Chapter 883 Journey

Ilea arrived in Erendar without issue. The moon now just another anchor in her assortment of destinations.

Icy opened one eye for a moment and then went back to sleep.

And I just managed a single hour. At least that much, I suppose.

“How long do you usually sleep? Care to go out hunting?” she sent.

Icy opened her eyes and yawned.

“I can kill the spirits you catch,” Ilea said. “Which means there will be fewer of them around. At least that’s the hope.”

Icy slowly stood up, but she didn’t seem particularly happy about it.

Ilea laughed. “This isn’t a bargain. I can go out alone if you’re bothered. Greetings from the Meadow, by the way. It was glad you’re still alive.”

Icy sent a grateful thought and then lied back down.

“I guess that’s a no to hunting.”

The Elemental closed her eyes.

Yep. That’s a no.

“Well, I’m around if you catch any spirits.” she sent and teleported past the rubble that blocked the exit to the large cavern. She walked to the top, hearing the dull lightning cracks and thunder, the strong winds, and the sand pattering against the mountains. Ilea wondered how everything on Erendar wasn’t just flat desert at this point, especially with previous eclipses.

Might be Icy isn’t the only Elemental on this moon, she thought with a grin. Possibly more friends to be made.

She cracked her neck as her mantle formed atop her body, layer upon layer. She took in a deep breath. One massive dungeon to clear. One spirit at a time. Let’s see if I find at least some interesting monsters this time around.

She spread her wings and shot into the storm of Erendar.

Ilea’s days passed with reading, visits to Felicia, and battling spirits, the latter taking up the largest chunk of her time. Every major kill got her closer to the nine fifty mark.

At first, it didn’t seem like her presence on the moon managed to cull the spirit population at all.

She mostly hunted near the mountains where Icy had made her home. On the fifth day, Ilea found that she was left alone in the storms. It wasn’t for long, as more creatures soon reached her, hungering for life and mana. And still, she had noticed the short lull. Her continuous fighting left an impact.

Two days later, she reached her present goal.

Her fires burned away the last remains of a large astral spirit. A Daughter of Sephilon, just barely above level two thousand, its absorption and astral magic irrelevant to her resistances and spells. She had killed it in less than a minute, and burned it away in two.

Three levels, the spirit provided, just enough to get all three of her Classes to nine fifty. Ilea teleported back to Icy in its cave. She slumped down on an appearing bed of ash and started scrolling through the many messages in her mind.

‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Gerinay – Daughter of Sephilon – lvl 2212]’
…
‘ding’ ‘You have killed [Astral Spirit – lvl 820]’
‘ding’ ‘You have killed [Sarniel – Daughter of Sephilon – lvl 1682]’
...
‘ding’ ‘You have killed [Umiia – Daughter of Sephilon – lvl 2009]’

Thousands of spirits. Removed from the moon by her and by the Fires of Creation. She hoped they were gone for good.

‘ding’ ‘The Arcane Eternal has reached lvl 859 – Five stat points awarded’
…
‘ding’ ‘The Arcane Eternal has reached lvl 911 – Five stat points awarded’
…
‘ding’ ‘The Arcane Eternal has reached lvl 953 – Five stat points awarded’

‘ding’ ‘The Ashen Titan has reached lvl 853 – Five stat points awarded’
…
‘ding’ ‘The Ashen Titan has reached lvl 908 – Five stat points awarded’
…
‘ding’ ‘The Ashen Titan has reached lvl 950 – Five stat points awarded’

‘ding’ ‘The Primordial Arbiter has reached lvl 854 – One stat point awarded’
…
‘ding’ ‘The Primordial Arbiter has reached lvl 909 – One stat point awarded’
…
‘ding’ ‘The Primordial Arbiter has reached lvl 951 – One stat point awarded’

Since her arrival in Erendar, Ilea had gained a total of 52 Core points. Thirty from her Classes and the other twenty two from surviving the many Fourth Tier spells of the monsters she faced. Many of the weaker spirits no longer provided her with those achievements.

She was left with 34 points after her investment into two Class modifiers shortly after her arrival. She had been torn the past few days into which Classes she should invest the remaining points.

Her endeavors netted her a total of 291 Class levels, and a ridiculous sum of 1063 stat points. She invested them into either Vitality, Intelligence, or Wisdom. With her new Class modifiers and her three current Fourth Tier spells, all three of the stats were more than worth it.

‘ding’ ‘Ashen Limbs reaches 3rd lvl 13’
…
‘ding’ ‘Ashen Limbs reaches 3rd lvl 16’

‘ding’ ‘Bulwark of Ash reaches 3rd lvl 25’
…
‘ding’ ‘Bulwark of Ash reaches 3rd lvl 27’

‘ding’ ‘Drill reaches 2nd lvl 4’
‘ding’ ‘Drill reaches 2nd lvl 5’

‘ding’ ‘Gourmet reaches lvl 19’

‘ding’ ‘Identify reaches 2nd lvl 12’

‘ding’ ‘Minor Ice Manipulation reaches 2nd lvl 3’

‘ding’ ‘Spear of Ash reaches 3rd lvl 15’
...
‘ding’ ‘Spear of Ash reaches 3rd lvl 18’

‘ding’ ‘Star Touched reaches lvl 7’
‘ding’ ‘Star Touched reaches lvl 8’

Ilea felt as if Star Touched let her absorb at least some mana from the energy of the stars, but it was so minuscule at this stage that it was hardly noticeable with all of her other absorption and resource generation skills.

‘ding’ ‘Astral Magic Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 16’
…
‘ding’ ‘Astral Magic Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 23’

‘ding’ ‘Blast Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 30’

‘ding’ ‘Light Magic Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 27’

‘ding’ ‘Lightning Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 24’
‘ding’ ‘Lightning Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 25’

‘ding’ ‘Mana Drain Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 9’
…
‘ding’ ‘Mana Drain Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 13’

‘ding’ ‘Pain Tolerance reaches 3rd lvl 6’

‘ding’ ‘Wind Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 25’
‘ding’ ‘Wind Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 26’

‘ding’ ‘One 3rd tier General skill point awarded’

Ilea eyed the point but decided not to spend it for now. Some of the Daughters had used magic for which her resistances were capped at the end of the second tier, but none of them had warranted an increase to the third. So far. She still wanted to keep at least one emergency point to up a resistance, but she wouldn’t say no to two of them either.

Finally, she looked at the message she had been working towards.

‘ding’ ‘Following requirements have been met. Has reached level 950 in three Classes while human.

Only one skill can be enhanced to the Fourth Tier per Class. Choose wisely.

One Fourth Tier skill point awarded’

Ilea eyed the point.

Fourth Tier skill points available: 1

Requirements to unlock your next Fourth Tier skill point: You have reached the maximum available Fourth tier skill points.

So this is it.

These are the Fourth Tiers that I’ll have.

“I’ll be in Elos for a while, back later,” she sent to Icy, the wolf glancing at her for a moment before it returned to the small ice sculptures it was crafting. Herself and a few of the spirits, battling with miniature spells.

Ilea looked at the recreation and smiled right before she vanished, focused on her home near Ravenhall. She preferred making massive ash spears and boulders to crush her enemies instead of creating small pieces of art. Suppose in thousands of years, I’d have a few other hobbies too.

She appeared and teleported out of her home instantly, not to destroy the floor. I should just have Iana come and reinforce everything with enchantments.

It wasn’t a priority. Some day in the future perhaps.

Ilea sat down at the cliff side near her house. She didn’t want to select and test her last Fourth Tier ability in Erendar, to not attract spirits to Icy’s location. Looking out onto the ocean, she thought about her options. Waves crashed into the cliffs far below, the sound soothing to her ears. The skies were clear today, the suns low on the horizon. It was morning.

She took in a deep breath.

Either my Fires, or my Shift.

The answer was clear in her mind. Both choices seemed fun to her. Both would yield something incredible, she was sure of it. But while her fires had been an all present tool, one that allowed her to kill the spirits, her Shift had become a necessity to survive.

A part of her wanted to know what the Fires would become if she chose them. What kind of benefits there would be. She imagined setting alight even the vast amounts of ash she could summon with her uncapped harmony.

She considered the versatility of her fires, considered a stronger version, but in the end, it still fell short.

Primordial Shift allowed her to survive Fourth Tier magic cast by god like monsters. Not only that. It allowed her to stay in the fight. All of her other defenses, her resilience, her healing, and her resistances, they made it possible at all to face these kinds of monsters, coupled with her high stats. But the Oracles would’ve overwhelmed her in time. As would have some of the Daughters. Even with all of her powers, she needed her Shift. And even if her fires would grow into something unstoppable, one powerful Fourth Tier spell getting past could be enough to end her.

She wondered if the choice would have been as obvious to her even just a few years back. Ilea remembered setting herself on fire in the Calys mines to get her Fire Enhancer Class. She remembered unlocking her wings in the Taleen dungeon below Dawntree. Her first time flying. She smiled, almost wistful.

It was so simple, then. Joining a caravan, traveling westward. Exploring a dungeon.

She thought of the Basilisk attack, the upturned carts, all of the dead. She remembered the cold curse running through her after the Expedition had found the Praetorians. She thought of the demons summoned to the Haven, of her first time in Kohr, the siege of Virilya, her battles in Baralia.

And Eve.

She smiled. What would you think, seeing where everything is by now? Ilea breathed out. She knew it mattered no longer. A memory long past. There was more out there. Realms in the fabric beyond, a moon scourged by astral spirits.

The next Drake was waiting, and Ilea was ready to take it on. Head first, with arcane power running through her veins, with ash by her side, and with her most powerful defensive tool, her ability to create a fabric of her own, to brave the magic of those considered gods.

‘ding’ ‘Primordial Shift [Enhanced] reaches the 4th Tier’

Active – Primordial Shift [Enhanced] – 4th Tier
Expending a large amount of mana and health, you can temporarily shift the matter of your flesh itself. Absorb a part of all magic that touches you depending on your understanding and resistance. All regeneration and healing is doubled in this state. Your movements are impaired as your very form is rejected by the laws of reality that surround you.
2nd stage: Resilience bonuses from skills are doubled when entering the Primordial Shift. During the shift, you cannot be moved by anything but your will. Your weight increases ten fold while this spell is active.
3rd stage: The Flame of Creation wills itself into existence, your control and its power increasing dramatically while Primordial Shift is active. Greatly reduces the activation time of Primordial Shift. The longer Primordial Shift remains active, the more powerful its effects become.
4th Tier: You have delved into the secrets of creation. Inside of your Shift, you are not part of the Fabric, but you have learned to navigate through the mesh of reality. You have learned to control not only your domain, but the space all around. The Fires of Creation are but an extension of your will. While Primordial Shift is active, you gain the following benefits:
- Your space manipulation of frameworks outside of your creation is vastly improved.
- Your vision is no longer distorted, but clear, if you will it so.
- The Fires of Creation burn at your will, vastly improved and reaching through all that you have created.
- You learn to move at a slow pace through the fabric, pushing your creation through known reality.
Category: Space Magic – Flesh Magic – Healing Magic

Ilea read the new additions and just decided to try it out.

Primordial Shift activated, in the same way as it always had. The fires were present, the strange moving flesh, and space itself. All was there, but it felt like she could see, where she had been blind before. Ilea willed away the distortion, the darkness, and her vision cleared. The ocean, the skies, and the suns of Elos.

She looked down on herself and saw that the fires, flesh, and space was still there, but closer, less chaotic and wild, but moving atop her distorted mantle, like another layer of defense that clung to her. Ever so slightly, it conquered ground, spreading farther into the real fabric as her Shift grew stronger with every passing second.

Ilea squinted her eyes and raised her hand. She could see the fabric. Clear as day. The mesh, the wisps, as if the slight layer she had sensed before was now right there and for her to grasp. She moved the very air before her, pressurized it, and then she willed it away, made it vanish, as if it had never existed at all. A small patch of reality, gone as she willed it.

Gravity did not affect her. She was creation within the fabric, just as the fabric simply was, all present, all encompassing. Moving, she found, was less akin to flight and instead much closer to swimming. Swimming before she had gotten any resistances, and not in water, but mud. The fabric had locked her in before. Still, she found the mesh near impenetrable, but not perfectly so. Her manipulation let her move aside reality, less so moving herself forward, but letting the fabric behind her push her creation into the new absence of existence. It felt strange, but she could tell that with some practice, she would get better at it. While it wasn’t close to running or flying, it felt like she was free, when she was encased before.

She tried to summon her ash, but the fabric rejected it, as if she was an outside source.

Her fires could not spread without her spells or her creations, and so she left her shift and unlocked her harmony. She spent half of her mana to summon a webbing cloud of ash, spreading above the ocean waves, hundreds of meters far and wide. Her Fires came to life, reaching less than a tenth of the ash.

Reaching through all that you have created.

She moved a chunk of her Essence mana into her normal pool, the change already second nature.

Ilea activated her shift. Again, she could see, and she was free. Her ash fell, the connection cut for all but her fires. And so she willed them out, into the reality bordering her own. She watched as the falling ash lit up with bright and burning flames, spreading far and fast, until all that she had summoned was blazing with fire.

Before, her shift had felt like holding in her breath. A moment in time. A place to hide and recover.

Now, it felt like she could breathe.

She had been able to move her fires before, if attached to her constructs, and still she could affect her ash, but it was both with her fires and her space manipulation. Far more costly, and nowhere near as far reaching or intuitive as her unlocked harmony. It would be enough perhaps, to spread the fires onto her enemies.

Once again, she left her Shift, her resources much more vast than when she had first gotten Phaseshift as a spell. And now much of the initial limitations were gone.

She was no longer a human, sheltered inside of a reality pocket. She felt in control, facing the fabric instead of hiding in its presence.

Ilea smiled.

Meadow is going to hate me for this.

She summoned a bottle of ale and flicked it open, creating a bed of ash before she lied down. Summoning her latest book, she opened it where she had left off.

The Journey of Valdyr Ainsbane, Chronicles of the Northern Planes

Ilea was a third of the way through. She enjoyed the book, likely not for the same reason why other people would. The so called grand adventures of Valdyr felt so grounded to her, almost mundane. It was fun, to read about the self proclaimed famous beasthunter, his two handed greatsword, and his faithful companion. A one eyed war dog he called Crook.

She wondered if the man existed at all. If he did, she could find him, find out how much of his tales were true, but she decided not to. She was here, reading on her bed of ash, ocean winds flowing through her hair, her last Fourth Tier spell unlocked, and her next goal on the horizon.

But she wouldn’t rush.

There was always another Drake. She sipped at her ale, and turned the page.

Name: Ilea Spears
Mythical Title: Godslayer

Unspent statpoints: 0
Unspent Core skill points: 34
Unspent 4th tier skill point: 0
Unspent 3rd tier General skill points [3330 Total skill levels]: 2
Unspent 4th tier General skill point: 0

Class 1: The Arcane Eternal – lvl 953

- Active: Archon Strike [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Sentinel Reconstruction [Enhanced] – 4th tier
- Active: Azarinth Awakening [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Transfer [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Arcane Dominion [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Sentinel Core [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Eternal Brawling [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Eternal Huntress [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Eternal Sight [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Arcane Circulation [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30

Class 2: The Ashen Titan – lvl 950

- Active: Mantle of the Titan [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Titan Core [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Origin of Ash and Embers [Enhanced] – 4th tier
- Active: Embered Heart [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Tempered Seal [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Authority of Ash and Ember [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Ashen Wings [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Vision of Ash [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Avatar of Ash [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Embered Form [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30

Class 3: The Primordial Arbiter – lvl 951

- Active: Primordial Shift [Enhanced] – 4th tier
- Active: Fires of Creation [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Active: Fabric Tear [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Reality Warp [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Primordial Flesh [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30
- Passive: Space Manipulation [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30

General Skills:

- Ashen Limbs – 3rd lvl 16
- Azarinth Barrier [Mythic] – 3rd lvl 30
- Bulwark of Ash – 3rd lvl 27
- Dancing – lvl 14
- Deviant of Humanity – 3rd lvl 30
- Drill – 2nd lvl 5
- Elos Standard language - lvl 7
- English Language – lvl 15
- Gourmet – lvl 19
- Harmony of the Drowned – 2nd lvl 3
- Heavy Archery – lvl 12
- Identify - 2nd lvl 12
- Meditation – 4th tier
- Minor Earth Manipulation – 2nd lvl 6
- Minor Ice Manipulation – 2nd lvl 3
- Minor Lava Manipulation – 2nd lvl 12
- Monster Hunter – 3rd lvl 30
- Monstrous – 2nd lvl 20
- Oxygen Repository – 2nd lvl 20
- Sage of Torment – 2nd lvl 20
- Soul Perception – 2nd lvl 15
- Spear of Ash – 3rd lvl 18
- Star Touched – lvl 8
- Teaching – lvl 18
- Telepathy – 2nd lvl 1
- Veteran – 3rd lvl 30
- Warhammer Mastery – 2nd lvl 20

- Arcane Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 30
- Ash Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 11
- Astral Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 23
- Blast Resistance – 3rd lvl 30
- Blight Resistance – 2nd lvl 8
- Blood Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 29
- Blood Manipulation Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Bone Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Corrosion Resistance – 3rd lvl 2
- Crystal Resistance – 3rd lvl 4
- Curse Resistance - 3rd lvl 27
- Dark Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 17
- Death Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Devour Resistance – 2nd lvl 8
- Diamond Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 6
- Divination Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Dust Magic Resistance – lvl 17
- Earth Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 30
- Emerald Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 5
- Fear Resistance – 2nd lvl 10
- Flesh Magic Resistance – lvl 16
- Gold Magic Resistance – lvl 16
- Gravity Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Health Drain Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Heat Resistance – 3rd lvl 30
- Ice Resistance – 3rd lvl 18
- Lava Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 13
- Light Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 27
- Lightning Resistance – 3rd lvl 25
- Mana Drain Resistance – 3rd lvl 13
- Mental Resistance – 3rd lvl 28
- Mist Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 15
- Obsidian Magic Resistance – lvl 3
- Pain Tolerance – 3rd lvl 6
- Petrification Resistance – 2nd lvl 3
- Poison Resistance – 3rd lvl 6
- Rot Resistance – 3rd lvl 6
- Ruby Magic Resistance – lvl 18
- Sand Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Sapphire Magic Resistance – lvl 16
- Shadow Magic Resistance – lvl 19
- Silver Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 1
- Smoke Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 7
- Soul Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 11
- Sound Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Space Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 30
- Stamina Drain Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Time Magic Resistance – 2nd lvl 20
- Topaz Magic Resistance – lvl 20
- Vine Magic Resistance – lvl 14
- Void Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 30
- Water Resistance – 3rd lvl 15
- Wind Resistance – 3rd lvl 26
- Wood Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 19

Status:

Vitality:                 3300
Endurance:                 600
Strength:                600
Dexterity:                600
Intelligence:                3100
Wisdom:                3398

Health:                 125400/125400
Stamina:                 6000/6000
Mana:                 120183/203880
Mana [Essence]: 50000/125400