Chapter 160 - A Neutral Focus

Chapter 160: 160 - A Neutral Focus

Orven had spent so long bent over Umbral Root that Adrien had given up guessing what he would say. The artificer had traced every formation, marked where mana pooled along the grain, and tested how cleanly it steadied before handing it back.

"I know how it was built now, but that only tells me half of what I need. A casting focus isn’t useful because its formations look elegant on a table. I need to see what happens when you actually use it."

Adrien took the staff and kept mana flowing through the bond that held it manifested.

"What do you want me to cast?"

"Start with something simple. One spell you’re comfortable with, then something using a different affinity. Keep the scale low enough that I don’t have to rebuild my wall afterward."

Orven crossed to a reinforced testing plate at the far end of the workshop. Its iron face was pitted and scorched, and runes around the frame drank in stray mana.

Adrien raised Umbral Root and called up a Frost Lance. Aqua mana ran through the staff, gathered cleanly at its head, and hardened into a narrow spear of ice before he drove it into the plate. Orven ignored the target and followed the current through the wood instead.

"Again. Different affinity."

Adrien switched to Pyro without pause. A compact Fireball flared above the staff and streaked across the room, bursting against the same plate while the runes around it gulped down most of the heat.

"That transition was quick. Use something that requires sustained shaping instead of a direct release."

Adrien fed Aqua mana through Umbral Root again, letting it branch along a different path as Veil of Mist crept through the open half of the workshop.

The mist stayed thin enough to see through, yet thick enough that Adrien had to keep spreading it evenly. Orven stepped up to its edge and let the damp curl around his boots.

"Keep it active. Cast something else while you maintain it."

Adrien held the mist in place and turned to Zephyr. Mana gathered at the tip of Umbral Root, and a tight Zap cracked against the testing plate before fading.

"That’s enough. Dismiss the spells, but keep the staff manifested."

Adrien let the mist thin away and lowered Umbral Root. Amelia watched from beside a bench, arms folded, while Orven came back with his palm open.

"How many affinities can you actually use with that level of comfort?"

Adrien handed him the staff.

"Several. That’s why I care so much about the staff staying neutral."

Orven rolled Umbral Root once between his calloused hands and laid it across the workbench.

"That changes the problem considerably. Most Mages who reach the point of commissioning a high-rank focus have already narrowed themselves. Their strongest affinity becomes the center of everything else they do."

He pressed his thumb to a carved section and frowned at what he felt.

"At B-Rank, neutrality is common enough. Once you move into A and S, specialization becomes tempting. You can make a Frost focus channel Aqua more efficiently, stabilize cold-based shaping, and reinforce every formation around the same purpose."

Adrien eyed the staff on the bench.

"And then Pyro suffers."

"It would. Maybe not enough to make Fireball impossible, but enough that you would feel resistance every time you used it. The staff would be exceptional at one thing and increasingly mediocre outside its design."

Frost still dripped from a blackened scorch on the testing plate. Orven stared at it, and Adrien could tell he had stopped judging the staff as it was and started weighing what it ought to become.

"For most Mages, that is a good trade. They gain more from strengthening their best magic than they lose from weakening spells they rarely use. For you, it would be stupid."

Amelia unfolded her arms.

"So Vael was right when he said replacing it might be easier than improving it properly."

"He was right about the difficult part. Making this staff stronger is not complicated. I could increase output, reinforce the channel, or bias it toward one affinity and call the result an upgrade."

Orven laid two fingers against the middle of Umbral Root.

"But then I would be destroying the reason he sent you here. Whoever made this focus knew exactly what they were doing. Nothing inside it is exceptional by itself, but every part supports the others."

Adrien had reached the same conclusion before stepping inside, and hearing it from Orven told him his caution had been worth it.

"What would you preserve if you rebuilt it?"

"Everything worth keeping. Its response when manifested. Its casting speed. The way it supports control instead of forcing mana through too aggressively. The low loss during shaping. Most importantly, the neutral core of the channel."

Orven tilted the staff toward the window light, testing the idea.

"If I take this toward S-Rank, I want you able to move from Frost to Pyro to Zephyr exactly as you did just now without the focus fighting you. The numbers should improve. The behavior should not change."

That was all Adrien had wanted from the start, and some of the tension left his shoulders.

"If that can be done, then I don’t care whether the result is less specialized than another S-Rank focus."

"Then we finally know what we’re building instead of merely deciding the old version needs a higher rank."

Orven passed Umbral Root back, and Adrien dismissed it into his Inventory. The familiar drain on his Core vanished with it, and the workshop fell quiet after so much spellcasting.

The artificer cleared the middle of the workbench again, brushing aside shavings and a cold soldering iron.

"Now show me the other reason Vael sent you here. I want to see the Heartroot Crystal before I decide what can actually be done."

Adrien reached inward toward the material he kept apart from his equipment.

"Vael said it came from the Ancient Tree itself. He believed it could adapt without forcing the focus toward a single affinity."

"That is what genuine Heartroot Crystal can do under the right conditions. Whether yours is suitable, and whether there is enough of it, are different questions."

Mana gathered around Adrien’s hand as he began drawing the material out of his Inventory. Orven moved the last of his tools aside, far more gently than before.

"All right. Let’s see what you actually brought me."