Seconds ticked by. Alex went over the skills several times, trying to make sure he didn’t miss anything from their descriptions. Two of the options were directly related to improving his monsters, while the third was more of an active ability that would be useful in a fight.

Purely based off his goals for the ability, Alex dismissed Fusion on the spot. What he needed now wasn’t short term power boosts but something that would let Glint and his other monsters continue to scale.

Fortunately, he was at no shortage for that. Both Elemental Affinity and Harmonious Evolution were very promising looking growth-based skills. Alex was predisposed toward Harmonious Evolution off the bat, but he didn’t let himself make a choice too quickly.

Elemental Affinity seemed like the safer of the two options. It would give his monsters a direct boost in strength related to the element they got. Simple and straightforward. Fire burned things. Air cut things. Water… watered things. He wasn’t really sure what water would do to a monster.

Either way, it was direct. It wasn’t going to turn around and blow up in his face. He wasn’t so sure the other could be said for Harmonious Evolution.

The third and final skill offered in the list promised a way to combine and evolve monsters, but it came at the risk of potentially making something that was completely useless if he combined the wrong monsters.

Alex drummed his fingers against his leg as he thought over his options. But, in the end, it proved to be a largely pointless exercise. He blew out a short breath and shook his head. His decision had already been made some time ago.

I’ve never been one not to take a bet, and Harmonious Evolution might as well be calling my name. It’s not even an actual gamble. I just need to make sure I’m intentional with the monsters I combine. As long as I am, I shouldn’t end up with a result that’s just objectively worse than the two original ones.

“I choose Harmonious Evolution,” Alex said with a grin.

The surface of the mantle had already changed by the time he’d started to speak. At the very instant his mind had been completely made up, black lines pulled back and retreated into the blue gemstone. The marble fell inert in wait for another command.

A shiver ran down Alex’s back as he felt the magic settle within himself. His heart thumped in his chest like a racing horse. He was pretty sure the amount of adrenaline and excitement he’d gone through in the past few days was enough to kill a small animal.

He swallowed and shook his arms out. He still had 5 Units left, which meant he had at least one more ability he could upgrade. Alex took a quick glance at his entire status screen.

Alex Vaya [Human]

Class: Evoker [Mirrorlands]

Stage: Initiate 1

Title Fragments:

[Top Ranker]

[Lone]

Active Titles:

[Unbound Mirrorlander]

[Unmaker]

[Anomaly]

[3/5]

Inactive Titles:

Soul Manifestation:

[Spatial Mirrors] (Initiate 1)

Auxiliary Skills:

[Requiem to the King] (Novice 2)

[Monster Medley] (Novice 4)

[Riftwalk] (Novice 4)

Riftwalk and Monster Medley were both at Novice 4, so they would need 4 points. He could also upgrade Requiem to the King a third time— or he could choose not to use the points at all and save them for later.

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A frown crawled across his face. Alex drummed his fingers on the smooth white marble that made up the rim of the huge basin in the center of his soul. His eyes flicked around the dark lake that surrounded him, running over the pillars and staring into what seemed to be the infinite shadow beyond.

“I can’t stand around here forever,” Alex muttered to himself. “I want to see what I can do after all these power boosts. I need to make decisions, so I’ll start by removing options. I can forget holding off on using the points. Sure, that would increase the challenge with weaker monsters… but at this point, why wouldn’t I just seek out stronger monsters instead? I don’t have to restrict myself anymore. My hunting grounds aren’t the real world. They’re the Mirrorlands, and pretty much everything there is stupidly powerful. Why would I screw myself out of a good fight?”

That was decided, then. He’d use the points.

The only question remaining was where he’d use them.

Unfortunately, that was a bit harder to answer. Riftwalk promised utility and the ability to fight while his monsters still lived. Monster Medley let him make his monsters stronger, and Requiem let him use them more.

If it had been a decision in a vacuum, Alex feared he might have been sitting around and debating for the next ten minutes. But there was one small thing that his mind latched onto. Perhaps it was only a way to give himself a way to actually take a step forward, but his thoughts caught back on the most mysterious reward he’d gotten upon reaching the Initiate Stage.

Riftwarped Domain Qi.

He still didn’t know what it did, but it did have Rift in the name.

Of course, that wasn’t really the best basis for making decisions. Alex didn’t particularly care. It wasn’t like he was going to lose access to a skill by picking a different one first. It was just the next thing he got access to.

Considering he’d already leveled his other two abilities, it felt like a fairly safe bet. Thus far, every one of his abilities had been pretty powerful, and it would be nice to make sure he could still fight while his monsters were alive. Having them kill themselves constantly was honestly just a bit rude.

With that all in mind, Alex selected Riftwalk.

(4 Units) Mirror Image: Warp the space around you with rift energy, causing images of yourself to appear. The images will copy your motions perfectly unless otherwise directed. The number of images scale with the amount of magical energy spent. Images will disappear when they are hit by any form of attack.

(4 Units) Spatial Screech: Use rift energy to rip a small partial portal into the air, releasing a loud, ear-splitting noise that will disorientate anyone in a nearby vicinity.

(4 Units) Rift Break: Gather rift energy in the air before you and release it in a concussive blast. A portion of any magical energy caught in the zone of Rift Break will be consumed, causing the blast’s radius to increase. The size of the detonation scales with the amount of magical energy spent and consumes energy the larger it grows.

You’re kidding me. How busted is Riftwalk? I mean, all of my skills kind of seem completely unbalanced, but these are some really good options.

Alex read over everything for a minute. He had an interesting dilemma this time around. All three of the abilities were quite promising, and he wasn’t certain any of them was objectively better than the others.

Rift Break definitely seemed strong, but there was nothing in the skill that said anything about stopping it. If it consumed magical energy that was caught within its radius, it could easily hit Alex as well as his target — and it could end up completely draining him in the process of going off if it grew enough. It could end up consuming all his power and leaving him with nothing. The ability sounded cool, but it could end up being a trap.

My real power is my monsters. This is going in the wrong direction. It doesn’t help them. If anything, it might end up killing them.

Spatial Screech was something between utility and offense. It looked like it would be most useful for catching enemies off guard, but it said nothing about preventing himself or his allies from getting their own eardrums destroyed. That could be handled with earplugs, but he couldn’t exactly give his monsters earplugs.

And finally, Mirror Image was another utility skill, but it gave him a ton of extra survivability. Even if the images vanished after getting hit, they would buy him precious seconds in a fight. Being able to control them also came with a lot of potential uses.

Mirror Image seems like it would be able to synergize with any other abilities I have. I can conceal where attacks are coming from and keep myself alive for longer while my monsters still alive. It’s just too versatile to pass over, and it’ll be useful long in the future while I can definitely get other offense skills at some point.

Alex made his final decision of the day and chose Mirror Image. The surface of the basin’s mantle adjusted to his choice, then faded away. Blowing out a long breath, Alex rocked back on his heels.

He still had 1 unit left over, which would have to wait until he next meditated and got some extra power to work with.

Alex nodded to himself, satisfied with how things had played out.

He couldn’t wait any longer.

It was time to go back to the real world, where Claire was waiting. Alex needed her to get started with her meditation as soon as possible. Because, when she was done, they were going straight back to the Mirrorlands.

Alex let himself slip out of his Mind Palace. His eyes re-opened in Room 221 and he blinked awake.

Claire sat on the other end of the bed, her eyelids half-shut, but still awake and watching the door. Her sword’s tip bit into the ground and she leaned on its hilt for support. Her eyes flicked to Alex as he moved.

“Done? Did it go well?”

“More than,” Alex replied with a shit-eating grin. A quick glance out the window showed that it was still deep in the night. The unnaturally bright light from the previous day had faded, and the enormous stars had shrunk down to a slightly larger than normal size. “Sorry for taking so long. I’ll take over watch while you meditate.”

Claire was too tired to respond. She just gave him a curt nod and let her eyes drift shut. Alex watched her for a moment, then reached down to the deck at his side. He pulled three cards from within it.

One was empty, but the other two had monsters waiting patiently within them.

He might have finished his own advancements, but now it was Glint and Spark’s turn.

I can’t wait to see just how strong this will make them.