It was already late, so Seth returned to Mina and Fin and spent the evening with them. The next morning, he took a piece of from the storage. After their raid on the colossal dungeon, Seth had broken up the giant crown of the Lich.

A small part of the resulting materials went into Evee’s new armor, but the biggest part was stored at his workshop after Seth cleaned out his inventory and put away everything he didn’t need to have on his person at all times. With a chunk of , he returned to the valley.

“M- Seth, why are you already back again?” Rayki met him at the entrance of the valley, his appearance had mostly regenerated, recovering his looks as a dashing middle-aged man with a sculptured mustache and a soul patch. Looking at him, Seth had to ask.

“Rayki, you probably didn’t slay the Hydra with just your lute, right? What weapon did you usually use?”

“I was a master in Dagger Arts, it degraded to expert after my revival. Why do you ask?”

“Ah, just so I know what weapon to give you later on. Let’s go see Luf, I have to test something.”

Seth didn’t feel like explaining that he thought that fate was playing tricks on him. From Seth’s perspective, Rayki’s style would really fit someone who would use a rapier. After he accidentally made Winter Woe, he thought it would be too coincidental for fate to suddenly send him someone who would be fit to wield it.

“What do you want to test?” Luf asked, as she came over to them and heard their conversation.

“Try holding this,” he said and threw the chunk of to her.

was also called the material of Necromancers, because it had a great affinity with Blackmagic and death, which meant it was tailor-made for Necromancy. But it was not fit for Necromancy exclusively.

Its affinities were black magic and death. Death also included decay and since Luf also had mastered Blackmagic, Seth expected her to have a good affinity with the black, crystalline ore. This was why he intended to create her frame from it, but wanted to make sure before he started working on it.

Surprised, the corpse bride caught the black stone that was thrown at her. Nothing else happened, this meant that the material at least wasn’t affected by her decay.

“Try channeling your power into the ore,” Seth asked her. Since infusing her soul into the frame would be similar, this was the best text to see whether the material would be able to take it.

“Alright, I will try,” the pale lady said and held the chunk of tightly in her hands.

The black material acquired a black aura as it absorbed the power that was channeled into it. This halo kept growing and growing until, finally, the chunk of ore crumbled in her hands, like brittle shale.

All three looked with widened eyes, as the shimmering ore crumbled to shards and fell to the ground.

“I-I'm sorry!” Luf cried out in panic. However, while the couple was panicking, Seth looked at the ground, where the heap of shards that was left by the ore lay. The shard had lost their luster and became unusable.

All but one. One of the shards the size of a thumb had become much darker, so dark that it almost seemed like it was absorbing surrounding light.

Relic

which was further imbued and refined with the power of death and decay through unusual means. Strong Affinity to: Decay, Death, Blackmagic>

It was actually a way to refine . was the pure form of . Seth was also able to create it using the refining power of , however, normal had an almost pure connection to death, losing the support for dark magic and making in less useful for necromancy which relied a lot on the dark magic aspect.

This on the other hand kept all its affinities, even strengthening them. Just the conversion rate was absolute shit. The chunk of ore had been the size of a soccer ball and was reduced to the size of a thumb. The rest of the ore was “decayed away”.

“It’s alright, I guess, “ he said with a sigh. “Try channeling your power in this shard alone,” he said and gave it to Luf. This test ended in a success, no matter how much of her power she infused, the shard was unimpressed.

What this meant was that Seth would have to make the whole frame from . Finding a new way to refine materials was a great achievement, but it simply hurt Seth’s heart how much of the hard-to-get ore he would have to burn to make a whole frame for her. He just got his hands on a good amount and about a third or half would be used just to refine the material for the frame.

“If it helps, I know a place where you can find more ,” Luf suddenly mentioned when Seth explained his plan to them. Although he didn’t blame them, it was obvious how heart renting it was to him, to use so much material at once, when he just gotten it.

“Where?” the blacksmith asked surprised, only for Luf to suddenly point straight at the mountain, north of them.

“Huh? I don’t think these mountains hold ore. We checked the surroundings with Minas Mar’s sensors.” Or maybe she meant that her presence generates the precious material?

“Not the mountains. I can feel a concentrated aura of death and magic in the north-west from here. I don’t know what happened there, but I’m sure it would be the perfect environment to foster the growth of crystals.”

North-west from their current location? There was nothing... North-west of Delta? She couldn’t mean- Gamma? It was true that Gamma was currently occupied by Arget Nore, the empire of the undead. That place was fostering ?

Mary and Leana had told him that Arget Nore was doing something that was akin to terraforming the place. Was this what Luf meant? It wasn’t like he would raid that place just to get his hands on , but it was good information in case they had a hostile relationship in the future.

He would have to keep in mind to loot those deposits if he got the chance in the future. Seth didn’t believe in a peaceful future on Urth. The undead were there, in his opinion it was just a question of time before they picked a fight with Delta or Minas Mar.

“Thank you, Luf. I will keep that in mind,” the blacksmith said in a slightly better mood.

“I guess I will have to bring a whole lot more of the ore here. Do you think you are up to refining the material for your own body?” Seth asked, ready to sacrifice about half of the he had to invest in Luf.

In the end, he was convinced that it was worth it, to help a valuable ally like her and further cement their relationship. The blacksmith was sure Mary, Jane, and Leana would be happy about an additional super brain. It was just a shame he never came across capable guys to recruit for the administration... The girls would have to find their partners with their own efforts.

“A-Alright?? She said unsure about how the blacksmith had phrased it.