As it turns out, being a hermit tends to be an excellent way to avoid social interactions at large. And they experienced this over the past few weeks whilst passing through a few countries rather hurriedly.
No one interrupted their evening training, giving them a few hours every day to train at a minimum, and even Raccelline stuck to their schedule and practised with them.
At this point, her ability to completely utilise the child-friendly technique no longer fazed them, and while her mana usage couldn’t have been more perfect, the swings themselves could use a bit of work in the precision department. To facilitate that, before turning a small tree into firewood, Icy cut the trunk into logs and left small score lines for Raccelline to cut through.
While tough for her to perfectly slice through, the most noticeable improvement in the past couple weeks was that she actually hit the mark before deviating. Hitting the right spot is such an integral part of combat that it’s impossible to overstate its importance.
But even after hitting that spot, she had to ensure that the cut passed through specific points.
However, the one who made the most progress by a long shot was Mala, who learnt thirteen Apprentice true spells of various elements and structures in just three weeks!
To those who knew little about spellcasting, this sounded reasonable, and it was…
For Mature wizards. The level on par with mithril tier beasts.
The reason for this is normally due to most wizards not being intimately familiar with a dozen different spell structures, they had to learn the arrangement of runes and rings from the ground up. In this way, the wizard knew how to use the spell but little about why everything worked. It was the difference between following a recipe and understanding how to make substitutions on a whim.
And Mala, even receiving a sarcastic blessing from Icy over this, knew seven different types of structures.
Fucking seven.
Whereas any other Sprout wizard like her only knew two, or three if they pushed for it. Icy learning that fact left him truly confused for the better part of a day.
Rebecca, Jaren, and Darak were still a small distance from their evolutions though, especially since most techniques required a couple months of daily use to complete a transformation of the selected body parts. However, that matters far less if someone is already close to an evolution…
* * *
“So why exactly did we never come here in the past? Too much competition?”
It’d been just over a week since they entered the country of Messecan, throughout which the most obvious part were groups of Bronze ranked warriors who passed by rather often, many of which contained Greater wizards roughly equal in power. Clearly less talented individuals as they hadn’t even evolved into Sprouts after all their years in an academy, for such schools it was considered ‘basic’ to be capable of casting Apprentice true spells. Which was the main reason Icy presumed Mala capable enough to go onto greater studies at her academy.
History aside, it was Darak who raised this question as he found the greater tranquillity and general beauty of the Messecan countryside rather tempting.
Korridan replied to his question in a timely manner, “Not just that. Adventurers who found work here often find themselves struggling to earn a living in the surrounding nations, some annoying politics. Also… What was the other part, Mala?” While he remembered the big reason for avoiding the place, it naturally fell onto the group’s most knowledgeable to fill in the gaps.
“The corpse of a sea god melted into the country some time in the past, it’s why Duke Valnettio is so busy, to put it lightly.” The word ‘god’ immediately triggered a reaction in Icy, as he hadn’t seen any mention of that in the dragons’ notes on the nation. A quick check further confirmed that such information simply did not exist.
So, had it been purposely ignored? Or was Mala’s source incorrect?
A third possibility existed. That being the dragons not respecting such a sea god, and scrubbing mentions of its existence due to that. In the first place, draconic society never exactly revered any gods, even their own!
He threw in a question in hopes there were more answers to this story. “What happened to that god’s divinity?”
“There are some legends surrounding it, but nothing concrete. It’s also possible that the sea god was simply a powerful supreme tier and something about its body continues to draw sea beasts.” Mala shook her head whilst answering, clearly also on the fence about the nature of this matter.
Having lost interest in it soon after though, their brisk yet pleasant walk through the Messecan outskirts continued. So far they crossed one major city, but with a solid store of resources they passed by without getting involved in any potential messes. It was never worth getting involved, the last couple times taught them that fact well enough.
Korridan came to a halt suddenly, stopping the group in their tracks, and he nodded his head several times. While most of the group figured that he’d some sort of strange prompt from the Nexus, quickly checking their own statuses for any sudden reduction in HP by a mysterious force, his clarification changed that attitude.
“My evolution is here. This should be quick but can you–” His request was cut off by the group as he was shut up and immediately covered in a barrier placed by Mala. In less than a minute, they all sat around the barrier and waited for it to end.
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“That was pretty quick, thought it’d be at least another month even for him,” Rebecca spoke first. Perhaps not the most intimately acquainted with their leader’s exact standing amongst Steel ranks, it certainly seemed too fast for him to evolve before even completing the technique manual.
“He finished the transformation two weeks back. Just didn’t say anything, probably to surprise you all,” Icy instead surprised them with a piece of information. As the only one who maintained a mana sensing ability at all times, he naturally saw how the mana within Korridan’s arms and chest changed immensely in such a short timeframe.
In his eyes, it was almost like the warrior already had intimate familiarity with the technique, likely due to practising a skill which greatly mimicked it.
“How’s progress for you two then? And you as well, Icy?” Mala proposed some more questions, checking on Rebecca and Jaren first as the group’s two other warriors, with his evolution being more of an afterthought within reason. He just had to consume egregious amounts of bloodline energy to evolve more and more, but he fully expected to just be a week or two away at most.
Which also raised a rather dangerous question for him…
Assimilate the Elder guard bloodline now, or after the evolution? Currently, the best bloodline of the upcoming options would likely belong to the Spiritcaller as the only Advanced+ level one of the ones assimilated…
But he could acquire another Extreme level bloodline right now! On the other hand, it meant forgoing one or the other if they both presented amazing options.
So, the question then became.
Was it actually worth taking a Spiritcaller bloodline at his stage?
On one hand, it would likely give that offensive soul-focused bloodline he somewhat desired as gold tier approached… But the other hand was that he could always do better.
As Korridan released bursts of mana over the next couple minutes, it was clear he’d already chosen his evolution and was in the process of having body parts recast by the Nexus. It took no time at all to finish the matter and for him to step out of the barrier as a new man.
“Your evolutions are just as prominent as I imagined, but it’s still rather hard to believe.” As Icy scanned the Gold ranked warrior’s body, he could tell the immense differences of just a single evolution for this human better than anyone else here.
An evolution for a beast might not even be enough to rise halfway up a tier in power! But this was compensated by beasts not requiring any sort of explicit training nor great stores of bloodline energy to facilitate their evolutions…
Humans and other races like them at the minimum raised half a tier in power, compared to beasts that is. Their far fewer number of evolutions gave every single change so much more weight, and resulted in large jumps of power as opposed to the small steps given to beasts. However, whether or not this method is superior isn’t easy to answer, as beasts could gather a lot more variation in powers at a far faster rate.
For many, the idea of simply evolving through living is far more desirable than having to train diligently for years. Although this overlooked the fact that many successful beasts actually did train!
Icy practised his magic every night, as well as continuously building his Mind palace and transforming his heart to crystal. His Mind palace actually neared the next tier as well!
The reinforcements to his second structure were nearing completion, and once finished, the entire palace would be enhanced to grant him an Apprentice Mind palace. While not greatly impressive on its own, he looked forward to the related title offered by the Nexus. It was nothing like the Beginner title which merely allowed him to fly in his mental space… But the exact description could wait till later.
Korridan didn’t make the group stand around while he tested his new powers, and they walked as usual until sundown approached. Once they made camp, and the time for training approached, it was also time to begin testing his power.
[Bloodline energy has reached an evolutionary threshold. Prepare for evolutionary measures to begin]
Or maybe not…
“Strange, I thought it’d take another week at the least… Or maybe it should’ve been a week ago and the growth phase– It really doesn’t matter,” Icy spoke to himself in Draconic as the overly familiar prompt appeared, and the group certainly paid attention to the fact. The harsh connectives of Draconic simply stood out compared to Baranot, and with everyones’ eyes on him, a small explanation was provided. “My evolution is here as well. Very strange timing, I must admit.”
“Will it be similar? I’ve never seen a dragon’s evolution,” Mala posed a question first out of curiosity. Of course, everyone in the group knew what a beast’s evolution looked like, but this was a dragon!
“Nothing that exciting. Mine will take a while longer though… I have quite a few options to read through.” Remaining quite vague, he gave the same filter order to the Nexus, removing all food-based evolutions, the Volatile Mutant option, and anything from bloodlines below Rare+ level.
Starting from the next evolution he might as well start removing anything below Advanced as well, but that would be a month or two away.
That did mean the Elder guard bloodline would be the focus of his next evolution, and then hopefully he finally assimilated that World Shaking elephant without dying for the one after that. Now that he thought about it for a single moment, wouldn’t any bloodlines offered by the latter be melee-focused?
Something defensive isn’t horrible, providing it didn’t enhance his body but instead provide a completely new layer on top of his scales.
“That’s obviously not going to happen.” He scoffed at his own thoughts, and finally, the prompt arrived.
[Evolution imminent. Your possible bloodline pathways are the following:
Calamitous Fate Ice-cream
Weather Manipulating Palace Ice-cream
Divine Storm…
Pure Auric…
Draconic Heart…
Spatially Linked…
Spirit Tattoo…
Deathspoken…
Soul Capturing…
Necromantic Regime…
Soul Blade…
Please make a selection in 5 minutes, or a random pathway will be used]
Why did that first one seem exceptionally bad?
[Calamitous Fate Ice-cream: The power of a bringer results in catastrophic cause and effect, but what if that could be extended further? To not merely be a logical result but one destined by fate! To decide calamity and ensure its existence; an unavoidable tragedy and despair brought unto those who imposed. To turn very fickle fate into a grim scythe and watch it swing in carefree joy. Calamities cannot be controlled, merely enjoyed. In addition to previous bonuses, grants +60% Soul defence, +80% max MP, +100% fate manipulation, +150% Destruction magic]
It felt good to be right about these things.