SB: Chapter 263 – An Insane Idea (Patreon)

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“How does the Heartforge Bastion work?” I asked the golem.

“Soul crafting uses three primary components and two resources. The components are a solid base item, runic inscriptions on the item to lock in the soul crafting, and a strong soul. The two resources are Mana and souls. That is why the location of the Heartforge Bastion lies between the Forgeworks, Soul Array Hall, and the primary motivator past the Magma Atrium,” the golem explained.

“Is the crafting process a ritual?” I asked.

“I can’t access that information.”

“What if a living monster is used in the crafting process?” I asked.

“That is unadvised as one of the core safety precautions of the Soul Forge. That would create an item with a will of its own, a status, and personality.” Oh, someone was using Eldarin Empire soul research to make the core for the war mech.

“During the process, could a powerful creature break free, or would it become Mana locked by the process like someone getting caught up in a ritual?” I asked.

“During the forging process, the Heartforge Bastion is normally sealed off for safety reasons,” the golem said. While it wasn’t a direct answer, it was probably the best one I was going to get.

“Let’s say the main ingredient is already in place, a Tier 7 super monster inside the Heartforge Bastion, how do I activate it and turn the monster into a weapon?” I asked.

“The primary motivator first needs to be connected,” the golem said.

“It is connected directly into the monster itself,” I replied.

“I have no knowledge if that will impact anything, but the necessary Mana should be there to complete the process. The second thing would be to place a weapon on the ritual altar that would be soul crafted. The stronger the weapon the better.”

I held up my Reforged Beginner’s Blade. “Would this Tier 3 weapon work?” I asked.

“It would likely melt during the process. A one tier difference would be the best.”

“If the weapon melts, what happens?” I asked.

“The weapon is completely destroyed and there is a Mana explosion and possible ritual blowback. That is why it is against safety regulations to use materials that are more than one tier apart.”

“Okay, but the monster won’t come back to life?” I asked.

“That is unknown. Ritual blowback can do many things. That is why safety regulations are in place.”

“Let’s say I go with this sword and get it on the altar. Then what?” I asked.

“The sword needs specific runic arrays carved into it. That is something I can assist with,” the golem said.

“After that what else?” I asked.

“The Soul Array Hall needs to be recharged.”

“Would Mana cores work?”

“Not very well, since they are mostly Mana. It would make an unstable process more unstable and unsafe,” the golem answered.

“You seem a lot better at answering questions than most golems,” I said with a curious look at it.

“Soul magic has been used on all golems, to assess the importance and credibility of information we receive and retain.” Interesting to know, but that left the main problem of providing enough souls. Also, it explained why war golems had fallen out of favor as the soul mages of the Eldarin Empire had been killed off.

“Explain to me how the Soul Array Hall works,” I ordered. The golem began giving a lengthy explanation detailing how the entire chamber worked. Basically living beings went into the containers and then the Mana from the primary motivator helped to extract their souls and empower the Heartforge Bastion.

They were a crucial step for activating the ritual component of the soul crafting process. No souls, meant no ritual, and then no soul crafting. Everything else could be worked around in some manner, except for the souls required.

Even if I had a line of sacrifices ready to go, the problem was that the Soul Array Hall fell into the range of the Vorunhusk’s Sensory Field. As for monsters coming out of the dungeon, they wouldn’t be able to exit without going through the super monster’s Sensory Field as well.

The only option was to go the bootleg route and use Mana cores as a poor substitute. As long as the ritual activated, the Mana of the Vorunhusk would be tied into it. No idea on what would happen, but since rituals rarely had good outcomes, the worst outcome was the entire volcano exploding.

Well I guess the super monster could become even stronger, but then it would probably move about allowing the primary motivator to start up again, allowing me time to destroy the cursed blade.

So how was I going to get Mana cores through the sensory field? I went back to the Soul Array Hall and noted that the containers actually deflected external Mana and isolated the internals.

It was going to take time, but I was in no rush. Better to do things carefully and get them right the first time.

The Sensory Field had to be incredibly sensitive, since it was such a small range compared to the last super monster that had a range of kilometers. It was clear that the Vorunhusk was happy to nap where it was and didn’t worry much about its surroundings as long as it wasn’t directly bothered.

After inspecting the containers in the Soul Array Hall, I opened one up and waited. The monster didn’t stir. The inside of the container contained the monster’s Mana already. Oh, that was stupid of the monster, very stupid, and gave me an even stupider idea or a genius one.

With an inactive runic array placed into each container, that would trigger after enough Mana saturation. It would then use that Mana and some specific combination of Low Vostner and Demonic Runes to create soul resonance through the Mana. It was why making a homunculus was so risky. If your Mana was just sitting around someone could attack you remotely, since a person’s Mana came from their soul.

This kind of attack took a lot of Mana and it had to be uncontaminated by other factors. A single skill was fine, but if one used an item or multiple skills the Mana would be too distorted. The monster wouldn’t sense anything until the attack began, but the attack would be the ritual itself.

Now that was being economically efficient, using the entire monster to kill itself. Using its soul to empower the ritual would have a high chance of lowering its tier, reducing the strength of the primary soul. Like getting pulled in multiple directions, the soul would be ripped apart.

Instead of an impossible monster, I would hopefully turn my weapon into a soul crafted weapon of a higher tier. While I doubted it would match Sarah, my mother’s sword that was the peak at Tier 5, there was a chance for something good to happen to it.

I worked through the entire logic chain and wrote it out multiple times, considering the entire process from multiple angles and questioning the golem on how the Heartforge Bastion actually worked.

While the golem couldn’t answer everything in detail, I gained a much better understanding of the ritual that was being used and the runic underpinnings. The Eldarin soul mages were mad lads, but also geniuses in their own way.

The primary soul was compressed to the shape of the object used. That was why having an object was key, to define the boundary that the soul needed to conform to. Then the soul was compressed into the object using the principles of Eldarin Soul Compressors but at a much higher scale.

The runic engravings on the blade would then become empowered with the soul and Mana of the compressed being, activating and permanently linking the soul to the item. The stronger the soul, the stronger the ingredients and power needed for the ritual. I was using the monster’s own strength against it, which was what made this plan brilliant.

As for why it wasn’t done in the past, getting a Tier 7 monster to rest quietly at the center of the ritual array would be impossible. These monsters were likely created as war weapons, probably by the beastkin or even the crazy soul mages. Regardless, once the monster showed up, it killed everything in and around the Soul Forge.

The beastkin and the Eldarin Empire both forgot about this place. There was no reason to come back here. While there was equipment, it was integrated into the complex, while everything else of value had been stripped clean.

As for the demons, once they sensed the monster or were killed by it, they probably avoided this place like the plague. There was nothing to be gained from fighting such a stupidly powerful monster.

With nothing to go after, it settled on the best source of Mana it could reach, since it was clearly too big for the dungeon entrance. That meant the access point in the Heartforge Bastion that led directly from the primary motivator.

Anyone else coming back here after the monster took over wouldn’t have the knowledge of souls, runes, and rituals that I did. The only two people who might would be Xanatos and my father. Other than that, my mother would have just gone for a direct fight of some kind.

All that Mana in the monster and its incredibly strong soul, evidenced by its class and tier, were the best ingredients. The monster didn’t understand where it was sleeping. It just picked the best place and settled there.

If the Soul Array Hall had been outside its sensory skill, then this plan wouldn’t work. Well I could have used other souls. It would have been a pain to find another dungeon entrance, and somehow transport monsters all the way back out here to be put into the containers.

But that wasn’t necessary, since the creators of the Soul Forge had wanted the main crafting area laid out as efficiently as possible. Everything feeding into the main crafting area to empower the creation of the most powerful items. My solution was incredibly elegant in a certain way.

The monster wouldn’t sense anything until the process was activated. And once it was activated, its soul would be gripped by both the ritual and the Mana saturated runic plates in the Soul Array Hall.

The biggest downside was that the amount of Mana released was going to be massive. Even working out an estimate, it was so much Mana. If someone actually killed the monster, it would turn into a massive bomb.

It might have been stuck drawing from the primary motivator’s supply of Mana for so long, it had become over saturated. Any disturbance could cause it to explode. That could also be why it never noticed me or my divination skills.

I wasn’t about to test this theory, but the monster had become completely imbalanced. Such a situation had never happened before as far as I knew. Such a strong monster taking in so much Mana for such a long period of time was unprecedented. I knew the College would be highly interested in such a novel thing and would pay good money for the firsthand knowledge.

The ritual when it occurred would be one of epic proportions with the entire monster going into it with that much Mana. Normally the Heartforge Bastion worked over a long period of time, with adjustments being made to the ritual to control the Mana flow and stretch a ritual out to days, weeks, or possibly even over a month.

I wouldn’t have time for that. I would put the settings to full, so the ritual would complete as quickly as possible. Better to end things quickly and get the complex working. I hadn’t lost sight of my main goal.

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