The shard went in, and once more she felt a great power surge through her. But this time it was gentler in its transformation. Ever since she had absorbed her first essence Seras had gained an awareness of a hidden reservoir within herself. A pool of power deep within herself that was her mana, a pool that was bonded with the strength of her Technology essence.

She felt that pool surge.

As the latent potential of her Technology essence was transformed a blue grey light emerged from her body.

She felt a sickening surge within her soul, and transformation that was unlike the forceful reconfiguration of essence bonding. It was like something foreign and unknowable entity tapped on her soul and told it how to transform itself. When her soul was finished with transformation she felt a warm trickle of power flow into her mana pool, and she felt the pool surge past its original boundaries. It grew from a small pool into a small pond.

Her reserves of Mana remained the same, but she could feel the trickle of power working to fill in the newly enlarged space.

Seras opened her eyes.

Outworlder Racial gift Astral affinity was transfigured to Astral wellspring.

Astral Wellspring

An enhanced affinity for the astral, resulting from the astral energies your soul was bathed in during transmigration. Reduced effects of astral anomalies and attacks. Cost and side effects of astral abilities is reduced. Enhanced Transcendent damage. Your soul is now more open to the power of the astral resulting in a higher mana recovery speed. Recovery speed varies depending on the strength of the dimensional membrane.

The bounds of your mana pool have been greatly expanded.

Awakening stone of the celestial book has bonded with Technology essence.

Ability Spark of Madness:

Allows the summoning of a bound familiar from the deep astral. Summons a Spark of Madness.

Cost: Extreme Mana

Cooldown: One Day

Seras blinked, “the hell.” She said out loud as she read the text boxes on her HUD.

“That’s our line” Flint grumbled.

“Agreed, racial gift evolutions are pretty rare.” Dustin said. “Do you know which racial gift was transformed?”

“My astral affinity.” Seras answered as she continued reading. “It looks like all the previous abilities are still there, but I also got a boost to mana recovery and the size of my mana pool.”

“That’s a good one” Dustin said.

“Only if she gets a lot of spells or mana hungry attacks. I’ve heard of racial gifts like this that are somewhat useless for their users since they can’t spend mana fast enough.” Flint explained.

“Maybe it came with a potent spell” Dustin mused. “Did it.”

“Not that I can tell. I feel like a lot of knowledge just got forced into my head, a very intricate circle, and a list of materials. I think it’s a familiar summoning power.”

They exchanged a look.

Flint cleared his throat, “that’s not supposed to be possible without prior ritual knowledge.”

“Well, maybe not” Dustin said, “Awakening stones from great Astral beings are different from normal ones. It may have been specifically designed to only allow for summoning powers. Do you know the ability name.”

Seras grimaced “Spark of madness.”

“Well that just sounds wonderful” Flint said threw his hands into the air. “Just what we need, a mad Outworlder.”

“That’s enough Flint.” Dustin barked. He turned to Seras “Don’t let him discourage you, that’s just the type of familiar you can summon, is there anything on it in the registry?”

Seras did a quick search. “None. I guess since it bonded to my Technology essence it isn’t something you guys would have seen before.”

“No, I guess not. What are the summoning costs.”

That was the part that really made Seras disappointed with the ability, “Some four thousand iron spirit coins, as well as lightning quintessence, dimension quintessence, light quintessence, something could an Opal of portent.”

Flint whistled. “Congratulations, you have a familiar you’ll never summon. The quintessence alone would bankrupt you four times over, let alone the Opal of Portent.”

“It can’t be that bad” Dustin said.

“Oh it is.” Flint confirmed “Opals of Portent are very rare, and highly desired. They’re used in a lot of powerful magical arrays and artifice.”

“Then there’s the dimension quintessence.” Dustin murmured. “The one time I traded dimension quintessence I was able to buy enough essences and awakening stones for four of my brothers. Good ones too.”

Seras felt her heart sink. That made two useless abilities.

“How many do you need?” Flint asked suddenly.

“Seven. Iron rank.”

He frowned. “that, might just be doable. Might. There are rare iron rank monsters that can be found within Astral spaces that might be able do the job. However they’re hard to find and even harder to kill. The shadow hopper can be found in astral spaces abundant in darkness magics, they can jump from one shadow to another while spitting necrotic curses. Even if you find and successfully fight one it can just flee through the shadows. But they’re known to give dimension quintessence.”

Seras frowned “Sounds tedious. Couldn’t I just buy some?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Not on the open market. That is one of the most desirable quintessence out there, right next to myriad.”

“Fuck” Seras cursed.

“Indeed.” Dustin agreed. “Do you want to try the other awakening stone?”

“Not really in the mood anymore.” Seras said.

She had gotten a good ability out of the metal essence, and she had been pretty pleased. But now she realized that she had been too hasty in accepting it, and was now robbed of the chance to try and coordinate her power set. And then the awakening stone that could have bought her a third and final essence and a bunch of awakening stones not only gave her an ability she couldn’t use, but one with a tremendous price tag.

This whole magic power thing was just a huge drag.

~~~*~~~

In the morning Petra somehow felt from Seras’ aura that she had a new essence and pestered her all morning for a demonstration.

What then followed was the whole camp taking a whack at her to test her durability. It was only when Petra had swung at her with a war hammer the size of her head that she took enough damage to require her auto repair to fix.

“That’s pretty good for a first power, I’m peak iron. Even with a special attack I only bruised your arm. Then again, I didn't use special attack” Petra consoled.

“I don’t bruise, I dent. That’s why the power works on me at all” Seras corrected. “What if I used it on you? You’d get sturdier right?”

Petra looked thoughtful “Yeah, I would, wouldn’t I.” stone armor appeared around her torso. “Try to add your power to me.” Petra said.

Seras obeyed, and felt her mana reserves drop by half as it was poured into the Leonid’s amor. The stone-like armor was then covered in electric blue lines like that of a circuit board.

The Lioness grinned “Hey Flint, hit me with your stone spear.” She shouted.

Flint, who was arguing with Dustin about something turned, saw Petra and Seras standing next to each other and put two and two together. He pointed a finger, murmured something under his breath, and a stone spear materialized in the air before launching forward like a ballista bolt.

Seras just barely jumped out of the way it time before the spear hit Petra’s breastplate. A small puff of dust and stone chunks engulfed Petra. But when it cleared she was standing tall, with only a divot in her armor.

Flint looked shocked, while Dustin smirked.

“Nifty power” Petra said, “Usually his pear makes a bigger dent, what was the mana cost.”

“Half my total mana.”

“And it only withstood a single hit. Not too bad for a first essence power. And it’ll only get better from here.”

“How do you advance essence anyway?” Seras asked.

Petra gave her cocky grin as her armor crumbled to dust. “Well, how do people usually get stronger?”

Seras frowned “Usually you buy stronger arms or something, I doubt that’s the answer though.”

“Uh right.” Petra said with an uncomfortable look. “Training. Your muscles, your mind, and your magic. You work yourself to the limits of your power and then push through to the next level. Your metal essence bonded to your strength attribute, so if you want to push through to the next level you need to work out.”

Seras cocked her head, “Uh, just one problem with that. my arms aren’t made of meat, they have a set strength and don’t really get much stronger.”

Petra frowned “Huh. Then I guess you can’t advance.”

Seras threw her head back a sighed. “That’s just my fucking luck.”

“You could always rely on core advancement.” She offered.

“How does that work?”

“You absorb monster cores to fuel your growth, much easier.”

“Then why does anyone bother with the other method? Using cores seems way easier.”

“For one because cores are expensive, and you need a lot to get past each rank. But also they’re not as potent. A monster core user will never fully master their abilities, and their powers are weaker too. And using them locks out natural advancement.”

“Oh, so it’s a matter training versus throwing money at a problem.”

“Essentially.”

“Well fuck, that first method sounds right up my alley.”

“What if you tried too anyway?” Petra offered.

“What?” Seras asked.

“Why not go through the motions of normal training?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because magic is weird and complicated. There may some obscure magic principle that actually allows you to advance normally, and you’ll never know unless you try right?”

Seras considered that. then she shrugged “Fuck it, I’m down.”

Petra smacked Seras’ back, “That’s the spirit.”

Dustin made a sharp whistle, and they all went to mount up.

~~~*~~~

Once again Seras rode with Dustin throughout the day, he was still teaching her about Heidel riding. But after their noonday break Seras found herself riding next to Petra at the back of the formation. They had decided it made the most sense for her to ride next to Petra since her one and only ability was most useful for boosting Petra defenses.

Unlike the journey to Karstess, their route now took them through endless flat scrubland. They spent the whole day following a dried riverbed, and the only indication that they were making progress was the shrinking mountains on the horizon.

On the next day they continued their long march south when, abruptly, Dustin held up the whole caravan.

He sat stalk still on his Heidal staring at the horizon. Then he cursed under his breath “Flint, Petra, shelters now! All hands secure the cargo and the Heidels.”

After that everyone flew into a frenzy, they moved with a practiced efficiency that implied they had done this before. Seras wanted to ask about a hundred questions, but she recognized now wasn’t the time. She jumped off Buck and ran to one of the nearby wagons to help the crew push it into a freshly excavated pit Flint had formed with magic.

In under half an hour the Caravan crew had created a small stone complex dug a meter into the earth. There was a large central chamber with a fire pit and chimney for the smoke, and two side annexes for the Heidels and waste disposal. They had thrown tarps over the air holes and exits, and huddled into the space just as a colossal dust storm hit them.

Seras had once wondered what it felt like to be in the middle of a sand blaster, and now she no longer needed to imagine what it was like. Hurricane winds ripped at the tarps, making them ripple violently, and the sound of sand and dust shredding away at the outside walls was like the continuous scrape of nails against stone.

Seras saw Dustin, Flint, and the healer Garret drawing intricate circles against a the walls. “What’s that for” She asked Garret.

“Aura masking, as well as other senses.” He explained.

“Why do we need it? Its just sand right?”

He gave her a suspicious look, “sometimes its hard to remember how ignorant you are of things we all take for granted. It is just sand, sand and sand elementals. As well Storm Wraiths and sand Shrikes. They’re all common monsters that use sandstorms to hunt. The stone walls keeps us out of sight, and the rituals prevent us from being seen with magical sight.”

Seras suppressed the indignation at being called ignorant. Garret just had a poor choice of words, and she was ignorant to a lot of things on this new world. “Any way I could help?”

“Not unless you know ritual magic.”

“No luck there, how long is this going to take?”

“The ritual, or the storm?”

“Storm, I know the ritual will take as long as it takes.” Seras had a hacker friend on her last world. Whenever she asked how long it would take him to get into a system he always replied ‘that it takes and long it takes’.

“Don’t know, no more than a week I’d say, maybe less.”

“A whole week!”

“Yup.”

“Fuck, what are we going to do stuck in this little space for a whole week?”

Garret looked over. “Likely training, it’ll be hard in this tight space, but its why most of us signed on.”

“You signed on to train, not, I don’t know, make a ton of money?” Seras asked sarcastically.

Garret laughed “moneys a factor, but not the biggest one. Essence users, even ones with only one like me are in demand everywhere. There are tons of nobles, guilds, and private companies looking to hire essence users. They take you in, give you some training, help you fill out your powerset, and maybe provide monster cores for rank ups. But that kind of deal comes with strings.”

Seras nodded “I’ve heard that before. All the expensive training you could want, but absolutely zero freedom afterwards.”

Garret looked concerned “Its not that extreme, usually just a long contract. Were you exaggerating, or is that really a thing on your world?”

“More or less. Most corps are less blatant about it since they still need to wrangle people to join in the first place, but once your in its basically a lifetime ordeal.”

“Why would anyone do that, that can’t be good for society.”

“No, but its great for short term quarterly gains, the future can go fuck itself for all they care.” Seras crossed her arms. “from what you’re saying it sounds like working for Dustin is a better deal. How so?”

Garret still looked concerned but he kept his thoughts to himself “Well for anyone going into a trade or specialist position its not ideal, but for those of us who want to be adventurers it can’t be beat.”

Seras frowned “Really?”

He nodded “Anyone can get essences and awakening stones, either through money, circumstances of birth, or blind stupid luck. But to be an adventurer you need skills, and that’s not something most people can get on their own. You can train all you want, but without the proper instruction to guide your effort its just time wasted.”

“And working for Dustin get’s you those skills.” Seras surmised.

“That’s right, just look at what I’m doing right now. Magic rituals and formations aren’t just something you can pick up. The books are expensive, and the people who write them make sure to spread the useful spells across ten or twelve volumes. But Flint has all those books, as well as decades of practical experience. Then there’s weapon skills, Dustin’s been wandering the deserts for a long time, and he’s been refining his abilities for a while. But the real draw is his aura control.”

“His aura control. What’s so interesting about that?”

“Aura is invisible and ethereal. Without all your essences its hard to feel or read, and even with all those you need an aura power to really use it. But all that aside Aura manipulation is the foundation for all essence users, and finding good teachers is expensive. But Dustin offers that kind of tutelage to anyone who works for him, even practical demonstrations.”

“Is aura really that important?”

“It is” Garret said firmly. “Its how essence users judge each other. It dictates first impressions, and the respect people give you. Finding anyone freely teaching aura control is hard, and finding one as good as Dustin is even harder. I get to learn all the skills I need to become a proper adventurer all while earning enough to buy my other essence and awakening stones. I even get to travel. It’s a good deal all around. Its why we were confused when you turned Dustin down.”

Seras frowned “I didn’t know enough to tell whether it was good or bad. I thought I could make it on my own.”

“And how’d that work out for you?” he asked softly.

“Well I’m back here aren’t I” Seras said with a shrug.

Garett frowned “They didn’t tell us what happened. But you came back pretty shaken up, it must have been rough.” He said softly.

Seras turned away, “got all that from just a glance?”

“You approached a caravan of men naked as the day you were born, and reborn, and acted as if us coming by was a happy little accident. You then explained to us that your from another world, and made of metal even though you had an idea how we would react. Then you faced down a bronze rank monster and tore its jaw off. We know confidence isn’t a trait you lack, but you were very… hesitant... and unsure of things after Karstess. All we know is you killed a bronze rank adventurer.”

Seras stared at her feet. “Let’s just say I had a wake up call in Karstess. I think that was where I really realized how out of my depths I am.”

He nodded and patted her shoulder “I can’t imagine what you must be feeling, until two weeks ago Outworlders were just rumors to me. But we’re here for you. You’re one of us now.”

“Thanks” Seras said softly. She then plastered on a fake smile “now, tell me about this magic circle thing, what are these runes around the outside edge?” she asked, forcing the conversation away from where it had strayed.