This was what he had been waiting for, upgrading his class was the last thing he wanted to do before moving on to make the final gauntlet and finishing stage 2. He was hoping for something that would aid him in being able to craft the gauntlet, something that would also help with the gem would be nice, but he knew that the descriptions of his profession choices wouldn’t just tell him what would happen to his existing skills. Looking at the first choice he was ready to find out what he would be offered.

**[Advanced] Mana Smith: Unlike most crafting professions the Mana Smith relies solely on their Mana and Earthen materials to create weapons and items predominantly used in battle. Similar to a blacksmith, the Mana Smith has a high ability to change metals into a desired shape and increase the properties of the metal they use. Stats per level +3 Int, +4 Wil, +3 Per, +5 Soul Note: some skill may be upgraded or lost if this class is chosen.

Shaun got why he was offered this profession, he had gotten a lot of his levels through manipulating metals. It wasn’t a bad profession, and he wasn’t upset about it being an option, but the fact that it removed the ability to work with so many other materials was a huge downside. He would consider it, if only because he did enjoy working with metals most and creating weapons and armour was fun.

*[Basic] Universal Crafter: The Universal Crafter is not tied down by any one type of craft, instead they are able to freely utilise any materials and objects that they may need to craft any given item. Stats per level +2 Int, +2 Wil, +4 Per Note: some skill may be upgraded or lost if this class is chosen.*

This one was just kind of insulting, it took away all of the good things about his current profession, there was no mention of mana or elements or attuning anything. It was not only still basic but also just worse than his Mana Crafter profession.

*[Advanced] Elemental Creator: The Elemental Creator relies on the elements to create and craft items. When creating items using an element the Elemental Creator has a small chance to increase the rarity of an item. Stats per level +5 Int, +2 Wil, +3 Per, +5 Soul Note: some skill may be upgraded or lost if this class is chosen.*

This one was both different and similar to the profession he currently had. Instead of being mana focused though it was elemental focused. He didn’t know what that would do his skills, as having everything moved from unattuned mana to elemental could impact his ability to actually work with some materials. The change from crafter to creator was interesting though. It didn’t seem like it had much difference but after everything he had learned since the integration he knew that words had meaning. The chance to boost up the rarity of a creation was also something he was inclined towards, he had only been able to create advanced items when he had a basic class, so would this let him move up into whatever rarity was above it?

*[Advanced] Rune Scribe: The Rune Scribe is a highly intelligent crafter that solely focuses on imbuing items with runes to add spells, forming complex rituals and delving into the nature of the runic art. Stats per level +6 Int,+2 Wil, +2 Per +5 Soul Note: some skill may be upgraded or lost if this class is chosen.*

The Rune Scribe, it many ways it was a great profession, especially knowing how powerful runes could be, but it took away all of the joys of crafting things. Taking pieces of metal or monster parts and creating something more with them was something he had come to enjoy, almost as much as fighting monsters, and he didn’t want to give that up.

*[Basic] Mana Crafter: Unlike most crafting professions the Mana Crafter relies solely on their Mana and what materials they have on hand to improve and craft items. Stats per level +2 Int,+2 Wil, +4 Soul*

And finally the same profession he had, when this happened with his class he immediately ruled it out, but this time there was much more to consider. He had narrowed down the options to the Elemental Creator and his current Mana Crafter. The two were very similar, but in some ways also conflicting. He was worried that if he chose the Elemental Creator profession he would lose some of the skills that he was relying on to create the gauntlet. He was confident in being able to do most of the crafting with his current profession and moving away from it now was a risk.

He had to decide on the short-term gain of keeping his current profession or the long term benefits of upgrading to advanced, and with it getting the extra stats and potentially better skills. In the end he decided to risk it, he couldn’t think short term and needed to consider the long game. If he couldn’t make his gauntlet now he would figure out something different in the future.

*Congratulations, you now have the Profession: [Advanced] Elemental Creator*

*Your skill [Basic] [Basic] Mana Meld (Level 25 - Max) has been upgraded into [Advanced] Elemental Fusion (Level 1)*

*Your skill [Basic] Mana Manipulation (Level 25 - Max) has been upgraded into [Advanced] Creators Control (Level 1)*

*Your skill [Basic] Mana Attunement (Level 25 - Max) has been upgraded into [Advanced] Element Coercion (Level 1)*

The new skills were thankfully, very similar to the ones he already had. Elemental Fusion allowed him to channel an element and fuse material together, apparently in a way that was near unbreakable, the caveat being that you had to use a suitable element dependant on the material. Creators Control, was using ones Willpower to manipulate and control a material to bend it into shape and position, it worked similar you his old skill just without the mana and more intent, his Enhanced Mind skill working in tandem with this one would be perfect. Lastly Elemental Coercion was the same as his attunement skill, except that it was more forceful, allowed for greater power and when connecting to an element you could either infuse into an item or forcibly remove it.

Shaun was shocked he hadn’t lost any of his skills, especially the rune one, apparently the change in profession was slightly less strict in what skills would or wouldn’t fit under it. Creating was a very broad term anyway, so it came to reason that it could justify his other skills still playing a role in the advanced profession.

Once all of the changes were completed he looked over his status sheet, checking all of the changes over and concluding he was happy with what he saw. He still had some AP left but at this point left them, he would decide during the crafting where they needed to go.

Status:

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Name: Shaun Clermont

Race Human (E)

Level: 29

Class: [Advanced] Elemental Blade Slinger - Level 34

Profession: [Advanced] Elemental Creator - Level 25

Health Points:1830/1830

Stamina:1830/1830

Mana: 2512/3980

Stats: (Available Points: 16)

Strength: 183

Dexterity: 197

Endurance: 183

Vitality: 183

Intelligence: 122

Perception: 149

Willpower: 155

Soul: 398

Affinity: Earth, Fire, Nature, Air, Water

Titles: New Initiate, Apex Predator, Planetary Forerunner, Elementalist, Expert Solo Dungeoneer

Heritage: Azreal's Legacy (Hidden)

Skills:

Class: [Advanced] Blade Mastery (Level 14), [Advanced] Earthen Echo (Level 28), [Advanced] Enhanced Mind (Level 29), [Advanced] Elemental Strike (Level 23), [Advanced] Stone Skin (Level 22)

Profession: [Advanced] Elemental Fusion (Level 1), [Advanced] Creators Control (Level 1), [Advanced] Element Coercion (Level 1), [Basic] Meditation (Level 25 - Max), [Advanced] Mana Sight (Level 19), [Basic] Rune Knowledge (Level 15)

He tested out his new skills to make sure that he could use them with enough precision to move onto crafting the final gauntlet. He spent about 30 minutes testing them out on the different materials he had laying around, and it didn’t take him long to adjust to the changes.

The first thing he did was dismantle the trident, he focused his new Creators Control skill and popper the gem out of the weapon.

*[Advanced] Water Attuned Diamond: A Diamond that has been deeply attuned to the water element, greatly increasing power of all water spells that are used with the gem. The Water Attuned Diamond is capable of holding 50,000 mana.*

Now that he had removed the diamond he was able to identify it separately from the trident, it was impressive to say the least, but not what he needed at the moment. The first step in making his gauntlet a reality was removing the water attunement part from the diamond. Which thankfully his new skill would help with.

Focusing on his Element Coercion skill, especially with an element he had an affinity with, was surprisingly easy. He connected with the diamond almost instantly and when he did he started trying to pull the water affinity from the gem. As he started to pull from it he came to his first problem, he had nowhere to put the water element that he was taking out of the gem. He had no other materials he could transfer it too and he didn’t want to risk putting it in the orb as it would create an unbalanced effect if he then put it in the gauntlet. Having no other choice he released it into the world around him, which was the second mistake. Releasing huge amounts of the water element into the world instantly started causing rain to form in the air, soaking him immediately and nearly causing a flash flood in the process. He didn’t stop doing it though until the last of the water element was removed from the gem.

*[Advanced] Unattuned Diamond: A Diamond that has no elemental attunement, capable of holding 50,000 mana.*

It was not as impressive as when it was attuned to water but still, it would do for what he needed it for. He packed up all of his things, drying them out with a pulse of heat, and moved from where he was, further into the forest until he found a new clearing he could work in, it was annoying but sitting on the wet ground was very unappealing.

Once he was settled back in, he only pulled out the trident, orbs and gem, as well as his unstable prototype. These were going to be the only things he needed to finish the gauntlet. Without delaying any longer, now only having about 8 hours left to finish before the stage would end, he got to work.

Creating all of the parts for the base was easy, he simply replicated what he had already done. The metal of the trident, which when he identified it was an advanced reinforced gold alloy and thankfully was completely unattuned, was harder to work with than the basic bronze metal, it took a lot more focus and energy to shape, even with having an advanced skill. It didn’t take too much longer than he had expected though, and when he was done and tested out all of the joints while wearing it, he moved onto inscribing the runes.

He couldn’t find any fault with what he had done before, he just hoped that using the orbs rather than marble would change it from being unstable. It took him longer than before to do all of the rune work, the harder more advanced metal had a resistance to it when trying to do such delicate work, and covering up any mistakes he made extended the process, as he would settle for nothing less than perfection.

When he got to the point where there were only two things left to do, fuse the orbs and gem into place and power the entire item up, he gave himself a quick break to eat and recover a little. He was cutting being able to finish the gauntlet pretty close to the ending of stage 2, but he also didn’t want to end up entering the next stage hungry or overworked, taking a short break now was worth it.

When he was done, he fused the orbs and gems into place. This was delicate work as the orbs didn’t seem like they wanted to be close to each other, having some kind of resistance in between them, but he hoped, like with his affinities, that when the runic lines were powered, harmony would occur. The gem went in with no issue, happy to be surrounded by any and all of the orbs, he was carful not to infuse any element into it as he needed to keep it unattuned for any of this to work.

The only thing left to do was meditate and infuse the gauntlet with his mana, he would be doing it differently this time though, he would be pushing all of mana out into the gem and from there working it through the runes, wanting to create the connections from the very beginning. It was a different feeling, sending his mana into the gem, it was like an empty well that was craving to be filled, it greedily took whatever mana he gave it but was also less willing to give it up for the runes.

He didn’t stop sending mana into the gem and then circulating it through the gauntlet, it was stressful, he kept looking at the countdown timer to check how long he had left to finish it. When three hours had passed, about the tie it took to infuse the bronze gauntlet, he still saw no sign of the runes being fully completed. After another hour, when there were only a few hours left in this stage he started to worry. When there was only 1 hour left until the end of the tutorial he finally saw the runes glowing to the point that they felt fully saturated with his mana. It had taken twice as long as the bronze tester but he saw the end in sight and was relieved. It still took another 30 minutes before the runes clicked into place and all of the mana he had sent into it was fully absorbed, but he had done it.

*Successful New Crafting – Bonus Experience provided*

*[Epic] Mana Powered Elemental Claw Gauntlet – A gold gauntlet inlaid with orbs of the five base elements in their most pure form. Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Nature formed into a stable circuit of elemental energy. When using any of the five elements, mana cost greatly reduced and power output of spells increased. The gauntlet has an unattuned diamond capable of storing mana to power the runic spells enchanted into the item. Spells for Nature’s Barrier, Healing, and Elemental Strike located on gauntlet.*

*Further Bonus Experience provided for creating first Epic Item*

*Profession: Elemental Creator has levelled up by +5 levels. [Advanced] Elemental Creator has reached Level 30. +25 Int, +10 Wil, +15 Per, +25 Soul *

*Race: Human has levelled up by +3 levels. Human (E) has reached Level 32. +32 Ap gained*

It’s Epic? The gauntlet is at epic rarity! And the description is everything I wanted and more! This is incredible! He couldn’t hold back his excitement at the first epic item he had created. The levels were great, better than expected, but the gauntlet was the most incredible thing he had ever seen. He could feel the power radiating from it, a weapon in its own right. Not wanting to delay putting it on he immediately assembled it onto his hand and arm. It was comfortable in a way he couldn’t explain, it also made him feel more powerful than he ever had before.

He only wished he had the time to truly test it out but his own mana was practically depleted and the gem was running on empty. He only had 15 minutes left and knowing he needed to prepare he sat down and slipped into mediation, Stage 3 better have stronger monsters to fight, I want to really test this baby out.