Chapter 226 - Risky Choices

Nate lost track of Kiri, his farsight sphere of awareness unable to keep up with her as she used her ability to teleport. A second later, he realised why she was teleporting as he also lost track of the black blur that was the jaguar-like creature. The beast was faster than Kiri. A few seconds later, Kiri appeared on the sandy beach and started running towards Nate. The six-legged feline followed a moment later, sending up a blast of sand as it pivoted on the beach to arrest its momentum. That momentary pause gave Nate enough time to identify what they were dealing with as well as take in the appearance of the beast.

Dark Ligan
Swift Jungle King (L) (89) / Swift Hunter (E) (72) / Swift Devourer (R) (40)

The beast's perfect Embodiment explained how it could match Kiri’s speed even when she was Imbued with Soul Energy. The fact that it was also over level two-hundred, albeit barely, was probably also a factor. The six-legged Dark Ligan was coated in black fur, with its shoulders and head encased in what looked like darkened bony structures which likely provided some protection against attacks. The beast had two eyes which were forward facing, and ears that were currently slicked back against the head. With six legs, it started pounding across the sand, closing the distance between them at an incredible pace.

“Want me to help, Boss?” Frick asked.

“Nah,” Nate answered. “Float up and keep an eye out in case this draws other predators. Let me know if you see anything.”

Frick floated into the sky at his direction as Nate kept his eyes on the quickly approaching Dark Ligan.

While he’d been studying it, Nate had also been modifying his Gravity Rune using Conceptual Runic Mastery. Kiri appeared beside him, daggers flared out and ready as the Ligan pounced at them from over thirty metres away. As the beast was sailing through the air, Nate changed down to up and watched as the Ligan careened over the top of them, its aim subverted by Nate’s gravity manipulation. At the same time, Nate felt his mana reserve dip precipitously as Reality resisted his alteration of a fundamental law. His lips twitched in annoyance at the ocean of ambient mana reinforcing the normal application of Concepts. Two more reality shifts like that and he would bottom out his mana reserve, being forced to use mana gems that didn’t carry his own affinities and therefore not receive the empowerment of his runes that he got from his Skills. 

The Ligan landed in an explosion of sand forty-metres behind them, spinning slower than Nate would’ve expected, possibly due to having six-legs. Kiri wasted no time and, now that she had him to back her up, she dived into the fight. Nate maintained the Gravity Rune, just in case, but changed tack to avoid burning through his mana. Reaching into his spatial pocket, he pulled out three materials. The first was a small, brown blob. Dirt and water mixed together, bound by his ability to manipulate Subconcepts into something that was meant to resemble the Concept of Mud. The second was a glittering piece of glass that looked like it had light trapped inside of it, refracting like a diamond. This one was more powerful than the first, as he had given it a true Illusion affinity without the need to change Subconcepts. Instead, along with the Subconcepts, he’d managed to impart a sense of trickery and misdirection, though thankfully it was only Epic-tier and therefore wasn’t pressing against Reality just yet. The final piece looked like white cotton fabric, wispy like a cloud. The materials had been Nate experimenting with what he could impart an affinity to, but each was also a visual representation of what they were meant to be, with the final one carrying an affinity for Soul and Empower. 

Activating Conceptual Automated Existence, Nate expended the three Epic Materials as they unfolded into constructs representing their Concepts. The Mud Construct looked like a brown slimy blob while the Illusion Construct looked like a cloud of hazy lights and sounds. Finally, the Soul Construct looked like a wispy form of Nate himself, though wearing his old robe, taking its appearance from his own memories. He applied his Intent, giving each separate orders. The Mud Construct was to restrict the beast’s movements, the Illusion Construct was to confuse its sight and hearing while the Soul Construct was to expend itself empowering Kiri.

The entire sequence happened in under two seconds but during that time Kiri had lost a leg as she dodged back too slowly, then had it regenerate as she teleported to reposition. In response, she’d manage to bury one dagger in one of the Ligan’s joints, leaving it there to gum up its movements. A glance told Nate it was her only Legendary dagger. Scattered on the sand were shards of metal and he realised the problem. Kiri had a pile of Rare daggers, but they hadn’t created any new ones for her and the Rare daggers just weren't cutting it against the level two-hundred beast. Its hide was too tough and thick for the daggers to penetrate. Her other daggers were breaking and shattering when pit against the beast.

The Ligan seemed to realise it too, as it was getting more aggressive, less concerned about the response from the two humans that it considered to be its prey. The Ligan took another swipe at Kiri from too far away and Nate felt a burst of mana as the slash of the creature’s claws extended far beyond its body. Kiri bent backwards like a gymnast, the mana slash passing over the top of her as it bisected the trees abutting the beach, toppling them with that single swing.

That was the moment the Constructs arrived. The blob of brown slime crawled over one of the beast's front legs, trying to restrict its movement. At the same time, the sparkling cloud surrounded the Ligan’s head and it roared, tossing its head back and forth as it attacked illusory enemies, kicking up sand as it spun in a blind fury. The white cloud that was the Soul Construct reached Kiri, enveloping her in a ghostly white armour. Nate watched as Kiri grinned, blood on her teeth, and dashed at the gigantic cat, completely unarmed, before she jumped onto its back. He realised what she was doing, as she started to drain the beast’s soul energy. The Dark Ligan refused to go down easily and rolled onto its back trying to dislodge her. In response, Nate used Multi Conceptual Material Shaping as he started shifting the sand of the beach in great waves. With his ability to control multiple portions separately and his split focus, he would pull sand away from Kiri, preventing her from being squashed, while at the same time creating waves that moved the beast back onto its side or its feet. The entire time, the creature was clearly blind to its surroundings, courtesy of the Illusion Construct, but Nate could tell the construct was running out of steam. The Mud Construct had already shattered, unable to resist the strength of the beast. The Soul Construct was also wavering and Nate judged it only had seconds left, even under the empowered effects of his Embodiment.

The tumbling sand only kept the beast contained until the Constructs finally broke, their mana expended. With sight and sound returned to the beast, Nate felt a quickly building surge of mana. Kiri must have felt it as well as she appeared by his side. Nate extended his barrier to cover her as well, even if she probably didn’t need it. The explosion of cutting mana created a huge hole in the sand, reaching down far enough to leave gouges in the Legendary-tier rock below the beach. The Dark Ligan stood, panting as it glared hatefully at them. Then, with a final burst of sand, it launched itself back into the jungle and was gone, carrying Kiri’s Legendary Dagger with it, still lodged in one of its shoulder joints. Kiri looked like she wanted to give chase but thought better of it, turning to Nate.

“Can we adjust the plan a bit?” she asked, tired and covered head to toe in the fine sand of the beach.

Nate smiled tiredly, “Yeah, alright. Some more weapons first. You marked it?”

Kiri nodded, “Of course. I’m getting my dagger back… as soon as I can put a hole or three in it.”

“Help me finish up the first floor so we have somewhere to sleep, then I will swap to making weapons. That means you’re cooking though.”

“Mum would be so proud,” quipped Kiri as they walked back towards Nate’s construction site.

“As if,” Nate replied. “Your cooking has got nothing on your mum’s.”

“Better than yours,” countered Kiri.

“That’s a low bar.”

“Look at you two, fighting like siblings. It warms my little, blue heart,” added Frick, floating down to join the conversation.

“And no, nothing seemed interested in coming to investigate, Boss,” Frick continued, answering Nate’s questioning look. “I bet that beastie is the local apex predator. At least, for this section of the island, anyway.”

Nate nodded his agreement. That would make sense. Especially since that fight had cost him two-thirds of his mana reserve and they hadn’t actually killed the beast, even if they had weakened it. Adding Divine Energy to the mix likely would’ve resolved the fight. A fact that he could see mirrored in Kiri’s eyes. But then, Divine Energy didn’t just regenerate on its own, so wasting it on a fight they could arguably win without it was exactly that—a waste.

“Alright,” Nate began, creating an Earth Shaping rune to remove the sand from both of them. “You move the building materials into the spatial pocket. Give me… six of your daggers. I’ll start raising them to Mythic. Once all the building materials are inside, I’ll finish putting together the first floor. Then you can make dinner and I’ll go back to making weapons. Frick, you can go back to scouting. At least if we can get a map of the area we can improve our plans going forward. Agreed?”

“Yep,” replied Kiri, heading straight for the planks of wood as she hoisted one like it was nothing, showing off her rising Strength Stat.

“You got it, Boss,” added Frick.

With the plans made, Nate sat back down on the beach, his barrier firmly in place around him as began to create six mythic daggers. Multi Conceptual Material Shaping had lowered the time required to improve a material by ninety percent. That meant that raising a Common item to Mythic, which would once have taken him around four months, would now take around twelve days. Of course, that time could be reduced further by using higher-tier materials to start with. He judged he could move a Legendary-tier material to Mythic in seven or eight days. Still, the delay was more than he was interested in. A rare material was still going to take at least eleven days. Looking at his Divine Energy on his Status he considered his options. They had planned to hold off on using any Divine Energy until they had tested how much was required to level their Primary Class. But twelve days was a long time to wait before they could fight effectively. More importantly, if the beast was that strong, it was highly likely the Dungeon Frick had found would be similarly challenging, which would slow down their development in terms of obtaining processed mana along with the Dungeon Rewards. Thinking on it, Nate decided that just one point of Divine Energy wouldn’t hurt, especially since it would raise his Mythic Skill to Divine.

Nate reached for his Class Core, specifically the part that held the golden energy that was his Divine Energy. Unlike previously, where he had struggled to hold onto the energy, this felt like it was his, carrying the idea of him and who he was within its golden shine. He drew the smallest piece he could, directing it into his Multi Conceptual Material Shaping Skill. As he did so, the Divine Energy flowed out of the Skill and along the mana threads connecting it to the six daggers before him. The rate at which the daggers drank mana instantly increased and Nate felt the remaining mana within his Mana Reserve quickly draining. With another part of his mind he continued to drain mana gems into his Mana Reserve, but with his Mana Absorption Stat being only a little over one hundred he found himself drained dry within thirty seconds. The Divine Energy lingered on the daggers and every bit of mana that he managed to absorb was immediately snatched up by his Skill as it continued to improve the mana conductivity of the daggers along with applying the Affinities for Reinforcement and Durability.

Ignoring the notification for a moment, he called out to Kiri.

“I’m going to need you to watch over me for a while.”

“What’s wrong?” Kiri asked as she stepped out of the hole in space that was his Spatial Anchor.

“Used Divine Energy to try and speed this up. It’s bottomed out my mana and it’s probably going to stay that way for a while,” Nate replied uncomfortably, recognising his own foolishness in pushing forward too far without considering the consequences.

Kiri smirked in amusement but just nodded, acknowledging his mistake but not berating him for it.

“I got you. Into the spatial pocket if anything shows up, though.”

Nate agreed, opening the notification and finally looking over the Skill’s Divine evolution.

Multi Conceptual Material Shaping 52 > 61

Multi Conceptual Material Shaping (M) is ready to evolve.
Evolutions Available! Please Select 1.
Skill Evolution Options:

Multi Conceptual Material Shaping (Divine)
You have pushed the bounds of the Improve Material skill, understanding the true nature of the skill and then using that understanding to reach beyond its limit, creating a legendary material imbued with an affinity, the underlying concepts that define reality. The user of this Skill is able to push materials all the way to Mythic Rarity and imbue them with the Concepts of Reality itself. In the process, the user may now reshape materials at will, the cost only measured in time and mana. Mana cost decreases by 1% per Skill Level for Conceptual Improvements. Improvements are 5% faster per 40 Intellect plus Creativity. Mana cost decreases by 1% per Skill Level, plus 10% of the user’s Intellect, for material shaping. Additionally, this Skill may target multiple materials. Number of materials is equal to 1 plus 1 per 100 Creativity. Due to capping Mana Cost reduction and Speed of Improvement, this Skill will now give an additional 1% Creativity per Skill Level beyond 50.
Divine Bonus I: Multiply speed of Material Imbuement by ten. Cost: 1 Divine Energy. Duration: 6 hours.

Nate did some quick math and realised that if he could use the Skill at its maximum level, he could actually create eleven Mythic materials from scratch in a day at the cost of two to three Divine Energy. He’d initially only requested six, because that was how many items he was used to doing. But that had changed, he realised. With his Embodiment, so long as he was incorporating affinities into the materials he was working on, he was using Sigils, which activated his Embodiment. With his Embodiment in the mix, his Mental and Magical Stats were effectively doubled, and Multi Conceptual Material Shaping used his Creativity Stat to determine how many materials he could work on at once. That, however, was contingent on him being able to constantly pump mana into the Skill, which seemed like it was going to be an issue. An issue that could be solved by a higher Mana Absorption Stat. Well then, he guessed he knew what Stat he was going to focus on with his equipment initially. 

With a chagrined smile, he called to Kiri, “Hey, give me another five daggers.”

Kiri shrugged, producing another five daggers before getting back to the work of ferrying materials through the spatial anchor.

Nate did some quick calculations. It was likely going to cost him four Divine Energy and two days to get all the daggers to Mythic, but that was still six times faster than the initial twelve days he’d estimated. Besides, it only required one of his now five possible focuses to do so, which left four to plan and think about Concepts, Sigils and the nature of Reality. It was time to indulge in his Embodiment: The Conceptual Artist.