Chapter 135: Lazy Smith
"Chief Professor, is it supposed to be that bright?" Villy asked as the overwhelming radiance filled the entire lab.
Even through her tinted visor, the glow stung her eyes a lot.
Lucius squinted behind his goggles and glanced at the floating blueprint beside him.
"I think so," he said after a pause.
There wasn’t anything about that glow in the instructions, but he wasn’t about to admit that.
The blinding light finally began to fade, leaving behind the ring.
The item in question hovered above the table, glowing with a bluish aura.
Its polished surface gleamed silver under the residual light, the Celestine Quartz now perfectly embedded in the center.
"It looks beautiful," Villy said, removing the helmet of her heat suit with a small smile.
Her cheeks were flushed from the heat, a few strands of silver hair sticking to her forehead.
She wasn’t wrong... the ring looked divine.
A smooth, silver band surrounded by a gentle, rotating halo of blue light.
It glowed like a jewel forged by the heavens themselves.
Lucius crossed his arms, unimpressed.
"It’s just an accessory right now," he said dryly. "It needs a lot more to become the kind of item that’ll dominate the market."
He glanced back at the blueprints again, tracing the next step with his finger.
The delicate notes and diagrams reminded him of how meticulous the System’s crafting layouts were.
"Alright. Time for the energy source," Lucius muttered, turning his gaze toward the hovering Mana Core beside him.
The crystal pulsed with violet light, its surface carved with natural grooves that resembled veins.
It belonged to a B-Rank monster, which, honestly, still surprised him.
The fact that he could just get a B-Rank Core lying around was absurd.
If this were the novel, he’d have had to fight a mid-boss for it or worse, buy it from someone who charged ten times tbe value... Well... the government was good.
"Alright, let’s see..." he muttered, scanning the blueprint again. His eyes caught on one line.
"So I’m supposed to split it evenly, huh?"
He frowned and held out his hand.
Space distorted slightly, twisting the air around the core.
The glowing stone began to vibrate as invisible pressure pressed against it.
Crack.
Crack.
Lucius narrowed his eyes, focusing his will.
"Evenly," he repeated under his breath.
With a clean snap, the Mana Core split into two halves that floated gently in the air.
Each half pulsed softly with light and they were perfectly symmetrical.
"Nice," he muttered, a small grin forming.
He readjusted his goggles and peered at the instructions again.
"Alright... outward."
He guided both halves closer and began shaping them using space manipulation, smoothing their rough edges into perfect teardrop beads.
The crystals gleamed beautifully under the lab lights, like droplets of condensed starlight.
Villy watched in awe as the beads spun in a circular motion, aligning along the body of the silver ring.
Lucius spread his fingers, and the crystals attached themselves seamlessly along the outer surface, merging with the metal as if they’d been born there.
For a moment, they glowed softly... there was no blinding flash this time.
To Villy, it looked pretty. To Lucius, it was a whole different story.
He could feel it... the moment the mana cores connected with the ring, something changed.
The silver began absorbing the surrounding mana, specifically his.
Space was sucked into the ring.
’It’s feeding,’ he realized, narrowing his eyes.
The energy wasn’t just circulating... it was devouring.
The ring was drawing in his spatial energy at a ridiculous rate, greedily pulling from the nearest source... him.
He could feel the pull in his fingers, like a siphon sucking at his veins.
’I see why Villy failed the process last time,’ he thought grimly, his jaw tightening.
Still, he didn’t pull away.
Instead, he let the ring take what it wanted, maintaining a steady channel of space energy.
The air glowed around his hands.
It was like feeding mana into a newborn creature... it drank, it grew, and then it stabilized.
Finally, the pull stopped.
Lucius let out a long breath and glanced at the ring.
It floated steadily in front of him, and was no longer glowing wildly.
He extended his senses and...
’Oh?’ His eyes widened slightly.
Inside the ring, he could feel a pocket of energy.
A separate space which was tiny, but undeniably there.
A newly-formed storage field roughly the size of a small box.
"It actually made a spatial zone," he murmured in disbelief. "Guess the Dimensium will amplify the effect more than I thought."
Villy tilted her head, still watching curiously. "Chief Professor, did it work?"
He didn’t answer right away.
His gaze remained fixed on the glowing band.
He could feel the unstable rhythm of space inside... it wasn’t entirely safe yet.
The inner space fluctuated wildly, stretching and collapsing, expanding and compressing like it was breathing in and out of reality.
’It’s unstable,’ Lucius thought with a frown. ’It could explode if I leave it like this.’
He turned his eyes toward the hovering Stabilizing Powder.
The fine golden dust shimmered in the air, suspended in a transparent vial.
Without saying a word, he gestured.
The vial uncorked itself, and the powder spilled out, scattering across the lab like drifting sand.
The glowing particles floated toward the ring and gently settled on its surface.
The moment they made contact, a dull glow ran through the metal.
The silver sheen faded slightly, replaced by a matte texture as the ring’s light dimmed to a steady, gentle glow.
Lucius watched closely.
The chaotic pulses inside the ring slowed... then stopped completely.
’Nice,’ he thought, relaxing his shoulders. ’Space flow stabilized.’
The ring now floated silently in the center of the lab.
All that remained... was the final piece.
He glanced toward the hovering blueprint once more.
His eyes moved to the very last step.
The word glowed faintly in blue text
[Dimensium Integration]
Lucius grimaced. "Of course it had to be the most dangerous part."
He reached into his inventory and mentally summoned the Dimensium.
A small, transparent shard materialized above his palm.
It gleamed faintly, as though reflecting a thousand colors at once... it sure was beautiful.
"Alright, you little scam crystal," he muttered under his breath. "Don’t blow me up."
He directed it forward.
The shard floated through the air toward the ring.
Villy took a cautious step back. "Chief Professor, are you sure about this?"
Lucius gave her a confident smirk. "Nope."
The Dimensium hovered directly above the ring’s surface.
And then... contact.
The instant the Dimensium touched the ring, a violent pulse erupted outward.
A ripple of distorted air exploded across the lab, like a shockwave made of warped space.
The ring vibrated violently, light bursting from every angle as arcs of energy tore through the room.
Villy stumbled back, shielding her face. "Chief Professor!"
Lucius gritted his teeth as the wave hit him full-force.
Space warped around him, folding and unfolding like a broken reflection.
For one fleeting second, he thought it had stabilized... then the energy detonated outward again.
He blinked.
The entire lab was fine.
The equipment was fine.
The ring floated perfectly stable in midair.
For a moment, it almost looked like nothing had happened.
"Well, that wasn’t so ba—"
A chill ran down his spine. His skin felt oddly cool.
He frowned and looked down.
"Wait... why are my clothes gone?"
"Kyaaaa!" Villy shrieked behind him, her voice echoing off the metal walls.
Lucius turned and immediately realized she was in the exact same situation.
They both were stark naked...
...
Lucius let Villy leave the room while he used space to materialize new clothes on himself.
A soft glow surrounded his body, and within seconds, he was back in his GRIMMAW uniform.
He exhaled and turned his gaze to the floating ring.
With a thought, he willed the ring to come closer.
It drifted gently toward him, suspended in the faint shimmer of distorted space.
The moment it touched his palm, he felt it... the spatial current inside.
His eyes widened slightly.
The space within the ring wasn’t just functional... it had expanded far beyond his earlier attempt.
"It’s... almost fifteen times bigger," he muttered, awe slipping into his tone.
The internal pocket felt deep, like a perfectly compressed fold of reality.
’I guess this was a success,’ he thought with a small grin.
For all the chaos, the effort had been worth it.
Though to him, "effort" was a word he avoided whenever possible.
The process hadn’t been particularly grueling, but for someone like Lucius, who preferred lying on a couch to standing over a furnace, it counted as too much hard work.
’Now I just have to make more of these and cart them off to Vanessa,’ he mused.
The grin widened slightly as he pocketed the ring with a flick of his wrist. ’And maybe I’ll charge extra for emotional labor.’
A sudden chime echoed in his mind.
[Congratulations, you have gained Unique Title: Lazy Smith]