Tec Mage Chapter Twenty: Moonstone
Atlas was still looking at the screen "a wish, what to ask for" he was thinking about it, what did he truly need, more stats, it would be useful but ultimately he didn't need more stats, items were the same, if he needed some thing he would make it
Atlas thoughts went to the gnolls, at the moment he was having a hard time talking to the gnolls the only one he could understand was the leader called Beast and he used him to translate what the other said and what he said to them, Atlas thought it would be a useful wish if he could understand what each individual gnoll was saying, Atlas was about to make the wish when a better idea came to him, what about the gnolls being able to understand and talk other languages, this would be a better wish, not only would he be able to understand and communicate to them but so would others like Dracken, Mary, Forge, Nelious and Loki
"I wish that the gnoll clan that is lead by the Priest gnoll called Beast could understand and communicate other languages quickly" said Atlas
...............Your wish has been granted, the gnolls lead by the Priest called Beast will be able to learn new languages within a week of hearing there first words in the new language............. The small god of the land has given the same effect to Atlas due to a unselfish wish
The added effect was a nice bonus, Atlas didn't expect the wish to extend to him but the god had seen fit to grant it to him "Thank you small god of the land"
Call me Demeter and your welcome
This shocked Atlas, he didn't expect an answer but said thank you out of respect for getting something, he cleared his voice and said in a low voice "mm ok"
"Who are you talking to" asked Forge
"God" said Atlas, as soon as he said the word he felt stupid
"What did god say" asked Forge
There was no humour in Forge voice, if Atlas said he was talking to god in real life he would be shunned or laughed at openly but here the gods activity got involved with mortals
"To call her Demeter" said Atlas
Forge was nodding his head
"The gods eh, what can you say about them, some are ok but most want some thing from less powerful beings, it's a bit weird" said Nelious, because he was once a priest he had a lot of interaction with gods and there whims
Atlas left it at that and asked Forge and Nelious to do some mining, Forge was at beginner level 4 and could get some moonstone ore easier than Nelious who only just recently had the strength to possesses the pickaxe, Atlas joined in, his mining skill was 8 but he could mine at an incredible speed, with different buffs and he's new technique of making a horizontal clay hand spell coming from waist height out of the wall he would pull the enchanted bag over the moonstone that was shaped as a hand wrist and arm and break the arm off in to the bag
In no time all the enchanted bags was filled with moonstone, Atlas thought about all the books in Dr Alberich secret study and hoped that there would be a book for moonstone, he needed a starting point in moonstone ore and so he returned back to Dr Alberich secret study, the light Atlas briefly and lightly touched on the desk an hour or so ago was still alight and illuminating the room, he searched though the books in till he found what he wanted
Moonstone, it's connection towards Popes and Kings
Moonstones and the processing steps
Atlas looked at the light on the desk, was it suppose to stay alight for so long, Atlas checked it using his skills
"Identify"
A lamp of moonstone, the stand is made of copper and the quality of moonstone is average, an enchantment has been placed on the lamp called seal
Atlas forgot about the enchantment called seal, he assumed that it locked the enchantment learning book and nothing else. he checked it for him self
Seal Enchantment
Seal can be used as a lock or bind but few knew that it can block time, seal is a enchantment that places the item in it's own time and so it can't be interfered with or the item lose it's power but this doesn't make it indestructible when the item that has the enchantment seal is destroyed so is the enchantment
Higher levels cause stronger seals and special bonuses, Master level seal enchantments have been tested by dipping them in volcanoes for years and survived with out a scratch
"What a find" thought Atlas, with this there was a chance of making a weapon that would lose durability so slow that it may take a life time to break, or that was what Atlas thought but there was more to it than that and with higher levels in Seal Enchantment the description would show more
Atlas pulled out some Moonstone ore and replace it with the two books and lamp that had seal enchantment, the room went slightly darker, if it wasn't for Atlas mana flare he would be in complete darkness
When Atlas left the study he made sure to close the door after him, there was no visible lock but he knew that the place was safe from almost everything and everyone due to the enchantments on the door and room, instead of tying stones to him self to make him self less buoyant, Atlas just used the weight of the full packs of Moonstones to keep him on the floor of the lake, using his Great beast skill, Gills for Eyes he was able to breath under water but couldn't see, the first time he used the skill, Atlas had a panic attack, the water wasn't converted in to air as he breathed in but instead his lungs filled with water, he could breath but the feeling was unusual to him and he started to cough the water up but only to be replaced by more water
Atlas left the lake and coughed up the water, he deactivated the skill and brushed water off his face with shaking hands, it would take a couple of go's at the skill before Atlas became used to it, even though the feeling of drowning was strong Atlas used his will and held him self down in till he was breathing easily underwater, being blind wasn't a big problem because Nelious was leading the way and because of the skill Communicate with spirits he could hear Nelious very clearly even underwater, there were no fish men swimming about because the gnolls now had a safe place to kill them with out being targeted by them
Back at the Colosseum Atlas raised his head out of the water, he didn't deactivate the skill straight away because he still had water in his lungs and he learned that he needed to cough the water up or the pain would be great, on his feet and the skill deactivated, Atlas moved to the Colosseum wall, with his whole body shaking he raised him self over the wall using clay hand spell, the gnolls on the wall came to greet him but stopped and paused when they saw Atlas shaking, this was the first time they saw Atlas in a feeble state, there pause only lasted seconds when they all rushed to him to help there great benefactor, two gnolls tried to help Atlas by going under his arms to support him but it wasn't just his weight that he was supporting but Forge and all the extra enchanted bags full with Moonstone, a further gnoll unloaded the sacks from Atlas by carrying the bags for him, Forge made his own way, the gnolls helped Atlas to the nearest fire where he rested and the bags were placed near him, a gnoll placed a blanket over him and a different gnoll handed him a bowl of lumpy soup that had all the bad bits of fish men in it, Atlas felt appreciated and safe, he used a weak gust to dry him self while he stared at the fire, Forge sat on Atlas lap using his heat to keep him warm
About an hour went by before Atlas felt normal, the good thing about being shaken up was the fact he noticed some thing about the fire, the smoke had no place to go this deep in the cave and so it lingered in the air, this was bad and Atlas had to change it immediately, finding Beast the leader of the gnolls and the only one who could speak both human and gnoll Atlas told that all fire in the lake area needed to be put out, Atlas relationship with the gnolls were so great that Beast didn't ask why but trusted him completely, Beast started to talk to a gnoll that was beside him in grunts, barks and growls, just as the gnoll that beast was talking to was about to leave Atlas asked some thing more from Beast
"Could you bring everyone to the forge with all there armour and weapons" asked Atlas
Beast started to talk to the gnoll again and after a couple of seconds the gnoll left, Atlas thanked Beast and moved with him to the forge area
"So, what was that about" asked Beast
"Fire produces smoke and smoke can easily suffocate the gnolls if it has no were to go, it was fine to have a forge close to the exit because the smoke had some where to go but down here it will stay around and make it harder to breath and most likely kill" responded Atlas
"And what about the weapons and armour" asked Beast
"That will be the solution to warmth and cooking" replied Atlas
Beast looked confused but just excepted it, after all Atlas hadn't done some thing with out purpose before, at the forge Atlas greeted Mary who was hard at work making steel armour, weapons and tools for the gnolls, Dracken wasn't in this area and Atlas assumed he was mining or stationed on the Colosseum wall, Atlas sat him self near a pile of stones that had been mined, these stones where to small to be included in building and Atlas was planing to grind them up in use of cermet but now he enchanted the fist sized stones with fire and others stones with ice
As Atlas enchanted more stones the gnolls came with there iron armour and weapons
"Just get them to put the armour and weapons in a pile" said Atlas to Beast
When all the gnolls were there Atlas explained what he wanted them to do to Beast
"I want them to pick up a piece of armour and start to damage it" said Atlas
Beast was shocked, the armour and weapons of the gnolls were made from iron and had never been in good repair, that was in till Mary had repaired them all with her intermediate repair skill to maximum durability and now they were the pride of the gnolls
Beast calmed him self, surly Atlas had a good reason for asking this, like he had when he asked the fires to be put out, Beast grunted his orders to damage the iron equipment, the other gnolls looked at their armour and weapons almost not understanding what there leader had asked for, Beast saw there unhappy faces and the hesitation in harming there precious tools, he cleared his throat and all the gnolls looked up from there items with hope that what he had said was a joke
"This is for Atlas" grunted and growled Beast in the language of the gnolls
As soon as Beast had said his last words, banging came from the area that the old gnolls were sitting, they had lots of respect for Atlas because now they were useful, in the old clan where they came from they were second class, not strong enough to defend the nest from invaders and thus little food came there way, in the end they were used to look after the kids and scavenged what food the others didn't want just to feed them self's, but now it felt like there wasn't a limit to what they could do, they had full stomachs and was treated like a family member, after a few seconds of banging the rest of the gnolls joined in
Atlas used strips of rabbit fur to make a sling and at each end he tied a stone that was enchanted with fire, he also made a simple pouch to hold two ice enchanted stones and tied the top with vines that came from the wilds, he showed this to the gnoll kids so they could make the same thing and so they had some thing to do as well, with the warming slings being made by the gnoll children Atlas help with steel forging, he was crazy close to reaching intermediate level in blacksmithing, after making 2 steel swords he gained it
"Ding"
Your blacksmithing skill has exceeded level 10 and has reached the intermediate stage.
New skills:
Sword Grind, and Armor Polish
Sword Grind – Grinds the sword, weapon damage is amplified
Armor Polish – confuses and dazzles enemies along with an increase in defense.
+5 To all stats
Reputation +50.
Atlas knew about the skills armour polish and sword grind because Mary and even Dracken had reached intermediate level some time ago and gained the skills
When the first hand had raised to signal that the first piece was damaged, Atlas wondered over with one pouch, a sling and a steel sword, he cut a hole in the fur that connected the two stones that emitted heat and pushed the sling down over the gnoll's head, the stones rested on the back and stomach of the gnoll, this gave continued warmth to the gnoll with out fire and if the gnoll over heated he could place the sling and stones in the bag with the enchanted ice stones thus cancelling out both the heat and cold
Atlas picked up the damaged iron sword and repaired it, Atlas skill in repairing was beginner level 6 but he needed it to be at intermediate level at least for his plan to succeed, Atlas decide to sharpen and polish the items as well as repair them, the gnoll looked at Atlas with confusion, Atlas knew what he did didn't seem to have a point but he needed it and gestated that the gnoll keep on destroying the weapon, Atlas was aware that the other gnolls had seen what he had done and this was part of Atlas plan to motivate them to work faster, he knelt down beside the sitting gnoll and handed him the steel sword, the eyes of the gnoll seemed to get bigger as he was handed a steel weapon, the gnoll raised the stone in his hand and mimic hitting the steel sword, Atlas stopped the hand of the gnoll and just shaked his head, Beast had came round and translated to the gnoll that the steel weapon was his but Atlas still wanted them to damage the iron weapons for him, the other gnolls picked up the pace after seeing that they would get a better weapon or armour, after that Atlas was rushed of his feet with repairing, polishing and sharpening weapons, armour and handing out the warmth stones and new steel weapons and armour, the noise was loud but not due to the banging it was due to the gnolls barking, growling and talking to each other as they worked
Atlas repair skill jumped to intermediate level 2 and his polish and sharpen skill also jumped to intermediate skill thanks to 200 gnolls breaking armour and weapons while Atlas ran around in a big circle repairing, polishing and sharpening, as soon as he had said repair and upgraded the item using polish or sharpen he had to move on to the next item, but the iron items were completely ruined at the end, Atlas thanked the gnolls for their hard work and started on his next thing, with the help of Mary and Dracken they smelted the iron again, Any metal that was reforged lost some of it's power and durability but this was fine with Atlas after all he wasn't making weapons with the iron, long strips of iron was made and wielded to gather to make a cast iron oven known as a range and when it cooled down Atlas enchanted stones with fire that went in the oven to heat it, with all the iron from the weapons and armour he made a total of 7 ranges, with the help of many gnolls and his cart they were able to transport them to the lake area were the Colosseum was, Atlas was finished with this work, every gnoll had there own heat source for warmth and a place were they could cook by using the oven he just made
More plans had to be made, like the light source and individually homes for the gnolls but Atlas couldn't do all of it by him self, with this in his mind Atlas decide to rely on the gnolls, in Atlas opinion the gnolls were more than qualified to start building, they knew how to cut stones, lay walls and supports, with simply plans Atlas could show how to lay floors, stairs and roofs but Atlas had a question about the sewers, even in the Roman era they had sewers to move excess water and waste but Atlas had never needed the bathroom and hadn't seen any one else use it but he didn't want dirty water contaminating the clean water
Atlas had reached intermediate level in Architect and in turn gained skills called Blueprint Construction and Model destruction, he had never used it before but by using mana he could draw up blueprints of buildings and constructions from nothing, the two skills worked in unison, after the building had been made from Blueprint Construction a model of the building would be made, the model of the building didn't do any thing in till it was destroyed, once the model was crushed the building would also full apart
Atlas made many different blue prints with his skill, houses for the gnolls to live comfortably , a big bar were the gnolls could eat cooked food and talk, an upgraded Colosseum and a sewer system, Atlas pined each blue print to a separate wooden board, under each of the pined up blue prints was smaller blue prints showing a simple way to erect the walls or floors that had to be laid evenly, in short all the small easy jobs would lead to a complete build, Atlas put the wooden boards on a wood pike and hammered them in the floor where he thought they needed to be and marked the floor with string and chalk to start the build off, after telling Beast what he had done and that it was up to the gnolls to build their homes them selfs but he would help and advise them
Beast had to ask "What are you doing that needs your attention away from the building"
"There is a weakness in my armour and there's a little job i need to sort out with Moonstone, it will take a little time to sort out" replied Atlas
With the gnolls busy doing what ever they wanted to do be it killing on the Colosseum wall, building or mining Atlas was free to do his work, the time in game was about noon and so he had some hours left before he started studying with Loki, Atlas knew he was still alive because his friend list said he was still alive and most likely mining somewhere, Atlas first job was upgrading his right gauntlet, his gauntlets were alchemy gauntlets and so he thought it best to keep them strictly alchemy based
Atlas made small tubes from steel and cut two of them at an angle so that they had a sharp point but they were still hollow, he attached the two spikes to the right gauntlet on top of his hand, the spikes were as long as he's fingers, each of the hollow spiked tube was connected with more hollow tubes that lead around the hand but under the steel armour and in to the palm of the gauntlet, holes were drilled in to the palm steel tubes, he placed a cork piece, small glass flask and then some more cork in to the right steel hollow tube spike and a dart in the left, after finishing the small upgrade he tested it out on the scarecrow that was possessed by Nelious
Nelious was busy, there was always a line to fight the animated scarecrow but Atlas was given first rights just because he was well respected
"Are you ready" asked Nelious
Atlas nodded, and raised his right fist that now had spikes on it, Nelious raised his wooden sword but Atlas moved in close and stopped the sword hand with his left hand at the ark before it could build up power, with his right hand he attacked the waist and punched the spikes in to the straw, this did nothing to Nelious as he was a spirit, with Nelious right hand busy he used his left sword hand to attack, Atlas ripped his right hand straight up taking some straw with him to block the strike that was heading towards his neck, Atlas twisted the sword away and backed away from the sword striking area, Atlas looked down on his hollow spikes to find that the were very slightly dented, this was why he had raised he's repair skill to intermediate
"Repair" Atlas spikes regained there shape and durability to max, with perfect shaped spikes Atlas raise his right hand and pointed the spikes at Nelious
"What's wrong, come on you were doing so well, lets fight some more" said Nelious
Atlas closed his hand and used gust, the closed area within Atlas hand made the wind magic go though the hollow tubes and build up pressure finally expelling what was in the tubes, if the tubes were damaged and had kinks then what ever was in side them would hit the bumps and fail to fly out of the hollow tubes and so this was why repair was needed
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The first thing coming out of the tubes was the cork but quickly followed by the small glass vial, Nelious wasn't expecting this but still managed to block the glass vial with his swords
"What was that, no magic, this is training for weapons and hand to hand" Nelious was upset because magic was the only thing to hurt spirits, that or special skills that attacked the intangible
Atlas was paying little attention to what Nelious was saying but was looking at the swords, smoke and steam was raising from the wooden swords were the glass vial had hit
"Nelious had also noticed the swords "what was in side of that" as he looked up to Atlas a small dart hit his scarecrow head right were the eye would be "stop god damn it, opps", Nelious had been a priest before he had died and even though he wasn't any more talking bad about god was a rule he shouldn't break easily
Atlas raised his hands and approached Nelious " the glass vial was filled with acid, i had the idea when all of my physical attacks against Razor Fin didn't do anything and the second was a dart that will be covered in poison"
Nelious was there for the fight between Razor Fin and Atlas and was a tiny bit impressed with what Atlas had come up with "Not bad, but you have to get stronger with weapons as well, don't forget that Razor Fin over powered you and if it wasn't for Forge then you would be as dead as me, haha"
"Yes i agree, that is why when i was waiting for my gauntlets to cool i came up with this" Atlas pulled out a mess of springs on a leather harness
"What's that then" asked Nelious, even though it was a mess Nelious had seen Atlas make many useful things and waited for the explanation
"I think it would be easier to show you" Atlas pulled off his torn robe and his 4 iron bracelets, the bracelets were there to increase Atlas strength but lately it had very little effect, Atlas was still wearing his beginner leather armour but this would be needed now to stop pinching of the springs, Atlas placed the spring suit on and tightened the springs using a gear and lever
"I don't understand" said Nelious while looking at the spring suit
"There are only two ways that i can think off to increase stenght with out stat points added to them, one being weight and the other being resistance and the springs in the suit will give me resistance and the best bit is that i can tighten the springs add more springs so more resistance is available and everything i do will add to my strength not just the weight in my arms as before" explained Atlas
Nelious was thinking that this was a smart idea "so do you want to fight some more, one on one, you and me"
Atlas was putting back on his robe, and belts before saying "I would but there is a long line waiting to fight you"
"Don't worry about that just call the rest of the fallen" remarked Nelious
"What, i don't understand" said Atlas
"As you know when i and my comrades fell to the nercrmage, i casted and created the necklace that you used to summon me, this was because i didn't want our bodies and spirits being used as tools by the nercro, but what you don't understand is that i'm not the only person you can summon with the necklace" explained Nelious
Atlas listened carefully "why didn't you tell me sooner"
"It would not make a difference, you can only summon more if you have a good relation with me or if you had good deeds under your belt like helping a church or helping the poor" explained Nelious
"So how many can i summon now" asked Atlas
"Well, because you haven't murdered and even put the gnolls on a good and right path i think you should be able to summon 5 of my comrades but just like me they will have no skills and may ask something from you" said Nelious
Atlas grabbed his spirit necklace "call of the fallen", 5 fading shadows started to shimmer in to existence, the mana that was used for bringing these new spirits to the world of the living would deplete any normal mage of the same level but Atlas had gained massive amounts of mana though stats, creating items and levelling certain skills
The new spirits gradually formed, there was two big men with there translucent heavy armour and 3 with translucent leather armour, Nelious looked over joyed to see his old friends and started to hug his comrades, Nelious was talking none stop and only paused to listen to what they had to say
"I'm so glad to see you guys" said Nelious, he was shaking hands with one of the bigger spirits
"Yes i know it's been a long time" said Nelious
Some thing seemed wrong, Atlas knew that the big spirit was talking but he couldn't hear him
"Nelious, Nelious" Atlas waved Nelious towards him, he looked annoyed that he was separated from his friends that he hadn't seen for quite sometime
"I can't hear what they are saying" Atlas was whispering to Nelious
"mmmm, i think it may be your skill to communicate with spirits being low level or perhaps they are further in the spirit world than i was" replied Nelious
"Well, i suppose that leaves you as there leader, just explain to them that they can do what they want as long they don't do bad things but i may ask them to do things like fight in scarecrow, oh.... and if they want some thing from me just come and find me and ask, show them around the place and explain what i'm trying to do" said Atlas to Nelious
"You got it chef" Nelious saluted Atlas and went back to his friends laughing
It was nice that Nelious could now talk to people who could hear him, Atlas didn't talk that much but he did understand that some needed to communicate, this situation would greatly profit Atlas and his group later on but now Atlas had a couple of hours before study for his chemistry test
Atlas pulled out the book called "Moonstones and the processing steps", it was time to read up on how to process the ore, his skill Avatar Of Fire needed the moonstone as a catalyst to proceed with furthering the skill but the better he refined it the greater the effects would be, reading the book wouldn't take to long with the combined skills of bookworm which allowed him to read faster and Perceptual Chronometer which slowed down the perception of time, if anyone was watching him as he was reading it would look like he was just turning a page looking at the book for a second and then turning a second page
Loki came in to the hall were Atlas was reading he already knew about Atlas reading speed and the skills he used to gain that speed so wasn't surprise about it
"Are you ready to study" asked Loki
Atlas put his book away and replaced it with his chemistry book, "I am now, did you make it back all right from the lake" Atlas was referring to his underwater adventure that Loki took part in
Loki rubbed his face, "it was a little hard getting back but i managed"
"If you want i will refill your air bottles" said Atlas
"Later, now is the time for studying" replied Loki
Loki sat him self opposite to Atlas on a chair made from Atlas skill clay hand and placed his pickaxe on the side of the clay hand table, for the rest of the night the two studied in the light of the forge where Forge was making cute squeaking noises
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When the morning sun came up Loki made his way to his mining section leaving Atlas alone, Forge was up and about so Atlas fed him some of his mana and a lot of spicy roasted rabbit meat, once Forge was satisfied he also left to do his own thing, Mary had returned to her forge and Atlas heard that Dracken spent a lot of time on the Colosseum wall killing fish men, Atlas was about to start refining the moonstone when Nelious floated to him
"Straight to business, me and my comrades want a place were we can play and not be disturbed and in return we will serve you and your needs, do you agree with these terms" remarked Nelious
"What about the other term were i allow you to possess me so you can have a spot to eat and drink" asked Atlas
"That would be nice but now i have my friends and that is worth a life time of hardship, even an undead life time worth of hardship, so i will give up on that possessing thing if you make us a club house" replied Nelious
"I will agree but i will make it after i come back from the city, i have business with my master" Atlas was talking about his master, Alison and the promise of talking to her about the Avatar Of Fire skill when he had a piece of Moonstone
Nelious nodded and floated back to his friends with thumbs up to them, Atlas witnessed all six of the spirits possess the other scarecrow that Atlas had set up ages ago, the line for the moving scarecrow was considerably shorten now there was 6 of them
Atlas now pulled out a long piece of shinning Moonstone ore from his bag, the first step to purifying Moonstone was separating the ore from the dirt and rock, it was an easy job as the Moonstone ore would light up with the slightest touch and the dirt and rock didn't, after separating the ore Atlas washed the Moonstone four times, the ore was like a dirty colour glass and most of the time was no bigger than a finger nail, after collecting enough ore to fill a 50cm square box Atlas put three vice's on the box to compress it, the book says that Moonstone ore needed to be tempered in heat but if the heat was too high then it would ruin the ore, Atlas placed the metal box filled with moonstone and compressed with vice's in to the oven, the reason he put the ore in metal box was because if the metal went bright orange then it was too hot and destroy the ore, this way he could easily see what he needed to do
When the box started to turn red Atlas pulled it out and removed the top, the top of the moon stone had a lot of slag and carbon that the heat had removed, Atlas hit the top of the moonstone to remove the carbon and slag but not too hard as the book said that it would break, he tightened up the vice's to compressed the ore further, the moonstone had the texture of clay and the finger nail sized ore was melding in to each other to make a solid block, Atlas repeat this many times over in till there was no slag left to knock off and the vice's couldn't be tighten any more
Atlas left the hot cube on the earth table to cool naturally, the book had reminded him that if the ore cooled quickly by being put in water it would shatter, while he was waiting he log off and checked the net for the best shape for brightness, Atlas had to log on and off many times just to writ the dimensions of a perfect cut diamond, a perfectly cut gem would reflect any light entering it and Atlas felt it was fitting for a Moonstone
The box and the ore had cooled down so now it was cool enough to touch, he pick up his stone cutting tool and placed a finger on the Moonstone to pick it up
"Ding"
Do you want to use this moonstone as a catalyst for Avatar Of Fire
"No" Atlas hadn't finished yet and still had work to do
With great care Atlas marked and cut the moonstone in to a classic diamond shape, it was difficult due to every time he touched it even breathing on it would make the refined Moonstone flash with light and blind him
Atlas was doing a good job but he decide to try some thing new, pulling out the lamp from Dr Alberich study and the piece of Moonstone he had found in Razor Fin stomach he compared the two pieces to his own, the shape of Atlas's Moonstone was infinitely better and because of that the light lasted much longer when touched but the light coming from the stone from Razor Fin was brighter, with a theory in his mind Atlas pulled out some sand paper, he had three types each one with more refined grain then the other, with gentle and soft movements Atlas applied the sandpaper to the Moonstone, after he was finished with the more course paper he would move on to a finer piece of sandpaper, this help to gain the most uniform shape that had no bumps or layers that cutting may leave behind, the shine of Atlas Moonstone was duller now but that was what he expected, the gem shaped ore was cloudy because of the sand paper, Atlas had a bottle of Razor Fin stomach acid and with a clean rag of cotton he used the acid on the cloudy diamond shaped Moonstone
With the acid and intermediate skill in Armour polish he rubbed the Moonstone in till it glowed brighter then the lamp and stone from Razor Fin put together x4 at the slightest breath, in fact it hurt he's eyes just looking in the area of the Moonstone, Atlas wrapped up the Moonstone in cloth and packed his things away
Atlas wanted to activate the catalyst in front of Alison because with her help he was sure to get the best effects, with that thought he hitch up his cart and horse, picked up Forge, packed some fish men flesh to be sold and left for the city, Dracken decide to come with him just to check his information network
On there way back to the city Dracken told Atlas about the skill fishing he received when he hunted the fish men with a kunia and wire
"Yes it's great, oh and the best bit is, it's like mining skill in the way you get 500hp per level" Dracken was beginning to say
Fighting could be heard ahead and was getting louder as Atlas got closer, a party of 3 had pinned a black wolf against a tree, black wolfs in this area was rare, a black wolf was level 20 to 25 but the players seemed to out class it by 10 levels, each of the players could beat the wolf alone but they seemed to be doing something else
"PIN HIM DOWN, DON'T GIVE HIM ANY ROOM TO MOVE"
"IF WE CAN TAME HIM THEN HE CAN BE SOLD"
The wolf was still fighting and baring it's teeth but backing up against a tree, Atlas felt sorry for it, when he was sure that the men that was trying to catch the wolf couldn't see what he was doing Atlas used a little magic, the man nearest to him was getting closer to the black wolf in till he fell over with the splits
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, GET OFF YOUR ASS, THE WOLF IS GETTING AWAY"
The black wolf had jumped over the crotch holding man and started to run towards Atlas and his cart, the eyes of the wolf were in a frenzy and it would attack who ever it encountered
"just ran that way, no, no, no" thought Atlas
The wolf jumped at Dracken with it's mouth open ready to rip the throat out of him
"NO" Atlas had stood up from his chair, the wolf was 2 feet away from Dracken before he was stopped in mid air by a earth shaped hand, the wolf was still struggling to bite who ever was in front of him but Atlas clay hand was strong enough to hold a level 60+ fish man so a level 25 wolf didn't even shake the earth hand
The three men who hunted the wolf gathered around the wolf
"why did you have to fall over there you clumsy git, if it wasn't for this guy the wolf would have got away" said one of the hunters
"It's not my fault, the earth under my feet just moved" the man holding his crotch looked at the earth hand holding the wolf then at Atlas with suspicion
"enough you two, we have it now anyway" said the third
Dracken at this point spoke up "What do you mean you have it, it's my master that has it, not you"
The three hunters looked at each other "we spent a good amount of time hunting that wolf from the mountains and following him down to here"
This explained why the wolf attacked Atlas and Dracken, all the animals in the area knew that Atlas and his apprentices were not to be feared but also they weren't food but this wolf had been driven down from the mountains and didn't know about it
Atlas could see that they weren't bad people and were only after some money for there efforts
"How about a trade for the wolf" suggested Atlas
"What do you have in mind" asked one of the hunters
"I feel that money would get in the way here but i have some skills that can help you" said Atlas
"Go on"
"I can repair your gear and enchant it for you, this will give you better power so you can hunt better monsters" explained Atlas
"Is that all, i can repair my own gear"
"Can you repair all the lost durability" said Atlas
"WHAT, i.. i didn't know that was possible" said the hunters
"If you except now i will throw in one health potion" said Atlas
The three of them huddled in to each other
"It's not a bad deal"
"You know it would take a lot of time to tame it and it's not 100%"
"We could sell the potion for some gold if needs be, i think the worst heath potion is worth 5 gold"
"Yea and we can get an upgrade with this enchantment thing"
The three hunters broke there huddle and turn to Atlas
"We agree"
While Dracken repaired the weapons and armour Atlas used sword grind and armour polish as well enchanting on each piece, when they had finished Atlas handed over a potion and the gear
"WOW, the stats have increased and my sword does a bit of fire damage now"
"My armour has full durability and reflects some damage"
"I got some strength stats boasts"
The three hunters had a weird shine in there eyes, it was greed, if they sold everything that was upgraded then they could buy new stronger armour and get Atlas to enchant them again
With the help of Dracken, Atlas broke the earth hand at the wrist and heaved the wolf in to the cart, Atlas tied the wolf mouth together, back in the cart Atlas made the horse walk on
"WAIT, HOW ABOUT JOINING OUR FRIEND LIST" the three hunters were jogging beside the cart
"Mmmm, i don't think so, i don't even know you and i feel you only want to use me" said Atlas
The three hunters looked disappointed but still got a good deal, they slowed there jogging down and walk there own way
When Atlas reached the city's gates he was stopped by the city watch
"You can't come in with that" one of the privates pointed at the wolf "Not in till he is tamed"
Atlas understood that having a wild animal in the city was dangerous so he asked Dracken to look after the wolf in till he got back, Atlas quickly walked to the Tutor's guild were Alison worked, he didn't want to leave Dracken alone out side the city walls with a wolf, this would bring unwanted attention
When Alison saw Atlas she ushered him in to a back room and before he could speak Alison did
"Who is that" she was pointing at Forge who was around Atlas neck
"This is Forge the being who gave me the Avatar Of Fire skill, and talking about it, did you find anything about the skill" asked Atlas hopefully
"Nothing, but i did see a side note that may help you in the future, Moonstone has a counter part called a Sunstone but it's so rare and hard to get that not much is known about it, what i did find out is the last piece was found floating down a lava river, so the place you'll find it is most likely in lava" explained Alison
This would be useful information in the future but now it was just a side not, Atlas pulled out his diamond shaped Moonstone that was covered with cloth, even though the cloth was around the stone, light was still coming though, Atlas unwrapped it and the light was blinding, filling the room with white light
"What is that" asked Alison
Atlas quickly explained it was a Moonstone he had refined
"Iv'e never seen a Moonstone that bright before" explained Alison
"I'm about to use it for a catalyst and wanted you to see it" replied Atlas
Alison nodded her approval, Atlas held the stone in his hand
Do you want to use this moonstone as a catalyst for Avatar Of Fire
"Yes" said Atlas
The stone in Atlas hand flickered and went out, then it crumbled into dust, "is that all" thought Atlas
Atlas looked at Alison and was about to say same thing in till he felt a familiar feeling
"Oh no" Atlas knew what was coming, heat was raising up in him and getting increasingly hotter, with in moments he was on his knee's sweating buckets, it felt like boiling water had been poured down his throat but it was everywhere and no relief was possible, at it's peak Atlas was physical hot to touch but there was no way Atlas could know because he had fainted.......again
End Of Chapter Twenty