The Ascender's Legacy [A CHAOTIC STORM LITRPG]

Surrounded by the quiet hum of runes, Aodhán and Professor Caldwell stood beside her workshop's forge, both gazing intently at the crude drawing of his proposed creation. A low sound escaped the professor's lips as she tilted her head, her brow furrowing deeper.

"It's certainly… something," she muttered, struggling to comprehend the design. The drawing depicted shoe soles, but the concept behind them was so unprecedented that she couldn't fathom how he'd conceived it. Even after Aodhán had explained his inspiration, she found it nearly impossible to connect his source of inspiration with the finished product he envisioned. Despite their underlying similarities, they seemed like night and day.

"What do you think about it?" Aodhán asked excitedly. "It came to me so suddenly that even I am impressed I managed to come up with it."

"Hmm." Professor Caldwell cleared her throat and asked. "And you say you want it to be a detachable sole?"

"Precisely. They also need to be self-cleaning and self-adjusting so they merge seamlessly with any footwear I'm wearing."

"That's extensive runic work." Professor Caldwell swallowed, clearly amazed, then shook her head. "We can't use Ragnar steel for this—we need something more accommodating to runes. Argent steel would be better."

Aodhán nodded without protest, his eyes already scanning the emporium's interface. "So one ingot of Argent steel?"

"One and a half would be better. Do you still have that Volaris ore you mentioned earlier?"

"I do, but I thought that was for alchemy."

Professor Caldwell nodded. "Usually, yes. But if we melt it down and merge it with the Argent steel ingot, it will drastically enhance the metal's magical properties, making it a far better conductor of willpower and energy. We'll need at least half an ingot of that." She paused, considering. "You'll also need a metallic ore aligned with your affinity, or a treasure we can melt down."

While Professor Caldwell continued her calculations, Aodhán scrolled through the eternal emporium, searching for storm-affinity metallic ore or treasure suitable for melting. His search didn't take long—he found a treasure called Stormvein Gold, a rare, ranked treasure of magically conductive gold laced with chaos-infused storm affinity threads. Though expensive at nearly three thousand gold coins, Aodhán barely glanced at the price before suggesting it.

Professor Caldwell nodded eagerly the moment he described the treasure. "That will work perfectly." She glanced back at Aodhán's crude sketch. "As for guiding the resulting ability, we'll need filament from a Thunderveil Medusozoa, two Pulsecore Filaments, a few grams of Runebark silver, a gram of condensed lightning dust…

Aodhán noted each material without protest, sometimes adding extras to ensure he had everything needed for the creation process. This would be his first self-crafted item, and he wanted it to be absolutely perfect. Money may have constrained him before, but with hundreds of thousands of gold now sitting in his spatial necklace, he had more than enough to splurge on this item.

For the next several minutes, Professor Caldwell continued suggesting materials, occasionally removing or replacing items she'd mentioned earlier. Aodhán didn't complain, simply following her expertise without question. After confirming they had the right materials, they spent another five minutes reviewing the list to ensure nothing was missing. Finally, Professor Caldwell nodded in satisfaction.

"This is going to be far more than an Epic+ item—it's going to be a masterpiece. I don't think I've ever invested so much money or treasure in a single creation."

Aodhan grinned in satisfaction, but he was still conscious of his time, and after bidding Professor Caldwell a hasty goodbye, he raced back to Gwendolyn's office only to find his friends still present, their eyes glued to different sections of the Emporium's interface floating before them.

Andrew looked up when he entered and tapped urgently on the empty stool beside him. "Quick—we only have twenty-five minutes left before our passes expire, and Gwendolyn can't issue us another. If you want to buy anything, now's the time."

Aodhán nodded and sat down. "How do we pay for it?"

"We're using Gwendolyn's pass," Daruk responded, shooting Gwendolyn a sly grin. She snorted but didn't look up from the Pavilion file she was completing—most likely taking inventory of all the items the Pavilion had just purchased from them.

Still smiling, Daruk turned to Aodhán. "I can't believe how expensive these treasures are."

Aodhán chuckled. "I'm too excited to care about prices right now. But if they somehow exceed what I have, I'll just borrow from Gwendolyn."

Gwendolyn looked up at that and scowled at him, legs propped up on the counter.

"Don't even think about it. Whatever you're buying better be within limits—my pass doesn't have unlimited funds."

Aodhán chuckled, but Gwendolyn's expression remained stern as she smirked wickedly. "Besides, my card isn't free. You'll have to pay me a fee."

"I'll pay," Aodhán said, chuckling as he began ordering his materials. Since he already knew what he needed, he didn't waste time scrolling through various sections and finished within minutes.

The moment he clicked the [BUY] icon, a dialogue box appeared.

Aodhán read through the order summary, scanning it to make sure that all he'd ordered was accounted for. His gaze landed on the bonus gift they had given him, and he quickly clicked on the item to read its description.

[AETHERSTITCH BINDING THREAD—RARE]: This is a rare auxiliary material used in higher-tier rune smithing. It appears as a slender coil of glowing, translucent thread that shifts hue between pale silver and soft violet. The Aetherstitch Binding Thread is used to facilitate the binding of runes or magical inlays onto flexible or unconventional surfaces such as fabrics, leather, rubber, segmented armor, prevents, or the interior layers of detachable items.

Further Effects: Allows runes to retain flexibility without distortion and prevent them from unraveling, thereby reducing energy loss during rapid movement or airborne shifts.

It was a great item, far more useful than the rune-binding thread Aodhán had bought for that exact purpose. He smiled and returned to the dialogue box. Everything was in place. All he had to do was collect Gwendolyn's pass and enter her code to pay for his order.

Yet he hesitated and eventually canceled the order summary interface. There was no need to leave now, not when he still had time to window shop. This was an opportunity he might not get again, at least not anytime soon. It would be foolish not to use it to its fullest advantage now that he could.

With that in mind, he scrolled to the treasures section and searched for "storm."

Immediately, a wide array of storm treasures appeared before him, each one either shifting like clouds, rumbling like thunder, rippling with lightning, or doing all three.

The list began from the common ranks, and although Aodhán glanced at each one curiously, he barely dug into their descriptions until he reached the rare rank, and a whole new world was opened to him.

A tempest core shard, the heart of a storm wyrm, storm glass of the arcane lake, gale heart of an advanced-class thunder Roc, quicksilver skyshard, pill of elemental lightning…

The list was unending. More and more items raced across his vision as he scrolled. Many of the items called to him, but Aodhán resisted their pull and continued scrolling, his eyes darting to the time at the bottom of the screen. However, when he reached the epic-ranked section, Aodhán found himself unable to resist any longer.

The treasures were just too good. The fifth heart of a half-step Mythic storm elemental, a sky binder bolt, a bottle of sentient lightning that, when bonded, increases a storm's awakened connection to the origin plane of storm…

There were so many hard-to-resist treasures, but by the time only six minutes were left on the timer, Aodhán had narrowed down the endless options to two.

The first was Bottled Storm's wrath—the energy and rage of a storm origin breach condensed into a bottle. The second was the Tempestrine Core—a translucent, rotating polyhedron humming with layered storm harmonics condensed from the breath of a half-step Mythic storm Archon in the black forest.

Aodhán would admit that it was the mention of the Black Forest that had drawn his attention at first, but then he'd read the treasure's description and just had to get the treasure after that.

The core had an absorption duration of 2 days in high-altitude or high-pressure environments—synchronizing the awakened core with higher-order storm laws, passively granting a 3.8–4.2% increase in storm control, ambient essence alignment, and insight into catastrophic storm formations.

Excited, Aodhán glanced at the price tag and… blanched!

Fifty Credits! For a single epic treasure?!

His gaze darted to the time at the bottom of the screen, and he gritted his teeth in frustration. He had only four minutes left. He needed to make a decision immediately, but fifty credits for a single treasure was too much.

That was fifty thousand gold coins. On the plus side, it meant this treasure was incredibly powerful, far above the rest of its ranks, whose average price range was 15 credits. The bottled storm's wrath was only slightly above average, costing 18 credits.

Aware of the little time he had left, Aodhán closed his eyes and added the two treasures to his order, feeling a pain in his chest for spending such a huge amount of money all at once. Gritting his teeth against the mental pain, he clicked the [BUY] icon, and the order summary reappeared before him, changed to accommodate his latest additions.

Grimacing, Aodhán clicked Yes and then looked to Gwendolyn to complete the payment. He shared his screen with her, and she scanned through his purchase list with a raised eyebrow.

"That's quite the purchase." She smiled at him. "I wonder what you would have done if I didn't have this amount in my pass."

Her words dragged him out of his annoyance, and he sighed. "Well, thank Raol you do."

Gwendolyn snorted and tapped the counter expectantly. Aodhán grimaced, the familiar pain in his chest returning as he pulled out his pouch of credits. With visible reluctance, he placed more than half of it on the counter at once.

The pain only intensified as he counted, but Daruk placed a hand on his shoulder and chuckled. "Come on, you should be smiling."

Aodhán scowled. "I don't know the meaning of that word. I'm dead inside."

Yurin, having already paid for his purchase, nodded grimly. "I want to tell you it gets better after a few minutes, but I'd be lying."

Aodhán's mood darkened further, and with an expression as dark as a storm cloud, he placed the 97th credit in a pile and pushed it towards Gwendolyn, who smiled widely and packed the credits into her spatial storage.

She approved the order instantly, and a notification pinged in Aodhán's mind.

Your order has been approved, and your items should arrive at the 5th Academy of Sector 5, Ragnarok, in four days. You will be notified as soon as your order arrives.

Aodhán read the notification and sighed heavily. "Why do I feel so broke?"

Andrew chuckled. "If it makes you feel better, we all spent roughly the same amount. We're all broke together."

"We need Professor Jorendil to give us another mission immediately," Yurin said.

Aodhán scoffed. "That's not happening. Even if it does, Principal Zatya will never let us go on another expedition with the tournament and selection trials this close."

The three of them sighed in unison, but Daruk shook them out of their depressive funk—literally. "I have no idea what's wrong with you guys. This isn't the time to mope but to celebrate. Besides, you're not broke. We each have about eighty credits left. That's eighty thousand gold coins. That's still a lot of money."

Aodhán frowned, then his expression lightened slightly. "When you put it that way... eighty credits is still serious money."

"Enough to live comfortably, at least." Yurin chuckled, his grin returning. "We should actually celebrate this."

"Absolutely." Daruk nodded enthusiastically. "Each of us has taken a significant step forward today, and in four days, we'll all gain something powerful. If that isn't cause for celebration, I don't know what is."

Aodhán imagined the Tempestrine core in his hands and couldn't suppress a grin. "A few drinks wouldn't hurt."

"Not at all," Andrew agreed.

Their spirits lifted, and after saying goodbye to Gwendolyn—who simply shook her head at their antics—they left the nature laboratory in high spirits, heading for the cafeteria, where they proceeded to get thoroughly drunk... on fruit wine.