"Hey man"

  "How is it going?"

  "Man, can you teach me how to extract the pure essence from the alpha bush?"

  "Dude, you're a lifesaver, I did what you told me and it worked!"

  Michael was bombarded by greetings, gratitudes, and questions the moment he came through the common room door. Contrary to his initial plan, now Michael was extremely popular among the students.

  He earned and multiplied his popularity by helping other students, not to make them better alchemists but to form alliances. The students were prohibited to share their identity in public while they were in the AKilan realm. However, they weren't prohibited from reuniting outside of the Akilan realm. Michael used this loophole to make friends. Every time one became his friend, Michael asked them to come to his gala at Hades. This way, they wouldn't have to share their identities immediately.

  When they attend the gala, Michael would introduce himself and form an alliance with them and their families. This way, his influence would spread not only to Ozer but also to the most powerful continent of them all, Awor.

  "I'm gonna get some shut-eye, see you guys later" Michael really yawned when he was talking to them. He was so tired after pulling all-nighters for three days in a row.

  Even the Dark Lord wanted some rest.

  Michael's room was empty. Usually, Elidyr would visit him and talk to Michael about enhancing the drones, and Spyders and discuss their next big project.

  Opening the door, he was welcomed by a messy room. The empty vials were lying all around the floor, the apparatus setup was still smoking and letting out crimson red puffs of smoke, and jars filled with creepy-looking items as well as eyeballs of all colors. Even the walls were plastered with posters that resemble blueprints and chemical equations. In addition to the apparatus set up on the table, there were also many nuts and bolts along with several blueprints.

  "Home sweet home" Michael's legs gave up as he collapsed onto the bed,

  The next thing he remembered was nothing but darkness.

  "Michael, you have to mix Burning Buttons and Fever Buxus"

  "No, it won't give you the vivid experience you are hoping for"

  "Radiant Aniseed…you still have to see how much you should put inside"

  "Forget about Aniseed, you still haven't managed to find the formula to the counter agent"

  "Without the counter agent, you're practically giving your enemies an ultimate weapon to be used against you"

  "Are you crazy? You haven't even figured out the right formula. How do you plan to come up with an antidote?"

  All these voices were ringing in his voice and having a chat of their own. His mind was working at full capacity to create a new potion that would

  help him in the long run.

  "Lord Lucifer"

  "Lord…"

  "Jeesh, I didn't think a god could sleep like this"

  Weird that usually, he would hear his own voices argue with each other, but now he heard Elidyr's voice. His eyes refused to open up. The system and the Environmental scanning map would alert him if any intruders entered the room. That's how Michael figured out whether he was still dreaming or it was Elidyr who entered the room. Either way, he wasn't going to wake up just yet.

  "It seems like he still hasn't figured it out"

  Elidyr sat on the chair, taking out several empty parchments from the drawer. He was scribbling on the parchments trying to come up with perfect runes to enhance Lucifer's armor and their new project.

  "What is this?" Among the parchment, one parchment had gray and blue lines on it. He opened it up curiously to see what was inside. They had been discussing the design for weeks without being able to find the right one.

  He was surprised by what he saw, the design, Elidyr realized Lucifer finally figured it out. The tubular shape device was fitted with four wheels, a complex wiring, numerous rings of copper inside the device and mini pipes attached to every single ring that could be seen on the parchment.

  "Wow, he finished it" Elidyr was more excited than he thought. When Michael said they were going to build a long-range mortar for Old Bertha, Elidyr deemed it a simple task. Then, they started to work on the design. That's when they realized that building a mortar that's capable of firing powerful mini torpedoes powered by Arch energy absorbed from the Stormville crystals. Of course, they couldn't forget the ability of the torpedoes fired from mortar to track their target using heat signature.

  If they managed to build the mortar successfully, they could modify the cannons to adapt to the revolutionary technology. By that time, the cannonballs fired from the cannons would hit the target with 97% accuracy.

  Thanks to Michael's recent upgrade to the 4-star Inventor trait, he was able to build a mortar. The challenge was to integrate Elidyr's runes which would absorb the arch energy from the Stormville crystals and transfer the energy to the ammunition. Elidyr had to come up with new runes to pinpoint other ships using the heat they radiate.

  Now that the design for the mortar has been done, it was his job to come up with the runes.

  "You two are still on that?"

  Edliyr felt a chill running through his spine when he suddenly heard Gaya's voice. He quickly turned back to see her strolling into the room as she owned the room. She closed the door before Elidyr could ask what the hell was she doing in their room.

  Then she walked straight to the bed,

  "Awww, look at mah cutie pie" she sat on the bed beside her sleeping fiance. She took his head onto her lap before gently combing his silky raven black hair.

  "Shimmer dust…goes…with" Michael was mumbling in his sleep,

  "Isn't he cute?" she was melted by his cuteness and couldn't help showering his face with kisses,

  Elidyr was still in shock seeing her smooching with Michael in the middle of a day in a student's room. She was jeopardizing not only herself by being here but also the two of them.

  The troubled look on his face was visible through the dark lines on his forehead,

  "Quit worrying half-elf, I'm conducting a room to room search to ensure the rules are being followed" she chuckled while saying those words.

  Elidyr sighed thinking how much she was abusing her power to get what she wants and what they want. His frowns soon turned to a peal of laughter.

  "I have fifteen minutes" she wrapped her hand around him to transfer the scented warmth from her.

  Elidyr knew there was no point arguing with this woman, she was a Wraith after all. While he was picking his brain to create entirely a new rune, Lucifer was getting kisses from a pretty girl and playful headbutts as though she was a lamb.

  Their relationship reminded him of the relationship between him and Gaya's ancestor Edwina Wraith. He would give anything to see her one more time. Nonetheless, it was heartwarming to see her descendent has found someone who truly loves her. The more Elidyr spent time with Lucifer, the more he realized how wrong the Skyhall was about him.

  He heard Lucifer's side of the story and realized that Skyhall actually pushed him onto the path to become the Dark Lord. He had no choice. Even if he strayed away from his path and decided to live peacefully, they wouldn't let him. They would chase him to the end of the world.

  "Did he eat something?" Gaya asked Elidyr.

  "How would I know?" Elidyr responded while drawing the new runes on the parchment.

  "The sooner you two finish whatever you two are doing, the better"

  "We might soon" Elidyr turned back with the parchment containing the design for the new mortars,

  "He finished the design of the new mortars" Elidy handed over the parchment to Gaya as she stared at the design for a few moments,

  Then a look of surprise emerged on her face. Her eyes widened,

  "So they can really track the target shit and destroy it?"

  Elidyr nodded,

  "Yes, I'm close to creating the required rune. The only catch is, we will need a huge amount of the crystals you showed me"

  A weapon like this wouldn't come so easily so what Elidy said wasn't a surprise for Gaya.

  "Speaking of crystals, I need an update on the new mining machine we asked Caius to build"

  They now fully controlled the Stormville mountain and were mining the crystals in full force. Yet, the process was extremely slow and inefficient due to a lack of advanced mining tools. To solve this issue, Michael designed new hydraulic rock drillers and pulley systems. Caius was tasked with finding engineers and scholars to transform the blueprints into actual machines.

  Due to the sensitivity of the task, each and everyone who had been working on the project was given a pendant attached to the Spyder. The Spyders were constantly watched by Azazel and if anyone let out a word about the project, they would be immediately killed by the Spyder.

  Until now, no one dared to utter a word, partially due to the fact they were being paid in hundreds of thousands. The southerners valued gold coins more than anything so it was easy for Caius to keep them in line.

  Plus, Michael's business endeavors were extremely fruitful. He was earning millions through the Hades and Majestic. The Pirate fleet under Corey and Maxine had been turned from pirates to sea guards. If a merchant ship carried valuable cargo, they could either pay 30% or be sent back to whatever they came from. On their way back, they might or might not be attacked by pirates and lose all the cargo and these pirates may or may not be connected to Maxine.

  Almost 98% of the merchants chose to pay 30% rather than face the wrath of pirates. At first, the pirates were reluctant to change but after tasting loot they got by without even raising a finger enticed them. Now they were happily working as border patrol officers and getting what they wanted by negotiating instead of battling.

  "So are you going to show any new runes in the talent exhibition or ignore it like him?" Gaya asked as Elidyr pondered about the upcoming talent exhibition for a few moments,

  "I think the last thing we want is to make Skyhall stronger. Talent exhibitions do just that"