Well... almost.  100% finished, 83.3% output.
Now that I've gotten those 3-4 months of preparation out of the way, I can finally make a secure amount of gil to fund my relic.  I should be done with Stage 3 by the end of December at the very latest, but my goal is by the end of September before I leave on a trip to Las Vegas.  Then I'll have a couple months to enjoy some Tachi: Kaiten and make more gil until school starts.  I'm not sure how busy my schedule will be, but there's a good chance I will have to give up Thursday runs.
Stage 4 is going to be a bitch.  The price of O. Bronzepieces have gone up to a standard 10-12k on the Rolandmart.  That's 100-120mil (70-90mil after trade)... yea it's crazy.  I don't see how Clave did it when prices were at 40k each.  Then again, the economy was different then.
I do intend to get the full 10,000 Bronzepieces.  With the extra 3,000 Bronzepieces when I finish, I'll be able to sell them and afford something crazy like a Speed Belt or Kraken Club.  Or... be crazy and start another relic.  But I'd have to consider what job could I do that would not take me away from SAM.... lol ya right.  If I take on Bow, I'd pretty much be copying Clave (again).
Besides, I doubt /pwnED/ would let me sponsor again with everyone being suspicious of me reselling coins.  Blah to them!  Consider the amount of sponsors I've had since I've been hacked.  I have MORE than what I recieve through sonsorship because I shout in Whitegate and buy coins when I can afford them.  So why am I bring scrutinized? Beats me.  Someone is out to get me.  I just truly hope it's not Xorn.  I'd feel more than betrayed.
Good news though!  I got a trade through Nynja's friend.  He's doing Mandau and wants Bynes bad.  I'm giving him about 3600 for all the bronze and shells he has.  I think it came out to about 2100 bronze and 350 shells.  We'll be making the trade sometime next week when he has time.  I have to catch him sometime at like 1:00AM though since he's in Japan.  He's going to create a character on Fairy and move it to Caitsith as soon as the trade is done.
This will pull me back on Stage 3, but I'm getting a sweet deal for Stage 2/4, so I can't complain.
3600 Bynes = 21,600k VS. 2100 Bronze + 350 Shells = 23,800k
Hopefully I'll be able to get more shells and just get Stage 2 over and done with.  It's a bit difficult talking to him since he's talking in broken English and I'm doing my best to translate some of my negotiations into Japanese.
Anyway, Day 3 of Operation "剣のため" was a success.  I've lowered my rotation time to 2h 45m.  I think I can get it to 2h flat once I get the process smoothed out.  Once the 6th of Project "Fork Me" is ready, I'll be able to go at full output.  It better be soon!