SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 692: Something Worth the Journey

Seraphine brought three drawings to breakfast.

Ira looked across the table at Leon, who kept his expression straight with some effort.

”Dawnspar,” Seraphine said, placing the first sheet in front of him. ”Lightning and light formed together in the same mineral structure. There are recorded growths on the sea stacks off the northern point.”

The drawing showed a pale crystal with violet branches running through a golden centre.

”The Palace has samples?” Leon asked.

”Two prepared pieces in the mineral vault. I examined both yesterday.”

”And?”

”Good materials. Either could be useful with the right supporting resources.” Seraphine moved the second drawing beside the first. ”But these are individual specimens. The relationship between their affinities changes as they grow. What suits another cultivator’s method may not suit mine.”

Leon studied the small notes beside each illustration.

”You couldn’t tell from the pieces?”

”I could tell enough to know I want to compare them with active growths. These were harvested decades ago. Their structure has settled.”

”So we go and let you choose.”

Seraphine looked up. ”You don’t want to hear the alternatives?”

”I’ll read them on the way.”

He liked having the Palace’s resources available. He also liked being able to choose something better suited to the people who mattered to him. A few days spent helping Seraphine prepare properly seemed an excellent use of his time.

Across the table, Vyra drew the third sheet toward herself.

”Does it explain transport?”

”The next page,” Seraphine said.

”There are more pages?” Ira asked.

Seraphine handed her the account of the guardian.

Ira settled down to read.

The northern point lay three days away by Palace transport, followed by a morning’s journey in a smaller boat. They arranged the necessary permissions and left with records of the known growths, preservation instructions, and three carrying cases.

Vyra checked the cases herself before accepting them. Their linings could maintain an isolated specimen’s charge, but only if adjusted to the material placed inside.

Loriel read the harvesting notes and added stone-cutting tools to their supplies.

”I thought she was taking a crystal,” Ira said.

”It grows into rock,” Loriel replied. ”We may need to bring some.”

”How much?”

”I’ll tell you when I see it.”

Leon approved of that answer. He was becoming suspicious of anyone who could promise an exact result without examining what they were working with.

For most of the journey, Seraphine alternated between the records and her own technique notes. She borrowed clean paper from Vyra, returned with questions for Loriel, and once asked Leon to demonstrate a small separation of light from lightning so she could compare how their residual energies faded.

He did it twice before admitting he did not know what she was looking for.

”That’s all right,” she said. ”I do.”

Her pleasure when the second demonstration confirmed something made him glad he had asked.

On the second evening, he found her on a sheltered section of deck. The crew worked at the opposite end of the vessel, beyond the quiet ward he set around their seats.

”Have you decided what the perfect one looks like?” he asked.

”I’ve decided what I want it to do. Apparently the appearance can be misleading.”

”An inconvenient habit in expensive things.”

Seraphine smiled and put her notebook aside.

He sat close enough for their shoulders to touch. For a while she watched the red light spread across the water.

”I could spend months studying the vault pieces,” she said. ”I’d understand them very well by the end. But I’d still wonder whether I chose them because they were suitable or because they were there.”

”And now?”

”Now I get to find out.”

She leaned against him. Leon rested his hand over hers and let the conversation lapse.

He had missed this during seclusion: being beside someone without needing to explain what he was thinking.

The boatman who carried them out the following morning was an older Palace disciple with a weathered face and an impressive dislike of the local birds.

”Leave food uncovered and they’ll take it from your hand, Senior Brother.”

”I’ll keep that in mind.”

Ira closed the paper around her breakfast.

The sea stacks rose from grey water in a group of eleven. Dark rock stood above white surf, its upper ledges scattered with pale mineral growths. Gulls wheeled over the outermost stack.

The boatman pointed toward a sheltered inlet beneath a lower rock.

”I’ll wait there. Signal when you’re ready.”

”Middle stack, Young Master,” Seraphine said. ”The largest recorded growths are on its upper ledges.”

They ascended together, leaving the boat well below and out of earshot.

Salt had collected in the hollows of the stone. Dawnspar clusters grew from narrow cracks, some no longer than Leon’s finger, others reaching his waist.

Ira stopped beside the largest.

”That one looks promising.”

Seraphine examined it before shaking her head.

”Strong lightning aspect. Stable, too. It might suit someone who uses light mainly to guide lightning.”

”But not you?”

”Not what I’m building.”

She moved slowly along the ledge, holding her hand near each likely specimen and introducing a trace of her own energy. Leon could perceive the responses, but their significance became clear only when she explained what pleased or disappointed her.

One crystal answered quickly to lightning and sluggishly to light. Another held both well but resisted the rapid transitions her sword method required.

Seraphine spent nearly an hour comparing them.

At a smaller cluster near the seaward edge, she stopped.

”This one.”

Leon crouched beside her.

The formation was roughly the size of two fists. Fine violet lines surrounded a warm golden interior. When Seraphine alternated the faint traces of her affinities, the response followed cleanly.

She repeated the test more slowly.

The pleasure in her expression was easy to recognize.

”Better than the vault pieces?” he asked.

”For me,” she said. ”Yes.”

Stone scraped behind them.

A huge heron had landed at the inland end of the ledge, forty paces away. Blue-white light ran along its feathers. A ridge of pale crystal protruded between its folded wings.

Ira lowered her pack.

”No trouble,” she said quietly.

Loriel was looking at the bird’s back. ”The records mentioned crystal deposits on mature ones. It feeds on loose discharge around the growths.”

The heron spread one wing.

Lightning snapped from its feathers into a nearby cluster. Violet flared through the mineral, briefly overwhelming the gold.

Seraphine’s hand tightened around Leon’s sleeve.

”Keep it away from this end.”

He looked from the larger crystal to the specimen beside them. Its response was still steady.

”How much interference can yours take?”

”I don’t want to find out while harvesting it.”

The heron lowered its head and opened its beak. Its attention moved between Ira and the group crouching near the growths.

Leon rose without releasing more energy than he needed.

They could kill it easily enough. That would not help if its first discharge spoiled what Seraphine had spent the morning choosing.

”Which ground do you want clear?” he asked her.

Seraphine looked along the ledge, judging the distances. She laid her notebook beside the chosen cluster and weighted its corner with a stone before answering.

”Everything between us and that split in the rock. Ira can have the other side.”