Jace made it back to the Luna Wrath’s landing platform just as the sun dipped below the horizon. His core cloud was pulsing and shifting, as if it was trying to leap out of his gut. Pulses of energy surged around his body, and when he tried to contain his Aes to his core, not all of it would fit.

He stumbled across the walkway between the spaceport dome and the landing platform, dashed around a starship that had just set down, then raced up to the Wrath’s boarding ramp. The moment he stepped inside, he found Kinfald staring at him.

“What took you so long?” Kinfild demanded.

“I…I killed a Watchman,” Jace panted. As soon as he stepped into the starship’s main hold, Kinfild pulled a lever, and the ramp raised behind him. Jace leaned against the wall, trying to catch his breath. “I got one. Just the level eighteen one, but…”

“Very good work,” said Kinfild. He marched back across the central hold of the ship. “But we have a long way to go yet.”

“We need to go to the communications outpost,” Jace said.

“Back to Celacor. Celacor X, to be precise—though the locals just call it Ten.”

Jace nodded. His mind was still a little hazy from the sprint back to the landing platform, and the air inside the starship didn’t fill his lungs like outside air did. His overflowing core didn’t help. Still, he followed Kinfild back to the cockpit.

They lifted off the landing platform. Kinfild set the engine order telesignal, then adjusted the power shunting levers. The ship leapt up into the sky and filtered into a lane of traffic. After a few minutes of flight over the city, they pulled up and shot up into the sky. After another few minutes, Kinfild activated the hyperdrive, and they shot off.

“I’ll have Aur-Six cook us something,” Kinfild said. “While you are waiting, you must advance. You are ready.”

“H—how?”

“You killed a Watchman, and that would have given you a significant boost to your Aes base.” Kinfild paused, retrieving a slip of paper from his robes. The same slip of paper that he had his supposed tasks written on. “Yes, yes, I wrote it here. It’ll award you anywhere from ten to twenty percent of Foundation One—depending on that Watchman’s strength, and depending how many Split-given subquests it ticked off.”

“But—”

“You must now accept a Path.” Kinfild stood up and walked back to the starship’s engine room. He leaned inside and provided Aur-Six a muffled instruction, then turned back to Jace and said, “I’ll help you through the process of the first advancement, but you’ll need to focus.”

Jace unbuckled the crash harness and stood up, then followed Kinfild back to the red benches. He didn’t yet take a seat. With a push of intent, he mustered his golden sheets. For a few seconds, it displayed a message [Alert: Unassigned Attribute Shards: Six (6)] before switching to [Warning: Advancement necessary. Advance to Foundation 2 (Pillar Forming Stage) immediately.]

Finally, it displayed the full status sheet. Not much was different, except now the advancement progress had stalled at a hundred percent, and the entire sheet flickered brightly, as if bursting to the seams with light.

“What do I have to do?” Jace asked.

Kinfild picked up his staff. He walked across the rumbling deck of the starship until he was right next to Jace. “Shut your eyes,” Kinfild instructed. “Sit down and get ready.”

Jace did.

“Push your mind down to your core and call your Aes back into the core cloud. If it doesn’t all fit inside, then let it hover there.”

He imagined his core and his Aes channels. He had already pulled all his Aes back to his core.

“First and foremost, the Split is an entity,” Kinfild said. “It is all natural law bound into a single force. As your bond with it strengthens, so does your magic. But it doesn’t think like we do, if it thinks at all. It only has so much power, and you must convince it to allocate more power to you. Your connection will improve, and you will need to choose a Path.”

Jace inhaled slowly, keeping his Aes swirling around close by his core, ready to use at a moment’s notice.

“Do you see the core seed? The one we embedded back on Lyvarion?” Kinfild asked. “If your body is a galaxy, the galactic core is your core cloud, and the Aes channels are the hyperroutes that travel all around it. The core seed is the very center, the singularity that binds it all—you must focus on it.”

Jace concentrated until he could sense the core seed.

“Let the Aes eat away at the seed. This first advancement is to consume it, integrating it into the core. You will be able to use that energy to form Foundation Pillars.”

But…how? How could he make the Aes eat away at the seed? He opened his mouth, but Kinfild tutted.

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“No speaking,” Kinfild said. “You must concentrate. Push the Aes faster and faster until it becomes a wind and scratches away the seed’s surface. Even a faint breeze can erode the strongest stones, given time.”

Jace scrunched his eyebrows. They didn’t necessarily have time.

As if guessing his thoughts, Kinfild said, “We have about ten hours until we arrive, and that will be more than enough. Breathe fast and sharp, and convert the Aes to a knife. Whittle away at the seed’s shell.”

For a few minutes, Jace worked his Aes into a whirling storm, and he used it to rub away flecks of the outer surface of the seed. They blackened, then evaporated into nothing in the storm of hyperspace-aspect Aes.

His mind settled into a rhythmic trance as he pushed the Aes faster and faster, and his mind hummed. First, he thought he was overworking it, but the hum grew louder and formed into words and thoughts…and something in-between.

Advancement engaged…

The Split. He could feel it, right there, connecting with him.

Main advancement phase beginning…two percent progress…

He swallowed and opened his mouth, but Kinfild said, “It is counting the progress of your leap between the stages, now, correct?”

Jace nodded.

“That is normal.”

He kept pushing his Aes.

Ten percent…

The atmosphere around Jace pressurized, as if sucked towards him. He felt an immense pressure on his head and limbs, and it was only getting stronger.

“Keep working, Mr. Baldwin,” Kinfild instructed. “That is normal, too.”

Jace tried to nod, but he couldn’t sense his head moving anymore—all he knew was his core.

Twenty percent…

Every second, a bit more of his Aes shrank. At first, he thought it was being used, until he realized that, when it ripped a bit of the seed’s shell off, it also compressed and drew closer and closer to the core.

At fifty percent, the core cloud had shrunk to half its size. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, and he didn’t let it bother him. A new thought passed through his mind, prompted by the Split.

Select Path.

It stated; it didn’t ask.

Path of the Starsmith…the great forgers of the Hyperroutes, who can use their cards to make weapons and constructs of pure Aes…

Jace wasn’t a blacksmith, though, and none of his cards aligned with such a Path.

Path of Route-Reign…with impeccable control of ambient Hyperspace Aes, they can use it to aid companions and friends…and even other worldjumpers…

But Kinfild didn’t need any help at the moment—and Jace doubted any supporting abilities would matter much, even if he had the cards to pull it off.

Path of the Waycasters…best at using Potency to harm their foes with the Split…

Far off. Too far off.

Jace concentrated harder on his purpose. His class: Hunter.

Always, always, he had felt lost, even if it was just a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. He didn’t fit in with farmhands or contractors or academics. Not even with his own family.

Maybe he’d never have a place, and be stuck at this awkward phase forever. But he’d keep looking, no matter what.

Path of the Wandering Star…

That was it. He knew it.

…the great shields of the galaxy…who bolster their own bodies and resist all outside influence, who bow to none, who are not afraid to lend a hand to those who need it…

That was it. That was it!

Path disposition detected. Immediate boost available: Base Vital and Resistance attributes will be doubled. Selecting Path?

Yes!

Understood…Path of the Wandering Star accepted…

After a short pause, the voice-thought sensation returned.

Ninety percent…

Jace pushed his Aes faster, eating away at the remains of the seed and compressing it. All that remained was the very center matter of the seed, and it was much less durable than the shell. It compressed down to a single point, a pinprick of light.

Jace’s veins bulged, his skin shook, and his muscles tensed. The pressure around him pushed his flesh in towards his core, so much that he worried his bones would shatter and snap. His hairs all stood on end.

Just as the pressure was about to become unbearable, it burst. A soft boom rolled through the hold of the starship, followed by a wind—blasting outwards from Jace’s body. The leaves of the nearby potted plants shook, and the deck beneath his feet vibrated.

When the wind stopped, all that remained of Jace’s core cloud was a marble-sized speck of blue energy inside his chest.

Advancement complete…

The first thing he noticed was how stable everything felt. The core didn’t rock or shudder. His channels clung tighter to his flesh, and his Aes didn’t thrum so much.

He opened his eyes. Kinfild beamed, and a newfound excitement made Jace’s limbs twitch. He mustered his status sheet again, forming it out of pure golden light—there was no time to wait for the Reader.

[Gathered Analytics]

Name: Jace Scott Baldwin

Worldjumper #: 5

Class: Core Hunter

Advancement Progress: Foundation 2 (0%)

Standard Level Rating: 15

[Attributes]

Strength: 9

Vital: 34

Resistance: 26

Agility: 11

Potency: 1

[Technique Cards]

Trigger Hyperjump

[Significant Items]

Unnamed Whistling Blade, spirit-enhanced clothing

[Titles]

Worldjumper #5 (no effect) (cannot be removed)

Witness of the Ancients (+1 Agility) (cannot be removed)

Kinfild said, “Five hours, and just five hours! That puts you at the Foundation Pillar Forming stage. Now, you need to recover an Aes base, and we have a new technique card to make.”

“New card?”

“I figure your body should be able to support something of a little higher rarity, now. And you have plenty of materials to make something work.”

“Yes. Yes please. Very much yes.”