Wild Era 3, Ch 4: Choices

The evening passed in pleasant crafting in the hall as Kelin replaced some of the talismans he’d used up.

He’d made several hundred shielding and infusion talismans specifically for the duel and he still had quite a few, but it wasn’t possible to have too many. Even with several hundred of each type, they would eventually run out, so it was far from enough.

It was also good practice for his crafting skills, which was reason enough to keep making them. 

He’d have to start trying to make Second Evolution talismans soon, but even with Blaze his mana density was a bit short of the requirements. He would start once he was confident that he wouldn’t waste the materials.

Eventually, he slept for a while and he awoke in the morning feeling refreshed. 

He completed his usual round of mana training and then he took out a few sparkling gems from his storage that hummed with spatial energy.

Silas Crest had kept several dozen spatial crystals in his storage ring, as well as quite a few mana crystals and monster cores.

It was a good haul.

There were fourteen high-grade spatial crystals and a couple of dozen mid-grade ones, as well as over fifty high-grade mana crystals, and about the same number in mid-grade and low-grade ones. 

There were also over two hundred First Evolution and fifty Second Evolution monster cores of different types, which could be used for the combat halls or for crafting.

They were the most useful things that the man had left behind, so Kelin had kept all of them. 

The spatial crystals could be used in various enchantments, including teleportation anchors and platform nodes, but he only needed to save a few for that purpose. With the funds he had, he could always acquire more from the guild.

He set aside a few mana crystals of each grade as a reserve and then he took out the first high-grade one and began to channel its energy into his spatial storage.

Streams of spatial energy rippled away from the crystal and fused into his storage space, making the walls flex as they expanded outward.

Bit by bit, the space grew larger and the structure more stable. 

The larger the space became, the more energy was needed to stabilize it, but high-grade crystals were excellent for the purpose. 

Over a dozen high-grade crystals dissolved in his hands and fused into the storage pocket, and its size expanded swiftly.

After the high-grade crystals, he dissolved most of the medium and low-grade ones into it as well. Their effectiveness was limited, but they still helped to stabilize the space and add a little bit of area.

His storage had been at roughly 47 feet across, creating a cube with rounded edges, but by the time the last crystal disintegrated, it was almost triple that at 122 feet. 

The volume inside expanded dramatically, ending up at 17.5 times greater. 

It was large enough to store an entire house and its surrounding gardens with room to spare, assuming they weren’t too expansive. Given that those tended to be fairly flat, he could stack a few more on top.

It was plenty of space for his current level, able to store the loot from hundreds of dungeons.

It would do for now.

As the last of the dust from the crystals disintegrated into spatial energy, he brushed his hands off and took out the memory slip of dungeon information the guild had given him.

The details were comprehensive and uncensored.

Each dungeon was annotated with its elemental affinities, the types of loot it had given in the past, the bosses and challenges that had appeared, and more.

He spent a little while sorting through the list and creating a plan.

He needed to maximize his Aura gain, which ideally meant using it to eliminate vast hordes  of enemies, but he didn’t have a Chaos Gate to burn right now. 

Even if he did, he still couldn’t handle that number of enemies. The backlash would destroy his soul.

His best approach was to use Wildfire in dungeons for a while and to slowly strengthen his soul and the wards on it until he could handle larger numbers.

Ideally, he would burn monsters that were about ten levels under his own, so the experience would be minimal and the soul energy still decent. That would end up taking a thousand monsters or more per level.

He couldn’t go too far under his level or the soul energy he gathered from them would also drop, but if he stayed in that range, it would work.

Since dungeons awarded bonus experience and other rewards for full clears, however, if he finished the dungeon, it would send his level skyrocketing, especially with his Prodigy tag and the Effective Level that the Path had assigned to him. 

Even if he went into a lower-level dungeon, he’d still end up getting experience from the challenges and the boss, since they would adjust to his strength.

He wasn’t sure what his Effective Level was now, but it was probably 180 or higher, or it would be as soon as he burned a few monster hordes. 

That left a couple of options.

The best way to advance his soul while limiting experience would be to partially clear a lot of dungeons under his level and avoid the majority of rewards, killing the wandering monsters and only doing the challenges that would boost his attributes.

His experience would stay limited and grow slowly. He would miss out on ability tiers and other rewards, but his soul would benefit.

He didn’t necessarily like that option, since his overall growth would be limited and he still needed levels to get stronger, but it was the best way to improve his Aura.

It would be working on his foundation, with each small advance adding a flicker of a chance to one day become a Sovereign. 

He needed a massive amount of attributes just to open the path. It was the first and most essential requirement.

If he had unlimited time and no enemies, that was the path he should choose.

However, he was far from the top being on this world, much less in the stars, and he had enemies at least in Sarathia, if not at home in Celadon.

He couldn’t wait that long to get stronger.

Given the nobles’ desire for his inherited dungeons and how he’d sided with the guild, he undoubtedly had some enemies here too, even if they hadn’t crystallized their plans yet.

He couldn’t rely on the guild and Sleset to protect him from higher-level foes forever.

The threat would keep things away for a while, but he was too jaded to expect it would be that long. 

By the time they tried to attack him, he wanted to be able to crush them.

The second option was to proceed through dungeons that were slightly under his level, but close enough to not trigger the Effective Level scenario.

It would slow down his experience gain and give him more monsters to burn with Wildfire, but he would still gain four or more levels per dungeon just from the bonuses. 

It wouldn’t be that much slower than just doing regular dungeons and the number of monsters would only be a few thousand more, at most.

The amount of soul energy he could get from them was a critical factor. 

He’d done the calculation and it was the same as his past life. 

It was relative to his level, with roughly 0.1 Aura attributes gained from a like-level monster. 

For every level that the monster was above him, it was about 0.01 more, so that a monster was worth double at ten levels above his own.

Below his level, it declined more slowly, with a monster ten levels under him being worth about 0.09. 

The advantage was clear.

Even if he killed a monster a hundred levels under him, he’d still get a hundredth of a point. Below a hundred levels, it declined even further, but there was still something.

That left the third option.

Focusing on dungeons that were a true challenge. Every monster ten levels over him would count for double, twenty levels was triple, thirty was quadruple, and so on.

If he aimed high enough, he would make up for the lower number of monsters in a single dungeon.

Or at least part of the way.

More importantly, challenging dungeons would continue to give him useful gear, abilities, and bonuses, things he couldn’t get from mass elimination of weaker ones.

Time and benefits were the limiting factors.

Even if he wanted to burn through every dungeon in Celadon and neighboring countries, he was limited by his speed, other people in the dungeons, and the number of the dungeons themselves.

It was idealistic to think there were unlimited numbers of monsters here. That would only happen if he spent years slowly farming the dungeons and he had no intention of doing that.

He couldn’t sacrifice experience. He had to get to at least the Third Evolution before he would feel comfortable on Lareth.

After clarifying those points, he settled on a plan.

He would pick a good dungeon for his personal growth, draw a line to it from his current location, and then stop at other dungeons close to the route if they looked promising. 

If no one was in them, he would burn the wandering monsters inside and check on the challenges. It wouldn’t take him long.

If someone was there, he would move on.

That would let him focus mostly on experience, with just some extra time for Aura gathering, and if the guild needed a particular dungeon cleared, he could always make a special stop to help out a local branch.

He would have to travel widely to find the most challenging dungeons for his level, but that would let him see more of this world, which was something he was looking forward to.

In the future, once he was strong enough and his soul was up for it, he would take on larger hordes in the bigger dungeons or even an army as they came through a Chaos Gate, but that would only be after he reached the Third or Fourth Evolution, at a minimum.

If needed, he would stop leveling sometime in the Fourth or Fifth Evolution and focus solely on attribute growth. 

The key point to become a Sovereign was the Sixth Evolution, so working on it an Evolution or two early would be soon enough.

It would be much safer then to let his leveling slow down or stop, and the number of attributes he could gain from a single horde of ten thousand or a hundred thousand at Level 400 would probably make up for everything he could gather before then. 

His soul would also be strong enough by then to handle the backlash of a massive number.

If one horde didn’t do the job, a few more would.

The possibilities of where he could go were an endless vista in front of him unfurling with potential. 

The amount of Aura he might be able to gain was staggering.

In his first life, he hadn’t mastered Wildfire early enough to do anything like this. He was treading new territory with considerations he’d never had to plan for. 

He’d formed a Concept of Wildfire at the Fourth Evolution, but it hadn’t been a true Law until the Fifth Evolution, and he had only formed the Truth of it at the Sixth, which was the origin of his current Legendary spell.

Back then, he’d already missed the window to become Sovereign.

Perhaps if he’d focused on Aura farming for long enough, he could have gained the strength to break through to the Seventh after all, but that was a moot point.

In this life, he would do it better.

A smile flickered across his lips as he made his decision and stored the map away.

Then he pulled out two blank memory slips he’d bought and started the process of recording detailed training manuals for his apprentices.

One insight after another flowed into the stones, shining in crystalline perfection. 

There were diagrams, explanations, paths for mana circulation, techniques, spell forms, enchantments, and more.

It was a complete heritage for each of them in their elements and in Soul magic.

Yao had high affinities in Earth, Water, and Lightning, with a low affinity for Soul magic. Naomi was similar in Soul, but with high affinities in Fire, Wood, and Space.  

He was more than familiar enough with the schools of thought for each of those elements to give them lessons up to the Fifth Evolution, including explanations of Laws used by various archmages that could serve as examples for their own.

The Sovereign’s gifts had given them Special-tier physiques that would grow with them and their affinities could probably improve as well, so there was no telling where they might end up in the future, but he could at least help them along the way.

They’d just unlocked their classes and they’d started to gain their first few Levels, which came easily from a bit of training in the guild hall, but the guild wouldn’t let them hunt real monsters for a while, especially not without supervision.

They had to complete the basic courses first and prove their ability to survive.

These manuals would lay out potential paths for them and offer examples that they could use to compare as they grew, including potential fusions of their elements.

He could see powerful options, but he didn’t try to choose the best one for them. He only laid out options and explained some of the benefits and downsides of each.

They would have to find what worked for them. 

Even a nominally weak Law could flourish in the right hands and become overwhelming. It was all about the approach.

Along with the core inheritance he was giving them, he also included detailed explanations about crafting, suggested subclasses, and showed them examples of how a subclass and primary class could achieve a synergy that was greater than the sum of its parts.

For each of them, he included patterns of enchantments and what help he could offer that would take them to the Fourth Evolution. 

After that, the usefulness of examples was more limited, since Laws began to play the primary role, even in the structure of enchantments.

When he was finished, he worked a soulbond enchantment into the memory crystals and then a spell that was unique to Soul magic, so that as soon as they accessed them for the first time, the entire contents of the manuals would settle into their minds and be permanently recorded in their souls.

There would be no way to lose it, at least not without an extreme form of soul damage.

The work took him the rest of the day, much longer than it had taken him to create an entire school of enchantment for Soulfire. 

He stopped by the kids’ room and watched with a faint smile as they accessed the memory slips. He’d made them sit down in meditation first, so at least they didn’t fall over. 

But they did fall unconscious.

He left them a few potions and some other small gifts in storage bags, which he set in front of them, and then he locked the door and warded it on his way out.

It would take them a while to process all of that information, possibly even a few days, so he’d alert the guild desk on the way out not to interrupt them.

They might miss a couple days of classes, but it was his prerogative as their master to arrange for things like that. They would just have to work harder to catch up.

He hadn’t explained much about the memory slips before he told them to read them, but the gift he’d given them was incalculable, a large part of his insights over thousands of years.

Even he wasn’t sure where they would take it.

One day, they would figure it out.

He took care of the business at the desk without trouble and left a message for Sandren. 

Then he stocked up on some food and other supplies, activated a few Soul Veil talismans, and headed out of the guild hall.

When he reached the gates of Highmist, he activated an invisibility talisman and ghosted  through, drawing little attention.

The night was dark and deep, only illuminated by the moonlight and the flicker of the stars above, as well as the enchantments on Highmist’s walls that shone with a soft yellow light.

Then he activated the Shadow Speed enchantment and disappeared in a blur of darkness, racing across the plains and leaping the river in a single bound.

He was weightless and swift, with every stride sending him across miles in an instant.

He’d spent the day in town both because it was necessary and because he could make up the time now.

His cloak only worked at night.

He set his sights on the dungeon he’d chosen and headed for it, invisible and flickering beneath the moon. 

Eventually, he would have to learn a teleportation ability, but he didn’t have one yet.

There was a chance he could pick up one at Level 150, but he would have to see what options came up. He needed one that would fit his path for Reincarnation more than he needed teleportation.

But it would save time for things like this.

He was Level 142, so he’d settled on a Level 185 dungeon for his first target.

It was extreme and he hadn’t mentioned it to Sandren, but it would be excellent for experience. It was also his best chance to get Epic ability upgrades before the Second Evolution.

The longer he waited, the harder it would be, and he needed more if he was going to get his abilities to Heroic.

The wandering monsters here should be Levels 180-190, while the Challenges and the boss would be closer to 200. 

Ideally, they would be just under it, but there was a chance the dungeon boss would be at the Second Evolution.

If it were, he would deal with it, just like he’d dealt with Verasun.

There were only a couple of dozen dungeons at this level within Celadon. This one was two hundred miles away, but he reached it within a handful of minutes.

Shadows faded from around him as his body reformed.

The dungeon was set in an abandoned ruin of stone pillars and fallen walls that had once been some type of temple complex, an early remnant of settlement on Lareth.

The civilization that had built it had passed away long before Celadon formed, but the area had a high concentration of mana flows, which was probably the reason they had settled here in the first place.

Over time, it had become a dungeon. 

He kept his mana shield tight around him as he walked through the ruins, heading for the center of the fallen temple.

The stones here were monoliths, massive slabs stretching upward from the earth in a scattered arrangement that vaguely resembled an oval.

The temple complex had been built to incorporate them, its walls and buildings interspersed between the stones and even built on top of them, but plenty of space had been left for the sky and light to fall upon the stones.

Once, the light might have mixed into patterns of enchantment and protection, creating natural wards that drew on the power of the land, but now they were scattered shadows beneath the moon.

The entrance to the dungeon glimmered at the center of it all, just behind where the stone table of a natural altar still stood. A massive archway of stone loomed into the night, framing the silver-black glow.

This was where all of the mana flows met.

Kelin paused in front of the portal and studied the information that flowed into his mind.

You have discovered The Ashen Halls Chaos Remnant.

Average Level: 185.

Elemental Affinities: Dust and Stone.

Mana Density: High.

Relative Danger: High.

Rewards: Variable (High).

Notes: This is a natural Chaos Remnant formed from local mana flows and dense elemental essence. Due to the high monster density, a team is recommended.

Requirement: Kill 90% or more of the monsters inside.

Additional Bonus: 100% completion and kill the final boss.

Possible Rewards: Experience, Wealth, Common to Rare-grade Items, Alliance Credit.

Notes: This dungeon is one of the oldest undead remnants in the area and it is host to a large number of powerful undead, from draugrs to wraiths and more.

Warning: Your current level is far below the recommended range.

Kelin chuckled as the final line leapt into his mind.

“I’m aware,” he said quietly. “Do you think that is going to stop me?”

He felt Gaius’s answering chuckle at the back of his mind, as well as the elemental’s eagerness for a true challenge.

With the two of them together, there was little they couldn’t accomplish.

There were several other dungeons in Celadon that were close to the right level, but this one was the only undead one, and since the Sovereign of Undeath had killed him, he had decided to return the favor by killing its creatures wherever he found them.

It was also rarely run and near to breaking, which meant the mana density and rewards would be at their best, so it was a good choice in multiple ways. 

He didn’t hesitate as he stepped forward. 

The silver-black light of the portal flowed over his shoulders and then he was moving through the Void, crossing an unfathomably long distance as starlight and darkness merged and tumbled through his senses.