Wild Era, Ch 2: Repairs

Rebuilding himself took a while.

There was only so much he could do at Level 9 and with a limited mana pool, but he kept at it. With this untrained body, his speed wasn’t what it used to be, so he had to be patient and slowly guide his mana along, forming new channels and setting it on the correct path to improve.

Speed would come with time, once his meridians and affinity developed.

He wanted to sit down and outline a proper improvement path, as well as study every facet of his body and soul, but that would come soon enough.

After he finished drawing all the fire essence out of his body, he set up a thin ward woven from the same energy to channel it to his mana core, where it joined the pool he had formed from the part that had been in his meridians.

That would be useful later.

Part of moving the essence was purifying and condensing it, so it didn’t take up much space, but the intensity steadily increased.

Once that was done, he got to work on his half-crushed organs that were starting to fail. The rocks had done a number on his softer tissues. They had fortunately not stabbed through him, but they had crushed more than one part and were pushing things all over the place.

He wove strands of mana through his organs, slowly building a more resilient lattice as a support. That way, even if their shapes deformed, they would maintain their function and bounce back.

Mana reinforcement was one of the first steps in body strengthening, a process that most warriors and mages underwent naturally as their mana infused their bodies. By taking control of it and adding a high-tier lattice now, something that was a good way beyond the basics, he was skipping years of work.

It was dangerous to force it if you didn’t know what you were doing, but he was well practiced. He’d reinforced his old body in a thousand ways.

It didn’t take much mana to set up the most basic form, and it was the best way to get his organs to start to heal, guiding the natural regeneration from his Constitution.

He wasn’t the type to waste effort.

If he was going to do something, it was best for it to have two or three positive outcomes instead of one.

As he moved through one organ after another, his heartbeat slowly improved and his mind became clearer, but he was still struggling from the weight of the rocks. Until he got those moved, there were some things he couldn’t fix.

He did what he could, and then he moved on to his bones.

About half of them were broken.

These also got a thin lattice of mana, barely as wide as a spider’s thread, that tied the broken shards back into place.

It was lucky in some ways that he wasn’t able to move. Being pinned under these rocks had kept some of the breaks from separating more, but it was a problem for the ones that were out of place and stuck there.

Some of those he was able to fix by tying them into place with a thread of mana, but there were others that he couldn’t work on yet. All he could do was weave the lattice around them so that when he did move, they would be pulled back to where they belonged.

Then he’d have to tighten up the lattice to hold them in place.

It took over a day before he was done, but eventually it looked like some sort of divine enchanter had laced translucent mana throughout his entire body.

The foundation was set.

Later, he could work to strengthen it and really improve his body, but that would come when he had the spare energy.

Now that it was in place, he moved on to the next step, which was extracting himself from under this pile of rocks.

Until that happened, he wouldn’t be able to finish healing.

His options were limited.

He took a moment to look at his status sheet, assessing exactly how much mana he had available and what he could do with it.

Kelin Wildfire

Level 9.

Class: Elemental Mage.

Subclass: None.

Age: 20.

Former Titles: Archmage of Wild Mana, Lord of Wildfire.

Strength: 87

Constitution: 72

Agility: 65

Wisdom: 118

Intelligence: 147

Aura: 150

Charisma: 80

Conditions: Malnourished (Attributes Reduced), Critically Injured.

Human averages were 100 across the board, but being malnourished for most of his life had left him with deficits in his physical attributes, as well as his Charisma.

His class was Elemental Mage, which was about as basic as it got, but at least it was a Mage class. It would change to a specialized version once he chose an affinity.

If he had anything to say about it, it would be Wildfire Mage, but it would take him a little time to create that.

With this class, he gained 3 Intelligence and 1 Wisdom per level, plus 5 free attribute points, but his prior self had spent all the free ones on physical attributes, trying to make himself strong enough to work for a living.

That was just embarrassing.

Despite that, his magical attributes were about average for his level, which meant they’d started as better than normal.

After assessing everything, he made a decision.

What he was about to do was a stretch for someone who hadn’t even started on an elemental path, but he was underground, which meant this area was rich in both the local Fire essence and Earth essence.

And the best way to deal with a rock was another rock.

The spell he had in mind relied mostly on the strength of his soul, not his mana, and he was confident in his soul. He was weaker than before, but he was still kicking.

Without any more delay, he slowly began to gather earth essence from the stones around him, concentrating it in another spot near his mana core.

It was very similar to what he’d done with the fire essence, but this time he didn’t just let the essence gather. He used every bit to painstakingly engrave an intricate series of runes onto the walls of the space he’d chosen, turning it into a small soul chamber.

It took him hours, but he didn’t rush.

There were places you could take a shortcut and others where you couldn’t. This was one of the latter. Rushing would make the runes unstable.

When he was done, the chamber was only as large as the tip of his thumb, but the size wasn’t that important. It was the magic that mattered.

It was a sphere of crystalline runes with a conduit connected to his mana core, one he could sever at any time.

When it was finished, he checked it over for flaws. Then he began to concentrate more earth essence inside, as much as he could fit.

This was the critical phase that would dictate how successful it was, so he didn’t hold back. He continued forcing elemental essence into the chamber bit by bit.

At first, it was a drifting and hazy thing, but as the soul chamber filled, it began to condense into a liquid droplet, which floated down to the bottom, filling a fraction of the space.

Another droplet joined it, and then another, at a rate of about one per hour.

When it was completely full of liquid essence, some people might have called it good enough, but he knew better. He continued to push more essence inside until the liquid began to crystallize, almost matching the soul chamber’s exterior appearance.

It happened slowly, like ice forming, but bit by bit the entire chamber solidified.

Eventually, it was a completely solid sphere of earth essence that looked like a diamond, carved all across the surface with the runes he’d made, inside and out.

His soul touched the runes and he began to pour mana into them, letting it spread slowly until the whole crystal was glowing.

Until now, everything had happened inside his body, but his skin began to glow as the runes formed across his limbs and chest, back and head, until every inch of his body was covered in a densely-packed and intricate pattern.

As his heart beat, a sound like a gong rang out, spreading through the runes and then away into the earth around him.

Once...twice.

A pause.

And then again.

The rock around Kelin trembled, resonating with a deep hum as it responded. It was like a drumbeat in the earth, stretching into the distance, half real and half ethereal.

His mana was swiftly dropping as he sustained the call, and after the first ten minutes his core was nearly drained, but he kept at it, pouring everything he could into the spell.

Then his mana ran out and the runes on his body faded away.

He held back a sigh as he focused on regenerating it.

An hour later, he tried again.

And an hour after that, again.

This time, as his mana was on the verge of running out, the earth shuddered.

It was a subtle wave, a current of interest that swept across the area and away. Then it came back, apparently curious, and settled on him.

There was a strong presence behind it, but it was simple and honest.

Kelin held back his excitement as he touched the runes on the soul chamber again, letting the presence study what he was offering.

A nudge of elemental essence swept over the soul chamber and then spiraled around the inside, investigating it. Then it bumped into Kelin’s soul.

Why? The question was a deep echo, a rumble of stone and sliding rock.

It was an earth elemental.

A young one.

I could use a hand, Kelin replied silently in the same way. I offer you a soul bond, something that will strengthen you over time, and a chance to see more of the world as an individual, sharing my perspective and emotions.

He knew what earth elementals wanted, so he offered it to this one, not holding anything back. He laid open his soul and let it see who it was talking to.

It was a risk to him, much more than it was to the elemental, since a soul bond was only as strong as the skill that went into it, but he trusted his work.

It was also a burden on his soul, something that he wouldn’t normally have done, but it was one of the few options available.

And it had its own benefits.

The elemental considered the matter for a moment and examined the soul chamber again, letting out a pleased vibration at what it found.

It was a well constructed soul chamber and perfectly formed. It would act as a focus for its essence, giving it a home while it followed him around.

If something went wrong, the elemental would simply disappear, returning to the earth that had formed it. An imprint of this location would be recorded on the bond.

Agreed, it said at last.

Then the elemental’s presence, which had been massive and spread out all around the area, began to condense as it poured into the soul chamber.

The runes glowed fiercely, filling with the golden yellow hue of earth essence.

The main part of the soul chamber was already set, but small changes flickered across the surface as the runes adapted to the new presence, adjusting until they matched the elemental’s wishes.

This was its house, so it was only polite that it got a say.

Then the elemental touched Kelin’s soul and a connection formed. It felt like sliding stones and shaking mountains, rolling earth and massive rocks colliding with continents that shifted as the world moved.

He, Kelin decided after a minute, since as the soul bond strengthened, the elemental seemed more masculine than feminine, not that either really applied to an elemental.

As the bond was finished, a wave of exhaustion hit his soul, but at the same time he got a sense of the elemental’s nature and desires, as well as its abilities.

Success.

He felt gratified by that.

Summoning an elemental wasn’t difficult if you knew how, but a soul bond was a lot more complicated. Even he hadn’t been completely confident it would work.

He’d have to think of a name, since with the way he’d formed the bond, they were going to be together for a while. He could feel the elemental's presence on his status sheet now, so he pulled it up.

Earth Elemental (Young).

Level 22.

Soul Bonded.

Level 22 wasn’t much for an earth elemental, almost as weak as they came, but it was still stronger than he was. It would gain levels as part of its bond, increasing in strength at the same time as him, so in the future it would be a big help.

His mana was exhausted, so while the elemental adjusted to its new home, he meditated and let it settle in.

Some hours later, when his mana was full, he gave it a little mental nudge where it was resting in the soul chamber.

Can you move me out from under these stones? he asked. Carefully and without damaging me?

He made sure to be specific and included a mental impression of what he wanted, since an elemental’s concept of movement was a lot different than a human’s.

He felt the elemental’s attention as it shifted to look through his eyes, and then a pulse of earth energy swept out of his body, scanning the area.

Yes, the elemental replied simply.

Kelin’s body glowed with a yellow aura as the elemental flowed into the stones around him. Then it began to shift the rocks, sending little landslides and cracks through them.

Within moments, space began to form around Kelin as the weight was lifted away, and a few minutes later, the ground beneath him undulated, slowly pulling him away.

Once he was clear of the rocks, the elemental flowed back into the soul chamber and its aura disappeared.

A small part of Kelin’s mana had been used up in the summoning, but only a little. It was refilled almost instantly by his mana regeneration.

Thanks, he said silently.

Then he got on with the hard part.

He stifled a groan as he infused the mana lattice throughout his body with energy and began to shift his bones and organs back into place.

Snaps, pops, and the occasional hiss of displeasure echoed across the area.

But after a few minutes of adjustment, everything was mostly aligned and he tightened the lattice, sealing all of the cracks in place. Then he turned his head to the side and coughed out a mouthful of blood and dry dust.

His lungs burned and his body was swollen and mottled, covered in bruises, but he still felt satisfied.

The remaining injuries were nothing.

It would take some time, maybe a few days, but with everything back into its place, his Constitution would gradually heal them.

Humans had been fragile things once, but ever since the Path of Stars appeared in the galaxy at the start of the Wild Era, the mysterious system that oversaw all classes and Evolutions, they’d had some basic advantages.

It wasn’t quite as easy to kill them now.

That was something to be grateful for.

As he lay on the cavern floor, he channeled threads of mana into his eyes, slowly boosting his vision until he could see what was around him.

The cavern wasn’t large, only about twice the length of his body, but now that he was clear of the rocks it was easy to see the mana crystals studded into the walls.

There were quite a few, all shining with the volatile violet and red light of this particular mana vein. They were a mix of medium and high quality, something he could determine without even trying.

His mouth tasted like a desert, so he tried automatically to reach for water essence to get something to drink, but the effort fizzled into nothing. The fire essence here was too dense.

He let out a sigh as he turned his attention to the soul chamber.

I think I’ll call you Gaius, he told the elemental. I had a friend with that name. It means Earth in an old language. It suits you.

The elemental rumbled its approval from inside his soul chamber, and the name appeared on its status sheet.

Gaius.

Earth Elemental (Young).

Level 22.

Soul Bonded.

At that moment, a familiar chime resonated in Kelin’s mind as a notification appeared.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have soul bonded an Earth Elemental.

Do you wish to take up an Earth Affinity and change your class to Earth Summoner?

“I knew you were there somewhere,” Kelin muttered as he looked at the notification.

Then he coughed, feeling the stab of pain in his lungs from talking, and he decided not to do it again for a while.

He’d been expecting the Path of Stars to send him a notification for a while, but it had been fairly distant ever since the Chaos War began, working to minimize the damage.

That was probably how this kid had ended up without any training. No one was around to teach him what to do and the Path was too busy.

He didn’t try to talk again as he dismissed the notification.

It felt good to hear his old title, even if it didn’t apply to this life yet, but elemental soul bond or not, he wasn’t going to take the Earth Summoner class.

More importantly, now that he knew the Path was still around, he had a lot of questions for it, including about how he’d ended up here. He’d done a lot to help with the war in the past. Hopefully, it would remember that and give him an answer.

But that could wait until after a nap.

Then he’d dig himself out.

As he closed his eyes, a stray thought floated through his mind that his younger self would have been delighted by the idea of an earth elemental, as well as the idea of raiding this cavern for mana crystals.

A slight smile tugged at his lips.

It seemed he’d be doing some mining after all.

Then he passed out.