Bonded Summoner - Book 5. Chapter 43: Tier 2

Jake woke with a start. His muddled head tried to piece together what was happening last as he sat up in his bed, alone. Wait, did he fall asleep in his bed?

He marveled at his body’s changes. He was bigger, and clearly stronger, just like he imagined he would be. Maybe even as tall as Bloodberri.

“You called, Milord?”

“Oh, you’re awake! Hehe.”

The voices were wrong to Jake. Bloodberri was suddenly next to him, towering over him. Her body was immense, and she was even larger than the Frost Giant King. Her beautiful, smiling face appeared in front of him as she leaned down to look at him, and her head was larger than his entire body.

Berri grinned. “Oh, you’re so small!” Her grin turned almost wicked, as her smile grew wider. Her breaths came in heavy, as her monstrous presence increased, and it now felt like he was in the room with a savage animal, ready to pounce.

“It’s time to make babies, and I won’t take no for an answer anymore!”

A massive tail wrapped and tightened around him, dragging him out of the bed, before–

Jake woke up again–his eyes opened, and as he looked around, he was still startled even as a profound clarity filled his mind. Something about his mind, and his vision itself, had changed.

Waves of light pulsed through the room, streams like smoke flowed through the air from all directions of various colors. It was as if he were using his Arcane Eye, but this was the natural state of his vision. A fiery energy sat in his chest as usual, but it had changed drastically.

His mind worked with enhanced speed and precision, as he marveled at his changes. He teleported in front of his mirror, using the Refuge’s function.

He hardly recognized himself. His hair and eyes had taken on a golden hue from their original brown, with a ring of black within his golden iris. His body was larger for sure, him ending up 2.5 meters tall, a little over eight feet.

But that was hardly the largest change. It wasn’t just his special sight that allowed him to see it. In the center of his chest, was a hole with a golden ring around it. His hearth blazed inside, no longer only a metaphysical object.

[Race Change. High Human (T2) -> Void Hearthian (T3)]

[Racial Info: Void Hearthian]

[The Hearthian race was created from Hestia’s Eternal Essence mixed with the Olympian Origin, creating a unique Origin in the distant past. A hearth core in their chests from birth, this race would reach Tier 1 at adulthood. With their powerful hearth bonds, their Hearthian Presence, and control over their own golden flames, their capacity to both fight and love is unique.

This race was mixed with your void bloodline, creating an all-new race. Your Olympian body has been enhanced by void energies and monstrous essence, a unique happenstance that protects and enhances the hearth within the race’s chest.]

[Bloodline Menu]

[Bloodline Refinement Rating: D]

[Traits: Void Lungs, Void Cells, Umbral Gaze]

[Trait: Umbral Gaze]

[Your sight exists between the planes, able to unravel and uncover all that falls under your gaze.]

It was a lot to take in. He was an all-new race, but also Hestia’s. He had managed to achieve his race reaching the third tier, an entire tier early–most likely, thanks to starting at Tier 0 with his divine spark, becoming her Champion.

From there, he grew his core, and bonded with five women, each with unique energies and powers. Mixing in additional Divine Energy, he nearly skipped an entire stage. In reality, while his race was of the third Tier, this was sort of like how his enemies could be brought down to fight at this one. There were distinct advantages to those at the higher Tier brought down, and usually, the enemy paid heavily for them.

Jake wasn’t entirely sure what that would mean for him, but he had earned this potential from the enemy. Thanks to this, odds were, whatever difficulty increase having this advanced race earned him, would easily be counteracted by how much more powerful he was.

His body was now entirely different, finally ascending above his humanity. He still had the same various internal organs, but he understood he no longer truly required them. Their purpose was for him to be able to survive if he ever went to a world locked away from the void and with zero mana or energies, as well as for his enjoyment.

He now only required mana for fuel to live, no longer needing food or even sleep. If he lost all his mana and couldn’t replenish it from the environment for some reason, he would be significantly weakened until he did, being forced to use his old organs.

But that was to be expected–his body was essentially magic, a powerful treasure now. He had slowly been infusing his mortal flesh with mana and various energies until it became something more, and this was the result.

His organs were still enhanced to beyond a normal human, able to consume food which contained various energies and still process them. He didn’t even need to breathe, other than to fill his void lungs.

Jake decided to look over his stats, and his new class.

[Jake Stats Level 26]

[Strength: 202]

[Dexterity: 184]

[Constitution: 193]

[Intelligence: 194]

[Wisdom: 202]

[Charisma: 183]

[Champion Runic Battlenexus of Hestia: Mythic Class]

[Effects: +5 All Attributes / Level, +150% Mana Regen, 75% Total Mana Regen in combat.]

[+20% Effectiveness of All Attributes]

[An evolution of the Summoner/Battlemaster class, this summoner has focused on leadership and support, as well as resonance and harmony with his allies and summons, and runic magic. With its Champion Hearthian Aura, Enhanced Capture Template skill, extensive mana to create mana constructs, and powerful permanent summons, this class is an army unto itself.

New: The penalties for summoning outside specialization have been removed.]

He was now officially almost twenty times stronger than when he first embarked on his journey–when he was locked in his room, and forced to fight against the dungeon by himself. He was previously in decent shape, and able to bench well over two hundred pounds, or about 100 kilograms. Did that mean he could bench over four thousand now?

The answer was both yes and no. The attribute rating was somewhat based on the idea of a peak magical performance. Fhesiah’s attributes were high even from the beginning because if she flooded her heavenly energy refined body with mana, her body could withstand a lot of it and she could be immensely powerful.

Jake’s were the same way. If he filled his body with mana, then he could bench press a smaller truck or SUV. It would have been impossible to fill his body with enough mana originally, or the amount of mana would have killed him. Using his divine flames and auril combination, he could accomplish even more than the twenty-times figure, and Fhesiah was the same way with her Qi.

Jake had previously learned that normally, one would expect a near 50% increase in attributes gain per level when increasing in Tier, as the standard. Then, there were 25 levels instead of 15 during this one.

For Jake, gaining 18 attributes per level between Tier 1 and 2, he gained 270 total attributes just from level gains alone. Of course, his core provided way more than that, at 300 before his girl’s bonds.

However, with his new Mythic class, it was more than just the expected fifty percent increase. Combined with more levels in the Tier, he would gain a total of 750 attributes over the course of the Tier, and this was no small matter.

Gaining over three times the number of attributes over the duration of the Tier showed that something at the peak would be a difficult challenge, a creature of equal size and weight being significantly stronger than him. Even if their rarity was far lower, their resulting strength would still be more.

[Spells merged: Advanced Summon Beast, Summon Humanoid -> Manifest Template]

[Manifest Template]

[Summon a creature template from your Monster Menagerie by investing mana to create a construct, and guide it with the limited intelligence provided, combined with your will.

New: This spell now has no limits to the number of mana constructs one can create simultaneously. The only limit is the amount of mana invested. With higher levels of mana control, can create constructs with higher efficiency.

All summons other than permanent summons can be duplicated.]

[Spell Evolved: Capture Template -> Enhanced Capture Template]

[Capture an entity’s template for usage with Manifest Template. Overwhelming their will can kill the target for instant capture, as before.

New: Willing targets can be scanned over time without killing them, for the ability to manifest their template as a mana construct.]

Jake’s grin was wide. His largest fear of collecting a humanoid for his summons skill was now removed. He could now use his enhanced capture template, to scan Darris the turtle parentage beastkin for example. Then, he could manifest the turtle warrior, and he could be used just like Bill or Kevin.

Of course, it would not be an actual copy of Darris, having his own ego and will. It would instead be a mana construct that could be driven by the minor intelligence the Framework provided, combined with Jake’s instructions. With this, it was like he could form a well-balanced party of warriors with his mana constructs.

He was loving the idea of this new class already! He needed to go find Darris right away–

A snort was heard, as Fhesiah materialized next to him. “Really? You’re considering using the turtle man with that spell first? I know you are fond of that turtle, but what about your lovely women, or how about just some beautiful women, instead?”

Jake chuckled, as he wrapped his arms around his lovely dragoness, drawing her up into a warm and loving embrace.

She felt small in his large arms as he kissed her lips, her soft body sparking desire within him. Their hearths flickered, and Jake’s flame in his chest was drawn to Fhesiah’s, seeking a deeper connection–

Fhesiah shivered, but pushed him back as she looked down at the retreating flame. “My, that sure is a warm welcome, and I will love exploring that feeling from your new hearth later. But I did come here for a reason. Aren’t you wondering what your other girls are doing?”

When he woke up, he had felt that the girls were busy, but they were blocking what specifically they were doing. He could feel their contentment and excitement and that they were definitely together, so he just focused on himself for the moment, letting them work on their surprise.

“What are they doing? How long was I out?”

She smirked. “It’s been three days, the others just woke up this morning. Getting ready! It’s not that you really need to do much apart from show up, but today’s a special day for all of us. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t get too busy with all your…man hunting. Why, if I didn’t come in here now, you’d have marched through the portal to capture Valtor, Falcor, Darris, Vesuvius, Roxo, Seamus, Timone, Yiming, Longwei, Drysander, Oman, maybe even Brock…”

Jake frowned, her list was far too extensive. “You know me too well…wait, it’s really all men, isn’t it?”

Fhesiah chuckled, and smirked as she teased, “Something you should tell us, Jake? Did you change your mind–”

Jake spoke quickly, “Ah, I know why. The beastkin men were just stronger overall to begin with due to their culture, and the women just hadn’t caught up–and I would definitely want to scan Dahlia and Amara, by the way. Then, the casters were simply not very useful as summons, since my runic magic is so versatile. Using mana to have a construct use mana just has less value, when I can already do everything myself. It does have the multitasking advantage, but when I was limited to just one summon–”

Fhesiah’s eyes narrowed. “Did you just become more of a nerd? Hestia’s lucky you became more handsome and rugged, or I’d be calling her up to complain about what she did to you.”

“Did to me? You mean the kiss? That–”

“No, I mean she did something to your hearth. I remained awake for a few moments after you all passed out, and she used her flames to alter your hearth enchantments, and insert our hard-won divine sparks for permanently enhancing our hearths. I think she even purified us further beyond what your Divine Hearth Core could do. You should review the changes.”

Jake started with the notifications related to his core.

[Core Evolved! Divine Hearth Core -> Divine-Void Hearthian Core ]

[Divine-Void Hearthian Core Level 1]

[Your Divine Hearth Core and its bonds have evolved to a Hearthian Core. Enchanted and Forged to near-perfection with Divine Scripts and Energy, your core evolved along with your Race. Your control of the energies contained within your Hearth has drastically increased.

As the Hearth Nexus, you had built your bonds, and they had built back and enhanced you. Now, all share the benefits gained during Hearthian Bond Formation, resulting in all hearth cores being more powerful.]

[+100 All Attributes, +20 All Attributes per Core Level]

[500% Total Mana, 100% Mana per Core Level]

Jake found the stat amount and mana storage absurd. His original Divine Hearth Core, had ended at a total of +50 all attributes, and 325% total mana. Then, his bonds from receiving 10% of their attributes from each of the girls, ended around +40 to all stats. This was in addition to that, and now his wives would each receive the benefits with similar cores.

Compared to most Alliance members, who would just now be getting their mana core, he was on an entirely different level. He imagined whatever they gained, it would probably be like his very first core, which just provided a few attributes per level.

It was helpful in rounding out the mages to be a little less squishy, but at the second Tier it would just be a minor benefit. Perhaps it would be a bit better than his was at Tier 0, but he knew by not all that much.

He then turned his new Gaze to his hearth. Despite being within his chest, his new sight allowed him to sort of pan his camera–this was similar to his Arcane Eye. However, it was more like he always had a three hundred and sixty degrees of viewing.

His mind simply limited the information intuitively for him, somewhat used to dealing with this odd sight thanks to the second camera that was his Arcane Eye.

What he found shocked him. His enchantments were all present, but the structure of the hearth had become much more complex. The hexagons had been connected with mysterious scripts, and not just adjacent to one another.

Instead of his hearth enchantments almost laying flat in the center of what was his hearth, it was now repeated and woven into a complex tapestry three-dimensionally over his physical flames. It was a strange hexagonal sphere, but in several locations there were pentagons.

Jake could feel Hestia’s divine influence in all the scripts. Even as he gazed at them with his new sight, the runes and script shifted as he watched. He became slightly dizzy, as he tried to decipher any meaning.

Currently, four of the non-hexagonal sections had connections to his hearth bonds, and there appeared to be at least eight more available, with sections available for enchantments.

Fhesiah hummed. “Hmm, eight more, you think? I suppose if I had my way, we’d be full-up already by now, huh?”

The bonds were extremely thick and covered with a weave of the void, except for Fhesiah’s. He assumed due to her not finishing her Tier up yet.

However, something bothered him, nagging at him.

“What happened to Ira?” Jake could feel the connection to Ira still, and he could tell that it was within the Refuge’s hearth. However, he could tell that something was wrong.

Fhesiah grimaced. “Hestia left a note, it seems Ira taxed itself helping with your ascension. She spent our remaining RP on a void treasure, and Ira is now healing while consuming it. It’s a mixture of good and bad news, as it seems it should be a net gain for our little guardian.”

Jake felt frustrated. Even under the watch of the goddess, he was in danger unknown to him, and his familiar had risked itself for him. Just what happened? He resolved himself to find a sort of reward for the creature, coming to their aid when they needed it most.

Fhesiah smiled. “That creature is quite content with the many meals you give it. The vortex of your hearth draws in so much, and it is even feeding off the spare energies from our bonds. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet for it, all the time. Well, I don’t think the creature is completely mercenary, but it is definitely going to protect its meal ticket.”

She continued, “I’m sure Ira will be fine. We have such wonderful surprises for you. Continue with what you’re doing as you get used to your new body, just don’t go anywhere. I’ll go get prepared as well. Toodles.” She disappeared in motes of light, as she teleported somewhere else within the Refuge.

His hearth looked at, he brought up his updated skill list to search for any changes.

[Jake’s Level 26 Combat Skill Sheet]

[T2 Hearth Control: 1]

[Hearth Spells: Scorching Ray, Barrier, Spear]

[Expert Energy Control: 1]

[Normal Spell-forms: 4]

[Technique: Resonance Bound: 1]

[Expert Purifying Flames: 1]

[T2 Hearth Runic Magic: 1]

[Expert Champion Magic: 1]

[Void-Divine Hearthian Core: 1]

[Spell-forms Known: Clean, Mana Bolt, Force Push, Mana Blade, Flame]

[Champion Spells: Barrier, Divine Reinforcement, Call Goddess, Hearthian Aura, Fusion Summon]

[Framework Spells: Bolster, Reinforcement, Haste, Cure Wounds, Advanced Stamina Regen, Summon Arcane Eye, Call Summon, Enhanced Capture Template, Manifest Template, Reverse Summon]

[Monster Menagerie]

[Captured Templates: Bill the Stegosaurus, Peter the Raptor, Pterodactyl, Kevin the Naga, Heroic Wolverine, Oran the Heroic Stag, Ainora the Heroic Lioness, Bree the Heroic Boar, Isolyn the Heroic Hound, Veridrith]

[Permanent Summons: Garuda, Jasmina]

[Jake’s Level 26 Non-Combat Skill Sheet]

[Advanced Cooking 4]

[Expert Enchanting 1]

[Subskills: Investment, Runic, Hearth, Manaweave Reinforcement]

[Hearthian Bonds: Ophelia: 1, Fhesiah: 1, Blood and Berri: 1, Tanda: 1]

[Misc Skills: Eternal Oath, Energy Nexus, Energy Sharing, Auto-Loot]

The first change he noticed was his upgraded Technique, Resonance Bound.

[Technique: Resonance Bound]

[Evolved from Runebound.

New: As resonance is found with your Hearthian bonds, and you take on their state, color your Hearthian Aura and enhance the Bonded matching your state.]

Jake found this Technique exciting. It was exactly what he had built, and he had observed similar effects before with how it influenced his Aura. Avenger previously would increase the outgoing damage his heavenly flames caused, and Guardian would increase the defensive portion.

However, it appeared this would be even more significant, and it wouldn’t just boost Ophelia in certain ways thanks to her Chosen Technique–it would boost the one he found resonance with. Then, it would apply special effects far beyond the original.

[Spells Merged/Evolved: Aura of Heavenly Flames, Advanced Stamina Regen, Hearthian Presence]

[Champion Spell: Hearthian Aura: Jake Hart]

[Envelop your brethren in your Champion Hearthian Presence. In addition to your Hearthian Presence effect, the Default Aura adds explosive flame in attack and defense, and increases the rate of recovery for endurance and unique resources. Provides additional benefits for each Resonance Bound State. Hearthian Auras and Presences are compatible and stack with most auras. Hearthian Auras and Presences are always active, and cost no mana for natural radius, but resources are required to increase range.

Guardian: Adds increased defenses, similar to Reinforcement Spell.

Sage: Adds enhanced wisdom attribute, empowering all spells.

Saint: Adds a holy light, slowly restoring health with healing over time.

Monarch: A heaviness is added to explosions, and enemies that enter the aura’s radius are slowed.

Avenger: Significantly enhances offensive explosive flames.

Family: A minor version of Divine Reinforcement is applied, and Default Aura effects are significantly enhanced.]

Jake wondered what this Hearthian Presence was, and brought up the entry.

[Hearthian Presence: Jake Hart]

[Hearthians have immense Presence as their divine hearths draw and consume energy from the void, to where their weight on reality shifts to match them. Like a domain of influence, each Hearthian carries an aura-like magic that influences those that enter it. Jake Hart is a Hearthian that supports and enhances others, his greatest wish to bring out the best in those around him, aiding them in reaching their maximum potential. This desire will be felt by those in the surrounding area, everyone nearby feeling a caring and loving brother, lover, or father in the vicinity watching over them.]

Jake found both the Hearthian Presence and the Aura for combat fascinating. His girls, aside from Fhesiah were Hearthians now. Just what would they feel like? He had an inkling and kind of knew what to expect, knowing his girls so well, but he couldn’t wait to feel it.

Jake was excited to see this aura in action. Feeling his aura filling the room like usual, he could imagine its power. He knew it would make a significant impact in fights, and compared to a paladin’s aura or a bard’s song, it was amazing. Next was his Hearthian Bond with the girls.

[Hearthian Bond – (Hearth Nexus) Level 1]

[Forming a Hearth Bond, you connected your souls until the end of time. Over time, you built harmony and resonance with one another with body and soul tempering, and enchanted and forged your connections, reinforcing them further with the energy of the gods. Your bond has reached the strength of legends at your Tier. As you continue to grow it and find a synchronicity with your desires and capability, new effects will be added.

New effects: Summoner’s investment on Hearth Bonded’s potential requires no reserve in mana, and is instead powered by the mighty bond. Hearthian Aura, Runes and hearth flames may pass through the bond from Hearth Nexus.]

Once again, their bond was exceptionally powerful. He had at times been able to push a spellform or a portion of a spell effect through their bond. But now, the bond was thick enough that he could send runes through their bond and cast individual spells or even aid with a group runic spell at any distance.

It was beyond powerful, and Jake thought back to their Champion’s Rift battle. He could have pushed through a Barrier to protect his wives from the middle lane, or aided them with a group spell through their connection to take out those annoying pests.

Now, their bond was beyond even their Tier from the very beginning of it. Jake knew that whatever plots Tartarus came up with, with Ira’s help or his bloodline, they should be able to overcome anything that kept them from aiding one another.

Next was his Energy Nexus skill.

[Skill Evolved: Energy Hunger -> Energy Nexus]

[Additional: Energy is drawn in through advanced Energy vacuum from Hearthian Bonds. Allows for conversion between energy types at significant loss. Efficiency improves with Hearthian Core level.]

It was another amazing skill. Being able to convert into other resources to help an individual would provide even more flexibility with their resources. At this point, Jake was really starting to feel like unless an enemy vastly overwhelmed them by level or numbers, it was hard for them to lose.

They were extremely well-rounded, having no individual weaknesses. Then, their hearths allowed them to be marathon fighters. Throughout a long battle, they would regenerate their massive energy pools repeatedly, able to continue fighting without stopping.

But Jake knew that they needed every advantage they could get. Tartarus didn’t like to fight fair, and they were now at the bottom of their Tier again. They were level 26, and the maximum level of the Tier was level 50.

A pack of level 50 common beasts would likely be a challenge. While Jake thought his party would still win, it wouldn’t take all that many of them to become deathly combat. Make one of them a Boss-level monster or an elite one, or a Champion calling their divine, and Jake knew the attack coming from the enemy would be devastating.

Timone’s ancestor from the play, The First Tyrants, that used cyclic resonance was likely near the peak of the second Tier, but he had split a mountain in two. Jake knew that even calling their Divine, they could not defend against such an attack at this time, despite their improvements.

Odds were, they could increase their level safely in their Refuge for a time. They were on vacation after all, and their dual cultivation technique would continue to aid them well into the next Tier.

Last was his auto-loot skill, which did as one might imagine. No longer did they need to collect loot, it would be automatically captured when the target died. If Bloodberri’s axe wanted to eat some of it, they would have to retrieve the looted corpse from their ring or bracelet.

Jake decided to try out his Manifest Template spell, teleporting to the training room. He drew out his Champion’s Hearth, the flame being held by an odd bowl filled with scripts lining it. Feeling the connection, he noticed that he could draw it inside his own hearth, keeping it there to benefit from the extra mana regeneration.

Drawing it out again, he brought out Peter the Raptor, Bill the Stegosaurus, and Kevin the Naga all at once.

Their auril hearts all beat, sending out auril into the room. Peter and Bill were clearly significantly bigger now, at much bigger than what he captured them. Even Kevin was filled with extra strength, as Jake’s Aura washed over them.

Jake did his best to get a feel for how many he could summon, and he thought it was great how he could control them. Using a significant portion of his mana, he could summon nearly a dozen of the creatures, which he thought would be quite useful in battle.

Sometimes a big fireball just wasn’t all that useful, a large consumption of mana for harming a small grouping of creatures in an unstoppable tide. Thinking back to the Life’s Haven assault, having ten Bills would have made the conquest a cakewalk.

Berri seemed to bristle from this thought despite her business, so he quickly moved on.

He remembered that there were some enhancements to his Refuge, a long list of them. However, there was one related to his summons.

[T2 Refuge – Baron – Monster Menagerie]

[Refuge now can store permanent summons, the Refuge powering the manifestation of their avatars. Enables summons to exist until required for combat.]

Smiling, Jake manifested Jasmina, triggering this function. She appeared in motes of light, though the golden lights of the Framework layered over her, as if indicating it had taken over some of the efforts in maintaining her presence.

“There you go, Jasmina. You can stay out all the time now.”

She gave him a serpentine smile, and he gave her snout a pat as her auril heart beat. She seemed more than a little pleased.

Jake motioned and sent his emotions over as he told her, “You can go anywhere within our Refuge, this is your home now. You can go outside, but you cannot go too far. You should notice the barrier.”

Jasmina looked at him in question, but gave him a nod. It seemed she understood most of that. Somehow.

Jake was about to call upon the heroic beasts to see how they might work out, when Jake felt a shift in energy within his Storage Ring.

[Go ahead and put that on, husband. We’re ready now.]

Checking it with his intent, he found a red and gold tuxedo. He imagined it on himself, and his current clothing was replaced. It was surprising how well it fit. Looking at himself with his Gaze, he thought the outfit was interesting.

It was a modern tux, red in color. It had abstract art in gold, with black trims. His adornments appeared to make it onto the outfit as cuff links, and Jake thought he looked pretty good.

[Ready? Now, while you were sleeping, the world has grown even further. It seems the first burst of golden light was just the first of many, and now Life’s Haven is about triple the distance it was from Cascadia it was before.]

“What about all those gondolas I built?”

[It’s hard to believe, but it appears many of the ones we checked are still up! The land expanded, but it’s more that new mountains and land were inserted, rather than everything spread apart the same amount. It looks like you would need to build more, but their value has decreased now, right? Not only did you get all the refugees where they needed to be, but we now have your airships. They’ve served their purpose, for now.]

Jake sent a mental nod at that. At any rate, he likely could delegate any kind of infrastructure building, now that lives weren’t on the line.

“So, I guess I’m ready. What now?”

[Alright, so there is just one more thing. Check out this map.]

A holographic map appeared in front of him, of Highlands. The main continent was now different than he remembered, and even larger. However, the ocean had spread out even further, and a new continent appeared on the opposite side of the world.

Jake couldn’t believe his eyes. It was like the whole world had increased in size by at least thirty percent while he was asleep!

[That Heart of the World girl sure is busy, huh? Well, now look at this. We wanted to make sure we were on the same page before we hit the button.]

She zoomed into harmony peaks, showing the surrounding area. The peaks had certainly grown larger, but the area she zoomed into was where the World Tree was growing.

The clearing’s size had increased, and it now looked even more secretive than it was before. There was an area, on a hill leading up the mountain within the grotto, that looked almost precisely shaped for their new home. It even had a hole in the mountain at the rear of where their manor would go, going straight down to the Heart’s stem.

Fhesiah’s tone was teasing, [It’s a perfect fit, just like your–]

Jake interrupted, responding to both meanings at once, “Yes dear, and I do love how perfectly it fits. But it does seem away from our community. I had originally thought Life’s Haven would be best, and I had pictured us close to our friends.”

Blood was the one who responded, [We did too. We did hear your thoughts, after all, but it seems that even if Life’s Haven might be the Primary Headquarters for now, perhaps it should be switched. With the way the Heart is moving things, it looks like this will be the more central location as the Emberborn move into the north. The dungeon entrance is being moved as well.]

Looking over things, Jake realized she was right. Combined with the locations of the east and west coasts and how things were shifted, perhaps this was for the best. Even if the slot for the home hadn’t been carved out for them, they would have considered it.

“Alright, let’s do it.”

Jake selected the option to lay their quantum footprint there. The golden lights of the Framework appeared, and the Refuge lurched as it was placed down in that perfect spot at the base of the hill. A large manor, Tanda’s special area would now be shared with the World Tree, having Cernunnos and Brigid’s trees and shrines.

Ophelia chuckled. [That was cool! Um, I guess things kind of worked out, since this was where our event was gonna be anyway. Come on outside, my chosen. And, um… I hope you like how I look.]

There was a hidden confidence to the feelings over their bond, but a shyness to her words. If Jake had to guess, there was a change in her appearance that she had doubts or concerns over.

Jake walked out the large double front door, finding a massive crowd gathered in front of the World Tree. There was a large tent at the edge of the crowd, that he knew his girls were inside of. To Jake, it…looked like a wedding ceremony.