Next morning.


    After snuggling for a while, Ares and Appa headed into the living room.


    “Gooooood morning you two.” Aejaz was slouching on a chair.


    “Good morning!”


    “Morning ‘Jaz. Oh, by the way, the stall is up and running. You should come by some time and check out the slogan.” Ares gave a quick wink.


    “Did you really use mine!? Ah, that’s so cool! One day, when the shop becomes a big deal, that slogan will be world famous!” Aejaz nearly jumped out of his chair.


    “Haha, I’m sure it will. By the way, we’re probably only going to stay in the sect another week or so before we take a mission and leave. Make sure to do anything you need to do here in that time.”


    “Hmm?” Appa heard something it wanted more clarification on. “Where are we going?”


    “Appa, no. I’m sorry but this time it would be better for you if you don’t go with us. Aejaz and I both benefit from dedication cultivation, but you don’t. Your cultivation will slow down if you come with us where we’re going and I don’t want that to happen to you. I''d love to have you with us, really, but I’m not selfish enough to jeopardise your cultivation speed. I know you want hugs and cuddles but you can always go and ask one of our neighbours, I’m sure they’d be happy to oblige.”


    “No! I don’t wanna ask them! I want to cuddle with you!” Appa was really determined to go.


    “Come on Appa, don’t be like this. I’ll take you with us on a journey some other time. It’s not like we won’t come back. I really do wish I could take you with us, which is why I promise that next time we’ll go somewhere you can find cultivation resources. The place I have in mind doesn’t even have anywhere you could cultivate in peace. It’s not suitable for you. Shades need to focus on getting out of the mental accumulation realm as it tends to be a major hurdle for your kind.”


    A small drop of mental essence dripped out of Appa’s empty eye socket as it turned around and floated away.


    “Appa? Appa please wait,” Ares tried to call out to it but it was to no avail.


    “No, you’re a meanie!” Appa floated inside a cultivation room and shut the door.


    Ares sighed. He truly felt guilty leaving Appa behind like this, but there wasn’t really much of a choice. He decided to let Appa mull things over instead of breaking into the room. He would come back and check on it later.


    “Uh, I’m still gonna be here for a while before I go out. If Appa comes out, is there anything you want me to tell it?” Aejaz felt incredibly uncomfortable.


    “No, it’s fine. I should be the one to talk to Appa.” Ares left the house and headed over to the treasury.


    ---------------------------------


    “Good morning sleepyhead,” Ares greeted the yawing Rud.


    “Of all the people I had to see first thing after waking up, why did it have to be you? This is surely a bad omen for the rest of the day,” Rud moaned


    “Yeah yeah, nice to see you too. Could I have a look at the list of what the treasury offers?”


    “Didn’t you say you were broke? You haven’t been on any missions yet, so how do you plan on paying for anything in here? I’m not giving you an advance loan, don’t even ask.”


    “Jeez, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I wasn’t going to ask for anything, I’m just checking.”


    Rud narrowed his eyes and stared at Ares, trying to peer into his soul to see if he was lying or not. “Hmmmmmm… Fine.” Rud left and then shortly returned with the list Ares was looking for.


    Ares took a long look at everything for sale but couldn’t quite find anything that took his fancy. Pretty much none of the swords available suited his needs and those that did weren’t anything special. He was better off trying to find a natural born treasure out in the wild, hiring a forger, making money and visiting an auction, or finding a tomb of a deceased sword expert. For now the sword he used was mostly irrelevant compared to his magic anyway so he wasn’t too fussed. He also made note of various cultivation resources that might come in handy at a later date. Ares said goodbye to Rud and headed over to the fifth-tier lecture hall. While he was walking over, he heard a loud explosion and could faintly see a gold light coming from the area up ahead. He quickened his pace as he had a bad feeling he was about to be blamed for something that wasn’t even his fault. It seemed as though someone had gotten trigger happy with the Beads he sold.


    After arriving, he found a fifth-tier disciple lying on the ground, seriously injured with torn clothes revealing bloodied, shredded skin and a missing arm underneath. If no one acted to save him soon, he would eventually succumb to his gruesome wounds.


    “Hmph, that’s what you get, creep!” A female disciple shouted at the man on the floor while holding another Bead, ready to kill him with it at a moment''s notice if he somehow managed to get up.


    A massive amount of pressure descended on everyone present and forced all the disciples, barring Ares who felt nothing thanks to his bloodline, to kneel. “What’s going on here?” Elaine had come over from halfway across the sect when she heard an explosion set off in her territory. “Ares, what on earth did you do to him?” Her immediate course of action was to blame Ares. This incident was very obviously caused by a Shock Bead after all.


    “Whoa, hey, I’m innocent, I swear! I know I have a knack for causing trouble, but I just got here. You should ask her.” Ares pointed at the female disciple who had been shouting earlier.


    “You, which tier are you from?” Elaine asked the disciple. Everyone would typically be given a badge so their tier could be seen at a glance, but the disciple was kneeling which made it impossible to tell.


    “First tier, Elder.”


    “First? Why are you even here? Explain what happened right now.”


    “Yes, Elder. This pervert has a history of abusing the lower tiered female disciples in the sect. He had set his sights on me so, when I happened to see Ares’ ‘demonstration’ at the market yesterday, I bought some Shock Rocks as self-defence against him. Rather than wait for him to come to me, I came to him!” the girl spoke hurriedly as she was quite riled up.


    “Can anyone else testify about this disciple abusing other disciples?” Elaine turned and asked the gathered crowd.


    Another disciple spoke up, “Yes. He tried to make a move on me once, back before he knew I was a fifth tier. He threatened me and tried to beat me when I refused. He used his family name to keep people quiet.”


    Splat


    Elaine didn’t need or want to hear anymore. There was no place in this sect for people like that. Who gives a damn about their family? There wasn’t a single family in Red Sun City capable of posing a threat to the sect. “From now on, tell the Elders if anything like this ever happens again. This behaviour is not tolerated under any circumstances. Besides, how can his family get revenge if they never learn of what happened here? They won’t come after you so speak up next time, ok?”


    “Yes, Elder!” the two female disciples replied.


    “By the way, did you really beat him with just the Shock Rocks and nothing else?” Elaine asked.


    “Yes! I came up behind him and threw them when he wasn’t paying attention. These things are incredible! Speaking of which, thank you Ares.”


    “Hm? No need to thank me, it was your own decision to buy them.” Ares shrugged his shoulders. Those Rocks were going to save a lot of lives and help a lot of people, he didn’t have time to accept thanks from literally everyone.


    Elaine had still had some doubts after the meeting yesterday, but they were all gone now. Seeing is believing. If a first-tier disciple could put a fifth tier on the brink of life and death with a single handful of Rocks... Then these things had some scary prospects. The use of them inside the sect was going to have to be forbidden unless absolutely required. Elaine looked around and saw a number of panicked faces. Clearly these people had been pushing around the lower tier disciples in some shape or form and were now fearing retaliation.


    Those same people then glared at Ares as this situation was technically his fault. Ares rolled his eyes. “If you’re having thoughts about killing me to stop the production of those Rocks, then I can only promise you all that your deaths will be ironic.” There wasn’t a single person here that could kill him. He might not be able to beat the top three just yet without preparation, but he could easily escape from them if need be.


    “Ahem. Well, there was still a while left before the lecture was supposed to start, but seeing as we’re all here now, we might as well begin the lecture.” Elaine tried to ease the tension in the air by changing the subject.


    “Could I skip today’s lecture and head to the training hall? I’m close to a breakthrough in my cultivation and I need to practice something in order to cross the final hurdle,” Ares asked.


    “Yeah, go ahead. It’s not like I can give you any advice anyway, just don’t slack off.”


    “Thanks, I won’t.” Ares turned to walk away.


    “HOWEVER, I’ll only let you go if you tell me what it is you’re practising.” Elaine’s habit of being nosy decided to pop up and say hello.


    Ares briefly explained his situation and that he was working on a technical before finally gaining permission to leave. He headed over to the hall and trained rigorously against a wooden doll. It wasn’t the ideal target given the nature of the technical, but it would suffice for now. He could always practise it on Fen later.


    Rud peeked his head through the door at one point to make sure Ares wasn’t tearing the whole place down. What he saw actually startled him a bit. Huh, that’s rather clever. Here I thought he was just a mindless idiot obsessed with blowing things up, Rud thought to himself. The art he had just seen was rather simple, but also really quite smart. He could see traces of similarity between this and annihilation magic as well as the function of the ripple art Ares had been seeking out earlier. It was certainly an interesting mix. In fact, even Rud was tempted to learn it as it really fit his own fighting style perfectly. He would have to find a way of learning it without having to directly ask Ares though; he could already envision Ares’ smug face in that scenario and wanted to avoid that image becoming reality at all costs!


    After a while, Ares was satisfied with his practice, so he left to go home temporarily and take a shower. His next stop was the forging department as he had been told to go there by Rud practically every time a clone of his found him. As he was about to leave, Appa stuck its head out of the cultivation room. Their Eyes met briefly before Appa nervously hurried back into the room. Ares smiled and headed out.


    Ares had to ask for directions on multiple occasions as the forging department was on the other side of the sect from his place of residence, but he eventually found it. From outside, he could hear the clinking of metal and feel the sweltering heat of a forge. Occasionally, a few low groans would ring out as a forger would put their all into what Ares imagined, and sincerely hoped, was a swing of their forging hammer.


    When he entered, he had to navigate around chains dangling off the ceiling, each holding various newly created weapons, armour and artifacts. This was the first time Ares had ever seen an artifact, but he had heard about them before. Artifacts were treasures forged by hand that were either brand new existences or, more commonly, imitations of already existing treasures. They could never become ‘personal’ artifacts but, if the quality was high enough, there would be no other noticeable differences between the original treasure and the ‘fake’ artifact. Artifacts were useful if you fell in love with a treasure that belonged to someone else, but were typically incredibly difficult to forge and implement appropriate runes onto. Because they weren’t treasures, they wouldn’t grow alongside the user, though. That was fine up until the point where the cultivator outgrew the artifact, at which point, they’d have to hire a forger to upgrade it with better materials or simply give up on it.


    “There ye are laddie, I was wonderin’ when ye’d show up.” Dabble had snuck up to Ares from behind a bench. Dabble hadn’t done it intentionally, he was just far shorter than the bench he was working at.


    Ares was momentarily impressed he could work like that, but then realised there was also a stool behind the bench that he no doubt stood on as he worked. Rud had informed Ares of Dabble and Lizzy’s names when he left the training hall so he could greet them politely. “Hey little fella, do you know where I can find a man named Dabble?” Ares hadn’t understood Dabble properly because of his thick accent. He thought this ‘little guy’ was going to take him to Dabble, not be Dabble.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    “Ahh, Rud did warn me about ye. He told me ye were a piece o’ shite. I AM Dabble ye wee nonce.”


    “I’ve been called a lot of things before, but I’m afraid ‘wee nonce’ is a new one. You’re going to have to explain it to me if you want me to care.”


    “Ahh, ye really are a pain the arse kiddo. I just wanna see yer personal treasure.”


    “Oh, sure thing.” Ares took off his Stygian Zephyr and handed it over while creating a new one on his back. It didn’t feel right to Ares not having it available at a moment''s notice. Ares could also now control whether or not it became useless when it was detached, so he used this new function to let Dabble inspect the treasure in its entirety.


    “This is truly incredible! Do ye know where this came from?”


    “Yeah, the feathers belonged to some kind of bird monstrosity. It slew countless adventurers and cultivators in its life before dying of natural causes. The feathers stuck around after its death, eventually merging with the mana in the dead bird’s lair. As for who had it after and how it came into my hands, all I know is that it’s my clan’s signature treasure and that I happen to have it. I don’t know the specifics.”


    Every treasure that formed naturally was typically the result of some form of object merging with either another object or lingering mana. Perhaps this was a sign that the nothingness from the dawn of time hadn’t truly been eradicated. It was the most likely explanation Ares could think of. Of course, everyone else had pondered the question for countless years without ever even having an inkling of the true reasoning behind a treasure’s creation, so he was a step above them in that regard.


    “Ye clan, eh? Fair enough.” Dabble didn’t want to delve any deeper as it would inevitably pertain to Ares’ bloodline, and that was a no-go. “What’s this beast''s name then?”


    “Stygian Zephyr.”


    “A good name fer sure. What can it do, other than what ye used it fer during the trial o’ course?”


    “It can shoot off feathers that I have a little control over if I keep them close enough. It can be used to hover in mid-air, but not fly. I can also use it as mid-air footing by making it more solid and creating a platform under my feet. I suppose I can also use it like a grappling hook, but I’ve never tried it before. It also has multiple runes on it, but I’ve yet to play around with their functions,” Ares replied truthfully.


    “A mid-air platform, eh? Sounds like this bad boy suits yer fighting style to a tee. Mind if I borrow this? I’d really like teh get a look at its structure and design.”


    “Sure, you can actually keep it if you want. Makes no difference to me.”


    “Thanks kiddo. Do ye mind if I show this teh Julio? I’m sure that bugger would love teh see this too, what with all the runic engravings and such.”


    Ares scratched his head. “I have no clue who Julio is but go ahead. The more the merrier I guess.”


    “Ahh, Julio is an elven bastard who runs the runemancy department. I hate the git, but all good weapons have good inscriptions, and inscriptions are made from runes, so what can ye do, eh? Our departments are closely linked and ‘e works next door if ye ever want to go check it out. By-the-by laddie, you would nae happen to have an interest in forging would ye? Just checkin’ is all, new disciples are always welcome.”


    “Sorry, but I don’t know the first thing about forging. I’m quite good at merging things though.” Ares set down two small nothingness zones on top of two different materials, one was wood and the other was string. Two objects inside of nothingness zones overlap and merge so, sure enough, with a bit of extra shaping from Ares, a bow was formed, and quite a nicely designed one at that. Perhaps this was the same process that a natural forming treasure would undergo. Ares couldn’t merge things with mana, though, so actual treasures weren’t in the cards. Maybe he would be able to do it one day.


    “Well forging and this… ‘Merging’ o’ yours seems quite similar. Ye should stop by some time. Oh, and don’t forget teh go and visit Lizzy. The classy lassie is a couple o’ doors down, ye cannae miss ‘er.”


    Ares left the forging department and headed over to the technical department.


    ---------------------------------


    A few disciples were headed toward the forging department and almost dropped the metals they were carrying when they heard a booming shout from within.


    “EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!?”


    It seemed Ares'' little display earlier had finally hit home.


    Dabble’s mind had been too deep in shock to comprehend Ares’ ‘merging’ skills to the point his reaction was subconsciously delayed as his brain simply pretended it hadn’t seen anything.


    The bow was finely crafted and near enough a flawless piece of work, and it only took seconds to make! Dabble had never seen anything like it and just stared at the bow mindlessly. He took the bow out back and back and gave it a test run. It was perfect in every way. The tensile strength was flawless and there were no signs of breakage anywhere even after countless uses. This was unfathomable! Dabble needed to speak with Rud immediately. Perhaps Shock Beads weren’t the only thing this wee laddie was good for!


    ---------------------------------


    Ares arrived at what could only be described as a rundown building. It was overgrown with moss, poorly maintained, and Ares imagined there were, at most, ten or so disciples within it. Ares was aware that not many people cared about the technical pillar, but he didn’t think it would be exaggerated to this extent. Still though, he had a reason to be here, so he went inside.


    Ares was surprised to find that the rooms inside the building didn’t match the exterior at all. Technicals were a diverse type of magic, so each of the testing rooms mimicked a type of element to allow for practice and experimentation in the appropriate environment. There were a fairly large number of rooms, each with their own properties that were suitable for different types of technical testing. A desert here, an ocean there. Ares really quite like this building. He also secretly wished he could just run rampant and blow up these varying landscapes but he held back on that selfish desire. It was a shame though. His cultivation would likely sky-rocket if he could get permission to decimate this place.


    “Hmm? And who may you be, exactly?” A snide little scholarly-type disciple came across Ares and questioned his presence.


    “Hmm? I’m Ares, and you may be who, exactly?” Ares was incredibly quick witted and proficient when it came to mocking people on the fly, he even mimicked his nasally voice for good measure.


    “Tsk, the all-brawn no-brain explosion man?” The scholar didn’t give his name.


    “Not having a brain is literally impossible. You, on the other hand, seem to be functioning just fine without any muscles. I’m also not convinced you’re half as smart as you think you are but, whatever, I''m not here to test your IQ.”


    “I’ll have you know my IQ is…”


    “Good for you, I don’t care. Where can I find a woman named Lizzy?” Ares really couldn’t care less about the arbitrary number this annoying man was inevitably about to spew out. It could be over 9000 for all he cared.


    “Why on earth should I tell you that, bandit? You’re a lost cause. You’re nothing but trouble, is what you are.”


    “Actually, I was asked to come here. Also, someone clearly didn’t teach you about cause and effect. Trouble isn’t a cause, it’s the result of an action; it’s the effect. For instance, in this scenario, if I decided to beat the shit out of you, then you’d be in trouble. Am I clear?”


    “Do you want to test that theory? Fifth tier disciple or not, I won’t lose to you. You think you’re impressive just because you were put straight into the highest tier? You don’t belong there. You’re just a…”


    Crack


    The disciple collapsed on the floor in agony, not entirely sure what had happened to him.


    “If you’re gonna fight, fight. If you’re gonna talk, shut the fuck up and fight.”


    As soon as Ares could tell a fight was inevitable, he would lash out even if the person was still speaking. If a fight’s unavoidable, then why should he wait for a go sign? He had no obligation to sit there and listen to him prattle on until he was ready, so he decided to test out his new technical as this was the appropriate place for it after all. Ares didn’t even bother to check his cultivation before letting loose as this guy wasn’t in the fifth tier so a single attack was guaranteed to do the job. Ares had moved his shoulder in a circular motion and thrown a simple punch. He also used some annihilation magic in his attack to really make this annoying man regret his foolishness.


    The shoulder movement was the key to the new technical as it forced the bone to make a clicking sound. That sound was then amplified using mana and directed through his arm and straight to his fist. At the moment of impact, the Echo would transfer into the opponent''s body and run rampant, injuring organs and reverberating off bones. The bones were already weakened thanks to the annihilation magic, so any that were touched by the Echo would crumble instantly. Ares could adjust the force of the Echo. In doing so, he could just make a person extremely dizzy and sick by causing dissonance with two small Echoes, or he could literally blow apart body pieces. He didn’t particularly want to get into too much trouble so he didn’t kill the disciple. Instead, he just taught him a valuable life lesson about cause and effect.


    It was a versatile technical and could even be used at range by using a flicking motion instead of punching, thus creating a ranged Echo that would result in an airburst. He hadn’t gotten to the point where he could use divine sense yet, but he already had plans to integrate divine sense with Echoes to form a type of ‘Echo-Location’. Even if something could hide from his eyes, he would be able to feel invisible things at great distances too by sending out a pulse. The Echo was like a small-scale explosion. Ares had gotten the idea from Li Li’s use of ‘One Flaw, Five Strikes’ as well as his own annihilation magic.


    The disciple was huddled up in the foetus position and squirming around on the floor, struggling to breathe after being brutally winded. His mouth was wide open and no noises were coming out as his eyes were wide in horror. Another disciple happened across this scene and ran for her dear life while screaming at the top of her lungs. Ares didn’t know exactly where that disciple had scampered off to, but he could make an educated guess he was going to come across Lizzy sooner rather than later.


    Sure enough, an incredibly energetic woman skidded around the corner a little while later and came rushing over. “Ahhhh, no fighting in the corridors. Use a testing room if you wanna get down!” Lizzy had one hand on her waist and the other on her slanted head. Lizzy sent an invisible strand of mana directly into the air. Regular disciples wouldn’t be able to see it, but the medical department kept an eye out for these strands daily. They acted as a ‘hey, someone’s injured over here. Come help please,’ kind of flare.


    A few seconds later, an Elder arrived with some trainees in tow. The Elder stabilised the disciple with a green wave of healing magic and then tested his disciples by having them figure out how much damage had been done internally. Their goal was to try and determine the root cause of the injury. It was mostly done this way so disciples could learn how to identify wounds that needed specific types of treatments, such as burns or poisons.


    The Elder was starting to get a little annoyed when not a single disciple could figure out how a single punch to the stomach had caused such widespread destruction, so he took a look for himself. Much to the Elder’s chagrin, he couldn’t figure it out either. He had never seen an attack like this before. There were some vague similarities here and there to other methods of attack, but this was quite unique. “What did you do to him?” the Elder asked Ares.


    “I was just testing out a new technical. When in Rome.”


    “A new technical!? You actually managed to create it in a day?” Lizzy was flabbergasted. A single day to create a new technical was no small feat, and it certainly looked usable if the injured disciple was any indication of its effectiveness.


    “What does it do?” both Lizzy and the medical Elder asked simultaneously.


    Ares gave an explanation of what it did and the form of mana manipulation needed to make it work.


    “So, it’s wave interference, huh.” The medicinal Elder came to a conclusion. “It’s quite similar to sound pillar arts, but has a slight difference. The Echo has a physical property to it. Other than that, it functions in a similar-ish fashion. In layman''s terms, it’s basically a sound-based internal explosion that bounces around until it runs out of mana?”


    “Pretty much, the sound can be amplified or toned down depending on how much mana you use,” Ares confirmed the medical Elder’s thoughts.


    “That’s genius, using the sounds of your own body in that fashion. This is really quite a unique concept. Is there anything else it can do, or is it purely an offensive art?” Lizzy wanted to know every single detail.


    “If you time it right, you can mitigate the impact of an oncoming force, so I suppose it has defensive properties. You can also mix it with divine sense to detect things that are invisible but still have a physical presence, although I can’t personally test that part of it yet.”


    “Incredible! Come! Come!” Lizzy dragged Ares around the corner and ran off towards a testing room.


    The Elder briefly explained this type of injury and its cause to his disciples on the off-chance they ever encountered anything like it. He then took the unconscious disciple back with him for a bit more treatment and analysis.


    ---------------------------------


    The testing room Lizzy brought Ares to was an empty room with a desk full of papers near the centre. “Alright, first things first, could you right down the technical’s intricacies and processes? Kind of like the tomes you’d find in the arts libraries, I have a guide for that writing style here if you need it.”


    “Sure.” Ares got to work and managed to transcribe his thoughts and knowledge of the technical quite nicely. Apparently, this was the first step in the refinement process. One would then follow their own written instructions word for word to see if there were any errors or changes that needed to be made. Ares and Lizzy spent the whole day on this process, writing down and testing various functions of the technical. The technical‘s mana efficiency and power had both risen by around 40% by the end of the day which was a significant increase. Ares learned a lot about technical creation and was glad he came. In fact, he really didn’t want to leave yet. Thankfully, Lizzy spent pretty much all her nights doing this kind of thing anyway, so it seemed Ares was going to pull an all-nighter. For Lizzy, staying up all night and working was trivial thanks to her cultivation of early-stage aspect assimilation (or in Lizzy’s case, bloodline awakening). For Ares, it would no doubt be a bit of a slog, especially considering the physical requirements for testing the art over and over, but he would manage. He mentally prepared himself for a long night when he suddenly remembered something. Luckily, he remembered before it became too late. “Sorry, but I need to go do something quickly. It will only take about ten minutes, and I’ll be right back.”


    “No problemo, I’ll keep testing the effectiveness of the art on solid objects. Next up should be a brick wall test,” as Lizzy was speaking, a hole appeared in the room and a platform with a brick wall rose up from the ground.


    “Thanks.” Ares left the technical department and headed back to his home. Ten minutes later, he returned with a cheerier complexion.


    “You seem happy. D’ya find a disciple for a quickie?” Lizzy joked.


    “Haha, no. I just went to go and tuck Appa into bed and tell it a bedtime story.”


    “Appa? That’s the sweet little shade, right?”


    “Yeah, it’s been a little upset recently, so I’m trying to think of ways to pamper and spoil it.”


    “You tryna make it a pet?” Lizzy didn’t turn around, but Ares could feel a hint of hostility.


    “No, absolutely not. Or, at least, I wasn’t trying to, but it seems I’ve accidentally done something like that. I hate the term ‘pet’, Appa is so much more than some mindless creature.” Ares had a somewhat sad look on his face, it really wasn’t his intention for things to have gotten like this. He also didn’t particularly like the idea of Appa being called a ‘pet’; the term was just far too degrading for something as highly intelligent as Appa.


    “That’s fine. There are bad people who abuse shades and their dependency issues. Those people just want to use them as a guardian and are despicable to the core. You don’t seem like that kind of person, so it’s fine. I mean, you just went all the way across the sect for its bedtime. I don’t think I need to tell you this, but I will anyway, jus'' make sure to treat it well.” Lizzy was relieved, she didn’t truly think he was mistreating it, but it was better to be safe than sorry.


    “Of course, how could I ever treat something so cute and adorable badly? That being said, I may have upset it earlier.”


    “How so?”


    Ares explained his conundrum to Lizzy.


    “Ahh, I see. Shades really do get attached. They always want to stay near the people they like. I guess this really isn''t your fault, this is actually quite a normal issue people have with their shades. It’s just a learning process, they have to slowly get used to the fact that they can’t always have you around when they want you. What most people tend to do is learn some kind of clone-based art to ease the shades into it by leaving them a kind of doll they can play with. You wouldn’t happen to know any clone arts, would you?”


    “No. It’s a good idea, but, unfortunately, I have nothing of the sort.” Ares was a little dejected. Such a good option had presented itself, but it just wasn’t in the cards.


    “Well, there might still be a way. Have you been to the treasury yet?”


    “Yes, is there something there that can help?”


    “Mhm. There should be some substitution talismans for sale. They can make a body double, a clone basically, kinda like what Rud uses. The issue is that, unlike Rud’s clones, they can’t fight and they’re incredibly weak. Even a small injury and poof, they’re gone. If you buy a couple, they should last until you come back. You should be able to afford them thanks to your business. They won’t be the exact same for little Appa, but your absence won’t be as hard on it. You can slowly wean it off clones when it becomes accustomed to not having you around 24/7.”


    “Thanks, Elder Lizzy. That''s really helpful. I know I’m just a disciple and there’s probably nothing much I can do in return, but if there’s ever anything you need, let me know.”


    “Actually, there are two things. First, could you make this technical public? As in, let me make copies of the tome and put them in the library? I’ll credit you as the creator, of course. There are quite a few disciples and, heck, even Elders this technical could benefit. I think even my buddy Ruddy might like this, although he’d never ask you for it directly.”


    “Oh, I don’t mind. Buddy Ruddy is more than welcome to use it, and so is everyone else.” Ares was smiling ‘innocently’ from ear to ear. “What’s the second thing?”


    “Ah, I just want the disciples that are currently in the technical department to get a discount on Shock Beads. They spend a lot of time here, time that could be spent learning stronger arts. They have a passion for technicals, and I respect that, but I also feel bad for leading them down a path that doesn’t have the brightest of futures. I know it’s what they want to do, but that won’t make them safer when they go out and about like other arts could. So, I want them to have something more reliable to lean on rather than the hastily created technicals that tend to come out of this place.”


    “A discount? There’s only ten, right? I can just make them for free whenever they need them. It’s not much of a hassle and I’m really not all that concerned with profits. In fact, I have a couple on me right now. If I leave them with you, could you hand them out?”


    “Ah, that would be perfect. Thanks.”


    “No problemo, just please convince that disciple I ran into earlier not to fling them at me. Getting smacked around by my own art would just be embarrassing.” Ares and Lizzy chuckled. Ares wasn’t actually worried about anyone using his Shock Beads against him, he still had his defensive disintegration art ready and raring to go if need be. Ares wasn’t so stupid that he would sell ‘poison’ without owning the ‘antidote’. Actually, he had been working on a way of potentially selling the ‘antidote’ too, but he still needed to change the form of it to be carriable and mass-producible like the Shock Beads. In its current form, only he could use said ‘antidote’.


    Ares and Lizzy kept working on the technical throughout the night, during which they got along well. Ares managed to become a member of the technical department and was even referred to as ‘prodigious’ by Lizzy. He really enjoyed the atmosphere of this place and could see himself coming here a lot more in the future.