Larek held back a yawn as he tiredly slumped in his chair inside Kimble’s office, as he looked around at the others who had joined them for this meeting. Most of those inside the room were the heads of different departments of the Volunteer Militia, who were all reciting progress reports of how things were coming along. So far, the different portions involved in essentially running the Kingdom seemed to be doing great; in fact, it was going better than expected without any significant obstacles in the way.

  “…the only bottleneck that we’re experiencing is a shortage of necessary Fusions, but we’re making due with what we have. With the Gates being installed all over, it’s fairly easy to share our resources, but eventually we’re going to need more.”

  The Fusionist didn’t exactly know who the woman was that was giving her report, nor did he know what her position was, but he knew a cue to speak when he heard it. Clearing his throat, Larek spoke up into the temporary silence after her statement. “We’re working on it, but it will likely be a while until we have any Fusionists able to replicate any but the most basic Fusions for our people. I can take some time away from teaching classes to create some of the more vital ones, but from what I understand, that would only be a temporary measure.”

  The need for all types of Fusions had grown substantially since the Volunteer organization expanded all through the Kingdom, and while Larek could alleviate some of that need, there were now so many different Fusions that could be beneficial that he would have to spend weeks rotating through every type to fulfill all of the different needs. While he had no problem with that, as he enjoyed creating Fusions, it had already been discussed and decided upon in earlier meetings that it would be better to establish a Fusion-creating workforce that could help alleviate some of the responsibility he felt toward providing for everyone in the long run.

  “How long do you think before some of your students could start creating what we need?” Kimble asked.

  Larek only had to think for a second before responding. “There are some who can create some weaker versions, such as Furrow Field and Strong Watered Growth, but for anything vital, such as the VREP staves or the Buoyant pair needed for transports… I’d say a few months, at least, but it could be years.”

  “That long? I don’t think we have that kind of time, Larek,” the Pyromancer stated worriedly.

  The Fusionist had to somewhat agree, as he expected some sort of reprisal from the Gergasi at any time. “True, but I’m not sure how to speed up the process.”

  “What’s the problem?” Kimble asked.

  “It’s not a problem, necessarily. It’s simply a matter of inexperience, lack of Skill Levels, and/or a lack of personal resources. Most of the powerful Fusions I can create rely on a lot of Pattern Cohesion, and while the costs for my students with fully unlocked potential are much lower, most of them don’t have anywhere near what they need yet. With 80% of my students being relatively new to their Mage-based potential, this fact makes sense; for those who were Mages before, none of them had necessarily distributed their stats to be ideal for Fusion creation. Stat-boosting Fusions help with this, but until they significantly increase their Skill Levels – and therefore their stats – they are running at a severe deficit. Nothing can really help with that until they improve overall, and they are already running themselves ragged trying to speed up the process. In fact, I had two students overreach and harm their internal Pattern Cohesion today because they were too unfocused from lack of sleep. They’ll recover, but if they continue to do that when they make stronger Fusions, it could kill them.”

  He knew Kimble was aware of all that, but what he said was for the benefit of everyone else in the meeting. Larek hadn’t missed the way the department heads had pointedly avoided looking at him when the lack of Fusions was mentioned, so he was fairly certain that they didn’t know why the whole teaching process was taking so long. From the magical feel of them all, more than half of them hadn’t even unlocked their potential yet, while those who had been fortunate enough to have it unlocked hadn’t done much with it.

  “So… there’s no way to speed that up?” Kimble asked, also for the benefit of those in the room. The de facto leader of the Volunteers already knew the answer to that question.

  Larek shook his head. “No, not really. If there were any prior Fusionists in the bunch, that might help, but it seems as though most of them were wiped out after the Apertures appeared. There are a few veterans who had gone through an Academy and were required to take Fusion-based classes, but they never specialized because their aptitude wasn’t in Fusion formations and their creation.”

  That was the most disappointing thing to learn, once he finally had a chance to talk to some of the incorporated SIC veterans. Despite there being hundreds of veterans who passed through Thanesh every day, not a single one of them was an actual Fusionist, nor was able to make anything past the simplest of Intermediate Fusions – and those were rather frightening in their construction once he saw them. He somewhat expected the ones he saw to fall apart and potentially explode at any point, and he was frankly shocked that they hadn’t already.

  Fortunately, once Larek was able to start his students on their way to improving their Fusion-creation Skills, meaning once they were past the initial few weeks of classes, they would only need to practice to improve themselves. When they hit a wall and needed some more instruction on how to create more difficult Fusions, he would be able to help them with that, but it would take most of them weeks or months before they got to that point. In between periods of giving guidance to his students, he would be able to work on other projects, but that was at least a week or two away at the rate things were going.

  While the meeting dragged on after that, Larek zoned out and thought about the recent changes that he’d undergone as a result of the fight against the two Gergasi inside of the Calamity. He’d checked his notifications shortly after returning to the city, and while he’d improved some of his Skills, it wasn’t as much as he would’ve thought, considering what he’d gone through against them. Then again, the fight had been relatively short, and he hadn’t been able to do much to them. So, the only real changes were mostly in areas where his Skill Levels were still relatively low.

  Pulling up his Status, he looked it over and noted the few changes that had occurred as a result of his latest experiences – which also included his time teaching his Fusion classes to Volunteers and some former SIC members.

  Larek Holsten

  Adept Guardian

  Omni-Sage

  Fusionist Scion

  Pattern Savant

  Magical Skillsage

  Generalist Spellcaster

  Healer

  Striker

  Basher

  Ranger

  Level 65

  Advancement Points (AP): 36/40

  Available AP to Distribute: 0

  Available Aetheric Force (AF): 2,857,299

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Stama: 9000/9000

  Mana: 10000/10000

  Strength: 360 [900]

  Body: 401 [1,002]

  Agility: 360 [900]

  Intellect: 400 [1,000]

  Acuity: 400 [1,000] (+)

  Pneuma: 9,018 [22,545]

  Pattern Cohesion: 225,450/225,450

  Mage Abilities:

  Spell – Acid Spray

  Spell – Active Illusion

  …….

  Spell – Water Jet

  Spell – Wind Barrier

  Fusion – Acuity Boost

  Fusion – Adjustable Illumination

  …….

  Fusion – Void Curtain

  Fusion – Void Pocket

  Martial Abilities:

  Battle Art – Furious Rampage

  Battle Art – Consuming Speed

  Battle Art – Tactician Mind

  Battle Art – Fleetfoot

  Battle Art – Empowered Strike

  Battle Art – Absorb Blow

  Battle Art – Execution

  Battle Art – Command Shout

  Mage Skills:

  Pattern Restoration Level 91 (+1)

  Spellcasting Focus Level 92[102]

  Pattern Recognition Level 105[115]

  Multi-effect Fusion Focus Level 115

  Focused Division Level 113

  Fusion Level 120[130]

  Pattern Formation Level 120[130]

  Mana Control Level 120[130]

  Pattern Manipulation Level 122

  Magical Detection Level 124[134] (+2)

  Martial Skills:

  Ranged Weapon Expertise Level 10

  Unarmed Fighting Level 18[28] (+5)

  Blunt Weapon Expertise Level 15

  Throwing Level 29[39]

  Dodge Level 81[91] (+3)

  Pain Immunity Level 20

  Body Regeneration Level 82[92] (+4)

  Bladed Weapon Expertise Level 82[92] (+1)

  Stama Subjugation Level 97

  General Skills:

  Cooking Level 8

  Writing Level 11

  Bargaining Level 13

  Saw Handling Level 15

  Reading Level 17

  Long-Distance Running Level 20

  Speaking Level 40 (+10)

  Listening Level 50 (+5)

  Leadership Level 57 (+15)

  Beast Control Level 70

  Axe Handling Level 95 (+1)

  Guardian Skills:

  Energetic Transmission Level 15

  Aetheric Authority Level 16 (+1)

  Primal Essence Mastery Level 9

  Overall, he didn’t gain too much from his entire experience in the Calamity; it wasn’t, in fact, even enough Skill Level increases to gain him another personal Level. Looking back on his fight against them, he knew he hadn’t beaten the two Gergasi on his own. Truth be told, it had been one of his Fusions that did the deed in the end, as it wasn’t any great feat of strength or Skill that defeated them. As far as his contributions through the rest of the Calamity in subjugating the subservient Apertures, he hadn’t really done much – and what he did do wasn’t really a challenge, so there was no real improvement.

  Still, progress was progress, and he knew that it would only be a matter of time before he improved some more – though finding time to do so was going to be the real challenge. He still had some ideas for Fusions and Fusion-creation that he thought might start pushing his Mage skills upward a little bit more; but even there, he wasn’t sure how he could make any rapid improvements, like he had before.

  It was only when silence descended upon Kimble’s office that Larek really came back to himself from his perusal of his Status and his thoughts about how to improve himself. Looking around, he realized that everyone but the Pyromancer had left at some point, and he was about to exit himself when he saw Kimble hold out a hand.

  “Hold on, Larek,” he said, motioning for him to sit back down in his half-risen state. Larek did so and peered inquisitively at the man sitting on the edge of his desk. “I’m glad you stayed behind, because there’s something I’ve learned that… might… be useful. I can’t guarantee its authenticity, however, so I’ll leave it up to you to investigate it or not.”

  Larek was intrigued, not only because Kimble looked and sounded uncertain, but because it was rare for any of the Volunteers to have something that could help him. Not that such an unbalanced relationship bothered him, both because he somewhat saw it as his duty to protect the others as much as he could, using his skills, and because he would eventually need their help to fight the Gergasi and free his family. Regardless, he leaned forward and said, “Go ahead. What is it that you’ve learned?”

  Clearing his throat, Kimble reached back and rifled through the papers on his desk before picking up what appeared to be a map of the Kingdom. He held it up in front of him and pointed to a dot located fairly near the center of the Kingdom, which Larek judged to be just barely outside the zone where the Volunteers were restricted from entering, due to losses in those trying to investigate it.

  “I’m not sure if you’re aware of it or not, but there used to be a Fusionist headquarters located in the Kingdom, which – at least before things started going downhill – was fully staffed with dozens, if not hundreds of Fusionists working for the SIC.”

  Larek immediately remembered hearing about it years ago, but hadn’t really thought about it lately. “I think so? Sidleton, I believe?”

  “Exactly. This is where Sidleton is located—or I should say, was located. Our teams discovered the small town a few days ago, completely wrecked by what appeared to be a force of Rock Trolls that came from a nearby Aperture. There was no one living inside, but that wasn’t surprising, given that there wasn’t even a single structure still standing.”

  Nodding, Larek said. “Alright. That’s unfortunate, but what does that have to do with anything?”

  “Well, that’s a good question. On the surface, it seems pretty obvious what happened: The Rock Trolls from a nearby Aperture swarmed over the town and killed all of the Fusionists inside at some point in the distant past, as the entire town appeared deserted and overgrowth was rampant throughout. However, the team that briefly investigated Sidleton found no remains of any people. That alone wouldn’t be too surprising, given that they might have simply been eaten by the physically powerful monsters, but there wasn’t any sign of defense, either. They might have been Fusionists, but they could still cast spells like any Mage, so there should’ve been at least some evidence that they fought back, even if they were surprised and overwhelmed.”

  That still doesn’t seem like it would be important, especially if it happened a while ago.

  “But what is really strange is that, after the teams spoke with the people in the nearby towns, all of which were still perfectly intact, no one could ever remember the Rock Troll Aperture expanding its territory far enough to actually reach Sidleton. Nor did they remember any survivors from the attack, which is highly unusual, given that there should’ve been hundreds of people living there.”

  Larek was confused at why he was being told this. “What are you saying?”

  “In short, the Fusionists in Sidleton seemingly disappeared one day, and their town was destroyed, and no one seemed to know how it happened. What I’m trying to say is that there is a very slight possibility that they’re still out there somewhere. And if they are, then I can only imagine that those trained to be Fusionists would benefit greatly from your instruction, as well as the unlocking of their full potential. In other words, do you think that they might be ready to replicate some of your stronger Fusions faster than your other students? Perhaps in weeks, instead of months?”

  Larek’s mind was suddenly filled with the possibilities, if what he was hearing was true. Hope blossomed in his thoughts as he considered whether he could find other Fusionists whom he could incorporate into the program he already had going, as he could potentially even use them to supplement his own teaching and free him up even faster to work on his own projects.

  But the situation surrounding their existence was a bit tenuous. How was he supposed to find a bunch of Fusionists who reportedly had disappeared years ago, if all of the Volunteers traveling around hadn’t found any sign of them yet?

  “That could definitely be a possibility,” he said after a few moments of thought. “What are you proposing?”

  Larek could tell that Kimble was reluctant to say anything, but he forged ahead. “Take a few days off from teaching, and see if you can find them. I didn’t mention this before, because the potential that they are still alive is so remote that it’s bordering on an impossibility, as well as Sidleton being entirely too close to the central Calamity and the capital to be comfortable with you going anywhere near there. However, given the state of matters and how everything stands, I’d say we could use any help we can get.”

  As if he’d been jolted with a mental and a physical stimulant, Larek sat up straighter as he thought about the possibilities if he did, indeed, find the lost Fusionists. He was ready to jump up and leave right away, but Kimble held up his hand again to stop him. “Wait until tomorrow, if you would. I can hold your classes until you’re back, which isn’t a problem, but Nedira, Norde, Verne, and Teena should be back tomorrow, and I think you should take them with you when you go. Along with a full team of Volunteers, of course.”

  Larek nodded so quickly that it probably looked like a blur to Kimble, but the Fusionist had his mind on other things by that point. Excited at the prospects ahead of him, he left the office and headed back home, only noticing that it was already late into the night by that point, though he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to get any sleep, given the thoughts running through his head.

  Tomorrow should be interesting, to say the least.