You have defeated several free monsters. Level up granted.
You have reached Tier 1.
You constructed a Mythic Mana Body at Tier 0. Mythic Tier Up granted.
You performed an assisted Ethereal Drift at Tier 0. Normally, this grants an upgrade to your Pathwalker title. As a Prodigy, your title can not be increased further at Tier 0.
Alex had a few seconds to look over the prompts, which he took advantage of. The first notice regarding his Mythic Mana Body was unsurprising, but the Ethereal Drift notification was completely out of left field. No one had mentioned anything about additional rewards for performing an Ethereal Drift.
The reason was obvious, of course. No one else on Earth had ever managed the feat, and Plato apparently hadn’t passed along the niche information due to its lack of importance. Plato probably didn’t know himself, since he’d never even been an Aspirant. No reason for his mother to pass along something so unique.
Unfortunately, the special achievement ended up meaning nothing. The Trialbringer didn’t seem inclined to offer any compensation for the lost reward; instead, it just stated that his title couldn’t be upgraded.
Alex wasn’t upset about that. Being a Prodigy already forced him to complete every trial on Hard Mode, a requirement that would keep him away from Neophyte trials for several months after his tier-up. Would the next level force further restrictions on him?
Before Alex could wonder too much at the existence of higher titles, the Stirlings hadn’t mentioned anything of the sort, another prompt appeared in front of him.
Mythic Tier Baptism commencing in 5...
The countdown was weird. The others had experienced a slight delay between accruing the necessary experience and tiering up, but he hadn’t heard anything about a countdown.
Honestly, Jess and Anthony hadn’t much to say about their Tier Baptisms. Neither gave Alex much detail regarding what he should suspect, leading him to form his own expectations.
Which was to say, not much, mainly because of the brevity. The Tier Baptisms had been near instantaneous for both of his friends, with the higher quality Anthony had received failing to make a difference. In both cases, Alex hadn’t even been able to track the rapid transformation with his still relatively low attributes, his friends had simply been improved between one moment and the next.
Maybe Mythic would be different? Alex doubted it, but still, he could hope.
The countdown continued to tick as Alex moved on from wondering what purpose it served. His focus sharpened, determined to watch some of the changes from the Tier Baptism, even if it would be too fast for him to gain much from the experience.
“What’s taking so long?” Anthony asked.
“Ther…” Alex was interrupted by a wave of mana that sent him falling backward.
So that’s what the countdown was for. Falling from standing to sitting wasn’t comfortable, but Alex easily stood back up, not at all injured by the experience.
“Are you okay?” Anthony asked, “What just happened?” As he spoke, the healer closed the distance between them.
“That was a lot of mana,” Alex replied. A cursory examination, both patting himself down and briefly sensing the mana flowing through his veins, confirmed that he was fine.
Better than fine.
Anthony performed his own examination, “You seem alright. The Tier Baptism knocked you over?”
“It was a bit weird,” Alex replied, “Everything happened so fast. I don’t know if saying it knocked me over is correct.” While he spoke, he searched his memory and tried to come up with a better phrasing. He had completely failed to grasp anything from the process thanks to Anthony’s question and the sensation of falling thoroughly distracting him.
“Why not?” Jess asked. She didn’t share Anthony’s slight concern, instead just sounding curious. The confirmation from Anthony that he was fine probably played a part in her nonchalance.
“It wasn’t like it pushed me,” Alex explained, “It’s more like my mind and body just blanked out for a fraction of a second. I fell over because I couldn’t keep my balance for that brief moment.”
“The delay might’ve been gathering the necessary mana for that?” Jess frowned. Her tone made it clear she didn’t buy the idea.
Alex didn’t buy it either, but he had more information than she did, “Oh, no. There was a countdown for it. I think it was giving me time to sit down, but I was sharpening my focus to try and track the mana while I tiered up.”
Anthony sighed, something Alex was pretty much used to at this point, “Of course you did.”
“It’s not like there were instructions,” Alex defended himself, well aware that he was arguing the wrong point, “Why would I assume the mana would knock me off my feet?”
“That’s not what I was talking about,” Anthony replied.
Alex pulled open his status screen instead of responding.
Name: Alex Moore
Level: 10 (Tier 1)
Mana Body Quality: Uncommon
Mana Type: Refine (Uncommon)
Achievements:
Attributes:
Strength: 48 - Power: 45
Agility: 48 - Speed: 45
Perception: 47 - Sensitivity: 45
Toughness: 47 - Durability: 45
Capacity: 112 - Connection: 156
Notifications:
The Achievement tab was now Achievements, and he could open the tab to see previous tier Achievements and the rewards he received from them whenever he wanted. He did so, smiling at the sight of the rewards he would be able to redeem again now that he’d reached Tier 1.
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Tier 0: Unique - (Realm)
Common Reward: At each tier, you may receive Minor Skill Guidance one time.
Uncommon Reward: At each tier, you may receive Skill Guidance one time.
Rare Reward: +5 Connection. At each tier, you may receive Minor Mana Guidance one time.
Epic Reward: At each tier, you may receive Mana Guidance twice.
Legendary Reward: +5 to all attributes. At each tier, you may receive a Minor Mana Baptism.
Mythic Reward: At each tier, you may receive Body Guidance
Unique - Planetary Reward: Mana Baptism at each tier improved to a Greater Mana Baptism.
Unique - Cluster Reward: Mana Guidance received twice each tier improved to Grand Mana Guidance.
Unique - Realm Reward: Whenever your Mana Body is below Mythic quality, you may receive Body Guidance until it becomes Mythic.
Each of them had a slight glow, confirming their renewed active status. Alex would have to plan out the best times to use each of his rewards. Maybe that Greater Baptism would help him improve Refine to Rare?
Or maybe he’d use it to get a second mana type?
“Well?” Jess’s voice dragged Alex out of his planning.
“What?” He asked.
The look on Jess’s face could be best described as ‘Really?’ And Alex realized what she was asking, “Oh, fifteen to every attribute.”
Anthony grinned, “I told you,” he said. Alex hadn’t heard anything of the sort, but Jess’s frown made it clear that she had been expecting a different increase.
“You guys were discussing how many attributes I’d get without me?” Alex asked.
“While you were asleep this morning,” Anthony explained, “Jess thought you’d get twenty, but I figured that was a bit extreme.”
“Everything else has conspired to boost Alex’s numbers to a ridiculous level,” Jess complained, “I was half convinced it would be twenty-five.”
“That would’ve been nice,” Alex agreed.
“How about the synchronization?” Anthony asked.
Alex shrugged, “I haven’t really tried using my mana yet. I definitely feel different, though.”
Jess gestured at him, which Alex took to mean that he should investigate and then get back to them.
Alex had struggled to describe the sensation of increased soul synchronization that he’d felt during his earlier Mana Baptisms. It had been too alien, his lack of experience with the Ethereal Plane made it impossible to adequately describe the differences.
Now, at Tier 1, he was more able to understand things, to the point where it was clear why things had been so opaque before. The temporary increase from a Mana Baptism felt weird because it was weird. Somehow, the Trialbringer managed to brute force a temporary empowerment that went beyond his body’s potential.
The Tier Baptism went a different route. It just improved his body, much more straightforward.
At early tiers, the human body was far less powerful than the soul when it came to mana. The primary focus of any Aspirant or Neophyte was correcting this deficit, culminating in the Attunement of their body at Tier 2. Attunement didn’t necessarily make the body a perfect vessel for mana, but it got you to the point where your body had caught up to your soul. From Tier 2 onwards, empowering your soul grew far more important.
Alex’s Tier Baptism hadn’t changed his soul at all, that he could tell. Instead, his body had been improved, bringing it into greater harmony with mana of all kinds. As a fortunate side effect, this would allow him to store more mana in his body. In fact, Alex could instinctively tell that with the benefits from a Mythic tier up, his Connection would have to be significantly more than double his Capacity to cause issues in the future.
The improvement to his Capacity was important, but it wasn’t the main draw of tiering up. The Connection between body and soul underwent a qualitative improvement, on top of the quantitative increase he’d already seen. This synchronization would make it easier to enter a drift or gain another mana type, and Alex was looking forward to testing out what he’d gained in those areas. There was one change he didn’t have to wait to test out, though.
Tier 1 mana. Alex already had some experience with significantly higher tier mana, thanks to David Alvarez, so he had high expectations for the difference. He quickly began molding the mana in his body into temporary runes, which he would then take apart instead of forming into real parts of his Mana Body.
As he manipulated his mana internally and even directed some of it out of his hand, he had to admit that he was slightly disappointed. He knew that he still had a long way to go before it was reasonable to compare himself to the Imprinted, but still. The gap had only grown more obvious as he started to grow stronger.
Still, the benefits were quite something compared to only minutes before. Alex couldn’t quantify how much stronger he was as a result of the improved mana, but he felt like even without much of a Mana Body it had some impact. Once he was utilizing Tier 1 mana in a Mana Body, the effects would snowball.
Refine felt stronger as well, but that was an obvious side effect of greater synchronization with his soul.
A mana type, at least at Alex’s level, wasn’t really empowering the soul so much as directing it. He could make better use of his soul, thanks to his mana type, but the power had already existed before the epiphany that helped him form Refine.
With his mana reaching a higher baseline, directing it was even more effective. Making good use of that power would be important for when he started delving Tier 1 trials.
This was a boost anyone would receive, Alex didn’t have a reason to think it would be better for him than anyone else. Mana seemed to be standardized at each tier, whereas Pathwalkers improved everything else instead.
The Academy had measured the mana of thousands if not millions of Neophytes and Attuned over the years in order to determine that. The different tier-ups didn’t make a measurable difference in this one specific area. Mythic at Tier 0 being the exception seemed unlikely, but that didn’t mean Alex wasn’t thrilled by what he’d gained.
The more he played around with his Tier 1 mana, the more exciting it was. The change to Tier 1 mana was normally less important than the other gains, but Alex had so much mana that it might be the most important boon. Enhancements and Abilities could only take so much mana, and the higher quality would raise the ceiling on how much power he could bring against his opponents.
“And?” Jess’s voice broke Alex out of his thoughts. He realized he’d spent a few minutes just playing around with his mana manipulation.
“Oh, it’s good,” Alex replied, “I can’t say how much better the Mythic Tier Baptism is since I don’t know how it compares to your tier-ups, but It’s definitely good.”
Jess nodded, “You were so distracted I thought you might have something else.”
“Were you talking to me?” Alex asked, “I didn’t hear anything.”
“No, you just never answered Anthony’s question,” Jess said.
“Not a big deal,” Anthony added, “I’m still a bit curious, but I get it.”
Alex looked for better words, “Well, I think the difference is probably with shrinking the gap between my mind and my soul. Does that make sense?”
“A little,” Alex frowned, “You aren’t talking about your attributes, you’re talking about the more esoteric stuff.”
Alex nodded, “I’d have to spend some time actually meditating or attempting a drift, but it feels like it should be significantly easier now. I can’t imagine that’s normal since most Neophytes don’t manage either feat.”
“It’s not,” Jess agreed, “The Rare Tier Baptism made a difference, but I don’t feel much closer to a mana type than I already was.”
“I haven’t really tried an Ethereal Drift, so I don’t know if it’s much easier for me,” Anthony added.
“Well, between that and the attributes, I’m glad I chose to wait for Mythic,” Alex decided.
“You can work on a sword mana type,” Jess said, “We’ll need more offensive power before we try a Neophyte Hell Mode trial.” Alex was a bit surprised she was so determined, with the disaster of their first Hell Mode trial.
On the other hand, none of them had ever been under the misconception that the path was safe.
“What’s your Mana Body rated as?” Anthony asked.
“Uncommon,” Alex replied, “I’m a bit surprised since there’s nothing but the aperture.”
“Mine was the same,” Anthony said, “The Minor Mana Guidance isn’t a big deal, but it will help you start working on a new mana type.”
“Minor Mana Guidance?” Alex asked, momentarily confused. He quickly realized what Anthony was referring to, “Wait, I don’t have a Common Achievement.”
At Tier 0, you received an Achievement at the same level as your Mana Body quality when you created your Mana Body. At Tier 1, the Achievement still existed but you were rewarded at one level lower.
“That’s weird, do your notifications say anything about the Achievement?” Jess asked.
Alex hadn’t checked his notifications yet, since reviewing his rewards and improved mana had seemed more important.
He opened his status page and frowned.
Really?