Chapter 295 - Daily Grind (Patreon)

Over the following days, the rumor mill was filled with various accounts of what transpired in the open market instead of the tragedy at the Dungeon. People still talked about it, and the mood was still a bit subdued, but it was on the back burner. There was still no widespread talk of impending doom, so that was good.

Other people tried to replicate Reivyn’s tactics with some of the other commonly used crafter resources, but without a drop in supply, buyers could just go somewhere else, quickly leading the attempt at raising the price to fail. Others took a different tactic and banded together. Small conglomerates of multiple Parties selling their wares together popped up, but others saw the strategy and simply made their own wares more visible to those seeking them. The cooperations quickly failed when the expected results didn’t materialize and infighting began.

Overall nothing changed other than the price of the ores temporarily rising due to the shortage. Without an actual shortage or firm monopoly on a resource, there was no underlying drive to boost the prices, and the fervor of scheming to eke out more Skill Shards from the sellers in the open market quickly faded.

All of this was background noise to Reivyn and the others. It was entertaining to watch and listen, but they were focused on their own things. The plan was to stay in the Outpost for a month before heading back to Wispan. The rationale for waiting so long was to wait and see if any of the monsters showed up, proving they could track them even in the absence of going through the veil.

They would use the local teleport circle on this side of the Wilderness so they didn’t have to make the full trip, and hopefully they wouldn’t run into any more “Dungeon” traps by doing so. There was a risk that it would alert the enemy by their presence in the veil while they circumvented the Wilderness, but they all felt the shorter journey and avoidance of randomly stumbling upon one of the traps in the Wilderness was worth it.

The tentacle monster didn’t immediately find them when they went into the Dungeon, after all. It knew the location of the Dungeon, but it couldn’t even parse out their individual instance without witnessing them going back through the Portal, otherwise it wouldn’t have been waiting for them on the outside. The theory was that because Dungeons were stationary in the Veil and teleports were not, they could most likely move through the portal quickly enough to not be tracked.

Because there was still the risk of them being wrong; however, they were going to tour the countryside of Wispan for a few weeks instead of heading straight back to the capital city to see if any of the monsters showed up. Once they were confident they hadn’t been tracked, then they could finally end their journey and head home.

One way or the other, though, they were going to have to take a risk: Either randomly stumble upon a trap, or get tracked through the teleport. Reivyn prayed that their conjecture was correct, and they would just have an extended trip before returning to the capital.

Until they were ready to leave, they each had quite a bit of free time on their hands. The others, including Kefira, who had advanced their Bloodlines were mostly training and practicing their physical Skills and abilities to accustom themselves to the sudden change in Stats and body control.

Some things weren’t measured by Stats, like inherent movement and reaction, even if they could be influenced by the change in Stats. Leveling Up one’s Bloodline was a qualitative shift that even if no Stats changed, there would still be differences in how the body worked.

Reivyn decided to focus on his Affinities. He had his entire repertoire of Tier 2 Affinities stuck at Level 100 for quite some time now, plus Darkness and Light in Tier 3. He still went for the calisthenics and some short sparring matches with Refix and the others each day, but he really wanted to cross that threshold and reach Transcendence with his Affinities.

Using Magic in combat was one of his greatest strengths, even more so than his Weapons Master. Not only could he decimate large numbers of enemy forces with his Magic, but it could amplify his close combat, as well. He had been coasting a bit with his Affinities, but a month’s time should be enough to figure things out.

A month was and wasn’t a long time, simultaneously. It was enough time to get some serious training in, but it wasn’t enough time to devise a plan and implement it to make any drastic changes, like combining Skills into a Prodigy Skill. He could expect to tick up a few Levels in a lot of Skills and Affinities, though, and he thought he was ready to Transcend his Tier 2 Affinities.

After the morning calisthenics and sparring sessions, Reivyn retreated back to the inn for personal Meditation. He didn’t know if the method he used to dual-Meditate with Kefira would interfere in any way with trying for Transcendence. In the past, he would relegate his Meditation to the evenings before going to sleep. He would obviously still take advantage of the increased potency of dual-Meditation, but now that he was adding solo Meditation in the middle of the day, he didn’t have to worry about whether there would be adverse effects towards Transcending or not.

He didn’t just Meditate to try and breakthrough, though. He had achieved Transcendence with his Tier 1 Affinities in the heat of battle, after all. Every other day, instead of Meditating by himself, he would practice Casting his Magic and experimenting with different Weaves, Knots, and visualized tapestries.

The core of his Weapons Master Transcendent ability was based around a fundamental way it worked. The core to his Tier 1 Affinities Transcendent abilities were based on the foundation of elements in ambient Mana and other Affinities. It could be considered a fundamental concept.

Working towards a fundamental Concept, outside of what he could do with just weaving the Mana, was what he focused on. As far as he knew, Transcendent abilities could be basically anything. They could just be simple empowerments like Ice is colder, but that seemed hardly useful. Sure it would breach the 100 Level barrier, but it wouldn’t add much relative to what could be achieved with the right concept.

Reivyn spent the days and weeks searching for the right pairing for his Affinities. He didn’t focus too much of his thoughts on the Affinities that weren’t anywhere near ready for Transcendence, but he still kept it in mind for the future while he worked on them.

The days and weeks passed as the Party members continued their routine. The others experimented with their Skill Shards, and they saw tremendous growth. Refix managed to reach Transcendence in another Skill, though he kept the details private for now. He said he wanted to surprise him when the time was right. Reivyn suspected he just wanted to show off.

Teilon’s abilities to hide himself in miniscule shadows reached new heights, especially with his ability to phase through objects. He was working on being able to shift through unconnected shadows, trying to tie that concept to his Sneaking abilities. Reivyn had high hopes for his friend, as that would be an amazing ability. He had high hopes, but he was still a bit skeptical, though, as that sounded more like a Class Skill than a Transcendent ability. Maybe some interesting combination would come of the experiments, though.

Kefira didn’t have any Skills close to Transcendence, and she didn’t want to waste her Skill Shards. Reivyn didn’t necessarily see it as a waste, but he wasn’t going to try and convince her she was wrong. She wanted assistance for the breakthrough itself, not a boost to the gate where her momentum would flounder.

Instead, her experiment with the Skill Shard was to see if they worked on Affinities. Sadly it did not seem to be the case that their unique type of energy transferred. They could help increase the Skills associated with Mana and Magic, but not the body’s Affinity Levels themselves. Luckily it didn’t actually waste a Skill Shard. She couldn’t draw the energy out of the Skill Shard for the intended purpose, so nothing was lost.

Reivyn and the others could only assume Affinity Shards existed somewhere in the Realm. None of them had heard of Skill Shards until they reached the Tier 5 Region, so what’s to say a similar situation didn’t exist for Affinity Shards in the Tier 6 or higher Regions. It made sense to them.

The Adventurer’s Guild didn’t have any information on the topic. The lack of a definitive, “no, they don’t exist,” though, was telling. Reivyn guessed that just like with how people needed to reach a Tier 5 Region to gain access to the knowledge of Skill Shards, the Adventurer’s Guild kept information on Affinity Shards, if they existed, in the Tier of Regions they could be found.

It also made another kind of logical sense to Reivyn. Everyone could use Skills without having to be born with their Mana activated, and thus Skill Shards come first; but everyone who reaches Tier 4 has their Mana activated, so it would be in line with how the Tier systems worked for Affinity Shards to come later. The vast majority of people wouldn’t be at the necessary Affinity Level to need Affinity Shards in a Tier 5 Region, anyway.

That might seem unfair to Mages and Caster Classes, but the world wasn’t fair. Just like how they had access to Mana earlier than everyone else wasn’t “fair.” Reivyn just accepted it for how it was, if that even was the case. They still didn’t actually know for sure.

Kimberly focused more on her Dancing integration to her combat style. Reivyn was proud of his ability to incorporate Dancing and Rhythm into his fighting style, but he was actually behind Kimberly in that aspect. Her Dancing Skill was actually her highest Skill. It probably had to do with her love of dance, and she used the Skill all the time whether in combat training or not.

Kefira was inspired by Kimberly’s Dancing Skills to work on improving her own during her own physical training. She made a point to spar at least once with Kimberly every day. Reivyn could foresee a lot more dancing with Kefira in the future, especially with their wedding on the horizon.

Serilla was as stoic as ever in her own training. She was the most willing to subject herself to the tortuous routines Refix could come up with, and it was the only time Reivyn ever heard a complaint from the woman. Despite always acting like she was reluctant, though, Reivyn and everyone else could tell it was just an act. The woman loved to train almost as much as Refix. Nobody loved to train more than Refix, though.

Ameliyn participated in the morning tribulations, too, though Refix was quite clear that he couldn’t push her the same way he could the others. He never even tried. If Ameliyn didn’t want to do something, she didn’t do it, and a stern glance from her was all it took for Refix to move on. That being said, there wasn’t a lot that she was unwilling to do. It mostly came down to the dirtier exercises Refix came up with in order to get everyone uncomfortable.

They didn’t have the sand of the beaches from the tropical island to get into everyone’s armor, but the dirt was a decent second option. Ameliyn just glanced at the ground and quirked an eyebrow at her husband, and that was the end of that.

Reivyn could better understand the lifestyle of those who stuck around to take up odd jobs in the Outpost. Over the first couple of weeks, he saw many waitresses, waiters, shopkeepers, and even craftsmen and women pack up their belongings and head out for adventure, being replaced by others who had just come back. Reivyn didn’t know their exact timelines, but he could better appreciate the rotation between mundane living with some training and adventuring in the wilds after their expedition. He had no immediate desire to head back out despite loving Adventuring.

Like everywhere Reivyn had been, his Party’s training regimen was much more intense than anyone else had had observed. Even among these veteran, high-Tier Adventurers, Refix was the only one who required his entire Party to train with significantly reduced Stamina. They weren’t the only people doing it. Reivyn saw many people use the same training tactic, but they were the only ones he saw where it was uniform even among the Casters.

Even with their high intensity training, the weeks following their close call with disaster did wonders to relax Reivyn and the others. Reivyn could easily see himself living this lifestyle for extended periods of time; however, he also loved the military lifestyle the Mercenary Company afforded him. They were two sides to the same coin, to Reivyn.

His first breakthrough occurred while contemplating how he had unlocked the Ice Affinity in the first place. In order to unlock the Affinity all those years ago, he had simply drained the heat out of his Mana until it clicked. With increased usage of the Mana and better understanding of the Affinity, he finally stumbled upon the concept for Transcendence while flinging Ice Bolts at a training dummy.

He realized that he had gotten his Mana cold enough to unlock the Affinity by draining the heat out of it, but that’s not all there was to Ice Mana. It drains energy. And with that, there was a fundamental shift in the next Ice Bolt he Cast.

[Affinity Leveled Up!]
[Tier 2:]
[Ice: (100 ->101)]
[Transcendence: Energy Drain]
[Ability: Ice Mana saps energy from anything it makes contact with]
[Helpful Hint: Lots of things are considered “energy”]

Reivyn pumped his fist in the air in triumph. He refrained from shouting in joy, but it was a close thing. He still had several people glance at him out of the corner of their eyes.

Awesome! He thought. One step closer to completing my goal, and the “helpful hint” implies a lot of things. Will my Ice Mana drain Stamina? Momentum? Kinetic Energy? What about Mana or Qi? This requires further experimentation; however, that can wait til later. I don’t want to get sidetracked from working on my other Affinities with delving into the depths of this ability.

Reivyn was fired up from the Notification and resumed his practice with his next Affinity. He didn’t expect to unlock the next one right away, but it still left him in a great mood.

Also, so far it seems practical application beats Meditation when it comes to breaking the wall with Affinities. I’ll have to try harder during Meditation to see if I can’t spot any differences in how it’s done so I can share that knowledge with the others.

Kefira had been a huge help in his Magical training, and he never would have even gotten started without his mother. It was against his nature to horde knowledge from his loved ones. He couldn’t wait to talk about his experience and exchange ideas on progressing everyone’s Affinities and Skills beyond the Level 100 threshold.

I feel like my momentum is just building. We have a couple more weeks here in the Outpost before we head home, and I think I’ll be able to knock these out before then. Let’s go!