Shova 24th 10,391

  Six walked through the morning bustle of Mountain’s End, heading to the eastern gate. He snagged a meat pie from a morning vendor and enjoyed the simple salt and herb flavour combo on his way to the new work site he would be heading up.

  He stopped at the town hall and took a few moments to hang the Windchimes of Growth in the emperor and blood trees.

  Last night, Six had gained a level in meditation, bringing him to level 20. He activated the apprentice skill evolution and considered his choices on his walk, his long strides dodging around wagons, garbage golems, ley workers, and the press of people.

  Analytical Meditation, allowed Six to meditate at half the normal rate while performing mental work. This would help him with training certain skills and his overall enchantment output.

  Improved Meditation simply increased the rate at which his skill scaled per level from 0.5% to 1%. Doubling its effectiveness.

  Battle Meditation, allowed him to meditate at half the normal rate while in battle.

  Healing Meditation added a HP regen component to the mana and stamina regen of Meditation.

  Mana Meditation increased mana regen to 2% per level at the cost of the complete loss of the stamina component.

  While Healing Meditation was appealing, it required him to be doing nothing other than focused meditation.

  Six picked Battle Meditation. The slight increases to his regens in battle were far more impactful on his staying power and survival than recovering in a stationary position after a fight. Six wasn’t a skirmisher and this would just increase his ability to apply pressure over the span of a longer conflict.

  A rush of knowledge flooded his mind but he would have to wait until the next fight to test the evolution.

  The technique he picked was Focused Action.

  Technique: Focused Action

  Rank: Minor

  Cooldown: 1 day

  Performance Time: Instant

  Duration: Instant

  Stamina and Mana Cost: 65

  Charges: 0/100

  Effect: User charges ability with the use of the Meditation skill. At 100 charges the user can activate this technique to empower their next action by 1% per level in Meditation. Charges will begin to diminish shortly after ceasing meditation.

  It was extremely good even if the cooldown was a day and it cost both stamina and mana. It synergized with almost anything he could do but again, testing would have to wait.

  Six waved to the town guards as he exited the east gate.

  He planned to make more of the convergent advancement amulets and outfit the village patrols with the output portions.

  The receiver amulets he would have to control carefully. Everyone would want safe advancement but between his limited time and the number of available patrols there just wouldn’t be enough to go around.

  He needed his loyal non-combatants classed up, completing challenges, and earning perk points.

  Enchanting 3 Challenge:

  Enchant 200 items. 353/1000

  Enchanting Weapons 2 Challenge:

  Enchant 31 weapons. 96/100

  He’d completed the Enchanting 2 challenge a while ago and had earned 10 perk points, bringing his total to 65. Just enough for a strong perk, something to consider.

  Six’s perks had all significantly altered his effectiveness as a golem and armor based enchanter. They needed more perks and skill evolutions flowing through their society and the amulets would speed the acquisition of more perks.

  The school would speed skill acquisition.

  He had elected to create a contained salient on the palisade, a large area that would become the campus of an educational complex. The first step was to displace the shanties that had begun to build up in that area. A job Six had assigned Leoka when he decided to use the land.

  There was a small cry of shame from his ego. Not that he displaced them but that he delegated the task. Six’s strange honor demanded he perform such distasteful acts himself but his time was too valuable to waste kicking a bunch of low level drifters from the safety of their walls.

  Gentrification was a bitch.

  Franklin had worked all yesterday to prep the site, the sewer was installed and the earth graded. Already high-density dorms were going up where Six indicated on the civic zoning diagrams he’d hastily prepared, Franklin was focused on the terrace farms but her less skilled crews could still pump out housing as fast as they could.

  Six would aim his talents on the actual institution itself.

  He worked with Poh Doh and Ley workers.

  This building was going to be another stepping stone on their collective way to power and its nature as a population multiplier made Six willing to go all out.

  Six made sure the campus was close enough to benefit from the emperor tree’s buff,

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  Inspired Retention: 10% increase to skill acquisition

  He infused every piece of material with earth for durability.

  After considering his current selection of reagents he elected to create a custom reagent by having Gatbark’s works yard create an obelisk of immortal steel, then had Ravna plate it with the orichalum ingot he found long ago. The enhanced but simple metal was durable enough to endure four applications of the Moderate Rune of the Second Foundation of Growth.

  Such a casting required the use of his coven and even then, Six had to bloodcast and borrow Biggo’s mana golem.

  The effect was exactly what he was aiming for.

  A stacked skill acquisition aura.

  Those who are within 20M of the Orichalum Obelisk of Observation receive a 17% increase to skill acquisition.

  Six smiled as a point of stagnation broke for him, he gained a level in enchanting.

  Enchantment - Master - 61

  This item he would place within the construction of the academy and it would become the reagent of the building.

  Poh Doh was integral in the building process. Placing large stones quarried from Blackmine, building it up brick by brick. Each piece carefully placed from the foundation to the arches that supported the roof. A roof grown from a cedar sapling that was stretched and pulled across the trusses until it covered the rather large building.

  Now Six needed to go frame out the inside, build rooms and amenities, install plumbing and lighting. This project may take another two or so days but magic and a complete lack of needing permits for his whims made things go much quicker.

  Six checked his skill increase prompts while he chewed his second lunch.

  Coven - Initiate - 8

  Force Magic - Initiate - 11

  Carpentry - Initiate - 18

  He’d already put in his eight but he could spend another two or three hours before tracking down Keegan and Nar for some late night training.

  That was until a vrill messenger girl reached him breathless. She huffed and coughed out a message. “My lord. There's been an attack. A bad one.”

  The villagers always had to be on the lookout for danger and people were hurt by animals and monsters every day, but this sounded different.

  Six steeled his expression and regarded the little one cooly. “Where?”

  “The edges of the eastern farmland. The Captain is there right now”

  Six left the child at a sprint and arrived to a burnt and broken farmhouse on the edge of the forest. Blood was spattered everywhere and trails of it extended off to the treeline. There was a group of soldiers, hunters, and guards who were all at the ready, wary of a second attack.

  Charles sat upon his voidlike golem steed and acknowledged Six with a grim stare. “The trolls,” he reported.

  A notification struck him hard.

  Quest failed: Remove the Trolls

  A twinge of guilt struck Six. He had always known the trolls to be a threat but had ignored them as an immediate problem.

  He had been building a school?

  When there were enemies on his land?

  What had he been thinking?

  Rage aimed at himself erupted from Six’s center. He had failed in his duty, failed as a leader, failed in the responsibility he refused to relinquish.

  All of this he kept from emerging. His face impassive, his bearing strong. Weakness shown was weakness felt and he refused to be anything other than an ideal for his people. He gripped those emotions and imprisoned them inside, to be observed and analyzed but not indulged. Six hadn’t the luxury of wallowing in guilt and rage.

  Even if he failed, failure was a part of life. Life was not life without struggle.

  He would rectify his mistake, find those trolls, and kill them.

  Then, he would finish his school. Six cleared his throat before speaking to Charles, but for all to hear. “Gather the troops. Organize them all for a large scale operation.

  Charles confirmed. “All of them?”

  Six nodded. “All of them. We will begin in two days”

  Charles grimaced. “Two days is little time”

  “Can you make it happen?”

  “Yes, my Lord.”

  “Make it so. Thank you.”

  Charles left and Leoka shuffled closer. “Should we halt the festival preparations?” she asked quietly.

  Six shook his head. “No. We need that festival and tragedy will strike us every day eventually. We will celebrate.” He gave her additional orders, things he needed done before the operation commenced.

  Six went straight to Ravna and found her relaxing in her little kitchen with a cup of tea.

  “My love.” She smiled at him.

  “I’m sorry but I need you to smith me a new saw.”

  She blinked. “Right now?”

  “Yes."

  “That’ll take all night! Maybe even into the morning.”

  “I know.”

  “But my slippers are on and I don’t want to get up!” She kicked her feet and smirked.

  “Ravna, I wouldn’t ask my pregnant wife to overwork herself if it wasn’t important.”

  She stopped joking and regarded him, face serious. “What happened?”

  “We’ve been attacked and I need a proper weapon.”

  She stood and drained her teacup. “Show me your best materials and reagents.”

  She chose to use his Glass Steel Ingot in conjunction with the Obsidiite Bo Staff to create something almost indestructible. Her high strength and Master rank Smithing skill were on display as she sipped an enhanced stamina potion. She used many tools but foremost was her Adamas Hammer. The tool moved rhythmically, shaping and forming the incredibly resistant metal into the intricate shapes she desired. She worked quickly.

  Still, beyond his initial elemental infusion of air into the material, Six had hours to prepare. So he sent for his coven to assemble and began to design the enchantment complex.

  With the ingot forged from enhanced materials and the reagent of superior rank, he could push the magical energies to their utmost limit. The unparalleled quality of the components ensured the final artifact would bear the weight of potent enchantments with ease.

  He started with the essentials, laying the foundation of rotation and control before letting inspiration guide his design.

  Drawing inspiration from the formidable Bloodsteel Greatsword, he refined its fire rune array into something far more potent. The new array wove a natural fire enchantment into an intricate lattice of power- an amplification matrix of nexus and control runes. At its heart, four moderate control runes designed to amplify were connected in sequence and fed by the raw energy of a twelve-rune nexus convergence.

  Even Six, with all his knowledge, could only guess at the sheer destructive potential of this creation.

  He had considered trying to push Ember Spark to a moderate rank spell but even with the upgraded Verdant Growth he knew he wouldn’t be able to accomplish it in time.

  For his reagent, he would use the last of the Concentrated bloodsap. Hopefully, it would give the weapon a healing mitigation effect, or vampiric effect.

  He planned and double checked his designs before he descended into light visualization. He visualized the performance of the enchantment in his mind several times before he heard Ravna’s voice.

  “It's time.”

  ***

  When dawn struck Six emerged from the little forge with a weapon of vengeance.

  Enchantment Successful.

  You have successfully enchanted a Dark Glassteel Greatsaw with a Repeating Fire Rune Array with an efficiency rating of 47% creating an

  - Dark Glassteel Greatsaw of Explosive Conflagration -

  Rank: Superior

  Rarity: Mythic

  Weight: 9.7 KG

  Durability: 11500/11500

  Charges: 28/28

  Traits:

  Saw: The user can activate to rotate the sprocket of the saw, spinning the chain. Uses 1 charge per 5 minutes of activation.

  Conflagration: When the user lands a blow with this weapon it can be activated to create a blast of fire that does +233 Fire damage upon activation, expends eight charges or 25% of the user's maximum health per activation. If activated with health, the effect is doubled.

  Apex Material: Durability will only reduce if the Greatsaw takes damage equal to more than the current Durability.

  Powered By Blood: Can absorb blood in the immediate environment and convert it to charges. 1 charge per gallon of blood absorbed.

  Sovereign Restoration: Passively regains durability and charges at a rate of 31% per day.

  He smiled as once again he received a skill increase for this creation.

  Enchantment - Master - 62

  Translucent and black, the edges glittered and gleamed, showing off their sharpness. He gave it some test swings. The weapon was lighter than his previous saw having been infused with air mana which made it extremely maneuverable.

  The trolls had fucked around, and now they would find out.

  Six tracked down Keegan who was organizing troops for Charles, and he interrupted the soldier. “Keegan, I need you to teach me something.”

  Keegan looked slightly perturbed at the distraction. “Can it not wait?”

  “No. I need this.”

  Keegan nodded without a second thought and called to his second in command, a muscular vrill man. “Entaro, please take over. What's this for?”

  “Advantage.” Six explained. “I need every advantage I can get.” He then kindly requested Keegan’s secrets.

  Learning the maneuver took only an hour or so to Keegan’s irritation and surprise.

  The large man shook his head in begrudging respect. “I hadn’t expected you to learn my family’s maneuver so easily. I thought I’d have to spend the rest of the night teaching you.”

  “Nothin' easy about it. Thank you.”

  With obtaining Keegan’s technique there was another synergy that was unclaimed and Six spent 60 perk points to gain it. The last thing Six did was find a secluded area where he tested his own new capabilities and tested the saw's Conflagration ability.

  The enchanter came back to town singed and smoky, but overall, the weapon was a blast.