After letting Arelion go, Alyx sat to take a break. It had been a long day with lots of work, and he wanted to settle his mind before contacting Max. Speaking of Max, Alyx was still in shock about the conversation he had with the dragon the night before. In fact, as he thought back on it, at least skipping the pleasantries, the entire thing still boggled his mind. He couldn't even begin to comprehend how the dragon planned to create his own World Crystal, even if his friend had given him a few ideas.

  “Well, I want to see if I can create my own World Crystal,” The dragon had told him.

  It had taken a second for Alyx to register the dragon’s word, and as he processed the insanity of the statement, the gnome's eyes had widened, his mouth slowly dropping open, until finally, he had erupted.

  “Wwwhaaatttt!?!?”

  Hearing his outburst, Max had just smiled at him in amusement and had waited for Alyx to get himself together, something the gnome had quickly done as his curiosity overcame the shock he had felt.

  “Are you serious!?!? How would that even work!? No, how do you even start!? The World Crystal has so many functions! No one even knows how they are made! Oh gods! Do you even-” At that moment, Alyx’s eyes widen further as his last words sent a thought so shocking through his mind that it halted him entirely as he threw away all previous questions for one much more important one.

  “Do they know?” Alyx began, referring to his and Max’s goddesses, then clarity hit him. “What am I saying!? Of course, they know. Does that mean-?” Alyx suddenly stopped, not wanting to bring the words into existence as he looked at Max for further confirmation on everything he had asked so far, knowing the dragon had easily kept up with his rapid-fire.

  “Hmm, where to start?” Max started giving Alyx a teasing smile as he began to wander around the gnome's room as a stalling tactic.

  For his part, Alyx knew what the dragon was trying to do, and he grabbed the nearest book, then gave a quick glance to make sure it wasn't something important, and he threw it at the dragon. Of course, Maxkalin had easily dodged, not that it had mattered, since it had just been an illusion; still, the action had finally gotten the dragon to answer Alyx’s questions.

  “Honestly, I am not sure how it would work. As you have stated, no one really knows where World Crystals come from or how they are made, so there isn’t much to start with. That being said, I plan to start by looking into Aberrations and the Realms, considering they have the most obvious ways to alter World Crystals.”

  “Alright, that makes sense. Eldritch Gods eat them, and the Monarchs are capable of corrupting them; even so, that’s quite the starting point. How do you even plan to do anything with those two?” Alyx said, speaking out loud to rationalize things and to see if his guess was correct.

  “Indeed, however, I will keep any further details to myself. Now, as for your other set of questions. Yes, those two know what I am up to, but they have not said a single word about it and are basically ignoring me at this point. However, as we both know, they are probably incredibly curious, just trying to make sure they don’t get our World Crystal angry by getting into things gods have no business meddling with.”

  “Makes sense, and considering you don’t want to say anything else, how about we get back to what I actually called you for?” Alyx had told the dragonkin rather reluctantly as he had switched to the topic of Tesilim. Not that Maxkalin had ended up saying much. The dragon had instead instructed Alyx to perform the various rituals, and then, when he checked the results, he would offer Alyx some advice. Of course, Alyx had done just that, and now he was relaxing until he felt ready to contact his friend.

  When he finally felt ready to contact Max, all it took was pressing a rune, and not too long after, the draconic figure appeared in his room.

  “Hey Alyx, I assume the rituals went well?” Maxkalin asked, getting straight to the point.

  “Yes, everything went fine, we ended up getting lots of data, but let me start with the fact that…” Alyx began explaining all the rituals and their results, pointing out a few key details.

  To begin with, Alyx reviewed the results of each ritual and explained that, for the most part, Tesilim was relatively normal. Obviously, this didn't include anything regarding his special circumstances. However, outside of this, his friend's soul was as strong and durable as anyone else's. There were no unusual links or other deviations beyond what they had already expected. Even during the testing periods, when they essentially dissected an image of his soul and tested it for reactions against intrusion, among other things, his friend's soul acted normally.

  The problem with this was that his soul wasn't normal. Alright, it was normal, but the fact that it had Chaos Mana within changed everything. After all, though they tested the soul, they could not touch the Chaos Mana. They simply did not have the power to simulate the possible outcomes of its involvement.

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  A massive example of this was necromancy. From their tests, if Tesilim's soul was taken by a necromancer in order to create a powerful undead or even help control weaker undead, it would be fine. The thing was that the test wasn't counting the Chaos Mana, which might explode after leaving his soul for all they knew. Same thing if the soul followed the more natural cycle, would the soul disperse, releasing all the Chaos Mana, or would the gods intervene?

  Basically, they didn’t know what might happen when his friend's special mana was involved. Of course, that then moved Alyx to the next two crucial points. The first was regarding Tesilim's change of being. His friend had been human, or at least he claimed to have been human, and at this point, Alyx had no choice but to believe him. With this in mind, he explained to Max that if he was indeed now an elf, specifically a Chaos Elf, then that meant all things chaos, and as the system indicates, were Tesilim’s abilities. This was similar to a Forest or Dark Elf, with perks based on their heritage.

  Moving on from the problems that might occur due to Chaos Mana, Alyx got to the reason why they were there in the first place. He told Max all the information he had gathered about the link between Tesilim and Drex. How stable the link was and the ability for them to transfer mana through the link, even if it was incredibly limited after Drex was summoned. Alyx also explained how they could send messages and even visit each other's Soul Realm through the link. Finally, Alyx added that the link had been much more restricted at first, and Tesilim had increased its capabilities, leading to the previously mentioned bonuses.

  Upon finishing his rant about the many things that he had learned through the rituals, the gnome simply watched Max as he walked back and forth, still deep in thought. Annoyingly, the dragon’s walk continued for several more minutes, and as much as Alyx wanted to interrupt, he held himself back. One thing he knew not to do was to interrupt a researcher when they were deep in thought, as it could provoke their wrath and break the flow of thought, which might have led to an epiphany.

  “I will say that this is quite the interesting stuff you're looking at,” Maxkalin finally said, his pondering stroll slowing down as he now paid more attention to the gnome. However, for his part, Alyx said nothing and only stared expectantly at his friend, who continued in the tone of a teacher giving a lecture as they gave opinions, agreeing or disagreeing with the results of a recently completed project.

  “I don’t have much to say regarding the normal tests, as I agree with the fact that most of it is meaningless since it doesn’t involve Chaos Mana. That said, the questions regarding how his soul and mana would interact upon death are intriguing but rather hard to test, so I will leave that to you to ponder, considering it is not what you contacted me for. As for the Chaos Elf having been a human, well, yes, I agree with your doubts, but as you yourself noted, the World Crystal is not a typical god-like entity. Also, yes, his powers must definitely be the boons he receives as a Chaos Ef, especially since this system itself confirms it, and said system is powered by magic related to the World Crystals. Moving from this and the thing you actually called me for, his link to the drake and the elevation of the drake’s soul.”

  Alyx was thankful that Max paused momentarily, as it let him process all the things the dragon had said. And even if Alyx wanted Max to share more about specific topics, he understood that he was only there for the soul issue. Plus, it's not like Alyx was mad, as it was more for him to look into. At the very least, he was happy the dragon agreed with the points he had made, as it helped confirm that he had done a good job with his research. Still, there was the main issue at hand, and after a minute, Max began again, this time his tone much more serious.

  “From what you've told me, it seems that the World Crystal did a good job at stabilizing the link. Not only that, but it also allows for more growth between your friend and his summon. However, with all the information that you have given me, the one concern I have is the recent developments that the link has gone through, thus increasing the bond between the drake and the elf.”

  “What kind of concerns? Also, isn’t a stronger bond better?” Alyx asked, more interested in Max’s concern, as he already knew the answer to the second question, but had asked anyway to ensure he was on the right track.

  “In a way, a stronger bond is better; however, as you well know, that bond will work both ways. Hence my concerns. Whereas before any changes to the drake’s soul might have had some impact on the elf, that impact would have been minor, as they were mostly two separate entities. Now, though, any changes to the drake’s soul while elevating it might bring unprecedented changes to your friend's soul.”

  “I don’t want to derail this, but does that mean it will be possible to elevate Drex’s soul?” Alyx asked, excited about the future possibilities as well as the good news he might give his friends.

  “Oh yes, as I said, the World Crystal left things stable and rather open to allow for a few paths. One possibility is to merge the soul back together, which might eliminate the drake. However, another is as you have asked, and it will be possible to introduce the cycle into the drake’s soul.”

  “Awesome! What would we need to make it happen!?” Alyx practically shouted in excitement as he got ready to continue writing down everything the dragon said.

  “Well, currently, the drake has no actual body or vitality. Sure, he has a summoned one and can bleed, but it's just for effect, and in truth, he is closer to a summoned construct of sorts than an actual living being. Also, his soul is doing most of the controlling when he is out and about since he doesn’t have a brain. So, to remedy all of this, we would need four things.”

  Maxkalin paused for effect, getting a glare from Alyx.

  “For one, we will need a powerful Mind attuned item, which should help in the creation of a brain and thus store all his mental processes. Two, there would also be a need for an item with great Vitality or Life energy. Naturally, this would be used to give the drake’s body proper life. Now the last two are probably the two most important. One is some sort of material related to the drake, something like a dragon's or wyvern's scale; either way, the item needs to be powerful, as it will be what holds the energy of the previous two together to form the body. Then, finally, there will need to be something to ensure the essence of the drake isn’t lost, and thus causing him to become something else. And funnily enough, this will be the easiest to find, as Tesilim’s Chaos Mana is probably the best to ensure the Chaos Drake stays a Chaos entity.