Lorcan and Baldy lay exhausted on pile of dead Steel-Stabbing-Wasps. The second Wasp nest had contained much more E-grade Wasps than the first one. Since he knew what to look for, he’d managed to quickly retrieve the Beast Crystal Chest. This time however, a Wasp-Queen appeared and led the pursuit. They’d prepared an area of dense jungle where the giant insects could not swarm them. But the Queen-Wasp had bombarded them with a hail of steel stingers, shredding their camouflage and protection.
After he managed to store the chest in his Cosmos Sack, the Queen flew of, but left behind a whole swarm worth of wasps to finish them of. They’d spent every last attack and defensive talisman in their arsenal and fought to near exhaustion. Even Vokari had appeared to kill a few wasps when they started to falter and Baldy had trouble even to stay standing.
Lorcan looked at his companion, who gave him a weak but triumphant thumbs up.
Foil the Machination (Training Regimen): (Complete)
Evaluation: 3/3 Beast Crystal Caches have been retrieved.
3/3 arrays disabled before triggering.
Bonus targets: 1/3 Beast Queens killed.
Reward: Peak-quality F-grade offensive skill
[Space Shattering Strike] – area attack – Proficiency: Early. Creates area of Spatial Tears. Upgradeable.
The skill gave him basically the attack he’d used on the Brallgramoth Queen, but useable even outside such special and rare circumstances. It would have been nice to have during the fight that just ended, but such was life.
Lorcan turned to his companion: “What did you get?”
His eyes still followed the text of his own system message. Then he grinned and answered: “I’ve got a high-quality escape skill. Nothing like being called a coward by the heavens themselves. And you?”
“I can now shatter space for fun and profit.”
“Area attack?”
Lorcan nodded. Baldegarath grinned: “I also reached level 49, which means I’ll soon get another skill. According to my manual, most likely an inscription assist skill. Wouldn’t want to pry, but what level are you? I’ve never dared to ask.”
“I’ve reached 65 at the end of the last fight.”
“Damn. Do you have enough Dao seeds for the upgrade to E-grade?”
“Plenty. But I worry about titles and skills. Especially skills. I’ve bought a few, learned a few, but it’s nothing other cultivators can’t match. I’d need an edge to compete to the top. I use time and space, but at the higher levels, my soul can’t stand the pressure of using both at once.”
“How about soul-cultivation? You could surely afford a manual for that. It’s not that uncommon.”
“Soul cultivation takes ages. And I’m sure the system won’t accept for me to spend a century in silent meditation. I was thinking more about designing a specialty core.”
“Wow. You don’t do things halfheartedly. How would you even start with such a project?”
“I’ll need to hire some advisors. Now, let’s better return to the monastery. We need to talk to the abbot and get some looting teams over here. Would be a shame to let all of this rot.”
* * *
Six months later Lorcan was sitting in a shielded conference room. Torran Tuskan, the trustee of his system-controlled trust fund, was sitting on the other end of the conference table, while several high-level experts watched their team leader finish his presentation of their findings. He pointed to a holographic illustration of Lorcans body, including all skill fractals and energy lines: “Since you are regularly and exclusively cultivating using attuned C-grade crystals, something I still find monstrously wasteful, the two treasures your peak affinities to the Dao of Time and the Dao of Space are based on, have not yet been completely absorbed. Our scanning array found, that about ten percent of each are still present in your system. This is of mostly explainable by the sheer and almost unfathomable power and providence these two treasures carry. The treasure remains are of course soulbound and can be used by no one else. But we can extract them to form the basis of a specialty core. We have prepared a core formed of gravity attuned metal to hold them and our team designed the inscriptions to be used on this core. Fusion braid cores are rather common in peak factions, so we could get experts with real experience in their construction. I’d like to remember everyone, again, that these experts must remain anonymous, because none of their factions would like those secrets to be spread. We have also prepared a system-enforced contract to forbid any kind of reverse engineering of this process.”
He waited for Torran and Lorcan to nod, then continued: “The formation process must be powered by two attuned C-grade Nexus crystals. And no, we cannot use Mister Skyres meditation crystals, because those are permanently inscribed to regulate their energy output.”
Torran made a face like someone had just killed his pet hamster, but he gulped down any comment and just nodded.
The expert continued: “Measuring the remaining Dao energy in both treasures, we found the time one being slightly stronger. Since it is paramount that the energy is equal, there will need to be more spacial attuned treasures included into the core. While the percentage difference may be small, considering the power and peak tier of these treasures, this will need a lot of them.”
Torran sighed and turned to his assistant: “How are the prices for space attuned treasures at the moment?”
The man shook his head: “Buying them will be out of the question. There are rumors about a coming war. Vague rumors, but all of the mayor factions have started to buy up any space attuned treasures or crystals they can get their hands on. We’d ruin ourselves if we tried to match them. Even worse, there won’t be any items on the open market for the foreseeable future. There is however a silver lining…”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Torran look was caught between relieved and annoyed: “Let me guess, all of the spacefaring companies are starting expeditions to gather more treasures?”
“Yes. Including of course, the Ukanjanwalt shipyard. They will send out every single ship, armed to the teeth and manned with space marines to the brim. Mister Skyre won’t have a problem joining them if he decides to transfer from the monastery to the orbital shipyard.”
“I was planning to do so anyway.” Lorcan turned to one of the other experts: “What about my idea for a new skill? Is it feasible?”
The elven looking slender man wore a facemask that included an array that masked even his energy signature. Hiring him had cost several C-grade Nexus coins. He made only the most sparing gestures, as if it’d cost him to move: “Your idea is not entirely new. Copying the internal spatial containment of merchants has been done. It isn’t as useful as you’d think, because it lacks the system protection merchants get against espionage and theft. Combining the Dao of space and animal or nature Daos is even quite common among beast master classes. Mostly in the form of external spacial containers, called Pocket-Monsters, but using a skill variant is not unknown. I have acquired the relevant information crystal for you. You will have no problem designing a skill to contain your bonded beast in a spatial space inside of you. I still think, as I have mentioned before, you should just use a beast worldring.”
Lorcan shrugged: “I just have a feeling I can upgrade such a skill to something useful down the line. I also think it’s advantageous to gather a few skills linked to my Dao affinities to better understand their usage.”
The expert thought about it, then nodded. His feelings hidden by the mask. He pushed the skill crystal over the surface of the table, where Lorcan caught it. “Thanks.”
“I’m not sure you will still thank me after you got the bill.”
Lorcan looked at Torran who made a face, but nodded: “You really won’t. But we can afford it.”
After some more discussions about details, Torran thanked everyone and had them escorted to the teleportation platform. Then he took a look at a data crystal and frowned: “We’re still inside the estimated budget, but you really need to pull in some money or you will be broke sometime in peak D-grade, when the really expensive investments become necessary.”
“I’ll try my best.”
“Do that. So, now that we are alone, let me see your character sheet.”
Name: Lorcan Skyre
Level: 65
Class: [F-Uncommon] Array Warrior
Race: [D] Human
Alignment: none
Titles:
Adventurer: Reach level 10. Rewards: Strength +1, Endurance +1, Intelligence +1
Full of Class: Reach level 25 and attain a Class. All stats +1
Slayer of Leviathans: Solo kill enemy 50 levels or more above you. All stats +10, all stats +10%
Sonkharan Ascencion Tournament winner: Training regimen (variable)
Scion of Dao: Attain five different Dao Seeds while still at F-Grade Reward: All stats +5]
Dao:
Seed of Timing (Early): Intelligence +10, Wisdom +5
Seed of Haste (Early): Dexterity +10, Intelligence +5
Seed of Dimensions (Middle): Vitality +15, Dexterity +10, Wisdom +5
Seed of Spatial Perception (Middle): Intelligence +15, Wisdom +5, Dexterity +10
Seed of Mammals: (Early): Vitality +10, Endurance +5
Strength: 63 (including increase of +10%)
Dexterity: 128 (including increase of +10%)
Endurance: 58 (including increase of +10%)
Vitality: 77 (including increase of +10%)
Intelligence: 165 (including increase of +15%)
Wisdom: 101 (including increase of +10%)
Luck: 24 (including increase of +10%)
Skills:
[Doublestep] (Class) – Proficiency: Peak
[Array Operation Mastery] (Class) – Proficiency: Middle
[Unarmed Combat Mastery] (Class) – Proficiency: High
[Spear Mastery] - Proficiency: High
[Inquisitive Spatial Perception Eye] - Proficiency: Middle
[Primal Polyglot] – Proficiency: NA. To comprehend the Language of the Dao is to comprehend the universe.
[Space Shattering Strike] - Proficiency: Early
Free Points: 0
Nexus Coins: Contact your trust fund manager.
The trustee studied the data and nodded: “Adequate, but you really need to get some more titles. At least your training finally got both of your combat stiles into high proficiency. I’ll prepare a list of titles you could aim for and then we’ll get you to some of the tournaments where you can earn at least some limited titles.”
“Do I have time before moving to the shipyard?”
“Of course. Getting another level has slowed down considerably, as you well have noticed. You’d need to meditate a long time or kill hundreds of monsters to level up. The first one, I’d advocate against. I really see a long-term problem with your fifth Dao seed. It doesn’t fit into a closed system. For getting into C-grade, everything must harmonize. By then, each and every skill and Dao must be in perfect balance with each other. Seed of mammals stands out like a sore thumb. And now you’re also trying to get a spatial space for your pet?”
“This is exactly why I’m doing this. I’ll integrate the new Dao seed into a closed loop together with the spatial storage and later a stasis option. When creating an inner world, I’ll already be used to some of its functions.”
“Inner world? You’re really getting ahead of yourself. C-grade Monarchy is still a few centuries in the future. Concentrate on getting on track for a decent core when reaching D-grade. But there’s still time to correct everything. Just try not to add additional Daos without a very good plan how to integrate them. Also, you’re Dao of time is falling behind. You’ve described a lot of insights during battle, that are born from an understanding of time and the importance of mental speed.”
Lorcan interrupted him: “Don’t worry. I’ve meditated a lot about those fights and I think I’ve enough insight to consolidate them. I’d rather do so with the help of a Dao fruit, since that will deepen the effect.”
Torran rolled his eyes: “Of course it does. But I’d suspected as much. I’ve already prepared a Dao fruit: The Sparkling Seed of the Hour. It’s tree only releases seeds once every century and they are transported away by a spatial effect. They only last an hour, but my employee managed to put one into a stasis container in time, where it can be held indefinitely. As long as I’m willing to invest a F-grade Nexus Crystal each day to power the array. They have a slight affinity to both space and time, but are not especially powerful otherwise. For you, it’s probably one of the best we can get.”
“Well done! I’ll use it right away.”
“I’ve prepared a room with an enhancement array and your prayer mat. May the heavens watch over you and send you inspiration.”