Having said goodbye to his kids, wives, and Bree, Jake headed to the coliseum. He shifted his Champioments to match that of Hestia’s desired clothing, wearing a toga with a shoulder and chest or heart guard, with the gem attached in the ter.

  Following the theme of video game characters, Jake was now able to wear a special skin for his armor. Even if he had his armored facepte down, he could still look as if he were not wearing them at all. It provided no real advantage, as he could still feel the equipment on him, and Tartarus enemies would see him as his equipment truly was. Really, it just made him feel a little less awkward speaking with people when he wore his full kit.

  Jake took the portal to the Life’s Haven, and thehrough over the buildings and streets, c himself in his telekiic hearth fmes. Having spent time here and there on it, he now had several means of geing flight.

  The spellform was the simplest and most effit, as it was like creating a dozen points around him and shoving himself evenly through the air. The fmes of his hearth would only slowly be expended, allowing him to return much of what remained of the spellforms back to the fmes in his core when he was doo onlookers, he looked like a man cloaked in fmes, flying through the air. He mostly kept himself upright as he did this through the city, as speed wasn’t really all that important.

  He arrived at the coliseum, and the pce was busy with people all over. The stands had numerous people, primarily parents watg over their children and enjoying the prepared food. Warriors dueled and traihroughout the massive arena, and the children from many races and spriggons practiced their baseball and martial arts.

  The other main arehe battle simutor, and it was usually just as busy, if not more so. People of all ages would joio watch their warriors challehemselves, whether fag mana structs or duels between warriors flory.

  That was where Bree and Ruby spent much of their time, it seemed. The two both loved to challehemselves and others, and against the many structs.

  The air was ced with mana and auril both, now that Highnd’s energy levels had risen. They were still not quite at their maximum, but Ava’s procmation about the dungeorances solidifying showed they had long since surpassed the sed Tier by a rge margin.

  Bloodberri was here, the two girls driving their training of the many young of Highnds. The numerous teens built their bodies and trained as groups, from passing medie balls around and helping each other stretch, to practice fights and pying pick-up games. A few Eternum flew around and helped along with the spriggons, the unliving servants aiding with the children’s training and practibsp;

  Watg the kids and teens with their tired smiles and bodies glistening with sweat and pride wearing their uniforms, Jake could see how Berri’s focus on sports was certainly building some kinship among them. And the number of adults seen actually pying had increased, clearly seeing the value in the sport, as well as finding enjoyment in it.

  These many kids might end up being the erstone of the first Tier guilds Jake had built iure, as they came of age and fiheir training and preparation. They would then head off to the many worlds of Sector 87, saving lives and occasionally g them in the name of Hearthtribe.

  And if not Hearthtribe, they had a few arms or subguilds focused on different levels of focus and itment. They even had a sort of engineering or crafting guild, who’s entire goal was to rebuild cities and homes across worlds. Hearthtribe members would do it all as Jake saw it as important, but there were those that could dedicate their efforts to these things.

  Jake had mostly stopped here just to visit. He gave his lovely ea wives a kiss, and pyed some catch with the kids. Since he often came here, the few he had spent time with in the past came over and showed off their gains. Their practi the many skills and efforts in training their bodies had had results and he gratuted them, before he headed over to another arena.

  Morwen the undead priestess of Arawn was there, along with many of the Eternum and Emberborn, Elysian casters, and even some beastkin clergy. Some Warrior Brotherhood talismancers and battle maidehere, everyoraining their spells and magic.

  There were even some Mass Migration new arrivals among them. The banshees and harpies were selected, the tter being powerful wind or storm-based elemental casters. There was even a race of djinns that now lived in the southers, which varied signifitly iypes of magic, but many focused on fire magid were patible with Hestia and Brigid.

  The most substantial was that they migrated more Elysians or Fey. A rge cadre of elves arrived, along with more treants, dryads, faun, naiads, and even some species not present on The Elysiaheir ins were less based on Gaia, but more Celti nature, which made them even more fitting here on Highnds.

  And of course, all of these Mass Migrations were fitting of Fhesiah’s criteria, these races having a higher female to male ratio as a natural part of their species.

  In truth, the numbers of each of these entries were rather small in the big scheme of things–less than the Elysians individually. However, this was meant to prepare for the future, to pce more potential didates for Hearthtribe into the funnel, so to speak.

  Only a st number of these were in the sed Tier at all, and it might be even beyond their imposed vacation before they were strong enough to joihtribe in their quest. The beastkin had rocketed ahead in this past year, fighting ihe dungeon, doing incursions, and more.

  Target dummies lihe rge area, and numerous structs were avaible to test out spells and effects. Then, there were several small fenced off areas fical duels, and the stoiled ground had many breaks as in them from various spell effects.

  There were also a handful of elves and other casters, as not everyone in Life’s Haven was Hearthtribe. This art of a weekly event that allowed the general public to join, both in an attempt to recruit more people, but also to colborate and share some of their gains with allies and friends.

  The four coliseums were still Hearthtribe property, but they also had training rooms within the Alliance HQ with additional features and privacy.

  The final coliseum was for the many tamers of Highnds beasts, the rger creatures taking up a lot of space for their training. Bree and Ruby also spent some time there, fag off against and helping out with the many trainers using their beastly intuition. Jasmina too spent time there, as her songs helped heal and soothe the mas.

  Jake he arena areas in his flight, a himself down, as he had found his targets. Sati, the living fme, floated a few feet off the ground in her meditative pose, fag off against Nadessa, the dryad Arch Druid within one of the many fenced off areas.

  As a result of her sed successful Raid, Nadessa had ehe sed Tier. And she grew, both i, and in apparent age to look like that of an adult, like many of the Elysians did, to Jake’s surprise, and Fhesiah’s delight.

  Nadessa raised her staff above her head, clouds and winds swirling around her. Lightning crackled within the dark clouds, like a localized thuorm. Having built winds aricity around herself, she thehe storm of lightning at Sati, like ung an angry dark cloud at her.

  A small smile touched Sati’s lips as she spotted or felt Jake nearby, and she raised one of her csped hands and poi the oning cloud. A small orb of fme was shot out, and it exploded at the ter of the storm cloud. To Jake’s surprise, the cloud rippled, before dispersing pletely like a popped balloon.

  Nadessa was breathing heavy from casting her powerful spell, where she rao Sati. “It’s no fair. You’re too tough!”

  Sati shook her head. Her words came out slowly, and quietly–yet through her Qi, it seemed her small voice carried far. “Your storm…is gettier–stronger. But…” She paused, as if searg for the words. “A summer storm is powerful and wild. Uable and ot be tained. You try…to tain it. It is…not good.”

  Nadessa snorted. “Well, yeah. I ’t exactly create a massive storm in the middle of battle–my allies will be struck with uable lightning too! But I take your point. I will…think on this some more, and work on it.”

  Jake surprised the two of them when he spoke behind them, “I think repare the battlefield for you to use it, you just gather your storm far away from our army.”

  Sati turo Jake, while floating, and ined her head in a bow. “Greetings, Lord Jake. Will you be joining us for some practice again?”

  “Oh! It’s the Chief. How goes it?” Nadessa spun around, and smiled as she leaned oaff.

  “Things are going well. I did want to practice with some of you for a bit.”

  Nadessa smiled. “That’d be great! Let me just…recover a little first.”

  Nadessa caught her breath for a time and recovered her mana, thewo oriehemselves in the distance from him, aood on the edge of the area. Using the fixture that would keep them from expiring, they started their magical duel.

  Sati was the first to kick it off with a spell. Several dark fmes lit up behind her, like dles lit in the air–remi of Fhesiah’s kitsune fmes. They shot at him like arrows, and he rapidly coalesced a series of runes in response, maing a rge barrier of i front of him.

  The wall rose from the ground in an explosion of cold and frost, and only barely held up to the fming missiles Sati had shot. The tiny bursts of fme formed cracks throughout the wall, and it looked like it wouldn’t hold up for long, as the fmes were alive, and weren’t put out even though they had struck the solid wall.

  Jake was happy with allowing it to crumble, as he formed the runes of wind this time. With a bst of wind, his barrier shattered and was sent outward from him, sending jagged ks of snow and ice at the two girls like a bst from a shotgun.

  But Nadessa had been preparing her spell, a weave of vines exploding in front of the pair, taking on the ining frost. Sati created a sphere of fme above their heads, preparing a powerful attack behind their defenses.

  An array worth of runes rose above Jake’s head as he created his own orb of fme, using Blood and Berri’s fme. His ball of fmes resembled an eclipse as Sati’s sphere shot towards his. The light was sucked out of the area of the arena, and only shifting beams of fming white light shot out from behind the shifting orb, targeting Nadessa’s vines aing them afme.

  As Sati’s orb of fme neared, it was slowed, giving Jake time to finish his spell: a rge spear of vajrafire fmes, with magical runes lining its haft and spearhead. It pierced through Sati’s weakened sun, and she and Nadessa were once again rushed on the defensive, sending fmes and a bst of lightning of their own in response.

  Nearly all the spells Jake used just now were either empowered Tier 1 spells, or true Tier 2 spells. The three mages went bad forth, trying new spells to ter and attae another.

  Having reached the sed level of Hearth Runic Magid Mana trol equivalent, Jake could now easily cast Tier 2 runic spells all on his own. When Jake had received his Mythic Hearth Staff, he had bemoahe loss of the runic prisms–but Hestia had said something about w whether he would still or not.

  As usual, Hestia’s words were prophetic, as Jake now saw very little value in his spell rods and simir for himself personally. Because now he did not truly have a rune limit. Where the mana was thiough, he could draw enough mana from the surrounding area to mahe runes into the spells he desired, nearly no matter how many he wao establish.

  Thanks to the denser mana and his superior trol, the structs would be more stable, making it all the easier to create, infuse, and link as many together as he wished. The difficulty in researd spell-casting came from not the cost in mana or the making of the runes, but finding a bahin the giant Sudoku-like puzzle of the linked ruhe more of the hexagons that he liogether, the more plicated the puzzle got, but also how powerful or varied the spell could actually be.

  He had wondered why he couldn’t just buy a rune cheat sheet that would include all known spells, or things like this. Guilds desired to hoard the results of this magical research for their own be, and the Framework and Tartarus both supported this. Often, because his guild had researched the spells themselves, it would be better off than if they had learhe spell from someone or somewhere else.

  One could see it like a research tree within a 4X Strategy Game. Often, by unlog a researched teology, it would not simply just provide the ability to cast a spell or build a special structure. Small, marginal bes would be added as a result of the research as well, and the Framework was the same.

  The spells his people researched would have the magical oute improved slightly, and this art of why Nordies just felt more powerful pared to the iment, to Jake. The rules for casting and the difficulty in researg aablishing a w spell just made them better. It was weird to Jake, but it was just one more way that his life and the war was fought like a game.

  Jake tinued his practice, alternating through his many new funs he had worked out, aing them against his ical oppos. Whether it be rge spheres or smaller balls, darts, arrows, spears, walls, novas, waves or es, Jake now had tons of options for each element and how to attack or defend against enemies, plus his wives’ more varied special fmes.

  Now that the mana was dense enough, even wind-based attacks that he avoided before could be effective, giving him even more options for different types of attacks. bined with having numerous spells of each element that were focused on demonies, Jake was starting to bee a master of runes in truth now.

  Nadessa anting once again, as they paused their practice. “That was…great practice, Chief. Both of us could hardly keep up with you. I’d need a whole team of druids to keep up if not for Sati here.”

  As Jake expected, Sati eventually, while blushing by how her cheeks took on a fiery-pink hue, asked him for some of his fmes as she often did.

  “My lord…may I? …You know. Please?”

  The fiery woman was a bit addicted to his hearth fmes. With a smile, he pressed his fmes down, as if he were casting his Scorg Ray spell, making sure to add all the fmes of his family together. Then, just before it reached the critical point, he brought it out of his chest a it over to her–a dense ball of fme.

  Releasing his i, she ed it in her Qi and brought it to her mouth, where it was like she drank it. She covered her mouth with her hand, as if wanting to hide her lips as she did this. The fmes within her entire body brightened, and she shivered for a moment.

  Sati smiled. “Thank you, milord. It…somehow is even tastier now. More like Highnds, our home.”

  Jake couldn’t help but wryly smile at that. He had done some tempering with Avara’s true avatar st night, and it was like Sati khis in a roundabout way. He was just about to say goodbye when Fhesiah’s voice reached his mind.

  [It looks like we have a request for a meeting–the leader of the guild, Love and Justice? She’s been w with uild quite a bit i year, and it seems like she needs our help.]

  He was about to head over to see Valtor anyway. He would go see what was going on.