Shova 22nd 10,391

  The battle had brought Six several skill increases.

  Polearms - Initiate - 16

  Athletics - Apprentice - 22

  Inspect - Initiate - 13

  Heavy Armor - Apprentice - 28

  Elemental Magic - Apprentice - 20

  Cycle Magic - Initiate - 15

  Unarmed - Initiate - 14

  Diametric Magic - Initiate - 12

  He stayed up late that night, exploring some of his hypotheses on the Rune of Growth he’d received from Rotillo of Eridea. In the morning, after stretching and breakfast, Six had left Ravna with some requests she was kind enough to begin preparation on.

  He handled his new advancement on his walk to work. He did his best thinkin while movin.

  Apprentice Skill Evolution triggered:

  Elemental Mana Pull: The Elemental Mage will recharge their mana faster when surrounded by natural sources of their element.

  Elemental Conduit: The user acts as a living conduit for their element, amplifying the elemental power of allies or nearby natural phenomena exponentially.

  Elemental Barrage: Reduces the cooldown of abilities using your element, overwhelming opponents with speed and volume.

  Elemental Reach: Spells that utilize the user’s element receive an increase to their range.

  Elemental Synchrony: The user’s abilities become stronger when near large natural sources of their element.

  Mana Pull and Synchrony both relied on being near natural sources of the element for efficacy and that was too situational for Six.

  Conduit didn’t make Six directly better and troop buffing was Charles’ thing so Six passed on that too.

  It was a pick between Elemental Barrage and Elemental Reach

  A pick between overwhelming burst damage and sustained ranged chip damage.

  Six thought about his style.

  He had zero melee spells, other than a wave type spell but those were incredibly mana inefficient which didn’t synergize well with short cooldowns. He was a sustain fighter, someone who wanted to draw things out.

  He had options for melee and medium range. Options that were overwhelming in their own right. He wanted the range.

  Evolution choice imprinted: Elemental Reach

  You gained 100 experience points for reaching Apprentice status in Elemental Magic.

  Stone Spike’s range went from 80 meters to 120, an increase of 50%. Which was a pretty significant boost for one of his main damage dealers.

  There was more of course,

  Spell choice awarded.

  Upgrade Elemental Spell

  Water Spear

  Depressurize

  Crawling Flame

  The lack of information made an informed choice basically impossible for someone like him who lacked guidance. He worked from a different context and philosophy of interaction with the system, a position of ignorance.

  Seeing the upgrade process could potentially allow him to replicate it.

  He knew he was capable of such things as he had advanced the Rune of Rotation from minor to moderate. It had taken days but he’d done it. Having more insight into how the system upgraded spells could show him a way to expedite that process.

  He selected the upgrade and was presented with a list of all his elemental spells.

  Really, Six only considered four.

  Ember Spark

  Stone Spike

  Stone Wall

  Plant Growth

  Choosing Ember Spark or Stone Spike would improve his damage but he hesitated as he already knew the Mana Spear spell.

  Stone wall could be interesting but he decided that Plant growth offered more utility.

  He selected Plant Growth to be upgraded and three options were presented.

  Spearing Growth: Increase the speed at which the growth is expressed to a high degree, allowing for phytokinetic-like offensive movement.

  Verdant Growth: Increases the output the spell creates in relation to mana spent.

  Higher Growth: Allows the spell to target magic and sentient plant life.

  He rejected Spearing Growth for the same reason as choosing Ember Spark or Stone Spike.

  Higher growth may allow him to grow his magic trees but it was limited in scope and restricted the upgrade’s value to a specific resource.

  Verdant Growth would have the greatest effect on the overall magnitude of what he could create with Plant Growth.

  He selected Verdant Growth.

  Arcane knowledge flooded Six’s mind. The upgraded spell layering over the programmed knowledge of the minor version, altering it in subtle ways. There was no reasoning as to why the changes were made but Six could at least begin to test and experiment with a single point of reference. He would eventually discern the functions of how these spells truly worked.

  Shouldn’t he have received a mana manipulation skill or something like that by now?

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  He would have to experiment later, he had duties as a leader.

  There was an imminent food problem coming, perhaps the spell upgrade would help him create an even greater amount of potatoes but Six had to get the new farms plotted out now.

  He refused to allow Mountain’s End and its surrounding districts to develop haphazardly; there needed to be a vision for the functioning and flow of everything, already traffic was beginning to build. He needed to talk to Franklin about modes of mass transit while they were still small.

  There was alot of land to cover so Six focused on preserving the most glorious specimen trees, if they had to be removed later for critical infrastructure, so be it, but for now he retained as many as he could.

  Six went for what felt like ten kilometers before ending the new borders of the municipality but the craftsman in him compelled him to continue up, looking for potential rockslides and other hazards.

  The trees started to become sparse, and the rocky crags were studded with scrubby grasses.

  It wasn’t hard to see the group of three mounted human archers riding what appeared to be great shaggy giant horned goats.

  They wore well made leathers and looked healthy and fit. Their bows were huge things of dark wood, long arrows jutting from quivers hung on their hips. They had light white skin that was painted with thick blue paste like paint. They wore little to protect themselves from the bite of the mountain wind but didn’t seem perturbed by it.

  Their leader was a young woman, who stared at Six with open suspicion. “Who are you, entering our lands?”

  Six took a step back. “Am I?” he asked genuinely.

  “Yes,” she stated curtly, affronted at his ignorance.

  “Oh,” Six acknowledged, “Where abouts does it start?”

  “…What?” She shook her head in confusion.

  “Like where would I enter your lands exactly?”

  “Uuuuh,” she pointed between them. ”Right there.”

  “Sure.”

  Six had Lump cast Stone Wall to create a perfect cube of stone right where the lady pointed.

  The goats stepped back in surprise, the woman growled and shouted. “What's that? What did you do?”

  “I made a border marker.”

  She scoffed. “You think you have a border with us?”

  “…Yes. right here, right where you pointed.”

  They were silent for a moment. He could see the gears turning and she began to wave her hand dismissively. “Well I mean it's not exactly… there.”

  “No, I saw where you pointed.” Six says. “No takesies backsies.”

  “I never had the authority to speak on such matters. I should have sent you to the elders.”

  Six remembered seeing evidence of another human village and checked the Ley Core’s orison density table and saw the name. “The elders of Shepherd’s Peak?” Six saw her face break into surprise at his act and he continued. “I have no designs on you or yours. No intention to encroach on your homes.”

  Shepherd’s Peak was small. Barely 700 villagers, slightly less than that of Mountain's End and less still once Venter integrated. Six did not see them as a threat unless they held a secret hidden master.

  If they did hold a secret master that wasn’t something Six could really plan for beyond accelerating his growth and he was already going at full throttle.

  But being friendly cost nothing.

  Six made a diffusing gesture. “I don’t have time to speak to your elders, but I’ll be back in the future eh? You seem alright, I’m sure you could find us if you wanted, so I invite you in good faith and peace to our summer festival in eight days. It’ll be a small thing but you’re welcome to come. I’ll have more time after the festival probs.”

  The woman cycled between suspicion and confusion.

  “I’m pretty sure there are several archery competitions.” Six offered.

  She perked up at that, actually considering.

  “Name’s Six, and you?”

  “I am Princess Zilana Kreist. Daughter of Chieftain Ilzana Kreist Wind Cutter.”

  Six bowed, “nice to meetcha, your Majesty.”

  ***

  Shova 23rd 10,391

  Six had received a slight chewing out when he returned later than he said. Ravna had obtained or prepared almost all the metalwork he asked for and didn’t appreciate waiting for nothing. Although she did get some of her sewing projects done instead.

  All very understandable. Six just took his lumps and apologized for not coming home when he said he would.

  But today, they could spend the entire day together working.

  Food was brought from the kitchens and they enjoyed breakfast together. Then it was off to Ravna’s forge to begin the experiments.

  Six was experimenting, yes but he felt these initial creations would still be useful and important. Thus he wanted to imbue the enchantments during the final smithing process for these items.

  They began with the most simple expression of the enchantment. Ravna, while not a true silversmith could at least perform a similar but simple finishing process on the immortal steel ring they chose as the first medium.

  - Immortal Steel Ring of Growth -

  Rank: Enhanced

  Rarity: Common

  Weight: 4 G

  Durability: 50/50

  Traits: Increases the wearer’s physiological growth speed by 16%

  Sovereign Restoration: Passively regains durability and charges at a rate of 33% per day.

  Requires attunement.

  Six had questioned Rotillo when learning the rune and had learned how it affected reality. It seemed this rune wouldn’t make you grow larger or make your limbs grow longer. It simply increased one's speed of growth. It would help you heal slightly perhaps but ultimately it would speed your aging while you do it.

  Six placed the ring to the side, complete and finished. Something he wouldn’t dole out to just anyone.

  Ravna presented him the glowing amulet that was to be enchanted next.

  They began pushing their craft. Imbuing amulet after amulet with more and more power. Six familiarizing himself with the quirks of the minor rune and optimized his application more each time.

  They did perhaps fifteen before Six was satisfied, improving the growth increase from 16 to 30%.

  These wouldn’t be for his citizens, Six had no desire to remove childhood from the life of his people.

  No these would be for livestock. Amulets placed around the necks of larger beasts to encourage growth and speed the slaughter turnover. Six had never been a vegan but it felt… different, now that he was the one making the decisions rather than just buying meat.

  Not that he would change his mind, food was scarce and who knows how many mouths he would need to feed in the future. He needed to utilize every advantage and that meant altering the lifecycle of the livestock.

  They created several sets of large windchimes, bards brought in to help tune each rod. Ravna left the room as Six stacked multiple growth enchantments and pushed them to the limits of overclocking, at the last moment activating the amplification abilities of both his Helm of Prismatic Magic Amplification and his Gauntlets of Stilling Control boosting the enchantments to the maximum limits of what he was capable of.

  - Immortal Steel Windchimes of Growth -

  Rank: Enhanced

  Rarity: Unusual

  Weight: 10.3 KG

  Durability: 50/50

  Traits:

  Increases the wearer’s physiological growth speed by 43%.

  Those who hear the song of the chimes receive a 5% increase to skill acquisition.

  Sovereign Restoration: Passively regains durability and charges at a rate of 33% per day.

  Requires attunement.

  These were for his magic trees. Six hoped to speed their growth in any way he could and this was a start.

  They moved on to his next idea.

  Bundles of at least three rods that when placed in earth create a growth field between them. He utilized growth, control, and nexus runes to achieve the required magical behaviour.

  The growth speed was a third of an amulet but the output would be much larger in theory when scaled over an area of crops. These rods would allow his best farmers to speed up their yield turnovers by 11.3%.

  If he could have them made with better materials he might be able to stack more minor growth runes on them and increase the rate.

  They moved on to the moderate version of the rune and went back to rings and amulets. The enchantment took much longer to apply and actually taxed his mana, but from the first attempt Six knew that they had something special.

  - Immortal Steel Amulet of Advancement -

  Rank: Enhanced

  Rarity: Unusual

  Weight: 7 G

  Durability: 50/50

  Traits: Increases the wearer’s experience gain by 13%

  Sovereign Restoration: Passively regains durability and charges at a rate of 33% per day.

  Requires attunement.

  Six calmed his breath but Ravna knew its value as well.

  “People would kill for this,” she remarked.

  She was right of course. Six couldn’t let that delay the development of such items, they had yet more to create. Six dropped into focused meditation to speed his mana regen.

  They pushed on and by the end of the night SIx created his ultimate goal, his true crafting intention.

  He wove a series of nexus runes topped with a moderate growth rune. It would transfer the extra experience gained by the moderate growth rune from one amulet and send it to another. Once again he activated his helm and gauntlets to boost the end result.

  - Immortal Steel Amulet of Convergent Advancement -

  Rank: Enhanced

  Rarity: Unusual

  Weight: 7 G

  Durability: 50/50

  Traits: Sends wearer of the receiver amulet an additional 12.1% of all experience gained.

  Sovereign Restoration: Passively regains durability and charges at a rate of 33% per day.

  Requires attunement.

  He could tune up to four output amulets to one receiver amulet with this rune and material setup.

  Whoever wore the amulet would receive experience wherever they were. Even within the safety of the village.

  He held it out for Ravna.

  She took it, examining. “Six… what have you made? This is…” She peered at it in marvel.

  “You wanna try it on?” Six asked.

  Ravna smirked and shook her head, no. “Someone else needs to wear this. Leoka or Franklin. This feels like special treatment.”

  “And if it is?”

  “This is for the village.”

  Six shrugged. “I never said that.”

  Her look flattened, unimpressed. “I know you.”

  He held his hands up. “Ok, you’re right. Getting a classed smith would be good for the village though.”

  She sighed and poked him. “It feels condescending. You wouldn’t treat anyone else like this.”

  He knew she was right. “Probably not, no, but I love you. You being a higher level would also put my mind at ease. Is you leveling bad for the baby?”

  She chewed her lip, looking at the amulet consideringly. “No, the baby would be fine… You wouldn’t think less of me if I gained levels this way?”

  “Nah, probably not no.”

  “Probably not?” Her eyebrows lifted in outraged surprise.

  “As long as you didn’t turn into an asshole, start thinking you’re better than everyone else.”

  “You think I’d do that?” She crossed her arms and scowled at him, pretending to be angry.

  “I hope not, power has a way of changing people though. I believe in you though, I don’t know if I’d stay with evil Ravna.”

  Now she could act mollified. “Thank you.”

  Six held the amulet up again. “Please, take it.”

  “Ok.”