“That’s a good feeling,” Anthony smiled widely as his Tier Baptism finished. Reaching Tier 1 had only taken the healer one more fight after Jess, thanks to Alex holding the snake down just like the one before it.
The two fights had been separated by slightly less than an hour, and Alex was now quite certain that monsters were being drawn to fight them. The Neophyte snakes were not common, and two fights so close together were enough confirmation that he had to assume monsters would continue to come.
The lack of Aspirant snakes was a bit of a surprise, but it seemed to be evidence that the Trialbringer didn’t consider those monsters a threat to them. Throwing a dozen Aspirants at them wouldn’t even be a test, it would just be an annoyance. The Trialbringer didn’t waste monsters so frivolously, and monsters that couldn’t threaten them at all simply wouldn’t come unless they were in a group led by a stronger monster.
The solitary nature of serpents was working in their favor so far, but Alex wasn’t confident that would remain the case.
Regardless, they would eventually have to deal with a few low-level snakes. The weaker monsters may not be drawn to them as strongly as the Neophytes, but they’d still attack if they came across the group naturally.
That was probably why the Stirlings brought a huge glowing tower with them on their journey. Any monsters strong enough to hunt them would either know better or have died already. Weaker monsters had to be drawn to them, and the tower brought them in large numbers.
“Congrats!” Alex matched Anthony’s grin. The immediate fear following Jess’s near-death experience had faded slightly, turning into a resolve to do better. Alex had quickly cleared out the grass surrounding the entrance they were digging out, only to do it again when they moved on to the fourth grave. The visibility this provided had given him ample time to intercept their most recent attacker, and the fight that followed had been straightforward thanks to his attribute advantage.
These monsters, around the middle of Tier 1, were not too threatening when Alex was ready for a fight. Their progress had slowed significantly with him no longer digging, but the easy fight was proof that the choice was the right one.
“Anything different from the Legendary tier-up?” Jess asked.
“I’m not sure what it’s like for you, but I don’t think so,” Anthony replied, “It’s similar to the baptisms, but a good amount stronger.”
Jess nodded, and Alex didn’t add anything. They had already known what a Legendary tier-up would entail, but learning that there was some extra benefit they weren’t aware of would not have surprised anyone.
Although, it would’ve been odd for the Stirlings to have not told them about anything like that.
Anthony spent another few seconds reveling in the improvements before sighing, “Well, back to work I guess.”
“We’ll take a break after this one,” Jess declared, “We’ve been working for a while.”
They were still pretty early in the process of digging out the fourth entrance, but Anthony didn’t argue. Alex continued to clear out extra space as they went. Cutting the grass short was surprisingly difficult with his lack of a suitable tool, but his sword was good enough.
The angles required would’ve been annoying if not outright painful for a normal human, and Alex was reminded how much he enjoyed getting stronger yet again. Every action was easier than it had been, and it only made him look forward to the next step even more.
Eventually, they got into the building and cleared it out, discovering another couple apertures and veins. Their impromptu treasury, Alex’s bag, was starting to grow a bit full. It hadn’t started empty by any stretch, but they now had eight apertures. The mana veins were so thin that even fifty feet of the stringlike stuff didn’t take up as much space as the apertures.
They still had only the one attuned aperture, but that wasn’t surprising. The good news was that they’d found several higher-quality examples of the four-sphere aperture. One was even nearly perfectly symmetrical, with only a slight error in one of the connections.
Alex wasn’t certain he’d be able to do much better. At least, not without the hours of practice that must’ve gone into the creation.
“Are you going to destroy any more of the apertures?” Anthony asked.
“Actually, if it’s okay with both of you, I’d like to start working on my own aperture,” Alex replied. The sight of so many other apertures, and the difference in quality between them, had him thinking about his own goals. What would it take for him to form an aperture?
“You want to use Guidance?” Jess asked.
“Yeah,”
Jess nodded, “Now that we’re both Tier 1, it should be okay. It won’t get any safer than this.”
“We’ll be fine,” Anthony agreed.
Alex felt the same way, which was why he was comfortable with the risk. Jess and Anthony were both stronger and had more visibility than they had been earlier.
Also, he really wanted to start working on his Mana Body. Seeing the others reach Tier 1 had him eager to catch up.
Would you like to use Body Guidance to learn runes for a Tier 0 Refine aperture?
Yes/No
“Anything you need from me first?” The question was directed at Jess, as she was the more worried of the two.
Jess shook her head, “Just make sure you don’t completely zone out. You do that sometimes, especially with Guidance.”
“That was the high-level Guidance,” Alex defended himself, “And I won’t be like that when we’re in the middle of a trial.”
“I just wanted to remind you.”
Alex just shook his head and accepted the prompt.
The first time Alex used his Body Guidance, he’d just asked a question. The answer came in the form of a prompt, telling him of the requirements for a Tier 0 Mythic Body.
Now, he was expecting something more in line with other Guidance he’d received in the past. A guiding hand that pushed him in the right direction.
Instead, he got something in between.
A rune appeared in his mind, suddenly taking up all of his focus as several important details were made obvious in only a few seconds. The rune was more complex than most Tier 0 runes he was familiar with, but not close to the runes that had been used in the formation of his aura.
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After a few seconds, another rune dominated his thoughts. This process repeated two more times, giving Alex access to a total of four runes. Then, the Guidance faded away.
The runes were still memorized, and Alex knew that he wouldn’t forget them easily after the experience. Still, he took a second to think over how it had gone. Funnily enough, it had been exactly what Jess had asked him not to do, but only for a few seconds. Now, the Guidance was already over.
“That was fast,” Alex frowned.
“What?” Anthony asked, “What did you even do?”
“It was just runes,” Alex explained. His initial surprise quickly faded as he thought about it. Runes granted directly by the Trialbringer weren’t rare, and it made the most sense for his situation. He needed runes before he could actually do anything else.
Jess looked relieved at the news that he wouldn’t be artificially focused on his Mana Body in the grasslands, “I’m surprised it cut you off there, can’t you just receive Body Guidance again?”
Body Guidance rejected. Runes have been granted, master creation before seeking a blueprint.
“Apparently not,” Alex replied, “It’s either because I only receive standard Body Guidance, or a limitation built into my Achievement reward, but it won’t give me a rune and help me form it.”
“The actual formation seems more like Skill Guidance,” Anthony reasoned, “At higher levels, things get bent around in your favor, but this is just standard Body Guidance like you said.”
“It could also be a limitation of your Achievement,” Jess nodded, “If there isn’t a limit, it’s a bit too ridiculous.”
Alex frowned, “This will probably happen again with the blueprint. If Anthony is right, I’ll be on my own for forming the aperture.”
“You’ve solidified mana before,” Anthony said, “You should be able to do it.”
Alex wasn’t so certain. He’d created his Mana Veins by using runes that helped him compress the mana. Without those, the process would be far more difficult.
Of course, he no longer had vents actively fighting him every step of the way. Maybe the difficulty would balance itself out.
“I have to get these runes right, first,” Alex decided.
The others nodded their agreement, and Alex got to work.
Before seeing the runes that David had utilized to create his aura, Alex’s understanding of Tier 0 had been quite limited. The runes taught at the Academy were quite basic, leading to Alex’s understanding of them as similar to normal letters.
It wasn’t just Alex, students at the Academy were taught that Tier 0 was incredibly narrow. After his recent experiences, Alex couldn’t help but wonder if that was a self-fulfilling prophecy. New Pathwalkers didn’t push to maximize Tier 0, because they were taught that the ceiling was far lower than it really was.
Or maybe it was just the difference between having a mana type and not having one.
Either way, it didn’t matter. Alex had learned that he could push further than he once thought possible, and he had a mana type to push him to unseen heights.
The first rune was different from anything Alex had learned at the Academy. It had a slightly curved structure, which was interesting. Tier 0 runes were supposed to be two-dimensional.
The curve shouldn’t be difficult to implement, but it was still an additional step that shouldn’t normally exist.
The rest of the rune was straightforward. If it were flat, it would be comparable to a rectangle with a few protrusions. The curve turned it into more of a partial cylinder.
Alex set to work trying to form the rune in his stomach. As expected, the curve wasn’t a big problem, but it was a problem.
The curvature had to be perfect for the rune to function, and it took time to put that together. His first few attempts were too curved, coming closer to a half cylinder than the intended third.
Switching back to working with a flat surface, Alex decided to practice the protrusions in a familiar setting before bringing the two complicating factors together. In the past, Alex had often been able to draw runes in one stroke, almost like cursive. Things flowed together easily.
The protrusions in the rune didn’t allow him to follow this method. Alex didn’t struggle to adapt to the change, but it was still a change. It wasn’t possible to simply create the shape and go back over with the protrusions. They had to be part of the actual formation or else they wouldn’t hold well.
To manage that, Alex worked on the rune in pieces. Where a protrusion was needed, he would create a slight outcropping. He would then put it together with another piece that had a similar outcropping to create the protrusion. The larger pieces were much easier to fuse since each piece had more substance than a small protrusion being added to the side.
After a few more attempts, Alex managed to pull the pieces together properly. The creation was a bit odd, far from a glyph or a letter. The reason behind the design was obvious, with two of the other runes being similar partial cylinders designed to merge into a full cylinder, but that surface-level understanding didn’t help him understand why it was a cylinder in the first place.
Alex started to work on putting the two pieces together, creating the protrusions on a curved structure. This proved more difficult than doing each individually, but the alterations he’d made in his approach proved invaluable. It took a few tries, but he had so much mana to work with that the failures weren’t going to ever be a real problem.
The next two runes were quite similar, but one had divots on both sides while the other had divots on one side and protrusions on the other. It made for an easy pattern where they would be put together and then compressed into a solid cylinder.
The last rune was a more traditional glyph, but Alex wasn’t worrying about it until he could create the entire cylinder. Forming that rune would be the easiest part of the process.
Alex began practicing the other two pieces of the cylinder but was interrupted by a shout. Anthony and Jess had talked a bit while he practiced, but the noise had easily faded into the background.
Jess yelling his name to get his attention was much harder to ignore. Alex stood, opened his eyes, and had his sword in hand nearly immediately.
He quickly moved to assist his friends. This newest snake was around the size of the Aspirant snakes they had fought before, and its small stature made it difficult to pin down. The snake was flowing around his friends, avoiding attacks but unable to take any advantage of its own.
The snake's scales possessed an Enhancement, and it seemed like a powerful one. There was none of the subtlety of a stealth Enhancement. If anything, this was the opposite.
Alex moved to engage, getting behind the snake so they had it surrounded. It tried to escape through a gap between him and Jess, but the decision was too obvious. Alex intercepted, swinging his sword to chop off a few inches near the end of the body.
At least, that’s what should have happened. Instead, Alex’s sword only left a small cut on the scales.
“Toughness Enhancement,” He said aloud. The others would’ve noticed, but he didn’t lose anything by making sure.
The combination of a small, agile snake and a Toughness Enhancement was an annoying one, but not incredibly threatening.
“Is it a Toughness Enhancement or just hardened scales?” Jess asked. She was also moving to cut off the snake’s escape, but hadn’t attacked.
The snake attacked her, but wasn’t able to pierce her armor. Alex examined the snake a bit more closely, trying to find the answer to Jess’s question.
Hardened scales would make the snake harder to kill, but it wouldn’t have as much endurance. A Toughness Enhancement would make it harder for them to tire it out in a prolonged fight.
Without dedicated Enhancements, it could be difficult to glean more than surface level details from a Mana Body unless it was incredibly straightforward or lower tier than you. Alex was behind the snake in tier, but its Mana Body was ridiculously simple.
Alex wasn’t even sure if the snake’s body could be considered a true Mana Body. While he didn’t have the attributes to make out individual runes, he got the sense that there wasn’t anything to see. It seemed more likely that the snake’s scales had been saturated with mana through some bloodline ability.
“Looks like hardened scales,” Alex corrected his earlier call out, “The Enhancement doesn’t infuse the flesh.”
“Just make sure it doesn’t escape and we’ll get it eventually, then,” Jess replied. The snake had abandoned its attempts to attack her, but the time it lost in its assault had allowed Anthony to cut it off.
Sure enough, after a few minutes, the snake began to slow down. Supernatural attributes could only keep it going for so long, and Alex didn’t let it rest for even a second.
Anthony landed the killing blow, bashing its head in after Jess managed to grab it.
After the fight, Anthony sat down to catch his breath. Alex was keeping watch, so Jess joined the healer.
“I think I’m close to having the runes figured out.”