Keynes’s focus shifted to his Talent. His spiritual core didn’t have a structure that supported it. It made sense as Talents were more powerful than spells, which were nestled in the core. The question was where was Talent located then? Keynes activated his Talent several times but he didn’t notice anything. Maybe to see more he needed to actually use his Talent?
He glanced around but found nothing that his Talent could be used on. His gut was telling him though that Talent should be located inside a Soul, he was aware of but he couldn’t actually access or see his Soul right now.
Interestingly the Orbs of Perfection worked on Talents as well as lesser grade things like spells and attributes… Attributes. Keynes checked on them and saw a few inconsistencies. Their connection to the core was different from spells, more robust and integral even than the buffs. As Keynes poked some more he realised that there was a way to turn a buff off. It varied between buffs but all of them had it, which meant that all buffs could be suppressed, although seeing their connection to the core, he couldn’t imagine the force required to do so.
Attributes were a little more complex in that regard but even they possessed a weakness that could be exploited but the extent of suppression was beyond Keynes’s expertise.
As for spells, their structures varied vastly and Keynes winced seeing the state of his spell cores, especially [Flight]. It was poorly done patchwork. How blind was I to miss so many vital points? He asked himself. He realised that a fight against anyone who could wield spiritual aura as competently as he could now, would end up poorly for him. It would be too easy to turn his spells off at a critical moment.
For some reason, Techniques and the Trait weren’t present in his core or anywhere in his body. Were they similar to a Talent? He didn’t know. But he decided to make an experiment. He activated [Spiritual Wraith] and watched the effects. His aura didn’t vanish as he expected. It was still there but as if on another plane… oh, shit, I see what’s going on here. The shades of spiritual energy seemed to have another meaningful role. The moment Keynes activated [Spiritual Wraith], his aura changed the shade which was very different from everything around.
Hey Alice, does spiritual energy exist on different planes of existence?
Master, what do you mean? She asked confused and so he explained his hunch. Alice went silent for a moment and through their bond Keynes felt her turmoil as she tried to remember without the connection to the System. Eventually, she returned and said, I do not remember, but I do feel like you are correct. Otherwise, how can you use your spiritual aura during [Spiritual Wraith]. The aura still exists out there.
I was sure that [Spiritual Wraith] is a mask that hides the aura but from what I see, it is more like a switch that turns the aura off from a lower layer of existence…does it make sense?
Alice couldn’t confirm but she said that it ‘felt’ right. If that was the state of things, it explained how High Level ascenders could remain invisible to the world while exerting influence over it. Perhaps, the same thing was happening with a Soul. He couldn’t see it because he didn’t have an ability to see deeper layers of spiritual energy.
How many things are hidden from us then? He asked Alice.
It is hard to say. The System did not share its knowledge with me and only made it available when it wanted. In hindsight, my current state is better for me as the System’s control is gone and its benefits were never that useful in the first place.
Keynes agreed with her. Being himself was always better as those who sought to control them had their own agendas which rarely benefited anyone but the puppeteers. Banishing the negative thoughts, Keynes moved on to the last part of his analysis of his new abilities and body.
Essence.
Given all he’d learned so far about Chaos, Order and spirit, he didn’t know how to classify essence. It was the only tool available to upgrade his spiritual core and spells. It had no effect on the buffs and was indirectly related to attributes. And there was no way to use essence on techniques or a Talent… or maybe there was but Keynes’s spiritual sight was too poor to see it? That sounded plausible but he didn’t think it was the case. Techniques could only be upgraded by training and Talent by the Orbs of Perfection and upgrades that came with levelling.
The buffs and spells also scaled with Levels… This is quite a mess. Or maybe it wasn’t and it all could be neatly explained but those with knowledge were averse to sharing it.
Should I then? He pondered a thought for a second and decided to go for it. He understood the risk of Lem Solaris overhearing his thoughts but considering the extent of her powers and the ‘tremendous’ speed of his progression, there might be no better opportunity for a while.
With a mental nudge, Keynes reached to the Greater System.
“Welcome to the Greater System.”
Unlike the System on Earth, the Greater System took Keynes’s consciousness away to a different reality and as if reading his worries the Greater System added, “Do not worry, your perception was extended and time for you outside of this place has stopped. You’re safe.”
One thing Keynes noted immediately was that the speech of the Greater System was far more informal than Alice’s. But these were trivial matters while Keynes had more pressing things on his mind.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“What are you?”
“I’m the Greater System.”
Something was telling him that it was MOCKING him.
“What’s different between you and the System in my world?”
“I’m greater than yours.”
Keynes snorted, finding the reply funny but not much helpful.
“Can you tell me more?”
“You have only provisional access but given your recent achievement, I can offer you more. So, your System’s power is limited only to your Universe. My powers are limitless across all realities.”
This was a significant difference and Keynes wanted to figure out how he could use it to his advantage. He considered a few provocative questions but in the face of the favour it felt wrong.
“What does this access mean to me? How do I benefit from it? My System is quite stingy with information and stuff.”
“This isn’t surprising, the Lower Realms systems do not exist in vacuum and their designs aren’t a coincidence. Also, there is a cost involved. Just check for yourself.”
The reality before Keynes’s eyes expanded and he saw the impossible. The Greater System was like a shop but it didn’t normally sell to individuals but to the Lower Realms systems. The words escaped him.
“My access is a privilege.”
“It is,” the Greater System agreed. “Only selected individuals in the Lower Realms are granted access and it can be revoked easily if they fall out of favour.”
“What about the Higher Realms?”
“Information about the Higher Realms is classified. In the future, you should refrain from asking such questions, unless explicitly asked or allowed. Now, enjoy. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask but not all questions are equal and some have price.”
Keynes acknowledged it and picked the first category offered by the systemic shop: Attributes.
The sheer vastness of options made Keynes freeze. Attributes could be bought—BOUGHT. Like what the fuck? There were two classes of attributes; permanent and additional. The difference between them was that the permanent were included into calculation upon levelling and such, while additional ones were just extra like the ones provided by items. The difference in cost between them was astrono… wait a second.
“What is a primordial essence?”
“Essence from primordial beings.”
“Okay,” he slowly said. “Where can I find it?”
“For individuals like you, there are two main sources: a quest and a greater rift.”
“What about standard rifts? Can they be upgraded to provide it?”Keynes also wondered if his busted Talent could exploit this but he didn’t voice his idea to the Greater System.
“In theory, yes, it is possible to upgrade an ordinary rift to such a degree that it can spawn primordial beings but you’ll find the cost of the upgrade not cost effective.”
The Greater System even brought up a few orbs that offered the upgrade but they cost something called titanic essence and the only source of this essence was outside of Keynes’s current Universe. The Greater System didn’t go into details but briefly said that the Titanic Realms, while still under the Greater System’s control, played by different sets of rules.
“It is not impossible for a quest to appear and offer such an essence though.”
“How do I find such quests?”
“An answer to this question will cost you the Orb of Perfection,” the Greater System said.
The price was steep and the answer wasn’t guaranteed to be useful to him the same way the information about the titanic essence was useless to him. Nonetheless, he believed that the appearance of cost was meaningful.
“Does it cost because it is within the realm of my possibilities to use this knowledge.”
“Yes, indeed,” the Greater System admitted. “It appears that your buffs aren’t only for show. If there is a cost involved, it means the knowledge is very precise and actionable. For the price of the Orb of Perfection, you’ll be able to learn ways to ‘find’ quests, which are tailored to you, unlike the quests offered here, which aren’t always useful to individuals of your Level.”
“Can I think about this offer?”
“You can.”
Keynes returned to browse attributes while at the back of his head, he thought hard about his next step. The Orb of Perfection was priceless… wait, wait. A quick search brought him a list of orbs and there it was the Orb of Perfection. The Greater System valued it at 50 chaotic essences. Again, his mind raced. Was this expensive or not? He needed to figure this out but he suspected that actionable knowledge about essences would cost him and it might be more than a single Orb of Perfection. But it was a starting point. If everything had a price, it meant it could be achieved.
After returning to the attributes for the third time, Keynes found something bizarre. Not only attributes could be increased but completely new attributes could be added as well. Endurance or Durability were easy to understand but Vault? Hearth? What the hell were these? Luckily for Keynes, the Greater System wasn’t stingy on information.
The Vault attribute was a spatial space that allowed hiding things inside a person. So a dimensional pouch as an attribute. Weird. The Hearth attribute stretched Keynes’s tolerance for bullshit even further. Hearth allowed to refine substances inside ascenders. There were several warnings added to this one. Species with this attribute were rare and often exploited by stronger individuals or species as Hearth allowed to create the Fundamental Essences like chaotic, titanic or primordial essence. Keynes almost reached to buy it but the price made his eyes water. It was a thousand times more expensive than the Orb of Perfection.
From less bizarre but still questionable attributes were Intelligence, Charisma or additional senses.
There were more but things were greyed out and hidden from Keynes. When he tried to read their names, the system warning told him that his provisional access wasn’t sufficient.
Keynes briefly checked other categories but didn’t focus on details. From what he saw, he gained total confidence that if he possessed the required essences, he could fully upgrade from the level of the Greater System alone. He made a longer stop at the quest category, finding the Greater System’s earlier words to be true. There were quests and many of them offered the Fundamental Essences as the reward but none of them were possible for Keynes. The lowest one he found required Level 30 and none of the quests were available in his Universe.
“Tell me one thing, Greater System, is it worth it to pay the Orb of Perfection in exchange for the knowledge about the quests?”
“Yes.” The reply was immediate and confident.
“Then, let’s do it.”