal with.

“…Why are you staring at me like that?” she asked in her usual soulless tone. “That is an encouraging phrase for humanoids, correct?”

“It’s the wrong kind of encouragement,” Jayce retorted before returning to his task.

After spending over a week as Verne’s apprentice, Jayce had only learned three things about Vorona. The first was that she was almost five years older than him, making her significantly older than her brother, Vilar. The second was that she spent most of her time shut away in her room creating tapestries and other art. The third was that she visited morning and afternoon training religiously and was one of the strongest adults in the village aside from the three elders.

He had absolutely no idea why she was here today, but he knew that she hadn’t come of her own will.

After finishing his task and getting another scathing lecture from Verne, Jayce couldn’t help but ask, “Can I really create a companion tool in a month?”

“It would be very difficult,” Verne explained. “Tools used for refining can be complicated and most apprentices don’t make a proper companion tool until they’re ready to leave their teacher’s care.”

Jayce’s jaw hung slack as he stared at Verne. After he got over his initial shock, indignation flared in his chest. “Then, you’re just setting me up to fail, aren’t you? How could I possibly become a fully-fledged refiner in a month?”

“I was only talking about the norm. In your case, you can’t truly begin learning until you gain control over your soulfire. I already said that I won’t accommodate you if you can’t handle my assignments. If you fail this time, then you’ll have to review until you can prove to me that you’re ready for another try. Even if you keep failing, I won’t let you switch to something simpler.”

Jayce couldn’t help but glare at Verne, as he felt this method was draconian. Unfazed, Verne stared right back at him.

“Do you think that’s unfair?” the weaver asked. “Remember that you came here asking to learn refining for the sake of improving your personal combat ability. Anyone with a decent respect for the profession would have kicked you out for treating it like a side-job. You need a certain level of talent to juggle both fighting and refining. If you truly can’t keep up, then I’ll at least have taught you that you’ve bitten off more than you can chew.”

Lowering his head, Jayce realized he had misunderstood Verne because of what Vilar said earlier.

“What?” Verne probed. “Do you want to quit? That will also count as an answer to my question.”

‘The question you still won’t tell me about?’ Jayce thought, feeling a little bitter. Said question was the only payment Verne had asked for when he agreed to teach Jayce. Every time Verne brought it up, Jayce couldn’t help but feel unnerved.

Shaking his head, Jayce looked back at Verne with clear eyes. “Going by your logic…Making this tool in a month would prove that I have enough talent to learn both fighting and refining. If that’s the case, then I’ll have to succeed.”

After hearing this, Verne and Vorona were both silent for a while. Eventually, Verne shifted his weight and said, “Then, let’s continue to the final part of this exercise. Lecture me about the practice of material submission.”

Jayce nodded. He knew that Verne had set up four tests today. The first three tested his mastery of the basic steps of refinement while the last forced him to study a topic that Verne had chosen. Though, at the moment, Jayce couldn’t understand why Verne had insisted that he learn about this subject so early.

“Well,” he started. “Aspects can dwell within almost every kind of object and any object that contains aspects can technically be considered a material for refining. The problem is that only gods have the lifespan to learn how to shape hundreds of different materials. Ores require metalworking, skins require leatherworking, crystals require carving, etc. One solution is to specialize, and another is to use material submission.

“Even though aspects aren’t physical entities, they are closely linked with their container’s physical body. With the right technique, a refiner can use their mental energy to disrupt the aspects in a material and gain control over its shape. By forcing objects to ‘submit’ in this way, refiners can work with a wider variety of materials.”

Verne nodded and scuttled over to tap Vorona. In response, she released a high-pitched sound that vaguely resembled a cheer.

“Wow~,” she droned. “That sounds really useful.”

Glancing at the her, Jayce’s lips drew taut as he tried to keep a neutral expression. “This method also has its downsides. Forcing a material to submit will permanently damage the harmony of its aspects and potentially lower its grade. Material suppression will always create inferior products compared to conventional methods, but it is much more convenient.”

“Good,” Verne said, bringing his three-fingered hands together. “Do you know how to significantly reduce those downsides?”

After quickly checking the information that had been seared into his mind, Jayce could only shake his head. “No?”

“Soulfire. With the aid of a bonded flame, it is much easier for refiners to perform material submission. This doesn’t completely negate the downsides, but the damage can be reduced by up to 75% of what it would be. Specifically, soulfire interacts with the material through several processes...”

Jayce’s eyes widened as he listened to Verne. He hadn’t realized it before, but he had been performing material submission ever since his first use of Soul-Guided Forging. That was why he had been able to shape the cleaner shrimp’s melted body into a claw charm and why that staff with aspects of freedom could be bent into rings. This epiphany triggered a splitting headache, forcing Jayce to clamp his hands over his temples. The pain only lasted for a few seconds before it quickly faded, taking some of the fog in his memories with it. Jayce found that he could remember his many uses of Soul-Guided Forging much more vividly than before. Jayce’s control over this ability had been growing steadily, but this was the first time he had ever experienced a retroactive change to his memories.

“Are you alright?” Verne asked, moving to Jayce’s side.

Meanwhile, Vorona didn’t say anything, but she was watching him closely.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Jayce reported, resolving to sort out these memories later. “By the way, how do you know so much about soulfire? Do you actually have a bonded flame?”

Jayce had never seen Verne using soulfire while forging, and he hadn’t imagined that Verne might have a bonded flame until now.

In response, Verne let out a dismissive grunt. “Even if I had one, I would still be a mere refiner.”

“Are you saying there’s a profession above refining?”

“No, I’m saying that refiners, even excellent ones, can only do so much. Alright, that’s enough idling. If your head is fine, then let’s get to work. Vorona, you can leave if you want. Now that you’ve encouraged him through a series of challenges, I’m sure he’ll fall for you in no time.”

Jayce, who had been preparing to help Verne, suddenly jerked to a halt. ‘Please tell me you didn’t set up these tests just so she would have something to cheer about.’

Vorona listened to Verne’s words and shook her head, sending her feather-like antennae waving from side to side. “This is not how I’m supposed to provide value. I hope you won’t call me down for worthless things in the future.”

After shutting Verne down, she skittered over to Jayce, who flinched involuntarily. With no facial expressions and the lack of emotion in her voice, Jayce could never tell what she thought of him.

“…Please succeed,” she said, staring up at him. For once, her tone carried a trace of vitality.

Vorona quickly left before Jayce could make his reply.

Jayce closed his eyes for a moment and raised an empty palm. When he opened his eyes, he saw a violet flame dancing weakly in his hand. This flame wasn’t very stable, but it didn’t explode like it had earlier. Jayce watched it for a minute before drawing it back into his body.

“I will,” he muttered.