The Father turned back towards Dale, “You see, young man, I am a rank-A priest. If someone were threatening my flock, I would be more than willing, nay, I would cheerfully send them to the creator.”
Dale watched the clear liquid of the ground steam, all impurities apparently burned away. “Well. The spot, ah, is yours it... seems. Let’s make a lease shall we? What are you willing to offer as payment?” Dale tried not to be stunned by the casual display of apocalyptic destructive capabilities.
Father Richard snorted at Dale's attempt to seem nonchalant. “Many things. Firstly, I will build my own building. I will provide healing to people as needed, for a small offering. With this many people, families are bound to arrive, it won’t always be the simple military camp it is now. A church in the area will alleviate many concerns families may have. I will teach and train youngsters for no charge, and accept any into my order who are gifted with an affinity for celestial Essence.”
“I will be able to provide them a means to gain this Essence, in the proper ways. Often, children with celestial affinity are small or weak because they cannot gain any Essence, I will teach them how to properly cultivate through their prayers.”
“Finally, I will provide a bank to the community that will not be corrupt as a non-morally guided bank would be. We will only take a small amount in fees that will provide the bulk of our income, and our rent to you, which will be determined by a percentage of the gross amount we earn.”
Dale was impressed by this man’s knowledge of the world, but realized that as an A-ranked person, he could be several hundred years old. “Father, you seem very knowledgeable and wise. I do agree to these terms, though I must ask, why did it take so long for you to be given a church? You obviously have the power and wisdom to stand alone.”
“We, my sect of the church that is, are in disfavor with the Bishop due to our favored practice of worship.” Father Richard disclosed brightly, happy that the land was his.
“Why? What do you do?” Dale was genuinely curious.
“We do the lord's work as our penance, our service to the world. We hunt demons and the undead. Pardon me, I have work to do!” Father Richard jauntily stated, moving toward the small market area to find craftsmen.
~Cal~
Dani had been correct, wiping out a party every week or so caused no undue attention, as the amount of dungeon divers increased. Apparently, the promise of long life and vast riches caused people to ignore the danger inherent in this occupational choice. Go figure. Only a month and some change since they arrived, now a sea of adventurers waited on a line for the Guild to grant them permission to enter, only the first group of the day showed up on a regular basis. They seemed to have some kind of precedence, maybe? That didn’t really bother me though. Thanks to the constant Essence gains I was making, I had gained enough power fast enough that six of the Beast Cores around me held their own Chi spiral. They weren't sentient stones of course, I spiraled their Essence manually. Thanks to keeping these Cores charged, I was able to fill the rooms with Mobs nearly as soon as the humans vacated them, allowing multiple groups to enter in staggered time frames. I would eventually use or absorb the Essence accumulated in the Beast Cores, but I would have choked on the amount of energy I was gaining, I could not just take it all in. Similarly, the corruption stones were also becoming full, but try as I might, I could not make them spiral, they just sat there, glowing with their corruptions respective color.
Thanks to the massive group of people moving through me, and the large amounts of deaths that occurred seemingly by their own stupidity, just a few short weeks after entering the ninth rank of the F series, Dani was coaching me on how to move into the D rankings.
“Let me explain to you what needs to happen, Cal. The reason it is called ‘breaking’ into a new rank is that you need enough knowledge and power to further ‘break’ your Essence, and the mental barriers to advancement. I need to warn you - it hurts. A lot.” She started seriously, “To get into the D-ranks, your Chi and Essence spiral needs to shatter into a ‘fractal’. This means that each part of the pattern has the same statistical character as the whole.” She took a breath as I attempted to understand her meaning.
“In other words,” she clarified,” your Chi spiral needs to become a spiral, made of spirals, which are further made of spirals. The Essence swirl that it draws from needs to become a swirl, made of swirling Essence. This will, when you manage it, allow you to astronomically increase the Essence you can hold and absorb at any given time, at least a hundred times more at any given point.”
I kept pace with her lecture, making affirmative noises as she spoke. <That sounds really difficult.>
“It is, and it will take a lot of your Essence to break down the other Essence, the payoff is absolutely worth it though. I’ve been making you practice splitting your focus, which is why we waited until you had those Beast Cores swirling with energy. Spinning multiple spirals is really good practice for this, also it is a benefit that humans will never get to use.” She made sure I was paying attention and told me something rather unexpected. “Now, achieving a breakthrough may take a few days to do, and will require all of your focus, so I suggest that tonight when everyone is out and going to bed, you grow a wall of stone to block them, and keep them out while you do this.”
<What?! Why?> This was very unlike her, she usually was encouraging more fighting, and got after me sometimes when I didn’t take an opportunity to finish off an opponent.
It turned out that she had a very good reason though. “People may get, hmm, upset? When they are unable to find monsters to kill and loot, that is. Since your attention will be focused inward, Mobs won’t respawn if killed. Adventurers may look for... other ways... to get money, or find a new source of energy to cultivate from.”
Waiting for evening was torture when I was this excited, but I was able to gain more energy from cultivators by pulling refined Chi from them, as well as when a lucky shot from a thorn staggered a man and a Basher crushed his skull. When the sun disappeared behind the mountain range, a soft grinding of stone could be heard if one were close and paying attention.
Before attempting my breakthrough, I etched in the enchantment for protection and durability I had gained from a shield after a lucky kill some time ago. At the activation portion of the Rune, where I would normally deposit Essence into, instead I placed the corrupted Core, which was full of earth, and created a shunt that sent its energy into the Rune. The energy oozed into the pattern, slowly filling it to completion, until with a dull flash and an awkward flatulence-esk noise, it successfully activated the Rune!
<Dani it worked! Look! I made corruption useful!> I loved being the first to discover something, it made me feel smart and pretty.
“Great! Hopefully, it’ll hold until you are ready for people to come back in.” She congratulated me while reminding me that the clock was ticking.
Door now in place, I got down to the serious business of breaking into the D rank. I tried starting the process where the Essence was churning on the outer rim of my gem, but it interrupted the flow of Essence entering from outside. If I tried at the end, where it was being pulled and processed by the Chi spiral, it blocked the flow.