The first day of training passed with no issue, for the most part it was a lot of getting to know you stuff and what to expect in the class. Shaun had purchased training weapons from one of the stores for cheap which really helped in the classes. He joined instructing the blade classes, going over a few basics like how to stand when holding a blade and also how important being aware of your body and your surroundings were. He ran a few meditation classes as well which were trying at times but overall was a good start.
He was enjoying this break from non-stop fighting, it helped that he had no pressing issues he had to deal with until Viv arrived and they would need to go to the closest E grade settlement crystal to complete the process of combining all of the areas and also finishing the ward.
Viv’s arrival came quicker than Shuan would have liked. When she did appear at the school she didn’t come alone. Gabe and Li were in attendance as well as a few others that he had seen before but didn’t care enough to really get to know.
“Seems like you have really made yourself at home here Shaun. Eric said that he was brining in more people but this was more than I was expecting. Why don’t you show us around before we head off?”
Shaun didn’t spend that long on the tour, he mostly just looped around and pointed out the specific areas and what they were for. There was groups of kids training everywhere, some even with the crafters who were watching them work. When he got to the archery range Gabe lit up and looked like he wanted to head over straight away, the only thing holding him back was Viv. After, they moved on to a class Eric was teaching on using a sword and shield, it was very basic but he had the attention of everyone on him.
Shaun waved Eric over but he didn’t leave the class straight away, instead made sure that they all had something to practice. “Who knew you would look so good teaching kids how to fight.” Gabe went up greeted Eric having obviously missed each other in their time apart.
“Working with the kids is great Gabe! Even putting together schedules and training plans is fun. Can you imagine what its going to be like in a week? Or even a month!” Gabe was usually the more excitable one but seeing Eric light up when talking about the school, you would never have guessed.
“I am glad you’re happy Eric, although I wish you didn’t have to give up your work with me, I am glad you are finding something you enjoy.” Viv did sound happy for him, if barely. “The kids are in good hands with you here. If you like I can put a word out so that any kids that wish to join are welcome to come, as well as any teachers you may need. I fully support what is happening here, starting this school was a good idea.”
The way she was praising Eric for everything that was happening here annoyed him. The comment about the kids being in good hands because Eric was here annoyed him even more. He kept his mouth shut though, not wanting to cause a scene with so many people present.
“Eric I am ging to be gone for a day, maybe more, I am not sure. You need anything before I go?” Shaun was ready to get this over with.
“No, you are good to go. I will make sure everything continues to go as planned here.”
“I am going to stay too.” Gabe gave Viv a look before continuing. “You don’t need me for this, I will just be traveling with you for no reason. Besides, we agreed that when this was done I was coming here anyway, may as well stay now.”
Shaun watched Viv closely as Gabe spoke, for a split second she looked annoyed but then covered it well. “If you want to stay, stay Gabe. I wont force you to come.” Viv turned to Shaun and gave him a hard look. “Let’s no waste any time, show us to the Settlement Crystal.”
For the first few hours of their travel they moved in silence, at the speed they were going it would take ages for them to get there. “Viv, this is ridiculous. Can I just fly you there? It will cut down on all of the travel time and its not like the others can catch up.”
“No, we travel on foot. Its important to know where we are going.” That this kind of bullshit, we are following the damn road up the mountain!
“Do you want to say what’s got you all standoffish? It can’t just be the school thing. You are acting like I am the bad guy here when I have done nothing but give you what you need to succeed.” She had been acting like he was some villain in her story since the moment she showed up and he wanted to know why. She waved him forward and they started walking a good distance in front of the others.
“Shaun, I am annoyed. You are playing school teacher when you should be doing more. I get it, okay, you don’t have to work for me or do anything you don’t want to. But seriously? A school Shaun? You could be training any number of our own people to get better, stronger. You could be helping me get a damn affinity! But instead you are teaching kids how to play with wooden swords!”
Shaun thought over what she said, and really the only conclusion he came to was that she was thinking about herself. Why even bring up affinity in the first place?
“I am going to repeat what I told you last time Viv. If your soldiers want to get stronger then they can do it themselves. I am also not here to help you get stronger. You want an affinity, figure it out yourself. I have already given you the basics of how it all works. You need to do you job and leave me out of it. We had a deal and I will stick to it as promised. You need to do the same.”
They went the rest of the way in silence. As they got to the mountain they needed to climb he simply told them to head on up and he would meet them there. Hiking a mountain was not on his to do list at the moment and doing so with people who simply walked in silence was not going to be enjoyable. He flew to the settlement crystal and once there made himself comfortable. He pulled out his mark ups of the ward and made sure he was completely across the final steps of what needed to happen. The joining should be the last of it with some minor touch ups, if any. But until it was done, he wouldn’t know.
By the time the others had joined him hours later he was as ready as he was going to be in finishing the ward. They all looked tired from the climb but they didn’t complain.
“Let’s get this done. Do you have everything you need?”
“Yes, but remember, you don’t get access to the E grade areas until I finish the D grade dungeon. That was written into the agreement. I will agree to you using the E grade dungeon whenever you want though.” Viv just gave him a short nod, not bothering to actually reply. Time to do this.
**Welcome High Mayor Shaun Clermont, would you like to access E grade settlement screen?**
Yes.
**Current options available for E grade settlement:**
Current buildings available for placement.
Fully merge all claimed E grade dungeons (Can not be undone)
Manage settlement and resources.
Terraform E grade area.
He picked the option to fully merge the E grade dungeons and like last time he felt the invisible lines dividing the area disappear and the mana flow directly through the area.
“It is done.”
**F grade and E grade dungeon areas are currently all claimed, do you wish to Fully merge F and E grade area?**
“I am going to combine the F and E grade areas. They should all be interconnected for the ward to work.” Again, Viv didn’t reply but simply gave him a nod.
When he agreed to combine the areas, he felt the mana in the area rush out and down to the F grade area. Now that they were combined there was nothing stopping the higher mana density here to flow through to where it was less abundant.
Now that it was done he waited for the ward to power up, but after waiting for a minute there was nothing.
“It didn’t work.” He said to no one in particular, more himself really. He went back and checked all of the terraforming, finding not one thing in place.
Taking a closer look, he found that each of the crystals, which were supposed to power the ward, were not actually connecting to the ward ritual. Shit.
Activating nearly every single one of his Profession skills he tried to coax out the stored mana and push it into the ritual for the Convergence Ward. Everything he tried got rebounded, the mana stored was not able to be taken out of the crystal like he was trying. He didn’t give up though and kept pushing, after a while he got a weird notification.
**Mana usage detected on Settlement Crystal. Access to stored mana provided to King Shaun Clermont for use outside of designated parameters.**
After the message appeared he fond drawing the mana out of the crystal to be much easier. Forming a link from the crystal into the surrounding area of the ward was much harder. The moment he stopped forcing it the mana dissipated into the air.
That’s when it all clicked in his mind. Like every other ritual he had ever done, he was going to need to power it through his willpower and mana, or in this case the mana from every crystal. He was going to need to take manual control until it all fell into place and became a self-sustaining ritual. This is why wards like this are so rare for lower grade areas. The sheer control you need over mana to complete the ward over such a large area is huge.
“I have an idea, but I might be here for a while. Stay if you want but you might want to get comfortable.” Shaun got down on the ground and started to meditate, sinking into a deep calm and connecting back to the crystal. He refused to give up now, this was a challenge and one he was more than ready to face.
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“How much longer do you think he will be?” Viv listened to Josh complain for what had to be the 3rd time in the last hour. When the road started glowing they were all on edge, but now that nothing was changing they were growing restless.
“I don’t know. He will be done when he is done. Could be days or weeks. I don’t know even know what he is doing right now so I can’t give you any idea how long it will take.” Viv was not happy with how long it was taking either, she had better things to do then sit and wait for Shaun.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
She had tried to access the E grade crystal, but Shaun hadn’t given her access. Not that he needed to, but it would have been nice. Xavier had been in contact with her more often since Shuan had finished claiming all of the E grade areas, pushing her to push him to go straight for the D grade area. She hadn’t mentioned it to Shaun but 2 other E grade dungeons had been claimed since last they spoke, although they were by two separate factions, it was still way before schedule for what a newly integrated planet was expected to have completed at this point. What made it worse was that one of them belonged to The Pantheon directly and was now being used as the base of their operations, at least according to Xavier.
Technically, because Viv didn’t have control over any of these clusters, not until Shaun handed them off to her, it looked like they were behind the others. That was having a perceived impact on The Empire’s ability to win the war, which was putting pressure on her. The even that was coming up was going to be the first true fight between the two sides. And if Viv was going to crush The Pantheon she needed her teams to be stronger then they were.
That was what was really affecting her. Shaun was not going to fight for her, Eric and Gabe were taking a step back from being directly on her team and without constant access to E grade dungeons people weren’t growing stronger. The issue was they the E grade dungeons were so far away from them, not to mention all the way in the mountains, that the travel back and forth was a ridiculous amount of time.
She had no way of currently reducing that, she had hoped that the E grade options would have something but Shaun wasn’t going to give her access. Her only choice was to wait and ask him when he was done with this, which was just a waste of time for her, but he doubted he would do it for anyone but her. So, she sat there on the ground waiting for him to finish. She just hoped that nothing would happen that would make her leave.
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Shaun knew he was on the right track to completing the ward, through his skills he could feel the mana he was pulling from the crystal spreading through what was now considered roads in this settlement but was really an epic graded ward, or would be when he was done. Unlike when he was practicing making these on a smaller level using his own mana, he was now having to use mana that was not his own, and a lot more of it.
When he first started moving the mana from the crystal into the ward it had been different but he soon got used to how to do it. Now, the more mana he took and had to control the harder it got, to the point he was constantly using his enhanced mind along with nearly every skill in his Profession just to make sure he didn’t slip up and ruin the entire process.
Even sitting down with his eyes closed in meditation he had an awareness of how much of the ward he had completed. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed but what he knew was that this was going to be a slow process. One of the things he needed to keep checking on was how much mana was left in the crystal, if he drained it before he connected to another he was going to be in trouble.
If his estimates were right there was enough mana in each crystal to cover the original E grade area that they controlled plus some left over. If he focused on just covering that area though he wouldn’t have enough to move through to the next settlement crystal and link them all up though. That was why his current plan was to take the most direct route to each E grade crystal and then spread down to the F grade ones before spreading out to cover the entire area.
If he didn’t have the ability to look at the layout of the entire settlement, outside of the D grade area, the ward would have failed, he was sure of that. But even with the perk of being a settlement owner the job was difficult.
When he had finally made his way through the ward and to the second crystal, his control nearly slipped. He had a good understanding that if he lost control over the mana he was now using, the backlash on both himself and the actual settlement would be extreme. He took a good amount of time when connecting to each of the crystals mana sources just regaining as much control as he could.
Shaun had a lot of mana, especially for his level, but the comparison between the thousands he had the millions he was currently controlling was insane. The pressure of wielding so much mana was wrecking both his mind and body. In the back of his mind he felt that he was in pain, and if it wasn’t for his skills being able to ignore that pain, he would not have even made it as far as he had.
To him, time was currently non-existent, only the ward mattered. When he connected to the third crystal he became numb, almost as if he was no longer connected to his body and its earthly needs, he was the mana. The fourth crystal boosted that feeling and he felt like if he simply shifted his mind to another part of the ward he could appear there in seconds. But when he connected to the fifth and final E grade crystal all he felt was an insane amount of pressure wanting to crush his mind.
Still though he pushed on. Rather than feeling weightless he now felt like he was pushing through mud. Imbuing even a metre of the ward left him with the feeling that his mind had been beaten black and blue. He ended up having to stop and rest continuously, slow and steady would be the only way he made it through this. Failure though was not an option.
Bit by bit he chipped away at imbuing the ward. At time it got easier and then he would need to pull even more mana to continue his progress and his mind would start to fracture again. When it came time to bring in the F grade crystals, he though that it would be easier than the E grade, he couldn’t have been more wrong.
Each F grade crystal brought even more mana under his control which pushed his mind and willpower to their limits. When finally he connected each of them he had to spend who knows how much time just holding his mind together. For a moment he was tempted to pull back his mind and check on the state of his body, but doing so would not be worth the risk, he knew he didn’t have willpower to hold not only the mana in place but also assess his own state. So he ignored his bodily needs and just kept pushing.
After having claimed every crystal in the settlement to his ward, imbuing the lines was his only focus. All he had to do was spread the mana, which although was still difficult he no longer had to go through the process of claiming large amounts of mana at a time. His control continued to improve the longer he worked, until the only thing left was imbuing the walls.
He chose one spot on the wall and used that as a focal point to move around from. It was a slower process but it was also safer for not just him but everyone in the settlement. When he finished moving around the wall at a snails pace he had a full awareness that every line in his ward was now fully powered with mana, but still it was not done. It needed more mana.
More and more he pulled mana from the crystals and pulsed his skills. Elemental Fusion, Creators Control, Element Coercion, Meditation, Mana Sight and his Enhanced Mind all worked overtime in ways he had never used them before to get the job done. Although his skills were more suited to elements, he used them on the unattuned mana from the crystals. He didn’t know what that would do to the skills, but he hoped that nothing bad would come from it in his next upgrade.
It took some time and he had drained nearly every single crystal of mana before he felt that the ward had hit its limit of the amount of mana it could take. Knowing it was nearing completion he forced himself to keep control of the ward until the final moment.
As soon as he felt the ward fall into place Shaun felt his mind being pulled through the entire settlement. Where he had an awareness of every line and rune when he had been connected to the mana he had been wielding he now felt his mind being forcibly pulled back to his body so quickly that he wasn’t able to fully take in what has happening.
The moment his mind fully pulled back to his body, he felt unbelievable pain enter his thoughts. He was not okay, he felt fractured and drained, on the edge of simply fading from existence altogether. Not since he started the tutorial had he ever felt so vulnerable, like a gentle breeze could literally undo the cells holding his body together.
For on a moment he was able to open his eyes, it almost felt like a foreign thing, seeing with your eyes. For so long his only sight had been mana and the pattern of the ward and seeing the world again felt strange. He felt himself losing consciousness, he knew it would only be seconds before he was gone from the world.
**[Epic] Settlement Convergence ward successfully placed.**
There was so many notifications after that one but he didn’t have the strength to look at them. As darkness took over he didn’t know if he was hallucinating or if his mind had cracked in some way that he would never recover, but for the briefest of moment he felt a connection to someone else’s mind, someone that he swore he knew but had never actually met. Right before he fully lost consciousness, he heard two words in his mind through that connection. Find us.
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For over a month Josh had been stuck camping out here with Shuan. It had been the longest, most boring month of his life. His job was to watch over him. If anything happened he was to send word back through a messenger that would come to him every 2 days.
Vivenne had left shortly after Shaun had started doing whatever the hell he was doing. The glowing in the roads had continued to spread out and that had caused mass panic for everyone in the settlement. It was a weird sight, even after everything they had all been through since the integration.
The only thing that made being here for Josh interesting was when Shaun’s body would start fading out of existence or when a huge burst of mana could be felt leaving his body. For over a month he had waited for something more to happen and he was nearly at his wits ends when something finally changed.
The entire settlement, seemed to brighten, he was woken in the middle of the night by a light that was emitted not just from the road but also from the walls and even into the air, forming a dome around the entire settlement.
The settlement had turned into a beacon of light that people would be able to see from thousands of kilometres away. It was as if a sun had decided to shine its light form the very settlement. It got so bright that Josh had to close and shield his eyes. It lasted only a few seconds but that was more than long enough to send a signal out to anyone even remotely close to them of their very location.
As soon as the light faded he looked over at Shaun. All he saw was the man’s eyes open for just a second before he fell completely limp to the ground.
“Shit! Please don’t be dead! Viv will kill me!” Josh ran the distance to Shaun’s body and checked for any trace of life. It took a few seconds, but he found a heartbeat, a weak one, but it was there. “Thank the gods.”
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Viv was sitting in her office going over reports and her to do list when the light from Shaun’s ward started getting brighter and brighter. For the past month she had tried to put Shaun out of her mind, there was nothing anyone could do to help him and no one wanted to risk moving or waking him for fear of what might happen if he was suddenly pulled out of his trance mid-way through the creation of the ward.
She was getting updates every few days about any changes which she passed on to Xavier, who was becoming increasingly short with her as the weeks passed. More E grade dungeons were being claimed across the world, her enemy was getting stronger while her own people were stagnating at the higher levels. Many of the F grades had grown considerably the past month, their training going very well. The E Grades though had barely grown, even with a number of trips to the closest E grade dungeons.
When the light around the settlement became blinding she had to shield herself away from it. It didn’t last long but this would cause chaos thought the cities which she would need to get a head of.
**As the sub Mayor of the Settlement please note an [Epic] Settlement Convergence ward has been successfully placed.**
The moment she got the message she contacted Xavier. Hopefully this will put him in a good mood.
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The Empress sat with all the other Powers that had been gathered. These meetings used to be rare, happening every few thousand years, but since this most recent integration that had changed.
“Through all of our searching we have found no interference in the integration, no foul play has been detected, we are unsure why this Earth has appeared now.” Chaos spoke to all over the Powers, he spoke calmly but even to her she could feel how annoyed he was at not knowing the answers. “A nexus planet has not been integrated in the last 40 expansions of the system. And compared to the last this nexus is much more powerful than the last. The most powerful since the 1st. I suggest…”
The Empress stopped listening to Chaos, she had just received word from Xavier. She had doubted his ability at first, not seeing the importance of that girl, especially after she cut ties with the one she truly wanted. But it seemed that Xavier had made some good investments in this one. She had been hesitant to allow the system contact to be put in place, it was a long shot that this Shaun could accomplish what he said he could. But now it was paying off better than she could have hoped, letting the boy live and bringing him over to her side, even temporarily, had been the best decision that Xavier had made.
“Would you like to share what has you in such a good move, Empress?” The King of the Gods, Zeus, questioned her. She was in active war against him for the Nexus. Although many of the other Powers would have liked to claim the planet they did not hold the sway with the humans that they did, causing the factions to all choose sides.
“If you must know, an investment has paid off.” She smiled directly at Zeus, giving her best cat at the canary smile. “The fight for the Nexus just tilted heavily in my favour.”
Zeus laughed at her comment, looking down at her like he was so much better than her. He had done that since the Great War, always thinking he was better than everyone else because of the amount of Nephilim he had claimed. “We shall see about that.”