Kayt and Nimesh were currently in the training room for land-shaper Elite. Kayt had originally been sorted into Beginner, a fact that she wasn't particularly elated about.

'At least it wasn't Apprentice,' she consoled herself.

"Nimesh," Kayt called out, "5-4 4-2." Right back, left up. Kayt thought using directional names too crude, especially if she deigned to enter the Arena. She doubted people would be able to make sense of her simple numeric code.

The possible combinations consisted of a left/right direction and a complementary action, such as left hop, 4-3, or right dodge, 5-5. She and Nimesh had been slow at using the combinations at first, but now Nimesh moved expertly to Kayt's instructions.

"0." 0 meant, quite simply, come. Nimesh trotted over, her elegant white form almost instantly crossing the length of the training room. Kayt still couldn't eliminate her instinctive surprise as the wolf's speed defied any animal she'd seen before.

She was confident, however, that such surprise would fade with time. Especially once she obtained boons from the combat processing profession, such as combat processing, strength, and speed.

'Thank the Dawn I chose land-shaper as my first profession.' Kayt knew that given the huge numbers of people who now wanted to make land-shaper their next profession, likely some of them would be forced to choose something else. There was only so much space in each training room, after all.

'Though combat processing is a pretty useful first profession,' Kayt acknowledged. Probably second in utility to land-shaper.

---

Maya didn't understand all the fuss about the land-shaper and close combat professions. People were missing the connection between the only two people in Expert tier for child educator profession, herself and Herod.When she and Herod were the only two to appear in the Elite level child educator training room, they quickly realized the capabilities of their boons. Accordingly, they planned how they would work to take over Basalith.

'It sounds so nefarious when put in those kinds of terms,' Maya mused. 'We're serving an important role as the prime educators of the general populace.'

Maya had been working with Herod to come up with a good name to describe themselves. Maya herself was advocating for Vizier, while Herod hadn't come up with anything worth mentioning but still insisted on waiting a bit to "think it over."

While Maya acknowledged the fact that Herod was a great educator--how else could he have made Elite out of the starting gates?--she also recognized the fact that he was fairly dull and unfortunately subservient. 'Easy to manipulate, though' she noted with a slight bit of distaste.

Maya loved children. The same couldn't be said for the people they grew up to be.

As soon as Maya and Herod had both advanced to Expert, where they were now, they'd realized even further the extent of how overpowered their profession was. Clearly, the intent of the Church and Dragon was to grant everyone the boons of each profession. Therefore, Maya was more than aware of how important it was for her and Herod to move quickly and seize the initiative before everyone was on a level playing field.

She felt like they were doing a pretty good job so far. People rallied to both her and Herod, respectively, because they could take in all the crazy and distil it down, could construct cogent narratives and make Basalith accessible to even green newcomers. This was the kind of practice that Maya formally engaged in with children and now used on Basalith's many "sheeple."

There were a few people, however, who Maya knew were somewhat suspicious over how Maya and Hector ascended to their current places of power in such a short period of time. Maya smirked to herself. 'Let them be suspicious.' The initiative in Maya's possession was a weapon that she intended to maximally exploit.

---

"Why are we out here?" Lisa asked, her enhanced balance allowing her to drop directly out of Bath's elevated chest cavity without the need for assistance. She stood up from a crouch and surveyed the surroundings.

"It's empty," Bath stated plainly as he reverted back to human form. He stood in front of her, his figure silhouetted in the light of the setting sun. "You'd be surprised by how many places are." His voice was soft, barely audible over the wind. He strode forward; Lisa followed without being asked.

Lisa often had difficulty reconciling the playful Bath of human society and the Bath before her now. As she followed behind him to wherever he was intending for them to go by foot, she wondered how much of each Bath was actually real. She wasn't convinced that playful Bath and ancient Bath were irreconcilable facades of the same entity. Moreover, she refused to believe that Bath's human personality was an act, even if Bath claimed that he wore a mask to navigate human society.

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"What do you see?" he said, stopping in place over a tall dune spotted with desert grass. Lisa walked forward over the sand to join him.

She narrowed her eyes. "I see lots of sand." Then she turned to look at him. "Should I see something else?"

A small smirk escaped Bath's mouth. "You will."

As Bath gave her a small, cool smile, Lisa felt something changing her body from within. The sensation was incredibly uncomfortable, as though lots of tiny worms were squirming throughout her entire circulatory system.

"I put you asleep for the first round of enhancements," Bath recalled. "But I think you can handle this round without my assistance." He'd already given her the pain reducing boon while she slept a few days back. "I have faith in your tenacity." Besides, he felt it important she have a sense for the bestowal process everyone else in Basalith endured.

Lisa gave him a knowing grin. "Don't worry, I got this. It isn't that bad."

"It's just beginning."

Lisa gave him a grimace, then steeled herself for indefinite bodily torment. "If someone like Dean can do it, so can I," she growled as the pain level ratcheted up a notch.

"Someone like Dean? Is that a category of person now?"

"Grah, shut up," Lisa rasped. "You know what I mean."

After a few minutes, the pain began to wear off and the squiggly feeling under Lisa's skin began to subside. Lisa let out a relieved sigh.

Bath gave her a pained look, wondering if he should've just knocked her out. Wondering if the standard procedure should be to just knock everyone out. 'Unsustainable,' he reminded himself. He didn't trust anybody but himself to knock people out while they received boons.

"It's fine," Lisa said. "I got this. I can't keep getting special treatment, can't keep taking the easy way."

"It's going to get worse," Bath sighed. "Hold on."

Lisa's eyes grew wide; she nervously bit her cheek to bring moisture into her parched mouth. Then, a massive migraine ripped through her concentration.

"Shit!" she hissed, holding her head. She was grateful for the soft sand underfoot since her natural inclination was to drop to her knees. "What the fuck!?" Now this was pain. "Can't you give me that pain reducing boon?"

"Already did it," Bath replied.

Lisa suddenly felt a large wave of sympathy towards the initial constitution boon recipients. 'Wait...Dean got all his enhancements awake, without reduced pain?'

"How the hell did Dean not die?" Lisa gasped, cringing through her agony. "Like, before was terrible. Now is excruciating. Which boons did you give him?"

Seeing Lisa in such a state, Bath really was starting to wonder how Dean managed to endure so much pain. He'd taken an endless stream of powerful boons without displaying any significant signs of strain, at least not at level he'd expect seeing every other human he'd given boons. Based off of all that Bath had observed, Dean actually should've passed out from the pain after the first few minutes.

'Was it willpower, or something else?'

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck," Lisa chattered while rocking back and forth. "This is so oh oh oh painful. Pain pain pain." Now she was singing as she tried to keep her throbbing mind occupied. "How how how much lo-o-onger?"

"Not too much more," Bath admitted. "But you're going to feel something under your bones in a minute."

"Under my...?" Lisa didn't even want to think about what it would feel like to have something under her bones. After a period of time, she knew. "FUCK!"

"This is the most important part, though," Bath consoled her. "It's also the final part. I have to generate the superconductive mesh network and connect it to your nerves, then coordinate the whole system with your brain..." as he spoke, Lisa felt as though her bones were being impaled with spikes on the inside. Then, she felt as though her brain and spine were being lit on fire.

"YOU HAVEN'T GIVEN THIS BOON YET TO ANYONE," Lisa bellowed. "SO IF YOU GIVE IT TO ANYONE ELSE," she took a breath in between statements, "FUCKING KNOCK THEM OUT!"

Bath flinched. 'Maybe this one is a bit too painful. It'll probably be fine to knock people out, considering the fact that I'll be bestowing this one manually for the forseeable future.'

"Only 15 seconds left," Bath winced. "Might as well hold on."

"THIS HAS TO BE AT LEAST FIVE TIMES WORSE THAN CHILD BIRTH!" she exclaimed furiously. Now she was hopping around all over the sand as though her feet were aflame.

Bath cocked his head. "Actually..."

"SWEET JESUS IT'S OVER!" Lisa suddenly shouted as she collapsed onto the ground, laying on her back. Bath let her breathe for a few moments before kneeling down next to her to talk.

"That was terrible," she moaned. "Seriously. Knock me out next time if it's this painful. Or, make a better pain reducing boon."

Bath rolled his eyes, then cupped a handful of sand in his hand, let the sand fall. "What do you see?"

Lisa gave Bath an exasperated snort. "Nothing!"

Bath just raised an eyebrow, then relaxed his expression into a satisfied grin. "Good." How he conjured up a heap of iron shavings. "Watch." He threw the shavings up into the air, using his essence to paint them across the sky. Soon, Lisa began to see what Bath was talking about.

"What...?"

"This place has a very bizarre magnetic field," Bath explained. "To be honest, I'm not exactly sure why. I came across it a long time ago, and only remembered it now as I thought over locations for honing your new boon."

Lisa wondered just how long ago Bath was talking about. "Okay. So you're saying that all these iron shavings are tracing out the field lines in this desert area?"

"Right. Now, wherever you go from now on, you need to keep in mind that there are invisible magnetic field lines everywhere. You need to build up a sensitivity to magnetic fields so that adjusting your own superconductive field within them becomes second-nature."

Lisa gave him a dubious look. "Sounds pretty difficult."

"So is taking over the world," he shot back.

"True. I'm not backing out, in any case. Difficult just means a better payoff in the end."

"Now that you can see the field lines in this area, I want you to walk all throughout this dune. After you feel like you can sense where the field is without any help, we'll move onto the next step."

Lisa nodded. "Got it."