Wild Era, Ch 38: Recognition (Double)

It took Kelin two hours to gather everything from the battlefield, even with Gaius’s help.

The total count was fourteen Guardians, a dozen Trident Bearers, six Netcasters, six Shamans, seven Sandstars, seven Flying Coral Fish, six Sandfire Eels, and the Royal Sandfire Eel.

That was 59 monsters total.

The royal eel was the real treasure of the fight and it had died underground after it tried to escape, so he asked Gaius to dig it out. When it rose to the surface, he got to work on harvesting everything useful from it.

Its body was a true crafting treasure. 

It was covered in red and golden scales. Each of them was six inches wide and half an inch thick, almost like armor plates. They weighed three pounds each and they resonated with a strong elemental signature. 

They would make excellent talismans.

He analyzed one of them.

Royal Sandfire Eel Scale (Uncommon).

A high-quality Uncommon crafting material with an affinity for Fire and Life.

He stripped hundreds of them from the eel and stacked them in his spatial pocket, but the scales weren’t the only items worth taking.

He extracted a large monster core that looked like a yellow gem with swirling ruby clouds inside and several other things. His analysis ability highlighted what was useful.

He took the eel’s liver, eyes, and heart, all of which had good uses in alchemy and strong elemental affinities, and then some of its larger fangs and its spine, which was as strong and flexible as a steel whip, despite being made of bone.

Then he struck the real treasure.

Inside the eel’s stomach, there were two strange ruby-like stones, each of them a polished and shimmering sphere about three inches across.

Royal Sandfire Ruby (Rare).

A sandfire ruby is a natural crystalline gem that forms over time in the stomach of a Sandfire Eel. They are condensed from the monster’s Fire and Life affinities, and they can be used in enchantments or as strong antidotes against poisons.

Normally, these rubies are Uncommon, but they have a high value and sell easily. The rarest of all are Royal Sandfire Rubies, which only come from the Elites of the royal line. 

This version of the gem acts as a natural regenerative agent, helping to slowly heal and detoxify anyone who carries it with it. They are capable of naturally restoring their own mana, but they can be infused for a stronger effect. 

They are most often made into jewelry for the nobility, who seek them out for the protection from poison and the belief that the regeneration effect will prevent signs of aging.

It was already clear what he was going to do with them.

These would make great gifts, so Yao and Naomi would each get one.

There was no requirement to use the rubies, since the effect was completely passive, which meant they were perfect for them.

He could easily mount them into an amulet or bracelet, one that had other protections too. As long as someone added a bit of mana now and then, they should last indefinitely. 

He stored the rubies away with the rest of the materials and then he moved on to the other monsters.

The regular eels offered plenty of more scales at the Common grade and six regular Sandfire Rubies at the Uncommon grade, which he stored away for the future. 

The lesser rubies didn’t have the same passive effect as the royal ones, but they were still useful. In a pinch, he was confident that swallowing one of them would go a long way to treating a poison, even a deadly one.

The rest of the loot was more normal, but there were plenty of cores, tridents, daggers, and other things to collect, including several Coral Sea Gems and some iridescent shells from the shamans that analyzed as Coral Ward Shells (Common).

They were weakly enchanted items that had a Fire ward woven into them, but he had no real use for them, so he stored them away to sell.

It was fortunate that he had enough space for everything, given all of the weapons and other random things he had collected so far. 

The four hundred scales from the Elite alone took up a space that was three feet wide and five and a half feet tall, although it was only six inches deep. It was like a stack of metal plates and it weighed over 1200 pounds.

There was no way he could have carried it home without a spatial item.

By the time he finished collecting everything, he had over forty tridents stacked in his storage and the same of coral daggers. They were narrow, so they didn’t take up that much space, but if he got too many more things, he would have to ditch some stuff.

He would look for some more spatial crystals when he got back to the guild.

As he worked, he checked the notifications he’d gained from the battle. There were several of them.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have gained 5 Levels.

You are now Level 73.

Your Soulbonded Elemental has also gained 5 Levels.

You gain 5 Wisdom, 15 Intelligence, and have 25 free attribute points to assign.

He glanced at his attributes and then he tossed all 25 points into his Intelligence, which took it to 598.

The mana drain from Blaze was incredible, so if he wanted to use it freely, he had to increase his Intelligence more.

It was tempting to add some to his Constitution, but he still wanted to see how much he could gain naturally, which would be more efficient in the long run. 

The refining pool had obscured some of his earlier progress there, skipping him ahead past the fractions of the attribute he might have gained, but it was still worth trying.

As for Aura, now that Wildfire was capable of strengthening it on its own, it wasn’t as important to add free points to it. He would if it started to drop too far behind, but the points were better spent on Intelligence or Constitution.

He would need large groups of enemies and time, but his Aura was capable of advancing without trouble.

It had taken him almost five hundred years to perfect that aspect of the spell. He was glad to see it still worked.

A couple more notifications followed.

Your Class Ability: Soulfire Bolt has gained a tier and reached Elite.

Your Skill: Intensify Spell has gained a tier and reached Elite.

That made him chuckle.

Those two Soulfire Bolts he’d intensified and thrown at the shamans had finally pushed him over edge into the Elite tier. 

Getting any ability to Elite was a mark of full strength for it, and sometimes the end of a mage’s progress for a century or more.

He created a Soulfire Bolt and studied the changes. Then he tossed it at a coral pillar nearby, where it tore a hole three feet deep into the stone.

The spell formed more quickly than ever, and the result was about 20% stronger. The mana weave was also tighter, something he had been pushing for, which helped the spell to maintain the same cost at 6 mana, before other reductions.

As for Intensify Spell, reaching Elite meant that now he could triple the mana cost of a spell, making it larger and stronger.

For Soulfire Bolt, that was 18 mana raw, and a bit over 13 after the 26.25% reduction.

It was like a small version of Blaze, but it didn’t improve the density as much, just the overall output, letting him cast one spell with the strength of three.

The density was more important, since it affected power, durability, and destructive force.

Soulfire Bolt and Soulfire Sigil were the core abilities for his class, and now that one of them had broken through, he could turn his attention to the other one. Once he had both at the same level, the other abilities would find it easier to reach Elite. 

He was pushing his abilities upward at a blistering pace for the amount of time it was taking, helped along by a large number of ability rewards, but the Epic tier was much harder to reach. 

Usually, it was only achieved with especially rare rewards or intense effort over years.

Despite that, he wanted to make sure he had most of his abilities there before he evolved, and he would try for the almost impossible tiers of Legendary or Heroic.

He had Wildfire at Legendary, which was how he’d gotten Soulfire Warden as a Legendary tier class, but if he could get a new Legendary or Heroic ability each for his primary class and his subclass, that would be the best foundation for his First Evolution.

How to do that was a different question, and something he would have to think about. 

A Legendary ability wasn’t just about training. It came from seizing a rare opportunity or resonating with a natural law. 

Usually it also came with a specific limitation, one that made it extraordinarily powerful within its realm, but not as useful outside of it, like a spell would only work at night, under moonlight, or in freezing temperatures.

Wildfire was a rare Legendary that didn’t have many limitations, except that it primarily affected the soul.

Heroic abilities were usually more general, but not stronger. They came from breaking the limit of a regular ability by fusing it with a higher principle, which added a unique effect.

Once he was in the 90s and had enough abilities at Epic, he could aim high and try a Level 110 or 120 dungeon, something 20 or more levels and an evolution above him, and hope that there was enough of a risk that the Path gave him a Legendary reward.

But if he didn’t manage it, he would try again at the First Evolution, and then again.

In his first life, he hadn’t had a Legendary ability until he created Wildfire, and that had been when he was over three thousand years old. 

Then he’d spent the next two thousand years improving it to its current state.

It was arrogant to imagine he could get two Legendary abilities before Level 100, like trying to fly when he was barely able to crawl, but it wasn’t going to stop him from trying.

A mage had to have goals in life, and the higher the better.

When you reached for the stars, if you fell short, at least you had a chance to touch the moon.

He had Wildfire, so there was a decent chance of getting another primary class at the Legendary tier. 

His subclass as an Arcane Artisan was riskier, since it was only Rare, but if he got its abilities to Epic first, then an Epic version should be possible.

He let the plans run through his mind as he finished dealing with the notifications and storing all of the materials away. 

Then he pulled the broken bracer off his left arm and examined it. 

It was the Bracer of Deflection for turning aside missiles, like arrows and spears. It had done its job in helping to deflect the royal eel’s attack, but the core inside had turned to dust and the enchantment was inert.

At least the engraved mithril surface and the leather backing were still in good shape. 

It was disappointing, since it was an important part of his defenses and it saved him a lot of mana, but he’d have to wait to fix it. 

He had the ability to do it himself, but he didn’t have a good Wind-affinity core to place into the enchantment, so it would be faster to take it back to the guild and have an enchanter there do it.

If it had been a Fire core, he might have given it a shot, since he had a lot of those on hand.

He slid the bracer back on, since at least it could still act like normal armor.

Then he climbed up to the peak of the sapphire tower at the center of the area, taking the staircase that wound around the inside. On the way, he searched for any other treasure, but the tower was empty except for the staircase and an opening to the roof.

When he reached the top, he studied the land below.

The desert road continued to the east, and in the distance he could see the outline of similar large towers clustered together, each of them shining in a different hue, from blue to pink and silver.

It was noticeably different from anything else he’d seen in the desert.

That had to be the city.

The sea was visible just past it, taking up the final edge of his view with endless waves of blue fire that merged into the horizon. 

The aura of the flames surrounded the towers in shimmering light, making it seem like they were dancing in the sky.

It was a pretty sight, so he spent a few minutes appreciating it. 

Then he noticed tiny specks of color moving across the sand. 

There were dozens of them between him and the city and more off to the sides, coming from every direction that he could see. He enhanced his vision with a brief spell and their figures leapt into his eyesight.

Coralfire Guardians, Netcasters, Flying Coral Fish, and more were running toward him from every direction. Some were faster than others, so the groups were stretched out across the sand like pebbles.

They were covering a long distance, but it wouldn’t be long until the first ones arrived, perhaps five to ten minutes. 

The rest would be close behind.

The weight of the dungeon’s attention had been heavy on him for a while, but now he felt a new sense of danger running through the desert like a storm. 

Killing the royal eel and its group of supporters had been too noticeable, so the dungeon had sent reinforcements to deal with him. 

Killing large groups of monsters in a dungeon often did this. It was like challenging the dungeon to fight you with everything it had.

Despite that, a smile appeared on his face. 

He needed to clear the dungeon completely if he wanted to get the best rewards, so this was at least efficient. 

He was the Lord of Wildfire. 

He would never fear an army.

His soul was slightly scorched, but the second level of Wildfire helped to heal it, as did his passive and active forms of soul recovery. 

He wasn’t fully recovered, but it would be enough.

With the improvement, he was finally getting back a fraction of the power he’d had in the past. 

As he considered the oncoming forces, he ignited a new Soulfire Sigil and held it in his hand. Then he began to walk down the staircase, heading to the ground.

Fighting at the top of the tower would have been suitable for a mage, but it was too tall. He didn’t have the range to hit everything from there yet.

When he got back to the desert sands, he walked a few hundred feet away from the tower in the direction of the city. 

He drew a ward circle and set the Soulfire Sigil above his shoulder. His reactive sigils and the spells on his staff were ready, but he pulled out a handful of shield talismans and held them in his hand.

After that, he still had a few minutes, so he sat down to meditate, working to restore the bit of mana he’d spent on the sigil before everything arrived.

Gaius’s senses combined with his, spreading through the sand as he sensed the approach of the horde. He couldn’t see all of them yet, but they were slowly coming into view a couple of miles away.

As they drew closer, there was one in particular that drew his attention. It was noticeably different from the others, but it was too far away to analyze. 

It was a Coralfire denizen of some type and it was running at the head of the pack, outdistancing the others. It was dressed in an ornate series of leather bands, it held a staff in one hand, and the coralfire aura around it was intense. 

It looked like another Elite.

As it came within range, Kelin stood up and analyzed it.

Coralfire Tower Arcanist. Level 82. Elite.

It was a mage of some type, and an Elite at the same level as the royal eel.

Kelin didn’t hesitate as he activated all six of the scale talismans in his hand, surrounding himself in layers of shields. 

Then he began to Blaze.

His mana and soul pools ignited, flooding his meridians with mana that swiftly condensed into a denser and stronger form. It roared through his body, raging at the confinement.

He set his eyes on the approaching Arcanist and raised his hand.

Soulfire Bolt had just reached the Elite tier, and now he shaped the spell into a form seven times denser than before. 

Then he Intensified it, tripling the mana from 108 to 324.

The ability burned at the effort, making the entire pathway feel like it was tearing apart at the edges and acid had been poured into the cracks.

He ignored it.

Intensify Spell and Mana Control had both reached the Elite tier, so they would manage. They needed stress if they were going to get to Epic. They weren’t limited to a lower density. Even at the First Evolution and higher, there were people who were still at Elite. 

If he had been a new mage, it would probably have ruptured his meridians and killed him, but he was well practiced in controlling this much mana.

When the bolt was ready, he released the spell.

It wasn’t a bolt of soulfire so much as a solid beam of blazing golden light. Tiny arcs of flame surrounded it, sizzling and crackling around the center.

The beam crossed the distance in an instant and tore through the Arcanist’s skull. It was a foot wide and the monster’s head simply disappeared. The spell cauterized its neck as it passed, leaving only a charred stump behind.

Then it kept going.

It pierced through half a dozen other monsters that were lined up behind the Elite too, boring holes straight through them, until it finally disappeared, thinning away to nothing six hundred feet away.

Kelin staggered as over half of his mana pool disappeared in an instant. His meridians thundered as more mana flooded in. It swiftly cycled as it began to condense.

Before it could, he ended the ability. 

His mana roared as it expanded back out, filling his meridians to bursting.

Monsters were flooding toward him from every direction that he could see. Their signatures were clear in his mind and in Gaius’s awareness, and he swiftly calculated their numbers.

There were over thirty closing in immediately. Forty more were behind them, followed by some stragglers. The dungeon must have emptied out the entire region to send them all here. 

The death of the Elite hadn’t slowed them down at all.

If he’d been here with a regular team, he would have fortified one of the towers and fought with wards and walls to delay the horde, but he had never liked fighting that way. 

He wanted to be in the middle of things with magic raging on every side and pounding in his veins like thunder. That was the place of a battle mage, to call the lightning and ride the storm until everything fell before him.

He wanted to see the faces of those who had destroyed his world.

And crush them.

It was an old and cold fury, and when it flowed through his Soulfire Physique, it made flames rise across his skin.

As he counted the monsters, he grabbed one of the intermediate mana potions from his belt and drank it. It felt like icy steel thorns as it spread through his body, but his mana surged upward by 105 points, taking him back to 331.

Then a sphere of Wildfire appeared in his hand.

He targeted the closest monster, a Flying Coral Fish that was just now coming into range, and hurled it at it.

Then he raised his staff and sent a wave of mana into his ward, reinforcing it as a rain of tridents, flying fish, and blast of fused sand began to rain down.

The spells were partly deflected by his good bracer, but the tridents and the other physical attacks all struck home. Each of them slammed into the shield, which responded with a flare of soulfire that blocked their advance.

The first wave was only a dozen strikes, but more followed, crashing down into the ward, and each of them drained a fraction of his mana.

As he warded them off, he grabbed another mana potion out of his belt and held it in his hand, and then he turned his attention to the sphere of Wildfire he’d thrown.

It had just exploded against the fish’s soul, and its flames sank deep. Rainbow smoke began to trail upward from the monster as it crashed into his ward.

He flung it away with a bolt of soulfire, hurling it back toward the mob that was coming.

Then it exploded into an inferno of Wildfire.

He fueled the spell and his ward at the same time, resisting another wave of attacks that fell down on it. 

This time, curses to slow his speed and tear out his health struck his ward as well, coming from the shamans that were mixed into the group. He hadn’t had time to kill them individually and their spells warred against the soulfire.

Fire spells rained down too, some from the shamans and more from the other Coralfire denizens. Their levels were higher than the ones he’d found before and their control over their innate affinity was better, giving them an advantage in spells at range. 

It didn’t matter that they hadn’t reached him yet.

They sent bolts of coralfire at him that came down like a rain of blue fire, as well as elemental tridents and daggers shaped out of the same energy.

His remaining bracer was a halo of light around his arm as it deflected spells left and right, sending the elemental blasts sheeting away to the sides, but it was swiftly running through its charges.

He ignored it, since it was less efficient than his ward. Two seconds later, it ran out of charges and all of the spells and attacks slammed into his barrier instead.

He supported the mana drain as he focused on the Wildfire.

The first explosion had erupted across half a dozen monsters, which had continued running toward him. Now they were gathered just outside his barrier, their tridents raised as they stabbed him down and tried to break through.

But trails of rainbow smoke were rising from their bodies. The eyes of the first one turned to a sheen of ethereal rainbow light, followed by another one.

Then the explosions began.

A column of Wildfire exploded upward, followed by an expanding ring that blasted out around Kelin, who was almost at the center of it. The energy passed straight through him, flowing through his soul without pause and catching on nothing.

But it struck all of the other monsters that had gathered nearby, including all of those that were attacking his shield.

Then the second one exploded, sending another wave of Wildfire through the area, followed by another, and another.

Six explosions in a row washed across everything nearby, each of them sending another wave of searing soul flames across the area, and when they touched the souls of those that had already been affected by Wildfire, the flames became hotter.

Two seconds later, the next explosions began, sending columns of rainbow flames soaring into the sky and spreading farther across the field.

Each explosion built on itself and added more fuel to the spell, so instead of the flames dying down, they got larger, until by the twelfth explosion, they towered a hundred feet into the air,  like a massive tower of Wildfire that rivaled the coral pillars.

The attacks on Kelin’s shield disappeared as everything that had been close enough was caught up in the spell. 

Rainbow flames ignited across their bodies and, at the center of the storm, their eyes turned the same color in an instant.

Another dozen explosions joined the storm, these slightly farther away from where Kelin was standing at the center.

The second layer of runes from Wildfire was still around his soul, a permanent fixture now, so as the backlash began to crash down on him, he looked up at the column of flames instead.

Then he pointed out toward the other monsters.

The massive column of flames crashed down like a tidal wave, spreading outward in an expanding ring that stretched for three hundred feet in every direction.

Wildfire swept across the area, washing over half of the forces that were left. 

Its intensity wasn’t much lower as it hit them, and it didn’t dissipate. It raged around them like they were standing inside an ethereal hurricane. The flames were touched by an unseen wind, whipping in a spiral that covered the entire area.

The coral fish couldn’t fly fast enough to escape, and the Sandstars stood there like slabs of stone as the tide washed around them.

Within a second, the monsters’ eyes began to turn the color of a rainbow. Then another ring of explosions began, and the tide of Wildfire spread farther out.

Kelin stood at the center of it all, his attention split between directing the spell and channeling the Wildfire around his soul.

It was weaving through the protections and slamming into his soul in a pure torrent of flames, but at the same time it was turning into wisps of golden energy that fused into him and disappeared.

A storm of Wildfire spun around his body, some of it turning into individual arcs that leapt around him. It wrapped around his body, mimicking his clothes, twisted into bands that spiraled up his arms, and swirled around his feet and his hair.

Behind his back, it turned into a cloak that flowed down from his shoulders and streamed in the wind, and then it crowned his head in rainbow flames.

If anyone else had used it, the Wildfire wouldn’t have done that, but some vestige of his old Law of Wildfire must have remained in that crystallized part of his soul after all.

A notification rang in his mind. 

He didn’t have attention to spare for it, but he knew what it was and what it meant. A smile appeared on his face, one that was pure joy.

But instead of acknowledging it, as the Wildfire continued to spread, he raised the second mana potion to his mouth and drank it down. 

His mana had been about to bottom out and the potion sent it soaring upward again. 

Its mana clashed with the remnants of the one he’d just drunk, making it harder to absorb and reducing its efficiency to about 70%, but that was enough.

The expanding flames swept over the rest of the monsters in the area, reaching all but the final stragglers. 

Two seconds later, their souls ignited as they joined the conflagration, and he had to focus all of his attention on taking control of the flames and suppressing them.

Waves of Wildfire crashed against his soul, but he held as steady as a cliff, letting them break on his wards and his sense of self. Golden wisps flowed into him, strengthening him even as the waves continued to fall.

As the flames around him calmed under his command, he looked out at the few monsters that he’d missed. 

There were only seven of them left.

Two Soulfire Bolts and two soul arrows shot away from his staff, each targeting one of the monsters, and then he created two more soul arrows and hurled them, followed by two more, although he only hurled one of the last set.

The other went to spin around his staff, where it hummed with force. A moment later, three more soul arrows joined it. 

As the last of the Wildfire faded away and the monsters thrashed in the distance, it left the area still and silent.

Kelin looked around, studying everything as he compared what he could see to Gaius’s senses. Then he nodded.

He sat down where he was, letting the energy of the sigil above his shoulder radiate over him.

His mana was at 5%. He only had 34 of 598 points. 

His soul energy was much better, at 184 points. That was why he’d only created soul arrows around his staff.

He let out a deep breath as he looked across the devastation, with monsters’ bodies scattered everywhere he could see. It was a familiar sight now, both in this life and his last.

There had been 77 of them total, plus the Elite, even more than had been waiting here at the towers with the royal eel.

It wasn’t an unmanageable number. 

If they’d come one by one, it would have been easy enough to eliminate them all with a soulfire bolt or a soul arrow. It would have been much more efficient on his mana. 

77 Soulfire Bolts would have only cost him 347 mana, while the same in soul arrows was about 285 mana and 278 soul energy. 

Even with Blaze to kill the Elite to start, or a handful of soul arrows instead, it was a reasonable amount.

It had been more difficult because they came as a group. Without the mana potions, he would have needed to fall back on the towers as fortifications or run and slowly whittled away their numbers as he could. 

Wildfire had leveled the field.

There shouldn’t be any monsters left in the area now, so he asked Gaius to keep watch. Then he let himself settle deeper into meditation as he looked at his notifications.

There were several of them from the battle, but the one that he wanted to see the most was a blinding golden script in his mind’s eye, like a royal decree.

He turned his attention to it and the Path’s voice filled his mind. It was the more personal version, although there was still a sense of distance to it. 

Title Granted: Lord of Wildfire.

[Congratulations, new Lord of Wildfire. Your power has been recognized with a Title that suits it. This Title was thought lost with its creator, but you have proven your mastery over Wildfire, a unique and Legendary spell. Until now only its creator had ever mastered it.

I did not think I would see another take up this mantle, but it seems the Law of Wildfire itself has recognized you. It now resonates with your soul. The Title of the Lord of Wildfire is yours. May you bear it well.

The rights and responsibilities assigned to the Lord of Wildfire will be held for you, but your level is currently too low to access them. 

You may make an official request to the Path when you reach the Fourth Evolution and form your Concept of Law. Depending on your accomplishments at that time, you will either receive the full mantle or part of it.]

A subtle and familiar energy flowed through Kelin’s body as the title established itself, and then the Path’s voice faded away, leaving only the normal notifications behind.

“Path?“ he shouted. “Answer me!”

His voice was a call ringing out into the nothingness, full of all the mana and energy at his command.

“I am the Lord of Wildfire! You even recognize it now. What happened?! How did I die and end up here? Who or what killed me?!”

No response came, so he shouted twice more, pouring his energy and his soul’s aura out into the cosmos as he tried to call to the Path of Stars. 

But there was only silence.

Eventually, he stopped shouting and let the silence settle around him. 

It seemed no answers would be forthcoming.

He let out a sigh as his anger mixed with resignation, and then he shook his head.

That had been building up for a little while, ever since he hadn't been able to get a hold of the Path, but it didn't matter.

The Path would respond when it wished, and not before. There wasn't much he could do about it right now.

At least Gaius was here.

The elemental’s presence brushed against Kelin’s awareness as he sensed his turmoil. He was a solid reassurance in his spirit, anchoring him to the stability of the earth.

Kelin’s heart had sped up until it was pounding in his ears and his hands were clenched into fists, but slowly he forced them to relax, letting the emotion wash away as he breathed.

Finally, he let out a chuckle and shook his head.

“It seems it won’t be that easy, Gaius,” he said as his calm returned. 

Then a smile appeared on his lips again as he looked at the title that had been added to his status sheet.

Kelin of Highmist (Hidden: Kelin Wildfire).

Title: Lord of Wildfire.

It was no longer listed under “Former Titles.” His other title as Archmage of Souls was still there, but this one had become official again.

Even if it was just in name for now, and without any of the traditional rights and responsibilities that came with a Lord title, it was still a reminder of who he was.

That was something.

The rights of a Lord didn’t matter that much to him currently. They had to do with the authority to rule a world, as well as to access some functions of the official teleportation routes, diplomacy, entry and exit laws, degrees of respect in official situations, and so on.

The Path would normally have given him some authority related to those areas, but they typically didn’t come until Level 400, which was the lowest level of someone who was able to protect and govern a world.

He’d have to wait until he had the ability to wield them.

The real power of a Lord title was related to the class that it came with.

In his case, his class when he first received his title had also been Lord of Wildfire. Lord-tier classes were among the top of all classes, especially if they were Legendary or Heroic at the same time, like his had been.

But power would come in time.

It was more important to him to have the title back, since it was a sliver of his former self.

Critically, he’d also felt that tiny bit of resonance between the Law of Wildfire and the crystallized part of his soul. There was something there, even if he had to wait until he was stronger to see what it was.

Perhaps it was the memory of how he died, or something else that he’d left behind at the last minute, and he was confident now that he would be able to access it eventually.

He gave himself a few more minutes to recover his composure, and then he looked at the rest of the notifications.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have gained 5 levels.

You are now Level 78.

You gain 5 Wisdom, 15 Intelligence, and have 25 free attribute points to gain. 

It was the same number of levels he’d gained from the last group, even though there were more here, but that was because the level difference was smaller.

Before, they’d been 10 or more levels above him on average, while this group had been about 4 levels above him.

He considered the free points for a moment, and then he tossed them all into Intelligence, taking it up to 638.

There were a few other notifications waiting, and one of them showed some natural improvements, so he turned to that next.

For stressing your capabilities in battle, you gain 2 Constitution, 2 Intelligence, and 2 Aura.

It wasn’t bad, and it showed that Blaze was definitely putting some stress on him, but he would have to practice a lot more for it to reach the level he wanted.

At this rate, he would probably end up diverting some points to Constitution sooner rather than later.

There were two other notifications waiting for him.

You have refined soul energy from the battlefield and gained 11 Aura.

He smiled at that and did a quick few calculations.

Soul energy wasn’t gained at a constant rate, since it had a lot to do with the strength of the souls compared to his own. As his soul grew stronger, it took more to improve it.

Right now, he was gaining roughly 0.1 point of Aura for every like-level enemy he killed with Wildfire, and 0.01 more for every level they were above him.

The rate would probably change as he went up through the Evolutions, but for now the improvement took his Aura to 273.

That was all of the notifications, so he turned his attention back to meditating, restoring his mana and soul energy. He also recharged his bracer, making sure that it was back up to full.

A little over an hour later, he dusted himself off and stood up. 

Then he got to work on harvesting the battlefield, gathering up the cores, weapons, and everything else of interest from the monsters.

He ended up with another 78 cores, almost 150 Coralfire Scales, 7 Coral Sea Gems, a few more Coral Ward Shells, and several things that he hadn’t seen before.

He analyzed them as he collected them.

Coral Flame Sapphire (Uncommon, Fire Affinity).

Oceanlight Seaweed (Uncommon, Life Affinity).

Blood Coral (Uncommon, Life Affinity).

Luminescent Sandstone (Uncommon, Fire Affinity).

There were two of the sapphires, three seaweeds, two blood corals, and one of the luminescent sandstones.  

All of them were materials for crafting or alchemy, which was potentially useful, so he stored them all away for later. He might end up keeping some of them, but he wasn’t sure yet.

The two most interesting things were on the Elite, the Coralfire Tower Arcanist, and he analyzed those as well.

Burning Sea Grimoire (Rare, Water and Fire Affinity). 

Burning Sea Elixir (Rare, Water and Fire Affinity).

The grimoire was a set of spells that tried to create a fusion of the Water and Fire elements. It wasn’t coralfire, but rather a parallel path that seemed to be perhaps even stronger.

If Kelin hadn’t killed the Elite instantly, it might have been a difficult fight.

The elixir was an item that accompanied the grimoire, and it promised to give anyone who drank it some insights into the fusion of the two elements.

Like the Coral Sea Fire Pearl, both the Grimoire and the Elixir were Rare grade.

The high mana density was paying off here. Normally, a dungeon of this level would have been lucky to have a single Rare item as a reward from the boss.

As he held the items in his hands, he debated whether it would make sense to give them to Yao and Naomi. 

He didn’t know what their affinities would be yet, since the yearly testing was an estimate at best until they got their classes. That choice could sometimes boost one affinities higher than another.

That meant it was hard to choose something for them.

After a minute, he decided it didn’t matter.

At the rate he was going through dungeons, he would find something else for them when the time came and it might be better than this, and if not, he would buy them something from the guild.

He wasn’t the only one finding Rare grade items in dungeons. 

The guild’s resources were almost impossible to comprehend. If he needed a certain affinity for the kids, they were basically guaranteed to have it.

He just needed to have the funds to buy it.

He stored the items away and then finished cleaning up the rest of the field. Given all the monsters he’d killed here, nothing else bothered him as he worked.

The dungeon was probably clear between here and the city.

When he was done, he dusted himself off and turned to the east, where he could see the coral towers in the distance.

He set off for it, walking at a steady pace.