“I’ve got bad news, okay news, and good news,” Layla said after Nil entered her office. Since he had suffered no significant injuries, he only spent the necessary three Schema Credits at the Fountain of Pyrene. It got rid of the burn and pain, but the skin around the injury was still bright pink and raw. “Which would you like first?”
“Will the good make the bad sting less?”
Layla shrugged. “That’s up to you, to be honest.”
“Let’s start with the bad and work our way to the good.”
“You absorbed more Cursed Energy during the mission,” she said, flashing a sympathetic smile. “It's normal to accumulate marginal quantities where you’re fighting Cursed Ones. However, in this situation, it looks like you interrupted the birth of one, and the vile presence latched on to your soul weapon. You almost gained as much as we used to make your first negative feat.”
“Well, that’s a kick in the balls.” Nil sighed. “And here I was hoping to use my bonus to turn some of it into a feat. Now that I’m on track to get into Apocalypse Arena, a soul weapon would go a long way.”
“Well. All hope is not lost. You won the neighboring Control World’s favor. You didn’t just solve the plight of Oleg’s Watch but made it happen with no interruption to mana gem production. So, they’ve offered their services to turn some of the Cursed Energy into a new feat.” Layla grinned. “Let me reiterate. Into a feat with no negative elements.”
“Well, that’s excellent news!” Nil exclaimed. His disappointment rapidly faded. The feats he encountered during his body ascension, though simple, were life-changing. An opportunity to pick one he missed especially excited him. “What’s the okay news?”
“The Control World has also given us the resources and funds for the investigation regarding Cursed Energy on your Earth,” Layla answered, sounding pleased. “That means we can employ more Summoned for it and cast a wider net. We can also offer you better perks if you accept.”
“It's one of the things I wanted to discuss,” Nil said. “I changed my mind about assisting you. The matter is personal to me, and I feel like I can’t move on from the incident that gave me the soul weapon and visage unless I help resolve this matter. However, I need some time to get through the Iron Gauntlet qualifiers first. They’re just around the corner, and I can’t afford to let my attention wander. So, if you’ll give me some time.”
“That’s fine with us. For the time being, please keep your eyes open for Cursed Energy sources. If you succeed, the Control World will cover the costs of more feats. Although, they won’t be free of negative elements like this one. There’s also scope for things like ascension tokens, access to trainers to help master Brutal Battery and more.”
“I wouldn’t call that okay news. It's good but lacking immediate benefits.”
“Have you decided how you intend to use your Schema Tokens?” Layla asked.
Nil nodded. “I plan to invest everything in Spark until it reaches Iron-Nine. Now that I have a ludus membership and the means to train my attributes, I don’t see the point in wasting Schema Tokens on much else.”
“Makes sense with Through Sheer Grit. I haven’t seen that trait in forever. Should we see what other traits are available to you?”
“Sure. The offerings are tailored to your current needs.”
Please Pick A Feat:
* Eye For Vulnerability: No matter how durable or armored a foe is, it almost always has a vulnerable point worth exploiting. Your ability to identify an opponent's weak points increases with Finesse.
* The Power Of Belief: Psychic pain? Fear? Waking nightmares? Mental attacks and ailments can all be resisted with the power of belief. Spark grants half as much resistance to psychic trauma as would Mind.
* My Body Is My Domain: None but the invited may enter your domain. Your resistance to harmful substances and presences significantly increases with Might.
The decision proved significantly harder than the last time Nil had to pick traits. The Nexus and Control World had perfectly tailored the traits to cover his weaknesses and shortcomings.
Eye for Vulnerability once again tempted him. Nil’s time at the ludus had introduced him to several opponents with defenses standard Expend-powered blows couldn’t penetrate. Lily and the spear-wielding knight ranked at the top of the list. Apocalypse Arena was forgiving to fighters who accidentally killed their opponents in the ring, but that didn’t mean Nil wanted to take advantage of any loopholes to get away with murder or manslaughter. The feat would help him deal with such opponents safely while also putting down greater threats without burning all of Brutal Battery’s stores.
Identifying the Cursed Pupae's core location without exploding it with Expend would've been a great benefit. Nil imagined facing multiple such entities at once when he started quests with higher danger levels. The scuttler from the emergency quest also worried him. It significantly outsped Nil and also had defenses capable of defending against Sakura’s Cutting Light. He was sure that punches and kicks enhanced with Expend would struggle even more. Nil needed the means to deal with such foes more easily.
However, the other two traits appealed to Nil far more. My Body Is My Domain didn't go into much detail, but Nil was sure it would help him resist toxins. The wording suggested it could do more. He wondered whether presences included Fatima’s blade aura or Winter Hunter’s icy injections. Nil had taken a risk with Through Sheer Grit and was wary of doing the same twice in a row.
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The Power Of Belief felt like the best and safest bet. Two of his three journeys into the multiverse featured psychic trauma. The last instance with Oth had left Nil especially shaken. The horrifying visions that accompanied the psychic attack still occasionally surfaced while he slept. He would wake from them covered in sweat and with a horrible itching at the back of his eyes. Given the Nexus's purpose, Nil was sure he'd continue to have brushes with entities that utilized psych attacks. He had no hopes of developing defenses by increasing his Mind. Nil considered it a wasted investment. The ludus had resources and simulations to train the attribute but that involved spending time he didn’t or couldn’t want to spare.
“I have a few questions,” Nil said.
“I’m not allowed to discuss your options. It's annoying and stupid, I know. The guidance I've given you thus far already counts as interference and I could get in trouble with my superiors.”
“I just need clarification regarding an existing Feat. Through Sheer Grit.”
“Ah, yes. Spark Feats usually have weird, incomplete descriptions. Many theorize it's the Schema trying to be funny. Through Sheer Grit will enhance the natural growth rate of all your attributes up to your current Spark rank. So, your Might will grow faster until it catches up, and then it will return to following the limitations of Bronze potential.”
“So, it voids the limitations of potential as long as my Spark is higher?”
“Not at all,” Layla replied. “Potential also determines your peak returns from raising an attribute. Think of it as a logarithmic graph. It marks the point beyond which further investment provides diminishing returns.”
Nil made his decision and used the two Schema Tokens to increase his Spark.
* Might: Iron 0
* Finesse: Mortal 8
* Mind: Mortal 3
* Spark: Iron 1
Brutal Battery: Mortal 6
* Absorb: Mortal 6
* Expend: Mortal 7
Energy Instinct: Mortal 4
Feats:
* Haunting Visage
* Armsmaster’s Disappointment
* Through Sheer Grit
* The Power Of Belief
“Smart decision,” Layla commented. “It's not just Cursed Ones and the Void that frequently employ psychic attacks and illusion. You're bound to face plenty in Apocalypse Arena. Given your fighting style, people will rightly assume your mind is vulnerable.”
“Yeah. Since Might already makes me durable and resistant to toxins, I didn't think the feat is an immediate requirement. Is The Power Of Belief particularly rare?”
“Rare in the sense it almost exclusively appears for what your people call Summoners. Since such powers are fairly rare, the feat is too.” The caseworker leaned back in her chair, studying Nil for several minutes. “You're full of surprises. I still can't understand how long it took the Nexus to find you.”
“Didn't you say my attribute distribution is unfortunate and the Cursed Energy masked me from the Schema?”
“Yes to both, but the Cursed Energy only came into play when you were twenty-two. That means you lived six years as an eligible Summoned without the Schema noticing you.” Layla crossed her arms on the table and leaned forward as she spoke. “Attributes are important but aren't everything. Here at the Nexus, we look for personality, attitude, aptitude, skill, and a lot more. You have the right stuff for this kind of work. You're driven but gentle and empathetic. You think on your feet and outside of the box. Most Summoned would've just waited for the Cursed One to emerge and attack it. You, on the other hand, were proactive.
“We have people at the Nexus who dedicate their entire lives to calculating possible futures. There are hundreds of thousands of Beacon Worlds out there, with people attempting summoning every day. We prioritize the important and those with the highest chances of success.
Our forecasters predicted the Cursed Pupae would achieve its goal and consume the last of its targets. The attack and battle would help you track it down to its lair, and you'd put it down while it was in the process of metamorphosis. It would be a bloody battle, but we expected you to succeed. The casualty rate was supposed to be high, but we expected productivity to drop significantly over the next few months. You defied expectations. I'm not the only one who's impressed.”
“Thank you, I guess.” Heat radiated from Nil’s cheeks and ears. He never knew how to respond to earnest compliments and sought to change topics. “So, the Cursed Energy investigation. Have you made any headway on how someone is smuggling Cursed Energy or unformed soul weapons onto Earth?”
Layla shook her head, shoulders slumping. “Now that we have decent funds, we’ll hopefully find new talent to lure into the investigation.”
“I have a few candidates I’d like to recommend,” Nil said. “I don’t know if I’m allowed to do so, but I think they’d be great at solving this mystery.”
“Is one of these people Katherine Park?”
Nil frowned. “Have you guys been watching me?”
“We’d never!” Layla exclaimed, feigning offense. “The Schema tracks you, and as your case worker, I occasionally check in on you. The system registers when two Summoned spend a lot of time together or have close contact.”
“That feels like a bit of a violation of privacy.”
Layla shrugged. “It's just what the Schema does. It's handy when people form close groups in higher realms and like going on quests together.”
“Anyway. Katherine Park would be good once I start the investigation in earnest.”
“She’s got the power and profile for it,” Layla commented. “I’ll send the recommendation up the chain of command. Whose the other candidate?”
“I don’t know how this works, but he’s not a Summoned.”
“Oh.”
“Andrew Harper. He’s a close friend, and I’ve known him since childhood—”
“I’m sorry, but—”
“Andrew isn’t a Summoned, but he’s made a living out of taking apart and rebuilding aethertech.” Nil pressed on, ignoring Layla’s interruption. “He’s doing reasonably well for himself with just that. I know Artisans are rare, and I bet it's because you guys struggle to find people with the right aptitude for it. Well, I’m leading you to someone who’s been at it and successful without Attributes, an ability, or the accompanying knowledge. Think about how helpful it would be for your Earth-side jobs if you had an independent Artisan working for you and not in the pocket of Symbiotech, Arthurtech, or a conglomerate more interested in protecting their interests than the realm’s stability. Andrew could be accommodating in investigations like these. He could provide perspectives that Katherine and I can’t.”
“Fine.” Layla sighed. “I’ll file a recommendation for that, too, but I can’t make any promises.”
“That’s all I ask.” Nil smiled as he considered the possibility of making his best friend's lifelong dream come true.