A week passed after the eanling twins' introduction. Crystal decided to train them to work as a butler and a maid. Altia also decided to spend more time bonding with their new refugees. Glom was interested enough in Nero's weapon project to postpone his return to the capital. The military train schedule helped a lot too. They just couldn't hop on the train and travel anymore. There was a lot of red-tape to cut through before getting a civilian on board, especially now that they were investigating the disappearance of some recruits in the Goblin's Den.

Amaryllis told Nero to stay at his parent's home or the shelter and let her handle it. The army was suspicious as to how a lot of soldiers died in a gray-grade Dungeon. They didn't even try to explain to the military that it was a yellow-grade when that happened because all the army wanted was a pretext to increase their activities in the region.

That gave the two [Gadgeteers] time to work on their design. After refining what they could on the blueprint and triple-check the math to see if there were any other major problems, they disassembled the weapons to work on the upgrade.

Nero and Glom were at the workshop, carefully threading the crystal conduits along the forestock of the rifle, leaving a bunch pointing down and welding the ice-attuned converter-emitters to the Essence conduits. The diminutive squiig had a huge advantage on the fine manipulation. The conduits were, for him, as thick as hemp rope would be for Nero.

They moved to disassemble the clockwork sword and Nero found an array of actuator gears responsible for transmitting force to the teeth. He removed these from one side of the blade and started to place the converters for lightning and ice on the other side. He removed the hilt and cross-guard, taking care to not damage the activation switch. That switch would go on the opposite side of the rifle trigger.

The work on the weapon upgrade was taking the best part of two days and the parts scavenged from twenty-five Arbitrii. Nero had now a surplus of controllers, but a lack of converters or conduits. At the capital, they had shops to supply those, but out here in the boonies? Good luck. It left him with a burning question. He sent it Glom's way.

"How are these parts made?"

"Imbued crystals," Glom gave an abridged answer. Seeing that Nero wasn't satisfied, he explained more. "We infuse Essence into specially-cut crystals, making them receptive to the passage of Essence in just one direction. Do you remember our lesson on resistance? Well, the conduits, they have high resistance across and very low along. When the Essence is pushed in from one side, it always wants to go down the conduit and exit on the other end. Very few escape sideways. With the converters, it is the opposite. The Essence moves around in the converters, going back and forth. That changes the nature of the energy and it becomes something else or vice versa."

Nero immediately had another question, but it had to be something very common. Glom let out a light chuckle and answered before he could ask.

"The converters that absorb energy into Essence do not receive enough power to make useable Essence. These are used only to detect the presence of these energies or phenomena. All this process is extremely lossy. For example, a level one rat from the Dungeon, how much Essence does it drop if you kill it alone?"

"Ten," Nero said with a shrug. Everyone knew that especially someone that studied it.

"The whole rat dies, it weighs how much? Thirty pounds?"

"About that. Never held one but I have a pet card if you want to check."

"Thirty pounds of rat dies. A lot of this energy is reabsorbed by the Dungeon but a good portion becomes the crystal. You could say that the lifeforce of the rat is worth ten Essence. Now, how long does your sword run on ten Essence?"

Glom pointed at the disassembled weapon on the workbench.

"Less than a minute, half a minute if we finish this."

Nero already got the point across, but Glom was in lecturing mode. The tiny professor needed to go all the way to the end.

"Do you think it is using Essence efficiently? Just to move some sharp teeth up and down?"

"No, it's not. But why does a higher level rat, say a level four, whose size does not increase as much, drops more than a hundredfold the Essence of the level one?"

"Power demands energy," He tapped his minuscule Arbitrium. "That's why we have limiters. Without a Dungeon ambient Essence to fuel our power, we are awfully limited. In fact, do you know what prompted Bezzias' research, and why he theorized someone like you should exist?"

"Of course not. What is it?"

"It is a theoretical exercise called the level-four-hundred-fifty conjecture. It says that nobody can have a level cap above four hundred and fifty and by corollary, the maximum tier is the tenth. Such a person with a level cap above that number would die upon activation."

That was horrible. Nero couldn't imagine the level of pain a person like that would feel. Maybe Crystal but he wouldn't dare make her evoke that memory.

"The limiter starts at twelve percent at level ten. It means twelve percent of all Attributes above the person's rank is cut off. A level two hundred person has a rank of forty and loses fifty percent of all Attributes above that value. For example, someone with five hundred Strength at that level would see their Attribute reduced to two hundred and seventy. Someone with a level cap at the conjecture would have a limiter of a hundred percent. Any attribute above a hundred would be limited to a flat ninety. Now, what would a limiter above one hundred percent do?"

Nero had his [Gadgeteer] build active, so he could easily calculate that.

"He'd lose more than he had and the difference would eat away at the threshold. Raise their levels enough and they would have a negative Attribute, which is impossible."

Glom paused. His whiskers flicked up and down as he thought. He adjusted his monocle. "That's one valid interpretation, but it doesn't tell why a person would die at activation, well before they reached their cap."

Nero frowned and shook his head. He had no idea.

"The absorption efficiency. You need to remember you are the opposite side of this conjecture. A person with such a high Level cap would have their whole lifeforce sucked to power the Arbitrium. The pain of activation is actually this initial drain. That's why your sister spent a year unconscious when her Arbitrium was activated."

Nero's eyes went wide. A year? That meant she was kidnapped right after waking up.

Glom continued. "Therefore if there's an upper limit where a person cannot absorb enough Essence from the surface environment to live even with the limiter active, there must be someone on the other side that absorbs nothing. That's why Bezzias predicted several years ago that someone with a level cap of zero would exist. Your limiter will never activate, Nero."

They continued working on the weapons for a while and Nero had an epiphany.

"That might be why the Skills that curb the Level cap exist then. To help those with a high absorption rate survive."

"That might be the case, indeed."

"What would happen if someone that already reached a high level used one of these to lower their level cap below the requirement for their high-tier Classes and Skills?"

"Nobody knows. Either they would cease to work or..." Glom paused. The other possibility was too good to be true. "...they would lower their absorption rate while keeping their abilities."

"That would be a cheat. And I bet there are several types of these," Nero sighed.

"Indeed there are but these are rare; All orange if my memory doesn't fail me. The Lyceum has none of them. They are considered trash, so they end up with card collectors for their rarity. Nobody in their sane mind would use one of these. Or were, if someone else found out what we just did. One would have to sacrifice someone to confirm it, though."

"They could get someone with a cap under a hundred and test. They would lose the Essence to raise the level to fifty, the second-tier cards, and then the orange Skill."

Work finished and they bench-tested the weapon before re-assembling, hoping it would not explode. It didn't, at least not catastrophically. One of the controllers in the sword bayonet burned. Glom checked it and gave a prognostic.

"We can't have two separate Attribute-boosting circuits. The resonance between them is causing feedback and developing an interference pattern. The boost would either work or reverse depending on the position. We need to either cut off the Strength boost from the sword or move the whole array to the rifle next to the others."

"Let's move it. I need each point of Attribute I can scrape."

They replaced the burned Attribute array and moved the setup to the stock of the weapon near the main Essence feed. Glom removed the motion sensor so the Attribute bonus would work in any case, then attuned the emitters. On the second test, everything worked as intended but the new Attribute Array didn't boost Strength.

"I'm sorry," Glom apologized. "It seems I miscalculated."

"No. Perception is good and Strength is the easiest Attribute to accumulate Strain. I just need to lift big rocks."

"Let's assemble everything then. Careful, these crystal conduits aren't as flexible as they look."

["Ice Storm" - Frozen Clockwork Bayonet Rifle of Regrowth +2] - Blue-grade. Main Hand Weapon. Bound to Nero

+3 Agility

+3 Dexterity

+3 Reason

+3 Perception

+4 Perception

General:

- Add 17% damage for every clockwork item equipped, including this one (currently: 68%).

- Reduce damage dealt to this item is by 67%. Increase Durability by 260%.

- Self-repairs 3 points of durability per hour.

- Lightning damage: Willpower +5.

- Cold damage: Willpower +5

Bayonet (melee):

- Damage: Strength +5.

- 20 Essence per minute of operation.

- Deal damage to the opponent's armor or weapon upon contact.

- Reach: 2 yards.

Rifle (Ranged):

- Damage: Dexterity +5.

- Essence per shot: 10 +1 per stage of added damage Skills.

- Chamber capacity: 24 shots. Requires 1 second per shot to reload.

- Maximum rate of fire: 75 shots per minute.

- +2 Cold per stage of added damage Skills.

- Increase accuracy by half Reason.

- Range: Perception x 10.5 yards.

Nero held his weapon and checked the weight and balance. He'd have to learn how do adapt and maybe fight two-handed when in melee combat, but the added reach and firepower was well worth it. The Essence operational costs were through the roof. Some things didn't add up. The weapon's range, for example, was far greater than what it should be. Nero pointed it out and Glom just laughed.

"The original range was five. Enchant increased it to seven, then you added fifty percent on top of that. But you got a weapon that is comparable to those of the second tier."

"Without augmentations," Nero deflated at Glom's eulogy.

"No. Second-tier weapons don't give sixteen Attribute points, or add twice your Willpower to weapon damage. Or inflict two kinds of Elemental damage. If we converted this weapon to a card, it would be yellow if not purple."

"Cool, professor. Next, I think I need to modify the sheath. Or I'm going to ruin my clothing and armor with these teeth," Nero mused.

The day after, everyone except Crystal, that stayed in the shelter with the eanlings, took Glom to the train station. The formerly empty facility was not taken over by the military. A wooden palisade was built around it, and some flimsy-looking sentries towers watched every cardinal direction. Two wooden gates blocked the rails, adding even more time to the train trips.

"Halt," A wolf-kin soldier, sergeant if Nero read his uniform insignia right, shouted. "This area is off-limits for civilians. Turn back."

"Down here, sir," Glom called him out. "I am scheduled to take the next train to the capital. My pass is here," He handed a scroll to the sergeant."

The wolf-kin snarled. "I'm sorry, professor Glom. This pass is no longer valid. Security protocols were updated a few weeks ago. We cannot allow civilians to board."

At least he returned the document undamaged. Glom shook his head, dismayed.

"Think of it as a paid vacation, Glom," Amaryllis said. "Well, sergeant, we'll take our leave. Go home, you civilians. You are bothering the army."

Nero made a soft chuckle at the pixie's antics. An archer on one of the guard towers mimicked him and earned a glare from the wolf-kin sergeant.

They walked back to Hom. Halfway, Nero suggested something. "I could run there with Glom in the shelter."

"No," Amaryllis shot him down. "The military would either chase or attack you. No traveling."

"You could help build a wall around the village," Byron suggested. "We were thinking of making one, and now is an excellent time. If you put a foot of stone next to each side of the wooden logs, it will be a very tough wall."

"Right, dad. Let's do it," Nero turned to talk to Glom. "Professor, could we set a circuit inside the wall to, dunno, infuse Essence to reinforce the stone in case of an attack?"

Glom thought for a while then smirked. "Yes, of course. We could do it easily, by putting converters along the wall, one per yard. There's just a problem. Do you have a spool with a few miles of insulated crystal conduit with you? Could that level zero luck of yours conjure up one from the bowels of the Dungeon, perhaps?"

Nero groaned. "Professor," He called.

"Yes?"

"You're spending too much time with the Guild Master."

Amaryllis laughed the rest of the way back. The others couldn't hold it either. Even Byron chortled.

Instead of going to the Dungeon test his new weapon, Nero used his Skill to shape stone from a nearby quarry into the wall around Hom. The army struck a deal with Amaryllis to farm the region's Dungeons at night after the Adventurers delved for the day.

Nero still planned the wall using his [Gadgeteer] class, hoping to give it extra stability, durability, and resilience from his Class bonuses. he settled into two feet of packed dirt on either side of the wood and two feet of stone closing the sandwich. A wattle trellis made with branches and twigs stood between the stone and the dirt for extra flexibility. The test prototype withstood almost one minute from Byron's attacks. The project was approved. The estimated time to complete the wall was three weeks. Glom wasn't happy he'd been stuck in Hom for five weeks but even in his bad mood helped in the construction.

Their daily routine involved going to the quarry with Altia and Crystal, take the rocks Byron broke with some stupidly large spiked maul into their Dimensional pouches, walk back to Hom, dump the stone, and shape it around the dirt-log-and wattle that was being built by the villagers. Byron would then pack the dirt using the mallet and Nero repaired the cracks on the stone. Three weeks later, the finished wall was a seamless sandwich of wood, earth, and stone ten feet thick, less than two miles long, and fifteen feet tall. The farms and most livestock stayed outside the wall.

Nero only hoped the modest feast the village was throwing would lift the Squiig's mood.