On a scale of one to a hundred, having Euryale return was undoubtedly a hundred and one when it came to surprise. Dallion’s immediate reaction was surprise, followed by a sensation of warmth throughout his body. It would be a lie if he said he didn’t miss her, despite everything that had occurred since the last time they were together.

The experience of them together was quite similar to last time, with one major exception—they had spent it within an awakening realm. Of course, both had had their block rings on before they went there.

“I thought you wouldn’t be back for another week or more,” Dallion said, sitting on the edge of a slab of soft rock.

The realm Eury had taken him in had certain specific properties, chief among them the ability of rocks and crystals of switching between solid and rubbery state. The brief explanation the gorgon had given was that the realm was dwarf made, but right now Dallion wasn’t much interested in such information.

“The rest are still wrapping up things. Since I wasn’t needed, I poked them to get here faster.” The snakes on the gorgon’s head moved about in a wave formation, three quarters of them at any point focused at Dallion. “With all the favors Jiroh owes me, this is the least she can do.”

“Nice.” You’re one scary woman, Dallion thought. Love you, though. “Mission went well?”

“Could have gone better. Still, you take what you can get. What about you? Lots of changes, I see. Already a double digit, and with a few new toys. The Icepickers treating you well?”

“Yeah…” As much as Dallion wanted to tell her about March’s invitation and Vend being his mentor, he could not make himself do it. There was too much uncertainty there, and he wanted to enjoy her return at least a few days more. “I got a new skill.” He paused for dramatic effect. “Forging.”

“Seriously?” The gorgon sat up, a mixture of joy and disbelief resonating throughout her.

“Very serious. The reward from passing the second gate. And of course I messed it up.”

“How can you mess up getting a skill?” Half of Eury’s snakes twisted. In his mind, he was almost certain she was forming question marks.

“Sky silver hammer,” Dallion replied. Upon hearing that, the gorgon’s lips moved in a silent “oh.”

“That’s an innovative approach,” she said, trying to keep a straight face.

“I know, but there was one thing I had miscalculated.” Dallion smiled. “Having you away for so long.”

The flattery had an instant effect, as Dallion’s music skills told him. In a way, he almost felt bad having them. It almost felt like cheating when having a serious conversation with someone, especially on certain topics.

“I get it, you only want me for my looks and skills,” Eury said, amused. “In that aspect we’re quite alike.” She slid her fingers through Dallion’s hair. “So, want a few more lessons?”

“You did say you’d take me as your apprentice if I got to learn forging… Well, I’ve learned forging.”

“Why don’t you show me?”

This was one of the moments of truth. Through everyone’s life, there were many of them, sometimes thousands, or even more. A few, however, had the potential to be life changing. Back on Earth, inviting someone to live together was such a moment. Here, there was one even greater—opening one’s awakened realm to someone else. Many people had warned Dallion not to do it, including one of the Seven Moons, and still he felt that with Eury he had nothing to fear.

PERSONAL AWAKENING

A doorway appeared on one of the nearby walls. The moment she saw it, the gorgon was at a loss for words. This was the first time Dallion had seen her like this, and to be honest, he kind of liked it.

“Are you sure about this?” Eury asked.

“Very sure.” Dallion stood up and started his way towards the doorway. “Come on.”

Hesitantly, she followed. As before, the door lead to Dallion’s fighting arena. The room had changed quite a bit since Dallion had been here last—it was slightly bigger, the walls were better decorated, and there were paintings of scenes from each of Dallion’s awakening challenges. Looking at them, they appeared far more epic that Dallion remembered.

“Not big on decorating,” Eury noted. “That’s nice. I love simplicity.”

“Yeah, I’m really good at that skill.” Dallion nodded several times. “It’s called laziness.”

Eury shook her head. She didn’t find the joke overly amusing, but didn’t hate it either.

Passing through the reinforced door, Dallion continued along the corridor to the first room of his realm. Thankfully, he didn’t meet anyone along the way. As his echo, Gen knew exactly what he was about to do, and probably made sure that the familiars and Nil—especially Nil—were in another part of the realm when Dallion connected to Euryale’s trinket realm.

When they both arrived, Dallion couldn’t help but feel uneasy. The room he had so much pride in seemed ridiculously empty now.

“It’s here,” he quickly went towards the anvil, hoping that wouldn’t give her a chance to notice how bare the walls were. Alas, for him, gorgons had three-sixty vision and far better perception than him. “There it is,” Dallion pointed at the star silver hammer. “I could have started with iron or tin…”

“Or normal silver,” Eury noted.

“Yeah, that too. I still felt it’ll be better if I jumped the curve.”

The gorgon stepped closer to the hammer, but didn’t touch it. Dallion could feel there was some unspoken rule about visitors not meddling with someone else’s awakened realm, even if invited.

“I did the same when I got the skill,” Eury admitted. “But things were a bit different for me. My perception is a bit higher than yours. How much are you at now?”

“Sixteen,” Dallion replied.

“At sixteen you can’t even see the layers properly.”

Dallion didn’t have the heart to tell her that at sixteen, he couldn’t see the marker layers at all. While there were instances in which he could see intensity—and could speculate that was caused by layers stacking up on top of each other—that was it.

“How long have you been trying to forge something?”

“Not much.” Dallion shrugged. “A few months. I doubt it’s more.”

“A few months playing with puzzles you know you can’t complete. Good thing you have looks. First thing we’ll do when we get to my workshop is to teach you how to hold a proper hammer. After that… we’ll see how things go.”

“Sure. No chance you can show me here?”

“Showing you is easy. You won’t be able to learn, though. Still want to see?”

Dallion nodded.

“Okay. We’ve got to get back to my item’s realm. I can’t summon it here.”

Instead of walking, both left Dallion’s realm for the real world, then entered the trinket’s realm again. It was slightly confusing, but at least it beat walking. This time, there was no connection between the two realms.

Euryale summoned an anvil and an ordinary-looking hammer. Moments later, a rectangular ingot appeared on top of the anvil.

Looking at them, Dallion noticed that her forging instruments were different/ Their shape was smoother, with a lot of rounded edges.

“Do you see the markers?” the gorgon asked.

“Nothing so far.”

“Give it a few moments. At low levels, it takes your mind a bit to catch on.”

This was the second time he had heard it explained in such fashion. Apparently, there was no going around it—he was going to have to invest in mind, or find an appropriate achievement.

The silver markers appeared several seconds later, as predicted. There were barely a dozen of them surrounding the iron ingot.

“Dagger?” Dallion asked, trying to decipher the instructions.

“Spoon,” Eury replied. “It’s a bit easier to handle. You don’t need to worry about sharpening the edge.”

The explanation meant nothing to Dallion, so he only nodded and focused on the process. The first part was pretty much the same as he had attempted himself with the sky silver ingot—Eury slammed on the indicated parts with her hammer, folding the piece of metal, as it were. Hit after hit, the gorgon transformed the rectangle into a rod. Once that was done, she continued, flattening the rod to the point that the basic outline of a rather large spoon started to appear.

“The size is out of proportion so you can see better,” Eury explained, as she hit the top of the spoon, creating its bowl. The precision was rather impressive, everything considered. “This is only the basic training process. You don’t need to worry about heat and consistency with this one.”

She kept on hammering until the bowl was fully formed, then summoned a pair of tongs. The moment she did a new set of markers appeared. These were very different, indicating curves on the surface of the item.

“After you’ve given the basic shape, the adjustment phase begins,” Eury explained as she continued to work. “This is the annoying part, since it takes longer and you have to deal with a lot of smaller areas. A lot of repetition goes in here.”

Bit by bit the same was refined to the point it started to look like a well crafted, though slightly large spoon. The neck was formed, then the rest of the handle. By the time the last marker was slammed into submission, the spoon looked like any other.

“And done.” The instruments disappeared from the gorgon’s hands. “Usually the sharpening phase comes after this, but since this is a spoon, we don’t have one.” She reached out and took the object. “There you go,” she tossed it to Dallion. “Think you can handle making something like this?”

Dallion looked at the spoon, then turned it around. The surface was smooth, the shape—perfect. Looking at her, it didn’t seem one bit difficult, although he knew from experience that appearances were always deceiving.

“Since you’ll be learning in the real world, there are a few more steps. You’ll start with choosing your materials, then heating them up so you can work on them. Afterwards comes the shaping, refining, and final polish. Piece of cake, right?”

“If definitely sounds easy the way you explain it.” I’m doomed, Dallion thought.

“You just have to be careful not to burn those lovely hands of yours,” the gorgon flirted.

“I’ll do my best.” Dallion tossed the spoon back to his girlfriend. The object disappeared in the air before it reached her, along with the gorgon’s anvil.

“You better. I think you should get the hang of it in a few weeks. That will give you enough knowledge to up your skill and earn a proper hammer. Afterwards you can start training on your own and full up these empty walls.”

Dallion felt uncomfortable. So, she had noticed.

“Nothing to it.” He tried to brush it off.

“You’ll have to borrow some basic model scrolls from your guild. I gave away my basic stuff, and the complex ones are way beyond your level.”

“Right. How much do I need to get to start working on sky silver?”

“Honestly? I’d say you need to up your forging to forty, at least. Also, you’ll need to up your perception past your twenties.”

In short, he was going to be effectively able to start using his hammer once he passed the next awakening gate. Not the best solution, but in the meantime he would be able to learn how to use a basic one, and maybe make some unique weapons in he process.

Leveling up, split combat, forging… those were the three things Dallion had focused on. Add to them his personal relationship with Eury and the sanitation job he would still be on. As long as he could achieve progress in those areas, others would fall into place.

Suddenly, a feeling of unease went through him. As marvelous as Eury’s return was, there remained the matter with Gloria. The day Dallion had dreaded was here now and there was no telling how either would react when he introduced them. Part of Dallion wanted to ask Eury to keep a low profile in front of his friends, but he knew what a disaster that would be. This wasn’t high-school, and even if it were, it was no solution to the issue.

“Time to go back to the real world?” Dallion asked.

“Must we?” The gorgon tilted her head to the side. “I’d prefer to spend a few more hours here. At least that way I don’t have to remember what a mess I am. Two weeks without a proper wash wasn’t pleasant. But I guess both of us have responsibilities now.”

The surroundings changed back into Dallion’s room.

“Forgive me for using the window to get out. Seeing Hannah is not high on my list of things to do.”

“Got you.” To be honest, Dallion wasn’t thrilled in Hannah catching him with a gorgon in his room either. “Just one sec before you go.”

Moving to the shelf, Dallion took the stone orchid, then went to the Eury.

“A little something I got for you,” he offered it.

The gorgon’s sense of joy lit up, even if she retained her cool exterior.

“A stone orchid,” she said. “It’s been ages since I’ve seen one of these. Where did you find it?”

“I have my ways.” Dallion smiled. “Nah, actually it was being used as a decoration at a stall. I spotted it thanks to my music skills.”

“Ah.” The joy emanating from the gorgon quickly changed into disappointment. “Nice catch. I can’t accept it, though.”

“Oh?”

“Have you seen my place? It’ll be dead in a year.”

Dallion knew she was lying. As much as he wanted to press the matter, he knew he couldn’t do so directly.

“I’ll pass by to take care of it. I have a key to your place now.”

“Aren’t you sweet?” Eury ruffled his hair. “Seriously, though. Better keep it here. That way I’ll have something to look forward to when I sneak to visit.”

“Okay, but you’ll tell me if you change your mind.”

“Don’t worry. When that happens, it’ll be the first thing I do.”