Alister spotted the downed, sentinel-like tree from a mile away. They were impossible to miss, the azure trees with their azure leaves left the ground looking like a lake. The leaves crunching under Alister's feet filled his ears like a beating of a drum.
The wind sang a symphony that accompanied the crunching under his foot.
It wasn't long before Alister and Gabriel reached the downed tree they called shelter. Olivia was there to greet them, her soft sun-kissed olive colored skin, glowed in the sunlight.
"Alister, Gabriel, it's good to see your back in one piece. Considering you two were gone for three hours!"
Olivia scolded them.
Gabriel spoke:
"Sorry, it went on for a little longer than we planned. But on the bright side, I can kill Awakened Corrupted now."
Olivia widens her eyes a little.
"Is that so, well congratulations to you you big oaf."
Olivia snorted out, they couldn't tell if that was a compliment or a snide remark
"Well, Olivia I'd love to chat but me and the big oaf have some stuff to get to. That doesn't include the sas of you. So goodbye."
Alister spoke while pulling Gabriel away to the hollowed tree in a hurried fashion, so that Olivia couldn't respond.
Once inside the tree, Alister pulled out thirty of the dormant essence cores and broke them, to add purity to his essence core. But when Alister broke the cores, he felt an icy hot feeling fill his veins and race all over his body. From his hands to his shoulders, head, feet, legs then it hit his heart. It felt like his heart was encased in a block of ice that was on fire.
Alister took some time and breathed slowly. It was cold and hot at the sametime, another new feeling for Alister. But it left as fast as it came.
Then he opened up his system status screen:
Name: Alister Aetherbound.
Alias: —
Rank: Dormant.
Essence Core: 1 Core.
Purity: [30/3000].
Inventory: [Trusty Sword], [Leather Bracers], [Leather Greaves], [Bread 5x], [Water Canteen 2x], [Mistgray Chestplate], [Iceflame Sword], [Awakened Corrupted Essence Core 9x], [Dormant Corrupted Essence Core 22x]
Remnants: [Clawstalker].
Aspect Rank: [???]
Aspect: [Primordial Craftsman].
Abilities: [Novice Crafter], [Intuitive Design], [Primitive Alchemy], [Luck's Chosen].
Aspect Description: [Created by the chaos of the beginning energies of the worlds, the primordial, Ketharoth was created. His passion for crafting burned as hot as all the stars.]
Lineage: [Primordial Craftsman].
Lineage Abilities: [Rapid Crafting], [Rudimentary Enchanting], [Weapon Repairer], [Essences Connection].
Time Remaining: [2110 hours].
People Remaining: [47,150].
After studying his stats for a while Alister spoke to Gabriel.
"Well Gabriel, hand over two of those dormant essence cores of yours, as well as your ax and shield. I'm gonna enchant them."
Gabriel nodded and pulled out two dormant essence cores and handed them to Alister. As well as his shield to start with.
Alister held one of the cores in his left hand, then activated [Essences Connection]. His consciousness faded once again, but Alister knew what was going to happen.
He was going to be killed by Gabriel, technically.
He was going to inhabit the body of a Corrupted that was going to be killed by Gabriel. It was just like last time, he saw Gabriel kill the Corrupted he was inhabiting.
Then he was back in his body, panting from the experience. To which Gabriel looked at Alister, trying to find out the reason for Alister sudden panting
"Brother? What's wrong, are you hurt?"
Gabriel spoke in a concerned tone.
"Calm down you behemoth, this is from an ability of mine, don't worry too much."
Alister reassured him.
Gabriel looked hesitant to let the sudden panting outburst go so easily, still looking around Alister's body for any injuries. But after finding nothing, he sighed and stepped back.
"I'm sorry for my sudden outburst, brother."
Gabriel apologized.
"It's fine."
Alister replied.
Then Alister gestured for Gabriel to hand him his shield. After taking it, Alister sat crossed legged, resting it on his lap and putting one of the dormant essence cores, he placed his hands on both ends of the shield.
Alister broke the essence core with his teeth and activated [Rudimentary Enchanting], he guided the essence from his mouth to his hands, to the shield.
After a couple minutes, the system spoke:
[Congratulations! The creation of the enchantment was successful].
[Enchantment Rank: Dormant].
[Enchantment's Name: Weightless].
[Enchantment Description: Reduces the weight of the item enchanted significantly].
The system spoke excitedly.
Alister nodded at the sudden message.
"Here, try it out and hand me your ax while you're at it."
Gabriel did so. To which he handed Alister his ax, then grabbed the shield. His eyes widened at the sudden weightlessness of the shield.
"Alister… This is amazing, it feels like I'm holding a feather rather than that heavy shield from before, this is amazing, you're amazing."
Gabriel exclaimed in amazement.
To which Alister replied with:
"Don't start jumping for joy, it's only a dormant ranked enchantment."
"Well, even for a dormant rank enchantment, this is amazing."
Alister was thinking the same thing, to reduce that heavy shield down to the weight of a feather was something unprecedented. For a dormant ranked enchantment to have such an effect was an odd thing, was it because of Alister? Maybe it was because of Alister's aspect, he put it in the back of his mind to remember for later.
But he did the same process for the ax: [Essences Connection], be killed by Gabriel, pant for a while, put the essence core into his mouth, break it, then enchant.
Then the system spoke once more:
[Congratulations! The creation of the enchantment was successful].
[Enchantment Rank: Dormant].
[Enchantment Name: Weightless].
[Enchantment Description: Reduces the weight of the item enchanted significantly].
The same enchantment, the core was from the same Corrupted so it made sense.
The ax's weight was reduced to a feathers weight. Alister turned the ax from side to side, expecting it. Its design didn't change, when he enchanted the [Puresteel Sword] into the [Iceflame Sword], not only did the design of the sword change, the name did as well. But nothing of Gabriel's ax changed, besides its weight.
The enchantment affected the weight but not the appearance.
Why?
Is it the difference in rank? That seems like the most obvious case, I'll just do some more enchanting later.
He hands the ax back to Gabriel, to which he had the same reaction. Eyes widened, talking about how great this was, but Alister's mind was elsewhere, thinking about something different.
About enchantments and creating items. How rank may affect enchantments, about how enchantment changes the appearance of the item. What if he makes a weapon with a unique appearance then he enchanted it, would the appearance change? Could Alister make it so that the appearance won't change. Could he make an item with a built in enchantment?
What's the limit to what Alister's ability could create?
Many, many theories popped into Alister's mind, theories that never seemed to stop. So many possibilities, so many weapons to create, to enchant.
Not just weapons, armor, charms.
Then something bigger, much bigger popped into his head.
Could he create living things? Something with its own intelligence.
Gabriel's voice woke Alister from his daytime fantasies:
"Brother, you alright? You zoned out for a while there."
"Yeah, I was just doing some thinking. Anyways, that Awakened Corrupted essence core, let me make you something with it."
Gabriel without any hesitation handed Alister the Awakened Corrupted essence core. Alister took it and examined it, it was spherical like all the other cores, to no surprise.
This is the first time Alister actually used his non-lineage abilities.
Alister used the [Essences Connection] and to no one's surprise, it was Alister in the Viperlings body and he was attacking Gabriel. Biting at his legs, whipping at him with its tail. But Alister knew how this story ends.
After a while Gabriel brought his ax down and crushed him. He was transported back into his body. Something was different though, he didn't pant.
Did I get used to dying? No, that's ridiculous.
Alister instantly wrote it off that he was getting used to [Essences Connection] rather than getting used to dying. At least that's what he hoped was happening.
After a couple deep breaths and sometime thinking, Alister had a rough idea of what he wanted to make. A breastplate, all back with scales like the Viperling have.
Alister held his hand out with the essence core in one hand and the other next to it, then he broke it.
Alister activated three abilities: [Novice Crafter], [Intuitive Design] and [Rapid Crafting].
Essence shot out and started to fly away, but Alister kept them contained. Slowly he envisioned the item he wanted to create, it started to shape. It was difficult to say the least, to create the design he desired. He slowly made the individual overlapping scales, it was time consuming.
***
Thirty minutes later and he was still making the armor, you'd think that the [Rapid Crafting] Ability would make things faster.
It takes a lot of Alister essence to create something with so much detail, let alone trying to make it sturdy and fit the large body of Gabriel. Fortunately due to Alister's aspect, he had a lot of essence. Unfortunately, this was Alisters first time crafting something.
But after a while, it was finished.
Alister made the armor materialize, but before he could his body felt as if it went into auto-pilot. It made simple yet complex alterations to the all-black breastplate. It made the edges sharper, made the scales more sleek. Then it did something even more odd, it made runic letters down the spine.
The system spoke in his ear:
[Congratulations! The creation of the item was successful].
[Item Rank: Awakened].
[Item's Name: Nightshade Scales].
[Item's Description: The breastplate is entirely black, covered in sleek, overlapping scales. Along the spine, runic letters are etched between the scales. The edges remain sharp, enhancing the armor's dark and imposing presence].
[Item's Abilities: [Runes of Dread], [Scales of Fortitude]].
[Item's Ability Description:When this ability is active any enemy striking the wearer may get the status effect [Fear], reducing their attack speed and accuracy].
[Item's Ability Description: The overlapping scales provide minor protection against physical blows and essence attacks, slightly reducing the impact of attacks and enhancing the wearer's defense].
"Well lucky you Gabriel, this is my finest work yet. Matter a fact, this may be the most powerful awakened item ever created."
Gabriel seemed surprised at the statement made.
"Now take it and go away."
Alister grabbed Gabriel's hand suddenly and transferred it to his inventory.
Gabriel looked at it in his inventory, then surprise hit his face. He opened his mouth to praise Alister, but received a foot to the ass before he could.
"I said get out, I have crafting to do!"
Alister yelled.
Gabriel took the hint and walked out, rubbing the mark Alister left on his ass.
Well, There's a lot of work to be done. I got a lot of cores to experiment with, lucky me. But the problem is where to start.
Alister felt a mix of annoyance and excitement.
He leaned back and sighed, then he remembered a quote from a book he read:
"With every stroke and shaping of his hand, the craftsman forges not just objects, but the essence of his soul into each creation."
With that Alister sat up and cracked his knuckles.
"Let the fun begin."