“Why were we called back in such a rush? Even though we aren’t much help in the Supremacy Duels.” Hector put his arms behind his head and walked half-naked into the Palace.
They rushed back from Fifth Tide after bidding farewell to one of the few friends he hadn’t met in a long time. It was a pity they didn’t have a proper chance to catch up. Or spar.
By his side were both of the Emperor’s disciples, Lucas Lucero and Demi Barlow along with his cousins. Mallory included. As for the rest of them, he wasn’t exactly close to any of them. So much so that he remembered more about a drinking buddy from a random tavern better than anything to do with these ‘cousins’ of his.
“Where’s Uncle Oplot?” Hector didn’t wait for a reply and continued with another question.
“He said he smelled something fishy in Trailane Plains.” Demi replied to him.
Hector didn’t know them very well but he met them on a few occasions before they were pulled away for their dedicated training trip to the only known World Dungeon on Elva, Lacuna Expanse. The continent of Tova supposedly had access to another World Dungeon too.
Technically, the main force of the Emperor’s Guardian Knights was based there instead of Tidal. They worked to defend the borders from outsiders. Being connected to other worlds made the dungeon’s entrance a dangerous spot.
That was a state secret that was known only to the high nobility.
The Guardian Knight’s base in the Capital only contained the trainees.
“He’ll be here if he has to,” Lucas added.
“Mal, aren’t you gonna tell us why great grandfather and the other Archdukes are missing except the Elves?” The Elven Archduke couple was holding down the fort at First Tide by themselves.
The Barrier King wasn’t around. The Archduchess of the Beastmen hadn’t returned from her mission. The Archduke of Dwarfs appeared at Fifth Tide but only for a short time before he vanished.
A huge chunk of the Imperial Army was not present anywhere in the battle against the Trolls.
“Please make use of your brain.” Mallory put on her prim and proper appearance as usual. Elegant as always if you discounted her words.
“There’s another threat they’re fighting off,” Demi answered for him.
“Worse than Trolls?” Hector snagged a pastry with his gloved hands. Caring little for decorum or hygiene.
“You don’t say. Why else are our strongest forces missing?”
One of his cousins retorted.
Hector recognised the face but not the name and he ignored the comment. Someone older than him by at least half a century and a Grandmaster. He might not be able to beat the man up thanks to their barriers but he doubted the man could hurt him.
Everyone in their lineage was capable. He couldn’t discount the age advantage since there were no slackers. Someone like him who didn’t inherit his lineage’s skills was an outlier as he had no talent with healing or barrier magic.
However, they probably weren’t as good as Mallory in terms of talent with barriers or healing. She was not the Crown Princess for no reason. Younger, brighter and more talented than their King and Queen. She bested all the older cousins, uncles and aunts by a generation or two with just pure talent and capability.
Not all of his cousins rubbed him the wrong way but Mallory might be the only one that cared enough to associate herself with him regularly.
One of Hector’s granduncles walked up and addressed the nobility in the hall. Another [Barrier King] but only the Class and not the individual. As one of Navin’s sons, he also stood at the peak of humans on Elcra. They were all unnaturally young for people of their level. Amongst Humans, few families could contest their power.
It wasn’t a formal event and all of the people present were not dressed for a ball, they were garbed in armour and geared for battle in general.
With that in mind, his granduncle didn’t give a speech. He gave orders. Deployments.
Without any further information, the nobility of different races were dispatched to different training bases throughout Tidal to convene. It wasn’t limited to Tidal, many were dispatched to other Cities.
His granduncle finally looked at him with a gentle smile he failed to hide.
‘Glad I’m not dead huh?’
Hector, Mallory and a few uncles and aunts were not given deployments far away. They were all situated in Tidal along with the two disciples of the Emperor.
These were all people who had been just at the forefront of battle with the Trolls. There were many missing nobles of all races. If Demi was right, they were all already fighting off another threat to the Empire.
Hector went home by himself, they didn’t need to show up at their deployment area immediately.
He hasn’t seen his parents for a long time.
“Anyone home!? No? What did I expect?” Hector was only greeted by maids and butlers who kept the house clean.
There was no reason for his parents to be around if everyone was busy fighting a war.
Hector yawned despite the sleep he got on the way back.
“Man, what kind of threat can there be that aren’t trolls? Otherworldly threats? That would come from Lacuna Expanse wouldn’t it?”
Since he was free and there was nothing to do at home, he ran out to find his smith after showering. The family’s smith didn’t make good gauntlets. They made good gloves, staves and wands but nothing suitable for him.
“I’m a Master now, being able to punch harder. I should treat myself and get something expensive!” Although he knew Dwarven Blacksmiths who were King ranked, they wouldn’t give him the time of their day.
Hector also couldn’t afford equipment made out of Epic-ranked materials. Maybe items that include a small bit of Epic metal or monster material weren’t impossible but his mana wouldn’t be able to bring out the best of their capabilities so there would be little point other than the physical properties.
In any case, even an urgent order would take too long. He’ll probably have to settle with some of the older orders he already placed in the past and get himself some durable pants. He got used to going shirtless. A pair of pauldrons and perhaps a chest piece would do.
He could practically have four elements running through his body at all times without any sort of mana poisoning. That already made him more durable than most armours. He rather had flexibility instead of adding layers of metal that were softer than his own body.
With six elements, he was on a timer before the first symptoms of mana poisoning would hit him. It wasn’t so bad, he had a full ten minutes of free reign and even when symptoms kicked in, he wasn’t immediately defenceless.
With his newer seventh and eighth elements, things got wacky. Even pulling off a single punch within the time span before he was dead by his own machinations was difficult.
‘Grinding Sand Intestine doesn’t increase my power anyway.’ Hector wondered why he got desperate enough to create sand to grind food down within his belly. Monster meat was hard to digest and he was in a rush for nutrients.
Waterblood Lubrication, Windlung Breath, Fireheart Pump, Earth Muscle Ingrain, Lightning Nerve Discharge, Metalbone Root, Mistskin Lubrication, Grinding Sand Intestine
Mist and Sand were not part of his Class Skills.
He had six elemental manipulation skills and six body enhancement skills taking up a total of twelve Class Skill slots. The other three were a perception skill, a movement skill and a physical-mana attunement or co-ordination skill. It allowed him to be capable of withstanding and moving his body together with his mana properly.
His active punching skills were all in his Sub-Class together with other movement bursts and the basic Masteries. From the old Regimental Fist to the new Brigadier Fist. If someone Identified him anyway. The real title had pretty much the same meaning.
His Sub-Class of Body Builder to Body Architect didn’t change drastically. It had his Conditioning skills parked there. Along with a new mana capacity skill that was pushed up from a Generic Skill.
As reluctant as he had been, Hector had no choice but to push Mana Poisoning Resistance to his second Core Skill slot. There was no other way he could raise its level or refinements fast enough to handle all his enhancements.
Of course, Mega Panch was his first Core Skill.
It might be a rookie mistake to put an active skill as a Core Skill but he didn’t care.
Hector had the same old problem of mana regeneration. His mana pool was quite large since the Royal family passed down a tier 5 version but he only refined it to a tier 3, 400% base at the moment.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
It doesn’t fit him as well as it fits the pure mages in the family. He felt like he hit rock bottom and would have to adjust the skill to his own needs from 400% onwards. The skill was barely even levelling after 300. If it stayed this way, he wouldn’t be able to evolve with a good track.
However, the large capacity only helped him so much.
Once he was out of juice on the field, a level 55 tier 1 Meditation would take him ages to fill back up. If he were ever in such a situation, he wouldn’t have the time or the patience to meditate for two to three days straight. He thanked the calming pearl that he still carried around. It allowed his mana to recover faster.
He used to blame talent.
Despite the lineage and amazing skills he had complete access to, he wasn’t able to learn his own family's meditation skills.
To be fair, this was a skill that not many in their family managed to get to tier 3 either. Even then, their latest version was only a 250% + 5.0% increment. Quite miserable for a tier 3 skill, they had tier 2 skills that had higher base percentages.
Hector’s greatest reward from his evolution hadn’t been all the skill evolutions, core skill slot or even his Fortifications.
It was that his Physique miraculously refined.
Like all other Journeymen to Masters, he didn’t exactly have a conscious choice of how he evolved but he could only thank his luck.
No one else in his entire lineage had the Physique that he had. Odd but not completely unheard of. Some dormant gene or trait must have chosen to awaken in him instead of his other family members. That was the explanation he was told. Probably some ancestor far in the past.
It stood to reason why the Lord's family had always been strong.
Although the current King and Queen won over the other races, the Lord family had been the Archduke of the Human race for a long time. The Barrier King’s parents and grandparents weren’t dead either. Just old and weak. Not to mention the actual rank of an Emperor, those old geezers couldn’t even hit level 750 in their lifetime.
The current King and Queen had a far better prospect of reaching Emperor rank. Granted, they still needed a lot of time.
There was a clear flow of how Physiques were passed down.
Grandmasters and even Kings, were not guaranteed to pass down a Physique.
Hector having one that none of them knew made it impossible for them to teach him how to refine it. They were too different. Even a mix of two individuals shouldn’t have given birth to something out of the pocket. But he had the blood of his two parents and they were indeed his biological parents.
He was almost a splitting image of Navin in his youth. That gradually changed as he grew up since his lifestyle was so different. Hector trained his body a lot more than the mages of the Lord family.
Tidal’s streets were still as noisy as he recalled.
It was hard to tell that there was an ongoing battle close by.
“Wel’s not around either huh?” Hector’s personal bodyguard, Welser, was also Navin’s head butler and leader of the group of guards that followed Mallory around.
Without him following Hector, the level of safety he had dropped drastically.
His Dwarven friend and smith was around but the Dwarf’s father wasn’t. They weren’t nobility but were amazing blacksmiths all the same.
“Yo! Orik! I’m back!” Hector pushed the shophouse’s door open while yelling for his friend to get out from the back.
“Shut’chya trap! Ah can hear ya!”
“Let’s have some drinks later. I’ve plenty of tales to share.”
“Aye, I don’t think I can step away from my workshop.”
“Huh? You’re turning drinks down? My treat.”
“Nah, orders are piled up high. Ah barely have time to eat. Every Grandmaster smith and crafter are busy. You might want to find an apprentice for urgent work.”
The ‘apprentices’ that Orik mentioned weren’t ‘Apprenticed-Classed’ but Journeymen and Masters that apprenticed themselves to Grandmasters.
Of course, there were many blacksmiths that were Masters that opened their shop. These were usually smaller boutiques that dealt with a small customer base. Some only catered to a few people who contracted them.
“I can’t use those, they’ll break with a few light taps.”
“Don’t underestimate them. Anyhow, your backup gauntlets are in the warehouse. Ah can send someone to git it.”
“Alright. Fine, I’ll bring the drinks here!”
“...mighty. Ah don’t drink when ah work. But a barrel or two shouldn’t be an issue.” Orik changed tunes quickly.
It was proper workmanship not to drink while crafting. Dwarfs hated it when one of their works was called a ‘drunken accident’ so it was practically taboo to craft something in a drunken stupor unless it was some unimportant item.
“Any pauldrons in stock?”
“Sold out. If you pay, ah can help you skip the queue. Yar a high-value customer after all.”
“Don’t you have too much work?”
“Ah can skip a few meals. Work is work.”
“Make me a pair of pauldrons that is extremely resistant or receptive to all elements.”
“Impossible.”
“Eight elements?”
“Don’t push it, unless you hand me a material that can handle eight elements at the same intense degree you’re hoping for.”
“It doesn’t have to be the same degree…never mind. Just make it the same as my gauntlets.”
“Aye. Get out, lad! Measure him!”
Orik was indeed busy and got his assistant to measure Hector’s new measurements. They weren’t limited to his body shape and size. He was brought to a few testing equipment that measured his strength and how much mana he planned to imbue into equipment. He wasn’t going to imbue any mana in them but the assistant didn’t need to know that.
Orik’s father was successful.
They were rich and catered to Grandmasters and even a King Warrior or two. Their testing equipment couldn’t be destroyed even if Hector tried his best.
So, he punched without worry.
The magic testing was more of an issue since he didn’t plan to subject his equipment to mana but many contrasting elements.
His equipment was specifically made to expel all mana as fast as possible. It meant that he couldn’t strengthen them but that was what it took for equipment to stay on his body in one piece. Since that was the case, the rest of the material or craftsmanship went into making its physical properties much stronger.
There was no leeway for special effects like increased power, speed or decreased weight.
Hector liked it that way. He already spent too much mana on himself, he wouldn’t want to worry about the durability of his armour or gauntlet. If he had to imbue them with mana too, he would quickly run out. During his body enhancement, mana would spill out.
He used it to punch and there was no way around it so they found a way around it. The expulsion of his mana would just be more directed when it came to his gauntlets. As for what a pauldron would do, probably nothing special but he’ll leave that to Orik.
It was nice to see the shock on their faces when his results were in.
The high numbers he gave them also returned with a high price tag. He was just lucky that Orik’s workshop carried plenty of high-quality materials.
“I don’t care if they’re heavy, just give me something that won’t break easily,” Hector commented.
In most cases, higher-quality materials and ingredients were denser and heavier. Especially when it comes to metals. Some increased in mass linearly, some exponentially. Iron was a good choice for practice. No matter the quality, most of its properties remained the same but more prominent as its quality increased.
“Send it to this address.” Hector made use of the fact that he was deployed within Tidal.
“Three days.”
Hector hoped it would be ready before he was sent away but there was nothing he could do if he was called away.
“Alright. Drinks next time.”
“Aye.”
Hector razed the food stalls as he hadn’t had his fill of good grub after years of ration and plain old outdoor cooking. Soldiers with generic Cooking skills don’t usually make food pleasant for the tongue. They only cared about filling the stomach and if the supplies allowed it, nutrition was taken into account.
There were plenty of things to do in the Capital. Hector returned to some of the old places he visited for fun. Like monster racing. He didn’t gamble, he used to be one of the riders.
“Were there any Grandmaster rides? It was a small establishment in the past.” Hector quickly found out that the race track did well and expanded.
He couldn’t just join in as a player on the spot and had to register in advance.
“What a pity, it looks fun,” Hector observed the ongoing race between a massive eight-legged bug and a type of warhorse. The riders of both creatures were Masters, much like himself, and they displayed remarkable precision in handling their mounts.
Before long, Hector had to make his way to his deployed location.
It was two days away by a land carriage and he didn’t want to waste all that time. Getting an aerial ride would shorten the trip to an hour or two.
Tidal was needlessly large. Rebuilt for a population explosion.
Population did increase greatly but not explosively.
With better prospects of - not dying young. People didn’t have to give birth as a Master. Becoming a Grandmaster was well within reach and they didn’t even have to get to the end of their lives before they became one. Slowly but surely, the average person would soon be a Grandmaster and not a measly Master. Not mentioning their actual capability.
The population of Grandmasters in Tidal was massive. Crafters and other non-combative Classes far out populated their combatant counterparts. They don’t dive into deadly dungeons and they’ve been prospering ever since the Barrier King rose to power.
Mallory had already been at their destination right after they got their deployment.
“Mal!”
“Quiet, your loud voice is gonna give me a headache.”
“Yeah right, so who’s giving us trouble?”
“One of the most troublesome opponents ever. Or so I’m told.”
“No negotiations?”
“They aren’t intelligent enough for that,” Demi murmured while she was sparring with Lucas.
The two disciples’ movements were a bit too hard for Hector to catch. He heard that Lucas sparred with Ebony but obviously held back due to the evolution gap. Apparently, Ebony didn’t have any trouble with Lucas’s movements and it was quite the opposite.
“Monsters?” Hector preferred that over fighting some other humans or an intelligent race. It was more clear-cut.
“Goddess of War’s little babies.” Demi ducked Lucas’s spear sweep and tried to trip him by kicking at his feet.
“Who on Elcra is the Goddess of War?”
“Please pose that question to our teacher instead.” Demi blocked Lucas’s spear thrust with a shield and sent him flying back with a well-timed half step forward.
Hector scratched his head.
“Goddess?”
The term was not unfamiliar but abstract to him.
“This feels way above my pay grade!”
“As luck would have it, we’re not paid.”
Hector wanted to punch the person with the nonchalant tone but quickly held his fist back when he noticed it was his cousin.