Time had become an illusion to Shaun, his only focus was on completing his project to the best of his ability. The air ritual was complex, he wanted to form the ritual out of nothing but air and to do that he needed to figure out if it was even possible. He had tried and tested so many different methods until he was close to just giving up.
Eventually he was able to create wind tunnels out of hardened air, just like he did when he would run through the sky. The issue he encountered was that he needed to hold complete control over the air to keep it contained in the shape of the ritual at the same time he infused it with air attuned mana. He failed multiple times but when he finally had the ritual finished the structure became self-sustaining.
He encountered a similar issue with fire but managed to overcome it through pure willpower. The water one was the easiest of the lot, he utilised the walls of the dome to create waterfalls that helped him to guide the water where he needed it.
When he had finished he felt proud of himself, he had accomplished a lot in doing these Pseudo Natural Treasures, his skill had all increased as had his levels. He had managed to get 8 more levels in his profession from the final three rituals plus 4 in his race. The only thing he hadn’t done was apply his AP. He hadn’t done this in a long while as he usually forgot about it until he looked at his status sheet, and even then, he usually kept putting it off as he never knew where to put them.
Status:
Name: Shaun Clermont
Race Human (E)
Level: 110
Class: [Advanced] Elemental Blade Slinger - Level 118
Profession: [Advanced] Elemental Creator - Level 102
Health Points:13230/13230
Stamina:9890/9890
Mana: 8659/45070
Stats: (Available Points: 496)
Strength:
1049
Dexterity:
1126
Endurance:
989
Vitality:
1323
Intelligence:
1292
Perception:
1079
Willpower:
1147
Soul:
4507
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 121), [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 99), [Advanced] Creators Control (Level 98), [Advanced] Element Coercion (Level 82), [Advanced] Meditation (Level 125 - MAX), [Epic] Mana Mastery (Level 6), [Advanced] Runic Scribe (Level 112), [Advanced] Elemental Storage (Level 36), [Advanced] Creators Plan (Level 37), [Advanced] Creators Domain (Level 1)
All of his stats were over a thousand outside of endurance. That was the first thing he changed, putting in 100 of his AP. He didn’t consider putting anything in his soul stat, he got plenty of that from his % bonuses as well as both his class and profession.
He rarely had issues with his health, outside of doing crazy things like the ward, but even then that was less about his vitality and more about ripping his body apart with mana. Instead, he decided to invest 100 AP into strength, dexterity, perception and the remaining into willpower.
The other thing that had happened during all of his work was hitting level 100 in his profession, after getting creators plan he was offered the same skills as last time along with a skill that centred around teaching others his skills. He turned that down immediately as not in a million years was that something he wanted to do long term, if anything it would muddy his own path to the next evolution of his profession.
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He chose the Creators Domain skill as he thought that it would go well with his planning skill, the two, if he was lucky, could be combined into something greater than the two separate skills.
Now that he was done with his project he made his way back to the school in good spirit. There would be a lot to go over with Eric around what he had created and how it would work but the organisation of it all he was confident he could leave with Eric and he would figure it out.
When he made it back to the school he decided to walk though instead of fly so that he could figure out where Eric was. It didn’t take him long to figure out that more time had passed than he realised. The first thing that clued him in was that there were elves in the school. Not many, but there was enough that he knew that the elves had moved into the settlement.
The second thing that clued him in was that the building he had been teaching rune work in had become much busier, there was even a sign out front staying that it was now an enchantment hall. Clearly progress had been made there, even without his presence they had pushed forward and were now clearly able to do basic rune work on items.
“You’re back.” Shaun turned to see who had spoken to him and to his surprise he found Eli approaching him with 4 other kids his age, two of them were elves and one he recognised as Grace. “People have been looking for you for a while you know.”
Shaun had expected Eli to be angry at him, disappointed maybe, but he was all smiles. “How long exactly have I been gone?”
Rather than reply straight away Eli just laughed. “You really don’t know?” Shaun just shook his head. “About 3 weeks. It’s been about 4 weeks since the message around the event.”
And he had lost a chunk of time while in a trance again. He didn’t know where most of that time was spent, could have been any one of the rituals. He needed to figure out a better way to manage his meditation skill. Although this was really why he didn’t want people relying on him for anything. He wanted to do what he wanted without having to worry about what was happening with others.
“Right. Good to know. So who are you friends?” He wanted to change the subject and the people standing behind Eli looked nervous that he had just walked up to him without a care in the world, outside of Grace who smiled and waved at him.
“They are my team. You know Grace, the other human is Joey and the two elves are Ilia and Patch. We are going into the event together.” Good for him to create a team…Wait. Go into the event? “We all have our classes now.” The shit eating grin on Eli’s face was telling. He had gotten something good. He identified him and saw that he was now level 8.
“Level 8 and you have a class, well done.” He meant it too, he was proud of how far he had come since he found Eli that day in the city. “Don’t neglect your skill levels though. They are maybe even more important than your actual level.”
“I know. Maybe you can spend some time with us? We aren’t aloud in the dungeons alone, we have to go with a trainer and we are pretty limited with how often we can go. It would be cool if you took us though. I doubt anyone would complain if the all powerful Shaun kidnapped a bunch of kids.”
“Okay first off I didn’t kidnap you.”
“Right, you only chased us through a city like a crazy person.”
“And secondly, this isn’t the best way to go about getting my help.”
“But your going to help anyway aren’t you.”
“Shut up.” He had already decided to take Eli and his team through a dungeon run. If they wanted to join the event he wanted to make sure they were ready. “Any idea where Eric is?”
“Probably in his office.” Right and that was? “That building, the door has his name on it. You can’t miss it.”
“Perfect, I have some things that I will probably need to deal with for the rest of the day but maybe tomorrow we can do that dungeon run. You better be ready for it. I won’t be as easy on you as the teachers.”
He left them with that and the moment he turned to walk to the building that Eric should be in, which he confirmed with a burst of his echo, he felt them all huddle together and start planning on how they could prepare for tomorrow.
No one stopped him when he entered the building and he didn’t even hesitate to open the door to Eric’s office and walk on in. As soon as Eric saw him he saw the relief wash over his face.
“Damn is it good to see you.”
“That bad huh?” He took a seat across from Eric and got comfortable.
“You have no idea. Viv has been a menace.” Shaun laughed at that. “If she wasn’t so good at running this place I would say get rid of her, but even I have to admit she has managed everything well, all things considered.” Shaun had had the same thought. She was useful though. She had helped get the factions, or most of them anyway, off of his back and also helped manage this place. She was doing a lot of good here, even if she tended to annoy him.
“Sorry about disappearing for a few weeks. The good news though is that we have some more resources to use for the school.” Eric laughed at him now, which he didn’t quite get.
“5 Pseudo Natural Treasures. And if I was to guess I think I know exactly what they are now.” Eric gestured at his hand. “You got rid of your gauntlet.”
“I did. I outgrew it.”
“And I imagine that those 5 treasures have something to do with 5 basic elements.”
“They do.”
“And I am guessing that others should be able to use those areas the same way you did in the air and fire dungeons? To see if they can bond the elements to affinity?”
“Can’t get anything past you, can I?” He was enjoying this just as much as Eric was. It was good to be able to chill out with someone like this.
“How are you going to manage who gets to use them and who doesn’t?” Eric had pushed this on to him and he fully planned to push it back.
“Up to you. I did my part in making them, you get to manage the rest.” Eric laughed at him again, it wasn’t in the way he expected though.
“Yeah I figured you would say that. I have already put a plan together. We will split time 50/50 between the school and Viv. We get most of the day and they can use them at night. Seeing as we have a school with a schedule and she doesn’t I figured she could work around our schedule.” This time it was Shaun laughing. He couldn’t agree more with what Eric had proposed. “Let me contact Viv and you can show us what you have made. Saves you from having to do it twice.”
They spoke about the changes that had occurred over the last 3 weeks, the integration of the elves had been seamless and a number of people that he had taught runes to had managed to get a profession, even a number of the kids had managed to do it.
When Viv finally arrived she wasn’t alone. Now rather than just having Li and Josh with her she also had Yarila, the elf, with her.
“It is nice to see you back Shaun, much has happened in your absence.” Viv was acting way too nice and way too happy for his liking. If he was going to bet on it, she wanted something from him and it wasn’t hard to guess what.
“Great to be back. Let’s get going.” He didn’t say anything else, just got up and headed past everyone and out the door.
They caught up to him quickly and Viv walked up to his side. “The option to join The Empire is still on the table you know.” Why the fuck is she brining that up?
He didn’t even bother replying to her. He had made his stance perfectly clear and it wasn’t open for discussion.
“The elves, as you should already know, have moved into the settlement. I provided them with 2 full F grade areas, in turn they are going to fight for us in the event as well as recruit any other Elven groups into the fold.” That was good at least.
“The training and weapon production is going well. Although your runesmiths charge a lot for their work and have declined having anyone brought in from the outside to be taught.” Good, they deserved to capitalise the market.
“What grade are these treasures? The notification didn’t say.” He again didn’t bother answering and instead they just walked in silence.
It took about 30 minutes before they reached the nature treasure and when he guided them in no one said a word. It took a good 10 minutes of them looking around and even meditating for a while before he called them back to move on.
“We still have 4 more stops, questions can wait until the end. For now, we run.” He pushed them hard from then on, stopping at each one for 10 minutes before moving on.
When they made it back to the school, just in time for food, they all gathered around one of the tables in the food hall before he allowed them to speak.
“What you have made will benefit a lot of people here. It is no small thing to create something so saturated in an element that people may have the chance to bond an affinity.” Yarila was the first to speak and he appreciated what she said.
“Yes, I agree. But will he let anyone outside of those at the school use them?” Viv had asked the question that he knew she would. She didn’t know if he would let her utilise them, especially after what he had done with the rune class.
“Shaun and I have already discussed it. From sunrise to sunset the school will be the only ones that have access, outside of that we may still use them but you will also have access. How many people at a time should be able to go in Shaun?” He hadn’t thought about that and it was really dependant.
“I would say between 5 and 10. But if someone starts bonding an element I would suggest everyone leave except for them. You will feel it if it happens. You also need to keep a feel on the saturation level. If it drops, cut back on the amount of people or stop letting anyone in entirely.”
“That works. Any issues Viv?” Eric had taken control of the management just like he had asked.
Viv looked like she wanted to argue but held back. “I will make it work.” She didn’t sound overly happy about it but if she argued she knew that it could easily end up worse for her. “Shaun, I communicated with Xavier on the way back. He wanted to pass on his congratulations for what you achieved. He did not expect anything as large or powerful as what you created. He has agreed to add a bonus on top of what you will already be paid for the ward. I assume you want that provided to Eric and Gabe as well?”
“Sounds good to me.” Eric looked shocked at what Viv said but didn’t ask questions. Clearly, he had forgotten to communicate that last bit to Eric. “Eric, I am taking Eli and his team out of classes tomorrow. He now has a class and he asked if he could go on a dungeon run with me.”
“Well, I wish them luck.”