When Ray could see again, he was pretty certain he wasn’t in the dungeon any longer. He was, strangely, somehow back in the white room where he had first gained his Class, Vocation, and Path.
“Is this what happens when people die?” he asked. “They come back here to this white room?”
He spoke because he felt like the System would answer him again. This was the same place, with the same exact table-and-chair setup with the blocks of pure white. Surely he would be able to contact the form of the System he had spoken with last time he was here.
Someone cackled behind him. “I’m afraid you aren’t dead yet, Raymond.”
Ray twisted around. Then blinked.
He wasn’t sure what he was looking at. There was a figure there, certainly, but… it was like the person—or being, or whatever it was—had been constructed of puzzle pieces that kept constantly switching. Little blocks that changed on and on, every second.
The eyes changed shape and colour, the mouth turned from human to various kinds of monstrous, the pieces of the clothing shifting from coats to armour to obscenely rich regalia. Hair, fingers, legs, every single bit of the figure was divided into equally-sized blocks, each of which transformed on its own.
“Who—what the hell are you?” Ray asked.
“Must you truly ask?”
There was a teasing cadence to the somewhat male voice. At least that voice was constant. Despite everything else about the figure constantly shifting into something different, the words held the same tone and cadence. Ray was speaking to the same person, even if it looked like he wasn’t.
“You’re the one from the Tower Node,” he said, connecting two and two. “The presence. The Marauder.”
“Bravo!” The figure raised his hands and clapped. It was strange seeing a demonic claw clap alongside what looked like an infant’s tiny hand. “I knew you were smart. After all, your ingenuity is the sole reason we’re here.”
“Where is… here?”
“Oh, just a little pocket dimension to house your soul while your body undergoes the brutal torture that your kind probably cannot even fathom. Did you know there is a pain limit that your human mind can comprehend?” The Marauder cackled again, like a hyena. “Quite interesting, the limits your biology has placed upon you.”
“Why are you here, though? I’m actually going to guess you brought me here.”
“No, you did. With your brilliant little idea to try and redirect that stream of True Mana into my Tower Node. You see, True Mana lets Denizens such as yourself commune with Paragons such as myself. Thus, here we are.”
“Huh.”
Ray tried to process that information. He had felt the Marauder’s presence before, when he had first used the Tower Node. It had even been there when he had met the Feathered Imps again. But it was only now, after he had allowed this True Mana to get in touch with the Tower Node, that he was in direct communication with the Paragon.
“What is a Paragon?” Ray asked. “Like, how are you different from Denizens?”
“My, my, aren’t you full of questions.” The Marauder tutted. “You think we’re here so you sit could down and ask me whatever you wanted and I’d blithely answer your concerns?”
“Well…” He suddenly remembered something. “You seemed kinder.”
That made all the shifting blocks pause their constant changing for a moment. It was kind of wild seeing that.
All the different blocks making up the Marauder’s appearance, all looking completely different from their neighbours, every single one of them paused. Ray was tempted to wonder how many different types of blocks he could pull from.
The Marauder sighed. “I suppose I did give the wrong impression. Goes to show what happens when you’re too nice. Well, nice time is over, new Denizen. It’s business time now.”
Ray straightened. Of course. He should have known he hadn’t been pulled here out of the goodness of the Marauder’s lots of different hearts. “Then tell me what you want.”
“I’m not sure I like your tone, because you forget the difference in power at play here. Even if you are supposed to be this Tower Conqueror.”
So, he knew what Ray’s Vocation was. It was safe to assume he knew pretty much everything there was to know about Ray, at least, within the Tower itself. He was starting to get the sense that Paragons were more or less gods in this new world.
“I don’t have any frame of reference with which to address you or how I should act in your presence, Mr. Marauder,” Ray said. “Since you so kindly refused to inform me what a Paragon even is.”
The Marauder sighed. “A Paragon is a…” His different mouths all came out grinning, even when the blocks shifted. “A shareholder, if you will.”
Ray groaned. Now he was using what Ray had said against him. Taking a leaf out of his own book. “A shareholder for the Tower itself?”
“Correct. A Paragon cannot act directly, not in lower ranked Towers like your Tower of Forging. However, there is a way for us to assert some influence. That’s via empowering Tower Nodes that make up the very fabric of the Tower itself.”
“A quid pro quo.”
“Exactly. The various Paragons’ different powers from their different domains allow the Tower to create and construct the different aspects it needs to function.”
“And in return…?”
“In return, vestiges of our influence end up proliferating, thanks to the Denizens who occupy said Tower, one way or another. This creates a new vector of growth for us Paragons.”
“Vector of growth? How?”
“I grow weary of acting like a teacher to an unruly student, Raymond. Although, you could reduce my weariness with a simple act. Answer me this—will you, or will you not accept the connection you yourself have established with True Mana and the Tower Node you possess?”
“If I didn’t, will you end up seeking a different person to use your Tower Node?”
“Perhaps… perhaps not.” All his mouths grinned widely. “What is your answer, Raymond?”
Ray took in a deep breath. He was probably risking a lot with what he was about to say next, but he didn’t want to lie. “I can’t accept something I don’t know the full breadth of. There’s a catch. Maybe if you told me what it was, then I could answer you.”
The Marauder cackled. “Oh, but you see, there is none.”
“There has to be. There’s always a catch.”
“You aren’t very trusting. I can understand that. Thieves are all alike. But I will answer you this. When I said a Paragon’s influence is greatly limited, I meant it. I can’t force you to do anything, nor can I stop you from doing anything. You must realize, it’s almost unheard of for anyone to acquire a Tower Conqueror vocation and acquire a Tower Node this early.”
Ray could see that last bit being true, at least. He had ended up in the Tier 7 tutorial zone because of his legendary Path. Without a tutorial zone at that high a Tier, he probably wouldn’t have ended up with the rewards he had claimed in the end.
After all, no one else held a Tower Node as far as he was aware.
“So I could just abandon the Tower Node and abandon you entirely,” Ray said.
The Marauder didn’t find that a displeasing notion. “You could!”
“Then maybe I will. Maybe I’ll find a different Tower Node to use this True Mana with, and hopefully with a Paragon who’ll be more upfront with me.”
For whatever reason, the Marauder continued being delighted, which just made Ray even warier. “Sure! I’ll even tell you where to find the next Tower Node. A little bird told me that the local area has a powerful Node you could make good use of. The Paragon associated with it cares even less for your Tower than I do, so you probably won’t even have a meeting like this.”
“Who’s the Paragon?”
“Don’t make me tell you everything, Raymond. Discovering is half the fun.”
Ray stared at the godlike being before him. He almost wanted to say that he would make good on his threat, that he would indeed find this other Tower Node and make better use of it. But that felt petulant.
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That felt like playing straight into the Marauder’s hands.
“You’ll see, Raymond,” the Marauder said. “Thieves like us. We’re all alike.”
“I’m not a thief.”
Even as he said it, it rang with falsehood. Hadn’t he basically stolen the powers of the creatures he had killed? Wasn’t that thievery on some level?
“I am a Marauder,” the Paragon said. “The Marauder. And you are a would-be Conqueror. Believe me when I say this—there isn’t a great deal of difference.”
“There is. You and your kind just want to take and hoard things. I want sole control over my fate, so that I can do what I decide to do without anyone’s influence. If stealing is how I can ensure that, then fine, I’ll steal.”
The Marauder cackled. “Yes. That’s exactly what I want. But for now, I must leave you. I have other things to attend to. Thank you for the interesting diversions, though. I’ll leave you with a parting gift to show my appreciation.” He smiled like a scarecrow as his blocks began turning white. “And I await your decision.”
Ray was alone a second later. Crap. This whole thing had been so unexpected. The meeting left him unmoored. Nothing the Paragon had said had made him feel easier about what he had to do going forward. He was unsettled.
Especially because the white room dissolved, revealing visions all around him.
Ray couldn’t identify what exactly he was looking at, although he got the gist of it. People. New Denizens, like himself, making their way through the Tower of Forging’s First Floor.
There was a long-bearded man in a coat leading a fierce looking group into the bowels of a dungeon. All the members of the group had an armband of red cloth, tied like a bandanna.
At another spot, a larger group was defending themselves against an aerial attack by strange, draconic monsters. Ray even recognized his Faction. The people of Insurge Faction were still rebuilding that broken-down keep. He was certain he even spotted Maya there.
The visions shifted. Next, Ray was staring at a man with a thin moustache healing an injured group.
Gritty appeared next. She was tearing through a group of those kangaroo-deer he had seen earlier. Despite sporting a dozen wounds, she looked happy. Alive. That woman was certifiably insane.
Next, Ray was granted a brief glimpse of the Virko dealing with a Sylvan of all people. The scene shifted quickly again.
This time, Ray watched a strange monster lumbering across the land. A gigantic figure, traipsing across brown-gold grass, hints of feathers poking out on its face and around its legs, the only bits of the creature visible through its hood and cloak.
Then the visions ended. Ray was back in the dungeon.
The pain was the first thing that hit him. He breathed in and out, hard and fast, trying not to let it overwhelm him. It was as though his insides had been ripped out, steamrolled, then thrust back into his body where they no longer fit. He couldn’t not twitch and jerk, trying his best not to contort into a pretzel.
Dumping all his Recovery into healing himself didn’t work. Ray felt a smidge better than before. The jerks and twists decreased a little. But it was nowhere close to stopping,
The rewards’ notifications for clearing the dungeon helped him calm down. They were exactly as he expected.
[New Personal Achievement—First Contact!]
You’ve met your first being from a higher plane! You are now touched by the grace of a Paragon.
Reward
* Reputation: +15 Hallowed
[Dungeon Cleared—Novitiate Mage Academy]
Rewards
* 1 Spell Synthesis Point
* 1 True Mana Grimoire Pamphlet
* 1 Tier Point
* +1,000 Essence
* Reputation: +15 Knowledge
Anomaly detected… recalculating further rewards…
Anomaly detected… recalculating further rewards…
Anomaly detected… recalculating further rewards…
* True Mana Attunement Token
* 1 True Mana skill
[Reputation Threshold Crossed]
For reaching the 100-point threshold, your Knowledge has raised your Intellect by 15.
Knowledge to next Threshold: 107/150
Ray’s heart had skipped when he saw the errors again after so long. But it looked like it had fixed itself without the need for the System to personally intervene. Whew.
He glanced at the actual rewards and shivered even as he smiled. Oh yes, those rewards would be handy.
A thousand Essence to get him closer to his next level. More Intellect to boost his spell damage even further was going to be fantastic. Then there was the Tier point and all the other new stuff. Also, what in the world did that Hallowed Reputation provide? He would need to find a way to get more to find out.
Better yet, the considerations behind each of what he had earned helped take his mind off the debilitating pain.
Ray could definitely use another Spell Synthesis point to make his casting more efficient. Despite the last one he had used, he still felt the array of spells he had more or less overlapped with one another still.
Like, why did he need to have Lifeblood Crucible and Primal Summons as two separate spells? Combining them would mean needing only one Tier point to improve his summoning abilities overall. Unfortunately, when he tried to use the Spell Synthesis point on them, it didn’t work.
[Warning!]
Spell Synthesis cannot be performed on spells with vastly different purposes.
Ray blinked. What? They were part of the same thing. The System was being mean in not letting him combine them together.
Could he at least combine Chaos Chymify and Lifeblood Crucible? Nope. Still too different.
It was getting slightly frustrating, but Ray at least had one more combination in mind he could perform. He tried folding Lifeblood Sense into Presence of the Primordial. This time, it did work. Not exactly satisfied, but happy it had eventually worked out, Ray opened up his new spell.
[Information Request—Spells]
Presence of the Primordial [Passive] [Utility] [Tier 4]
A passive primal spell that boosts all other primal spells, shields the caster from Mana-based debuffs and afflictions up to this spell’s Tier, and denotes the presence of other beings within this spell’s range. Nothing escapes the glance of a primal caster, so within the spell’s effective range, the caster can see into the soul of all creatures, abilities, and items, and perceive Mana directly. At Tier 4, this spell’s effective range is 20 meters.
Most of that description was highly familiar, but there was that small line in the middle of everything. …denotes the presence of all other beings within this spell’s range. Now he wouldn’t need to rely on constantly using Lifeblood Sense to detect others in the vicinity.
Interesting that he could perceive Mana directly now. He’d have to check that later as well.
Best of all, he now had one Passive spell doing all the work.
He moved on and focused on the True Mana Attunement Token. It was a tiny, hexagonal disc made of the same, ceramic-like material that covered the Tower Nodes. What was this substance?
[True Mana Attunement]
Consume the Token to Attune your body and spirit to channel True Mana. You will no longer suffer any severe drawbacks for using skills, spells, or any other processes that require True Mana.
Consume… Ray really hoped the System didn’t mean he’d have to eat it. He gripped the token, tried to focus his Mana, though he didn’t really have much of a sense for it beyond a vague sensation of energy flowing through him.
Was there a way to gain a better perception for Mana? For True Mana, as well? He felt like that would help in situations like this.
Then he realized his new spell allowed him to look at Mana directly. He tried doing so, trying to will the internal flow of Mana to his eyes so that he could look at the magic. It felt turgid and slow, but he was making progress, so he kept at it.
The Token began glowing in his hand. It got so bright, Ray was forced to squint his eyes.
Then he was struck with another vision.
Ray was back on Earth, by the looks of things, on some wide, grassy plain. He was also growing. The world shrunk as he grew taller and taller. Big as a tree in a second, big as a mountain in less than a minute. Piercing through the clouds next until he was tall enough to poke into space.
And still he kept growing. Even though it was a vision, he started to feel a little sick with how quickly everything was compressing to the size of his fingernail.
The planets, the sun, the entire solar system. Then the galaxy itself. Everything. The whole universe was turning ever smaller, compressing, condensing—oh, just like True Mana.
That was when Ray snapped back to reality. Back to the floor of the dungeon’s last room.
[True Mana Skill]
You have successfully attuned your body to channel True Mana without negative consequences. You possess only one Tower Node—Tower Node of the Marauder. As such, you only have one option for a True Mana skill.
Vengeful Plunder [Buffing] [Tier 1]
A buffing skill that raises your stats for every successful hit you land on your opponent. Stats raised are the wielder’s primary stats. At Tier 1, this skill raises each stat by 1 point, lasts 1 minute from activation, and costs 200 Mana. As you have no True Mana, the spell has an enhanced regular Mana cost.
Holy shit. Vengeful Plunder raised each primary stat by 1 points, which meant he’d be increasing his effective level by one with every third successful hit. Discounting free stat points, of course. Considering how often Ray tended to get in blows against his opponents, that was fast.
And the skill was only at Tier 1. How much better would this be at Tier 2? Or even higher Tiers?
Although, that cost was prohibitive for now. It would use up almost half his total capacity. Insane. But considering the benefit it provided, he didn’t find the cost unreasonable.
He snorted. So appropriate that this was the skill Ray was receiving from the Marauder. Even worse, that cryptic bastard had known it would be something like this. Something so irresistible.
Ray didn’t accept it. Not yet. He was going to make good on his threat of finding this other Tower Node and seeing if that Paragon would be more obliging. The option to pick it later ought to remain available until Ray decided to accept it, so he would wait for now. Once he was surer of things.
And anyway, screw him if he was going to inadvertently start working for somebody again. No matter how enticing it looked.
The new Tier Point was exactly what Ray had been hunting for. He assigned it to Lifeblood Crucible. There. Now he could hold something that would make Lifeblood Construct conjure something actually useful.
Next up, there was the Grimoire Pamphlet for True Mana.
[Information Request—Grimoire Pamphlet]
Spellbook [Tier 5]
Pamphlet created from the ancient grimoire of True Mana Grandmaster, Colfrith, of the Fifty-three Stars Faction. Contains a small distillation of his magical prowess, highly volatile and potent. Deciphering the knowledge contained within these pages for even a single spell will cause it to disintegrate into ash.
Huh. Ray shook his head. Funny how the System went out of its way to tell him that he could pick only one spell, just as he had been able to do with the Grimoire Pamphlet. Well, time to see what options he had in store.
Time for a new spell.