Chapter 4146  Something Off (Part 1)

Solus Warped everyone to the Firing Range, where she had all the space she needed to swing the newly reforged Sage Staff freely. She felt the mana stored inside the Yggdrasill wood answer her call just a little less smoothly than her own core.

Solus could use the mana she received from the Sage Staff to empower herself with Fusion Magic, to cast spells, and even Blade Spells.

"It's almost perfect." She clicked her tongue. "The power core offers a bit of resistance compared to my mana core, but we expected as much. All those breaks in the Forgemastering process were bound to affect the Staff's mana conductivity negatively."

"Then why do you say it like that?" Menadion asked. "Looking at your face, one might think the Forgemastering process failed."

"Because there is something off with the Sage Staff." Lith shrugged. "Not wrong, mind you, just off."

"Yeah." Solus nodded. "As if we are forgetting about something as important as obvious. Yet no matter how much we think about it, we can't put our finger on it."

"Nonsense." Menadion replied. "Don't be like me, kids. Don't let your pride cast a shadow even on your success. We should celebrate this."

"I agree." Salaark smiled warmly, but didn't comment. "You should be proud of yourselves."

"Do you mind resetting it, Grandma?" Solus offered the Sage Staff to the Overlord. "We know it would be perfect practice for us, but I'm tired."

"With pleasure." Salaark removed only the power core, leaving the mana circulatory system untouched and ready to merge with a new power core. "How strong will the Sage Staff be?"

"We can conjure eight copies of the Fury, and we have seven violet cores we trust." Solus replied. "The start should be around 50% of Lith's max strength, so after the amplification, the power core will reach 150%."

"That's for each pseudo core." Salaark pointed out. "With seven pseudo cores, it makes 1050%. Even with nine Liths, you have only nine times his strength."

"True, but if you consider that the tower will boost us all, that Ripha will take care of the mana circles, and that we already know what kinds of imperfections form at every step of the process, we can do it." Lith replied.

"Even if we fail, we can always try again." Solus shrugged. "Practice makes perfect."

"In other words, I make you perfect." Salaark chuckled.

"You can say that." Lith replied. "Without your Creation Magic and the opportunity you give us to experiment without worrying about losing priceless materials with each failure, we would have never gotten this far, Grandma."

He and Solus tried to bow to her in gratitude, but she stopped them with a spark of Spirit Magic.

"Don't you dare do that with me, Featherling." Salaark said. "I appreciate your gratefulness because no one likes being taken for granted, but no baby bird should bow to his mother just because she feeds him until he can leave the nest and get his own food.

"Grow strong. Master your skill. Be wise. That's all I ask of you."

"We'll do our best, Grandma." Solus went for a hug since Salaark refused the bow, and she accepted it.

"Good." The Overlord gently caressed Solus' hair. "Now let go of me before your mother has a stroke out of jealousy."

"I'm not jealous." Menadion snarled with a voice so full of pain that no one would have been surprised if she started to bleed.

She was grateful to Salaark for taking care of Elphyn in her absence, yet their relationship hurt Ripha's motherly pride as much as Solus' relationship with Elina did.

'I wasn't there for Epphy when she needed me the most, and it's all my fault. If I weren't so foolish, I would have never abandoned Epphy's side before she made a full recovery.

'Because of me, she suffered alone for seven hundred years until she died a second time. Bytra stabbed Epphy, but I killed her for good, and now there's only Solus. I wasn't there for her as she grew up, and there's little of me in her techniques.

'Lith, his family, and Salaark have replaced me in every aspect of Epphy's life and I can only blame myself for it. I may have saved her life and preserved my legacy for her, but I destroyed everything else.'

"Sure." Lith said, feeling Menadion's distress and eager to change the topic. "Do you need a few days of rest before crafting the new version of the Sage Staff, Solus?"

She could have resumed working in a few hours, but Lith was giving her an excuse to spend time with Menadion.

"No." Solus shook her head. "Let's arrange our notes after lunch and then call everyone. I want to finish the Sage Staff as soon as we can gather."

'I understand Lith's worry, but the divide that exists between my mother and me isn't something that can be healed with a long talk, crying together, and a hug.' She actually thought. 'Only time and the strengthening of our relationship can fix it.'

Once they returned home and requested the help of their friends to Forgemaster the Sage Staff, everyone agreed eagerly. Yet Lith and Solus received several complaints.

"Why didn't you invite me?" Tista grumbled. "I would have loved to spectate and help however I could. I know that probably I wouldn't have contributed much, but I sure could have learned a lot."

They had moved to an isolated room of the Mansion, away from all those who didn't know about the tower.

"Auntie is right!" Leria doubled down. "You could have brought us along, and we'd have been silent!"

Aran, the triplets, and too many voices joined Leria in expressing her grievances until Solus gestured for silence, and the room went quiet.

"Tista, kids, I'm sorry for leaving you out, but there was a lot of work to do. If we brought you along, we wouldn't have gotten anything done, and we'd still be in the tower, answering your questions.

"Lith and I needed peace and quiet while we learned from Grandma Ripha and Salaark. If you had to stand there in silence all the time, you'd have understood nothing and gotten bored out of your skull.

"We didn't invite you because we can't teach you what we have yet to learn ourselves."

"You're right. Sorry for nagging at you." Tista said, and the kids nodded, but still pouted.

"What about us?" Quylla said. "Don't think I missed how you didn't consider us at all."

"Today, we have put our latest Forgemastering theories into practice and employed our best spells, Quylla." Lith replied. "All things I'm not going to share with you, just like I don't expect you to share the Ernas techniques with me or Friya Faluel's secrets."

"You can bet your scaly ass that she won't." The Hydra grunted.

"Now that the cloaking runes are in place and we have decided on the power core's structure, there is no risk in involving you, and we can bring you guys to the tower safely." Lith concluded.

"Fine, but I'm still offended." Quylla sighed. "Also, who are the chosen seven? Because I haven't recovered enough to do more than spectate."