Doors opened ahead of her as she reached a sunroom, an attendant wearing a wig waved her forward and bowed out of the way.
She walked to the door to see him sitting there, he tapped his pen and started to write on the paper scroll in front of him.
Esther controlled her smile and kept her professional cold appearance as she walked up to the man.
“Uncle,” she said to the man, he was wearing a fine coat made from heaven and earth treasures. He had black hair that was augmented with grey instead of fading into it.
She didn’t miss the smile at the corner of his mouth as he continued to write.
“Little Niece, it seems that as soon as you returned from your last mission you’re looking for another one, didn’t I say that you should rest?” Her Uncle said, his eyes flickering over to her and away again.
Esther thought of her last mission.
“It was only a trade negotiation,” Esther said.
“Ah, but trade is the basis of trust and trust will lead to alliances, and we need more allies now,” Her Uncle said his voice turning firm as he continued to write.
“The Black Phoenix Sect continues to apply pressure on us from every direction. It is becoming hard to live with them eyeing our techniques and technology,” Her hand touched the grip of one of the pistols.
There was only the sound of pen on paper.
Esther looked up at the carefully manicured garden, the carved fountain, the hedges that had been turned into a maze. The dozens of colorful flowers that were grown together. With the power of the Seventh Realm they had all turned into treasures that alchemists would fight over, even draw blood to get, in the lower realms.
Here, they were just a background for her Uncle. A man of great taste who had saved her mother had united the seven clans together against a sect that wanted to use them as training resources. He had revealed technology from another world and turned them from separate clans into one singular group. They kept the name Sha Clans as a homage to where they had come from, but everything was controlled by the man in front of her, many referred to him as The Marshall. The creator of the Sha weaponry, Edmond Dujardin, the leader of the Sha and the Iron Rifle that had led them to higher realms and turned them into a power that resided in the Seventh Realm.
He put his pen down and checked the scroll. He held it out to the side and an attendant came from the sunroom and took the scroll.
Edmond stood and indicated for her to join him as he walked.
“I have been hearing rumors and noises from the Fourth Realm, a new city has been established called Vuzgal. The city doesn’t interest me, but the residents do. They use items looking like barrels that accelerate metal over long distances. They use tactics similar to our own, working in a group instead of going head to head with their enemy. I want you to travel to the Fourth Realm as my Envoy. You will only have your closest compatriots. I want you to learn about Vuzgal, the people that are there. Find out if their weapons are indeed like ours. If they have simply copied our ideas, come back with images and then I will deal with it. If it looks like they are similar but they have been further modified or changed in some way. I want you to give this message to the leader of their people,” Edmond pulled out a letter with his seal on it.
She received it and put it away.
“Won’t the clan leaders want you to just deal with them?” Esther asked.
“Of course they will, they think that if we kill everyone that is trying to copy our designs we will stop it from getting out. We have done so for a few hundred years. But now, well, I don’t think that it is realistic. I also have a feeling about this one.”
Edmond turned and looked at Esther.
“Will you take the mission?”
“Well, I already have the letter, don’t I?” Esther smiled.
Chapter: Tying up loose ends
Erik and Rugrat appeared in Alva with a flash of light.
==========
Quest Completed: Ten Realms Dungeon
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Created a Trial and Tribulation Dungeon, a place to reward those with strength and to cull those without the power.
==========
Requirements:
Create traps and other tests for adventurers to pass through (Complete)
Randomly generate a Trial and Tribulation Dungeon (3,000 Mortal Mana stones) (Complete)
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Rewards:
+1,000,000 EXP
==========
“So yeah, looks like we need to be in the dungeon if we want to get dungeon related rewards. One of us can’t activate it for the other,” Erik said.
“Uh huh,” Rugrat nodded as he was looking at his stats. “Should reach Vapor Mana core soon.”
“See you in a bit, I’m going to the library,” Rugrat said.
Erik waved to him and headed for the Dungeon Headquarters.
Rugrat’s words made him look at his ongoing quests and stat sheet.
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Quest: Body Cultivation 4
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The path cultivating one’s body is not easy. To stand at the top, one must forge their own path forward.
==========
Requirements:
Unlock Body like Diamond
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Rewards:
+24 to Strength
+24 to Agility
+24 to Stamina
+40 to Stamina Regeneration
+100,000,000 EXP
==========
==========
Quest: Body Cultivation 5
==========
The path cultivating one’s body is not easy. To stand at the top, one must forge their own path forward.
==========
Requirements:
Unlock your Bloodline
==========
Rewards:
+48 to Strength
+48 to Agility
+48 to Stamina
+80 to Stamina Regeneration
+100,000,000 EXP
==========
==========
Quest: Dungeon Master
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You have returned your dungeon to its former glory. Advancement quests are unlocked. Grow your dungeon’s power!
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Requirements:
Increase your dungeon core’s grade to Sky Common
Increase the Strength of your minions (Complete)
==========
Rewards
40,000,000 EXP
Dungeon Master Title IV
==========
==========
Quest: City Leader 2
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You have unlocked the City Leader Quest-line. Grow your territory, your population and protect what you have.
==========
Requirements:
Have a permeant population of at least 100,000
==========
Rewards:
+10,000,000 EXP
Upgrades to defensive formation. Able to create (2) village cornerstones.
==========
==========
Quest: Mana Cultivation 2
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The path cultivating one’s mana is not easy. To stand at the top, one must forge their own path forward.
==========
Requirements:
Reach Vapor Mana Core
==========
Rewards:
+20 to Mana
+20 to Mana Regeneration
+50,000,000 EXP
==========
==========
13,448,136/86,100,000 EXP till you reach Level 60
==========
==========
Name: Erik West
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Level: 59
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Race: Human
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Titles:
From the Grave II
Blessed By Mana
Dungeon Master III
Reverse Alchemist
Poison Body
Fire Body
City Lord
Earth Soul
Mana Reborn
==========
Strength: (Base 54) +41
==========
950
==========
Agility: (Base 47) +72
==========
654
==========
Stamina: (Base 57) +25
==========
1230
==========
Mana: (Base 27) +79
==========
1166
==========
Mana Regeneration (Base 30) +61
73.80/s
==========
Stamina Regeneration: (Base 67) +59
26.20/s
==========
I thought that it was a lot of experience when I first got the quest but now it’s only a few percent increase in my overall level.
where he found Delilah working in her office, absorbing information books and then using a scribe spell to control her pen to write on a blank piece of paper as she moved onto the next item. It burned away into dust as her pen wrote quickly before coming to an end.
She looked up, seeing Erik on the other side of the door. She smiled as he opened the door and knocked on it.
“Are you free?” He asked.
“I’ve got most of my reports done already, I’ve been meaning to give you something,” Delilah checked her storage rings and then pulled out a pill bottle.
Erik’s eyes twitched as he saw the pill, she walked around and passed it to Erik.
“This is my first Expert level pill, the Heartflame Transformation pill, I know that you have been worried about Rugrat, this should help him temper his body. Now what did you need?”
“Delilah, this is your first Expert level pill,” Erik said, starting to refuse.
“And pills are meant to be used,” She said firmly.
Erik looked at her and let out a sigh.
“Guess there are some times where even the teacher is the one learning from the student. Thank you, Delilah.” He smiled, feeling proud of Delilah and thankful for all of her work. She could’ve made something for herself, but instead she had helped put Erik’s mind at ease by helping out Rugrat.
She blushed at his words.
“Want to take a walk in the alchemy gardens?” Erik asked.
“Okay,” Delilah sounded relieved for something to break the tension.
They left the headquarters and went to the alchemy garden. It was much larger than it had been before, the farmers only had a small group of people that worked on the main floor. With the expansion of the living area, the farms had gradullay been eaten up. Tall towers replaced them on the main floor though most of the crops and food for Alva came from the Wood and Earth floors. Entire sections had been turned into farmland allowing the farmers to grow and cultivate to their hearts content. There were alchemy gardens on each floor, to create specialized ingredients, but the main alchemy garden remained. Ingredients that had complex mana attribute requirements could be grown here.
“So what is happening with the alchemy garden? It can’t continue to expand,” Erik asked.
“A secondary garden is being made on the Earth floor and it will have a special formation that will take in the different affinities of mana that are going through the dungeon, tertiary alchemy gardens will be raised and maintained on every different floor for the plants with the same affinity. With all of these we want to not only grow enough to keep the students supplied, but have extra that we can leave for a longer period of time, allowing them to increase their potency. I agreed to a plan to allow: a greater mana density within certain growing areas, within the refineries of the smiths, curated forests of the woodworkers, among the different plants that the tailors use for their threads among tester fields of the farmers and the two main alchemy gardens. This will decrease the growing time and increase the potency of the ingredients over time.”
They walked for a bit longer.
“Alva has come really far under your leadership,” He said, looking at the different plants. “I remember when this garden was newly-planted, you could look clean across it and there were things spaced out all over the place that I thought would never grow into the space. Now it’s a veritable jungle in here.”
He looked at the different and strange alchemy plants that grew in the garden. There were alchemists working in the garden, maintaining planting, or harvesting ingredients. There was a class of low-grade alchemists that were on a field trip, going through the garden as the teacher taught them about the different plants, combining what they had learned in the classroom with what they were seeing in front of them.
“Shall we go and see the other floors? What’s been happening with them?” Erik asked.
“Sure we can, the different groups were all brought together. We created a plan that would get us the greatest benefits from each floor. Nearly every floor has a compound on it for people to live in. There is a rifle squad that is ready to be deployed at any moment to head down to the lower floors to evacuate people if something happens. We now control every floor but the Water floor.”
They headed out of the alchemy garden and toward the teleportation formation. ”Metal floor,” Erik said as he stood on it and they disappeared in a flash of light, Egbert sending them off before the controller could.
The Metal floor appeared in front of them. It was still barren, but the light formations on the ceiling had been partially recovered. Lightning still struck the main lightning mountain illuminating the rest of the floor that was undergoing repairs and upgrades. A small mining and refining compound was off to the side. Metal beasts pulled carts filled with raw materials to be refined into the compound, others left empty.
“Miners and smiths, they are clearing up the floor and mining the metal, they haul it into the compound, separate out the different metals roughly. Then they take the sorted materials and take it to the Fire floor. There smiths refine the metals into ingots. With the control formations the beasts can work without needing beast masters guiding them. It saves on manpower needs.”
“What’s that?” Erik asked, pointing to a large fenced area away from the compound.
“The Bestiary, every floor has a group of beast tamers on it. They’re learning more about the beasts, seeing how we can use them. Sure we have panthers that can run through forests, but what about Orokai that can run quickly in a straight line and have a hide that is as tough as Earth grade metal and can run for days without resting? Or the Fona Birds, birds made of wind, who can only carry one rider, but they can reach speeds so fast that they make the air explode?”
“That certainly adds more options. We have a shortage of panthers already and breeding them in such numbers would be terrible for them. Diversifying our mounts could work well. Anyway, which floor next?”
“Down to the Earth floor.” Delilah said.
The scenery changed and Erik felt his mana gates open wider, relaxing as they drew in the Earth mana as if it were a revitalizing tonic. Any fatigue he had was washed away. He moved his neck around, getting satisfying popping noises. He reached out with his hand and the mana stopped moving, he collected and compressed it even more.
“What are you doing teacher?” Delilah asked.
“Just exercising my domain, it seems that if I’m in areas rich with Earth mana then the strength I can use increases.”
He turned his eyes away from his hand and looked at the floor.
The Earth floor was recovering rapidly now that the doors between the floors were open and with the dungeon core being moved between the floors to reorganize, rebuild and upgrade them, the air on the different floors was able to move once again.
The barren landscape was being flattened down by beasts towing plows and levelers. There were several fields that had been created with different dungeon mobs walking around, leaking Earth attribute mana all over the place and making
the plants grow at an astounding rate.
“So, how many people are living on different floors?”
“No more than one hundred and everyone has to have at least Body like Stone tempering. That way the mana on the floors won’t be able to harm their bodies too much. There are a number of people that are going to the Fire floor to temper their bodies and work at the same time,” Delilah said.
Erik looked over the industrious Earth floor that was in the process of being transformed; there were massive grain silos that had been erected. Farming was no longer just a one person job, there were several farmers working in concert with one another, guiding their different working beasts, working with various tools that had been purpose-built for farming. At a visible speed, they were clearing the floor and turning it into fields.
Erik couldn’t help but smile.
“Let’s head to the Fire floor,” He said.
Delilah nodded and they used the teleportation array once again. The heat of the Fire floor washed over them, but with Delilah having worked with flames day in and out, she wasn’t too badly affected, some slight sweat appearing on her brow. Erik felt comfortable in the oppressive heat.
Just like on the Earth floor I think that my senses can reach further and the strength of my spells should be increased.
The housing compound and the working areas were a little larger than the floors above.
“This floor has a great number of alchemists, smiths, miners and people looking to temper their bodies,” Delilah explained.
“The formation masters were able to come up with formations to control the flames of the floor, they’re excellent for smithing and alchemy. Their power can be adjusted, there are a lot of them and renting them out is less expensive than the alchemy rooms at the academy. Also they can be a great aid when someone is making concoctions that have ingredients with fire-attribute ingredients. Most of the alchemists down here actually make fire tempering pills of different kinds and then sell them through the mission hall to the people here.
“Something I should have mentioned is that every floor has a group of healers based on it just in case there is an accident. There are people from each of the different crafts on the floors as well. The alchemists are studying ingredients and working to make tempering concoctions, the smiths are looking for different materials to work with, same as the tailors and the woodworkers. Someone made a bow with some wood from the Fire floor. Each of the arrows gained the fire attribute when released. They’re looking to see if it can be applied to the rifles, but the heat radiating from the wood is a worry that the rounds could possibly go off,” Delilah shrugged.
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