"A Lower God of the Galaxy died here… was it all for this fragment?"
Cold sweat slid down Orson's back. He hadn't expected to find something in Anubis's severed hand.
Then, without warning, the air around him rippled with twilight. The Chaos Cauldron floated out of his inventory on its own.
The fragment in his hand started to shudder violently, pulled by that same glow, and then shot toward the hovering Chaos Cauldron.
A muffled, thunderous sound rolled through the field of bones.
Orson instinctively stepped back. The cauldron began to creak and crack.
Waves of swirling gray mist poured out of it, churning like a living tide. It was a long time before the chaos finally settled.
When it did, Orson saw that one of the cauldron's missing legs had been restored.
The corrosion on its surface peeled away, revealing detailed engravings of beasts, birds, and serpents that shimmered faintly with gold.
"Your Godly Relic has gained a new effect."
"You have perceived clues to Tiamat's Chaos Cauldron Fragment 2 with your Ancient Sage's Eye."
"Fragment progress 1 out of 4."
More notifications popped up, and Orson stood there stunned. No wonder he'd never found any leads in Infinite Dimensions or the real world.
It turned out you had to acquire Fragment 1 first—only then would the trail to Fragment 2 appear.
"Travel to the Era of Immortals, Godfall Cliff, to acquire Fragment 2."
"The second fragment is here too?"
His eyes lit up. He opened the minimap, only to see darkness. A single white dot glowed somewhere to the north.
Clearly the Infinite Dimensions system couldn't fully integrate with this world.
It could only give him a rough direction, without showing where exactly he was, or any meaningful details.
But Orson didn't mind too much.
If the gods of the galaxy were willing to descend and die for these Chaos Cauldron fragments, that meant the northern lands of the Era of Immortals were probably more ancient battlefields.
He only needed to follow the trails of the dead, and he would surely find Godfall Cliff.
The tiny chaos cauldron floated back into his hands, warm to the touch.
He quickly checked the updated stats.
Tiamat's Chaos Cauldron (Incomplete)
Quality: Godly Relic (severely damaged)
Effect 1: Reenact various legends of the Chaos Cauldron (instances) and collect the will of living beings.
Current available memory: "The Greed of the Primordial Titans"
Instance 1: Titan Council (Hell-Tier), unlocks at level 30
Instance 2: Twilight of the Gods (Legendary-Tier), unlocks at level 80
Instance 3: Rise of the Infinite Dimensions Emperor (Legendary-Tier), unlocks at level 100
Current will value: 0
Effect 2: Chaos Forging — fuse and restructure multiple items of the same tier, with a chance to produce a higher-tier item. (New)
Effect 4: Chaos Firmament — consume the will of living beings to shield a target. For 2 minutes, 50% of damage received will be absorbed by the cauldron. Cooldown: 10 minutes. (Effect improves with full restoration)
Note: Only Chaos cultists may wield this relic. Does not occupy equipment or accessory slots.
"Fusing items of the same tier to possibly create something better? Now that's interesting."
His curiosity was instantly piqued.
He opened the Chaos Forging interface, pulled two bottles of mid-tier mana potions from his bag, and tossed them in.
About ten seconds later, the cauldron erupted with dazzling light.
"You have obtained: Master-Grade Mana Potion x1."
Effect: Instantly restores 5000 MP, plus regenerates 2% MP per second for 3 seconds.
Orson could hardly believe what he was holding. Two mid-tier potions had merged into something even better—jumping straight to master-grade.
Each mid-tier potion only cost about 30 silver.
But at current market prices, a single master potion went for five gold.
Even crazier, Chaos Forging didn't burn any gold or require extra materials.
In seconds, he'd made something worth more than ten times his input.
He sat down right there and ran more tests.
Two mid-tier potions fused with over 90% success into a master potion.
Two master potions had about a 40-50% chance to fuse into a grandmaster potion, which offered even more staggering mana returns.
And if he added a third master potion to the mix, the odds dropped to around 20-30%—but the result would be a god-tier potion that instantly restored 20,000 MP.
"This works for potions… what about equipment?"
A dangerous spark lit up in his eyes.
"You have obtained: Legendary Knight Armor."
He stared blankly at the interface. His scalp prickled.
He'd just thrown four epic pieces into the cauldron… and out popped a level 50 legendary armor.
"Would you like to link this equipment to the Linebreaker series?"
The prompt surprised him. On screen, his new legendary armor now showed a forging extension.
"You have obtained: Legendary Knight Greatsword."
Linebreaker's Earthsplitter.
Orson drew a sharp breath.
Chaos Forging wasn't just powerful—it could create matching set items, bypassing the usual nightmare of tracking down specific high-tier blueprints or missing pieces.
It solved the age-old problem of hunting for that elusive last item to complete a set.
But then a terrifying thought struck him.
"What if I tried this with two sacred artifacts…"
His hands clenched together to stop himself.
That would be madness. If it failed, the loss would be catastrophic—enough to make him want to dig a hole and die.
"This function is cursed."
His eyes were red with excitement, but he forced himself to be blunt.
Yes, Chaos Forging was utterly broken.
But it was also dangerously addictive. The higher the item tier, the steeper the failure rate.
He'd already proved that. Six god-tier potions had gone into the cauldron and been completely obliterated. Not even a scrap remained.
He packed away the Chaos Cauldron and looked toward the distant remains of the World Tree.
Judging by the minimap, the next cauldron fragment and his final trial were both in that direction.
He'd have to come back and experiment more later.
Mount up. Time to move.
Under the burning suns, Aeloria carried him forward again.
Eventually the two suns dipped below the horizon, plunging the land into gloom. A massive blood moon rose, painting everything in eerie crimson.
"This place is insanely far!"
His grumbling stomach finally cut off the complaints.
He had Aeloria set him down.
They were surrounded by dry, twisted woods and jagged stones. Under the blood moon's light, it all looked sinister.
Aeloria hacked down some trees and brought over a bundle of dry wood.
They made camp on the rocky ground. Orson snapped his fingers, sending out a small fireball to light the pile.
Flames flickered to life, pushing back the oppressive atmosphere—for now.