My mind whirled with possibilities as I followed the route that Professor Henceforthe had sent me. While I had already decided that I needed at least one more power to round out my repertoire, I had to figure out what I wanted.

While the ultimate choice would have to wait until I saw the list of options, there wasn’t any harm in thinking it through before I arrived.

The key thing I had to consider now is that I wasn’t just a solo or small group operator. Even ignoring my responsibilities as a Count, I would be the captain of a frigate class capital ship.

As much as my first instinct was to get something focused on improving my personal combat ability, I figured it would be better to get an ability that helped with both aspects. The only question was what that would be.

I still didn’t have an answer by the time I reached the heavily secured office of the head guard, though I had ruled out several options. In particular, any direct attack abilities were out.

While having one as a backup might be nice, I still had my Psi pistol for dealing damage. It was at least as efficient energy-wise as using an ability, and it could be overcharged with my Technokinesis. I might even find a more powerful Psi weapon to use in the future, which would make a such an ablity completely redundant.

Offensive abilities also wouldn’t be useful on a spaceship, unless there was one that worked on a ship scale. Even if that was possible, it would almost certainly only be capable of that at the Master level.

Similarly, more defensive abilities were not very useful. I still had Skin Hardening, as well as the potential to upgrade it when the wild rift I had used recharged. While it wasn’t perfect, it was good enough that I didn’t want to waste my single pick on it.

I could only hope that I would see something that stood out when I saw all the options on offer. Putting those thoughts aside, I nodded to the two guards on the door and stepped forward to knock.

They must have been expecting me, as they only watched me approach without even challenging me. I could feel them focusing their Psi senses on me as well and I got the sense they were both roughly at my power level.

A gruff, deep voice bid me to enter and I did so as the door slid upon. The office inside was bare, almost barren looking, with only a single desk and no personal effects. Behind the desk sat one of the largest men I had ever seen.

Even sitting, he was only a little shorter than me, and his form rippled with muscle.

“Count Hope,” he greeted me with a small nod. “You are expected, please sit,” he continued, gesturing toward the chair opposite him on the desk.

Nodding, I moved over and sat before speaking. “Thank you, ah?”

“Commander Randell,” he responded with a grunt, before pulling something from a drawer under his desk.

It was a small folder, its cover opaque with only the words Top Secret written across the top.

Placing it in front of me, he looked back up with hard eyes. “The specifics of the powers available to us in one of the greatest secrets of this country. While you are permitted to look through this list of three-chain ritual chambers, you may not make recordings or bring the information out of this room in any way.”

Sensing just how serious he was, I tried not to gulp while confirming my assent. They really aren’t kidding around with this stuff.

He stared at me for several moments before his face relaxed slightly, and he nodded. Next to the folder, he placed a pencil before he continued speaking.

“You may, however, make notes on the paper while you are here in this office. Again, you may not take notes elsewhere, or remove any of the papers from this room. You have up to two hours to decide.”

While I had expected him to turn to some kind of work after this, he instead simply settled back into his seat and continued watching. He’s just going to monitor the whole time, isn’t he? I wonder if they’ve had trouble before?

Whatever the reason, I only had a limited amount of time to select what I wanted. Nodding my agreement to him, I picked up the pencil and began making a first pass through the pages.

The first thing I did was to cross out the abilities I had already discarded on the way here, though I gave them a quick read first. I found both the lightning the Psion at the second facility had used, and Felisa’s flash-forward ability.

While both were quite tempting after seeing them in action, I had already decided not to take that kind of ability. Not this time, at least.

Instead, I returned to the beginning and began looking through the support and utility abilities in more detail. It was about two-thirds of the way through that I found something that stood out.

Enhance Cognition

While active, this ability speeds up the user's thought processes. This allows for more planning and analyses to be completed in time-critical situations.

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That’s pretty much perfect, I thought with excitement as I leaned back to think about it. One of my greatest weaknesses, and sometimes greatest strengths, in combat, was how much time I spent planning what I was going to do.

While this had helped me to win tough fights in the past, it had also put me in trouble against even weak enemies. If this ability allowed me to plan in a fight without standing there like a sitting duck, then the improvement to my combat ability could be incredible.

Best of all, it would be just as useful when captaining my ship as it would be in ground combat. I’d been in enough fights now to know that things could change in a second, and I was sure that space battles were no different.

This would allow me to process what was happening and come up with a response faster, potentially saving my ship and all its crew. Speaking of which, I’ll have to get some kind of tactical command training.

If I was going to captain the ship in military action, then I’d damn well better learn how to do it properly. I couldn’t just follow my usual figure it out as I go strategy with a crew of people depending on me.

While I was pretty sure that i had found the ability I wanted, I still made sure to go through the rest of the list. There were plenty of interesting, and a few extremely powerful sounding abilities, however, none of them fit me as well as Enhance Cognition.

Looking up, I found Commander Randell still watching me intently. I wasn’t even sure if he’d blinked since I sat down.

“I want Enhance Cognition,” I said, getting straight to the point. “I think it fits me the best.”

He nodded his head in thought before pulling something up on the holographic screen built into his desk.

“A good choice,” he said finally. “Particularly given your position. Many ship captains ask for that ability to aid them in the middle of combat, and just as many nobles ask for it to aid in their negotiating ability.”

I hadn’t even thought about that, I mused, perking up even further. Of course, being able to think faster would also help in situations like that.

I just had to try not to get too excited. It would still be only an Acolyte level ability, and I still needed to get a skill to use with it. Given that I was on the brink of hitting the level that skills changed, that might be harder than ever before.

“You have an appointment in three weeks,” Commander Randell said, pulling me from my thoughts. “A military VTOL will come to pick you up and take you to the facility. Be warned that they will disable your personal computer along with any scanning equipment you have and will blindfold you until your arrival.

Makes sense, I thought as I nodded my agreement. Even with their precautions here, someone with excellent memory could remember most, if not all, of the abilities. This way, no one can match an ability to the area it is acquired from.

With that, it seemed the meeting was over, as he gestured for me to leave. I thanked him for his time and moved out to find Elana and Linnea.

I still had my lands to visit, namely the fishing village, as well as quite a backlog of tasks to complete. There were the extra slides from the Professor, another discussion with the AI, and even notifications I had been ignoring since the fight in the woods.

I had been wary of doing any game-like actions in front of Felisa, given how perception she’d seemed to be. While I could have looked at them in my tent at night, I had been rather distracted during that time since I began sharing with Linnea.

Then everything had gone down at the facility and things had become a whirlwind of events. Even in the ritual chamber, I’d only spent long enough to check my new ability upgrade before rushing to deal with the AI.

I would have to look through them when I finally had some downtime, as I suspected I had reached level ten after all that fighting.

The middle of the palace wasn’t the place for that, however, so I instead tried to find the noble reception area to ask after the sisters. Quickly finding it on my map, I plotted a route and began moving down.

The noble’s reception was a lot smaller than the main one, with only a single reception desk, however, it was even more impressive. Even just walking into the room brought the receptionist’s attention to me.

“I hope you have been having a lovely time in the palace, Count Hope. Is there anything I can help you with?” She asked with a brilliant smile.

“Ah, could you check how my companions are progressing? Linnea and Elana.” I responded. Definitely have to come here next time, the place is basically empty, and she recognized me straight away.”

“Of course, Sir, one moment,” she said, turning her attention to the screen on her desk. Less than a minute later, she looked back up. “I have your companion Elana listed as being busy with the research team for the rest of the day, while Linnea will be done with her first flight lesson in roughly half an hour.”

“Our waiting room is available, as always, and I can have her directed there if you wish,” she finished with a gesture to a door on the side of the room.

“That would be great, thanks,” I responded with a nod. Following her direction, I moved over to the waiting room, where I was immediately greeted by an attendant. They gave the option of the common room or a private room and I went with a private room for now.

It would give me time to go through the slides from Professor Henceforthe. The shock of the earlier revelations had worn off, and I felt ready to go through more information.

I settled into an extremely comfortable room and was offered a choice of refreshments, which I gladly took, along with the final Enhancement Elixir the Duchess had offered me. Apparently she had anticipated me waiting here and had it delivered.

Thanking the man, I slipped the Elixir away for now and settled in to watch the slides. The room had its own built-in projector for me to view them on so I didn’t have to hover over my watch.

Much of the information was about how to comport myself around other nobles, which I just skimmed for now. I would spend some time going over it in detail in the coming week or two.

The parts that were useful now covered my responsibilities in more detail, as well as what I could spend the income from my goods tax on. The big pickup here was that besides funding settlement guards and levies for the Crown, I could use it to fund personal retainers.

Much like Linnea had suggested, this would give her the same rights as someone in the military if she signed up for the position. It would also allow me to pay her with my tax money, thus allowing me to bring her along more often without draining my personal funds.

While it would solve the problem of her owning a fighter, it was something that I would have to discuss with her first. It implied a level of long-term commitment I hoped she felt, but that we would have to talk through together.

Becoming the retainer to a noble wasn't the kind of position you could just walk away from after a few months and keep your reputation, after all.

Not long after I found that tidbit, Linnea showed up, ready to move out. She also brought the news that Elana would be busy for the next few days and that we should leave without her.

After greeting her with a kiss, we linked arms and began making our way out of the palace.

It was time to visit my lands and start surveying what I had, though I needed to have a couple of serious discussions on the way.