Alex left the short talk with Mr. Stirling feeling worse than when he entered it. The man had been incredibly reasonable, and he’d just pushed the concern away out of paranoia. As soon as he exited the room, he wondered if it would be wiser to turn back around and explain the issue of lost time and his worries about what that could imply.
Alex had to admit to himself that he might be overthinking how Mr. Stirling would respond to the information. Delaying future trials while they attempted to further examine the situation with Alex’s soul was a possible response, but was it a likely one?
Delaying delving would only further restrict the time Alex had. He could always delve more than one trial a day to make up for lost time, but that pace would be draining. Especially with undead trials so frequently targeting your level of exhaustion. Even if Alex might be able to handle it with the aid of Mr. Stirling’s aura, could his friends keep up?
It was more likely that they would choose to avoid delving and look for an alternative. Mr. Stirling had declared that he wasn’t comfortable attempting to fix the issue medically. Alex worried that he might change his mind with the introduction of new information.
They might also come up with something Alex hadn’t considered. Maybe they’d try to figure out a way for David to reclaim the mana. Alex was… not a fan of that thought. If it was easy, they would’ve already done it. Working with the man for an extended period of time wasn’t an appealing thought.
All of these options shared a problem. The situation slipped even further out of Alex’s control. As things stood, he was losing a manageable amount of time. He could fix things himself by completing trials and ascending through the tiers. He was aware that ignoring the problem and hoping it went away wasn’t a good choice, but he was hesitant to risk someone else making the choice for him.
Alex didn’t turn around.
It was a short descent to the dining room, where lunch was about to begin. His brief interlude hadn’t given the others enough time to prepare a full meal, but they were just eating sandwiches. Alex quickly assembled his own, taking some meat, bread, and condiments from the table.
The ham was obviously not from their own trial, but it was still a good feeling. Despite the struggles they’d faced while fighting the boars he was the one eating monster meat, not the other way around.
Alex took a seat in between Becca and Muhammad and found that the group was already discussing their plans for the afternoon. The day’s success had raised their spirits significantly, and the air felt lighter than it had the past few days. They were still far from relaxed, but finishing a trial without any serious injury had reassured everyone that they could make their way through the gauntlet of Hard Mode trials.
“I know that it’s a bit wasteful to use guidance on a skill I won’t use as much long-term,” Becca was the one talking when he sat down, “But I’m going to use my Lesser Skill Guidance on my coordination. Making sure I can fully utilize my Agility Enhancement will make me more effective.”
“Are you sure?” Alex asked, “It’ll make you a bit more effective, but you already did well today.”
Alex meant what he said. While Becca hadn’t performed as well as Jess, she’d already taken a large step forward using her increased Agility. It wasn’t like she was uncoordinated by any means, if anything she was already adapting very quickly.
Becca nodded, “If it goes well, it should help me smoothly develop the skills to adjust well to attributes in the future. With the number of attributes we’re going to be gaining these next few days, I think it’s the best decision.”
“That’s a good point,” Jess had a thoughtful look on her face, “I should do the same, now that you mention it. I’d have to use a Minor Guidance on it, but I can’t afford to let my control slack.”
“Training in the afternoons will help even without Guidance,” Alex disagreed, “I probably should do that today as well.” Part of him wanted to go straight to his Grand Mana Guidance, but he had to consider his importance to their team’s success. Jess was probably thinking the same thing, pushing back the stuff she wanted to do.
“Weren’t you planning on using your Mana Guidance?” Anthony asked.
“Well, it should just be an hour or two to make sure I’m up to speed on my attributes. After that, the Guidance shouldn’t take too long.”
They all looked to Mrs. Stirling at that point, who answered the unspoken question, “The higher quality rewards take longer, but I’ve never actually received a Grand Mana Guidance. The Grand Skill Guidances I’ve received lasted a few hours.”
“I’ll have time,” Alex nodded, “If anything, I’ll just be a bit late to dinner.”
“Dinner will be served at 6 o’clock,” Mrs. Stirling informed him with a suddenly serious expression, “And if your time is mismanaged enough to be mid-epiphany when dinner is ready, you will be made to finish your Guidance at the table.”
Alex stared at her, confused. Why would that be a rule? He knew the Stirlings took dinner seriously but…
Then she grinned at him, “Honestly, dear. You’re too high-strung. Obviously, you have good reason to be, but you’ll waste the Guidance if you go into it too stressed out. Relax a bit while you train this afternoon. It will do you some good to take a break.”
Alex opened his mouth to object but soon saw the truth in her statement. Working himself ragged would only lead to poor performance in trials and poor use of his rewards. Yesterday had been a bit of a break, but he hadn’t treated it as such.
Mrs. Stirling’s change of tune after her training methods were the reason he hadn’t spent much time resting yesterday felt a bit jarring, “Aren’t you the one who pushed me into resisting illusions yesterday?” He asked.
Her smile didn’t much fade as she replied, “Yes, and when I gave you the evening to relax you didn’t do it. Ordering you to relax won’t work, but I’ve heard that you find swordsmanship practice to be quite zen. Work through some of your easier forms for a while, let yourself just have fun.”
Alex wasn’t going to argue with an older, wiser Pathwalker who was telling him to practice his swordsmanship. Instead, he turned to focus on actually eating, having hardly touched his sandwich.
“I’m going to use my Skill Guidance on mana control,” Anthony stated, “I agree that physical training to harness our attributes is important, but I should be able to make a few improvements to my Mana Body if I manage to draw this rune that was giving me problems yesterday.”
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“Oh?” Muhammad asked, “I hadn’t heard that you were struggling with a rune?”
“It’s a complex array,” Anthony sighed, “The Heart Rune isn’t too difficult, but the paired array to trigger the effect is giving me trouble.”
“What’s the Enhancement?” Muhammad asked.
“It’s Toughness adjacent,” Anthony replied, “which is why I ended up just inscribing a Toughness boost. Reinforces my heart and lungs significantly.”
Alex still wasn’t a big plan of their future healer designing a Mana Body that helped him survive getting hit when the alternative was not getting hit like Becca, but he could see the appeal of such a decision. Anthony clearly didn’t want to spend as much time adjusting to increased physical attributes as the rest of them, and Toughness wasn’t an attribute you needed to adjust to.
“Are reinforced organs going to be enough if one of the boss monsters gets its hands on you?” Jess asked, “It feels like they’ll just go right through the Enhancement.”
Anthony shook his head, “I have the Rare Connection boost working for me, and having the boost so centralized is very powerful. It’s like how the ghoul could catch Alex’s sword without any wounds on its hands.”
“Then you’re still screwed because your heart is fine but it’s been jostled around or even moved out of position,” Alex disagreed. Anthony’s reasoning didn’t make sense. If Alex could see that problem, how would the student of biology miss it? There had to be more that he wasn’t mentioning.
Anthony grimaced, “It should still significantly weaken anything that manages to hit me.”
“That Enhancement is meant to be used in concert with a few other powers,” Mrs. Stirling stated. She had raised her eyebrow at her son, and her voice sounded more curious than reproachful, “Why are you focusing on it?”
“Well,” Anthony replied, “Those Enhancements are going to be added to my arsenal next. I’m just not ready to use them, yet.”
“It’s going to be a while before you get a mana type,” His mother disagreed, “Without one, you’re getting less value than you would from a flat Toughness Enhancement.”
Anthony seemed a bit frustrated, but nodded his head instead of arguing further, “I guess I’ll just work on improving my Toughness Enhancement, then.”
Jess gave him a pat on the shoulder from her seat next to him, “We’ll have our own mana types in no time if these rewards keep coming.”
Anthony just nodded.
Muhammad looked to Mrs. Stirling after it was clear Anthony didn’t have more to say, “Is there any chance you could set up an array for me to practice mana control?” Muhammad hadn’t yet gained all of the soul attributes, and wouldn’t for two more levels.
Alex saw Jess frown at the reminder that she would need to do the same soon. Neither of them had the mana control to design a top-flight Mana Body, which they’d need if the group truly planned on facing a Hell Mode trial.
They were running on a time limit, and every day mattered. Jess would be able to work on her mana control tomorrow, but she had a lot of improvement to make before she’d be able to inscribe anything truly exceptional. Guidance would expedite the process, but it was more than a single afternoon’s work even if she burned through all that she’d received.
The group separated, and Alex quickly found himself lost in his swordsmanship. His rewards focusing on attributes made Guidance more scarce for him than his friends, but he didn’t need it for this.
Mrs. Stirling had called it a zen practice for him, and she was right. He let the stress and worry fade and focused on his work. Soon, hours had gone by. Alex realized as he saw the sun starting to decline that his planned hour or two had come closer to three or four. The temperate atmosphere exuded by the Stirling Tower kept him insulated from the cold, but it was still deep into winter.
Time to use that Mana Guidance.
As soon as he decided it was time, a prompt appeared before him.
Would you like to use a Grand Mana Guidance to better understand the mental influences of a high-quality mana type?
Yes/No
It was the third time the Trialbringer had offered him this option. Clearly, it wanted him to accept the offer. It was trying to tell him something, and it wasn’t too hard to see what that was.
Alex already knew that he was being influenced by Inspire. The events of the past few days had made that blindingly obvious, he was reassured by the knowledge that he still had his own plans and thoughts. He didn't want to be stuck with Inspire, the idea repulsed him.
If he was being influenced more than he realized, it was gradual. Just another timer for him to race against, maybe even aligned with the one already present on his status screen. If he managed to transform the mana type, he’d be removing its influence.
If he used a Grand Mana Guidance on this, he wouldn’t be able to use it to confirm the feasibility of his idea to use the second Guidance on dismantling the Inspire mana type to form one that suited him better. He was confident that the idea should work, but how would the Inspire mana that was stuck outside his soul react to such an attempt?
“I’m gonna head inside,” Alex told Jess and Becca. The duo were currently doing mobility training, having followed a significantly more holistic plan for adjusting to their attributes compared to Alex’s sword forms.
“What are you planning on using the Guidance for?” Becca asked, “You mentioned double-checking your plan to get rid of Inspire, but I assume that’s too narrow to use a full Grand Guidance on.”
Becca had mentioned Alex’s other concern. Mrs. Stirling had said that the Guidance would take hours, how much of that could possibly be spent on reviewing and firming up an idea that was already pretty straightforward? At the end of the day, the most important part was just trying to figure out how the mana would react to his attempted usurpation.
The prompt in front of him hadn’t gone away, but Alex declined it. He needed something in between the two.
“Maybe more generally focused on Inspire,” Alex mused aloud, “The Trialbringer can help me understand its underlying goal what it wants to prevent me doing.”
It seemed like the best of both worlds. He definitely wouldn’t get the full knowledge he might receive if he accepted the Guidance the Trialbringer wanted him to use, but he would still be able to figure out his own situation.
He would also be able to twist the prompt towards his own thoughts, which was the important part.
“I’m glad you’re finally using the guidance,” Becca replied, “I’ll feel a lot better about this once you understand your situation better. The uncertainty has been driving me crazy.”
Alex just nodded. He had been focused yesterday, but now it was finally time.
No one was there to greet him when he entered the tower, but Mrs. Stirling’s voice came out of the walls, “Set up in the living room, Alex. We’ll be leaving you alone to avoid distractions, but it’s easy for us to reach you if we need to interfere for whatever reason.”
That was a bit foreboding, but Alex assumed it was just a precaution. If the Stirlings truly worried that he might be risking his safety for any reason, they’d be treating this a bit more seriously.
He sat down on the couch, and focused on his desired Guidance.
Would you like to use a Grand Mana Guidance to better understand the remnant will driving the foreign mana encroaching on your soul?
Yes/No
Alex accepted the prompt.
He was immediately reminded of his last Mana Guidance, when the Trialbringer had amplified his sense of his soul and given him an alternative perspective on what was happening to it.
This was much the same, but everything was so much more detailed. He could feel the intricacies of the mana, and understanding of what separated the mana he’d accepted from what he’d rejected flooded him.
He’d initially taken it to be the burden, a desire to avoid the chains of Inspire, but it was more complex than that. Hours of introspection seemed to pass as he gazed upon himself and realized that another part of the problem came with the treatment of invulnerability.
David’s mana saw it as a lie, but Alex was unwilling to accept such a thing. The image of a man unconquered didn’t have to be false, one day he would make it true.
But first, he had some important questions. It was time for answers.