Word of the Cube spread through camp faster than John expected. Within minutes, Jibril, Azelis, and Yuna had all gathered on the Forging Island, drawn by Chuthulos’s excited chatter about first attempts and textures nobody had names for yet.
The island itself looked different with all of them standing on it together, black metal rings still turning slowly overhead, runework drifting lazy patterns of violet light across the ground like reflections off water that didn’t exist.
"So it’s not tied to you specifically?" Jibril asked, turning the small cube over in her own hands without any resistance from it at all.
"That’s the strange part," John said. "Chuthulos, walk them through it properly. You explained it better than I did the first time."
Chuthulos puffed up with the particular pride of someone who’d been waiting all morning for exactly this cue. His small hands folded together, eyes glimmering with tiny reflected stars.
"I undersold this the first time," he admitted. "Let me do it properly."
"Every Eldritch Gear has layers," Chuthulos said. "We call them Gear Forms. First Gear and Second Gear exist in every properly crafted gear. A Third Gear only manifests when the crafting itself was exceptional, and exceptional is not a word I use lightly."
"And these three qualify?" John asked.
"One of them, without question," Chuthulos said. "The other two, we’re still finding out."
He counted the layers off on his fingers. "First Gear grants a major boost across every stat and unlocks two signature skills. Second Gear pushes the boost further and manifests a Domain, a bounded space where the gear reshapes the rules around you. Third Gear triggers a Symbiotic Transformation. The wielder and the gear stop being two separate things for as long as it lasts."
"And it all runs on vitality," John said, remembering the last lesson well enough not to need it repeated.
"Every drop," Chuthulos confirmed. "Try to remember that before you get excited."
...
He activated First Gear with a thought, and the Cube answered instantly, warmth spreading up through his arm and settling into his chest like a second heartbeat starting alongside his own.
[Eldritch Gear: The Cube of First Choice]
[First Gear: Kinship Awakening]
[Vitality Cost: 15%, five-minute duration]
[Stat Boost: All stats +100% while active]
[Skill One: Borrowed Choice. Select a willing Monster. For sixty seconds, the wielder or a chosen ally can transform that Monster into a weapon of choice and design by the user.]
[Skill Two: Echoing Bond. Channel a portion of the wielder’s own strength directly into a willing ally, doubling its potency in transit.]
"Alright, big guy," John said, turning to Alfred with a grin already spreading. "Let’s see what you’d look like as a warhammer."
Alfred huffed once, tail wagging, and the moment John’s will reached for him through the Cube, his whole body unraveled into streaming ruinlight, folding down and reforming in John’s outstretched hand as a massive, dark warhammer wreathed faintly in Alfred’s own crimson eyes along the haft.
’This is extremely strange,’ Alfred’s voice noted from somewhere inside the weapon, sounding more curious than bothered. ’I can still see everything. Please don’t hit anything soft.’
John swung it once, testing the impossible weight of it, and the training post didn’t just shatter this time. It vaporized outright, leaving nothing behind but scorched grass and a faint ringing silence.
"Two skills," Chuthulos said, delighted. "And that’s still only the surface, brother John."
...
Second Gear felt different the moment John reached for it, less like drawing on a reserve and more like opening a door he hadn’t known was there.
[Eldritch Gear: The Cube of First Choice]
[Second Gear: Domain — Circle of Kinship]
[Vitality Cost: 40%, two-minute duration]
[Stat Boost: All stats +150% for the wielder, extended to every willing ally inside the Domain]
[Effect: A five-kilometer radius domain forms around the wielder. Willing allies inside share pooled strength freely. Any presence bound by coercion or force is actively weakened.]
Light didn’t just bloom outward this time. It rolled across the entire paradise at once, washing over every island John could see and several he couldn’t, a shimmering gold horizon rising up in every direction until it looked like the sky itself had lowered to meet the ground.
Every Monster caught inside it lit up at once, strength pooling and redistributing freely between them. Terravax rose fully out of the pool, moving like something half his age. Far across the water, John felt Starry’s three sons bank harder and faster than they’d ever flown before, caught up in the same wave without needing to understand why.
Near the domain’s edge, the freed wolf-beast lingered exactly where he’d been standing, and the golden light hesitated there too, refusing to press in on him even slightly.
"It’s not forcing him," Jibril said quietly, understanding it before anyone explained.
"It never will," John said. "Not even at five kilometers wide."
...
Third Gear was Chuthulos’s idea, and the second the words left his mouth, John could tell he half regretted suggesting it.
"You don’t have to," Chuthulos said. "This one might genuinely hurt."
"When has that ever stopped either of us," John said, and reached for it anyway.
[Eldritch Gear: The Cube of First Choice]
[Third Gear: Symbiotic Transformation — The Convergence Avatar] (RARE)
[Vitality Cost: 70% instantly, continuous drain while sustained]
[Stat Boost: All stats x3]
[Effect: The wielder can eat and absorb any calm or volatile energy and adopt it to create Eldritch Phantoms containing their power. A phantom lasts until the Third Gear form ends or until the phantom itself is destroyed.]
Pain hit first, sharp and total, vitality tearing loose from somewhere far deeper than muscle. His skin split along invisible seams of violet light, not wounding him so much as unfolding him, three overlapping silhouettes bleeding up through his own outline at once.
"Rexion," John said through gritted teeth, "hit me with everything you’ve got. Don’t hold back."
Rexion didn’t hesitate, unleashing a torrent of molten breath straight at his chest, and John opened his mouth and simply ate it, the fire folding down into his outstretched palm instead of scorching him at all.
Where the fire had been, a translucent shape peeled itself off his hand and stood upright, a rough echo of Rexion built entirely from captured flame, eyes burning where a real dragon’s eyes would be.
"Holy shit," Yuna breathed. "You just made a fire ghost."
’A dragon ghost,’ the phantom corrected, voice crackling like a bonfire, and everyone stared at it a little harder.
John lasted less than thirty seconds before the drain caught up with him all at once, vitality bottoming out hard enough that his knees buckled the moment the form released him, phantom dissolving back into harmless embers on the grass.
Jibril caught him before he hit the ground.
"Okay," John rasped, staring up at the sky with a tired grin. "Noted. Third Gear stays for emergencies only."
"Good," Chuthulos said, hovering anxiously close. "Very good. Excellent life choice, brother John."
"And it would help if we can have some powerful recovery means. Ideally, pills that can restore vitality fast." John’s eyes glinted. ’It’s time to upgrade our farms and gardens. If we can consistently restore our vitalities fast using pills, the Eldritch Gears would become exceedingly powerful assets.’