Overall, the summoning classes were a great success, and he obtained more than enough contribution points to get both skill points and a healthy collection of measuring orbs for the clan; he also picked up an arcane puzzle cube, which improved his insights and affinity with magic as the puzzles got harder and harder. Overall, Alistair spent roughly a week mostly teaching different classes and copying books from the Nurturing Ward's library, practicing and experimenting with new skills, and looking for dungeons.

He ended up finding one at the 3rd gate address, which mostly turned out to be a dud as he had not found another hub within it. The dungeon itself turned out to be a hunting scenario where he had to hunt down a colorful flying lizard in an even more colorful jungle environment. Even with his Conceptual Awareness skill, the hunt had been unpleasant, as the bright colors quickly became irritating, and the whole hunt felt like something he would expect out of a drug addict's wildest fever dream. Alistair's Conceptual Awareness skill improved during that hunt as he wanted to find the creature's weak point. He had gotten an offer to upgrade the skill as it absorbed his Combat Instinct skill, which he had initially saved up but now decided was a worthwhile sacrifice to improve his primary perception skill, and he was very satisfied with the result.

Skills: Tier: Name: Description: [Supreme] Conceptual Awareness The user automatically detects magic and concepts at a wide range around him, increasing awareness of any changes and movements, especially from non-ambient concepts, by scaling [Senses] to a moderate degree at the cost of a slight amount of focus. The user may also actively scan his surroundings at the cost of additional focus and [Qi] or [MP], scaling on the user's [Senses] but at high efficiency, vastly increasing detection range and sensitivity. This visually highlights concepts of interest based on the user's intent. The user may access the [Akashic Link] skill for information on the targets if possible. The user's [Senses] are passively sharpened by a moderate degree, and the hand-eye coordination of the [Control] stat is also moderately improved. The skill also intuitively informs the user of known weak points of opponents based on the user's knowledge. The User can share this knowledge by visually highlighting the areas when displayed over the Akashic Link. [Supreme]

Akashic Link

Empowers the user to effortlessly compile reports of memories, thoughts, audio & visual observations, and emotions directly into the soul, accessing them within and without the soulscape. Rooted in the concept of Akashic Records & Karma, the user's Soul protects these reports and all other memories. This skill allows the user to connect to any accessible network. The user can display any memories & reports to others locally or transmit and share them over a sufficiently strong karmic connection over any distance. The user can also extend the information stored by the Akashic Link skill to support his other skills.

[Rare]

Summoner

The user's ability to find and connect to a suitable shard of the [Summoner's Planes] in order to store contracted summons within is improved. Overall [MP] cost scales with the level and tier of the summon/s and the summoner's Grade and summoning affinity. The summoner's maintenance cost is moderately reduced. The cost of the initial summoning and dismissing a summon is vastly reduced. Slight increase in maintenance cost for each additional summon currently active.

Improved awareness of any summons status allows for communication over a longer distance through the [Akashic Link] skill. The skill buffs all the summons' stats, scaling off the Summoner's stat total as the connection between the user and the summoner is enhanced.

Alistair now intuitively knew where to strike his opponents and could also visually highlight areas and share the visual over his Akashic Link if he wanted to. He had heard from his brother that there were optical and networking implants that did something very similar, but James had not managed to get his hands on one of those implants yet. Alistair had been almost disappointed that the skill had not upgraded to legendary once he figured out that he could visually share the features over the Akashic Link. The skills description had adjusted itself with every small improvement he made, but the tier stayed the same. However, at least his Akashic Link skill had been upgraded after many small changes and the constant accumulation of knowledge from the Nurturing Ward's library.

Since Alistair now had some skill points to spend, he picked up the Summoning skill, which automatically triggered a notification for a skill evolution, which predictably consumed the Summoners Link skill. The skill mostly reduced some of the costs, provided buffs, and let Alistair communicate with summons through the Akashic Link, even if the summon did not possess the skill. The ability to see his summons status was of particular value to him, especially once King and other potential summons were capable and willing to share more details about their status. Alistair decided he would save the other skill points in case he felt like developing a new skill over his existing ones.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He was particularly glad about the improved coordination the new skill allowed as it helped greatly to catch the damn colorful lizard with King's and Dexter's help. He had called Nessyra and described the creature to Dexter. After learning it was a Qealmite, Dexter had let him know that the creature had a central nervous system at the root of its tail that would paralyze it if attacked. It was an unusually strong weakness for a creature of Grade 9. However, it was still a lot easier to target than its brain, as the Quealmite had a rather small head and short snake-like neck that was very flexible. Overall, it was not a strong creature, but it was heavily camouflaged and blended into its environment; it was also very fast and could turn ethereal for short periods of time. So it had taken Alistair a bit over a day to capture the creature once King managed to cut off its escape path after it had used up its ethereal skill.

Unfortunately, the rewards had been rather mediocre. In addition to the creature's body and upgrade to his dungeoneer title, he had only received a small stat boost as the other rewards were more material, and his Clan could provide much the same, and most likely better, stuff. Once he had finished, he returned to Nessyra's office as she wanted to catch him up on their progress with the spaceship and asked him for some input.

"By the way, where is Dexter? Also, did we come up with a name for our spaceship?" Alistair inquired curiously.

"Dexter is helping your mother hunt at the moment. And no, we have not decided on a name yet. You're usually the one who comes up with the good ones," Nessyra informed him.

"And my brother has not made any suggestions? He is also quite good at naming things," Alistair responded.

He scratched his beard in contemplation and could not help but glance at Nessyra's neck, noticing that she had taken off the choker that had been a fixture since he had first met her. He had known what the choker meant ever since checking the Neshan sub-section for the first time and had wondered if she was hesitant to let go of what came before or mourned. She was an expert in hiding her emotions, and even with his senses as sharp as they were, he had never been able to get a solid read on her, and it had only become more difficult as time progressed. She noticed his gaze and let out a sigh before pulling up a bottle and two glasses from her storage.

"I think it's time I tell you about it," she said softly as she filled the glasses and pushed one over to him.

Alistair nodded and took the glass, initiating a small toast before realizing she likely did not really know what that was. But to his surprise, she reached out, and their glasses made a small clinking sound as they each took a sip of the amber-colored liquid. It tasted like cognac. Its flavor was quite complex, with a bit of oak caramel and fruit that was clearly not from Earth and was hard to describe. He inspected the glass appreciatively before placing it down.

Nessyra looked at her glass with a sad expression on her face. Alistair gave her some time to collect herself. He knew almost everyone had lost people they cherished. Of the people he knew, his aunt was the one hit the hardest; she was currently in denial, as her children and husband were still missing. She insisted they had simply not reached one of the subspaces, hoping they would suddenly appear one day, and kept herself occupied by burying herself in work. It was heartbreaking to watch. Alistair, who could search his karmic connections, knew better. Based on what he now knew, most of his cousins, grandfather, and other aunts and uncles were all dead. He felt hollow thinking about it, and adjusting to the fact had taken him some time, but he had known for months. They had made plans to create a memorial once things had calmed down, but it was of little solace, particularly to Isabella. Part of him worried she would stay on Earth to seek them out; and there was little they could do if she chose that path. His mother was trying to talk to her sister, but it had proven to be a fruitless endeavor so far.

They had also gotten in contact with the other survivors of his friends and family, but none of them were interested in joining their clan or leaving the planet as they had their own plans and obligations. The strangest one of his best friends, Remo, because he was still alive but had somehow not reached any of the sub-spaces. It wasn't completely unheard of, as apparently some of the hubs were impossibly hidden, and not every dungeon granted access to the subspaces, particularly if the performance rating was low. He was drawn out of his musings as she spoke up.

"As Zaltom was so kind to point out, I had been in a political marriage before," she began, her voice tinged with a mix of reminiscence and bitterness. "His name was Kycius. Of course, neither of us was really part of the respective family, and we were mostly used as a token of goodwill." She said quietly as she took a sip from her glass.

She paused, looking at the glass, before continuing. "I wanted to refuse. But the rest of the family would have blacklisted and ousted me from everything I had worked so hard to achieve." Her face contorted in rage. "My exit plan wasn't ready; I was stuck. It was either this or leave the city and start from scratch with my savings or rather what would have been left of it after buying a new identity,"

Alistair took a big swig. He had never seen her this emotionally vulnerable before. She did not mask her anger and emotions like she usually did, and he felt angry on her behalf. Part of him wanted to ask questions, but he knew the best thing he could do was listen; it was a lesson he had learned long ago. Coming up with suggestions or asking questions would be a fool's errand and wouldn't change a damn thing, so he silently empathized.

"Then I met him," her voice softened as she reminisced. "both of us chafed under the expectations and demands made of us, and neither was happy with the situation we found ourselves in,"

Her voice grew more fragile as she continued. "We ended up connecting over this, and over time, it became real. We made plans, and we were getting close to creating something of our own," she sniffled as tears started to well up. The pieces were all getting into place, and then this happened, and now he's gone," she said with some exasperation, choking a little as she suppressed the tears. She waved her hands, indicating the room she was in.

Alistair winced, and she gave him a cautious smile, wiping her tears. "Don't worry. I don't think of you as part of this. You are..." She paused, and Alistair knew she wanted to say family, but he could sense the wrongness that connotation had to her.

"I am Riseth's man," Alistair finished for her with a smile

She let out an appreciative laugh. "Not yet. You really should change that. She knows you understand how marriage works on Neshan, and she's been dropping hints since I first saw you two together."

She paused, a teasing smile on her face. "We know you Earthlings take longer and do things differently, but if you weren't a literal alien with a different culture, she would have put a choker on you by now."

Alistair laughed, the heavy atmosphere lifting slightly. "I could totally see her doing that,"

They lapsed into silence for a moment. Nessyra nursed her drink, calming herself down as Alistair put his drink aside and placed a small, richly decorated chest on her desk.

Nessyra eyed the small chest suspiciously before opening it to look at its contents. "You fucking dumbass, what are you showing me for? Show that to her!"

"I planned to once we found a planet to call home," Alistair replied, raising his hands defensively. "Now I feel I need your expert opinion if I should stick to that plan or commit early so she does not get upset,"

She facepalmed, leaning against her desk as silent laughter rocked her body.