It was another long night of discussions. The food and drink continued to flow as plans became more and more abstract. The discussions were moving further down the line as to what we could do as the Empire grew. The unsaid reality by either Pryte or me was that we had already had this conversation once, and everything had already shifted thanks to the Reltleons. The future was too hard to predict with any certainty, and the best we could do for now was just to lay out the ideas of how we wanted to proceed.

Despite Laura's initial thought that they were close to getting the gate running, their side had suffered a further complication involving the lack of mana flow. Quarilyn hadn't been used to working in those environments, and while it was only a two-day delay, that did mean we were cutting it very close to our departure time. With nothing I could do to rush it, I resigned myself to forcing a sense of patience, or at least a distraction.

That was exactly how I had found myself back with all the spare mana orbs we had on hand. Considering how many of the Orcs we had slain during our time out in the world, we were nearly overflowing in the base six they handed out, which was good, as I had already decided I wanted to add two more elemental orbs into my repertoire.

I quickly discovered a problem with that plan, though. The vast majority of them had already been set to Elemental Mixture. And to make it worse, all but one of what were left had been set to fire. I had been hoping to add an earth-aligned one after what I had seen the Pachydresti pull off during the last Arena floor, but my only option at the moment was an air one. Since I was currently running low on spare skill ranks, I only invested enough into fundamental forces to make sure I had clear access to the air-related magic. The orb itself was only the first rank, so until I managed to rank it up a few times, I wouldn't be able to do much with it anyway.

What I would have liked was the same mana siphon orb Elicec had earlier mentioned, but as we still didn't have one or anything like it that was out as an option. There were the environmental orbs to consider, though. It was possible one of them could be useful around here. We had added deep cave, bog, and tropical rainforest to our selection of biomes. The only one I considered overly useful currently was the deep cave one, and that would be far more for construction than anything else. I noticed the streaks of yellow in its otherwise solid gray color as I socketed it.

Mana Orb ~Deep Cave (2)~ -First Tier- Spelunking (0) Requirements: N/A Whenever the host is below ground, they gain a bonus to all of their abilities. This bonus grows the deeper they venture. Further ranks increase the bonus gained. Stone Speak (0) Requirements: N/A The memory of stone is long, but few are able to understand it. Stone Speak allows the host to commune with stone they are touching and try to understand what is said to them. Awakening the stone for such communication leaves them in a state of confusion, making it difficult to ascertain information. Further ranks allow for a better understanding and communication between the host and the stone. ~Second Tier~ Stone Passage (0) Requirements: Stone Speak (10) The host is able to use Stone Speak to grant their mana to the stone in order to allow it shift itself and open new passageways. The stone must be willing to do as the host wishes. Further ranks allow for more mana to be granted to the stone. ~Third Tier~ Command the Stone (0) Requirements: Stone Speak (25) The host is able to use Stone Speak with authority. Previously awakened stone is much more willing to accept the commands of the host, and will begin to form a bond with them. Further ranks increase how much awakened stone may be influenced in this way. No Crack too Small (0) Requirements: Spelunking (25) The host is able to slip their body through smaller and smaller cracks, allowing for them to explore and reach deeper parts of the underground. Further ranks allow for smaller cracks to be explored. ~Fourth Tier~ Stone Bond (0) Requirements: Command the Stone (25) The host is able to permanently awaken stone. This awakening bonds the host to the stone, allowing for the stone to remain in communication with the host as long as they remain on the same plane of existence. Further ranks increase the amount of bonds the host may have. ~Fifth Tier~ Golem (0) Requirements: Stone Bond (25) Golem allows Stone Bonds to begin the process of growing into their own fully sapient and independent creature. Their loyalty will initially remain to the host, but as they are their own thinking being, that can change. Further ranks increase the number of Golems that may exist bonded to the host. If a Golem chooses to leave the host, they will no longer count as a bonded Golem.

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While several of the abilities were tempting and would be useful in future underground work, at the moment, I didn't want to waste my dwindling skill ranks on them. Instead, it could sit socketed into my mana channels and hopefully start gaining the energy it needed to tier up until I actually needed it. I pushed aside the thought of what would happen if I paired a dungeon core with a Golem and looked through more of the orbs.

Of the other new orbs, both enthrall and telepathy weren't things I wanted to dabble in. I didn't like the idea of manipulating another person's mind, and that was what both seemed primed for. On the other hand, there was one last very interesting orb among the bunch. It was a growth orb. For most people, it wouldn't be that powerful, but for me, it was the type of thing that would compound with my body-enhancing orbs in a great way.

Mana Orb ~Growth (1)~ -First Tier- Do a Little Better (0) Requirements: N/A While Do a Little Better is active, all training is now 1.5x as effective for the host. Further ranks decrease the ambient mana cost for this skill. ~Second Tier~ Do Better (0) Requirements: Do a Little Better (35) While Do Better is active, all training is now 2x as effective for the host. Further ranks decrease the ambient mana cost for this skill. Note, only one Better mana skill may be enabled at once. ~Third Tier~ Do a Lot Better (0) Requirements: Do Better (40) While Do a Lot Better is active, all training is now 2.5x as effective for the host. Further ranks decrease the ambient mana cost for this skill. Note, only one Better mana skill may be enabled at once. ~Fourth Tier~ Grow! (0) Requirements: Do a Lot Better (45) Grow! Allows the host to activate multiple Better mana skills at the same time. Doing so will greatly increase the ambient mana required. Costs will scale exponentially as more Better mana skills are enabled. Further ranks will reduce mana cost. Growth Pool (0) Requirements: Do a Lot Better (45) Growth Pool allows the host to defer Better mana skills into a pool at double the rate of gain for a temporary boost when needed. The boosts recorded into the pool will be anything that was being trained at the time Growth Pool was activated, alongside a Better mana skill. Further ranks allow for an increased pool.

Those were the largest scaling requirements for ranks I had ever seen on a mana orb, but I could entirely understand why they existed. By the time I'd be able to add Grow! into something I could activate and combine with my other training skills, the leaps and bounds of progress I would start to see would be amazing. I put in all the ranks needed to max out Do a Little Better and spent the rest of the free time doing some extra training.

The added drain of the growth orb on top of everything else was impressive, and I could only maintain it at my current load for about an hour before I needed to recharge my core energies. But that time was well worth it. I had spent it just moving lumber with the villagers, and I could feel my muscles building faster than I ever had before. I was going to need to increase my core regeneration speeds further if I could, especially once I unlocked further tiers on the mana orb.

As I finished the training, Gamma flew near my head suddenly, their compass vibrating as it neared. "Dave, can I try something?!" Gamma asked, more excited than usual.

"Probably, but can you be a bit more specific?" I asked, only slightly concerned with what they had in mind. For the most part, I was no longer worried about how Gamma had acted in the past. Gamma seemed much more collected than before they had served as my core.

"Well, since you socketed the air mana orb into me, I want to try to directly cast a spell. Think how useful that could be if it works, and each of us had our own elemental orbs," Gamma responded. They weren't wrong. If each of the cores could be flying around a battlefield unleashing their elemental assaults, it would be incredibly powerful.

"Go for it," I said, hoping it worked.

Gamma hovered in place, silent for a moment before words erupted from them. "Lighter than a feather, but able to tear down a mountain, slicing winds release!" One of the nearby logs was chopped in two by an unseen force.

My mana channels surged with a flow toward Gamma, and at the same time, the tool dropped from the air and started to laugh as it hit the ground. My momentary panic resolved itself as they flew back into the air. "I take it you enjoyed that?" I asked them.

"Yes! I can really become a wizard now!" they shouted with glee.

Earth elemental magic tends to be the most defensive of the five. It primarily focuses on walling yourself and your allies away from the enemy, but it can also be used to clear paths as you advance on them, or to drag them down beneath the ground. As an Earth Mage grows stronger, they soon find themselves able to move stronger stone alongside the dirt. Some have even gone so far as to form their own planets.

Earth a Tremor into a Quake by Henjen Klank

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