Exhausted yet content, Lorcan trudged back to his room, his mind still buzzing with the day's events. Though the abbot had claimed the chest, Lorcan had been rewarded with a twenty percent finder's fee of Beast Crystals, a welcome addition to his resources. While he didn't particularly need the funds, it felt gratifying to earn rather than merely spend. He opened the door and immediately activated a spatial evasion, when loud noise and light exploded in his face. Peering cautiously around the corner, he spotted his fellow monk, Baldy, and a group of young monks decked out in colorful attire, complete with paper hats and glowing crystals.

"What in the world is going on?" Lorcan inquired, his confusion evident.

Baldy, rubbing his bald head in irritation, replied, "You survived your first solo hunt, mate! According to local tradition, that calls for a celebration!"

Lorcan's expression remained bewildered. "But why?"

Before he could protest further, Lorcan found himself ushered into the room by his peers, where a lively party was already in full swing. Glasses of colorful concoctions were thrust into his hand, and Baldy raised his own glass in a toast. "To survival!"

Reluctantly, Lorcan joined in, downing his drink. Despite his lack of endurance, he knew that ordinary alcohol held no sway over him. As the night wore on, he regaled the group with tales of his hunt, carefully omitting certain details about the treasures and pills he had used.

Eventually, the festivities came to an end, leaving Lorcan feeling drained. Unused to the presence of so many unfamiliar faces, he longed for the camaraderie of his former army comrades, with whom he had journeyed for years.

As the others departed, Baldy lingered behind, prompting Lorcan for the truth. "How was it really, Lorcan? You must have been terrified when those creatures kept coming."

"It was challenging," Lorcan admitted, "but I was confident in my ability to escape if needed."

"With your teleportation skill?" Baldy inquired.

Lorcan nodded. "I excel at running away. What I’m trying to learn is facing danger head on."

Baldy looked out of the window. “Those wasps would really have done some damage, but…”

Lorcan waited for him to continue, but he only kept looking out of the window. He tried to follow his reasoning on his own. It only took a moment. “Of course! They’d have done some damage, but not nearly enough to destroy the monastery. It makes no sense to invest a fortune for nothing. That means…”

Baldy turned around: “It’s not only me? I hoped you’d come to the same conclusion. It must have been a test by the monastery!”

Lorcan shook his head: “No! That makes no sense. That’s much too expensive.”

Baldy's expression fell. "But..."

"No," Lorcan interrupted, retrieving a glowing crystal and a projector cube from his chest. Placing them on the floor, he summoned a detailed map of the monastery and its surroundings.

The inscriber gasped: “Is that the Peak quality map crystal from the monastery shop? The one that costa an arm and a cultivation base?”

Lorcan didn’t take his gaze of the projection: “What? Oh… just four or five Nexus coins.”

“The price tag was five D-grade Nexus coins!”

“Really? That’s probably why it contains such exquisite data about energy flows and fluctuations, as well as a real-time connection to the sensor array of the monastery.” He studied the map, ignoring Baldys bewildered gaze.

"Look here," Lorcan pointed, "the wasp nest. To incite a stampede, they'd need something like a mindfire array. Redirecting them to the monastery would require additional arrays here and a second swarm racing into the stampede about here." He indicated strategic points on the map. "And for a coordinated attack, a third swarm would be necessary, perhaps from this direction. The wasps’ innate abilities could potentially break through the defensive barriers and slaughter arrays, but not the walls and fortified entry points. So, the third swarm needs to be something heavier and stronger. Something that could damage or breach the walls. Something like…” he paused.

Baldy snapped his fingers. "Brallgramoths! Armored beasts from the southern jungle. With their spatial tunneling ability, they could breach the monastery's defenses swiftly."

"Exactly," Lorcan affirmed. "We need to be prepared for what comes next."

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Baldy grinned: “We need to inform the abbot. Maybe we’ll get some kind of reward?”

His grin faded, when he and Lorcan got a system message:

Foil the Machination (Training Regimen): Locate and neutralize all three arrays primed to trigger the beast monster onslaught before they're activated. Alerting the abbot or fellow monks will prematurely trigger the assault ahead of schedule, resulting in quest failure.

Reward: Depending on the level of success

Consequence of Failure: Termination of training regimen.

Lorcan's eyes rolled in exasperation. "Of course it can't be that easy."

Baldy's gaze drifted into the space before him, then snapped back to Lorcan. "Training regimen? What did you do? The system never grants training regimen quests unless..."

Lorcan let out a weary sigh. "Unless it senses someone with potential is slacking off."

"You've got to be kidding me! You're delving into the Dao of space. That's the hallmark of explorers or scientists, not the typical bloodthirsty lunatics who usually become Heavens Chosen. Unless..."

He paused, his eyes widening as realization dawned. Before Lorcan could prompt him, Baldy continued, "Unless you're building up some serious momentum. That could catch the system's attention too."

Lorcan shrugged. "Everyone is always talking about momentum. But what does it even mean?"

"It's quite simple, I think. Though it's never explicitly stated, the logic seems to be this: You stumble upon a stroke of luck and survive. Now you've proven your potential. The system then increases the chances of you stumbling upon another treasure or opportunity that aligns with your path. Survive again, and the system throws another test your way. And another. Until either you perish or spend enough time without achieving notable successes, prompting the Eye of the Heavens to seek out another target to nurture."

"Isn't that what the luck stat is for? I mean, it seems redundant to have a stat for luck. Unless it's some kind of artificial attribute that operates solely in relation to the Guiding Heavens. Higher luck enhances the likelihood of the system guiding you to fortunate encounters." It felt right in Lorcans mind.

"Exactly. At least, that's what the sages in my family believe. Luck and momentum feed into each other. If your encounters lead to increased luck, it can quickly spiral out of control. And remember the law of balance. Every treasure, every opportunity must be earned by overcoming a suitable obstacle, typically a beast or guardian of sorts. Too much momentum, and you'll find yourself crushed against a mountain. Or worse, a hegemon."

“So, we have to find and disarm three arrays capable of driving a whole swarm of beasts into madness,” pondered Lorcan.

“Without alerting any of the monastery staff. Or setting of any of the traps the monastery’s enemies have doubtlessly hidden.”

Baldy looked at the map. “That is, if we’re even able to find the other two swarms.”

Lorcan looked at the points he’d marked. “I’m quite sure they’ll be around those spots. That’s where I’d place them for optimal effect.”

“You sound quite sure. Did you do something like that before?”

Lorcan went still for a few seconds, then reluctantly nodded. “During the third campaign I was with, we used mindfire arrays to send swarms of spiderwolves at an enemy fortification. It worked, but the cost in civilian life’s was unbearable. Our commander was not exactly faint of heart, but when we walked through the blood-soaked streets of our enemy… He wept. As did I. High Command was thrilled over the easy victory, but to their eternal dismay, all mindfire array flags were destroyed in some very freakish accident.”

Baldy raised an eyebrow. Lorcan shrugged. “I was demoted and spent two years working my way back up to my team leader position. If we didn’t have such a shortage of array operators, I’d still be polishing array flags. Now, let us rest. Tomorrow will be a long day.”

The two settled into their beds. Before Lorcan could fall asleep, he felt some spatial disturbance at the door. Space folded and something entered the room. He used his spatial perception skill, which he found out worked just fine with closed eyes, and saw a six-legged furred creature in the dimly lit room. The hexasquirrel sniffed and looked around. It looked kind of cute, although it had sharp teeth and occasionally extended long claws from its paws. It neared his motionless body, sniffed, and continued to his wardrobe. It took a few tries, then it managed to open the doors. It pulled out his trousers, sniffed, and ignored them. Then it found his Cosmos Sack. He had to struggle to react, because that was one of his most precious possessions. Vokari, he was now sure it was the hexasquirrel he had brought inside the monastery, very carefully pushed the Cosmos Sack around, but could not open it.

Lorcan sat up and opened his eyes. “Morning, Vokari.”

The slender beast teleported to the other side of the room, ducked, and extended six paws full of vicious claws. After a moment, it retracted them and relaxed. It again neared his Cosmos Sack and nudged it with his nose.

“I think I know what you’re looking for.” He stood up slowly, took his Cosmos Sack and retrieved one of the Beast Cores. The hexasquirrel went wild. It jumped and teleported around inside the room like an over crazed puppy.

Baldegarath started to stir. Vokari went still. After Baldy was fast asleep again, it walked up to Lorcan and looked from his face to the Beast Crystal in his hand. Its dark pupilless eyes seemed to be filled with twinkling lights.

Lorcan held out the finger-sized crystal, and the hexasquirrel took it with great care. Then it threw it in its mouth and swallowed.

“I’m not sure that’s how Beast Crystals work…”

Vokari looked around, then went over to the prayer mat Lorcan had left on the floor for his occasional guest. It curled up on it and closed its eyes. Lorcan could feel the same kind of emanations a cultivator made when cultivating from a Cosmos Crystal. Seemed like this was how Beast Crystals worked. He smiled and took out one of his two special Crystals. The one that was attuned to the Dao of Time. One of the parting tips of the mysterious arbitrator had been to cultivate using these two special attuned crystals to keep up his high affinity to both Space and Time. Lorcan couldn’t read the facial expressions of the all-eye creature, mainly because it didn’t really have a face, but he’d thought to detect some high amusement when he inquired how long those crystals would last. Probably some peak quality E-grade or maybe even D-grade material. In any case, he didn't get an answer to his question.