[Chapter 199. Revelation]

Searanox remained standing before the massive panoramic window long after Samantha had bowed deeply and departed the chamber. His newly reattached left arm felt alien, yet functional. His hand clenched tightly into a fist. He stared down in silence at his sprawling city.

His eyes bypassed the beauty of the streets and fixed immediately onto one particular structure nestled within the vast sea of stone below. Its domed roof appearing as a mere, insignificant speck from this immense height, partially obscured by a passing, low-hanging cloud. The mere sight of the structure sent a sharp, involuntary shiver racing down his spine despite the comfortable warmth of the room.

"How in the hell can they be this strong..." he muttered to himself, his voice barely audible even to his own ears. "Lower thirties, and those bastards nearly ended me without breaking a sweat."

His haunted gaze slowly drifted away from the distant labyrinth entrance, refocusing instead on his own battered reflection mirrored in the armored glass. His Experimental Magitech Version VII had seen better days, the combat suit was shredded, the coat torn. The armored gauntlets he had upgraded using the Magitech Golem plating were completely ruined by the amphibian's needle-like teeth.

The face staring back at him looked drawn and haunted. There were dark circles under his eyes, and a rigid tightness around his mouth that certainly hadn't been there when he woke up that morning.

Suddenly, a blinding surge of rage boiled over in his chest. His right fist slammed forward against the reinforced glass with devastating force.

The impact shook the entire upper tier of the tower, sending deep vibrations cascading through the heavy masonry that made the furniture tremble violently. A jagged spiderweb of cracks instantly spread across the glass from the point of impact. Threatening to shatter the window, before the glass rapidly healed itself.

"Fucking bullshit!" Searanox roared into the empty room, the sound echoing off the high ceilings.

He leaned forward against the repaired glass, resting against his lingering fist, his breath fogging the pane. He stayed like that for a long moment before abruptly pulling away, reigning in his emotional outburst. As he turned to leave the war room, an ever-present timer ticked down in the top corner of his vision.

─ Stage 2 starts in: 00d 12h 35m 18s

The second mana infusion was only half a day away. He had just discovered that despite everything he had done to meticulously prepare, not a single person currently residing in Androxis was truly ready for the horrors that awaited them. Not his citizens. Not his elite vanguard.

Not even himself.

With deliberate steps that echoed loudly through the silent, opulent hall, Searanox walked over to the central node stone. He stepped onto the pedestal and mentally commanded the array to teleport him directly to the tower's storage floor.

He appeared at the storage floor and instantly went over to one of the four small containment rooms. A large, unadorned stone platform dominated the center of the space. His hands gently touched the cold stone surface. Reacting to his thought, one of the heavy metallic plates salvaged from the Magitech Golem materialized on the table with a soft glow.

As his fingers closed firmly around the rigid plate to pick it up. The solid metal began to rapidly liquify. It flowed smoothly up and over his ruined left gauntlet like sentient quicksilver, actively mending the deep cracks and sealing the puncture holes in the process.

Within mere seconds, the entire plate was completely absorbed by his left gauntlet. He turned his arm left and right under the rooms light, inspecting the fully repaired plating with a heavy sigh of genuine relief.

Hoping to replicate the success, another metallic plate appeared on the stone. He picked it up and pressed it firmly against his torn chest piece.

Nothing happened.

Even after frustratedly bringing out a second plate from storage and holding both pieces of advanced alloy directly against his shredded combat suit, there was no assimilation. There was just the feeling of cold, unresponsive metal pressing against his ribs.

`There must be a specific catalyst that upgrades my coat and suit... Something I don't possess, or simply a fundamental mechanic I don't yet understand.` He thought.

The boiling frustration quickly mounted in his chest once more, as he ran his fingers along the metallic surface of his combat suit. It remained stubbornly inert refusing to respond to the plating he held against it. The plates themselves shimmered with a faint, beautiful golden energy, they should have been more than sufficient to enhance his armor. Yet here he stood, powerless to utilize this valuable resource.

He angrily tossed the two heavy plates back onto the stone surface of the risen platform. They landed with a harsh clatter that echoed sharply in the otherwise dead-silent room. They disappeared immediately after making contact with the stone, vanishing seamlessly back into their designated space inside the tower's walls.

`The gauntlets upgraded by themselves immediately after I picked up the plates off the Golem. There was no conscious thought or intent involved...` His mind instantly raced backward replaying the exact memory of the contact between his gauntlet and the first salvaged plate back in the Node space. There had been no deliberate activation on his part. There was no conscious command issued. Just a automatic response as the compatible materials recognized each other and merged. It had been an effortless, perfect integration.

`So why in the absolute hell does the rest of my armor refuse to upgrade?`

His fingers flexed repeatedly. His mind became locked in an endless loop, playing out the moment his gauntlets had absorbed the first plate. He could still vividly feel the humming vibration that had traveled up his arm as the plate liquefied and reshaped itself around his gauntlet, strengthening its parameters in ways he hadn't fully appreciated until this moment. The transformation had been almost organic as the gauntlets improved themselves.

`They have grown significantly stronger, changed their shape, and even their equipment level changed. All just from picking up a single piece of armor plating.` He paused, a new theory forming. `Am I simply too low in level to utilize the rest?` The question hung in the air, incredibly obvious yet somehow overlooked in all his previous attempts to force the upgrades.

His gaze drifted to his reflection in a polished marble panel across the room. At Level 27, he had considered himself sufficiently powerful. `But what if upgrading Epic-tier or higher Items required something more than just possessing the correct materials?`

The moment that thought formed in his mind, something deep within his cognitive structure clicked into place. Absolute, crystalline understanding forcefully flooded his mind, accompanied by the all-too-familiar, feeling of freezing pain in his skull.

It now made perfect sense to him. The basic gauntlets that had been at level five when he initially acquired them were upgraded to level twenty-five upon contact with the Golem plating. Level twenty-five was the exact level he had managed to reach at that point, it was one of the reasons he went into the Node space in the first place. To test out his new drones. The System's logic, while harsh and restrictive, was consistent.

`That's exactly how it works... It's not just the material that is required to upgrade one specific items, but there is also a predetermined level requirement threshold to even attempt the fusion.` The revelation struck him with such force that his knees nearly buckled. All this time, he had been stubbornly trying to force a upgrade he wasn't yet qualified to perform. His perceived power, which had seemed so overwhelmingly dominant when facing the city's civilian population, was still woefully insufficient.

A slow, genuine smile crept onto his face. The sudden new knowledge of exactly how the System treated upgrading its unique items was something far, far more valuable than the raw equipment itself. His prior downcast mood was shadowed and swallowed by the intoxicating rush of this new knowledge. Fully understanding the System's hidden mechanics was worth significantly more than any individual piece of gear. It was the key to exponentially increasing his strength in ways that others might never even begin to discover.

"Now I just have to find out exactly what the level requirement is for the combat suit, and exactly what kind of material I have to use to trigger it," Searanox murmured to himself, a excitement lacing his tone while withdrawing from the storage room.

His mind was already racing with new calculations and leveling plans. He had lost an arm and had been forced to flee like a coward, but he had gained an invaluable understanding. It was a bloody trade that might just prove to be the most profitable exchange he had made yet.

Searanox appeared back in the sprawling Atrium of his tower in a sharp flash of violet light. The vast expanse of the hall, normally filled with the loud, bustling activity of the city's ambitious citizens, fell into an immediate tense silence. Hundreds of eyes instantly fixed upon him as he materialized beside the central node stone. His enhanced hearing easily picked up the sudden cessation of conversation and the collective intake of breath from the crowd.

But he didn't need to hear their hushed whispers to know what they were talking about. It had only been minutes since he had stood in this very hall holding his own severed arm, and then calmly reattaching it before their disbelieving eyes. The gruesome image would be permanently burned into their minds forever.

He ignored their staring and their morbid fascination. His path cut purposefully toward one of the main administrative desks, where two civilian delvers were currently speaking with a young clerk. Without any ceremony or hesitation, he stepped right between them. His presence sent the two delvers scrambling backward, tripping over their own boots to get out of his way.

"You," he said. His voice was flat and calm as he directly addressed the young woman behind the counter. Her face instantly went as pale, all color draining from her cheeks.

"Would you do me a favor?" he asked.

"M-my L-lord," the clerk stammered, her hands shaking so violently she nearly dropped her stack of paperwork. "What c-can I do for y-you?"

A soft, disarming smile appeared on his lips, contrary to his aura. "It's nothing difficult."

She swallowed heavily, her eyes wide with fear as she anxiously awaited his next words.

Searanox leaned forward, his shadow falling across her desk as his eyes locked onto hers.

"Tell Samantha to add the situation with the city's dwindling recourses to her next announcement. The citizens need to understand the consequences of their cowardice."

A massive wave of visible relief washed over the young clerk's face at the mundane nature of his request. It was clear that she had expected something entirely different to leave his lips.

He pushed away from the desk and strode purposefully toward the tower exit, without offering her another glance.

As he neared the arching entryway, Iris seamlessly fell into step right beside him, her lithe movements fluid and entirely silent.

"While you were away, the craftsmen from the ruined city returned. They had a proposal." Iris reported, her tone professional.

Searanox stopped mid-stride, turning slowly to face her. "The old men? What did they want?"

"They came with rolled blueprints," Iris replied, her silver eyes steady. "Requesting a dedicated industrial workshop inside the city. Jürgen seemed particularly passionate about it."

"We'll discuss it thoroughly later. I need to blow off some steam..." he started, his voice tightening before he quickly cut himself off and corrected his phrasing. "I mean, I have to clear the forest dungeons first. They've been sitting idle for far too long, wasting potential resources."

Iris's lips curved upward into a slight knowing smirk. She saw right through the excuse. "Very well. Do I have your permission to have them escorted to the upper floor to wait for your return?"

Searanox's gauntlet vanished in a flash of blue light. He reached out with his bare hand, his fingers combing gently through her dark hair, smoothly pushing it away from her flawless face.

"Do that. And be careful when you deploy into the Labyrinth," his voice dropped to a low, intimate near-whisper, laced with genuine warning. "I prefer you in my bed, not as a statue in my room."

A sleek travel drone materialized right beside him in a pulse of light. Without giving her a moment to process his cryptic words or formulate a reply, he mounted the hovering craft and shot out through the arched exit.