"I'm so proud of you!" Blaine hugged Caeden and Lily. Pulling away before they could process the fact that their mentor had returned out of the blue after no one from the town had known where he was the entire time they were underground, they stared at him. "Caeden, never do something that reckless again. I have a rough idea of what you did, and it was irresponsible, and you're lucky to be alive."
He bore down on his pupil with a stern look that didn't fit his normal demeanor. In fact, Caeden had never seen him act like this. Either the hugging or the condemnation. Blaine was all about praise and positive reinforcement.
"I'm sorry; I think we're all a little confused about what's going on. Where have you been? We assumed that you went back to town after we fell." Caeden asked.
"No, no. I was holding the whole damn mountain up. Also, I watched everything you kids did down there. I'm so damn proud. Those were impossible circumstances, and you all managed to not just survive but advance farther than I ever expected. Speaking of which."
He whirled to face Erik. "You have no idea how much your Incarnation means."
"Sauma? What about her?" Erik asked.
"Your Incarnation is a sentient creature type, the most coveted of all Incarnation types. Compare that to Caeden's object hive type incarnation, which is one of the most common varieties. Your Sauma is going to be orders of magnitude more powerful, with much greater versatility. Not to mention the fact that she's fully intelligent. Caeden's Toolset can understand basic commands but can't act as an independent intellect." Blaine explained.
Erik shrugged. "We figured out she was stronger than Caeden's."
Blaine shook his head. "I don't think you understand. This is a monumental shift. Incarnations are static, unchanging. What you get is what you'll always have. Genuinely, what your Incarnation and Embodiment are goes much farther in determining how far you can advance as a shrouded than any other single factor."
"Wait, then what does that mean for me?" Caeden asked. As Erik had said, he realized Sauma was much stronger than Toolset, but he had no idea there was some kind of hierarchy or that his Incarnation was near the bottom.
Blaine waved off his concern. "You don't need to worry so much. You're dual-shrouded, with another Incarnation yet to appear. If both of your Incarnations end up being terrible, that would be something to worry about, but not awful. Besides, we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Most shrouded only achieve Nascent Shroud after decades of work. Since you and Erik have already reached that level, you're much ahead of the curve. Plus, your Embodiment is in a similar situation. If that ends up being on the higher end, no one will look down on your weaker Incarnation. No one expects to gain both a powerful Incarnation and Embodiment. Plus, there are other paths to power, like Ki or simply becoming highly capable with aura and infusion."
"Well… That's good? I guess?" Caeden still wasn't sure how he felt about this. It seemed they were being introduced to a whole new spectrum of power. Originally, they had been told that simply reaching Nascent Shroud was a sign of power. Now it sounded like reaching that point was just the beginning and that there was another hierarchy once you got there. One that Caeden was at the bottom of.
"I wouldn't say it's good, but it's not bad," Blaine said. "Just focus on continuing down the path you're already walking. Incarnations can't be controlled; they simply are what they are. You'll get whatever you get. Learn to maximize the use of what you have and work to shore up any weaknesses that form. That's the best path forward."
This was a common point Blaine touched on whenever he was instructing Caeden and Lily. To the point that it acted as the Swordmaster's personal philosophy. He constantly lectured on the importance of maximizing what you had and forming counters for your weaknesses. According to Blaine, this was the fool-proof path to success.
"Take me, for example." Blaine wasn't done. "My Incarnation is an object enhancement type, and my Embodiment is only a 10,000 IP monster. Both are very weak by any standard. So I focused on furthering my swordsmanship, taking it to the limit. Now I'm a respected warrior across the Starry Sea. No matter what anyone might tell you, Incarnation and Embodiment aren't everything."
"I'll take your word for it. The hierarchy shouldn't apply to us for a while." Caeden shrugged. As far as he knew, only he and Erik had reached Nascent Shroud. He could worry about how his Incarnation stacked up when there were more Incarnations to stack up against. "Now, what did you say about holding up the mountain?"
"Oh, that." Blaine laughed.
"Yes, that." Caeden sighed. That level of flippant disregard was more in line with the Blaine he knew.
"Well, I didn't know it at the time, but the earthquake that dropped you all was caused by the Heartstone's Ki absorption causing structural instability in the mountain. Under normal circumstances, that wouldn't matter, as a Heartstone's resurrection effect usually only takes a month to trigger. Building a town in a Magma Titan's corpse is something I've never even heard of."
"Anyway, I stopped the collapse by shoving swords into the most stable sections of rock I could find and held the mountain up. Or, more accurately, I held it in place. The only place I missed was the one beneath our feet because I was more concerned with keeping the inhabited sections up. Sorry about that." Blaine sounded genuinely upset that he hadn't caught them.
"It's alright. We managed on our own." Caeden assured him.
"Yeah, no need to worry about us," Erik added.
"I appreciate that, but this type of situation is why we send teachers with each group of students. We expect you all to exceed your limits, but groups quite often run into things you couldn't possibly handle. At that point, throwing you into a problem you never had a chance to solve isn't a learning experience; it's asking you to die a pointless death. We teachers are supposed to handle the things you can't so that you can deal with what you can. I failed in that. And I'm so proud of you all for overcoming it anyway." He smiled widely at them.
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"Thanks. You were telling us about the mountain collapsing." Caeden tried to politely keep their scatter-brained teacher on topic.
"Right, right. Once you sealed the Heartstone, the Ki disruption disappeared, stabilizing the4 mountain again. So I could set it back in place, though that process took several hours. That's why it took me so long to get back." Blaine finished his explanation.
"We're glad you're here. Honestly, none of us were sure about what to do. Do we go talk to Captain Saorise, or who are we supposed to inform about all this? We learned some things about Revolution activity that could be important; we're not sure." Caeden asked.
"If you're talking about the resource mining operation they had down below, don't worry about it. The CA knows they have these little spots set up across the continents, but they're tiny compared to the amount of ether mined across all the territories the Central Authority holds. It's not a concern." Blaine assured.
"Ok, but that was only part of it." Caeden almost felt the frustration rolling off Lily at the continual dismissal of the Revolution as a threat. He was hoping that Blaine would take the next piece of information more seriously. "You said you were watching us. Did you notice the sword?"
"Sword? What sword?" Blaine looked as confused as he sounded.
"The object sealing the Heartstone. It was shaped like a sword.
"Oh." His expression grew far more serious. "I couldn't observe the seal with my aura, but yes, I was aware of it."
"Well, the reason the Heartstone started to awaken was because the Revolution pulled it halfway out. They exposed and removed the energy-dense core, a technique I've seen used to reverse-engineer infusions." Caeden stated plainly, letting his teacher make the connections.
"Oh. Oh. Ooooh. No, that's bad. Actually, that's really bad." Blaine's face shifted into a stern frown. "I'll handle this; thank you for letting me know. I'll get that information to Samantha immediately. She'll kick it up the chain. In the meantime, you all just need to focus on completing the task you were originally here to do. Namely, hunting and killing all nearby monsters. This Revolution business is none of your concern. Let the military handle it." Blaine nodded sharply before nearly flying out of the room. Apparently, this was serious enough to warrant some enhanced speed.
"Well," Lily sighed, her annoyance bleeding through. "At least they're taking this seriously."
{}
Two weeks. That was how long it took them to deal with the local monster population. Half that time was spent out in the forested valleys near Mining Station 003. As the mayor had told them, three villages were situated in these low-lying areas, providing valuable foodstuffs for the large mining town. Each one was agricultural, with minor logging used mainly for firewood and construction. They were small affairs, with barely over a hundred people.
Despite the lack of manpower, these villages ended up being food-producing powerhouses. The easy access to ether flowing from the mines of Black Reach meant more sophisticated, infused farming equipment similar to what Caeden once made. That meant their crops took less time to grow, were more bountiful, and more nutritious than most. The more nutritious crops meant that cattle raised on it were likewise more nutritious and prolific.
The villages took up only a small portion of each valley they occupied, but produced enough grain, meat, and vegetables to sustain themselves and almost half the needs of the mining town they centered around. Mining Station 003 still had to import food, but that just meant the etherships docking to pick up loads of valuable ether had some cargo to drop off. It meant more profit for the shipping companies, which kept everyone happy.
The monsters that formed out in the distant corners of the valleys differed from those they had faced and formed trusted strategies for in the mountain depths. This was sometimes frustrating, as they had to deal with a completely new annoyance, but the general consensus among the team was that the new monsters were a nice change of pace.
That sentiment set the tone for the entire first week of monster hunting. It was refreshing, being outside under the shade of brilliantly green foliage, basking in the Pillar light that filtered down to the forest floor. Compared to the tunnels' dark and sometimes cramped confines, it was paradise. It almost entirely made up for the hordes of murderous monsters they fought daily.
Despite that annoyance, the week in the valleys was a relaxing vacation after their somewhat desperate week underground, and especially after the couple hours of endless combat that punctuated the finale. It gave each of them time to process everything that happened and enjoy each other's company without the looming threat of being trapped underground with no obvious escape.
Caeden and Lily worked to figure out what being in a romantic relationship meant to them, which was more awkward than anything else. Despite that, solidifying where they stood with each other made every moment together more enjoyable, even if they had no idea what they were doing.
Meanwhile, Cat and Erik looked on with amusement and frustration. Both thought that their friends' first relationship stumbling baby steps were hilarious, and they constantly made jokes at the two's expense. However, neither of them were able to find any companionship of their own, as continentals and unshrouded were generally much more conservative than shrouded.
Though the experience was more frustrating for Cat, the native islander, than Erik. He was used to the close-knit, small-town wariness these villages had for outsiders. Most of his experience came from traveling with his parents as doctors to various cities, where things were a bit more open. There, he was an interesting and mysterious out-of-towner to the bored young ladies looking to have some fun with someone who wouldn't end up meeting their parents.
The next week saw them traveling back underground. They had to clear out the remnants of all the monsters brought about by the Heartstone awakening. Needless to say, none of them were excited to spend any more time down in the tunnels, but that discomfort was lightened somewhat by their ability to end the day with a good meal and a warm shower back at the hotel. None of them wanted a repeat of their week roughing it underground.
Finally, at the end of the second week, Blaine informed them that they had cleared out every monster he could sense inside their designated zone. He also commended them for doing so with a great deal of skill and speed. In fact, they had finished before any other student group currently on the continent. Despite losing a week to their fall, they had managed to make up for that with their group's overwhelming power.
That led to a decision. They were free to do whatever they wanted until Captain Saorise recalled all the student teams. That would happen when the last group was done or the two-month time limit ran out in roughly five weeks. They could stay at Mining Station 003 and relax, go back to the Turtle Fortress and wait for the other teams to finish, or do something else entirely.
They opted for the latter. Instead of sitting around at any given location, the team decided that some sightseeing was in order. They had an entire continent to explore, where the most powerful monsters couldn't hope to withstand them as a group, half-dead and sealed Magma Titans being the exception. So they cruised around in their ether skiff, traveling far and wide to various towns and the couple of other cities the continent had to offer. Sometimes they ran into other teams of students, with a variety of responses. Mostly jealousy.
Whenever they felt like it, and to continue training, they would stop in an uninhabited section of land where no students had been issued and hunt down monsters for a day. Somehow, that developed into just another aspect of their continent-wide tour. They ate local delicacies, some of which they liked, heard the local legends, all of which were fun, and generally had a good time.
Two weeks later, they got the call. It was time to leave.