Backrooms 3: Kiosk Kingdom - Chapter 24 - 25

Chapter Twenty-Four was a little short, so here is twenty four and twenty five, back to back. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-Four – Stop, Fabricate and Listen

Nikoli left us to our work.

The forge roared low and steady, like a dragon breathing in its sleep. Runes danced across the walls, etched in flickering crimson light that didn’t cast shadows. Jakob headed toward the alchemy station, already muttering about ingredients under his breath. Harper followed behind him, a weathered notebook in one hand and a pen in the other. She peppered Jakob with questions as the Cendral picked through the various alchemic components—everything from chunks of monster bone, to various plants, and discolored liquids.

For a long moment, I stayed where I was, hands on my hips, staring at the fabrication table like it might bite me.

“You ever get the feeling we just signed a contract we didn’t read?” I muttered, not actually expecting an answer.

The silence that followed was heavier than it should’ve been.

I turned toward Nikoli, who loomed over his workbench, etching runes into the surface of the blade with slow, deliberate care. He didn’t hum, didn’t fidget, didn’t even glance in our direction. Just worked. Still, focused, intense. Like the sword was the only real thing in the room, and the rest of us were props in some stage play he wasn’t watching.

“I still don’t trust him,” Temperance said quietly, suddenly at my side. “That man doesn’t blink. Did you notice? He doesn’t blink.”

I hadn’t, but now that she said it, I realized she was right.

“He’s definitely hiding something.” She continued glaring at Nikoli’s turned back. “This whole setup feels... curated. Like a trap disguised as an opportunity. And I am certain there is more to this story than he’s telling us. All this nonsense about saving face feels like a cover for something else.”

I wanted to disagree with her, but I couldn’t.

On the surface, the residents of Kringlegard had been far more inviting than the Holwers, but Temp was right. The warmth seemed oddly calculating and left me feeling uneasy. Maybe she was being paranoid, but once again, I reminded myself that the best way to survive the Backrooms was to assume that everything, everywhere, all the time is both lying to you and trying to murder you.

“You’re probably right,” I replied, then added, “but we might not ever have another chance like this. Have any of you ever seen a Fabrication Workstation or a Mana Infusion Table before? Because I sure as shit haven’t. I’m not saying I trust him—he’s definitely working some angle—but I don’t see how us getting more powerful gear can possibly be a bad thing. Sure, this might be some sort of Trojan Horse, but it also might be a ‘Don’t-look-a-gift-horse-in-the-mouth’ type situation.”

“This analogy has a lot of horses, Dan,” Croc said softly, before stealing a furtive look toward Nikoli. “Do you think he has some sort of secret bargain with horse people?”

I pinched the bridge of my noise. “What? No. Don’t worry about the horses, bud. They’re metaphorical. Point is, as long as we play it safe, we’ll be fine. We should absolutely keep our guard up, but unless you’ve got something better to go on than a hunch, I think we should try to take advantage of this situation while we can.”

Temp pouted and folded her arms across her chest in clear disapproval. “Just because I don’t have anything better than a hunch, doesn’t mean I’m wrong.” Her jaw tightened, and I could see resolve hardening in her features. “I’m going to go poke around town and see if I can’t find out what he’s really up to.”

“What?” I asked, caught off guard. “But what about the workshop? Aren’t you at all curious to try fabricating Relics and Sigil Stones? Just think about all the cool shit we might be able to make.”

She reached up and patted me on the check. “That’s what I have you for. Besides, do you have any idea how horribly tedious that all sounds?” She pointedly glanced at my stumpy hand. “I would rather Molt and Mend every single one of my limbs simultaneously then spend a day in here, doing this. I will stay if you really need my assistance, but if not, then my talents will better serve us out there—gathering information.”

I paused, my lips tightening into a thin line. “I’m going to be honest,” I said, “you going out there on your own sounds like a dogshit idea. You’re not exactly discrete and we can’t afford to have you picking fights with the locals or trying to waterboard information out of innocent townsfolk.”

“I’m not an idiot,” she snapped. “And I can be discrete if I want too. Believe me, as someone who lived through the Salem Witch Hunts, I know how to keep my head down when I need to.”

“Uh, I hate to point this out,” I replied, “but didn’t they eventually try to burn you at the stake for being a witch? No offense meant, but it seems like you maybe didn’t do such good job.”

She glowered openly at me. If looks could kill, I was pretty sure I’d be dead where I stood.

“Irrelevant,” she said after a beat. “The point is, I’ll keep a low profile, and I promise not to threaten anyone with violence. Unless there really is no other option,” she added quietly. That certainly didn’t fill me with optimism. “I’ll also have this.” She pulled one of the Etheric Walkie Talkies from storage and clipped it to her belt. The radios were almost certainly cursed, but they also worked across floors making them an invaluable communication tool. “If anything goes terribly array, I’ll call for help. Satisfied?”

I wasn’t. Not even a little bit. But I could see that she’d already made up her mind, and when Temperance made up her mind about something, there was no changing it. She was as stubborn as an old tree stump.

“Fine,” I grumbled, “but for the record, I still think this is a dogshit idea. I can work on the Sigil Stones and I’m sure Harper can lend me a hand if I need anything. Just… Please don’t do anything stupid, okay?” I hesitated for a beat. “And take this with you.” I discreetly fished out a Doorway Anchor Plate and shoved it into her hands. “In case you get backed into a corner and need a way out. And take Croc with you. You need to have someone to watch your back.”

“Wait, does that mean I’m going on a field trip?” Croc asked happily. “Because I love field trips! This is so exciting. Temperance, do you think we can stop at the market and get more of those fried apple thingies? The ones from the other day?”

Temp rolled her eyes then reluctantly nodded. “Yes, I supposed we can get more of the apple fritters from the market. But if you’re coming, you’ll need to hide. Not sure if you heard, but Dan wants us to be inconspicuous, and that could prove to be quite difficult with talking blue dog following me around everywhere I go.”

“Not a problem!” Croc said. “Inconspicuous is my middle name.” The dog paused, its ears drooping. “Actually, that’s not true. I don’t have a middle name. And if I did, I think it might be Gary. I like the name Gary. But I will do my best to be inconspicuous.” The mimic’s shape blurred and morphed, as limbs contracted and its body formed into a camping pack. “What better way to watch your back, than on your back?”

Temperance just sighed and swung Croc into place with a grunt.

“Don’t worry, Dan,” she said with all seriousness. “I know how dangerous this is. I will exercise the utmost caution.”

“And I’ll eat anything that tries to hurt her,” Croc said, the lip of the backpack flapping as it spoke.

She gave me a small reassuring smile. Well, reassuring for Temp. If anyone else had smiled at me like that, I probably would’ve shit my pants.

Nikoli didn’t even bat an eye at her when she slipped out through the front door. He was completely lost to the work.

Once she and Croc were gone, I turned my attention to the fabrication table.

Nikoli had temporarily provided me with a pair of Relics, which I could use as a template for the Sigil Stones. The first was a Rare-grade called, The Yeti’s Paw. It looked like a shriveled monkey’s hand covered in coarse white fur, and it granted the user immunity to environmental cold along with partial resistance to all frost-based damage. The second Relic, Sinscreen 9000—Now with 87% more Absolution!—resembled a half-used tube of sunscreen and effectively prevented anyone from discerning personal information about the wielder.

Just as Nikoli had done, I carefully placed the Yeti Paw onto the table and channeled a hair-fine thread of mana into the table. The geometric sigils, carved into the surface, began to glow with a hazy witchlight and a runic formation appeared in the air above the table. As a Rare-grade Relic, the sigil powering the passive aura was far more intricate than the Basic Camo Kit Nikoli had used during his demonstration.

The pattern looked like a snowflake caught mid-fall—concentric circles laced with jagged cracks that branched into angular spurs of frozen lightning. It pulsed faintly with arctic blue light, each flicker cold and hungry.

I stared at the sigil, examining it from every angle, attempting to commit the design to memory. Back before Noclipping, there was no way in hell I ever would’ve been able to do it, but thanks to the passive effects of elevated Grit and the Split Personality Sigil—currently embedded in my bathrobe—I could easily hold the pattern in my mind’s eye. Once I was sure I had the design down, I swapped the Relic for a blank Sigil Stone, which I gingerly placed in the center of the table.

Using my engraver’s awl, I carefully began to carve the pattern into the surface of the stone, taking great pains to keep my hands steady, while ever so slowly feeding a trickle of mana into the sigil taking shape. It was extremely delicate work, and Nikoli hadn’t been lying when he said it was a time intensive process. Not to mention temperamental. I got through roughly half of the design, when I accidentally extended one of the curved lines just a hair too far.

The stone violently trembled on the table—light bleeding from the half-formed rune—before the stone melted into a puddle of sticky goo that smelled like rancid goat milk. I recoiled in disgust and wiped the slop into a bucket and even then, the smell lingered in the air.

Nikoli tromped over, inspecting the mess with a critical eye. “Not as easy as it looks.” He handed me several more blank stones. “Is okay. No one get’s it right first try.” He sniffed deeply. “Rancid dairy. This is good sign. Means you made it more than halfway.”

I squinted. “You can tell how far I made it by the smell?”

“Da,” he replied seriously. “Burnt rubber means too much mana infusion. Manure means, too little. Asparagus pee is unstable configuration. Body odor is sigil destabilization. Rancid dairy is partial rune formation.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “Try again.”

I did, though my next three attempts also failed.

Still, I got a little further along in the process each time.

After nearly three hours and five attempts, I finally managed to get through the entirety of the runic transcription process. When I added the last flourish with my awl, the rune thrummed with power and the off-white stone changed color, becoming a soft, powdery blue that reminded me of a clear winter’s day while the finished rune itself burned with an ethereal silver light.

I wiped a thin sheen of sweat from my forehead and examined the finished product.

Chillblister Core

Rare Sigil

Type: Armor, Sigil

Listen, icicle-nipples, we get it. You’re tough. You walk shirtless through blizzards and scoff at frostbite like it’s a minor inconvenience, instead of the toe-thieving menace it is in reality. I don’t give a shit what your buddy from Wisconsin says, blizzards are not flip-flop weather. But thanks to a little help from the Chillblister Core, you can finally give a frosty middle finger to winter.

This legendary lifesaver comes complete with the patented VRD Thermal Reversal Enhancement Technology, rendering you completely immune to environmental cold. That’s right, no more chapped lips, rock hard nips, or frozen dicks. It also gives you 50% resistance against frost-based damage—just in case some frosty jackass decides to hurl a goddamned glacier at your face!

All of the slots in my bathrobe were full, so I’d need to add the sigil stone to something else. Thankfully, I had a ton of other empty effect slots in the rest of my gear. Against my better judgment, I bound the stone to my wife-beater. The irony of a cold-resistant, sleeveless-undershirt was not at all lost on me.

That took care of me, but I still need to think about the others.

Now that I had the fundamentals down, the next four Sigil Stones went much quicker—though it was still a grueling process that took another two hours. Roughly thirty minutes per stone.

Once I was finished crafting enough Chillblister Cores for the team, I immediately set to work on Sinscreen 9000. The runic pattern was completely different than the first, though just as complicated. It was sharp and angular like a maze of interlocking squares carved from knives. Unlike the last rune, this one glowed with a bloody crimson light that set my teeth on edge and hurt to look at.

I only made it a third of the way through the rune before I failed—and instead of melting into goo like last time, the stone exploded, launching chunks of shrapnel straight into my chest and face. The table absorbed most of the blast, but it was still a painful lesson in humility. Harper stopped what she was doing with Jakob the second she heard me yelp, then rushed over to pluck stone fragments from my skin and patch me up.

My second attempt went marginally better, and instead of hurling stony shrapnel like a magical Claymore mine, it simply evaporated in a whiff of foul-smelling methane.

But I was getting the hang of things and managed to craft a working Sigil Stone on my third attempt. Nope.exe blocked all forms of arcane examination, magical scanning, soul-peeping, aura-scrying, and Spatial Core violations—It’s like digital privacy mode for your entire existence!

My undershirt still had one unused slot, so I added it in. An intense, almost feverish power washed through me and once the sensation passed, it felt like there was a strange void clinging to the surface of my skin, concealing me from unwanted eyes.

Spurred on by my success, I fell into an almost hypnotic trance as I forged another four stones, this time managing to do so in just a little under two hours.

As I finished the last one, I found Nikoli watching me with an unreadable expression plastered across his face.

“You are natural,” he said, though I couldn’t tell whether it was approval in his voice or something else. Something darker. I brushed off my discomfort. Nikoli was strange, and it was hard to get a read on him.

“Do you mind if I keep working?” I asked when he didn’t say anything else. “There are a few other things I’d like try out.”

“Of course, how could I say no?” he replied. “Is not everyday such a promising crafter appears on my stoop. Take all the time you need.”

I tried to ignore the greedy light that seemed to burn in his unblinking, unflinching gaze.

Chapter Twenty-Five – Relic Shards

With the Sigil Stones taken care of, I turned my mind to Relic fabrication. At this point, I had hundreds of Common and Uncommon Relic Shards, plus three dozen or so Rare Shards stuffed away in my Spatial Storage.

I started with the Common Shards to get a feel for things.

At level 50, I didn’t really have much use for Common-grade Relics, but I could always use whatever I crafted as Sacrifices for my current build. I picked something easy to work with—in this case, Basic Camo Kit—and added ten shards to the table. Now that I knew what I was doing, the process of forging the Relics was intuitive and the Fabrication Table made it almost effortless.

Far easier than crafting the Sigil Stones.

It took less than a handful of minutes to fabricate the first Relic, and I marveled when my creation actually did what it was supposed to do. It was so obvious that I almost couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before.

Since I didn’t need to actually use the Common-grade Relics, I stuck with the same runic pattern and before long I had a precarious pile of basic concealment Relics. Fifty-two in total. There were hundreds—maybe even thousands—more shards back at the store, but those would have to wait until later.

I was in the zone now, so I decided to fabricate some Uncommons with my available supply.

First on the list was Fluid Dynamics.

My gut told me it had enormous forging potential, but I couldn’t risk losing the only one I had on a botched experiment. Having a few backups to play around with was a must.

The runic configuration powering the Relic was significantly more complex and took twice as long to make, but the process itself was remarkable similar. After a solid ten minutes, I pulled the finished Relic from the table, turning it over in my hands. The shape—the vessel—had changed. Instead of a 90s green and yellow knockoff Super Soaker, this version looked like an old sponge, but sure enough, the effect was exactly the same.

I shook my head in wonder before setting it aside in its own pile.

I crafted two more duplicates—another sponge, and one that looked like a fishing net—then made several other Uncommon Relics that were always in high demand at the store, including Balloon Menagerie, Razor-Wire Fisicuffs, Double Bounce, and Thick Fat. All of ’em were packed with utility and would command a serious premium when I eventually put them up for sale.

Although fabricating the Relics was surprisingly straightforward, I found that it took a heavy toll on my body and mind. Almost as though each Relic drew a little piece of me out in the process. After spending countless hours at the table, exhaustion was finally starting to set in. My back ached, my good hand throbbed, and every muscle in my body seemed to be knotted with pent-up tension. My thoughts also felt strangely heavy. Slow. Fragmented. The side effects of serious sleep deprivation.

I knew I didn’t have much gas left in the tank, but there was still one last thing I really wanted to try, and I’d saved a few shards just for this purpose.

Nikoli had said that forming a Relic without an available pattern was the next best thing to impossible, but I had something he didn’t—the Researcher’s Codex. I doubted I would be able to fabricate a truly new and unique Relic, but I idly wondered if it was possible to use the Codex to reverse engineer some of the more powerful Relics that I’d previously forged. What I wouldn’t give to get back some of the base components of Neural Slip Stream, Hydro Fracking Blast, or Psychic Sovereignty.

I had no idea if it was possible, but I’d never know unless I tried.

I pulled Hydro Fracking Blast from my Spatial Core and examined the Relic using my Mythic Grade Emblem. As expected, a familiar item description flickered to life.

Hydro Fracking Blast
Fabled Relic – Level 2
Range: Single Target
Cost: 12 Mana/Sec

Sometimes, the solution isn't subtlety, but a high-velocity water jet of pure destruction. Even better if that water also happens to be on fire. And that’s where Hydro Fracking Blast comes in, brought to you by the good folks at the Variant Research Division!

That’s right, friends. Unleash a beam of water, skinny as a noodle but mighty enough to punch through a fucking mountain. Oh, and thanks to a little gasoline and some completely safe and totally natural dissolved gaseous methane, this water’s also on fire. It’s the best of all worlds! Water and flame in a perfect yin-yang of death and destruction. What more could you possibly ask for?

Moving at 100,000 PSI, Hydro Fracking doesn’t just erode, it annihilates. The target receives one stack of Scorching Erosion, suffering 25 points of Piercing Damage and an additional 20 points of Fire Damage per second as the fiery water eats into anything in its path.

Each additional second under the stream adds more fuel to the fire. In this case, literally.

For every three consecutive seconds spent in the water stream, an additional stack of Scorching Erosion is added, dealing an additional 25 points of Piercing Damage. When an enemy receives five stacks of Scorching Erosion, all damage dealt triples for each subsequent stack thereafter.

As the VRD is wont to say, go Frack yourself!

That wasn’t what I needed, though, so instead, I focused my will and concentrated on how the Relic had been created in the first place. What elements had gone into its forging. For a long moment nothing happened.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true.

I didn’t receive any sort of prompt or notice, but I did feel a certain psychic resistance—almost as though I were pushing against an invisible barrier with my mind. Sweat rolled down my face and my body trembled from the strain, but I was making progress. Finally, something shifted and gave way, a new prompt I’d never seen before coming into view.

Would you like to analyze the component elements in Hydro Fracking Blast (Fable-Grade Relic)? Yes/No?

I let out a ragged breath and mentally selected ‘Yes.’

The prompt disappeared, replaced by another.

Hydro Fracking Blast: Fabled-Grade Forged Relic

Component Relics: Pressure Washer (Rare Grade), Quicksand Terraform (Rare Grade), Burn, Baby, Burn (Uncommon Grade), Arsonist Accelerant (Common Grade)

The words vibrated and flickered, unstable. Almost as if they were trying to slip away, but couldn’t quite manage it. I had a feeling that this was something I wasn’t supposed to see at all. As though the System governing this place resented me peaking beneath the hood.

An uncomfortable pressure built inside my chest—a warning to go back. To proceed no further. Instead, I drilled down even further, this time focusing on Pressure Washer, which was the core ability I’d used to make Hydro Fracking Blast in the first place. I felt another layer of resistance, this one even firmer than the last, but I refused to stop. To give up. I grit my teeth, steeled my resolve, and pushed through with sheer grit and raw force of will.

Finally, another screen replaced the first, though it was faint and ghostly. A shadow of the real thing and not at all like the system prompts I was accustomed to seeing.

Pressure Washer: Rare-Grade Forged Relic

Component Relics: Squirting Flower (Common Grade), Slippery When Wet (Common Grade), Scalding Torrent (Rare Grade)

A thin smile stretched across my lips. Progress.

Once more, I pushed, hurling my will against the invisible barrier as I focused on Slippery When Wet.

Slippery When Wet was a Common-grade, which meant I’d hit already rock bottom, so this time I didn’t focus on what constituent components were, but rather on the runic pattern that powered the Relic. My body trembled like a leaf, knees shaking, arms quivering, stomach knotting in violent protest. It felt like I was trying to lift an Abrams tank with nothing but my bare hands.

I didn’t care.

I was almost there, I could instinctively feel it, and I’d come too far to give up this close to the finish line.

Then it happened.

I couldn’t really explain what it was, but reality warped around me, the light dimming, as a runic pattern appeared in the air. It was surprisingly simple—just three looping curves that spiraled outward from a central point, like a lazy whirlpool scribbled by someone in a rush.

Holding the pattern in my head, I added several more Common Shards to the table and quickly imprinted the design onto the shards, just like I’d done before. They bubbled and melted, before forming into a yellow triangular sign with a red stick figure flanked by the words Caution Wet Floor on the top and Cuidado Piso Mojado on the bottom.

Holy shit. I’d done it.

I let out a sigh of relief as my shoulders slumped forward. Forging the Relic had been immensely more difficult, but clearly it was possible and that opened a whole new world of options.

Part of me wanted to give up and call it a day, but even though I’d never felt so wrung out I found myself wondering just how far I could push this ability. It had worked on Slippery When Wet, so why not one of the more powerful Relics?

Letting my curiosity get the better of me, I repeated the same process—this time concentrating on the Rare-grade ability, Scalding Torrent.

If recreating Slippery When Wet had been like trying to lift a tank, this felt like trying to uproot an old growth Red Wood. Without the aid of the Fabrication Table itself, I was certain it would’ve been impossible.

But after ten minutes of unwavering concentrate the pattern took shape.

Imprinting the pattern onto the Rare-grade shards took almost half an hour, but the effort was worth the reward as the shards finally congealed into an item that resembled a foot-long hunk of pitted metal piping. The Relic wasn’t much to look at, but it was powerful in its own right, and allowed the user to release a burst of scalding steam, which inflicted Burn Damage and ignored traditional flame resistances.

The second the Relic finished coalescing, a wave of pain hit me like a sledgehammer to the temple. White stars danced across my field of vision, and I doubled over—promptly vomiting into the wooden bucket I’d used to clean up all my failed Sigil Stones. A blinding headache built behind my eyes and blood gushed from my nose in twin streams. The world tilted and spun uncertainly and for a second I was sure I was going to pass out on the spot.

I clutched the table with my good hand, wobbling uncertainly on drunken feet. After several minutes the sensation finally passed, though the aches and pains remained. When I wiped my mouth with the back of one hand, I saw that it came away covered in even more blood. My lips were coated with crimson.

Uh-oh… That probably wasn’t a good thing.

I quickly downed a Zima for good measure. I felt something pop and twist inside my guts, which told me I’d done some pretty serious damage to my organs. But there wasn’t much that an ice-cold Zima couldn’t fix. Still, it was abundantly clear I’d pushed my ability to the limit, and it wasn’t something I wanted to try again any time soon.

But despite the pain and internal bleeding, it proved that I could reverse engineer forged Relics with enough time and the right resources—even if it came with a step price tag. That made it a win in my book, and I would take whatever wins I could get.

I regarded Slippery When Wet and Scalding Torrent with a hungry greed.

Although I could’ve tried the experiment with any of the Relics, I’d picked those two for a very specific reason. Both were water based, though they had very different effects. Because of their nature, some gut instinct told me they might synergize well with two of my newer Relics—Fluid Dynamics and Frost Construct. Between the four, I could, in theory, create water, summon ice, unleash broiling hot jets of steam, and control all the various effects with Fluid Dynamics.

So what would happen if I mashed all four of the Relics together?

I ran a quick analysis to see if my hunch was correct.

Researcher’s Codex Compatibility Analysis

Based on historic data sets and extensive Forging models, Slippery When Wet (Common – Level 1), Fluid Dynamics (Uncommon – Level 1), Scalding Torrent (Rare – Level 1), and Frost Construct (Rare – Level 1), have an estimated 98% resonance compatibility, meaning the number of possible Relic Iterations is Extremely Low. The most probable outcome is Hydrokinesis (Fabled), or a closely adjacent derivative. Would you like to view additional report records for the Hydrokinesis ability? Yes/No?

I selected yes and read the ability description.

Hydrokinesis

Fabled Relic (Fully Tempered) – Level 1

Range: 10 Meters

Cost: 25 Mana

Cast time: Instant

Effect Duration: 30 Seconds

You’ve officially earned your honorary PhD in Liquid Violence, giving you full-spectrum command over your favorite molecule: H₂-Oh-hell-yeah.

Hydrokinesis is the final word in wet work, ideal for anyone who thinks subtlety is a four-letter word for cowards. When cast, you gain total, unrelenting mastery over water in all its glorious forms—liquid, solid, vapor, steam, mist, tears, beer, hot tub runoff. If it sloshes, steams, or freezes, it’s under your control.

Water stops being a tool. It becomes a language, and you’re screaming in it.

Sculpt glacial armor. Conjure ice barriers to block attacks or surround yourself with a spiraling cyclone of water blades that slice through spells, projectiles, and anyone dumb enough to get close. The sky’s the limit—in this case literally, since clouds are just condensed water vapor waiting for marching orders.

Because Hydrokinesis is classified as a mental-based ability, all bonuses to psychic damage and cooldown reduction apply to it as well.

This Relic enables mana usage.

I just stared at the description with my mouth hanging open like a jackass. I couldn’t help it, though, because I was in awe.

Hydrokinesis was everything I wanted Fluid Dynamics to be, but wasn’t. It was a keystone ability, easily on par with Psychic Sovereignty or Eldritch Taxidermist. Thanks to the Codex, I had plenty of other Fabled-grade Relics in my arsenal, but this would likely affect every aspect of my build. Not only would it give Hydro Fracking Blast far greater versatility, it would also boost the effectiveness of my new Frostfang Spire Relic.

Plus, I could think of about a hundred other ways it might be useful.

I didn’t hesitate for a moment before forging the new combination and adding it to my Spatial Core. A buzz of potent power washed through me, and I instinctively knew this was the kind of power that could change everything. This was the kind of power the Sovereigns had access too, and now it was mine.

All I wanted to do was test it out, but I knew this wasn’t the time or place.

I still didn’t trust Nikoli and having an ace like this tucked up my sleeve could come in handy if he tried to fuck us over. Besides, I didn’t have the mental energy for it. Not after fabricating both Slippery When Wet and Scalding Torrent.

That had taken a bigger toll on me than I wanted to admit.

My body was demanding sleep, and I was inclined to listen. I wasn’t sure exactly how long we’d been working for, but dusk had come and gone long ago, and the day had officially turned into full night. With a start, I also realized that I hadn’t heard anything from Temperance or Croc, which made me more than a little anxious. Where in the hell had they gone? We’re they okay? I was half-tempted to radio them then and there using the Etheric Walkies, but that was another secret I wanted to keep close to the chest.

Stifling a yawn with one hand, I blinked with heavy eyelids and reluctantly collected my pile of Common and Uncommon-grade Relics, slipping the whole lot of them into Spatial Storage for later.

Nikoli was still toiling away, though he’d finally moved on the from the sword and seemed to be manufacturing a set of heavy steel cogs—though what he needed something like that for, I had no idea.

Jakob and Harper were both still here, but instead of working they were now talking softly as they compared notes from each of their respective journals.

“For the Sevenfold Tonic,” Harper said, “it looks like we got a better effect when substituting Marrow Fern Spores for Copperleaf Oil.”

“Agreed,” Jakob replied, jotting something down in his notes. “Based on initial tests, it seems to be five percent more effective and has a significantly longer effect duration.”

I coughed politely and Harper raised an eyebrow when she finally saw me looking.

“Hey, look who’s finally come back to the land of the living,” she said, eyeing me from head to toe. Almost as though she was inspecting me for injuries. “You okay?” she asked. “We were starting to get worried there for a minute.”

“Fine,” I said with a shrug. “Why would you be worried?”

She just stared at me blankly. “Seriously?” she asked.

“You’ve been working nonstop for almost twelve hours,” Jakob said. “You didn’t stop to eat or drink. The only time you paused was to vomit blood into a bucket, but even that only slowed you down for a handful of seconds.” He shook his head. “I’ve honestly never seen that level of focus before.”

“I tried to check on you more than a couple of times,” Harper added, “but it was like you were in some sort of trance. I kept shaking you, but you didn’t seem to notice I was there at all.”

I grunted, feeling a little shocked. “Must’ve just really been in the zone,” I said, “but I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine,” Haper said. “Your skin is waxy and pale. Looks like you haven’t seen the sun in a month.”

“Is normal,” Nikoli interjected. I hadn’t even seen him move from the workstation, but suddenly he was standing beside me. “Forging Sigil Stones and Relics doesn’t burn memory like creating or upgrading Artifacts, but there is price to pay.” He tapped a finger against his sweat-slick chest. “You must put yourself into the work. It takes from you. Borrows your strength. Your magic. Your essence. Can be dangerous.”

Harper openly glared at him. “Seems like something you could’ve warned us about earlier.”

Nikoli just waved a hand dismissively through the air. “Is fine. Eat big meal. Sleep well. You will feel better tomorrow. Which is good,” he added with a grin, “because tomorrow we will kill Krampus. Now go. Eat. Rest. Tomorrow we will fight. Kill.”

Nikoli gave me one last look, his unnerving eyes boring into me, but then he turned and stomped back over to the forge, resuming his work without missing a beat. In seconds, an enormous hammer feel, the reverberating clang of steel against steel ringing through the air. He’d been toiling away just as long as we had—probably longer—but he moved with the easy rhythm of a man who had long since forgotten what it meant to tire.

I really hoped Temperance’s suspicions about him were wrong, because I didn’t want to see what he was capable of if backed into a corner.