Nar stumbled out the hall following after the other apprentices.

Every inch of his body throbbed in tune with his exhausted heartbeat. Every step was an agony that laced up from the soles of his feet all the way to the back of his head.

After spending the entire afternoon running and doing different forms of exercises, not a single one of them had unlocked the new attribute that the master had talked about.

As night approached and dinner time finally came at around 6PM, they had been finally allowed to stop and guided through a series of excruciating stretching and flexibility exercises.

Like the Master of Aura had warned him, Nar was not in a good shape.

He had moved, or tried his best to, at least, in ways he had never even considered trying before, desperate to mimic the instructor's effortless movements. And when one of the instructors leaned his weight over him to demonstrate to him, and everyone around him, how to properly do a specific exercise, his body had melted into screams of agonies and babbling, disconcerted thoughts, as all reason broke away from the unnatural bend of his muscles, nerves, joints and flesh.

Fortunately, he had managed to keep his mouth shut. There was no complaining in the Blades Halls, and that lesson had been driven home with several examples throughout the day.

“Well done, apprentices,” the master had said, as his parting words. “As I said, [Agility], [Dexterity], [Speed] and [Strength] are crucial for your paths with the blade. And as I also said, you do not yet understand the meaning of what you can truly achieve with them. But you will. Just like you will unlock hflahdsalh before the end of the week. Enjoy your dinner, and if you’re planning on doing anything tonight, focus on your aura training. Your bodies have taken enough for one day.”

Nar couldn’t agree more.

And so, he limped his way to their party room, where they had all promised to meet before heading out for dinner.

He didn’t even know why he was limping, or which leg he was actually favoring. But nothing in his body had been left untouched and unbroken, and nothing was obeying his requests with any semblance of accuracy.

He paused before the lift, queuing and waiting behind a bunch of similarly quiet Blades apprentices.

Nothing about the sword for another two weeks, he thought, with a sigh.

He understood the need for what they were doing. A new attribute, and the proper utilization of their attributes was insanely important. However, he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. He had hoped for at least some headway with his sword learning from his first session in the Blades Hall.

Oh, well… Just need to be patient. What's another two weeks, anyways?

TING!

Eh?

He knew that sound, but it had been a good while since he had last received a notification while awake.

With trepidation mixed in with curiosity, he checked his notifications. As expected, there was a new one waiting for him, just arrived, and whose subject read Meeting with the Keeper of Records - Now.

Meating with who? He thought, as he opened the notification.

Apprentice Nar, you are ordered to present yourself for a meeting with the Keeper of Records, to discuss your current situation and path.

Go there now.

From the faculty of the Scimitar.

The path he had set to his room changed before him, pointing to the left instead of the now open door of the lift, through which apprentices were squeezing into in their desperation to reach dinner.

Current situation and path?

Why did that have to sound so ominous?

With a sigh, Nar pushed his wobbly legs to carry him past the closing door of the lift, and headed towards whatever this meeting was.

After a few corridors, he reached another lift, and was brought down to deck -27.

Uh… That’s not the faculty decks anymore, is it? And that’s the lowest I’ve be…

A by now familiar blink in existence forced him to his knees, gasping and struggling to breath.

Those damned jumps… Nar thought, struggling to stay standing, leaning against the wall of the lift.

It was the fifth such micro-jump he experienced, as the Scimitar carried them towards the gateway into the Labyrinth.

They were bad enough as they were, but after a full day in the Blades Hall, that had been something else.

His sight recovered slowly, revealing that the lift doors were open for him, and he slowly, and taking large, slow and measured breaths, managed to pull himself straight again.

When he stepped out of the lift, still dizzy and trying to piece himself together after the always unexpected micro-jumps, he was surprised by the sudden pressure of a deep silence.

The lights here were a very dim white, as opposed to the usual warm yellow he was used to.

What in the pile?

He took a hesitant step out of the lift and considered the quiet, dark corridors around him. As the lift door closed, it plunged him into even deeper darkness.

With a grimace, Nar did his best to ignore the crawling sensation at the back of his head, and followed after the arrows by his feet.

There were no doors in sight, and each new corridor he walked into showed only blank, dark gray, metallic walls.

Above him and below him, the visible ceiling and floor that he could see through the metal grills were crammed full with wires, except these ones were all a light blue in color.

The air was still and heavy. Numbing almost, and he could swear that he could hear something, just at the very edge of his [Hearing]...

However, even when straining it to the max, whatever that noise was, it never increased in volume or became clearer to him. Only the silence grew more oppressive, and Nar was reminded of the deep, absolute silence of the dark chasm in the B-Nex, and of its strange, white arrows…

With a shudder, he let go of his [Hearing] and quickened the pace as much as he could with his raw, battered legs.

To his relief, after several more corridors, Nar finally found a lonely, brighter white light shining above and to the left of what had to be, unmistakably, a narrow door.

With his heart in his mouth, Nar slowed down until he stopped before it.

After a few seconds of nothing happening, Nar looked closer at the door, and he could’ve sworn that the metal it was made off was moving. Gently shifting under his gaze…

“Name?” a metallic voice asked him, making him jump.

“N-Nar, sir!”

“Ah, the champion! Come on in.”

And with that, the door slid to the right, revealing a short opening framed by thick coamings.

The champion? Nar thought, straining to lift his legs above the raised door frame, while at the same time lowering his head to avoid the lowered door frame above him.

As he did so, he noticed how incredibly thick the door was.

That’s wider than my whole arm! He realized, stunned.

But then, all thoughts of the door's thickness fled his mind, and he paused, mind going blank, when he found himself in a tight corridor, framed by flashing lines of darting white-blue lights, that ran the length of the corridor in different thicknesses and speeds.

Behind him, the door closed, and Nar stared open-mouthed, at the lines flashing by him. Above, below and on both sides of where he stood, he was surrounded by dashing lights.

“Come on over,” the voice said, echoing from somewhere nearby.

Nar licked his dry lips and limped forward, unable to peel his eyes from the lights that surrounded him.

There was no other source of light within that tight corridor, and so, he walked in half shadow and half white-blue dashing lights.

The effect was mesmerizing, and Nar walked as though he was in a dream. Whatever he had expected to find, this was not it.

“Beautiful, isn't it?” the voice asked. “You are staring at an aetheric computer, the very brains and data storage of this aethership. Most of this deck, and the one above and below this one, are dedicated to housing and shielding it.”

“A computer?” Nar repeated, even as the knowledge spread through his brain.

The meaning of “computer” tasted different in his mind. He realized that it was both complete and incomplete.

It was just enough for him to understand what a computer was and did, in so much as him interacting with one, but at the same time, it left him with the distinct sensation that he barely understood the concept of the complex machinery that surrounded him.

“Unfortunately, I must urge you to walk faster,” the voice said. “I’m well behind my schedule, you see? I was supposed to see you in the afternoon.”

“Y-yes, sir. I’m sorry!”

The voice cackled. “Don’t be! It is marvelous to behold and one should be marveled when beholding it!”

Still, Nar urged his legs faster, even as his eyes feasted on the lines of light all around him. Eventually, he reached a T-section in the corridor.

“To the left. Almost there, now.”

Nar followed along, and at the end of the corridor, he found an even narrower door.

Gad would’ve to go sideways, he thought, feeling his shoulders brush against either side of the door, one that was even thicker than the previous one.

Within, he found a small table in a small circular room. And seated on the other side of the table, was a sentient.

It was an old man. Or should he say an ancient sentient?

His skin was rough and wrinkled, and a shade of some kind of deep, deep dark blue. His scalp was pockmarked with purples and blues, with tufts of white hair haphazardly stuck to it, holding on for dear life.

The man had sharp, pointy big ears, and a nose just as pointy and long. When he smiled, he showed several, very sharp and well-kept teeth, in stark contrast to his overall appearance. And while Nar couldn’t fully see what he was wearing, it appeared to Nar to be some kind of faded brown and white robe, with an insignia in the middle of his chest that was so faded, Nar could only tell that something was there.

“Ah, welcome!” the man said in a raspy voice, reaching across the table to give Nar a surprisingly firm handshake. “Have a seat! Have a seat!”

Nar unconsciously rubbed his palm against his pants, still feeling the lingering cold from the man’s touch, and sat down, more heavily than he had intended to, on a chair of cracked dark brown letter and black metal.

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“Ah!” he gasped, when he found the chair below him turning with a soft squeak, and the man chuckled.

“Every time,” he said, almost to himself, and grinned. “Anyways, welcome to Records. Apologies for the military tone of the message, I don’t send those and have long stopped trying to make them write them more informal… Three captains and counting you know? Yet I still can’t write my own damned messages… Anyways, I control what I speak, and here, there is no need for ceremony or formality. Just call me K, alright?”

“Yes, s…”

“No sirs!”

Nar flinched. “Yes, K…”

“Hmm,” the man said with a nod. “Now, have any of your party members told you why you’re here?”

Nar shook his head. “I’m alone at the Blades Hall.”

“Ah, yes, of course! Well, that’s better anyways, so allow me to start at the beginning.”

He waved at the room around him, which consisted of the circular, light tracing metal walls, the two identical chairs they sat on, the small, simple black metal desk, and the screen that took most of its left side.

“This is Records. After the Source, you are looking at the second most expensive thing aboard this ship. Knowledge,” K said, the pride in his voice evident. “Knowledge on what, you might ask? Well, on almost everything. From paths, to affinities and elements, skills, weapons, beasts and monsters, materials and resources as well as all the techniques in which to gather and harvest them. And there is a lot more knowledge on many other things, from maps, to shipping lanes, our inventory, people, ships and so on and on. Alongside the computing power that runs the ship and all its myriad systems, including sensors, engines, aether reactor and aetherbanks, this is where we keep all of that valuable data.”

Nar nodded slowly to himself, staring at the lines of light as though he could gleam some deeper meaning from them. Was that the data?

“And that’s expensive?” he asked, in a muted, awed voice.

“Immensely,” K said, looking around. “And probably the most sought-after thing in the whole of the Nexus, even more so than power and wealth. You’d do well to remember that, and value your own knowledge.”

“Yes, si… K.”

“Hmmm. Anyways, I happen to hold the very important and impressive sounding title of Keeper of Records, but all I am is a collector and researcher, really. I gather data, I organize it, and I make sense of it for anyone who needs it. That includes the Masters and instructors, seeking to understand the potential paths before their apprentices. They want to have an idea of what skills they could learn, what and how much of any attribute they should lean towards, or even what exactly to tell them to do, in order to get the best results out of you are what you do.”

“You can do that?” Nar breathed.

“Oh, yes! To a point, of course, but yes. It’s more than just doable. It’s done on a regular basis,” K explained. “The so-called path guides are one of the most expensive things you can buy on the Nexus. You can pirate them as well, of course, but always doubt the validity of anything you can get for free in the Nexus.”

“And these guides tell you what to do to get the path you want?”

K cackled. “Woah, there! Clean up your drool!”

“Oh… I… Uh?”

K laughed again. “It’s an expression. It means that I could see the hunger in your eyes!”

“Oh,” Nar said, looking away bashfully.

“Don’t worry. Hunger is good!” K said, exposing his sharp, gleaming teeth in a wide grin. “But anyways, yes, to a certain degree, you can buy a path guide to say, the Way of the Exploding White Fist, or the 99 Skills of the Jade Poisoner, or any others like that. The rarer the path is, like weapons, from Common, to Uncommon, Rare, Epic and Legendary, the more valuable the path guide will be. Before you get any ideas though, Legendary paths are mostly in the hands of the Church and the Noble Houses, and they kill to make sure they stay like that.”

Nar nodded, his eyes wide at what he had just learned.

“But! And that’s a big but! It’s not easy to actually stick to doing what you must do for those paths. It's not so simple to trick the System, and bend the you are what you do tenet,” K said, his tone cautioning. “It’s not easy to change who you are either, nor how you act and think. Those who attempt to, the rich, the noble, the holy and the unscrupulous, usually do so from infancy, hoping to shape the very personality and characteristics, and even, some say, the very soul of the young sentients they impinge these guides upon… For most people, these things are mostly means of trying to unlock specific skills, rather than copy entire paths. Does that make sense?”

“I… I think so,” Nar mumbled. “The Master of Blades said something like that…”

“Good,” K said. “Here, and across all the apprentice-ships under Tsurmirel, we don’t use such guides. We use records instead, of past delvers, of skills, of their attributes and actions. I suppose it sounds similar to path guides, but it's different. We look at the whole to extract potential gems of usefulness, rather than forcing apprentices to try and copy someone else’s entire path. And we remain flexible, changing our approaches constantly, as you apprentices grow and build your own paths. Organically, like your master will have told you.”

“So, you will tell me what to do?” Nar asked, confused. “I mean, amongst those possibilities you know of?”

K leaned back and joined his fingertips over his chest.

“We grab the best of the best outcomes, depending on your current skills, path, attributes, affinity, personality, wants and dislikes, and even dreams and fears… And then we add you to the equation. That’s why you are here, Nar, to tell us what you want, so that I can better guide your teachers in giving you the best chances of succeeding.”

Nar frowned. “But then… I mean, you say that you want us to build our own paths, but if you want us to be elites, shouldn’t you just give us the most powerful of all the paths?”

K barked out a laugh. “Good question! Indeed, why not?”

He reached for his screen and quickly drummed with his fingers across it, then he made a sweeping gesture and a screen appeared on the wall. Lines and lines of sentences scrolled by the screen.

The Testimony of the Black Truth, The Blossoming Palm, The Living Fire Devourer, The Time Shifters Paradox, To Shape is to Create… And so on and on, the sentences read.

“These are all paths?” Nar asked, blanching.

“Why, yes. When we told you there were infinite paths, did you doubt us?” K asked, staring at the scrolling path names. “And who amongst us is to say these are the most powerful paths? These just happen to be the paths of the current Named Few. At least, the 2.7 million or so that we paid to know off. And they aren’t guides of course, just bits and pieces of information that we’ve managed to obtain. Other than the System, eventually the Offices of Registered Paths, me, the faculty, and whoever you tell it to, nobody knows the full extent of your path in the Nexus.”

“And these are all Named Few paths?” Nar asked, his tone hushed.

“A fraction of the current ones,” K said. “But yes. And they are so varied, Nar, that you cannot find any true correlation between them all. There’s nothing that we can use to sift through them and say, aha! Path so and so has y and z, and therefore, it’s part of the most powerful paths!”

K shook his head.

“No, there is no such thing. Fire or ice, life or death, light or shadow, lightning, sand, blood, poison, sword or bow, dagger or spear, aether or aura… In the end, it matters not. Every path is very good and good at something, and very bad and bad at something else, being average at whatever lies in between. This is the law of paths. You build your path, and you learn to use it in all circumstances. No path stands atop another.”

“But wouldn’t these be the best?” Nar asked, unable, unwilling, to take his eyes off the scrolling list.

“It’s not the path, it’s the sentient,” K said, and the screen disappeared, taking away the precious names with it. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. A path is only powerful because of the one who built it in the first place. Do you know of the God of Lightning? The Master of Aura likes to rile up you new apprentices with him.”

Nar nodded, his heart speeding up.

“He laid out the Path of the Black and Gold Lightning,” K continued. “And of course, many in his house attempted to follow in his footsteps. He gave them all the knowledge they needed, answered every question they wanted. The only Unique Path Guide in existence was thus created, never to leave the safety of the great vaults of House Fulminus. And you know what? Following that same path, no one has ever become a Unique Title holder again! And across nearly one hundred thousand years, only three people ever attained Named Few statuses by following that exact same path! If the Path of the Black and Gold Lightning is so powerful, shouldn’t there have been many, many more Named Few at the very least? At least another Unique Title holder too?”

“Yes…” Nar whispered. “But there weren’t.”

“But there weren’t,” K said, leaning forward and smiling. “It is the builder, not the path. And thus, and why I’m so far behind schedule, this finally leads us to you, Nar. [Champion Aspirant], a path I’ve never heard of before. It seems to be heavily stepped in your aura as well as being a hybrid DPS/tank role, even though you had thought it to be a tank/DPS class from what I’ve been told. So now, tell me. How did that come about, will you?”

Nar nodded along K’s words, but inside, he couldn’t help but be distracted by something he had said.

“You’ve never heard of it?” Nar asked him.

K shook his head. “We have many records, but they are not absolute, unfortunately. Not in any way. I did say there were infinite paths out there, did I not?”

Nar nodded. “So, you don’t know what a champion is?”

“No. Afraid not. Aspirant is easy enough,” K said. “It's one that aspires to be something, therefore, your path is one of someone that aspires to be a champion, whatever that may be.”

“Oh… I see,” Nar said, looking down at his hands.

“However, I’m always curating new data, and I’ll make sure to look for anything pertaining to your path,” K said. “So don’t lose hope! Instead, tell me how you build this path, if you would? That will help tremendously!”

“Yes. Of course.”

And so, Nar told him almost everything.

From his dad, to the Crystal, to the trouble he faced in his Climb. He told K about the auramancer path change and his issues becoming one, though he didn’t mention his Unclean past, just that he had worked longer shifts than usual to make up the quota, a believable enough story, he thought.

Nar also told him, in broad strikes, what had transpired at the very end of the Climb, when his class had changed once more to become the [Champion Aspirant 1].

Through it all, K remained quiet, listening intently to Nar’s every word.

“I see… I see…,” he muttered to himself, when Nar was done. “That paints quite the picture, of who you are, and what you want, both of your path, and in regards to your dad. However, I’m missing one important piece in this puzzle… What first inspired you to go for a hybrid class? And yes, I am aware of the icons that adorn your cubeplants chapels. Was it one of those that gave you the idea?”

Nar blushed.

“Nothing to be embarrassed about,” K said, chuckling. “There’s nothing like learning from example, and it’s a common enough story amongst Ex-Climbers. But I need to know which particular Named Few you took inspiration from. If I have them on record, then happy days for us! If not, I will look it up and endeavor to find anything that might help us decipher what this “champion” path of yours is.”

“You think they might have been champions?” Nar asked, frowning.

“Potentially. And did you just say “they”? It was more than one?”

Nar nodded. “There were two examples… Two Named Few.”

“Go on,” K said, readying his fingers over the screen.

“Well, the tanking part comes from Romilt Ghroumvar, the Insurmountable Mountain of Thorns.”

K blinked at Nar and his fingers lowered back to the table.

“Romilt? Now there’s a name I haven't heard mentioned a lot, nor in a long time either,” K said, drumming his fingers on the table's non-reflective surface. “The thorns, is it? Was that what attracted you to him?”

“Uhm… The armor. I’m not really into the thorns,” Nar said, feeling like he sounded like an idiot. “Though I suppose that they would be very useful, of course! What I wanted was to be able to tank so I could return by myself to get my dad, and Romilt looked like he could tank through anything…”

“Of course…” K said, as though lost in thought. “Romilt Ghroumvar. He was powerful… Terrible even, with those thorns of his… He was the best tank within the first twenty thousand years of this era. No one has inherited his title, even after nearly fifty thousand years since his death.”

“Fifty thousand?” Nar asked, stunned. “He’s dead…”

“Yes… But we should have some of his stuff on record, from what I can remember. I’ll have to look… And the second icon?” K asked, ignoring Nar’s shock.

“Oh, yes…”

Nar squirmed on the chair, feeling the sting and protests of his abused body at the movement.

“She has the same name as me… Nar, Who Is…”

“One With The Wind,” K said, in a breath.

“You know her too?” Nar asked, leaning forward and ignoring the pain. “Is-Is she also dead?”

“What?” K asked, his turn to be stunned. Then, he burst out laughing. “I’m sure many people would want that, no doubts there! But that woman is pretty much alive, and convincing no one but herself that she’s retired! And what’s more, she was Tsurmirel! That means we’ll have everything on her up until she went independent.”

Nar’s mouth articulated words, but spoke none. It was too much! Nar was alive, and not only that, but she had been a part of the very same guild he now found himself apprenticed to? What were the odds of that?

“Don’t look so surprised,” K said, smiling. “Tsurmirel is the highest ranked guild using auramancers, and we recruit heavily amongst the Ex-Climbers. For eras now, we’ve maintained the majority of the Named Few auramancers in the Nexus.”

Nar’s alive… And she’s Tsurmirel? I mean, was? And she really was an Ex-Climber! She’s an auramancer like me!

Her wind was not aether, but her affinity!

It was amazing. It was insane! But what did that mean to him?

“Does that mean that her path is something I could follow?” he asked. “Or-Or learn from?”

“Follow, no. Like I told you, we don’t follow guides or copy paths… That being said, we do have a lot of information on her,” K said. “I’ll have to check what we have on Romilt though, before I divulge anything…”

“I want something that’s a mix of both!” Nar said, barely able to contain his excitement. “That’s what I was going for! It-It doesn’t have to be thorns, or wind or anything! I just want to be able to tank and deal damage. Properly, I mean. Like a Named Few. Strong and…”

“Capable of holding your own, surviving and destroying at the same time,” K said, nodding to himself.

“Yes… Is that-is that possible?” Nar asked. “I know that hybrid paths are usually… Not great.”

“Hmm, and you’re right! But you are also wrong in your understanding of what hybrids are,” K said. “But I need to think before I tell you more. We can’t actually tell you what results we’re aiming for, or it might cause irreparable damage to your path and cause us to end with something else entirely! You will need to stay in the dark on this, Nar, while trusting us that we know what you want, and that we are aiming to give you the best of the very best.”

Nar held his breath for a moment.

Could he really trust them to deliver on what he wanted? To act with his best interest in mind? They were spending a lot of experience and time on him, surely, they would want to see a real return on that.

From reading the contract, Nar knew that Tsurmirel could potentially offer him a formal position in the guild, if he was deemed good enough, and that for 5 years after his apprenticeship was done, Nar couldn’t accept any offers from any other guilds, in effectively locking him in with Tsurmirel.

He didn’t yet know how it was going to go down that he needed time to go get his dad, but if the guild agreed to it, he was ready to sign away his whole life to them if need be.

And that was really it, wasn’t it? He had stepped into the Nexus, and it had proved far bigger and more confusing than he had expected. Alone, he would never make it to his dad, much less survive in the first place. He had no other choice but to trust Tsurmirel now, and hope that he wouldn’t come to regret it.

He took a deep breath.

Whatever happens, happens. As long as they make me strong, and they allow me to save my dad, that’s all that matters.

And he had no doubts that Tsurmirel would do its utmost to achieve his full potential, in the name of its own guild interests…

“Okay. I’ll trust you,” Nar said.

“Good! Good…” K said, scratching his head. “Still, it’s interesting. Romilt and Nar couldn’t have been more different. And yet… And yet…”

He scratched his chin, and then, with a startle, seemed to realize that Nar was still there, sitting in front of him.

“Oh! Sorry!” he said. “Old brains tend to do that… Anyways, I’ve gotten everything I need for now, and from now on, the faculty will be guiding you fully. Continue doing as you are, and you will know more by the end of next week.”

And he rose to shake Nar’s hand again.

“I won’t see you again?” Nar asked, with a touch of genuine sadness. The man had been interesting to talk to, to say the least.

K smiled. “Maybe, maybe not. Alas, it is the way it is. But it was a pleasure meeting you Nar. I will follow your path with great interest.”

“Oh… Uhm, thank you! For everything.”

“You’re welcome,” K said, and the door behind Nar slid open. He hadn’t even noticed it closing.

Knowing he was being dismissed, Nar turned to leave.

Yet, as the door was closing one more, silently and smoothly despite its thickness and weight, he heard K’s voice from within one last time.

“Oh, and Nar? You better be ready for what's coming. And remember, you asked for this. We didn’t suggest nor force you into it. It was all your own choice…”

And Nar was left alone in the corridor of streaking lights, feeling a shiver setting every hair on his body to standing.

He had left out the parts where the Crystal had warned him about the dangers of his path, fearing that K would try to dissuade him off it. But K’s warning was a chilling echo of that of the Crystal’s Itself.

BUT REMEMBER THIS, NAR, IN THE THINGS YET TO COME. THIS IS NOT A REWARD, AND YOU WERE THE ONE WHO MADE THIS CHOICE.

For a moment, rather than a path before him, he felt as though he was staring down at a deep and impenetrably dark abyss, feeling as though he was about to take a plunge into the unknown, not knowing what he would find down there, or if he would ever make it. Or return from it.

Just what kind of path was he trying to build?