Wild Era 2: A LitRPG Progression Epic, page 41
Then he looked up at the stars before he turned his attention back to her.
“As a Knight of the Path,” he said to her, “I ask you to help me to call upon a Herald to witness the duel.”
Sandren’s beautiful eyes were frozen in shock as she heard the words and for a long moment she didn’t say anything. She only looked down at the badge in his hand and then up at him.
“You said only a noble can have equal rights in a duel?” he asked calmly. “How about a knight? Will the locals dare to say that a knight appointed by the Sovereign isn’t a noble? I would like to see them try.
“And when the Herald arrives,” he continued, “he will oversee the duel and ensure that it is fair. The baron will not have any choice in the matter.
“Most importantly, he will have to accept some penalties with the level difference. He can try to twist that truth if he wishes, but he will find it doesn’t help him.”
He shook his head, smiling slightly at the thought.
“The Heralds are Silver Nagas. They will not allow it.”
Once they were aware of the challenge, if they were asked to oversee the duel, they wouldn’t allow anything to interfere.
It was the best way he had to guarantee a clean duel.
But that didn’t mean they would make it easy on him either.
The Silver Nagas were battle maniacs who loved the idea of a battle to the death, and the idea of fighting up an Evolution would only get their blood pumping.
In their eyes, it would be a worthy challenge and to take that away would tarnish his honor.
All they would do was add a few penalties to make it fairer.
But with that to level the field, he would find a way. Most importantly, he already had a mark on the baron’s soul.
He reached out and touched Sandren’s lips with a finger.
“It is not my execution,” he said gently. “It’s his.”
Chapter 32
Preparations
“You’re a Knight of the Path?” Sandren’s eyes widened as she saw the badge.
She instantly identified the unique patterns on it, as Kelin had expected.
“When? And how?” she continued. “You were only Steel-ranked when you left. That’s two tiers higher! It even outranks Gold by a bit.”
“Since Shadowfall,” Kelin replied. “It was a True Remnant.”
He briefly described the nature of the dungeon, as well as its Sarathian connection, but he didn’t mention the Sovereign and he let her think the Knight title was due to some accomplishments inside.
It wasn’t unheard of.
His previous experience as an inspector for the Path made it slightly more believable, although it was still a stretch.
“That is ridiculous.” Since the title couldn’t be faked, Sandren had to accept it, but she shook her head in disbelief. “That will help you a bit with the laws of Celadon in the duel, since you’ll be entitled to the same rights as the nobles here.
“That means you can demand a change to the timing, weapons, location, or other conditions to make it a fairer fight. Nobles here have a habit of challenging commoners to a weapon they specialize in, like a sword or a certain series of spells, to give themselves an even greater advantage, while preventing them from using their own strengths.”
She paused for a moment and then locked her eyes on his.
“Let me be your champion,” she said. “You have the same right now. I’ll take care of him in short order. I’ve been looking for an excuse.”
“Absolutely not,” Kelin replied, shaking his head firmly. “I appreciate the offer, but this is my fight. I already have a plan in mind.”
There was no way he would allow her to fight in his place. Verasun was a slightly higher level than her and had too many tricks.
She looked frustrated, but then she let out a deep breath and touched her guild badge, closing her eyes. There was a pulse of energy from it and she opened them again.
“I’ve requested a Herald for you, in three days, at the time of the duel,” she said. “Now it’s in the hands of the Path and of the Heralds themselves, but I don’t know if one will come. They aren’t mine to command.”
“One will,” Kelin replied. He had that much confidence in his status.
Nonetheless, he followed up her request with one of his own, silently asking the Path to send a Herald. He felt the response as a thunderous echo that traveled through the stars.
“There’s still the level problem,” Sandren said, “which is the biggest thing.”
“I have some things in mind,” Kelin said. “Trust me.”
He took her hand again as he changed the topic.
“Walk with me and tell me, how have the laws of Celadon become so corrupt? Why hasn’t the guild resolved them?”
She tightened her fingers around his and they began to walk through the dim streets, looking for early street vendors.
“It’s the same story as usual,” she said with a sigh. “Humanity is a wonderful force, but there is always an element of self interest. Do we kill them all every time they try to do something that benefits one group over another?”
She shook her head.
“I’m just a captain and the decisions are beyond me, but I admit, Celadon seems worse than most. The nobles have too much influence here. It’s been slowly increasing for decades. Most kingdoms in this world are the same.
“The guild protects our own, so anyone who has too much trouble can run to us and we’ll send them somewhere else, but our policy is to not kill off the nobles at the same time. They are a strong force to stabilize the world and they eliminate some dungeons.”
Kelin nodded, since it wasn’t uncommon for something like this to happen.
The guild’s superiors lived long lives with a view of centuries and millennia, and their attention was on the war. If they had time left, they had their own interests to pursue.
Meanwhile people like Verasun sprang up constantly, like mushrooms after a spring rain, and found space to cause trouble for years or decades while their betters fought on their behalf.
“The guild usually sends a Herald or someone else to settle these problems,” he said. “Often forcefully. It’s overdue. This visit should be good for the guild’s status.”
It was the other reason he’d requested one, since it should correct the locals' course before it got any worse.
He’d done the job a few times himself and Celadon wasn’t the worst place he’d seen, but it was on a bad path.
The streets slowly lightened as dawn broke across the horizon. The number of people everywhere picked up and the street vendors began to come out in force, offering hot food and drinks to everyone passing by.
They found some coffee and hot rolls filled with sausage and vegetables, and then they sat on a bench in a small park, leaning against the back as they looked up at the sky.
It was nice while it lasted, but eventually Sandren brought the topic back to the duel.
“With your level difference, he probably has ten times your attributes,” she said, shaking her head. “That’s not as simple as it sounds. Even a casual strike could kill you and harming him will be almost impossible. Not to mention he’ll have a higher mana density and a mana field. That’s practically insurmountable. How are you going to fight him?”
“It depends on the limitations in the duel,” Kelin replied, “but there are a number of ways. I’ll work on all of them. Sparring with you for practice might help, and in the training halls too.”
That would let him adjust to the pressure of a Second Evolution mana field and give him a sense for what else he needed, but it wasn’t his main answer to the problem.
That boiled down to the mark on Verasun’s soul, talismans, and other preparation.
“I’ll spend the rest of today preparing a few things,” he added, “and then I’m going to run a dungeon or two as quickly as possible, to close some of the level gap. I should be able to manage another twenty levels, at least.”
He would also use the Law Opportunity and the new Soulfire Runes to make the most of his strength.
“That’ll only drop the difference to 9 times as strong as you,” Sandren muttered. “Maybe I can equip you with some defensive artifacts.”
“No,” Kelin replied, shaking his head. “That’s one of the limitations I’ll ask the Herald to implement. No artifacts above the First Evolution or anything we haven’t created ourselves, as part of our classes.
“It’s necessary to limit Verasun’s resources. No healing or mana recovery items either, whether they’re potions or an artifact, unless we’ve made them. We’ll do it the traditional way, with our abilities.”
Those rules would let him use his talismans, which were a key part of his current plan. As for healing, he didn’t know if Verasun had any innate abilities, but he was confident in his own.
The baron was a mage and even at the Second Evolution, he probably didn’t have that strong of a Constitution.
Keeping him away from healing potions was essential.
Their conversation wandered between analyzing Verasun’s abilities, possibilities for Kelin to get stronger in short order, and what the Herald might do when he or she arrived.
They’d both seen Verasun’s records recently, and they had all the information in the guild’s archive, but it was hard to tell what the baron might have kept secret.
A Second Evolution Storm Mage with a Lightning affinity was a dangerous opponent.
He was likely to have area spells, stuns, short-range teleportation, reactive shields, and significant direct damage.
They discussed it for a while and then turned to other and more pleasant topics, but eventually they headed back to the guild.
Kelin needed to prepare and Sandren was still on duty, so she needed to stop by the desk to deal with some things.
“I’ll be here if you want to spar,” she said. “I’ll also reserve a Second Evolution training hall for you and stock it with some cores and mana crystals.”
“I can cover the cost for them,” Kelin replied, “but I appreciate the reservation.”
“You will not!” Sandren snapped, her temper flaring. “This is the least I can do.”
“Very well,” he laughed as he squeezed her hand. “Thank you then. I’ll see you later.”
With her worried eyes still following him, he walked away, heading for the guild shops and the crafting hall he still had booked.
He was going to prepare as many talismans as possible until the duel, particularly shield and infusion ones, but he had some other things to work on first.
When he arrived at the hall, he closed the door and activated the wards, letting the silence surround him.
He looked up through the crystal roof, where the sunlight was falling into the room, and he let out a sigh as he stretched, letting his muscles relax.
He sat down cross-legged on the floor, closed his eyes and, pushed the short timeline until the duel out of the mind.
Then he spent a couple of hours clearing his thoughts and considering his abilities.
When his mind and spirit were at their peak, he turned his attention to the thread of power from the Law Opportunity that was humming at the edge of his awareness.
It was like a current of condensed starlight, silver and shining, and it was full of a strange and unearthly force.
As soon as he touched it, an overwhelming stream of ideas began to flow through his mind, ones that seemed to have no end and no beginning, and everything around him leapt into his awareness, from the elements that made up the stones of the hall to the fire in the sunlight.
Natural runes took shape, flashing through his awareness, and thoughts of new spells and enchantments began to take shape.
It was like he had suddenly pulled back the curtains that separated him from the truths of the world.
He knew better than to waste the opportunity, since the power in the strand was limited, so he controlled his thoughts and turned his attention to the idea of Reincarnation.
That was the path he had chosen to walk in this life, so he needed to find a way to reach it.
Every idea he’d ever had about the concept began to flow through his mind like a rushing river, combining with fragments of thoughts about Soulfire, his old Law of Wildfire, the overarching Law of Fire itself, and more.
When his mind was clear of everything except that, he activated the full energy of the strand.
His surroundings changed.
He was standing in the Void among the stars as rivers of power swept around him in every direction.
Elemental forces were present in a thousand colors, twisting and rushing according to the rules of a fathomless existence.
It stretched out endlessly, covering all things, as stars shone one after another, each of them holding some unknown truth.
Below it all, a vast and primordial ocean of grey power surged and fell, the origin from which it was all born.
That was Chaos, the truth of power that underpinned existence.
Suns rose from the depths and burned for ages, and then they shattered into dust, falling back into the waves.
Kelin’s awareness wasn’t capable of handling the truths here, but the thread of power shielded his existence, letting him see what was.
Somehow he knew that he only had a moment to glimpse the underlying truths of reality. He had to focus on something useful or he would waste the opportunity.
He let instinct guide him as he focused on the birth of a star from chaos, its fall, and its rise again.
A timeless moment passed as he watched it rise and fall, over and over. Each time it was slightly different in color, life, and power, but it was reborn again.
Something shifted in his awareness as he studied it. A fragment of Law fused into his soul.
It was like a shard of Chaos given form, its power humming with the same silver-grey light as the thread that had sent him here.
Then he was hurled away, back to the present.
When he opened his eyes, all he could see were flares of color, of rising and falling power, and that shining sun.
Currents of flame and starlight rotated around him, searing the room like he was sitting in the heart of a blazing star.
Something from the Path kept them from destroying the walls and the area nearby, or everything here would have been incinerated in an instant.
The voice of the Path echoed in his mind.
Choose one Ability to infuse with the Concept of the Law you have glimpsed.
Slowly, as that voice echoed in his mind, Kelin’s awareness returned.
He considered what he’d seen, turning the idea around. He could sense the strength of it, that star that returned again and again.
All Laws came from Chaos, and so they were endless and immutable, fragments of the truth that gave rise to all things.
It was only by defining them in ways that living beings could understand that they gained a name and unique powers.
This one was just a concept, the beginning stage of a Law, but that was enough.
It could grow on its own.
He ran through some possibilities, trying to find the right description. Then he made his choice.
Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.
You have fused a new Concept with your Subclass Ability: Mystic Echo.
Please name the Concept.
“The Concept of Returning Flame,” Kelin said, keeping it simple.
Acknowledged.
A wave of power swept through his body, making his spirit hum with force as it remodeled what it found.
When the Path was finished, it spoke again.
The Concept of Returning Flame has fused with Mystic Echo. Its path to the Heroic tier is now open.
Your Ability: Mystic Echo has gained a tier and reached Advanced.
At the Advanced tier, the echo is 20% as strong as the original, but as the ability improves, the strength of the echo will increase.
If you activate something you’ve created yourself, the echo will be twice as strong and can be infused with your supporting abilities.
As this Echo is now infused with an appropriate Concept, it has gained the potential to apply to your other abilities and skills, but it will need to be developed further before it can become an Innate Ability.
Kelin let out a breath that was half filled with golden flames as he studied the changes.
Mystic Echo had been touched by Endless Flame during his Evolution, but this was a better fit, so he’d added it as well.
Fortunately, the two had merged, and it looked like the new concept would take the lead in the future.
He hadn’t gained any extra bonuses from the addition, since it didn’t apply to all of his abilities yet, but the tier improvement was good enough.
He could have chosen to infuse Soulfire Bolt or something else instead, but he had a feeling this would work better.
He would build up the concept of Reincarnation from two parts, his main class and his subclass. Both would have their foundation in soul magic, but one would carry the concept of Endless and Rising, while the other would focus on Return.
Eventually they would merge together at the Fourth Evolution to form his own unique Concept that would define him going forward.
He still had to figure out where Wildfire and Soulfire fit there, or if they would be secondary Laws, but he had time to decide.
Ethereal flames lingered in the room and heat radiated from every surface. Dust had been completely scoured away and the stones were pristine.
He stood up and stretched, adjusting to the new feeling of the ability.
He wondered if Maro had taken advantage of his own Law opportunity yet, and if so, what he had seen. It was different for everyone, but hopefully he had managed to advance his Law.
After a moment, Kelin dismissed the thought as he turned to the crafting table in front of him and began to set some things on it.
The first was an iron staff.
Lightning-Branched Iron Staff (Rare).
It was a durable, Rare-grade iron staff, the best that he could afford.
Its name came from the pattern of lightning marks across the surface, a natural result of the intense environment it had come from.
