Some time passed that I have no clear memory of. The first thing I remember clearly was being gently shaken by a large hand on my back. It turned out to be one of my cellmates, they’d returned from the dungeon and after a meal had made their way back to their cells for the night. They’d found me curled up in the bed with swollen eyes and dried tears on my cheeks and weren’t sure what to make of it.
I’d been deep inside myself for a long time at that point, and it took a while to push my way back to the surface. I remember reading the last F.A.Q. entry at some point, and in its own weird way it helped.
> F.A.Q.
>
> Why have you done this to us?
>
> Because you asked for it. You may not have realized it, but your soul was reaching out for something more, something you couldn’t get in the world you left behind. None of you were taken against your will, each of you was calling out for rescue like a distress beacon. The gods heard your prayers, and this was their answer. A place they had prepared for your coming, a world run by a system your society had trained you to understand and thrive in, and a chance to choose who you wanted to be.
>
> Millions of people put on their nVR headsets to play the latest big game released in your world, and for most that’s exactly what they are doing right now. For you, you are living the life you chose to live. It will not be perfect, no, but you have a chance to make it better than your last if you choose to take it.
This resonated with me. I’d been treading water for a long time in my past life. Yes, I had friends and family who I’d dearly miss, and yes I’d miss modern conveniences. However, even if I’d known it was real during character creation I’m not sure I would have made any different choices. Maybe if I’d known I was going to end up in the body of a female goblin, but Valera had been very clear she couldn’t tell me what body I’d end up with. Also, I’d been promised the ability to change my body at some point, so I should be able to fix this eventually.
I’d had a very long day, and I was just now realizing the full scope of the implications of the day’s events. Everything I had done was now immensely more important to my future than I had thought. I couldn’t afford to make any more mistakes, so I once again set aside all my emotional baggage and focused on the tasks at hand.
To that end, I managed to convince my cellmates that I’d be alright, then I pretended to go to sleep and took care of a few things I needed to do before actually sleeping for the night. First, I checked my newest achievements. I wanted to see what I had to work with.
> New Achievement
>
> Deal with the Devil
>
> You have entered the Equitable Exchange, a place of infernal delights open only to those who please The Adversary. This achievement comes with no reward, only a warning: Caveat Emptor.
> New Achievement
>
> Devourer of Worlds
>
> You have done something previously thought to belong in the domain of only daemons - you consumed a Reality Seed and survived. What this will do to you in the long run is anyone’s guess, but for now it’s earned you this achievement.
>
> System Note: Infinity, you seem determined to live up to your name. I had to create this achievement just for you, because I didn’t think it was possible to do what you did. As you know, even I have issues with infinities… Even small infinities. The mathematicians and logicians amongst the gods tell me that one infinity can contain other infinities, so I suppose this is apt.
>
> Rewards:
> +20pp (Universal)
> Title Unlocked (“Souleater”)
> New Achievement
>
> Membership is its own reward
>
> You entered Sam’s Daily Devil Deals and left without making a purchase. Patience is a virtue, and the proprietors of the establishment have taken notice of your restraint. Perhaps the knowledge you gained inside will be worth the price of entry.
>
> Rewards:
> Entrance Coupon (1 free entry to Sam’s gallery)
When I read the last achievement a slip of parchment appeared in one of my hands. I looked at it in consternation, realizing that I was going to have to buy another soul-space slot already. I sighed and got it over with, those slots were too useful anyway, it wasn’t like it was wasted points. A few seconds later and the coupon was safely stored in my soul-space, oddly without even needing to identify it first. I guess I had a pretty solid grasp on what a coupon was.
Next up, I wanted to buy and use my “Devil in the Details” skill. I’d been given this for a reason I was sure, and I wanted to start using it immediately. I opened up my unlocked skills menu and noticed something I’d missed earlier. Limitless’ unique skills weren’t in my list of unlocked skills. Frowning, I backed out of that menu and returned to my notes screen, finding where I’d written about Limitless’ unique skills. The priest I’d spoken to had told me the skills in detail, even using one of them in front of me. How is it I hadn’t unlocked either of them?
I sighed and re-opened the bug report menu, filing my second bug report of the night. I wondered if my new full time job was QA tester for this world. It could be worse I suppose. Like last time when I filled out the bug report I was prompted with the same two messages letting me know there was a backlog and that my report had been elevated.
Moving on for the moment I returned to my unlocked skill menu and began the process of moving points into it, but I got a new message in the process.
> System Alert
>
> Select a class for this skill.
>
> As you are the first to unlock this skill, you have earned a free rank in it, but you must select which of your classes it will be associated with. Unlocked skills may only be associated with a class unless they are unlocked through a racial skill evolution. Normally the process of selecting a class for an unlocked skill is done by the type of points you decide to put into it, however in this case you have a free rank earned, and so must select it directly.
>
> Choose Class:
> - Trailblazer
> - Thief
That was interesting, did that mean nobody in the world was a level fifty Demonologist yet? If this was a real world with real people in it, how was it possible that I was the first one to unlock this? Perhaps just because Demonologists could learn it didn't mean it was something they unlocked automatically? Maybe the Demonologist class was reserved for Travelers? It was something I’d have to think about, but for the moment I had a choice to make.
The obvious answer here was Trailblazer, I had so many more Trailblazer points to spend than Thief points. Yet, I hesitated. I knew that it was possible to unlock new classes, Trailblazer was specifically intended to do so, but nobody had said I couldn’t use my other class as the base for unlocking a new class. Introducing skills into a class was surely the way to evolve it into something new right? Trailblazer was about the future and this skill was all about the past, somehow it seemed backwards to combine them.
I currently had 40 unspent Trailblazer points, and only 7 unspent Thief points, but I also had 8 unused Affinities, 5 from Trailblazer and the rest from Thief. Tavi apparently hadn’t used any of her Thief affinities, probably from lack of any need. I could easily make that skill one of my Affinities if I wanted it in my Thief class but needed to spend points on it from Trailblazer.
I locked it in. It felt right to me, and if it turned out I was wrong it didn’t feel like the end of the world with this specific skill. However, I was immediately met with another prompt.
> System Alert
>
> Skill prerequisite not met.
>
> You do not meet the prerequisite “Demonologist (Level 50)” for the skill “Devil in the Details” - would you like to expend a rank of Innovator to bypass this skill prerequisite? You have one rank of Innovator available.
>
> Yes / No
I selected yes, and the skill faded from my unlocked skills list, appearing on my active skills list a moment later when I checked for it.
I had one last thing I wanted to do before I activated the skill. I was sitting on a 50 point penalty that was currently halving my maximum HP. I’d taken a moment earlier to read the F.A.Q. entry on death and what it amounted to was yes, death was permanent by default, but there were some exceptions. There were ways to get extra lives, or escape death, but nobody had them by default. There was a singular exception for Travelers that managed to die within 1 hour of spawning into the world, as it was assumed that this meant they had spawned somewhere incompatible with their biology. I was well past that cutoff though.
That meant I was currently twice as easy to kill as I should be, and tomorrow I was headed into a dungeon where I’d presumably have to fight for my life. I wasn’t about to do that with half the health I could have, so I flipped to the penalties screen and had a look at it.
> Expendable
>
> Penalty (Tier 5)
>
> Source: Goblin
>
> Rank: 5 / 5
>
> PP: 0 / 10
>
> In the face of harsh environments your people have evolved to be expendable and easily replaceable. Your maximum health is reduced by 50%. This amount is lessened by 10% for every rank removed from this penalty.
I couldn’t blame Tavi for not working on this, it was such a drain to know that your species only gave you two points per-level but expected you to pay off a penalty that would literally take you twenty-five full levels to get rid of. Pretty much the only choice was to spend points cross-path, and that hurt. Fortunately I had 28 Universal points to spend from my achievements, and I planned to use them all right now.
I brought up the interface for the penalty.
> Skill Advancement
>
> Expendable (Tier 5, Penalty)
>
> Source: Goblin
>
> Affinity: No
>
> Rank: 5 / 5
>
> PP: 0 / 10
>
> PP Available
>
> Universal: 28
>
>
> Goblin: 2
>
> Valerian: 14 (xPath)
>
> Trailblazer: 40 (xPath)
>
> Thief: 7 (xPath)
Wait… Penalties could be Affinities? How did that work? What happened when you paid them off? There were no answers on this screen, so I backed out and navigated to the Help section, looking for information on how these things worked. Thankfully, I found some.
> System Help
>
> Skills, Penalties & Affinities
>
> Skills as a broad category represent all the spells, techniques, and other special abilities you have access to. All skills are inherently supernatural, but the source of their power can vary. Magical skills typically draw from your pool of mana, while physical skills typically draw from your stamina. These pools are abstractions representing your personal spiritual power and your ability to channel it through your mind or body respectively.
>
> Penalties are the opposite of skills but in many ways are interchangeable with them. They represent weaknesses in your physical or spiritual body that you can overcome with effort. While many penalties are present from birth, it is possible to acquire new ones in a variety of ways, including injuries and species evolutions. Penalties can be paid off with an investment of progression points, and doing so will always unlock a skill that represents your struggle to overcome a weakness.
>
> Similar to penalties, when you invest the maximum number of progress points into a skill you may trigger a Skill Evolution. When you evolve a skill, you will unlock a new skill (or skills) based on the skill you mastered. In some cases skill and penalty evolutions lead to branching paths where selecting one option will lock you out from the others. These in turn can result in class or species evolutions based on the source of the evolution.
>
> Affinities represent skills you have a particular talent for. They are easier to rank up than other skills, as you may freely spend points on them from any source you have available. Additionally, skills with Affinities assigned to them are eligible for special evolution paths. When this happens you can choose to take the special evolution, or keep the standard one. When evolving along the standard path your Affinity is retained through the evolution, while special evolutions consume the Affinity in the process.
Well, that was interesting. I flipped back to my penalties screen and this time I focused on assigning an Affinity to the Expendable penalty. I wanted this thing gone, and if I could get a special option for doing so all the better, otherwise I’d take keeping the affinity for whatever the resulting skill was.
I decided to burn most of my Trailblazer points first, and my Universal points last. I wanted to leave at least a point or two in each of Thief and Trailblazer in case I needed to add a skill to either of them, since Universal points wouldn’t work for that. I also decided to spend my Goblin points last as they were the hardest to get.
When all was said and done I’d spent 38 Trailblazer points, 5 Thief points, and 7 Valerian points to completely pay off that penalty.
> System Message
>
> Species penalty removed
>
> Congratulations, you have paid off a species penalty and it has evolved into a new species skill. This penalty leads to a branching path of evolutionary options, so you must now choose which skill this penalty will evolve into. The following skills have been unlocked, however you will only be able to choose one of them to learn. Your choice of this skill will lead to a sub-species evolution based on the chosen skill.
>
> Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
>
> Choose One:
> Skill: Allometry (Passive, Tier 3)
> Skill: Hob (Passive, Tier 4)
> Skill: Essential (Passive, Tier 5, Consumes Affinity)
Congratulations, you have received enough XP to become a Level 4 Valerian!
Fantastic. I’d already figured out that boosting my goblin stuff created a positive feedback loop with Valerian, so the level was no surprise. It’d probably get harder to level up my real species the higher level it got, but I suspected dumping an affinity and 50 points into a goblin skill and unlocking three new species skills on top of it must have given me a boatload of Valerian XP.
I grinned to myself, this was already paying off. I was glad I didn’t have to make this decision blind. I took a look at the skills first, leaving the achievement for later.
> Allometry
>
> Passive Skill (Tier 3, Species)
>
> Prerequisites: Goblin (Unevolved), Mastered (Expendable), Branch (Expendable)
>
> Source: Goblin
>
> Rank: 0 / 5
>
> PP: 0 / 6
>
> Big things come in small packages. Your small frame belies your strength, speed and endurance. Your Strength, Agility, Dexterity, and Fortitude are increased by 10% for every rank in this skill.
>
> Subspecies Evolution: Dire Goblin (Tier 1, Goblin)
> Hob
>
> Passive Skill (Tier 4, Species)
>
> Prerequisites: Goblin (Unevolved), Mastered (Expendable), Branch (Expendable)
>
> Source: Goblin
>
> Rank: 0 / 5
>
> PP: 0 / 8
>
> You are physically larger and stronger than your peers, and they instinctively defer to your leadership. For every rank in this skill your Strength, Fortitude, Toughness, and Charisma, are increased by 10%, and your height is increased by 2cm. Additionally, your party members gain a 5% per-rank bonus to their Agility and Intelligence so long as they can see or hear you.
>
> Subspecies Evolution: Hobgoblin (Tier 1, Goblin)
> Essential
>
> Passive Skill (Tier 5, Species)
>
> Prerequisites: Goblin (Unevolved), Mastered (Expendable), Affinity (Expendable), Branch (Expendable), Achievement (Speak Truth to Power)
>
> Source: Goblin
>
> Rank: 0 / 5
>
> PP: 0 / 10
>
> You can survive anything. Once. Once per-day, when something would kill you, it instead leaves you utterly unharmed, and additionally refills your health, mana, and stamina by 50% of the damage that would have been done, plus 10% per level of this skill.
>
> Subspecies Evolution: Nilbog (Tier 1, Goblin)
It took me a minute to figure out exactly what I was looking at here. Fortunately, I was able to concentrate on individual prerequisites to bring up more information.
The way the system handled skill selection was a bit odd, but it made sense considering that just knowing the details of a skill would unlock it for you. Without a robust prerequisite system groups of people could simply discuss their skills to give everyone every possible skill option. Each of these skills required me to have fully paid off the Expendable penalty, and the “Branch” prerequisite meant that I couldn’t have any other skills with the exact same branch skill prerequisite. This all worked similarly to a tag system, but was a bit more nuanced, and once I understood it I could see both the utility and necessity of it.
Earlier today, thinking this was a game, I might have selected Hob for a nice party synergy ability and so I didn’t have to be quite so damn short. Allometry and Hob both seemed like great skills, but Allometry was completely eclipsed by Dual Nature. Meanwhile Essential was off the wall bizarre, but also represented guaranteed protection from death at least once a day. Under my current circumstances that was impossible to pass up. Plus I was pretty sure I’d just gotten an achievement for unlocking it.
Having seen these options I thought I might have figured out what the deal with the Goblin species was. I now had it pegged for a slow burn species, where if you managed to stay alive long enough you’d eventually unlock some very powerful abilities. It was a low growth species that also had multiple harsh penalties, high risk and high reward, what else could that mean? It gave me real hope for the first time in a while.
I selected Essential from the list and prepared to put points into it, but as soon as I did I got another message.
> System Message
>
> New Skill Discovered!
>
> As the discoverer of a new skill you have unlocked a free rank in it. However, this skill has prerequisites which conflict with other skills you have unlocked. Would you like to accept the free rank in this skill?
>
> Yes / No
I selected yes, and felt myself change slightly. All the things that made my body goblin-like seemed to be enhanced very slightly. My ears got a tiny bit longer and I had to lift my head off the pillow to adjust them. My arms likewise got just a little bit longer, and I could now comfortably put my hands on my kneecaps without bending at the waist. I felt my claw-like nails change, but couldn’t tell what was different, and my mouth and eyes both got a tiny bit larger, and I felt it as new teeth grew in to fill the space.
Your species has evolved from Goblin (Tier 0, Goblin) to Nilbog (Tier 1, Goblin).
New Achievement! “It’s Just Goblin Spelled Backwards”
New Achievement! “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”
Wait, Goblin was a Tier 0 species? What the hell? I had thought that my options were the same tier as Goblin, even if they were technically upgrades. It seemed I was wrong though, Goblin was apparently so weak as to be considered Tier 0 until you paid off the Expendable penalty. The only other Tier 0 things I’d seen were literal trash items - a shirt and a bed. I found myself getting a little angry on behalf of my adopted species.
I used my character sheet avatar as a mirror to check out the changes. Thankfully they were pretty subtle, I didn’t think anyone would notice unless they were really observant and really familiar with what I looked like.
While I was here I decided to finally check out the title system. I had no idea what these did, if anything, and didn’t want to be leaving anything on the table for tomorrow’s dungeon crawl. I currently had six titles: Prisoner, Hunted, Skinwalker, Adventurer, Rule Breaker, and Souleater. However, when I opened the title interface it was much more complicated than I was expecting. Rather than try to fumble my way through it I backed out and returned to the Help menu, looking up the article on Titles.
> System Help
>
> Titles
>
> The Title system represents your greatest accomplishments, things which are deserving of fame or infamy. They can be both a blessing and a curse. The heart of the Title system is the Title Forge. Individual titles you acquire may be little more than fragments, and the forge will allow you to shape them into something more usable. The forge has three functions: Merge, Modify, and Break.
>
> Merge: You may attempt to merge any two titles to create a new one. This is a conceptual process, and its chance of success will be dependent on how compatible the words of the title are with each other conceptually. When merging two titles you will be shown the odds of success before the attempt. On a success, a new title will be created, and on a failure both titles used in the process will be lost.
>
> Modify: This option allows you to make minor modifications to a title to change its presentation, adding or removing connective words and articles. For example, you might change “Brave” into “The Brave”. This also allows you to reorder the words in multi-word titles, so long as it doesn’t change their meaning. This is a purely cosmetic alteration.
>
> Break: This option allows you to sacrifice titles to gain additional title slots. By default you have a single title title slot, but you can gain more by discarding your weaker or less useful titles. Note: The amount of titles you need to break in order to gain a new slot goes up linearly with the number of slots you currently have, however, the tier of the title being broken matters for this process. Getting your second title slot will require breaking only a single tier one title, while breaking your second slot will require breaking two tier one titles or a single tier two title, etc.
>
> Equipping a Title
>
> You may equip as many titles as you have slots, however your first slot is special as it can contain two titles, one in the form of a prefix and the other as a suffix for your name. All your other title slots are referred to as your accolades, and they are not as directly paired with your name. Only your primary titles are revealed by casual inspection, while magic or intentional disclosure can reveal your accolades. Your unequipped titles cannot be revealed except by divine level magic.
>
> Required Titles
>
> Some effects will forcibly take up one of your title slots. Just like a normal title you may choose if a required title takes up a primary slot or an accolade, unless that title specifies otherwise. If you have more required titles than title slots temporary slots will be added to allow for all required titles to be equipped and you will suffer an additional penalty. You may not unequip a required title so long as the effect that requires it is in place, and you may not use the Title Forge on a required title.
Now that I understood what I was looking at, things became more clear. My primary title slot was occupied by the Prisoner title, which had a little lock next to it. I would need to unlock another slot if I wanted to equip any title now. I needed to figure out what each of my titles did so I could figure out if I wanted to sacrifice any of them to get a new slot. Fortunately viewing a title turned out to work the same way as viewing a skill.
> Prisoner
>
> Title (Tier 2, Required)
>
> You are a prisoner, wasting away in confinement. For every day spent with this title equipped there is a chance you will receive a stacking -1 penalty to a random stat, to a minimum of 5. These penalties fade at a rate of 1 per-day after the title is removed.
> Hunted
>
> Title (Tier 1)
>
> You are a fugitive, running from pursuers. You have a +1 bonus to Agility, Perception, and Luck.
> Skinwalker
>
> Title (Tier 3)
>
> You have assumed the form of another being. You gain a +3 bonus to Charisma & Willpower. While you have this title equipped you know the “Weird” skill at rank 2, ignoring prerequisites.
> Adventurer
>
> Title (Tier 3)
>
> A life of danger and discovery awaits you. You gain a +20% bonus to movement speed, and while you have this title equipped know the “Danger Sense” skill at rank 3, ignoring prerequisites.
> Rule-Breaker
>
> Title (Tier 5)
>
> You found a flaw in the system, and exploited it for your own ends. You gain a +1 bonus to all stats. Additionally, this title can be equipped in place of a single required title of its tier or lower.
> Souleater
>
> Title (Tier 10)
>
> Your soul-space is a terrifying maw capable of devouring the essence of reality itself. While this title is equipped the spirits of creatures you slay are automatically transferred into your soul-space so long as you have a free slot. Additionally, you know the “Devour Essence” skill at rank 5 and can use it on targets in your soul-space, which cannot resist the effect.
“What. The. Fuck.” I was trying to process the implications of Souleater still, but there was one thing I very clearly wanted to do. I equipped Rule-Breaker over Prisoner, changing out the required title - hopefully before it’d had a chance to drain my stats at all.
Primary title changed, you are now known as “Rule-Breaker Tavi”
I frowned at that notification. I didn’t want anybody knowing about my titles right now. Though I had to admit the intimidation factor I could get from equipping Skinwalker and Souleater into the primary slot would be very amusing. Now wasn’t the time to be scary though, now was the time to keep my head down. Being scary just got people trying to kill you.
I opened up the Title Forge and selected “Modify” from the options. I wanted to get a good primary title that wouldn’t be super incriminating if discovered. I thought I had a good idea for that, and after a bit of fiddling I equipped both parts of my new title.
Primary title changed, you are now known as “Adventurer Tavi, the Rule-Breaker”
New skill unlocked: “Danger Sense”
I experimented with unequipping the Adventurer title, and to my delight the Danger Sense skill stayed in my unlocked list, so I went ahead and equipped each of my skill-granting titles briefly to make sure I had everything unlocked. Finally, I went back to the Title Forge and used the “Break” option on my Hunted title, granting me my first accolade title slot.
For the moment I moved Rule-Breaker into there, leaving my suffix empty. I planned to slot Souleater in there once we were in the dungeon tomorrow, but I didn’t want to risk an examination skill revealing it in the meantime. I was pretty sure it was universally harder to examine higher tier things, but it wasn’t worth the risk. I wanted to know what having a spirit in my soul-space did, and it seemed like a dungeon was the perfect time to find out.
In the meantime though, I could at least see what my new skill options were.
> Weird
>
> Active Skill (Tier 3)
>
> Prerequisites: Daemon (Lesser)
>
> Source: Skinwalker (Title)
>
> Rank: 2 / 5 (Fixed)
>
> PP: 0 / 6
>
> Activation Cost: Mana (Low)
>
> Activation Type: Maintained
>
> Cooldown: N/A
>
> You are not quite right, your skin doesn’t seem to fit, your mannerisms are just a bit off. Those around you can sense that they are in the presence of something unnatural. The effects of this skill change at each rank, with each successive rank adding its effects onto the others.
>
> - At rank 1 you can project an aura of unease, attempting to inflict the sickened bane on all targets within 10m of you.
> - At rank 2 you are able to manipulate your joints to painlessly bend at unnatural angles.
> - At rank 3 your bones are merely suggestions of form, allowing you to squeeze into spaces far too small for a natural creature your size.
> - At rank 4 you can float up to 2 meters off the ground and propel yourself laterally at your normal walking speed.
> - At rank 5 your limbs can detach and move about on their own. Any detached limbs dissolve and reform on your body when this skill ends.
> Danger Sense
>
> Passive Skill (Tier 2)
>
> Prerequisites: Thief (Level 10)
>
> Source: Adventurer (Title)
>
> Rank: 3 / 5 (Fixed)
>
> PP: 0 / 4
>
> Grants you a chance to detect danger you couldn’t normally perceive. 20% of your Luck is added to your Perception and Wisdom scores for the purposes of sensing danger or hostile intent.
> Devour Essence
>
> Active Skill (Tier 8)
>
> Prerequisites: Daemon (Lesser)
>
> Source: Souleater (Title)
>
> Rank: 5 / 5 (Fixed)
>
> PP: 0 / 16
>
> Activation Cost: Mana (Very High)
>
> Activation Type: Maintained
>
> Cooldown: 1min
>
> Consumes the spiritual essence of a creature or item, empowering you in the process. Ranks in this skill affect how quickly you can drain power from the target, with the effective strength of this skill being 20% of your Willpower per rank. Creatures can resist this skill with their Resistance defense, but items can only resist if their tier is higher than the tier of this skill.
>
> The effects of being drained by Devour Essence vary, and are based on the nature of the entity being drained. This effect ends automatically if the target runs out of spiritual essence.
I had some moral concerns over the whole eating souls thing, but I didn’t intend to die and would take any tool I could find to keep myself alive. This seemed like it might be one of the more powerful effects I had access to, so I wanted it on hand in case I needed it. I could always release any souls I collected if I didn’t need them. I wrapped up by buying one more soul-space slot. All of mine were currently full and I had the Valarian points to spare, so now I had at least one slot for a soul.
It was fully dark now, the sun had set and a guard had come by to put out lanterns some time ago. I lay in my bunk hearing the sound of soft snores all around me from the other inmates. I’d done everything I could for today, except for one thing. I wanted to use my new skill to view the events immediately proceeding my entrance to this world, but I had to figure out what log would get me those events.
I started rapidly scrolling back through my combat log, looking for likely options. I immediately realized that it was going to be very difficult to pick out any specific events without timestamps, as it was impossible to know how much time there was between each log entry. There were dozens of little “You took 1 damage” logs from all sorts of random things, apparently just a fact of living, so I had plenty of options from around the area I was looking for, but no idea how close together they occurred.
I selected one of the logs leading up to the “Soul Infusion”, hoping I was getting somewhat close, then I activated “Devil in the Details” and watched as the world melted away.