Reivyn's body felt like it was on fire as molten lava coursed through his very being. It wasn't isolated to his meridians as would usually be the case when he practiced Mana Circulation. Sweat dripped from his brow, and it took all of his concentration to maintain the delicate balance. It wasn't a surprise to Reivyn that he was struggling so hard. He was literally channeling the Magma Affinity through his body. He had recently broken through the threshold of the Level 60 minimum requirement to infuse his body with the Tier 2 Affinities he had available and worked his way through them in order. He found through experimentation that it didn't matter if he paired his Affinity infusions to alleviate some of the discomforts. Coursing the Water Affinity through his body did nothing to offset the pain from infusing his body with the Fire Affinity. The pain he experienced was ethereal. It wasn't real. No amount of preparation could reduce the burden of the exercise. Luckily, the phantom pain disappeared within moments of ending the exercise each time. The Tier 2 Affinities were an order of magnitude more uncomfortable than the Tier 1 Elements had been. Where he had felt extremely hot and sunburned when infusing Fire through his body, he felt like he was melting from the inside out with Magma. He dreaded the effects of the Tier 3 Affinities when he got to them one day, much less the Tier 4 Affinities. I wonder what Veridical will feel like? He thought absentmindedly. It'll be a long, long time before I find out. I don't want to run the risk of mutating the fiber of my being unpredictably before I have enough control over the Affinity. Reivyn didn't have much ability to form coherent thoughts beyond much of what had just flitted through his mind. He grit his teeth and buckled down to maintain the exercise without slipping up. Even with his Mental Fortitude and Iron Will Skills, it was a struggle to maintain his focus. Ameliyn had advised him to take a gradual approach to the exercise. She had warned him that it would be tough and that he shouldn't try to force himself too much. With the Tier 1 Affinities, he had managed to maintain the infusion for about half an hour for each Element. It took some time to spread the Affinity through his entire body. Likewise, safely retracting the Mana took about the same amount of time. It took about five minutes for each, so that left him with twenty minutes for running the exercise at full capacity. Ameliyn had said that the purpose was to acclimate each of his cells to better accommodate the Affinities. There was no downside, per se, to not infusing his entire body to the very edges that he could reach, but there wouldn't be as much of a benefit if he didn't. He wasn't ready to run the Tier 2 Affinities in such a manner yet. It was a struggle just to extend the Mana to the far reaches of his body, and as soon as he reached the very edges of his body, he immediately began to retract the Mana. The Magma Affinity reached his extremities, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he started the process of pulling the Mana back. The relief was gradual, but just getting over the hump of midway gave him a mental reprieve. It took longer to push the Tier 2 Affinity through his body, so seven minutes later, he finally ended the exercise with the Magma Affinity. He collapsed to his bed, sweat covering his body from the strain, and he laid still, panting, for several minutes. He didn't let himself take a full break, though, because if he didn't push through, he suspected he might not have the ability to keep going. He sat back up with his legs crossed, entering a state of Meditation, and moved on to the next Affinity. Metal was the next Affinity on his list, and he had no idea what to expect from the sensations such an Affinity would cause. His curiosity abated as soon as he began pushing the Mana away from his core, though, and he groaned in pain as his body protested the action. It was hard to describe the feeling. It felt like he was getting stabbed without the stab wound. His body was stiffening up, and it felt like internal lacerations as his body turned into a metal statue. He knew he wasn't actually turning into a statue, and his body wasn't actually even getting stiff. It was all in his mind, but the mind was more powerful than the body. He wasn't able to twitch a muscle where the Mana reached. The pain started off fairly dull, but it ramped up as he continued to press. This was another aspect of the exercise that his mother had warned him about during that first session that she had supervised. The longer he maintained the state, the more the pain and discomfort would increase. The only positive aspect was that it wasn't exponential. It was linear. Once he reached a certain point, the added pain didn't do much to negatively affect him. His Mental Fortitude Skill allowed him to keep pace with the ramping pain, if just barely. That was the case for the Tier 2 Affinities, but his willpower Skills only went so far. They let him keep abreast of the increasing pain, but he knew that there was a ceiling, so he planned his sessions accordingly. For his Tier 1 Affinities, he hadn't approached the ceiling of his willpower Skills, but he only had so much time in a day. As it was, it took him two hours to cycle through all four of the base Elements. He could already feel the benefits of the exercise, and the slow down associated with increasing Levels was noticeably reduced. He had already achieved Level 88 in his base Elements, and he could tell that he would reach Level 100 before it was time to go on his mission to another Tier 4 empire. He wasn't sure if he even needed to do the exercise for his Light and Darkness Affinities, though he would simply have to be a completionist. Those two Tier 3 Affinities had been Leveled up to 95, well above even his Tier 2 Affinities that sat at Level 61. Reivyn felt like every muscle in his body was cramping at the same time as the Metal Affinity spread through his being. His breathing became labored as the Mana passed above his chest, through his lungs, and into his throat. His perception of reality seemed to be affected as the Mana continued up his head and through his brain, ending at the top of his skull. He still had a little bit longer to go, though, and the Mana crept along his arms and legs to fill out his fingers and toes. As soon as the Affinity reached the tips of his fingers and toes, Reivyn began the process of retracting the Mana once more. His mind relaxed a bit as the odd Metal perception of reality shifted back to normality, though the pain in his core was continuing to increase. The pain radiated out from the center of his being, but he kept the pace even and steady. Eventually, the Mana receded back to his core and lost the Metal Affinity. The pain and strange sensations fled his mind, and it became an echo of pain to be remembered. He once more collapsed to his back, panting to recover. I can't imagine how this is going to go when I start working on my Tier 3 Affinities, Reivyn thought. Not only will the pain be even higher, but I have more of them. I wonder how Kefira will handle infusing her body with the Space/Time Affinity when the day comes. Reivyn didn't let himself get distracted from his exercise for too long, and he once more sat up to move on to the next Affinity. Mist was the next Affinity, and he had hopes that it wouldn't be too bad. He was wrong. It was much worse than any of the previous Affinities. How can such a benign-sounding Affinity, Mist, be so sinister?! It felt like his body was disintegrating, turning into the mist itself. It felt like his body was tearing itself apart at the tiniest level. He had expected a refreshing, moist feeling to spread through his body, but this was the farthest thing from it. The pain was unimaginable. It was the first time he failed to infuse his entire being all the way to the tips of his fingers and toes. He had to give up about three-quarters of the way through. That was awful, Reivyn thought as he laid back on his bed. I don't know if I want to go on after that. Mud is next. What could that possibly feel like? He didn't let himself wallow in pity, and he wasn't one for giving up. Sure, he hadn't been able to completely finish his Mist Affinity, but he wasn't going to chance irreparable harm to his body, and he had realized that his willpower Skills weren't enough to power through to the end. He didn't view it as a failure. He had gone as long as he safely could. He wasn't worried that his body would be out of balance in the long run for not reaching every single cell with the Affinity. His mother had explained that to him, as well. "As long as you reach every cell with the Affinity, your cells will work to reach an equilibrium," Ameliyn had said. "That doesn't just apply to each individual session. You might think that there will be more effective on your core because it has been infused with the Affinity for the longest, but that's not the case. As long as you reach each cell in a session, each cell will receive the same benefit. "Likewise, if you don't reach every cell in a session, you can slowly make up for it in the future. You won't immediately reach equilibrium with the next session, but your body will slowly adapt on its own. Don't feel bad if you can't do it your first time for certain Affinities. It'll balance itself out as long as you're consistent and make progress with your willpower Skills." Reivyn hadn't reached below his elbows or knees with the Mist Affinity, and he could feel that they weren't quite as attuned as the central part of his body to the Affinity. The difference was minute, but it was there if he concentrated. He would just need to continue to work at it until he was able to power through the exercise. Reivyn spent the next hour cycling through his last three Tier 2 Affinities. He didn't have to stop before reaching the end with the other three, and his Plasma Affinity wasn't much different than Magma had been. If he had to put the difference into words, he would describe it as being thinner than the Magma coursing through his body while being a bit sharper and hotter. The Mana exercises were going about as well as he had hoped, minus the small snag with the Mist Affinity, and he wrapped up his evening session with a refreshing course of regular Mana Circulation. Jekle surveyed the magnificent city with a critical eye. He led his Party members, along with a gaggle of other Adventurers, into the capital city, Willowan, of the Wispan Empire. He had been ecstatic to receive an invitation from his former commander to bring his friends from the volunteer army up to the next stage. Reivyn hadn't included all of the details in the missive, but he hadn't hidden that they would be doing something similar to what they had done with the battalion. There were about forty of the veterans making up the group of Adventurers alongside some of their fresh teammates for a total of fifty-five people. Returning to normal life had been strange for Jekle. Not just him but all of his Party members had been changed by their experience. The effects of killing other humans while fighting for their own lives had lasting repercussions on how they viewed life. They were simultaneously less patient with those they considered to be fools and less likely to resort to violence during an altercation. If some other Adventurer Party got out of line and resorted to blows first, they had no compunction in dishing it back, but they hardly ever started the fights. It was typically only the newer Adventurer Parties that acted so immature, though, as many of the Parties active in the area had been fellow volunteers. The entire atmosphere of the Adventurer's Guild in Oreck had shifted. Many of the Adventuring Parties had left to travel to other areas to take advantage of the Life Experience boon they had received from the conflict, but Jekle, his Party members, and several other Adventurers had hung around for just the missive that Reivyn eventually sent to them. They had grown bored with running the Dungeons and receiving requests from the Adventurer's Guild, and they didn't think they would find what they were looking for by just simply changing the scenery. The structure and mission of their time in the volunteer army had changed their outlook on life, and Jekle was ecstatic to have the opportunity to be a part of something similar again. Jekle and his Party weren't the only ones migrating to the higher Tier Region from Drallo. There weren't a ton of Parties accompanying them on the journey, but he did notice that almost all of them were familiar faces from the company and platoon that Reivyn had been in charge of. Not all of them were familiar faces, though. The fresh faces were Party members that had either been in a different company or were new members that had been convinced to leave everything behind for a new kind of adventure. With his experience as an officer, even though the official ranking was only for a short time, Jekle was able to tell that Reivyn had invited a solid foundation for a command structure. The majority of the Adventurers making the journey hadn't been leaders by any means in the volunteer army, but all of those that had participated as a leader was part of the group. Jekle recognized the five squad leaders from his platoon: Turro, Herrid, Rippo, Ingrid, and Merrith. Surprisingly, Jek wasn't among the numbers, but he hadn't seen him in a long time. He was more carefree, even after the expedition, than the others, though, so it wasn't too surprising that he might have left for greener pastures earlier. The sight of the city drew sounds of admiration from the younger Adventurers in the group. Even though it was an amazing sight for everyone present, those that had spent time in the war were more stoic. They had an air of calmness about them that other people just didn't have. It was noticed by the older soldiers serving as guards as they crossed into the city, but they didn't make anything of it, considering they had a missive with Reivyn's Imperial Liaison stamp on it. They hadn't even been fully inspected at the gates like many other groups had been, and there was even a contingent of guards summoned to escort them further into the city. Most of the Adventurers only gave it a passing notice, but as the one ostensibly in charge, for the time being, Jekle had to take note of anything unusual. There hadn't been a vote or anything to decide a pecking order. Jekle was just naturally drawn to take charge, and he had enough of a reputation even from before the invasion that it was natural for the others to let him. Jekle wasn't fully aware of the significance of the stamp yet. He knew that Kefira had been more important than just a viscount's daughter when she had interacted with that General Kayzor. It hadn't been advertised, but neither had it been kept particularly secret that Kayzor was one of the Imperial Princes. Most of the Adventurers in the group didn't know much about Kefira, and they hadn't witnessed her interactions with the man, but Jekle had been in a position to notice. They hadn't spent all that much time together with the Imperial Army before they split up to escort the civilians home. Still, that little bit of time was enough for him to pick up on enough hints to realize that Kefira was much more important than anyone had suspected in the beginning. The outer city quickly passed them by, and with the escort guards serving as a buffer, they were led straight through to the inner city without even having to stop at the gate. Reivyn had sent them the missive through the Adventurer's Guild, and he had told them to send word ahead the same way to notify him when they were going to arrive. Reivyn had instructed them to meet in one of the hotels in the central square near the teleport circle, something none of the Adventurers could casually afford to use, and he would handle the bill. Jekle led the group down the path after inquiring about the direction, and they filed into the inn. It was much higher quality than any place he had stayed before, but he hadn't particularly been one to seek out such luxury. Most of their money earned through Dungeon Delving and quests were used to bolster their gear and supplies to work toward entering a higher stage one day, but it seemed like they would be getting a helping hand in that regard. Housing fifty-five people in the hotel would cost a lot of money, and Jekle didn't think that was the plan. It was simply one of the easiest locations to meet up at, being such a prominent location. Jekle, while everyone else was inspecting the grand luxury of the establishment, noticed Reivyn with a couple of other people seated at a table in the distance. This was an upscale location, and it included a dining area, a bar, and a dance floor, and that was just the open-air floor in the front of the inn. Reivyn was seated at a table that was sort of between the dining and bar areas. Jekle recognized two of the girls with him, namely Kefira and Serilla, but there were also a couple of people he didn't recognize. They were seated in a way that showed they were intimately familiar with Reivyn, but Jekle wasn't going to make any assumptions before they were introduced. Reivyn was seated facing away from the entrance, but he turned his head as soon as Jekle was about forty feet away from him. His eyes immediately locked with his, and he smiled as he waved him over. The other Adventurers had meandered over to the bar area, having noticed that Jekle was going to take care of the formalities. "Jekle!" Reivyn said, standing up and greeting his former subordinate. "It's been a long time! How have you been?" "We've been good for the most part," Jekle said with a return smile. The two exchanged a handshake before Reivyn indicated for him to take a seat. Kefira offered him a smile, though Serilla kept her vigil about the place. Now that Jekle was closer, he could see the resemblance in the other two people seated with Reivyn. Maybe they're siblings? He thought. Didn't Reivyn say that he was transported countless miles away from his home, though? What kind of coincidence would lead to meeting up with them here? He was only shocked for a moment, though, as he quickly recalled the presence of the teleport circle outside. Ahh, someone got word sent much quicker than expected. That, or he wasn't teleported nearly as far as he had thought. "These are my parents, Ameliyn and Refix," Reivyn introduced the suspected siblings. Surprise flashed across Jekle's face as he hesitated while extending a hand toward Refix. He overcame the shock one more, though, and shook hands with his friend's father. "It's a pleasure to meet you," Jekle said. "I'm Jekle, a former subordinate of your son's." "Yes, he's told us a lot about his time in Drallo," Ameliyn replied as he switched to shaking hands with Reivyn's mother. She had a strong grip for someone of her stature, and he could practically feel the power radiating from the pair even though they weren't broadcasting their auras. "I'm glad you made the journey," Reivyn said. "I was a little surprised that Jek had disappeared, but we have a solid base for what we have planned." "And what exactly is that?" Jekle asked. "You only mentioned that we would be doing the same thing as we did in the volunteer army. Everyone here is ready and willing, but we don't know the specifics about anything going on." "Of course, of course," Reivyn said. "Today is about getting you guys settled, and we'll let everyone have some time to go explore the city and have some fun before we get down to business, but I can at least tell you this much. "There have been multiple instances of invasions across multiple empires since the time of our expedition in Drallo. And I'm not talking about some Tier 6 noble making a jaunt for a personal reason. These are full-blown, true invasions of the Tier 4 empires. Many have already fallen, and more still have asked for help. "We're going to be mercenaries." Jekle's eyes widened a bit at that. He had not expected the scale of what Reivyn had described, nor had he thought Reivyn would be going into business as a mercenary. He had that official stamp, and Kefira was sitting right there, so surely he had some sort of official post. Why would he need to recruit Adventurers? Jekle took a moment to compose his thoughts. Refix and Reivyn eyed him as he did so, but they didn't give any of their thoughts away. Ameliyn didn't seem to care all that much, and she appeared to just be accompanying her family. Kefira and Serilla were having their own little conversation together, but Jekle was too focused on the matter at hand to glean any information from their words. "Well..." Jekle said, drawing the word out. "I know that all of the veterans that made the journey with me know what that means, but some of the fresh faces might not. I can say that we're all willing, though. What would you have me do?" Reivyn smiled once more as Refix gave him an approving nod.