Planting seeds could wait. He had a dragon in his nipple and it was time to deal with it. Ok, dragon egg, but still. Griff had been carrying a scroll of attunement, which Alan assumed was for the egg, time to see if Tamee knew anything about it.

"Question for you. Griff had a scroll to help him create a diagram of attunement. What would be the point of that?" He left the question vague because he didn't want to prejudice her thinking.

"Lots of things use attunement. Even that spewn of yours is at least partially attuned to you. All of your spatial items have also been attuned to you so that you can use them. When someone talks about attuning an item, they usually mean linking it to your aura. This is what allows you and only you to use the item.

"When I say your spewn is attuned to you, however, I mean that it has internalized your mana. Everyone's mana is slightly unique, like a fingerprint. Also like a fingerprint, it doesn't really do anything, other than differentiate. That blacksmith used a lot of stones filled with your mana to imbue the spewn with power. That means it will respond to you better than someone else."

Everything she was saying made sense, but she hadn't addressed why Griff would have the scroll yet.

"Now, I am guessing that drow was not planning on using a diagram to attune an item, that would not really accomplish much. I bet he was going to attune the egg, or more precisely, the creature inside it."

This is what he had thought it was for, so he asked another question."Why would he want to do that? And what would that really mean?" Two questions, but who was counting.

"Remember, I do not have a spirit class, so I am not super informed about forming bonds or contracts with Ascendent beings. However, I know that there are other types of bonds that people can form with creatures. One example is a companion bond. There are people that have creatures as companions. These aren't just pets, they have Network recognized bonds. It is much easier to form one of these connections if the creature is attuned with you."

"Do you mean it recognizes my mana signature?"

"Yes and no. Again, this is not something I have direct knowledge of, so I may be oversimplifying things, but I will do my best. When I said attunement right now, I meant a more mental and mystical attunement. If two beings have similar personalities, it is easier to form a connection. Also, if they have similar elemental proclivities, it also makes bonding more likely. A simple example is a mage who specializes in fire will have an easier time bonding with a flame monkey than a water sprite."

Alan was able to follow her explanation pretty well. "So you think that Griff wanted to attune this egg to his affinities or personality?"

"I would guess something like that. You remember he said that both he and that other drow wanted to bond with it. We thought he meant for his seeker class, but what if he wanted it also as a companion. Depending on the level of the connection, only one of them may have been able to do it. He could have been hoping to tip the odds in his favor by attuning it somehow to better recognize him."

He already could guess the answer to his next question, but it paid to be thorough. "Would Two Socks count as my companion?"

Tamee didn't even have to think before answering. "No. If he was your companion, you would see something on your status sheet. You would also know about it because both beings have to accept the bonding. I am not sure how that works with a non-intelligent creature, but it does somehow."

That was what Alan had thought. Two Socks wasn't his pet, but he also wasn't a companion, or at least not a Network recognized one. He was more like a friend who happened to have four legs. Perhaps they could form a bond, but Alan was happy with the relationship they had, and he imagined that the wolf felt the same way. He also didn't know enough about how everything worked to feel confident in forming a bond.

But a dragon. Alan still didn't know how everything worked, but if he could form a connection with such a creature, that would be a huge boon. Images of him riding on the back of a giant flying flamethrower as he melted humanity's enemies were dancing through his head.

Also, he had the egg, and it was going to hatch eventually anyway. Unless, of course, he just left it in storage, a small drain on his aura until he found a method of dealing with it. Perhaps it was time to look more closely into the diagram that Griff had planned. The scroll appeared in his hand and he unrolled it, studying the complicated circle.

It was night out, but Alan's perception was high enough that he could see with the little bit of moonlight coming through the many seams of his house. A master builder he was not, but it was good enough to mostly keep the rain off. He thought. Alan hadn't actually been in his house while it was raining, but none of the furs looked like they had suffered water damage.

Seeing in the dim light, and reading in it, were not the same thing. Add in the complexity of the symbols and descriptions, and Alan decided to shed some illumination on the subject. He cast his light spell on the main ceiling beam and the whole interior lit up. From outside, his small house was no doubt glowing like a beacon.

This would be, by far, the most complex diagram he had ever worked on. It was even more difficult than the first one he had ever seen, the magic circle in the mage dungeon. However, the scroll wasn't just a drawing, it also provided detailed directions making it much more likely that Alan would be able to understand it. After looking it over, he learned that it was not just for attunement, it would also empower the being inside of it.

The blood gems that Griff had brought with him were for that purpose. The ones he got from sacrificing the gnomes weren't of a high enough quality to work, but the second pile that he must have entered the dungeon with should be. However, Alan had a much better option than those. He had the high quality ones he had received from Irene.

After several hours of studying, he realized that the light spell was no longer needed. The sun had risen outside, it was a new day. He had also decided he was ready to create the circle. His brain had already latched onto the idea of having a dragon for a bonded companion, and this circle seemed like a great way to accomplish it.

There was still no understanding of how to go from attuned, newly hatched dragon, to best friend for life, but Alan's eagerness kept pushing logic aside. That would be a problem for future Alan, and he had heard that guy was supposed to be pretty smart.

There was no way to know how long the egg would take to hatch, and there was no way to make the diagram mobile. This meant he needed a secure place to leave the egg. He couldn't simply sit here and wait an indeterminate amount of time. He had butts to kick and names to take. Luckily, he already had a house built, and it was just barely big enough for the egg and circle. If he was careful, Two Socks would even have room for his bed.

The wolf was part of his security plans. Two Socks didn't seem to want to leave the area around the house anyway, so he could stay and watch over everything while Alan was in dungeons and probably in tier three. He doubted that the egg would hatch before then.

First up, Alan needed powder. He had pretty much exhausted his small pile of quartz stones already, so this meant a trip back to the lake in tier one. He made the trip there, scoured the area for rocks, and was back in under six hours. He was really moving these days, and his stamina allowed him to sprint almost the entire way. He was definitely low by the time he reached the lake, but wading through the water was a relaxed enough activity that it let him rebuild his energy before leaving again.

The pickings were getting a little slim, but he still had a solid pile of rocks. Before he sat down to grind, he collected some more fruit and left them in a bowl next to himself. They would make a nice treat as he worked. He also studied his mortar and pestle.

Alan had made use of this tool quite a bit, but he could detect no signs of wear. Whatever it was made of was incredibly dense, or it had some kind of self-repair feature. Either way, it was time to grind, literally. Only a small section of the quartz stones was turned into powder. The rest he left for future needs. Even though it was a relatively small number of rocks, it had taken quite a while to grind them.

That was because after grinding each one into powder, he had to spend time imparting some of his mana into each grain. Luckily he had the ability to multitask a little or that would have taken forever. This was important though, because it was necessary for the attunement portion of the magic circle. The powder needed his mana signature.

When studying the diagram, he had noticed it had small reservoirs built into it, just like the summoning circle that he had found beneath the church. This was where the crushed blood gems were supposed to go. The circle would use these to empower the dragon, making it stronger in a variety of ways. There was nothing that said you had to use blood gems, though, that was simply what Griff had brought.

Alan had not only the present from Irene, but he also had a collection of Angel bones and Demon horns. If empowered blood could boost the baby dragon, then why not the energy of other Ascended beings? These were the next items he ground up. Each type ended up in its own pouch or wooden box. Alan knew that keeping the various reward containers would pay off.

Next up was the pile of blood gems that Griff had brought with him. These were going to supplement the quartz powder. It wasn't what the drow had planned for them, but after consulting his primer on magic, he felt that it would amplify the empowering aspects of the ritual. Not all dragons were created equal, and if he was going to bond with one, he wanted Shock and Awe.

The last thing to go into his mortar was the red gem he had gotten from Griff's broken staff. After identifying it, he knew it was a garnet and not a ruby. It wasn't as good as the rarer stone, but it was much better than the quartz powder he had. After crushing that one down, it took a long time to imbue it with his mana. Each little grain seemed to contain a bottomless well of energy, drinking in everything his aura could send it.

It took him four hours to simply grind up everything he needed. It was well after midday by this point, so he took a break to have some belated lunch. His bowl of fruit was long empty, so he was going to make something more significant. Somehow Two Socks knew that food was going to be available and he showed up as Alan started cooking. The wolf seemed a little disappointed when he saw it wasn't meat slabs.

Alan was attempting to elevate his culinary expertise, so he was trying something different. Using his pot and some water from the stream, he was going for a nice soup. He had chopped up some potatoes and carrots from his garden, as well as some diced lizard. He also added some of his spices to give it some extra flavor. It was too bad he didn't have stock of any kind. Next time he had the opportunity, he would have to buy some containers that he could use to store broths in.

Seeing his friend's sad look at the 'ruined' meat, Alan also threw on a slab of whatever the creature was that the wolf had killed, he had seemed to enjoy it the night before. The soup was going to take a while, so after giving Two Socks his lightly seared steak, he went back to work on his diagram.

There would be just enough room for one bed plus the diagram. Alan was going to be moving soon anyway, so he placed all of the furs from his sleeping area in his storage. Next up was smoothing out the floor. The grass inside had long ago died, whether it was from their walking on it, the lack of sunlight, or some combination of the two, the floor was now simply dirt. This suited his plans just fine, but he needed it relatively pristine and even.

The ritual would be better if he could make it in stone or metal, but those were beyond his means. Plain old dirt would have to be good enough for him. This magical diagram added a new layer of difficulty, not only was it important to make sure that his circles and symbols matched the diagram on the scroll exactly, but he had to do it in the correct order. That wasn't always necessary, in fact it was the first time he encountered this restriction, but the scroll made it clear that it was required in this case.

First up were the reservoirs for the empowering powders. He didn't place anything inside of them yet, but he dug out the small hemispheres and outlined them in quartz. When that was done, he had six small divots to fill, but that would come later. Next was a series of lines and curves connecting them all. These were done using the lesser blood gems that the drow had brought.

By now his soup should be done, so Alan went outside to check on it. He had taken a few small breaks to stir it, but it was finally time to eat. It was a little on the saltier side, something to think about for the future, but the potatoes and carrots were flavor bombs in his mouth. Each piece of meat was super tender and almost melted on his tongue. He ate two bowls before storing the whole pot, with at least half of the soup remaining, inside his necklace. That would make for a nice meal another day. Back to the magic circle.

Stepping to the center of the diagram, he once more used quartz powder, this time to draw an inner circle. Then he dug a larger indent in the center and rested the egg in it. He had to make some minor adjustments to make sure it fit snugly in the hole. It would be a Bad Thing if it fell over and rolled out of the circle.

Alan was almost done, only a few parts left. First was filling the six reservoirs. Two got smashed high quality blood gems, two got crushed Angels fingers, and the final two got powdered Devil horn. Now everything was primed, but it needed to be bound in an outer circle. For this step, he mixed his remaining quartz powder, and the garnet powder, together. This mixture was used to draw a thick circle around the entire thing.

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All that was left was the final step. Without it, he had simply made an expensive piece of sand art. Once more Alan carefully made his way to the egg in the center. If he scuffed one of the lines now, he wouldn't cause a void to consume everything, but it would mean starting over and that was not an easy thing to do.

Once standing by the egg, Alan placed both of his hands on it. His mana pool was full, which was a good thing, because this would require most of it. He started by sending small tendrils on his mana into the shell. Soon that energy was drawn into the interior of the egg. Now he increased the flow and it was soon gobbling up streams of mana.

Alan's mana pool was already halfway gone, he would have to work quickly. This next part was tricky, though. While still sending his energy into the egg, he extended small mana probes to six points around the inner circle. These six points corresponded with where the reservoirs of the different empowering powders would send their energy.

As the last thread of mana connected, Alan felt a surge flow through him. He quickly worked to push the torrent of energy out of his own aura. The diagram and the egg were using him as a conduit, but he needed to separate himself from the process. Not only would remaining a conduit mean he had to stay here, but it would do not nice things to his own pathways if it continued much longer.

With his mana handling skill so high, it wasn't much of an issue to guide the flow out of his aura, and around him instead. As he slowly moved away, careful of where he placed his feet, the six flows of energy snapped to the egg. It was now gulping energy from the circle of attunement and empowerment.

Standing outside of the circle, Alan could feel a change in the ambient mana. He didn't have any reference for how the different grades of mana should feel, but it was considerably less powerful than before. As an experiment, he walked out of the house and slowly started moving away. When he was around ten meters from the house he started to feel an increase in the mana levels. It wasn't until he left the farm completely that he felt it return to what he thought was normal.

It seemed that this magic circle was a real mana hog, hopefully that wouldn't negatively affect his garden. If it did, however, it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. He could always replant later. If it was using that much energy, it had to be doing something for the dragon, which was more important than his fruit habit. Exhausted from the mental effort, Alan sat down in the grass and snacked on an apple.

The ritual was complete, and there was nothing more to do with it but wait. Alan was going to have to leave it running for possibly a long time, but he trusted Two Socks to keep the house and egg safe. He also didn't worry about the wolf messing up the magical diagram. There were many circles in the garden, and Two Socks had always shown great care to not disturb them. He seemed to instinctively know to avoid stepping on powdered lines.

The sun was already making its descent, so Alan decided it was time to make a decision on his scholar class. Checking the store again, he was sorry to see that there were no better options for class stones. The only scholar upgrade was a common opal stone that gave the class Learner. It certainly didn't sound impressive.

The Network seemed to provide necessary rewards for completing its dungeons. There was a decent chance that if he ran another dungeon he would get a new class stone, but it wasn't guaranteed. He had completed several dungeons where he didn't get a class stone. Also, even if it did, he would have missed out on leveling his classes while in there.

"Tamee, is it really ok to get a common class instead of waiting for an uncommon or rare one?" He finally asked.

"In many things, the rarer something is, the better. Where classes are concerned, that is not always true. A higher rarity class stone will set you up with more starting benefits, but the class itself is not necessarily better. Also, sometimes it is better to have a common class because you can get more information about it."

Everything she said made sense, and it was only one class, and one that didn't seem to have too many combat applications. Still, he felt a little icky as he bought the stone. It looked like all of the other opal stones he had received, other than the picture of a feather on it, but it just felt lesser to him.

Alan reminded himself of why he was doing this. Yes, he needed to be a monster if he was going to have a chance in the future challenges, but part of being a monster was leveling his classes. Someone out there could be flying through the levels while he was here, waiting for the perfect class before moving on. With one last sigh, he absorbed the stone.

Surprisingly, he didn't receive a talent or an ability. This was the first class stone, of any type, that hadn't given him at least one of those. His focus had still gone up three points, so at least he hadn't lost out in stats. While the class itself hadn't come with anything more than the usual aura modifications and a small burst of knowledge, he had received a new notification.

Achievement earned: Renaissance Man

[You have managed to not only unlock all eight starting classes, but also upgrade them to Opal. All internal resource pools are slightly increased.]

That was an unexpected treat. After thinking about it, though, it made sense that it was considered something special. Eight classes was something few aristocrats even managed to get, or so Pixel had informed him. Not only had he earned them, but he had also not died before upgrading them. That part was probably less significant. If you spent enough money on your descendent to get him at least four epic stones, then you also probably had the resources to safely level them up.

It was finally sinking in that he had done it. All of his classes were now opal and he could finally start leveling them to diamond. Both Tamee and Dracon had warned him that it would be a lot slower than getting to opal, but there would be progress at last. Although, thinking back on his mentor's explanation on acquiring skills, the time he had spent maxed out was probably not a total waste. At worst it might mean his early progress toward the next level was slightly sped up. He eagerly checked his status, just to see that column of opals.

Alan Taylor

Race: Human [W]

Class:

Custodian (0%) Opal

Dimachari (0%) Opal

Inquirer (0%) Opal

Learner (0%) Opal

Medicine Man (0%) Opal

Phantom (0%) Opal

Sorcerer (0%) Opal

Stalker (0%) Opal

Health: 442 (44/hour)

Stamina: 412 (82/minute)

Mana: 385 (39/minute)

Dungeon Points: 2355

Army Rank: Vice-Lieutenant

Stats:

Strength: 23

Dexterity: 23

Perception: 21

Focus: 22

Intelligence: 22

Wisdom: 24

Constitution: 22

Spirit: 18

Skills:

Alchemy: 19, Archery: 10, Aura Reading: 168, Blocking: 21, Blunt Weapons: 55, Cooking: 30, Daggers: 96, Dodging: 53, Farming: 23, First Aid: 27, Harvesting: 16, Herbology: 20, Identify: 45, Mana Drawing: 77, Mana Enhancement: 46, Mana Handling: 125, Mining: 3, Running: 43, Sneak: 50, Spears: 4, Swords: 24, Tracking: 35, Two Weapon Fighting: 71, Unarmed Combat: 39

Titles: [Apprentice], [Gladiator], [Top Recruit]

Class Abilities:

Custodian: Absorb

Dimachari: Twin Slash

Medicine Man: Healer's Mark

Phantom: Fade

Sorcerer: Mana Lode

Talents:

Custodian: Block, Hammer Blow, Shield, Taunt, Thick Skin

Dimachari: Fury, Parry, Slash

Inquirer: Inspiring Presence, Sensitivity, Soul Mending, Soul Probing

Learner: Critical Hit, Fast Learner, Understanding

Medicine Man: Cure, Mend

Phantom: Backstab, Dodge, Quick Hands, Stealth

Sorcerer: Air Bender, Dark Spreader, Earth Mover, Fire Starter, Light Spinner, Mana Lacing, Water Weaver

Stalker: 6th Sense, Charm Animal, Predator's Focus, Track

Spells: Cone of Steam (Common), Conjure Water (Rare), Fire Bolt (Uncommone), Gust (common), Light Bolt (common), Light (common), Meteor (Rare), Minor Healing (common), Minor Regeneration (Uncommon), Prismatic Orb (Rare), Shadow Bolt (Uncommon), Stone Spear (common), Stone Wall (Uncommon), Healing Waters (Rare)

In addition to his new class, he also noticed a change in his resource pools. His achievement had said a slight increase, but they had gone up by about ten percent. That was nothing to sneeze at. His aura and mana skills had seen some improvement as well as his cooking skill. His mom had been right, good food really does make you grow.

Now that his class was taken care of, Alan thought about spending some more of his dungeon points. He had over two thousand points and there were lots of talents he could still pick up. Before just buying a bunch of talent stones, he did his due diligence and checked over the whole list again. He had been saving his points until the end in case something good came up, and with the new tier opening soon, he felt it was safe to start splurging. He soon realized that he had somehow missed the newest item in the store when he checked earlier.

"Tamee, how good is a dungeon core?"

"Really good. It was too bad that the one from the last dungeon was gone. The egg is nice, but a dungeon core is great. As you know, towns automatically create a dungeon tied to them. Most places view this as a benefit, not a drawback. Dungeons are a crucial tool for leveling and earning loot for those with a class. The ones that are linked to a town also provide benefits to the town's growth when they are completed. That does not even consider the resource dungeons that higher tier towns can also get. These are critical for their economies."

Tamee seemed passionate about this topic and she wasn't done.

"A dungeon core can be used to create your very own dungeon. I have heard of them being given out occasionally, and some are better than others. The cores are almost sentient and they get more powerful the older they are. Even a newly created core is a huge prize, however. As the one possessing the core you get to dictate a lot about the type of dungeon created. Also unlike most of the dungeons in your tutorial, these are usually repeatable."

Alan was probably spoiled, in that he was currently living in an area that was surrounded by a large number of dungeons. It sounded like most places were not like that. He could see how having your very own dungeon to shape would be a great thing. While he was thinking about the possibilities, he heard Tamee again.

"Why do you ask?" She asked him with a note of suspicion.

"Well, the newest item in the store is a dungeon core. If I had to guess, it's the one that disappeared from the dwarven dungeon." He answered.

"Oh my, you must buy it!" She was even more excited than when he had found the nipple ring.

Alan broke the bad news. "That's going to be a problem. It costs three thousand points. I don't have it."

"Why did you spend all those points on stones? This is so much better than some talents." The dismay in her voice was palpable. "You will simply have to get enough points. Nothing else you could get in the store will compare."

"About that, I think it's time we talked about what comes next. I promise to do the best I can to get enough points to buy the core, but it won't do me any good if I die at the start of the next tier."

Tamee managed to calm herself and they got down to business. She had already explained the outline of what was going to happen when she made her announcement at the start of the week. Now that it was right around the corner, it was time to get a plan. The first thing they discussed was victory conditions.

Killing all of his competition wouldn't be enough to secure a win. He would need to either replace the mayor of the village or come to some kind of agreement. Killing the mayor didn't seem likely to make him very popular with the rest of the village, so he wasn't sure how replacing the mayor would work. Maybe he could expose him if he was corrupt and then slide into his job afterwards? Coming to an agreement sounded like a better plan.

Also, even if he became the mayor of the village on day one, he would still have to deal with the other tutorial recruits. The good news was that each zone was limited to sending a team of five. That meant he was only outnumbered fifteen-to-one and not by thousands. Even better news, they would also probably fight among themselves, so he wouldn't have to deal with them all by himself.

Tamee wasn't able to tell him anything about the other races, but thanks to his time in the arena, he at least knew what they looked like. One race was built of large, solid looking people called Bodarians. Another was some kind of praying mantis, insect types, called Nivex. The last race was Corellians. The only one he had seen was a kind of cat beast person, and she had cut the top of his head off. They seemed nice.

The aliens he had fought had all seemed rather violent, so some kind of peaceful settlement was probably out of the question. Then again, they had been forced into an arena and told they had to fight to the death, so maybe they would have been perfectly nice otherwise. Well, not that Afilada person, his instincts told him she was a straight up killer.

As an observer for the Tutorial, Tamee had restrictions on what she could share. She also had not been allowed to see the next area he would enter, so she could only go off of past tutorials. Still, her best guesses were much better than nothing. After talking for quite a while they made and discarded a lot of plans.

Some were thrown out completely and others were simply placed on the backburner. The problem was that they just didn't know what kind of reception he would get. Sometimes villages welcomed recruits, and sometimes they actively tried to kill them. The last type was rare at least, the villagers shouldn't have any classes, so it would be hard for them to take out a team of adventurers. However, they were also aware of the victory conditions, and some mayors took a proactive approach to their own survival.

At the end of the discussion, the best that they could come up with was that Alan needed information. He was better off lying low at first and trying to find out what he was dealing with, rather than charging in and trying to take out his opposition. This played right into Alan's strengths, they didn't call Green Berets 'quiet professionals' for nothing, so he was onboard with that plan.

The tier was slated to take three months, so he wasn't in a time crunch. Tamee suggested that the earlier he could take control the better, but she was tight lipped about the reason. She also admitted that it was better to take more time and win, than to rush and get killed.

On that happy note, she lit a fire under him to get moving on dungeons. He needed at least seven hundred points before the tier concluded, and it would be nice if he had some time for rest at the end of it. The next tier might be incredibly taxing, and it would be good to enter it in top shape. Thinking about all of the dungeon options, he picked the one with the best time dilation, that was also the closest, and took off. He was challenging himself to get his classes as high as possible before moving on.

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