“Even if you don’t make it through the Order Ducis’ recruitment process, you’ve definitely earned a little assistance with your Fate from the way you stepped up at the stadium. You stalled the Grey Lich for several seconds.” Dinesh said as he led Derek through the tight hallways of Kharon’s interior. Although the passages were well lit, the low ceiling still made Derek slightly nervous. “And in terms of condensing a Fate and upgrading your Class… Nathan is the best there is. Aside from the Ghosthound himself, of course.”

“Of course,” Derek echoed. After a day of interviews, combat assessments, physical training benchmarks, and image integrity gradings, Derek was exhausted. He seemed to just float behind Dinesh like a ghost while his guide walked confidently through the interior maze of Kharon. And it had even turned out that Dinesh was not affiliated with the Order Ducis directly, but obviously intimately familiar with all of the leaders of the Order.

But even through the haze of exhaustion, Derek paused in his stride after the other man’s words had a chance to really hit him. “Nathan? The teenager you were with at the game?”

“Yes, that was him,” Dinesh said with a nod. “He is definitely young, but helping people find their true Class is his passion. He has several Skills that make the process much easier; his ability to read images is extremely well developed. And his Class was tailor-made for this role. I can assure you that your chances of condensing a dangerous Fate are effectively zero with his assistance. He is the Architect of Souls.”

“Uh-huh,” Derek mumbled. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe the kindly Dinesh, and it wasn’t about the age of Nathan, it was just…

Derek grimaced. I mean fuck it, I’m just scared. This… finally condensing my Fate after I’ve avoided it for so long...

Because even more directly than he had before coming to Kharon, Derek felt the gap between what he wanted and what he could be as a father. His own strength started to seem vastly insignificant. And that sudden acute awareness was due to his interactions with the people of the Order Ducis.

As far as Derek could tell, there were only a handful of people that were actually members of the Order Ducis. And most of those people were currently out on missions abroad, meaning that the group of people that Derek had met during his assessments referred to themselves as ‘applicants’ to the Order Ducis rather than members. Apparently most of those people were individuals who had applied a year ago to join the Order Ducis and had not been selected in the initial round of testing. So they applied for the next year and helped with tasks around Kharon.

Yet each of them was obviously more capable than Derek himself. They had a visible edge in terms of combat ability, image strength, and Level. It was only in terms of Perception and scouting related Skills that Derek had a slight advantage. But it had hurt to find that his time on the cutting edge of Earth’s power had passed; while he had become hesitant, the world had continued to improve.

In these applicants, Derek saw the power that he wanted to possess in order to protect Tim while his son was still growing. In these applicants, he saw a Path that would earn him capability. A Path that his son could view with pride.

It was very difficult for Derek to let such a Path pass him by without at least attempting the transition into that future. But that attempt brought back the horrible thought of leaving Tim alone to fend for himself in this brutal world after failing to condense his Fate. Derek needed strength to protect Tim. But he had to risk leaving Tim alone in order to gain that strength.

Dinesh reached a metal door and rapped twice on the door before opening it without waiting for a response from within. After the cramped hallways of the underground of Kharon, the way the room opened up into a plush therapist’s office was something of a shock. Derek froze briefly at the door before following Dinesh into the interior.

Looking entirely too young to be seated where he was, Nathan looked up from the mess of fashion magazines that were scattered across his desk with red eyes. His blank looked showed that their arrival had taken him by surprise. Derek frowned at the young man. “Is something… the matter?”

“Ah….” Nathan seemed to suddenly recognize Derek and winced. “Sorry that you caught me like this. It’s just…. Ah… I was doing some research.”

“His crush will be opening for Raina at the birthday party for the Ghosthound,” Dinesh said lightly as he walked up to the desk and began to collect the magazines with a few quick grabs. “This fool seems to believe that what he needs to win her affections is to preen like a peacock. Which, considering the relative aura of some of the others at the event, will be difficult to do in a meaningful way.”

“I’m just looking,” Nathan said sourly. But he allowed Dinesh to quickly clean off the desk. After all of the publications had been swept away, Nathan’s aura very visibly changed. As he turned his gaze back to Derek, some of his image strength was leaking out of his brown eyes and into the warm office. And to Derek’s surprise, he found himself relaxing. “But anyway, you want assistance with condensing your Fate, correct? Did you want your Class to be evolved first?”

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Frowning, Derek glanced at Dinesh. Dinesh ignored the glance, bowed to Nathan, and then walked out of the room without another word. Which left the two alone. The light in the room was a cozy yellow. After releasing a breath and rolling his shoulders, Derek asked tentatively. “...is evolving a Class… dangerous…?”

Nathan seemed to consider that for too long for Derek to be comfortable. “Compared to a lot of other things… no. If your image, psyche, and the new Class match extremely well, many people say that it is an extremely comfortable and simple experience to switch over. But you need to believe that the change is the right thing… what’s your current Class?”

“Sylvan Archer,” Derek said. Then he shrugged. “Most of the active Skills don’t work with guns, but the passives I’ve earned through it have definitely been extremely useful. Even without direct damage Skills, what’s more important in battle is simply surviving. I have been satisfied with the Class’s performance and growth rates. If there is a risk in the process of changing my Class, I’d prefer not to take it.”

For the first time, Nathan gave Derek a piercing look that seemed completely foreign in his gangly, teenage frame. Even more so than when he released his image, Nathan’s physical presence seemed to deepen. No longer was he simply someone a few years older than Tim sitting in an oversized leather chair. No, he had become the individual who had borne the Class that Dinesh had briefly introduced earlier.

He was Nathan, Architect of Souls.

“...well before we get to the details, I want to check your Soulspace. I’ve looked at your results from the Order Ducis assessment. You have a very high efficacy coefficient, which is extremely important.” Nathan stood up and walked around the desk. He offered Derek his hand. “If you are willing to let me check…?”

“Efficacy coefficient…? Ah, yes, sure.” Derek responded.

The two shook hands. There was the slightest prickling on the back of Derek’s neck while the two’s palms were touching, and his Skill pinged a hint of danger in the connection. But then the two parted and the sensation disappeared.

With a small frown on his face, Nathan nodded slowly. “Well, it can be easily skewed by you lying about your base Stats and Skills, but your efficacy coefficient basically compares how well you perform based on how well your parameters predict you perform; it’s based on an early training schedule that Mrs. Hamilton of Donnyton designed for Randidly Ghosthound to get him to push the limits of his Skills.”

“..so you are checking for whether people are lazy?” Derek asked.

“A little, but it’s more about the precursor for using images.” Nathan shrugged. “From your base state, how much of a result can you squeeze out of yourself? That desire to do more with the same is a valuable predictor of future image strength. But okay, I would recommend that we evolve your Class before attempting your Fate. Your current Class doesn’t seem like a great fit for your images, and with your fear grown so large… condensing a Fate might legitimately be difficult if we don’t make some preparations.”

Even though Derek had been wrestling with his inner demons for quite some time, it was still a shock to hear Nathan so casually refer to them. “My… fear?”

“It’s a part of you that will definitely come up during the production of your Fate. And it seems like it’s been steadily growing in your heart.” Nathan looked up at Derek with a pensive expression. He was so young; he was so thin in front of Derek. It felt slightly surreal for him to be talking so clinically about Derek’s fear. “We should address it first. Because those things are exactly the sources of danger in the process of Fate creation.”

“I can control it,” Derek raised his chin. His hands were abruptly beginning to sweat. What did this teenager know about a father’s fear? “I believe that it shouldn’t be a problem-”

“You shouldn’t suppress it, Mr. Moss. In fact, why don’t you indulge it?” Nathan said.

That earned a frown from Derek. Hearing such a silly suggestion... “You want me to.. Indulge the fear? Because what I’m afraid of is that I’ll die and leave my son alone in this world the System had turned into a brutal survival of the fitness nightmare scenario. And after his mother died-”

As he felt his voice steadily growing in volume, Derek quickly reigned in his urgency. Nathan simply listened. After forcefully calming himself down, Derek continued to speak in a more normal tone. “I don’t think it will be helpful to dwell on that too long. I can manage this without any help.”

“I disagree.” Nathan smiled brightly up at Derek. “I know it’s strange, I know it’s hard to take me seriously… but just humor me. Tell me why are you so afraid of those things happening?”

Derek was briefly shocked speechless. But after his day of being judged, everything was beginning to become somewhat fuzzy. “You are asking me… why I’m afraid of dying and leaving my son alone…?”

Without any shame, Nathan nodded. “Yea, what’s the core of that feel? What do you want?”

“I… heh, it’s dumb to say out loud. But if you insist… I don’t want to leave him alone. I want him to grow up safe,” At this point, Derek’s expression almost transformed into something reflective. The more he said the words, the less angry he was. “I just want to protect my son.”

“Yea,” Nathan said. His eyes slowly slid down until they were half-closed. That pressure from Nathan’s image once more leaked out into the surrounding air. “That’s everything to you, isn’t it?”

And weirdly, Derek felt himself relaxing as he held Nathan’s gaze. The air became thick. Derek’s emotions slowly calmed. A Path opened for him. “...yea. I would do anything to protect my son. That’s why… why even if condensing a Fate is a dangerous risk, I cannot afford not to take it. He’s my son. He…”

The more Derek said it. The more the fear receded. The more determination surged forward. The more he knew that this was the right decision.