Unfortunately for the shell-shocked blonde, it was already far too late to back out now.

Well, technically, Ollie could still run away.

Nobody would probably drag him back by force, so abandoning the licensure exam remained a realistic option. Sure, it would be extremely detrimental to all of them, but he knew enough to be reassured that if he were to really say he didn’t want any part of it, then they’d actually honor his wishes.

The issue was that after seeing how hard his brother had been working just to help him navigate this increasingly ridiculous crisis, there was simply no way he could bring himself to do something like that.

Oliver Mylor, the currently constipated aspiring mechanic, could still vividly remember the moment things spiraled beyond recovery.

"Waaah! This method actually works! Look! Doesn’t it look beautiful?!"

Luca had looked absolutely deranged.

His hair had been sticking up everywhere, his face was smeared with soot and ash, and he looked like he’d spent the last several days trapped inside a workshop coaxing inanimate objects. Yet despite that appearance, the smile on his face had been so ecstatic that it was difficult not to get swept up in it.

Then again, the result had been truly beautiful.

Right beside Luca’s ashen face sat a piece of refined Zelunium that sparkled brilliantly under the workshop lights. Looking at it now, Ollie could only conclude that they’d crossed a line that would be very difficult to return from.

Which was exactly why quitting wasn’t really an option anymore.

Not after they’d already gone as far as purchasing Zelunium ore instead of processed Zelunium so they could stretch every exchange as far as possible.

On paper, the decision had sounded brilliant. Why purchase a refined material when they could simply buy the raw resource at a fraction of the cost and process it themselves? More material meant more opportunities to experiment, and more opportunities to experiment meant better chances of making prototypes Ollie could use for the exam.

The problem was that reality hadn’t been nearly as cooperative.

Apparently, everything that made Zelunium valuable depended on whether it had actually been successfully refined.

The first batch of ore had left everyone staring.

Instead of the luminous golden material they’d been examining on the exchange displays, what showed up after research looked like black, flaky stones that had more in common with charcoal than any sort of precious resource.

"Brother, is this really the same thing?" Ollie remembered asking as they compared the listed properties against the refined Zelunium they’d seen earlier.

The difference had been so drastic that it genuinely felt like they were looking at the wrong item.

D-29, however, had remained completely adamant that the material was authentic.

So they kept going.

And that was how they ended up trading genuinely valuable Titanroot fibers for piles of suspicious-looking rocks while collectively hoping they hadn’t just been scammed.

What followed was somehow even worse.

Though if anyone had earned the right to complain about that part of the process, it probably wasn’t Ollie.

He had cheered wholeheartedly and assisted whenever asked, but when it came to experimental refinement techniques, he was hardly the one doing the heavy lifting.

The people who had truly suffered through the ordeal were Luca and Auntie Cece.

Especially Auntie Cece.

At one point, the blonde genuinely thought the dwarven lady had almost ended up with a glaring bald spot after a pyrometallurgical refining attempt went horribly wrong.

Together, the three of them tried practically every refining method they could think of. Pyrometallurgical refining. Smelting. Distillation. Liquation. Hydrometallurgical techniques. Electrolytic refining. Even zone refining.

Nothing worked.

Every attempt ended with the ore crumbling apart or degrading into something useless, while Cece became increasingly convinced that the material itself was the problem.

"The damned thing is prideful!"

That had apparently become her professional assessment.

Not structurally complicated.

Not unstable.

But definitely prideful.

According to the increasingly aggravated dwarf, the ore seemed unwilling to cooperate no matter what they did.

Of course, it sounded like the sort of thing someone would dismiss as imaginative nonsense. However, Cece was a dwarf, and that particular observation wasn’t something they would’ve even noticed if they didn’t know someone as absurdly attuned to mining and smithing as she was.

Even so, progress remained painfully slow—which was already a generous way to put it—and they eventually reached a point where they had to seriously consider whether continuing those refining experiments was even worth it.

After all, the actual goal was designing a suitable mecha for the licensure exam, not spending every waking moment trying to bully a pile of rocks into becoming useful.

At some point, they would’ve had to make a decision.

Either continue pursuing refining techniques or simply accept the higher cost and purchase processed Zelunium instead.

__

To be honest, the cost had surprisingly become a minor factor by then.

Sure, buying processed Zelunium directly would’ve solved a lot of problems, but Luca had become obsessed with understanding the refinement process itself after their first successful experiments with the material. The metal was simply too unusual.

The strangest thing was that polishing wasn’t even necessary.

Or, more accurately, doing so was self-defeating.

The moment refined Zelunium was left alone, it would slowly adjust itself to what it must consider as "stable". Minor imperfections disappeared. Uneven surfaces became smooth. Scratches gradually faded away as if the material itself was attempting to become a better version of whatever shape it had been given.

Honestly, it was a little creepy.

Not enough to stop using it, obviously, because the convenience was ridiculous, but enough that Luca immediately fell down the rabbit hole and refused to come back out.

If the refined material could do something like that, then understanding how refinement actually worked became even more important.

Just what was allowing this material to behave in that manner?

Unfortunately, that proved to be easier said than done.

Time passed.

More and more attempts at refining failed, and they were starting to lose heart about whether they’d be able to do it in time for Ollie to practice.

Ironically, the first real breakthrough came when the children wandered through the workshop and mistook the scattered ores for ordinary dirty rocks.

No one really thought anything of them taking some until the emotionally tired experimenters happened to run into the little kids once again.

The two girls were near the shallow section of the lake in the dungeon space, washing rocks they planned to use for whatever game they were currently playing.

Other than the fact that they were both princesses belonging to two currently tentative factions, it was such an ordinary sight that nobody from their group would’ve looked twice under normal circumstances.

Except the rocks they were planning to bedazzle weren’t actually rocks.

They were chunks of Zelunium ore that now looked more reminiscent of the same thing that once had Luca Kyros drooling.

The same charcoal-like ore that had spent days making everyone miserable.

Surprisingly, they weren’t looking all too chalky and burnt now!

Smoother.

Cleaner.

And as everyone stared, the dark surface that had become so familiar over the past several days gradually began changing color.

The black stone lightened.

Then lightened further.

Until what remained was no longer the dark-as-night ore they’d been struggling with but a pale yellow material that looked completely different from what they’d started with.

It wasn’t the same one they’d bought yet, but any color or appearance other than disintegrated ash was far better than what they’d been seeing all this time.

"!!!"

That was the moment everything changed.

For Luca and Auntie Cece, it was the breakthrough they’d been desperately searching for.

For Ollie, however, it marked the official beginning of his personal apocalypse.

But what do you know?

Just as hope was eclipsing for the poor blonde, someone else was receiving unintended rays of light.

Perhaps even a little too much of it.

__

See, one unfortunate consequence of DG’s growing fame was that people naturally wanted to know more about its members.

The problem was that most of the guild consisted of only children.

There weren’t exactly many relatives to bother.

Not that anyone could realistically march up to King Garrick and start asking questions about his daughter. Likewise, very few people were interested in attempting to squeeze themselves into the Minister’s already terrifying schedule, and if Count Alexander had been easy to approach, then people would’ve done that long ago.

As for the Duke and Duchess?

Apparently that question had already been answered.

Several times.

Unfortunately, the only thing people seemed to gain from the experience was a prolonged exposure to the Duke’s smug laughter and absolutely none of the information they had been hoping for. From the rumors circulating around the Academy, the man apparently found the whole thing hilarious and wasn’t particularly interested in helping anyone.

Naturally, very few people volunteered to repeat the experience.

There were still others they could try approaching, of course. Theo and Kyle both had older brothers, but thankfully for those brothers’ psychological well-being, duty provided an excellent excuse to disappear whenever curious individuals came looking. Meanwhile, most of the immediate families of the guild’s remaining members had already fallen under House Kyros’ protection, making them equally difficult to reach.

But among all those dead ends, there remained one unfortunate exception.

One person whom people actually had access to.

One person who couldn’t hide behind political influence, military obligations, or a noble estate.

One Owen Mylor.

Because no matter how famous his brother became, Owen still had to do one terrible thing.

Go to school.

And that meant spending his days surrounded by people who knew exactly who he was.

At first, that had mostly translated into curiosity. Then DG became more famous, and curiosity gradually evolved into fascination. By this point, people looked at him the way starving people looked at food because being related to Ollie Mylor had somehow become one of the closest connections an ordinary person could claim to the increasingly elusive guild.

Thankfully, Owen was a crafty little bugger.

The attention never really bothered him.

If anything, he occasionally seemed to enjoy it.

Which was why today’s problem caught him completely off guard.

After all, he was perfectly capable of handling curious classmates.

Being summoned to the Principal’s office because of a mecha he had never heard of was another matter entirely.

"Sir, I’m sorry, but say what now?!"

Owen genuinely thought he’d misheard something.

Across from him, the Principal looked equally baffled.

"Ahem."

The older man adjusted his glasses.

"Owen, surely you know how to listen?"

The boy blinked.

Then blinked again.

Because that wasn’t helping.

"How can you possibly be taking this so casually?"

"Taking what casually?"

"The fact that you’re receiving a one-of-a-kind mecha!"

Owen stared.

The teachers stared back.

Another instructor immediately joined in.

"If you’d informed us sooner, we could’ve arranged additional practical lessons!"

"What?"

Owen looked from one adult to another.

"What mecha?"

Several educators exchanged incredulous looks.

"What else would we be talking about?" one of them asked.

"Your brother’s special mecha."

"?!?!?!"

The boy’s soul practically left his body.

Because unless everyone else had somehow received information before he did, Owen was fairly certain this was the first time he’d heard about it too.