Savage Awakening 54. Spirit Steel (I) (Patreon)

A/N: one chapter today! See y'all around noon EST tomorrow

I have retconned all training zones to “Dojos”

//

Zane read it over a few times.

Giving up 1.5% of his essence earnings… wasn’t a lot. Especially in exchange for a huge boost up-front. The best treasures Zane had gotten were only C-grade—what would B-grade treasures do for him? And three of them at once?

He’d started in the middle of nowhere, stranded in E- F- rank wilderness— Elias was right on that. He'd have to be the best to fight the best. He could do with some catching up…

Still he hesitated.

“What?” said Elias, baffled. “You want more? You don't understand how good these terms are! I've only agreed to this much because I have a… Well, a frankly irrational belief in what you can be. I'm giving up too much, honestly!”

It wasn't the amount that made Zane hesitate. He wasn't pleased it was Elias making the offer. He still didn't like the man—but Reina wrung out this deal. There was nothing hidden in it, nothing off.

He still didn't trust the man any. Elias was slimy as they came. But Reina had pinned him down, and he trusted Reina. This was as good as it could ever get.

“I want nothing to do with you,” Zane told him. “We are not friends.”

Elias didn't look offended in the slightest. “Sure, sure. Just business, then. Do we have a deal?”

He held out a hand.

Zane shook it.

He handed Zane a black quill, and the status box popped up with all the terms. Zane signed it, and it vanished.

Soul Contract formed!

“Man,” sighed Elias. “This is a first. I’ve never had to beg someone to take a great deal. Three B-grade treasures… those don’t grow on trees, you know! That’s a tenth of my stash!”

Zane felt nothing change in him. He guessed the System took care of his end of the bargain.

“Right then! Your first gifts,” said Elias. “Any preferences? I'm all ears. Let's start with the Law treasure, shall we? Fire? Wind? Earth?”

Zane thought about it. If he went Fire, he could get closer to making his Elemental Law… but fire seemed mostly offensive. And he had enough offense. The gaping hole in his powers was defense.

“Something defensive.”

“Then you'll want Steel,” said Elias instantly. “Real steel. Marcus barely scratched the surface of what those Laws are capable of. They're strong as hell, crazy hard to break—Cain Hastings, British guy, World Rank #8? That’s his primary Law.”

Zane could believe it. Before he stacked two Major Laws, he could barely put a scratch on Marcus—and Marcus had only had a few Minor Laws of Steel.

Recording Crystal: Sermon on the Elemental Law of Iron (B)

This Recording Crystal captures a sermon on the Elemental Law of Iron given by the Sage of the Iron Fist, circa 13th mega-annum A.S. For use by disciples of the Steelheart Conclave or associated sub-Factions only.

“Here,” said Elias. He handed Zane a crystal. “Use this well. It’s my only B-grade Steel Law Treasure.”

He glanced at it fondly. “It’s probably got… ten or eleven viewings left, before it crumbles? Who knows? Maybe you can squeeze a Major Law or two out of it.”

Then, a pure black metal bead. Zane was a strong person.

Steel Bead (B)

Upon swallowing, this treasure grants the skill:

[Steel Body] (Passive) [Epic]

Gives the body the durability and density of Spirit Steel. Extremely resistant to both slashing and concussive damage. Steel grade scales with level.

Prerequisite: 2 Major Laws of the Elemental Laws of Steel

(Prerequisites fulfilled: 1/2)

Zane had no such Laws as far as he was aware… unless Absolute Sharpness counted? It must, it was the only thing that made sense.

"The treasures pair together," said Elias. "First finish off the crystal, then take the bead."

Reina inspected them. She seemed surprised. “They're actually… good.” Privately, Zane agreed.

"Of course, they're good," said Elias, rolling his eyes. “I’m invested in you now. I want to see you succeed! Selfishly! I’m hardly going to throw you scraps, especially for a defensive skill. This is me protecting my investment. These are pretty damn good, even for B-grade. Trust me. You'll like them."

“And lastly, here.” He produced a fancy glass vial from his bag of holding, stoppered with a silver cork. “1 B-grade essence vial. This should get you up into the mid-70s. Oh, and—”

He counted out 10 high-grade essence stones, palm-sized crystals with brilliant balls of white light suspended at their cores.

“Each one of these bad boys is worth 100 mid-grade essence stones. I'd keep them somewhere safe if I were you,” said Elias. He looked depressed giving them away.

Zane put them all in his bag of holding.

“And that should be it!” Elias clapped his hands. “To a long and fruitful partnership! Do let me know if you ever drop by San Fran, eh? I’ll take you out to dinner.”

He grinned, held out a hand for a high-five. Zane didn’t give him one. He shrugged and high-fived himself.

Then he turned, gave a little wave, and left.

***

It was time to take stock of the war’s aftermath. They'd stumbled on a massive windfall—the Legion had a dragon’s hoard of treasures. Reina put them all to good use.

First they found a few Water Law treasures that matched well with Avery’s Balance Laws. After their encounter with Elias—where Avery was essentially backup, in case things went sour—she went off happily on her own, clutching her little Water crystal. Zane hardly saw her again for the next week. He thought she might have left the region entirely—she pretty much came and went as she pleased—until he heard some snoring as he passed beneath an Emerald Forest tree one day, and saw a small figure wrapped in a hoodie, splayed over a branch like a sloth. The Law Crystal was clutched in her hand, somehow. Despite her clearly being asleep.

Reina distributed the bulk of the essence stones evenly among their many hundreds of Safe Zones. But she also poured much of it into Luminous Faction headquarters.

The buildings were all remodeled via a brand new C-grade Beacon. Their old houses got flowing roofs, and runes on the floors and the walls provided heating and insulation. They were still themed like the Luminous Forest—they were made of logs of the same white bark, and their roofs glowed purple like the tree-tops.

The town hall got a second floor. New buildings popped up all around, looking like they'd been plucked straight out of some fantasy world and plopped in the middle of the Highlands. There was a cozy little library for communal Skill tomes. A little market which opened on weekends for treasure-trading.

There was a watchtower. It worked like a balloon. Antigravity runes were scribed on its bottom and it floated right in the middle of camp, rising hundreds of feet above the ground. You had to climb a thick chain to get up, the same chain that anchored it to the ground.

There were wards set up around the neighborhoods, replacing the old steel walls. You could turn them on and off at will—there was always a stash of mid-grade essence stones to power them. And there were little turret towers too, scattered at the edges of camp, topped with purple foliage, disguised to look like trees.

Reina planned to make the Luminous Faction Safe Zone a model for every Safe Zone in the state. She wanted to make it hellishly hard to take even one of their territories, to say nothing of all of them.

The dead forest was cleared out too—remodeled via the Beacon into flat, windy plains. These would be used for training. Reina moved all their training dojos over there, and left plenty of space for drilling and sparring. They had a full set now, one for each Class. Their outsides looked the same, these chunky white-wood buildings. The only difference was the symbols scribed above the entrances. That, and their insides.

There were even little amenities—a little fountain spewing essence in the middle of the town square, a place you could bask in on hot summer days.

These were only things Zane picked up on. The tip of the iceberg. Reina was doing plenty more behind the scenes, he knew. And now that she had a vice grip on their army. They pretty much worshipped her, like she was Joan of Arc. It wasn't hard to settle conflicts.

He saw all of this in flashes as he came and went from camp in the following month. He spent most of that time in the Sharpness Cavern of Insight. It became his personal dojo. He made it clear he was not to be disturbed.

There, he got to work on that B-grade Law treasure.

***

It was tough going.

It took Zane nearly 12 hours of grueling meditation to force his way into the Law trance. He sat there, crystal in hand, and brute-forced it. It shocked him how much harder it was compared to his previous tries with Law.

At last, late in the night, his world dissolved. And the world stored in the Law crystal unfurled.

He blinked; the sun was piercing—but he couldn't seem to escape it anywhere he looked. It flared on a Spire of steel—a spire that stretched higher than any skyscraper he'd ever seen; its tip was lost in a blanket of fluffy white clouds.

He looked left and saw a fat steel tower that would’ve been a wonder of the world on Earth. He looked right, and saw wall of steel that running far into the murky orange distance. He blinked again, and finally managed to orient himself. He stood on a winding staircase going up the side of a mountain. And the mountain itself was steel too. It was just one great hunk of dark metal.

He stood in the middle of a surging crowd, a crowd buzzing with excitement—they all wore these beautiful silver robes with their hair tied in buns. Their hair was steely silver, their eyes purple. And none of they seemed to see him. He was a ghost in this memory.

He felt himself dragged along, up to the very top where a grand citadel awaited them, a dizzying marvel of cascading gray steels. Just looking at it, Zane could feel the immensity of this structure—so much Law radiated off of it it was daunting just to stand in its presence. He wasn’t even there yet he still felt drawn by it somehow, as though the thing had its own magnetic pull.

The crowd poured inside, and came to a halt.

The hall’s insides were stark and bare, yet somehow brutally beautiful, the way unalloyed pure steel can be. Simple elegant planes, stretching out as far as Zane could see. The inside, he suddenly realized, was much bigger than the outside.

A single old man sat at its very center, on a pure black dais, eyes closed, meditating. He was white-haired, with a thick wispy white beard, but his body was that of a seasoned martial artist—rippling with dense muscle. He looked like he’d been carved out of steel himself.

He opened his eyes. They glowed intense purple.

Then he said, “Listen closely, disciples. I will do this only once. I am here to give a Sermon on the Law! But not a sermon as you are used to. Those Elders of yours like to prattle on and on, for hours, telling all there is to know of a Law… ridiculous! This is the new school, the school of theory. I reject it. I hold to the old ways. The ways that say the only way to learn a Law is to see it, to feel it!”

He paused. You could hear a pin drop in the great hall. “Here is my Sermon. It will last the span of one breath! Watch closely. For in this one move, I shall demonstrate all there is to know of the Elemental Law of Steel! I shall create a resonance that touches the hearts of each and every one of you. How much you comprehend depends on you. For those of you with all Major Laws of Steel mastered, this may be the moment you comprehend the full Law, and break through the critical Foundation Bottleneck! So. Pay attention!”

He breathed out and held out his palms. There, Laws began to gather…