I paused and took a deep breath before I nodded.

“Alright. The truth is, I just feel… Directionless.”

Ikki nodded, saying nothing.

“Once I finish my Beast Mage’s Soul and Magister’s Body spells, I’m going to be on the path to transition,” I said. “But what do I do after that? I really like my work with the wildwatch, and with the spiritwatch. But is that enough, to just do work I like? And if it is enough, then why am I getting all this special training and attention? And…”

I hung my head in my hands, determined not to cry.

“It is a lot,” Ikki said. “I will not lie to you, but that does mean that what I am going to say may be cruel.”

I glanced up at him.

“You are not special,” he said. “There are, by general accepted wisdom, three ways that people grow. The first is you. Fortune. You picked the right mana types for Orykson’s experiments, because you had an uncommon legacy. Not a staggeringly powerful one, but opposing mana types are quite rare.”

I nodded. I wasn’t prideful enough to think that I was some genius. I was decent at magic, but I wasn’t some prodigy.

“All of the other attention you garnered, from Meadow, from myself, from Knowledge, and everyone else? That is because of Orykson. His last apprentice was a monster, and almost everyone is invested in ensuring he does not have another one.”

“I was lucky,” I said, nodding.

“The other ways… Resolve. Some people put themselves through endless trials, running through the worst parts of life for a scrap of power. And Destiny. Some are simply born with great power. But regardless of if your potential comes from Fortune, Resolve, or Destiny, it is up to you to seize it. You have been handed the potential for greatness. Was it sheer luck? Yes. But it takes skill to take luck and turn it into power.”

“I still don’t know where I’m going, though,” I said. “I don’t have a purpose for power.”

“Does there need to be?” Ikki asked.

I thought about that for a long moment. Was it enough to just enjoy growing stronger?

I wasn’t sure it was.

“How about we start by listing some definitive goals?” Ikki suggested.

“Saving Kene’s life and transitioning are the obvious ones,” I said. "Money too."

"Kene?" Ikki asked.

Abruptly, I realized that while Ikki was strong – probably an occultist in his own right – he didn't inherently know everything.

I gave him a brief rundown of the alchemist, our budding relationship, and their hag legacy, and Ikki simply listened.

"That is a difficult life to be born into," Ikki said, nodding. "When I was… two hundred or so… I befriended someone who lost themselves to the three worm ghosts. That is… Not the same, but a similar condition of your legacy being used to incubate a negative-creature."

A few of those words were slightly strange, the cultural phenomena straining to translate.

"Meadow has said a Sepulcher can help," I said. "I'm not ready, but when I am… Can it?"

"It can," Ikki agreed. "In the short term, Dusk likely can help, however I would warn against allowing her to consume power from a source like that more than three times."

I frowned, but nodded. That was good to know.

"What else?" Ikki pressed. "Why money? What do you want to do with the money?"

I drew the peacepyre out of Dusk's space and played with it idly as I thought. The will-o-whisp like creature made a great fidget toy.

"I want a home," I said. "I mean, I'm part of the way there, but right now it's basically just a stone hut. I need to set up power generators. The cost for those is going to be huge. Even if I set up solar or wind harvesters and somehow got permanent portals open to let them flow in…"

I hummed in thought as I continued to play with the peacepyre.

"I do not know much about homesteading," Ikki admitted freely. "However, yes, there are significant costs. I would not worry about the portals. I expect at third gate, you should be able to set up semi-permanent portals you can use. But let's say you were to inherit a small sum and advance to third gate. You now have set up your home and transitioned to a point you consider adequate. What now?"

"Well, I still have costs," I said. "I have to pay for my broom, and food. I'm also going to need to expand my alchemy equipment and materials. I can produce healing potions now, but two potions does not an alchemist make."

Ikki inclined his head and waited for me to keep going.

"And then…" I paused. "I do like the work I can do for the watches. They let me help people, and I enjoy doing that."

"In my home, there is a certain group, or perhaps type, of people. Similiar to the Knights Errant or Lancers your people once had. Wanderers who search the land for adventure, resources, and treasure. Some simply do that. But the truly great ones also perform heroic deeds."

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"I see," I said, nodding slowly. Was that enough? To simply wander, to have enough, and to help people?

It was more than a lot of people had, that was to be sure. And… I thought that maybe, maybe, it may be enough for me too.

And I never knew. Maybe on the way, I'd find a few causes worth throwing myself into, like Ikki suggested. I didn't think I'd ever be a hero, but if I could help people, that may be enough.

Something inside of me stirred, a shift of winds that blew across my spirit. A moment later they were gone, however.

My attention was jerked away a moment later, as I felt a complex shifting of mana, and Ikki's form seemed to flicker several times rapidly before stabalizing.

"Appologies," he said. "It is past my normal time to leave, but we have only completed the basics of your lesson. I feel this was valuable, however, so I shall stay an extra thirty minutes to do physical training."

I nodded, still a bit weirded out, and followed Ikki outside for us to spar.

"While your physical fundamentals are still lacking, it is obvious you fight like a mage," Ikki said as he led me into the backyard, drawing his domain weapon. "There is nothing wrong with that, but it does require me to adapt my teaching."

He faced me and closed his eyes, and his mana rippled, contraining and fortifying, until at last he felt like a peak first gate mage.

"You have experience fighting a realm up. You are not the only one, however. Let us begin."

As soon as he spoke, his sword sliced through the air at me.

It wasn't any faster than a normal sword swing – hasting spells were third gate – but there was… something.

Something in the swing was too perfect, too exact.

Briarthreads spooled out around me, but Ikki's blade moved away from their block before the strike even happened, diving in at a different angle. I spun Briarthrads and knocked his blade off course…

And missed the kick that struck me squarely in the ribs. My protective aura pin blunted the blow, so it only stung.

Ikki pressed the advantage flawlessly, his sword snicker-snacking through my Briarthreads spell until it fell apart, despite the fact he'd reduced himself to a first gate mage.

None of the blows were enforced with power, but they always struck at the right moment, at the right position, to break the forged mana.

But I wasn't helpless myself, not anymore. Five bone shards burst from me, releasing in different directions. One for Ikki's head, one for his chest, one for his sword hand, one shot around him in a triangle to strike from behind, and the final one in a pattern that bounced off the ground and would fire back up at him.

And then I understood why Meadow had called Ikki's fighting an art.

His sword moved in a silver-white arc, striking the three basic attacks out of the air with the flat of his blade in one swift movement, while with his torso, he slid out of the way of the two more complex attacks. The instant he was clear, he'd twisted back into his own space and struck them down as well.

I used the moment he'd taken to dodge to draw my staff out and reconjure briarthreads.

"Mistake. You should have already had your staff out, and used the time to create distance," Ikki said. As he spoke, he dropped to a crouch – which dodged my boneshards firing again – and kicked out at me. The Briarthreads caught his leg…

But he didn't care, as plunged his sword at my chest.

I wrenched more Briarthreads out to block, and when they caught his blade, Ikki used the two points where he was grappled to lever himself up into the air and kick at my head.

Until fungi exploded over Ikki's form, draining his physical strength.

I hadn't had a chance to use Funagl Lock against the Abyssal Shambler, since they were made of mushrooms.

But I wasn't a two bit hack. I had made the wrong choice, yes, but I could turn that into an advantage. If he came in close, I could lock him down.

And unleash everything.

Briarthreads whipped at him, five bone shards locked onto his position, and I even mannaged to tear open a small portal to channel blademoss through.

But Ikki had centuries of combat practice. Even reduced to the power of a first gate, he still mannaged to backflip out of the way of the attacks.

Literally.

Backflip.

He leapt into the air, twisting and shedding as many of the mycelial threads as he could, then called his domain weapon to his hand.

I cut off the power to my spell and moved back in slow, deliberate steps. Ikki gave me a feirce grin.

"Good."

We sparred for the remaining half hour, taking a break every five minutes or so, until Ikki vanished.

Once he was done, I cleaned up, then opened the tiny box of dried mushrooms that the fungal folk had given me.

Meadow had confirmed they were safe to eat, so I was only a little wary as I chewed on them.

They tasted surprisingly good. Earthy and pungent, like any dried mushroom, but good. I wouldn't be opposed to having them in an omelet.

The way the power spread through my growing mana-garden was also quite impressive. While the mana apples had been like a crackling lightning that singed away the mists, this was slower, calmer, more deliberately spreading through me.

Within moments, my life and death second gates were expanding, and in my mind's eye, I could see the mists slowly pushing back, retreating.

It may have been slow, but it didn't stop. My mana kept pushing out, and eventually I decided I was too bored to wait for it, and instead stretched, flexed, then began to fall into the second stage of the Depths of Starry Night technique.

By the time the mushroom's power finished, my life and death second gates had expanded massively. I couldn't quite make out the outer walls that would lead to third gate, but they were almost there.

I took a breath, considering. No wonder so many people focused on growing the amount of mana they had, rather than their spellcraft.

Even if the mushrooms had been a top notch supplement – and I wasn't sure they had been, though I doubted it was anywhere near the bottom half either – it was still staggering.

No wonder someone like Ed, who'd focused on mana amount, had so much more mana than I did, even ignoring the power disparity. If all of the things I'd taken to advance my spellcraft had been sent into growing the walls of my mana-garden…

Then again, maybe it was for the best I hadn't. Focusing so hard on spellcraft was part of why I was ahead of the bell curve in terms of overall power. I'd need to go back and work on expanding my raw mana amount eventually, though. It had already started to become an issue.

In the short term, however, I refocused on practicing sketching. I was able to get a lot closer to sketching the full gate spells now, and continued to focus on my spatial and temporal spells – Transport Item and Material Echo especially.

The following morning, I was surprised to see Orykson appear in the living room.

"I'm going to a magical item auction hosted by the same faction that runs the Ghost Market," he announced. "It's primarily for socializing purposes, however there may be some items you would find interesting. I had planned to have you attend, but as you are now Meadow's student, it is just an invitation."

I mentally considered my bank account. I'd built up a decent nest egg by my terms during my training.

Not by rich people terms, sure, but I also had a variety of things I could potentially offer a bit of for trade, like the Soultoad's Seat. That might not fly at a normal, high society auction, but this wasn't that. This was being run by the Ghost Market.

All in all, while I'd never be able to afford any of the truly impressive things there, I may be able to snag an item or potions or something. They may even have Dott's Draught up at auction.

But… That would wipe out my savings, and I'd been building that over the two months I'd been studying under Meadow instead of Orykson. I'd need a big windfall, or a lot of normal work in order to make up for that.