Master Of None

”Oh, that sounds great.” Gil had just gotten to the small office that Alma was working in. She had mentioned that Walker had dragged a few people to the Genesis building for a majority vote on education requirements.

He had not expected that Walker would move forward that way, but with the importance of the matter and the current issues, the representatives who were not present sent letters or communications agreeing immediately. No one disagreed so there were no hard feelings about how everything had gone.

If this was a matter of resources or important location distributions, then yes, there would be issues related to who agreed or did not agree. This, though, was a matter of education and the break down of certain important Genesis groups such as the guilds. If they were to be under too much stress and fail, then there would be a major loss in the alliance as a whole while measures were taken to repair.

In the past, agreements between kingdoms had fallen apart because of issues similar to this. One argument and they had lost the entire trade route they both wanted.

This aside, Gil had also heard about the shifted elemental planes.

”I want to bring some archers to watch the bridge to the earth elemental plane. That way people will be more at ease.” The way Gil saw this, was that the manas there would serve two purposes. The arcane archers could make better earth affinity arrows with the mana and also it could be used to train earth mana resistance.

”We already offered forty additional guards.” Alma had already handled it in her eyes. She had been had been doing a lot since she needed to step back from the efforts to explore the jungle canyon and other important matters.

When it came to the work she did, she was realizing that the elves were less isolated than what they had been. She had seen the complete self isolation of the forest elves and other elves.

This was different. Some of the older elves might struggle with getting out in to the entirety of Genesis or refuse to leave their homes. That was fine, they could live as they wished. But it was the younger elves who were spreading out so much that it was shocking.

They were learning new cultures and breaking older social norms for the elves that every day new events occurred that garnered Alma’s attention.

”Then will we do anything more about the danger that might come? Walker went to the adventurer’s guild to make sure people don’t flock there in to danger. We can’t have an expedition there ready either.”

The materials that could be harvested there were immense according to what Gil heard. But he also understood that the danger for the average person was way too high for any of them to go there.

”You are going to get samples. Herbs, monsters, and scouting information to add to what we might need. I sent along a notice that you would go with Midnight on a scouting trip.” She smiled a little too sweetly.

Now Gil knew, he’d been set up. Alma had been stuck with more paperwork regarding the young elves while Gil hadn’t been helping enough. She’d gone out of her way to push for Gil to scout since it was in fact a dangerous area he could handle with his strength and resistances. It was perfect and he would be doing real work since he would need a very in depth scouting report.

”And here, is Midnight now. She went along to help Onyx but came back because I asked her if she could help you. She was more than willing to make sure you did your job perfectly.” Alma gave a small wave to Gil and Midnight grabbed his arm to drag him off. He couldn’t even say a word in response.

When the pair had made it to the bridge, they found that the small area around had been set with defensive structures. The lava pool was somewhat cut off since rune formations were made to maintain the lava pools in the area So the mana from the bridge was not needed.

There were some larger walls that had mages stationed but also new traps made by the dwarves who had made them from metal and runes formations. Dense spikes and arrows that could be shot out in a single movement with minimal mana.

The guards sent by Alma all made movements to close Gil’s arrival. Otherwise there was a shocking number of Demi-human guards.

They all had earths affinity primarily and had dense defenses. From what he could see, they also had learned to use the ambient earth mana to enhance the strength of their bodies. Something that the Demi-humans had become more in tune with once they had joined Genesis.

”Hello, welcome to the defense force. We have five layers of protection and several checkpoints. So far no unapproved scouts or adventurers have come through. You will be scouting ahead in to the earth field of the earth vein flowers blooming outside. As noted by Walker there should be high monster activity. Use your stealth skills and abilities to manipulate natural or wind mana to remove the vibrations in your footsteps.”

The guard captain that met them had multiple papers in hand and gave Gil the report after speaking and rushing off. It seemed that he was extremely busy making sure that every defense was prepared. It made some sense though, guard captains had become much more focused on organization and tactics lately.

Midnight seemed to already be prepared and was using the wind man’s around her to strengthen her scales. Gil had no idea when she had learned to focus on one mana and add it to her scales over the other manas or mixing them. But he was impressed nonetheless since even he began to struggle to notice the steps she took toward the bridge to the elemental planes.

On his side, he focused on the stealth and scouting skills he possessed. He also focused on the elven dagger techniques. The wind elf dagger style made his foot work much lighter and when combined with his stealth skills it was almost impossible to feel him moving along the ground. It would be better to say he was more perceptible as moving mana.

The pair only looked at the defensive formations and the earthen walls for a short while. Noting that there were multiple wind mages protected with potions and special robes around too. They were one of the first layers of defenses using their wind magic to make barriers of air that would deter earth affinity monsters.

While many people would notice the changes in the manas since wind blew across the land, the heart infinity monsters who had only ever lived within the heart elemental planes would feel like they were under attack or they were becoming ill in some ways.

This was just a method of deterrence by the world so that any of the weaker or maybe even some of the more powerful monsters that noticed the bridge would turn around. If they thought that they were headed toward the wind elemental planes they would most likely avoid it entirely.

Some earth monsters would surely be able to survive in the fire, water, light, and dark elemental planes. But the wind was an opposite to them. It would be much harder.

Gil and Midnight had high elemental resistances because of their training and what races they were now. Dragons could resist many things and Gil was part high elf so he could easily resist what others might not be able to resist.

The other races within Genesis would eventually awaken more characteristics of the ancient parts of them and most likely have easier times traveling to elementally pure areas. That would be in time though.

Seeing that the bridge was unoccupied, Gil and Midnight moved easily. They were not perturbed by the higher earth manas nor when they reached the end were they unsteady to see the dome that walker had created. They noticed the strength was just enough to be challenging but not enough that Midnight could not make an opening for them.

This was the only vibration the pair made as they opened their sightline to the larger field of earth vien flowers which they had been told about.

However, what greeted them was a larger field of fallen petals. Straight standing buds. And signs that something had been moving through tearing up the earth leaving behind larger claw marks and pits.

”We will have to be much more careful.” Gil’s softly spoken voice made Midnight take her dragon form instead of trying to be in her dragonkin form any longer.

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