633 Refining Part 1

"You may watch." Having answered him correctly, Zekhram had no choice other than agreeing to his request. The Soul Altar made the process different from the normal one, but considering he had known the general process, he should know how not to bother him.

"Alright." Alex nodded. "When are we going to start?"

There is still a half-day before we can begin."

"I will invite the other first. The process should only take a few hours, and I can use it once you have finished, right?" Alex asked this question to Zekhram and Atlas.

"Yes. You won't have a problem in using the Soul Altar right after." Zekhram nodded.

"There won't be a problem. Though I hope you can stop when I ask." Atlas added. 

"Don't worry. Getting another star alone is already enough for me." Alex nodded. Although it was such a shame that the energy had been depleted since he and the others might be able to advance to 3-Star if not 4-Star Martial Monarch had it not interfere with the Lightning Tribulation, Alex had no complaint even if he only got a slight improvement.

"Then, you may call your friends first."

Alex nodded. His schedule in this special realm was really packed to the brim. First, he wanted to watch this refining process before cultivating inside the Soul Altar. After that, he needed to go to Igor, learning about his secret technique. He also needed to create a Phoenix Seed again to hide his Pure Fire.

Then he needed to practice his Fire Authority before exterminating the Black Devil Sect and taking the Blood Gem with him. He would need to give the Blood Gem and solve the barrier. He might need to practice again to reach 5-Star Martial Monarch before coming to Heavenly Continent. 

He sighed once before creating a magic circle with a snap of his finger. He then disappeared.

As soon as he arrived inside the barrier again, Alex walked toward Sherry. 

Sherry and the others opened their eyes as if they had expected him to come. Sherry was the one to greet him. "Master. How is it? It's fine if we can't, and you should just put the message in the Inventory. You can like write it down and toss it inside."

"Haha… I have a Space Element, so I don't really need to do that. Besides, you can come with me to cultivate." Alex chuckled. He didn't say anything about the situation in the Soul Altar, especially the fact that he could enter 4-Star Martial Monarch if he cultivated there alone. It would just make Sherry and the others feel guilty.

"Really? That's great!" Sherry's thought was pure. She only wanted to get even stronger after achieving the Pure Fire level, wanting to ride this wave. 

Stina and Kyle exchanged looks first to come to an agreement before eventually nodding their heads. "Thank you for the opportunity, Master."

Sherry nodded with a smile. "When are we going, Master?"

"Right now." Alex thought for a moment and said. "Sherry also wants to explore the other races, right? It's your opportunity." 

Sherry was happy that Alex still thought about it. "Yes."

"Do you need time to prepare?" Alex asked as he looked at the trio.

"No. I don't have anything with me." Sherry shook her head.

"All of our staff is in the Inventory while the private staff is in Stina's Space Ring," replied Kyle while glancing at Stina. 

"Yes." Stina nodded. These two had been a couple for a few months already. Stina was quite conservative about it since she wanted Kyle to grow bigger first… Maybe at the level of Sherry.

Noticing that the three of them were ready, they turned into golden light before coming inside Alex's body as usual. Alex then created a teleportation array and disappeared.

All of this only took ten minutes, and when he arrived, Nelson and the others were still there.

Sherry and the others didn't come out first before Alex's called them out. They were afraid that their appearance would be a bother, but it was a different case if Alex was the one to call them. 

Zekhram and Atlas dropped their jaws when three people came out of Alex's body. They quickly noticed that these three were not human by seeing their fox ears, tail, or phoenix wing.

Alex thought for a moment and said, "As you see it right now, they are not a human like me. If you are asking whether they are acceptable in the outside world, the answer is no."

Zekhram and Atlas shook their heads. Although it was true that a flash of that thought appeared inside their mind, it was nothing but a pipe dream. Besides, their priority was to go home instead of lingering in this world that had shed so much blood of their brethren.

"There is nothing wrong with them cultivating in the Soul Altar even if they are not a human," Atlas confirmed it first before Alex asked.

Zekhram also warned him. "Though I can only allow you to watch the refining process. As much as I want it, I can't have more than one person to observe me since I might be disturbed." 

"Don't worry. I know how we need to concentrate when forging a weapon." Alex nodded with a smile.

"Then, we will meet in this place tomorrow. How about asking Atlas for a place to pass the time." Zekhram pointed his finger to Atlas.

"Sure. I will lead you to your personal rooms." Atlas nodded. They teleported to another place through the runes. Sherry furrowed her eyebrows for a second, but seeing Alex come in, she followed without hesitation. 

Surprisingly, Nelson only gave them two rooms as if they knew the relationship. Alex stayed with Sherry while Kyle was with Stina. Only Nelson seemed to have another job to do.

…

The next day, the rune also appeared right in front of their door. No one was actually sleeping yesterday, so they noticed this blue gate that suddenly appeared in their room.

Sherry and the others waited inside the throne room together with Atlas and Nelson while Alex followed Zekhram to the Soul Altar.

This might be the first time Alex looked at the Soul Altar from up close.

After going through Atlas's rune, they arrived in front of the Soul Altar. The Altar was made of a bronze-colored stone. He checked his knowledge about this and found out that the name was Silo Stone. This stone made up a majority of this Altar. It was a rank 6 stone, and he somehow remembered that this stone would release yellow miasma when it was mined. 

The mine that became the place to live for Dwarfs flashed in his mind. "Ah… So they mined this stone inside that… No wonder." 

Alex entered this cone-shaped Altar and found nothing underneath this giant tower except forging tools.

"There should be some equipment inside this tower, but it has lost its purpose, so Atlas removed it not long ago since I need to use it," Zekhram explained the reason behind this emptiness.

Alex nodded his head before retreating a few meters from him and leaning on the wall. "I will be watching you from here. Is that alright with you?"

"Yes." Zekhram nodded since Alex even removed his presence.

He began focusing on the weapons as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He placed the Sword on a metallic table. If Nelson were here, he would surely recognize this table as he had seen it in Zekhram's workshop.

Beside his table was a podium that held a blue orb on top of it. Zekhram placed his hand on it before blue lights began enveloping the orb.

Alex observed the orb carefully and noticed a single blue line running through the podium. It reached the group and activated the runes inside it. From that one single spot, the blue lines spread like wildfire before going through the Soul Altar's wall. 

"It is activating…" Alex felt it coming when the blue lines reached the wall. It caused a chain reaction as the blue lines inside the wall lit up completely.

He looked up while activating his Spirit Eyes and noticed there was a concentrated green aura on the top of the tower, specifically what he considered as a hat previously. 

That spot began shining and sent a single flash of light toward the Sword. Suddenly as if it had been awakened, a white light appeared and gradually turned into a dragon.

*Roar!*

The dragon roared and vibrated the entire Altar. There was no change of expression on Zekhram's face and just pinned the Sword down on the metal table.

A few white balls descended from the 'hat' and flew toward the dragon's mouth. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and realized what the white balls were. 'Is that a wisp of a soul? They look like the Sword and Spear consciousness I faced back then.'

The dragon ate those white balls until it roared once again. This was the signal for Zekhram to start his refining.

A bottle of blood suddenly appeared on his hand as he splashed it on the Sword. Zekhram touched the blood and made a pattern on the Sword. Alex couldn't recognize this pattern even with his knowledge, so he stored this rose-like pattern in his memory. 

At the same time, the dragon somehow felt the nourishment from the blood and let out another roar before starting to eat those souls again. It continued for a few minutes as the blood slowly got sucked into the Sword. 

Only after a few minutes, the dragon finished his meal and flew back to the Sword. Alex squinted his eyes as he saw Zekhram taking a red-colored metal out of his Space Ring. 

He put the metal on top of the Sword before inserting them into the furnace. The blazing red-colored flame engulfed these two as if it was alive and slowly heated it up to the melting point. 

After a few minutes, Zekhram took it out and hammered them a few times to fuse them. However, he put them back inside the furnace after only ten hits. 

Alex thought he could go longer, but he only had knowledge about it. The theory might not be applicable this time due to the Soul Altar. He kept waiting for three hours as Zekhram repeated the same thing over and over again.

'This is right. Forging is really repetition." Alex sighed, recalling how his teacher, Dean Marco, taught him forging. He kept hammering the metal again and again for a few hours, making him bored a little bit. It wasn't like the pills where he didn't need to take a long time. 

And only after another hour, Zekhram began the next step.