Name: Nathaniel Eugene Hart Titles: Unbound Liberator Level: 81 Age: 24 Sol Race: Human (Precursor) Affinity: Terrestrial Classes: Thornblade Acolyte (Uncommon) Professions: Aetherial Melding Health: 900/900 Stamina: 100/100 Vitality: 90 Strength: 50 Spirit: 10

Dexterity:

170 Perception: 90 Intelligence: 230 Wisdom: 230 Free Points: 0 Options: [Talent Page], [Skill Page], [Profession Page]

Satisfied, I closed my Status.

I have to say, it had been damn satisfying to allocate one hundred and twenty Virtue points at once. I think I even felt the difference physically as my body adapted to its newfound strength. Normally it was hard to notice the incremental improvements in physical and mental ability that Virtue increases gave, but you really noticed it when you doling out ten at a time. Not only that, but I had decided to do something I hadn’t since Caer Drarrow.

I’d allocated twenty points into Strength. Even though I was going for a Mage build, I had noticed that the increased raw physical might that the points I’d put in back then had really helped me. I think that Sylvan Vigor didn’t work by giving me a flat increase in physical ability, but instead by multiplying what I already had. So, in that case, it was useful to actually level up my Strength Virtue to a degree to make it more effective. Don’t get me wrong, though. I had also noticed that the Skill was being affected by my increasing Intelligence, as most of my class abilities were. I believe that Skill was just an apparently rare case of dual scaling.

Lucky me.

Sylvia and I spent the rest of our meal almost giddy from the unexpected windfall that we’d gotten. Not only us, but presumably the rest of the Uprising as well.

God, I can’t believe how that had worked out. I’ll admit, there were times I’d wondered over the last few days if the Uprising could survive the Breaks. Over four hundred thousand monsters was just such an incomprehensibly large number. But the possibility of every soldier and every Classer that the Uprising could field gaining as much as ten more levels at once was just…incredible.

I had to wonder what the knock-on effects of that would be. Hell, as Sylvia had said, the Army would be gaining levels hand over fist by participating in the culling of the horde as well.

I was, admittedly, a little jealous. I would have probably gotten to level one hundred damned easily if I had been part of the defense. All of this theoretical knowledge that Grey had instilled in me over the months would finally get the chance to become practical knowledge, if I had access to my own processed Mana.

I think, though, that the spread of free levels must not have reached as far as Tŵr Gronn. We probably would have heard from the locals if they’d inexplicably grown in strength. In that case, I doubt Helstein had been in range of the unintended gifts.

The forces that Woodrick had kept behind to see to the gateway city’s defense had missed out.

Eventually, Sylvia and I finished our meal together, and she departed. She wanted to talk to Hook about our discovery, and if word of the free levels had reached him or Headquarters yet. I had no doubt that the main host of the Uprising must have noticed, but it was hard for news to reach Agents in the field.

I stayed behind, though. I remembered that Gruffyd was apparently going to be coming for me for some mysterious boon, and it was already starting to become late. Tarus had long since set over the horizon, and the guest house was starting to empty of patrons. The barkeep had approached me not long ago and asked if I needed something. He’d left with rolled eyes and an understanding look when I told him that I was waiting for the Chief.

While I waited for said Chief, I decided to get something done that I was a bit excited for. I may not understand fully how the whole process worked, but…

I was always happy for a chance to use Synergy.

Sitting at my cleared and empty table, I concentrated on the skill. I was startled, though, when in my mind's eye, my skills exploded into view within a dark void. The hell was this? The skill had never functioned this way before. Usually, I could only kind of…feel my skills out whenever I used Synergy. But now I was…actually kind of seeing them?

Actually, wait a second.

Now that I got a better look at this, I recognized it for what it was.

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This was my soul. The last time I had seen it was when I had been during the operation to meld the cap my golden arm attached to. It wasn’t quite as clear as that meld sight had been, but I could still faintly make out the same crystalized rainbow fire tree. My skills floated around it in abstract representations that, if I reached out to touch them, I could feel them like I once had.

This was pretty odd, I have to say. Had the Skill evolved in some way?

Hmm.

I hadn’t used Synergy since before I’d gotten more familiar with the soul manipulation aspects of Aetherial Melding. I had always been told that there was, if not a mind, then an awareness behind the System itself. Had the System perhaps detected that I had stumbled on that feature of my Profession, and either altered or unlocked a previously hidden feature of the Skill?

That was a little disconcerting. Sometimes it was frustrating just how opaque and obtuse the System could be.

Whatever, I could worry about that later. I had something I wanted to do.

I reached out mentally and grabbed the roiling crimson chains of Grinding Crimson Slash with one hand and the thorny blade of Thorned Sunder with the other. As I brought the two skills closer to each other in this mental space, they slammed together as if they had been magnetized. The resulting representation of my new Skill looked to be a sword covered in writhing red thorns that snaked all up and down the length of the blade.

The sight of my soul faded away once I had gotten a good look at the new Skill. Unfortunately, just getting a look at some abstract representation in a soul space didn’t tell me what the Skill was called in order to use it.

I used Hidden Amidst the Spheres once again to summon my Status. Clicking through the small notification, I beheld the name and suitably vague description of my new Skill.

You have learned the Class Skill, Grinding Crimson Sunder! Grinding Crimson Sunder: Grind through the hide of your enemies with dendropathic malice.

There it went again with the ‘dendropathic malice’. System, I don’t know what you thought of me, but I didn’t think of myself as being particularly malefic. I’m hurt, I truly am.

Still, I could take a guess what this Skill did. I don’t think I really needed to go out and practice it right now in the cold night air in order to figure it out, like I sometimes did. This was probably just an enhanced version of the Skill I had stolen from that knight in Caer Drarrow, Grinding Crimson Strike. I’d tried it out a few times in the past, and it had been a bit…underwhelming. I didn’t typically need to fight heavily armored opponents. At least, not yet.

We’ll have to see what the war brings.

My attention was drawn when Fade raised his head from his position sitting at my feet. The young wolf had been drowsing after his own meal of a whole rabbit that the barkeep had graciously given him, but now he was alert. He was gazing behind me towards the front of the guest house. Turning, I stood up from the bench and long table that I was sitting on.

Gruffyd had just entered the guest house. The Chief was looking a little different, though. He was barechested and barefoot, for one, wearing only a pair of rough leather pants to cover himself. The man was built like a brick shithouse, though, with muscles on top of muscles so it didn’t look too odd. He was also covered in strange, flowing, iridescent blue body paint that covered him from head to toe in flowing lines and whorls, almost looking like representations of the wind.

The few other remaining patrons in the guest house, whom I had pegged as lonely drunks, were visibly startled at his appearance. Meanwhile, the bartender outright boggled at the sight of the painted Chieftain. He hurried out from behind his bar and engaged with a fierce whispered conversation, before Gruffyd pointed at me. The bartender followed his finger and gave me one of the most shocked looks I’d ever seen.

Gruffyd clapped the bartender on the shoulder and strode over to me. Once he had reached my position, he visibly looked me up and down. He shook his head, grunting in negation. “That won’t do,” He said abruptly. “Do you have anything to wear that you’ve hunted yourself?”

I blinked at the odd question, momentarily looking down at my Order uniform. What the hell was wrong with it? Still, I answered him. “Ah…I have a pair of leather breaches on under these, I guess?” Which I did. I was lucky enough to have slipped on the leather pants that I had made myself under my Order pants. I typically did that so I would have more protection for my legs, in the rough branches and brambles of the forest.

Gruffyd grinned broadly at me and clapped my shoulder. “Good! Then, I’m going to need you to strip down to them. You can leave the rest of your kit with Gundr, the barkeep,” He nodded to said barkeep, who was standing not far from us and looking at me disbelievingly.

I gaped at the odd request. “Why?” I asked weakly. It’s not every day that a massively muscled man asked you to nearly strip naked.

Gruffy was unfazed by the question. “Because the Ancient One doesn’t care for people who wear what they didn’t harvest or kill themselves,” He said patiently. “You might cause offense, if I take you before him in that.”

I held up a hand to stop him, feeling a migraine nearly come on before I suppressed it with my middle ring. “Look. What is going on here, Chief Gruffyd? I am grateful for your hospitality and the aid you will give my mentor, but you never explained what we’re doing.” This whole thing was starting to seem a little suspicious. By this point, I think I had learned to be properly suspicious of strange offers, even ones that were coming from allies.

“I guarantee you, nothing harmful will happen,” Gruffyd said, laying one massive hand on my shoulder. “As I asked the Elder earlier, I will be taking you before the Ancient One. He is a powerful guardian spirit for the Thunderheart Clan. I was recognized by him many years ago as the rightful Chief of my people, and he will not harm you. Be at peace, Nathaniel Hart. Besides,” His gaze drifted down to Fade, who had gotten to his feet to watch the two of us. “I imagine the meeting will be very useful for both of you.”

I exchanged a glance with Fade. He didn’t look too concerned, so…I guess I was okay with this. I heaved a long sigh and nodded. “Okay. I guess I’ll just, uh…” I glanced around the room for a concealed place to change, before giving up. The first floor of the guest house was pretty much all open floor.

As swiftly as I dared, I stripped down to only the leather breeches under my pants. Even if I had nothing to be ashamed about these days, I was still self-conscious. It was just so damn embarrassing to be nearly naked like this in a public place. When the bartender scurried up to me, I handed him my Order uniform, the accompanying armor, my pouches, and my weapons. “Take them up to my room, please,” I said, with strained politeness. “Hand them over to the Sculpted woman I was with.”

The bartender murmured his acceptance, before tromping up the stairs and out of sight. Meanwhile, I directed my gaze back to Gruffyd, trying not to shiver in the air of the guest house. “I’m ready,” I said shortly.

“Very well,” The Chief nodded, before turning and gesturing for me to follow him. He strode out the door of the guest house at that, clearly expecting me to follow. I did so, actually starting to shiver in the cold night air.

There weren’t that many people out in the village at night, but the few we did see almost universally gaped at the Chief and I in the same way the bartender had. I’m guessing something about the body paint specified what we were doing.

Likely something to do with this ‘Ancient One’.

Actually, now that I thought about it…

Wasn’t this the second ‘Ancient One’ I was going to be meeting in as many months? There had been the Elder in Sancthaven, too.

Odd how I seemed to be stumbling across all these relics from the past.