n

n

nFollowing the man with truly fluffy ears, Eldrian had thought the training grounds would be outside. Instead, they headed into a basement. Looking at the walls Eldrian was slightly reminded of the magic room.

nThe walls, roof, and floor all had arrays carved into them, though it seemed to be a single array rather than multiple ones. All of the lines and patterns seeming to go to the corners.

n

"Wow,

" Eldrian let out as he realized just how crazy this must be to construct. The inside of the room was mostly clear, with a few dummies at the sides and bullseye targets at the far side.

n

"Right, feel free to equip them now.

"

nNodding Eldrian did just that, the process taking him a good while as he struggled with the straps. Having never really worn armor made him feel like a baby who can't even dress himself.

nEmbarrassed Eldrian wanted to test the armor to hide it, so he turned towards one of the dummies. Made of straw with plain armor covering it.

n'Alright then, how do I do this?' Eldrian wondered, copying the method with Aoidos and finding that it did not work. 'Is it because these abilities have cost?' He wondered, attempting the same approach but this time also sending some mana with.

nHe had no idea how to regulate his mana to precise numbers, so he just let a good amount flow. The gauntlet sucking in what it needed and then sending a massive shockwave to the side. Eldrian's arm thrown back and smacking him hard in the chest. Which only hurt his arm since he was wearing the breastplate.

n

"Ouch,

" Eldrian shook his arm to try and get over the throbbing pain. It certainly wasn't much, but it was completely unexpected. After a few seconds he looked up to see straw, and the armor, the dummy had worn scattered.

nTaking a breath to calm down Eldrian waited for 15 seconds to pass and attempted it all again. This time reinforcing his arm with his other and aiming at a dummy. The shockwave immediately scattering the straw and sending the helmet flying for 10 meters. Clattering against the wall before flying back another 5.

n'Umm...' Eldrian stared at that for a bit and then wondered just how strong that was. He had no reference, moving to a new dummy he used Aoidos and hit the helmet with all his might.

nHis attack shattered the dummies head and dented the helmet. Sending it flying against the wall. Though it did not bounce back further than a meter.

n

"Okay, that is impressive. One more test,

" Eldrian said, gritting his teeth as he took the gauntlet off and aimed it at himself. Once he activated it he was sent flying 2 meters, just barely managing to keep his footing as he landed.

n'Definitely taking that,' He thought, as he glanced at his HP. The damage was not much, around 10. But that was not the aim of the ability. Even if a spell could do the same, it would require more concentration.

nWith Kyma(the gauntlet) he simply needed to think about it and send some mana. Much like Tier 0 spells, and while Eldrian expected he would someday soon be to cast Frost Needle in the same manner, that was still a ways off.

n

"Now,

" Repeating the same process Eldrian attempted to activate the pauldron, it took him a few tries before he managed to actually do it. In the first attempts, the pauldron simply fell to the ground.

n'This is a bit more difficult,' Eldrian thought as he focused on the buckler now floating before him. Much like spell, he could move it around, however, doing so was quite difficult.

nHis connection with the buckler was not with it, but rather with the pauldron. Hence had to send his focus to his shoulder for something floating before him. Very confusing, though if he could master it he knew this would be a great asset.

nWhile the buckler was out the pauldron was mostly gne. Only a single strip of metal remaining where it would reconnect. Hence he lost the protection it normally would provide for a mobile shield.

nEldrian continued to practice for a while, happy to see that somehow the durability of the pauldron was not dropping while he was testing it out. Naturally, he asked Ladou why.

n

"That is because the cost at durability is due to the energy drain on the runes and morphing process. The arrays negate the energy drain and helps with the morphing. Massively decreasing the decrease.

"

n

"Does that mean it works similarly for other items? Such as when using a skill through a weapon

" Eldrian asked, recalling that Vivian once mentioned that doing so would damage the weapon's structure.

n

"Yes, however, there is a limit to what the array can help repair and negate.

"

n

"Is there a way to negate the durability lost outside of the room?

"

n

"Possibly if you gain a high enough degree of control over it.

"

nNodding Eldrian continued to play around, even trying to see if he could launch the buckler with the shockwave. A massive smile spreading as the buckler flew through four dummies and decimating them and their armor.

nHis smile disappearing as he heard Ladou's sigh,

"Please do try to keep the destruction to a minimum.

"

n

"Ah sorry,

" Eldrian quickly apologized and called the buckler back to his shoulder. It quickly morphing to protect his shoulder again. He was truly happy with the two, and the breastplate was already feeling more natural after he ran around a bit.

n

"I'll take them,

"

nNodding Ladou led Eldrian back to the reception room where he quickly wrote the events and sale into a book.

"Thank you, is there anything else you want?

"

nShaking his head Eldrian thanked the demi-human for his help and headed off. Wondering what to do now that he was off. For the sake of it, he decided to go window shopping at a few blacksmiths. Keeping his armor on so he could get more used to moving in them.

nA few hours later as the night was just an hour off, he headed back to Pyknos. Happy with his purchase especially when he confirmed that the price he had gotten was actually good.

nStill, he could not help but sigh at how expensive it was to arm oneself. 'No wonder most Tier 4 and below soldiers have just plain armor. Magical armor is too expensive.'

n...

n

"Are you sure about this?

" Therdul asked as he moved into the room they had been using as a guild headquarters. It was actually just one of the larger rooms of an inn which they managed to rent for cheap due to their time there and increased reputation from their success rate.

n

"Yes, there is little reason for us to stay here. We really need to get Eldrian to join us.

" Elizabeth replied.

n

"Why? We are doing fine?

"

n

"Fine is not good enough. Yes, we are currently one of the highest-ranked guilds, but we have not even reached level 2 yet. We have only completed half the required quests.

"

n

"And most other guilds have only completed a quarter, I am with Therdul,

" Nikki said,

"We will be the first level 2 easily.

"

n

"No,

" Shaking her head Elizabeth shared with them a new update from one of the guilds,

"The teams who are in the top rankings have not been doing much guild quests. However, in just a week they managed to finish all the B-rank quest requirements

"

n

"So? We can do that too?

" Judith countered, Elizabeth having waited for just that.

n

"Without failing? We already failed one, one more and we will forever be stuck at level 1.

"

nSilence ruled as Elizabeth's words sank into everyone. They had to admit that they did not have the guarantee of not failing. Especially if they rushed them.

nGuild quests were completely different from individual quests. Their difficulty was calculated by the adventurer guild. If the intel was wrong then the rank would be completely incorrect. And unless the difference was that of two ranks, they would say that you needed to reassess the mission and return the intel. Not attempt it and fail.

nOn top of that, the difficulty was also calculated completely differently. They had learned this the hard way. Instead of how the system took in all factors, the adventurer guild assumed that the guild was full. And that the average Tier was that of the guild level.

nHence a quest ranked C was meant to have a 100 Tier 1's attempt it. This was easy for the NPC guilds. But for players, life made it hard to get that many members present.

nCurrently, Pheonix Division had only 87 members and not all of them could always be online. If they could manage to get 30 for a quest then that was impressive. The reason was because of the time a quest generally took to finish.

nOther than the 5 B-ranked quests they also had to complete a 100 C-ranked quests with a failure rate of less than 10% to reach level 2. They were already on edge due to their one failure.

n

"You all know how strong Eldrian is, he would make a massive difference.

"

n

"But he has made it clear he does not wish to join.

" Nikki countered, Elizabeth ready for this too.

n

"No, he has made it clear that he sees no benefit in joining. However, we have managed to learn more about what to expect. Meeting the NPC guild was truly a blessing.

"

n

"I still don't get it, the NPCs have guilds too? Why is it that we only now learned of it?

" Therdul asked, confused why this was not a hot topic on either the forums or just an accepted fact.

nIt had shocked them quite a bit when they were teamed up with another team for an A-ranked quest. Which was dropped to B-rank since there were two guilds working together.

nIt was also the quest they had failed, the NPCs had truly been disgruntled with so few from their partner even bothering to show up. Disgruntlement had led to bad team work and eventually the NPCs withdrawing, not wishing to die senselessly.

n