After working a bit on the liquid metal, Terry began to use it by himself trying to forge a simple knife. He had learned water, fire and earth manipulation already, so he could do something like that. Still, the final result was something that couldn’t even be called a knife.

"I guess I am not skilled enough... not even my powers recognize it," Terry thought. "Still, the materials could be the cause of this now."

Terry still had some time to do some other tests with the materials that he had, but in the end, it didn’t work even once. In the end, he decided to wait for a bit longer until they reached the other portal and for now, he began to focus on his secret projects.

Around the time finished his daily routine, he found Rebecca and Vanessa leaving the tunnel, they didn’t look that tired, but they looked quite troubled. Still, things weren’t like Terry imagined it would be.

"Sorry, Terry. We can’t stay in that world anymore, even for a single minute," Rebecca declared and Vanessa nodded several times.

"Okay... can I hear why?" Terry asked, visibly surprised. "I don’t remember you guys refusing a job."

"Because of this!" Vanessa and Rebecca showed their hands and showed a bunch of strands of hair, it looked like theirs. "That place is hellish and the wind and the heat make us lose hair like crazy!"

"... You guys don’t refuse missions where you can lose you life, but you refuse when you are losing hair?" Terry asked. "Is that where you draw the line?"

"Yes, this is serious stuff for girls," Rebecca said.

Terry had so many things to say about that, but he didn’t think that it was worth the effort, so he just decided to ignore that.

"All right, good work, get some rest weary warriors," Terry said. "I will deal with the materials."

Those two left the building and headed to their homes. While he was working, Terry thought about what he should do about that... they didn’t have to deal with overlord now since the meat of the wolves still could be used for food. As long as they deal with the monsters on their side, that dungeon wasn’t of that much danger.

"Things are calm now, but I guess I can’t relax... I should use this peace to prepare further, even if that costs a bit of my health," Terry thought.

With that in mind, Terry produced a lot of the liquid metal and delivered it to Clark the other day. The blacksmith was thankful for it, but he saw how exhausted Terry looked. He could tell what was one of the materials necessary to make that now, but he didn’t want to ask out loud and confirm it.

"It seems that you are pushing yourself as well, guild master," Clark said while showing a troubled expression. "We are making progress now, but I think that you will collapse at this rate."

"Don’t worry about me," Terry said. "What have you managed to do so far?"

Clark didn’t say anything, but he showed the first prototype. Terry felt a bit of energy returning to his body when he saw what the weapon could do... it was only the first stage, but Clark already showed a bit of results.

"Following your idea, I began to work on some drawings for the weapon, it was a bit difficult to make the liquid behave like you want, but I found a trick to do that," Clark explained. "I just need to work fast and have enough of the metal liquid to complete all of the stages. Still, do you really want all those stages? In one week I probably can finish the fifth, but any more than that, we will need a lot more materials, more than you can make daily."

"We all have to make some sacrifices, so don’t worry about that," Terry said.

"... I will try to scrap these prototypes as much as possible to help you with that since you don’t want anything aside from the final product, right?" Clark asked.

"Yep, it will be a waste of time to enhance the prototypes anyway," Terry said.

"All right," Clark said while thinking that telling Terry to ask for help would be a good idea, but he would have to give some explanations to Rebecca and Vanessa.

Clark felt a bit troubled while watching Terry leave the building. While he was much younger, Terry was carrying a lot on his shoulders.

Once the meeting was over, Terry decided to take a quick nap and then summon more skeletons to work on the tunnels. However, as soon as he woke up three hours later, he received a message from a guild member telling that Rebecca and Vanessa were waiting for him in the communications room. That couldn’t be a good sign...

"Just like when I decided to work hard and accept some risks," Terry thought and then sighed.

Terry entered the communications room, his footsteps echoing in the dimly lit space. As he walked in, he noticed Rebecca and Vanessa huddled around a holographic display, their brows furrowed in concern. The low hum of the machinery filled the room, creating an atmosphere of tension.

His gaze was drawn to the hologram that materialized before them. Louis, the source of many of their recent troubles, stood with his arms crossed, his expression unusually grave. The hologram projected his figure, capturing his features with remarkable clarity. His stern countenance conveyed a seriousness that seemed out of character for him.

Terry’s jaw clenched as he locked eyes with the holographic representation of Louis. The history between them was one of strained interactions and mistrust. Whatever reason had brought Louis into this conversation, Terry couldn’t help but feel a surge of annoyance at his presence.

"I am already getting tired of your gaze, so I will be straight to the point," Louis said. "The other guild masters found traces that the assassin came from the South and from a weird group that emerged recently. I told them to wait for a meeting, but they went there to avenge their friends."