Leo, sweating and panting, standing in the middle of the breakfast area smiled as he looked at the sky that was now raining down the water bomb he had sent into the sky. Leo was prideful as he had completed a personal challenge for himself and apparently the system thought so too as he heard its familiar voice in his head once again.
[Lord Leo has completed a hidden achievement 'Struggle breeds strength' by using Non-Meditation Mana Absorption. Lord Leo is the first in the world to comprehend the true method of Elemental Crystal Absorption and will gain a permanent 10% refining and purity conversion when absorbing the raw energy of Elemental Crystals]
Leo smiled, and because he was thoroughly exhausted, fell onto his back. Leo felt the rain from his water bomb slowly sprinkling onto his face. Leo started to laugh crazily as he marveled at his success. Leo asked the system,"System! My old friend, what is my current progress in the water element?"
[Lord Leo currently has 24% of the White grade in the Element of Water]
Leo continued smiling like a madman and laughing like he had won the lottery as Ash, the deacon and Xia all cautiously came up to him.
Ash spoke first, saying," My lord? Are you still alive?"
All 3 held their breath in suspense at the thought their lord might just have committed suicide on accident. That would have been the worst outcome possible as Leo had massive potential with magic.
Leo laughed at them, relieving their worries, but immediately raising their concerns again as he said through his laughs,"I have comprehended the truth! The world has acknowledged my efforts and rewarded me! Haha!"
The deacon seemed to understand something and asked," Lord Leo, has the goddess Vias' given you a sign that this was the method you must use to absorb elemental crystals?"
Ash and Xia's ears sharpened to hear Leo's response as he lifted his now exhausted body from the wet ground.
Leo chuckled and said,"Something like that." Leo then turned and saw everyone else in the city standing at least 100 units away from him. Leo chuckled once more and said loudly enough for them to hear,"My citizens! The goddess Vias has gifted me with knowledge and comprehension! Today is not a day for scarcity! Chefs! Bring out a breakfast feast, today is a good day!"
The citizens all tentatively grabbed the table and chairs and started to set them back up in their previous order while Leo got an earful from Ash, the deacon and Xia on the side. They knew that he was lying about receiving a revelation from Vias and just wanted to try this method and made sure that he had been incredibly stupid to do such a thing in the middle of the city where many people could get hurt or killed.
Leo wanted to protest but didn't because if he hadn't known that he needed to channel all his power into the sky like Xia had told him, the resulting energy explosion would have been disastrous for the city. So Leo just silently listened to their complaints and their chiding.
When they were finally done Leo looked at Ash and asked,"Ash, when I healed in the cave I told you I was at 8% did I not?"
Ash nodded, still keeping his angry face on, but saying," That is correct, and with this little stunt I would guess that you are now sitting at 12 or 13% considering absorption rates and the size of your mana pool. However, that does not excuse the danger you put yourself and everyone else in my lord, please, next time run your ideas by us and we can tell you if they are a bad idea."
Leo smiled, seeing the concern on Ash's face, and replied,"I promise I will run new ideas by you guys from now on, however you are wrong on the percentage, Ash."
Ash had a puzzled face and Xia spoke up at this time and said,"No, Lord Leo, I also just did the math and Ash should be dead on in his guess. Oh, did you get an extra percent or two from your first time?"
Leo beamed a grin at them and proudly stated,"Nope! It's now at 24% percent!"
Ash, Xia and the deacon all had flabbergasted faces when they heard that number. Ash was the first to recover and said incredulously," My Lord, no offense, but I believe that to be an impossible number! No mage in history has ever tripled their percentage in one go!"
Leo just shrugged his shoulders and said,"Believe it, there's no reason for me to lie. Now, with all the chiding and telling off that you have given me, I feel a great need to eat. Let's go!"
The three of them could do nothing but follow along as Leo went back to the table and sat back down, this time without the addition of a crystal in his hands. As Leo ate and spoke with his advisors he saw that they, the workers, and the other soldiers all had mixed reactions on their faces. Some had prideful faces, some were fearful, and others looked at Leo with great respect.
Leo didn't realize it but he had been slowly influencing his people to respect his monstrous power as well as recognize that he was one the few lords who had a heart for the common people. When they saw him yesterday begging those White grade soldiers for forgiveness, their hearts ached seeing him weep for their fallen brothers, and now today they see him launching an attack so big it would scare even Blue grade mages! The difference in appearance was so staggering that it frightened and bewildered most of them but also gave them the impression that he was someone worth respecting and serving.
Leo continued to eat, and he suddenly remembered something, asking Ash,"Oh yeah, with how crazy yesterday got, I forgot to ask, but did we gain anything yesterday Ash?"
Ash instantly tensed up and embarresdly said,"My lord, I apologize, yes there were several major findings that happened yesterday."
Leo perked up upon hearing that and asked,"What have you got for me?"
Xia interrupted and asked,"Before that, my lord, I asked Sir Bu i I could participate in his project but he said that I need your permission because it was your idea. So is it alright if I join that project? The idea is so fascinating to me!"
Leo, with a small vein popping on his head in annoyance from being caught up on Ash's report replied,"Sure. I don't mind." Leo turned back to Ash and said,"Please, continue"
Ash nodded and said," Well first, we found some livestock. 1 small herd of Earth Cows and Water Bulls. We also found 1 new crop and 1 new medicinal herb, which are the Bersomberries and the 'Red Nimble Vines'."
Leo nodded his head, as Sally who was across the table nodded her own, which got Leo 2 bronze chests and 1 Iron chest. Leo was disappointed they weren't all Iron chests but he figured he would get more eventually.
Leo asked him,"Anything else?"
Leo then saw Ash get very serious as he said,"Yes, my lord. We discovered about 500 units away from the territory of our borders, another lord's territory."
Leo's face darkened upon hearing that, and he responded by saying,"Haa… I knew this day would come sooner or later. Well, after we drop Rudolf off at the old ant cave to look for the new mine possibilities, we'll go and attempt to make that lord submit to our power. If he or she doesn't do so, we'll have to force them into submission, but let's just hope it doesn't have to come to that."
Ash nodded, approving of the surprising growth that Leo had gone through ever since the crystal hoarder raid. Before, it was like a child exploring for the first time, but now, Ash felt like he was talking to a soldier who had seen a few gruesome battles. Ash didn't know if this was a good thing or bad thing so only time would tell.
Leo then said,"Well, getting off that sobering topic for now, Ash, you're a fire elementalist right? I never noticed until you lit the pyre yesterday."
Ash nodded as he kept eating, and replied,"Yes, my lord. My parents were both fire elementalists, so I naturally inherited their affinity."
Leo was a bit surprised as he asked,"Affinities are passed down from parent to child?"
The deacon answered this time as he answered with," Yes, just like how two people with brown hair will have another brown hair child, the same can be said for affinities."
Leo, not realizing that he was in a fantasy world, casually said out loud,"That's pretty cool, I wonder how elemental affinities would work on a punnett square?"
Everyone that was close to Leo all turned to him with very confused looks as Xia spoke up and asked," Punt it square my lord?"
Leo noticed their confused look and said,"Do we have anything to write on and with? I will explain what a punnett square looks like."
Xia quickly produced a quill, some ink and a piece of animal hide, making Leo wonder if this world had never even produced parchment paper. Leo put those thoughts out of his head as he tried to remember all the things he learned about punnett squares in highschool.
Leo figured an elementary breakdown would suffice since he really could only remember the basics about it. Leo started by saying,"Ok, this is a bit difficult to explain, but Imagine Ash has a child with a water elementalist."
Leo chuckled as Ash visibly reddened at that notion. Leo continued," In this hypothetical, we'll just assume that these two can only wield fire and water respectively. We mark Ash as FF, and his future baby's mother as Ww. The capitals represent the dominant trait such as if fire was a dominant trait over water, while the lowercase letter represents the regressive or submissive trait, like the last example of water being a weaker element than fire."
This discussion had attracted even the workers lower down the table and even a few soldiers who turned to listen to Leo. Leo continued,"In this hypothetical We are saying that Fire is dominant, so the first box will be Fw, the one on the bottom left will be fW, the top right will be Fw, and the bottom right will be fw."
Everyone seemed to nod at the same time, engrossed in Leo's explanation.
Leo continued as he kept writing down and explaining on the animal skin,"The Fw means that the child is more likely to inherit its fathers fire attribute. The fW means that the child is more likely to inherit its mothers water attribute. The FW means either that it is a 50/50 chance of inheriting either both elements or that one had a possibility of overpowering the other, and in this hypothetical, that would most likely be fire. Finally you have the last box fw, which is two submissive traits, which can lead to both traits being gained by the child, or, it's possible that an entirely new trait will be born from this combination."
Everyone ooh'd and Ah'd at Leo's explanation as Xia started to mutter on the side. Leo turned to him and asked,"Xia, is something wrong?"
Xia turned back and quickly replied,"No Lord Leo! In fact my mind is racing because this makes perfect sense! There are countless legends of two perfectly normal elementalists having a child that has an extremely rare element that no one else besides a handful of people can control! This 'punnett square' of yours makes perfect sense! Absolutely genius! I must go and elaborate on this further!" After saying that Xia quickly ran off, causing Leo to chuckle.