Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler :

The weird guy gathered his 50 best people. Voice upgraded Tear, and learned smithing.

Also, let me know if anything is wrong with the chapter! Be sure to comment!

I set out of town with Heather. I left EDI to help with the reconstruction. As I left, I was asked several times to assist in rebuilding the stone homes. I had to politely inform them each time that I could only make a one-room house in twelve hours. Each person would try to convince me, only to be gracefully declined. It had gotten to be quiet agitating after a while.

It took me a solid twenty minutes just to get out of the city. If I didn’t have the compulsion to rule this place eventually I’d probably just not come back. The damn city didn’t even have any miners to help me!

Once I had walked away from the city for about ten minutes, I sat down. I closed my eyes and started sensing for any metal mana in the surrounding area. I could only sense mana in about a 10-20 foot sphere depending on how dense it was, but if I concentrated in one area that distance would double.

First, I sensed in the sphere around me. The mana here was not very dense, so I could see for about 20 feet. Nature mana coated the grasslands I was sitting in. It was a very thin layer of mana though. I didn’t sense any metal mana even after twenty minutes of sifting through.

I narrowed the amount I saw, which increased the distance I saw. This time I was looking further inside the earth than before. The only difficulty being that I had to look for much longer. Since the total area I saw was decrease, and the amount of area I could cover increased, the amount of time I had to look increased exponentially.

After making sure there was no types of metal in the general area, I moved on. After the first plot, I had an idea. I could just convince Ancestor to do the looking for me. Not only would Ancestor get to view the world, I’d be free of the tedious task of searching. Win-Win!

Ancestor, can you do the search for me? Seeing as Inspect can pick up the mana, I could use that time to purify my mana or something. Besides, you are much better at using that skill than I am. I knew that flattery would work on Ancestor, and I was bored of searching. I also put in that I’d be training since Ancestor seems obsessed with the idea that I become more powerful.

I mean, I thought that was the cause of the war with the gods. Oh well, doesn’t matter.

I spent the rest of my time purifying my water mana. Once I started the process, it quickly began to go on autopilot. I let my mind wander at that point. I had the feeling that I wouldn’t be able to find any metal, so I needed to find a way to get the people weapons. The only type of material that was readily available was wood. I could harvest that for bows and arrows, but in order to actually protect the city they would need melee weapons as well. I could make wooden spears, but those would not be able to hold out against opponents that got up close. The only weapon that was any good made of wood, aside from the bow, was the staff, but it would take excessively long to train these people to use the staff. Moreover, I could only use it to the apprentice level.

The water mana I started exhaling seemed to have become less and less murky and dark. In fact, it had just about become as clear as a glass of water. It was interesting to see the purity slowly rise. The longer I sat there the more pure the water mana became.

As I contemplated the solution to the weapons problem, I got a notice, jarring me out of my meditative state.

Due to purifying your inner water mana in a place with extremely high concentration of pure water mana, you have increased the purity of your water mana quicker than any would think possible.

Your current water purity is at 50%. Improving the quality of your water mana will now decrease the amount of water mana you need to preform tasks. Fairies benefit from high purities of mana. Fairies benefit greatly from high purities of the type of mana they use.

Undine is pleased with the level of water mana purity you possess. You have gained 5 water affinity.

I decided at the moment to get my water mana purity as high as possible before leaving the town. I also wanted to see about increasing the minimum potency of my healing herbs and common weeds. Come to think of it, I probably could have harvested them already.

I continued to purify my mana as Ancestor looked for metal mana in the ground. I searched many plots of land, but couldn’t find any metal worth mining. I did find a single chunk of ore, but it was hardly worth digging up.

After realizing there was no metal in the ground, I went back to the city. I just wasted my time! Well at least I got my mana purified.

I was quite surprised at the turn about the city had in the short time I was gone. Almost everyone was dressed in uniform demon wolf leather. Some houses were currently being rebuilt, and there were many many temporary housing units built. The thing that shocked me the most though, was the sense of unity I got from the villagers.

They all seemed to be working in unity. It was bizarre. Only yesterday they tried pushing kids out of the line of food, now they were all pitching in to help rebuild. I nodded in appreciation. With so much fake hospitality, it would be easy to turn this city to my side.

All of the filthy people seemed to be much better fed, and in much better condition than before. Many of the pitiful peasants even waved at me while smiling! HA! Of course I waved back. I needed them to believe I put their wellbeing above all else. Otherwise, this entire venture was a waste.

I quickly made my way to the castle. I harvested the plants, and replanted all but the best and worst quarters of the seeds. Obviously with the help of Ancestor. It was quite a bit easier when Ancestor analyzed the potency of the seeds for me. I needed to concentrate for several minutes each seed, but Ancestor seemed able to just spit out which one was best. I obviously kept the best ones.

I was pleased to note that pouring nature mana into the plants did cause it to become more powerful. I was less pleased to find out the power scale was not inherited by its seeds. I made many potions out of the lowest quality seeds. I was going to have to show someone here how to plant and harvest the seeds, but I didn’t need to teach them my secret on how to actually make the best potions.

I made a few dried potions, and a few ‘OP’s. I still called them that, even though they were no longer actually over powered. I guess it was a coping mechanism for how shitty the game acted towards me. After planting the seeds, I poured my nature mana into the entire group. It might have the same effect as pouring it into one plant, but I felt powerful doing it for some reason. The nature mana seeped out of me in waves. I had Tear give the plants adequate water, and left.

I went to the place I usually cooked the food. I didn’t have any food, but apparently that wasn’t a problem. There was a group of people with demon leather armor. They were the only ones besides guards that seemed to have weapons. Each one had chipped daggers or slightly broken longswords. Beside them was a large pile of dead wolves.

One part of the group was skinning the wolves, while the other part was taking the meat from the bones. AHA! BONES! I mentally slapped myself for forgetting one of man’s oldest weapons. It was a simple matter to turn bone into a weapon. All you needed was a rock, some bone, and a bit of leather in some cases. I happily walked over to the group, proud of myself for solving this problem.

“Hello hunters!” I beamed at them. “Could I perhaps barter some of the meat from you?” I wasn’t actually going to give them anything, but you have to open negotiations somewhere. I was planning to make them give it to me for free.

The group started laughing. “I don’t think you could afford it kind sir!” One of the men stated while forcing his laugh down. I gave him an ‘oh really now?’ face. He nodded. “Oh yes. You see this meat is going to be made into stew by one of our town’s finest chefs!” He said with a grin.

I immediately caught on. “Well that is too bad. Hm, while that does sound important I think I have something worth the trade.” The group looked at me, most of the laughing having died down.

I took one of the larger bones without meat. I encase my hand in earth mana, creating a small earth orb around it. I brought my hand down, and shattered the bone. The group looked at what I was doing. “You see, I promised to arm this beautiful town. Well I will trade my archaic knowledge for this fine meat!” I proceeded to take the largest piece of jagged bone and sharpen it. I sharpened it by rubbing it on a nearby rough surfaced rock.

The bone quickly became as sharp as a knife. I knew that bones didn’t make for very durable weapons, but the screen I got caught me by surprise.

You have learned a new smithing recipe: Demon Wolf Bone Blade (Demon Variant).

Demon Wolf Bone BladeMaterial QualityLowWork QualityNoviceDamage5-7Durability5/5This is one of nature’s most simple weapons. A bone sharpened enough to puncture.

This weapon was made by a novice craftsman. This weapon can only be repaired once per maximum durability. This weapon automatically loses one durability when repaired. Unlike most items, this weapon cannot be repaired once the durability reaches 0.

This was probably one of the worst weapons I’d ever heard of. I learned a new smithing recipe, but I wasn’t sure I wanted it. Either way, with this my obligation to find weapons ended. Now I just needed to get enough bones and wood to actually mass-produce the weapons.

I made many of the bones into blades. Most blades were small (no longer than an inch and a half), but a few were about the length of an open palm. These make shift weapons would be given out to the people of the town, at least then they would have some sort of weapon.

The blades that were obviously not useable were deconstructed for my benefit. I even made blades out of the smallest fragments of bone that I could. The process of breaking down every single bone blade that didn’t meet my requirements, netted me a grand total of 50% Deconstruct completion for them.

I made the bones into weapons until they were all gone. By then I heard several rumbling noises. I got ready to fight, just to see the embarrassed looks of some of the hunters.

The man who had been talking to me, I presume the leader, said, “Sorry, we just had a long hunt today and haven’t eaten.” Immediately understanding, I got to work. I had Tear fill the pot. The jellyfish made the water go into the pot. Like Tear actually forced the abundant water mana in the air to gather inside the pot. Every pot I made was instantly filled with water.

This entire time Heather had been gathering the vegetables in the plains area. It was really easy for a rabbit to do that. Humans found it much harder to find them, let alone actually extract them without breaking them.

My inventory was over half-full with just vegetables. I told Heather to go hunt for some food for herself in the forest. I got a slightly scary reply. Something along the lines of ‘drinking so much blood it feels like I’m bathing in it’. I’m pretty sure that’s some Dracula shit right there.

I sprinkled in my special healing powder while I could the meat. The healing powder tasted nasty, but for some reason the fat of the wolf meat was actually complimented by it. I didn’t think the wolf meat tasted bad, but the juiciness of it, coupled with the overpowering flavor of the vegetables, made the healing powder taste almost vanish. The only thing left of the taste was a brief bitter twang, which accented the stew well.

With my cooking bonus the taste of the stew was increased even further. In the end, my entire batch of healing powder and all of the wolf meat and vegetables were gone. I was only a little disappointed in the fact that I only had one bowl. EDI stopped in for a quick bowl as well, before speeding off again to help the town’s folk.

Sol wasn’t being a slouch either. Even though my stew healed those that ate it by a little bit, Sol poured all of his energy into using light mana to heal the people. Of course, the price of Sol’s healing was a massive amount of rapid pace talking.

By the time, I was done handing out the food the sun had already set. The little shits ate way too much. It was taxing to keep up appearances for so long. Sometimes I really wanted to swat away the hand of someone trying to be friendly. I mean, it wasn’t as if I didn’t know why they were doing it. They were only nice because I was giving them food. If I had just been a traveler, they wouldn’t have paid me any mind.

After cleaning up my equipment, I logged of for a half hour break. I wanted to check something out on the wiki site. After reading up on my chosen topic for about half an hour, I logged back in. It was the middle of the night by now.

I set off for the forest. Heather was there, so I’d just collect her before coming back. I was going to try out an idea. The idea formed when I was looking up information on my wood elf ancestors.

When I got to the edge of the forest, I asked Gaia for her blessing. “Dear Mother of Nature, grant me a token of your power. My people must defend themselves for that, we need your help. I beseech thee in the name of the contract my ancestors swore upon.” I touched the closest tree, an ash.

Nothing happened. I walked away from the tree, dejected. Before I could move more than a few feet, the tree started creaking. I looked at it in excitement. The tree started falling towards me. I quickly sent myself out of its path with wind mana.

The entire tree fell over. It was uprooted, and the soil at its base was upturned. The forum I looked up had been about Wood Elves. They prayed to Gaia, and she would grant them trees for their homes and tools. Most of the time the tree turned into the required good instantly, I assumed my diluted blood made it take longer.

I grabbed several pinecones, and sent a large amount of fire mana to surround them. Pinecones drop their seeds in excessive heat for some reason. Anyway, I planted the seeds in the upturned soil, and poured in nature mana until I didn’t have any left.

You have used Gaia’s Racial Blessing, for the first time. Gaia has granted you 5 nature affinity.

For learning how to fell a tree with optimum results you have gained 5 wisdom.

I tried this out for three reasons. The first reason was I needed wood for weapons, since I didn’t have an axe or anything this was my best shot at easy harvesting. The second reason was to see if I could use a race specific ability from the Wood Elf race. Not only was I able to use Gaia’s Racial Blessing, I could most likely use the race specific abilities of High Elves, and Dark Elves as well.

Man, it’s great to be a mixed blood.

For some reason I even gained a new skill.

Lumberjack

Current Level: Novice Level 1 Exp 0.00%

For using Gaia’s Racial Blessing, you have learned the basics of cutting down trees.

Each level in this skill improves the cut used to fell the tree, as well as decreases the time it takes to fell the tree. For every rank, you increase this skill you will be able to cut more difficult trees.

To level this skill you must fell trees. The harder the tree the more experience you will gain.

Can be currently fused with the skill ‘Smithing’.

Carpentry

Current Level: Novice Level 1 Exp 0.00%

Carpentry allows the user to make better things out of wood.

Each level in this skill improves the quality of the product produced by Carpentry. For every rank, you increase this skill you will be able to make more intricate items while using Carpentry.

To level this skill you must craft wooden items.

I tested out the new skill immediately. I had my knife, so I started carving pieces out of the tree. The first thing I did was cut a chunk of about 4x.5x1. I cut the board into a cylinder shape, and sharpened one end. It took about half an hour to do.

You have learned a new carpentry recipe: Wooden Spear.

It did quite a bit less damage than my staff, but it was something at least. Besides, I wasn’t going to spend enough effort to actually make superb quality items for these people. I planned to leave for a while before I settled down here, that is if I didn’t find a better place first.

I made many of the spears, from the tree. That single tree gave me enough material to make a stack of 20 spears. Even if they were low quality, right now the town needed weapons. Mediocre weapons were better than no weapons.

I wanted to make bows and arrows, but I had no clue how. For now, simple sharpened wood would have to do. After finishing the twenty spears, I collected the rest of the wood for use as firewood. I gave a quick thanks to Gaia for allowing me to use her tree.

Heather had been playing around while I worked. A few wolves and a bear had made the mistake of fighting near my tree. Heather joined them. A few minutes later Heather was full. She wouldn’t need to drink any blood for a while.

Night was already falling when I finished the tree. When I got back, I headed directly towards the blacksmith. The river city continued to surprise me. Many of the houses were fully rebuilt; I don’t even know where they got the stone. I was almost certain there was no quarry around here. The people were all working in groups of five or six to rebuild the houses. Maybe if they had been this together in the first place the slavers would not have managed to get in!

Whatever, at least I now knew one thing to stress in my city. The need for unity. All for one and all that. At least that way I wouldn’t have to spend so much time and money creating and protecting the city. Actually, that was a really good idea. If I promoted a strong sense of community I could even make myself be seen as some sort of communal father figure. The best way to make people follow you is to make them love you.

The blacksmith was still working on making the leather armor. I was pretty sure that everyone in the town already had a set, but I didn’t say anything. Regardless of how stupid he was for doing something pointless, I could still benefit from him.

I waved, as I got closer. This time there was no line to his forge. “Hello friend! How goes the day?” I say as I try to get a gauge on his mood. Inspect could tell me, but it was always fun to do this sort of thing on my own.

The blacksmith looked up from his work, sweat dripping down his brow. “Good! Good. I’ve just been making more of this armor all day. A merchant came by recently and was surprised to see the city free of slavers. They were making the merchants pay a tax to pass through the gates. I traded a large amount of the leather armor for stone for the city.” The blacksmith looked a bit proud of himself.

Don’t get cocky n00b. You’d be dead if I wanted it.

“That’s awesome! It’s wonderful when everyone can pull together to help each other. I just came by to drop these off.” I dumped the spears on the counter. “I decided you could give these out to whoever needed them. I’m going to make some more of these, but other than that I’m going to be busy for a while. There has been an ominous aura in the air recently.” He looked seriously at me as he nodded.

Obviously, I couldn’t actually do something like sense ominous auras in the air, but this would give me time for meditation. If I was going to purify my water mana, I might as well make it look like I’m doing some good at the same time.

I went to the stone ‘house’ I created earlier. I laid down on the ground and started purifying water mana. The next thing I knew the sun woke me up. I squinted as I tried to recall what had happened.

I remember getting my water purifier started. Hm, after that… Oh. I fell asleep. Crap. That was a wasted night! I berated myself for losing an entire sleep cycle to an accident. My anger started increasing. For some reason the thought of failing something, even something as simple as meditation, reminded me of that ass Defiled. I uninterestedly checked my notifications after realizing it was blinking. Maybe something good happened. I sighed and shook my head as I opened it. There was no way something good had happened.

You have gained the Trait: High Concentration Purifier.

High Concentration Purifier is one of the best possible traits for mages. In places with high concentrations of a certain type of mana, such as a town devoted to one particular god or goddess, you will automatically purify your mana. The purification rate is the same as if you were meditating. Purifying any other form of mana in these areas will only have 10% efficiency.

Something good had happened. Weighing the benefits of this trait with its detriments I concluded th- who am I kidding? FUCK YEAH! I wouldn’t even dream of purifying another type of mana in those areas anyway! This trait expedited the schedule I was going to set for myself by several hours each day.

I had no idea why I had gotten that trait, maybe I was purifying water mana in my sleep.

For understanding how to gain the Trait: ‘High Concentration Purifier’ you have gained 2 wisdom.

For understanding one method of obtaining traits you have gained 3 wisdom.

I spent the next several days ritualistically. I would wake up in the morning, make food from whatever the hunter’s brought and Heather collected. There was a lot of vegetables and fruits for breakfast. After breakfast, I went to the forest to cut spears out of the trees. I had started to strap some of the wolves’ sharpened bones to the tips of the spears. At first it took me half an hour to create a spear, but I got it down to ten minutes after the second day. I couldn’t get it lower than that without dropping quality though.

I always made sure to plant more trees than I harvested. I used Breakdown on half of the spears I made; I also used it on the smaller Demon Wolf Bone Blades. The spears I made started to jump in quality after I had deconstructed about a hundred. I made spears for about six hours a day.

After making the spears I went around helping reconstruct the houses using the minute traces of earth mana in the stones. It was an easy thing to place the blocks of stone upon each other by making the earth mana float.

After making houses for about four hours, I would practice using two types of mana. Using water mana plus another type was the easiest, although I did manage to cast several other types. I got some pretty cool combinations. By using about 40-60% water and the rest fire, I could create a small cloud of steam. The steam would be thicker with more water mana, but it would also take longer to cast. By combing water and wind at 50% each I got a thick mist, if I increased the water mana by 20% I got fog. Water mana plus earth at 50% each gave me mud, but I knew that if I had done it with sand I could have made quicksand. My favorite one was darkness and fire. I could only cast it in dark places if I wanted to use the environmental mana, but it was amazing!

The fire would latch on to something and burn it to ashes. It could attach to anything, but substances like stone took too long to burn to be useful. Still the fact that it could burn through stone was pretty amazing. The fire didn’t spread either. Even if something went inside it, unless that something was alive. The fire seemed to want to extinguish all life. When something living was put into it the fire greedily ate it. Also if I fused light mana and nature mana in a ratio of 3:1 I could even speed up the growth of plants!

My ability to harness two types of mana from the environment became quicker and easier to use. Using environmental mana started taking less time as well. It now took me less than thirty seconds to build an earthen wall. Creating stone walls still took a few hours, since I had to force the hard mana into an even harder and more compact form.

I would go harvest the herbs I planted. I always measured the seeds against what I had in my inventory. I kept the most potent ones for myself. I would then take the bottom quarter for potion making, and plant the middle 50%.

I dehydrated the potions and made them into OPs. I gave all of these to Elvina. I also used several dried potions to season the stew I made at nightfall. After finishing all of the potions, I went to the area where the hunters gathered. I would make stew for the entire town, and head off to bed. I made sure to mention to the hunters not to kill too many wolves each day. Otherwise, the main supply of meat would disappear. After feeding the entire village I went to sleep in the little house I built.

I continued this for an in game week. During that time, I logged off three times. One of the times I spent learning how to make bows, another arrows. I added them to my list of crafting items. I deconstructed half of them as well. The time spent making weapons increased, but it was a worthy investment so I let it slide. I added small triangular Demon blades to the arrows to give them a bit of extra stopping power.

Many of my skills leveled up thanks to the regimen. I also unlocked a skill which, when fused, netted me a total of 2 new group skill!

Masonry

Current Level: Novice Level 1 Exp 0.00%

Masonry is using stone to build structures.

Levels in this skill increase the stability of the structure you make. Ranks in this skill increase the complexity of the structure you can easily make.

To level this skill you must build with stone.

Can be currently fused with the skill ‘Lumberjack’.

You have learned all of the required skills to obtain the Group Skill: Breakdown. Would you like to exchange relevant skills for the Group Skill: Breakdown? You can choose to fuse them at a later time. At that time say exchange relevant skills.

“No.”

I fused them and got:

Quarrying

Current Level: Novice Level 1 Exp 0.00%

Quarrying allows the user to better extract stone from an area.

Each level in this skill improves the cut used to quarry, as well as decreases the time it takes harvest the stone. For every rank you increase this skill you will be able to cut more difficult stone.

To level this skill you must quarry stone. The more difficult the stone is to quarry, the more experience you will gain.

Can be currently fused with the skill ‘Smithing’.

I realized something about the skill fusion system at that point. The skills I would fuse were fused on two levels.

The first level was type of skills. For instance quarrying was a gathering skill, and smithing was a crafting skill. If I was right the skill I would gain from these two would be one of those.

The second level was actually the skill base. Quarrying dealt with stone, while smithing dealt with metals. I decided to hazard a guess as to what the skill I would get from fusing these two.

It would either be gathering plus metal, mining, or crafting plus stone, masonry. Since I already had masonry I would most likely get mining.

Mining

Current Level: Novice Level 1 Exp 0.00%

Mining allows the user to better extract stone from an area.

Each level in this skill improves the quality of the mined item, as well as decreases the time it takes mine it. For every rank you increase this skill you will be able to mine more difficult items.

To level this skill you must mine ores and gems. The more difficult the mining is, the more experience you will gain.

“Exchange Relevant Skills.”

You have two group skills available. Your skill combinations are:

Crafting Mastery

Harvesting Mastery

You have learned all of the required skills to obtain the Group Skill: Crafting Mastery. Would you like to exchange relevant skills for the Group Skill: Crafting Mastery? You can choose to fuse them at a later time. At that time say exchange relevant skills.

“Yes”

You have exchanged all relevant skills for the Group Skill: Crafting Mastery. All relevant skills have been taken from your skill list. The total accumulated experience has been added to the Group Skill: Crafting Mastery. The total level requirements have all been added to the Group Skill: Crafting Mastery.

As you level this skill all parts of it will level up. For instance if you create enough potions to level up, you will gain the benefits the other skills would have provided at that level. This skill takes more exp to level up to level two than all of the skills that make it up would.

“Inspect: Crafting Mastery.”

Crafting Mastery

Current Level: Novice Level 4 Exp 75.55%

This skill allows you to use the benefits from: Carpentry, Masonry, and Smithing.

Crafting Mastery increases knowledge of all crafted items. You will learn crafting skills more easily, and have an easier time crafting items.

To level this skill you must do an action that would be encompassed in one of the skills that were consumed to make this skill.

“Exchange Relevant Skills.”

You have one group skill available. Your skill combinations are:

Harvesting Mastery

You have learned all of the required skills to obtain the Group Skill: Harvesting Mastery. Would you like to exchange relevant skills for the Group Skill: Harvesting Mastery? You can choose to fuse them at a later time. At that time say exchange relevant skills.

“Yes”

You have exchanged all relevant skills for the Group Skill: Harvesting Mastery. All relevant skills have been taken from your skill list. The total accumulated experience has been added to the Group Skill: Harvesting Mastery. The total level requirements have all been added to the Group Skill: Harvesting Mastery.

As you level this skill all parts of it will level up. For instance if you create enough potions to level up, you will gain the benefits the other skills would have provided at that level. This skill takes more exp to level up to level two than all of the skills that make it up would.

“Inspect: Harvesting Mastery.”

Harvesting Mastery

Current Level: Novice Level 3 Exp 25.44%

This skill allows you to use the benefits from: Lumberjack, Mining, and Quarrying.

Harvesting Mastery increases knowledge of all harvested items. You will learn harvesting skills more easily, and have an easier time harvesting items.

To level this skill you must do an action that would be encompassed in one of the skills that were consumed to make this skill.

For reasoning out the true abilities of the Skill Fusion effect, you have gained 5 wisdom.

Freaking knew it! That means I can plan my skill fusions a little better now.

At the end of the week I had made hundreds of bows and spears, and thousands of arrows. I had also made over a hundred pots of stew. My water mana purity had been at 75% for the last two days. I figured there was some sort of quest or task I had to do to increase it beyond that.

I had deconstructed the spears up to 100%, and the bows up to 50%. The arrows were at 30%, and the demon wolf bone blades had gotten to 100%.

The average level of the plants in the castle garden had increased by about 50%. The potions had increased accordingly. With the massive amount of nature affinity I was pouring into the green healing herbs and common weed, the potion quality rose tremendously. Without even drying them, the healing potions healed over a hundred health. With Tear and Sol helping around the town, I had gotten quite a boost to my image in River’s Cross.

After the week was over I decided to go. I still wanted to find that mana crystal after all. I had gotten a map of where River’s Cross was. I was about a week south of Rand, but there was a dungeon call ‘Dwarven Hall’ that would lead me straight to M’ Path. The dungeon was created by dwarves, and filled with all manner of earth beasts and constructs. It seemed like the dwarves in this game created something akin to automatons.

The dungeon was level 60, so I was going to make EDI come with me. Of course I’d make it seem like it was her idea though. Elvina also told me that halfway through the dungeon was an elevator. It lead to a dwarven city called Ysga’s Hall. Ysga was the dwarf that built the elevator apparently.

On my third leave from DIVE I checked online. This dungeon had not been cleared by SD or LB, so the boss drop would probably be quite rare at this point. Both of them were over level 100. They had skipped several of the ‘low level’ dungeons.

I told Elvina I was leaving. I showed one of her villagers how to make the basic healing potion, but made them think they had to plant the entire healing herb to make another one grow. “You see this?” I asked as I held up the plant by the leaf, “You need to plant this entire thing in the ground in order to grow another one.” I made sure to leave myself some wiggle room under the guise of a ‘misunderstanding’.

That night I found EDI. She was helping making another house livable. I came up behind her. I leaned in and whispered, “Hey EDI. I’m going to leave the city soon. I just wanted to let you know.” I was intentionally ambiguous. I wanted to change what I ‘meant’ based on her reaction.

She nearly dropped the stone she was helping hold up. I caught it with earth mana, and put it in place for her. She turned around. “What? Why? I thought we were going to be a team!? Why would you just leave me!?”

I’ve got to admit, I was not expecting that response. Well that was fine. If she was distraught over it then it would be easier to get her to go; I might even be able to get her to carry the heavy luggage or something! HA!

I put on a worried expression. “No no no. EDI, what I meant to say is that I wanted you to come with me. How could I walk away from such a pretty lady?” I smiled. “Besides, you tried to save me from the slaver. If that’s not enough to warrant further passage together I don’t know what it.” Plus you still have to pay off those Sai.

She looked a lot less upset after I said that. I told her that we were leaving in a few minutes. I still had one thing left to do.

I asked the blacksmith to make me a special staff. The one I carried now was great and all, but it only had one type of damage. My loyalty to Evan only lasted until something better came along. The weapon I designed with this blacksmith was better.

He took many of the broken and chipped weapons and made it for me.

Bladed StaffMaterial QualityLowWork QualityExpertDamageVariesDurability60/60Weight25 lbsThis item can be wielded as a dual weapon. You may make extra attacks at the cost of mobility. This is a weapon of utility. In the middle of this staff is a hidden grove. If the grove is unlatched, two long daggers will be exposed. The daggers are connected to the two ends of the staff. The two halves of the staff act like long handles for the daggers. There is a hidden compartment in the top of this staff. When pressure is applied to a certain area, the blade hidden in the compartment will extend. The blade retracts once the pressure is gone.

This weapon was made by an expert craftsman. This weapon gains plus fifteen minimum damage and plus fifteen maximum damage. This weapon gains twenty five durability.

Since my staff only allowed for blunt damage, I chose to add something to it. The blacksmith had to work together with the local carpenter to fix my staff up enough, but the result was acceptable. I could apply pressure in two ways to the staff. If I applied pressure to the middle with both hands at certain angles, the latch holding the two halves of the staff would come undone.

Each half of the staff had a long dagger running inside of it. When the staff was ‘closed’ the daggers would be stacked beside each other, one tip pointing to the bottom the other to the top. The tip of the staff had a small blade, about an inch and a half, embedded inside it. When I held the staff about two hand spans from the middle on each side, and gripped it tightly, a spring would trigger. The spring caused the blade to jut out. The blade would turn the staff into a single edged spear.

Basically we designed an entirely new type of weapon. The reason it took the blacksmith so long to make it was because the latch systems on the inside of the staff had to be precise. The latches controlled the entire system.

All I needed to do now was practice enough to be able to kill with it. Even if I didn’t manage to get good at it any time soon, I could still use it as a staff.

Spoiler :

Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassMana MageLevel 32Health: 100Mana: 1370Stamina: 350Current Title: Hero of River’s CrossHealth Regen: 1/sMana Regen: 19.4(14.4)/sStamina Regen: 5.1/sStrength41Agility34Wisdom194Intelligence137Endurance51Dexterity44Luck0Vitality35Charisma35Compassion95Leadership66Logic22Piety89Unused Stat Points0Fame800

Skills WindowAutomated Novice Level 9 Exp 25.00%

Speed Reading Novice Level 9 Exp 00.00%

Auto Read Novice Level 20 Exp 50.00%Group Skill: Key to Self-Sustained Alchemy Novice Level 22 Exp 25.00%

Group Skill: Inspect Apprentice Level 44 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Automatic Nursing Novice Level 12 Exp 5.70%

Group Skill: Con Artist Novice Level 17 Exp 50.14%

Group Skill: Magical Mastery Apprentice Level 32 Exp 6.30%

Group Skill: Skill Mastery Apprentice Level 28 Exp 44.44%

Group Skill: Survival Apprentice Level 28 Exp 17.64%

Group Skill: Combat Learning Apprentice Level 25 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Breakdown Novice Level 12 Exp 20%

Group Skill: Harvesting Mastery Novice Level 3 Exp 11.11%

Group Skill: Crafting Mastery Novice Level 4 Exp 60%

Affinities WindowLight70Water60Wind25Nature55Metal25Earth30Fire25Darkness100