The first thing I want to try is the skill combination I was able to glimpse before, just for a second. I'd been able to combine Firestep and Triplestep into Accelerate — but in the process, I'd noticed something strange. There was another way the two skills could be combined.

I let them thrum through my body, trying to figure it out without the help of the Eye, at least at first. Without it, though, the Firmament is nothing more than energy pouring through me. I don't see the individual pieces that lock into one another, the way that energy can be fused into something new.

I try for a while anyway, because I don't want to rely too much on these Inspirations. There's a moment where I think I see it — just the smallest glimpse of the underlying mechanism that the Eye makes so easy to see.

But it vanishes just as quickly, and my head is throbbing. I grumble. Maybe I'm not ready to do this by myself yet... but I'm definitely going to try again.

For now, I activate the Eye.

[ A new Skill Fusion has been found. Would you like to log the results into the Interface? ]

Yes.

[ Flashstep (Rank B) obtained! ]

Inspect.

Flashstep is fairly predictable in effect — it moves me at great speed across a short distance, leaving a trail of fire in my wake. Where it differs is in sheer speed and Firmament efficiency. It uses less Firmament to do the same thing combining Triplestep and Firestep does, gives me about twice the speed of those two skills combined, and can't be stacked with either of its lesser skills.

That works for me. Less skills to think about in battle, if there's one skill that's objectively superior.

What's interesting is where it differs from Accelerate. Accelerate is similar — they both keep the fire element from Firestep — but unlike Flashstep, Accelerate can be stacked with its parent skills. It ramps up over time, making it a little more suitable for long-distance travel, especially combined with Triplestep and Flashstep.

Unfortunately, I can't stack it with Flashstep itself. Flashstep is barely a travel skill at all. As efficient as it is, the skill burns itself out in seconds, untwisting in some fundamental way that can't be supplemented just by providing it with more Firmament.

There is, I realize, so much more to learn about Firmament.

I look over my skill list, pondering which other ones might be good to combine; as much as my Firmament base has improved, I can tell I can only handle a few more skill combinations before I start to wear it down — I've been doing a lot with my Firmament today.

It's still a far stretch beyond what I've been able to do before, though. I would have exhausted myself hours ago before my phase-shift.

My skill list, at the moment, looks like this:

Strength Skills: Crystallized Strength (Rank C), Concentrated Power (Rank B), Amplification Gauntlet (Rank A)

Durability Skills: Tough Body (Rank E), Second Wind (Rank B), Barrier (Rank D), Crystallized Barrier (Rank C), Verdant Armor (Rank A)

Reflex Skills: Quicken Mind (Rank B), Inspect (Rank B), Iron Mind (Rank A)

Speed Skills: Firestep (Rank C), Triplestep (Rank E), Intrinsic Lightning (Rank A), Accelerate (Rank C), Warpstep (Rank A), Flashstep (Rank B)

Firmament Skills: Temporal Fragment (Rank D), Firmament Manipulation (Rank D), Color Drain (Rank C), Tetrachromacy (Rank C), Temporal Static (Rank B)

It feels pretty good to have a more rounded out skill list now, as much as it's getting crowded. I run Inspect and the Eye through the list, feeling out the skills that are the most compatible.

Concentrated Power is compatible with almost everything — it's the reason I picked the skill to begin with. It feels like an empty vessel just waiting to be filled, and while normally it would only accept force, the All-Seeing Eye allows me to make the adjustments that would be needed for it to hold other, more nebulous things.

In many ways, it's essentially a weaker version of the Accumulator Inspiration. The issue with it is that I have to fuse the skill before I can use it, instead of being able to just pull it out mid-battle like I would have been able to with the Accumulator.

So I pick the one that I imagine will be the most useful: Quicken Mind. I can forego my ability to think fast for a while, build it in the background, then unleash it when it's time for combat; that will give me plenty of time to react to opponents, even when they're faster than I am.

The skill clicks into place.

[ Compounded Mind (Rank B) obtained! ]

That makes two Rank B skills. I whistle — this is rounding out my capabilities nicely.

"Why you smiling like that?" Tarin demands from the background. "It scary."

"He just does that sometimes, don't worry about it," Ahkelios whispers to him. I don't know when Ahkelios moved, but he's currently sitting cross-legged on top of Tarin's head. I feel like he's judging me.

Oh well. At least they look like they're having fun.

The Eye spots a compatibility with Crystallized Barrier. The skills don't interact as cleanly this time — Crystallized Barrier already allows itself to be built up over time as its strength 'crystallizes'. What it can do with Concentrated Power is layer the shield over itself, in a way that strengthens and reinforces everything it can do. I just have to use the new skill several times in quick succession.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

[ Hexfold Shield (Rank C) obtained! ]

That's a Reflex skill and a Durability skill. I glance through my Speed and Firmament skills, hoping to round it all out with a powerful option for each.

Accelerate is a skill I haven't tested out yet — it's mostly for long-distance travel, and not really as useful in combat. It's a very Firmament-efficient skill that makes me go faster the longer I travel, according to Inspect. Concentrated Power would combine with it in a way that's very similar to how it would combine with Triplestep, Firestep, and Flashstep. Essentially, I'd just burst forward in a violent and uncontrollable flash of speed.

Not exactly what I'm looking for.

Intrinsic Lightning, though? I can store it up if I combine the skills — give myself a burst of immense physical and mental speed. The only problem is that Inspect tells me the resulting skill will be incredibly taxing; for all the wonders Firmament can perform, my body isn't physically ready for it. It's the same reason I need a Barrier to protect my fists when I'm fighting at full strength. My body hasn't actually caught up to my Firmament.

Still, it seems worth it.

Intrinsic Lightning is harder to combine than the other skills. It writhes and twists in my grasp, even as I force it together with Concentrated Power. I feel my Eye throbbing as it works overtime to keep track of every little twist and change, and I slowly manage to coalesce the two skills into one.

[ Lightning Rod (Rank A) obtained! ]

It's only when I go to try to combine Concentrated Power with a Firmament skill that I run into a problem — the eye doesn't spot any compatibility. There are flashes here and there, but even with the Eye, it proves almost impossible to keep track off; every Firmament skill is different, in function and foundation and form. They change, rapidly, even during use. All the other skills are structured, in a manner of speaking, but Firmament skills move almost like they're alive. It's worse than Intrinsic Lightning.

I strain for a while, but I stop when my head begins to pound, and shake my head with a grimace. Maybe I've made enough progress today.

"Or maybe I haven't made enough," I say out loud.

Tarin stares at me, then looks up, cross-eyed, at Ahkelios. "You think he hit his head when he fall down?"

"I can hear you," I say.

"I hear you too!" Tarin retorts. Ahkelios hops from Tarin's head up onto mine, then pokes me in the head.

"You need to take the time to figure out how to fight with what you already have," Ahkelios says. "New skills aren't going to do you any good if you get paralyzed with indecision in the middle of a fight. Take a break, practice with them, and figure out all their little tricks. Then you can start making new skills."

I grumble. Mostly because he's right.

If nothing else, I know I'm stronger than before. Naru, on the other hand, is limited — he can't grow stronger while he's trapped in the loop. None of the Hestian Trialgoers can.

That gives me an advantage none of them have. When they come, I'll be ready for them.

----------------------------------------

I should be taking a break, according to both Tarin and Ahkelios. Mari's still off in their hut, trying to figure out what's going on with the skill shard I passed on to her — apparently, it's 'interesting' and 'almost crow', although I have no idea what that means.

Instead, I'm practicing. Ahkelios isn't wrong about needing to figure out my new skills. Even with Quicken Mind to buffer my decision making — even with it being vastly better than Mental Acceleration in a way that's difficult to quantify, except that it feels like the world slowing down rather than my brain speeding up — I keep tripping up. Flashstep is far faster than I'm used to, Warpstep is unbelievably disorienting, and Lightning Rod drains me so much that I'm left panting on the ground after a second of usage.

One second. I can't help but wonder if there are some inefficiencies in the skill I could smooth out. Maybe the Eye isn't perfect, and there's more I could do to even out the combined skill.

But even if that's the case, a lot of it is down to my still-baseline-human body. A better Durability skill than Tough Body will help, but the truth of the matter is that I worry about getting too durable.

"Stupid," Tarin says when I voice that concern. "You too squishy. Need more protection."

"He has a point, actually." Ahkelios hops down from my head to look up at me. "You're worried about the loop, aren't you?"

"Time only resets if I die," I agree reluctantly. "I don't know any other way to force the loop to reset right now. If I get a regenerative skill that's too powerful, or something that makes me physically invulnerable, I might not be able to loop anymore."

"That not bad, right?" Tarin says. He folds his wings. "You not loop, I not forget. We stay friends. Is good."

He's not wrong, technically, but there's an important detail he's kind of glossing over.

"You'd still be dead if not for the loop," I say quietly.

The fact of the matter is that the loop is a tool, and I have to use it as such. The Hestian Trialgoers — like Naru, and presumably the others, though I haven't encountered them yet — are still stronger than I am. Looping gives me power, information, and the ability to revert events; it's not something I can afford to give up.

It's probably too early to worry about that, anyway. I'm probably still a few steps away from functional immortality. I basically just need to be less durable than I am strong.

It's a bit of a morbid thought, I have to admit.

Tarin doesn't seem to have a response prepared, so I go back to experimenting with my skills. There's one aspect of Warpstep that I haven't tested, and it's one I'm a little apprehensive about testing — but it's better to test it now than in actual combat.

It's a simple question: Will Warpstep let me teleport inside a solid object? If it does, what happens to me?

I extend a hand. Worst that should happen is I'll lose part of a finger. I don't intend to die for an experiment.

Warpstep.

I pay attention to the way the Firmament moves this time. There's a powerful surge of Warpstep Firmament, both where I'm standing and another at my destination. Which is... interesting. There's no travel time involved. Firmament just appears, silhouetted in the rough shape of my body, positioned exactly where I intended.

There's a moment of disorientation as I'm instantaneously displaced—

—there's a sharp crack—

—and I reappear at my destination.

Three observations.

One, my finger isn't broken.

Two, there's a hole blasted open in the tree, around where my finger would have been.

Three, the whole ordeal cost an enormous amount of Firmament. I can sense the tree's own intrinsic Firmament like it's been torn apart just around where the hole is, so if I want to Warpstep into something, I have to tear apart its Firmament defense.

That's cool, I decide, and promptly tip over. I hear a half-worried, half-angry caw from... Mari? I think that's Mari coming to look for us.

Oops.

And then I slip into blessed unconsciousness. Again.