EG Book 7 Chapter 18 (Patreon)

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

First couple days bac at work are always stressful after a long break. Gotta get back into my routine. Less sleep definiately doesn’t help. Oh well, gotta pay the bills. Health insurance ain’t cheap!

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

“I do not know if Zimnodlot and I will continue to catch fish,” Sia said after a minute, once I’d stabilized the Skysurfer and checked our heading on the compass. We were aiming for a path thirty degrees to the left of the position the needle pointed, or the direct line back to Craesti City. Hopefully this would bring us to nearby where we had found the ruins. Once we reached the Craesti peninsula, we would search the coastline for a few days. Knight Kaminski didn’t want us using too much time, so we would only have a week to find it.

“Yeah, the Kraken was scary,” I said. “Fire burn it, I thought we were all dead for a second. Hopefully it didn’t follow after us.”

“If it did, we can fly higher than it can reach,” Sia said.

“True, but I doubt we could avoid its attacks,” I countered, “I bet it has really strong Water attacks. We could not survive if it really wanted to get us. Just got to be a more difficult meal than what it could get otherwise.”

“We will endeavor to be hard to catch,” Sia said sardonically, “We will not fish for two days.”

“That should be fine,” I said with a shrug. “We should have enough food to feed everyone all the way to Craesti even if you don’t catch anything. I’d rather you be safe.”

“Well, safer,” Sia laughed, jumping into the air and shrinking to land on my shoulder. I felt his Aether connect to mine. “You pay attention to flying. I will work on gathering.”

“Do Beasts advance through the Core stages the same way?” I asked him.

“No,” he answered. “You will need to gather enough to create a new layer of your Core in a single go. I, however, can slowly add sections of crystal to mine. What I have to do, though, is imbue my Truth into the Aether I use. This acts something like your runic structures.”

“What is your truth?” I asked him, mentally this time as I sensed this was a private matter.

“To fly over all other Zarorzels, to surpass my mother, and destroy Chaos wherever it arises,” Sia said. “At least, it is now. My Truth can be mutable, though the farther I advance, the more I will be set in my thoughts. This is why it is often impossible to negotiate with a Primordial.”

“Will we be safe visiting your mother?” I asked.

“Yes. Her Truth will not allow her to attack a guest. I will instruct you on proper behavior before we visit, to ensure you do not violate her rules,” Sia said, then pecked my ear. “Now hush so that I may concentrate.”

I shook my head, laughing. The Aether around us, slightly thinner than what I would find in the Meditation Grotto back at Azyl, started to flow towards Sia and I. I sunk into my center and quickly built a single spiral for my gathering technique. “Here,” I said after popping back out. “Try not to take so much that I go below a quarter of my reserves.”

“I do not need much from you,” Sia said, “other than the natural boost to my gathering speed that being around you creates.”

“Neat,” I said, letting my mind control both the gathering technique and the Skysurfer at once. Ever since my advancement, I’d been much better about holding or creating multiple techniques at once. How far can I stretch this? I thought, then created a small Fireball off to my left and held it in place. Three techniques were easy. I added an Icicle Spike to my right, then a Metal Blade in front of me. Creating the Metal Blade took twice as long as it usually did, and I could feel the strain from holding the five techniques active.

A sixth, a Lightning Blast, destabilized with a small clap of thunder, and the backlash broke apart the Icicle and Blade. I desperately reinforced the Fireball, then tossed it away. It flew ten meters before blowing, my frantic motions not quite enough to fully stabilize the technique. Thankfully, my control of two techniques was sufficient that I didn't lose either my Spiral Gathering Technique or let the Skysurfer drift off course.

“Really? I felt that,” Sia complained.

“Sorry. I’ll work on that later,” I told him consolingly.

He butted the side of my head, and then went back to gathering.

Three techniques were easily doable, I thought, so how about I use this time to temper a bit more. Not Geist, but I can expand on my Ice, Water, and Wood tempering to bring them to match the other five Elements. Water first, since, you know, I’m above the Ocean right now.

I dropped into my center after checking the heading one last time. From there, I moved my viewpoint to my aorta. Okay, Librarian Narwan only ever showed us the first three levels of the tempering technique, but I’m at the equivalent of four levels now. I want to get to five, where my main Elements are. I think if I run the first through third level parts of the technique in series it’ll do something useful.

I set up the level one portion, only three runes stacked on each other. The level two had another five runes, then eight more for the level three. Wait a minute. Three, five, eight. I bet the next one will be thirteen. Hmm, what other runes are needed? I thought while channeling a tiny bit of Water Aether into the runic structure I’d created already. My blood cells passed cleanly through it, very tiny changes occurring in each one as tiny bits of improperly tempered cells were discovered. The Tribulation lightning had brought me up to a higher level, but the quickness of it missed tiny sections that needed to be brought up to the final level.

I watched for a minute, examining as my blood was slowly brought to a tiny bit better temper with Water. Each bit flowed just that much better, only noticeable due to my advanced gathering level and brain processing speed. This is amazing, I thought, shaking my head in wonder. Wait, I think I can collapse all three sets of runes into a single set. I wonder … I reached out and grasped the runes with my mental hands. With a few tugs, I had them laid out in a single sphere, rather than three lines, and then I crushed them together. Five of the runes merged with others, leaving me with eleven, and on instinct I added two more, one that represented destruction and one for rebirth that I’d learned from Sia.

Immediately, every blood cell that moved through the technique was broken apart and then rebuilt. The reforged cell glowed with Aether for a few millimeters, and then deposited that Aether into the walls of my aorta. The cells of my artery were similarly broken down and reborn when the blood cell gave of the Aether it stored.

I can hold this technique as one of my five, I thought, looking on it with awe. Now, let’s build one for Ice and Wood. I can do all three at once, though it will take quite a while to finish.

I quickly formed a copy of the runic structure I had set up, only with Water replaced by Ice. It didn’t do anything at all. Huh, I thought. After a few seconds, though, I realized, Well, maybe the Aether infused into the blood cell is preventing the technique from working? Let’s move it farther forward, see if that helps.

It did. As soon as the blood cell lost the film of Aether coating it, the tempering technique was able to break it down again. I pushed it farther, though, building the Ice technique at my jugular instead. I then created a similar set of runes at my femoral artery in my leg, giving all three techniques space to work their magic. My plan was to swap locations once they met up, and keep the techniques working until all of my blood had been advanced with it.

“That is interesting,” Sia said, and I could feel his mental presence looking at my Water tempering technique. “I should utilize it as well.”

“Yes you should,” I told him, “Get stronger so I don’t have to worry about you.”

“I did defeat a Harpy who was a level above me in strength,” he said.

“Yeah, you did. That was pretty epic, but I got the feeling those Harpies were not at the level of competing in an international tournament. They were more what we would get from the moderately talented people who get lucky. So they are not indicative of the strength of their elites. You know what I mean?”

“Yes,” Sia responded, “they were not our equal, but that does not mean there are not Harpies who are. So I should endeavor to get stronger, and so should you. Now, focus, we are starting to drift.”

“Oops!” I exclaimed, then focused on the Skysurfer. I brought us back to the right two degrees, then another two for two minutes, before returning us to our proper heading. “Okay, I’ve got steering, the Spiral Gathering Technique, and three Elements of tempering in my blood vessels. I don’t think I can hold anymore, so now I just wait, keeping everything running.”

Sia laughed, then said, “Only you would be annoyed at only being able to hold five techniques at Seed Core. Everyone I have spoken to before could only hold three or four, at most, while you can use five and still hold a conversation! Stop with the self-doubt. You are the strongest gatherer for your generation. You are going to be betrothed to the heir to the kingdom, to an extremely savvy and capable noble, and to one of the best healers ever. Stop doubting yourself and realize your true capability.” He slapped my head with his wing.

I grinned, shaking my head, then spoke aloud, “I know. It’s hard to go from, ‘hey, I’m pretty crippled and can barely walk,’ to ‘I am the strongest person of my age group in the entire world.’ You know? It’s been less than a year and a half, and I’ve went from someone who literally died and was born again into an extremely damaged body, to the best and most eligible bachelor of my generation. At least two amazing young women tried to get me to take them as a mistress, just on the off chance they’d get benefits and their, our, children would be set for life. In many ways, I’m having huge problems with that, just because that isn’t how the world should work. Why does a talented young woman have to basically sell herself to get a better future for her kids?”

“Is that not what Master Narwan and you are working to prevent?” Aleks asked, making me jump in surprise.

I steadied the ship, then turned to her. “Yes, exactly that,” I said. “The point of the Affinity Powders is to raise the poorest people’s Affinities, and thus let them advance faster. Imagine if everyone over the age of twenty was a Condensation gatherer? Even if they never could reach Core, they’d still be stronger, faster, healthier. How would it change farming if every farmer could use external Aether techniques to speed up growth?”

“I know,” she said, grabbing my arm. “Why do you think dad funds Master Narwan’s experiments? The Affinity Powders are the result of two centuries of investment and time by the best Alchemist in the kingdom, because we want to raise up the common person, and reduce the power of the noble clans.”

“And, if everyone is able to reach Condensation, then the available pool of soldiers is significantly greater,” I said.

“Yes, that is one aspect,” Aleks said with a shrug. “When we are surrounded by existential threats, saved only by the fact that most Primordials are apathetic about expanding their territory, having more soldiers is never a bad thing. The Affinity Powders help with raising elites as well, though.” She pointed at me. “Look at you. How much did the improvement to all of your Affinities when you were just a Fog level gatherer speed your growth?”

I nodded. “Probably quite a lot,” I said. “Upgrading my weakest Affinities especially helped, and selling the powders to others probably helped them all as well.”

“Your concern for your team, and me, is touching,” Aleks said, “but you could protect them better if you were to be more selfish, you know?”

“No, I don’t know,” I said. “I cannot be everywhere. Jon is one of the best defenders I know, and he couldn’t protect me from everything the Tower of Trials sent in our joint challenge. Even now, against the Harpies, if I had been selfish and hoarded all the advancement pills, used them over and over again to reach Foundation Core before we left, could I really have protected everyone better than having Jon, Bridget, and Vaya as Core, and the rest of you at Complete Condensation instead of everyone at threshold?”

I took a deep breath, realizing I was ranting at my girlfriend. “Sorry,” I said, bowing my head.

She lifted my chin then leaned in and gave me a quick kiss. “It is okay,” she answered. “I know you want to protect us all.”

“Yeah, you just hit on one of my own worries,” I told her. “I wonder sometimes, if I had been more selfish, could I be even farther along? If I was, could I protect everyone? Librarian Narwan is one of the most powerful people in our kingdom. Even still, he couldn’t protect us when the Chaos Beasts invaded (name of city), because the Illyrian matched him.” I shook my head, taking a few calming breaths. “I believe that improving everyone is more efficient and better for saving the world. One person at the peak of Soul Strengthening will be weaker than a dozen at the initial stages.”

“You sure about that?” Aleks asked.

“No, but I think I can keep all of us accelerating upward,” I said. “Befriending Bruno, opening the Tower of Trials. Darkness’s gift of languages is probably my most useful ability.”

“I think it is your ability to spread hope,” Aleks said, stepping into a hug and squeezing my ribs. “Before you, I was resigned to marrying for the benefit of the kingdom. Vaya was stuck being a trading piece for her family. Jamila would probably have ended up a slave in all but name to a noble house. Jon and Bridget would have been mediocre gatherers and ended up just footsoldiers in the army. Thousands of people would never have learned to read, and been stuck at the basest levels of gathering because they could not understand the free directions given out. Our world is better just because of your presence.”

A weight I didn’t realize I was carrying lifted off my shoulders, and my gathering technique ticked up in efficiency. “Thank you,” I said, my voice heavy and clipped.

“Why do you think I want to spend my life with you?” Aleks asked.

“Because I am ridiculously good looking?” I asked back, then laughed. She giggled against my chest.

“You need to rest too,” she told me. “Go, I will steer the Skysurfer.”

“I will stay with her,” Sia told me. “I am mostly recovered.”

“Fine, thank you,” I told him, then nodded to Aleks. “Fine, I can go gather in my room.”

“Lilianna and Xiao cooked a spread of Mountain Boar sausage and (Chinese for Swamp) Goat cheese, with Gilded Grain Wheat crackers. Xiao said it was based on a tale from your old world,” she told me.

“Nice, adult lunchables,” I laughed, and then shook my head at her questioning look. “Sorry. There was a product called a lunchable that was for kids. It was usually made of cheese, meat, and crackers, with a dessert of some type. When adults had it, it was called charcuterie but people would joke that that was just a pretentious name for an adult lunchable.”

She smiled and shook her head, “I can tell you find it funny, but it …”

“Yeah, inside jokes don’t really work outside the context,” I said. I picked her up and spun her around. “Now we just need to make our own inside jokes, if we are going to spend centuries together.”

She giggled again, then cupped my face with both her hands and drew me into a much deeper kiss. We separated panting, and she said, “Go rest. You are still stronger than any of us but Knight Kaminski, so having you at your peak is important. We can spend more time together in the palace.”

“As you wish,” I told her, then handed her the compass and walked away. Inside, I found several platters full of meat, cheese, and crackers. Jon and Bridget were sitting next to each other at the table, with Jon’s arm over her shoulder. Bridget gave me a grin when I grabbed a plate, and then turned back to her boyfriend.

I filled the plate, then headed to my room. I had to all around Lilianna and Xiao, who were both sleeping on the lounge cushions while holding hands. I smiled down at them, and winked at Ming, who had cleared a space to work on a sword technique. He nodded to me, then danced, his sword leaving afterimages that I felt could still damage his opponent.

In my room, I put the plate on the desk not including the control orb. I opened one of the boxes underneath the desk to pull out a level five Dungeon Beast Core, and found one of the four Inscriptions to pull the Aether out of it. There are four Beast Core Inscriptions in this room, I thought, Light, how dense could I make the Aether in here? Probably dense enough to cause me problems.

I checked the Aether capacity of the Portable Home, and saw that it was nearing the halfway point. The control orb had a receptacle near it to absorb a Beast Core, so I put the strongest one I had available on it. It started to drain. I ate my food slowly, enjoying the perfectly seared sausage. Ten mintues later, I checked on the Portable Home and its Beast Core. “That’ll get it to seventy five percent or so,” I told myself, then nodded. “I’ll stick another one on in a bit.”

A quick check showed the tempering techniques were still running, strengthening me, so I sat on my bed to focus more on them. Without having to worry about steering or even gathering, the Aether density such that my gathering meridians were pulling in a massive amount by themselves, I built a second version of each of the three Elements, and focused on holding them all steady.