News that the Guild Master can write Ancient Quality ability books to create flying mounts for the Guild spread to every member within seconds. The great question on everyone's mind is, what exactly do they have to do to earn one?
Surely they won't just be handed out to hundreds of members; that would be a tremendous amount of work, even if they all could use them. So they must be reserved as a reward for good performance.
Every member has been motivated to contribute more than usual by the Quest Rewards handed out lately. Still, the prospect of an Ancient Skill and the power that would come with it is a substantial driving force not just to turn up for missions but to do well enough that they impress the other members.
Nobody knows how he is going to pick, so thinking that it might be by referral, favoring the members that he hears the best things about, sounds reasonable to them.
The officers, on the other hand, know better. The selection is likely going to be completely random; whoever happens to be standing nearby when Cain has a relevant idea will become his guinea pig, or the lucky winner, depending on how you look at it.
For today, Cain is more concerned with making his way through these fundamental abilities for a Spellcrafter and then finding out where an awakened area might be to fight than he is with creating random treats for the Guild.
He will have to fight Mythic Quality opponents, limiting his options. Still, he has Vala and Laura, plus one spell that can match that quality, and he is almost at level 300 when the class options will become available again.
Starting over from the recall ability, Cain finds that the next few lessons are all combat-oriented. According to the book, the experiments that the biologists have set loose in the world are often violent and unreasonable, so putting them down humanely is an essential skill for every Spell Crafter that ventures out into the world.
So it wasn't all Ancients making new species, but just a specific subset of them.
[Crushing Tentacles] [Void Shift] and a Mythic version of [Fireball] are the three basic options. Two are self-explanatory, but Void Shift is unexpected. It simply creates a pair of portals, one at the target and one directly above the caster at a distance of one million Kilometers and tosses the target into space.
[Strange, but compelling. I wonder why they don't do that with lesser spells?] The copy of Dimnys Cain is still merged with asks.
[Because the more powerful Dragons, Demons and Seraphim would come back. They can survive the void for a short time, even without using magic.] The Forest Dragon explains.
He has a point; it is rather difficult to kill something of his Quality. A little fire from atmospheric entry probably wouldn't do it.
Cain decides that's enough studying for one day. Without using the skill books, learning new skills gets much more difficult.
Fortunately, he has two more Skill Books that others can use, though [Void Shift] is Ancient only. He has Misha touch each of the stacks of paper, and as happened when Cain handed them to Brazz, they form into an Ancient Skill Book.
Perhaps it is a glitch? They are Mythic abilities to him but Ancient when anyone else tries to use them. Or maybe it is only because he is awakened that he can use them at a higher level?
Since Cain doesn't know what features an Awakened Class might have, maybe that is normal, and they can upgrade Ancient Quality abilities to Mythic?
He really will need to get active in looking for mythical quality areas. There is a chance that he might find more information on them at the library where he got the Spell Crafting book from, or the device that was empowering the planets ley lines though, so that will be his mission for tomorrow.
But before bed, he makes a second copy of [Crushing Tentacles] for Misha to use. An Ancient attack ability of Tentacles goes well in his mind with her Demon fire themed skills and gives her a highly powerful crowd control ability to go with her random debuffs and damage.
The best way to keep her safe is to make sure she can prevent anything from getting near her after all.
Cain decides that this journey brought him away from home for too long. Everyone has gotten clingy from being unable to contact him while he was away. Misha is understandable, but even the Companions and Neffie show signs of stress.
That means a group activity is needed.
[Echoes. I got you a few fun new abilities. Go capture the rest of Niman Territory on behalf of the Kingdom of Skyview.] Cain directs, recalling from the notes provided to him by Svetlana that the war there was going well and almost completed.
[Crushing Tentacles] reaches everything within a radius equal to the caster's level in meters. If they stand in the middle of a small city, they could eradicate it in seconds.
[That reminds me. Finish the task with minimal civilian casualties.] Cain tells them, and they laugh. To the minds of the Echoes, enslavers aren't civilians; they are combatants because the enslaved people are taken by force. But if Cain isn't going to clarify, they will not mention it.
In a day or two, the Echoes will give give them all a reason to celebrate. That reason being Skyview's Annexation of Niman Territory.
Everyone loves a good party, after all.
It isn't long before the experience starts rolling in again, and Svetlana starts sending him messages asking if he is messing with the Nimans.
[Just a little. If anyone asks, tell them I sent the Mercenaries back to finish the job.] Cain tells her, sensing her annoyance through the mental link. She must have gotten more than just one or two messages.
It has only been a few minutes; how much could have happened in a few minutes even if the Echoes took a travel circle?
Cain checks his combat logs quickly to see what they are up to.
[Seraphim Inquisitor has eliminated Enslaver] XP 350
[Living Tentacle has eliminated Niman Guard] XP 27300
[817435 More Unread Messages]
Oh. Well, never mind then. They have gone all out.
