Rogar and Aerion did, in fact, ‘make it happen’. Quite easily, too. Using nothing more than the portable furnace, my molten lava as starting heat and coals for fuel, and a little help from the bellows worked by my arms, we had a roaring hot forge in no time. The steel plating on the bolts was thin, proving no trouble at all for the master blacksmith.

  While Rogar and I cranked out the new, compact housings one after another, Aerion worked on disassembling the siege bolts with Philip’s help.

  Once we had a new bomb core and a casing to go with it, I swapped out with Philip, handling the core insertion process personally. With my Grace, I had hands more stable than a surgeon’s, and while Aerion assured me that the thing wouldn’t spontaneously explode, I wasn’t exactly comfortable taking chances. Especially considering how many we had to get through. Even a tenth of a percent probability would be enough to trigger a detonation when building a thousand.

  If that happened, Richard, Philip, and Rogar would be vaporized. I didn’t think Aerion or I would fare much better. In any case, I had no intention of finding out.

  As it turned out, encasing the stripped core in the new housing was enough for the System to consider the device a new weapon, labeling it a [Volatile Aural Core]/[Rare]. Not just that, I gained another 3 points to Grace, bringing me to 62, and Aerion hit her ceiling of 40.

  I didn’t Initialize any of the cores, of course. Not with my nonexistent free Essence. But that didn’t matter. That Essence problem would soon disappear, and I’d have all the headroom in the world. Plus, I could literally Initialize these things as I fired them from my inventory…

  Now that was a broken combination if I ever saw one. Unlike my pebbles, bombs were kinda designed to self-destruct when used. Which meant I could fire off a steady stream, even if I only had the Essence to Initialize a handful.

  I’d have to practice that In a controlled setting before I even dreamed of trying it in combat, of course. For now, though, I had the beginnings of one hell of an arsenal, and several ideas for exploring bomb-making when I got the chance.

  We worked like madpeople, not stopping for breaks, sipping on the miracle water to restore our concentration when we started to get tired. This area wasn’t far from goblin patrols, and while I’d wiped them out, I knew from prior experience that more could arrive. They likely wouldn’t pose a threat, but I didn’t want even the slightest risk of exposing our sensitive bomb-making operation to a fight.

  Three hours later, we were done. All but a couple of the bomb crates had been opened, piles and piles of dampening foam lay strewn about and my inventory now had nearly a thousand [Volatile Aural Core]s neatly piled up in one corner.

  Thanks to their tiny size, I was even able to stick the forge back in there after we were done. That was good, because we’d need it again soon.

  We switched locations to the nearest Sanctuary chamber to top up on miracle water and take a break without anyone having to be on guard duty. Incidentally, this was the same chamber one we’d buried Emma in.

  As I’d feared, there was no trace of the grave I’d dug by the tree for the poor Aralez. Aerion fell to her knees on the soil where it had been, but it looked just like it had before I started digging.

  Aerion’s fingers clutched the soft soil, her silent tears falling on the dirt like rain. “Do you… Do you think she…”

  “She’s in a better place,” I muttered, dropping to a knee and grasping Aerion’s shoulder gently. “That, I can promise you.”

  Aerion nodded, blinking away her tears, but she didn’t move from her position. Giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze, I stood up and gave her some distance. She didn’t need me intruding on this moment.

  I walked over to the other corner of the room by the windows that looked out into the darkness. In this case, there was a whole lot more than black to see, though. The dozens of tunnels that led into the castle were all well lit, disappearing into the distance like long, noodly fingers, and you could even see a bit of the castle itself if you looked straight up. It made for quite the amazing sight.

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  Just like last time, I wondered what world this place was from, and what its creators must have been like. While I’d learned so much of the world since then, of Trials and Cataclysms, I had to admit, I was no closer to solving that particular mystery.

  I waited about an hour, both for Aerion to have her time, and for everyone else to have a bit of a breather, before addressing the group.

  “So here’s the plan,” I said, tapping against the window. “This is the first submerged castle on this floor. The regular route out of here has you going through a whole bunch of these things, each bigger and more convoluted than the last, apparently.”

  “Eight in all,” Aerion said.

  “Right. That’s a lot, and they get farther apart the further you go. We’ve got a good pile of Frostsilver, but I hear there’s some Voidsteel to be found on this floor. Maybe even some Aurorium. Problem is, none of us know which castle we might find those in. “So here’s what I propose. We delve the next two castles. If we find any of that stuff there, great. If not, we turn back and return here. I don’t know about you, but fighting our way through seven more castles sounds like a massive pain in the ass. Especially when we have subs that’ll bring us up to the seventh floor.”

  I waited for any disagreements. There were none. “Well, alright then. Let’s be off.”

  On our first delve, Aerion and I had never actually found our way to the cog rail station on the other side of the castle—the one that connected it to the next one.

  While it wasn’t especially far, it turned out not knowing the way really hampered us, forcing us to probe passageways blindly. We came across grand ballrooms, decked out with water-filled chandeliers and spiral staircases, we fought through dozens of goblins and hobs, and several boar-like monsters I’d seen chained up when we rescued Emma… The one thing we didn’t do was ascend any staircases. According to Aerion, the cog stations were all at the seafloor, so that eliminated a large time sink.

  About an hour later, we finally made it to our destination. This station looked almost identical to the one we’d used to enter the castle, and was similarly guarded by goblins, which Richard killed without a second thought. I was getting a little worried just how much we were relying on the guy, but at least it sped up our delve considerably. We hardly even stopped to take out the mobs now.

  Back in our carts and more comfortable with the rhythm of things, we rocketed down the tracks at 60 miles an hour, the scenery blurring by.

  This time, we managed to avoid the goblins altogether by diverting to a secondary tunnel that ran about a hundred feet above the ocean floor—there were switchers at each junction, so once we edged our carts past, we just flipped the switch so anyone coming after would divert to the other tunnel.

  In this way, we arrived at the second castle without much fuss. That was where the familiar ended and the strange began.

  I’d been expecting this castle to be more or less the same style, just bigger. It was not the same. Not even remotely. Where the previous castle had looked like what you’d expect—Disney-esque, with ramparts and walls—this one was… not. Oblong in shape, it vaguely reminded me of a beehive, mostly thanks to the hexagonal tiles that formed its organic-looking shape.

  Except instead of any organic material, the honeycomb hexes were glossy glass, like someone from Earth had decided to build a bizarre modern skyscraper on the bottom of the ocean floor.

  Our view of the structure disappeared as we entered the tunnel that led into its station. This, too, was different from the previous castle, with neat, riveted metal forming the sides of a tunnel that arched perfectly above. Something resembling an LED light strip brightly illuminated the place.

  There were no goblins at the end of the tunnel where the station sat. It could easily have passed for a futuristic tramway station, with LED light strips plastered all over the place in a chaotic, yet artistic, fashion.

  “Seriously, where the fuck are these things coming from?” I muttered.

  “Right there with you, Greg. Thought these Trials were all actual places, just transplanted… but maybe the gods just yank bits and pieces of inspiration from all over the place? Quite an impressive structure, this one.”

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” I said, turning to the others. “Alright. We’re here, so let’s not waste any time. We find our minerals and we boogie.”

  Given the architecture of this place, I wasn’t keen on our chances. Maybe we’d be able to melt down some of the metal? Assuming we could even get the forge hot enough to melt whatever the hell this place was made of?

  The platform’s only exit was a double sliding glass door, which whooshed open when we walked through.

  On the other side, I expected something akin to the interior of most modern skyscrapers—halls, concrete, more modern lighting.

  What I got was… well, I honestly couldn’t parse what my brain was telling me.

  There were no rooms in this massive ‘castle’. It was all one, unbelievably cavernous space. A space that looked like a beehive.

  Oh, and we were currently standing on its ceiling. Looking down.

  Richard grabbed my shoulder. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”