I must have gotten a confused look on my face, so he continued, “I was pre-emptively answering what I guessed would be your first two questions. Now, though we need to talk. There have been some changes.”

  Rather than listen to him, I quickly checked for any urgent notifications. The first one that popped up explained at least in part what he was talking about.

  Slaughter Mission Updated- 2500 World and 5000 Forerunner points awarded.

  All plots are considered completed except for the core plot. New quests await.

  “Wait, you guys cleared the rest of the inner plots?”

  Nevin shook his head while Crag just burst out laughing. Dori was the one to explain, though. “No, we were just starting on our 4th plot when we were suddenly teleported here.” She motioned at Samvek with her thumb. “He won’t tell us what’s going on. We only got a notification that a priority quest had been assigned, which superseded the current mission.”

  Samvek sighed. “I didn’t want to have to say the same things twice. An incursion from any of the three hells is never taken lightly. The system always assigns priority quests to those capable of closing it. It appears that the Darje necromancer was foolish enough to invoke a pact with an arch-devil to empower his work. We’re just lucky that we caught it before the devilkin were able to expand beyond this one plot.”

  I shook my head. “Wait, if I could kill the devilkin as a common tier warrior, then what’s the big deal? Surely you could handle this problem yourself.”

  Samvek looked at me like he was the long suffering patron of an idiot child. His delay, however, gave Nevin the chance to speak first, “It isn’t that simple, Silas. I’ve only spent a small amount of time looking into planar rifts because they are relatively rare, but what we call the multiverse is the prime material plane. It is surrounded by three planes above and three planes below which are known and the three heavens and three hells. It’s also connected to the astral plane, the ethereal plane, although I’m still trying to determine the difference between those two and sub-material dimensions related to various elements.”

  He started to continue after sucking in some air, but Dori put her hand on his shoulder. “Why don’t we let Samvek explain this now that he’s willing to speak?”

  Nevin bit his tongue, but it was obvious that he wanted to continue explaining. It was somewhere between endearing and annoying how excited he became about these type of discussions. Samvek cut to the chase. “These are only devilkin. If they were able to take over the entire dungeon, they would have been able to create a bulkhead where true devils could have come through. That would have been catastrophic, as the least of them are equal to a talented rare tier warrior and their leaders are legendary in power. We would have had no chance.

  “But because you discovered it, there are rewards. Check your notifications, but I’m sure the system rewarded you and the clan will as well. I was able to notify clan elders about this event and a team will be here anytime to handle the quest given to close the portal.”

  I looked at my notifications again to confirm what he’d said.

  New Clan Quest- Close a dimensional portal.

  Minimum Rank for Quest: Epic Tier

  You are ineligible for this quest; however, finding such portals is a prime directive for all citizens of the multiverse. You are offered your choice of the following rewards.

  1- Crystallized XP sufficient to bring you to level 125 instantly as well as appropriate class shards to enable you to first form an uncommon class core and then a rare class core.

  2- 10,000,000 credits and 4 hours of unfettered access to the system shop.

  3- 500,000 world points for Earth.

  Ugh, I wanted them all. The XP was the easiest to pass up. Sure it would have been easy, but Samvek had drilled into me that leveling easily was not the best way. I needed to work for everything. A part of me still would have liked it, but I guessed that I’d find out if Samvek was right soon enough when I went up to uncommon.

  The other two options though… I felt like my fingers were itching as I wanted to seize both of them. The system store wasn’t something that I’d normally be able to access until after Earth was fully inducted. Even then, there would be limits on it if we weren’t able to somehow claim full citizenship. Unfettered I took to mean that I wouldn’t even be limited to tier appropriate items.

  Ultimately, though, the third option was probably the one I’d have to take. The system shop might give me the chance to buy amazing gear that would make missions easier, but I could still only take so many missions in the allotted time. I filled everyone in on my options and then pulled up Earth’s current ranking.

  Bar’jek- World points: 31,628,190 Forerunner points: 3,628

  Forerunners: 1/5

  Nargossa- World points: 22,909,050 Forerunner points: 1,164

  Forerunners: 4/5

  Earth- World points: 19,695,117 Forerunner points: 7,974

  Forerunners: 5/5

  Furloon- World points: 18,962,020 Forerunner points: 1,682

  Forerunners: 3/5

  Crembor- World points: 18,897,800 Forerunner points: 2,129

  Forerunners: 5/5

  That many world points would almost double our lead over Furloon, but I still had one question. “How much could I get from the system store for 10,000,000 credits?”

  Crag said, “I’ve never spent more than 1000 credits on anything, but I’ve only ever bought common tier stuff.”

  Samvek said, “It would equip you in a full set of epic gear or would give you one good legendary item, but I don’t believe it’s the way to go. As you prove yourself, with the clan, you’ll be able to gain gear from our craftsmen. Saving your world from extermination seems more important both for your world and for Rayden Clan.”

  I loved how blunt he was. He didn’t even hide the fact that he was advising me based upon what was best for the clan. I supposed I couldn’t fault him for loyalty, though.

  “Okay, so the update only said that the inner plots had been cleared. Does that mean that we still have to finish off the core plot?” Dori asked.

  I wanted to know the answer, so I checked the next part of the updates.

  New Mission Available- Destroy Azirin. 3500 World Points

  Optional Secondary Mission- Permanently close Darje Graveyard Dungeon by destroying the dungeon core. 5000 World Points

  I read off the notification but also asked why the values would have gone up so much. Samvek groaned. “That can only mean one thing, as far as I can tell. Azirin must be the final dungeon boss and he must have reached rare tier.”

  I let his words sink in. Were we possibly ready for a rare tier boss? It was worth a lot though, and the loot would undoubtedly be great. It did make me pause though as I considered how many world points I was being offered just for finding the hell portal. It spoke to the system’s priorities.

  Crag said, “We’ve all formed uncommon cores and are nearly at level seventy, so we’re all at least twice as powerful as when we split. How far have you made it, Silas? Knowing your Forerunner luck, you’re probably ready to get a rare class.”

  I shook my head. “Sorry to disappoint, my friend, but I’m stuck at level 50 until I upgrade my core, but I’ve still made some great gains.” Then I detailed the progress that I’d made up to this point. They didn’t seem entirely sold on Samvek’s way of doing things, and Nevin got frustrated when the Numarian wouldn’t answer any more questions.

  “You can find out when Silas forms his new core. Speaking of which, I have a class shard for you and thought you might be ready now. Have you given any thought to what you want to use as the pillars for each of your shards?”

  I nodded. “Only every moment that I wasn’t fighting for my life. I progressed a huge amount in that last fight. The seeder was far beyond anything I’d fought, even Greta didn’t seem as difficult.” I then had to fill him in on who Greta was, but he followed up by pulling out a shard from his spatial bag.

  Bio-charger Class Shard- Pristine Condition (Uncommon)- the bio-charger class utilizes lightning mana to empower the body and uses the body to generate bio-electricity. It is capable of bursts of destructive power but understands that electricity is the true lifeblood of the body, the force which animates it and, in turn, defines life.

  “I promised you one if you passed my tests and you’ve certainly done that. I wanted to help you more than once, but you’ve proven you have the mettle to become an inner member of the clan. Now the question is what other shards do you want to use with this?”

  I pulled up my options and then laid them out for him. To my surprise, the Galenians had a number of duplicates for me, which they offered if I wanted any of them.

  Vestigial Hunter x2

  Death Drinker x4

  Reaver x6

  Force Mage x3

  Death Healer x5

  None of the rares were usable for an uncommon core, but I held on to a number of those for my eventual rare core.

  I asked, “I’d like to use the Vestigial Hunter. They are rogue based and I don’t want to lose that part of me. Would I be able to do that?”

  Samvek said, “Your uncommon core is still fairly pliable. Even rare isn’t that bad, although your number of pillars is only half of what you have at uncommon. At epic, you start to be pretty locked in as each shard can only have one pillar. Legendary cores only have a total of two pillars for the core and if Divine cores actually exist then they are based on a single pillar.”

  I thought about what he said before saying, “Then I think, Vestigial Hunter, Force Mage, Bio-charger, and Death Healer for my four shards. That way, I won’t have to take any of your extra shards that you earned.”

  Samvek laughed then. “You haven’t factored in shard consolidation.”

  I arched an eyebrow. “I thought if you consolidated four of the same type of shards it would go up in rarity.”

  “Yes, although it will go down in quality and can’t then be used to create a higher tier shard a second time.”

  “That makes sense otherwise you could just farm lots of basic shards and keep combining them. But what do you mean about consolidation.”

  “Four shards combine to increase rarity, but three shards can combine to equal a pristine shard, which is the same tier but of better quality and will create a more powerful core.”

  “Ah…” My eyes opened with new possibilities. “How do I consolidate shards then?”

  Chapter 35- Uncommon Core

  Consolidating the shards turned out to be pretty easy. The system guided me through the process once I established the intention in my mind. I was able to make pristine versions of force mage and death healer while I could only make a superior version of vestigial hunter. We discussed whether I should use reaver for my fourth class shard since we had enough to make a pristine shard, but it was more of an agility based warrior with berserking abilities than the rogue type which I wanted.

  Vestigial Hunter class shard- Superior Condition (Uncommon)- this rogue based class focuses on the hunting aspects of the rogue field. It calls upon lost traits and can enhance the bearer of this class sometimes, in unpredictable ways.

  Force Mage class shard- Pristine Condition (Uncommon)- many mages focus on one of the elements. The force mage goes beyond all of that, stripping power down to its most fundamental form. Control the power which both binds and divides the very matter of reality.

  Death Healer class shard- Pristine Condition (Uncommon)- life and death are two sides of the same coin. The death healer grows in power when making a closer connection to death. They can restore life or remove it just as easily.

  Adding the Bio-Charger shard, I had my set of four now. I looked at Samvek, “Now, how do I create these pillars?”

  “You have to start the process of forming your core, but don’t accept the final product yet. Then it’s all about intention. You have to target each separate shard in order of priority to you and apply one or two skills to it and one or two abilities, and then one or two spells. But remember the most the system will accept is: five skills, six abilities, and five spells. Be glad though because at rare it will only accept a max of four of each but a total max of only eight or two per shard. After that it drops to one per shard and so on.”

  I nodded.

  “Have you decided on what skills you want to use?”

  I’d narrowed it down to six. Then I pulled up the list of the skills I was considering for everyone to see.

  Blunt Weapons: 138/118

  Staff Combat: 161/141

  Defensive Fighting: 108

  Slashing Weapons: 109

  Polearms: 164/144

  Aerial Combat: 97

  Samvek pursed his lips. “Hmm… aerial combat hasn’t reached one hundred yet. It will give a lesser bonus.”

  “I was afraid of that, but it’s pretty core to how I want my class to operate.”

  He shrugged. “The decision is yours, I can only give you advice.”

  The others didn’t say anything obviously deciding that this was a personal decision that I needed to make, while still being intensely interested. Aerial Combat had shot up during that last battle, more than doubling the rank. It and defensive fighting were likely the only reasons that I survived since the seeder’s spear had been able to penetrate my shields.

  That brought up another issue I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten about. “Hey I never asked, was there any loot from the seeder?”

  Samvek said, “Focus now, goodies later.”

  “Okay, fine. I’m going to leave off blunt weapons and use the other five as pillars. Aerial combat and Defensive fighting I’ll use on the Force Mage shard. Then Staff Combat on the Bio-charger, Polearms with Death Healer, and Slashing Weapons with Vestigial Hunter.”

  “Then focus and do it.”

  It sounded all mystical the way that Samvek talked about it, but in the end it really was much simpler than I had expected. After a few minutes of concentration on each shard, I felt the skills link to the shard.”

  Force Mage shard will now grant an additional +1 Agility and +1 Durability per level.

  Bio-Charger shard will now grant an additional +1 Strength per level.

  Death Healer shard will now grant an additional +1 Strength per level.

  Vestigial Hunter shard will now grant an additional +1 Agility and +1 Dexterity per level.

  I didn’t know why the single skill added two stat points with Vestigial Hunter, but wasn’t going to argue about it. Besides, I felt this was a better fit than any of the others. Then I told the results to Samvek and my team.

  My mentor shook his head. “Such incredible potentiality for you Forerunners. If only…”

  Then we talked about my choice of abilities that I wanted to use. That list was harder to trim down for me, so I displayed it for their input. Mage Shield and Mage Missile had just barely upgraded to rare in that last desperate battle, which put them in contention. I could only choose six of the eight abilities and so I needed to really think this through.

  Mage Shield (Rare 1%)

  Shape Conjured Construct (Epic 4%)

  Mage Missile (Rare 3%)

  Spirit Walk (Epic 5%)

  Spirit Singing (Epic 2%)

  Loot (uncommon 27%)

  Save for Winter (unique-epic 7%)

  Adorably Harmless (Rare 36%)

  Samvek said, “Using an uncommon ability would weaken your gains especially when you have four epics to consider. Very few people will have epic abilities before reaching uncommon. I can only imagine what kind of gains you’ll be able to make.”

  “Fine, so loot is out.” It hurt my soul to say that, but that was really the only easy choice. Except then another thought hit me. “Wait, I have 2 rare ability evolution stones and one epic. So technically, I could take loot to an epic level.”

  Now, I felt like I had an impossible choice. I was attached to Adorably Harmless and all the others were either epic or core to my build, of course the evolution stone could change that. We discussed it back and forth and while no one was willing to give me any direct advice, they all were good listeners and let me sound out all my ideas.

  In the end, Adorably Harmless had to go. Maybe I’d bring it back with my rare core, but I didn’t know. It had served its purpose in the past, but wasn’t part of my go to build now.

  So, I added Shape Conjured Construct and Mage Missiles to Force Mage, Spirit Walk and Spirit Singing to Death Healer, Mage Shield to Bio-Charger, and Save for Winter to Vestigial Hunter.

  Before adding them as pillars though, I used a rare evolution stone on Loot. It wasn’t going to be added as a pillar but at least I could enjoy this benefit.

  Loot (Rare-0%)- this ability will allow you to automatically loot any target killed by you or your party without requiring the use of any crafting skills such as skinning. It will also provide a moderate chance of improving the quality of the loot.

  This ability will have a further effect on consumable items. The chance to improve the quality of consumable items will be significant. For items above uncommon, this effect will only be moderate. Further, consumables of rare or lower grade will have a 60% chance of being doubled when they are looted. The extra items will be produced from the ambient mana in the area where the looting occurs.

  Then I used the epic evolution stone on Mage Missiles. I’d gone back and forth about whether I should use it for Mage Shield or Mage Missiles. It was really a matter of deciding whether to increase my offense or defense. This time the evolution was something more significant.

  Force Projection (Epic – 0%)- This Mind based attack will deal moderate to severe damage to a range of targets via force projection. The force can be projected as beams, bolts, waves, or other forms as you master it.

  Duration: Variable Cost: 1 Stamina per use.

  The versatility that this granted me was astounding. That was to say nothing of the removal of a cool-down or the reduction in cost and increased duration. I was definitely having plans about how to use it now.

  Force Mage shard will now grant an additional +2 Will and +3 Mind per level.