Now that I knew what everyone had as their final ‘setup,’ I started my final session with the bed. I had 6,335.09 Achievement, and I was pretty comfortable spending down to about 200 if needed.

This time, I focused on the ‘Hints’ button in the bed’s menu.

Hints - Have the bed scan your Keyword Abilities to give you hints on the ‘best’ paths forward for that skill. Many members of the Market evolve their abilities practically at random, taking whatever improvements are offered - but that is almost never the ‘best’ path forward. Especially if you travel with a team. If that’s the case, having each member evolve their abilities towards certain specializations is usually much better. Tell our artificial intelligence the path forward that YOU want, and the AI will help you design an optimized path of progression to fit your needs! This also comes with a bunch of information on how to make ability evolutions easier and more effective, and can even provide information on what law an Ability is closest to. This is critical for those seeking to push an ability from Master Grade to Heroic Grade and leave the nursery.

Cost - 100 Achievement for consultation with an AI. 500 Achievement for further consultation with a specialist. 1,000 Achievement for hints on entering Heroic Grade. Some better specialists may be requested for a higher cost (See pricing options by focusing on this option)

A moment later, 100 Achievement disappeared, leaving me with 6,235. I grimaced as a slight feeling of loss gnawed at my mind, but a moment later, a new System message appeared, distracting me.

What Ability would you like to get hints about Evolving?

A new menu appeared, with a list of my Keyword Abilities. There were only three listed. {Echoes of the Deep}, {Eldritch Soul}, and {Endless Hunger of the Ocean}. I thought about it for a moment. Did I want advice for all three Abilities? I had originally only planned to get advice about {Echoes of the Deep}. I hesitated, before I decided to wait and see. I would first check how useful these 'hints' were, and then go from there.

I selected {Echoes of the Deep}. A new series of questions appeared. This time, they appeared almost like an essay-response test question. They asked me about what I wanted my Ability to look like in the future. It also asked me how many people I was reincarnating with, what they excelled at, and what they planned to do with their own abilities. I frowned. The form was way more in-depth than I had expected. That wasn't a bad thing, though. It meant that the AI was designed to take my question seriously.

I filled out the form before a new popup appeared. This time, it didn’t ask me what I wanted my Ability to be - it provided a lot of more in-depth questions about my Ability. What issues I had run into in previous worlds. How I earned Achievement in each life so far. Whether I tended to fight a lot when I reincarnated, and whether I tended to fight monsters or humans. There were two dozen questions that went into exhaustive detail about my experiences with my Ability.

The questions made me think about what I was looking for. I loved a lot of aspects of {Echoes of the Deep}, but it also had some major weaknesses I wanted to cover.

I had thought for a while that the ‘best’ path forward for me was to focus on Souls. They were a big part of what I felt was missing from the Ability. Right now, I couldn’t heal any soul-related injuries, and I barely understood how souls worked in the first place. I also felt that souls were important for our development. The Market itself was based on souls, and although I hated some parts of the Market, I also admired some parts of it. The level of strength and freedom Market residents had previously enjoyed seemed amazing to me. Even though I didn't want to turn into a soulless monster who eradicated world after world, I wanted my friends to enjoy safety and freedom. The Market had achieved that, before it was destroyed. If I wanted to keep my friends safe, learning about Souls was critical to achieving the same level of freedom the previous Market had.

However, after the bed's AI spent a few minutes processing my request, it didn't recommend that I study souls, much to my surprise. It offered a suggestion for how I could get my Ability to evolve to focus on souls, but that wasn't all it suggested.

Hints - ‘Optimal’ paths for your Ability evolution:

There are a few ways that you could develop the Ability {Echoes of the Deep} in order to fit your desired role in your group and fill out your needs. First, as you initially mentioned, yo ucould focus on a soul-related Evolution. This would solve many of your weaknesses.

To get a soul-related Ability evolution, you should try using your ‘Shaping’ magic to create a substance that can interact with souls. Essence itself is not very good at interacting with souls, but Achievement is essentially a form of food and nutrition for souls. It is practically a custom-build substance for interacting with the soul. By mixing the two together, you can create a substance that interferes with souls.

The AI also recommends a different path. That is, instead of focusing on souls, the user could focus on the Eldritch. Eldritch Keywords are harder to acquire, but your other Ability, {Eldritch Evolution}, would make this much easier. You already have a ‘foot in the door,’ so to speak. The Eldritch is an Ability evolution path that combines madness, souls, space, and several aspects of dimensional terraforming. It is exceptionally potent… and more importantly, it also makes you exceptionally hireable! Many companies in the Market would love to hire a competent Eldritch user! Eldritch users are one of the most critical ingredients needed to make and maintain a ‘Garden’ world, and they have a variety of other Abilities that are just incredibly useful! With a good Eldritch keyword Ability, many companies will offer you a massive salary if you ask for a job! It also fits your needs perfectly!

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I frowned. The bed had provided more than I had expected. One was a direct pathway to my goal, which was what I had expected. The bed AI's other suggestion was... interesting. Was focusing on the Eldritch actually a better path? The AI had mentioned that companies were always looking to hire good Eldritch users, and that was no longer relevant. The bed's AI might be recommending the Eldritch path due to the interests of a long-dead company, rather than my own well-being. However, it did seem to have a compelling argument that the Eldritch path was a good one. In addition, I was interested in pathways that had 'more potential.' Since keyword Abilities were so important, and so limited, I wanted to get as much as I could out of each one.

There was, however, a problem. I didn't understand how I 'should' get started on either path.

"Umm... bed AI, would you go into greater detail about how I could start working on either recommendation? I would like a list of possible steps for how to get what I want. How would I even extract Achievement from my soul without help from something like a cash register from the Market?" I asked. I was a bit worried that the AI wasn't going to give me any more detail, but luckily, I got a response.

Hints - Responding to user question.

In order to extract Achievement from your soul directly, without the help of an intermediary, you should focus on mana.

All four essences are derived from mana. They are like tools that allow you to interact with mana. However, they are not mana. The Soul is made of mana, and Achievement is also, in some sense, made of mana.

Mana is everywhere in the multiverse - in fact, every single law of reality, such as ‘gravity,’ and 'electricity,' is made of mana. It is the raw foundation of the entire Multiverse. Similarly, once mana comes into contact with a certain kind of ‘idea,’ such as ‘swordsmanship,’ it tends to become 'flavored' by that concept. This mana then flows back into the greater Multiverse. Once mana has a certain ‘flavor,’ it is drawn to other, similarly-flavored mana. This is why it’s possible to absorb a bit of mana when doing something like practicing your swordsmanship. Similarly, when something 'changes' a world, it interacts with laws related to 'change'. This is where Influence Achievement comes from.

The Market then takes this form of mana and converts all of it into Achievement, which does not decay the way most 'flavored' mana does. Without this step, most Market Achievement would simply disappear over time, which would be disastrous for the economy.

By understanding the true nature of Achievement, you can start to see how you might extract it from the soul. Pushing Achievement directly out of the soul is very difficult... but it's possible if you have something that 'pulls' the Achievement away.

To pull Achievement out of your soul, you should constantly do something related to a certain concept. Then, when you connect with that concept, try to siphon away some mana before the Market converts it to Achievement. This would be easiest to accomplish when you do something simple, like push [Swordsmanship] or [Knitting] to basic grade. Then, you will need to store this mana somewhere. The easiest way to store mana is to use some sort of spatial or conceptual container. There are hundreds of items and Abilities in the Market that can do this. Then, use this blob of mana to accomplish something. If you have a glob of Swordsmanship-related mana, you could try enchanting a sword with it, or using it to attack someone. So long as you accomplish something that 'changes' a world in a notable way, you should get an Ability evolution.

After reading the AI’s explanation, I grinned.

This was… this was amazing. This was everything I had been hoping for, and then far more. It gave me valuable insight into how Achievement worked, and how a lot of the Market operated. It was like a crash course on the underlying principles of... well, everything in the Market. It also gave me a path to learn soul manipulation.

“What about gaining some control over the Eldritch?” I asked the bed. “Why do you recommend that?”

To my disappointment, the explanation this time was much less detailed.

Hints - Responding to User Question

The most effective way to get access to an Eldritch keyword is to terraform a dimension. The Eldritch is, inherently, a method of warping reality to fit itself. This can be in a minor way, such as twisting and bending the distance between two objects. It can also be in a more major way, such as directly changing how solid objects hold themselves together, thus breaking all physical objects.

It is worth noting that you do not need to terraform an entire dimension to make this a ‘success.’ You only need to terraform something, and then accomplish something with it. AI recommendation is to create a lethal environment, then kick a powerful monster or influential person inside.

It is recommended that you dimensionally isolate the space you intend to terraform. Otherwise, the dimension will drift back towards its regular state of existence. Permanent modification of a dimension requires hitting a certain critical mass of transformation. You have no plausible way to hit that state given your current strength.

A few moments later, the System screen closed. It was apparently done giving me tips. I was more than happy with my purchase. I debated spending another 100 Achievement to get hints on my other Abilities… but I wasn’t sure if I needed them. When it came to my 'main' magic System, I wanted a clear direction to go in. Something that would maximize the potential of each Evolution. However, my other two Abilities were mostly a method of supporting my main Ability. They didn't need to be 'optimized.' Instead, it might make more sense to let them organically grow to fit my needs. That way, I would never have a build filled with Abilities that didn't work together. If my intended 'organic growth' didn't work, I could use the bed's hints next time we returned to the Market.

Thus, with the 'Hints' settled, I turned my attention towards the final thing I wanted.

A few new Spatial abilities. It was time to finish messing with my Abilities, and then finish shopping with the Skill bed.