Wild Era 3, Ch 38: Assessing the Changes

As Kelin walked, the old song he was whistling calmed his mind and his heart slowed to a steady beat.

He didn’t pay attention to the remains of the mausoleum or the devastation around it where the wraithfire had eaten through some of the buildings. It was one more in a long line of events. What mattered was that the spell had worked and he’d won.  

Otherwise, he’d be dead.

He looked down at his clothes, which were little more than burned rags. The ones he’d enchanted himself had turned to ash and he was walking barefoot.

His tunic, boots, pants, and belt were gone, without even a shred remaining.

His spatial items and dungeon rewards had survived, like his Belt of Haste and old banshee amulet, but they were badly damaged. His bracers and the salamander’s ring were the only ones that were fine, since their ethereal nature had allowed them to be slightly out of phase.

His robe and cloak were charred, half of their material was missing, and their enchantments were silent, but they were partially intact even if they were full of holes and hanging on by a thread. 

He had that to be thankful for.

Rewards from the Path were woven with some threads of spatial energy in their core enchantments, which protected their repair functions, so they were hard to completely destroy. 

It was one reason they were desirable.

At a certain point, to preserve the core identity of the items, excessive damage would pass through, but if they were struck hard enough by a blade of spatial energy, their core enchantments could still be destroyed.

Fortunately, the Wraithfire had focused on his bones.

It was the only reason he wasn’t completely naked.

His staff was charred black, but it had endured better than his robe thanks to its Soul and Fire Affinities. It would need some mana, but it was hanging in there.

If he hadn’t been an archmage, the complexity of the mana flows necessary might have been beyond him, especially stimulating the spatial energy and restoring the various elemental affinities, but as it was, it was a trivial task. 

His mana was dense enough that his robe would be repaired in a day or so. After that, he could start repairing the smaller items, but to get them all done would take a bit longer.

While he was waiting, he’d have to do something about his clothes.

He glanced up at the sky and the violet lines of the ritual, which were fluctuating haphazardly. 

The mausoleum had been a critical node in the enchantment and without it the ritual was unstable. It wasn’t enough to take it down, but it meant he had some time.

A day would be fine.

He might as well enchant some new clothes and make talismans.

He had a decent amount of materials in his spatial pocket, including the Second Evolution base items he’d purchased at the guild. 

He’d planned to use them as soon as he hit the Second Evolution, but he’d headed off to rescue Taren’s family before he had a chance.

He looked around and found an empty house, which would do as well as any other spot. 

He ducked inside and began engraving a series of wards across the doorway and in a circle around the room.

Normally, he would have asked Gaius to create an underground chamber, but there was no earth here for him to use. It was bones all the way down.

This house would do.

“Gaius,” he said as he worked. “Keep watch.”

A rumble of agreement came from the elemental, as well as a flare of satisfaction. He had wanted to smash the seer and all of the undead himself, but he was fine with Kelin doing it too.

Once he returned to the soul chamber, he’d only needed a bit of time and mana to recover, so he was almost back to full strength.

That was the advantage of a soul bond. 

As long as Gaius could return, he wouldn’t be permanently harmed. His soul was part of the chamber, so an attack would have to shatter the soul chamber before it could destroy him.

And Kelin wasn’t going to allow that.

Golden runes glowed along the floor and the walls of the house as Gaius began layering them with reinforced stone, which made things more familiar. 

Meanwhile, Kelin took out a table and a chair from his storage and set them up in the middle of the space. He also evaluated everything that was missing from his spatial pocket.

There was nothing left that had any mana worth taking.

The Path had burned over 1,300 talismans, as well as dozens of healing and mana potions. He didn’t even have a basic one left.

Every mana crystal and monster core he’d stowed away was also gone, and there had been a few hundred of those.

He’d asked the Path to help, and it certainly hadn’t pulled any punches. 

The items were worth tens of thousands of gold, but the money didn’t mean much. He could raid some dungeons to get more. What did matter was that those had been his reserves and they were critical to have on hand. 

If he hadn’t had a major mana potion to drink while fighting the seer, things would not have gone well. It was the same for his talismans and mana crystals. 

He couldn’t replace the potions until he got back to the guild, but he could make talismans that would cover some of the issue.

The new ones would be at the Second Evolution, so at least there was that.

He decided to start by making a few talismans as an emergency supply. After that, he’d work on his clothes.

He had hundreds of Second Evolution Fire Drake scales stored away, so at least there was no lack of supplies.

As he began to inscribe the talisman, he considered the results of the fight and went back through everything that had happened, taking the time to consider the seer’s abilities and what they meant for the strength of his enemies in Sarathia.

It looked like he had plenty of them now.

Those two youths the seer had killed would have reached the Second Evolution in this dungeon, probably, and then perhaps the Third Evolution somewhere else.

It seemed like the Sarathians were tapping into everything they could find.

That meant they probably had dozens and maybe even hundreds of Third Evolution fighters. Undeath’s energy was hiding them, so even the Path couldn’t pin it down, but he was sure he would run into them soon enough.

He’d been wondering if this world could support his leveling through the Third Evolution, and it seemed like the answer was yes.

At least that kept things simple.

He’d wipe out the problem in Sarathia, settle things in Celadon with his academy, and make sure his apprentices were on a good path.

By then, he’d probably be close to the Fourth Evolution and ready to leave, but that was still a long way off.

Instead of worrying about it, he let his hands work on their own as he finished the first talisman and moved on to the next.

Meanwhile, he turned his attention to his recent gains.

His bones hummed with power that was vastly stronger before, and his body was the same, although to a lesser degree than his bones.

“The Soulfire Phoenix Physique,” he said quietly, considering it. 

It was unique, something he had created by merging all of the fragments of his Laws together to create a new Concept.

It was probably best to call it the Concept of the Soulfire Phoenix, or the Law of the Soulfire Phoenix, since it was a merger of five separate Laws.

The Path had mentioned the Law of the Phoenix, which he had drawn on independently when he destroyed his bones and rebuilt them, but that wasn’t the only one in his physique or the Concept that infused it.

There were also the Laws of Soulfire, Wildfire, Endless Flame, and Returning Flame.

It was something new and unique to him.

It had a much greater potential than the Wildfire Physique he’d had in his past life. It was already powerful and it was barely formed. 

The amount of energy it would take to upgrade it would be just as incredible, but slow steps made for a sure foundation.

Since he wasn’t at the Fourth Evolution yet, it was also extremely interesting.

He’d never seen anything like it before.

A Concept was a singularity of power, the first spark of a nascent Law that could bend space and time. It was powered by the first three Evolutions and gave rise to spatial energy.

That was why the Fourth Evolution was so strong.

To achieve it, you had to completely rebuild your body, magic, and identity, unifying everything that you were into a single concept.

Before that, you could have a hundred different arts and random energies, but afterwards, everything would be one.

That unity gave rise to astounding power.

It was also the foundation for further ascension into the Fifth Evolution and the formation of a Law Domain, as well as even higher things.

As Kelin completed one talisman after another, he spent time studying the changes he’d undergone, as well as the abilities that came with his physique.

It didn’t take him long to come to some conclusions.

The destruction of his bones had given him a chance to unify some of his energy, but he hadn’t suddenly skipped to the Fourth Evolution.

His body was part of the way there, but his mana, attributes, and abilities were roughly similar to what they’d been before. 

It was like he had the physical half of a Concept. 

His durability had soared and it would be difficult for most things even in the early Third Evolution to harm him. Above that, when their mana was denser, he would have to be careful.

His body was similar to a Fourth Evolution mage’s now, even if he didn’t have the mana to make the best use of it.

As for spatial energy, until he had a full Concept, he wouldn’t be able to control it.

But he had gained some powerful abilities.

A High-tier Ash Affinity had been added to his status sheet, as well as Ash Magic at the Basic level, and a Minor ability for Ash Manipulation. 

That was a powerful set of skills.

Ash Manipulation was the ability to move ash directly, including to create it in small quantities. It was similar to telekinesis over the element, but more in-depth.

Ash Magic was a bit different. It was an inheritance from the Law of the Phoenix that he’d comprehended. 

It was only a fragment of the full thing, but it gave him a few unique spells and abilities to use with Ash that were all natural to his physique. 

At the moment, it meant he could create a shield or eggshell out of ash to protect himself, that he could see through it as if it weren’t even there, and that he could change its density from as light as air to as hard as stone.

As his abilities grew, that magic would as well.

The other abilities from his physique were even more impressive.

Some of his resistances had combined into the Resistance of the Phoenix, which was already at the Advanced tier. It included Ice, Poison, Disease, Curse, and Ash Resistance.

He’d had some of those before, but gaining Curse and Ash was a nice addition, and all of them were combined into a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts. 

The Blessing of Fire was something he’d heard of in his past life, but he’d never had anything like it. It was the domain of fire elementals and other natural spirits, like salamanders.

Most forms of fire wouldn’t harm him at all now, and those that did would struggle to char his skin. Just being near a flame would improve his physical and magical regeneration.

As for Nirvanic Rebirth, which was theoretically the most powerful of the abilities, it was the one he put the least stock in, at least for now.

It was a chance to be reborn, but that wasn’t something he could count on. In order for it to work, he would have to die, and that wasn’t something he planned to do.

What was useful about it was that it was the first step toward a true Law of Reincarnation in the future.

His physique on the whole, half-Concept that it was, was something he’d never seen before in anyone at the Second Evolution. 

It was almost like he’d inherited some powerful bloodline abilities of the phoenix, but they were all his own at the same time.

Even more importantly, this half Concept should be very useful in the future.

It was almost like a test run.

It would give him a chance to refine the Concept through battle and to test it against other Laws and powers.

Then when he reached the Fourth Evolution for real, he could take all of that experience into account and make something even stronger.

He’d also gained a decent bonus to his attributes, with 200 each to Constitution, Wisdom, and Aura, so he glanced at his status sheet.

He was still Level 215, but it didn’t look like it.

Strength: 200

Constitution: 1,213 (2,122 with 75% Physique bonus)

Agility: 228 (252 with Traveler’s Boots)

Wisdom: 934

Intelligence: 2,337

Aura: 1,716

Charisma: 154

His effective Constitution was over 2,000 now, almost as high as his Intelligence, while his Aura wasn’t far behind.

His attributes were closer to someone at Level 250 or 270, rather than Level 215, and it was far from the full picture.

He gave the status sheet a brief nod of approval and then he got back to work on his talismans.

He swiftly worked through a dozen of them, stocking a few of each type, and then he focused on healing, shielding, and infusion ones, which were the most useful in a pinch.

A few hours later, he ended up with twenty-five each of them.

Then he turned his attention to enchanting a new set of clothes.

The material he’d chosen for the Second Evolution gear was called Emerald Jadesilk. 

With the developments to his subclass as a Radiant Mystic, he was no longer limited to engraving on hide, which opened up more possibilities, and he’d picked up this set of clothing for just that event. 

Emerald Jadesilk was the product of powerful silkworms that liked to live in forests of Jadeleaf Trees. It had strong properties to promote Fire and Wood mana, as well as vital energy.

It also had the right color to remind him of Irian, so for his purposes it was just right.

A few hours later, he once again had a complete set of clothes and he didn’t hesitate to get cleaned up and put them on.

Afterwards, he looked much more presentable.

The mana efficiency and other bonuses were roughly similar to his previous set of clothes, since his skills in that regard hadn’t improved much, but he had managed to make the enchantments a bit more subtle and durable.

He created a mirror out of crystal-clear water and studied his reflection, taking in the clothing and noting changes to his physique.

He had been handsome before, but now his eyes and jawline both looked a little sharper and there was something intense and fiery about his features. 

His hair was still dark and straight, which he had pulled back by a simple leather band, but now it reminded him of flames in the way a lock fell down at his temple and in how the rest was fighting the style.

He spent a moment studying things before he found the reason.

The presence of Fire in his aura had become stronger and was harder to hide.

Just like when a phoenix drew back its flames, but it still looked like it was burning, he was the same.

When he let the energy of his physique rise to the surface, flames hummed as they rose up from his skin and flickered in the air before disappearing. 

They were in a dozen different colors, from gold and red to blue, yellow, white, and violet. The colors of Soulfire and Wildfire were there, but other ones were too.

The flames didn’t burn anything, but only because he didn’t want them to.

He looked down at the Fire Salamander’s ring, which was humming pleasantly on his finger, and chuckled. The presence of that spark inside, which led to the Elemental Plane of Fire, was enough that his energy was recovering faster than it would have otherwise.

Perhaps the old salamander would have been happy to know that another being of flame had picked it up.

He dismissed the mirror and then sat back down at his table, where he got to work making more talismans.

Soon enough, he’d head out to destroy what was left of the dungeon and to destroy whatever the dungeon boss was, but for now, the flames burning all around him were a pleasant accompaniment to his work.

The stone-lined house glowed like a phoenix’s nest as he engraved one talisman after another.

Eventually, he took a break and slept while Gaius watched, his breath rising and falling with the flames that hovered around him.