"It's possible, but not without a king's ransom in materials." Rory hesitated. "These Skills you've broken, they're not...?"
"Oh, no. I've not Tempered any of them, though one is...was at Apprentice Tier."
Rory let out a sigh of relief. "Good. We can work with standard Skills. Now, alright, the rarity of your Skills ain't too bad. Common will hurt, Uncommon will be worse, and Rares, well, they'll knock you on your ass, sure enough. No Epics or Legendaries, eh?"
He laughed. Felix smiled slightly.
"To answer your questions further, it's also difficult to sunder a Skill. To break it in the first place isn't easy either, but an unlucky few can find themselves in your predicament. I've had the misfortune of guiding five others in this process, though you're my first with so many broken Skills.
"And the Skill doesn't disappear, at least not a first. That's part of the difficulty, if'n ye want the greatest effect of your former Skill. There's a short window where ye can take a sundered Skill and combine it with others close to it," Rory explained.
"Close to it? As in synergy?" Felix asked, caught up in a sudden idea. Rory looked taken aback.
"Actually, yes." The Dwarf collected himself with a blink and continued. "Synergy is the System's word for it. A connection between Skills that allows them to work together more easily. The greater the Skills' synergy, the easier the merger. If successful, you end up with a much stronger Skill than before, usually of a higher rarity as well."
Whoa. Felix mentally listed out his Skills and started moving them around. He had ideas, but he didn't know the restrictions. "Are there limits? How many Skills can be combined?"
"Gettin' ideas, eh? The five times I've done this, no one has combined more than two other Skills into their sundered Skill."
That sounds like a challenge. Felix licked his lips and traded glances with Pit. The tenku let out a chirruping huff and rolled his eyes. He turned back to Rory. "How do we start?"
"To sunder a Skill, first ye've gotta push the skills, practicing them until ye've reach critical spread, the Skill widening within your core. It'll be the worst pain of your life, but that's how ye know it's working." Rory mimed pulling something apart in his hands. "Then, ye can either tear it apart with an effort of Willpower and an alchemical draught. End of story, Skill sundered.
"Combining Skills requires three things, a formidable Will, a tolerance for pain, and having unlocked Intent. Do ye have Harmonic Stats unlocked?" At Felix's nod Rory smiled. "Excellent. One less worry. After taking the steps to sunder your Skill as normal, ye fold into it at least one other Skill that will go toward a new combined ability. These should be somethin' related to the broken Skill, otherwise ye'll end up with a useless new Skill if it even works at all. Remember: synergy. Folding the new Skills into the broken, you must apply your Willpower and Intent, fusing them together. Come."
The two of them stood up and walked back out of the room, toward the wall where a few crates had been stacked atop each other. These had been unused by the Gauntlet assembly process and were still nailed shut.
"You'll also need a source of energy," he tapped one of the crates and the lid popped off almost by magic. Inside were roughly spherical gemstones, and immediately Felix could sense an intense potency from them. "You can use these beast cores to push yourself, it's the easiest way, though it has drawbacks."
Felix didn't like the sound of that. "Like what?"
Rory did a half shrug. "Some folks out there like to use beast cores to enhance their capabilities. They're great for boosting the strength of Skills or even the size of your channels. But impurities from beast cores build up there. These impurities will lead to issues at your next Formation, sometimes resulting in a true impasse. I've heard of them even weakening your foundation at certain concentrations."
Like plaque in an artery, Felix mused.
"Is there another way? Some other source of energy that won't riddle me with weaknesses? I've got so many to repair." Felix didn't like the idea of using something that would result in weakening himself.
"Sure, but there ain't chance ye can get a Domain Core. Maybe over in Setoria or Pax'Vrell, but here? In this economy?" Rory laughed. "Beast cores're the best you'll get."
Rory pointed back at the empty room. "Go and have a think. Meditate if ye've got the Skill. For the next step I'll need ye to be able to visualize your core. Not think about it, but truly see it in your mind. Let me know when ye've managed it."
The Dwarf started to walk away, clearly headed toward the group of exhausted Guilders sitting at the beginning of the Gauntlet. Another two attempts had failed.
Easy enough. Felix took a look at his core, using Fire Within to visualize his channels and center of his power. Aside from the looming aquamarine cloud of dense Claude-energy, it looked much the same as normal.
"Done." Felix called out. Rory stopped mid-step, no more than fifteen feet away. He turned around slowly.
"Are ye sure? Ye need to truly, honestly see it before ye. Like a dark forest spread only for yer eyes. Or an earthen vault, with your Skills buried as treasure all around. I've heard it described many ways. Do ye see that, truly?"
"Yeah. My core is blue fire and lightning, and surrounding it are symbols of light, patterns that represent my Skills." Felix felt he missed the mark on describing it, but that was the gist.
"I'll be damned," Rory huffed. "Well, I guess Harn can handle the crew for a bit while I focus on this."
Felix glanced at the Mana tether between the Dwarf and Gauntlet. "Don't you need to control the course?"
"Not as such. It takes a small bit o' Mana to maintain, but the sigaldry does most o' the work. Means I can put my attention toward the next step."
"What's that?" Felix asked.
"We gotta build ye up before we break you."