Examining one’s actions with the luxury of retrospect at hand might have figured among the bitterest of pills. Kristian lounged over the cliffside, feet dangling over the edge as his hooks sank deeper into the grooves he had carved for this very purpose.

Long had it been since he ventured beyond the territories under his control—‘his’ in Zayden’s name, of course. That he had undertaken this journey with nothing but his vambraces did little to assuage the lingering concerns in the back of his mind. Kristian did not consider himself a fool—his superiority only went so far, and while he may have at times felt like a tree in a field of small bushes, in truth he was far from invincible to the wider world.

It was a matter he had ignored for long enough—in the middle of nowhere, there should have been no threats to one such as he, for the Champion Saint had vanquished them all back when he lived. Yet between the {Lightning} Champion having come so close to defeating Kristian, and the lack of results in his search for his eldest, a gnawing sense of inefficacy clawed at Kristian.

He was not enough. Whatever was involved in his daughter’s disappearance—and in the sudden arrival of his granddaughter—was something beyond his control. It had to be something strong and presumably structured enough that he could not force it to show itself through brute force. Whether this threat was an individual, an entity, a force, Kristian was not qualified to make a guess.

But a threat it was.

Over the past year, Kristian had been… absent. Bernadette would not let him hear the last of it anytime soon. Oh, he had spent the requisite amount of time on the estate, and with her, to ensure everybody’s needs were being met. Even those of the nearly useless, exceedingly numbered personnel his wife insisted on maintaining.

At least she had her passion project to keep herself entertained, absurd as it might have been. She had gone as far as to ask if he wanted to get involved, but Kristian had little time to waste on a notion as asinine as teaching a three-year-old girl how to read—that Bernadette was playing along to the toddler’s whims was offense enough. He could hardly believe it.

At that age, she would not remember any academic subjects. That was around the age at which children should learn how to walk, talk, live. Normal subjects for toddlers that were not conversational language and… literature?

The mere memory of it had Kristian scrambling to comprehend his wife’s thought process. How she thought she was even achieving anything was beyond him, but he respected her right to do whatever she wanted, no matter how questionable its worth might be. She still insists the child truly is this far ahead of the curve. Unbelievable.

And in defense of Kristian—or perhaps Bernadette—he had made some suggestions of his own, only for her to shoot them down without a second thought. As much as he disapproved of this entire endeavor, Kristian would not deny he might have been ever so slightly bitter on the matter. No, if his wife would listen and let him take matters into his own hands, at least something productive could be achieved.

If his granddaughter was truly as gifted as Bernadette seemed to believe she was, why waste time teaching a little girl how to read when there were far more promising endeavors? He could teach Beryl’s child something befitting of her station as any respectable house’s daughter.

Like how to make their enemies quiver in fear.

That suggestion had, unfortunately, ended all of Bernadette’s attempts to have him involved in this. On the other hand, it did give Kristian even more time to pursue his own desires, nevermind that he truly had not been intentionally trying to get her off his case.

As Zayden would have said—you win some, you lose some. Kristian shrugged to himself and flinched. Not wearing his proper gear while outdoors felt akin to nakedness, his shoulders so unimpeded by the gesture that he almost lost balance. It was for this, and many other contingencies, that he had secured himself to the spot.

Reaching Level 140 had taken time—and even then, Kristian had not expected it to happen this quickly. No doubt, his current status as ‘unspokenly unwanted’ from his own home had left him with more time in his hands than he would have normally had access to.

Summoning a small bottle the color of darkened leaves, Kristian fidgeted with it. In truth, this was unlike him, but he had procured the advancement elixir from that strange young woman who assisted Anselm in his workshop—she had fulfilled the request without asking a single question.

Still, the knowledge of her origins had him doubting her intentions, no matter the context or assurances he may have received as to whether she was trustworthy, and he would squander no trust on the sort of peoples who went as far as to claim the privacy of their names deserved to be system-enforced. It was pretentious at best and dangerous at worst—if they did no wrong, why could their names not be known?

Had this girl not worked so closely with his son, Kristian would not so much as considered going to her for this matter. Even then, he had quizzed his wife on the matter as well—this girl was known to her as well, from their childhood in Beuzaheim—and only with Bernadette’s tacit approval of the seafarer’s word did Kristian choose to take this shot.

The nature of cores could be quite the cruel mistress to those fate deemed unworthy of being born with Affinities—he had grown with the expectation that he would never surpass the peak of the Mortal Esse, if he reached it at all. His time with Zayden and the rest of the party had afforded him the privilege of this hollow core, but it was a dead end still.

Core Integration could be brute-forced by the forging of a Class, even a Rootless one, but he would go no further.

Yet Kristian had wasted all this time, not having processed that truth and what it empowered him to choose. It would be a lie to deny the specificity of his Skills—most of them evolved into combat Skills after he reached adulthood, and in no small part due to his involvement with Zayden—yet he had frankly made no effort to improve them after his unwilling retirement.

Most were impractical to train, but interrogating suspects in his search for Beryl had afforded him the opportunity to grow as he had not in years. It would be fruitless to ponder what could have been, had Kristian made the effort to raise these Skills sooner, but he was vulnerable to such regrets regardless.

Glancing at his status, Kristian braced himself for the irrevocability of the step he planned to take today.

Name: Kristian Rīsan

Kind: Human

Inherent Aptitude: The Keeping of the Vigil | Inherent Flaw: The Needs of the One

Age: 609 months

Seventh Stage of Core Integration (Hollow Core) | Level 140 (32+108+0*)

Lifetime Skill levels: 1098 (A)

Even if he lived for decades beyond this day, he would never reach the heights of mages—it was a reality he often tried to ignore in order to salvage his own ego, for though he was strong, he still wasn’t a mage.

Wave take mages, Kristian cursed internally, and not for the first time this evening. As a mortal, he knew his place—that did not mean he had to like it, especially not when his physical strength went beyond that of most people. Such things engendered the type of anger that led people to develop certain views, after all.

Still, his cultivation stage, be it the Seventh or the Fifteenth, would never truly make a difference. Keeping this method of advancement plausible wasn’t as worthwhile as he would have once thought, and for all it stung to close off that path for himself, his near-death at the hands of that weak would-be Champion had opened his eyes.

He would commit to his choices, lest he continue down the trails of ambivalence for the vague possibility of having options.

That decision was what had driven him to pour countless days into the development of three of his and Skills. From [Writhen-Plate Enforcer], his Rootless Class, the choices had been simple—he chose to focus on [Erratic Approach] and [Crooked Mastery].

With that stated, if his fight with the {Lightning} Champion had taught him anything about his Skills, it was that [Mana Discharge] was a lifesaver—but it also wasn’t a Skill he could reliably train. Heroes didn’t grow on trees, and even then, there would never be a guarantee any he moved to slay would be mages. Normal circumstances also didn’t allow for him to just casually fight anyone with access to mana.

So while it pained him, the Skill would be staying at 33 for the foreseeable future.

His efforts had pushed [Writhen-Plate Enforcer] from 27/35 to 28/35, as the two Skills he maxed had granted him a combined 11 more Skill levels. As this was one of his only two forged Classes, both Skills had Traits and Aspects of their own—the only source of his hesitation today.

Both Traits had come from Tokens, of course, but the Aspects were the result of his days as an active combatant what felt like an eternity ago. Their loss would be… unfortunate.

[Erratic Approach]

Predictability is the bane of all strategies. If you make the first move in a combative encounter—physical or otherwise—you gain a small variable bonus to any requisite attributes, and unexpected changes in your favor are likelier to occur.

Trait: [Connectivity]. You may enforce the benefits of attribute interdependence across Class categories. The larger the gap between attributes, the likelier overuse is to carry repercussions.

Aspect: [Onslaught]. Fierceness and effectiveness of your actions on encounters maintained by this Skill improve by a minuscule amount the longer they continue.

[Crooked Mastery]

Though blades that face the user may carry more danger than the norm, their appeal is not to be understated. You gain an instinctive grasp on the usage of weapons that can be considered physically crooked as well as increased control scalable by Skill level. You may not disfigure preexisting weapons to use them with this Skill—they must qualify according to their true design.

Trait: [Retractable]. If attached to any item currently being worn, weapons eligible for this Skill can be hidden and summoned at will regardless of physical constraints without any need to account for inventory access.

Aspect: [Aleatory Veer]. Attacks influenced by this Skill have a small chance of suffering an accuracy penalty and a damage boost.

One of the advantages of a forged Class was uniformity—Skills and all its attached components would influence each other. The effect was not as palpable as it would have been if he had a Root fueling the Class, but merging the Skills should yield him a proper combination of sorts.

No, that which worried him more was what would his unforged net him. As and existed side-by-side, Kristian could not work on this for those Skills without doing the same for two maxed Skills—and wave take Skills.

[Disconnect]

Far too many forces in this world are prone to holding us back. You may focus on a nearby target to have a chance at decreasing their likelihood of connecting you to anything they have in mind. This is at best a nudge and cannot be used should your sudden disappearance from their thought process be implausible.

Interdependent to attributes.

Trait: None

Aspect: None

[Disconnect] had been maxed years ago, but Kristian’s cares for the Skill ended there. It had no Traits or even an Aspect despite its level of 50. Of course, he could have used a Token on it to force it to roll the Aspect it never naturally did, but it was a Skill.

So no.

[Agitative], which had been at 41, had been the only option there. His other Skills were between 30 and 37 in level, as Kristian would forever emphasize he had no use whatsoever for Skills in any practical context.

[Agitative]

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Unrest is rarely a conscious choice. Proximity to you causes agitation on the weak-willed, increasing the likelihood of upheaval among them. Should there be no superlative target, any hostilities this Skill triggers are likely to be directed at you. You may attempt to suppress this effect through considerable effort.

Trait: None

Aspect: [Increased Effect]. For a small, constant [Integrity] cost, you may supercharge the effect of this Skill.

His only relief was that, as it turned out, questioning people was surprisingly good training for the Skill, even if it undoubtedly reduced the effectiveness of said interrogations while active. No matter. Kristian had gone on—as Zayden would say—the grind there, and those 9 last Skill levels shifted his unforged Class from 26/35 to 27/35.

Realizing it had been that close to in the first place hurt something within Kristian’s very being, even knowing Classes should never be too unbalanced to maintain equilibrium within one’s core, but at least he could take comfort in knowing his Class was worse than the rest by far.

He wasn’t particularly attached to either [Disconnect] or [Agitative], but it would be negligent to ignore the risks their merge would present—without a true Class, nothing linked them together enough to manage the results especially when considering their effects were not the type he had ever used in tandem. Still, merging them was a requisite step in his plan—he could not touch those Skills otherwise.

Zayden had once referred to [Disconnect] as a type of stealth Skill, and for all Kristian knew to defer to the otherworlder’s expertise with these things, the mere idea of being capable of any sort of stealth with a Presence-turned-Intimidation had Kristian raising his eyebrows, even then. He did agree on the description of [Agitative] as a taunt Skill, however, especially after his friend had explained.

Well, Zayden isn’t here right now.

And so, Kristian gritted his teeth, exhaling deliberately. None would lower themselves as to teach proper cultivation techniques to one such as he, but Kristian could grasp the basics of breath control, and he was perfectly capable of sitting still for a time.

At last, he downed the sour concoction, dismissing the bottle before closing his eyes. Never before had he been glad for his mortality, but if true cultivators with Affinities had to drink this sort of enhancers often, he might have actually been on the lucky side there. With a huff, Kristian focused inward.

Scouting ahead of interrogations had brought his Perception to 368, though it appeared to hardly matter when faced with the task of viewing a hollow core—its image had gotten no sharper. Reaching this stage, even if technically by force, had granted him relatively solidified channels, enough that the energy provided by the would-be advancement elixir flowed unimpeded.

He would not be using that for its intended purpose.

Once the energy had made its way to his hollow core—nothing but a casing, not unlike glass panels for a perpetually empty lamp—Kristian pressed on it, preventing it from trying to complete another cycle.

And he took the step.

You are attempting to merge the [Erratic Approach] and [Crooked Mastery] Skills from your Class: [Writhen-Plate Enforcer]

You are attempting to merge the [Agitative] and [Disconnect] Skills from your Class: N/A

(❗) Warning: Merging Skills from an unforged Class may yield unpredictable results.

⚠ Warning: Merging Skills at such a low core stage will cause you to incur a severe penalty to future core growth.

Kristian gritted his teeth. This was the only way to ensure success, lest all those unknown variables continue mounting up enough for him to face a true threat unprepared.

He had known all along he would never have a future anyway, not in the same sense Zayden and the others had—lacking an Affinity had always guaranteed he would be left behind.

This was a small price to pay.

An almost violent form of vertigo gripped him, his seated position in reality doing nothing to ameliorate the ripples of it. For all he knew focusing on his preferred outcomes was essential for this forceful merging of Skills, the mere act of thinking through the haze dimming his senses cost him far too much.

For a moment, he forgot to breathe—forgot the purpose of breathing—and had to gasp, instincts falling back into place. Carefully prepared plans for this all but scattered to the wind, his designs for the would-be results gone. He could no more guess the future than whatever he had intended to do, and as he struggled to recall absolutely anything, Kristian felt the distant crash of [Erratic Approach] shattering.

The five levels it once granted his Class remained, of course, but the Skill had become fog, a vague idea spinning around him. Without the energy from that advancement elixir, one without the ability to access mana would never be able to sustain such a change.

Some semblance of sanity returned to him before everything began to spin anew—Kristian felt as though limb and channel alike were twisting, bending in unnatural ways as his vambraces shook. His grip on the stone beneath him faltered, and he had to shove himself away from the edge, laying down as [Crooked Mastery] joined the other Skill in their newfound, technical nonexistence.

Classes and Skills weren’t physical things, closer to representations of power than anything else, but they were thoroughly attached to one’s being, the combination of everything one was and ever would be, with or without the system.

Temporary or not, the sudden absence of two Skills left him bereft, shaking as though the very world were about to fade from under him. Kristian screamed, his choice of isolated location for this stunt quite relevant now.

It all thrummed through his writhing body, and like a bolt through the chest, a greater Skill took the place the two had once occupied.

You have merged [Erratic Approach] and [Crooked Mastery] with a moderate degree of fidelity.

You have merged the [Connectivity] and [Retractable] Traits with an abysmal degree of fidelity.

You have merged the [Onslaught] and [Aleatory Veer] Aspects with a medium degree of fidelity.

You have gained [Erratic Mastery]

Predictability is the bane of all strategies. If you make the first move in any combative encounter—physical or otherwise—in which you are considered to be employing crooked tools, you gain a small variable bonus to any requisite attributes as well as instinctive knowledge on how to use said tools optimally, and unexpected changes in your favor are likelier to occur. You may not attempt to steer a preexisting encounter into meeting the requirements for this Skill to be active—whatever constitutes crooked means must be a quintessential factor at the time the encounter begins.

Trait: [Connected]. You may enforce the benefits of attribute interdependence across Class categories and use them to affect anything attached to any item currently being worn. The larger the gap between attributes, the likelier overuse is to carry repercussions.

Aspect: [Aleatory Onslaught]. Fierceness and effectiveness of your actions on encounters maintained by this Skill improve by a minuscule amount the longer they continue. Concurrently, the likelihood of them deviating from your intent while also receiving a further bonus to effectiveness grows.

[Erratic Mastery] defaults to the 10 levels its components were once worth to you but may never evolve!

Kristian found he had no time to complain or even properly examine the new Skill as the disorientation returned tenfold, reality blurring as everything abruptly felt out of place—even himself. His heart thundered as if ready to burst through his ribs, intensely enough to cause pain.

It passed sooner than the merge of the Skills had, perhaps in no small part due to their bare-bones nature, devoid of Traits and with only one Aspect.

You have merged [Agitative] and [Disconnect] with a reasonable degree of fidelity.

You have gained [Garbled Shade]

Far too many forces in this world are prone to holding us back, and unrest is rarely a conscious choice. You may focus on a nearby target to cause agitation on them, increasing the likelihood of them entering and spreading a state of upheaval. The effectiveness of this is determined by their Resilience opposed to your Presence. Should there be no superlative target, any hostilities this Skill triggers are likely to be directed at you, but the likelihood of them connecting their current state and actions to you personally (or to this Skill) is significantly decreased. Carries a small chance of your involvement slipping their mind after it has passed.

Interdependent to attributes.

Trait: None

Aspect: [Increased Effect]. For a small, constant [Integrity] cost, you may supercharge the effect of this Skill.

[Garbled Shade] defaults to the 10 levels its components were once worth to you but may never evolve!

He panted, straightening back into a seated position before he moved to read the notifications. Anger sparked within as his hooks failed to be dismissed on command.

Kristian wanted to have some choice words—and perhaps an exchange of blows—with the guest speaker who had once explained Skill merges to them, so long ago that he didn’t recall the person’s name. Shouldn’t the Class have ensured greater fidelity for the merge…?

He huffed, but continued reviewing his new, greater Skills.

He had lost his weapons specialization. That had always been a risk, from the moment he chose to merge it, but Kristian had felt relatively safe given how the Skill was tied to a Class. He had clearly miscalculated.

And yet, the deeper he looked into the description for [Erratic Mastery], the more a tentative calm grew in him. Yes, he no longer had his reflexive control of his hooks, but he believed he would have it during a confrontation. The requirement that he had to be the one initiating brought with it some caveats—such as his newfound concern with being attacked first—and he would have to test this extensively before any measure of confidence returned to him in truth.

The appearance of any new Champions anytime soon would be horribly inconvenient—particularly when he was so, so close to having enough to bring Zayden back—but Kristian knew better than to neglect refamiliarizing himself with such a deeply changed Skill.

He was unsure as to if or how he could replicate the boost [Erratic Approach] granted him in arguments, as Presence benefited greatly from it, and that would be far more difficult to explore. Though ‘crooked means’ did cover his choice of weapon—he knew this by heart—he was at a loss when it came to determining how to apply that in a combative context that wasn't physical.

If all failed, he would turn to Bernadette for advice, but for now, he would avoid informing her he had merged Skills and instead test this later on the staff. He would find that accursed thief eventually.

While [Erratic Mastery] had left him mildly infuriated, Kristian was close to horrified to find he quite liked the result of merging his Skills. [Garbled Shade] combined and practically expanded upon the capabilities of both the Skills he had shattered to form it. Its dependence on Presence all but guaranteed it would be powerful, not only because of the value of the attribute, but because Intimidation as differentiation provided a variable bonus to its effectiveness when utilized in a hostile manner—which Kristian would never bother denying this Skill perfectly enabled.

He might need to see it to believe it, ridiculously strong as it sounded, but instinct told him that [Increased Effect] could likely be focused on to increase the likelihood of his involvement being forgotten, specifically. It was far from foolproof, but Kristian had always struggled with his continual status as what Zayden called ‘allergic to subtlety’, and this might prove a nice change.

Though he had stopped pondering their meaning, Kristian’s gaze remained on his new Skills.

A treacherous part of him regretted the crippling blow he had just dealt to his cultivation, but in truth, Kristian had not felt this agog about testing Skills since when the rest of the party had lived.

Two Skills that can reach 100.

The attribute points alone would be worth it, no doubt. He leaned his head back, sighing.

Kristian could hardly believe he was considering this, but even with so many of his harvestables having been stolen by the estate’s staff—who all vehemently denied their culpability—it would likely be worth spending the one Trait Creation Token he revealed on [Garbled Shade].

He shook his head and kicked up, narrowly avoiding a few scrapes. Losing [Retractable] is inconvenient. Not to mention, Kristian would not trust a stranger to work on his vambraces. They may have had their differences, but his gear was… one of the last things he had kept that had been made by her.

Somewhere, nearby, there had to be an amphitere nest. There was one of those anywhere anybody went—it was just a matter of looking hard enough.

Kristian could dedicate some time to encouragingly kicking rocks and debranching trees, of course—tried and tested methods to lure them out—but his Presence could achieve the same with much greater haste.

With no humans around to detect him, Kristian had little reason to hold back. Even then, it took some time until he finally heard it. The pop and peculiar slithering, a noise he would never forget. Kristian rushed them, aware of their location before he even caught sight of them. A familiar reflex flared to life, and his control over his hooks returned in full.

He might have lacked magic or even more specialized Skills for the task, but Kristian had long since found that raw strength could carry one far. The average creature could not cultivate—or surpass the Mortal Esse—giving him a distinct advantage over them. There was a reason why having Rootless Classes forged for oneself more than justified the time and effort it could require. Even a mere hollow core massively enhanced one’s physical sturdiness, as the stage was meant to prepare the body for the truer change later ranks were all but guaranteed to bring.

With an involuntary grin, Kristian chose to activate [Garbled Shade] as well—there was little to gain from trying it on beasts, but conversely, there was little to lose.

The amphiteres shrieked, suddenly willing to practically throw themselves at him.

Once the last of them had either crumbled before him or long since fled, Kristian dismissed his hooks successfully and recalled the notifications he had been ignoring.

Your [Erratic Mastery] Skill has improved! 10 → 14

Your [Garbled Shade] Skill has improved! 10 → 11

You have reached Level 145!

Kristian laughed, the sound as joyful as it was bitter.

Name: Kristian Rīsan

Kind: Human

Inherent Aptitude: The Keeping of the Vigil | Inherent Flaw: The Needs of the One

Age: 609 months

Seventh Stage of Core Integration (Hollow Core) | Level 145 (32+108+5*)

Lifetime Skill levels: 1103 (A)

The rapid growth would halt once both Skills had reached the 50 levels their components had once been bound to, of course, but that alone would be an unfathomable boon to his strength—thousands of attribute points worth of growth for his Class, even before the multiplier applied.

Perhaps Kristian would even bother putting a few extra ones into Intimidation as well, now that Presence directly influenced a Skill for him—he had relied on the Class for its attributes more than its Skills in the past.

Now, however, endless doors were opening before Kristian. The unpredictability of merging Skills had stalled the development of proper plans for how he would proceed after this was done, but now that he knew and could fully assess the weight of his new Skills, Kristian found himself aflush with unbridled elation.

Next time anything got in his way, Kristian would be ready.