Sage broke his research into two stages. First, the upgrade of the basic soldiers equipment. Second, the improvements tailored for the Seven Stars. The research and development of powerful new equipment for the Seven Stars would take much longer than the improvements for the basic soldiers. On the other hand, the basic equipment would have to be produced in great numbers. The faster he could perfect the designs the sooner he could get others to help produce them.

After King recovered, he sent him on a recruiting mission. Sage needed more Smiths and Tailors to build all the weapons he was developing. At the same time he also implemented a talent gathering operation from the Hoplite Villages. The Hoplites that showed great talent or potential could earn the opportunity to be sent to a special training grounds. That special training grounds was the small community within the Universe Ring. The space within was limited, so Sage started the program to gather the most talented and skilled of the bugs to his side. He already had a special team that was helping maintain a few experiments and construction projects for him, the new initiative was a way to find the best talents. Those with skill and potential could be put to work in the new town they were building around the Cloudmetal Charcoal mine, while the most impressive Hoplites would move into the Universe Ring.

The plans so far included facilities dedicated to producing spears, shields, and crossbows. Sage met with the planners and added another facility dedicated to armor production. Currently, each of the Hoplite villages produced armor for the Jade Horde, but Sage’s upgrade plan would require a change in that policy. Once that was settled, he got to work. First of all was building new versions of his weapons using Cloudsteel. He’d already set the Little Birds to gathering up as much information as possible about possible Cloudmetal suppliers, but in the meantime he used a small amount he’d purchased for himself. Once he built a ‘Giant Nail’ with Cloudsteel he started to wield it and realized a few areas which could be improved.

The Storage Bag was attached to the tip of the spear and made it extremely front heavy. When the weight reducing array in the haft was activated it made it light enough to wield, but it was still very front heavy. The balance was more like that of an axe or polearm than a spear. Sage went with it. Instead of a simple spearhead, he forged a Halberd head. A spearhead on top, an axe blade on the side, and a slightly curved point to act as a hook opposite the axe. A very classical weapon from Earth in the medieval times. Now, when swinging it, the weight array could be deactivated and it would crash down with immense force. Even so, it was still extremely front heavy. His ‘improvement’ had only made it worse.

The standard he’d chosen was to fill the Storage Bag with about a hundred pounds of stone. Then with the weight reducing array the tip had only ten pounds of extra weight. The head of the halberd was at least three times heavier than the spear tip on its own, but crafting them out of Cloudsteel kept the weight manageable. Cultivators were far stronger than regular humans, so the actual weight was pretty negligible, but unless he added a heavy weight to the base it would still be somewhat unwieldy. Wanting to test another idea, he forged another model. This time, he moved the weight reduction array to the halberd head itself. It was going to be far more expensive than carving them into metal versus on cheap wooden hafts, but it was worth the attempt. The reason he did so was to put a different array upon the haft.

It was an array from the dozen magical weapons he’d found so very long ago back in the Soul Taming Abode. There was a long green pike that looked like it was glowing, the Jade Meteor Pike. It could extend its length, a very surprising and powerful attribute for a thrusting spear. Sage attempted to recreate the array upon a spear haft and frowned when the array was a failure. Instead of working, the wooden pole just cracked and twisted.

I’m sure I copied it correctly. Maybe… its the materials?

The strange glowing jade of the weapon had stood out in his memory. Perhaps it wasn’t just a stylistic choice, but a requirement for the array. Sage purchased a huge variety of different materials from the nearby town and started testing. He wasn’t sure what the Jade Meteor Pike was made of, nor did he know what properties were needed for the array to function. It didn’t really matter. Sage knew the value of testing. The scientific method. This wasn’t quite the same, but it was a similar situation. This array had been proven to work in the past, so he only needed to test other variables to reproduce the original result. Sage gathered all the cheap materials from the nearby town and used them in his experiments. He planned on building many of these weapons, so whatever was locally available at a low price would be the best choice for a replacement.

After hundreds of different trials, he finally found a suitable stand in. Blue Earth Bamboo came not from the nearest town, but from a few towns over. Most of the towns would bring their goods to their neighbors and the nearest city, and other traders would ensure they were spread to the rest of the towns in the vicinity. When the Blue Earth Bamboo was filled with a mixture of Yellow Emptiness Powder, and Sapphire Dew it finally had a favorable result. Yellow Emptiness Powder was made by grinding up a type of seashell, and the Sapphire Dew came from the flower, Sapphire Snapdragon. Both were also quite common in 10,000 Wave province. The combination of the three objects was able to handle the array without suffering any damage.

On the downside, it didn’t work as well. The Jade Meteor Pike could extend at the speed of a bullet. It was lethal without even needing to be thrust. The new substitute was very cheap, but the speed it could extend or retract was quite slow in comparison. It was quick and could still cause problems in combat, but it wasn’t explosive like the original. Sage was fine with the reduction in capability. His goal was to allow the Hoplites to have an axe to chop wood, a long handled polearm, and a towering pike to use in a formation, all in the same weapon. In single combat they could also extend or retract the length to suit the fight. It couldn’t shoot holes in a foe like a gun, but it would adapt to fit whatever range of combat they were in. Sage built a few more iterations on the design, mostly testing methods of construction. In the future he’d need others to be building it, so he wanted to make it as simple as possible.

Sage was tending a teapot and pouring it into the cup of a white haired boy with a pot belly. He was bowing and scraping, putting on his most humble and flattering face, “You truly are a shining example of great accomplishment. If only the heavens could bless us all to be as magnificent as you. The mighty Tao Ba. Your name will ring out for all eternity.”

Inside the Universe Ring, Sage was flattering the little beast. It was annoying just how much the ‘boy’ liked this sort of thing, but the assistance he could provide was immense. If all it took was some butt kissing, Sage could suffer through it for a while. Sage had a group of Hoplites acting as servants bring out many dishes of food and Sage served him personally. After a couple hours, he finally got down to business. Sage asked Tao Ba for assistance, showing him the halberds he’d built and how they functioned.

“With your infinite wisdom, could you please show me how to improve this weapon, Sir?”

Tao Ba acted imperial and all knowing, nodding his head and starting into a long diatribe about objects and materials Sage had never heard of. He spoke of how adding this or that would make the weapon alter the motion of the stars or freeze time in place to be pierced at your leisure. It was of course a given that all those materials and objects he spoke of were supreme treasures in the universe and nothing they could find, let alone in large quantities or for low prices. Sage stated such limitations after a long time and Tao Ba lifted his nose up high.

“Eh, I should have known. That backwater place you live at. Oh well. You can modify the arrays a bit to better suit that little toothpick of yours. Here.”

Tao Ba held out his hand and the Halberd flew into it. A bright light flashed and then he tossed it back over to Sage. After that he rose up from his seat and strolled off with a leisurely manner. Sage bowed respectfully to Tao Ba’s back until the little monster had disappeared from sight. Only then did he start analyzing the Halberd. Surprisingly, it wasn’t all that different. Even so, the changes were exquisite. It was a matter of fine refinement instead of sweeping reform. Tao Ba had removed most of the array symbols from the haft. When he tested it, it worked exactly the same as before. With some analysis, he found that the majority of the array symbols were there to amplify speed and power.

Now that most of the array was removed, Sage could figure out how it worked. It was a size compression array. Just like he’d found through crafting, it couldn’t grow any larger than it was at the time of crafting. The array compressed in one dimension. He compared it to the more complicated version and surmised that it allowed for a far larger and larger object to be compressed and also to be released with devastating speed and force. The Jade Meteor Pike must have been a few miles long before it was refined.

Amazing.

The other change was on the Halberd head. Tao Ba removed the array from the head and instead just modified the Storage Bag. Sage had removed the weight reducing array from it and added a more powerful one of his own separately. Tao Ba put the old array back and just swapped a few symbols. It perfectly replicated his own extra array. It reduced the weight to a tenth instead of a quarter like standard Storage Bags, and it could also be switched on and off.

I can only imagine what level of Formation Master Tao Ba is. Is there a level higher than ten stars?