Moonlight Relic, Ch 32: Testing the Village (Patreon)

Four hours later, it was barely accurate to call it a scroll. The aura he’d fused into it and some supporting materials, including silver, plague dust, and ground wraith skin, made it more like a single-use enchantment, and the result was far more durable than normal. It was almost as tough as a metal sheet, except it kept the flexibility of the original. He set it on the table in front of him as he began to meticulously examine it for flaws.

Congratulations, Aura Forger. You have crafted an Elite tier scroll.

You gain 5,000 Class experience.

For crafting a scroll above your tier, your profession gains bonus experience.

Essence Scribe is now Level 52.

Your Ability: Essence Control has reached the Elite tier.

It was a fifteen-level jump in Essence Scribe for making one scroll, but Sam just nodded at the notification before he dismissed it. It was surprising that the scroll had only turned out to be Elite, but that was the tier of the aura he’d used on it.

Either way, the tier didn’t matter as much as the effect.

The experience was also important, since that was a respectable amount for the First Evolution and it proved that crafting was a viable path to level gain. If it was similar for other Elite scrolls, then with enough auras and prepared materials, he could level up in four or five days, just by making scrolls. Once he cleared the last bounty and the alignment ended, he might try it, especially if it got harder to find First Evolution monsters.

He pushed those thoughts aside for later as he studied the finished scroll. The pattern on it was more advanced than anything he produced in the past, an ornate band of six different layers that overlapped one another, which would make them trigger at the same time and link the effects together. Half of them were illusions and targeting, and the other three were to guide the vitality drain, a defensive shield to accompany it, and an attack augmentation to carry the ability.

He could sense a flicker of the core enchantment in his work as well. There was a similarity in how the patterns locked together that he hadn’t consciously intended. Now that it was finished, it was obvious. He hadn’t managed to unlock that enchantment yet, but apparently it was still influencing him. It meant he might end up discovering its secrets as he continued to craft, matching up one section after another, as he slowly assembled the design.

He finished checking the scroll over and then he rolled it up, securing it with a loop of string. It glowed with a dim violet-black aura that pushed against his awareness with a heavy pressure. There was a lot of energy contained in it, around three hundred points of essence.

Making it had given him a chance to try out both Aura Forging and Modify Aura, and to figure out how they worked. The two abilities had excellent synergy, almost as if the World Core had planned for it. The first ability gave him an implicit knowledge of auras and how to best apply them, including how to break them apart or fuse them into other things, like how to make a Fire aura efficient at supporting a Water enchantment.

Aura Forging could also help him pull in natural auras from the world around him and fuse them into his work, although that would be a lot slower than using an aura he’d already gathered. For example, if he wanted to fuse some of the essence of the sunset into an item, he’d need to bathe the item in the sunset’s light at exactly the right moment, and perhaps set up an elaborate enchantment pattern and binding runes to secure it, but he could draw in that aura.

How well it would work was up to his design.

Aura Forging was a core aura crafting ability, something that he’d really been missing from his original Battlefield Reclaimer class. He’d had plenty of ways to gather auras and move them around, to strengthen or weaken them, and to infuse their energy into things, but not a core ability to directly manipulate them. Now, he did, and it would make everything more efficient.

It was an essential part of Chaos Smith.

Modify Aura, on the other hand, was something even stronger, in its own way. It was a slow remaking of an aura itself, letting him shift it from one thing to another. The more dramatic the change, the longer it would take and the more difficult it would be, but if he had enough time and patience, he could turn that Fire aura into a Water aura.

The only problem was that it was limited to how much he understood of the aura, just like with natural runes. If he really wanted to reshape it into a Water aura, he needed to be intimately familiar with what that result would look like and the differences between the two.

Either way, however, the name of Chaos Smith was eminently suitable for him.

With everything combined together, and with the practice on the high tier relic, things were starting to click into place. He had all of the abilities he needed to make things and the range of possibilities was far greater than before.

He tucked the completed scroll into his belt pouch and then stood up, dodging slightly as his horns brushed past a low corner of the roof, which made him grumble. He appreciated the sylphs’ hospitality, but nothing in the village had been designed for someone of his size. Once things were settled, he planned to head back up to the first layer and live there. It was the best environment for practicing his enchanting and to keep working on the relic.

He put away his tools and then headed out of the workshop. He needed to drop the scroll off and explain how it worked, and then go to meet Garild. It was a couple of hours until moonrise, which was just enough time to get up to the peak if he pushed himself.

On the way, he slipped his old Ring of Crystal Shield off his finger and looked at it. Silver-blue mithril wrapped around the core embedded at the top, which held a 200-point last-second shield. He’d made six of them originally and given them to everyone. As far as he knew, only he and his father had ever used them, and he’d replaced the cores afterwards. Given what he knew now, and the materials available to him, he could do better, but it all boiled down to time.

“Sam!” Altey shouted. She was talking to Raelia in the yard, probably about ice magic, and she came running over as soon as she saw him.

A trail of tiny ice blue wisps followed her, like a path of icicles. Here in the village, where everyone was attuned to ice, she didn’t have to worry about controlling her mana. Her mana pool was small and the effects only felt like a pleasant breeze to them. To others, those wisps could cause frostbite or explode like a small ice storm. She ended the run by jumping into his arms and the wisps flowed over his skin with a tickle.

She’d loved jumping on him when she was younger. Now that he had become bigger, she got to do it again and was taking every opportunity she could. It made him laugh as he swung her around for a moment.

“You barely spent any time at home!” she grumbled as she shoved on his chest. “You said you would teach me about runes. The sylphs are wonderful, but I want to spend time with you.”

“Sorry, little sister,” Sam said as he gave her a hug. “I should have more time now that the relic is capable of working on its own. And I will teach you about runes. Look.”

He shifted her up to his right arm as he drew a shining symbol in the air with the other. It glowed with a light blue energy.

“This is the basic rune for shield,” he said. “I’ve used it in a lot of scrolls and artifacts. It’s a very good central rune and you can add all sorts of things to it.” While the rune was still hanging there, he pulled a sheaf of low-tier parchments from his belt pouch, mostly some leftover scraps that he hadn’t got around to using, and handed them to her.

“Take these,” he added. “Practice drawing the rune and trying to infuse it with mana. If you work at it hard enough, you might be able to charge the lines.” He paused as he drew a simple binding circle into the air around the shield rune.

“And this is a binding circle. It will help to channel that shield rune and turn it into something useful, like a basic shielding scroll. I don’t expect you’ll be able to make it work yet, but it will be good practice.”

“If you can do it, I can do it.” Altey grinned as she studied the rune. “I’ll make it by the end of the year.”

“Good!” He laughed as he tossed her up in the air. With his size, it was no trouble at all.

He liked her confidence, but it was unlikely she would manage it. Even as simple as it was, it required a fine control over mana to infuse it into the symbols correctly. If she did succeed, it would mark a turning point. She might not need to be escorted everywhere for fear of her mana becoming chaotic.

When he set her back down, he was struck by how much she’d changed in just a few months. She was taller than he remembered and her features had less of the roundness of a child than when they returned to Cliff’s End. There was a trace of their mother’s elegance about her now. Time was slipping by quickly.

He would have to try to spend some days with his family instead of in the relic. Otherwise, he would miss what gave life its meaning. At least the relic was able to repair itself now, which meant he didn’t need to be there every day.

“You heard about Micas?” he asked, changing the subject. Her face was flushed from laughing, but when she nodded at him, her grin started to disappear and he felt a pang in his heart.

“Let me see your ring.” He sat down on the grass and patted a place next to him. It didn’t take her long to join him, and then she pulled off her Ring of Crystal Shield and handed it to him.

He turned it around, examining it for flaws. The enchantment was still stable, but the core in it was just an Advanced one that he’d had in the past.

“Watch this,” he said as he winked at her. The entire ring became translucent as he opened the enchantment on it with a touch of his aura. There was still a silvery blue shade from the mithril, but the metal looked ethereal now. Lines of glowing runes were visible, connecting to one another with tendrils of mana. The entire pattern glowed with the sapphire blue of crystal flame, part of the signature he’d left behind when he made it. At the top, a ring of intricate runes and the center of the shield enchantment surrounded the core.

It only took him a moment to divert the mana from the runes and slide his talon below the core that was currently in place. It came out with a metallic tink as it slid out of the socket. He handed it to Altey and then he pulled an Epic core from his belt pouch.

A moment of concentration flooded the new core with a wash of crystal flame and purified it. Then he slid it into the socket where the old one had been and reactivated the runes. The enchantment flared as it locked onto the new core. Threads of mana licked around the interior of the structure, testing the runes for weaknesses. A moment later, the reaction subsided and the ring looked almost the same as before, but there was a much more powerful hum of energy in it.

“Put that back on,” he said as he handed it to her. “Remember not to take it off unless I ask. It might break if you have to use it, but it won’t hurt you.”

If he had time, he would have built her an entirely new artifact, but the Epic core would make the ring more effective than it had been before.

“But I like it this way.” Altey frowned as she looked down at the ring, before sliding it back onto her finger. “What do I do if it breaks?

“I’ll fix it for you.” Sam shook his head with a smile. “One piece at a time, just like the world.”

He spent a few minutes talking to her about the shield rune and what she’d been learning from the sylphs before he ruffled her hair again, which made her frown at him. This time, because she knew that he was about to leave.

His laugh was a warm rumble as he left her studying the rune and headed into the house.

He needed to do the same thing for his parents’ rings and explain how the scroll worked. He also wanted to encourage his mother to start making copies of her work, at least about the death of the bounties and other information, so that they could start distributing it in the town.

Much of that was going to look like a story of the Horned Hunter and allies defending Highfold, including the light on the peak, the rare alignment of the moons, and the monsters that were currently invading. Important events, but not anything that would tie back directly to them.

The rest would be about the road through the Storm Plains and the monsters they’d encountered on the way, as well as the stories of the Abyssinian Plains, life in the Western Reaches, the history of the valley from the perspective of the sylphs, and more. There was no reason not to spread it around. Perhaps they could even start selling her chronicles in the shop.

---

As he headed out of the village, flickers of Crystal Passage were already forming around him. He was planning to practice short hops on the way to the peak and see how far he could stretch it. Once the moons rose, his essence regeneration would increase and it would make it even easier.

Just as he approached the border of the village, however, Erilar and Aylin from the hunting team came running toward him. Their auras were spiraling around them with the sharp bite of midwinter’s ice, making it clear that they were ready for battle. Aylin’s voice drifted to him like whispering ice.

Hunter, someone is testing the wards. A series of seeking spells just struck them. It’s no villager. It seems the alignment has brought some unwelcome travelers. The rest of the team is coming, but they are farther away.

As soon as Sam heard her, the crystal flame around him twisted into a spiral and threads of moonlight shot through it. He spun to face the border where the wards kept the village hidden from sight.

Micas.

It was the first thought that sprang into his mind. If he was here, Sam was going to rip his arms off. Maybe his legs too. There was the minor problem that he was a relative, which kept Sam from outright killing him, but he shouldn’t be able to cause much trouble that way. His muscles expanded and his horns rose higher into the air as his battle aura flowed around him. His talons lengthened.

As soon as he passed the wards, Crystal Focus expanded around him, tracking the flow of mana through the air. It only took him an instant to find the flow of a spell that was tangled around the wards and to trace it back across the field.

There.

He could see the shimmer of a concealment spell in the distance. He couldn’t see what was inside it, but the traces that led him to it were as clear as day. They stood out against the sylphs’ barrier like a centipede crawling around on ice. Crystal Passage warped the space around him as he disappeared.

An instant later, a massive hand clawed through the concealment spell, tearing it apart in an eruption of green sparks. The illusion shattered, wavy lines like heat mirages disappearing for twenty feet all around the area, and a rumbling growl resonated from Sam as he caught sight of what was behind it.

It was a group of six adventurers.

They were all kitted out for battle. Their weapons were already drawn and spells were spiraling around a few of them, but unfortunately, they weren’t Micas. His Analyze flew over them, picking up the key details.

Human. Advanced Scout-Beast Tamer. Level 103.

Human. Wizard-Ice Mage. Level 86.

Human. Visionary-Ranger. Level 99.

Lykaris. Axe Barbarian-Flame Berserker. Level 110.

Lykaris. Flame Mage-Fortuneseeker. Level 105.

Khanir Construct. Mercenary-Bone Brawler. Level 97.

Three of them, he recognized. They were part of the group that had rushed to the peak, including the idiot of a Beast Tamer he’d frozen into a block of ice and the wizard who talked too much. The illusion spell was linked to the Visionary, who was the most surprising in the group. He’d shown better sense the last time they met.

The other three were new, but they had to be more adventurers who’d arrived in the valley recently. The Lykari were a race he’d only seen once before. They were nine feet tall with long, gangly limbs, stick-thin bodies, and bright orange hair, and were naturally aligned with Fire, as was evidenced in their classes. With his Battle Aura active, they came up to his shoulders.

The Khanir Construct was something strange, but he’d heard of them. They were one of the minor races in Aster Fall, a type of spirit that used materials to build itself a body, usually with wood and bone. They usually had an alignment with whatever they used. Without their shell, they were little more than a ghost floating around, and sometimes mages tried to trap them as servants, since they could be bound to a workshop or building.

Clearly, they had somehow got it into their heads to attack the sylph village, or at least they were on the verge of deciding to. No one from the valley who was in their right mind would have pointed them in this direction, for fear of the sylphs banishing them, so that meant someone else had done it. The question was why.

Even more unfortunate for them, however, there wasn’t a single healer or defensive class in the group. As soon as they saw him, their reactions turned to panic. Their eyes widened as half of them stepped back. Shouts filled the air.

“The Horned Hunter?!” The wizard’s voice screeched out above the others. “What is he doing here?!”

He was cut short a moment later by a wild howl from the Beast Tamer, who fell backward and scrambled at the ground as he turned to run. Apparently, being frozen had left an impression.

“Damn it. Again?” The Visionary muttered a curse under breath, and then he turned away as well as he began to run. “This isn’t worth the pay!”

The rest were not as wise.

The Axe Barbarian Lykaris threw himself forward in a blur of flashing streaks. He held twin battle axes in his hands that were outlined with flames. Behind him, the other Lykaris began to cast a spell as a torrent of flames concentrated into a miniature inferno in his hands.

The wizard pulled a short staff from his belt and raised it above his head as an ice-aligned shield snapped into place around him, and the Khanir Construct rushed forward, its hands curling into fists as bone spikes extended from the knuckles. Across its arms and back, more spikes and bone plates began to extrude like a set of armor.

Sam’s anger swelled as he saw them coming and his hands slammed together with an explosive crack that echoed through the area. Then he moved.