Peggy weaved together her affinities into a complex constellation. Anyone else who could be watching, wouldn't be able to see the complex patterns in the air, but once she began to purify her mana, that all changed. All types of elemental magic appeared all at once and she began to channel her mana, while purifying it at the same time.
A ring of fire was woven into rings of water, earth, lightning, and an invisible ring of pressure. She began to force her mana to move closer together, causing all of the elemental energies to begin clashing, but the ring of invisible pressure helped to contain all other affinities. Once it was small enough that it could only barely fit around her wrist, she threw it out towards her opponent, who looked like a caricature of her.
It did its best to try and dodge the attack, but the intense energies, coming off of the small ring of death that Peggy had throw, managed to pull her replica towards the attack. It gave one last feeble attempt at defense, but as soon as Peggy's attack made contact with the barrier of mana, it was pulled into the swirl of energies, before it tore her replica apart.
She cheered as she got the system prompt that signaled the end of the first test. She glanced one time at where the door had been earlier, but after she had told her mentor, he had placed his hand on her back for less than a moment before nodding to her. She had entered the testing hall after that and was astonished to see it looked exactly the same, except somehow better.
As she readied herself for the next test, she wondered for a moment just what had been behind the door, but she pushed it out of her mind, as a stream of memories came flooding in.
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Everything sucked, he was suppose to be the main character for god's sake, but the one who was supposed to be his mentor had spent just as much time, if not more, on training Owen and his plant monster. He still didn't hate either of them and he had somehow managed to grow somewhat close with Briar over the past almost month, but he was still pissed. He was supposed to be a zodiac member in the future, compared to everyone else, he would have been the main character. Somehow though, Owen kept doing things that were supposed to be impossible or rare.
The only consolation he had felt was that he was still better with the spear than Owen was, even if the guy hadn't ever really focused on it much before coming here. Either way, Owen was out of commission today, or at least probably. Owen had woken up and the only way he could think to describe it was that he had felt strong. He had thought earlier that he and Owen were probably close in strength despite the level disparity, but that gap kept increasing wider and wider.
He had pushed himself further than he had thought possible, but despite all of his work, he was still falling further behind Owen. Lucas kept grumbling for a while as he braided strands of grass together while he sat with Briar in a neighboring courtyard area. Briar was also like Owen, constantly training and of course Briar was a monster, so they were naturally better at all the system stuff. He watched in annoyance as marble after marble was formed by Briar who seemed to have an endless affinity for plants or whatever Briar was made out of.
The most frustrating thing was that as much as he wanted to be able to hate both Briar and Owen, they had been nice to him and had allowed him to tag along. SO, even if they annoyed him sometimes he was grateful to have the company. Briar kept trying to convince him to train his purification process, but Lucas was already tired of having spent that last month training. The only thing he had felt was worth his time anyways was the spear, but master had said he would only train with it during the evenings, after he had worked on his affinities.
When he saw Xerxes start levitating Owen towards the building where everyone's rooms were, he leaned back a little further and draped an arm over his eyes. "Briar, I am going to take a nap, wake me if it looks like Xerxes is coming over to come check on us." Lucas said, moving around to try and get comfortable. He heard an exasperated sigh, though it still sounded like confirmation, so he leaned back ever further and tried to fall asleep.
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Xerxes had to admit that life was exciting for the first time in a long time. It had been a long time since the last induction of a world and this was also his first time getting to act as a master. Back when the school had been full of students, he had been one of many teachers who had helped out the true sponsor of this world. But after the previous jeweled monkey emperor ascended, everything had died down and most who had helped out as instructors left after a couple years.
Now that there was new batch of students he had felt a warmness in his heart looking out over everyone who had been training. He let out a sigh when he saw Briar sitting there with a pile of marbles stacked up ready for Lucas to try purifying. Of course the boy he had picked had ended up like he had been when he first joined the system. He just shook his head at the sleeping form of Lucas, while Briar tried to inconspicuously look around.
They were a great pair of training partners and he was partially embarrassed to admit that he hadn't even realized the potential Briar brought to the table. He had felt hesitant to free it in the first place, but Owen had been adamant, so he had helped out. But its ability to form essence marbles in seconds, made it one of the easiest way he could think of to train in using your affinities offensively. Owen idea to take advantage of it had been ingenious and was the other thing that had been exciting.
He was sad to see it all go, he didn't have long as the protector of this realm and soon it would fall to Lucas to keep the realm safe, but soon was relative and even with his general laziness, there would be plenty of time to try and whip him into shape.
"Lucas are you sleeping again?" He asked softly, sneaking past Briar's attempts to spot him, to whisper into Lucas's ear. A blood curdling scream filled the air as both Lucas and Briar jumped up into defensive positions. Xerxes chuckled softly and he fought the urge to laugh out loud at the scowl Lucas had on his face. "Since this looks like this will be as far as we get for the rest of the time you guys have left here, let's do something fun. Instead of an echo, you will fight me today."
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Owen had several system notifications waiting for him when he woke up and he groggily pushed them to the side as he gave himself a chance to fully wake up. He went about his morning routine for a while before realizing he had not lied down for bed that night, he had fallen unconscious after exiting the testing hall. That ended up waking him up more than anything else and a whisper in the back of his mind made him wonder if it was still really bad to be falling unconscious as often as he did.
Pulling up his system notifications, he couldn't helped but laugh a little.
*You have gained the Unique class - Covetous Wielder of Chaos: Level 1*
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
He blocked out the screen that listed all of his stat point gains from the first level. He hadn't been sure he would be awarded the 75 stats just from gaining the class, he had thought it would need to wait until he had gained a level in the class, but this was an even better wake up surprise. The next set of notifications was a little more troubling.
*You have lost some bonuses due to your base stats changing.
Base stats of Vitality and Resilience have been added together
Percentage boost from Resilience halved, due to adjusting titles.*
*Titles adjusted:
Against the Strong - Lost 2 stat points in resilience when facing a boss monster
Built to last - Lost 3 stat points and 8% stat boost in resilience
First Titled - Lost 1 stat point in resilience.*
Owen was a little bit miffed at having lost value when adding his stats together, but there had still been some benefit. His whole body seemed to give off a pressure and looking at the system menu, that he had looked at less and less frequently, he could see some real benefits there.
*You have 10,050 out of 10,050 health points. You have 6300 out of 6300 mana points.*
He had not only gotten his base stats worth of health points, but it had added an additional 50% increase to into amount received from his stats. Grinning wide, he tried checking to see if there had been any other drastic changes, but other than the notifications he had already seen there wasn't anything else. He ended up deciding to finish his morning routine anyways, and quickly left him room to go see what everyone was up too.
As he walked towards the area that both Lucas and Briar normally trained, there was a part of him that was sad. He knew there was less than a full day until he was set to return to earth and he would miss having Xerxes's company and the answers he could provide as well. But most of all, he would miss the relaxation that he had experienced while focusing on training and being able to speak with both Myra and Peggy through the messaging device.
He had mostly tried to ignore the fact that the earth they returned to would look extremely different to the one they had left. There would be things to do as they would try and get settled and there were dozens of people that would end up expecting their help for different things. It was a bittersweet feeling, but he was looking forward to it. As he walked through the school grounds he tried to think of what all he felt like he needed to get done while here, but everything that had been on his list was mostly covered.
The only thing he still wanted was to bring home the training gauntlet and he hoped that Xerxes would be okay with it, but he had achieved everything he had wanted to during this month and there was a deep sense of satisfaction that rolled through him that seemed to resonate with his new class. When he finally found everyone else he had to hold back a twinge of jealousy, as Xerxes rather than an echo, was sparring with both Lucas and Briar at the same time.
Each movement was masterfully done and even with all of his increased training, he knew as much as he could appreciate the level of skill being displayed, there were aspects to it that he couldn't see. Xerxes seemed to notice Owen's arrival and rather than pausing, redirected an attack of Briar's towards him. Owen had to dodge and he got a glint in his eyes, before he rushed forward and began to participate win the fight as well.
Xerxes movements were a blur and it took everything Owen had to not immediately activate his boosting skill. He had to spend time dodging both Xerxes attacks, but also redirected blows from his teammates as well. Owen eventually had to activate his boosting skill at a low burn to be able to keep up with Xerxes movements, but just as soon as he had activated the skill, Xerxes seemed to get faster by just as much as Owen had.
As they kept sparring, Lucas and Briar were slowly pushed out of the fight as each blow from Owen would've been enough to knock them out and he didn't have the control to keep up and hold back any of his attacks. He still hadn't switched to a weapon and Xerxes hadn't used one yet either, but as soon as Owen's bracers changed into the form of a sword, Xerxes's hand shot out and Owen felt foreign mana fill the bracers, forcing them back into their base form.
A grin split Xerxes's face as he began to push Owen even harder. He had long since reached the limit of his boosting skill and despite his best attempts, he couldn't create an opening. So, he decided he would go with a different tactic, channeling mana and affinity together while trying to keep up with Xerxes pace was impossible, but a quick assist from Briar, allowed Owen a free moments to create the marble, before purifying it almost instantly. Even Owen was surprised at the speed and a dark cloud of mist filled the air, but rather than be able to use it to his advantage, Owen was blinded too.
He had hoped his farseeing skill would allow him to see though the cloud of smoke, but it didn't react at all. Sighing Owen took up a defensive position as in the next moment, wind had blasted through the area, pushing the cloud of darkness out and into the sky. Xerxes was sitting down in the middle of the courtyard smiling and started to clap. "That was excellent, if you had better knowledge of your skills, I am sure you could've found a way to find an opening, but it doesn't look like that will be today." Xerxes gestured for each of them to come closer and three wrapped gifts appeared in Xerxes stretched out hands.
"I have already given you guys some gifts, but the system will only allow you to bring back one to earth. It also needs to be low enough quality that it doesn't get refused during the teleportation." Xerxes looked between them all with a warm smile on his face. "This has been the most fun I have had in a long time. You are all wonderful students and I wish you both luck in the future." Xerxes said, as he turned towards both Briar and Owen, giving them both a small bow. "And my student, I know you think my attention towards you in the past month has been less than what you hoped for, but trust me. You will have many more opportunities to meet with me, they will not."
A bittersweet smiled was on Xerxes face as he ruffled Lucas's hair. "Keep him safe you two, and don't let him slack off too much. Otherwise, the next time he is here, I don't think he will want to be an heir any longer." He said wagging a finger. Lucas rolled his eyes, but he looked happy. Xerxes handed each of them their gifts, he had been levitating. Owen waited and watched as the other's opened their gifts. Briar had been given a seed that Owen didn't see the purpose of even after using his keen eye ability, though Briar seemed grateful.
*Sacred Seed is an item made for monsters.*
Lucas's gift was one Owen was surprisingly familiar with, it was a large spear. The spearhead was made out of a damascus and had a heavily engraved handle, though the designs weren't exactly how he remembered and he stared at a version of the spear he used to wield.
*Piercing Heavens. This spear is a replica of the original Piercing Heavens. This weapon is the embodiment of striving towards the top and defeating impossible foes. This weapon has been modified to suit the uses of one following the Jeweled Monkey Emperor's Path.*
Owen stared in awe and he looked down to his own wrapped gift. He gently undid the paper wrap and pulled a high quality wooden case from the wrapping. Gingerly opening the lid he stared in wide eyes at the item nestled into the box.
*Superior Protean Armaments: This item has been heavily modified to suit the needs of Owen Cain. Binding this armament to see more information.*
Owen looked up and Xerxes who nodded, before infusing his mana into the gift of new bracers. The information in the system message immediately changed and Owen's eyes opened wide. He wasn't even sure how it was possible, but Xerxes had managed to make the bracers suit his secondary class despite only having had it for a couples hours.
*Superior Protean Armaments: These bracers have twelve different weapon forms to choose from. While in weapon form, grants boosts to damage by 10% and when in bracer form, boosts resources by 10%.
When using these bracers, if the user follows the Covetous Wielder of Chaos Path, Chaos will be able to be infused into the weapon form of the bracers.*
Owen just stared for a moment before pulling Xerxes into a hug. He had felt for a moment, his mentor thinking about dodging out of the way, but he froze as Owen gave him a bear hug. "Thank you for everything. Hopefully you are wrong and this won't be the last time I see you in person." Xerxes smiled and reciprocated the hug. Less than a second passed, before Lucas joined in the hug, quickly followed by Briar.
They spent the rest of the day relaxing and sharing stories of how the last month had gone for them. Spending the last day just enjoying each other's company before the world had a chance to get hectic for them all again.