Chapter 199 - Voyeur of Records

Vern nodded without a hint of hesitation as he asked Ms. Witness to conjure a parchment in front of Fulminis.

Fortunately, the flux of Nexus had recovered enough that he could waste it on all these flourishments. It also helped that no one in the outer court was trying to show off their powers. Otherwise, he'd have to waste some keeping them in check.

The brown-haired Fulminis wonderously grabbed the paper that floated in front of him and so did Ms. Harmony.

"Think of what you wish to write, and it will manifest," he spoke, repeating what Ms. Witness told him.

Both cautiously took the paper and experimented with it, and Vern used the lull to survey the outer court. They seemed more than intrigued.

Most were trying to guess what was happening in here, and one of them quickly concluded that it was an exchange of records.

This prompted the burly man to try and peddle his own knowledge once again, but the rest were instantly skeptical.

"I doubt that Lord Axiom would care to vouch for the authenticity of your items."

Vern agreed with that. He had to limit a lot of benefits to the inner court. For his own sanity as well as for the allure. One didn't make a hierarchy without tangible differences.

Still, I'll let through little tidbits of knowledge every now and then. That should be enough to keep them here besides the allure of one day entering the inner court.

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"Mr. Axiom, This is the first shade of Warden Pathway. I…I don't have the rest of it, but I heard it used to be quite powerful." said Fulminis as he marveled at the means available to Mr. Axiom.

Instantly, the parchment disappeared from his vicinity and appeared in Vern's hand.

Finally! he screamed internally as he eyed the foreign letters. They visually meant nothing to him, but Nexus was doing its job. He had no clue how, but he knew exactly what all of it meant.

'A Warden's one true job is to supervise and protect. To ensure no harm comes the way of the innocent while the criminals suffer under their guardianship.

One must keep a firm will and reverence for regulations. It should be a priority to lead by example and become a symbol of justice in the eyes of the masses.'

Interesting start.

Vern perused through the flowery language that clearly outlined the rules and guidelines of what a Warden should and shouldn't do.

Soon, he found exactly what he was looking for '…as a Warden, one must practice their Binding Word. The vision can bind foes in place if they don't escape within a few breaths.'

A vision that can lock down people? He could imagine the power of such a thing if paired with a proper weapon. A gun alongside this would be instantly lethal.

I think this one encompasses structure as well as force? Maybe preservation, too? That was quite a lot of fundamentals for a single vision. It would be hard to train all of them in isolation.

However, it was curious that the method of invocation was words rather than eyes. 'The Warden must announce the will to capture the criminal to bind them.' Maybe it helps to implicitly fall into the role of a warden and boost the binding word's potency?

He skimmed the rest of the record, which was full of vague methods to progress, like always helping the people, not letting criminals escape, joining the military, and more absurd ones.

Unfortunately, the resonance catalysts listed made no sense. What was the root of Elik prison? The other option was the body of a lifelong captive bird called Esesha?

This clearly came from a culture that either Vern had never heard of or a totally lost one.

Not that it matters. It was only the first shade of a sequence that combined too many fundamentals. Not suited for me at all. It was a good study nonetheless.

Vern folded the parchment back and waved one hand as the cosmic balance behind him shifted. The chains rattled, and it settled with Fulminis's side outweighing the other empty platter by quite a bit.

That's when Ms. Harmony spoke up, "Mr. Axiom, this is the first and second shade of Waterbender pathway. Please assess it as you see fit."

Fulminis gasped with a hint of embarrassment, "But I…ah, only offered the first shade. I don't think that'll be enough."

To this, Ms. Harmony only smiled as the parchment disappeared from her hands.

"Lord Axiom, can I add more to my offering?" asked Fulminis, a little jittery.

Vern obviously nodded. The more the merrier. I can never have enough of them!

While brown-haired Fulminis began filling up the next parchment, he focused on what Ms. Harmony had given him.

'Waterbending is an art reserved for those who feel out of place on land. Long ago, the world used to be water, and from water came life, came plants, wildlife, and the very civilization.

One mustn't forget that the origin of everything is water, and only when that notion is firm in one's mind can one bend the water to their will. Only and only then can the origin of everything become the extension of their body.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

As members of the Seliqua Island Regime, we all were born with blessings of water and mustn't waste our gifts. Follow along, and you too shall lord over the uncouth land dwellers.'

Wow, we've got a bit of gatekeeping here. The way it was worded spoke so much about the ideology and viewpoints of the writers. It seemed it was an organization on some island that came together to perfect this record over time.

'First shade—Diver allows one to breathe underwater as they become one with the water. The first step to embracing the origin is to be comfortable within it. Where others will drown and fail, you alone will survive.

Distil air from water infinitely as you wait in ambush for the prey that will be too out of breath to even notice your presence.'

Extract air from water, huh? That would be transformation fundamental. Very practical. A little oversold here, but useful nonetheless.

'Second shade—Rower. You're faster than any other in water. Currents give way for you, and opposing ones reverse on your command to provide passage for your pursuit.

The perfect tool to hunt prey that stands on its last leg and surprise them with an agility unmatched by the rest.'

That's more like Waterbending if you ask me. More transformation and possibly some force here.

What was interesting was that they didn't have any names for the visions. If he had to guess, then the creators just didn't have the culture of assigning proper names to visions. To their detriment, actually.

Names held power. Not naming a vision was just asking not to be fully registered in the collective consciousness and leave a mark on Everflux.

Unfortunately, this one didn't seem very compatible with him either, so he quickly skimmed past the methods of progressing in each shade. They were as vague as before—'…row upstream seventeen times a day, hunt prey in three breaths, not leave water for three nights.'

He knew all of these weren't idle exercises. They just weren't the most efficient way to go about it. He was pretty sure that if the Observers of this pathway were taught individual fundamentals separately before combining them to perform the said tasks, then they would be a couple of times faster, if not ten times in their progression.

'To resonate with water, one must find the pearl of the abyss—at least thirteen years in making or older and consume it beneath the Arian Sea. Drinking from the dregs of origin lake will also work, but it has become impossible to find them recently.'

Huh. Did pearls even stay untouched for so long? He had no clue. As for Origin Lake. Is that a real thing?

Doesn't matter, I guess.

"Ms. Witness, can you make a copy of these parchments so I can read them later?" he asked her, and she nodded.

He definitely needed to analyze them in-depth later on. He couldn't spend too long on each of them right now, or it would appear off.

Folding this one, he snapped, and the gigantic scale behind him began its cycle yet again. Fulminis, who was clutching his head as if to stress his memory, looked up and gulped.

The balance was firmly reversed. While the inherent value of each sequence wasn't much more than the other, two shades just couldn't compare to one.

Turning towards the brown-haired Fulminis, he asked, "Would you like to exclude the second shade of this record for the trade?"

The guy blinked for a while before firmly shaking his head, "No, please just give me a few seconds. I…I think I know something that would balance this out. It's just been a while."

Vern nodded, silently mulling over each of the records he'd read and dissected them. It was great. He just went from having never read a non-public observation record to two.

This was good business. Rupert had pointed it out during the Confluence, and he wasn't wrong. Facilitating communication between the parties of the world was astronomically beneficial.

"Yes! I think this is it. Here it is, Lord Axiom. Please, judge this."

Vern made a grabbing motion, and the parchment appeared right in his hand. Another set of unfamiliar words greeted his eyes, but the title instantly yanked all his attention.

It read, 'Arbiter.'

He raised his eyebrows, and his heart rate sped up.

Without any hesitation, he dove in, 'Before reading any further, know that we failed to forge this path into one that leads to further singularity. The second shade is the limit. However, given you're reading this, we will assume you're already a first shade Mediator and understand the risks.'

Another incomplete shade sequence? Well, at least it wasn't labeled as dangerous like the ones he'd come across in Vena's archive.

'Reality is a pool of conflict. Without conflict, the evolution stops. Yet, endless conflict is also the bane of progress. Hence, we strived to be Arbiters. An arbiter is one who mediates, one who eases two parties with opposing ideas into a singular direction.

As one burdened with such a heavy responsibility, it is pertinent that we master our special vocation. An arbiter can create a Neutral Ground at will. A domain where the situated parties can think free from their deeply rooted notions. A territory of flexible thought, if you will.'

Very straight to the point. Unlike previous records, there wasn't much rambling. It talked about one of the visions straight up. Neutral Ground, huh? He narrowed his eyes. That very much sounds like relationship fundamental to me.

Maybe there was a hint of cognition involved, but it was minor.

He didn't jump to any conclusions and continued on, 'Just like the visions in the prior shade, it is enough for you to read this whole volume and attempt to shade your perception. At the time of writing, if you have the right mindset, ours is one of the easiest to resonate with.

Not many pathways like ours in the world, apparently. However, it is our hope that changes and more of our kind can mediate the conflicts that eat at our lives. Maybe not exactly through the road we took, but an adjacent one that leads to higher singularity.'

This gave him a pause. That was an interesting take on how visions worked. For Instability Inducement, he'd learned it—or the Third Rune had learned it for him by the simple action of glancing at the words that described it.

Most observation records made it seem like one just had to follow the written path and try to shade their perception with some resonant catalyst at hand. Yet, it wasn't fully clear how one learned the specific rendition of vision described in these records.

How could these simple words translate into terrifyingly powerful and complex visions? None of these records contained an ungodly amount of equations or specific examples or anything. He also knew that resonant catalysts themselves didn't 'contain the vision.'

Yet this off-handed comment made it more than clear. One essentially had to resonate their mindset with said visions and attempt to imprint them.

That was to say, the words on the records itself weren't important. They didn't define what a Vision could and couldn't do. They were just signposts to the actual concepts somewhere in the Everflux.

So when one imprinted a vision, it was a filtered copy of what already existed in the Everflux regarding that vision, and having the observation record was the first step to resonating one's mind with it.

Good to know, he murmurred to himself. He had an inkling that it had to be something like this, but confirmation of theories was always great.

Shifting his gaze, he read on, 'However, when the neutrality can't be maintained, an Arbiter must take matters into their own hands and weaken the links, working towards a more amicable outcome.'

Another Vision? he gasped. This was almost a hundred percent relationship focused, too. Links clearly represented some kind of relationship between things.

He instantly reined in all the unrelated thoughts and focused on comprehending this record. The farther he read, the more it became obvious.

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This is it, he whispered to himself.