Preparing for a king.

While Ashton was increasing his repertoire of abilities, the other heroes were working on strengthening theirs. In the practicing yard of the castle, several of Ashton’s peers can be seen using magic, swords, or abilities.

Micheal, a boy with brown hair and green eyes, has the battlemage class, and the ability ‘enhanced mana regeneration’.

‘I finally did it! I have superpowers now! I can shoot fire, and kill whoever I want. As long as the kingdom supports me, I can make an army!’ I (Micheal) have always wanted to command an army of my own. When I saw people in military uniforms, or heroes who had their own legions of soldiers, I always wanted to be them. Now, I finally have the chance!

The kingdom wants me to destroy zombies? I can do that if I can just shoot fire at them, and I can get a castle with it? I’m gonna get a castle, some hot babes, a few servants, and an army to vanquish all of my enemies.

This is Micheal’s motivation. He diligently practices and fights everyday, ready to obey the kingdom’s orders, so he can have his own power and place. He is currently shooting firebolts at some dummies, and using magic to dash around as he cuts and pierces with ice and wind.

While Micheal is doing that, Morgan, a girl with long brown hair, is practicing duplicating objects. The limit of her ability is that only an original object can be duplicated, and it can only be duplicated once, but that still has the potential to double whatever she currently has.

‘So long as I do what the kingdom asks, I can go home, and see my parents again.‘ Morgan sits down as she practices, and obeys all of the orders of the knight who yells at her all day. She won’t say anything that could offend him, as she wouldn’t want him to be more angry, but he is just unreasonable.

‘He’s always asking me to duplicate things faster than my bility can, or to do some stupid trick. This is the fifth time he has asked me to duplicate something twice!’

While Morgan is being harassed by her trainer, Kassandra, a girl with long blonde hair and green eyes can be seen talking with a priest.

She is a paladin, a knight of a god or powerful being, who gains spells and abilities from that being. Her ability produces puppet soldiers from her divine qi, which is restored and fortified through her faith.

“So, what is the best way to eliminate a demon?” She asks, as she discusses the demons with the priest. As a devout christian growing up, she has seen the trickery and evil of the demons already, and is happy to have the chance to stop it.

“The holy attribute can damage the dark attribute demons, but killing them is the same no matter how it’s done.”

“I see! When can I fight some demons?”

“Haha, you need to develop your divine aura first! Pray as much as you can, and you will level through your devotion. If you kill demons, sacrifice them to GOD, and use your powers to guide others to the light.”

“I see, do you think the demons can be saved? How do I know which ones to kill and which ones can be reeducated.”

“The demons are full of darkness, so cleansing them is hard. They profane these lands of God, and so whenever they surrender, assist them in becoming reeducated. Bringing them here and putting them into servitude seems harsh at first, but it functions as a way for them to repent their actions. We are essentially saving them from their own sin, the fools.”

“I understand. Can I kill my servant to gain God’s favor?”

“Of course, The Gods will accept any demon’s life. In fact, wouldn’t being used to help a paladin such as yourself be one of the ultimate ways to contribute to the God’s will. The question is, which God? The four gods of light each require their own devotion, and few Paladins can spread that. You could, in theory, reach the end of all four paths, but likely you won’t be dedicated enough to God to do so.”

“I will! I can do it! I will cleanse the land of demons, and save them from themselves.” Kassandra hereby dedicated herself to cleansing the demons, and that became one of her oaths as a paladin, promises which provide power to their maker.

While all of that was happening, a boy with greyish hair, Nikolai, could be seen silently practicing with a bow. His ability, foresight, allowed him to see into the future, knowing where his opponents would be next.

As he shot his bow, he thought to himself. ‘So, is no one gonna question these people? We just all happen to die, and are summoned to kill a whole race, and we just do it? I mean, maybe they’re right, but.. I don’t know.’

Nikolai’s servant seemed okay with serving, and so he had to just accept that it was best for them. It isn’t his place to be a judge, so he won’t.

Of course, this isn’t everyone who is practicing, but it just represents several of the group. As they all train to become better with their abilities, Ashton is doing training of his own.

I (Ashton) made some fried rice, with veggies and steak, and applied my unique skills to it. It created a new set of abilities, yes abilities, don’t ask me how, I don’t know.

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New ability: Enhance drink - gives drinks enhanced nutritional value, prolonged freshness, ideal temperature, and up to two additional attributes.

New ability: Enhance food - enhanced the nutritional value and taste of food, the amount of enhancement is dependent on ability level alongside mana input.

New ability: Create Power up (temp.) - Requires an edile object to be used. Creates a stat power up, which will temporarily increase stats. The stat increase value is based on the quality of the food, the ability level, the stat being increased, ability handling, and mana input.

New ability: Create Power up (perm.) - Requires an edile object to be used. Creates a stat power up, which will permanently increase stats. The stat increase value is based on the quality of the food, the ability level, the stat being increased, ability handling, and mana input.

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I created a permanent power up though, and watched Ulleah’s stats change. I couldn’t see anything directly change, but when I scanned her mana capacity it went from 121 to 134, which is a lot for something that couldn’t normally be increased. I could also see the life energy in her slightly increase, which meant her physical attributes had increased.

“Is it good?” I asked the certified taste tester.

“Very.” She seemed to be enjoying it quickly, so I left her to it.

‘Wow, for a bunny she sure is wolfing that down.’ I laughed at the thought, and began to read my research papers and magic books. “You can have as much as you want, I already ate mine.” I told her, and she obliged.

I was awoken by her, and looking at the time it was forty minutes late, compared to her usual perfect time.

“I apologize, I slept too much.”

“No no, on the contrary. I’m glad you got to sleep so much.” I ate breakfast with her, and sent her to do some research on the outdoors for me. The outdoors research sure is intense.

With her being gone, I moved back to my books. This process continued for the next two weeks, I would spread my soul during my sleep, practice my abilities and skills with Ulleah, and research the magic books I gathered in the time she was gone.

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New skill: Form lesser golem - creates a lesser golem, the size and strength of which are determined by mana input, material, and skill level.

New skill: Form golem - creates a golem, the size and strength of which are determined by mana input, material, and skill level.

New skill: Heal other - Heals another target, scale and amount of which is based on mana input and skill level.

New skill: Heal self- Heal oneself, scale and amount of which is based on mana input and skill level.

New skill: Greater heal other - Regenerates the body of another target, scale and amount of which is based on mana input and skill level.

New skill: Greater heal self - Regenerates the body of the caster, the scale and amount of which is based on mana input and skill level.

New skill: Enchant object - enchants target object with a spell the caster can cast. Strength and number of enchantments is based on enchanting aptitude, skill level, and spell proficiency.

New skill: Holy magic - the ability to use holy attribute magic freely

New skill: Black magic - the ability to use evil magic freely.

New skill: Dark magic - the ability to use dark attribute magic freely.

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And with my new skills being listed, it is time you hear my new mana capacity! I went from having 1002 max mana, to 16356 mana. That was a rather large increase, and with all of the magic I now had access to it was more than welcome.

Now though I plan to work on developing my skills and magic control more, rather than just the capacity. The way I have devised to do this is through maintaining a plant on fire.

I would make a small plant grow at an extremely fast rate, and control a fire to consume it from the top down. Then, I would work on raising the growth speed and the fire’s intensity while maintaining the instance in the same spot. It would make the plant look like an oiled candle that never burns out.

But, I began to practice like that. First with slow burning, and then I worked my way up until I managed to have a large flame growing from the plant. Then, I tried working to fuel a whitish flame as it burned, and eventually moved onto being able to sustain four or five flames on the same plant. All of that took up a week of practice, and so I decided to move onto the next step of my extreme training methods.

I both spread out my soul, and focused on manually controlling the flames and plants. This took half a week just to begin, but the effects were amazing at first sight! I had only used this method for two days, but my mana capacity went from 16356 to 34819. Why? Because I was now concentrating while spreading my soul, so I could do it much longer with far more benefit.

It would lose some efficiency over time as I got used to concentrating, but it was still a large amount. Though, I’m not sure about the others mana capacity. Mine would only be enough for about ten fireball spells, originally of course, but the mages of the kingdom seemed to have at least 10000 mana in most positions, ignoring the high ranking and skilled mages in and outside of the castle. If 10 times my original number was the minimum for a mage to actively fight, I might be worse than I thought.

Though, it also made sense that the standards for the kingdom were pretty high. They couldn’t have their royal and military mages being on the same level as conscripted or private mages. Ignoring that though, I now had two days to prepare to cook for the king.

What would I make? Good question, amazing question actually. Why don’t I just make a bunch of good food. I mean, I would have to make a feast for a king anyways.

“Ulleah!” I whined out for her, as if I was dying, and she just stared at me.

“Yes.”

“I need heelelp. I didn’t prepare to cook for the king. Now I will die if I don’t make something good. Any ideas?” Ulleah seemed concerned as I said that, and hurried to answer.

“Maybe your rice? Or some steak? Ask the chefs what the king likes, serve that!”

“I was kidding about dying, but good ideas! I was thinking of some gourmet hamburgers and sexy mashed potatoes.” I told her, and she seemed to get annoyed at me.

We discussed what I should make for a bit more, and I took her out to ask one of the royal chefs with me. Though, as they began to talk about the king’s favorite dishes, what the queen liked, what the princesses would enjoy, and how I could balance their dishes, I realized that I didn't even know how to pronounce most of the names.

They named at least nine exotic species that I alone knew of, and a bunch of creatures I have never frickin heard of. It seems like they just created a bunch of fancy words, and threw those at me. In fact, they actually showed me examples of some dishes, and I saw something new.

But basically I spent the day chatting and practicing with them, and they seemed rather happy to help. When I was done with that, I returned home and saw that my cooking skill was pretty high at level 17. If I tried to make a dish, I would instinctively know what could improve it, what needed to be done to it, and how it needed to be prepared, I just needed ideas.

But, now that I had a bunch of ideas, I would pretty much just put something fun together. The king seemed to like spicy foods, and cheesy foods, so I would work on that. The queen didn’t like cheesy foods, but loved spicy and sour foods. There are three princesses, and they each have their own likings and dislikings, and also two princes. Apparently I would be cooking for all of them, and they didn’t even tell me.

I haven’t recently checked out any books, so I haven’t had my skills scanned, so using my power up ability would be a surprise during the cooking. Well, no matter what my final day of preparation is tomorrow…

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