The clangs of Aurier hammering on a piece of equipment he was forging clashed wildly with the clashes from my practice sparring with Gutran. We were fighting head on now. My mace against the smith’s chosen weapon, a sword that he had reinforced with mana during forging.

  Despite my constant and comparatively fast-paced growth, I still wasn’t as strong as Gutran. Both not on paper and not when we actually fought either. It was proven very easily when our weapons met with a shower of sparks.

  “You know,” I said when we had paused just a bit to regain our stamina. At least my Vitality meant I could almost keep up with Gutran’s endurance. “I thought I’d be strong enough to take you on by now.”

  Gutran stared at me flatly. “You haven’t even been here for a year, Ross. Come talk to me once you’ve spent at least twice as much time as you have so far.”

  “But you’re Gold-ranked, just like me!”

  “And you’re a mage. Even if you do fight with a mace half the time. It’s expected you wouldn’t be able to match a close-combat specialist at the same rank no matter how much you trained.”

  I grumbled to myself. That seemed a little unfair, considering the effort I was putting in. But I supposed no one person could really do everything no matter how hard they tried. I had felt and experienced that through the way I had worked with the Sun Cult, the guilds, and so on. That was just how life was.

  “You thought about your new Affixes and Augmentations yet?” Gutran asked.

  I reminded him about my plan for my Vitality Augmentation, which he brushed off because we had already discussed it. He was really just reminding me of all the other things I needed to take care of. I sighed.

  “A good rule of thumb is to look for passives you won’t have to actively think about as you keep getting stronger and stronger,” Gutran said. “Because in all honesty, even with Aspects that improve your mental capabilities, there’s only so much one person can keep track of.”

  “That does make sense,” I said. “But Affixes are always like… expansions of what I can do with an Aspect. They’re always active.”

  “It doesn’t help to think of them in the simple binary of active and passive. Instead, think of it this way.” He tapped his scaly head with the tip of his sword. “What’s something you want to do or think you can do naturally, without much thought, that an Affix can help with. I know I keep telling you to think of them in terms of expanding what you’re capable of, but we need to make sure you’re not overextended either.”

  He had a point there too. If I kept flatly increasing my abilities numerically, then at one point, I’d start forgetting one or more of the early things I had started off with. That would be pretty bad.

  “I’ll keep that in mind, Gutran,” I said. “Although, I was thinking of getting a more active Affix for Illumination, though I know you said not to think of them that way.”

  “What did you have in mind?” he asked.

  I noticed Aurier was listening in without making it too obvious, which made me smirk a bit. “I remember Master Kostis mentioned getting Manipulation, less as an important Affix and more as something I can use to control my Compound Aspects better.”

  Gutran approached me to resume sparring. “An Affix or an Augmentation?”

  I didn’t get the opportunity to answer because I was busy fighting off his series of vicious swings that would probably have left some nasty bruises despite having armour on. Now that I was a good deal stronger than before, Gutran held less and less back.

  “I don’t see the need to get it as an Augmentation because I’m not sure how it’s going to help with things like Flare or Gravity,” I said after we paused for another breather. “As in, it sounded like an ability to control the consistency of an Aspect, and I don’t need that for Flare or Gravity.”

  Manipulation would work best on Illumination because light was made up of different constituent energies. Or at least, it was a spectrum. If I could control that spectrum better, I could find more applications for Illumination.

  “I’m afraid my expertise on the matter is limited.” Gutran looked back at his forge, which made Aurier resume beating his piece with his hammer much harder and much faster. “Unless we’re talking about consistencies of different metal alloys, in which case, I have some passing knowledge I could share.”

  I smiled. “I think I’ll pass on metal alloy compositions, thank you.”

  There were no further rank-ups to be had, but that was expected. I chatted a bit with Aurier about how he was slowly and subtly egging Gutran on to expand his business. That was neat.

  I invited him to come with me to Ring Two to visit the academy, but Aurier declined, saying he was a little too busy. He would make something nice for Sreketh soon, though.

  After stretching to work out some of the kinks, I said my goodbyes to Gutran and Aurier and headed towards Xokrist academy.

  It was nice that I didn’t need to go through any real bureaucracy to visit Sreketh. While I had used my Adventurer’s Guild badge—freshly upgraded to the Gold-ranked version—to get into Ring Two and then the guild itself the other day, that little tactic wasn’t going to work as well this time.

  Good thing that nothing of the sort was needed. I just walked over to the academy, stated my purpose and identity, and was welcomed inside with reasonable speed by the guards.

  Huh. Maybe this was another little fallout of my Blight Swarm efforts, just like with the Adventurer’s Guild.

  There wasn’t a visiting centre or anything like that at Xokrist, but I learned that most of the academy wasn’t off-limits to parents and guardians, provided they had their child or dependent along with them. That was nice, I supposed. I waited on the grounds, though, which was where a somewhat breathless Sreketh finally found me.

  “Ross!” she shouted as she hurried over. “You didn’t say you were coming.”

  I smiled as she approached. The blue academy robes made her look kind of odd, but it also somehow suited her too. Maybe it was just the fact that she was still a kid.

  “Hey Sreketh,” I said. “Just wanted to surprise you is all.”

  “Aww, if you had said something, I could have prepared! We could have gone on a tour by the lake or the botanical gardens.”

  I blinked. “They’ve got a lake and a botanical garden here?”

  “Yes! They’re really neat.”

  I smiled, shaking my head. “Sounds like you’ve had a lot of fun exploring.”

  “Lot of fun…” There was the slightest bit of hesitation when she said that, but her expression remained cheery. “Yeah, I have!”

  I decided against calling out that little hesitation of hers for now. No doubt, she was going through her own stresses. This was all new to her. She had a lot to acclimatize to.

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  We took a stroll through the area, going through all the spots Sreketh had mentioned earlier. There really was a large lake, filled with a strange, silvery kind of liquid that I wasn’t sure I wanted to call water, though Sreketh was adamant that it was. It was just filled with a bit too much mana. Apparently, drinking from it helped young mages learn Aspects faster.

  I was reminded of that scammer on Ring Four from whom I had obtained my lie detection Sacrifice rewards.

  Our conversation took a turn to Sreketh’s academic experiences. She was staying at Xokrist to prepare for her entrance exams. Honestly, allowing her to take up residence before she was even a student in truth was odd, but I was glad for it. The academy administration recognized the potential of her unique Path.

  They were allowing her to attend some preliminary classes too. She was learning some interesting stuff.

  For instance, I was informed that training multiple Aspects together apparently enhanced the learning rate of Compound Aspects. Something that academy kids learned in their first year. This was a bit wild to me because I didn’t see any academy student reaching Gold in their very first year.

  “Well, they aren’t teaching us how to acquire Compound Aspects just yet,” Sreketh said. “It was just extra information the professor told us. They like to do that a lot here. Drip feed the occasional titbit about things you’ll only get in the future.”

  “That’s a pretty fascinating teaching technique, actually,” I said as I thought about it. No doubt, one of the best ways to motivate students to put in their best efforts was by giving them solid reassurance of all the meaningful accomplishments they could achieve in the not-too-distant future. “Did they say anything specific about your Path and your Aspect?”

  “Oh, uh.” There was that bit of hesitation again before she found the right words. “They only said it’s really unique and it has a lot of potential.”

  I tried to look at it positively, despite already knowing that. “Did they now?”

  “Mhm! They did the test you mentioned at the Mage Guild class, Ross. The one where they have those cubes that glow. Mine were really, really bright!”

  She didn’t apparently remember the exact colours, for some strange reason, but I didn’t push her. The fact that she was happy about it was good enough for me.

  Sreketh looked up at me with a gleam that was almost viciously eager. “Professor Izithy said that if I can open up all my standard mana conduits with Threaded Reinforcement before the end of the year, then I’ll be able to get a lot of powerful Affixes when I hit Silver and get powerful new Aspects too.”

  Huh. Just that tiny bit she had told me held a lot of information that was, if not exactly new to me, at least presented in a light I hadn’t considered before.

  For instance, there was the idea of standard mana conduits or channels. Did that mean there were non-standard ones as well? If so, how did they differ, and what were the conditions, boons, and drawbacks compared to regular ones? Sreketh didn’t have answers for those.

  “Have you had any of the lake… water yet?” I asked.

  “Oh, yes,” she said. “It tastes like bug juice. Want me to get you some?”

  “Uh, I’m not sure—”

  “You really should try some!” she said with a little excited hop. “Why don’t you wait here and I’ll get some for you.”

  “I really don’t think—”

  “I won’t be long, I promise. I’ll even tell the guard that we want to stroll through the gardens too.”

  Before I could say anything further, she was dashing off. I sighed. Well, I was just glad she was enjoying herself. That was all that mattered.

  Though, I still got the feeling she wasn’t telling me everything.

  Too much time passed. I stood there, watching a side of the academy I hadn’t observed yet, before starting to realize that Sreketh was taking too long. Had she gotten lost or held up for some reason? How complicated could getting some water be? Though, she had stated that we’d need permission to enter the botanical gardens.

  I decided to go find her, doing my best to trace the path she had taken. It wasn’t that difficult. There was always the danger that I’d get lost, considering my tendencies, but the academy was delightfully simple in its layout.

  A frown grew on my face as I finally spotted Sreketh. And spotted all the others around Sreketh too. They were all a little too close, all of them looming over her.

  I hurried over faster, but I wasn’t quick enough. The other students saw me.

  Suddenly, they were no longer standing way too close to Sreketh, maintaining a respectful distance between themselves and her.

  “…just a Ring Four cultist,” one of the students was hissing. I didn’t like the look on his face one bit. “What are you so—”

  “No, that’s the cultist,” another one said, dragging her companion away with a hard tug. She didn’t even bother looking at me, sparing me only the briefest glance before quickly hurrying away. “No point in messing with him.”

  Her words were for all the students’ benefit, which was why I heard it as well. By the time I reached them, everyone but Sreketh was walking off, a few of them shooting looks at me that were at a minimum highly disdainful.

  “You alright?” I asked Sreketh gently as I reached her.

  She perked up so fast, it was like the last few moments hadn’t even happened. “I’m perfectly fine!”

  “Hmm. If you say so.”

  Two could play the pretending game. A part of me wanted to talk to her directly about what had just happened and what I had failed to fully witness. A part of me wanted to ask her about her hesitations. A part of me really wanted to go after those students and make sure they understood that treating Sreketh poorly wasn’t something I’d let stand for long.

  But I wasn’t sure of my footing here just yet. So, hard as it was—and it was straining me a lot to not ask—I decided against pushing her. I didn’t want to be the kind of guardian who seemingly did the right thing for the right reasons, but still ended up complicating things for the person I was supposed to be helping. And it was pretty obvious that Sreketh wasn’t quite ready for those conversations just yet.

  “You know,” I said as I started walking, which prompted her to start leading me towards the botanical gardens. “You can tell me anything, right? You’ve got no reason to worry while I’m here. I promise.”

  Sreketh took her time answering. “Thanks, Ross.”

  Answering her smile with my own, I followed her into the botanical gardens.

  “We’re almost at Ring Two,” Lujean said as we neared the entrance to the dungeon.

  He wasn’t wrong. The cave that led into Rackshift Dungeon was apparently located high up on Ring Three. So high up that we could make a decent attempt at getting into Ring Two without needing to go through the Preserve.

  …I couldn’t believe it had taken me this long to wonder if there were alternate ways into Ring Two besides the Preserve I had been using.

  “Everyone ready?” I asked as I pulled out the token that would grant us entry through the Ward. Once the Scarthralls answered in the affirmative, I said, “Run through the inventory, please.”

  “Ropes, check,” Vandre said.

  Atholaine held up a few bags. “I’ve got the rations.” She patted her waist. “And I’ve got the dimensional storage bags too.”

  “Potions, check,” Sigrouen said. “As well as runes.”

  “Jalais check,” Lujean said.

  Jalais scowled a little. “Yes, well, Lujean check too, I guess.”

  I couldn’t tell if I wanted to laugh or roll my eyes. “You guys forgot one important thing.”

  They stared at each other, then looked at me with a bit more sheepishness. I sighed.

  “Ritual!” I said. “Come on guys, we’re cultists! That’s our whole schtick.”

  The Scarthralls all looked pretty embarrassed. I didn’t really blame them, of course. They were obviously all pretty excited, which made them understandably forgetful about some things.

  “Which ones should we go with, Cultist Ross?” Vandre asked.

  “Let’s go with the basics,” I said. “Growth, Precaution, and Strengthening. Those should do it. We’ll need to redo Strengthening before the actual encounters, though.”

  The last was one of the new Rituals I had learned. It was also the one with the shortest duration of effects among all the ones that I knew. As such, we’d need to replicate the process before we got into any real fights.

  For now, we followed the process. We performed the necessary steps of clashing our weapons and daubing some of our blood on ourselves for the former two, before burdening ourselves with added weight for the latter. Since we had practice, we got through the process for all the Rituals within twenty minutes.

  [ Ritual

  You have performed 1 [Moderate] Ritual of Growth [1] / 1 [Minor] Ritual of Precaution [2] / 1 [Minor] Ritual of Strengthening [3]. Windfall bonus activated.

  Reward [1]: Rank gain hastened by 3.5x for Iron-ranked Attributes, Aspects, and Paths, by 2.5x for Silver-ranked Attributes, Aspects, and Paths, by 2x for Gold-ranked Attributes, Aspects, and Paths, with learning rate for new Augmentations and Affixes raised by 2.5x, for 3 hours and 30 minutes.

  Reward [2]: Vitality raised by 6 ranks and resistance to afflictions raised by 50% for 1 hour and 40 minutes.

  Reward [3]: At moments of use, caster’s every Aspect and Augmentation-related Attribute’s rank is increased by 5 ranks for 3 hours and 30 minutes. ]

  “Can’t believe we forgot about all these buffs,” Vandre said with a shake of his head.

  “If you had Windfall Affix,” I said. “I’d have recommended Sacrifice afterwards too.”

  The Scarthralls didn’t mind that they lacked my special Affix. They had received a decently hefty boost already.

  But me? I wasn’t satisfied just yet. No point in letting Returned Offering go to waste, so I focused on Sacrifice to enhance my rewards even further. As all the Ritual rewards got amplified, I led my companions into their first ever dungeon run. Into the strongest dungeon in all of Zairgon.