Wild Era 2, Ch 12: Colors of Irian

The enchantments took Kelin the better part of the next week and in between he made some time for other things.

He made sure to visit the kids every few days to help them with mana circulation and their general understanding of magical theory. 

He also taught them some basic concepts of soul magic, in case it was ever useful to them, and he spent some effort infusing their bodies with beneficial mana and soul energy, working to correct the deficits in their physiques. 

He didn’t want them to end up with the same malnourished status he’d had.

There was a chance that the soul energy would help them to develop a Soul Affinity in the future, but it was a small one. 

It was more important for their general growth, to ensure that their abilities and skills developed well.

He also spent two pleasant evenings with Sandren, talking about everything that came to mind. 

One of the evenings was spent with some friends of hers from the guild, hanging out at a tavern in the city called the Bear and the Fig. 

It was a relaxing place with good ale and food, and it had strong enchantments woven through the structure for defense. The owner was a retired adventurer, and even if the city walls fell, the inn would stand as a fallback point for a while.

Most of the patrons were from the guild and Highmist’s guard force.

Jesra and a few of the other guild staff that Kelin had met were there along with some of the guild captains that he hadn’t met, as well as a number of other people who held key positions around the city.

There was no word yet from Sandren’s superiors about the plan against Verasun or the teleportation sanctions against Sarathia, but there was no quick dismissal either.

That meant they were giving it due consideration.

Anything involving such a widespread impact and the economy of multiple countries deserved attention, but the guild was in need of some local influence.

He had the feeling they would agree eventually.

Undercutting the nobles’ sales of dungeon artifacts would have some downstream effect on the regular people, including shopkeepers, the mercenary armies they ran, and others, but it would settle soon enough.

The guild was capable of employing anyone who needed a new job, and the mercenaries could continue their same trade as regular adventurers.

The guild’s power would grow from it and the regular people would be better off once they were out from under the nobles’ thumbs. 

The entire system that Celadon had come up with was an abomination.

Dungeons were not meant to be farmed. They were supposed to be individual challenges at the right level, to teach key tactics and survival ability.

The mercenaries’ levels could only be stagnant at the moment, and their class upgrades from doing the same dungeons repeatedly would be weak.

Even the nobles would be better off if they focused on their personal growth. 

The profits of a single kingdom were irrelevant in the bigger picture.

What were they going to do if a Chaos Gate opened next to Lareth tomorrow?

Kelin shook his head. 

He’d abandoned his naïveté long ago when Irian fell. He had seen what could happen if you weren’t prepared.

For all of its arts and wonder, Irian had not been able to block the invasion alone.

Arts and music, enchantment and beauty...it could only be supported by power.

If they’d had more warning, they could have risen to the occasion, but the gate had opened too swiftly, and now only he was left.

For Sandren’s sake, he set aside his criticisms for the evening and had a decent time at the tavern. He also made a number of new connections with people.

On the way home, perhaps because of something he’d said, Sandren raised the topic of his world view again. 

“You really don’t act like you’re 20,” she said with a laugh. “Maybe 500...and I mean that in a good way. These memories that you inherited, what exactly are they? From what you said before, I thought it was just a few, but the more I get to know you, the more that doesn’t seem accurate.”

“I did say I’d tell you my secrets.” Kelin chuckled as he considered what to say. It didn’t take him long to decide. It was just a slight shift from reality. 

“As I work through my inheritance and the spells it holds, I live the memories associated with them, the creation of the spells and how they were used in battle. 

“I‘ve seen other worlds and experienced some of what my ancestor experienced while he lived. Some of those memories seem to take years to absorb, but when I open my eyes, only seconds have passed. And there are hundreds of memories, so sometimes it feels like I have lived for centuries. It’s changed my perspective.”

“That is incredible,” Sandren said thoughtfully. “Ancestral memories are a feature of some races, but not usually humans. It seems like your soul affinity has given you a version of them. Do you worry that it took away your youth?”

“Not at all.” Kelin grinned at her. “It is still my decision, but I have the advantage of years of knowledge that wouldn’t be there otherwise. It is like having a guide to help me make the most of this life.

“So instead of a misspent youth, I can see the potential outcomes more clearly and with a broader perspective. Who wouldn’t want to have that type of advice to make the most of their lives?”

He paused for a moment, studying Sandren as a smile tilted his lips.

“I would even say that if you shared my memories, you would see yourself as young, rather than me.”

And he would be the one robbing the cradle, as it were, although he didn’t go so far as to say that aloud.

“Well, I suppose I am young in the eyes of some people.” Sandren laughed, but then she looked thoughtful. “You know, a couple of centuries isn’t much when you start talking to the higher ranks in the guild.

“There are people who remember when the guild began, and that was 2,000 years ago. I met Hirkan Firmark once, the first Guildmaster. He’s retired now, but he’s still an elder and one of our Star Rankers.”

“I have heard of him,” Kelin said with a slight smile. “He should be around 5,000 years old now.”

Hirkan was someone he’d met many times. The man was only a few decades older than he had been and the two of them had gotten along well. 

It made him wonder if Hirkan would recognize him now.

He was a powerful fighter who was also stuck at Level 699, although he hadn’t been on Kelin’s level when it came to widespread destruction.

“Yes, I think just over that,” Sandren agreed. “He remembers the beginning of the Wild Era. He was one of the humans who was rescued by the Path when the sovereign started it all. He was a stable boy back then, barely a teenager.”

Her tone was full of wonder as she looked up at the night sky.

“Can you imagine what that was like, to see it begin?” she asked softly. “When the sovereign changed the galaxy and started it all?”

Kelin was silent for a moment, but then he just shook his head with a smile.

“It would truly have been something,” he agreed, feeling a touch of nostalgia, “to see everything change.”

He’d been born in what had come to be called Year 12 of the Sovereign of Silver Chaos, at the dawn of the era.

That was twelve years after the Sovereign had announced his presence to the galaxy, brought order to the Council of the High Nine, and given the Path of Stars to everyone.

Hirkan had been a few decades older than him, just old enough to see both sides of the change. Kelin had talked to him about it once, when the two of them were reminiscing about their youth.

Their ages were close, so they’d had some things in common and had hit it off pretty well when they met.

They had both seen the beginning of the things when people were figuring out what the Path was and humanity was grappling with the elemental affinities they had received.

He shook his head in amusement.

They had been at the Fifth Evolution back then. It was sometime after dungeons appeared, maybe a century or two. By then, Hirkan was already known as the Guildmaster of the Stars Alliance, and Kelin had been famous as the Lord of Wildfire.

It felt like only a few decades ago, but it was actually far longer.

Hirkan had founded the guild in Year 3,317, about five years after dungeons first started to appear, and that was...2,095 years ago, according to the present date.

It made him chuckle as he considered the timeline. 

It was currently Year 5,412 of the Sovereign, and 3,872 Chaos Annum, which was the calendar that marked the number of years since the Chaos War began.

If he hadn’t died, he would have been 5,400 years old this year. 

Sandren’s eyes were still fixed on the sky as he pulled his attention back to the present.

“Then there are the true ancients,” she added. “The ones who are difficult to comprehend, like the Sovereign and the High Nine. Can you imagine living for 10,000, or 100,000...or even millions of years?”

“Even my memories don’t stretch that far,” Kelin said as he shook his head. “I wonder how they handle it. If you ever reach the Seventh Evolution, perhaps you’ll find out.”

Even at the Sixth Evolution, lifespans were limited to a million years or so, at least for a human.

Some races had naturally longer lifespans, like the Cer’Aleth, the Crystal Elementals who were one of humanity’s allies, but it was only at the Seventh Evolution that life became truly endless.

Perhaps only the Astral Titans like the Sovereign had that type of lifespan naturally.

“I think I would go crazy before then,” Sandren said, laughing as she pulled herself out of her reverie. “200 is enough to handle.”

“I think it depends on who’s around you,” Kelin said, “to keep you grounded. Even at the Second Evolution, age doesn’t matter much any longer.”

He pointed at her as an example.

“Give me a little while and I’ll catch up to you in levels. No one will even ask about it.”

“You know too much about things for your age,” Sandren said, grinning. “I guess I can’t keep calling you young. Maybe I should call you an old man instead.”

“Go ahead,” Kelin grinned at her. “It’ll be funny.”

Her response was to stick her tongue out at him, and it was such a young gesture that he laughed again.

He wrapped his hand around hers as the two of them walked through the city, heading back to the guild hall.

He wasn’t worried about the age difference, either his real age or hers compared to him in this life.

After the first century or so, relationships became a matter of personality and how well you suited one another.

Humans could live for hundreds of years at the Basic Evolution, as long as their Constitution was high enough. By the Second Evolution, that grew to a thousand and sometimes several thousand.  

As Evolutions continued, age became less relevant.

When Sandren was wearing casual clothes, like she was now, she looked like a young woman in her early twenties. There was only a subtle touch to her features that made it hard to pinpoint an age, except to say that she was young and athletic. 

Kelin’s own age was just as hard to see at a glance. 

He could have been anywhere in his 20s, and with his memories, that aura of age in his movements was even more pronounced.

It was a way of holding himself still unless necessary, where his gestures seemed calm and unhurried but arrived at the right moment.

That was the value of experience.

Unnecessary things disappeared after a while, until only the truth was left.

As for the rank difference where he was a Sergeant in the guild and she was a Captain, while that might get them a strange look today, it wouldn’t matter much soon. 

He fully expected to reach Captain and pass it, and then the opinions would go the other way.

Their conversation was light as they returned to the guild, and Sandren gave him a quick kiss before she left.

He smiled as he watched her walk away.

He had never spent much time on personal relationships in his past life, except for brief things. He hadn't found the time and peace for a family, and with Irian on his mind, he hadn't wanted to start a new life somewhere else.

Most of his time had been devoted to magic and later to his allies.

In this life, he was planning to change that, but anything major like settling down would have to wait until he rebuilt Irian.

He was confident that Sandren's perspective of their relationship was easy-going and that she was mostly just willing to see where it went.

For now, it was pleasant, but only casual.

Except for that date and one other, he spent most of his time working on his gear.

The end of the week found him in the crafting hall, setting the last runes into the enchantment for his staff.

He’d done the clothes first for practice and then he matched his work on the staff to the pace of its recovery, so that the enchantments were innate to the structure, which made them slightly more powerful.

When everything was complete, the clothing sat on one side of the table and the staff on the other. Every piece glowed with power. 

Golden runes were inscribed along the staff and floated in the air around it, drifting like wisps of flame. Each of them was a reflection of the core runes inside, appearing and disappearing as energy passed through the staff.

A trace of nostalgia passed through his gaze as he looked down at them.

Everything here sang of Irian, reminding him of their golden age. In his hands, they also showed what could have been.

He examined the items one by one.

The mana efficiency enchantment on the tunic had improved to 22.3%, while the mana regeneration on the breeches was up to 23.1%.

The Fire efficiency effect on the belt was 24.1%, and his new boots had +24 Agility and an Improved Sure Footing effect that was stronger than before. 

It would be difficult for his feet to slip from any surface now, even if he was standing in a rushing stream or in a puddle of oil.

All of the enchantments were at the Professional quality, and the effects were more than twice as strong as they’d been before.

His theoretical cap on enchantments was +26%, with the 20% base from Affinity Focus and the 30% improvement from Runic Engraving, so he hadn’t done too badly.

These were near the top of what he could produce.

He examined the staff last.

Staff of Soulfire (Rare: Superior)

Soulbound.

Material: Soulflame Spirit Wood.

Affinity Bonus: 10% Efficiency and 32% Power boost to Soul and Fire spells.

Enchantment Slots Used: 3 (Grasp of the Blazing Soul, Dome of Soulfire, Endless Soulflame).

Each of the three enchantments for range, area, and intensity had their own unique name, and he’d managed to infuse a touch of Endless Flame into the intensity enchantment.

Overall, the power of the staff had more than tripled.

When he finished studying everything, he changed into the new clothes and let the enchantments fade into invisibility.

It left him dressed in a simple but elegant style as he picked up the staff. With a flicker of his will, it shrank into a bracelet on his wrist and faded to weightless invisibility.

The only things left on the table were two silver and ruby amulets for Yao and Naomi.

He’d decided to go all out and merged the Royal Sandfire Rubies into runic silverflame as a setting and a chain, creating artifacts that would serve the kids for at least a couple of Evolutions.

Perhaps even longer.

They were identical and each of them had a nascent soulbond that needed to be activated, which would take a drop of blood from Yao and Naomi.

As he picked them up, he analyzed one.

Royal Sandfire Ruby Amulet (Rare: Professional).

This amulet has been crafted from a powerful source of elemental fire and set into runic silverflame, which has stabilized its abilities and granted increased protection.

It grants increased health and vitality to the wearer, protects against poison and disease, and has a moderate regenerative effect. While it is worn, minor wounds will heal quickly, while more significant ones will take longer.

The silverflame chain and setting has been enchanted with a powerful defensive spell that is capable of creating a Level 110 shield around the wearer. It will last until its mana is exhausted. 

Effects: Royal Sandfire Aura, Silverflame Shield, Soulbound, Self-Repair, Durable, Ethereal.

It wasn’t that strong of a defense, but the amulets could recharge themselves over time.

It was enough to protect them for a little while and it would give them something else to channel their mana into for practice.

He stored the amulets away and turned his attention back to his clothing as he channeled a thread of mana through it. 

The runes shone with a subtle golden aura as he tested the basic functions.

Then he activated Blaze.

Dense First Evolution mana flowed through the runes, making them glow more brightly. Once he saw that the mana was stable, he intensified it even more, pushing it faster until he was near his limit, and the runes handled it without a problem. 

There was no sign of deterioration in the enchantment.

He nodded in satisfaction as he stopped. 

As Evolutions increased and mana became denser, it was hard to stack efficiency enchantments, but he’d done a pretty decent job.

The total percentage was a little better than he’d had before.

His soulfire spells would have a 27.48% mana reduction, while his pure Fire spells were cheaper with a 32.42% reduction. 

The difference came from the main enchantments, which were alternately his tunic or his belt. Those two pieces carried most of the weight, while the others added a smaller multiplicative effect.

The enchantments would work with Blaze, which was critical, and once he reached the First Evolution, he wouldn’t need to change his gear.

As for his pure soul spells like Wildfire, those had a 10% reduction, thanks to his staff. 

He might be able to make a better soul efficiency enchantment in the future, but even at his strongest, that had been a complicated art. Soul energy wasn’t the same as mana, nor was it as freely available.

The easiest way would be to sacrifice the souls of his enemies to create a secondary pool, which was a favorite tactic of necromancers and blood ritualists, but he wasn’t going to go down that route.

With the new enchantments on his staff, his combined bonuses to Soulfire were up to 114.5%.

Each of the effects was the echo of a Law that empowered his spells.

The combination made him over twice as strong as a mage of his level, and if he intensified his spells or used Blaze, things leapt upward quickly.

With all of that settled, there was only one thing left to do, so he turned his attention to it.

Creating all of the talismans and the new enchantments had given him some experience, as well as some rewards from the Crafter’s Trials.

He glanced at the notifications.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

For your crafting efforts, you have gained two Levels.

You are now Level 96.

Your Soulbound Elemental has also gained two Levels.

You gain +2 Wisdom, +6 Intelligence, and have 10 free attribute points to assign.

He tossed the free points into Intelligence, which took it to 707, and then he looked at the other notifications.

You have completed two of the Crafter’s Trials.

You have inscribed 500 Talismans at the Professional Grade.

You have engraved an Enchantment at an Evolution higher than your own. 

You have earned two Ability upgrades.

You may choose two Abilities or Skills to advance by a single tier, to a maximum of Elite.

Making 500 talismans was basically what had taken Runic Engraving up to Elite, so it was amusing that the Path gave him a free upgrade after the fact, but he wasn’t going to complain about it.

He’d used a lot of earlier upgrades from dungeons on his subclass and all of his crafting skills were at Elite now, so it was only fair that these two go back to his combat abilities.

He made his choices.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

Your Class Ability: Soul Recovery has gained a tier and risen to Elite.

You are attuned to the nature of the soul and just like you can heal the physical body with a touch, you are capable of restoring damage to the spirit. 

This ability can be used to heal your own soul and that of others, helping to remove damage from curses and spiritual afflictions, as well as from other sources. It works on both physical and spiritual beings. 

At the Elite tier, this ability provides a passive +25% regeneration rate to your soul, which stacks with healing and recovery from other sources.

The ability had gained 10% over the previous tier. 

The second notification followed.

Your Class Ability: Soulfire Reinforcement has gained a tier and risen to Expert.

This Ability allows you to reinforce physical and spiritual objects as well as spell structures with soulfire, enhancing their strength, durability, and any enchantments they hold. It can also be used to transform an object into a temporary weapon, granting it enhanced damage and effectiveness against your enemies.

At the Expert tier, you are able to channel 15 mana and soul energy into the object per second. As an additional effect, the mana you infuse now flows 15% faster and has 15% greater density.

He hadn’t used Soulfire Reinforcement much, but he couldn’t leave it behind if he wanted the best platform for Evolution, so this was a convenient shortcut to get it higher.

The new tier was 5% more across the board than it had been before.

When he was done with the notifications, he cleaned up the crafting hall. The sunlight was still streaming peacefully through the roof, giving the area a meditative aura.

He’d come back if he had some free time and make more talismans, but he planned to hold off on any bigger projects until after he reached the First Evolution.

He stored everything away and headed down to the front desk, where he spent a few moments chatting with Jesra and booked one of the combat training halls.

On the way back through the guild, the anti-scrying bracelet on his arm heated up again, and he glanced down at it with a frown.

Verasun was beginning to get on his nerves. The man had to have hired at least three or four seers to keep an eye on him.

He debated using a Soul Veil talisman to boost the enchantment, but then he dismissed it.

Since he was in the guild, it wasn’t necessary, but if this kept up, he would have to consider more active defenses that could lash back along the connection.

There were ways to punish a seer for spying, with everything from shattering their vision and giving them a headache to tearing their soul apart.

Soul Shroud could have done it if he had full use of it, but it was a Fourth Evolution spell.

He’d have to check the guild shops to see if they had anything he could use.