Grey didn’t know why he hadn’t expected Barkeep Ji to follow them, but he had.

Of course, the treasure he was talking about was the very same one that was stopping them from using spatial elements right now. As for its location, it was the very same teleportation platform he had been hearing so much about.

It looked quite similar to the platform he had seen under the control of the Valdi: a stone with circuits etched into its body. Of course, these circuits were somewhat different, Grey just hadn’t quite figured out how.

He had never studied them in real detail before.

Plus, there was something changing the purpose of this teleportation platform as well. At the center of it, there was an orb implanted into the ground, radiating a glowing reddish aura.

This was the treasure that was keeping Thi Lan and her land "safe".

By restricting space, the aliens couldn’t freely teleport everywhere, and would have a much harder time reaching the main city.

Thi Lan could have used this opportunity to hide, but instead she had chosen to fight on the front lines, using the feedback this item gave in order to feel where enemies were entering from and going off to deal with them.

It was quite the valiant effort. Grey hadn’t said anything, but he deeply respected it.

He crouched down and ran a hand over the circuits, his gaze flickering as he felt small jolts of electricity.

He could remember this feeling all too well. Back when his Producers stiffed him out of a Nexis Suit, this was about the only way he could interact with the Genesis System.

Getting up, he walked forward and touched the orb.

—

Name: Silent Restraint

Rarity: Mythic

Accepted Type: N/A

Rejected Type: N/A

Description: An item of defensive measure and great power. Using a teleportation platform as a foundation, place this item as its core and use its range as a marker for a spatial defensive barrier.

—

Simple, straightforward, true.

But there was no Class attached to it. That was interesting.

The only time Grey had ever seen something like that was when it was a Proving Class item. Could a Proving Class item be so powerful? Or...

’This item is a modifier. Its strength isn’t dependent on it, it’s dependent on the teleportation platform it’s attached to. Which means...’

Space worked very oddly here. The church restrained the use of spatial items heavily because of their relation to the Fog of Chaos.

Usually, the higher the concentration of space, the more involved the Fog of Chaos became.

Grey had a feeling that that was related to the vision of the blackhole he had seen in the Paladin Trial. There were probably very few things that could influence space more than a blackhole, if anything at all for that matter.

That was to say that the teleportation platform here had to play a game of balance. It couldn’t be too powerful or else the Fog of Chaos would go wild. But it couldn’t be too weak either, otherwise the Fog of Chaos would stop any attempt to teleport in the first place.

That perfect and fine balance resulted in what they saw here.

Grey had half expected to find some faulty or broken item, but it wasn’t. As far as he could tell, Thi Lan had gotten a good item.

The restriction here was the teleportation platform itself. It was too weak to do much more than what Grey had already seen it do.

It didn’t even stop his One Line Vessel properly. It just slowed it down, causing them to fall short of their target. That essentially meant that if Grey had really wanted, he could have set his One Line Vessel for a target far beyond the city, and then calculated a trajectory that would land him there.

If one of Thi Lan’s enemies figured that out—or more likely, this mysterious sponsor told them—then it wouldn’t be long before all of Thi Lan’s efforts were wasted.

Here she was handicapping herself while her enemies were probably soon to be running amok.

If Grey was right, they were probably saving that one for the "climax" of their little show whenever Thi Lan’s entertainment had finally run dry.

Thi Lan was smart. The sponsors knew that. In order to get her to fall for their traps, a lot of what they gave her had to be real.

Which also meant that...

’This can be used if I can figure out how to make this teleportation platform as strong as it should be. But to do that, I need to be able to tell the Fog of Chaos to fuck off. How the hell do I do that?’

Grey could control the Fog of Chaos to an extent, but his power alone obviously wasn’t enough to clear out an entire zone’s region. That was ridiculous.

He felt 100% confident he could improve these circuits. All he had to do was feed it through Prometheus and pump in enough Cyber Cores to finish the job.

But improving it without having a method to deal with the Fog of Chaos would be like sharpening a blade that was hilt deep in your body. It’d be worse than shooting themselves in the foot.

The Fog of Chaos would go crazy, the platform would be destroyed, and then there wouldn’t be anything for the orb to be used on.

No defensive barrier and an army of aliens at their doorstep.

Yet, despite the challenges, Grey’s eyes had begun to glow with potential solutions. He bent down again, his hand passing across once then twice.

Every pass came with another jolt of electricity.

And then his mind landed on the circuits of Giyoto’s armor again.

’... The gnomes already figured this out... didn’t they...?’

In that case, all Grey had to do was be the exact sort of mech tech Giyoto had needed him to be.

He needed to complete that armor.

But here, alone, and without a mech soul.

"Nobody bother me. Amunet, the defense is on you and Thi Lan. Just give me... a day. Maybe two.

"I’ve got this."

Grey wasn’t sure if he "had this" at all.

But he knew for damn sure that he had no choice but to, so he also knew for damn sure he’d do it.