Reivyn threw his weight back and drove his feet into the ground to maintain his balance. Even though the soul entity was ethereal and could pass through solid objects, roping it with Mana still required him to exert both mental and physical force to keep it from pouncing on Kefira.
He couldn't allow her to be distracted. Her job was incredibly important, as she was the key to keeping this thing from growing more powerful. Until the breach was closed, the soul ghost would continue to grow stronger and stronger. Several more sparks had already come out of the space crack and merged with the monster.
Reivyn struggled to keep the soul monster in place, but he could feel the power ticking up slightly for each new spark that merged into it. He could hear other people shouting in the distance, and he knew more people were on the way. Kayzor had already called for them to get all the Mages down here, and someone had already relayed that information up top with their communication device.
Another rope of Mana sprang up next to him, and Kayzor stepped up to help assist him in holding the creature back. The combined might of Kayzor's assistance allowed them to slowly drag it away from Kefira. They dragged it back further and further, but the pace they were moving was slowing down as the phantom continued to strengthen.
"We have to get it away from Kefira," Reivyn panted. "I don't know how it chooses targets, but it's fixated on her right now."
"Don't you think I noticed that?!" Kayzor yelled.
Serilla stood next to Kefira with her hand on her sword hilt, ready to draw it but with a look of uncertainty on her face. More of the adventurers ran over, and one of them rushed forward to try and attack the soul entity with a Skill. His weapon simply passed through the shining blob without even slowing down. A look of surprise flashed across his face right before the soul entity jabbed a tendril into his body.
The adventurer's body locked up as he dropped his weapons and fell to his knees, letting out a horrendous shriek of agony. The entity almost immediately removed its tendril, almost like it was disgusted by what it had touched. The man collapsed to the ground, twitching and foaming at the mouth.
"All of you get back! Only those of you who can utilize your Mana can affect it," Kayzor Commanded.
The rest of the Adventurers retreated while several stepped forward next to Reivyn and Kayzor. They brought out their Mana with their Mana Manipulation Skills, but it was clear to Reivyn that they had not spent nearly enough time on the Skill in order to be anywhere near effective with it. The Mana threads looked like limp noodles to Reivyn's eyes. Every little bit would help, though, and if their threads didn't snap, they would be able to use their physical strength to further restrain the monster.
The three Mages that had originally come down with Reivyn's group finally made it over, having a much slower running speed than their more physical counterparts. They launched several Spells at the restrained soul beast. One Spell exploded on contact, and the other two Spells pierced into the blob. After the explosion cleared, though, Reivyn was able to see that it was unharmed.
"I don't think this thing can be killed!" Reivyn yelled. "It's not alive, but it's also not undead. I don't think it has a Health pool."
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Kayzor asked. Even he was beyond his depth in this situation.
"We have to somehow force it back into the void right before Kefira manages to seal it up," Reivyn said. "We have to keep it at bay until the rest of the Mages can get here. How many Mages did you bring with your army?"
"We have a thousand Mages, but it will take some time for those numbers to get down here safely. Someone relay to the top to scrounge for more ropes to drop down here!"
The three Mages ran over to join Reivyn and the others already wrestling the entity, but they didn't have nearly as much physical strength to add much more to the struggle. Their Mana threads were just more secure than the others. Some of the other adventurers noticed the problem, though, and they ran over to team up with the Mages to help pull them back by grabbing hold of their waists.
The soul entity didn't seem to be doing anything other than trying to get at Kefira. It didn't make any plans or try to use any tactics to accomplish its goal, though. It simply mindlessly pulled against the restraints. It made sense to Reivyn, though, as it wasn't alive. It didn't have a brain or any other way to think. It was simply acting on instinct.
I wish I knew what the driving instinct for this thing was, though, Reivyn thought.
They finally pulled the beast further away from Kefira, and it was now closer to Reivyn than her. As soon as it crossed some invisible threshold, it seemed to lose all interest in Kefira, and it reversed direction, plunging straight toward Reivyn. The Mana threads held by all of those able to create them instantly went slack, and everyone jumped out of the way to avoid the creature.
A couple of them weren't quick enough, though, and they were brushed by the edges of the blob. The Mage and adventurer that wasn't lucky enough to get away collapsed to the floor, screaming in agony like the first one who had attacked the beast. Even he hadn't recovered and gotten back up, yet, much less these new two new victims.
"Don't let it touch you!" Reivyn yelled. "It sucks your vitality out of you!"
"And if you're too weak, it might swallow your soul!" Kayzor added. Several other people looked over at him in surprise, though Reivyn didn't. He understood what he was talking about. "It passed through me earlier, and it felt like it was trying to yank the very center of my being out of me."
As they were yelling their warnings, they never stopped running. Reivyn quickly realized that the entity was now chasing him, reminding him of his mad dash through the void several months ago. Everyone else scattered out of the way, and Kayzor started rounding them back up to reattach another lasso of Mana around it.
Reivyn ran away from any concentration of other people, and he made sure that it was pulled further away from Kefira. Not only would it be less likely to change targets, but it would take additional sparks more time to reach it to strengthen it.
"I think that if we get it far enough away, the new sparks won't be able to find it right away and merge with it, causing it to not grow any stronger!" Reivyn called out as he kept moving away from the space fissure.
"Then what about all the new sparks that come in after?" Kayzor questioned. "Won't they merge together and make a second one?"
"Maybe, but I think we have enough time for that. This space fissure has been open for over a day, and it just now got powerful enough to create this thing. I think the fact that it was growing stronger was also the cause for the acceleration of the sparks flying in here. If we keep it away, the rate should slow back down again, and then we'll have another day and a half or so before we have to worry about a second entity."
"Alright, I'll trust you on that. With the number of Mages we have available, it shouldn't be too much of a problem if we can just wait until they get here."
Not having Reivyn available as assistance in holding the creature at bay was a huge detriment to their efforts. They weren't able to stop it from chasing after Reivyn, but they did keep it slow enough that Reivyn could leisurely stay away from it after he had calmed down from the initial dash to keep away from it.
He kept jogging at a consistent pace, heading for the opposite side near the ropes but along the outer ring of the giant circle. Word was sent ahead to the Mages on their way on where to go to intercept them, and the group of people holding the Mana leashes were pulled behind the entity like they were playing a losing game of tug-of-war.
They weren't able to maintain their strength forever, though, and Reivyn noticed that he had to gradually pick up his speed in order to maintain the distance between him and the soul beast. Luckily, the additional Mages coming from up top finally started to trickle down, and they were able to add their strength to keep the soul monster held in place.
Reivyn bent over to gasp for breath as he was finally able to stop running. It wasn't that he was tired, but the ordeal had been so sudden and chaotic. It was more about getting his heartbeat under control and breathing deeply helped with that.
Kayzor managed the new Mages coming over to take over holding the beast in place, and Reivyn was apprehensive about moving from his spot. He didn't know what it would do if it lost its current target, and it was still trying to get at him with all its might. They had dragged it far enough way, though, that he didn't see any additional sparks floating over to strengthen it further.
"We should send someone over to ask Kefira if she can sense whether or not the rate of the sparks entering the Realm has slowed down or not to verify our prediction," Reivyn called out to Kayzor.
"On it," he replied. "We'll get some of the other Mages to go over and try and assist her as well. We don't have any other Mages that specialize in Space Mana, but we do have some that have tangential talents in them. It should help a bit."
Speaking of tangential talents, Reivyn thought, eyeing the blinking light of his Notifications. He brought it up and inspected the new message.
New Affinity Unlocked!
Tier 4:
Traveler (0 ->1)
That's interesting, Reivyn mused. It's the first time I've unlocked an Affinity while not actively circulating my Mana. It must have had something to do with not only the circumstances but the fact that I had my Mana melded with Kefira's.
It wasn't the Space Affinity, but neither was Eternal the Time Affinity. They were tangential branch Affinities, fractions of the whole.
Just the fact that I was able to unlock anything related to Space at all, considering I already had one for Time, is a surprise. I know I'm talented, but there seems to be something else other than talent that acts as a gatekeeper for getting both kinds of Affinities at the same time. I'll let Kefira know that her efforts in showing me the space fissure through her Mana didn't go to waste.
"Do you know why it came after you and Kefira?" Kayzor asked, walking up to Reivyn after he had gotten everything else settled.
"Not exactly, but their nature might have something to do with it," Reivyn said. "They're souls, and they must be attracted to powerful souls. I don't know what they want from them, but I've experienced the same thing you did about it feeling like your very being was trying to be ripped from you."
"Powerful souls... hmm," Kayzor stroked his chin in thought. "I guess I can see that. It's said that the strength of one's soul directly correlates to how talented an individual is, so it makes sense that it would go after Kefira and then you, someone who might be close to as talented as she is, considering the things I've heard."
"Uh huh," Reivyn said, eying Kefira's older brother. "And what things have you heard?"
"Hmm? Oh, just that you were given special admission to the Magic Academy in the Wispan Capital based on Kefira's recommendation. I've also seen the strength of your Mana, and I have a good eye for how strong you are based on how you move and hold yourself. All those things added together, with your age, leads me to believe you're quite talented yourself.
"Don't get me wrong, saying you're almost as talented as Kefira is high praise. She's the most talented person we've had in our empire for thousands of years, maybe ever, considering..." Kayzor paused and eyed Reivyn up and down for a second.
"Considering her unique Affinities?" Reivyn ventured.
"So you know. I guess you are more than a passing fancy for her, then, if she trusts you with that information."
"More than a passing fancy, huh? Yeah, I'd say we're beyond that at this stage."
"I'm not someone who thinks that nobody is good enough for my sister, but I justifiably believe there are very few. You'll have to show me more than what you already have if you want me on your side when it comes to my parents and older siblings."
"Everything will reveal itself in due time," Reivyn confidently stated. "I will say, though..." He paused and looked at Kayzor out of the corner of his eye for dramatic effect. "I'm currently only Tier 2."
Kayzor frowned for a second at the statement before his eyes widened in comprehension.
It's good to talk to smart people, Reivyn mentally chuckled. A superficial person would hold that against me, but someone who knows what's what would understand what that means for my potential.
"Well... That's definitely something to consider," Kayzor said. "Better not let my parents hear about that without the right context, though, or you'll never even be given the chance to meet them and explain. If they hear from someone that Kefira's been gallivanting about with a Tier 2 captain from a Tier 3 Region, they'll assume you're some dandy noble who hasn't put in any effort to your own growth, and that you've tricked their darling little girl."
"Yeah, I can see that," Reivyn chuckled. "Does that mean you're not going to send a message ahead, saying exactly that?"
"We'll see," Kayzor said. "I still need to gauge your character. From what little I saw of Kefira interacting with you just now, she seemed perfectly at ease and happy with you. There has to be a reason behind that, and I'm gracious enough to give you the opportunity to convince me.
"But, as I said, that's just for getting me on your side. You'll still have an uphill battle with my mother no matter who you are. You could be an Ascended Being descended back down to the Realm, and she would still make things hard for you. Kefira's her baby girl, you know."
"Well, I can think of a solution to that right now," Reivyn winked. "She just needs to have another baby. Give Kefira a little brother or sister, and the doting mom's attention will be distracted. Don't you think?"
Kayzor stared at Reivyn for a second before throwing his head back and laughing.
"Hahaha. You really know what to say, huh?" Kayzor clapped Reivyn on the shoulder. "Don't let my mom hear you talk like that, though. In fact, don't let Kefira or Serilla hear you say that either. Kefira likes being the baby of the family."
"Sure, sure." Reivyn scratched the back of his head.
"Alright, I'm going to go back over to the space crack and see what needs to be taken care of over there. I'll come back over here to get you guys and let you know when we're ready to try and force that soul creature back into the void."
"Sounds good. I think we're just going to have to wrap it up in a Mana cocoon and force it back through the channel. I don't foresee it being an easy job."
Kayzor nodded his head and then jogged off back to the space fissure.
Reivyn remained in place with nothing to do. There were still more Mages showing up to take a spot in helping hold the soul entity in place, and there were enough of them now that they were able to comfortably switch out to allow each other some rest.
Reivyn turned his attention back to his Notifications.
Combat Initiated
Enemies Defeated
Exp +224
Exp +224
Exp +224
...
Exp +224 x712
Combat Resolved
Calculating
Large Scale Beast Tide
Exp +1,020
Leadership Role
Bonus Experience for Leadership Role: 15%
Exp +6,000
Total Experience: 167,180
Level Up! Level 35
...
Level Up! Level 50
Experience: 2,311/13,000
Achievement!
Be tangentially involved in a conflict with an entity 5 Tiers above you
Luck +2
Wow, just from watching the struggle of subduing the Spider Matriarch, the entire Battalion got a bonus to Luck, Reivyn was shocked. If they didn't have it before, then the entire Battalion has it now unlocked. At least I'm guessing. I got +2 Luck for a 5 Tier difference, and the battalion soldiers are a 4 Tier difference.
I wonder what the rewards Aeriella and the soldiers that actually fought for her were.
Reivyn hadn't viewed his Skill Level Ups in a while, so he pulled those up while he was thinking about it.
Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Aim (30 ->32)
Athleticism (48 ->49)
Balance (48 ->49)
Heavy Armor (22 ->24)
Hiding (33 ->35)
Map Making (23 ->26)
Map Reading (15 ->22)
Marching (22 ->25)
Observation (47 ->50)
Running (45 ->48)
Sneaking (31 ->32)
Tier 2:
Ambidexterity (19 ->21)
Camouflage (1 ->13)
Gab (9 ->13)
Eavesdropping (26 ->28)
Evasion (47 ->49)
Forced March (16 ->19)
Mana Absorption (51 ->52)
Mana Circulation (33 ->37)
Meditation (33 ->35)
Pain Resistance (49 ->50)
Sense Mana (60 ->62)
Silent Step (5 ->11)
Stealth (25 ->26)
Strategy (24 ->26)
Tactics (28 ->30)
Tracking (7 ->18)
Tier 3:
Ambush (1 ->6)
Battlefield Awareness (25 ->38)
Blind Fighting (14 ->20)
Command (30 ->42)
Commanding Shout (18 ->24)
Danger Sense (24 ->25)
Detect Lies/Truth (3 ->7)
Inspire (29 ->38)
Mana Conjuration (40 ->46)
Mana Manipulation (44 ->50)
Mana Shield (30 ->34)
Mana Sight (42 ->51)
Mental Fortitude (45 ->48)
Night Vision (6 ->22)
Sense Threat (8 ->11)
Silver Tongue (6 ->8)
Sure Step (6 ->14)
Tier 4:
Dreams of the Past (15 ->16)
Dual Casting (26 ->39)
Iron Will (21 ->22)
Mana Weapon (33 ->34)
Spatial Awareness (30 ->46)
Tier 5:
Heroic Bearing (10 ->16)
Mana Drain (1 ->4)
Mana Healing (1 ->2)
Mana Reinforcement (1 ->5)
Multi-Casting (1 ->2)
Tier 6:
Weapons Master (65 ->68)
Regeneration (1 ->6)
Tier 6.5:
Divine Sense (1 ->4)
Perfect Domain (1 ->5)
It seems like doing mental maps helps with Map Making. I wonder if getting the little details right in order to be more accurate in such barren locations is what helped me bridge the Level 25 threshold. It also looks like standing in the back of meetings, faded into the background and forgotten, and listening to the people talk helped to Level Up my Eavesdropping Skill. Interestingly enough it seems like simply recalling the Dreams I've had in greater detail has contributed to Leveling Up the Dreams of the Past Skill. I wonder if that will cause me to have more frequent Dreams.
Reivyn dismissed his Skill progress report and brought up his Status Page. Before perusing it, he put his free Stat Points into Strength and Dexterity evenly, like he had been doing the entire time.
Status Name: Reivyn Class: Imperial Liaison: Grand Arcanist Lvl 50
Stolen novel; please report.
Fighter Age: 14 (20) Health: 8,250/8,250 (+310) Stamina: 15,860/15,860 (+410) Mana: 10,255/10,255 (+50) Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 761 (+10) INT: 901 (+4) VIT: 825 (+31) MAG: 1,150 (+6) DEX: 760 (+10) CLA: 758 (+1) CHA: 189 (+1) PER: 757 (+1) LUK: 172 (+1) Bloodline: Lvl 1 Unknown 143,709/10,000,000,000 Experience: 2,311/13,000
His first Stat had finally breached the 1,000-point mark, but that only meant it was half of what his mother's Magic Stat was at.
Considering I'm still 10 Levels shy of Tier 3, I don't think I'm doing half bad. Holding my Level back for so long and forcing the Class transition in Tier 2 was definitely worth it. Speaking of, I need to select my second unlocked Class Skill. I picked Enforce the first time around, thinking it would help me enforce my will upon other Casters to make it easier to capture their Spells, but that's not what it was at all.
Enforce (4): Enforce the commands of the Imperial Princess, Kefira
Yeah, that had been a flop, Reivyn chuckled. I could change it right now, but I think I might actually get some use out of the Skill once we go to Wispan. I don't see any reason to flip-flop my Class Skills about right now, as the conflict is over. If, when we get to Wispan, there isn't an opportunity to show it off, I'll switch it out for one of the other Mana Skills.
Reivyn was confident in his Mana Skills and his abilities to outclass other Caster Classes that weren't within range of Kefira's power level in their age range, but he thought that Enforce might come in handy with dealing with the other young noble scions of the Tier 4 empire.
Let's take a look at the other Class Skills I have available to choose from.
Impart: Delve into the experience of the System granted by your Skill Level, and directly enhance the learning capabilities of a student
That Skill would definitely help me power-Level Kefira's Martial Skills, but I don't have any disciples or students. It might come in handy with training troops under my command, but that's about to be a moot point, too.
Mana Well: Increase your Mana Regeneration by 20%
This Skill is broken, Reivyn thought. If I Level that up until it's a General Skill and it no longer takes a Class Skill slot, then I would basically have infinite Mana eventually. What would happen if I reach Transcendence in this Skill? Would my Mana literally overflow and empower those around me, becoming a literal Mana Well?
He was incredibly tempted to take this Skill, but he wanted to refresh his memory on the last Skill first.
True Mana: Your Mana is laced with the very essence of Reality
That's... not very definitive. I imagine it has a passive effect of coating my Spells with the Veridical Affinity, but I can already do that on my own. It just takes a little bit more concentration. I can see how this would increase one's ability to do so if they didn't have a high enough Skill Level, but then how would they have unlocked the Class necessary to even get the Skill? Maybe there's more to it than I'm thinking, but the System isn't making it easy for me.
It doesn't seem like I'm going to have my Imperial Liaison: Grand Arcanist Class for very long. I only have 11 more Levels to go until I'm officially Tier 3. Then again I can turn my Mana Siphon ability back on in order to gain more practical Life Experience and Skill Levels to increase my chances of getting a legitimate Mythic Class once I reach Tier 3.
Even if I'm not able to get a Mythic Class at Tier 3, I still think it would be a good idea to go ahead and do so. I've made up my mind, and I'm going to pick Mana Well, and I would like to try and push it to a General Class before I gain my Tier 3 Class. I'll still have three Class Skill slots available for my Secondary Class, but I have other Skills I want to focus on, too. Deconstruct and access to System assistance for basically every Spell are both paramount, and I can foresee good Synergy between Will of the Realm and True Mana.
With how Experience drops off upon reaching Tier 3, I'll probably be in Tier 3 for a while, and I'll be able to have three of my current Class Skills for a long time. Getting my Spells and Deconstruct to develop into General Skills are probably going to be the easiest ones, and I think True Mana will be one of the hardest. Let's try and get the low-hanging fruit taken care of first. It's not like choosing Mana Well over True Mana will be useless, either.
Decision made Reivyn officially selected it in his Status.
Some time had passed since he had been looking over his Notifications and deliberating on what Class Skill to choose, but Kefira and the Mages assisting her still weren't ready to go. There was no change in the soul beast trying to get to Reivyn, and the Mages and adventurers assisting them with their physical strength had grown to a size where they were able to switch out conveniently in order to maintain their top position.
Another several hours passed, and Reivyn just lounged on a small stone bench that he sculpted from the ground with his Mana. He was considering whether to lie down to take a nap or not when Kayzor finally ambled over.
"Things are in the final stage over at the space fissure," he announced. "We'll be ready to go in just a moment, so get prepared."
Reivyn nodded as he got to his feet. He used a bit of his Mana to meld the stone seat back into the ground from where it had come, and then he proceeded to do some stretches and calisthenics to get his blood pumping.
Well, here we go. Time to try and stuff an incorporeal being into a chute.