Before Eldrian knew what happened, Solvi had taken the shield from his hands and ripped the mana crystal from it. Throwing the shield to a corner, she activated the emergency arrays of the room, focusing the barriers around the two of them.


    Her actions just barely made it in time. As Eldrian started toprehend what was happening, a massive explosion ripped through the room. Luckily, the barriers held and everything was contained but, it vividly reminded him of the fact that he always did things without preparations.


    ''Well, I would have waited if not for Solvi''s insistence... sorry about the materials...'' Eldrian silently apologized, looking at the ruined corner of the smithy. His smile twitched as he observed the walls—charred ck and cracked.


    Clearly, the explosion had almost gotten through the sturdiness of the smithy.


    "That was close..." Solvi sighed, relieved she had reacted before the mana crystal had also be unstable.


    The explosion from arge mana crystal... that would have been no joke. Her arrays wouldn''t have been able to resist the force. Likely, the neighborhood would have been turned into a crater. She was certain she would be dust if that had happened.


    "I''m sorry!" Eldrian apologized after returning to his senses and seeing the scraps of what remained of the shield.


    "It''s not your fault. I should have stopped you after realizing that you were forcing the process ahead without proper preparations and in such a short time..." She lowered her voiced and muttered, "Why did his other creations work?"


    "Do you know why that happened?" Eldrian paused and reconsidered. She had acted so quickly, perhaps... "Did you expect something like that?"


    "I wasn''t sure if it would happen or not. I thought you might have a way to deal with it but, it seems I was wrong. Those memorial artifacts I''ve head so much about, how did you make them?"


    Solvi had even taken time to inspect the one in Kynigo once during a transport of ammo and cannons. However, no matter how she looked, the artifact made no sense.


    "Umm, basically the same method. I applied some runes to secure some functionality, added what I consider something between a spell module and a rune... and then I simply imnted what I wanted the item to do."


    "Simply imnted..." Solvi mumbled, recalling that the core of the artifacts were mov crystals. ''I see, that''s it. Certainly, if you wish to jam so much into an item, a mov crystal is the ideal conduit and storage... Did he think of using them because of dimensional storages?''


    Asking Eldrian this, he was truly impressed. "You''re right. I thought that since a mov crystal can alter space itself, it might be possible to use it as a type of data storage."


    "That..." Solvi''s facade failed her, showing her disbelief. ''If that had gone south... I don''t want to even imagine it. Kynigo might have disappeared from the map... like Diades... Oh god, did Eldrian have something to do with that too?''


    Turning her focus to the elf, she pondered how to move forward.


    ''I can''t let him continue his experiments in the middle of people. It is simply luck that something worse hasn''t happened until now... no, in this I am at fault too. He shouldn''t be able to get his hands on such rare materials so easily...''


    ''Yet, how did he get the materials for the artifact?'' Ovee with a massive headache, Solvi sat on an anvil and rubbed her head to soothe the pain.


    "I''m sorry for about the damage, and—" Eldrian thought Solvi was distraught by the loss of the materials, but her worry was far grander. She stopped his apology and asked for some silence to allow her to consider things.


    ''Clearly he has talent, perhaps a bit too much. He alsocksmon sense, which I knew. Yet, I still asked him to show me his method... I see, I also became blinded by the prospects. How sad. He likely didn''t consider the danger in this case because of my presence.''


    ''The best course would be for someone at my level or higher to take him in as an apprentice, but Boran is standing in the way... No helping it, I will have to take him under my hammer before he does something outrageous. We can''t wait for Boran''s convenience.''


    "Alright, you came to have me return to Kynigo. I''ll need a day or two to settle my affairs."


    "Oh? That''s great!" Eldrian was a bit surprised, but hearing that she wasing back, he felt relieved. Her returning to Kynigo would massively help the city. After all, the number of Tier 7 personal was less than a handful. Craftmen and women included.


    "Right, your n was to start with Kyno Northeast and build a line of forts from there. Are you still confident in that n?"


    "Yeah, it won''t be anything grand. I''m thinking every ten kilometers a tower of sorts, maybe three or five stories tall and only fifty or a hundred meters wide."


    ''Only he says...''


    "As for the forts, I''m thinking of having a wider area covered by walls, but it won''t be as tall. I''m thinking like a makeshift camp for soldiers to rest at and resupply. Or to retreat towards should they face a powerful enemy."


    "Right, that doesn''t sound too insane. Your timeframe, however... does."


    "Well, yeah... But we need to finish at least the surroundings of Pyknos before the undead reach us. I''m not sure if they''ll hasten their approach, but I think they will once they see living beings on the horizon."


    "True..." Solvi paused for a moment. ''Construction magic, it isn''t too different from my smithing spells. I might be able to re-use some. That would be best.''


    "Right, since I have your agreement, I''m going to log off now. Ah! Maybe I should do that outside, just in case."


    Solvi was confused for a moment as Eldrian turned into particles and disappeared. ''Right, I forgot they can do that... I forgot he is one of them. I guess that is partly why he is so blind to the dangerous. It never affects him, only those around him.''


    ''I don''t think he doesn''t care. From what I''ve heard and seen, he clearly does. He just forgets easily that what he does might be dangerous... How troublesome.''


    ''No, this time I truly am to me. I have a feeling he wouldn''t have attempted it like that if not for my presence.''


    As she headed to her room, Solvi continued to consider tonight''s little escapade. Eldrian''s method was truly crude. There was no other way to say it.


    The only reason the artifacts had worked was thanks to the mov crystals. And in all likelihood, the reason none of his other creations had exploded in his face was because they were experiments to confirm his theories.


    Solvi hadn''t gotten into a deep talk about all the things Eldrian had made, but from what she had understood, most of the things he had done, he had only tried to apply a single idea to each item.


    Like his daggers, for example, he simply tried to enhance a property of the daggers through a single element to see what the natural enhancement of that element without guidance would be.


    The only times he had tried to make aplex design were the artifacts, and this construction magic device.


    ''It really is just luck that something catastrophic has not happened, yet...''


    AN: Remember to vote andment if you are enjoying the story.