I couldn’t help but gawk at Revayne. “Excuse me?”

  Revayne looked up from her book with a blank look. “Which part of what I said was surprising? My book says you’re astonished, but it hasn’t specified what you’re surprised at—oh wait, now it has. Ah.”

  “Ah?” I was fleetingly tempted to bonk her on the head. “You don’t think dropping an announcement of your impending marriage is surprising?”

  “Um…” She was trying really hard not to look at her book for the answer to that.

  “Yes,” I said. “The answer is yes.”

  “Thank you. I’ll make sure to note it down for future reference.”

  “Future reference…?” I shook my head. She had said it like multiple marriages weren’t uncommon, which made me realize I didn’t know what marriage customs in Zairgon were like. “Anyway, can you like, take it from the top? I think I’m missing a lot of context here.”

  We decided to take a little stroll through Ring Four while we talked. Revayne explained that, as a noble, she was obligated to marry to further the prospects of her House. Her family was rather insistent about it and she didn’t feel any which way about it either, so she had decided it was high time to get it over with.

  It was a strange stance I couldn’t really wrap my head around, but Revayne wasn’t exactly a typical person.

  “So who’s the lucky person?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know who you’re getting married to?”

  “Well, I’m aware he’s one of the younger sons of House Uralivanth, and I have met him once, but I’m not sure I’d categorize him as lucky, per se. Though admittedly, he does seem a mite more eager about the marriage than me.”

  “Hmm…”

  Honestly, I was still a little bit in shock about the whole thing. It made sense that nobles would want to expand their own political power via marriages. And no doubt Revayne’s looks made her attractive to people inclined that way.

  “Not to sound condescending or patronizing or anything like that,” I said. “But are you sure the guy is actually, you know, husband material?”

  This time, she couldn’t resist dipping her head back into her book. “Ah, so that’s what husband material means. For some reason, I thought it meant something dirty.”

  “What?”

  “To answer your question—no, he’s terrible.”

  The whiplash was starting to get to me. “Terrible…”

  “Well, alright. I’ll amend that to say the family is terrible. The man himself perhaps not as much. He might even have some redeeming qualities, which is why I agreed.” She lowered her voice conspiratorially. “But House Uralivanth is certainly rather… shady, and I’m only agreeing to marry into them because investigating them from within will be a lot easier.”

  I felt a little faint. Every word Revayne revealed was like a twist in a psychological thriller film. I decided I’d moor myself by grounding what she had said with things I knew and was familiar with. “I remember hearing about House Uralivanth in a negative context before, though I can’t remember where.”

  “I’m not surprised. You’ve been all over Zairgon so you must have heard all sorts of things.” She looked up from her book. “Oh, how nice. Your Ration House is working well, then?”

  “Oh yeah, it’s been set up for a while now. Works like a charm. People love it. And stop distracting me from your marriage.”

  “I wasn’t distracting, merely commenting. Do you accept the invitation, then?”

  “Well, yes. You’re a good friend, Revayne. I’m not going to miss your wedding of all things. Assuming all your Ring Two guests don’t get me kicked out, that is.”

  “Please. They wouldn’t dare while I’m around.”

  We talked a bit more as we strolled through Ring Four. Revayne was happy to elaborate on all the shady things that her in-laws were supposedly involved in, including money laundering, contraband, monster slavery, among others.

  “Monster slavery,” I said. “Right. Now I remember. Khagnio mentioned they were the ones behind the caged monsters we saw in Ring Zero.”

  Revayne nodded. “Yes, that’s unsurprising, sadly. I just need to find solid links between them and their… less than savoury ventures.”

  “So much shady shit. Crime lords are a type of lord too, I guess.”

  That made her chuckle.

  “This whole conversation has been about me, though,” Revayne said. “What about you, Ross? What do you intend to do going forward?”

  Her face was once again in her book, but I knew her interest was genuine.

  “I’ve been up to a lot of things, actually,” I said.

  “I’m not surprised. That’s the sort of person you are. Name some, please.”

  I told her about the Kalnislaw lands, about my efforts to manifest a second mana core, about the idea of using an artifice that used the power of one of my Compound Aspects.

  “I’m also thinking of heading into the Nether Vein soon,” I said.

  “Oh, really? Me too. What a nice coincidence.”

  I blinked a little. “Don’t you have, I don’t know, wedding preparations to take care of?”

  “Ah, interesting. You seem to have powerful assumptions about what marriages and weddings are supposed to be like based on your past world.”

  “Did you really need the book to tell you that?”

  “The point, Ross, is that no, the ones to be married need not take part in the preparations. It’s normally up to the families involved to organize the whole ceremony. As such, while my betrothed is free to sell mana-infused drugs to other nobles, I am free to get lost in the Monumental Opus of an Ascendant.”

  “Does… does he actually sell drugs?”

  “No, I’m most likely exaggerating. He seems like a decent fellow, all things told. I’m certain there are some in his family that do that, though.”

  “Lovely.”

  “Yes! You can see why I’m marrying into their family.”

  I barked out a surprised laugh.

  Revayne mentioned that, if given the choice, she would much rather train and fight and rank up instead of getting married and settling down or whatever. I was tempted to ask then why not do so, but it felt somewhat insensitive given that she had made a conscious decision. She had, after all, mentioned why she was going through with it.

  “Did I mention I broke through to Opal during the Blight Swarm invasion?” she asked.

  “Oh, you didn’t,” I said. “Congrats, that’s huge!”

  “Please, don’t flatter me. I know you’re rushing towards Opal like an avalanche yourself, Ross. And I’m certain you will reach it before I’m even halfway towards Onyx.”

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “Sure, but that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate your amazing accomplishment. Where in the Pits is my treat?”

  “At the wedding, of course.”

  I grumbled.

  When we reached the gate to Ring Three, we finally took our leave of each other. I didn’t forget to thank her for informing me about it all personally. She just looked at me in confusion.

  “Isn’t that what friends are supposed to do?” she asked.

  I stared at her, then laughed a little. “Right. Of course.” I grinned. “See you at the Nether Vein, then?”

  “I had better see you there, yes.”

  A couple of days later, I was sparring some more with the Scarthralls. In accordance with my self-mandate of focusing on Agility until it had ranked up some more or acquired its Augmentation, I didn’t fight back against Lujean, Vandre, and the others. Instead, I did my best to evade.

  The Scarthralls were naturally a little more annoyed than normal at my chosen style of tactics. They smashed in powerfully, did their best to throw all their Aspects, zipped in as fast as their Silver-ranked Attributes allowed them to go.

  But thanks to my enhanced Agility and the Augmentation I already had—Reflexive Mana—they never even touched me.

  Mostly, I was trying to get a feel for my mana. I had gotten better at externalizing it. A mini-breakthrough had arrived in the form of me realizing I could use Manifestation to draw out mana without necessarily drawing it out as Aspected mana.

  “Almost.” Lujean had his hands on his hips after a close miss. “Almost had you that time, Cultist Ross.”

  “Keep it up,” I said. “I like the way you guys work together to distract me so you can get over the advantage I’ve got with my speed.”

  “And it’s still not enough,” Vandre grumbled.

  “Why are you so ridiculous, Cultist Ross?” Atholaine said.

  I tried not to feel too much like a peacock. “You have to be ridiculous to do ridiculous things, I guess.”

  “I’m going to do ridiculous things too,” Vandre said. “Just you wait.”

  Sometimes, I forgot how young Vandre was.

  “I think throwing blood that melts people’s faces off is ridiculous enough,” Lujean said.

  We all chuckled.

  Vandre glared at us all. “That’s not what I mean! What I’m saying is that I’ll do ridiculous things too. I’ll conquer the Nether Vein when I head into it.”

  I put the brakes on that idea well before any of them could get serious about it. “Not so fast. No Nether Veins for you all just yet.”

  They all looked at me in surprise. Hmm. Maybe I had been a little fast about it. A little too decisive, speaking in a tone that brooked no argument. I… supposed I normally spoke in a much more genial, easy-going manner, so the sudden change had probably caught them off-guard.

  “I don’t mean to sound harsh, sorry,” I said. “But I’ve been to the Nether Vein before. And this might sound hypocritical, but I was considering heading back there with the next expedition. But please, believe me when I say it really isn’t a place for people who aren’t even close to hitting Gold yet. The Nether Vein isn’t your everyday dungeon.”

  They nodded back solemnly. There was a gravity to it, to my voice and to everything I had said, that professed I wasn’t embellishing out of mere concern. Anyone who was Silver-ranked would very much be decimated.

  “I’m sorry, Cultist Ross,” Vandre said, no longer sounding as exuberant as he had before. “We should have done better at Rackshift dungeon. I guess I got too excited and didn’t do as well as we should have.”

  “Especially at the end there,” Jalais added.

  “What?” I stared at them. “That is not what I said.” I took a couple of breaths to calm down and inspect what they were saying and why. “I didn’t mean to give you the impression that I’m disappointed in you or anything of the sort. I really didn’t. You can see that, right?”

  I smiled at them, and slowly, most of the Scarthralls smiled back too. It felt strange. Not really awkward, but more weirdly sombre, like I was getting a reminder of the kind of effect I had on them, which ended up just making me feel somewhat oddly humbled.

  “All I’m saying,” I said. “Is that the Nether Vein is an order of magnitude more difficult than anything any plain old dungeon can be. But let me tell you this. When I go out on the next expedition, I’m going to survey just what it’s like. I’ve heard they’ve made several decent outposts, and if that’s true, then there might be a way for you guys to participate too.”

  That made them perk up a lot.

  “Come on,” I said, finishing up our training. “There’s one more thing I want to test, and you guys can come along with me to help set it up.”

  I took them to visit Kalnislaw estate. I recalled that Lujean and Vandre didn’t have very fond feelings about the place, what with how Lord Kalnislaw had blatantly disregarded their personhood to peer into their minds. I had talked to them in private about it though, and they promised they didn’t mind at all. The Scarseeker lord was long gone, after all.

  Yerenc was happy to see us again, but I stopped him from offering more blood truffles. The Scarthralls had made a lot of progress in not needing blood to survive, and I wasn’t about to open that can of worms by tempting them with more “free” blood.

  “A new Ritual?” Vandre asked, ever the interested student when it came to anything remotely magical.

  “Not exactly,” I said. “Old Ritual, just used in a new way. And with a new Affix to boot.”

  I stepped forward to observe the little vineyard. The blood seed was already working its magic. Even to my untrained eyes, the soil somehow looked warmer and more nutritious. Obviously not in a way that was making me want to take a bite. But rather, something even I intuitively felt was good enough to grow crops on.

  Case in point—there were tiny buds of the grape plants breaking out into the surface already, and it had only been a few days since they had been planted.

  Of course, there was the slight crimson glow coming out of the ground that made it all look rather evil. But I certainly couldn’t doubt the effectiveness. It wouldn’t be too long before the grapes were ready.

  I wasn’t satisfied just yet, though.

  Taking my time about it, I went around the field and performed the steps for the Ritual of Growth. The idea boiled down to actualizing in my mind why exactly this was important. A farm. A place where I was cultivating life. An instance where I was helping to rebuild and revitalize.

  Through it all, I focused on my mana. On the externalization practices I had done. It again helped that I had Manifestation to just bring about mana outside of me.

  Obviously, it also helped that I had the right Affix for what I intended to do as well.

  There was a good chance it wouldn’t work. Previously, when I had performed Rituals of Growth, they had always been about my ability to grow in my ranks, my capabilities like my Aspects, and so on. I kept wanting to improve, to become more and more powerful, and Rituals of Growth had helped a lot in that regard.

  I didn’t necessarily want my vineyard to be powerful. Not in the same way, at least. Could plants even get Aspects and Attributes and associated ranks? That was crazy to think about.

  But I was ultimately trusting the Weave to understand my intent and grant something suitable. At the very least, it would prove whether what I intended would work or not.

  It took only a few minutes, maybe five, before strands of white energy swam through the air to alight on the field. An actual circle of power formed on the field, glowing lines crisscrossing each other to create shapes that I somehow intuitively understood were spelling all the things I had been thinking about. All the ways that this was important to me.

  [ Ritual

  You have performed 1 Circle of a [Moderate] Ritual of Growth. Target: vineyard. Windfall bonus activated.

  Reward: Rate of growth for all aspects of vineyard accelerated by 2.5x for 18 hours and 40 minutes. ]

  “It’s working!” Vandre said.

  He couldn’t see my blue box, of course, but the glowing circle on the ground was proof enough.

  I nodded. “It is. But let’s see how good we can make it.”

  To that end, I channelled Sacrifice.

  [ Sacrifice

  You have Sacrificed 1 [Moderate] Ritual Reward. Windfall bonus activated.

  Reward: Rate of growth for all aspects of vineyard accelerated by 3x for 30 hours and 20 minutes. All products of vineyard now imbued with [Minor] infusion of mana. ]

  [ Affix Unlocked!

  You have acquired a new Affix for your Leadership Aspect.

  Affix: Morale ]

  [ Rank Up!

  Your Fervour Attribute has risen by one Rank.

  Your Ritual, Sacrifice, and Leadership Aspects have risen by one Rank.

  Fervour: Gold VI

  Ritual: Silver IV

  Sacrifice: Gold III

  Leadership: Iron III ]

  I nodded, impressed. “Yeah, that’s a good boost.”

  When I told it to the others, they all nodded in agreement. We could see the boost in front of us too. The tiny buds were growing marginally but still visibly faster now. Sure, it would only last for just over a day, but—

  I grinned. Maybe I could tie Permanence to the Ritual Circle. Now that I had the huge amount of mana I had used at the Nether Vein gate back, I could definitely spare a lot more. Especially for much smaller draws like simple rituals.

  “You’re something else,” Hamsik said. He had come to observe what was going on, since these were technically still his vineyards too. Thefris had supposedly made him come here, but he didn’t look like he minded. “You know that, Ross?”

  “Ha, you haven’t even seen anything yet,” I said. “Wait till I’ve got Ritual Circles across all the vineyards. Our production is going to skyrocket. We’re going to need more manpower to handle the logistics, Hamsik.”

  Hamsik rubbed his chin. “I guess this is where I come in, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, Economist Hamsik.”

  He shook his head at the title. “I should talk with Aqrea.”

  “You should! She’s got a good head for this kind of thing. But don’t overburden her, please.”

  “Of course. I should start talking to you too.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “What exactly are we doing here, then?”

  “No. I meant something different.” Hamsik took on an exacting look. “You’re mid Gold-ranked now. It’s high time you started thinking about your Icon.”