The cave chamber smelled horrible. The stench of the flaming pieces of Eclipsed, the somewhat burned and poison-beamed baby head with spider legs boss, and my own unbathed scent had all begun to marinate. It wasn’t the best environment for total focus, but I was doing my best.

I sat cross-legged, eyes closed, and thoughts inward.

Ever since reaching level 50, I had sensed something new. It had been distant and out of reach before, but killing the Eclipsed had brought it close enough that I could really sense it now. I could also tell it was… full.

The “it” in question was like a vessel in the same spiritual realm as my equipped corestones and the dark cocoon around them.

I was almost certain I would reach Iron if I could find out how to release whatever was inside that vessel. Most likely, this was exactly what an ascension token would do for me. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have one of those right now, so I needed to figure this out the other way.

“Maybe it’ll be more simple than they made it sound,” I said to Pebble. “Just… crack open the jar and drink the spiritual Iron juice, or something?”

Pebble wobbled.

“Maybe it only seems so simple because my understanding of mana is way beyond my rank? Even if I only had five percent of my mana manipulation from back then, if my manipulation ‘score’ was like… five million, that number would be pretty huge, right?”

I sensed this was getting a little over Pebble’s head, so I focused back on the task at hand.

If I was right, opening this vessel would release something, and that something would finally push me from Wood rank to Iron rank. Could I justify waiting longer in hopes of earning more boons?

I sat with the question for a few minutes, then finally decided that waiting to advance wasn’t a risk I could take. When possible, I had been taking the greedy risks that would give me the most potential for gain. If I kept up with that philosophy here, it would mean facing Rake as a Wood and hoping my new dark mana powers would be enough to overcome him.

And what for? So I could maybe gain some boons I knew nothing about? No… I couldn’t wait longer to advance. This would make me stronger, and I desperately needed strength right now. I already saw what Rake was capable of. The only possible path to surviving a second encounter as a Wood would be fully releasing the burned man from my core. That option felt like it was hardly different from sacrificing my life.

Iron was my best shot.

“Alright, Pebble… If I look like I’m dying or something, go get Lyria for me. Okay?”

Pebble understood, but gave a nervous shake.

Still sitting cross-legged, I braced myself, unsure of what to expect.

I spent several minutes simply exploring the vessel with finger-like threads of mana. The vessel, my cores, and the whole experience happened in that other place—the spiritual realm that felt more and more real as my grasp of these powers grew.

I closed my eyes because it was easier to focus on it all without seeing the chamber around me.

Slowly but surely, I thought I was piecing together what I would need to do to advance.

It would be more complicated than opening the lid of a jar, after all. It seemed more like a test of ability. To open this vessel without an ascension token, I would need to use almost everything I had learned about mana. But at least I had been told some people could do it this way.

The first task was finding the proper points to focus my energy on. I formed finger-like extensions of mana and used them to “feel” the vessel. Each time I identified something unusual, I updated my mental map of the shape. Each point I found felt like a weak spot in the vessel.

Once I was certain I had found all of them, I attached threads of mana to every weak spot, straining my focus slightly as I continued to split off more and more mana lines around the vessel.

It was slow, painstaking work, but I found a natural rhythm. I couldn’t say how long I sat with my eyes closed, preparing to make my attempt, but my body was covered in a light coating of sweat by the time I realized I was as ready as I would ever be.

I checked all the threads of mana, concentration divided between them to ensure none had slipped or moved from the exact locations I had positioned them around the vessel.

I adjusted a few, ensuring they were directly aimed at the weak spots.

Come on. Let this work.

I took one last deep breath, then shoved mana outward, lighting up each delicate strand of mana like they were lightning rods. A pure rush of power bombarded the vessel from all directions at once, striking it at every last weak point.

The vessel was vaporized in an instant.

My eyes shot open, and my head arched backward. I only saw white for several seconds as my mouth hung open in a silent scream.

Every fiber of my being was flooded with sudden, warm intensity. The vessel had been full of pure, condensed mana. The experience was shockingly similar to when I had been pumped full of dark mana and had to draw it toward my cores.

My thoughts came in panicked snapshots, barely registering through the overwhelming pain. My organs, skin, and even cores were on fire.

A memory of dark mana filling me rushed into my mind.

I remembered pulling it inward to my cores by opening a doorway to allow it inward.

More pain came. I wasn’t sure how long it had been since I broke the vessel. Seconds? Minutes?

I desperately pulled, drawing as much of the burning condensed mana inward as possible. It resisted at first, and then something gave.

I lost all sense of what was happening.

The next thing I knew, I was laying on my side, and Pebble was gently bumping my forehead, trying to wake me up.

I sucked in a surprised breath and sat up. Pebble bounced backward, waiting anxiously.

“I’m… I think I’m fine,” I said, rubbing my head and checking myself for injuries. From the way it had felt, I expected to see my skin blistered and bloody all over. But I seemed completely uninjured, even if I was filthy and in desperate need of a bath.

What the fuck? I swallowed, turning my hands over and examining them. I didn’t look different, as far as I could tell.

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A notification was pulsing for my attention.

[Rare Accomplishment] Advance to Iron without the use of an ascension token. [Reward - Rare Ascension Trophy] “It’s me again. Hey there. I don’t think we keep track of this kind of thing, but I do want you to know that your journey from Wood to Iron was definitely up there as one of the fastest in the history of Eros. If only those other pesky gods hadn’t woken up at roughly the same time! Some of them were real cheaters. Most of them did beat you, but your method was by far the most legitimate. Therefore, you get my vote for most impressive. Congratulations!

“Also, I should note that they all used ascension tokens. Then again, just about everybody does. At least at these low ranks. The thing you did just now is kind of like closing your eyes and hitting a bullseye blindfolded. With no arms. And without an arrow. You’re supposed to need a skilled mentor to guide you to doing that at your rank. But I guess you are working with mana manipulation skills that are way above your rank. Some would call that cheating, too, wouldn’t they? But I’m biased, so I’ve decided it’s not.

“I remembered what I was going to say before! I knew you were about to try to advance, so I was going to tell you if you succeeded, you should ask Voidgaze to show your boons! He can do that. You can also ask naidus to show these to you, but why wait?”

I jumped up in the air, punching my fist when I saw my reward was a trophy. “We got a trophy, Pebble!”

Pebble joined me, hopping in excitement.

Once my hype levels reached more manageable levels, I caught my breath and asked Voidgaze to show my boons. I should probably be more excited about Iron-level boons that would permanently enhance my body and increase my chance of surviving the looming fight with Rake.

I mean, I definitely was more excited about the boons than the trophy. Definitely…

I began reading the surprisingly long list.

[Iron Boon (Common). Title Earned: Warden of Shadows - You were exposed to mind-altering levels of dark mana and survived ] Your ability to resist the mind-altering effects of dark mana is slightly increased.

[Iron Boon (Common) Title Earned: Keeper of Pets - You have gained the loyalty of at least one inanimate object ] Summoned pets, small animals, and inanimate objects you choose to treat as living creatures will obey you more easily and bond with you more quickly.

[Iron Boon (Rare) Title Earned: Manaforged - You have demonstrated various feats requiring an exceptional mastery of mana manipulation ] Your mana pool becomes more flexible, able to expand more easily and recover more quickly.

[Iron Boon (Rare) Title Earned: Pain Thirster - You have repeatedly and willingly inflicted near-maximum levels of pain on yourself ] Your tolerance to pain is moderately increased. Your ability to resist bodily harm is slightly increased.

[Iron Boon (Rare): Title Earned: Aether-touched - Your intuition has guided you successfully through several situations of almost certain death ] Your intuition sharpens.

Titles? If there was something that I loved almost as much as trophies and cool badges, it was titles. And some of those titles were kind of awesome. Warden of Shadows? Pain Thirster? I mean, come on. I didn’t have to tell people I got that Pain Thirster one for melting myself with poison and burning myself with Dragon’s Tail fire. I wondered if I could have engraved plaques put up in my personal space to display all of these. Or maybe I could get them etched into a comm card?

Okay, Brynn. These are definitely not time-appropriate things to be worrying about.

I noticed Pebble looked a little down, so I gave his head a pet. “Hey, don’t listen to them, man. You’re not an inanimate object. You can communicate. That’s the definition of animate if you ask me.”

Pebble bounced in agreement.

But damn. I still wasn’t sure if the number of boons I had earned was exceptional or bad. All I knew was I had only expected one or maybe two. The sheer number alone seemed great. The boons also opened the door to several questions I wished I could answer. Did the rarity of these mean I could level them up? Would they only advance when I reached Silver, assuming I met the proper criteria? Could I bump a boon up more than one rarity tier when I advanced? There was no way to know for sure, but the possibilities excited me either way. They were kind of like accomplishments, except the rewards were bad-ass titles and permanent buffs. I loved it.

Some of the boons were relatively straightforward, like the Pain Thirster one. I pinched my forearm, raising my eyebrows in appreciation. It still hurt. In fact, I would argue it hurt about… exactly as much as it should. It just… bothered me less? It felt more like my brain was more willing to literally ignore the pain, even if I still felt it.

That would be helpful when I was out of this place and wanted to practice raising my Elemental Body skill more. I hoped that practice could also push me to better ranks of these boons when I reached Silver, too.

Very nice.

Manaforged was also amazing. It seemed to take something that was already a huge strength of mine—the size and recovery speed of my mana pool—and amplified it further. I definitely wouldn’t complain about that.

Besides being an awesome title, Warden of Shadows was also very interesting. Given that I planned to regularly expose myself to dark mana to practice and also provide food for my bedroll, I expected I would power this one up quickly if it were possible. At higher ranks, I assumed I could tolerate more dark mana in my system than usual, opening the door to unleashing the potential of my new power.

Finally, there was the Aether-touched boon. That one was the strangest to me. Yes, I had made a habit of leaning on my intuition since arriving here. I could even see an argument that I had sometimes bordered on insane with the amount of trust I put in my intuition. But I had a reason. I knew I made it to godhood in this place once, so why wouldn’t I trust my instincts in this situation?

Still, the boon raised all kinds of questions. I didn’t want to delve into philosophy at a time like this, but if a boon could improve my intuition, didn’t that imply some sort of predetermination at play here? After all, how could I have magically improved intuition if someone or something didn’t already know which way to push my instincts?

Or… maybe it was all connected to mana? If everybody and everything in this world was connected to mana, then maybe it wasn’t insane to imagine the mana itself could clue me in from time to time—like a kind of mana telepathy?

I was so full of questions I thought I might burst. For example, none of my boons seemed like clear… “you will be able to survive fighting Rake” types of boons, which was a bit concerning. But maybe other changes in advancement didn’t come packaged in boon form? I might simply be more resilient or more potent in combat now. Or maybe that would only become true as I took advantage of the 50 new levels of potential I still had to earn after returning to level 1 as an Iron.

I sighed. No point in wondering for now.

I knew if I took too long in this chamber, the others would come back for me. And there was still something I wanted to do before they returned…

My eyes slid to the bone tree and the empty cavity. “Shall we, Mr. Pebble?”

Pebble looked nervous.

“Come on, we can do this. My core is already dark and occupied by a creepy burned man. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing this bone tree could throw at me that’s worse than that.”

Pebble still didn’t look convinced.

“Watch,” I said, pretending to touch my temples as if I was using magical powers. “My Aether-touched senses are tingling, Pebble. The tree is completely, probably, mostly safe.”

In reality, I wasn’t getting any kind of sixth sense about the tree or the choice. All I knew was I wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to upgrade my corestones. I was about to face off against Rake and his allies in the very near future, and I owed it to my friends to have as much power as I could reasonably acquire. This… was somewhat reasonable. I was also fairly sure I knew now that corestones themselves couldn’t become corrupted or touched by dark mana. Instead, it was the individual who carried that burden. And I was already touched by dark mana, so what was the worst that could happen?

It was just a slightly creepy bone tree with dark mana crystals for leaves.

I approached, attempting to inspect the cavity on the off chance that my helmet could tell me anything about it.

[Ritual Well (Rare)] Place your hand here, allowing the ritual well to upgrade a [common] class corestone to [rare] quality instantly.

I pursed my lips. So the cavity was for my hand, not my corestone? I had already made my decision, so I pressed my palm to the surface.

My skin burned as hundreds of tiny pinpricks touched my palm, as if the tree was reaching inside me.

“Interesting,” a foreign voice said suddenly, making me jump.

It sounded as though the chamber itself was speaking in a deep, grandfatherly tone.

“What? Who are you?” I asked.

Ignoring me, the voice continued. “Two corestones? Very interesting. So be it. View your choices and decide, and make it quick.”

I saw a readout appear above my hand, just like when I had viewed corestones in the adventurer’s guild back in Riverwell. I suspected anybody would be able to see this text, with or without a helmet like Voidgaze.

There were six choices laid out before me. Two class paths for my Heart Corestone, two class paths for my Soul corestone, and… what the hell were those last two?