Ash rummaged through his personal storage ring for a few seconds, until finally, he hauled out a small coffee-pot sized cylinder of metal. It had a control panel on the side with blinking, square lights and an open top.

  “A wilting furnace,” said Ash. “For producing tinctures out of Aes-herbs. However…it should work for melting down technique cards too.”

  “Through the metal and everything?” Jace asked.

  “If it can make an ever-tree’s veins burst and channels open, then it can melt a little soldering wire.”

  Jace glanced at Kinfild skeptically, but it was Lessa who whispered, “There are some trees that can feed on Aes and grow stronger that way, and they get to a point of enhancing their bodies.”

  “With attributes, like a Wielder,” Kinfild added.

  Lessa handed him their storage ring, and he placed it down on the ledge. They perched on an outcropping overlooking the crust-lift’s main structure, with an old railing on one side and a stairway leading down around the edge of the chamber on the other side.

  Jace opened the storage ring and retrieved all the cards they’d accumulated over the past few days. “Last call for anyone,” he said. “Otherwise we’re gonna melt them down.”

  Lessa grinned. “Couldn’t keep any if I tried.”

  Kinfild shook his head. “Nothing compatible.”

  Jace glanced over at Ash, who was tapping the control panel of the wilting furnace and blowing dust out of the main chamber. “Ash?”

  “My abilities are quite limited in scope,” said the man. “Not in power, but there are few cards that function with my Path.” After a few seconds, the furnace burst to life with a whommmpf, and a ring of blue flame emerged behind a grate at the bottom of the furnace. “And it is ready.”

  Jace and Lessa shovelled handfuls of technique cards into the furnace. They began melting almost immediately, but each card turned into only a dribble of liquid material at the bottom, threatening to sizzle off into vapour.

  By the time they filled the furnace and melted all the cards, there was a five-centimeter deep puddle at the bottom of the furnace. It was shiny and silver-gold, but more transparent than mercury. Flecks of bright yellow energy floated in the liquid, giving it a foggy glow, and charred debris floated to the top, which Ash scooped off with a black steel ladle.

  Jace unsocketed the Questforger card and handed it to Lessa. “What…do we need to do to reforge it?”

  She’d enhanced the card five times. Before reforging, it read: [Technique description: Once every twenty (20) minutes, seeks out a desired target within a thousand (1,000) miles and creates a subquest. Forges a guiding needle for ten (10) minutes. Enhances range of user’s spiritual senses by five (5) times. Technique range scales with Resistance.]

  It was already pretty good, but they needed to make it exponentially better.

  “We don’t want to melt the card, so we’ll have to be quick,” Lessa said. She held it up to the light—the blue glow of the crust-lift’s machinery and the flickering light of the furnace’s blaze. “Uh…hm. Can’t do this with my bare hands…”

  Ash reached into his storage ring and produced a pair of tongs, made of rusty black steel, just like the ladle. “Use these. They’ll withstand the heat. They are made of a battleship’s main furnacesteel. But don’t break them, young lady.”

  She took them graciously, then gripped the technique card. “Should be just…like this.”

  As she approached the furnace, she held them out like she was getting close to a pan of sputtering oil. Then, for only a single second, she dipped the card in.

  When it came out, the plastic was soft, and the wires and runes glowed red-hot. She held out her hand, and Jace passed her the engraving needle. She etched a single rune in the center, then dropped the card and scrambled back.

  “Are you alright?” Jace whispered.

  “Just watch.”

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  The furnace swelled, and a bubble of the melted card material rose up. It expanded higher than the brink of the furnace, then spilled out in a glug and chased after the dropped questforger card.

  The melted card material spewed out then smashed down on the Questforger card with an explosion of sparks and light. All the liquid spilled out of the furnace. Ash bumped it from a distance with his ladle, and it shut off.

  The sparks and flashing continued for a few seconds, but they began to dim soon after, and the card stopped glowing. Slowly, Lessa’s grin faded.

  “It was a legendary-grade card before, yes?” Ash asked.

  “Yeah,” Jace replied.

  “We’ll…we’ll need more material for a Legendary card…” Lessa breathed. “Curse the Split, I didn’t—I’ve never even thought about reforging rates with a more powerful card. Jace, do you have any other cards?”

  “He doesn’t have enough arcane material to make up the difference no matter what,” Ash said.

  Jace swallowed. It was going to fail, and they’d lose all the progress they’d made in these past few days?

  He couldn’t let that happen.

  “Arcane material?” he asked, then yanked his backpack open. He tugged out the Vault Core and a few of the accumulator nodes. “How much? These have to have something, and the Vault Core isn’t really useful anymore.”

  Lessa chewed her lip. “Two nodes and the Vault Core should do the trick.”

  Jace tossed them unceremoniously into the sparking, sputtering concoction, but the reaction was already dimming down. “It’s too late.”

  “Not yet,” Kinfild said. He tapped his staff, then conjured a technique card at the tip of his staff and jabbed it. A bar of flame shot out, scorching the card and reigniting the reaction. The sparks doubled, and in an instant, the Vault Core and the accumulator nodes melted, then joined the odd solution.

  At first, they formed a puddle around the card, but, like they were being slurped up by a straw, they fed into the card and fuelled it.

  When the sparks and light finally faded, after about a minute, there was no more melted card material or metallic, accumulator node solution. It’d…vanished, leaving only a black char on the floor and a shiny new technique card in its place.

  The playing-card sized rectangle had rounded corners and sharp sides, though it was slightly bluer, as if taking on a quality of hyperspace Aes itself. It had no more runes or wires in it, and though the central tag of metal was still present, it was shinier silver, and it had no runes on it.

  As Jace stared at it, a new tag appeared above it. [Technique Card: Questforger (Mythic) (Curse) (Compatible Class: Hyperspace Hunter) (Compatible Aspects: Hyperspace)]

  He focussed on it until he could discern its new description. [Technique description: (Reforged) Activates the technique Questforger, and multiplies ability effects by four (4).]

  Four thousand miles. About half what they needed it to be.

  He glanced at Lessa, but she said, “Don’t worry. I’ll just enhance it one more time.”

  But, the longer he stared at it, a new message appeared below. [One (1) additional potential identified.]

  “Additional potential?” he whispered. “What…?” He pushed with intent, mentally willing the sheets to show him what it meant by that.

  It only said, [Additional potential grade: weak. Use card more to identify.]

  “I take it the card has received an additional potential?” Kinfild asked.

  “Yeah,” said Jace. “What does that mean?”

  “It means the card might take on an extra effect,” said Ash. He held out his hand and unsocketed one of his own cards. It was a pale green sheet of plastic with a vast scripture of runes down its front face. The central metal tag had an opening in its center, which swirled with bright turquoise Aes.

  The card shimmered, just like Jace’s reforged Questforger card and Kinfild’s reforged card.

  As Jace watched, the name and description appeared above it. [Technique Card: Ranger of the Old Kingdom (Mythic) (Utility) (Compatible Class: Absorption Ranger) (Compatible Aspects: Repeller, Tractor-Beam)]

  “You’re a ranger?” Jace asked.

  “It is a common classification for Watchmen,” said Ash. “Check the card’s description.”

  [Technique description: (Reforged) Activates the technique Ranger of the Old Kingdom]—which, when Jace focussed on it, expanded into a greater description of the sub-ability: the user could lock onto a specified target and pull them in with a tractor-beam-like ability—[and multiplies ability effects by three (3). Additional effect: resonates with the user’s Whistling Blade and pulls blade into target.]

  Jace passed the card back to Ash. “I see. What…kind of ability would mine get?”

  “It depends on the materials you reforge with it,” Lessa said. “Regular cards? Nothing.”

  “I reforged this card with Whistling Glass,” said Ash.

  “So…what would a Vault Core do for the Questforger card?” Jace breathed. No one answered though, and he figured that was something he’d have to learn himself.

  So, while Lessa worked on one more enhancement (and Ash noted how tidy her runes were), Jace concentrated on practicing with his fortification technique. It kept his system active , allowing Lessa to see the necessary runes, and allowed her to add an additional enhancement on top of the card.

  As soon as she finished, Jace checked the description. Sure enough, her enhancement to the reforged card had nearly doubled its capacity—now, the reforging covered eight times the original effect.

  Jace held up the card and grinned. “Let's see, then. Eight thousand miles…should give me enough range on most terrestrial planets. We should find the center of the dungeon in no time.”