Eldrian quickly thought of a few possibilities. Sadly, auras and bloodlines weren't all that easy to investigate. Heck, even hidden classes were hardly ever documented. Almost all information was based on legends and myths.
Sure, Eldrian understood that these legends and myths were actually true—to some degree. Perhaps a bit—or, in fact, a great deal embellished. Sadly, that meant they could only give him somewhat of an idea, not concrete examples.
'But there is Amnur with fire... I'm unsure if it is Wrath or something different, but it is similar. Boran also has something similar, but from what he's told me, he gained a hidden class called Berserker, but that is the class that Wrath on its own grants its user.'
With that information, Eldrian felt confident Boran had to have Wrath too. However, there were clearly differences between what Eldrian knew of the aura and what Boran could use it for.
While Eldrian had had no control over Wrath, his and Boran's Wraths had seemed far more alike. But as Eldrian learned how to control it, how he used it changed. Yet, Boran could control Wrath too—in his own way. A completely different approach from Eldrian's.
'Mmm, I remember Ziraili also once said that Wrath is annihilation itself. Or that it could be.' With that thought, Eldrian tried to figure out what his auras were. Not how he used them or what they represented, but what their core principles were.
This led him to ask why the element Fire was under the aspect of Order. Fire was chaotic in nature. Water seemed more in line with Order. Yet, seven elements were included within Order, plus all their combinations. Which seemed strange. Not all the elements were orderly, after all.
'Perhaps things aren't exclusive? Or perhaps it depends on what starts it, how it evolves, or what the end results are?'
Needless to say, Eldrian spent the next few hours pondering. Finally logging out when Elizabeth came to scold him. A scolding which Eldrian had wanted to avoid, and mostly ignored.
The next day, Eldrian wanted to return to his ponderings. He was still waiting for Ziraili to respond. Which wasn't too strange, she had told him she would be quite busy preparing everything for the tournament.
Strictly speaking, she only prepared everything over on the ANW side, the devs had to sort out a bunch of other things on their own side—such as the matchmaking, prizes, and so forth.
Still, Ziraili had to prepare the arenas and all that. And with guild matches being included, these arenas needed to be far greater in scale than had been required in previous years.
"Eldrian, care to have a match?" This question certainly threw Eldrian for a loop. He hadn't been making any progress on his ponderings, so he welcomed the distraction.
Still, he was confused why she had come to ask for a match. This was earlier than their monthly sparring bouts. "Uhm, what brought this on, Vivian?"
"We haven't sparred in quite a while."
"Is that all?" Eldrian asked, confused. It had only been two weeks ago that they last sparred. He didn't get a straight answer to his question. Shrugging, he agreed.
"We should go outside of the city," Vivian said, having noted that Eldrian was trying to go to one of the nearby barracks.
"What? Uhm... sure?"
In the end, they went to Eldrian's typical training spot. The abandoned village. While they could have fought anywhere outside, Vivian was acting strange.
'We normally spar once every month or so.' With all the training Eldrian has been going through, he has been spending time with his friends less and less.
When he wasn't training in the core, he was out seeking powerful foes, mastering new spells, or attempting to control his auras. When he did meet with friends, it had become more and more of a hangout with his friends in Phoenix, and not his NPC friends.
Still, Eldrian made sure to keep in contact. He also discussed theory with Myropsis every few weeks, and development plans with Pelaros—though Eldrian never felt he could contribute much. Other players were far more knowledgeable in that area than himself.
All this to say, they normally fought in the training fields once a month. That Vivian wanted to go outside the city, and even past the border wall. It caught Eldrian off guard.
Something was different today. Vivian was acting strange.
"Can you explain why you wanted to come out here?" Eldrian finally asked. The old abandoned village, almost completely destroyed by now, was a familiar area. But it was quite a bit away from the city.
The wandering undead were still present, though the two had only encountered three groups on their way.
"I was worried we might cause some collateral damage," Viviant said.
"What?"
Eldrian was more than a little confused by that statement of hers. Out of sheer confusion, he went ahead to inspect her stats. As discourteous as this was, she should have just explained herself better.
'Wow, she's made some crazy progress recently.' Ever since Eldrian had reached Tier 5, Vivian had been unable to keep up with him. She had fallen more and more behind, until, finally, their sparring matches hadn't posed any risk to him.
What Eldrian saw now made it clear that Vivian could match him. Her stats were still a little lacking, true. But she had reached Tier 6. Which brought a massive jump. And her techniques had always been way better than his. She might stand a chance; if they fought only with their weapons and skills. No magic.
If Eldrian used magic, he still couldn't see himself losing.
With that in mind, he asked, "What rules are we going to fight under?"
Vivian seemed vexed by the question. Frowning, she replied, "I want to so no-holds-barred, but... I know I won't be able to get close to you if you go all out."
Pausing, she sighed. "With that said, I don't want to forbid magic."
Eldrian nodded. That much made sense, Vivian herself had reached Tier 5 in magic. Which was a massive surprise. The last time they had fought, she had still been Tier 4 in it, and Tier 5 in melee. She must have had some massive flash of inspiration.
While Eldrian understood what she wanted, he was worried. "I don't want to risk anyone getting hurt."
He didn't mind if he got hurt—or even killed. He would simply revive. The problem was if Vivian got seriously injured.
With Myropsis' healing, they would be able to even regrow limbs. But, still, the idea didn't feel right. Death was even possible to circumvent, Eldrian had a bunch of resurrection potions on him, after all. But again, he would feel shit if he accidentally killed her.
"You know, my mom recently asked me to bring her over to Taurus, to Kynigo..." This change of topic threw Eldrian for yet another loop. "She said she had tried her best to arrange passage, but..."
"Teleportation is the only real way," Eldrian replied, understanding what Vivian was getting at. The Chaos Lands was not something civilians could cross, even with a military escort, it would be difficult.
True, the monsters had been thinned. And a number of highways were being constructed between the kingdoms. But it would still take a few months for them to be finished.
Sadly, teleportation between kingdoms wasn't cheap. A hundred gold at minimum, with longer distances adding more and more to the cost—in relation to the mana expenditure.
The initial high cost wasn't correlated to the mana cost itself, in fact, if you knew people in high positions, it was possible to drop the cost to the mana cost itself.
Considering Aggostead's location, teleportation to Duran need only cost 5 or 10 gold at most. Getting to Kynigo would probably cost around 20 gold for direct teleportation.
That, however, was probably more than Diane could afford. Also, it wasn't like you could teleport as long as you had the money. Kingdom politics played an important role too.
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