Xerxes reacted as if Owen had struck him. He looked from side to side, making Owen think that he was worried about being over heard. A quick snap of Xerxes's fingers later, and a barrier appeared. Xerxes flashed Owen a concerned look. "How did you here about earth? That was news that wasn't supposed to spread until the very end of the month has passed." Owen just stared hard at him. Xerxes seemed like he wanted to say more, but he once again looked around before speaking in hushed tones.
"There are certain perks to being a sponsor. As someone who has taken a student, both training and teaching them about the system, the system rewards that with me being able to choose a prize of sorts. Mostly, I get to choose a location on earth to set up something related to me or my path, those who live on earth can interact with it and gain treasures related to me and I get rewards in turn." Xerxes held a flat face the whole time he spoke and stared back into Owen's eyes.
"So, earth is going to be changed by thousands of sponsors? And each of them is going to get to design their own slice of earth, what's going to happen to everyone that isn't strong or can't survive the changes?" Owen asked, he was worried for Peggy and Myra's family, but he wanted to make sure he knew everything before changing his and his friends plans.
Xerxes seemed to mull over Owen's words, before seemingly settling on an answer. "Most of those on earth will more than likely eventually die." He paused as if he was double checking Owen's response, but when he didn't show any reaction, Xerxes continued. "Guilds are the main exception to this rule. Guilds are lands that have already been claimed, so changes within a certain range of them are impossible. So, anyone who is inside of a guild's territory should be fine." He seemed like he wanted to continue speaking, but the look on Owen's face made him stop.
Owen did his best to try and think through what the changes meant. Very little of earth was going to be the same after everything and thousands if not millions of people would die. His guild would be okay though, and the people that lived nearby should be fine as well. "How much area could you change and how much could you change it by?" Xerxes seemed to be debating with himself again, but sighed. "I was never supposed to pass on this information, btu I can't in good conscious not tell you when the Polymath placed you in my hands. I will have control over twice as much as before, which would be enough space to add the school from this mountain top."
Owen could barely hold back his surprise that time, he had been imagine large cities being transported to earth by different sponsors, but despite Xerxes having double the space others would have, he would only have enough to place the school on earth. The thought made him pause, even though the school wasn't very large, it was still a decent sized area. Earth would become swarmed by different areas, but also opportunities. There was a part of him that felt guilty for thinking of it like that, but at the same time he couldn't make himself not think of it as opportunities.
"How familiar are you with the sins?" Owen couldn't help but asking. Xerxes stared at him for a long moment before speaking. "I have an inkling of what you are truly asking and yes, they will have their own sections of earth if they have anyone they are sponsoring." Owen nodded and asked another question. "Is it possible to remove the changes a sponsor has placed on earth?" Xerxes shook his head, "The mana is too dense for someone of you level and it is changing the earth itself. Only someone like a god could remove their changes. I'm sorry, I know you want revenge, but even removing their changes would still leave them some minimal control over those they are sponsoring."
Owen thought for a long moment, long enough that he was certain Xerxes was getting ready to drop the barrier, but Owen looked back up and stared into Xerxes's eyes. "Would this work to remove their influence?" Owen asked. A thick blade coated in dense chaos appeared in Owen's hand, causing even Xerxes to flinch back. Xerxes gave the blade a wary look, but nodded. "Theoretically, if you could control enough chaos, you could completely removed their influence, but I don't recommend it. Chaos is dangerous and you are more likely to destroy yourself than anything they have made."
Xerxes's words fell on deaf ears as Owen looked down at the blade. If chaos was the answer to getting at least a little revenge for his dad, then he would consider giving it a try. It wasn't his main goal, but it would be nice to do as a side project while exploring all of the changes once he would get back to earth. "Thanks for answering my questions," he said, ignoring the words of warning that Xerxes added, before Owen walked away.
As he walked away, he realized something that hadn't worried him as much as he thought it should. More than likely millions of people would die before he returned, but he realized he wasn't very bothered by it. The other thing he thought should've worried him was that every sponsor was going to have at least some control of how the future of earth would play out, but Owen hadn't really managed to make himself care. All of the people in his life that he cared about also had sponsors, so he found himself feeling mostly apathetic to the changes he knew would take place.
Owen didn't walk far, he was focused on moving down the mountain side and continuing to hunt down as many monsters as possible before returning. His goal was to reach level forty, but he knew he would achieve that before the month was up and if he continued to hunt monsters at night, then he could more than likely level all the way to fifty before the end of the month.
The next several hours flew by as he tore through every monster that place itself in his path. By the time he sun the sun rising in the sky, he made his way back up the mountain to train his resonance and hopefully complete the gauntlet. It was halfway through the morning that Owen realized he could practice his resonance with his boosting skill. He hadn't tried before, because he thought the energy would be too much, but boosting his stats by 80% made the process of feeling the resonance and slowly deactivating it and reactivating it, much easier.
With only an hour left before he planned to go back down the mountain side, he activated the training gauntlet and chose a sword again. He had decided, as soon as his resonance training had started, that he would try and use resonance from beginning to end, which meant he would need to use it twenty five times, instead of the five times he had used it the first time. When the first goblin appeared, it took less that a second to feel the resonance and slice the goblin's head off with a flick of his blade.
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The next several enemies fell the same way and Owen could feel the strain starting to take hold. Every time he activated his resonance and would use it, his body would want to do anything but sit still and it made deactivating it that much harder. He once again forced his body to still and watched as the horned hound appeared. Again it was cleaved in two, with a single slash. Sweat started to bead across Owen's forehead and he could feel the energy becoming harder to control.
By the time he had reached the final round, Owen could barely stand, he had managed to activate his resonance each time and also deactivate it before the next enemy would appear, but the practice was still exhausting. The 25th enemy appeared and Owen's eyes opened in shock. Not due exclusively to surprise, but mostly how cliche it was. The last enemy that appeared was a reflection of exactly how Owen was now.
The sword it held was also poised in a ready position and Owen prepared himself to strike, but the longer he waited the longer the shadow seemed to wait. Each moved he did was mirrored by the version of him the gauntlet had created. Owen spent five minutes sitting there waiting as he slowly began to feel somewhat refreshed. Knowing he had recovered some of the energy required for another use of his resonance, he poured as much of himself into the blade as possible. An energy appeared and seemed to make the blade glow slightly as he put the remaining power he had into the slash, leaving himself only a sliver so he wouldn't faint.
They both released their slashes and the world seemed to paused. Sounds like nails on a chalkboard rang out through the training area as the resonance clashed with the mirrored resonance. Owen began to think he was cursed to be evenly tied with the mirrored version of himself, but after another several seconds of screeching sounds, his resonance broke through the lesser versions and struck straight through his copy.
A system notification immediately appeared as the copy of him fell into two separate pieces.
*You have successfully completed Training Gauntlet 1*
He wasn't entirely sure if that was it, but he grinned as soon as he noticed the 1. "Xerxes, are there higher leveled versions of this same gauntlet?" Owen asked knowing that, despite Xerxes being almost the entire length of the courtyard away, he could still hear him. Xerxes appeared next to him in the next second and smiled. "Yes, there are, but those are intended to help hone your secondary class. They also have high enough requirements, that I don't expect you to be able to complete any of it until you are at least level 100."
"But there are more?" Owen asked hopefully and Xerxes nodded. "Given that you also finished well before I had expected it, you will train against me. You didn't learn exactly what I had hoped you would learn, so I will create another limiting array, so there will be no use of skills or superior stats." Xerxes added. Owen opened his eyes wide, but it wasn't the first time Xerxes had directly fought him, well technically it would be, but the echo didn't count in his mind.
"Part of what I hoped to teach was the difference of true skill and weapon mastery. But sadly, you managed to completely skip that test, by being able to use combat essence." Xerxes said, Owen didn't even try to keep the smug expression from his face. He was curious about what mastery was supposed to be the equivalent of then, but he supposed it didn't matter much at the moment, as he was certain Xerxes would tell him. "So, we are going to fight in the morning and evenings instead of you training your resonance or trying the gauntlet more." Xerxes said as he pointed towards the all too familiar staircase leading down the side of the mountain.
"For now, you can train down there, while I get everything ready for this evening, but keep in mind that even if you do manage to get to level fifty before the end of the month, there won't be much I can do to make the creation of your secondary class easier." Owen nodded and grinned. "But you might be able to help a little?" He said more as a statement than a questions and Xerxes gave a tired nod. Owen didn't wait much longer than that before heading back down the mountain to fight even more.
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Peggy was exhausted as her mana once again dropped down past double digits. He sponsor was an unusual person, at least in Peggy's mind. Everyone else that had been called by her into her realm, seemed to see her as a goddess, even if she hadn't technically become powerful enough for that yet. Peggy kept her thoughts to herself though as she forced out the last dregs of mana to heal another person.
The whole group her sponsor had summoned, seemed to be a sect of religion of priests and the like. It made her more than a little uncomfortable, since often times she would be taught, not by her sponsor, but by one of the priests in her realm. She had been given a 1st grade body and soul, and using different sacrificial rituals, they had managed to raise the level of her core from blue to green in almost an instant.
They hadn't allowed her to do any fighting, which had originally made her think her leveling would be slow, but she frequently was forced to help with several of the rituals a day. The thing that most surprised her was how open the group had been about the changes that were going to take place on earth. Despite her shock and worry, they acted as if she was the one being crazy and that sacrificing millions of lives, so they could add a mega church worshipping her sponsor on earth, was worth it.
She had thought about escape several times, but the skills she was gaining at a rapid pace were interesting and in her mind worth it. They had even offered to change her main class, so she could gain even more of the sponsor's skills, but Peggy still wanted to keep as good a distance as she could. The people here were terrifying in a cult like way, but she was gaining real power at the moment as that was going to be worth it once she got back to earth. She moved through the church area and found an open meditation room and stayed in it until she had fully replenished her mana.
"Margaret my dear, it is holy hour as it is your turn to service our goddess," said a tall fellow, with a needle thin mustache. That was another thing she didn't enjoy, their terminology for everything was also a little uncomfortable, but she first felt like she had to mention the biggest sin in her mind. "My name isn't short for Margaret, my name is Peggy. As yes, I can bring the holy water to my sponsor, but I am kind of busy right now. Important call." Peggy said as she began dialing her sister. The tall man short stared at her in open disgust.
Peggy knew all of the reasons why, but she had given up after the first week of being in her sponsors realm. There was heavy mind altering magic in her sponsors realm, magic that the sponsor herself gave off, but it was a passive power, a simple collection of mana around her head was enough to keep the magic from taking effect on her. She had been worried at first that everyone else would notice her bubble like helmet keeping the power back, but no on had mentioned it, except the sponsor, though all she did was give Peggy a small marble thing when she noticed the bubble.
Peggy turned back to the tall man and stuck her tongue out, "Sorry," she answered. "I have to take this, you know the sponsor's orders." Her gave her another look of undisguised disgust before he went and found someone else to take their sponsor a glass of "holy water." "If there is any real god out there, I would really appreciate being brought somewhere else, these people are absolutely insane." Peggy said in mock prayer. She knew there were real gods, but they couldn't or at least wouldn't interact with earth too much. At least she had thought, until everything in her vision turned black and it felt like her body had begun to stretch.