Agnar's office was packed wall to wall with tools like old hammers with worn handles, precision chisels, engraving picks, tongs of different lengths, rune-stamps, measuring rods, heat gauges, metal samples, tiny carved molds and half-finished prototypes resting on shelves.
It was the kind of office that didn't bother pretending the owner was anything less than obsessive. The walls were lined with blueprints and forge diagrams. A few rare blades hung in display frames above a work table covered in notes. Even the chair Veneri was offered looked like it had been built by someone who cared more about posture than comfort.
He sat down anyway.
Agnar remained standing for a moment longer than necessary, still wearing that same look of disbelief from the forge floor, as if he was trying to decide whether the man in front of him was real or just the most inconvenient hallucination he had ever seen. Up close, he looked even more like the sort of blacksmith legends were built around.
"I've never seen a Mystical Forger this young before," Agnar said at last.
Veneri leaned back slightly in the chair and crossed one leg over the other.
"I get that a lot."
"You're also strong and annoyingly good-looking."
Veneri gave him a flat look.
"Of course I do."
There was no way to keep acting like this was a normal meeting when one of the people in it had just shattered an anvil, broken a forge hammer and then calmly walked into the office like he was here to ask about the weather.
"Who taught you?"
"A Physical Forger called Landle, my father-in-law. Well... one who was once my father-in-law."
Agnar opened his mouth, probably to ask why that was said in such a strange way, then decided not to. He clearly had enough instinct to realize that wasn't a door worth opening without warning. Whatever history Veneri carried, it wasn't the kind you asked about over tea. So Agnar simply nodded once and let it go.
"Fair. I'm not prying."
Veneri gave him a faintly approving look, as if he respected that choice. Agnar walked over to his desk and rested one hand on the back of the chair across from him.
"So. What do you want?"
"An enchantment."
That got Agnar's attention fast.
In forging, enchantments weren't just add-ons. They were legacy and craft identity. Every decent Forger had their own signature work, the techniques they were known for and the enchantments they passed down or guarded like blood. Some focused on weapons. Some on artifacts. Some did both. The best ones understood that their enchantments was a method of saying what kind of craftsman they were.
Veneri knew that better than most.
Landle had taught him well. The famous smith had given him three enchantments, and they weren't trivial ones either. They were Indestructibility. Soulbound and Energy Absorption. That was a terrifyingly strong set to inherit from a master craftsman and Veneri knew it. Landle had only ever had one student and Veneri had been the one to inherit the legacy. Making a fourth enchantment of his own was possible sure, but if he did it badly, it would feel disrespectful. The three he already had were were good enough that adding a weak fourth would be insulting by comparison. He wasn't interested in spitting on Landle's work.
So he wanted a trade from another skilled blacksmith. Agnar seemed to understand this almost immediately.
"You want one of mine."
"Yes."
Agnar's tone turned more serious.
"You do realize granting an enchantment is basically giving someone a piece of your legacy."
"Then don't do it for free. I'll give you one too."
"What?"
"I'll give you Indestructibility."
For the first time since they'd met, Agnar looked genuinely shocked. His eyes widened slightly, then narrowed as if he suspected he'd misheard.
"You'll give me Indestructibility?"
"Yes."
"That's not a casual thing to offer."
"I'm aware."
Agnar stared at him for a long moment, then let out a rough laugh under his breath.
"You really are a monster. If your enchantments are good enough to deserve Indestructibility, then mine won't be enough."
"That's my decision, not yours."
Agnar scratched the side of his beard, then nodded slowly.
"Fine. Then I'll tell you what I have."
He stepped over to a shelf, pulled down a small metal case and opened it on the desk. Inside were notes written in careful wording and two named enchantments marked clearly as his signature work.
"Stalwart is the first. It reinforces form. Keeps a weapon stable under extreme impact. Stops warping, bending or cracking. It's the reason some of my work survives things it shouldn't."
Agnar pointed to the second one. "Tether Engrave."
Veneri's gaze widened. Now that was interesting.
"It lets me inscribe Pinnacle or Base Tethers into a weapon as an enchantment. It doesn't have the same freedom as a true Tether user but it's enough to let the weapon carry a fragment of the effect. It's difficult to use and usually unstable unless the forge is done properly."
Veneri sat back slightly, considering it. Agnar gave him a quick, skeptical look.
"It's not as impressive as Indestructibility."
Veneri shook his head at once.
"No. It's better than what I was hoping for."
"Really?"
"Yes."
That answer seemed to unsettle him more than if Veneri had insulted it. Veneri stood from the chair and stepped around the desk, stopping in front of him.
"I'll take Tether Engrave."
"Is that what you want?"
"It is."
There was only one formal thing left to do. They shook hands.
That was one of the ways Forgers shared enchantments and the moment skin met skin, the exchange began. Agnar felt a heavy pressure rolling through his arm and into his body. The Enchantment transfer was not subtle. What he got felt like a mountain.
Indestructibility slammed into him almost at once. The old enchantment, Stalwart, changed under the pressure. Agnar's shoulders jolted slightly as the power settled into his body. He looked down at his own arm with a stunned expression, then back at Veneri. A slow, disbelieving scoff escaped him.
"A Mystical Forger really is someone on another league."
Veneri gave him a calm nod.
"Trade's done."
That should have been the end of it but if course, Agnar clearly disagreed.
"No, that won't do."
"What won't?"
"You gave me something invaluable and I gave you a meager enchantment in return."
Veneri opened his mouth. Agnar cut him off with a raised hand.
"Don't insult me by pretending that was a fair exchange. I can tell when I've gotten away with something ridiculous. Ask me for something else. Anything within my power."
"You're pretty well known, huh?"
Veneri looked away for a second, thinking. He had the money. He had the time. He didn't need much from this city, really. However, Agnar was insistent and there was something useful about not refusing a generous blacksmith who wanted to owe him a favor instead of the other way around.
"If you insist, I want to cross the ocean."
"The ocean?"
"Yes. I don't know where to go or what to expect. A map would do."
Agnar's expression changed immediately, as if Veneri had just opened a door he'd been waiting to see.
"I can do better than that. I'm heading to a forging competition on one side of the Immortal Anchor. It's being held there. We'll have to cross the ocean to get there."
That got Veneri's attention all the way.
He had a lot of time than he'd ever expected to have again. And if there was a forging competition waiting in another place, then that meant skilled craftsmen, new techniques and new materials. Maybe he could even find the sort of people worth talking to.
"I'm definitely interested."
"Good. Then you're coming."
"You've got a ship?"
"I do. We'll be leaving in a few days."
"I'm staying at Wavefront Hotels. Call me when it's ready."
Agnar laughed. His laugh that filled the office.
"You really just walked in here on a random day and gave me the deal of a lifetime."
"You're welcome, Agnar. Nice to meet you. I'll be waiting for your response."
He turned to leave and Agnar was still laughing when the door shut behind him. For a man who had spent most of the day expecting a normal shop visit, Veneri had somehow managed to walk out with a new enchantment, a ship ride and a trip to a forging competition in another place.
Honestly, he'd done worse with less.
-----
At night, Veneri sat on the edge of the bed with Parasphlen floating in front of him. The room was quiet except for the faint coastal hush beyond the walls and the soft hum of Calimostria resting before him in its glaive form. Parasphlen drifted around it in tight little circles.
"You got lucky, Master. Tether Engrave won't do much for normal Forgers. For you, though? It's perfect. I'm still not over the fact that Tethers are a universal thing and don't just exist in Spheraphase."
Veneri gave a tired exhale through his nose but said nothing to the last sentence. He leaned back on one hand and looked at Calimostria again, thinking. The weapon had changed shape enough times over the years that it no longer felt strange to imagine it as something other than a glaive. After all, Landle did upgrade it over the years he taught him Forgery.
"What would be the best Base Tether for it?"
Parasphlen stopped circling. That question clearly interested her more. She hovered in place above the weapon with little motes of forge-light drifting from her body.
"You don't need Omniphage on it. Energy Absorption already handles that in a cleaner way. Sapphire Materialization would just be redundant because Sapphire Resonance is already part of its structure. The best choice is Limitless."
Veneri's eyes narrowed a little but not in disagreement. He already knew why she said it.
Limitless as an Aeterium Base Tether did exactly what he needed. It let him hold absurd amounts of energy without needing to bleed himself dry to do it. It reduced energy output costs, made energy consumption easier and let him keep reserves far beyond what most beings could manage. Paired with Omniphage, it would make the absorption faster, stronger and far less wasteful. Paired with Calimostria, it would turn the weapon into a reservoir. That meant near-infinite storage in a sense, but not literal.
He lifted one hand and coated the entire room with sapphire.
It spread in a smooth wave, covering the floor, the walls, the furniture edges, the window frame and even the under the bed with a thin crystal layer. Parasphlen watched this with an expression that suggested she approved both of the method and the unnecessary flair.
Veneri took Calimostria and changed its form.
The glaive's form shifted under his hand, reconfiguring into a staff. It became a long fancy C-shaped staff, black in body with sapphire double-spiral patterns winding through it like a living design. In the center of the C-shape floated a smooth sapphire sphere, perfectly suspended, holding the density of one hundred and fifty million souls. The sphere was a prison and a pseudo-core he created.
Parasphlen went still. Veneri looked at it with cold satisfaction.
"I've been converting these immortal souls to higher quality ones for decades."
"You're saying that like it's normal."
"It is for me."
She stared at the sphere a moment longer. Even for her, that was a ridiculous amount of soul mass. One hundred and fifty million souls gathered over ninety years of war were compressed and refined through his own Soul Energy until they were no longer just dead residue but usable fuel.
"Now they'll farm Soul Energy for me instead of floating there doing nothing."
"And with Limitless," she said, catching on now, "Calimostria will absorb energy faster when it works with Energy Absorption."
"Yes."
"And your three enchantments are passive, so you don't need to activate them. Limitless will make energy consumption easier too."
That was the point.
Indestructibility would keep the frame from failing under load. Soulbound would maintain the connection between weapon and wielder. Energy Absorption would take what was offered and store it. Limitless would make sure the scale stopped being a problem. It would allow Calimostria to hold more, take more and process more without choking on the volume.
He raised his hand and invoked Tether Engrave. The enchantment activated with a ting. He then used Limitless into the weapon's structure and touched the staff directly, invoking it into Tether Engrave.
A surge of Soul Energy rushed out of Calimostria with such force that the room shuddered even through the sapphire coating. The bed frame creaked. The window glass rattled. If he hadn't coated the room first, the hotel room would probably have collapsed under the pressure. Even now, the walls strained as the energy flow intensified.
Veneri did not flinch. He just let it happen.
That was the thing about Seventh Enlightenment access and his Aeterium body returning to him. The energy pulled from him now but it did not cripple him the way it would have before. His soul capacity was vastly larger than it had been during the ten years of restriction. What Calimostria was taking was immense by anyone else's standard, but to him it felt like nothing. He could handle it.
The staff drank the Soul Energy in it.
The sapphire sphere at the center became even brighter. Soon enough, the process was done.
Parasphlen floated still in the air for a few seconds, watching the final stabilizations.
"I'm glad that worked."
Veneri's hand remained on the staff a moment longer before he let go. The room was still humming faintly with residual power but the dangerous pressure had already faded. Calimostria now felt different. He looked at it, then back at Parasphlen.
"With Limitless, it's a proper Mystical Rank Weapon now."
"Why didn't you upgrade your Divine Weapon to Mystical Rank earlier?"
Veneri went quiet for a few seconds.
Landle had made Calimostria as a masterpiece. It had been crafted with care, precision, and respect. Every change Veneri had made to it since then had been done with that truth in mind. He had upgraded its form. He had reinforced it but he had never wanted to erase the identity it already had. That weapon carried Landle's work in its bones. He wasn't going to strip that away just for the sake of saying it had changed rank.
"Because I wasn't going to replace his greatest masterpiece. I'm not going to change the physical look of it though. It's the least I can do. It already has Indestructibility. It won't break or grow weaker. It's perfect the way it is. Changing its rank just for vanity would have been stupid."
He ran his hand along the staff's black surface even though he couldn't feel it.
"So this is the true power of a Mystical Rank Weapon. That's an obscene amount of power and you've been carrying it around for decades."
"Yeah."
Parasphlen made a low, impressed sound.
"You're really insane."
"I thought you knew that."
She laughed softly at that, Veneri leaned back against the bed with one hand resting loosely on the weapon and finally let himself enjoy the success. It would stand beside him as a true Mystical Rank Weapon instead of holding him back.
"Now, time to check my profile. I said I would never check it until I was powerful enough so let's see."