It had been nearly 6 months to the day since the world changed. No longer could the human race rely on technology to live but instead, they had to adapt to a world that had new rules. Strength and Power were now what governed the world. Without it you were just another sheep in the flock, with it though, you were the shepherd.
If there was one thing that could be said about the people of Earth, it was that they knew how to adapt. In the months since the tutorial people had started to find their place in the new order. Some worked hard and took every advantage they could to grow in strength. Others resigned themselves to living out their lives in what peaceful existence they could find. If there was one thing that everyone agreed on though, it was that life was uncertain. It could be taken away in the blink of an eye.
Shaun was one of the people that pushed himself to the breaking point again and again, not just for personal power but also for freedom. When he came to, he had no idea where he was. The moment he opened his eyes he saw a roof over his head and he felt like he was on a bed. The moment he attempted to move unbelievable pain wrecked his body, causing him to groan in pain. What the hell happened?
Thinking back he remembered working on putting the ward in place, he recounted all the time he had spent working with the mana in the crystals and then he remembered his mind fracturing and being pulled back to his body. He remembered the system message, about the ward being successful and then a voice. Find us. That was all he could remember.
Without moving he assessed the state of his body. He was starving, thirsty and sore. His mind ached as well, a headache that he couldn’t block out was constantly thumping in his head. Closing his eyes he tried to block out the pain but the moment he tried to activate his mind skill it was as if someone had taken a knife and plunged it into his head. Instead of trying to figure out what had happened he just looked at the notifications that he had yet to see, starting from the very beginning.
**[Epic] Settlement Convergence ward successfully placed.**
He remembered that one, it was the last thing he saw before blacking out.
**Title earned: Impossible Feat**
**Impossible Feat: After being faced with a challenge that should have been impossible, you have overcome all odds staked against you and survived. By making the impossible, possible, you have empowered your mind, body and soul. +10% to all stats**
It was a nice title, although he didn’t like the idea that what he had done should have been impossible, although feeling the way he did now he couldn’t imagine many people, if any, at his grade would have survived doing what he did.
**Title earned: Mana Body**
**Mana Body: Through channelling and controlling more mana than should have been possible, your body has adapted through being pulled apart and put back together due to the strain of melding with a large amount of mana. This allows you to be able to more easily wield and control large amounts of mana with precision. +10% to Soul and Body stats**
The title was interesting, yet also terrifying. At some point in the process of creating the ward his body had literally been torn apart and put back together purely by using so much mana. He had been using millions of mana compared to his thousands, but still, it was horrifying to think about.
**Title earned: Mana Mind**
**Mana Mind: Through separating your mind from your body and melding it with mana, you can now easily see the workings of mana in both the world around you as well as within skills, items, sentient beings and monsters. +10% to Soul and Mind stats**
In some ways this was like his Mana Sight skill, but just so much more powerful. It also explained why his head hurt so much, he had separated his mind and literally melded it with pure mana. No matter that he had increased his stats across the board with the titles, the pain would linger for a good amount of time yet.
**Synergy Detected between Title Mana Mind and Skill [Advanced] Mana Sight**
**Your skill [Advanced] Mana Sight (Level 94) has evolved into [Epic] Mana Mastery (Level 1)**
**[Epic] Mana Mastery: The Mana Mastery skill allows the user to more easily pierce the makings and patterns of mana. The skill also allows for the ability to change mana constructs, also known as skills, and unravel the making of them.**
The skill upgrade was incredible. It was a straight upgrade to Mana Sight and more. The idea that he could now unravel a skill used by someone else or even adapt it to his own need was so overpowered. He wished he could try it out now but with the way he felt he doubted that was going to end well. Wait, when did my Mana Sight level get to 94? He needed to get trough the rest of these notifications.
**Profession: Elemental Creator has levelled up by 28 levels. [Advanced] Elemental Creator has reached Level 86. +140 Int, +56 Wil, +84 Per, +140 Soul **
**Race: Human has levelled up by +14 levels. Human (E) has reached Level 102. +224 Ap gained**
That was a lot of levels, more than he had ever received at any one time. He had made a much smaller ward exactly like this and only gotten a level or two. This though was insane. The only thing that made it make any sense was the fact that even the system itself had said it was an impossible feat to accomplish at his level, that would have factored in to the levels he had earnt from doing it. It did directly link into his class as well. He had created something, even if it wasn’t really elemental, it still counted.
**New Profession Skill Available: Please choose from one of the following options:**
He had completely forgotten about hitting the next level where he got to pick a new skill. It wasn’t something he had been expecting to hit any time soon so it hadn’t been on his mind. Now though he had another decision to make on where he wanted to take his Profession.
**[Advanced] Creators Domain – The skill allows you to enter an internal domain where you can utilise your imagination, conjuring any items or material you have previously acquired to test different crafting methods and see what items can be crafted with materials, gaining an understanding of final creations before utilising materials in the real world.**
He had been given this choice before and although he had been curious about it he didn’t know how helpful it would be to him now or in the future.
**[Advanced] Creators Plan – The skill allows you to store a plan of a creation into a secure orb created from solid mana. This plan can then be projected and adapted using the creators will**
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He knew why he had bene given this skill. He had been planning all of his layouts on paper and it was an annoying and tedious process. This was something he would use now and way into the future.
**[Epic] Ward Master – The skill allows you to create and store wards in orbs created by mana that can then be used at a moment’s notice by the user. Grade and Power of the ward is dependent on time and energy spent creating the stored ward.**
He was shocked at seeing an option for an epic grade skill given it was still an advanced profession. The skill was a good one too. Creating wards and being able to use them whenever someone wanted could really help others out, but not him. He had a feeling that if he picked this skill it would really change his options when he got his profession to level 125. He had made the ward here out of necessity, not as he wanted to pursue a full profession in ward making. If he didn’t have to make a ward again in the future he just wouldn’t. There were other things he would prefer doing with his time, especially because he nearly died doing it this time.
His choice was easy this time round.
**Skill Gained**: [Advanced] Creators Plan (Level 1)**
That was the end of the notifications, he knew he had gotten some skill levels as well but after having turned off the notifications form those he needed to bring up his status sheet to really see them.
Status:
Name: Shaun Clermont
Race Human (E)
Level: 102
Class: [Advanced] Elemental Blade Slinger - Level 118
Profession: [Advanced] Elemental Creator - Level 86
Health Points:13230/13230
Stamina:9890/9890
Mana:41750/41750
Stats: (Available Points: 368)
Strength:
1049
Dexterity:
1126
Endurance:
989
Vitality:
1323
Intelligence:
1120
Perception:
976
Willpower:
1068
Soul:
4175
Affinity:
Basic: Earth, Fire, Nature, Air, Water
Advanced: Lightning, Ice, Magma
Titles:
New Initiate, Apex Predator, Planetary Forerunner, Elementalist, Expert Solo Dungeoneer, King, Impossible Feat. Mana Body, Mana Mind
Heritage:
Azreal's Legacy (Hidden)
Skills:
Class:
[Advanced] Blade Mastery (Level 72), [Advanced] Earthen Echo (Level 59), [Advanced] Enhanced Mind (Level 118), [Advanced] Elemental Strike (Level 76), [Advanced] Stone Skin (Level 33), [Advanced] Elemental Shift (Level 44), [Advanced] Elemental Summons (Level 43), [Advanced] Mirrored Elemental Blade (Level 17)
Profession:
[Advanced] Elemental Fusion (Level 97), [Advanced] Creators Control (Level 95), [Advanced] Element Coercion (Level 78), [Advanced] Meditation (Level 125 - MAX), [Epic] Mana Mastery (Level 1), [Advanced] Runic Scribe (Level 99), [Advanced] Elemental Storage (Level 6), [Advanced] Creators Plan (Level 1)
Holy shit! He had a lot of AP to use, but that was not what caught his eye. His skills had grown, ridiculously so. He had maxed out his mediation skill which was insane, his mind skill had also increased to the point that it was nearly at max as well. All of his profession skills had also grown, specifically his fusion, control and rune skills.
He knew skills levelled when really pushing them in a way that you hadn’t before, and with every one of those skills he had pushed them to their limits and beyond over and over again. He had used everything he had when making that ward and it seems that nearly dying had paid off. The one thing that made him question things was just how long had he been working on that ward to have pushed his skills that much?
Before he had a chance to dwell on it someone opened the door to the room he was in. Shaun vaguely recognised the man but before he had a chance to speak the man went running out of the room yelling that he was awake.
Shaun attempted to get out of the bed but the moment he attempted to move he felt the pain run through his body again. He was at full health which meant that the pain was something he was going to need to work through on his own, without the aid of potions or healers. This was a consequence of his mind and body being torn to shred by mana.
When the man returned he didn’t do so alone, Viv was with him. She looked him over, assessing the state he was in before she looked him in the eyes. “Its good to see you awake. We were losing hope that you would ever wake up again.” The way she spoke sounded like she meant it too. “Do you need anything?”
“Food, water.” Even speaking hurt at this point but he was starving and needed fuel to help him recover.
“I imagine. You haven’t eaten anything, or even drank anything but the potions we poured down your throat in over a month. You don’t look great to be honest.”
A month! How the hell had he been unconscious for a month? He opened his mouth about to ask when Viv held up her hand.
“I will tell you everything that’s happened. Just conserve your energy and listen.” The same guy as before pulled out food and water for him. Not a huge amount, but enough to start. “Go slowly, you don’t know how you will react to eating after such a long time.”
He didn’t reply to her instead he pushed through the pain and started eating what looked like some kind of soup.
“You have only been unconscious for 2 days, but you were in a trance working on the ward for about a month. We didn’t want to wake you or move you during that time. We didn’t know what that would do to you.” He was thankful for that. If they had disturbed him during that time he would have died. “During that time though your body was…..going through something. Every now and again you would shift in and out of a physical form. We assume you have some idea about why, but it was rather scary for Josh, he was the one that kept watch over you.”
What she said matched up pretty well with the titles he had received around his mana body. He could imagine witnessing it occurring would have been a hell of a sight. He didn’t confirm it though, instead he just kept eating the soup.
“Eric and Gabe have been coming to visit you, you just missed them. They will be back soon though, unless you feel like you will be able to move around any time in the next few days. The school is going well. Very well actually, in case you were wondering. The settlement in general has really started to take form. We have a good system up and running and the stores that we purchased have really helped with growing an economy as well as helping with the overall quality of life here.”
He listened to Viv speak but again didn’t comment. He finished his soup and gestured for another which Josh handed him.
“The ward, as I am sure you know, is fully in place. Xavier as well as The Empress, are more than pleased with what you accomplished. They have said that once the year is up they will pay you whatever you want, really. What you have done was beyond their expectations.”
“Have all payment given to Eric and Gabe when the year is up.” He wouldn’t be here then and there was no way that he would be going near Xavier once he left the planet. He was already starting to feel a bit better, his body at least anyway, he really did need the food.
“I will let him know.” Viv considered for a moment before continuing. “How long until you think you can move?”
Shaun considered it for a moment, if he kept eating, drinking and doing nothing but focusing on recovery he expected it to be a few days. “A day or two. It depends really.”
“Okay, we will talk more than. I will have someone let Eric and Gabe know your awake.” She left the room as soon as she was done talking, not waiting for a reply. Their relationship was complicated, he knew that, but he was now more than ever sure that it was not friendship, but a relationship of necessity. She looked after the people and settlement, he claimed the dungeons and acted as a bank for her. Without working with the other, neither of them really got what they wanted.