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Chapter 234 - Presents
🕑 Added 2025-01-31 21:35:46 +0000 UTCAbigail
It was wonderful to be home again. The trip was slightly larger than first anticipated but it was well worth the extra time. The sheer number of people who advanced was not to be understated.
Nearly everyone with the Water Affinity was able to form Mana Cores. Only a few didn't, but various reasons were behind their choice.
Sadly, some failed to forge one but others made a conscious choice not to, instead focusing on improving their Law with their time around the treasure. Chris allowed everyone to read through what he called a technique -more like suicide with extra steps- and they were holding out for a better option that fit them.
The Mages, though, had no excuse and all went ahead with the technique to forge a Core. Abigail herself had done so and now had a glowing Core where her Mana pool used to be that radiated power.
She'd finally decided on what she was going to do. While she was still a healer and would continue to have those skills and abilities, she would never be the best healer.
She had already mixed the two. Her evolution to F-rank was a battlefield healer variant that provided buffs as well as healing skills. Her E-rank evolution took that a step further and gave offensive spells as well as the occasional healing adjacent ones.
Being a Healer was now only a small portion of her skill set. People like Sam, who only stuck to Healing Classes and Skills, were much better than her in terms of healing ability.
The only reason she had been able to keep up with them was sheer stubbornness and her Law. Hours spent training simply weren't enough to bridge the gap. Not everyone in the Family gained their Laws the same. While their affinity was, how they saw Water differed.
Just how Gabriel's and Christopher's Ice Laws were vastly different even though they were the same element.
The Restorative property of Water that Abigail first gained her Law with gave her an edge when it came to healing and skills like [Waters of Renewal].
Without that edge, her ability to heal would've dropped off ages ago.
She would still be able to do it, but not as well as a Pure Healer like Sam.
Which was why she chose the Mage route when she forged her Core. The change would be difficult, but it wouldn't be impossible. All her previous Classes gave the stats she needed so it wasn't like she would be behind in that respect.
It was the variety of offensive skills that hindered her. Rachel and Gabriel had nearly a dozen skills to call on for every situation that came up. Abigail only had a few.
She could buff herself with her support skills, and heal herself, but she only had a few skills dedicated to attacking foes.
Numerous plans were in place to fix that.
The first was to purchase skill shards with the type of skill she wanted. Things like [Water Bolt] or [Water Whip] were common enough to drop from Dungeons as new as theirs.
They had already noticed skill shards dropping, but Abigail suspected the rate was disproportionately low. Not that it was a bad thing.
Just the people who received the drops would sooner use it and gain the skill, or if it wasn't suited to them, knew someone who could, before they started putting them up for sale.
Which left only the occasional skill that no one wanted to be sold to the City.
Time was the only solution to that, but the other was the continued upgrades of their Pylon. Further reach would increase their odds of seeing skills up on the Market.
The second plan to fix her deficit was to make her own skills.
Gabriel lectured enough about his view on skills that she knew it was possible. He ranted and raved about the underlying 'skill matrix' as he started calling it.
Abigail didn't know the first step to even begin doing that, but it was an option she could look into. The much easier way would be to use pure manipulation.
Forming a whip of water from pure manipulation ability was infinitely harder than just using the skill for it, but it was much more flexible.
Her daily practice to do just that was producing results, but just not at the rate she liked. Improvement was improvement, she wasn't mad about that, but it was slow. She could use it in a fight, but it would be clumsy and not very powerful.
Burning her Bloodline was the only way to get it to the levels she needed but that also put her on a timer as there was only so long she could do so.
Her new Core helped, surprisingly.
It was like her connection to the Water mana was stronger and the effort it took to manipulate it went down. It was a hidden benefit she didn't remember reading about.
"Mommy, are we there yet?" Anna called, drawing her thoughts to a halt.
"Almost there, sweetie. Give it a few minutes and you'll see it." She answered.
Both Anna and Josh loved exploring the new City and had spent nearly every available moment running around to what they could see. Jon was nearly run ragged by their enthusiasm.
They had calmed down after the first few days but they were still a handful to watch over. Abigail had felt bad but Jon kept telling her to focus on herself and he would be fine.
Which did nothing for the slight guilt she felt leaving him to deal with the two whirlwinds alone.
Thankfully, the trip back to Frostheim was blessedly uneventful. Hal wrote a number of reports about the increasing threat as the beasts continued to grow which had been a small worry as they traveled home.
She had noticed large caravans forming of people wanting to leave Marcus' City, and they only did so when a suitable number was reached. As the citizens reached safe havens and the overwhelming desire for survival wore off, so too did the urge to get stronger, forcing some to only travel when numbers were on their side.
Most still tried to grow. Both Dungeons under their control had wait lists growing longer by the day for teams to delve into and others ventured out to kill 'real' creatures in the Wilds.
Others took the Profession route to get stronger. They didn't have the combat ability, but they had the stats to deal with most things. Vincent had one of the highest Strength stats behind Chris and when he swung his hammer, it was not to be taken lightly.
While the vast majority of people fell under those two categories, some didn't care for a life of bloodshed or slaving away at a craft, as they called it.
They were content to live peacefully. Which left them vastly under-level compared to most everyone else and woefully unprepared if they tried to leave on their own.
The beasts roaming the woods would eat them up and spit them out before they could so much as blink. Especially the ones stuck at level 25, as they didn't have the requirements to evolve.
Abigail's thoughts turned toward her Grandmother as she stopped advancing at that exact level, but there was nothing she could do about that.
Her thoughts drifted until the Walls came into view not long after she told Anna they would. Their arrival sparked a small crowd to gather but most continued on their way like nothing happened.
The sled pulled them through the City with ease and it wasn't long before they were home again.
Both little ones jumped off the sled and ran into the Castle while she was left to help Jon bring in all of the luggage.
"Mom! Mom! Uncle Austin's back!" Anna cried from inside.
Austin's back? I thought he would wait until the last moment before he had to arrive.
She knew the group sent to help Marcus was on their way back and had arrived already, but she expected him to venture off somewhere only returning when Chris did.
"Yes, the most valiant and magnanimous of all your relatives has returned to grace you with his presence!" His voice dripped with sarcasm and playfulness that only made her children giggle.
"I notice how you didn't say strongest." Jon poked at his inflated ego as they walked in.
Austin rolled with it, "Is that a challenge, my good sir?"
Her husband only laughed, "I'd rather take my chances against Chris, at least I can hit him back rather than being used as a pincushion."
"Alright, honey, I'm off to see my family. You got the kids?" Jon asked after he set everything down.
"I got 'em." Abigail said, "Say hello to your mother for me."
Austin sighed dramatically, "He's going to miss my grand reveal of what I brought back."
Anna and Josh both perked up at that, "You brought gifts?"
"Of course I did. You think I'd forget you little rascals?!"
"Gifts! Gifts! Gifts!" Both chanted in unison.
"For the lovely little lady, I bring this." He brought out a tall and thin box, around four feet tall and barely a few inches wide and long. "And for you little man, I brought this." The second gift was much smaller and about the size of a fist.
Abigail instantly knew what it was.
So did Josh, who tore into his present with abandon revealing the rock everyone knew it held.
"Thanks, Uncle Austin! I'll add it to my collection!" He ran off before anything else could be said.
"Add it? I wasn't the first?" Austin asked.
Abigail shook her head, "Chris beat you to it."
"Bastard,"
"Hey, that's a bad word!" Anna chimed.
"Yes it is," Austin nodded, "Do you wanna hear a few more? Sh–"
"Alright, that's enough." Abigail interrupted and redirected, "Why don't you open your gift?"
Attention diverted, Anna tore into her gift and revealed a long stick. A stick that had one pointy end and a shaft about as tall as she was. Abigail's brain stopped for a second after she recognized the gift, "You got her a spear!!"
"That I did. The most noble of weapons and the most popular in human history." He said smugly, completely missing the face she was making at him, "I also have it on good authority that spears are the coolest."
Seeing how he wasn't understanding her outrage, she repeated, "You got her a weapon!"
Austin looked confused, "Yeah. It's about the age she should start learning, isn't it?"
"She's 10!" Abigail cried.
The man had the gall to look confused, like he wasn't sure if being 10 was too old or too young. Ignoring the idiot, "Anna, honey, why don't you let mommy hold onto that so you don't lose it."
"But I wanna –"
"No buts, young lady."
"Fiiine"
She was disappointed at getting her gift taken away, but it was for the best. She was not letting her daughter run around with a deadly weapon.
After Anna left, Abigail tore into the man, "What were you thinking?!"
He put his hands up in defense, "Hey, I honestly thought you guys would've let her train by now. She's been asking for a while."
"She's a child!"
"Yes, a child that will get a Class soon enough."
"I'm not having this discussion with you. Especially when I just walked in the door."
"Technically, you walked in a gate, not a door." The smartass said.
It took everything in her to stab the man with the spear she confiscated, but she pushed the urge down and only glared.
And, just because she couldn't get any more on her plate after just arriving, Hal came running in at that exact moment. "Chris is back!"
When they first arrived, she was surprised they had beat him but it turned out they were only ahead by a few hours. The conversation suitably postponed, they gathered atop the Castle to watch him come in.
He came from the North, which was on the lower side of the cliff, and gave them a clear view as he trudged closer pulling a... sleigh?
It was clearly made of ice and it left deep trails in the snow as he marched on. Whatever was on the sleigh was heavy.
Austin sighed from where they all watched. "I half expected him to be riding a Mammoth when he came back."
The outlandish idea made her say something back instinctively, "How would he even do that? He has no way to tame one."
"I dunno." Austin shrugged, "Beat it up like he did the horse."
"That only worked because Sarah was there to tame it. You can't just beat something up and hope it becomes obedient."
"You can't?"
"I- You-," A synapse short-circuited as she tried to comprehend his stupidity, "I can't with you." It had been less than an hour and he was already on thin ice. A feat he would probably smirk at if she said it aloud.
Gabriel thankfully stopped the man from saying anything else. "What do you think's on the sled."
The group watching as Chris neared grew as more people heard the news and it wasn't long before most were standing atop the Castle watching.
Austin flared brightly for a moment before he smirked, "It's for you, Gabe."
"For me?" Gabriel asked, "What could he have possibly... No. He didn't!"
That was all it took before he was off running through the City. Not one to enjoy being left out, Abigail glared until the man answered. The only thing she could notice was the sled contained a giant block of ice with something inside of it.
Whatever was frozen inside was too obscured to make anything out, but somehow Austin had. The perks of having a bird Bloodline and high perception that she didn't.
Frustratingly, he answered with a question, "What does Gabriel want most right now?"
"That's obvious, he wants a Bloodline. But our pylon isn't capable–"
"What's the other way to gain a Bloodline?"
Oh. OH.
He brought a live beast back to the City! He better not bring that inside the Walls!
Comments
Thomas Issa
In this universe is it easier or harder for more powerful beings like gods to have kids? Like is it that it’s harder for them to reproduce because otherwise dragons would just nonstop pop out super powerful children, like how it’s harder to heal a more powerful and magic resistant being Or, can they just have children all of the time? Which is no doubt lead to a lot more conflict, over resources, birthright, gross paths focused on breeding perfect soldiers?
musashi
Where did the trophy antlers go? tftc
Corey Shelikoff
I also thought he was bringing back the antlers
Penguin Glutton
True
Demonlord
Fighter... She's too energetic and a "hands on" person to cast spells from the backline
Penguin Glutton
Think Anna gonna be a warrior or mage?
Penguin Glutton
Ashes? Or smoke?
Penguin Glutton
Tftc!
Thomas Issa
What mana affinity would fire plus wind be? I can see fire plus lightning making plasma, but not fire plus wind Maybe inferno?
James Faulkner
Tftc lol
justin
What did happen to miles
Demonlord
Thanks for the nice chapter 😊 It's definitely fun to see Austin teasing everyone and I agree that Anna should start training with weapons... It's a dangerous world and the earlier you start the training the better your survival chances are... And of course Chris is bringing a living monster with him 🤣🤣
Buck
TFTC!
Buck
Will be interesting to see what bloodline Gabriel ends up with. I hate waiting for Monday to find out! 🤬🤬🤬
giann flroesca
Also remember, he said what is the "other" meaning alternative. Chris probably doesn't have the knowhow to harvest it correctly without damaging it and since their pylon didn't have what gabe wanted, live beast it is
Supperwaffle
The heart was a upgrade that could work with ascending teirs but he has a frost born bloodline
Thomas Issa
Tad confused about why it has to be living, I thought Chris ate a frost giant’s heart for his Also there are character details that I would like to know, namely Abigail’s bloodline and Sarah’s profession, also what happened to Miles
