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Luna took back over. “These little monsters have a major weakness, though. They are unable to counter mundane attacks. This is where we will be training your melee skills. Before I find you a proper trainer, you need to reach a certain basic proficiency. Otherwise, you would just waste everyone’s time.”
The higher Tier woman looked outside and another house appeared floating next to Wrangle’s. “That’s where you will be staying. Training starts tomorrow morning.” She waved at Wrangle and said, “If I were you, I would take the time to ask Wrangle about creating spells inside yourself. That is where his true expertise lies. When he was Tier 14, he created a limited specialized copy of the Tier 32 skill, [Barrage].”
She must have seen their lack of understanding as she elaborated. “For those that don’t know how impressive that is, let me give you an example. If you attempt to make a skill and fail, it’s normally a death sentence. Doing so under Tier 15 is almost guaranteed suicide. I don’t care what healer you have near you. It will always kill you as, without a functional spirit, you can’t survive. And that’s for skills near your Tier. Doing so with even a limited version of a skill double your Tier is pure madness.”
Matt followed her gaze to a pale-looking Melinda, who only nodded in recognition of the warning.
She glanced at Wrangle, who seemed to preen under the attention. “Wrangle here was able to create a skill that let him create copies of his summon skills, while still only counting as a single instance to control. You’ll find out what that truly means tomorrow.”
Wrangle held up his hands like he was trying to defend himself from her praise, though the smile never left his face. “You flatter me, Great Lady. I still failed on my second attempt.”
Luna c****d her head at his chest and stared for a few seconds before shaking her head. “I read the report, and I must disagree. You were only a hair’s breadth away from success. What skill were you trying to make? It wasn’t in the report I read.”
Wrangle patted his chest. “I had… Well, I still have the desire to make a skill that will let me merge mana constructs. I feel that I should do it before I advance to Tier 25. The feeling I get from my spirit is that my Talent won’t be in that direction.”
Luna tapped her chin. “I’m even more impressed, then.” She looked to Matt’s friends, “Creating a completely new skill is far harder than simply copying one.”
She then pointed at Wrangle’s upper chest. “Your spirit’s reconstruction is going well, but you need to focus more on the area near your shoulder. The framework is misaligned and will delay your other repairs if you don’t address it quickly. What technique are you using?”
“Indiana’s Third Method was the one that helped the most when I started, and I have continued to use it.”
Luna didn’t seem surprised. “I’d recommend switching to Indiana’s Sixth Method for your remaining recovery if that style works better for you. In theory, it will be slightly slower, but it will ensure you don’t run into any issues like this again. If you avoid even a single such flaw, though, then it will still be much quicker and more efficient.”
Wrangle stood and bowed deeply. “Thank you for your wisdom, Great Lady. I shall do as you suggest.”
Luna held out her hand, and what looked like a tomato plant growing in a vase appeared. “Here is the payment my liaison promised. If you take this now, it will reduce your recovery time to mere decades. Alternatively, if you choose to wait, it will greatly assist you in creating the skill. It is yours to do with as you wish.”
Wrangle set it on a table in the sun and beamed at it, then back to Luna.
“You have my sincerest gratitude, Great Lady.”
Luna waved off his thanks and turned to the rest of them. “Tomorrow at dawn. You won’t like it if you’re late. Be down in the sand and be ready to start.”
Just like that, she was gone.
Wrangle clapped and rubbed his hands together. “Let us feast! We will have no time in the coming days, and I wish to get to know you all before the days pass us by.”
Melinda stood forward and cautiously asked, “I’m a healer and, if you don’t mind, can I look at your spirit? I’ve read about the dangers of trying to heal this type of damage, but I’ve never seen it before.”
Wrangle just offered her a hand with a slight smile that seemed forced.
Melinda touched him, then went sickly pale. She looked as if she would vomit as she quickly retreated.
Wrangle just chuckled. “Quite bad, isn’t it?”
“Worse than I imagined. I-I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t help, and I didn’t do it to you, but I’m still sorry.”
The Tier 24 seemed unbothered. “The damage was far worse right after it happened. This is almost completely fixed. But worry not. In a few short centuries, I will be recovered and able to try again. Then, I will truly race ahead. Let me go set up a good dinner. If you wish to clean up, I shall be ready in an hour. I’m sure you need it after the flight over here.”
Everyone turned to Melinda, who answered before they needed to ask, “I learned about this while researching spiritual damage and modification. Creating a skill in the spirit and failing isn’t like normal spirit damage. That can be healed and tries to right itself, given time and rest. This was like someone chopped his spirit into cubes then mixed the locations all over. But his spirit wasn’t trying to heal. I could feel that it considered that messed-up state as the natural one. He’s having to manually reconstruct his spirit.”
She shook like Aster did when trying to get water off her coat. “If that was almost fixed, I’d hate to see what he looked like when the injury was fresh.”
Liz hefted the still pouting Aster and said, “Let’s go shower up and get ready for dinner. I think we should call it an early night. I don’t know what Luna will have in store for us, but I don’t think it will be easy.”
Matt and everyone else stood in the sand under the flying houses and watched the sun slowly creep up over the horizon.
They kept waiting while nothing happened despite them being out here for over half an hour.
As the bottom of the sun cleared the horizon, there was a rumbling, and from over the dunes came a swarm of thousands of beetles.
Everyone started shouting, and they started to launch off attack after attack into the horde.
Aster took out a swath of them with her initial [Hail], but the proceeding monsters were blue speckled and unaffected by the falling ice.
Liz lashed out and attacked the leading monster with a tendril of blood, which was quickly countered by a lighter blue that greatly reduced the damage she did. Unlike Aster, she was able to deal damage, but not more than half her normal amount.
She, like everyone else, started bashing the beetles with her spear. They were only mana constructs, but they still had thick outer shells that resisted the cutting edge of her blade.
Matt didn’t have that problem with his heavier blade, but they were forced to retreat to prevent them from being surrounded.
- Writer
