Chapter 241 - Two Halves

“Pinoreth, the jewel of the Archipelago,” whispered Elder Jin’Kahn near Nate’s ear.

“You copied the design from your Sacred Trial, didn’t you?” replied Nate, his eyes glued to the shining blue and yellow city.

Before his eyes lay a city almost entirely lifted above a sheltered bay by large wooden stilts that elevated the buildings multiple metres above the water below. In the far distance he could make out lower areas where ships and boats were docked. Beneath the wooden city lay a colourful reef filled with fish and other denizens of the water. Picturesque is how he would have described the city before him. Just like the city within the Dungeon where he had gotten his ship.

“We did. It was the work of generations, but it has been worthwhile,” answered Elder Ra’Paki before pointing to some cliffs that rose in what Nate judged to be the North of the city. “Pathways there lead up to the Temple of the Sky Wardens and the nests of the Great Igrits that we ride. Perhaps, if you have time, I can show you our temple while you visit?”

“If we have time,” agreed Kiri noncommittally.

“I don’t presume to know the capabilities of Ascendants, but if you are capable of surviving below the waves, I would be happy to show you the Temple of the Depths Walkers as well,” interjected Elder Jin’Kahn, a smile on her dark face.

Nate felt a twinge in his chest at the request and replied, “The System… The Guide, it believes you desire us to visit. An exchange would need to take place, but I am curious as to why you would want us to visit your Temples badly enough to trigger Reciprocity?”

Thankfully Nate already had an idea about why they would desire it and he felt no further twinges at his question. It seemed that The System had a lower limit requirement for its desire for Reciprocity to be fulfilled.

“For your words and thoughts,” answered Jin’Kahn. “You are Ascendants. Very rarely does one rise among The People. Your advice, your thoughts on our Paths. These things could be invaluable to both the Elders and our Disciples. I will speak with the other Elders of the Depths Walkers Temple and see what we might offer you to visit us and share your wisdom. Both of you.”

Nate appreciated that the Elder was making it clear that they valued both he and Kiri, but he wasn’t convinced of his own wisdom. Though, perhaps, he could offer them something - if only based on his own experiences. Only time would tell. His contemplation, however, was short-lived as they approached the edges of the city. Activity on the walls showed that the Calikex were preparing to defend themselves. In response, a number of the Igrit Riders that had shadowed them from higher above the jungle began swooping in front of the ship to warn off their companions.

“Where should I put the ship down?” asked Nate.

“Does it require a berth or will you make it disappear again?” replied Ra’Paki.

“Disappear.”

“Just beyond the walls then is fine. We will enter Pinoreth in our palanquin. The honoured Ascendants are of course welcome to join us. My estate is closer to the northern cliffs and near the edge of the city. Elder Jin’Kahn, I offer you shelter in my home as well. I assume you would like to remain close to our guests.”

“Thank you, Ra’Paki,” answered Jin’Kahn with a simple nod.

That however was the last simple thing for the next twenty minutes. Nate stood beside his ship, having manipulated the earth around it into struts to keep it from tipping over as it rested on the ground. The Calikex forces that had accompanied the two Elders scurried back and forth over the deck, grabbing the supplies they had stored below and setting up a palanquin on the ground from the tent that they had laid out on the deck. The two Elders waited patiently, surrounded by their eight guardians.

Once the Calikex had finished unloading their belongings and supplies from his ship, Nate tucked it away within his spatial zone, using the same method he had outside the walls of Pinoreth to keep the ship upright. As his little world grew larger he had begun adding more and more material to it. Dirt, trees, water. The spatial zone was already over two-hundred cubic metres, stretching into the distance now with the edges of the spatial zone uncovered. He wondered if the Calikex would object to him taking some of their reef. Maybe he could obtain some similar materials and lifeforms further away from the city, he decided. That way, it wouldn’t need to involve Reciprocity, and he could start creating his own sea which would make a much more fitting berth for his ship.

With the flying ship put away and the Calikex all loaded up, Nate and Kiri were ushered into a palanquin alongside the two Elders. As the procession got moving, Nate used Conceptual Sight of The Runic Artist to look over the Calikex. There was a clear difference between Disciples of the four Temples present. Jungle Stalkers wore black fur upon their clothing. There were only two other Depths Walkers who trailed close behind the palanquin, and like Elder Jin’Kahn, the pair, a woman and a man, wore clothes made of seaweed. Though, unlike the Elder, their hair lacked the ethereal quality as though they were beneath the waves, though Nate could see hints of it. Of the Sky Wardens, they still flew above the procession on their Great Igrits. Finally, the Deep Guardians surrounded the palanquin. 

All the Disciples shared some things in common. That was that they were all fairly close to level one-hundred-and-eighty in their Classes. The exception was the female Depths Walker who was level one-hundred-and-eighty-three. She was just past her fourth evolution and in possession of a Mythic Primary Class like Elder Jin’Kahn. As for the non-Disciples, Nate couldn’t help but notice that they were all around level one-hundred-and-fifty. In addition, they all seemed to have Classes that focused on labour or trades. There were some Cooking classes mixed with Strongman-type Classes. Either way, none of them were combat related. That divide became more prevalent as they passed through the city and Nate was able to see shopkeepers, fisherman, jewellers, carpenters and more. He even caught sight of an apprentice alchemist. What he didn’t see were Enchanters.

“Do your Enchanters keep their shops somewhere else in Pinoreth?” asked Nate as they were ferried over the strong and even wooden roads that crisscrossed the City of Memory.

“You mean Formation Masters?” replied Ra’Paki. “The Temple of the Hidden Weave is like the Deep Guardians. Their home is in some mountains to the East and their services do not come cheap.”

Nate nodded and turned back to the city with a frown. His mind was going over the implications of such a skillset being so heavily restricted in an environment like this Wild Realm. His sphere of awareness had found no mana gems so far. It seemed that the Calikex simply let the ambient mana power their few creations. Their city was built from Legendary wood and likely shaped and maintained by the carpenters he had seen so many of. Food was in abundance with the sea teaming with life beneath them, and that didn’t even account for the fishing boats and ships. With the jungle nearby, he had gotten a quick view of carefully maintained fields of herbs and fruit. The Calikex had everything they needed, and that was both a blessing and a curse.

The sight of a female Calikex carrying a woven bag full of fruit answered Nate’s final question. Upon the woman's chest was a small child, bundled up and held close. Nate judged the child to be less than a year old, though he could be wrong given that the Calikex were their own species. But he was pretty sure he was right, given the Class Core he could sense. The class revealed itself to him.

Protected Calikex Child (C) (6)

The Class Core was clearly reducing the rate of mana absorption as Nate could sense the bubble of it around the child. Protected was almost a misnomer, since the only thing it seemed to be protecting the child from was the ambient mana of the Wild Realm.

“What age do you normally select Disciples?” asked Nate idly as the part of his mind that wasn’t focused on trying to discover a Sigil for Art worked on the problem before him.

“Five to six, though sometimes as late as eight,” answered Ra’Paki. “They need to be found young so that we have time to train them down the Temple’s Path. If they have reached their second evolution it is often too late to dramatically change their Path, though there have been rare instances of such.”

Nate nodded, the answer explaining the problem he saw before him. The ambient mana of the Wild Realm was too much for creatures to exist that hadn’t adapted. Some bugs or fish that were too small for Class Cores, lacking the required soul energy in volumes big enough, had likely adapted due to their quick reproductive cycles. That assumed the ambient mana, coming from wherever the Source was, grew over time. They would’ve been able to evolve in real-time with the changes. Longer lived species like the Calikex didn’t have that advantage. And it seemed The System couldn’t let them simply die out, whether due to Reciprocity or for some other reason. Instead, they had to be given Class Cores while still infants to protect them from the ambient mana.

Back on Galle, Kiri hadn’t gotten her Class Core till she was around twelve. For those with power or resources, that gave them plenty of time to earn Achievements to improve their starting Class. What achievements could a baby get? For all Nate knew, they were given the Class Core as soon as they were born. Then, as a consequence of the Formation Masters, Enchanters or whatever they were, hoarding their knowledge, the main growth methods subsequently were simply from absorbing ambient mana. Which was all well and good, up to a point. Because, without Skills, techniques or methods for getting more mana, once an individual had reached parity with the ambient mana, they would stagnate in their levelling. Methods like hunting creatures or Dungeons. Methods the Disciples made use of, but not the commoners of the Calikex.

Nate slipped into thought, musing over the challenges faced by the Calikex and how different their society was from Etrua, but more importantly, how mana in both societies was a driving influence in how they developed. Back on Galle, each nation had been defined by mana and their approach to it. Etrua wanted to funnel it into Dungeons, using those to empower their elite. Asmuisil had instead focused it towards crafting, developing their people with a flatter hierarchy. Flatter, because there had still been a hierarchy, but the divide had been bridgeable with more social mobility. Then there was Gashana that instead used mana to generate wealth, surviving in their desert by dint of a reduced population and specialised skillsets, again driven by mana. Here, the Calikex were clearly separated into the general populace and the Temples, and only early proof of capability separated the two. 

The clear divide between the Disciples and the commoners might have bothered Nate more if he didn’t see how the Disciples treated the commoners. He had expected that clear separation to create friction or worse, abuse of power. Instead he saw nothing but respect from both sides as the commoners offered the Disciples fruit and fish and were either politely rebuffed or accepted with payment as the procession moved through the city.

“The People seem to love the Disciples of your Temples,” noted Nate, interrupting the trade discussion Kiri was having with Ra’Paki. It had been about Igrit feathers, for some reason.

“Of course they do. To be a Disciple is both a great honour and a solemn task. The Disciples keep the people and the city safe. Most cities like ours have three Temples. One for Sky, for Sea and for Land. The Jungle Stalkers keep the dangers of the forest from our people, protecting the farms and farmers. Foragers who wish to venture deeper into the jungle pay them a percentage of their findings to be guarded, though every year a few fools die by trying on their own,” explained Jin’Kahn.

“Similarly, a few Depths Walkers always go with the fisherman on their voyages to protect them from the monsters of the deep and keep them away from the worst of those watery graves. The Sky Wardens protect the citizens from the skies and act as both scouts and messengers, maintaining communication between The People. Not all cities are like ours though. Some are inland, barely touching upon the open sea. They might have Temples for protecting those who delve into the earth or a few Temples competing for The People’s privilege of defending them from forest and plain. Finally, there are the unaffiliated Temples. Temples without a city to call home, such as the Deep Guardians or the Formation Masters. They instead recruit from other cities and trade their services for what they need. This has been the way of The People since before The Guide came to our world.”

Nate nodded his thanks for the explanation, his eyes returning to the city of Pinoreth and its people. In some ways he disliked the clear divide between Disciples and the regular Calikex, but he could see how it worked. A balance struck where one side provided a needed service and the other supported that through offerings and trade. He supposed his main issue was how young it seemed such roles were decided, a consequence of the ambient mana. And an explanation for why the commoners stagnated around level one-hundred-and-fifty. They had no way to get more processed mana. Once the mana inside them equalised with their environment they needed to find places of higher density ambient mana, like Dungeons, or to kill beasts. Without processed mana gems, or even just regular mana gems and a decent ability to control mana, they couldn’t hold more in their Class Cores, meaning they could no longer level.

Even Nate could feel how the mana pressing into him had slowed somewhat since leaving the Mythic Dungeon. With an extra twenty levels under his belt, he was now closer to the ambient mana, and as such its need to burrow into him had been reduced. Not stopped, but Nate suspected it would if he got to around level one-hundred-and-ten. His higher tier Classes meant that he should achieve parity with the ambient mana around there. So, if a world like Galle seemed to find mana parity around level thirty or forty, and the Wild Realm found it around level one-hundred-and-fifty, did that mean The Heartlands would be around one-hundred or so? The question lingered in his mind as the palanquin moved through opened gates and into a wooden courtyard outside of a large, three storey, wooden house.

“Welcome to my home,” said Elder Ra’Paki with a smile and expansive arm wave. “Please make yourselves comfortable as my attendants prepare rooms for you and fetch us some refreshments.”