Wild Era 4, Ch 4: A Private Realm

It took Kelin three days to create the foundation of his sanctum.

Adjusting the spatial wards was the most difficult part, while the rest was arranging the interior to his satisfaction. 

Four cores were required at a minimum in order to set up a guild hall, but he had twelve, which allowed for a triple-layer array of offense, defense, and suppression, as well as all the utility and administration of various areas that the cores were designed to handle.

This place had all the advantages of a full guild hall, but instead of being spread out across hundreds of adventurers and local needs, it was concentrated for his own use.

The ward design he’d used was something that was well known among high-level mages, a structure that created a second world inside.

He had aligned the cores to create a spatial sphere capable of supporting life, with access to all the necessary elements and flows of mana drawn from the surrounding energies of the Void and nearby dimensions. 

It was one of the most useful methods for creating a mage’s sanctum, as well as for traveling through the Void in comfort. 

At the Fourth Evolution, people could fly easily through the Void under their own power, and below that they could use artifacts or ships to travel, but this type of spatial world was several steps higher.

It was a contained world capable of traveling between the stars.

The Sovereign of Silver Chaos was the one who had come up with the pattern and spread it across the galaxy. They made for important defensive structures and bastions in the Chaos War.

At need, they could be almost perfectly hidden away from the primary dimension, with only a single point and a set of teleportation coordinates to allow access.

That made them very secure.

With this one linked to the academy, it was easier to find, but it offered similar defenses.

Kelin had once had a much larger and more powerful sanctum in the stars that had been imbued with his Domain of Wildfire, making it look like it was surrounded by ethereal rainbow flames.

Nothing below the Seventh Evolution had been able to attack it without being incinerated by the force of his Law. 

It was nice to have something that was his own again.

He’d started his old sanctum with an older and less refined version of the ward cores he’d used here and he had eventually built it into something amazing.

Now it was time to start the same process with this one.

His command of the wards gave him the ability to change the sanctum on both a large and small level, so that it could expand and be upgraded as needed. 

For the first step, as much as he loved the heritage of the academy library, it was enough that it was present on the outside. 

He had no desire to live in a massive building. This would be his own domain, so he wanted it to feel more personal. 

He accessed the ward cores and began to alter the design of the library, changing its size and appearance.

Slowly, it grew smaller and more elegant, until it looked like a calm and pleasant villa. 

It was still just as large in terms of its spatial contents, but all of those spaces were hidden away in folds of space inside.

The result was similar in some ways to the villa he’d rented at the resort, with sprawling balconies, a relaxing, open-air concept, and many places set aside for meditation and mana practice.

With the weather here under his control, it would always be sunny and pleasant if he wanted it to be. If he wanted it to snow, it would snow, but the snow would never land on his balconies. 

It would only decorate the roof and the outlying buildings.

As for the other parts of the villa, there were inner and outer courtyards, an open roof with a meditation garden, a master bedroom, a parlor for visitors, a well-appointed kitchen and dining area.

Scattered everywhere were doorways that appeared and disappeared as needed, which opened on to endless other chambers, including workshops, training halls, and storage areas. Each of them led to a different fold in space, which could show the sun or stars as he wished.

With that done, he pulled out some furniture and other items from his storage and set them in different areas, but he didn’t have enough to complete even the main rooms, much less the more specialized ones.

He would have to order some things from the guild.

A flicker of amusement crossed his lips as he debated dropping by that resort again and ransacking it for decorations and furnishings. 

They’d had a lot of nice things and they’d been part of the kidnapping scheme that had taken away Taren’s family and many others, so he wouldn’t feel bad about it.

Either way, however, it wasn’t a significant expenditure. 

Ten or twenty thousand gold would have this place appointed with all of the modern conveniences and enchantments that he might want, as well as plenty of materials and food.

He wove a quick message spell and sent it off to Jesra with a list of requirements, so that she could have the guild shop put it together.

It shouldn’t take them more than a day.

He could pick up some other things locally in Highmist. It would be easy to bring them in as part of the furnishing orders for the academy. The buildings here needed a lot of items for the classrooms and residence halls.

With that settled, he got to work on the next critical part of the sanctum.

Its Law attunement and elemental gates.

He made small refinements to the ward design to imbue it with a sense of his Laws, like seeds that could grow with him. They would help to turn this place into a mirror of his abilities, so that it would always be a battleground that favored him.

Other Laws would face some suppression here, while his would flow freely.

After that, he set up a teleportation node so he could return easily. He would have to use teleportation scrolls for now, but eventually it would be under his own power.

The nature of this sanctum meant that it would be easier to reach than other places, so he would be able to travel to it from farther away than a spell would normally allow.

Finally, he opened a series of elemental gates to fill the sanctum with elemental essence. 

He had to rely on the ward cores to do it, but it was something they were designed for. 

One of the Sovereign of Silver Chaos’s titles was the Lord of Elements and he had granted powerful gifts to humanity at the dawn of the Wild Era, including stronger elemental affinities.

Naturally, the guild halls that were part of his army benefited even more. 

Each core could open a minor dimensional portal to almost any nearby realm. 

They were about three feet across, enough to allow streams of power through, but too chaotic for travel.

The elemental planes were close to the primary dimension and easily reached, so many guild halls took advantage of the ability to create meditation rooms and crafting areas that drew on them, or they used the elemental energy to infuse monsters for combat training, including violent elementals.

The gates were one of the reasons that a guild hall would never run out of water, food, or other necessities. At need, they could open channels to provide pure Water and Wood energy that would swiftly grow gardens and ripen fruits.

They were an essential part of a guild hall’s design.

Human elemental affinities made it relatively simple to manage the gates, as long as the right classes existed and the people had sufficient training.

It was limited to one gate per core, but since Kelin had twelve cores, there was enough to go around.

He created minor gates for all of the elements that he found useful, starting with Fire, Earth, Wood, Wind, Metal, Water, followed by others that he liked.

He couldn’t open a gate to a realm of the soul, and he wasn’t sure one even existed, but for his current Laws, Fire was almost as good.

It looked like a flame burning in the sky, giving this place a real sun instead of just the illusion of one.

After that, he opened a gate to the Elemental Plane of Earth on one side of the sanctum, and as it appeared, bright yellow earthen essence poured out of it, making the ground nearby tremble.

Stone swiftly appeared around the portal, hardening into layers as it created a massive archway surrounding it, and then the energy sank downward.

The earth below rose, slowly turning into a low hill. Behind it, long cracks ran through the earth, turning into ridges and ravines that made the land shudder as it grew.

Eventually, this area would turn into a mountain range, but it would take time for the energy to infuse everything. As it grew, it would stabilize the foundation of the spatial world, giving it a true earth.

Right now, the world was only a couple of miles across, but it would expand as more energy flowed into it.

Gaius rumbled in delight and flew into the middle of the energy flow, where he began rolling around like a kid in a stream, diving into the earth and leaping up again.

Kelin chuckled as he watched him.

After a little bit, he left Gaius to play and headed to another section of the sanctum, where he opened a gate to the Elemental Plane of Water.

The portal was a deep cerulean blue and a cascade of pure water poured forth, creating a sparkling waterfall that swiftly turned into a pool, its level rising moment by moment.

Given the size of the sanctum, it couldn’t expand too much yet, but it would end up as rivers and an ocean for this world.

Kelin set some instructions into the ward core about how much water to allow and then he got to work on the rest of the gates.

More portals appeared at his command, giving rise to a field of saplings that shot upward toward the sky, where they would eventually turn into a forest, to clouds that swept through the sky accompanied by howling winds, and to veins of metal that threaded through the new earth.

When he was done, he walked back to his villa and stood on a balcony, where he took out a porcelain cup of hot coffee from his storage and sipped it.

It was a pleasant view, full of vibrant life. 

The condensed essence swirled through the sky and the earth, resonating with force, and he watched the flow of elemental water create a lake in the distance.

“It’s a good beginning,” he said. “More can come later.”

This would be a true sanctum, a minor blessed world of his own.

The ward cores managed all of the gates to create a harmonious whole, and with his help they would give rise to mana-rich orchards, gardens, and meditation areas.

The gates were small but powerful, so mana crystals and elemental ores might even form eventually, but it would take years. The energy would have to saturate the area and crystallize first.

It wouldn’t be long before this place was full of essence and then the energy of the elements would pour outward and infuse the academy, where it would fortify the land, empower the orchards, strengthen the buildings, and generally enhance it in every way.

The place would feel drenched with life and vitality, and the essence would be beneficial for the students, stirring their affinities and helping them to learn to control the elements directly.

He sat in meditation, letting plans flow through his mind until he finished his coffee.

Then he glanced at his notifications.

There were a number of accomplishments from building this place. Since the ward cores had been involved, it wasn’t purely his own work, which reduced the experience, but it was still noteworthy.

The voice of the Path echoed in his mind.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have established a spatial sanctum and opened elemental gates.

Your control of Spatial energy and alterations to the ward cores greatly exceed your Level and Evolution. 

You gain 3 Levels.

You are now Level 232. 

Your Soulbonded Elemental also gains 3 Levels.

You gain 90 Intelligence, 30 Wisdom, 30 Aura, and have 45 free attribute points to assign.

Your skills are recognized.

Your Spell: Spatial Seal has increased by three tiers and is now Elite. 

You will find it easier to manipulate spatial energy for sealing and unsealing, as well as for related purposes.

Your Subclass Ability: Arcane Refinement has increased by a tier and reached Epic.

Arcane Refinement is the gift to improve what you work on. With your Sight as the foundation, this ability allows you to use your mana to refine and repair magical items. 

At the Epic tier, you gain the ability to infuse elemental essence directly into an object you are working on, provided you have the matching Affinity. The type of item you can work on is only limited by the strength of your aura and mana density.

Your Subclass Ability: Affinity Focus has increased by a tier and reached Epic.

Affinity Focus allows you to harness sources of natural mana and to imbue them into the items you craft, as well as to enhance your creations with specific affinities or bonuses. 

At the Epic tier, you gain the ability to use powerful sources of elemental essence as support for your crafting efforts. For example, if you are crafting a Fire Affinity artifact, you will find it is more successful in a realm of dense elemental Fire.

The strength of the items you can craft has also improved. 

You are now able to add a 30% bonus to items, such as 30% Improved Mana Regeneration or Fire Efficiency, as long as you have the matching Affinity.

With that, the voice of the Path faded away.

He tossed the free points into Intelligence, raising it to 3,192, and assessed the changes.

Getting two of his subclass abilities to Epic was more than he’d expected. 

With Affinity Focus, his ability to enchant his gear had leapt upward from a 20% bonus to 30%, while both it and Arcane Refinement had gained a natural advantage from elemental essence.

Abilities were flexible and those upgrades had to do directly with how he had improved them to Epic, but he was very pleased.

They were good improvements.

He turned his attention to other things, including checking on his clone and the ship that was returning to shore, as well as making more talismans.

Sun shone around him, stretching out across a swirling, vibrant world that was full of potential, and behind him, his villa glowed with light. 

The next few days would be busy, but at least they would be comfortable.