Nate stood in the centre of his workshop, Farsight of the Runic Artist crashing against the plethora of wards that had been built into the walls. The building itself had ended up being larger than he had expected, covering a space of over ten metres squared. It was also two stories tall, with a basement for storage. He knew real estate like this, especially so close to the Adventurer’s Guild compound, couldn’t be cheap. It had taken a few days of harassing Kiri to get her to admit that she had not only spent a larger proportion of her own earnings on the building than they had agreed upon, but that she had also sold a ten percent stake in the business to Luc. He was slightly bothered by it, not because he had an issue with Luc being involved. It was actually the opposite. It was more a concern that Kiri would start falling behind him if she wasn’t receiving half of the profit this enterprise made. He couldn’t do anything about it now and with Luc involved the man had at least agreed to act as a front for the business. Luc as a front not only gave them an air of legitimacy, but also some limited protection. Few people were willing to cross Luc, or Thousand Needles, as he seemed to be more widely known. As for Kiri falling behind, Nate just accepted he would have to keep a close eye on the situation and if she started to lag he would intervene to keep them close in power.

  Maybe others would have just focused on their own development. It was undoubtedly a faster way to grow. It also seemed like a lonely path to walk. Some might be able to handle that, perhaps even prefer it, but it was the last thing he wanted. Kiri was like a sister to him. Without her to walk this path that they had chosen, he might have lost some of his ambition for growth. He had even considered it, in his darker moments. Leaving the University and maybe even Etrua. Trekking out into the wilds and becoming a hermit in some tower. With his Space Sigil he could’ve easily set up methods to teleport to small towns to resupply on food, essentials, and of course his creature comforts. But beyond that he had all he needed to create his own little domain. A protected Tower, a Goblin Spirit butler, and the ability to create his own gargantuan mana gathering arrays so he could progress at his craft and art at a leisurely pace. It was an option, and after his torture, it had been a tempting one.

  Certainly, there would have been downsides. Without the education he was receiving at the Royal University there were many principles that he would not have understood about the System, Skills, Mana and everything else. He doubted it would have stagnated his development but it likely would have delayed it. It also would have meant letting down Kiri, Aisling, Luc and even Evindal. He smiled a little ruefully as he acknowledged that Deverell probably wouldn’t have cared beyond the inconvenience for Aisling. Still, he had chosen not to give in to those thoughts, and instead, created this workshop. Frick had spent most of the previous week here, laying runic arrays Nate had designed into the walls of the place. The entire building was reinforced, making it more durable, protected against scrying, other awareness Skills, spells, and finally, mana exclusion to prevent mana from leaking out of the building. That last one was important given how much mana they were going to be providing. It wouldn’t do to make this building an obvious nexus for mana, as anyone sensitive to such would be able to pick it out with ease. That was attention they neither wanted or needed.

  “I still can’t believe you can just raise the tier of materials by providing mana,” commented Jacque as he walked down the stairs, shaking his head. “Did you at least do what I suggested?”

  “How is your room?” asked Nate, initially avoiding the question.

  “It’s everything your friend promised,” answered Jacque before his eyes took on a more pleading look. “My suggestion?”

  Nate nodded, “We moved the mana collection facility. It no longer targets the University mana pipeline.”

  “And?” Jacque asked, wringing his hands.

  “It’s outside the city limits now. I won’t say in which direction. It should affect the various Districts more evenly now, hopefully making it less noticeable,” explained Nate.

  Jacque nodded and went over to inspect the contents of one of the three chests on the side of the room. The ex-Professor had been incredibly worried when he found out how Nate was supplying himself with mana. The man had gone on to explain that the University measured the throughput of mana that passed through their node of the Capital’s mana pipeline infrastructure. The fact that they kept an audit would mean that even if Nate was shaving off a percent or two, that it would start to show up. A couple of months might be ignored, but if the loss remained consistent, they would likely start comparing their audits with other Districts. That would likely have led to an investigation and eventual discovery of his little mana-gathering pocket. To get around that he had moved the location to one of the main pipelines entering the city. He would likely move it again in two months but at least now the loss would hit most of the Capital’s Districts evenly, making it more likely that they would chalk the minor change up to being caused by mana vagaries in the wilds. The risk of discovery still existed, but he was doing his best to mitigate the worst of it.

  That brought him to the supplies. With his Mythic tier Conceptual Material it was almost childsplay to create Uncommon and Rare materials, and for now, those would make up the majority of what Jacque would be working with. The Adventurer’s Guild had finally started placing their orders, and to no one's surprise, they had gone with quantity over quality with one single exception. Nate was just glad they hadn’t requested Common runecrafted items. Kiri had explained that the margins on Common items would be small but the amount of time required wouldn’t be small, meaning limited income and wasted time. Instead, the order had been a split with eighty percent being Uncommon items with the remaining twenty percent being Rare. The items requested were a spread of Stat enhancing rings, bracers with minor barrier runic arrays and weapons with minor elemental enchantments mostly and a few simply with reinforcement or sharpening runic arrays. Nate was cursing himself a little for not considering that Jacque lacked a Skill for shaping materials. It had meant that he had needed to shape all the materials himself which might not have been an issue if the Guild hadn’t asked for so many items. The upside was that it was driving his Material Shaping’s Skill development.

  “You have most of the designs ready for me?” asked Jacque, standing up and moving to join Nate.

  “Here. Remember, this stays in your spatial storage when not in use. Do not leave this lying around,” explained Nate as he handed over a small tome. The contents detailed all the designs and Sigils necessary to achieve the results desired by the Adventurer’s Guild. “And make sure everything has the obfuscation rune included.”

  Nate might not have cared about obfuscating all the Sigils involved, but since for some of the runes the only Sigils he had were of the Journeyman tier, like his Reinforcement Sigil, he wasn’t willing to have that knowledge become freely available just yet.

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  “And the timelines for delivery?” asked Jacque absently as he flipped through the tome, the man already engrossed in Nate’s rune designs.

  “Kiri will let you know,” answered Nate, having no desire to be involved in the logistics and saying a silent thanks that his best friend was willing to shoulder that burden.

  “Alright. Guess I will get to work. Anything else you need from me, Master?” quipped Jacque, flashing an amused smile at him.

  Nate just rolled his eyes at the older man’s joke.

  “Let me know what you want to work on later this week. I’ll come by and we can go over some rune designs. Anything else?”

  “That’s everything. I’ll get started. I have to admit, I am kind of excited! This is the first time I have had a serious opportunity for development in years. There’s so much to learn and try,” replied Jacque eagerly as the man immediately headed for one of the chests and its contents.

  Nate called out his farewell as he exited the workshop, though he wasn’t sure the man had heard him. Deverell was waiting outside and, after giving Nate a small nod, the pair headed for the Guild compound. It was Nate’s turn to get excited. Today was to be his first discussion with Evindal regarding how to go about achieving the Lord of Life Class.

  It only took them ten minutes to arrive at the Guildhouse and be ushered upstairs into one of the warded meeting rooms. Evindal was already waiting, though for once Aisling was not present. After Deverell had excused himself Evindal motioned for Nate to take a seat across from him.

  The meeting room was simple in nature, with a table down the middle capable of seating over ten people with room to spare, comfortable chairs and a single large window that allowed the room to enjoy a vast quantity of natural light. The sconces along the walls looked like simplistic enchanted lights and his sphere of awareness could detect enchantments layered into the walls, sealing his senses within the room. That last part bothered him a little and he was forced to squash the flicker of worry and fear that came from not having full knowledge of his surroundings.

  After Evindal motioned for him to take a seat, the elf placed a small metal cube on the table and Nate’s identification Skill triggered off the item.

  Enchanted Anti-Scrying Ward (Epic)

  Stats: N/A

  Features: Anti-Scrying Ward (Epic)

  Anti-Scrying Ward: This item has been enchanted to prevent scrying or awareness Skills and Spells from being able to penetrate a ten metre radius around the Ward. This Ward requires a mana source to power the Enchantment.

  Nate looked back up to see Evindal watching him with large amber eyes. The elf took a moment to adjust his yellow and green robe before smiling at Nate.

  “Satisfied that our privacy is assured?”

  “Mostly,” quipped Nate.

  “Good. Then let’s get started shall we? First, I wanted to make sure you understood what you were doing, and perhaps help me understand a little of why you’re doing it? I know that you love to create art, and while I hope you have plans for how your Spatial Mage class will play into that goal, I admit I have no idea of how you intend to incorporate a Life Mage type class into that goal. Would it not be better to perhaps focus on going for another crafting class specifically related to painting? Or perhaps expanding your horizons and learning about sculpting?”

  Nate leaned back, thinking over the question carefully. He knew the answer already, but he wanted to convey it in a way that others would understand. After half a minute of thought he launched into his idea for how he saw his three Classes working together once he had passed his second Class evolution.

  “You’re right that creating art is my goal. It’s the core of my desires and I have often, sometimes to my detriment, focused on developing my Skills and even Classes in that direction. I don’t see spatial magic as separated from my art as you describe. Certainly, my spatial Skills at this point aren’t assisting my art much, but that has mostly been driven by my lack of focus on my Secondary Class until recently. Art occupies space and so, in my mind, the two can never be truly separated. There was a silly saying from my home,” Nate explained, avoiding specifying where his home was. “Art is how you decorate space, music is how you decorate time.”

  Evindal smiled a little, “A clever saying. I might steal that. Go on though.”

  “My intention with my spatial skills is to use them to help me decorate space. I don’t want to go too deep into my Skill development plans, but the art lean will be coming for them on their next evolutions where I can manage it. Which brings me to my thoughts on why I wanted a Life Mage as my Tertiary Class. It goes back to when I first met Aisling. She explained to me that when you receive your Tertiary Class, the Skills can often come with unusual evolutions that can make Skills function in new and innovative ways. The Skill she told me about, which she said came from her Growth Mage Class, was Even Spells Grow. It was the idea of assigning the Concept of Life to something like a Spellform that led me to wanting something similar. You mentioned expanding my artistic horizons, and I was thinking the same thing. But instead of going for sculpting I thought, what about living art?”

  Evindal smirked slightly and raised an eyebrow, “Have you ever used that line on a young lady?”

  Nate couldn’t keep a straight face and burst out laughing, “No, but I am definitely going to now.”

  “Well, do let me know if it works as well as I suspect. Back to your thinking about your Classes though. You are right but I think you are missing a piece of the picture. Your Embodiment will play a factor in your Skill options. I don’t need to know in what direction you’re trying to take your Embodiment. Just keep it in mind. As for the rest of your reasoning, it seems sound to me. So, let me tell you about Life Mage Classes. Firstly, they generally require an affinity for life mana, or one of its variations, such as plant, fungi, animal, etc. We will need to test your affinities to determine how much work and wealth we need to put towards raising your life mana affinity high enough to meet the minimum requirements for the Lord of Life Class. I can tell you that the affinity requirement is at least twenty-five percent for the Legendary version. I suspect that it is going to be expensive and for the next few months you are going to be drinking alchemical concoctions like water. I will cover the cost for some, as repayment for the Skill Orb, but you should make sure you have enough coinage or mana to pay for the rest yourself. Then, we will need to focus on some Achievements. I believe you have a Sigil for Life. If you can improve upon that Sigil, it would be ideal, but even without it I can teach you some Spells to help. Do you see the problem this presents?”

  Nate nodded, for the first time feeling a moment of concern.

  “Additional achievements are going to interfere with any plans I have for my Embodiment…”

  “That’s correct,” replied Evindal, standing and scooping up his anti-scrying ward. “Think on it. Come on, let's go get your affinities tested.”

  Nate wandered out the door of the meeting room, following Evindal into the depths of the Guildhouse, his mind attempting to figure out a solution to his predicament. The way everything was connected within the purview of the System was sometimes an absolute pain in the ass. That said, he was confident he could come up with a solution. No, that was wrong. No matter what, he would create a solution to this problem. The path of living art awaited him, and that was worth the effort. With a grin he prepared to find out how his affinities had shifted.

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