Once Lith was done, they had collected what looked like a bumpy piece of charcoal the size of a fist and a small metal ingot. Its surfaces absorbed the light coming from both the surface and the tower's walls, shifting from silvery to black as if someone was stirring it from the inside.
"That was amazing!" Friya felt a mix of awe and envy while looking at the final results of Lith's work. "Gods, Origin Flames are a Forgemaster's best friend. It took you less than a minute to completely separate two of the most precious metals on Mogar.
"Why can't Hydras have them as well?"
Lith panted and wheezed in reply as Solus conjured a chair for him to sit. She also gave him a barrel worth of tonic that he gulped down with the help of water magic.
"It's not all fun and games." He said amid pants. "The process lasted less than one minute, but it also drained everything I had and Invigoration can't fix my current condition. Before moving to the second ingot, I need to rest."
"That's what Tista is for, no? She can work on her own." Friya shrugged.
"Wrong." The Red Demon shook her head. "I need to wait for his recovery, otherwise the Monocle is useless. Right now, Lith can't focus on anything and before we move on, we need to study the footage together.
"What we can do in the meantime is to study the differences between the purified and the impurified Davross."
Solus took the Yggdrasill branch from Lith, using their mind link to share her findings with him. Tista and Friya placed their hands on the small ingot as well, activating their respective breathing technique.
"What the heck?" The three women said in unison.
Invigoration revealed to them that removing the impurities had not only greatly increased the Davross's density, further enhancing its physical properties, but it had also amplified its mana flow to the extreme.
The whole ingot was now capable of drawing, storing, and amplifying the surrounding world energy. If before it looked like having a mana core when observed through a breathing technique, now it looked like an ingot-shaped mana core.
The purified Davross was filled to the brim with world energy, making it hard to understand where the line between energy and matter lay.
"If purified Adamant works akin to a blue core, what is this? Because that's nothing like a violet core." Solus blurted out in surprise.
"What do you mean?" Friya and Tista asked in unison.
They had no idea that Lith's vigorous mana flow was actually due to the presence of the auxiliary cores that were now fused with his organs. To them, purified Davross looked exactly like a violet core.
'My guess is that's how a white core works.' Lith said via the mind link after taking off the Monocle. 'Too bad that because of the flames we have no idea how the metal's mana flow improved. It could have given us some insight.'
'Sorry to burst your bubble, but if it was that easy, I think that all species capable of using Origin Flames would have already discovered the secret of the white core.' Solus replied.
'I said insight, not an instruction manual.' Lith had recovered enough of his focus to helping Tista so after reviewing the footage together, he handed the Yggdrasill branch to her.
It took them over four hours to purify the ingots and most of that time was actually spent on either recovering or heating the metal in the furnace. Once they were done, Lith handed a purified ingot each so that they could thoroughly study the Davross before starting the crafting process.
"So far, the changes in its physical and magical properties don't make the hassle of finding Davross worth its time." Friya said. She had used the time when the others rested or discussed the Flames to study the ingots with her Forgemastering spells.
"We can only hope that once enchanted it has some special abilities, otherwise I'm fine with a full set of Adamant equipment."
"Agreed." The others replied in unison.
Lith had decided to purify all of his ingots so that they could each craft a different piece of equipment at the same time. After all, they didn't need anything fancy or complicated, just to study how the purified Davross reacted when imbued with different kinds of enchantments.
Lith crafted a small dagger, Solus a magic holding ring, Tista an arm protector, and Friya a small mace. They channeled their mana through their respective creations, trying to spot any difference with regular items.
The results were simply appalling.
"This is junk!" Tista said in frustration. "And I'm not talking about our craftmanship because we did a poor job on purpose, I mean that they are utterly useless."
"Well, not really." Lith activated the fire elemental property of his dagger several times before handing it to the others to observe. "The purified Davross draws world energy so quickly that it's as if it has a breathing technique of its own.
"As soon as you give it a moment of rest, it recharges and stabilizes the pseudo core, making it ready for use again."
"It's still underwhelming." Solus sighed. "I mean, between runes and magic crystals, Adamant achieves almost the same effect. Also, no battle lasts that long or has enough breaks to make such an ability relevant."
"The good news is that none of us needs to find Davross." Tista said after even the Yggdrasill branch failed to reveal anything useful about the purified metal. "The bad news is that we just wasted our time."
"I beg to differ." Salaark appeared inside the tower, studying each piece of equipment and pointing out any flaw she spotted in the enchantments. "It's just that your ignorance reaches such depths that darkness blinds you.
"Just because you can't see it doesn't mean that the world is just an empty place. Lith, do you mind channeling the fire aspect through your dagger? It works the same way you did with the Gatekeeper or when you enhance an elemental aspect in Spirit Magic."
Lith did as instructed, yet nothing happened.
"I meant while activating the enchantment." The god of Forgemasters rolled her eyes in frustration.
This time, when Lith activated the enchantment, the blade of the dagger didn't just become red-hot, it also emitted a burst of flames from its surface whose destructive power forced everyone but its wielder to take a step back.
The fire burned even the world energy in the air, producing such heat that Solus had to activate the tower's defensive systems.
When Lith tested the dagger on a dummy, the results scared him to death. The blade pierced through the stone construct as if it was made of paper, leaving behind a hole the size of his arm.
"What the fuck?" He asked.
"Solus, be a dear and channel the air element while activating the magic holding ring." Salaark said.
The stored tier three spell became infused with the world energy that the Davross ring constantly sucked in, boosting the destructive power of a simple fireball to that of a tier four spell.
"Tista, water element, if you please.." The Overlord didn't wait for a reply before attacking.
