As they travelled further north, it’s hard to say anything of much excitement happened to a gilded party like their own. If they wanted to find anything of danger, they had to enter those sorts of places. While numerous lands filled with gold tiers exist across the world, when mentioned relatively it was easy to see they were rather rare.
By far, most lands only possessed enough mana to nurture bronze and steel tiers, if that. Towns and villages easily survived and farmed without issue. Sure, if you went near a node tree, you’d probably find steel tiers and so on, but at this point, it was a matter of pickiness.
Though, it’s not to say everything was a-okay after the past two years. Or on this journey alone.
Jaren suddenly felt a painful itch appear at his lower back, and as he scratched it over and over, he shouted out, “Ah, this fucking! The potion’s running out.” Mala fished out a bottle with a bulbous bottom and handed it over.
Jaren didn’t hesitate for a moment to shake the thing and down it. With a silvery, mercuric appearance, one could also see regions of duller colouration which floated about within. As he shook the potion, they wobbled and shook like a thick slime, even then, he drank the whole thing without complaint.
After a few minutes, the horrible itching went away. Only then did he even realise that his crystal heart pounded heavily at the same time, clearly quite close to awakening once more.
“Are you really sure that a second transformation will suppress these side-effects too? I’m honestly amazed you’re all still going to complete the first after what happened,” Jaren’s head shook repeatedly as a hand still ran up and down his bottom to confirm the potion worked.
“It’s not that bad, besides, if we really need to, we can just get shapeshifting rings.” Rebecca repeated the same argument that Mala provided time and time again, but also gave her own opinion on the side-effects. At least from what she’d seen of it.
“So easy to say that when you watch from the side.”
Needless to say, he just scoffed, and the group moved on. The other two warriors, especially, would be stupid to let a small physical abnormality stop them from acquiring such great improvements.
“Well, it’s my time. Though I have been waiting a month for this now,” Korridan said with a smile.
Mala and Icy threw a couple barriers over him, the former’s called Mana Equaliser, and the latter’s a defensive barrier, Astral Dome.
While both just Intermediate true spells, Icy’s required a fair control over space to work as he had to bend it into a specific orientation for the barrier’s mana to flow properly. He would not have been able to do this if not for selecting the evolution, Fabric Warper Ice-cream a while back.
[Fabric Warper Ice-cream: Enhances the effect of World Veiler's spatial control immensely, transforming its stationary limitations as the separated bubble of space is instead linked to the soul. Spatial control is now complete within the prime plane, although this can be changed by learning any other plane's spatial rules. Depending on skill, this ability can be used to control more fabrics than merely space, but it depends on the user's affinities and ability. ]
With this combination, almost no discontinuity in mana could be detected from Korridan’s evolution.
After a few more minutes, mostly full of silence as they all wondered what he’d pick, the man’s voice sounded out, “I’ve narrowed it down to just a few now, but to keep it simple: One grants my complete elemental refinement, another allows me to crystallise my body into a defensive structure, and the last seems to turn me into some crazy generator.
Needless to say, they needed way more information than simply given. And a few more questions quickly clarified what each bloodline did.
‘Complete’ refinement transformed his body to withstand pretty much every element… After he refined it, that is. It didn’t reduce the pain and damage inflicted at all, but it seemed to remove most natural limitations in elemental absorption.
Next, crystallised elements which literally any which can take on a crystal form. This was very similar to the Adamantium Body evolution Icy received years ago, albeit somewhat weaker early on as it lost some special properties of those materials. However, as there are elemental crystals above adamantium in ability, its long term potential shined far above.
And that generator he spoke of… Mala and Icy failed to get their heads around it. But by treating his body as a sort of chamber for several elements, they can be thrown together in a cataclysmic manner to create massive amounts of mana and power… The side-effects of this ‘reactor’ were unknown. The Nexus likened it to a fusion reactor, which none of them had actually heard of, but it seemed that the power created was some sort of merger between elements.
The prospect interested Mala immensely, but the safety of Korridan mattered far more. He already lost an arm, and she would not allow him to die for a little test.
He selected the first choice, Elemental Benediction, a specially named bloodline compared to simply being a ‘Gold ranked Shieldwall’. This was the case for all Mithril rank evolutions, as it marked the point where a warrior selected their future path. With this selection, everyone waited to the side as the large burst of mana arrived, but Mala’s barrier distributed it evenly over a longer time period to hide the obvious effect.
Eventually, Korridan emerged from the slimy layer, which formed from a skinned creature’s evolution, and stretched while the two barriers fell.
Still only one arm…
They all expected this, but it was still a disappointment to see that the healing from an evolution did nothing for him. Somehow that Scourge power remained attached to his limb, and while sealed in place, they needed a way to deal with the blood elements within. Then an extraction allowed Korridan to focus on regenerating that arm.
“How’s the power feeling then?” Jaren gave him a smack on his back but felt as though he just hit a brick wall, even the man’s skin felt so tough that it matched scales or simply a metal sheet.
“The elemental control is great, even the aura is quite responsive. I think I’ll still need to be struck by space spells to absorb it though.”
For most of the group, seeing through his skin with their eyes allowed them to gain an understanding of this directly. However, Icy’s Elder eyes easily distinguished the several elements within Korridan and saw how easily they all flowed. Simply by standing in direct sunlight, he absorbed its solar, fire, and light elements.
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Just like the lunar element, stars have always shown special astral properties that made them desirable. Unfortunately, it was very easy to have some sort of mental conversion due to this, likely due to such elements containing the will of such celestial objects. If their energy is purified first, there definitely won’t be an issue, and the odds of any complications are minuscule unless an evolution which focuses on them is chosen.
Like one which sought to ‘purge evil’ related to lunar element bloodlines…
Anyway, if there was one thing to make note of regarding Korridan’s evolution, it was that it followed the expected result of any human evolution.
His power suddenly became overwhelming for the group. Now that he exceeded Raccelline in pure offensive and defensive might, only in technique did she beat him as her repertoire was casually formed of more skills than reasonable. Only Mala beat her in this aspect with her store of 200 Intermediate true spells and 50 Adept true spells… Even if the wizard couldn’t even cast them.
She picked up a few overly situational spells just to have round numbers.
Not without a sacrifice to satisfy a ritual condition at least, in which case she could barely upcast one of those stronger spells and kill certain mithril tiers with ease. Most could survive a few Adept true spells though, so the valuable sacrificial method is hardly worth it.
Normally, Mithril rank warriors cannot fly, although air-walking is possible with certain skills that drain mana at an unfair rate… Korridan could simply utilise wind elements to air-step at will, leaping off the air much like Icy with his Auric spirit. However, the Mithril rank warrior exceeded the dragon in his merged state by a fair bit.
In terms of defence, only some spells from Icy managed to even break skin when combined with aura. The fact that he had effectively 60% more overall damage due to Nexus Aid bonus, as well as the great empowering of aura, only broke skin, told more than enough about the degree of defence their Shieldwall possessed.
Sure, his strength was good, but it actually only barely beat Raccelline. And as the young girl’s strength grew slowly, much more akin to a beast going up in tiers, Korridan barely overpowered a weaker mithril tier.
But even that would have easily held off Frellsae on its own.
“Well then, shall we head on? You finished your technique already, Jaren. You’ve still got to complete the elemental assimilation, Rebecca. And Darak just needs to receive a bit more divinity to reach the requirements. Unless you three haven’t told me something?”
He somewhat expected their leader to announce the movement, but it was actually Rebecca exiting stealth who made a statement. “We can go. Though I did actually finish my assimilation in Felethar, I just need more bloodline energy now.”
He wondered why she hadn’t been absorbing any of the crystals these past week, but that answer matched his suspicions perfectly. Clearly, he was right about the other two…
“A-hem!” He could feel the stare from Mala nearby, who felt left out from his summary, but there was a very specific reason he hadn’t mentioned her. While the draconic laughter more than answered the issue and left the wizard’s eyes rolling, he still gave some comfort.
“You met your conditions a year ago. Honestly, what do you want me to say? You broke the record for that library evolution by three-fold.” He already mentioned this fact in the past, but it turned out that he did find books detailing notable human evolutions, with this Magical Library as a rather impressive one.
Like many less important parts, it was sparsely recorded. Its last update came from a dragon almost 70 years ago.
That dragon purposely handed over information of high value to improve the wizard’s library to create a record of almost 124% extra magic damage for spells stored within the library.
Yes, that meant Mala’s library was more than three-fold that.
At a 398% increase, it was rightfully a percentage increase which should only be possible by those two whole tiers higher, that being a Blossoming wizard.
However, it turned out that this caused a slight ‘issue’ with the Nexus. When she crossed the 50% threshold over two years ago, it initiated a rule which required mana to be used to bridge the sheer power amplification.
While cheaper than outright casting a higher-tier spell, she couldn’t actually afford the full 5-times amplification. But just a doubling of power fatally injured any gold tier beast. In times of danger, she could even use a 4-times amplification to injure mithril tiers.
It drained her MP instantly, but the Nexus’ reasoning for this negative didn’t really need justification.
Her evolution would come at some point, as the only recorded evolution requirement they ever found for Mala was completely filling up the shabby, basic library she started off with.
Just as Korridan was the first to evolve to Gold rank, so was he the first to reach Mithril. The man’s ability to transform his body faster than normal was confirmed for pretty much every element they could produce, but for now, he stuck to just a simpler set as too many elements meant a lack of time. The fact that he actually trained the technique to a necessary standard in seven elements already exceeded what the technique considered possible.
One thing they routed into the journey was a real cathedral to Manus, as opposed to a random church, and while several existed around the elven continent, it was truly rare to find them. Fortunately, Darak knew their locations so it just fell onto the group to select one nearby their path and not too late into the journey such that he had a way to evolve.
With some tens of thousands of human residents, it only made sense to build parishes, and later cathedrals as the human populations exceeded a hundred thousand. The elves were especially agreeable with this since Manus, a racial god, received merely a fragment of the faith a human gave from any elf. The same is true for humans and the elven God of Salvation. Besides, those who knew obviously supported additional protection in their city. Only the ignorant or malinformed would argue against such a thing.
That city was still quite far away… And they really didn’t have the time to make it.
It’d been about a week and a half since the attack with that mithril tier chimaera. As the leader did not send more after them, it could be assumed he wanted to avoid wasting more precious toys. They regarded the demon elf as a despicable, and sick, being, but that didn’t make his thought process incomprehensible.
Unfortunately, Icy couldn’t help but walk on the gravelled path beneath them and frown near constantly. It was the first time he’d felt like this, like a looming threat watched over them.
Like a cataclysmic storm came his way, a figurative one, unfortunately… He shared this with the group immediately, and they all came to the same conclusion after some minutes.
In an attempt to forewarn the group of danger better, one of the other four evolutions he selected was Disaster Fated Ice cream.
[Disaster Fated Ice cream: By relying on powerful senses and eyes which see through all, it is possible to receive feedback from your personal fate regarding the future to come. Furthermore, by disposing of beneficial futures, you can refine this new sense to only detect sequences of intense danger which threaten your life. As you grow stronger, so does the upper limit of this ability as well as how far you may see. Seeing fate does not equate to the ability to transform it]
The ability effectively made him a detector for such events, but as it never once appeared, he didn’t know how the thing worked. In the last year of having it, he never saw it react once…
And now the storm which approached suffocated him. If not even a mithril tier can activate this evolution, then what the hell was coming for them?
Icy wanted to avoid it by the second, but there was something else he knew.
A storm must be weathered through. Unless you possess the power to transform weather, there is no hope to outrun the cloudy danger. However, it remained to be seen if this ‘storm’ was one that he could fight back with his own.
To hell with flipping chess boards, he wanted to destroy this one completely!