Chapter 269: Final Prep Pt. 3

Simon

I felt everyone's piercing gaze as I walked toward our makeshift forge.

My hands trembled, and a chill ran down my spine. This was one of the most defining moments of my life, the first step toward creating something truly meaningful in this world.

Several students gathered around a makeshift furnace that they had built together.

Stravos, Sora, and a couple of Pyrralis branch members waited for me next to a mound of celestium.

Extracting metal from ore required several processing stages, each involving specialized equipment: crushers and grinders, classifiers, gravity separation devices, magnetic separators, flotation cells, leaching tanks, and electrowinning setups.

We had none of those on hand.

That meant purifying the celestium the old-fashioned way. It was inefficient and clumsy, but we had no other choice. I could only stare at the mound, which must have weighed a couple of hundred pounds.

I really hoped we could mine more than this.

A knot of uncertainty tightened in my stomach. With the procedure we were about to use, I wasn’t sure we’d have enough celestium to make weapons for everyone, much less craft high-quality ones.

I glanced at the other armament techs. Their grim expressions told me they’d reached the same conclusion. They’d also conveniently positioned themselves farther away from Stravos and Sora, both of whom were starting to lose patience.

“Can I help you guys?” I asked Sora and Stravos.

Stravos stepped forward.

“Why is everyone just waiting around? We need to start melting this stuff down as soon as possible,” he said, his voice commanding.

I bit my cheek and stepped back, not wanting to feel the oppressive weight of Stravos’s cosmic energy.

Taking one more glance at the other armament techs, I adjusted my throat and spoke.

“Because we need to come to an agreement.”

“About what?” Stravos said, his arms crossed.

“What type and how many weapons will be made, and who will be wielding them. We don’t have enough to make one for everyone.”

Stravos paused, and I caught him glancing at Sora, a snarl forming on his lips.

“You are the expert; what do you think we should make?” Sora said, her eyes locked onto mine.

Her tone was commanding, but a dull, almost soothing underbelly ran through her words.

Are they really leaving it up to me?

I had the most experience handling celestium and forging since I was a second-year armament tech. But other talented students were here too.

Maybe they just wanted someone older to lean on now that we didn’t have any teachers around. I didn’t know. All I could do was take the reins and push forward with everything I had.

I scanned the area. I met all the probing eyes while taking in the murmurs from the uncertain students.

“Based on what the Truth Seekers told us, we’ll need blunt weapons to break through the Rift Guardian’s exoskeleton. The problem is, blunt weapons require more material, so we won’t be able to make many. With the amount of celestium we mined, we’ll be lucky to get two.”

“So first, we need to decide who gets the weapons. I recommend prioritizing the students with the highest cosmic energy output. They’ll be able to draw the most out of the celestium.”

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Sora stepped up.

“That’s fine, I can modify the plan. Stravos should obviously get one since he’s the only adept stage here. And if I remember correctly, Cyrus ranked second during the assessment tests, so he should get the other. Any objections?” Sora asked, her gaze shifting from person to person.

Stravos nodded in approval, and everyone returned to preparing for the battle ahead. He gave me specific details on how he wanted his weapon made. His instructions were precise, and I could tell they came from years of mastering combat. I admired his expertise, and it made the design process much easier.

Then I looked for Cyrus so I could get his preference for how he wanted the weapon made.

I hadn’t spent much time with him compared to the other members of our cluster. Ever since our group found him, I’ve heard nothing but negative stories and tales about him. He didn’t make the best impression earlier during the exam, before everything fell into chaos, but Voen and Sora seemed to trust him in combat.

When I found him, he was digging through the buckets of silver disks, examining them with deep concentration.

What is he doing?

I trotted over towards him.

“Cyrus, you got a sec?” I asked.

His eyes rose slowly from the shining disk.

“Yeah, what's up?” he said, his voice deadpan.

“Well, you were selected to use the celestium weapon; I just wanted to know what blunt object you were most comfortable with?”

“A mallet or club. It could be a ball for all I care; I won't be carrying it anyway.”

His words gave me pause. Then I remembered what he was capable of, how he’d carried the celestium during the exam. My thoughts drifted to his fight with that spider and the almost feral way he’d taken down the behemoth.

It made sense that he’d been chosen.

An awkward silence lingered between us. I didn’t want to stand there any longer than I had to. I already knew what he thought of me. His opinion wasn’t much different from everyone else’s.

Still, part of me hoped that might change once I made him a weapon worthy of his strength.

I took a deep breath, headed back to the furnace, and began the smithing process.

I only got a few feet away when something stopped me in my tracks.

It was a mental message.

“Can you guys hear me?” Cyrus asked.

Sora and Voen responded.

“Ok good, we need to add a wrinkle to the plan, because I think I know how I can clear my name. I know you may not believe me, but during my time in this rift, I have come to find more evidence that what attacked me during the dance is in this rift.”

“We believe you,” Voen said.

I turned and looked at Cyrus. His face was stunned.

“We had a run-in with the creatures too. We didn’t see it, but it left similar traces of its presence, which Nerena backed up at the time. What is your plan?” Sora asked.

“I learned that the creatures' weakness is silver, and that they have no reflections. So I want to use phases two and three of our plan as bait to kill two birds with one stone since they thirst for strong cosmic energy signatures. It was strong for a starspawn, but now that I know its weakness, I feel that I have a real chance to take it down this time.”

A lull fell over our communication.

“You are asking for a lot; trying to kill the rift guardian is already a suicide mission,” Sora said.

“ But if we catch it, we’ll gain notoriety for solving a school mystery; it could also be worth something.” Voen chided.

I face-palmed.

“Oh, and maybe we can find a way to wake up Mira,” Voen added.

Sora paused again.

“Fine… you're right; when the time comes, we will help you take it down”

“Great, these creatures seem to garner a greater intelligence compared to the normal starspawn. There is a good chance it will try to attack in the midst of the struggle with the guardian, so we have to be diligent in keeping an eye out for it.”

“We won't let it escape this time,” Voen said.

With that, everyone returned to their posts, making their final preparations for the battle ahead.

I was helping the Pyrralis branch members melt down the celestium when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I turned.

Cyrus stood behind me, surrounded by several mounds of rock floating effortlessly in the air.

“Can you make me about a hundred silver arrows?” He asked, his face laced with determination, but I also saw something else.

Something that I recognized.

Desperation.

I understood it all too well, and I wanted to free him from that feeling.

I nodded, and he gently placed the rocks next to me, and I began to do what I was meant to do.

Create.