"Stop looking around like a lost puppy. Just nod if the absorption is done," Richard's voice transmitted through his connection to the circle.
Receiving the confirmation he needed, he deactivated the array. Seeing the aftermath through his spiritual link was one thing, but witnessing the actual remains of his spirit stones made his lip twitch involuntarily. He looked at the shirtless Neo, whose tattoos had now faded back to their original, unassuming black.
Neo, under the combined stares of Richard and Helen, scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
Walking closer, Richard waved his hand, retrieving the pitiful remnants of the spirit stones into his spatial storage. He fixed Neo with a raised eyebrow. "So…?"
He was dangerously close to strangling the boy. That was a small fortune—enough to train multiple Ascendants from Rank 1 to Rank 3. Years of accumulated resources, gone.
Neo heard the question but chose to feign ignorance, his face a carefully maintained blank expression. He still hadn't decided what to reveal yet. "Uh… so?"
Richard's eye twitched. He glanced at Helen, who looked on with concern, and thought, 'Maybe I should just bind him again and spin him for a few hours. I might feel better.' Still, he controlled himself, asking carefully this time. "So, what did you awaken? Your relic?"
Neo wasn't sure how to answer. He didn't know how to summon his relic—it was all new. He couldn't ask the system, not with an audience.
'Maybe it can read my thoughts…' He focused inwardly, commanding it to appear.
Surprisingly, it worked.
(Do you wish to summon the Forge?)
With no other choice, he thought, *Yes.*
Immediately, a profound connection snapped into place. In the air before him, a bronze cube materialized, its surface etched with glowing, moving golden characters. It floated silently.
Neo took two sharp steps back. He recognized it—the same cube from the void. Despite the intimate bond he now felt with it, a primal fear kept him from touching it.
"Pfft." Richard laughed at his reaction. "You're actually scared of your own relic? I have to admit, a form like this is uncommon. It's… beautiful and otherworldly."
Curious, Richard reached out to touch it.
"Stop! Don't touch it!!" Neo screamed, panic slicing through the chill's control for a split second.
"What!? It's just a cube. I'm not going to break it from a slight touch." Richard continued, reaching out and ignoring Neo's warning.
Immediately upon touching the cube, his face scrunched up. He yanked his hand back with so much speed the air howled in protest.
"What the hell was that?!" Richard said, growling, while holding out his hand, he used to touch Pandora.
Neo, seeing his reaction, felt a flicker of amusement, a small smile touching his lips without his realizing it. "I mean, I warned you," he said, raising his hands in a gesture of innocence.
"That was almost 'two percent' of my spiritual energy, gone with a single touch, and all you can say is you warned me?" The faint amusement on Neo's face didn't escape Richard's gaze. "Maybe this elder needs to teach you how to warn someone properly."
Richard immediately summoned his relic. The bronze rope, Warbane, appeared, curling around his right arm.
Neo took several frantic steps back. "Wait, wait… no, no!" He looked at Helen, who had been quiet the entire time. "Helen, a little help?"
Helen, who had been amused by the entire exchange, was now more curious about what had made her grandfather react that way. "Gramps, I'm sure he didn't really mean it that way…"
Richard's lips twitched at the sight of Neo using his soft spot for his granddaughter against him. *Maybe I should have killed him when I had the chance,* he thought to himself.
"Gramps, what happened when you touched his relic?" Helen asked innocently, her eyes still on the beautiful, silent cube.
"It started draining my spiritual energy… very fast. If I'd kept my hand there any longer, losing five percent would have been very possible." He turned to a surprised Neo. "So, what is it?"
Neo thought for a moment, finally deciding what to reveal. "I think… it lets me repair relics."
Richard and Helen froze at his words.
Neo, not understanding the gravity of what he'd said, looked at them questioningly. 'I know I mentioned the least impressive function. Is it not enough?" He decided to add a little more.
"Also, I think I have an affinity for all elements now. A side effect of the awakening, I think." He scratched his head in embarrassment. Of all his bloodline abilities, this seemed the most obvious to reveal, allowing him to use elements freely later.
They were still silent.
"What?" Neo asked. "Is it still not enough? Or did I say too much?" He glanced at the other abilities listed on his system interface while thinking.
"Uh… say something?" Neo questioned curiously.
Helen was the one who finally broke the tension. "Did you just say… 'repair relics'?"
Neo, sensing the shock in her voice, breathed a silent sigh of relief. He had almost mentioned his Creator's Sight, thinking it wasn't enough. "Uh… yes? Is that… something good?"
Suddenly, Richard blurred from his position, appearing beside Neo and startling him. 'This damn Grim Reaper wants to kill me?'
Instead, Richard hugged him with the widest smile he could muster—wider than Neo had ever seen him give even Helen. 'Did he go crazy or something?' Neo thought.
"Hehe… my boy! You must be tired from all that standing." Richard suddenly took a seat out of his spatial ring, giving Neo no room for refusal and thoroughly confusing him.
Finally, something new appeared on Neo's interface as he looked at Richard's relic in such proximity.
WARBANE
Rank: B
Special Ability: Bind
"Hmm?" Neo hummed softly.
Helen watched her grandfather's sudden, overwhelming enthusiasm with a mix of embarrassment and understanding.
In the entire city of Demoor, within the Templar Empire's Northern Continent, there was only one known Ascendant capable of repairing relics—and he worked exclusively for the Empire. Even under their tyranny, he was afforded a rare degree of respect and autonomy, choosing his own clients without interference. Helen could already guess the calculations spinning in her grandfather's mind: the immense prestige, the leverage, the income. And with Neo claiming an affinity for *all* elements, his potential wasn't limited to a certain type of relic repair.
"Grandpa, have some shame, will you?" Helen chided, though a smile tugged at her lips. "Didn't you just almost kill him a couple of minutes ago?"
Richard didn't even acknowledge her. He was too busy kneading Neo's shoulders, his voice a low, conspiratorial whisper. "Remember your grandpa, alright? It was 'my' spirit stones that helped you awaken this godly talent."
Neo, still sitting stiffly, kept his focus on the new line of text that had appeared in his vision regarding Richard's relic, ignoring the antics of Richard.
WARBANE
Rank: B
Special Ability: Bind
Restricts anyone caught in its hold from accessing any form of external or internal energy.
'So that's why the system couldn't draw energy while I was bound,' he realized. 'Quite a nasty ability..'
Steeling himself, he asked the system inwardly, 'How do I access my forge?'
(The Creator just has to place a hand on Pandora's Forge.)
Taking a deep breath. It actually took a lot of courage, but Neo reached out slowly and touched the surface of the floating bronze cube.
In a blink, he vanished from the chair.
Richard's hands closed on empty air, mid-shoulder rub. He stared, nonplussed, at the spot where Neo had just been. The only thing remaining was the cube, hovering silently in the dim light of the ruins.
He very carefully did not reach for it. There was just no way he would even try to. He wasn't that curious.