Whispers and rumours spread throughout all of Mystopolis in regards to Lone's results during The Academy's entry test.
Everyone ignored Eolande and Soph's incredibly potentials in the wake of Lone's unbelievable magical statistics. Many refused to believe that such a talented person could even exist, let alone be so lucky to find themselves getting tested at The Academy, so they insisted the results and the rumours were fake, but many were almost certain that Lone was the avatar of a Primal. In fact, a small portion of the city's populace believed him to actually be a Primal in demi form.
Primals had always shared a somewhat close connection to demis, beastkin especially, since they were able to harness their power at the cost of their inherent immunity to aging.
Regardless of all of this speculation, Lone continued to bring Swind with him to the Soul Hall for the next two days.
As predicted, Swind was able to quickly learn the Soul Oracle Detection skill, and, surprisingly, while Lone was using the Soul Linking skill to bind Swind to Rachel so he could always know how she was doing, the Lemurian had unexpectedly learned the skill himself.
Swind was spending a lot of his time acting as one of the Soul Halls cleaners and as a chef since he had promised to do so for a month should Lone lose his bet with Master Millisa, but he was still actively trying to learn from both Lone and the masters and journeymen who held lectures on soul skills and soul oracles philosophies daily.
As for Lone, upon connecting Swind's soul to Rachel, the skill, Soul Linking, had levelled up twice, but he was far happier that Swind had earned the skill himself than he was about the skill's uses. The more soul skills the Lemurian had, the better in Lone's opinion.
As for both of their biggest hope, Soul Rooting, it had reached master-rank-4 since Lone had left The Academy two days ago.
It was only an increase of one level, but it still brought the skill that little bit closer to evolving.
Of course, Lone had also spent much of his free time forging and steamforging, resulting in Blacksmithing reaching advanced-level-10 - one level shy of a rank-up, and Steamforging had reached intermediate-level-4, an increase of three levels.
In regards to their XXX-ranked prisoner, 'Benjamin', he had stopped giving information beyond the very basic scraps that Eolande was able to rip out of his mind, so Lone had decided to kill him.
He never wanted his sister, Hazel, to meet the man since it would be better for Scott and George if they didn't know he even existed, and Lone didn't trust his teenaged sister to not accidentally speak of the matter if she read his mind, so he simply chose to kill him. Whether he was important or not on the continent of Teresta, Lone did not care.
Should more trouble come from it, then Lone would deal with it at that time. Naturally, since he had ended the life of an XXX-ranker, his status had experienced another burst of explosive growth.
Status Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 27 Level: 2,925 [+312] Species: Foxkin Rank: SSS Race: Ascending Foxkin HP: 101,740/101,740 [+16,000] SP: 275,120/275,120 [+21,200] MP: 691,330/691,330 [+29,030] DP: 64,320/64,320 WF: 1,500/1,500 Basic Stats Strength: 14,035 [+2,700] Vigour: 10,174 [+1,600] Dexterity: 10,625 [+392] Agility: 11,578 [+504] Vitality: 27,512 [+2,120] Luck: 1,050 [+72] Secret Stats Charm: 645 [+61] Charisma: 349 [+99] Magic Power: 69,133 [+2,903] Divine Power: 6,432 Rage: 55 [-5] Control: 945 [+5]
It would seem that the choice of ending 'Benjamin's life was a far better one than the one to prolong his torture if Lone's Rage and Control stats were any signs to be trusted.
Lone had received fewer levels than he'd hoped for, but the stats he'd gained were focused towards mana and physical prowess, which certainly helped make up for it.
With that, as far as Lone was concerned, the debt between himself and the scumbag who'd tortured George and captured Scott was now cleared. If anyone came to find trouble on the man's behalf, Lone would ignore them or scare them away before taking more drastic measures.
The only other thing of note was that Breena had spent another day acting like a daughter towards Master Dilroy.
The man had practically begged Lone to allow it. He said that the last time was so refreshing and helped relieve a lot of the stress of being one of the few master soul oracles based in Mystopolis, and since Breena didn't seem to particularly mind, Lone allowed it in exchange for a favour that Master Dilroy was contractually obligated through Lone's Contracting Magic to fulfil when Lone needed it.
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In regards to his Wondrous Emporium, it had received a handful of independent blacksmith customers who'd come after a local city meeting of Mystopolis' smiths. Apparently, Frodley and his nephew - Grimsley - had been shouting nothing but praise about the place during the whole meeting.
Of course, the gang of orphan's continued to stop by every day for a free lunch, which led to Lone learning far more about the city once again. He had yet to hear anything about the various collections of slavers, which was a bit disappointing, but he planned to ask Prince Seto if he knew anything about the other slaver organisations eventually since he was the figurehead of one not too long ago.
"Mmm, that'll do," Lone muttered as he looked at himself in the mirror.
He was currently in his and Soph's bedroom and he had created a new outfit solely for his life as a magic student. He'd spent the last hour using his Creation Magic to alter the outfit and redesign parts of it over and over again.
Soph was sound asleep on the bed with Kyuubi in her arms, but Garadia had woken up when Lone did, so she was curled up on a chair next to her father just peacefully watching him.
As far as Lone's new outfit went, he had decided on a deep-blue chestplate made of a rare metal called ocendium. It was about as strong as steel, but Lone didn't care how tough it was, he was just trying to look cool.
He was also clad in silky and loose trousers which had ocendium thigh and calf plates on them, again, purely for looks. A masterfully crafted belt kept his chestplate and trousers separated while a long open robe was draped over his head and shoulders.
This robe included built-in ocendium gauntlets, a metal trimmed hood, a set of pauldrons, and, of course, a hole by his lower back that was big enough to squeeze all of his nine tails through.
Sizing himself up one more time, Lone said, "I look a lot like a shady arcane knight, huh, Garadia?"
"Gao?" A cute sound exited the baby dragon's mouth as she rolled over and tilted her head curiously.
"Haha, I do look handsome, don't I? I should grow out my beard. That'll add to my atmosphere. Ah, right! I should make some runed grimoires and a lexicon. Saturn is busy protecting my shop, so yeah, let's make a lexicon, shall we? I've got some spare mana," Lone asked his daughter.
"Gao!" Garadia happily replied, making Lone smile.
"You're such a cute little ball of green fluff," Lone praised then closed his eyes and imagined some ancient-looking and magically engraved books, which appeared on his hip and only peeked out of his robes slightly. No doubt, they'd be on full display when he walked.
These grimoires were full of nothing but scribbles that looked arcane and they even glowed slightly, but apart from that, they did nothing, so they cost Lone very little to create.
He then took out a good chunk of the mana orbs that he'd collected from Soph and Eolande before he imagined a deeply inscribed and steamforged cube that would activate by tapping smaller cubes on its surface, resulting in it floating and spinning like a Rubix Cube.
Item does not exist in Altros, however, there are a few items similar to it. 5,000,000 MP has been consumed to compensate for the difference.
The host has a little bit of understanding of the item and how it would be created in its base form but does not know anything regarding its magical requirements nor the process to magically infuse it. 500,000 base MP cost. 2,500,000 additional MP has been consumed to compensate for the lack of knowledge.
The host possesses insufficient MP. The stored MP from 34 of the host's [Mana Orbs] has been consumed to compensate for the needed MP.
8,000,000 total MP has been consumed to create the item: Magically Infused Steamforged Lexicon.
"Oh, it actually used less than I had anticipated. I was kinda expecting my impulse creation to drain at least half of my saved up mana orbs. I guess I was lucky that I've been delving more deeply into Steamforging lately, huh? That and Blacksmithing," Lone said as he reached over and rubbed Garadia's head gently.
Purring happily, the baby Radiance Dragon replied, "Gao!"
Lone grinned from ear-to-ear and played with her for a few more minutes until she got tired and decided to take a little nap. Seeing that, Lone used Clicker's Power on the newly-created lexicon.
[Unnamed] Magically Infused Steamforged Lexicon Description
Created by the infamous foxkin, Lone Immortus.
It was created with the intentions to make using magic a more fun process and a spectacle to witness.
This lexicon is nigh-impossible to recreate without an incredible understanding of fairyforging, steamforging, blacksmithing, rune creation and engraving, containment magic, and an ability to wield mana freely and perfectly.
Rank Legendary Stats Durability: 1,000,000/1,000,000 Weight: 5 Abilities Allows the host to store a maximum of ten spells of any strength level in the lexicon. If used as a conduit for channelling the host's mana, any skill that consumes MP shall be tripled in power. Can be bound to a host. Once bound, it will teleport to the host's side if lost and it will not respond to anyone else's attempts to use it unless the bound host is no longer living or if the bound host grants their express permission.
"Holy fuck nuggets..." Lone was stunned almost speechless. "Any skill that uses MP? Any? So, even soul skills? I just wanted a cool toy for the years I'll be spending learning magic, but this thing is insane."
Lone held the cube, and immediately, a small spike shot out of it and pierced his flesh, drawing blood. The cracks separating the lexicon's smaller cubes lit up crimson red then slowly faded.
"Huh... So it's bound to me now? This thing is fucking cool..." Lone played with the cube for a few minutes before he muttered, "I wonder if it can hover on its own like Saturn? Or do I need to be using it for it to float?"
He tossed it up into the air, but the tool just loudly clattered onto the floor. Clearly, when it wasn't being used, it was nothing more than a pretty cube with nothing else going for it.
"Mmmmm... What was that?" Soph asked in a dreary voice as she wiped her eyes then stretched and yawned.
She scooped Kyuubi up into her arms then slowly clambered off of their bed. "Lone?" Seeing the robed and partially armoured man, Soph's eyes livened up and sparkled a little. "You look awesome..." She wanted to be more excited, but she was still in her waking-up phase.
Lone scratched his cheek in embarrassment and said, "Sorry. I made a new weapon - well, tool, really - and I was testing something. I kinda forgot that you were sleeping right there."
Soph shook her head. "It's okay." She wandered over to the chair that Garadia was curled up on then picked the dragon up with a barrier. The girl then sat in the seat and placed Garadia on her lap.
Since she was only in her nighty, her thighs and legs were exposed, so the soft sensation of Garadia's fluffy feathers made Soph grin loosely in joy.
"You're too cute sometimes, you know that, right?" Lone asked jokingly as he picked his lexicon up off the floor.
Soph adorably stuck her tongue out. "I know you like me when I'm like this, so, I uh, I try to be more... cute? It makes you happy, so it makes me happy."
"You're such an angel at times," Lone responded happily.
He then continued playing with his new lexicon for a bit before he helped Soph get dressed and ready for the day. The two then left their hotel suite and collected the rest of The Wanderers, minus Lipsilk, of course, they then headed to The Academy once more.