[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 97: Core values

“What do you mean by that?” Sam asked Lenal.

“Simply that, in the 32 Skyshards that I have come across, none of them possessed a so-called ‘Settlement Core’. None of them were able to do the things Sage Raiko’s Sacred Tree can do. It is, without a doubt, something that is connected to you as Incarnates.”

Raiko seemed to know something that she wasn’t saying. Nobody else appeared to notice but Sam.

“Couldn’t it just be something few people have?” Matt asked. “Surely somebody out there has a tiny magical sapling, or a crystal that can… what’s it do again?”

Sam shrugged. “Not my fault you weren’t listening.”

Matt pressed on, undaunted. “Well, it looks pretty, at least. So, are you telling me that these other Skyshards cannot level up?”

“It was not a feature that we had access to,” Lenal said. “The professors, however, did have access to setting Tiles. It is how we learned about Fields and improving Tiles by stacking different types nearby to generate unique effects.”

“What kind of effects?” Matt asked, leaning in curiously.

“We were only able to find a few. Tiles are difficult to come by, and even so, the combinations involved are difficult to understand completely.”

“So it would be beneficial if you had access to more Tiles to test,” Kai said.

Lenal looked at him hopefully. “Greatly! And with two Incarnates, the Academy will flourish like never before! We can help you and you can provide us with protection. The Academy exists for the betterment of all Islegardian life, and what better way to do that than to help the Incarnates?”

“There are a number of Tiles I haven’t adjusted,” Raiko admitted. “Much of what’s here, was already attached to the Tree.”

“Heh, Chester Chompers the Third leveled up,” Komachi said smugly. “Dat’s a good boy.”

The mimic burped softly. An old worn boot sole was ejected onto the ground. Chester seemed to think about whether or not he wanted to eat it.

“What’d… he eat?” Raiko asked hesitantly.

No one knew.

“I fed him a boot!” Komachi said excitedly. “His level is pretty low, so anything he eats will probably help him.”

The next question on everybody’s mind was whose boot was it. Nobody, including Sam, wanted to ask it.

Almost everybody there looked down at their feet to make sure it wasn’t one of theirs.

Lenal wiggled one bare foot. “Huh.” She kept a very stoic expression and did her best not to look at the mimic. But despite the cool air, she was visibly sweating.

Komachi winked, then her paws began to skitter on Chester’s lid as the mimic began to open and shut its mouth.

Sam looked over curiously. He’d seen that posture and movement before in Komachi. “He’s going to hurl, stand back.”

“Please, not in the spring!” Raiko cried.

The mimic’s paws danced erratically, and it managed to do an about face just in time to cough up a small satchel onto the ground.

Chester then returned to his normal stance of being a typical treasure chest and doing absolutely nothing else.

Sam reached over and picked up the small cloth satchel, somehow surprised that it wasn’t covered in dog drool or, really, any kind of dampness.

[Grade 1 Alkahest]

(Catalyst) (F-Class)

(★Common)

Alchemists across the Shardrunes have long searched for a universal solvent, a material that mixes perfectly with every other in creation. Alkahest is only possible to be found within a Shardrune and cannot be located on a standard Worldshard. Alkahests are the core component of enhancing, augmenting, upgrading, and refining all manner of crafted goods. From equipment to potions, alkahests are synonymous with power. Grade 1 Alkahests can be used on items up to Uncommon rarity.

“Wow, this would be supremely useful if any of us had Professions.” Sam showed the rest of the group the satchel.

“If only I was still an Alchemist. However, doesn’t Lenal?” Raiko asked, examining the researcher’s compass.

“Does that mean you could teach me to be an Alchemist?” Matt asked eagerly. He looked so hopeful, it was almost heartbreaking.

She glanced at him and frowned. “Maybe? Certainly better than no guidance.”

The winds noticeably shifted direction. Not quite in the opposite direction, but more northwest than west.

“I do have a Profession,” Lenal admitted. “However, I do not know how useful it would be to you. I am an Analyst. As the name suggests, I can extract greater information from the Shard and its various items, environs, and creatures. Often enhancing items or equipment by uncovering hidden facets many might never know existed.”

“A nerd, basically,” Matt said. When everybody looked at him, he raised his hands defensively. “I meant no offense! It’s just… well, it’s not like the Professions I thought there were. You know, making things.”

That brought to mind Sam’s unidentified slag. “Awesome. Would you mind identifying something for us?”

Lenal nodded.

He pulled out the [Unidentified Metal Slag Lump]. “I got this but couldn’t tell what it was, can you?”

Lenal pulled herself out of the spring and sat on a small stone shelf where she could see it better. She couldn’t lift it, so she had Sam maneuver it around to get a better look.

Something that Sam, with over 100 Strength, did without even thinking. Though he could remember how heavy this thing was back in the Dark Vault.

And he had his bonus points to apply. He was still mulling over the decision of what to enhance, but for now, he could satisfy his curiosity.

“You only wish me to [Identify], yes?” Lenal asked.

“What else could you do?”

“I could use [Analyze], but it would destroy the item. However, it would grant me Experience and a deeper knowledge of the item’s makeup and where we might be able to find more like it.”

Sam shook his head. “Just [Identify], please. I know where it came from already.”

Rippling purple light washed over the item as Lenal passed a hand over it. “I’ve never seen its like before.”

“What does it say?” Sam asked.

“It says this belonged to some creature known as the ‘Stellar Warden’ and that, since it was destroyed with Void mana, it is currently useless in its present state. However, the Void mana used to destroy it has permeated the metal, turning it into unrefined [Void Metal].” She looked up at Sam. “I have never heard of [Void Metal] before.”

“Keep going,” Sam prompted. “Does it say how it can be used?”

Lenal placed a hand on the cold metal. “It is… very cold. Interesting.” She took her hand away. The droplets of water frosted where they dripped upon it. “It is an E-Class item, quite powerful since I have seen nothing so far beyond F-Class. The Academy already has a working theory on Class ratings and rarities. Hmm, let me see here… yes, if you were a Blacksmith of high enough skill and level, you could smelt this into several ingots of [Void Metal].”

“Does it say how high?”

“Unfortunately, my Analyst is not high enough to delve any deeper. As it is, the metal is nigh worthless.”

Sam crumpled his brow. “How do you figure?”

Lenal looked surprised at the question. “Well, for one… it’s Void mana, as in Apocalypse Mana? Utterly deadly for anybody to use, it’s only safe because it’s inert right now and locked up in the metal. If you were to smelt it, the Void mana might leak out and kill you. And that was if you could smelt it. You see how it’s freezing the water that drops on it? Imagine trying to get a fire hot enough to counteract that.”

“It would consume the Fire mana inside the fire,” Sam said, catching on.

“Precisely. No matter how hot you got the fire going, the Fire mana within the flames would be absorbed and negated. Maybe if you got it hot enough for long enough, the Void mana might be unable to overcome the Fire… but I am no Blacksmith. I could not tell you if that would be possible, but my master is, and he definitely could.”

Sam deposited the lump back into his Inventory, now updated to reveal more of its nature. It now showed itself as [Void Metal Slag] “I appreciate the info.”

So he could use it, if he got a Blacksmith to smelt it. Better yet, if he could convince her master to teach him how to be a Blacksmith… he could do it himself.

The prospect of that appealed to Sam quite a bit.

With his command of Void mana, he might be able to keep it within the metal throughout the process. Maybe he could apply [Smother] to it somehow, to make the Void mana inert.

Could you use Void mana to make other Void mana inert? It wasn’t something he ever thought of. The odds of him fighting against another creature, much less a person who could use Void mana, seemed vanishingly small.

“Can your master, Miss Lenal,” Komachi asked, picking up on his desires. “teach Sam to be a Smith?”

“We will need Professions, and a diverse set at that,” Raiko said, deep in thought. “Not just for the stats, but for their practical use. That is, if we stay under one banner. I suppose separately, the need is still there.”

Lenal’s smile brightened like the rising sun. “We could! Aker Academy was known for its Professions and masters of such Professions like Goldsmithing, Carpentry, and Cooking were some of the tenured professors there. Many of them were able to reclaim their old Professions. Something about them being engraved upon the soul after a certain point.”

“That is a gift we would gladly accept,” Sam told her. “None of us have Professions.”

“I will do my best to see that the professors acquiesce to your request!” She looked giddy enough to clap her hands. “Knowledge is the one thing the Aker Academy has in spades. And we can surely teach what we know. That is what the Academy was created for!”

“Was there an Enchanter among you?” Raiko asked. “Something that imparts magical effects to gear. Artificer might be it too. Just a guess, based on nomenclature.”

Lenal ticked off each Profession on her fingers. “The last I remember, we had professors of Cooking, Alchemy, Carpentry, Blacksmithing, Goldsmithing, Binding, Merchant, Leatherworking, and of course, Weaving. We were sure there were many others, far more than Islegard had, but those were the ones the professors had access to.”

“Could be that they change upon reaching Second Order, if Professions have a similar hierarchy as Jobs do,” Raiko said.

“Goldsmithing?” Komachi mused in wonder, then pawed Chomper’s lid. “What would you like to be?”

The mimic yawned and lolled out its mahogany plank of a tongue.

Matt looked at it. “It looks like wood, but moves like it’s made out of… well, flesh.”

Sam could hardly contain his excitement. They had just struck the motherlode! A group of researchers, professors, and teachers that could teach them Professions that they so desperately needed?

And Lenal had the very device that would take them to the Academy.

“Do you think they would want to join us?” Sam asked. “We aren’t many, but we are gaining power fast. All of us are already on our Second Order Job.”

Lenal’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “The Academy would bend over backwards to be in the service of not just one, but both Incarnates that saved our home! And you are already at your Second Order Jobs? That is a feat in and of itself. I cannot say for certain what the Archchancellor would say, but I cannot see why he would turn down the chance to work with you.”

It seemed the perfect marriage to Sam. They weren’t many, but they were fairly strong. With a team of people who were mostly dedicated to their Professions working on the Skyshards and trying to find out more about this new world of theirs, the knowledge they unearthed would be immensely valuable to Sam and the others.

Both Kai and Matt appeared curious when Lenal mentioned that Sam and Raiko saved Islegard. It wasn’t the first time it was brought up, but with enough reminders, it apparently got them wondering.

Sam didn’t know how to explain it any more than he already had. But he expected that he would need to do a full accounting soon.

With the shifting wind, Sam had to double check his own Skyshard wasn’t being left behind. Looking around for it, it seemed to be roughly in the same position, as if it was being swept up in the same mana currents the Tree was guiding.

That’s a relief, he thought.