Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

A thick silence settled between the three of them after Alex's last question.

A heavy tension was all that filled the air between them.

Rothwind's gaze shifted back to the orb in his hand, his lips pressed into a thin line as he pondered Alex's inquiry.

Finally, with a deep sigh, he shook his head.

"I don't know…"

He admitted softly, even a little embarrassedly.

Alex blinked, taken aback by the unexpected response.

Rothwind's voice carried a rare vulnerability, a candidness that was far removed from his usual demeanour.

"I've heard about them, heard stories passed down from the Ancients… but I've never seen or touched one myself until now. I'm no Ancient class being, not even close to becoming one if a million years passed, nor have I ever personally come into contact with one. I'm just a dwarven smith tryin' to reach the elusive Grandmaster status."

Rothwind looked down at the orb again, his expression a complex mix of awe and confusion.

"The truth is, I'm just as clueless as you are when it comes to using it. But…"

He hesitated, running his thumb across the surface of the soul orb with a frown, wondering if he should voice his thoughts or not.

"But… what?"

Alex questioned from the side, urging him to continue.

And with Alex's approval, Rothwind decided to speak.

"From the sheer amount of raw, pure energy contained within this small space… I'd wager it could be incredibly useful for something. You'd just have to figure out what."

Alex practically felt a smile creeping its way onto his face at this moment.

Rothwind's words opened the door for him to make the suggestion he'd been waiting for — the one idea that had been lingering at the back of his mind ever since they'd started this discussion.

"Could it be useful in smithing?"

Alex asked cautiously, keeping his tone light as if he were merely tossing the idea out there.

Well, he was literally tossing it out there, since he had no clue about anything when it comes to smithing, that's where Rothwind's expertise lay.

"I mean… with all that power condensed inside, maybe it could enhance weapons or armour, right?"

Rothwind's eyes snapped up, narrowing as he scrutinised Alex.

For a moment, Alex worried that he'd pushed it too far, but then the dwarf's expression shifted.

His gaze softened, and a contemplative look settled over his features.

"Hmmm… smithing, ye say?"

Rothwind murmured, more to himself than Alex.

He glanced down at the orb again, his mind visibly turning over the possibilities.

"It's true that a soul orb like this could theoretically amplify enchantments or enhance the material properties of a weapon or armour, since I can feel it has a similar energy signature to a beast core… if it were properly integrated, that is."

Rothwind's fingers traced along the delicate patterns of energy he could feel coursing inside the soul orb, his gaze unmoving as he continued musing out loud.

"But we're talking about energy on a whole different scale here…"

He murmured, the curiosity in his voice mingled with caution.

"This isn't just some high rank beast core. The potency and purity… it's beyond anything I've worked with before."

Mira's eyes widened and she edged closer to Rothwind in curiosity.

"Do you think it would even be possible to fuse with a weapon or armour? Wouldn't it just explode or—"

"Burn the forge down to ash?"

Rothwind interrupted with a dry chuckle.

"Aye, lass. It's a very real possibility. A soul orb like this could overwhelm standard forging techniques, destabilise enchantment runes… Hell, it could destroy everything within a few dozen kilometres if handled improperly."

He glanced back up at Alex, his gaze sharp and assessing.

"That's why I said I don't know… If I just had a few more to test with, I might be willing to give it a try, alas—"

"You mean like these?"

This time, it was Alex's turn to do the interrupting, as he produced another four soul orbs out of his inventory and presented them out in the open to Rothwind.

"..."

"..."

Even Mira was speechless at this sudden, impulsive action Alex had taken.

"Hehe, did I forget to mention I found a bunch of them in the ruins…"

Alex awkwardly tried to shrug it off with a chuckle.

"Sigh, I guess I can give it a try then. If it turns out to be successful, I might be able to use them to strengthen your armours… Though it would add some more time onto the final reveal. Perhaps another 3-7 days depending on how testing goes."

"That's fine!"

"Deal!"

But Alex and Mira agreed immediately, simultaneously to Rothwind's proposal, even taking into consideration the extra time it might take for them to receive their armour.

By now, they were far more interested in finding out just how powerful they could make themselves with the addition of armour, rather than worrying about having to stay in the Primordial Expanse a few days to a week longer.

Even with the extra time, they would still be out earlier than the original estimation, thanks to Alex handing over the King of Evermoor's corpse to Rothwind to deal with and process into their Armour.

"Well, let's finish up here then and get back to Tenebrus before anyone gets suspicious of my disappearance from the smithy."

Rothwind smiled and placed his hands onto the two youth's shoulders as he finally relaxed from the enormous tension that had been over the three of them ever since they first teleported to this clearing.

As an A tier awakened, it wouldn't take long before the city's forces reported him missing from his smithy, so they had to arrive back before that happened.

It was a predominantly human dominated — and governed — city, so they had spies everywhere and anywhere there might be a strong awakened from another race.

Zhwip!

And with that, the huge King class dragon type corpse was summoned to Rothwind's spatial storage, and the three of them found themselves standing on the hard concrete floor of Rothwind's smithy once more.

'It's about time I go and absorb this King class soul orb now that everything has been sorted…'

'Shit, I forgot about Virtue's Edge as well! I wonder if that's seen any upgrades after my win over the King of Evermoor…?'

Alex had a lot of things to consider in the meantime.