Thinking such, Prince Roland refused Prince Elric. “Brother, this Prince might have conflicts with Lady Reviarra, however this Prince has never personally insulted her or her family. This Prince suggests that brother take the initiative and prevent a future catastrophe. This Prince will settle with managing this Prince’s company.”

After saying so, Prince Roland exited the venue. Behind him, Prince Elric remained calm as if he expected such an answer. He knew his image was greatly weakened by this banquet. He was wholly unprepared to handle Sol and underestimated the girl to such an extent that it called into question his capabilities.

By all accounts, the way to rectify the situation would be to bring Lady Reviarra under his wing as soon as possible. Should he fail to do so, Lady Reviarra would forever be a stain others could point to when questioning his power or competence.

Prince Roland finished his thoughts and stood up to stretch at his chair. His gaze was firm as he looked to the direction Sol’s carriage departed. He flicked his long sleeves behind him and strutted out of the venue.

Sol entered meditation as soon as she sat down in her carriage. She was able to sense the state of her soul clearer than she could in the past. Though she had only been practicing for just under a week, she felt as if her body was changing every second. She once questioned An about her progress, feeling that she was progressing too fast.

“Don’t worry about going too fast. Although different Assemblers will progress to it at different rates, your speed is not uncommon. The Body Refinement Stage is one of the most explosive stages for Assemblers.”

An continued with a rather relaxed attitude. “The Human body is too weak to contain large amounts of magic. It’s like your body is full of holes and magic will seep out through it constantly. After reaching a certain point in the refinement, your soul will start attracting more magic from the environment than your body leaks out. That’s when you know you’re nearing initial success of Body Refinement.”

Sol remembered his answer and committed it to memory. What she needed most was a healthy body and the Body Refinement Stage was her first measure of success. Sol could feel the cognitive model of The Unchained Queen Beast pulse in her mind. Every cycle it ran gave her the feeling as if something was torn from her body and replaced with something sturdier.

Over time, Sol no longer even remained conscious of her surroundings. Her mind delved into the cognitive model observing each component with excruciating detail. Overall, the thing was far too complex for her to understand. She felt like an ant desperately researching how to produce a Human from nothing.

The Unchained Queen Beast, though only a cognitive model, evolved as Sol became more familiar with it. She felt as if the model adapted to her progress and warped to fill in her weakness. The evolution was something she only had a strong feeling about though. As of now, there was little evidence to support that feeling.

Sol only knew that when she focused her mind to the extreme on it, there would be slight variations at points that weren’t there last time she checked. Some regions would act in different ways as well with energy traversing it at different rates.

Although Sol’s curiosity was brimming, An refused to divulge any secrets of the model. Left with only her mind and time, she was determined to progress herself and treated the model as a puzzle to solve. Sol was unaware that her immense focus and insight had already reached a shocking degree.

Despite An’s dismissive attitude, there was a cold sweat riding that calm exterior. He knew it was abnormal for someone to have such an accurate grasp on their cognitive model so early in their cultivation. Typically, an Assembler would inherit a model and break through the initial stages of the Apprentice realm before slowly having the model form in their mind.

Being able to not only visualize, but also monitor and tinker with the system live was practically unheard of. At least, for An, he only knew of 3 others capable of such a thing. His master, his master’s enemy, and… An’s gaze was locked on the meditating girl. His thoughts cranked through various ways forward until he settled on a way forward that fit the girl’s talents.

“Sol. Do you want to learn the art of Divine Refinement?”

An prodded Sol with his spiritual awareness to prevent her from being abruptly awoken from her meditation. Her eyes opened with overflowing curiosity. “What is Divine Refinement?”

“It’s both a skill set and profession. Think of it as being an inventor, but for magical items. Divine Refiners are split into thousands of sub fields but, in general, they try to find ways to apply magic to external things. There are specializations that focus on creating talismans and trinkets that are consumed to attack others. Other specializations focus on embedding supportive cognitive models into external items to boost the strength of the wielder. Overall, the field is so esoteric that few manage to excel in it.”

Sol was interested. Her mind was filled with vague memories of structures that she failed to understand. Although she never brought it up, Sol understood that she was no longer who she used to be. The old Sol was long consumed by the new her. She felt as if she inherited Sol’s memories rather than grew up with them. Despite that, Sol retained everything that she once was.

Sol never considered those fuzzy memories to be something external. By the time she was aware of ‘herself’ those memories were already flooding her system. Although she was unable to understand them, Sol knew they were related to her. There was a familiar link between those memories and herself that she found hard to explain.

When Sol first created Iridescent, she utilized the few memories she could understand to improve the items around her. That was why her eyes shined so brightly after listening to An’s description. There was something inside her that urged her to accept and follow that path. She was never one to hesitate.

“Teach me!”

“I can’t.”

“...”

An felt a sense of euphoric success after seeing the dead fish eyes glaring at him. He laughed a few times before explaining himself.

“Sol, I don’t know the art of refinement. However, I’ve been watching your progress and know you’re well suited for it. Although I don’t know the art myself, I do have a general understanding of the concepts. While I can’t guide you directly like I can for your cognitive model, I can at least point you in the right direction.”

After saying so, An raised a finger and pressed against the empty air in front of him. “These are runes. I’ve shown them to you in the past and you must have felt a draw to them at some point. This is a very loose application of the Divine Refiner arts. I can accomplish this by focusing the magic within my soul to the tip of my fingers. With a little effort, you can excrete the magic while retaining a degree of control over it. Establishing a structure inside the excreted magic will cause it to influence the environment in various ways. These runes are common structures that have known, repeatable effects.”

His finger pulled away from the rune and with a quick motion, he tapped it. Sol’s eyes widened as the rune dispersed into the air and not a moment later, the temperature in the carriage plummeted. Their carriage was under the sun and it was nearly 90 degrees out, yet Sol could see her breath.

There was a jarring amount of greed in her eyes. She wanted this power. Her gaze locked onto An as if she were a starving squirrel placed before a bowl of nuts. An felt another shiver run down his spine. He covered her eyes with his hand and exhaled slowly to regain his wits.

“Girl, has anyone ever told you that your gaze is terrifying?”

“Stop joking. Teach me what you know. We both know I’m too weak to survive a proper conflict with the Imperial family. Iridescent is powerful, but it’s only an annoyance if the Royals decide to forego their image. I need something to back me up outside of Iridescent.”

“True enough. You’re so pitifully weak I could crush you with my little toe.” An’s hand moved from blocking Sol’s vision to her head and he started ruffling her hair up. The poor girl struggled to no avail.

“Knock it off! Why does everyone keep messing my hair up?!”

For a moment, An didn’t know how to respond. He removed his hand and stared at it for a moment. He then ignored Sol’s question entirely and moved on.

“The Divine Refiners Art is something you’ll struggle with until your body refinement is complete. There’s just not enough magic inside your body yet to work with. However the general idea is pretty straight forward. You only need to remember three steps. Expel magic from your soul. Envelope it with your spiritual awareness. Alter its structure while it’s enveloped. I’ll have to leave you alone to experiment because each Assembler has their own method to accomplish those 3 tasks.”

An’s gaze turned sharp as he continued. “Often, the cognitive model drives the method, however rarely does the model match the individual’s talent. I suggest you experiment and create a method that feels natural to you.” An left his sentence there, though his thoughts continued. ‘If you’re who I think you are, then anything I teach you will be useless and inefficient anyways.’