Chapter 1619 - Life And Death (Part 1) "The blueprint is for a prototype and I used so many pseudo cores on purpose." Lith replied. "I want to find out as many problems as I can at the same time so that I can later focus on solving them one by one. "On top of that, if the Yggdrasill wood's mana capacity is anything like the purified Davross, then it can hold many more pseudo cores than you think. I'm not just testing my limits but those of the Yggdrasill as well." Lith called Tista from her training with the Phoenixes before starting the experiment. His sister had already discussed the procedure thoroughly with him and Solus and was eager to learn from them. Also by giving Tista and Friya one Monocle each, he would be able to analyse and record the procedure without putting any burden on Solus. With a wave of Lith's hand, the Yggdrasill branch left the Armory and appeared on the Adamant Forge in front of him. All those inside the tower felt a small pang in their heads as the clarity of thought they had enjoyed until a second ago disappeared. While Lith and Solus waited for their brains to adjust, they used Abyssal Gaze on the branch one last time. They wanted to make sure that no impurity was left before starting to work on their masterpiece. Unlike magical metals, there was no need for Origin Flames to purify the wood. The World Tree was a violet cored Awakened so everything from the wood texture to the disposition of the fibers was perfect, offering almost no resistance to mana. Yet being a part of a living being capable of surviving away from its main body, the branch retained small sacks of the Yggdrasill's life force and willpower even after Aalejah had severed the link between the Tree and its branch. If not removed, the sacks would resist the enchanting process and tamper with the imbued spells whenever the power core would be activated. Lith and Solus had noticed the residual sacks only after a thorough study of the branch with the tower's Greenhouse, where they had planted it in the hope to grow their own World Tree or at least a few more branches. Purifying the Yggdrasill staff had required to use darkness magic with surgical precision and remove the energy signature left from the previous owner of the wood in order to become its only true master. 'Between this and the Balor's Eyes, I'm almost certain that either Necromancy is a branch of Forgemastery or it's the other way around.' Lith thought. 'It would explain why Baba Yaga is one of the two people who can use Creation Magic, the highest form of Forgemastery, and is also the Mother of all Undead.' Solus pondered. 'Anyway, if not for the Greenhouse, we would have never noticed the sacks.' 'Indeed.' Lith nodded. 'It allowed me to find a flaw in my breathing technique's detection capabilities and to not only fix it, but even to improve my Abyssal Gaze. I finally got my first breathing skill!' 'Show off!' Solus snarled with a bit of envy. She was still using Lith's technique, but not being a Demon, she had no way to use Abyssal Gaze's to its full potential. 'I need to create a breathing technique of my own.' She grumbled. Lith used Spirit Magic to place the staff on the Adamant Forge and started what he considered the most crucial step to crafting a Sage Staff, the preparatory phase. Bonding crystals and injecting sets of runes was something he had done a lot of times in the past. Bonding living eyes to an artifact with Necromancy and making sure that they wouldn't rot, however, was a first for him. On top of that, even the Bonding process posed too many questions. He had never worked on either Yggdrasil wood or altered white crystals so he had no idea what would happen from the interaction between them. The only silver lining was that he was using Salaark's borrowed crystals so at least the Eye of Kolga in the mines was still intact. Solus took one of the gemstones, groaning from the strain of turning the white into silver. Enhancing an elemental aspect in a crystal worked exactly like doing the same in a Spirit Spell, just hundreds of times harder. Solus had a natural affinity toward light magic that had only grown stronger ever since Lith had opened his silver eye. Yet even her ability to sense and Dominate the light element beyond what any normal mage could wasn't enough. The perfectly balanced flow of world energy inside a white crystal was akin to a great wall that resisted any attempt to change its structure. Every element overlapped so perfectly that even discerning a single one from the others required a great focus. On top of that, unlike a real wall, altering the flow of any element caused the others to reject the external influence as if when a builder tried to remove one of the stones on top, the rest of the wall would grow a leg and kick him away. Solus groaned and sweated as she seized control of the world energy stored inside the gemstone with Domination, forcing the light element to stand out. Once she took hold of it, she amplified the silver energy by adding her own. The other elements became incapable of recognizing their light counterpart now that it was tainted by Solus's energy signature and rejected it, making the gem color turn into a muddy silver. Yet the worst had yet to come. Unless the Forgemaster managed to establish a new balance, the moment they took their hands off the crystal the world energy would go back to its original state. Solus used Domination again, this time on all the elemental aspects, forcing them to stabilize in a controlled manner. Then, she infused the entire gem with her mana to lessen the rejection of the light element. Once the turbid silver turned into a clear color that reflected every single ray of light, she handed the crystal to Lith who bonded it to the branch. There had been no need to carve sockets, the wood absorbed the gemstone into its structure as if the wood was soft clay. "Fuck me sideways!" Lith said when he noticed that, unlike what happened with magical metals, the Bonding process didn't create a mana circulatory system from scratch. It simply revitalized the branch as if it was still connected to a living being, making the silver energy flow through the wood fibers without encountering any resistance. "If we hadn't purified the branch, we would have already failed." "Nice. Now shut up!" Solus was already working on the orange crystal since she was also naturally attuned to the earth element. After several more minutes of panting and groaning, the second gemstone shone from the top of the staff, flooding it with power. "It's your turn. Otherwise, I'll be forced to use Invigoration even before the real Forgemastering begins. I need to rest." Solus was so weakened that her feet touched the floor, unable to float as usual. "Watch and learn." He said with a smug grin as he opened his seven eyes at the same time and took care of the third crystal. Lith had already mastered Spirit Dominance, something that Friya and Solus had yet to accomplish as the lack of an emerald streak amid their hair proved.