Wolfram
World Guardian initiated combat, but in a way different from what Wolfram had expected. He didn’t charge at Isaiah with his sword. And he didn’t use telekinesis to control the sword to attack. In fact, he didn’t use his sword at all. Instead, he released some kind of domain ability which suppressed Isaiah’s Laws and used telekinesis to fly away.
Isaiah immediately started to chase, using his nearly mastered Tempest Steps skill to run on the air like it was solid ground. And, though Wolfram couldn’t see the purple scales appearing under his apprentice’s new green outfit, from the way Isaiah quickly increased in speed it was obvious he’d activated his Dragon Drive skill.
When he got close to World Guardian, however, the man disappeared with some kind of spacetime teleport, reappearing on the other side of the training room, and, at the same time, Isaiah staggered a bit before recovering and continuing the chase.
In the area of his aura, World Guardian had somehow created five runic arrays in the time it took for Isaiah to chase up to him, one for casting a spacetime teleport and four for creating some kind of mental shock.
Then, as Isaiah appeared to activate an extra boosting skill Wolfram had never seen before, likely from his new armor, his apprentice sped up even further and World Guardian was forced to again teleport.
Instead of mental shock arrays this time, however, four arrays which seemed to create a mental suppression effect were created and activated instead, worsening the control Isaiah had over his Laws even more than the suppression of World Guardian’s aura skill.
The pattern then appeared five more times, but the suppression arrays didn’t fade after activation, more and more accumulating until there were fifteen activated at once. Isaiah, however, was getting more used to the mental suppression and fighting within World Guardian’s aura—and he was growing more comfortable with the boost provided by his new armor as well, adjusting the way he moved to match—so he was actually getting closer each time.
Then, after the seventh teleport, Isaiah actually caught up to World Guardian and managed to engage him in close combat. To Wolfram’s surprise, however, the sword in World Guardian’s right hand wasn’t just decoration and he was actually able to defend himself from Isaiah for three moves before managing to teleport again.
It was odd. World Guardian, as far as Wolfram could see, only had four skills useful for combat, a very high grade version of Telekinesis, a powerful aura skill Wolfram had never heard of, what seemed to be a very high grade version of Runescriber, and a powerful magic-based defensive skill which gave Wolfram the distinct impression of nobility, maybe a Legendary grade version of Kingly Defense. The youth also seemed far better at multi-tasking than any E rank Wolfram had ever heard of. But, though he primarily seemed to rely on his Magic and Spirit stats, his effective physical stats were significantly stronger than either of them, all well over 117,000, which was more than 24,000 higher than his effective Spirit.
Granted, these stats were all ridiculous for an E rank, surpassing Isaiah even though all of his apprentice’s base stats had an effectiveness boost of more than 200%, but they didn’t match his skills, and this seemed very odd for an apprentice of the Alchemist of the Deep Woods.
Still, were it not for the artifacts World Guardian had given his apprentice, Wolfram was pretty sure Isaiah wouldn’t have been able to keep up, allowing World Guardian to pummel him with array-based attacks and win within just one or two rounds.
The Bloodforged Living Armor, as expected, was almost certainly Fabled grade, and deserving of being the best possible grade of equipment for E ranks. The boost it provided to his apprentice’s physical stats seemed just as high as Dragon Drive, but, unlike that skill, it didn’t drain lifeforce to maintain its effect. In fact, from what Wolfram could sense, wearing the armor seemed to boost Isaiah’s already ridiculously powerful self healing, greatly lessening the energy strain Dragon Drive normally caused. Add to this the ridiculously high defense and self repair function bloodforged living armors were famous for and the armor was truly the best E rank artifact Wolfram had ever seen.
More surprising, however, were the artifacts World Guardian had seemingly made fully by himself. While simple, both the spear and shield were Heroic grade artifacts, and that sword World Guardian was wielding seemed at least Heroic grade as well just from its level of sharpness. And World Guardian hadn’t even used the glove on his left hand.
For someone who was obviously a crafter and a lord, World Guardian was extremely powerful, but not to the degree his apprentice’s fear of not being able to keep up had implied.
As the fight continued, however, Wolfram noticed a couple more things.
First, it was quite obvious World Guardian was aware of Isaiah’s skills. Given Isaiah’s Advanced Kinetic Senses, telekinetically controlled weapons wouldn’t have the same ability to attack from blindspots as normal, and, given Isaiah’s ridiculous self healing and defensive capabilities, World Guardian wouldn’t be able to give Isaiah any significant wounds using telekinesis unless he relied on at least Heroic grade weapons, of which he seemed to only have the purple sword.
More important, however, whenever the two did engage in close combat, Wolfram noticed Isaiah wasn’t using feints at all. In general, Isaiah was a very straightforward combatant, so this wasn’t inherently odd, but the fact he never tried once even after more than 20 exchanges led Wolfram to realize his apprentice was absolutely sure such tactics wouldn’t work. And this implied World Guardian also had a very high grade sensing skill.
What truly shocked Wolfram, however, was when he finally figured out what Laws World Guardian was using to be so fast even without a dedicated movement skill, Isaiah having to boost himself to keep up despite Tempest Steps. There were bloody six of them! The Law of Passion to allow for more Laws to be controlled at once, the Law of Tranquility to allow for full control over those Laws, and the Laws of Inertia, Kinetic Energy, Multi-Dimensional Geometry, and Temporal Relativity to allow for extreme speed.
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And all of these Laws were middle grade Law Pupae.
“So, what’s your judgement?”
Wolfram almost jumped out of his skin as he suddenly realized someone was standing next to him, and, given it was the second time he’d been surprised that day, for a second he thought something was wrong with him. But then he realized it was the Alchemist of the Deep Woods herself, having almost certainly entered in a stealth state so as to not disrupt the combatants, and he felt a bit better.
“Very high stats, decent bladework, exceptional multi-tasking to the point it seems impossible, and the best runework I’ve ever seen in an E rank. But what’s most impressive is his exceptional Law control. He seems oddly imbalanced, however, focusing on Magic and Spirit despite his build granting his physical stats a much higher boost.” Given his role as one of the guard captains of the Forest Cauldron, Wolfram knew the force leader liked open and honest answers to her questions, so he didn’t hesitate to say what he thought.
“Mhh.” The force leader nodded. “That’s entirely from a racial ability which will evolve to boost Magic and Spirit as well, so don’t worry about it. What about his battle prowess, especially ways he could improve?”
Wolfram took a second to absorb the new information and recontextualize, realizing World Guardian likely had a racial ability almost as overpowered as Isaiah’s Power of Balance. “First, his bladework has noticeable flaws and it doesn’t seem he is that familiar with the weapon he is using. From his movements, it almost seems like he was given fundamental lessons in using a hand and a half sword and then forced to fight with multiple weapons in many, many duels without having a teacher to help correct his mistakes.
“His control over his energy, however, is absolutely amazing, so his deficiencies in this department could be easily fixed.
“Second, he’s obviously a crafter, yet in this fight at least he’s not making use of that fact. His Telekinesis skill seems very high grade, but he’s only using it to help with his movement. Give him a few high grade flying weapons and he’d be far, far more powerful.
“Finally, he is really missing a movement skill. He’s combined four speed-based Laws, all of which are one level higher than Isaiah’s single speed Law, and his effective Agility and Spirit are roughly double Isaiah’s, yet he’s losing in speed.”
“Yeah.” The force leader smiled as she continued watching the fight. “That’s about what I think as well.”
Then she raised her voice a bit. “Is it okay if I share some of your details so your friend’s master here could help you train as well?”
“Sure.” World Guardian didn’t falter a bit at the force leader’s words, but Isaiah did, and Wolfram had the distinct impression the force leader had done nothing to make herself more noticeable to her own apprentice. His sensory skill was just better than even Wolfram’s own.
“Well, the movement skill problem will be fixed as he advances and gains a couple more classes. He’ll be aiming for something in the elemental steps line so he can make full use of his Laws.” The force leader’s voice was calm, even while saying something as utterly ridiculous as gaining a ‘couple more’ classes. “And you see that artifact glove on his left hand? It’s still F rank and is designed to give him a set of weapons to control with telekinesis while also making it easier for him to draw runic arrays. He’s thinking about redesigning it slightly as he upgrades it to E rank, so that’s part of why he’s doing this testing.”
The force leader turned to smile at him, the expression warm. “As for his mediocre bladework, you’re absolutely right. I did exactly what you said to help him improve his energy control and base combat experience. It will be up to you and your apprentice to fix his shortcomings in this area.” She placed a hand on Wolfram’s shoulder and squeezed slightly in a way which made him feel encouraged. “Be strict with him, and try not to be overawed as you learn more about him. He’ll respect you more that way and you’ll benefit as a result.
“I expect a lot from you, Mr. Gan.”
With that, the Alchemist of the Deep Woods just disappeared and Wolfram didn’t even sense her move, even though he was pretty sure she hadn’t used a single skill.
The difference between C and A rank was just that huge.
At the same time, Isaiah finally managed to disrupt one of World Guardian’s teleportation arrays before it could activate, forcing World Guardian into actual close combat, and World Guardian was quickly stabbed through the gut by Isaiah’s spear, Isaiah’s Blazing Destruction Law completely tearing through his insides due to the effects of Advanced Power Attack.
As Isaiah retracted his weapon, however, the room immediately healed the wound and both young men flew down to the ground.
“This armor is absolutely amazing.” Isaiah quickly spoke, sounding emotional as the mask and hood of his armor merged into the battle clothes. “Thank you so much.”
“No problem.” World Guardian slapped one of Isaiah’s large shoulders. “Do you think the added power is enough to allow you to stop training like a madman and go see my sister more often?”
“Once you finish merging that skill, I won’t be able to help anymore.”
“I highly doubt that.” World Guardian shook his head. “I’ve already almost finished maximizing my stats, while you’ve barely reached two-fifths in yours, yet I still lost today. Don’t underestimate your own power, dude.”
“But you train all the time.”
World Guardian laughed, but it sounded almost like crying. “I have nightmares about the innocent people I slaughtered whenever I close my eyes, Isaiah, so I’m trying to run away from my feelings of guilt by throwing myself into training. It’s not healthy, and one of these days I’m going to break down, but I just don’t know what else to do.
“You are not a mass-murdering war criminal, however, so do what I say and not what I do.
“If you’re really my friend, you’ll help distract my sister so she’ll spend less time worrying about me, giving me one less source of pressure.”
“Oh.” Isaiah, who could sometimes be a bit dense, looked like he realized something, and quickly stopped arguing. “Right.”
World Guardian rolled his eyes and then walked over to Wolfram, reaching out his hand. “I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced. My name is Aalam Alvaro, the Heavenly Spark Soul King, and I’ll be under your care in the future.
“I would very much appreciate it if you could help me make sure your apprentice heads back to our home planet more often, at least once a week.”
As Wolfram shook the young man’s hand he finally realized what the faction head had meant about trying not to be overawed.
Aalam, no His Majesty Aalam Alvaro, had stopped only allowing six of his Laws to be sensed through his aura and Wolfram could now sense the man had 36 Law Pupae in total, 34 of which were already middle grade.
The man in front of him, an E rank, had effectively conquered the Carium Galaxy Cluster, and no one had yet tried to take his Territory away as the benefits of having him as the lord were just too high, granting a boost to affinity with all Laws by a full 25% even for most C ranks, meaning the affinities of the E rank youth in front of him were amazingly high.
When the force leader had talked about gaining benefits, it wasn’t political power within the Forest Cauldron. It was about ease of advancement.
Wolfram felt his heart start to race, but then he remembered what the force leader had said and he resolved himself not to treat his Majesty, no Aalam, any different than he would his own apprentice. In fact, given their potential, he was going to be even harder on both of them.