‘I thought as much,’ the divine told me. ‘In truth, none of us expected you would become an avatar.’

‘None of you?’ I asked.

‘Not one. We can see your paths, Fio. Read the future a little. See how one by one you’re eliminating other routes, shaping your destiny. It allows us to see themes of things you decide against as you impart your will.’

‘And you saw that I didn’t like being an avatar?’

Hir chuckled at that. ‘Fio, any future that limited your freedom was first to be eliminated. It is just the degree of impediment that changes. In truth, we have a few guesses as to which path you may end up taking.’

[According to the network, the divines cannot see all paths. No one can. But they may exert some influence on what future you pick, through completely mundane actions, such as telling you things.]

I sent Cass a very quick thanks for the mental info, hoping Hir didn’t notice it. ‘Well then. What now?’ I asked the divine.

‘Well, Fio, if you are not our avatar, our hands are far more tied. We may offer advice, not much more.’

‘Fine, then. Are there any other gateway shards I may be able to reclaim?’

‘You may be better off asking the collective,’ Hir replied. ‘They know far more about the gateways and usurpers than we do.’

[The other keepers seem more than willing to provide you intel on where you can find more gateways, yet all of them are asking for small prizes. Namely, they want more people from Nea- your home to come through their gateways in particular.]

I grimaced a little, unwilling to interact with the keepers too much. Their strange myriad of voices still rang in my mind when I thought about them, and I would rather trust my life to my spear than rely on one of them.

‘So you do know something about the gateways,’ I prompted the divine.

‘Oh, of course. We know where many of the greatest usurpers exist. Ones who have devoured multiple gateways and spew out enough monsters to entirely devastate the land around them. But this will not help you, will it?’

Their tone had turned almost cold. Perhaps their patience was running thin.

‘Fine, then. Any other places where there might be lost gateways? Outposts that were overrun? Ones that aren’t necessarily overrun with monsters?’ I asked.

‘This is beyond our agreement. If you wish for this information, you need to pay for it with your contribution points.’ they told me.

I grimaced again. This was unfortunate, but I could get more points. For now-

[Bell. Check the store before you do anything hasty.]

Immediately, I stopped myself. The store. Right. I had not yet even checked what abilities were available for me to purchase with my new class.

‘Hir, I would like to use your authority to access the store,’ I said.

‘Of course, Fio,’ they replied, suddenly calm again.

A moment later, information flooded my mind, reorganised itself, and I blinked the disorientation away. Opening the store felt like a rush the first few times, but as options increased, it grew increasingly uncomfortable. Apparently, my secondary class meant a lot more options.

None of the items had distinct prices. Contribution points in general weren’t really points at all. It was, more or less, a sliding scale, on how much they’d helped Eden as a world. You would simply ask for something, and receive it alongside a bit of information telling you how much of your contribution it would consume.

My spear, for example.

Back when I bought it, that had been around 70% of my contribution. Right now, I’d wager it would be around 20%, maybe. I could pay to upgrade it, though. Or I could improve it by slowly pouring Qi into it with some kind of forging technique, which I could also acquire at the shop.

Suffice to say, there were many options. It didn’t display anything you were too poor to afford, but there was some documentation from higher rankers on things that might appear, but not everything would be the same for everyone. Another Spearwoman, someone with my same class, might receive different techniques if they used Mana, or another type of Qi than me.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

For now, though, my thoughts sorted the options into abilities relating to my mirror core. Feeling the foreign knowledge shift around in my mind was a bit of an alien feeling, but I bore with it, and reached out.

There were many techniques, quite a few of them along a similar vein, and many of them simply strange. Ones for reflecting light, mirroring my use of the Qi in the Black Sands, and other specific elements. Some for creating illusions, others again to open miniature portals.

Some of them dealt with fractals and reflections in ways I did not understand, and it told me they were probably meant for a higher level of my Gateway class. I wasn’t interested in any of the strange ones for now, well, none of them stuck out at least. But I did find a single one.

[Lost and Found (You have a tether to other problematic gateways, allowing you to feel their location)]

The description was vague, as they generally were, and didn’t tell me much about the type of pull it would be. But it still did pretty much exactly what I needed it to.

‘How many contribution points would [Lost and Found] be?’

‘Hmmm, about 20% of your contribution, maybe?’ Hir suggested after some thinking. ‘More around 25, I’d wager.’

I nodded. ‘How much is levelling [Spearwoman] or [Gateway]?’

‘Around 50 and 25, respectively. Spearwoman also needs your [Spear Technique - Fundamentals] at (Intermediate) to get to level 7, which you now have. I should also warn you that Gateway can only reach level 5 once you have fully repaired it.’

That was a relatively early restriction. Most classes let you progress somewhat freely through the single digit ranks. A lot of them required just the fundamental skill of the class to be at least as good as intermediate. Breaking past 10 was what would be the real challenge, but I’d cross that bridge when I got there.

‘Seems to check out pretty well. I’ll take [Lost and Found] and a level each,’ I told the divine.

‘You’re technically lacking a little, but we’ll turn a blind eye. Barely enough for you to notice on your next shopping trip, even.’

I smirked at the antics a little, then nodded. ‘Yeah, sure, fine. Deduct it next time I visit.’

‘Good. I’ll initiate the process now.’

As soon as the sentence finished, I felt lightning arcing through my veins.

Of course, it wasn’t actually lightning. But it sure felt that way.

Each and every muscle on my body tightened up, wound itself tight. I felt the pain set in for a moment, like touching a strong electrical fence, and then dim, as the suppression set in. The sensation was replaced by a strange crawling under my skin, as my body was rebuilt to a better version of itself.

I grit my teeth and bore with the discomfort. Once my muscles somewhat set, I could feel the glass under my skin bubbling and boiling. It shifted, froze and crystallized, then boiled and bubbled and hissed again. I was fairly sure there was some amount of burnt smell coming from me.

Maybe I should have changed my clothes before this? I hadn’t expected my second class to level so… violently. Even through the pain suppression I grit my teeth a little when my skin bubbled up.

Luckily, it settled soon after, and instead, I felt my brain change. Dozens of new thoughts stormed in, instincts I never knew I had, ideas on how to manipulate the strange little construct in my soul. Then they settled, dissipated, shoved into drawers and decomposed.

I didn’t have any memory hooks to hold onto, but the ability was there. For now, it would be like flipping a switch, until bit by bit, I sorted it out and understood the ability myself. Then it would become intuitive, and not require system assistance anymore.

Once it was all over, I took a deep breath. My legs were shaking, and it took quite a bit of effort to simply hold onto Hir’s emblem.

‘You need anything else from me?’ I asked.

‘No, Fio. I hope your future bodes well.’

I grinned. ‘I’ll make it’.

With that, I lifted my fingers off the tombstone, and my legs gave in under me, landing me straight on my arse.

A laugh bubbled from my throat, and I threw my head back, closing my eyes.

Everything felt so… vibrant.

Levelling didn’t increase any stats by itself. Those were more of an indication of personal mastery and could only be improved by training and hardship. Instead, Levels were like a multiplier for stats. My overall strength was greater now, despite my stat screen saying it was still just the same as before.

And I felt the difference.

Around me, the world was sharper. More focused, or vibrant. I could feel swirls of Qi, patterns in the air that threatened to overwhelm my new senses. My eyes could focus on distances unlike before, almost as if they were a camera lens or something. My own cores felt like beacons in my chest, the Qi in them suddenly seeming so much… more.

I simply sat on the floor, giggling for a few minutes, until the high from the levels wore off.

That was another dangerous part of Eden. The levelling was incredibly addictive. Some people literally got themselves killed over it. I reminded myself to not be part of that specific group of people.

Instead, I slowly pushed myself off the floor, almost falling again when I took my first step. My body felt unfamiliar, like the parts were all just a smidge mismatched. It took a lot of control to step forward normally, and shift my weight.

The feeling was and always would be strange.

Having enhanced senses meant you realized flaws in the way you walked. Wasted energy, all that. It made moving our feet feel strange and awkward at first, until you adjusted.

Some people said they could judge how strong someone was just based on the way they walked. I thought it was complete bullshit. But being a higher level now did mean that I needed to adjust, and I took a few minutes to relearn how to set one foot in front of the other properly.

Once I had finally returned to being something of a functioning human being, I returned to Orvan.