Swind approached Lone curiously and gently took the arm from him. "... This-ss is-ss?"

"It's your arm. No need to hesitate, put it on," Lone urged with a pleasant smile on his face.

Swind did as instructed, and held the arm next to his stump of a shoulder. Before he could lock it in place with the leather straps, it snapped to life and a surge of energy entered Swind's brain.

"Ah," Lone called out. "The straps aren't needed. You can move the arm with your mind, though it's taxing if you don't have any mana, so take some time getting used to it," he noted, to which Swind nodded.

"Also, the leather bits are only there to give the illusion that they're needed to hold it on. That could serve as a good distraction for enemies, and plus, it diverts attention from people interested in the arm, since if it looks like it needs to be held on like that, it will make it look more like an armoured sleeve, just like my alterion one, instead of the masterpiece that it actually is," Lone explained with a prideful tone to his voice.

Eolande put her hand to her mouth. "A masterpiece, huh?"

Lone completely ignored the Fairy's musings while Sophie, still sat on his lap, snarled at her, making Eolande chuckle even more.

Fep, who had been peacefully watching this go on, walked around Swind and inspected his arm thoroughly. "How fascinating... It seems to be made with Dwarven technology in mind... but something about it seems... different? It's hard to put my finger on it."

Eolande joined Fep in his investigation of the limb and nodded her head. "It looks like my apprentice finally used some of the knowledge I gave to him."

"I'm sorry, I don't understand. Your apprentice?" Fep questioned.

"Yeah," Eolande smiled pridefully. "I'm a grandmaster blacksmith and enchanter. Lone's my one and only apprentice. Look here," Eolande said as she pointed at the metal rings which wrapped around the arm, "This folding on this metal, this is clearly my style, though it's a bit rough..." she added with a frown.

"Shame you never taught me much so I have to learn on my own," Lone sarcastically quipped before he gently stood up, letting Sophie slide off of him, and he then grabbed Swind's shoulder firmly.

"I'm sorry, Swind. I was going to spend more time researching strings to find out how to make some that are both tough and flexible, but that's a lot harder than I first thought it'd be. You'd need mana to use them anyway if you wanted them to be effective, so I decided to make you the arm now since we're being split up during our keeper missions," Lone said with a long sigh.

Swind looked perplexed. "It is-ss not an issue, Mr Immortus-ss. Not only did you go out of your way to create ss-such a wonderful ss-sword for me, you are even going ss-so far as-ss to replace my limbs-ss. It would be a disgrace if I complained about the gifts-ss I am being given."

"Right..." Lone replied as he took his hand back. "Well, I should have the whole string shit figured out soon... hopefully. I'll make a tail for you in the next six months, hopefully, so look forward to that."

"Potty mouth..." Sophie mumbled from Lone's side as she embraced one of his tails.

Swind nodded his head. He knew that Lone wouldn't accept a refusal. He still wasn't comfortable having his limbs restored via Lone's creation magic since he had lost them due to his own mistakes, and he never honestly expected him to actually create new mechanical ones for him even if he had promised to do so.

'I will make sure to treasure this arm as a reminder of the past,' Swind swore to himself. With that done, he decided to inspect the arm, much like how Lone, Sophie and Eolande had already done before his arrival.

[Unnamed] Brass Mind-Linked Fairy-Forged Arm Description

Created by Lone Immortus with an unidentifiable magic.

This arm is designed to act as a permanent replacement for a lost arm and it is equivalent in power to an average B-ranker's arm.

Rank Epic Stats Durability: 300,000/300,000 Attack: 200 Defence: 400 Weight: 40 Abilities Passively links to the host's mind to allow control and movement of it. Can use 10% of its oil reserves to emit violent bursts of steam that will injure and blind anyone within a five-feet radius except for the host. Can use 40% of its oil reserves to separate from the host and explode on a predetermined target. Passively uses 0.5% of its oil per hour to remain operable.

Lone could immediately tell that Swind had looked at the arms details via Clicker's power, so he took the initiative to give him a small pouch. "Here's a spatial bag. It has enough oil in it to run that for at least a year, included usage during fights. I'll give you more if you run out, but you should be fine. Let me know when you first want to refuel it and I'll show you how it's done."

"I can't thank you enough, Mr Immortus-ss," Swind replied as he bowed his head slightly.

"Sure you can," Lone smiled. "Just keep doing what you're doing and get stronger. I only want my group members to all be able to stand proudly on their own. Wouldn't it be cool if I could boast about my cook and housekeeper being able to kill a Dragon all by himself one day?"

"A Dragon is-ss asking a lot, Mr Immortus-ss, but I will try my best," Swind said with a content expression on his scaley face.

This was the life that he had always dreamed of, friends, a journey, exploration, and most importantly, a purpose. Swind couldn't be any happier now even if he tried to be.

"Uhhh... This... Why do my eyes sting so much?" Eko cried as he wiped away the snot that was dribbling out of his nose.

Eolande floated next to him and sighed. "You big baby."

Eko ignored her and continued to bawl at the touching scene transpiring between Lone and Swind. A scene of friendship, of trust, of... bromance! Such an experience was one that all self-respecting men like Eko yearned for deeply in their hearts. Of course, Eolande wouldn't understand.

Lone held his chin and thought for a bit before he spoke again. "Wanna go out back and spar for a bit, Swind? Give that arm and sword of yours a test run. I'll hold back sufficiently and match you as best as I can."

"Of course, Mr Immortus-ss. I'd love to," Swind responded without hesitating.

And thus, the group of six left the room while Breena entered Lone's shadow where she was most comfortable.

"Swind's back~ Swind's back~ Lalala~" Rachel was peacefully humming to herself as she skipped down the hallways looking for her favourite Lemurian.

She checked every room that she was allowed in but she couldn't find any traces of anyone except for the Demon Princess who was busy taking a bath in the girl's shared bathhouse, and Rachel didn't like her, so she wasn't going to ask her where everyone else was.

The tiny girl scrunched up her eyes and thought with all of her might! "Muuuu... It's no use! Where is he? I need to find him before Sophie finds me first..."

Rachel's body shivered involuntarily. It was at that moment, that she saw something out of the corner of her eye through the window. She peeled back the curtain only to reveal everyone standing outside while Swind and Lone were getting ready for something. "Found him!"

Not wasting any time, the small Foxkin opened the window and scampered out of it towards Swind. However, she was unfortunately captured by the Devil herself!

Snaking her hands around Rachel's fluffy tails, Sophie leaked a squeal and mumbled, "Since Lone's busy, I'm glad you showed up to act as my fluff supplier."

"Nooo! Swind! Save me!" Rachel yelled as she struggled to fight against Sophie's lewd hands!

The Lemurian looked at the two girls and a peculiar look crossed his stoic face. "Miss-ss ss-Sophie, can't you ss-see that your daughter is in need of affection? If you aren't careful, it won't be long before ss-she views-ss Miss-ss Eolande as-ss her mother, not you."

Sophie's face instantly turned into one of shock and Eolande's shoulders jumped a bit as she lounged on Kyuubi's soft back. 'Is someone going to steal my mount again?!'

Sophie, without saying anything, let go of the trembling Rachel and called Kyuubi over. The usually lethargic fox bounced up, forcing Eolande to fall off of her, and she then curled up around her adoptive mother, Sophie.

"Mama's sorry... I completely forgot about you even though you're so cute and fluffy. Mama still loves you very much," Sophie apologised as she buried her entire body in Kyuubi luscious fur. Kyuubi was slightly larger than Sophie was, so it took little effort to cover her entirely.

Lone smiled wryly. 'When did Swind get so good and handling Soph? Sure, he was always getting her away from Rachel... but even I can't get her to avoid fluffy things that easily... Swind's more dangerous than I thought.'

"Well, Swind, I'm ready. I'll limit myself as much as possible and I'll only use a regular steel sword and my armour sleeve, so try your best." Lone was fully intent on teaching Swind how to fight as best as he could.

"Of course, Mr Immortus-ss, and thank you again for the opportunity," Swind replied seriously as he took a stance with his mythic-ranked sword. Naturally, his stance held no advantages since he wasn't trained at all in the art of combat.

Twenty minutes quickly passed, and even with the aid of his sword boosting his skills, and despite Lone holding back so much that it might have appeared to of been a joke, Swind didn't even land as much as a single blow on him.

Rachel kneeling next to the exhausted Swind with a worried and proud look on her face. She lowered her head to his ear and whispered, "You did great. Y-You were very impressive..."

Swind smiled at her and sat up with her supporting him. "Thank you, Mr Immortus-ss. I learned a lot from this exchange."

"No problem. Let's make it a daily thing. The sooner you can rank up, the longer you'll live. You're the only one in our adventurer group that isn't immune to ageing or strong enough to ignore it, and I'd hate to see you die in twenty years, hahaha," Lone laughed.

Even if Swind never ranked up again, Lone was still fully intent of reconstructing the Lemurian's body even if the man himself was against it. The life of his friend mattered more to Lone that Swind's feelings did, though he hoped that wouldn't be necessary.

Rachel's eyes shook and it looked like an anvil had been dropped on her head. 'He... He's only going to live for another two decades?! But... But why? I... I... He needs to get stronger to live longer, right?'

"Sw-Swind..." Rachel called out with a bashful expression on her face.

Swind gazed at her curiously and asked, "Yes, Miss-ss Rachel?", as he stood up and stretched a little bit.

"I... I can give you my spirit essence if you'd like..." It was clear to everyone that Rachel was struggling to speak properly and that it was taking all of her courage to give Swind this offer.

Swind smiled. "There's-ss no need, Miss-ss Rachel. Mr Immortus-ss has-ss already gifted me with half of his-ss and Miss-ss ss-Sophie's-ss ss-spirit essence."

"Oh..." Rachel's faced turned downcast. She wanted to help Swind in any way that she could, but if the spirit essence wasn't an option, that how could she assist him?

Swind noticed this struggle of hers and spoke. "However... While I have the essence, I still require enlightenment to breakthrough. Mr Immortus-ss is a busy man, so he can't possibly ss-spar with me as-ss much as-ss would be ideal, ss-so perhaps-ss... you would like to be my ss-second ss-sparring partner?"

Rachel's eyes lit up and her lips curled up into a grin. "Ehehehe... Partner... Partner..."

"ss-Shall I take that as-ss a yes-ss, Miss-ss Rachel?" Swind asked. Obviously, he hadn't picked up on the feelings that the young girl was literally overflowing with.

"Ah, uh, yeah, I'd love that..." Rachel responded meekly after realised that her mind had wandered off.

Lone was now sat next to Sophie on a bench with Kyuubi lazily laying at their feet. He cuddled Sophie as he said, "She reminds of you back in Milindo."

Sophie blushed. "I wasn't that bad..."

Lone laughed and kissed her cheek. "Yeah, and I wasn't as dense as that stupid lizard is. Poor Rachel."