As Corwin finished with the flame he received a notification.

You have finished bonding the tribulation flame. Fire Affinity improves by 100. This flame has other secrets to be discovered.

The secrets part of the notification intrigued Corwin. He already knew about using it in alchemy and knew of the secret skills and secret techniques that could be gained for the flame. Yet, he still wondered if there was something else.

Corwin returned to Aquilia and got the gains from the auction. The last of his bronze equipment sold for 9000 gold, while he managed to sell 10 iron equips for 1 magic crystal each. This was enough to evolve his plate cuisse to gold, but he decided to keep the magic crystals instead. He still needed those crystals badly. Once Corwin had a guild, he planned on raiding world bosses, and those bosses would likely drop recipes that required them.

Corwin started to plan. His gear needed 70 more magic crystals. Beyond epic tier it required magic stones to evolve. Magic stones were rarer and more powerful than magic crystals. It generally took over 300 magic crystals to trade for a magic stone, but people would seldom trade away their magic stones. Corwin doubted anyone in the game had a magic stone yet anyways. A single piece of equipment he wanted to evolve to legendary needed 5 mana stones.

Corwin felt his gear was going to be stuck at epic for quite some time. Knowing this, he planned on making his allies as strong as possible. He bought all the inexpensive crafting items as well as all the rare crafting items left in the capital. This included some of the ingredients for his new level 10 silver set equipment. Finally, he paid his 10,000 gold teleportation fee and headed to the Verdure kingdom.

It was good to be home. Corwin had gone on quite the adventure, but it was time to play in his backyard. The familiar sights, sounds and smells of the Verdure kingdom were welcome. The merchant quarter felt less like shops and more like a middle eastern bazaar. It was spring in Verdure, as this continent was in the southern hemisphere and thus the seasons were flipped. Spring in Verdure always smelled of water lilies and cherry blossoms. These plants were quite fragrant in Eternity’s Wake, smelling similar to the earth varieties but far stronger. There was a lily pond in the capital city that Corwin would often go to. It teemed with wildlife, a parkland oasis in what was otherwise a medieval urban jungle. The capital itself was buildings on top of buildings, stretching high into the sky. Architecture was quite advanced in the Verdure kingdom and there were apartments 4 stories high. Player owned shops would soon become colossal, breaking up the skyline. But for now, a pristine view of the mountains in the distance could be seen from almost anywhere in the city.

Corwin stopped his reminiscing and focused on the task at hand. He had two top priorities. The first was to take any remaining legacies from divine trials. The second was to build up reputation. With sufficiently high reputation, players would be able to buy land in the city, and Corwin needed land to setup a shop. Unlike selling in the street, shops could hire NPCs and sell exclusively on behalf of a single player or guild. Corwin also had to figure out when and how to setup his guild. Too soon, and it would be a vulnerable empty husk, but too late and he’d miss opportunities to recruit. There was much to do.

Corwin started by exploring the familiar areas, trekking out the various legacy spots. He avoided the fire legacy since he knew Kyo had taken it. Sadly, his trekking was rather disappointing. Air, Earth, and Water were also taken. That meant all the elemental legacies were gone. Corwin set his sights on the special legacies. A few hours journey proved the lightning legacy was already taken. All that remained were space and time. Corwin knew only the region in which these gates were, he didn’t know the exact location. That meant he had to explore.

Corwin used the ring of space to teleport to a location close to the space legacy that he had visited while travelling to the air legacy. He began to explore the level 16 monster zone. This zone featured a powerful agility monster, the dire wolf. Dire wolves would hunt in packs, and would try and surround their enemies in ambush. That made this a very poor zone for levelling, and a tough zone to explore. This made Corwin happy as it meant it was likely no one had yet found the legacy.

That emotion soon changed as Corwin found himself ambushed and surrounded by 8 dire wolves. While there were no elites or special elites, the level suppression made it feel like he was fighting chieftains. His damage was reduced dramatically, and any hit the wolves landed did over triple damage. Corwin would find himself in trouble if his gear was merely gold. Fortunately, his epic tier equipment gave him powerful defense and enough offense to punch through and fairly soon the wolves fell. Corwin collected the loot, finding nothing important before continuing on.

He searched for some time, constantly being interrupted by ambushes. Fairly soon he heard the familiar ding of a level up. He had reached level 12. Corwin dumped his points into agility. He continued searching, and found an interesting spot. In a valley, surrounded by hills was a winding path between three hills. And at the end of that winding path there was a divine gate.

The gate was the same and yet not the same. It had a bright blue portal, and the familiar grey brick surrounding it. But on that grey brick was something Corwin had yet to see in this life. Three rainbow stripes. That meant a 3rd level divine trial. Knowing the trials scaled to level, Corwin dumped his XP into his fire and water manipulation skills, falling to level 10 as they each reached level 8. The first divine trial Corwin would face in his homeland would be the hardest one he had ever faced.

Corwin Swordborn

Spoiler : Level 10: 90% of level 11

Str: 1801(base:25)

Agi: 1866 (base:70)

Con:1801 (base:25)

Int: 601 (base:25)

Cha: 601 (base:25)

Lck: 217 (base:25)

Cnc: 217 (base:25)

Sta: 217 (base: 25)

Qi: 217 (base: 20)

Soul: 217 (base:20)

Air Affinity: 217 (base:20)

Fire Affinity: 217 (base:20)

Def: 5593

MDef: 4251

HP:20910/20910 (base: 1000)

MP:8110/8110 (base: 1000)

Gear:

MW: Epic Tier Level 12 Longsword, +192Str +192Agi +192Con

Base Damage: 240-288, Def 288 MDef 240 Durability 201/384, Requirements: 384 Str

OW: Epic Tier Level 12 Shortsword +192Str, +192Agi, +192 Con

Base Damage 196-240, Def 240 MDef 196, Durability 198/384, Requirements: 384 Str

MA: Epic Tier Level 12 Plate, +192 Str, +192 Agi, +192 Con

768Def,768MDef, Durability 96/96, Requirements:96 Str

LA: Silver Tier Level 12 Plate Cuisse, +48Str, +48Agi, +48Con

192Def, 192MDef Durability: 96/96 Requirements: 96 Str

G: Currently Epic, Level 12 +192Str, +192 Agi, +192 Con

768Def, 768MDef, Durability 370/386 Requirements: 386 Str

B:Epic Tier Level 12 Plate Boots +192Str +202Agi(10 Gemstone) +192Con

768 Def, 768MDef Durability 368/386 Requirements: 386Str

H: Epic Tier Level 12 Helm, +192 Str, +202(10 Gemstone) Agi, +192 Con

768 Def, 768MDef Durability 372/386, Requirements: 386Str

RR: Epic Tier, Level 12 Ring of Hidden Attributes (+192 All base attributes, +192 All Hidden Attributes)

LR: Epic Tier, Level 12 Ring of Elements (+192 All base attributes,

Ignore 2.4 Levels, Ignore 2.4 Equip Levels

AM: Epic Tier, Level 12 Amulet (+192 All base attributes)

Skills:

Time Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 9

Space Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 9

Air Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 9

Earth Manipulation, Special, Tier 0 Level 9

Fire Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 8

Water Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 8

Thunder Slash, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Wave Chop, Rare, Tier 0, Level 0

Wind Charge, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Disrupting Blow, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Double Slash, Uncommon, Tier 0, Level 2

Slash, Common, Tier 0, Level 2

Pierce, Common, Tier 0, Level 2

Parry, Common, Tier 0, Level 2