Concepts are living ideas, but the key word is living. They always take something from you to manifest, like experiences or even lingering injuries inflicted on you by something related to the concept. In essence, this makes concepts system-adjacent.
Not only are they living ideas, they're also ascended ideas. Something built upon the laws and elements active within your realm, like some kind of platonic pedestal that you can modify. Practitioners of the highest art, the guys who know how to use Ciphers, they've spent billions of years trying to conceive of how Concepts actually function. And the Inheritors have several super-intelligences devoted to the exact same task.
Now, those motherfuckers might not have had much luck building a new System, but a stable Concept? They've made plenty of those. And the ultimate thing about Concepts is that they don't need Essence to run. No, back to the living again, my friend. It requires something from you. Temporary investiture of will. A percentage of animation drawn clean out of your body for a certain period of time.
That's what makes a concept so valuable. If you've got it, you just might be able to enforce a miracle depending on the strength of your character. But remember, if you overdraw, there will be nothing left of you in the end.
No one comes back from that.
-John Bishop, Trespasser
60
A Living Idea
Wei responded to the sudden loss of his Will as anyone would—by trying to pull it back from the bastard Concept that stole it.
"Give it back to me! Give it back!" the young master growled.
He forced a monochromatic tendril into the Concept Core, immediately starting to use his system, desperate to take back what was stolen. As his anger rose, his Aspect of Intent plummeted, going from 1600 to 1500 to 1324 before it suddenly stopped.
During this time, Wei felt something leak out from his soul, and a sudden feeling of lethargy filled his being. It was like he'd just been sapped.
Unable to locate target concept, his System finally said.
"Then, what good are you?" Wei growled, spitting venom at the only reason he was still alive. Of all the times to fail, why now? Why could it break distance or shatter someone's mind or strength, but not secure his memories? They were his in the first place.
His anger would have only continued spiking, but his Aspect of Intent experiencing sudden advancement distracted him. Slowly, it began to climb, rising from 1324 to 1325, and then only accelerating from there. A System notification appeared before him, showing a string of strange symbols before his Intent was finally registered as incalculable once more. A weight returned to the young master, and a fullness refilled his very being.
For a moment, he just sat there, blinking, trying to take in what had just happened.
"System?" he said. "I have several questions."
The first among them was why he hadn't undergone over a hundred Aspect Advancements, for that was what he had supposedly just experienced. A second was about the potential confirmation of a theory. Previously, he suspected that his Aspect of Intent wasn't actually limitless but ever-growing. What he just saw lent great credence to such a possibility.
No advancement has taken place, his System said. Aspect of Intent remains as it always has. Unstable; in constant flux.
"In flux?" Wei said. Well, that just added more fuel to the fire. So, his willpower was ever-growing? His memories, however, proved to be another story. Faintly, he could recall visiting another sanctuary before arriving in this one, and also the fact that he had fought a Knight of Wrath—or was it Pride? Whatever the case, the details of the battle were now elusive to him. Every blow he struck was missing from his mind; only the generalities remained. The moment-to-moment was utterly lost. The decay of his recollections was made more prominent by how refined his mind became with each advancement in enlightenment. If memory was a canvas, then several patches were now aflame, wilting into blackened ash.
However, before Wei could brood, he felt another resonance ring out from within him, causing his auditions to turn inward and regard his soul. His Path of the Harvest, the Concept Ascension he had obtained from upgrading his Sorcery, was no longer a swirling vortex of darkness dancing around a pinprick of light. Instead, a collage of moments circled around a sphere of space. The first of which depicted an ash-black sanctuary, barely blasted by some unseen force. The memories that followed thereafter were of Wei striking at an orc, using whips of lashing lightning, pummeling them with rock, wind, and falling tides.
These were the memories he had lost, now captured within his Concept Ascension.
The young master frowned at this. His System might not have been able to take back what his Concept Core had stolen, but his Path of the Harvest had created a recording.
The Harvest deals with the concept of taking. That which is lost will resonate within these depths.
"Truly?" Wei said. "What else can it do?"
Grant you Skills and Titles related to the Concept of Harvest.
“But what does that mean?”
But his System fell silent, offering no further suggestions. Wei's frown returned, and he wondered if his System was deliberately uncooperative or if it simply lacked knowledge of its own functionality sometimes. Judging from how he needed to pass through the First Gate before he even gained access to its critical functions, he suspected it to be the latter.
Nevertheless, he had other means of procuring knowledge. Summoning the Trespasser's Compendium with a thought, Wei immediately went through all queries related to concepts, Concept Cores, and concept ascensions.
The Knight of Lust let out a low whimper, but the young master simply prodded her with the tip of his Eidolon. Another few pebbles fell from the ceiling, splashing into the restorative spring waters.
From behind, he heard Roggi ask, "Oi, lad, you alright? Are you gonna explode?"
"No," Wei grunted, trying to keep his focus.
"Well, if you're gonna explode, let me know. I want to leave first so I can come back and actually loot you. Well, what's left of you? By the way, if you are going to explode, give me the bottle. No sense in wasting good drink."
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The young master waved the Oathbearer off with an annoyed gesture. The bastard was making light of his potential death. He needed to teach him how to properly treat a Patriarch. But that was for later. Right now, he had memory-eating mysteries to solve.
In a matter of minutes, hundreds of pages were torn free from his Compendium, and Wei's appreciation for the book rapidly grew. Earlier, he assumed the spear or armor to be the better artifact gifted to him by the Harbinger. Now, he realized he was clearly mistaken. The true gift was the Trespasser's Compendium, for within its contents lay a trove of information.
The encyclopedia pages about Concepts were immediately enlightening. On top of what the class description already provided him, Wei realized that concepts were supernal realms—or realms that were built over other realms. Furthermore, they existed in reference to existing elements and didn’t require essence to form or channel, for they were, often, the wellspring of essences, rather than it being the other way around. To this end, they were also regarded on the same level as a system, capable of shaping or altering existence.
From here, he uncovered an entry related to someone who gained a Minor Concept Core of Fire. Apparently, they hailed from a culture where flames were regarded as an element capable of healing or reforging, but not destroying. As such, when they finally arrived in the claimed hells and managed to achieve Class Tier Ascension, the Skills they created using the Concept Core were all restorative in nature.
Wei was confused about why this was until he read ahead a few paragraphs down. There, he discovered that the writer of the entry was in fact an Infernian, some kind of elemental race that fed and reforged their bodies using fire. Little wonder why their understanding of fire was quite different from that of a human.
Continuing with a few other entries, Wei was also surprised to discover that Concept Cores could naturally form within certain realms. Usually, these realms needed a malfunctioning System or a System-running experiment. Additionally, Concept Cores did not manifest in the presence of sub-sapient minds.
Rather, it required something at human-level intelligence or higher to materialize themselves. Typically, they took the shape of a sphere. The size varied depending on how many memories they consumed and how much essence constantly flowed out from them. A Concept Core that only existed in the presence of a single individual might only stay a minor core for some time. However, Concept Cores that existed near entire kingdoms or even planetary empires often took on a grand scale of their own. But growth wasn't just nourished by the quantity of memories, but novelty and detail as well.
Moving on to the forums, Wei found a great many exchanges regarding Concept Cores—Trespassers giving each other advice on certain builds and how they could use their concepts offensively, defensively, or for utility. It was as he browsed through the forums that a single name kept jumping out to him.
John Bishop.
This Trespasser left a great many messages for the others, spoke as if a refined master. A sense of deja vu passed through Wei as he squinted at the man's name. Did they know each other? Wei didn't think so. The name sounded strange, as did most names that didn't originate from Evernest.
After a while, Wei started filtering specifically for John Bishop due to the sheer quality of his answers, especially on the topic of concepts. A specific excerpt caught Wei's attention and left him in momentary rumination.
John Bishop: The memories you give a Concept Core become the structure behind a title or a skill. That's why they don't come back. You are effectively investing the bones of a coming skill or title you wish to gain from your concept.
Now, your willpower, that you do get back, but only after a while, as it's a required component behind cultivating your Concept Core. Once again, concepts are living ideas. You need to infuse something alive into it. Nothing's more alive than someone's force of character. Just remember not to give too much.
Do not go hollow. Won't be anything left of you to save after. Zero in any aspect renders you beyond crippled, my friend. Don't do it.
Wei moved on to other messages left by the man and began investigating the basics behind crafting titles and skills. The process seemed quite like cultivation to Wei; however, it was far more streamlined and far less risky. All he needed to do was instill a specific set of memories or experiences to begin shaping his initial class generation. He remembered seeing the options as he interfaced with his Concept Core earlier. However, he also needed to set very clear parameters.
For example, going off the Concept of Fire, if one wanted to create a fire projectile skill of some kind, they needed to have a memory related to a flame in motion. This could be like a meteor or an arrowhead—anything that had a flame traveling across a vector. On top of this, it should also have a person of reference: who was casting the spell, who was receiving the Skill, and what effects the Skill should have. There was never enough detail.
Titles, meanwhile, altered the properties of the individual based on the concept they were modifying. The difference between this and a Skill was mostly separated by the term Spiritbinding, which essentially changes the nature of one’s being based on the Title bestowed.
Going off the Infernian’s entries, the first Title he gained was Pyromaniac, and it amplified the user’s fire-based abilities by a 10% and ensured their flames burned for unnaturally long periods. Further titles such as Flameborn and Blazeheed allowed the user to heal faster when burning while the latter improved their perception while near a fire.
Overall, it seemed that Titles were passive powers bestowed upon the user of the Concept by altering their beings somewhat.
Ultimately, the greatest bottleneck for Concept Cores wasn’t how many memories they were fed or how much Will one invested, but rather their sizes. Presently, Concept Cores were rated from Minor, Lesser, Moderate, Great, Major, Colossal, Titanic, and Axiomatic. With each size, the Skills and Titles produced were of far higher potency as well. However, these increases didn’t come with Class Levels or the like, but through the process of producing Skills and Titles.
Wei considered that for a moment and wondered just how long it would take someone to achieve Axiomatic. Each threshold seemed to increase by an exponential amount, with the last Concept Core encompassing well beyond the span of an entire realm. Just how many memories would it take to make a Skill from that? How all-powerful would a title there be?
The Compendium ran dry on exact details here. Most people with Class Levels above 100 usually kept details sparse to prevent rivals from learning their weaknesses, and System-hosts were on another level of paranoia altogether.
But Wei had more insight than just the Compendium. Before him, the Knight of Lust just lay there, less than a person, more than a husk.
“Have you ever faced someone with an Axiomatic Concept Core?” Wei asked.
She shook her head. “Such a thing would take a millennial to feed—so many memories. So much potential… if not the Harbinger, than perhaps another great power. I am… I was weak. The strongest I knew… a Duke. A Duke with two Major Concept Cores. Still died. Was still destroyed. Couldn’t protect me. Useless. Kill… kill me.”
“No,” Wei said, ignoring her request. “And I will not reconsider until you tell how one creates a Skill or a Title.”
She looked at him again, and her differently colored eyes sparkled with despair and a feverish hunger for death’s embrace. “O-yes, I will show you. I will tell you what memories you need to devote. But… you… you do not lack for Skill or devastation. You are a… a Knight now. You need… you need to build your legend. You need a Title.”
A faint grin spread across the young master’s face. “And you have something in mind.”
“Concept Core… what?”
“Destruction.”
She blinked slowly. “Then… this will be easy.”
And for the next twelve hours, the Knight of Lust told Wei every detail he needed to construct his first Title. She once had several that amplified the growth of flowers in her presence. Such was a common power one bestowed upon themselves. Most Knights called it a Zone-Amplification Title, and it was something that increased the effects of their Skills and abilities.
With Destruction, Wei’s Zone-Amplification Title was a straightforward generation, requiring only a single investment of memories. His second battle against the Knight herself and the utter devastation he caused during that process.
Concept Core: Destruction (Minor)
>Invest Experience — [Battle Against the Dancer of the Calamitous Spiral]
>Infuse Aspect — Perception
>>Determine Title Pathways — All-Breaker: Destruction’s coming is heralded by your footsteps. Increases all damage sustained within the boundary of your Perception by 5%
>>>Cultivating Title: 0 Days 15 Hours 5 Minutes 03 Seconds
As he finished investing his experiences, he felt his Intent diminish once more before recovering. At the same time, the realm of his Concept Core shifted and changed as the scenes from the memory manifested faintly while the powers of devastation swelled. The first spills of essence were leaking out from his Eidolon’s shaft now, and Wei felt a whole new path toward ascension expand before him.
And that wasn’t all.
Within his System, he felt a resonance sound once more.
Memories of Harvest obtained. Recommend creation of Path of Harvest Skill.
Concept Core: Harvest (Minor)
>Invest Masteries
>Invest Experience
>Infuse Aspect