There was a quiet rumble to the streets of Ahle-ho, the way people moved from building to building, their steps quick and their heads down as if to ward off misfortune by speed and subtlety. The number of people had risen like the tide, then ebbed down into a trickle. Thousands of refugees had been relocated to what was being dubbed as Ahle-ho’s newest expansion, though as of present, it was more of a shanty town, barely a step away from slum.
Leif had learnt much about the coastal city in his time living within it, its streets and slopes going from alien to familiar, the bustling bazaars and markets no longer places his perceptions would become overwhelmed within. He had even seen the sewers below the city, the grand network of stone tiled tunnels described to him as a ‘mastery of engineering.’
As a side note: slimes were adorable. They were less adorable when they melted through clothing and ate away at flesh and muscle. The monsters grew quite quickly and into sizes that could block tunnels and waterways. They were bottom feeders, harmless unless you got too close or tried to give them a hug. For many of the city's youth, and indeed several members of the Twin Heart guild, slaying them was a rite of passage, the way they had earned their first few levels in their combat classes.
In his time living within Ahle-ho Leif had slowly chipped away at the things he needed, or wished to accomplish. His aura training was a necessary and important part of most of his days, as was training and learning. As a healer with a vaguely nature based class, he had been offered the mentor position for Jason, a role Nikolas had encouraged him to take. The guild-master had been friendly and welcoming, he had listened to Leif’s story of the attack at Klos and the bandits beyond the imperial cordon. The ciphered letters Leif had looted from the lead bandit had been studied and quickly broken by an expert the man had hired.
The story was as expected. The bandits were in part funded by foreign agents to attack key areas that would put pressure on not just the Ahle-ho government, but also the empire. The bandit group Leif and the others had encountered were meant to target merchant caravans along a coastal trade route partially sponsored by the empire. What was disappointing was how unexpected the news was to Nikolas. So too, was his inability to act on the information. Banditry was on a rise across the region, and the guilds were already assisting law enforcement and the state’s private armies wherever they could. But the duty of adventurers was the hunting and slaying of monsters, and while higher ranked guild members had a certain amount of legal authority to act as vigilantes with the current political climate, doing so was very much discouraged.
Nikolas had been amused however, by Leif's story about the Pherin dungeon. How a single monster had completed what several expeditions had failed to even get close to achieving. Apparently Leif’s own homeland of Varan had been responsible for many of the attempts at reaching the lost city, but due to the monster waves caused by the dungeon break they had failed to push beyond the limits of the human frontier.
Apparently the undead hadn’t been the primary threat to the region, but instead the secondary threat. The sudden appearance of the undead and the rapid degradation of the environment had caused mass migrations from both monster and beast. The northern mountains were populated by powerful beings that those who lived in the foothills and valleys couldn’t compete with, so instead they had fled south, right into human territory.
===
The small bell tinkled overhead as Leif stepped into the enchanter's shop. The small and tightly packed store was full of harried looking customers and staff, the many displays covered in faintly glowing glass, the items within appearing mundane, if well crafted. But nothing sold within the shop was mundane, and the wiry looking owner would yell at anyone who so much as whispered anything to the contrary.
Leif waited for ten minutes before one of the store assistants finally got around to seeing him. He handed over an order chip and the woman scurried off behind the counter. Several minutes later the shop's owner slunk in from a back room, their wide glasses partially fogged and their apron covered in ink stains and prismatic dust. A small wooden box was produced, and money was exchanged. Leif popped open the lid with a thought and beheld the item within.
“It’s called a warp pendant, containing a single use of the same skill. It’s a single-use item, the kind that doesn’t need to be attuned to. But once the skill contained within has been expended, the item needs to be manually recharged. [Warp] teleports you to a random nearby location, somewhere you could physically travel on foot, but not necessarily within line of sight. Don’t do anything stupid with it, the skill won’t backfire unless you use it in a really idiotic location, but if it does backfire you may end up with an arm or leg stuck inside something it really shouldn’t be.”
“I see.” Leif said, plucking the plain looking pendant from where it lay atop a small velvet cushion. He examined it under the light, then pulled it into his storage ring. As an enchanted item, or as with any item that was magical, it took up more space than its physical size would indicate. But with his new ring, purchased courtesy of somewhat dubiously gained ‘contribution points’ it was no problem. “Any way I could recharge this myself?”
The owner snorted. “Not unless you have extensive experience with space-aspected magic, feeding power into it that isn’t aligned with the skill within will cause the item to degrade rapidly, or even break. So no, take it to an enchanter.”
Leif nodded, then departed the store. It had taken the better part of two months to get the thing recharged, not a particularly sound investment of his time or money. But now he had an unreliable mode of short ranged transportation. With that done he had now taken care of every single one of the bandit’s possessions. Well, other than the silver coins he was still carrying around. He’d get rid of them, but why bother? They weren’t taking up much space.
The mid morning sun beamed down from overhead, filtering through multi-coloured tarps that fluttered from window sills or balconies. The painted walls of most buildings were chipped and damaged, worn down over the months turbulence had ravaged the city from on high. Leif had questioned the logic of painting houses and shops when the paint would be stripped away by the harsh weather, but apparently that was exactly the point. The people painted their homes to gauge how severe turbulence was, a sort of long term spectator sport that the community would come together to prepare for.
Entire streets would be repainted with the same colours and patterns, children putting hand-prints up as high as they could reach. But none of that was happening, the atmosphere of the city pressuring those attempting to partake in the tradition to wait for a more symbolic time. While no crisis had befallen Ahle-ho in the time Leif had lived within the city, everything seemed to teeter ever closer to an invisible ledge, as if balanced on the precipice. It was unnerving, especially with his ability to sense the emotional state of those around him. The smothering haze of anxiety and trepidation was almost suffocating at times.
Leif had a week left within Ahle-ho before he would depart for the empire, and before that he would be as ready as possible. He turned down a wide street, sticking to the sidewalk in order to avoid the cart traffic that rumbled down the middle of the street. There was shouting from ahead, a merchant's wagon had lost a wheel, the incident holding up traffic and causing tension to rise. A young man worked to repair the wagon even as the yelling increased in volume and intensity. Leif stepped up beside the broken vehicle and lifted it with a golden hand.
The young man glanced up, eyes thankful as he attached the spare and screwed it in place. It would need more work to be fully road worthy, but for now it would hopefully prevent a brawl. Leif continued on, the man waving thanks, the wagon's owner not even noticing as he yelled back at another agitated driver.
===
A priest in plain white robes handed out blankets and small packages of dried food to the loitering crowd outside the temple. Several attendants assisted the elderly and sick, passing out cups of water and taking what few donations were given in return. The receiver temple stood proud within the courtyard, the pillars lining the structures face the only part of the street that had been repainted.
Worshipers came and went in quiet reverence, heads bowed and expression contemplative. Many wore masks, though plain and unpainted, making the temple one of the few places within the city that Leif didn’t feel somewhat awkward for keeping his identity hidden behind his own mask. Mosaic depictions of natural phenomena lined the temple's interior, many people kneeling before them in silent veneration.
A man knelt before a display of growth and warmth, head bowed and face unmasked. Though they were turned away from Leif, he recognised the man’s long blond hair and slight stubble. Jason let out a long sigh, then rose to his feet, the young man turned and saw Leif standing off to the side. He quickly stepped over, frown changing into a smile.
“Mentor, welcome. I didn’t expect to see you here so soon.” He said, voice soft so the sound wouldn’t carry.
“No sense in delaying. Any luck on your end? Have the gods answered your questions?”
“Ha, no. Unfortunately not, I’m still as ignorant as ever as to the nature of spring. Not that I’m entirely surprised, I may have come to the city in part because of its temples, but expecting divine assistance for my mortal problems isn’t wise.”
“I have no idea how you can become attuned to a concept you don’t understand. It feels as though the system is playing a joke of some sort.” Leif said, half serious. The receivers weren’t as strict as the other faiths, or at least that’s what Leif had been told, but they still took their worship of the system seriously.
“Maybe. The priests don’t know what it is, the scholars don’t know what it is, and the guild is equally clueless. Anyway, you’re here for your advancement aren’t you, mentor?”
Leif nodded. While the question had been in the back of his mind, he had wondered how people went about their system upgrades. Did they do them at home? In their bedrooms or some other room of the house? Some did, but most chose to undergo their advancements and promotions within the specialised rooms that most temples provided free of charge. Leif had already done his [Brawler] promotion within this very temple, and now with fifteen skills and plenty of achievements under his belt he was ready for whatever the advancement trial would throw at him.
In preparation he had read through the letters written by his sister. They weren’t easy reads, but none of them had triggered [Sympathy from Experience] like the first one had. Even still, the grief in the words written by Flavia had stung him somewhere in the soul, only with significant effort had he maintained his composure.
A priest guided him towards one of the unoccupied chambers as he recalled the letters, trying to steady his mentality in the here and now. Hera hadn’t directly stated that he was still alive, instead the Academy blade had claimed to have encountered somebody familiar with the name ‘Leif Vin’, and she was investigating because of it. A part of Leif suspected that Flavia didn’t believe Hera, or at least not completely. Her written responses were mostly polite and forthcoming, but his sister had been constantly angling for more information.
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Leif waved farewell to Jason as the stone door slid closed and let out a long, whistling sigh. A part of him was angry, though the emotion was largely directionless. He had been angry that Hera had contacted his family, had taken the step, the step that should have been his. But at the same time he felt relief, relief that the bandage had been ripped off, that he hadn’t needed to be the one to extend that first branch of connection to his past life.
He wanted to run back to his past life, or at least the parts of which he partially recalled with fondness. Leif wasn’t delusional enough to believe he would ever fully regain what he had lost, that he could rejoin his family without serious consequences. Human he may have once been, a monster he now was. That fact no longer pained him as it once had, the realisation that his hands weren’t covered in skin or that his body was misshapen and wrong no longer sending him into spirals of self-hatred and panic.
There was a chance he would fail. Not just in his ultimate goals, but also the advancement trial. He didn’t know what it would contain, what aspects of his old life it might dredge up to confront him with. He had asked around as to the contents of the trial, of course, but the answers weren’t overly thrilling. If the first trial was about a decision made in the past, then the one he was about to undergo was about the choices that had led him to the present. While most were tight lipped about the exact details of their own trials, a commonality between the stories was the existence of alternate versions of the trial taker.
If Leif was honest with himself, the idea terrified him. Was there a chance the trial would confront him with versions of himself that had picked different monster evolution paths? Sure, but he suspected the system would dig further back.
He slid the spatial ring off his finger, mentally severing the attunement as he placed the item into a provided locker. The aura bracelets went next, then he closed the container and took a seat within the centre of the room. Light trickled from stained tiles of glass that made up the room’s singular window, no sound from outside made its way into the chamber. He was alone until the trial was complete. Attendants were on standby for everyone undergoing their system visions, ready to help stabilise anyone who failed their trials and lost levels or skills.
Leif centred himself and sat, opening his system windows and looking through his stats and skills. Doing so always calmed him, brought his attention away from distressing thoughts or pained memories. When he focused on his level the system prompted him to begin the advancement trial.
You have reached the level 50 milestone bottleneck!
To advance beyond this point you must overcome an advancement trial!
Warning! Advancement trials difficulty is based on your total number of skills. For every skill above a total of 15 difficulty will dramatically increase!
Current skills: 15!
Attuned Items: 0!
Warning! Failing an advancement trial may result in the loss of class levels! Advancement trial may only be attempted while at level 50!
Any experience gained while at level 50 will be banked until trial is completed!
Warning! You are vulnerable while undergoing the advancement trial!
Good luck! Begin advancement trial? Y/N
He blinked away the grey boxes outlined in gold and red, instead flicking his vision to where the system outlined his characteristics and skills. It had changed a lot, his classes, skills and attributes all having undergone minor but significant changes.
===
Name: Leif Vin
Race: Scion of Aeons
Age: 12
Awaiting manifestation: Emblem
Attributes:
Free: 0
Might: 67 (+10%)
Alacrity: 63 (+10%)
Intelligence: 69 (+10%)
Willpower: 77 (+10%)
Spirit: 80 (+10%)
Charisma: 147 (+90%)
Total Level: 50
Monster Classes: 1/1
Scion of Aeons: 20/40
Skills: Gold Iron Physique / Sympathy from Experience / Consuming Aeons / Font of Life III / Tree of Respite / The Amber Path / Amber Aegis / Wood Manipulation / Meditations on Eternity
Classes: 2/3
Inspiring Brawler: 10/20
Skills: Inspiring Tenacity and Prowess III / Fists of Awe
Adept of Self-Restoration: 10/20
Skills: Surge of Life and Growth / Aura of Benevolence IV
Auxiliary Classes: 1
Noble: 10/10
Skills: Grand Action / Legacy
Attuned Items: 0
===
He let his vision dim, slowly slipping into meditation even as he pushed and retracted vitality into his extremities. He breathed in, then out, pulsing his aura in time with every breath. The nerves began to fade, the uncertainty drifting into the back of his mind. Unbidden, he recalled the description of the last of his newly fused skill.
===
Meditations on Eternity:
Aspects: Social (Time)*, Enhancement (Mind) (Body)* (Life)*
Your words and actions carry with them the weight of the past. You have an improved memory, with significant events and experiences personally witnessed carrying a greater significance.
You may create a one way telepathic link with those nearby. You may bestow your understanding through lessons learnt and experience gained from the past via metaphor and image.
While meditating you recover both physically and mentally at a faster rate, and your ability to concentrate is improved while you are well rested. You may bestow this effect onto those resting nearby, though at a reduced efficacy.
The longer you live, the more potent this skill's effects.
===
[Wisdom of the Ages] and [Meditative Respite] had become [Meditations on Eternity], a highly exaggerated name for a simple little skill. It was both interesting, and quite amusing how many times the capstone skill of his [Amber Blight Spriggan] class had changed its name. This was the third in almost as many months. Was it strange that his monster class had given him such an odd ability as its capstone? Maybe, he didn’t really have anything to compare it against.
He flexed his limbs, feeling the flowing life-force within. Of all his fusions, outside of his new aura, [Surge of Life and Growth] was his favourite. It had been a risk to use the [Adept of Self-Restoration] skill [Life-fused Fist] as a baseline for the fusion, but it had worked out just as he had hoped. [Embolden Vegetation] was a good skill, a really good skill. But the skill’s main strength was the same as its main problem: immense synergy with his cultivated vitality.
When used on himself, the skill would explosively mix with his life-force to heal his body and spur it to grow. Which was an incredibly potent effect, the skill having saved his life on several occasions. But, it also did substantial amounts of damage to his body, the risk to his life almost outweighing the healing it provided. So he could have sat on the skill, kept it in his back pocket for just the right moment, then suffer the backlash. Or, he could have fused it into something with more control, less overall power but far more constant use.
Now the pool of cultivated energy, normally placid and unused except when healing his body or empowering his skills, was like a constantly moving stream within him. The life-force moved down one arm, then up into the next, strength and power flooding into each limb before quickly retreating. Leif stretched his fingers, then realised he had gotten himself distracted.
The new skills and his [Charisma] scaling from [Inspiring Brawler] was a massive increase in power, potentially even more than his monster class evolution.
Leif’s golden eyes flickered back to life under his mask, he leant back, looking up at the stone room’s ceiling. He had almost forgotten perhaps the most important part of the level fifty advancement. He wasn’t human. He was a monster. Whatever changes happened to monsters that passed this bottleneck were largely unknown to him, but those he did know, like gaining access to normal classes he already had. He knew that whatever he was, the system likely classified him as ‘awakened’. But what would that do to the advancement trial? Would he gain the option to awaken again? Or go down the other path? Could he incarnate, whatever that meant? And if he could, did he want to?
“I’m psyching myself out of this again.” Leif said to the empty room, shaking his head and sitting back up. “Fine, no more delaying. System! Advance me!”
Nothing happened, the system didn’t respond to voice prompts.
He sighed, then mentally triggered the advancement.
Good luck! Begin advancement trial? Y/N
Yes. He thought, and everything faded away.