Mike had a far easier time than before at manipulating his uncommon fragments, and felt that he could even manipulate his rare fragments to a marginally larger degree. He spent a few minutes shaping fragments, pouring as many as he could into the creation of an ax he could use to chop the trees in the forest. While creating the tool, he found one fragment that interested him enough to pause his work.
Fragment of a grizzly bear (level 10) (Uncommon)
He had gotten another fragment from killing an enemy, and just like the last one he had gotten, it was from a creature who had evolved. He didn't know what difference evolving made to warrant gaining a fragment from killing them, but it was likely connected to the spike in power both had experienced. One difference was that this fragment was uncommon, while the night stalker’s had been rare.
The panther had definitely been stronger, so that made sense at least. He didn't think much more of it, adding the fragment to his ax. It took a while longer to get the sharp shape he was aiming for. With his soul hammer, it was as simple as making a blunt surface to smack things with. This was more complicated, as it was difficult to get the uncommon fragments to stretch so thin.
He figured it out after a while, and soon had an ax that he felt would be fit for the job. Thanks to the large amount of fragments involved in its creation, and the fact that uncommon fragments were larger by default than common fragments, His ax turned out to be larger than his soul hammer by quite a significant amount.
Speaking of his soul hammer, he inspected it, wanting to see what evolving had done to his class and profession fragments. After closer inspection, they were completely unchanged, both still being his old class and profession, at level 10 each. It took a bit of time to find the problem, when he identified two rare fragments that solved the mystery.
Fragment of the Mighty Infusionist Slayer (level 10) (Rare)
Fragment of the Arcane Artisan (Level 10) (Rare)
His new class and profession had split from his old ones, and notably skipped an entire rarity. That was nice, but also a little annoying as they were out of his ability to use properly. He left his soul, preparing himself to chop down some trees. He pulled out his soul ax, holding it with two hands. It was roughly the same size as any other wood chopping ax, if a bit larger.
He cleaved through trees with a single swing, getting better the more he chopped. After a while of chopping, he managed to find two trees close enough to try chopping both with one swing. He powered up one of his newest skills, Enhance Self, and felt the power coursing through him. He got a running start, cleaving through both trees with one powerful swing.
He deactivated his skill, feeling light headed for a moment. The description had not been lying when it said it had a steep mana cost. The brief moment of having it active drained nearly 200 of his over 800 mana. He would need to save that for finishing blows if he wanted to use that in a fight. He looked back at all the logs left on the ground, thinking it was enough for now. He spent a while stacking them up next to the cave. He repeated this a few more times, and was stopped on one of his trips by a notification that forced itself open in his vision.
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*[Planet Notification] Earth has had its first outpost grow to the level of an encampment. Growing in size can bring benefits, but also poses greater challenges upon the inhabitants. Due to the higher mana density of encampments, nearby monsters will begin nightly raids upon the occupants of encampments. Protect your people, grow your defenses, and prosper as a civilization.*
Mike wondered if it was his group that had grown to that level, but ruled it out due to how few people they had. He was glad at that moment that they had started building a wall, because if or when they did become an encampment, defenses sounded like they would be a must. Mike continued his errand run of bringing logs to the cave.
__________
It had taken a lot longer than Mike thought it would to get enough logs to finish the wall. Jonas had found people to put the walls up as logs came in, and they had certainly given themselves plenty of room on the inside of the walls. It had taken hundreds, maybe one or two thousand logs to fully surround the area designated to be protected. Mike simply looked on, resigning himself to his fate of spending several more days infusing the wall, when a few mages came up to him.
“Hey, uh,” the lead one stammered out, “Jonas sent us to help you get the wall ready. He said you needed a lot of magic to get it done?”
Mike sighed, then thought. Perhaps he didn't need to teach them to infuse the wood, instead he could just use them for their mana. They were mages after all, and they each probably had mana pools not that far below his. Mike held two hands against the wall, with each of the three mages holding a hand against his back. He directed them to push their mana into him, which he in turn would push into the wall.
This method proved effective, and instead of the days and days he had expected this to take, it had gotten done in just 16 hours. It wasn't all done in one sitting, as none of the group wanted to sit there channeling mana into a wall for that long. Instead they split it up into two days, doing 8 hour sessions each day.
Sitting with a group of people for 16 hours, with nothing to do but talk, helped you really get to know the people you were with. John, Vladimir, and Rachel all made interesting conversation. They had been in a group together at the start of the introduction, and stuck together, finding and joining this group fairly recently. He learned that they had apparently joined after his fight with the Night stalker alpha.
Mike hadn't really noticed too much, but the group that he was a part of was growing at a fairly steady pace as more people found them, and their hunting groups found other groups. According to a few people that came to check on them while they sat near the wall, the group was now at nearly 100 people, and in just a day or two was expected to cross that number. When the wall was finished, he stopped leaning against it, feeling the refreshing sensation of mana trickling back into his system after his entire mana regeneration went into fueling the wall.
He had been leaning on the tree trunk wall for hours, and was sick of seeing the bark texture that made up the surface. He walked back into the cave, laying down and looking at the notification he got for completing the lengthy process.
*Profession level up x2! Arcane Artisan (level 12)
*Race level up! Human (level 11)*
He felt the power flow into him as he leveled up. Without even thinking about it, he threw all his free points into wisdom, wanting his mana back as fast as possible. He laid there until his mana was full, which only took a bit over 6 minutes. Sitting up, he looked at the materials around him, practically begging to be used to make something impressive. He wanted to oblige, but even more than that wanted to roll over and fall asleep.
His Constitution had reached new heights, totaling at 119 now, but being drained of mana for 8 hours straight was exhausting. If money meant anything anymore, he would bet all he had that the three mages passed out the second they stopped walking. He grabbed the nearest clean looking animal pelt out of the communal storage, rolling over and letting the darkness take him.