’I need stronger magic to be able to stand up to those guys. My Ice Mountain Funeral is strong, and can be used a few times now, but it is only one spell. I need a few spells of that level at least. The spells those two were using seemed to be even stronger than my Ice Mountain Funeral though. I need to find something as strong as the blizzard that the ice mage used if I want to have a chance at survival. I wonder if magic is stronger than this in modern Europe, I wouldn’t doubt it though. My father probably wanted to keep me away from this, I don’t think anybody in America could really stand up to him. Definitely true if that lava mage I fought was any indication as to the average strength in America.’

Gregory tried to recall what he was seeing with his mystic sight when both mages used their attacks. The mana they were channeling was immense, probably the limit of what Gregory could even use right now. He recalled how the sun was made by compressing the flames instead of just letting them rage out of control. They were compressed to the point that the heat buildup was immense, that just being in the immediate area would be able to kill. There was also a wall of heat in front of him, protecting him from the heat of the spell. It seemed a wall of some kind of insulator was needed. Whether that be heat or intense cold was probably up to the user’s magics. The blizzard on the other hand was on the opposite extreme, funneling out extreme cold and turning the water molecules into ice crystals. The weather was so extreme that it actually froze the fire when placed around it. While the fire spell was something he may be able to do right now, the ice spell was definitely out of his league.

Entering his protected space, Gregory decided to try learning the fire spell that seemed like a small sun. Lava spells had more destructive power, but this fire spell was something else entirely. The heat given off was something only a fire spell could achieve, and what seemed to be a GRAND tier fire spell. A counter to his Ice Mountain Funeral for sure, the melting water would probably just barely quench the flames. These spells just showed how vastly inferior Gregory was compared to truly strong people.

Beginning to compress the fire, piling heat upon heat, Gregory stockpiled the mana, feeling a good drain coming upon his reserves before the heat flared up to unimaginable proportions. Gregory quickly put up the wall of heat between the small sun and himself, trying to prevent it from consuming him. After almost an hour, the spell died down, and Gregory was drenched in sweat. The spell took huge amounts of mana, and lasted a long time.

Gregory delved deep into his being, trying to reach the dragon inside him.

’Are there any elements you can teach me that I don’t already know? I was nearly killed back there, and I need your help to make it out of this. Sophos, you are the only one I can rely on right now. Without you I’d be truly lost and dead in this world. With your help, I may be able to survive, but I need your help to grow stronger.’

’I can teach you one element you do not know right now, I learned the element of lightning in my time. I can impart this to you, and I think you will be able to learn it fairly easily. I can see in your past that you had quite some trouble with space magic, which makes sense considering you learned time magic first. In fact, it is surprising you managed space magic at all after learning time magic. Seeing your unique ability though, I am not surprised that you have more potential than any human being I have met previously.

However, many of the strongest people right now are strong because of the power handed down to them. Something you may not know, is that families can hand down power. The people you just saw fighting were fighting over inherited powers. That is the biggest problem with inherited powers, they can be stolen. Some of the strongest have been alive for centuries, having inherited time magic and stolen countless more types of magic. One thing though, you are the only being I have ever seen that has not needed to choose between spatial and temporal magics. I know I did mention that it was surprising, but it was so surprising because I thought it was impossible before you.

There are a few things that families hand down though. I can see what you have seen, and can see that your family are not just sages, but legendary great sages. I have only ever seen one once, and they had countless generations of inherited power built up inside them. For you to have this, I imagine that whoever started your family had this power from the start. Your mother’s family is also a very powerful family, having been around for generations. Their power though is one that does not suit fighting, which is why your father got very lucky in marrying her. If you had been born to anybody else, you wouldn’t have been this powerful regardless of your unique class. If I had to guess, your father’s unique class would have been luck related.

Now, I can give you my knowledge of lightning magic, but you will need to train. My lightning spells are all of ranks higher than what you could use until you get to intermediate lightning capacity. People normally start at the INTERMEDIATE tier of skill, at least compared to what you have. Although, without inheritance, they cannot grow from there. The person with the ICE magic had their skill at ADVANCED. It means you actually could learn that skill. You may have noticed that one of your classes is a LEGENDARY GREAT SAGE, that means you can perform spells that are of the legendary tier. At least in your vocabulary. Normally those are considered ultimate spells, and only the greatest sages can learn them. Your ability to grow naturally, gaining levels like you do, is very powerful.’

Sophos began to focus, sharing his knowledge and skill with lightning magic. Gregory’s body was absorbing it, gaining the skills like they were his own. He was not gaining the same proficiency as Sophos though, as those were something that could only be passed down by inheritance. Still, Gregory had just gained a substantial boost in power thanks to Sophos. Including the fire spell he just learned, there were five spells and a proficiency Sophos had given Gregory.

SKILLMYSTIC SUNACTIVEA grand tier spell, capable of reaching temperatures exceeding 9,000 degrees Farenheit. These temperatures are hot enough to heat up the area to a point where it can melt skin and tissue just being near the heat.LEVEL = 1COST = 1500SKILLLIGHTNING ELEMENTAL MASTERY[BEGINNER]PASSIVELightning elemental spells can be used up to the intermediate level. Beginner and novice spells gain a 5x boost in power.LEVEL = 1COST = N/ASKILLCHAIN LIGHTNINGACTIVEThe user channels lightning energy, keeping a connection to it, and then fires it into an enemy. This energy bounces to other enemies, and will chain through them. Due to the connection with the user, it can be kept active.LEVEL = 1COST = 500+250/MINUTESKILLLIGHTNING BURSTACTIVEFlowing magic into the sky, the user rains lightning down after enough enters the sky. The destructive force is immense, since the attack can be controlled with precision. The lightning has enough destructive power to be considered extremely dangerous, but can be easily defended with knowledge of how lightning is directed.LEVEL = 1COST = 500SKILLLIGHTNING BODYACTIVEThe user can transform their body into lightning, enabling movement at the speed of lightning. This technique requires immense focus though, and prevents other attacks or spells from being used.LEVEL = 1COST = 1500+750/MINUTESKILLLIGHTNING STORMACTIVEThe user can create and sustain a storm, which can rain down near continuous lightning. The speed and number of strikes are dependent upon level.LEVEL = 1COST = 1500+750/MINUTESKILLCHAOS LIGHTNINGACTIVEThe user covers the entire area with lightning, but an extremely powerful form of lightning. This lightning has enough destructive power to punch through metal instead of being channeled by it. This ability can be sustained, but takes almost full concentration to control it if so.LEVEL = 1COST = 4500+2250/MINUTE

Gregory saw all these new skills, and realized that he needed more mana to even be able to perform the last of them.

’I bet it is the same case with that blizzard I saw. It probably requires that same obscene amount of mana as the chaos lightning. If that is true, then I won’t be able to use it until I get INT up to the point where I actually have 4500 mana. The really insane part would be the original cost of 9000, I’d not be able to use it until my intelligence stat reached 450. Even as is, I will need 225 INT just to be able to cast it.’

Exiting his protected space, Gregory used blink to travel back to Great Britain. He headed immediately for London, and this time made it without hassle. He would search around for a job he could perform for the people. He knew of a few that would be good for him, armor and weaponsmithing being his main thoughts. They would conceal his true magical skill, and also allow him to refine his skills with making armor and weapons. This would give him an advantage when he wanted to make himself a good suit of armor.

Looking around, he saw that magic was almost everywhere. Although, hardly anybody seemed to notice it. The normal people attributed almost all of the strange things to bad luck, instead of blaming magic. The entire world has always been ignorant of magic, at least true magic. Seeing the magic here, Gregory knew that the witch hunts would have been faked. Either that or they had some very powerful mages on their side of the fight.

Gregory had walked around the entire city of London, trying to determine what his best spot would be for a job here. There was only the one blacksmith in the entire town, but Gregory knew that his own skills were superior. There were a few things he needed to do in order to set up a blacksmith though, Gregory would need a large place for work and a forge. He knew how to make his own forge, but he would need time and resources for a good one.

What Gregory did then was used his protected space to make a suit of armor, made of high quality steel and using a style that would not be popularized for another almost four hundred years. While making this armor, his armorsmithing level went up by 18 levels to reach 97. The quality of this armor was very great, and turned out to be a unique armor as well. Having been made by Gregory, this armor took on the quality of resisting mana. For Gregory it was by double his current resistance, with a minimum of a 10% resistance. He put this armor on a stand, and then left his protected space to head to the castle. He wanted to showcase it to the king in order to get a good sum from it. While this suit would be his personal suit, he would be willing to make as many more as the king requested.

”This suit of armor is of the highest quality, offering almost full protection from nearly any attack. In addition to the visible plate, there is chain armor underneath and armored straps to keep everything in place. Needless to say, anybody wearing this armor would be almost unstoppable in a sword fight until they were completely exhausted. They are also made of steel instead of iron, meaning that their strength is much higher for the weight. If there was anything I could think to tell you as a disadvantage, it would be that they are much heavier than the conventional chain armors. What you gain in protection though more than makes up for it. So, will you buy any?”

Gregory had set this armor up as nearly indestructible, which in these times it was. No arrow or sword could damage it, at least not significantly. He also placed a higher value on being able to fight with a sword in this armor, which would be because they’d take no damage. He had seen the king look at the armor with interest, and then motion somebody over. Whispering to that man, the king continued to look with extreme interest at the armor.

”I will buy armor off of you, and I will be wanting 15 suits of the same armor as is before me. I assume the one here is yours, so I will allow you to get measurements for the other 15 suits. The first will be mine, and the other 14 are for my 14 best knights. I am hoping that 300 pounds will be enough for the armors I am requesting.”

Gregory smiled at the offer, knowing from what he had heard of history that it was a large sum for this period in time. The king probably figured that he would be able to make much more from raids though, since his best knights would be nearly invincible. While this may change history slightly, Gregory knew that the magic of this era would still correct things if they were to go sideways. Not to mention, his luck was very high, and it was unlikely that things would permanently change for the worse unless he did something to intentionally change them.

Going up to the king, Gregory began taking measurements with a piece of string. Of course, he was also armed with his near perfect memory. After finishing taking the measurements, Gregory took the money and left to set up a shop. The location he decided on was somewhat isolated, and had a very large room that could be used for all of his forging needs. With the money, he was able to buy the location as well as have a state of the art forge built. The forge he had built was almost as good as the one in his protected space, aside from being made of slightly lower quality materials. It would likely produce the same quality of armor given the same amount of time and effort.

He then bought metal with the remainder of the money, which was a bit short on the materials he needed, but was more than enough considering he still had a good stockpile in his inventory. It took him three days of straight forging to finish the kings armor, only half the time spent on his own suit. His level also only went up by one though, and he had even gotten a start on the other suits of chain armor. Once he gave the suit to the king, Gregory was allowed to get measurements of the knights. They had all just arrived, and their suits of armor would be going with them when they left. These knights were the feudal lords that the king trusted most, and all likely paid the king for their armor as well.

As he left the castle, having finished taking the measurements, Gregory thought about what his skill would be like after reaching advanced tier. It would likely reduce the time he needs to spend on armorcrafting, and increase his chance of making unique items. It would also probably make it easier for him to craft armors of better metals. As he began working, he spent the utmost time and effort on each of the armors, all of them turning out to be unique crafts. Gregory wanted advanced badly, and he needed to make sure he got it. A month later, Gregory finished the last suit of armor, and his armorcrafting had just reached advanced, but level 37 due to the uniqueness of the quality the armor had. The unique qualities on the armor varied, ranging from magic resistance to heightened durability. The last one he built though was extremely special, it had a lightening quality on it. This made the entire suit of armor almost weightless while worn, which was so unique it had given Gregory the bonus levels upon completion.

Giving all these armors to their respective knights, Gregory received double the originally agreed upon amount after they realized that their armors were of greater quality than they previously expected. With this extra money, Gregory was able to entirely restore his stock of steel. He also began to overstock metal, and began forging weapons and shields. Since these two items were not made to fit, Gregory knew that he could still charge top coin for them if they were of high enough quality. In addition to that, anybody could use them, they would not be too large or small depending on the person.

I did a bit of research on this chapter, so most of the historical information is at least somewhat accurate.

I know it isn't as long as expected, but the research did take quite a bit of time as well. Hope you all enjoy it.