We spent two weeks writing down the collective lore and ethos of my church. They chronicled my story, my lives. I ranted about my pet peeves with written evidence of slander and defamation. Especially how people think it was MY fault the Second Demon Lord exploded. In the narrative we inserted into our Canon, the vile demon lord, on its death throes, decided to commit suicide and explode, killing the daring [Heroine] and poisoning half the continent. Wouldn't it be for me, the whole place would be demon land, not half of it.
I created illusions out of my memories to illustrate the books and chronicles. I let one of the ice trains, enchanted to resist decay and the elements on permanent exposition at my cathedral in front of the Royal Palace, next to my now anatomically correct statue. Almost. I added cat-kin ears on the helmet.
I also gave this first batch of priests rings like the one Raleigh had, with orders to collect a lock of hair from all new priests and store them in the rings. This way I could raise any of them back from the dead. I kept that as a surprise, though.
The first batch of books done on magical paper by the [Scriveners], the junior priests roamed all of Windemere, spreading the Faith and the tales. It would take a few months or another war to restore Pandora's supply of Divinity. But the investment in the priests would eventually pay off and then give me great profits.
With the priests gone and Salia running the cathedral, I withdrew to the underground with a handful of priests to raise to the second tier, past level 80. The people I left there worked nonstop. The dwarves were digging some tunnels inside the Dungeon Core sphere of controlled terrain, Helger and Barotono started a brewery, and the students ground the mini-Dungeons as fast as they could.
----------------------------------------
Wyxnos was taking his sweet time with Lorna's soul. Worried, I called him.
> [Administrator Hotline]
>
> CALL START
>
> Haru: Wyxnos, good morning. I ordained my first batch of priests, damn that was expensive.
>
> Wyxnos: Congratulations.
>
> H: Thank you. I hope they fare well in the world. But that's not why I called you. So, I'm not trying to put pressure on you, but I can't help it. I'm worried. Will it take long?
>
> W: I'm afraid you won't like the answer. I'll need a few years. Let me explain.
>
> H: Su-sure. Go ahead.
>
> W: When you hinted at a backup, I didn't answer no but there is none. What I am doing is to restore what I can from the System logs. Her Status, Perks, and Attributes are almost done, but the memories are hard. I'm running a genetic algorithm and heuristics to create a sensory output of the situations using her logs and the logs of those around her.
>
> H: What about the emotional memory?
>
> W: Once exposed to the sensory input, the soul remembers. It jumpstarts the restoration process. Do you have a sample of her DNA?
>
> H: I have a lock of her hair. The grave was destroyed by Kel'Caldor.
>
> W: With the roots?
>
> H: Let me check. No. It was from when I trimmed her hair.
>
> W: No luck there.
>
> H: I can restore her body from this hair if I had the soul.
>
> W: Kinda beats the purpose. She went through twilight. Unless I fully restore her soul, she won't revive by any System ability.
>
> H: A divine miracle?
>
> W: Expensive. And without the memories, you'll just bring back an amnesiac Lorna. And once she's alive again, it will be nigh impossible to restore her previous life's memories. I think we need to do it the long and hard way.
>
> H: Sucks. Please do your best. I'm willing to forgive all previous attempts to screw me over, even the most recent one which caused the very problem we're having.
>
> W: I will. I know you're grieving, thanks for understanding. Rest assured, I'll do my best to restore your wife to her prime. It's a long and delicate process but there's little chance of failure. Sorry, no chance of failure.
>
> H: Bye. I think I need to be alone for a while.
>
> W: Best regards.
>
> CALL END
I was angry. Frustrated. Not even my latest legendary comfort toy could calm my heart.
I wanted to destroy a country, to vent my rage. Instead, I took my priests on the ice train and flew them to the far corners of the world, delivering them to friendly kingdoms on the three continents, so they could convert more believers, gather more Divinity to ordain more priests. Rinse-repeat. I wouldn't send them to unknown or hostile countries now. They had to develop a support base first before expanding. They had plenty of money and their cheat rings. That should be enough.
----------------------------------------
Back at the underground city, I set a big plot of land, walled it off, and turned it into my workspace. The {Shadow Workshop} was fine but for large-scale parallel projects, it lacked size. So I used the workshop to create clones of the tools it created and populate that plot of land with gigantic vats and magically fueled furnaces. I spent two months grinding the shit out of my Proficiencies. With the Mini-Dungeons, I didn't need to tank for my students anymore so I put the massive vats to treat demon carapace as well as dumping literal tons of captured and ruined weapons and armor on the giant furnace to smelt.
The grind was stupidly boring. At the end of two months, I had little progress to show. Repeating the same thing over and over was a surefire way to get no advancement in return. That's when I had an idea. Why not create enchanted items that could help one train their Proficiency?
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
The first such item I tried was an easel. This would be a gift for Marisol, to train her [Plastic Artist] Proficiency. It was made of hardwood with a living silk canvas which meant this item could level up and gain Perks that would improve its purposes. I set some Core slivers on the edges and enchanted it with an illusion. The Illusion would flash over the canvas, then present a blank slate for the trainee to reproduce the image they saw. More importantly, it would be an image taken from one of the trainee's dreams. The easel would then rate the painting based on how well it was reproduced and then erase the paint. Dreams were fleeting things.
After two days of work on the concept and I had a working product. My proficiency went up by two points, showing I was finally having some progress.
> The Dreamer's Easel - level 0
>
> Price: Hidden
>
> Materials: Hidden
>
> Perks: Hidden
>
> +10% to the learning rate of [Plastic Artist] or [Painter] proficiencies if below 200.
>
> Helps the user remember their dreams.
>
> > A magical weasel that haunts the artist with flashes from their most hidden dreams and entices them to make them real.
My {Wild Enchant} fairy Ability struck once again.
The next item was a steel ingot with dust from a small Fire-aligned ruby. This ingot would self-heat on command and could be hammered into any shape. If the trainee stopped hammering for five minutes, it returned to its original ingot shape.
> Everforging Ingot
>
> Price: Hidden
>
> Materials: Steel, Gold, Fire Ruby dust.
>
> Heats up to the desired temperature automatically.
>
> Reverts to its original form if not hammered for five minutes.
>
> +10% to the learning rate of [Blacksmith], [Metalsmith], [Weaponsmith], or [Armorer] proficiencies if below 200.
>
> This item will not return to its original shape if the crafter makes a masterwork item with it.
>
> > An ingot that always returns to its original shape. It is obsessed with perfection and will reject any feeble attempt at forging it. What surprises does it hold if the apprentice has an epiphany?
This thing had a mind of its own. But it would be useful to me for a little while. I made six of these ingots and gained another two points in [Enchanter]. As expected, the System created a new Ability on this branch of enchantment. It was scalable but doubled the bonus I could grant by brute force.
Enchanter [ 525 / 532 ]. Select 1 Ability
* Training Aids I: You can enchant items to enhance Proficiency acquisition rates by up to (Proficiency/25)% to a maximum score of (Proficiency/2).
That was the way to go. The next tool I made was obviously to help level [Enchanter]. It was the mix of a wand and an inscribing tool with a grip and core of Living Silk. It gained the bonus from the {Shadow Workshop}. Making this gave me another two points of Proficiency.
> The Arcane Inscriber - Level 0
>
> Materials: Gold, Platinum, Magic Core, Living Silk, Diamond tip.
>
> Abilities:
>
> +20 [Enchanter and [Jeweler] Proficiency.
>
> +25% to the learning rate of [Enchanter] and [Jeweler] if the Proficiency is below 313.
I went to one of the mini-Dungeons, the rank 2 one killing everything inside in a few minutes. The Inscriber leveled up.
> The Arcane Inscriber - Level 36
>
> Perks:
>
> * Fast Inscribing I: Increase work speed by 10%
> * Fast Inscribing II: [...] 21%
> * Fast Inscribing III: [...] 32.1%
> * Training Cap Increase I: You can use this item to reach 20 points of Proficiency more than usual.
> * Training Cap Increase II: You can use this item to reach 50 points of Proficiency more than usual.
> * Proficiency Bonus I: Gives +5 Proficiency bonus.
> * Proficiency Bonus II: Gives +10 [...]
> * Enchanter's Insight: Add Luck to your Mind tests to develop new enchantments
> * Least Boon: Adds 2 enchanting points to all enchanted items crafted with this tool.
> * Minor Boon: Adds 5 [...]
> * Arcane Apprentice: Adds +5% learning rate.
> * Arcane Student: Adds +10% [...]
>
> Abilities:
>
> +30 [Enchanter and [Jeweler] Proficiency.
>
> 32.1% faster crafting.
>
> Items crafted with this tool have 5 more enchantment points.
>
> +35% to the learning rate of [Enchanter] and [Jeweler] if the Proficiency is below 363.
"Now we were cooking with gas!" As my British friend used to say. The inscriber was still useless to me, but it was a proper start. I needed to level it up and increase the limit on training levels with Perks.
I created one such training item for each of my Skills, I mean, Professions. Proficiencies, dammit.
For [Appraiser] it was a pair of round glasses that fogged the target's information and added fake, inconsistent data you had to sort out. [Blades], a sword that shifted its center of gravity and changed weight mid-swing. The item to train [Clubs] was a dud. The wooden bludgeon gained a mouth and would spew uncomfortable truths about oneself when swung. It gave the bonus, but the truths were very truthful, very personal, and very uncomfortable to the point it hurt to hear them. Worse, it was a loudmouth.
I disenchanted it.
For [Spears], it was a weapon that projected a tiny moving dot on the target and whose shaft would bend and pull you along if you missed that dot. [Combat Technique], a pair of golden gauntlets with six colorful gems on each that assisted you with maneuvering and positioning by dragging your hands along to the correct spot. The tool to train [War Technique], [Leadership], and [Cartographer] was a map with symbols for combat units on it. The Symbols were for both your army and the enemy but you needed to set orders and emulate combat. Sometimes it sprung a surprise like hidden troops or a disease outbreak in your camp. You also needed to recognize the terrain the enemy illusionist changed to gain [Cartographer] points.
[Wild Warrior], [Furtivity], [Mobility], and [Martial Arts] was a kimono that would create a feeling of being poked or bitten in some part of one's body, forcing you to react in some way, either evading, moving, attacking, or even just standing perfectly still, else it would take a small chunk of your HP pool. For [Physical Mastery], it was a pair of large pauldrons with a gorget you needed to put around your neck and on your shoulders. It would then increase its weight until you couldn't hold it anymore and fell. But it cushioned the fall so you didn't get hurt.
That many projects pushed my [Enchanter] Proficiency to the next level.
Enchanter [ 540 / 540 ]. Select 1 Ability
* Training Aids II: You can enchant items to enhance Proficiency acquisition rates by up to (Proficiency/20)% to a maximum score of (Proficiency).
The most esoteric ones (even in the name) were for the Mystical Proficiencies, what a pleasant surprise. To train [Mental Mastery] and [Spellcaster], I made a pin-art board with thousands of tiny pins with a ball of Living Silk on the end. The board would display something cryptic, and you needed to push the right pins from behind as well as imprint a glyph that would be drawn on the Living Silk. The thing was ridiculously complex but gave a 34% learning rate bonus. Too bad 540 was still below the actual proficiency level so the level zero item was useless. Focusing on the feeling it needed to increase its proficiency cap, I leveled it in the mini-Dungeons. I had to bring it up to level 75 before it broke the 700 Proficiency limit.
> Esoteric Pins of Enlightenment - level 75
>
> Perks: hidden.
>
> +50% to the learning rate of [Mental Mastery] and [Spellcaster] if the Proficiency is below 750.
>
> Randomly grants small increases to other Proficiencies.
>
> Drains double the users' MP (Or whichever resource replaced MP) regeneration rate during training. For every 250,000 MP drained per hour, add another linear 1% to the learning rate and 1 to the Proficiency cap.
>
> Can be used to develop new [Wizard] spells in a third of the time.
I got more than I bargained for. I regenerated almost 15 million Energy per hour. This beast drained thirty million Energy, to give a 170% learning rate bonus. Combined with my normal learning bonus, it became 888%. Adding one ring with a bonus to both Magic and base MP, I could reach 900%, ten times the normal learning rate with a Proficiency cap of 890.
I would level all these training items in due time. But I needed to finish the full set. For [Assassination], I had a life-size animated crash test dummy that would make a pose and you needed to skulk next to it to poke in one of its weak spots, marked with those yellow-and-black sensor disks. If you missed the right spot, the dummy would slam you for some damage. For the other technical Proficiencies, it was a tool used on the job. Such as a chemistry set for [Alchemy], or a silk-enhanced version of the previous ingot.
I put all of them in a backpack and went delving into the rank 4 mini-Dungeon.