Evan woke up, had a small breakfast, and got ready as he usually did these days. His heart still panged at the mere three seats around their table, but the quick progress he had made since the raid happened helped him to keep his mind off it.
Today was a more special day than almost any other, though – today was the day he decided to graduate from the care of his master. He had already spoken with his master before about how things would actually proceed, and for Evan, the task was rather simple.
Most looking to graduate would have to travel to the nearest guild outpost and take their test there, but Evan’s master had enough qualifications in the guild to give Evan the exam himself, and if he passed, his master would contact the guild on his behalf and Evan would shortly receive his certification.
Learning this had shattered his preconceived notions that the guild was in any way impartial, and that nepotism was everywhere, and it was inevitable.
Just the fact that this could be done lowered his trust in the guild, and he hadn’t even joined yet. He wasn’t sure why he had held them in higher regard than Starspire, but he had.
He wasn’t sure if his master would bend the rules in any way to make things easier for him, but it didn’t matter – he was prepared for the real deal.
The test was fairly basic, anyway – at least it was for Evan, as he had truly found his passion in crafting, and poured his everything into learning how to do it right. There was also the excellent education he was afforded by Master Isaac, and the competitiveness he had taken for granted from Arnav.
Even Illiana had contributed to his education – by seeing her lacking mana regeneration, he had pushed himself even harder to master the few spells he knew and make them suit him. That was something that he might not have done, if not for seeing the struggle Illiana faced.
A bitter smile filled his face. With Arnav’s death, he and Illiana had decided to let bygones be bygones – even if he still felt the blame mostly laid with her, for letting the rift in their relationship develop in the first place.
“What are you smiling at?” She asked, sat not far from him at their round table.
“Nothing.” His smile moved into a more content grin, and she huffed at him before going back to eating. They still weren’t close, but their relationship had improved far past the avoidance and dislike from before.
It was something that Arnav had always wanted, given their friendship and the budding relationship he had with Illiana.
Other than the short conversation, their meal was filled with silence, but of the comfortable kind. Master Isaac said nothing – after sharing with Illiana their previous conversation, they had both forgiven him, but they were still more distant than in the past.
He gracefully waited for Illiana to finish her meal and leave, and she politely ignored what he was doing – she knew he was close to graduating, and as much as she tried to put it behind her, she would still feel somewhat resentful if he came out and said it – they both knew this, and so let the charade continue.
Master Isaac ate more slowly than either of them, and it was not unusual for him to continue eating after all of them had left. He had said before he ‘liked to savor his food’.
“Are you ready? Today?”
“Yes, Master Isaac. Today.” The word was filled with meaning, and it seemed louder, even if he spoke both words at the same volume. It was more important, he supposed. It carried a hint of finality.
Today.
“Alright then. When I finish my meal, we’ll head to the workshop.”
Evan was forced to endure the agonizing wait as he waited for his master to finish, and then they set off. The trip was much shorter than it had been before – several craftsmen had died in the raid, opening up valuable real estate ripe for the taking, and his master possessed enough influence to get them the space now that it was free.
It was a wonder how quickly things could be rebuilt with the help of some specialized mages and some arrays, the wheels of progress greased with gold and silver.
When they reached the workshop, he was first given a verbal exam, where his master asked him question after question about the fundamentals of imbuement and inscription.
From there, they moved on to questions about how to solve particular problems, and then ones centered on acting as a proper craftsman and maintaining his decorum – the guild was wholly independent of the military, and Starspire as a whole, but even they had standards of the way their members conducted themselves. He felt he failed the most here, as the politicking and carefully crafted looks had never appealed to him.
The prices he should charge for things, and the ethical methods of competition between crafters. Taboos he should not cross – things such as making powerful bombs, experimenting on the soul, and the many, many dos and don’ts that came up when manipulating space, time, and biology.
Almost every crafter who got to a certain level of strength would begin to play with these core facets of the world they found themselves in, and it was far from outlawed – rather, they just carried such incredible risks they had to be especially expounded upon.
Right after this, he was asked to explain bits and pieces of history where crafters had broken these rules, and how they had ended up.
It was all quite brutal, and it brought some fanciful ideas to mind. Manipulating space and time sounded almost too fantastical to be real, but he knew it wasn’t – manipulating space and time was a cornerstone of many powerful devices.
Spatial storages were still beyond him – some aspects of Substance, even when properly aligned to the desired effect, took massive amounts of intent to produce meaningful results, and even more to do so in a manner that could be termed as anything but ‘temporary’.
Time was especially guilty of this – perhaps the biggest offender. Of course, traveling through time was impossible, but altering it’s speed? More than possible.
In much of the history he had learnt on the subject, space and time formations were – much like the culling of emotions – a rite of passage for strong formation masters and composition architects, for in almost any manner considered they were incredibly powerful – attack, defense, utility, it did not matter.
To be targeted by an attack that used time was a sorry fate indeed. In some ways, it was even worse than ones that used space – a common tactic was the random speeding up and slowing down of time across a person, a truly brutal method that was almost impossible to resist without defensive methods tailored to time or an overwhelming advantage in strength.
When it came to utility, spatially expanded storage devices were incredibly valuable, and something he suspected officer David to be in possession of. Even without expanding space, just manipulating the dimensions of a space made storing things far easier and more compact. That was-
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“Evan! Listen to me.”
Oh. He had gotten distracted. The exam continued – it was already almost over.
While the first part of his certification – the exam – was long and some questions could be quite tricky, it was more of a formality than anything else. Master Isaac had known what he would need to know for the exam, and had ensured that Evan had the books he needed, as well as pointing out things he should pay special attention to memorizing, even if he hadn’t always understood why.
After spending more than a year learning everything, even the more difficult questions were easy. He might not have spent too much time learning from books after the first half a year or so, but that was because anything further was considered too valuable to be taught to just anyone.
He’d have to earn merits if he wanted to learn anything more from the military – and you couldn’t just buy merits with money. It required genuine dedication to the military. At least, that was what he’d been told.
That was fine, though. Evan was content with what he knew for now and could learn everything else in his own time. Being handed the knowledge would be nice, but it wasn’t necessary – it wasn’t as though they were the only source.
Well, they are for now, but that won’t always be the case. One more reason to leave Starspire.
Once the exam was finished, Master Isaac retrieved a sword – one quite simple – and smiled as he spoke. “For the next portion, you’ll just need to bring this sword to grade one, class one. There are no inscriptions – everything will need to be done yourself, whether that be engraving some yourself with a spell or simply using your intent. Impress me.”
Evan felt a tinge of melancholy as he remembered his first proper imbuing lesson with Master Isaac, and how embarrassed he’d been at having his master point out his countless mistakes while Illiana and Arnav watched on.
Back then, they hadn’t even fully settled into their new lives, and instead of the mire of competition and distaste that would come later, there had been a simple thirsting for knowledge that drove them to watch.
He took the sword from his master’s hands, and then the cube of Substance, and settled into his work. They felt heavy in his hands.
Two hours passed as he meticulously poured Substance into the sword, bringing it as close as he could to perfection, and when he finished he had a deeper appreciation of how much load the inscriptions took off from him. He also realized that with his increasing capacity for intent, he would need some mental cultivation to keep up his speed, or he would begin spending ages on each imbuement.
The Substance for crafting enhanced all aspects of his talent, but just because his will became capable of blitzing through larger amounts of intent, didn’t mean that his mind possessed the ability to do the same.
He wanted to sigh. There were always complications – limiters – on the powers of cultivators, and the need for a distribution of focus was just one more. Even specialized, there was need to divide portions of ones cultivation to maintaining balance, and the mind was a common limitation.
An increasing need for mind cultivation was one of the most common reasons for someone to stop advancing, for as he already knew, humans had to build their own path to power – their vessels were not pre-equipped for it.
There was no inherent way to manipulate the mind the same way one could ration their strength or speed. Any accelerations of thought were permanent, and it had driven many to madness before.
Evan did not necessarily need an acceleration of his thoughts, though it would be the best solution. Broadening his mind in other ways could help too, but weren’t nearly as helpful for stressful situations, and were no better at helping one stay sane.
He could also ignore this entirely, and follow a different path – one of stronger imbuements, but where his works were farther and farther between as the time he needed to fill up his intent increased, his mind unable to utilize the vast speed his will could imbue at.
This was the path that Master Isaac followed, but Evan wasn’t sure it was for him. Even before the attack, he had wanted to make himself at least slightly capable of defending himself, but he had thought his devices activating on their own was sufficient.
Now, he wasn’t so sure. He valued his ability to make formations at a quick pace, and didn’t want to spend ages on each project, even if that meant each of his products weren’t as strong as they might have been otherwise.
Quantity has a quality all its own, right?
He glanced down at the sword in his hand. “You’ve finished?” Master Isaac suddenly said, breaking the silence and disrupting his train of thought.
“Yes, Master. Please examine it.” He passed off the sword to his master.
He was quite proud of it – his cultivation had increased significantly since he lasted imbued a sword, and he had given it some reinforcement on top of the greatly increased sharpness. There was even a small pad, not unlike the one his previous sword featured, that allowed for the enchantment to be turned off and on as the wielder pleased.
It did not take long for his master to evaluate the sword before declaring him as having passed. They moved on to the next part of the trial, which was less a part of the trial and more a required final lesson. His master seemed to quietly grumble something underneath his breath before he continued.
After all of the effort he had poured into the sword, it was a little uneventful, but he quickly got over it.
“Evan, you have essentially passed. You have demonstrated good knowledge of the history required and understand more than enough about formations to pass this certification. Next, we’ll proceed to the final part of this certification – a necessary broadening of your horizons.
“This will be the only time the guild ever teaches you something free of charge, and your final lesson from me.” That hit Evan harder than he had expected – from here on out, he would be a fully fledged formations master, and was well on his way to becoming a respectable composition architect.
Any furthering of his knowledge from here on out would have to come from his own independent efforts.
His master pulled out some sort of badge, and it lit up with a faint green glow. When he spoke, it was with a formal, distant tone that one would reserve for a stranger, or for a ceremony.
“Piter is a small world, and at some point, you may outgrow it. It is not difficult to make ripples in a small pond, but do not forget your own strength, and know that even the furthest heights of power on Piter are less than nothing even a stone’s throw deeper into the Void.
“There is a reason for this. Deeper into the Void, Substance is richer, and while the restrictions grow tighter, this also allows for a stronger soul – for eventually, as you approach the tenth Collapse – should you ever – you will begin to face suppression as your soul grows too heavy for the Void here to support it.
“Do not fight the suppression – this will be difficult, for it will be stifling, but it is your own soul that does this, for if you successfully resist the suppression, you will fall through the Void, and almost certainly perish. The only way to lift this is to head deeper into the Void or to stay inside areas where the Void has been strengthened, artificial or otherwise.
“When you reach the tenth Collapse, this will magnify even further, and becoming any stronger will foil your soul’s efforts at containing itself and you will fall through the Void unless it has been strengthened by something with power exceeding the unrestricted strength of the eleventh Collapse.
“Long before this, though, it will become difficult for you to increase your strength – where Piter rests, the Void is too thin, and there are too many who stay here to increase their strength while being the strongest around. Your best bet is to leave the planet and head to another, more populated one, or to once again head deeper into the Void.
“You’ll need a reputable Voidship in order to do this, and the guild would be happy to help you find passage aboard one.”
His master seemed to take a deep breath, and once he was finished, the badge dimmed, and he pocketed it.
What was the badge for?
“And there we have it, Evan. You’ve officially graduated from my care, and I couldn’t be happier to have taught you the basics. I know that Arnav’s death has put some distance between us, but you’re always welcome to call on me if you find yourself in a dire situation. You’ve been one of my better students, and I hope we can part on good terms.”
“Of course, Master Isaac. I realize how lucky I was to have been assigned to you, and I’ll never forget the kindness you’ve shown me by being so diligent and caring in your teachings.”
His – now former – master laughed. “You are welcome to just call me Isaac now, Formations Master Evan. I hope I might do the same?”
It brought a smile to his face at being called that by his teacher. From most, it was a sign of flattery, but from the man before him, it was a sign of respect and approval.
“Always, Isaac.” It felt strange to call him by just his name, but he liked it. The man was still far and away better than him at crafting, so it was an honor to call him by just his name.
The moment passed and they left – both of them headed to one of the offices, but for different reasons. He needed to request a living space and workshop of his own, while Isaac needed to turn in whatever was needed for his certification to go through.
He looked forward to the celebratory dinner they would have tonight – it would be his treat. Should I invite Illiana? Or would that just upset her?