Despite all the effort and luck involved in getting the System to accept his access queries, the SGDs V2 in Orion's hands felt somewhat underwhelming.
There was no active mana flowing through them, and no obvious sign of their immense potential. At first glance, they simply looked like a unique piece of eyewear, and even a closer look would only reveal tiny inscriptions that didn’t resemble any language this world has ever seen.
Orion slid them on, feeling them settle securely on the bridge of his nose, and looked through the finished product for the first time.
The lab room looked exactly the same. Messy from all the fast-paced work he’d done, yet familiar, but there was no significant stirring in the Mana Field.
However, when he turned them toward the inner wall, he noticed the first sign of something different.
A hazy light that his sight couldn't catch quickly moved toward him, sharpening as it drew closer, eventually forming into something that nearly resembled a person before the lab’s door was thrown open. Yue walked in with narrowed eyes and a tense expression, as if expecting a major disaster.
Her eyes landed on him, and more importantly, on his glasses, and she relaxed slightly, though not entirely.
“Until the day you die, you shall take great pleasure in surprising me with your foolishness, will you not?” she asked, and Orion felt mildly offended that she implied he would die before her, though perhaps this wasn’t the best moment to complain about her assessment of his risk-taking.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” he said innocently, careful not to add any humor to his tone. She would not appreciate that.
Her eyes narrowed, but she couldn’t find anything to cling to, and she clearly chose to ignore his foolishness in favor of addressing the more important issue.
“What have you done, Orion? I felt something similar to a Class Ceremony, if not as clear or as long, but you recently went through one, and even an aberration like you can level up so quickly.”
The pinging from the System in the back of his mind, which was trying to tell him how much experience he had gained from his success, wanted to disagree. He didn’t bring it up, knowing better than to provoke her when such a delicate matter was at hand.
“I already informed my mother about the project I was working on,” he began, drawing a line in the sand, especially because he could vaguely see another bright blob moving their way, which told him that Asteria would be with them shortly. “But if you must know, I simply successfully crafted an artifact that will let me skim some information from the System. Nothing revolutionary, I assure you.”
In the grand scheme of things, it really wasn’t. He knew others could achieve similar results with spells, enchantments, or more mysterious methods, but he conveniently left out that those people typically had much more experience and power than he did.
Yue didn’t seem convinced and was eyeing his new fashionable addition with suspicion, but that was when his mother appeared beside her, stopping her from asking more.
“Elder, may I ask what you need with my son?" she inquired calmly, though it was clear she was not pleased.
Yue studied her for a long moment; her lips curled up just slightly, and she inclined her head before turning around and walking away. “It’s good that you’ve grown a spine. You’ll need it.”
Asteria watched her mentor leave with a complex expression, but sighed and shook her head. “She can never say anything directly.”
Orion felt like he had mostly been a spoiler for this weird, silent talk to happen, but decided that as long as Yue didn’t have a problem with him, he didn’t care what her actual intentions were.
Especially because he’d had the chance to [Inspect] her, and she made for an excellent first target for V2.
The results were quite different from what he previously knew about her. Back then, the screen displayed little more than her name and rank. Now, he could see her detailed stats.
Yue - First Alchemist of the Lunar Sanctum
Class: [Holy Hand of Transmutation] [A-rank]
Level: 187
Mind: 1997
Attunement: 2212
Body: 215
Traits: ?? [A-rank]; ?? [A-rank]; ?? [A-rank], ?? [A-rank]
It wasn’t a complete picture yet, and Orion would have liked to know her Traits, but even this much clarification helped a lot.
First, Yue was unexpectedly close to finishing tier four. Not quite there yet, especially since levels increased so slowly at that height, but she would reach it eventually.
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It was a clear sign she hadn’t given up on progressing, unlike many others at her level would have. That, or she’s simply so old that she’s gaining levels over time, and it just looks like she’s racing compared to everyone else.
Compared to Asteria’s position, it was obvious that her greatest asset was time.
Asteria Voidwalker - Magistra (???) of the Lunar Sanctum
Class: [Divine Brewer] [A-rank]
Level: 150
Mind: 1197
Attunement: 1212
Body: 91
Traits: ?? [A-rank]; ?? [A-rank]; ?? [A-rank], ?? [A-rank]
The disparity in stats was enormous, especially in Attunement, even considering the level gap, which could only be explained by Yue gaining additional attributes through her experiments. Such improvements would take at least a century of persistent effort, probably longer.
Still, Asteria was roughly in the same range now, which was quite an achievement given her age. She could take some time to improve her stats that had been rushed during her frantic push for more levels.
That doesn’t consider their Traits, since I can’t see them, or the spells they developed, which is probably impossible to include in this kind of analysis without making the probe too intrusive. Which the System wouldn’t allow, given how delicate I had to be to get this much approved.
“Are you studying me?” Asteria asked in exasperation, and Orion froze, eyeing her like a startled rabbit.
“Is it that noticeable?” he asked, worry gnawing at him. He would have thought Yue would have made her displeasure known if that had been the case, but he could never quite understand why she behaved as she did.
She let out a chuckle and shook her head, “No, I just can't read you. Your expression is very obvious, moonbeam. Not many people stare into the lenses of their glasses without doing anything, you know?”
“Ah, that might be a problem, thanks,” he muttered, blushing with embarrassment.
She smiled, reaching over and tweaking his cheek in a way he only tolerated because she had rushed to defend him from the big bad Elder a moment ago.
“I am proud of you,” she said a moment later, drawing a stunned look from him. “Do not ever doubt that. You have already achieved so much, and you are only moving to climb ever higher. That is amazing, moonbeam.”
Fortunately, she left before the heat radiating from his cheeks reached dangerous levels, and he was spared a meltdown.
You'd think that with my experience, this kind of thing wouldn’t affect me much, but I’ve never had a mother be this openly affectionate. I just lack immunity.
To distract himself from the embarrassment, he finally let the silent pinging in the back of his mind surface, and the System’s rewards were revealed to him.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
+4 to Attunement
+2 to Mind
+231.444 Exp
Level up!
Level up!
ORION A. VOIDWALKER
Class: [Causal Epistemologist] [B-rank]
Level: 54
Mind: 234
Attunement: 225
Body: 31
Traits: Mana Manipulation [B-rank]; Hypotheticism [B-rank]; Falsifiability Criterion [B-rank]
Orion smiled with satisfaction and began cleaning up.
“I really need to improve those kinetic spells,” he grumbled, but there was no time because the Radiant Vigil’s squires were waiting for him.
Orion would have much preferred to walk to the Vigil’s embassy. He had gotten the chance to observe a few witches so far, and the information he was gathering was genuinely fascinating—doing the same across all of Valderun would have definitely given him a much deeper understanding of class archetypes and how power is distributed.
Unfortunately, he had to face the reality of being the son of the most powerful man in the Magocracy, which meant he had to travel by carriage with an escort.
Kissea sat beside him, seemingly absorbed in the quilt she was weaving from incredibly fine strands of metal, so he didn’t dare to disturb her, while Pauline boredly stared out the window as the city rolled by.
Both women had been around the level of power he expected, although he noticed that Pauline had advanced another level since the last time he checked, now at ninety-eight, which meant she was rapidly approaching tier three.
Apparently, something had lit a fire under her feet. I wonder what that is, he thought amusedly. He was not the best at reading emotions, but it was clear she was impressed and intimidated by his rate of growth.
If she knew he had gained two more levels recently, she would probably be stunned and not a little envious.
Still, she was clearly being set up to become his mother’s second in command, and he suspected she would reach the third tier sooner rather than later.
The carriage finally came to a stop, and the coachman, a mustachioed gentleman who was among the few men working for the Sanctum’s embassy, opened the door for them and bowed as they passed by, although not before Orion threw an [Inspect] his way.
I’ve been on a dry spell, I need my fix—
Luthor - Economic Spy
Class: [Sleuther] [D-rank]
Level: 71
Mind: 129
Attunement: 65
Body: 161
Traits: Smiling Face [C-rank]; Stealth [D-rank]; Accounting [D-rank]
What the fuck?!
Orion forced himself to look away from the man, lest he reveal his sudden realization, but couldn’t hide the shock on his face.
How was it even possible that such a man had gone unnoticed for so long? He knew for a fact that every external worker, especially men, who came under the Sanctum’s rule, was subjected to extremely rigorous testing to prevent this very thing.
And then there was the other surprising detail. Luthor wasn't particularly threatening, aside from his decent Body score, but he had something Orion hadn’t seen anywhere else so far.
One of his Traits was C-rank, one level above what his class should have allowed for.
Is that the answer? Was another major faction able to artificially create extra-rankers, even if only on a small scale? Or is he an anomaly? Why would they waste him on such a dangerous mission if they don't have more of his kind?
The questions never seemed to end, especially when combined with the brief description at the top of the profile. Luthor was apparently an economic spy, not an assassin or saboteur, as he had become familiar with.
The guards at the embassy’s entrance quickly scanned them, but it was clear they had been alerted to their arrival, and they let them in, with one man falling into step alongside them.
Kissea quickly grabbed the man’s arm and pulled him forward, starting a lecture about virtue and other theological topics that a man from a fellow light-aspected faction could somewhat understand, even though the poor guy clearly didn’t want to be subjected to it.
Meanwhile, Pauline quietly approached him and tapped his arm. “What is it?” she asked, her voice just loud enough for him to hear, aided by a very subtle spell he only noticed because of [Hypotheticism].
“The coachman is a spy,” he muttered back. Yue and his mother already knew he could access some level of information from the System, and this really wasn’t the kind of thing he could keep to himself.
Pauline’s face briefly tightened before smoothing out again. “I will take care of that. Enjoy your day with your friends.”
And with that, she turned back, leaving him feeling confused and quite wary of what else he might uncover from now on.
Ignorance wasn’t bliss, but knowledge often carried consequences.
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