Road To Sierra Pt6

As for the spell books, one of them was a must-have light-based holy healing spell called Divine Light which could be used every fifteen seconds and could heal as much as fifty percent of a player's HP at max level. I had Soulfire which had a duration effect that equaled greater than this instant flash of light. I had no problem giving the B grade Divine Light to Lil.

The greater of the two spells, though, was not a spell at all. Instead, it was tagged 'Elven Mana Purification' and seemed to be a training book concerning the cultivation of mana and its integration into the body like cultivating a physique. It was a cross-training manual which was probably better than anything being offered to the public since the update. Even for the players with hidden or advanced classes because only certain classes practiced both methods.

Unlike Divine Light, though, this was not a one-time use item but an actual study material which included something called a 'Life Gathering Array'. This array played the part of my Mana Condensing technique, allowing the practitioner to better focus one the other processes involved. Since this was also a race-preserving item, it was suggested that the inheritor practice both mana and physical cultivation at the same time.

Since I now had Mana Assimilation, I did not need such a book but everybody in the clan could certainly make use of the various techniques mentioned. Since we were mostly classless players due to my use of the class, the only technique available to most of them was Mana Condensing which did not really effect the body from what I could tell.

Hiding away the ten gold worth of silver and the precious stones, I leave only the swords and two books in the chest before sitting down to reach through the mana purification. My first goal was to study the purposes and effects of the Life Gathering Array.

Just as I expected, the array was the same as the mana perception control and confinement technique I had taught the others. The size of the array itself determined the dimensions of the confined space with a hexagram configuration, usually advised to be ten feet in size between any two opposing points.

The array itself could be made simply by dragging a stick on the ground but would only last for about an hour if done properly. However, digging a shallow trench and lining with different kinds of metamorphic or even igneous stones which accumulated natural mana over time would extend the array by a couple of hours.

Drawing the array in the blood of beasts, though, could create a six-hour array just from a couple of goblins and the duration scaled with the grade and or magic affinity of mobs. There were a bunch of other kinds of natural and unnatural materials to make different variations of the array based on elements, but the most all-round potent arrays were drawn in the essence blood in other creatures.

As well, while the inside of the cursive six-pointed star bore a ring of matching characters, the actual points where drawn with crescent moon like openings across the end. This was to accommodate magical materials such as mana crystals and other items which would be drained into the field. A magic dagger could even be used, but items would break down from being drained.

By the time I got into sorting through a list of materials that I did and did not have access to, the rest of my party suddenly appeared unannounced only a dozen yards away from where I now sat atop the dungeon. When I saw them start noticing me, I was fully prepared to be yelled at for breaking the dungeon. However, nobody really said anything except to each other for a few moments before Go finally yells out, "We want to do solo runs."

"That's fine, did you guys get a clan reward? I… didn't," I say while testing the waters. I had not even looked at the title and perk I got yet but hoped that they as a group managed to achieve what I did not. I had even managed to level up twice but still no clan-based reward.

"Yeah, we got a clan perk called Sepulcher Crawler, it gives plus five percent to experience and loot in other dungeons as well as ten percent in our dungeons or dungeons based on undead," Go replies without rally thinking about it, picking out his imp summoner, a gecko demon, and his bone fiend to take into the dungeon with him before making his way to the entrance.

"Did you get anything special for running solo?" He asks just a few feet away from the entrance.

Knowing I might as well come clean even if only to buy some time, I say, "Yeah, I ended up special clearing it. You know how the Silk Spitter at the end wakes up the dead guy? I stopped him from waking the dead guy, killed the spider first, and ended up waking the dead guy myself. It, uh… triggered a hidden clear."

After that last sentence, I now had everybody's attention as they started gathering around the entrance after picking out familiar teams. Surprisingly, nobody brought mounts.

Continuing on in the short but expectant silence, I explain, "The Hardcore boss is actually an ancient elven general and the dungeon is actually a time capsule. Back in their time, a chaos entity was threatening the world like the raid dungeon we cleared but things were going to shit. Every race prepared a time capsule to empower their surviving ancestors or to create hybrids and retake the world in the future. Ivana, the dark elves are actually a chaos race of elves and General Cosades wants me to create a high-born version of them through you. There's also some swords, a sword skill, and a healing skill that I'll be giving to Skooma, Merch, and Lil respectively."

Taking out the Legacy Chest which now only contained swords and two books, I toss the chest to Go and say, "As well, Hardcore Mode was disabled because of the hidden clear. We now only have Difficult but the first solo clear for that mode should still be available, same as the other modes."

The Legacy Chest was soon thrown back up at me, but this time with the force of extreme prejudice behind it. Go was clearly unhappy as well as the others who started yelling at me for breaking the dungeon. "Yeah, yeah, it happened, but we got a bunch of good stuff. See this book in my hands? It's a cultivation manual that comes with this rune diagram which serves the same function as our mana concentration technique as well as body cultivation methods. We can choose the most basic forms and provide them to the different clan ranks while all of us get to pick and choose what we want."

"Group study!" Go cries out as he passes out the items he deftly took from the chest, soon being echoed by Ivana, Lil, Skooma, and Oleander. Then, as the others started asking about the Go simply stepped up to the dungeon entrance and disappeared with his familiars a second later.

The rest of our party were all shocked by his blatant theft of the Difficult solo clear, but Conansson was the first to react by calling out, "Easy!" Before disappearing. Then came Merch who barely spoke the word, 'Normal' before vanishing alone.

Papi, Stonewall, and Skooma on the other hand all ran into Difficult Mode with the intent to compete with Go for the first clear. Oleander and the other girls in the group, though, as went into Normal Mode with a whimsical attitude. They probably saw this as more of a personal materials acquisition than experience farm.

Glad to simply be rid of them, I commanded the remaining familiars to scope out the area capturing mobs and harvesting plants. Once they were gone as well, I decided to spend my time timing their dungeon runs while compiling a tiered list of materials. This, of course, was based on the current tiers of the mana concentrating technique.

Elven Mana Purification techniques were all nine-step processes and only a few of them could work with one another, let alone other techniques. This drastically restricted the mana training techniques available to not only our clan but also the players in our raid alliance if I were inclined to share the elven methods.

However, mana concentration itself was similar to most of the elven expiration and general consumption practices. There was one frequently referenced form of cultivation that I was interested in which was its own cross-training method of body and mana. It was called the Gourmet's Life Gathering and used tools containing miniature gathering arrays.

Tools for cooking, which would process magical ingredients and beasts into a concentrated mana source for the body to slowly purify. If there was anything which could help me it was this mana buffet method. The process for making the tools was even fairly simplistic, using cooking utensils with like pots and pans or plates and bowl with dimensions specific to their arrays.

The materials for these things, though, started as basic pure arcanite cookware and moving up to things on the level of ancient electrum alloy.

All of this came after I finished making cheat sheets of techniques and requirements from either type that worked together. However, I removed all of the references to Gourmet's Life Gathering and used only simplified information or quotations of specific processes. And then made a few copies of this by consuming and printing out new paper.

With a copy for every member of my party, they could then study the materials by copying out ten more notebooks which would then be introduced to the clan based on a party system. Once we got to Sierra where the greater half of our people came from, we would be able to introduce this kind organization.

While I made the original worksheets, Go had completed his run in about five minutes before the others started coming out at around six and even eight minutes for Stonewall. He was fast for a giant tanker but he was still the slowest guy in our totem pole.

At six minutes was also when Merch finished the normal run and when Conansson came out of the dungeon, but the others were all taking their time and probably clearing both mini bosses themselves because they did not start coming out of Normal until ten minutes. After they all compared notes, thankfully leaving me alone to do my work, they all went back in at either Difficult or Normal with all of their familiars to work on farming materials.

By the time they all started coming out of their leisurely second runs around fifteen minutes apiece, I had prepared the other printouts and set them aside. After this I worked on making demonic Imperial Electrum tools and equipment, including a large but low round metal table with a golden obsidian network engraved in the tabletop for the array.

Luckily, the gourmet arrays could all be turned on and off to preserve the materials against degradation or else the table would have been active at all times. Alongside sixteen-foot circumference table were an assortment of plates, bowls, and various cookware from tall pots to small woks. I already had a bunch of cookware like this in my Player Inventory, but none of it came with the innate abilities to concentrate as well as conduct mana to a high degree.

In fact, I quickly took out and turned all of my old cookware into scrap metal and returned it as a single item stack.

After having collected large quantities of various resources, I had Zekrom produce a simple black crystal prism and pour in all of its mana in the form of its undead aura. Next, I took out a thumb sized shard of divine mana crystal and put either stone at the top and bottom points of my tabletop.

By now the others were going to be starting their last dungeon runs but as they came out they stopped to curiously examine my work throughout this process. At first it was just to look at the cookware then it was to watch me start setting the table.

For the other points of the diagram, I simply used bundles of fresh herbs with various purposes from healing to increasing Strength. On the characters within the middle spaces of the hexagram, through, I prepared a few pieces of cookware and serving tools. In the very middle, though, was a mana crystal I had to absorb, convert, and refill with fire elemental mana.

Into the cookware itself, though, I threw in proper and alchemical seasonings as well as some of the ice bird oil stock from the territory raid aspect. After everything was oiled or filled, I added an assortment of different monster meats like armored lizard tail and then wild herbs and veggies. However, my methods were not mindless.

The now secret chapters pertaining to the gourmet method contained an entire chapter dedicated to recipes and potential alternatives as well as ways to process them. Since this was around two thousand years after the empire these arts came from, though, most of the plant and wildlife had drastically changed so I had to find my own alternatives for these recipes.

While the fire stone transferred heat to the cookware in the diagram, I used magic to monitor the actual cooking process as the tabletop and the equipment begins glowing with a vivid combination of dark and golden energies which was transferred in kind to the cookware and ingredients.

Unable to do anything about the overwhelming strength of the undead and divine energies, I could only hope the properties of the herbs at the other points would still be transferred over and added to the properties of the food. I could only focus on one pot full of stewing meat and tubers closest to the fire stone while frying up several dozen fillets smothered in a carefully seasoned batter on another griddle plate.

There was also a short grilling rack on which rotated dozens of long skewers of various meats and vegetables with different seasoning combinations but all glazed in a honey sweetened ice bird broth. The only real differences in them would be their smell or the gradual increase in spiciness in the latter half of the skewers.

Only half of the way through this cooking process the outer materials had all been spent and the herb bundles broke down into dried out pieces. However, the mana crystals at either end were still going strong even after everybody had completed their dungeon runs and gathered around.

As everybody was growing hungrier and hungrier with the vast array of magic and aroma in the air, the fillets and skewers were finished and were swiftly being devoured. Between the kaleidoscope skewers and the three different kinds of battered fillets, the others were swiftly stuffing themselves long before the serving trays and racks could be used to preserve the food's energies.

However, the heart of my experiment was still long from completion. The small vat of a pot nearest the fire stone was filled with not only copious amounts of stock and alchemical seasonings but also contained meats and vegetables from all of the other dishes as well as armored lizard tail slices. Half of the fluid contents had already been cooked away and all of what was left had considerably thickened due to the rendering of all the other contents.

Sadly, this was still too thin for the gravy that I intended. Since the other dishes were all done I removed their equipment from the tabletop array so that the draw on the fire stone was lessened. While the stew continued to slowly boil down, I took all three kinds of remaining batter and turned them into a thick dough using small amounts of ice bird stock in lieu of water with which to fill deep pie dishes.

After a dozen pies had been prepared, I returned to the stew and decided that it had boiled down so much that many of the lighter vegetables had turned into gel or broken down completely to thicken the stock. Removing the pot from the tabletop with Telekinesis, I carefully filled the prepared pie dishes with stewed ingredients and then topped them with a biscuit-like crust.

Around the fire stone in the internal parts of the tabletop array were now a dozen large pies in four tight groups. Ten minutes after they were all in the array, they had been perfectly baked to a light and fluffy golden brown muffin top crust speckled with the various colors of its seasonings.

Instead of letting everybody claim a pie and dig in as Papi and Oleander tried to do, I swatted them with light telekinetic lashes on the wrist once they entered the table's field. "First things first," I warn them seriously, reaching into my Player Inventory and retrieving the general's soul stone.

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