“Hmmm-hm-hm.” Erik hummed as they walked along while he peered at his newly minted and updated student ID. His shroud evolution and new dual-shrouded status had required another series of tests like the ones Caeden had taken when he was first brought to the Academy. This had come with several revelations. His previous ID had read like this.

Stitch, modifier aura/infusion category 0, invasion pressure 20,800, 7th tier control. Incarnation: Sauma

But now it looked like this.

Healing, modifier infusion category 1, invasion pressure 25,800, 7th tier control. Incarnation: Sauma

Binding, modifier aura category 1, invasion pressure 25,800, 7th tier control. Incarnation: Laekna

Registered Healer Rank: Grandmaster

A lot had changed. The boost to his shrouds was incomprehensibly massive compared to the one Lily or Cat had received when their own shrouds evolved when you took his second shroud into consideration. Both the girls had received an increase equivalent to about half of their current IP when their shroud evolved, but Erik’s was more than double, with the second shroud matching the first.

Then there were the changes to his shroud’s aura and infusion affinity. Stitch had been a rare shroud that had no affinity for either, a category 0. Something that was considered highly advantageous, as it increased Erik’s versatility. His new shrouds were both category 1’s in opposite directions. Arguably, an even more advantageous position to have with dual shrouds. He maintained most of the flexibility of his previous category 0 but allowed him to more easily focus each of his shrouds in a specific direction.

Caeden was in a similar situation, with Sharp and Physical Enhancement at the peak of category 5 for aura and infusion, respectively. What he lost in versatility, he gained in easy specialization without completely losing out.

The general consensus where versatility was better than specialization stemmed from the war-centric shrouded mentality. After all, a shrouded battlefield could pit one soldier against an endless variety of other shrouds. If one was overly specialized, they were vulnerable to facing a shroud that could exploit their given weakness.

Under that doctrine, Caeden’s shrouds individually would have been considered less than ideal. Sharp was almost useless if a fight devolved into a melee, while Physical Enhancement lacked any long-range capabilities outside Caeden just chucking shit at his opponent. Such glaring weaknesses would be easy to exploit. But together, his two shrouds formed a perfect harmony, each covering the other's weaknesses.

Of course, not everyone followed the path of versatility, and many considered it to be a waste, as a generalist that could deal with any situation could never and would never be able to devote the time to becoming a peak expert in a specific combat style. This was considered to be especially true with dual shrouded. And that all came down to one factor, synergy.

Now, Caeden’s shrouds had synergy; no one would debate that. But it was the kind of synergy that covered up their respective weaknesses instead of leaning into each other’s strengths. A counterpoint could be obviously seen in Victor, the leader of the Core Seat’s Ether Soldiers faction, and previously the only other shrouded currently at the Academy before Erik joined their very exclusive group.

Victor held both the Mirror and Light shrouds, both with a middling aura affinity. By most standards, a rough setup, though not unsalvageable, and many had it worse. Victor could have easily bent his shrouds to form a decent versatile powerset with the right mnemonics and the proper training to gain some infusion capabilities. He had not done so.

Instead, Victor walked the path of a ranged specialist to stunning effect. As could be seen in his fight with Caeden. The only fight Caeden had ever lost outright. He combined strong defensive abilities with devastating ranged offense into a bunker-like formation that saw him spitting out rapid and relatively minor attacks alongside devastating single-target blasts that could shred even Caeden’s formidable defenses.

Of course, if anyone managed to get past his barriers, Victor was the softest target imaginable. But until that point, he could dish out more pain than practically anyone else his age. All of this was based on outdated information, as Caeden had vastly increased his strength in the meantime with several new mnemonics that might give Victor more trouble, but the basic fact remained. Specialization wasn’t as bad a path as most shrouded made it out to be.

And that left Erik’s position up in the air. With two shrouds instead of one, neither of which having obvious damage potential, it would be interesting to see what he did going forward. Caeden had no doubt there would be many days of experimentation ahead.

Honestly, he felt a little left out. Between Cat’s evolved shroud, Lily’s new splinter, Erik’s new dual shrouds, and Asherta just starting to receive actual training for her shroud, Caeden was the only one in their group mostly left behind. Sure, he had his new Embodiment, but the Couatl form was a bit underwhelming outside of its flight and venom. Benign so small and flimsy was a death knell for his second Sharp higher form. And Toolkit, his Sharp Incarnation, wasn’t much to speak of either.

So he was stuck working with essentially the same powerset he’d had since Academy day one. The only other notable addition was his new access to Forged Infinity's ninth form, what he had taken to calling the Dragon Armor. But his access to it was limited, as using it increased the damage to his soul. He couldn’t even activate it right now. Not until Cat managed to fix his current situation.

But right now, Caeden couldn’t be bothered about any of it. The worries about stagnating growth and underwhelming higher forms, soul damage and his slow progress on integration, slipped away. They were currently walking, all five of them, through Central City. On their way to heal his uncle.

It was an odd thought for Caeden, as this had been his driving motivation from the beginning of school until just recently. Getting stronger had been the most obvious path to securing his one living family member’s return to health. Before that, Caeden had been content to be a small-town ethersmith. Maybe a little odd, but no one worth mentioning.

Now, he was holding a shroud coveted by every power on the Starry Sea. one that, according to the being that first discovered shrouds, shouldn’t exist. More importantly, at least to Caeden, he had true friends, people he relied on and that relied on him. A girlfriend he never expected to find. And they ran an organization that was actually helping people. Sure the Forged were insignificant in the grand scale of the Starry Sea, but Caeden couldn’t honestly look at all the students that no longer had to hide from every family scion with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove and say they didn’t matter.

He had been wrong. Despite how small and weak he was right now, when compared against the continent-crushing, world-shaping might of the Headmaster or the Central Council, his actions had made a difference. And he found himself wanting to continue to make a difference, even if his uncle was renewed and safe from retribution.

Which was a big shift, mentally. Caeden had been content to let the horrors of this world pass him by as he only paid any mind to a small, lonely corner of it. Now he was going to participate in a Tournament against every other great power even remotely close to his home and likely put himself in a spotlight he wouldn’t be able to easily leave.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

And he was eager for it. Looking forward, Caeden was ready and willing to flex whatever power he had. Now with the Headmaster officially standing behind him, blunting whatever control the Council had tried to impose, Caeden wanted to show off. He and his friends were fucking strong. There was no denying it. Caeden was a True Shroud so young that it broke the last record by over a decade. Lily had checked. The most any shrouded was expected to achieve was Nascent Shroud in their third year of school. And only a hundred out of the two and a half thousand students were supposed to reach that goal. Normally, Achieving their second higher form took four to five times longer than gaining the first. And that was considered fast. The work of a prodigy.

Only half the shrouded who survived mandatory military service would achieve True Shroud status. And most would only do so after 50 to 75 years. The youngest on record had been 31. And he was considered a genius. Little record was kept of the Council’s achievements, or those from before the CA was formed, but Cat had told them her grandfather only reached True Shroud at the ripe age of 62. If it weren’t for the rejuvenating effects of reaching Embodiment, most of the shrouds walking the streets with them would look like unshrouded in their wilting years with liver spots and grey hair.

And Caeden’s own monumental achievement was only on par with the miracles that were his friends. Lily was far too young to have both an evolved shroud and two splinters. She hadn’t reached Nascent Shroud yet, but she couldn’t be far off.

Then there was Cat, who now held the pinnacle, the rarest of the rare, a magic shroud. So rare, the CA’s records couldn’t even define the odds of one occurring. One in a trillion was the best guess. Possibly closer to one in a quintillion shrouded would be born with a magic shroud.

Now Erik, who was another one-in-one-thousand dual-shrouded, and a Nascent Shroud twice over. He had finally registered himself as a Healer with the CA’s guild of Healers. He hadn’t done so previously, as the guild only gave out ranks according to a shroud's healing potential, discounting the skill and knowledge of the user. It was a stupid and elitist system that didn’t recognize unshrouded Healers at all, and Erik had refused to participate as the rank he would have been given with Stitch didn’t reflect his true capabilities. Now that he had Healing itself as a domain, he reluctantly accepted the highest rank Grandmaster. Though he said he felt dirty about it since the rank still didn’t account for his skills. But having it now meant he could legally charge for his services and earn money off of his skills in Central City.

Then there was Asherta. Possibly a unique existence in all of the Starry Sea, as a half-human half-dragon hybrid. Her shroud was such an odd domain that she fell into the same category as Cat’s Soul. One that was almost impossible to train, as its limits were hard to define. But her raw physical might and draconic features already classed her among the best melee fighters Caeden had seen.

All told, they were each at least stronger than anyone even two decades their senior. At least. They likely outclassed anyone younger than 60 except for the exceptionally powerful. And Caeden was genuinely interested in seeing how they would stack up against the strongest of the other nations. He was willing to dig deep and bring out everything he could. After all, the Headmaster had made it sound like failure could bring a war the CA was sorely unprepared for, and Caeden found himself actually caring about all those who would die in that conflict.

But once again, now wasn’t the time for him to worry about that. Now was when he would finally see his uncle standing tall again. They could forge side by side like they had when Caeden was younger. An experience that Caeden missed in a way he couldn’t put into words.

They had finally come to the small building his uncle was being housed in. In general, very few shrouded were ever injured enough to need assistance, and those that were only remained that way because they could not pay for the healing. If that was the case, they ended up in this small building, where the CA housed them with the bare minimum necessary to keep them alive. This was the 1% of the 1% who ended up essentially permanently in this situation. Something incredibly rare. In fact, most of the people in the building were actually unshrouded who worked in Central City, but their employer wasn’t willing to pay out for their healing. So here they languished.

It all came down to the fact that healing capable shrouds were rare enough, and most were locked into military contracts and kept busy with the constant stream of wounded coming from the neverending low-level conflict that always existed between shrouded nations. One in a thousand healers would escape that fate and the lucrative contracts that came with it to set up private practices. And the prices they charged to make up for that lost income were massive.

Add to that the fact that most of those individuals wouldn’t even serve unshrouded, and you ended up with a few small places like this that the CA funded. It was mostly staffed by continental shrouded like Caeden, but ones that had dropped out of the Academy after the first year with non-combat shrouds that could make food or clean. There were a grand total of three in this building, all of whom weren’t much older than Caeden and his friends.

It was a sad and depressing place that Caeden would be overjoyed to free his uncle from.

“Party of five here to see Unc,” Caeden told the disinterested young woman sitting behind a desk at the front of the building. She waved them through with barely a glance, more interested in a video on her CV screen. It looked like several people dancing in strange costumes, but Caeden had little interest in whatever the current trend was in the entertainment industry, so he ignored it.

Instead, they went upstairs to Unc’s room. He was watching screen of his own; something Caeden didn’t remember seeing the last time he was here. He wondered when it was added. But that was only a passing thought as unc turned toward him, confusion shifting to a massive smile.

“Caeden! You’re back from that trip of yours. And you brought your friends. Good, good.” he laughed, the sound as deep and bassy as Caeden had ever heard. His uncle’s extremities had been decimated in an explosion meant for Caeden. Another Revolution attack, one aimed at new Academy students. Caeden’s enhanced body had spared most of his uncle from the blast, but his feet and arms had been caught in it. He was missing large chunks of each, including most of his hands, with only a few malformed fingers left on each.

His face had caught a glancing blow, clearing the left side of his head of all the bushy black hair across the rest, revealing pale skin Caeden had rarely seen as a child. Unc believed a big beard blocked the sparks from his forge better than any covering, never mind that it caught fire on occasion.

His uncle was a big man, broad and tall, much like Caeden, but both bigger and taller. A stranger might believe they were actually related, considering the similar build, if not for the completely different skin tones. But Unc was the brother of Caeden’s adopted mother, not his blood relative.

“I’m glad you all were gone, honestly. One of the caretakers here took pity on me and brought one of these VC contraptions in here. They have an entire show dedicated to news, so I heard about the mess that went down at that school of yours. I’m glad you all weren’t caught up in it. Though aren’t you back early? The whatchamacallit was saying you lot aren’t supposed to be back for another week yet.” He looked between them all, waiting for an explanation.

“It’s called a CV, Unc. And I’ll explain all that in a minute.” Caeden scoffed, trying to keep his emotions in check. Of course, Unc managed to convince one of the bored shrouded here to get him something to do. His uncle was a man of action, and sitting in a quiet room must be driving him mad. No doubt he talked one of their ears off, and they got the entertainment system to shut him up. He couldn't very well read with his hands in that condition. Caeden wondered how he had been controlling the CV.

“Erik?” Caeden asked.

“No problem, buddy. Won’t even take a minute.” Erik waved his hand before miraculously tripping over the cable hooking the CV into the building's power. Before he could face plant into the sharp corner of the bed, glowing silver chains wrapped around his body, holding him in place before pulling him back upright. That would be his Binding shroud at work. Now they would get to see his Healing shroud in action.

Caeden laid his hand on Unc’s burn-scarred and blasted arm while the man looked on curiously. Soft yellow light with flecks of green radiated off the point of contact, swiftly moving to cover Unc’s entire body in a soft glow.

“Oof. Tons of missing mass, breaks, contusions, bone fragments, signs of internal bleeding that healed improperly. That’s not even mentioning the actual burn damage or the blunt force trauma the rest of him received. You guys got out of there so fast he actually got whiplash with his whole body. Damn.” Erik casually rattled off everything wrong with Unc’s body with a bright smile. “Aaaaand done.”

The glow vanished. And there lay Caeden’s uncle, completely whole. Even his missing hair had grown back.

Erik looked him up and down. “Damn, I do good work. I’ll take my payment in awesome new weapons to go with my new shrouds.”