Chris

    I feel like specialized, strengthened Jotun bones are better than unspecialized higher-tier Lesser Frost Giant bones.

    The benefits of what I was choosing gave me more control if I went with Jotun Bones and I liked that aspect about it. I got to hand-pick which aspect I wanted instead of going with higher Tier, yet more generic.

    The Lesser Frost Giant bones would have been a big boost, too. If I could handle it and not blow myself up that was, but that was assuming I could. They also didn''t have any Body Refining done so I couldn''t select the Unique Qualities that I wanted.

    "Show only Jotun Bones with a Body of Stone or Higher."

    If I pick a conflicting aspect from a Body Refining Technique now, will it interfere when I Refine my own Body later?

    We assimilated the parts during our evolutions so I wasn''t sure if later Body Refinings would mess with things. My Heart didn''t interfere much when I underwent Body of Stone.

    Other than healing me from the Cold and making everything take longer because my natural Vitality increased.

    But it hadn''t conflicted with anything.

    Nearly all the options were Cold-aligned of some sort. It wasn''t a surprise that Jotun''s, being of the Frost Giant Bloodline, favored Cold alignments. The issue I saw is where some leaned Ice-Earth, rather than Ice-Wind like I did. Tundra of Permafrost for example.

    Best not to muddle my affinity.

    It was possible to acquire multiple, separate affinities but I didn''t think this was the way to do that. It was best to leave the Earth-tinted ones out and focus on either Pure Ice or Ice and Wind like I was already doing.

    "Show only Jotun Bones with unaligned affinity, Pure Ice, or Ice and Wind."

    The list narrowed but it was still long enough I had options. Instead of narrowing it further, I gazed through it to see what was there.

    ~~

    Peak E-rank Adult Jotun Bones

    Unique Quality: Glacial Strength (Body of Copper)

    Fortitude Essence: ~2000

    Price: 35,000,000

    Early D-rank Adult Jotun Bones

    Unique Quality: Rapid Regeneration (Body of Stone)

    Fortitude Essence: ~1500

    Price: 29,000,000

    Mid D-rank Elder Jotun Bones

    Unique Quality: Arctic Rejuvenation (Body of Stone)

    Fortitude Essence: ~1750

    Price: 45,000,000

    ~~

    If I wanted to, I could look further into what each of the options meant allowing me to get more information. Glacial Strength was obvious, but Rapid Regeneration was less intuitive along with Arctic Rejuvenation.

    Rapid Regeneration worked through Ice Mana to ''refreeze'' bones back together if they were ever to get broken. It wasn''t a perfect fix from what I could tell, but it got the job done and allowed a person to fight on.

    Arctic Rejuvenation worked to feed Arctic Mana into the Bone Marrow to boost healing and Vitality depending on the amount and purity of mana. I pictured it as an in-built healing skill.

    Another thing to make note of was the price. I had 115 million at my disposal, and the Bones were ranging from 30 to 45 million right off the bat.

    Based on price, Elder Bones were prized more than the Third Level of Body Refining. Even though the E-rank Jotun had a Body of Copper, one step above Stone, it was cheaper than the Elder bones. They were also more expensive than the Early D-rank bones.

    Rank is less important than Fortitude and Body, but Age is more important than both.

    Even though deeper in the list made prices soar, I couldn''t help but keep looking further and further down. If I was going to do it, I was going to do it right.

    My Body Technique boosts the durability against slashing and cutting attacks. Which one would work best with that?

    Flat Durability and Strength?

    Regeneration after breaking?

    Vitality Boost?

    Blunt attack Protection?

    Or something other than strictly for Bones.

    Mana Circulation?

    Flexibility?

    Temperature Regulation?

    There were also... less desirable traits. One allowed Ice Spikes to extend out of joints. One froze the body rigid for some reason. Another was strictly for Growth, allowing one to gigantify, if I was reading things right.

    Having bones that could Circulate Mana in addition to my blood would add a second avenue for it, but how would my Mana Heart work with that? My Mana Pool had been moved and transformed into my Heart, which was where my mana came from, how would it then transfer into my bones?

    Flexibility sounded like it would make me more nimble. It would also make breaking my bones harder because they would have flex in them maybe? I wasn''t exactly sure.

    Temperature Regulation would be a big help with [Glacial Presence]. If my bones helped drop my temperature lower, the boost it gave would be easier to get regardless of the outside temperature.

    But was it worth it to go for that instead of something else?

    I mulled over it for a while but kept coming back to one option. It was expensive, near the bottom, but I couldn''t help but like it.

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ~~

    Mid D-rank Elder Jotun Bones

    Unique Quality: Essence of Frost (Body of Copper)

    Fortitude Essence: ~2500

    Bones of an Elder Jotun Thrice refined using the same Technique. The Essence of Frost Technique purifies, concentrates, and distills all Cold-aligned mana and energy into the Essence of Frost. Boosts all Cold-aligned abilities and skills both inherent or gained, while also providing such Essence to nourish and strengthen the rest of the body.

    Price: 65,000,000

    ~~

    That option, above all the others, stuck out to me. It reminded me of my Mana Cultivation Technique Stars of Primordial Frost. It sounded like my Bones would act as a focus like in Abigail''s staff.

    The Runes and Beast Core used in her staff did similar things to what the description read.

    That Essence would also make strengthening my Bloodline easier. It would help [Glacial Presence] if I could supercharge my Domain skills with Frost Essence. Not to mention my newly upgraded [Glacial Heavy Plate].

    The Fortitude Level and Age of the Bones would work to flatly increase my Durability, even without doubling down on it with the Unique Quality as well. I was hoping it would increase my Body''s capability to withstand the boosts I had access to as well.

    I''d dilly-dallied enough, time for action. My gut was telling me it was the best option so I went with it.

    Without leaving the opportunity to second guess myself, I purchased it. Without the timer, I''d probably spend hours going over every option.

    Alright, nearly a half hour on the first reward. Best to speed things up.

    Identify Freeze(Epic) – Blocks all attempts to ascertain information from the skill holder by utilizing one''s aura to freeze out scrying, divining, or visual abilities. If the difference in aura strength is significant, it also imparts a freezing ailment to those who try to use Identifying skills.

    My own Scouts could read my information through my [Blocker] and I knew that others at the Gathering had as well. I wanted to make sure my level and information were private and this skill was perfect for that. It also worked based on aura strength instead of Perception or something else.

    Its price was also reasonable.

    I also purchased the opposing skill.

    Aura Detection(Rare) – Uses one''s aura to detect and evaluate enemies and items in range. While mainly suited for assessing and Identifying other beings, it can also identify materials and objects to a lesser degree.

    It finally rid me of my awful [Identify] problem by basing the skill on aura instead of my poor Perception.

    When I first poked around in the store, I''d thought these would be available through the Merchants but I''d been wrong. Higher rarity skills weren''t openly sold like I had assumed. Most Factions had uses for these and while they were nothing groundbreaking, they were hard to find for sale.

    Other skills like [Dash], [Charge], and [Wind Manipulation] were a lot easier and cheaper to get through Merchants, which I was planning to do. It''d be a waste to use Personal Points on [Wind Manipulation].

    Now that we had access to Common skills easily, I was looking to bank up on some to even out my Skill set. While we were given 6 skills per Rank, we also had room for more.

    The last of the three skills I planned to get was a movement skill. For this, there were a few lesser options available to buy like [Snow Walk] and [Ice Slide], but I wanted a good one and those weren''t for sale easily.

    Glacial March(Epic)

    – Slow in the beginning, but inevitable in the end. While standing on Ice, Earth, or Sea your feet push you onward like the steady march of a Glacier. Forces seeking to block, slow, or ensnare have a decreased effect until eventually being ground underfoot and thrown off entirely.

    It was my movement skill of choice. It didn''t make me faster or make it easier to dodge, like Austin''s [Flash Step]. It made any attempts to slow or trap me less effective or ineffective depending on how strong they were.

    That hadn''t been a problem yet, as I mostly fought beasts, but I had a feeling my Human battle experience would soon see a rise in action. The biggest thing others were worried about was me getting trapped.

    This skill would negate that. It wasn''t perfect, but it would help.

    All three skills together were a decent chunk of my Points, but not nearly as bad as the bones.

    Next up was my Body Refining Technique. I''d gone through Body of Wood and Body of Stone already, it was time for Body of Copper. It would be after I evolved, but it was good to get it now.

    Similar to good skills, good Techniques weren''t sold so easily. Body Refining Techniques and Mana Cultivation Techniques were a Faction''s lifeblood. They weren''t so freely shared.

    This was why a considerable amount of our Faction points were going to go toward buying some, but that was later.

    Also, I decided to switch it up. The Northern Winds Body Technique had fit me well for the first two levels, but I decided to branch out. The increased resistance to cutting attacks had worked well to keep the orc''s axes and swords from slicing into me, as well as beast claws up until that point, but I felt a new road was better than continuing down my old one.

    My body couldn''t handle the boosts my skills provided. I couldn''t get any secondary ones from Supports or Healers either. Those exact skills upgrading and becoming more effective only made it worse, too, which made it even more pressing.

    Instead of going with the same Technique again, I went with the Might of the Arctic Technique.

    Might of the Arctic Body Refining Technique–Grinds the flesh and bones into fine snow using the full power of the Arctic before rebuilding it in studier form. Boosts and fortifies the foundation of the Body empowering all that is already there. Additionally, any increase past base limits strains the body less.

    It went on to describe in brutal detail how it would ''pulverize every cell with the full weight of the Arctic.'' From the sounds of it, I was in for a joyous occasion.

    It would make my current Wind Chamber obsolete, but I''d have time to build another one or seek out an area in the Far North that would work. The Wind Chamber wouldn''t be useless, though, as others had already spent some time experiencing what I had.

    With my main desires taken care of, there was more leeway with what I wanted next. The Bones, Skills, and Technique took a good portion of my Points, but I had enough for one last big purchase before I had to spend the rest on what Abigail told me.

    It was a little irksome to have to spend some of my points that way, but what we had decided to get as a Faction more than made up for it. Faction points were to be spent for the Faction, but some of the items would benefit me directly. Spending a few of my Personal Points to get things that I didn''t necessarily need was a small price to pay for that.

    My last big purchase with my Personal Points was technically not a dire necessity, but I was tired of being injured all the time. It had happened enough times I was sick of it. One big battle and I''d be recovering for months!

    Leveling up and increasing the power of our Healers was one way to combat that but it was slow. Another way was through a treasure.

    Bed of Centurion Ice: Chiseled from a hundred-year-old glacier and processed by a Master Ice Sculptor. The energies within have been filtered and tuned to boost the rejuvenation of Cold Bloodlines and Arctic Healing. Further, it''s been enchanted with Runes of Healing and Rejuvenation to have an even greater effect.

    My very own Bed of Healing. Laying on it would make the Vitality provided by my Heart greater in addition to helping [Cold Meditation]. Laying on that while also getting seen by Healers would cut down on my downtime significantly.

    Next, Formation and Runic Enchantment Books.

    Pooling our points was for everyone''s benefit. It spread out who bought what but allowed everyone access to it anyway. While I bought Formation and Runic Enchanting books, someone else bought Forging books, another bought Alchemy Books, and yet another bought Herbalism Books, but we all shared.

    It was important to note only I had access to Faction Points while everyone else only had Personal Points. These things could be bought with Faction Points, but it was more effective to have everyone spend a small portion of points for the Faction than have the Faction spend a significant amount of points on everything.

    It opened us up for bigger and better purchases. It also worked out that it was for everyone''s benefit. If dozens of different people were interested in Alchemy, instead of everyone spending points on the same thing, one person bought it for everyone.

    We were doing the same with Techniques, but those were more personal. We didn''t have enough points to buy every Water or Ice Technique there was, but we could spring for a few.

    If someone wanted something rare or outside of that, it was on them but we at least gave people an option or two. Marcus was also on board and he was set to buy most of our Water Techniques, both Mana and Body.

    I watched my Personal Points dwindle as I bought more books. There were a few Runes in them and there were also different Runic Pathways, Nodes, and Connections shown, but they were mainly theory and educational.

    What filigree worked best. What each material did or didn''t add to a formation.

    Knowledge and background that we had been missing.

    Originally, I''d have spent my last points on specific Runes or Formations I wanted but Abigail got me not to. She said since Runes and Formations were directly important for our Faction as a whole, it''d be better to spend Faction Points on them instead of Personal Points.

    Runes weren''t the only thing I got to spend Faction Points on that I personally wanted either. If it was important for the Faction, what else could I do?

    What can I say, it paid to be the Leader.