Chapter 1840: Grill The Avatar
While the black dragons were distracted, Rue pulled Karl aside. "We should catch up on crafting some Immortal Grade items for the store before he wants us for something. They’re selling out of everything at an incredible rate now that the word is spreading, and more of the challenges have happened."
"Ah, good point. We should make duplicates of everything. Just mass produce the most popular bribes at Rare and Epic Grade, then make a couple of Peerless Grade items at the end of the day."
Rue laughed. "Don’t you have a skill to upgrade all the items by a Grade anyhow?"
"Oh, good point. I can just [Breath Of The World] on some of the Epic Grade items at the end of the day to come up with random items instead of putting in the work to make actual Peerless Grade items from scratch.
We’re not using them anyhow, so it’s not like they have to be tailored to a particular skill."
The dragon nodded. "So, let’s make a load of items at Epic Grade first. I will do caster, you do warrior, and then you can upgrade a handful, while we ship the rest to the store to be sold as the high-end bribes.
The werewolves can take care of the Rare Grade stuff, they’re getting pretty good at it already, and their speed is increasing.
Plus, there are more of them."
They moved away from the group a little, and got right to work.
The black dragon Avatar would sense them even if they tried to hide away somewhere, so there was no point in going anywhere. If they worked off to the side here, they could still answer questions when necessary.
And while Yewan was taking up most of the conversation, the Avatar still did have some questions for them and Lotus.
"This space, what was your plan for it?"
Karl shrugged. "Mostly it’s a place for my people to live now, but I actually started it as a space for the beasts to relax and to grow the magical plants that they needed. There are some animals here as well, but strictly within a balanced ecosystem, as they’re essentially livestock.
For example, the fish in the lake.
We limit how many the hatchlings can hunt on their own, but they’re often included in the meals. It cuts down on how much we have to go out and gather or hunt.
If we had to hunt meat for so many hatchlings, it would be a nightmare. But with the Tiny World, we’ve got more than enough.
We also have many rare Alchemy resources here, plants that Thor likes to eat, and a number of other valuable resources, plus the extra energy to help the dragons grow."
The Avatar nodded. "You did a fine job with that. Far better than most, actually.
Most attempts at a Tiny World are either incomplete, or closer to a Mortal World in energy density. Enough to survive within, but not nearly enough for anything to really thrive.
I don’t suppose that you have Mana Manipulation as one of your partially understood Fundamental Rules?"
"I’ve fully comprehended Mana Manipulation, and I’m very close on both Chaos and Fire."
The dragon looked impressed. "I wouldn’t have expected you to do so well with fire. Is it caused by feedback from the Phoenix?"
Karl nodded. "Hawk has been with me longer than anyone, and we understand each other very well. I understand a bit of all the rules that the beasts mastered to get to Immortality, but Hawk didn’t start out as Innately Fire Element, so I learned it as he did, without the innate understanding that the others skipped.
It led to a more complete understanding of the rule than most."
"I see. That makes sense when I have the context. However, it is somewhat startling that you managed to fully understand the rule of Mana Manipulation. It’s not one of the easy ones to understand, and is generally considered a third tier Rule."
"Third tier?"
The Avatar nodded. "There are basically three types of rules. Fragmented Rules, which are situational, or part of a larger rule. Primary Rules, which are major elemental rules, and core concepts of sentient beings. Then, the Core Rules. Life, Death, Mana and Divinity. Most Immortals will struggle to even touch on one of them if they’re not innately aligned to them.
Take your little fox. He understands a portion of the Rule of Divinity, as he is a Divine Beast by birth. Though, that is different than understanding Divinity itself.
And the Black Dragons will innately understand the Fundamental Rule of Death.
But most others will pick a simpler rule to understand. The Naga in the Alchemy Lab understood the Fundamental Rule of transformation, an Alchemy Related Rule.
It’s one of the Second Tier Rules, as transformation is an overarching Rule which is involved in many others. So, many will understand a bit of it, but not all. Then, there are the first tier Rules like pain.
Powerful within their own range. However, not all species can feel pain, and pain itself is usually only part of a larger process.
It’s still a Fundamental Rule, but not on the same level of influence over the world.
At the Immortal Rank, the choice makes very little difference, unless your lifestyle doesn’t suit the rule that you have understood. The spider would struggle to live in a world where she was surrounded by slimes, which do not feel or understand pain.
She would be bored half to death.
So, picking a rule that directly impacts your life is much more important than one that has the higher ranking, or the most influence on creation. That level of optimization will help you grow much more quickly within your own chosen path.
That’s where so many of these idiots in the training Sects fail. They all learn the same thing, and don’t consider that it might not be the best option for themselves. It’s just the only one that they have access to, so they try to make it fit.
I suppose if you don’t truly understand what you’re doing, you just have to pick whatever has the most available information."
"And you do understand?" Rue asked curiously.
"I have lived in the Divine Realm for quite some time now. You can’t compare the access to information there to what you can access in the Immortal Realms."
