Bonus

The Ring-shaped Reef. 

This was the nest the molten giants called home. 

It was a series of giant floating rocks, connected to each other with a thick alloy chain to form a circle of islands around the main settlement of the intelligent lava creatures.

On one of these floating landmasses, the molten giants had built a graveyard where their deceased rested. Though they could live for over 2000 years, the offshoot fire elementals still had to face their inevitable deaths. 

As this island had been designated and reserved for the express purpose of making an eternal resting area for their dead, it was completely devoid of activity.

Being creatures with high intelligence but low wit, the molten giants had left this place unguarded. They focused all their security efforts on their main island and consequently, their treasure vault, ignoring the graveyard. 

Never in a million years would they ever think that someone would find value in the corpses of their ancestors. 

At the shore of the graveyard island, a portion of the lava ocean bubbled and undulated strangely until a large, steaming form burst out of it and crawled onto the rocky ground.

His impressive dark red muscles completely exposed and slightly obscured in a cloud of scalding steam, Greem got onto his feet and flicked the globules of lava sticking to him away, cracking his neck as he did so. 

His current appearance was similar to that of the colossal titan, only in a miniature form.

Tapping into his improved body control, he cranked the natural regeneration of his Adept level Physique beyond what was normally possible. The slow growth of skin over his no-longer-steaming muscles instantly picked up speed.

Pale flesh appeared out of nowhere, flowing over his body in an almost liquid-like manner. They pooled and enlarged at various spots before meeting and melding to return his appearance to normal.

Standing at an improved height of 7 '1, Greem wound and cracked his shoulders and checked himself all over, clenching his fists repeatedly at the awesome sense of power he could feel.

Sensing an odd breeze and smoothness on his scalp, he frowned and focused on that part of his head. He drove the cells governing hair growth into immediate overdrive, causing thin strands of hair, all of them jet black to poke out in seconds.

They all elongated till they went past his shoulders and stopped there.

Smoothing his hand through the freshly grown mane once, he grew satisfied at its texture and strength. 

Moving on to the more prominent physical changes, he lightly admired his enhanced muscularity with his freshly regrown eyes, wondering if it would be the same for every advancement.

Heightened weight was an irritating factor on its own. Enlarged size was a whole different matter. 

He shook his head to dismiss these thoughts and focused inward, shuddering upon recalling the earlier sensations of his soul burning away.

It felt like the deepest and most delicate part of him was being stabbed repeatedly by an uncountable number of hot fireplace pokers. He'd never wished for death so strongly before.

Though he hoped to never experience it again, the benefits of torturous experience could not be denied. He was now a full-fledged Adept; in both body and mind.

There were a bunch of tests he wanted to put his body and new capabilities through, but they could all wait. There was something more important.

His promised reward.

For every successful advancement, his benefactor had to give him one of the crazy powerful essences. And he could feel it coming.

It was like a buildup of anticipation deep within his injured soul. Foreign in its source, but no less tangible. It built and built until there was a subdued explosion of light before him.

When the intense lumens faded and he could see what they brought, he discovered not one, but two items.

A vial filled with a multicolored, luminescent substance, and a smooth white rock. 

Just like with his first essence, information flowed forth into this mind upon setting eyes on the items. 

Essence of the Crafter, and Transplanar Communication Tool. 

The latter was a device the Greem in the book obtained completely by chance when he ventured into this place. It was an item that proved pivotal in his rise to power and dominance.

And now the entity had somehow searched through the entire volcano, found it and handed it over to him as a bonus. Bonus for what you might ask?

For being reckless and attempting an advancement without the advice or supervision of a senior Adept. 

The entity was happy with his initiative.

Instead of relying on his knowledge of the future and waiting to advance with Anderson's nefarious plan, he had taken matters and his own fate into his own hands.

This made the entity pleased. 

So pleased that in addition to the information about the essence and transplanar tool, he had answered Greem's question about the planar will being privy to his foreknowledge and the whole fate shenanigans. 

Greem grabbed the items, the smooth rock in his left and the essence in his right, his eyes slightly wide as he digested the news. It turned out he had nothing to worry about on both fronts. 

As the entity's representative in this universe, Greem had a goal the latter wanted him to accomplish. 

And that was to become the first Body-Refining Adept in the multiverse to reach Ninth Grade. To join the three Founders of the Adept faction as the fourth.

For this to be possible and to remove any troublesome factors that would interfere with the fruition of his desire, the entity had dealt with an unsavory personality Greem had been silently dreading about since his reincarnation.

That person was a Seventh Grade individual. She only had to wish for it, and Greem with his current strength would simply die. Literally. Fate would fall over itself trying to please this woman.

But that wasn't the case anymore. His benefactor had dealt with her and returned all the energy she had stolen from Lethon's planar consciousness back to it, tying the reason for the drastic change to Greem.

It was the reason why he was in the planar will's good graces and why it went above and beyond to aid in his advancement. Else he would've failed in this attempt.

As for the matter of his foreknowledge being open to the plane consciousness, the entity's answer to that was simple.

Anything in his mind, especially concerning his past life and the essences did not and would not register to any abilities that read his soul and memories unless he willed it.

So Greem hoping the entity couldn't see the future stuff all this time had been doing the job. 

Plopping his naked butt on the scalding rock and closing his eyes in relief, he didn't even register the heat that reduced his skin to ash a few hours ago.

There was just something… freeing, about finding out a disaster you were definitely not looking forward to and bracing yourself for was no longer in play.

It was like a skyscraper he'd been carrying for more than two years had suddenly rolled off his shoulders and disintegrated to dust.

He wanted to celebrate, and do whatever people do when they find out they are not going to suffer and die. What better way was there knocking back something designed to grant a power boost?

Truly, Greem didn't know where to even begin with the Essence of the Crafter.

Even as he drank the vial's rainbow colored contents and felt knowledge, skills, and powers of amazing quality rush into his mind, his very being, and embed themselves deeply, he couldn't believe the kind of reward he'd been given. 

The basic description of the essence explained how it granted him the necessary know-how and abilities to craft and maintain any machine or tool.

There was also mention of how he could create items with godlike power, such as a sword that cut through anything or an unbreakable shield.

In Greem's mind, this fit with everything an essence was supposed to be. It wasn't until he became privy to the actual technicalities that his jaw dropped and eyes bulged in their sockets. 

Was crafting supposed to be this insane?

'Creation Magic? Spatial Magic? Synergist? Isn't this from Arifureta?'

That's right.

The crafting essence had bestowed Greem with the knowledge and skill of the two greatest Synergists to ever grace Tortus, the abilities of their class, and the seven ancient magics they used to create those wonders.

It took quite a while for Greem to pick his jaw up from the ground. This was simply too amazing. 

Closing his eyes, he took some time to digest some pertinent info regarding the energy sources for his new abilities and their interaction with the laws of this reality.

Mana didn't exist here, and these abilities relied on it to work. A workaround allowing him to use his life force had been tweaked into the essence.

Placing his palm flat against the hard, rocky ground, Greem channeled his life force into it and thought about reshaping the black rock into—

In the same manner the earth rippled when he threw down and activated his earth golems, the terrain with the consistency of metal shifted like pudding and undulated, four peaks rising from it to merge and form a chair.

Looking at his handiwork and the hand placed flat against the ground, Greem fought the urge to smile and laugh like a loon. 

What he'd just used was the main ability of the Synergist class: Transmute. 

It allowed him to do what he just did to any inorganic material, regardless of its strength. 

The only things that could hinder this ability were enchanted materials and those infused or wreathed with powerful energy fields.

And all he needed to expend was life force, a resource he had in spades. Each of the ancient magics could be powered and their effects applied this way.

As another workaround, the essence had been further altered to allow the use of raw magical energy, or as is popularly known in this reality, chaos energy, as a substitute for his life force and mana.

It could power all his abilities save for Restoration magic. 

Time in this universe worked differently than normal. Only those who manipulated fate could bend it to their whims.

Greem could bypass this with his life force, but not chaos energy. If he created a device that could rewind time immediately its user got injured, no one else apart from him or someone with fate energy could use it.

His hopes of creating a time dilation chamber dashed, Greem stood and sat on the chair, his mind filled with thoughts about how his new abilities changed everything regarding his ability to accrue wealth, resources, and his crafting endeavors.

While the thing with the Restoration magic bummed him out a little bit, it made sense when he thought about it. Not even Ninth Grade powerhouses could manipulate time. And they could shatter planes in a single blow.

No. If anything, he was psyched and immensely grateful.

His mind was awash with so many thoughts and ideas that his above human mental capabilities nearly couldn't keep up. There were many things he wanted to do. There were many things he could do. Right now. 

But he settled on just one. 

Holding out his right hand and gazing at the index finger, he focused on the storage ring that had stayed loyally on his finger throughout the advancement ordeal.

He'd paid a not-so-small amount of magic crystals to ensure that its constituent materials and enchantments could withstand high temperatures. That's how it survived in this environment and the long swim to this place.

Now, it was going to serve another purpose other than keeping his belongings portable and safe. 

Sifting through the Spirit magic section in his new memories, he zeroed in on the spell used to remove ailments that afflicted the soul: Heavenbringer. 

He read the description, roused his life force and intent to imbue it and shifted his attention to the storage ring. There was no flash of light, no sound, nothing to allude to the fact that reality was being rewritten on an ultra small scale.

Once the enchantment was complete, he twisted his hand back and forth to check for any visible changes.

Finding none, he channeled his life force into the ring and held his breath, only to release it later when a sensation like no other, one drastically opposite to the advancement experience, wrapped his soul in its soothing, cloudlike embrace.

He slumped in his chair and almost let out a moan.

***

Author's note:

Essence of the Crafter

Master craftsman, able to design, build, and maintain anything from machines to a simple shovel.

Flawless work, anything created will never rot or rust only able to be destroyed through violence. These creations are extremely durable as well.

Creations work better than one made by someone else.

Can duplicate any dead, inorganic, or transmuted materials.

Ability to craft items on par with those in myth and legend, spears that never miss, swords that can cut through anything, invulnerable armor, etc.

Can force specific abilities onto items through sheer skill and ability to craft on a conceptual level.