Wild Era 2, Ch 10: Progress

After his mana practice the next morning, Kelin headed back to the crafting hall.

He’d stopped by last night and booked out the room for a month, so it was his until then.

He had some plans to meet with the team now and then to refine group tactics in the combat halls, but for the most part they would be working on their own and he would be doing the same. 

The sunlight falling through the crystal roof was pleasant as he sat down at the workbench and checked on his cloak. 

It was about three-quarters repaired and the slices from Kolburn’s air blades had noticeably shrunk. The 10% bonus to all magical potency and its other effects were partially restored, including the once a day use of Shadow Speed, but it wouldn’t be good to rely on it yet.

Another day of passive mana regeneration would finish it off.

He set the cloak on the workbench and pushed the mana connection to the back of his mind as he turned his attention to talismans and crafting.

He was planning to get all of the abilities that he could to Elite before he evolved, and at least one or two to Epic if the dungeon went well, but with only six levels to go until his Evolution, time was short.

There were only two abilities that had a decent chance of reaching Heroic: Endless Flame and Spell Disruption.

Both of them had the kernel of a Law embedded in their structure, which was the main requirement, but Endless Flame was at Elite, so it was likely to get there first.

It still needed a significant amount of effort before it could reach Epic, much less Heroic, but with enough time, it would ignite.

Perhaps 3,000 talismans would be enough.

His old Persistent Spell ability had only applied to his spells, but Endless Flame was more comprehensive. Even the kernel of a Law had a powerful effect.

He picked up one of the scales and began to refine it, focusing his attention on the effect of Endless Flame. 

His mana flowed into the structure and burned away impurities, widened the mana pathways, and mingled with the fire essence that was innate to the scale.

That fire energy grew brighter as he worked on it, spreading through more of the scale, but after a little while it seemed to reach a limit.

He studied the result.

The scale’s color had brightened into a ruby red and there was a shimmer of internal flames running through it that hadn’t been there before. 

They were mostly pure Fire, but there was a touch of endlessness that gave them a sense of depth, as if they would flare up again whenever they failed.

He nodded in approval.

The effect was innate to him, similar to how First Evolution mana was denser, so it applied to all  of his mana and soul energy, whether it was in a spell or a talisman.

As long as he was the one to engrave the spell, the talisman would benefit from the same effect: a 40% bonus to its duration and cohesion, and 15% to its power.

His enchantments should benefit in the future too. He just had to make sure to do all the steps himself.

Without a unique fusion concept like the Temple of Mists had held, it would be difficult for him to combine the effect with Water or other contrasting elements, but that wasn’t important. 

There were elements that merged well with Fire, like Wind and Earth.

He just had to specialize.

He set the scale to the side and pulled out a stack of new ones, and then he got to work refining them. 

He had over a thousand combined Sandfire Eel and Coralfire Scales from the dungeon, and around four hundred Royal Sandfire ones, so he had a lot to practice with.

He’d also picked up two thousand Fire-aligned drake scales from the guild, two hundred First Evolution ones, and ten Second Evolution ones. 

It all cost about five hundred gold, but it would be worth it.

He was planning to alternate between stacks of the easier ones and harder ones at a ten to one ratio, refining them in cycles to push the ability forward.

Endless Flame would advance at the same time.

The rest of that day passed as he dedicated himself to his work, and by the end of it his cloak was fully repaired.

He swung it back around his shoulders and took out the Staff of Soulfire, which was broken in half. He transferred his passive mana regeneration to it as he started on the repair.

About halfway through, he would need to embed the new enchantment structures he was planning, but the first part of the repair was necessary to pave the way.

Glowing lines of golden fire connected the two pieces, creating a web of energy that swiftly turned into a complex network. The effect of Endless Flame was present too.

He took a moment to place Ignite and Blaze runes at the center of the web, where they floated in the enchantment. Their influence spread outward to infuse the wood.

Until now, the staff had been a powerful soul and fire-affinity item, but it was a blank slate, not much different from a polished branch that could change shape and repair itself. 

By the time he was done with it, it would be a proper artifact with innate abilities. 

As he returned to refining the scales, his speed was picking up, but only by a tiny amount. 

Refining was time-consuming but basic work, and some things couldn’t be forced.

He was able to do one scale every two minutes, at a cost of roughly twelve mana.

Assuming he focused on it for 18 hours and without anything but the most minimal breaks, he could produce around 500 refined scales a day, at a cost of about 80% of his passive mana regeneration. 

He had over four thousand scales on hand, so it would take a week to get through everything. 

That would leave him with two to three weeks to actually make the talismans. 

If he were mass-producing things, that timeline would be fine, but ability training was an art that required different types of effort to push the boundaries of what was possible.

So instead he threw speed out the window, slowed down his refining, and focused on the kernel of Law inherent to Endless Flame and the nature of Arcane Refinement.

Sometimes, you have to go slow to go fast.

He studied how the abilities changed the nature of the scales, the principles they relied on, and the subtle shifts in energy that were used to open mana pathways and remove impurities without damaging the inherent essence.

Then he combined that with his old knowledge as an archmage, analyzing the abilities from every angle and pushing them ahead.

By the evening of the second full day, his effort paid off as Arcane Refinement gained a tier.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

Your Subclass Ability: Arcane Refinement has gained a tier and reached Expert.

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 Expert tier, it is limited to items two feet across and no higher than Level 80.

He dismissed the notification and got back to work. 

He refined a few more regular scales to test the difference from before, and then he switched to one of the First Evolution fire drake scales for a harder challenge.

These scales had a denser mana signature and were much more difficult to refine, like steel plates that resisted at every moment. 

Sometimes, having a difficult opponent was useful, but if he activated Blaze, things changed and he could train that ability too.

New ability tiers were like a muscle, and Expert in particular needed to be stressed to grow, so he didn’t use Blaze. He just forced his Basic Evolution mana against the scale, letting the resistance push back against him. 

It was like pushing a cloud against a boulder and demanding that it move. It was slow going, but bit by bit his mana fused into the scale.

That scale and then another went by, but he didn’t switch back to the regular ones. He stuck to the challenge. 

Endless flames surged within his mana, inspiring it to rise again even as it faltered.

The number he could refine in a day ground down to almost nothing, but his rate of progress with the ability flew forward. Each scale was like lifting a massive weight and sweat rolled down his face before it evaporated.

Hour after hour, his meridians burned and his mana was drained to nothing.

Time passed in an endless cycle.

Three days later, the ability leapt up to the Elite tier.

Arcane Refinement (Elite):

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 Elite tier, the type of item you can work on is only limited by the strength of your aura and mana density.

He hissed out a breath in agreement and then he tossed the scales back into his storage ring as he stood up to stretch.

That took care of the basic requirement for that one. Working on more talismans would help to push it closer to Epic.

Endless Flame had also grown stronger. It had been newly kindled, but the repeated challenge stimulated it and its progress was leaping upward. 

Runic Engraving was the next one to work on, but instead of that he packed up his things and got cleaned up, swirling fire and water around himself in intricate arcs that scrubbed him clean and pressed his clothes.

Then he headed out.

It had been five days since he met with the team, and Sandren was back from her rounds. She’d sent him a message earlier to let him know and they’d arranged to meet.

It was time to catch up with her.

A few minutes later, Sandren met him at the entrance of the guild. 

She had traded out her usual armor and guild uniform for a more fashionable set of summer clothing, which made her look slender and feminine.

It was in a style more common on other worlds, but it fit in well enough in Highmist with loose flaring sleeves and a tight waist, except that she’d traded out the usual skirt bottom for a pair of embroidered trousers.

When he saw her, Kelin held out his hand. She placed hers in it with a light touch and they traded smiles.

“Let’s walk and talk?” he suggested warmly. “There’s still a couple days of the summer festival left.”

“I’d like that,” Sandren agreed. “I haven’t had a chance to see it yet.”

The guild hall was in a busy area of the city and it dominated a square that was currently filled with streamers, some musicians and other performers, and scattered booths that offered delicacies, magical artifacts, and more.

“You’ve been busy,” he said with a chuckle as they began to walk through the city. “Did you find all of the cores the Sarathians added?”

Since it was a date, he probably should have opened with something else, but it would have been disingenuous. They both spent most of their time on work and talking about it was the simplest way to relax and have a casual conversation.

“Counting the one you dealt with, we found six undead cores,” Sandren said as she glanced around the street. She was in a good mood and looked pleased with herself as she studied the festival.

“Then there was the poison drake core you found and two others that weren’t undead, for a total of nine. Half of the guild strength in Celadon was out scouting, so I think we got them all. The ones we found were all planted around the same time, so if any were left, they should have broken out by now, but it’s not guaranteed.”

She shook her head and her hand tightened on his for a moment. 

“We caught it in time, thanks mostly to your warning, but it will still be difficult to purge some of the undead traces from the dungeons. A couple of them might end up changing.”

“That could be difficult for the areas around them,” Kelin agreed. “Dungeons are resilient though, and they’re all governed by the Path. They won’t change unless the Path thinks it is useful in some way.”

“That’s true.” Sandren relaxed a little as she nodded in agreement. “Sometimes we think we have more control over dungeons than we really do. Still, the matter has been elevated to my superiors. They’ll handle the sanctions against Sarathia. They won’t get away with it. It might cost them the war against Baralis.”

She shook her head as waved the matter away.

“Either way, there will probably be some backlash, but hopefully someone else gets to handle it. I have enough to do around here.”

“I can appreciate that.” Kelin agreed. “But peace rarely stays for long, and usually only when you hold it at sword point.”

It was a truth that he had seen over thousands of years.

Stability was founded on power.

“You are too young to talk like that!” Sandren laughed as she looked over. “You have the strange quality of seeming both old and young at once. Is that all from your inheritance?”

”Mostly,” Kelin said with a chuckle. “Things spring to mind.”

He was sticking to the story he’d told her that he’d inherited some memories and his class from his ancestor. It was also what he’d explained to the guild.

His case was the only reincarnation he’d ever heard of, so even if he told her, it might be difficult to get her to believe it. Plus, he still needed to figure out who had killed him, so he couldn’t announce his rebirth.

“Well, act young with me and let’s go get some snacks,” Sandren said cheerfully. “There are some things here that won’t be made again for months and a few that only show up once a year. I need to stock up. Working at the guild hall here is a good opportunity for that.”

“Alright,” Kelin agreed, “let’s go on a food hunt.” 

He’d always enjoyed sampling the rare foods of different worlds. His younger self had never had the chance in Highmist, so he was interested to see what was here.

With that, the two of them spent the next couple of hours walking around the city, stopping at one booth after another as they examined everything Highmist had to offer. 

The specialties of the summer festival focused on olives, mint, and iced fruits. There were also spicy soups and bright wines, breads baked with onions and garlic inside, and all types of roasted meat on skewers and on plates made of woven leaves.

Nothing was that expensive and his storage ring was soon stocked with hundreds of different foods, the same as Sandren’s.

As they moved along, their conversation was light and teasing, and for the most part they talked about the city and enjoyed each other’s company.

“So how did you end up in Highmist?” Kelin asked as the evening moved on.

Sandren hesitated for a moment before she answered.

“I could say it’s just a standard rotation for Silver rankers,” she said, “which is true, but the real reason is that I asked for a break. I was part of the Seventeenth Legion, and I wanted something calmer for a bit.”

“You fought more than one Chaos Gate,” Kelin said. His tone was light, but it was not a question.

“Three over more than a century,” Sandren agreed. Her eyes were distant. “The Silver Army is vast and I was just a soldier in the ranks, but I was there. It weighed on me after a while, to fight for so long.”

“You’re the only officer in this guild hall like that, aren’t you?” he asked. “It’s given you a certain aura that I don’t sense from the others.”

“Perceptive,” Sandren said with a flicker of a smile. “Some call that the Aura of Silver Stars. It’s part of the army’s power when we fight beside the Sovereign, like part of his light has blessed us.”

She looked into the distance for a moment, but then she waved the mood off.  

“It was nice to come to a smaller place for a bit, and to be reminded of regular life. Even with Sarathia causing issues, it’s still nothing like a Chaos Gate. Fortunately, there are enough Silver Rankers around that I’m not being pushed to return. I wouldn’t mind another decade or two here, depending on how things go. After that, I'll go back.”

Kelin nodded in approval, but he didn’t push for more. He understood. It was important to remember what you were fighting for, and the lives of regular people were one of those things.

It was nice to feel the flow of it.

They wandered on for a while longer as the sun dipped below the horizon and twilight shaded the streets, which were illuminated by colorful lanterns and streamers. Now and then, fireworks exploded over the roofs in bursts of color and light.

Eventually, their discussion turned to more critical matters, including updates on Verasun and the state of the guild

“Verasun is going to be busy with the Decennium here soon,” Sandren explained. “It’s just under three months away, and I expect he’ll try to settle the issue with your friends before then, particularly the guild charges and the fine. 

“Otherwise, it’ll make him look weak in front of the other nobles when they all vote for who’s the most influential. It should be around 2,000 gold, enough to make him flinch a little, but not much more. Perhaps it will be enough to help them leave Celadon, if that’s what they want.”

“The guild is short staffed,” Kelin said, frowning for a moment. “Otherwise, he should be terrified of it.”

“We are,” Sandren agreed, not arguing the point. “We don’t have many Gold Rankers around and that makes local politics difficult. Even the ones we do have can’t come to visit very often, much less a Platinum or a Diamond Ranker.

“The city lords are at the Third Evolution, the same as our Gold rankers and most of the rulers on this world, so it makes for a tricky situation. We can apply pressure and more severe threats, like calling in a Platinum or a Diamond ranker, and if they show up, they will crush everything, but the reality is that it won’t happen very often. 

“Many local things, like these threats to your friends, simply don’t qualify for their attention. When it comes to the nobles, the best the guild can do is keep applying threats until they finally give in.”

“Have you tried other means?” Kelin asked. “Economic sanctions? The guild’s pockets are vast and the transfer of goods here doesn’t seem to have been too affected. You must control a large part of the interstellar trade that comes to this world.”

“We do,” Sandren agreed, “but that can hurt large sections of the regular population too, so we try to avoid it if possible. We don’t want to look like the villain, punishing everyone instead of the right person.”

“Sometimes, a show of force can solve many hidden issues,” Kelin said, “and remind the local tigers that they are kittens.”

His words were calm and conversational, but they made Sandren give him a strange look. But then she smiled.

“You definitely don’t think like a local,” she said with a chuckle. “If you have an idea, let me know. I can always run it by my superiors.”

“The sanctions on Sarathia are an opportunity,” Kelin said. “Verasun is another. Punish the foreigners hard and slap the local crime lord down at the same time, but a little less than the Sarathians and in a targeted way. That way, people will see you as strong but wise.”

“It sounds like you have an idea already,” Sandren said with a laugh. “Spit it out.”

Kelin didn’t deny it.

“In a merchant country, fight like a merchant,” Kelin said calmly. “For Sarathia, block them from using guild transport for any of their goods. The guild controls most of the teleportation across the world and a large part of their economy will grind to a halt eventually. Luxury goods from off-world will be affected in particular.

“They’ll be forced to turn inward or to transport things with Second and Third Evolution people. I doubt they have any Fourth Evolution ones who can easily travel the Void, but even if they do, one or two won’t make much difference. Then announce that anyone doing large business deals with them will suffer the same fate.”

He paused as he shifted his focus.

“As for Verasun, his businesses focus on dungeon exports, and so do those of the other Celadon nobles. I recommend leveraging the guild’s resources to flood the market. Undercut their pricing. Make it so they are not able to sell anything that the guild can’t sell for cheaper.

“They all have large mercenary armies to pay who run the dungeons for them. After a few months, their finances will grow thin and their options will be to bow their heads or to fight you. The guild is powerful enough that they will not dare to try the latter.

“Cut them off at the knees and remind them that the next time they interfere with guild business or target guild adventurers, you’ll make sure they go bankrupt. Let them discuss that at the Decennium when they praise each other for their influence.”

Sandren was still as she listened to the idea.

“I like it,” she said after a moment. “Perhaps I was thinking too linearly. I’ve often asked for more reinforcements, but it’s always been denied. I’ll throw my support behind this and see if I can make it happen. 

“Sarathia will be the hard part, but the local goods are simpler. If it works, my commander won’t even have to send anyone, just sell more things here, which he should like. ”

“Even the threat of it might hold some value,” Kelin said, not pushing the issue.

With that, he placed his hand around Sandren’s and the two of them continued to walk through the city, heading back to the guild hall.

The streets never quieted down during the festival, so on the way, they made sure to stop at the booths they’d skipped earlier, to make sure they didn’t miss anything special.