Chronicles of the True Wizard

Felix’s grades wouldn’t be presented until the next morning so he spent his time until then in Ked’s lab. He briefly tested the extent of his inability to cast portals and found it was very extensive. The System didn’t let him use molds, it didn’t let constructs powered by his own mana use molds, it didn’t let him use items created by other people and powered with their mana, it was a complete lock out. Like it didn’t trust him at all anymore.

He already knew he could walk through portals though so long as someone else was casting and directing them, like El and hopefully, the spires in Telviras.

Once that was done, he tested the limits of the construct he had made for his exam and realized he hadn’t actually named them yet.

“Handy? Han? Bob? Li cause you were inspired by a lich?”

Grim disgustedly banged in Felix’s mind, like he was knocking on a door and insisting he was heard, Those are awful. I mean, you kind of suck at naming but those are… something else.

Felix snorted, Yeah but… who doesn’t?

Me, I’m great at names. A new voice cut in, not one Felix thought had permission to.

He voiced his confusion as he scanned his head, Is that you Nucleus? How are you speaking to me like this?

Grim raised his hand mentally, which really just meant drawing Felix’s attention to him in his mind, That was me, I was talking with the Nucleus already and I’m just forwarding his voice around a little.

I see. Alright, let’s hear your name.

Felix could feel the Nucleus smiling within him as it paused either to think or for dramatic effect, Tory.

Grim groaned and Felix smirked a little, Short for facTory?

The Nucleus nodded excitedly, Yeah. See, I told you I wa-

Felix could tell Grim had cut him off from speaking for the time being and let out a chuckle, Alright, let’s hear the name you came up with.

Grim shook his head, Let’s ask the construct. Maybe it has a name it already likes.

It was a good idea so Felix turned to the construct, “What have people been calling you in here?”

“Many names. Most common, Orby.”

Felix desperately held onto the laugh that tried to burst out of him, “Do you like that name?”

“It’s fine.”

Sensing the lack of enthusiasm, Felix nodded, “Is there a name you do like?”

“Art.”

“Who called you that?”

“No- No one I just… short for Artificer. It’s a word I heard a few times and rather like.”

Grim, any objections?

Grim shook his head, No actually, I like it.

“Alright. Art it is then.”

It was impossible for Felix to visually distinguish any expressions on the construct as they were a floating orb surrounded by hands but he got the feeling through his soul that it was happy.

His testing mostly consisted of seeing how well it could inscribe and upgrade the Seeing Eye constructs he still had from the world event to integrate Adaline’s improvements. As it turned out, it performed much better than Felix had expected and without his intervention, it was 90% of the way to being able to replicate her enchantments.

He still had to manually adjust the constructs and finish them himself and Art wasn’t going to be coming up with these enchantments on his own any time soon but it still sped Felix’s work up quite a bit. With the remainder of the time he had to wait, Felix pawned off a number of ideas he had had along with the materials and components he had picked up in the world event to Art.

His own enchantments were significantly less advanced than Adaline’s and he saw no reason why Art wouldn’t be able to finish the work on those constructs.

They briefly worked together on one of the ideas right up until the designated time in the morning when his grades were to be delivered.

Heading off to the library, Felix got in line behind a number of other students and waited. It didn’t take long at all as El handed a small card to each student without the need to search or look at all. She just knew where everything was without looking and recognized each and every one of the students immediately.

Taking his card from her, Felix floated upwards to make room for the next person before looking down at it and groaning.

Class Skill Growth Potential

Mana Structures

Group Combat B A B

Special: Constructs & Elementals

Soul Manipulation, Reading & Cultivation

Spell Formation

Solo Combat

Special: Animancy

Special: Mana Control

Seriously?

He had already been informed that if grades didn’t appear, it was either because he got an S, or the professor wanted to speak with him. While the prospect of some S grades was enticing, it was also kind of a waste of time and he really wished he had just gotten them on the card.

Luckily, all the professors were located throughout the library so all he had to do was find the ones he was looking for. Walking through the main area, Felix looked side to side until he spotted the first of the Professor’s he needed to talk to, Director Amelia.

He walked over but stopped to wait next to the book shelf as she was already talking to Adaline but as soon as he did, she waved him over.

“Perfect. You’re here just in time. I was just about to explain to Adaline how I normally grade my students.”

Felix stepped over next to Adaline and listened along.

“I run this exact same test every year with a different goal in mind for the Mana Structure. I always do the test myself however, performing research and talking to colleagues of mine and developing the most efficient version I can. Whichever student is the most efficient, I give them an S in skill-unless the entire class is particularly lacking which has only happened once-and everyone else is graded based on that. If you use more than double that number, you fail.”

She chuckled, “I’ve had students virtually match the efficiency I manage to achieve, within margin of error, but never has anyone outright beat the efficiency I was able to accomplish. I like to think that is a result of the complex subject matter at hand and that it takes years of research and study to even build a baseline. If I maintained this grading scheme, Adaline would get an S and everyone else would fail. However, the both of you beat the efficiency I was able to achieve by a large margin. A few of your classmates managed to get very close to that efficiency as well. So, I’ll ask the both of you, is it fair for me to fail them all?”

Felix and Adaline looked at each-other, Felix immediately noticing the lack of disgust and hatred from her looking at him, but neither of them seemed to care much what happened to the rest of the class. Adaline answered, just to move the conversation along, “No.”

“Right so, I was forced to completely upend my grading scheme. It also seemed wrong to grade you two differently from the rest of the class so, I spent some time creating a whole new grading scheme to more accurately represent your abilities. For example, I usually grade based on efficiency alone because that was always indicative of skill but Felix, you did not demonstrate skill worthy of an S grade. Adaline on the other hand, I simply can’t assess your skill. Luckily, upon speaking with Kairune and El about the issue, it seems someone else this cycle ran into the very same problem before me.”

Snapping her fingers, both of their cards lightly glowed and Felix looked down to reveal his grade.

Mana Structures: Skill: B Growth: B Potential: U

He glanced over at Adaline’s card out of curiosity and she even tilted it towards him as she glanced at his.

Mana Structures: Skill: U Growth: U Potential: U

“What’s a U?” Adaline voiced the question before Felix could.

“Remember I said someone else ran into this before me? I described my problem and Kairune laughed at me because he had already had multiple other professors complain about the very same thing and their solution, was a U. It is a new grade as of this cycle that essentially means Ungradeable.”

Felix nodded a few times slowly, and Adaline immediately followed up, “Will this affect our recruitment offers?”

She sighed, “Likely. Kairune tried to get in contact and inform as many people of the change as possible and also sent a missive along with the grades but I fear that may end up ignored. Regardless, this was the best option.”

“Okay, anything else? I’ve got 6 others to go through.” Felix looked at Amelia as he pivoted one foot back to leave.

“You have 6 more to go?” She looked at him like he was on drugs then shook her head, sighed and mumbled under her breath, “This fucking cycle…”

He shrugged a little as he turned and walked away, heading further into the library and spotting Professor Elkord. As he headed over, he realized someone was walking right next to him and spotted Adaline. She nodded to him and he realized they were going in the exact same direction.

“Adaline. Felix.” Professor Elkord nodded to the both of them in turn, “Seeing as you were just speaking to Amelia, I take it an explanation is unnecessary.”

Waving his hand, both of their cards glowed and Felix looked down at it.

Spell Formation: Skill: B Growth: B Potential: U

She titled her her card towards him once again and let out a slight snort as she saw his.

Spell Formation: Skill: U Growth: U Potential: U

We both got exactly the same grade. I wonder if the Professors worked together to grade us.

“Questions?” Elkord looked at the both of them.

“No.”

“Nope.”

He nodded, “I suspect I will see you both next cycle.”

They both walked off and this time, split up. Adaline walked back towards the entrance to the library while Felix still had professors to speak with.

The next of his Professors he spotted were Professors Ked and Sal who were conveniently standing close together.

Walking over, he had to wait behind a couple other students but once it was his turn, they stepped closer together so they could handle him together, at once.

Ked spoke first, a slight grin on one side of his face, “I take it you already got the rundown so I’ll skip the theatrics and get right to it. Your skill with constructs is actually fairly mediocre but carried along by a rather impressive level of ingenuity and determination. Not to mention the brains you use in your constructs allow you to push the other aspects of construct craft quite quickly. Where others are worrying about the limits of the brains they use, you worry about the limits of the construct itself.”

Sal grumbled a little, “Your grades were… problematic. I feel slightly guilty but… justified. Here.”

She snapped and Ked followed along in reaction.

Special: Constructs & Elementals: Skill: A Growth: B Potential: U

Special: Animancy: Skill: U Growth: U Potential: U

Felix read through them and chuckled slightly upon seeing his grades in Animancy.

“As for growth, you’ve made impressive strides but I couldn’t justify anything greater than a B simply because I feel you could have made so much more progress had you focused on Constructs this epoch. I completely understand you had other things on your mind however.” Ked offered Felix an apologetic smile.

He really didn’t mind at all because in his mind, Skill and Growth were great and all but Potential was the most important. The other two were more a measure of discipline and time than anything, Potential was the stat he would look at if he were recruiting someone.

Felix looked up at them, “What’s Special mean? I mean I think I know but is it any more than what it seems?”

Ked shook his head, “As Sal explained to you on your first day, it isn’t right for us to teach you the same curriculum and judge you by the same standards as the others. You were technically not in the Constructs & Elementals class but rather in a mentorship under me, essentially.”

Sal nodded along, “While we may not have mentored you directly, your unique abilities belong in the lab, not the class room. I refuse to judge you on textbook knowledge when practical ability is more valuable with your skill. With the others, they have no practical skill so while we wait for them to grow up, we stuff their heads with the basics.”

Felix snorted then nodded and bid them farewell.

He had expected spotting Fin to be difficult but the small feline professor was floating in the air on a glowing platform which made him rather stand out.

“Ah, Felix. I’ve been waiting.”

“Professor.”

“As I’m sure the others have told you, there is a new grade this year. I spent quite a while convincing Kairune it was impossible to accurately judge you and despite his numerous objections, he finally agreed. Now, as for your grades, I tried to avoid giving you all three U’s because that seemed too questionable from a recruitment standpoint. For example, I believe Peace is getting a U in skill for Solo Combat not because he is so impressive but rather because he often refuses to fight.”

Felix nodded to indicate he was following.

“However, I cannot accurately judge your Skill. I learn new things about you and your abilities every class you attend and simply giving you an S would be the biggest understatement of my career. Similarly, how can I accurately assess your Skill in the future if I can’t even judge your Skill, right now. All that left was Growth and that, I may not have the most accurate frame of reference, but I find it shocking how far you’ve come nonetheless.”

Special: Mana Control: Skill: U Growth: S Potential: U

“Thanks, Professor Fin.”

He smiled, “Just remember who advocated for you when you become famous. If you have time, I’d love to help you next epoch as well but, I understand your time is limited.”

Felix smiled, “I’d like that.”

“Maybe then you’ll tell me about this brain of yours?”

He shrugged, “Maybe.”

The next professor found was a bit of a surprise to him because while he was happy with his performance, he knew he still didn’t compare to Zeraxes or Romar in Solo Combat.

Auren was leaning up against a wall in one of the back corners and gazing out the window but immediately turned his head as Felix approached.

I wonder if he knows when people look at him.

He didn’t say anything or even move as Felix approached and his card began glowing.

Solo Combat: Skill: B Growth: S Potential: S

“Woah.” Felix spoke without even really thinking.

“You would lose in a straight up fight to many of your classmates, hence the B.”

He nodded, “Yeah, I wasn’t expecting the rest of it.”

“You were the most deserving.”

“What do you mean most?”

“Each class can only assign a single S per category. You got the S in Growth and Potential in Solo Combat.”

Felix frowned, completely taken aback, “Wait, really? Only one S?”

He nodded.

“Why me?”

“As a Professor, how do I think I should evaluate Potential?”

Felix shrugged, “I don’t know.”

“It’s definitely the hardest to judge. Current Skill is easy. Growth is also easy, just compare exams to evaluation. For Potential, some Professors map your growth over time and look at the curve. If your growth tapers at the end, low potential. If it’s exponential throughout, high Potential.”

Felix shrugged, it seemed like a decent metric to him.

“This is somewhat problematic because we only see you for an epoch but overall, it’s not bad. What about your growth? Well, you sucked a lot before, now you suck a lot less. It was completely sporadic with random jumps every few months. Was it exponential? Did it taper? I have no fucking idea, so we throw that out the window.”

Auren turned to face Felix, “Do you know what your biggest flaw is when you fight?”

Felix half nodded half shrugged, “I need more higher damage spells, I need more experience, I need better equipment, I need more defensive spells.”

“So everything?” He sighed, “What stands out?”

“Experience.”

“Exactly. You remember the Ashound? You took on a creature that was far too strong for you, idiotically I might add, and got caught by unpredictable bullshit. Many who fight an Ashound or other Ancient creatures do. No System based creature would have a Skill that lets them split into multiple, separate entities. You came back a while later and all of a sudden, you have a spell for everything. You fight half the creatures we have in the sim room and suddenly you’re prepared for a whole array of bullshit, not just the Ashound’s.”

He uncrossed his arms and stood up straight, “You not only prepared for other bullshit, abstracted out from the one, but you also learned to expect it. Then, against the Hydra, you were ready for the gaseous breath, took your time and judged its capabilities and learned to predict it. Back to quantifying Potential, for years I’ve encountered students who’s growth is all over the place in combat class. Students who are excellent in very specific scenarios but who refuse to train in any other. I like to fall back on a specific method of measurement.”

Professor Auren leaned forward a little, a little too intense for Felix’s liking but he resisted the urge to move, “Potential is a measure of how high, how good you could get, it’s about us Professors trying to judge that limit but… to get anywhere, you need to live. So, I like to fallback on, how likely is the student to live. If I dropped the entire Solo Combat class into an infinite dungeon, a System Event, on a planet with unknown threats, enemies none of you have ever dreamed of, enemies that eclipse your levels many times over, which of you would live the longest?”

He leaned back and returned to a fully upright position, “My bet every time is you, without question. You are far better at adapting and you still seem to be improving rapidly. In a real fight, I genuinely believe the ability to adapt, far eclipses how hard Zeraxes can throw his dad’s hand-me-down.”

Felix snorted and nodded, “Thanks.”

Auren crossed his arms and returned to peering out the window as Felix turned and ended up face to face with Adaline which surprised him because he assumed she was done earlier.

She nodded to him then walked up to Auren as he left.

The last professor he had to see was Director Fen.

Finally finding her hiding between some shelves at the back, Felix walked towards her and was suddenly flanked by Melody and Peace, “Hey.”

He assumed they had been waiting for him and so, they all approached together.

Seeing their trio, Director Fen rolled her eyes and made their cards glow immediately, “With you three, I just refused. Kairune actually let me this time so, that’s new. Don’t even think about taking my class next epoch, audit it if you feel the burning urge to waste your time. Anyways, now shoo.”

Looking down, Felix now had all his grades filled in.

Class Skill Growth Potential

Mana Structures B B U

Group Combat B A B

Special: Constructs & Elementals A B U

Soul Manipulation, Reading & Cultivation U U U

Spell Formation B B U

Solo Combat B S S

Special: Animancy U U U

Special: Mana Control U S U

The trio all walked away and left the library, stopping in the grassy field where they weren’t surrounded, to talk.

Felix looked over to Melody, “How long until recruitment offers?”

“Should be same time tomorrow. You guys want to meet to go over them then?”

Peace shrugged, “No need. There’s only one I’m accepting anyways.”

“I’d like your input for mine.” Felix nodded.

Melody nodded, “Alright perfect, ARM building then? Adaline and Ayred will already be there.”

Felix nodded, “Sounds good. Where do I pick up my recruitment?”

“They’ll be delivered to your dorm along with any gifts to try and sway you.”

“Alright, thanks. You just reminded me of something I need to go do.” Felix waved to the both of them then flew off as fast as he could to the A-SAM building on campus.

Technically he was still the head of A-SAM but all he had done on that front was lighten up whatever rules Ayred deemed too strict. Luckily he didn’t actually have to manage anything because in that case, he would have immediately pawned off the responsibility.

Flying over the building, after grumbling to himself about his loss of portals, Felix saw the building and areas surrounding it were slightly less empty than before he had become head but only by a couple of people. They were just sitting in the grass talking and he flew right by them but still, it was an increase.

Heading inside, he passed by a few people who nodded in acknowledgement to him, most of which were Adepts. Still though, the size of the building made it feel nearly empty. He didn’t wander around though and headed straight for the room with all the books.

Inside, he found Ayred standing at the back and taking notes on one of the tomes. He didn’t notice Felix walk in but looked up as he approached the first tome, “OH! Felix, I haven’t seen you in a while. You come to check out the tomes?”

He nodded, “Now that I know they won’t explode or anything.”

Ayred chuckled, “Yeah, that would be problematic.”

Reaching forwards, Felix found the small inscription below the book and pushed a touch of mana into the mechanism that opened it.

Alovatorum Elaradus Onasorin

Illasecium el etr amoredero ehedai mej amoredero illasecium el etr zorek Onasorin lurep, teredri enro ne etr asyyntra el etr Qal’Dari. Enikuwenes, ukweni nocotionos oda elir ukweni enchapno esu ennonitin eno le etr amoredero vemano eteruat, Alovatorum.

That is… useless.

Grim chuckled, I’ll see if I can decode anything from that.

Activating the mechanism next to the plaque, the case that contained the tome vanished in an instant allowing him to reach forwards and pick it up.

The tome was heavy and solid, not falling apart at the seams or fragile in any way. It was evidently old but not degraded.

Opening it up and flipping through, Felix sighed as all of the text inside the book was similar gibberish to what he had read on the plaque. On the one hand, it gave more for Grim to use to try and decipher it but he also didn’t see anything he had missed the first time he had scanned it.

His mana senses came up similarly blank, which he expected considering they didn’t seem hindered before, but his matter senses on the other hand were much more precise than they had been. They still weren’t as impressive as Nova’s but it was enough for him to feel something just off about the tome.

He had no idea what it was, why he felt it, what was triggering the feeling and he couldn’t say anything more than, it was off. Felix tried for a few minutes to tune in and identify it but eventually gave up and called in the big guns.

Pulling Nova out of his Soul Space, he dropped the kitten to the ground then had her morph into something a little bigger. She chose a variation of her old panther form which looked mostly similar but the materials that made up her body were evidently different. She now had a weird and inexplicable sheen that slightly shifted colors from different angles and her fur hinted at the fact that she had scales below them. It didn’t make any sense, fur on top of scales, all made of some complex compound material resembling metal or plastic but he didn’t argue with her.

Holding out the tome, he conveyed his feeling of wrongness, his curiosity and his desire to figure out the book. Nova took less than a second to meow at Felix then dumped a barrage of information he couldn’t parse into him. He tried to sort through what she was saying but it was so far over his head, he couldn’t get a grip on any of the information.

Grim, can you work with Mark and talk to Nova about this one?

He nodded, Yeah, I’ll see what we can do.

Leaving the book in Nova’s mouth-much to Ayred’s horror-Felix stepped over to the next display case and opened it.

The Personal Journal of Karnasus in the Ilezyni

A journal detailing the travels of the famous and illustrious Karnasus from the day he stepped foot into the Ilezyni cave system to the day he died. Journal recovered by Edocarius Vel Odius.

The plaque seemed normal and was thankfully, readable. Lifting and opening the tome, other than the handwriting being awful, it was exactly what it seemed. It was a journal and everything Felix had previously scanned, was still there. Being outside of the display case, his mana, anima and matter senses sensed nothing new and even having Nova take a look at it, she didn’t seem to detect anything special about it.

He put it back and moved on.

A few of the books were indecipherable, a few were disguised with mundane titles and contents. The majority of them seemed exactly as they had when Felix had first scanned them though, both he and Nova detecting nothing. It was possible he was missing something with those books but even more likely was that they were simply encoded or encrypted and he would have to run them through a computer.

He had already been able to sense the anima bound to all of the books but a few of them had some kind of triggering mechanism built within the souls that altered the contents depending on how the books were opened. Felix fiddled with those for a little while, memorizing as much of it as he could so he could later simulate them but didn’t worry about it too much. He already had a number of books to decipher that didn’t require physical contact and manipulation.

Lastly, Felix’s mana senses made the biggest difference.

Whatever the display case was, it seemed to ward mana or still it within, like a refrigerator for mana. While his mana senses weren’t hindered before, the mana within the case was suppressed. Taking some of the books out, he immediately felt complex systems going to work within some of the books. Two of them tried to fly away but he didn’t let their mana fill the necessary inscriptions. Many of them just had wards and enchantments inlaid within them and he was pretty sure there wasn’t any information hidden within them but he memorized them anyways to dissect over the break.

Most interestingly to him though, was a book that was written and appeared mundane but where each page was also written over in mana. It wasn’t just mana ink either, each page contained a three dimensional projection encoded with mana infused into the page using the energy-levels and attunements. What it was, a three dimensional projection, was obvious based on the pattern of how the data was encoded into a grid with the third dimension projected within the cells. What the actual projections showed was a completely different story though.

He constructed the various projections in his mind but each one was one piece from one of multiple puzzles. They were incredibly complex and many of them matched up for the most part on individual sides but none of them perfectly which made it impossible to just map with a computer. In fact, Felix wasn’t even sure that if he saw the correct configurations, the completed puzzles, he would be able to recognize them as such.

Given he didn’t want to waste a bunch of time on it, he memorized the configuration of each page, a process that was much easier with his Scan Literature spell that tapped into his mana senses. He, Grim or someone else in his head would work on piecing the puzzle together in the future.

There was one other his mana senses added to the initial scan of but it had to do with mana ink embedded within the pages and revealed more of the encryption or code. It wasn’t overly interesting or fantastical, at least not before it was decoded and he already had most of it scanned, his scan was just more precise now that he’d flipped through the pages.

Placing the final tome back onto the stand and reengaging the display case, Ayred turned to him, “So, you find anything interesting looking through them this time? Actually holding them?”

Felix shrugged and pointed at the first book, the one he had handed to Nova directly, “My familiar thinks that one requires some kind of alchemical concoction poured over it.” He pointed at the one that was a three dimensional puzzle, “That one contains a different three dimensional puzzle piece on each page encoded in mana. Though, I’m reasonably certain it forms more than one total puzzle.” Lastly he pointed at the one with the mana ink, “That one just has mana ink written between the real ink.”

Ayred excitedly ran over to the first one, “What kind of alchemical concoction? Also, it’s not like we can just pour one onto it…”

“Yeah, probably not. There doesn’t seem to be anything special happening with the mana or anima though so I’ll probably just have Nova make me replicas.”

His eyes widened and his head craned forwards, “Nova can what?”

Felix chuckled a little and had Nova produce a master copy, a replica of the tome made with the original as a reference that was as accurate as she could produce. Then when they left, further copies could be made by comparing to the maser copy, which would be untouched in their experiments and that they would preserve.

It took some time, after which Felix took the book in his hand and compared the two side by side.

Ayred stood next to him, holding the actual tome, “They look identical but how do we kno-”

Felix shook his head, “I can’t but, Nova’s accuracy is subatomic, my mana senses are pretty good and my anima senses are decent. Maybe I’ll come back in the future but for now, this is identical to the both of us.”

“That’s amazing so now, you can just make copies and pour whatever you want over them?”

Felix shrugged, “Yeah, I’ll probably just have Nova simulate the effect of whatever the alchemical concoction would have done considering this is all just matter.”

Ayred looked down at the panther who immediately began wagging her tail like a dog, “Your familiar is a Matter Sprite, right?”

Felix nodded, “Started as one.”

“What an awesome choice. I never knew they could be this cool when raised. All the others I’ve ever seen were rocks that just ate up trash and never made anything from it.”

“I got some good advice early on that I could make it work.”

He nodded, “Yeah, whoever that was, you should thank them. You said your mana senses were pretty good,” Ayred walked over to the one with the three-dimensional projection, “Are you sure bout this one?”

Felix nodded, “Yeah. The attunement is color, energy-levels are depth.”

“Wh- That’s awesome! So can you piece them together, see what they make?”

He shook his head, “Not really, they aren’t super clear cut. None of the pieces fit together with any other perfectly so I can’t really be sure which go where.”

He nodded, “So either you’re missing something or the creator added superfluous information to throw readers off.”

“Yeah basically. Can’t really stick it into a computer either.”

He nodded, “Not this one. Speaking of though, any idea which recruitment offers you’re looking forward to most?”

“Nah. I’ve got a couple I know I’ll get no matter what, as for everything else… I’ll probably just let Melody tell me what’s best.”

He nodded, “You’re gonna meet us in ARM then?”

Felix nodded, “Yeah, I’m still a clueless integrated so I appreciate your perspectives.”

He chuckled, “Fair enough. I’ll see you then?”

Felix nodded and waved then walked out and flew off towards Ked’s lab where he spent the rest of the time until the recruitment offers were scheduled to arrive.

He flew back a little later than he should have, still not used to planning for flying time now that he couldn’t cast portals himself, and walked into his dorm. In the large open section of his room intended for large rituals, he found a number of small boxes, envelopes and cards.

Felix briefly looked at them before stowing them in the Kryptos Repository-because his Soul Space was too squishy-grabbing Nova, and flying off to the ARM building.

Dropping through the branches of the forest surrounding the massive log cabin cottage that was the ARM building, Felix opened the door and was stunned. The inside of the cabin was filled with people that were evidently throwing a party, a rather rowdy one at that, but standing on the front step, he heard nothing.

Seeing the party directly in front of him and hearing none of it, even catching the sound of a few leaves fluttering and falling to the ground behind him, threw him off.

Stepping forwards through the barrier, even before his ears passed through, he could feel the noise.

He closed the door behind him then pushed his way through the crowd of students drinking, talking, shouting and playing games whilst music blasted out into the building. Felix briefly looked around amongst the students and Adepts on the ground, flying through the air and in the few rooms he could peer into before sighing and giving up.

Reaching inwards, he quickly flashed his soul as loudly as he could, the way Peace had taught him to do in Group Combat. Quite a few people turned and looked towards him with expressions ranging from curiosity to disgust to combat stances but he ignored all of them and just waited. A moment later, Melody popped out from over the loft railing and waved to him.

He flew up and followed her into one of the rooms on the second floor. As soon as they closed the door behind them, the raging sound of the party in the building vanished and the music quieted until it settled in as a distant background noise.

In the room, there was a large table surrounded by chairs, like a conference room. The floor to ceiling and wall to wall window on the opposite side from the door provided plenty of light and the room itself was rather spacious.

Sitting around the table already were Adaline and Ayred, each with a small collection of cards, envelopes and boxes in front of them. At the end of the table closest the window, was a pile that dwarfed the rest of theirs with dozens of massive gifts and over a hundred cards, the entire thing taking up nearly half the table.

Felix assumed that was Melody’s and took an empty seat a few down from Ayred, on the closest side, and relocated his pile to the table in front of him.

Looking around, his pile was about half the size of Adaline’s and about the same size as Ayred’s, though he wasn’t sure how significant size was.

“You guys already go through yours?” Felix looked around.

“We only just opened one of Ayred’s actually.” Melody took a seat away from her pile so he she could actually see the others.

Ayred stretched and leaned over the table a little, across the couple of seat between them and tilted a card towards Felix in his hand.

[Legendary] Recruitment Offer

Sha’alin Zadik invites you to join the shadows.

“She’s particularly concise with hers but… yeah.”

Felix frowned a little, “That’s the shadow god right?”

“Well, yes. You know no god is the god of anything but yeah…” Seeing Felix nod in confirmation, Melody continued, “She focuses on shadow, stealth, stealing, picking locks, picking pockets and all that.”

“You’re a merchant, right? I know your nickname or moniker is The Deraav’n Shadow Dealer but… Legendary? I assume that’s high?”

Ayred sat back in his seat and nodded, “Yeah, I was expecting this one. It’s more about networking than learning anything. I’m not going to be training in shadow magic or anything, mostly just meeting with their network of fences.”

“Ah. Gotcha. So the recruitment offers are graded with the same rarity scale?” Felix looked to Melody.

“Yup.” She nodded, “It wasn’t always like this but nowadays, everyone is on board with this system of grading them. Anything more granular just goes in the description.”

Felix nodded and his eyes settled on the small pile before him, “I take it we’re not going around the table and opening these one by one?”

Ayred snorted, “No no, we just figured we’d wait a bit for you in case you had the same questions. This is just one I knew I was getting that we knew neither of you were getting, plus-” Ayred waved the pitch black card in the air, “-it’s easily identifiable.”

Nodding in understanding, Felix reached for one of the items in his own pile, a box made of carved and dyed ivory.

Opening the lid, he found a small card suspended within with a simple enchantments over a small fire. He pinched and removed the card to read it.

[Divine] Recruitment Offer

Tekragoraxius extends her claw in offer of a first epoch recruitment, single slot, details to be discussed upon arrival.

“Damn that’s a nice box. She definitely knows how to impress. Or someone in her faction does at least.” Melody’s voice was somehow, right in Felix’s right ear.

Though he hadn’t noticed her move, he did know she was leaning over his shoulder now, “Single slot?”

“Means a quarter of the epoch. The recruitment epoch is typically split into 4 and you choose which you want and when, depending on when they’re offered.”

“Wait… I can have two recruitments I want scheduled for the first slot and I’d be screwed?”

Ayred nodded and looked over as he tossed aside a pair of intricate and expensive looking cards, “Yeah… You definitely could. It’s not an issue with the bigger and more prominent recruiters but it definitely happens.”

Felix looked over at Ayred because Melody was too close for him to turn in her direction, “What’s Divine mean? Just higher than Legendary?”

He grinned, “Usually it means the god is willing to tutor you directly but, Tekragoraxius never offers recruitment’s herself so, who knows.” Anticipating Felix’s question before he even had to ask, “She’s the head of the Dragon faction. They usually send out recruitments as a faction or the other Dragon gods under her send out recruitments of their own.”

“So, you think this is your reward for saving The Halls of the Dragon’s Hoard.” Melody walked back over to her seat without looking away from Felix.

He just shrugged, “Maybe.”

In reality, he knew he didn’t deserve a reward really, he didn’t do anything she hadn’t planned for him to do. He also knew full well that he was accepting this offer and he was going to ask her for one anyways. Even if he didn’t actually save The Hall of the Dragon’s Hoard from an actual threat, he was still helping her somehow and he was not a fan of the attention he was getting because of it. In his mind at least, that gave him some amount of bargaining room.

Reaching for the next card, the entire building shook a little and Felix looked worriedly towards Melody and Ayred but Ayred just chuckled, “That’ll happen when someone gets a little too drunk and decides to show off. The planet will fix it though, don’t worry.”

Felix nodded and turned back to the pile.

Picking up the next card that caught his eye near the top of the pile, Felix grabbed a card that was mostly light blue with a strip of green at the bottom. Actually focusing on it, he realized it was supposed to be a cartoonish landscape shot.

As soon as it was in his hand, a humanoid wearing bright purple and white robes floated into frame. Instead of a human skull though, it had what appeared to be an antlered bird skull for a head.

It floated over into the middle and waved up at him then a moment later, normal skeleton walked in from the left and joined the first figure. They played out a little skit with the first figure teaching the second then the white and purple robed skeleton waved his hand and text was written out in hand written dark purple ink.

[Legendary] Recruitment Offer

Hey! It’s me, Zyrek Al Ular or more commonly, Zyrek The Death Whisperer. I’d like to offer you a place amongst my Necromantic Sect for one to four quarters with the utmost benefits fully included. Though I am a Lich and I mostly teach Necromancy, we don’t deal in Necromancy exclusively and have plenty more in terms of Animancy, Enchanting, Spell Craft, Rituals and more!

Huh.

“Zyrek?” Felix asked the room without looking up from the card.

Melody responded in a apathetic tone, “Necromancer Lich god. Seems nice. Dad likes him.”

Felix hmphed, “I thought necromancy was frowned upon?”

She shrugged, “When you do it lazily and improperly, sure. Zyrek is a big proponent of doing necromancy correctly, basically just constructs but with biological bodies and reused souls. He makes sure to treat both humanely though.”

The next one he picked up was a solid metal card with rough looking runic script engraved across it and looking around briefly, all of them had an identical card in their piles.

[Epic] Recruitment Offer

You have been invited to spend the third or fourth quarter of your recruitment in Osgard by Vo Rhonan Callahan.

It wasn’t difficult for him to confirm they all had the same rarity of recruitment as well with his Perception, “Does everyone always get one from Rhonan?”

Melody tossed a few cards over her head then peered past her pile, “Not usually. Him and Edras this cycle though offered recruitments to basically everyone.” Finally finding what she was looking for, she waved a recruitment that looked like a small book between her fingers.

Felix grabbed his recruitment that was identical to the one she was showing. It wasn’t so much a small book as an ancient looking tome that was literally shrunk down in terms of its proportions.

[Epic] Recruitment Offer

This book may be exchanged for a recruitment quarter in The Arcanum Pansophical.

Flipping to the next page and briefly skimming the rest of the book, Felix found what was effectively a catalog of what would be available to him were he to accept. There were lists of books, time amounts with various resources, including Edras’ various computers along with mentors and more.

The next one was a metal card but it looked like a complex machine. It was about the size of a smart phone, mostly metal, and filled to the brim with complex enchantments and inscriptions that Felix’s mana senses and mind had been devouring.

[Special] Recruitment Offer

The Kobeus Xitarum faction extends an offer of trial employment for the first quarter of the recruitment epoch.

Holding it up, Felix looked over at Melody’s pile that had shrunk by half and yet still completely obscured her, “Kobeus Xitarum faction?”

Before Melody made an appearance, Adaline snatched a similar looking recruitment from in front of her and listened along as Ayred actually, answered, “It’s an enchantment or- rather, an arcanomechanical crafting focused faction. They build some of the best vessels in the multiverse. It is very rare for them to offer recruitments. They must really like you two.”

Adaline’s eyes opened a little wider upon hearing that but Felix just got less interested. It didn’t beat out any of the four he was already leaning towards so he didn’t have time.

There were only three left, two of which were normal and one of which was not. The abnormal one was actually just a mundane looking bone. He looked over at Ayred, the merchant, to see if he knew what it was but he just looked at it and shrugged.

“Melody, any idea what this is?”

She peered around her pile and instantly groaned, “Ugh. Yeah, that’s for me. My dad told me to personally deliver you the message that he’d like you to visit some time during the recruitment. He also gifted you some property on one of the secondary planets in his reign. I took the liberty of selling it under my name to someone who values it way more than it’s worth.”

Felix frowned a little and she cocked a brow, “If you want property for something, we’ll go shopping but I guarantee you don’t want it there. If you were going to ask about the credits, all of it amounts to less than I’ve paid for in your name, but you can have em if you want em.”

He though about arguing with her that he should be the one to make that choice but ultimately, he realized she was more informed and he trusted her judgement enough. He also had no use for random property, especially without portals to get to it. On a planet in a God’s reign probably also meant they would be watching his every move, which was probably the reason they gave it to him in the first place and suddenly, he very much agreed with Melody’s actions.

He waved her off, indicating she could keep the credits. He really didn’t find himself using them much, even if he were paying for anything himself. Maybe in the future it would be an issue but for the time being, he much preferred not thinking about it at all.

Of the last two, Felix quickly glanced at the one who’s name he didn’t recognize, a simple card with little adornment.

[Divine] Recruitment Offer

Good Morning, Afternoon or Evening (depending on when you read this),

We, Thorin and Blizz, would like to extend an offer of recruitment to you, Felix Kade & Nova, for as long as you’d like during your first recruitment period. I know you’re an exile so allow me to introduce ourselves, I Thorin am a Neutral God and Blizz, is my familiar, also a Neutral God.

As for our recruitment, we focus entirely on the familiar bond and how you fight together. I am personally a caster, like you, but we also have knowledge from melee fighters, rangers, beast masters, summoners and tamers. Occasionally we take on pairs who simply fight together as we have become quite specialized in pair combat in general.

Please consider our offer,

Thorin & Blizz.

I… Really wish I could accept this. Not only is it Divine, but whoever wrote this clearly went the extra mile to learn about me. They didn’t write integrated, like most people, but they know I’m an exile. They know my familiar’s name, my base class. None of that is hard to find but… none of the other recruitments bothered.

“Thorin and Blizz?”

Melody peered over her pile now that it was much shorter, “Love those guys. They tend to stay away from Divine Politics and do their own thing.”

“Would it be worth taking it over Edras or Rhonan’s?”

Melody slid her chair to the side so she could see him, “Not Edras, they are too different. With Rhonan’s recruitment, I mean he’ll offer everything but, you’ll probably focus on combat. Thorin and Blizz will also focus on combat but exclusively how you and Nova fight together. Rhonan’s will be much more about challenging enemies and throwing you into fights you can barely handle, if you look for fights, you’ll be on your own. He also has a library and just about every resource and facility you could imagine.”

Damn, that sounds way too fun. I love Nova but… I don’t want to waste time learning to tandem fight when I could be improving my spells, adding mana channels, gaining battle experience…

Felix sighed and dropped the card then picked up the last one and added it to the pile of recruitments he was expecting.

[Legendary] Recruitment Offer

Oak of Ahtos, disciple of Amatara would like to personally invite you to The Akikabara Monastery.

Pushing the others aside, after confirming the tooth Kjarne had sent was E grade and not worth dissecting, Felix laid out the four recruitments he had decided upon, Amatara, Rhonan, Edras, Tekragoraxius.

Looking over at Melody who had shrunk her pile down to just a few dozen, Felix tapped at the recruitments in front of him, “Does ordering matter?”

She shook her head, “Nah. Other than the recruitments that specified slots, it doesn’t make a difference.”

“But-” Ayred chimed in, “-you should think about what you’re going to be doing at each. Have a goal in mind for each recruitment, know roughly what they have to offer and how you’re going to use those resources. Then, plan your goals such that they follow each-other in an optimal, or at least logical way.”

“Meh.” Melody waved him off, “Just show up and have fun.”

Alright definitely ignoring Melody on this one. My goals… With Amatara I’d like to master more curses if possible or just work on my soul. It might also help with healing my chest wound so it makes sense to be first. With Tekragoraxius and Edras, I want to improve my mind and body as well as improve all my spells if possible. If I have any extra time there, I’ll work on constructs. Rhonan is mostly combat and has everything so if I put that one last, I can use everything I gained from the others and use his resources to finish up anything I didn’t have the time for.

I’ll spend a bit of time training Nova to use the Reaper’s Skills at least through Reaper’s Bond so she can come with me to The Monastery. After that, I can drop her off with Tekragoraxius who I’m sure, will be happy to have a distraction for Endycor. She could come with me to Rhonan’s too I guess, up to her at that point.

I also don’t know if Tekragoraxius’ recruitment will be what I want it to be and what exactly I’ll get out of it so having it before Edras means I won’t waste time on the same thing at both.

So, Amatara, Tekragoraxius, Edras, Rhonan.

Picking up the four cards in an ordered stack, he looked at Ayred who was also done with his, “What do I do with these?”

“You just show up and present them.”

Felix nodded, “Alright, easy enough.”

Ayred nodded towards the stack in his hands, “What’d you end up with?”

“In order, Amatara, Tekragoraxius, Edras, Rhonan.”

He shook his head quickly, “Forgot about your relationship with The Dragon Mother for a second. Makes sense. I’m leaning towards Kobeus Xitarum, Sha’alin Zadik then… maybe Radleus Idridor…”

Melody scoffed loudly, “Why not Radleus?”

Ayred winced, “I just… don’t really like the guy.”

She laughed, “Yeah… I guess you wouldn’t.”

Melody leaned over towards the other side of the table, “What about you Adaline?”

She snatched three of the cards from the table, seemingly at random, “Kobeus Xitarum, Sal-Khi, Edras, Rhonan.”

“Wow, a lot more overlap than I expected.” Melody shrugged, “I’m only taking Rhonan’s, I have a franchise of bakeries to grow after all. I’ll line it up with you guys though so, maybe I’ll see you there.”

“You probably won’t see me,” Ayred shrugged in Adaline’s direction, “I’m not an enchanter and mine is more of a supplier type thing.”

She seemed completely unbothered and just blinked in response. A few moments of silence passed and she pushed herself away from the table and walked out.

“Okay later, bye-” Melody waved, “See you at Rhonan’s maybe?”

She just left without another word.

Melody chuckled and Felix rose as well but stopped halfway up as he noticed a single recruitment left from Adaline’s pile. All the others she had taken with her.

It looked like a completely mundane card with light red, almost orange ink.

[Divine] Recruitment Offer

Akaroth.

Huh.

He left it alone though as he turned to Melody and Ayred in turn, “How many Archons, Neutral and Edras following gods are there?”

Melody began vacuuming up her discarded recruitments as she answered, “56 Archons, 32 Gods and 24 Dragon Gods. 94 Neutral gods, 87 normal and 7 Dragon. Some people call Edras followers the rebel gods, not everyone though and they have, 27 normal gods.”

Felix cocked his head a little, “Huh. So without the Dragons, the Archons and Rebel gods are about even?”

Adaline stopped what she was doing and leaned forwards, “Without the Dragons or Rhonan, they’re about even.”

Felix nodded, “Right.”

She chuckled, “I know they’re all gods but… if it were Rhonan against all the other gods, he would probably win. I’m… reasonably confident. He’s that much stronger. You can’t just look at the numbers.”

Felix shook his head in disbelief, “How?”

She shrugged and Ayred snickered, “Great question.”

“So if he really is injured…” Felix winced.

“Yeah… things might get dicey. The Archons are still pretty stable though and even though they’re neutral, a lot of Neutral gods would side with them if it actually came down to it. Without Rhonan… less would but I’d still put my money on 2 or 3 to 1 Archons to Rebel gods.”

“Gotcha, so don’t start worshiping Edras then.” Felix nodded.

Melody pffted, “It doesn’t matter, nothing is actually going to happen. Worship whoever you want.”

Felix shrugged then finally flew over the table towards the door, “Good luck with your bakeries Melody and your recruitments Ayred. Thanks for the answering my questions.”

They both responded in kind and Felix left.

After flying through the party that still raged on throughout the building, Felix flew his way over to the portal room so he could head to his first recruitment at The Monastery. Heading into the building, he had to wait in a small line as others headed to their own recruitments. Most of the students held their recruitments in their hands and chatted with others in the line about where they were heading and why.

Overhearing and peeking around, he was surprised to find just a handful of people heading to the same place, three of them to Edras’ recruitment. Almost everyone else was heading somewhere completely different but, he heard quite a few talking excitedly about Rhonan and Edras’s in their future terms. It seemed almost everyone was heading to one or both of them during the epoch.

Once it was his turn, Felix stepped up to El at the podium and flashed her Amatara’s recruitment card but she held up a hand and stopped him, “I have a message for you from Peace. He’s requested you make a quick stop before your first recruitment.”

Felix cocked his head, “Where?”

She shrugged, “He gave me portal coordinates for Telviras and said he’d meet you there. Would you like to head there or to your recruitment?”

Felix shrugged, “Send me to the Telviras coordinates please.”

She nodded and a moment later, the portal frame lit up and filled itself with an image of Telviras’ Teleportation Hub beyond.

As the portal frame filled, Felix watched with a tinge of frustration at losing his own ability to open portals and he noticed for the first time, the constant buzz on the anima loudened around the portal just as it was filling. The System static became more active and denser and now that he knew what he was looking for and constantly heard it, now that he began noticing it more and more, he actually saw it with Reaper’s Sense.

Once it was opened, he didn’t stall and simply stepped through into Telviras.

The portal closed behind him and an attendant stepped into the room to greet him, “I’ve been instructed to direct you to another room in the building. Please, follow me.”

Felix followed along as they passed through multiple seamless portals throughout the halls making the building a true maze.

Oddly however, they walked farther than Felix ever had in the building, especially with seamless portals integrated into the halls. Those seamless portals eventually disappeared though, after just a few kilometers of walking and instead, they manually descended stairs deep into he building where the normally white walls darkened along with the ambient lighting.

Finally the stairs ended and they stepped into a hallway that was a hundred meters wide and multiple kilometers long. Along either side were doors, each one unique from the next. Some were made of tangled roots woven together, others were made of dark metal and some seemingly pure light that didn’t shine on anything other than itself.

The attendant led him to one of the doors at the very back of the room made of what looked like solid shadow. Next to it there was a completely wooden door and a door of enchanted metal. Each of them, all of the doors at the end of the hall in fact, were by far the most oppressive feeling things Felix had ever encountered, each for a different reason.

The enchanted door was magically, more complex than anything he had ever seen. It was intricate, moving, in more dimensions than he knew existed and easily as intricate as The System, if not more. In fact, Felix used his mana senses to reach into four spatial dimensions. As soon as he traced just a small fragment of the enchantment on the enchanted door, it was like multiple eyes had opened up and suddenly he was aware of so many more.

His head hurt a little from trying to process all of it and he quickly ignored all of them by manually turning them off, eager to revisit them during one of his recruitments.

The wooden door was a physical marvel and his matter senses were completely overwhelmed. Had he not squished Nova into his Soul Space, he wasn’t sure he would be capable of stopping her from trying to eat it. It was dense, complex and so far beyond him, he didn’t really get anything from it.

Lastly, the shadow door, the one they approached. It was, not a physical door at all as far as Felix could tell, rather it was made from pure anima. It somehow still blocked light though so he wasn’t sure what was happening but it was the first time he had ever seen anima structured into something that seemed physical, at least to his senses.

The attendant pulled a pure white key out of a spatial storage and pushed it into the door at a random spot. They didn’t bother turning it and just removed it a moment later as the door swung slowly inwards to reveal a small room, a few meters wide at most.

The attendant gestured into the room and nodded.

Felix hesitated for a moment then came to a decision and stepped past the door. It closed behind him, as he was expecting and a few minutes passed in complete darkness before Felix felt a partly mana partly anima spell activate and create a spinning vortex before him.

The vortex quickly expanded to a few meters wide and revealed one of the most beautiful cities Felix had ever seen. It was a portal, he knew that and yet, there was no buzz around it. In fact, he could feel and see the static that persisted everywhere vanish on the other side of the portal.

Floating through, the portal closed behind him and Felix found himself on a relatively small floating platform in the sky. It was a rock with grass on top of it that was held to the next platform by a chain. The platforms descended down to an island in the ocean with cliffs on all sides.

The city itself was dominated by what looked to be almost a castle except that it was made up of distinct towers. Felix would have seen them as unique structures were it not for the fact that they were connected together with tall and wide bridges that were completely symmetrical. It was evidently a planned structure that made up the majority of the city.

In shape, the skyscrapers that were joined together formed some discrete math function Felix couldn’t identify with its symmetry.

That was just the center though and the land was completely developed with roads between them leading out into a series of non-symmetrical random buildings that were beautiful in their own right but not part of a larger pattern.

Those buildings largely ended at the cliffs around the edge of the island. Across a short stretch of ocean on all sides, were other islands, each one a different biome with its own city within.

There was an icy island with buildings made of wood, snow and ice. There was a forest island, a desert island, a mountainous island, a volcanic island, an entirely quartz and marble island as well as one below the ocean Felix couldn’t make out. He knew it was there though because each city was connected to the center city and each-other through large passageways or floating bridges.

It was, in every sense, a city with a place for everyone.

Not bothering with the stepped platforms, Felix floated down to the island where he found Peace waiting for him.

“I was a little worried you would ignore my message.” Peace smirked.

“I… thought about it. Some more details up front would have helped.”

Peace shrugged, “Not possible. Anyways, this-” He gestured to the man next to him, “-is Hollow Claw.”

[SS - Unique] Hollow Claw (Lvl 5203)

Holy shit.

Hollow Claw was humanoid but with light blue, translucent skin that revealed subtly glowing insides within. His head was bald of hair and his ears didn’t protrude at all but rather, were a built into the side of his head. He had two holes instead of a nose and completely white eyes. As his name suggested, his hands didn’t seem to have human fingers with joints but instead, everything after the first joint was replaced with a claw that resembled a dagger.

Folding his arms behind his back, Hollow Claw lightly bowed to Felix, “Felix Kade. I have been waiting for you for longer than you know.”

Felix winced a little but mostly held the reaction back from his face, “Uh… okay then. Nice to meet you.”

Peace nodded, “Alright, let’s get started then.”

“Uh… what’s going on?” Felix fell back a step, slightly fearful of a SS grade, Unique creature.

Hollow Claw stepped forwards and addressed Peace, “Allow me.” Before turning back to Felix, “It’s about time The Cult of the Reaper is explained to you, of all people. Have you ever been on the brink of death yourself? Genuinely believed your end was inevitable? What ran through your mind at that moment?”

Felix relaxed a bit as he realized he wasn’t going to be attacked and shook his head, “I’ve never felt like it was really the end. Even when I had doubts about whether I should get back up or not, I’ve always known I would get back up. I always believe there’s a chance.”

Hollow Claw smirked, “I see. I didn’t think of you as a hopeful optimist, from what I’d heard.”

Felix shook his head again, “It’s not hope. It’s just… who I am. I will never believe there isn’t a way to fight back.” To punctuate his point, Felix tinged his aura with his conviction.

Hollow Claw bowed his head slightly, “I see.” He turned and looked off towards the city behind him as he slowly stepped towards the edge of the small island, “I have. Many have. Even without your life flashing before your eyes, have you ever thought about what you want to leave behind? What you want your life, your impact to be?”

“Uh… Sort of. Before the integration when my life span was less than 80 epochs, I thought about it a bit but… I came to the conclusion that nothing I would ever do would really matter in terms of the universe. I was a spec of dust on a planet. Nothing I did mattered so I was content to just enjoy my life and drift off into nothingness. Now, I don’t really know enough to have thought about it.” Felix looked out at the ocean and chuckled a little, “The only thing that comes to mind is living forever. If that’s not an option, I’ll struggle and fight and… I want to know. I want to learn… everything.”

Hollow Claw chuckled but didn’t turn around, “While I admire your curiosity and ambition, that isn’t an impact.”

“I don’t know… that I care?” Felix shrugged.

“I see. Many of us, with multiversal life spans, have more than enough time to ponder this and everything else. I, as many before and after me have, came to the simple conclusion that… We want to be remembered. We want our stories to be known. We want people to know our names, not famously, not everyone but anyone. I want someone to remember me and my story, no matter how insignificant it may be.”

Hollow Claw turned halfway around so his side faced Felix, “That’s what we do-” He looked over at Peace, “Death’s Shadows and The Cult. We remember.”

“So, what I am doing here and now. With the both of you then? Are you having me sign a contract to join or something?”

Peace chuckled and Hollow Claw laughed, “No. Today…” He took a deep breath, “Is the day I finally die.”

Felix looked at Peace with a furrowed brow, his expression begging for an explanation.

Peace nodded solemnly, “You may never get there, some don’t. Hollow Claw has done everything he’s ever wanted to do. Been everywhere he’s ever wanted to go. He… we call it The Tranquility.”

“The Peace.” Hollow Claw added, “It’s… a feeling of oneness with everything around me is the best way I can describe it.”

“He’s one of the oldest Death’s Shadow though and has remembered so many… Unless they are all forgotten, unless he releases all of them… He needs to pass all of those memories on to someone else.”

“Normally, us really old Shadows would have The Reaper personally unburden us but…”

Peace sighed and looked at his feet, “That’s not possible right now.”

“So what exactly is it you want me to do?” Felix looked at them, still unclear.

“To remember, we take in the souls of someone who has died and preserve the experiences within their core souls. Everything else, you can either use or dispose of as needed.”

Felix frowned, “So it’s just… a bunch of anima?”

Peace placed his hand on Felix’s shoulder, “The whole point of what we do, is that it’s not just a bunch of anima. It’s the significant experiences and stories of real people that lived. Not what we or the uncaring universe deem significant, it’s what they saw as significant.”

“You want me to take your soul… and preserve the experiences within?” Felix looked at both of them for confirmation.

“Yes.” Hollow Claw turned back to face Felix and smiled.

Felix shrugged, “Alright, give me a bit to move some things around in my soul. Shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”

Looking inwards, Felix recreated the simple lattice tubing he had used to move all of the Rakyt souls into his mind city. He had been planning on creating something more permanent for exactly this purpose during his recruitment with Amatara anyways and had already refined and iterated on the design mentally. He would have liked to test things a little more and because he didn’t have the time, he ended up with a temporary design he was certain would work.

It was just a replica of what he had used the first time with some small iterations and improvements he had thought of since.

The biggest dilemma for him though, was how to have a path that didn’t also open him up to the outside permanently. His solution was to have it be either temporary or sealed most of the time. He had no idea how to make it temporary without tearing apart his soul every time he wanted to remove it so, he went with the sealed option for the time being.

The tube was like a tunnel that led into the Soular System around his core soul all the way into his left palm, the same hand that wore The Soul Devouring Ring.

For the time being, he connected that tunnel to one of the planets which he structured similarly to the one hosting his Mind City except this one, was designed entirely for stability. The anima within felt dead because he had removed its flexibility and willingness to evolve and change. The complete opposite of imbuing The Spark of Life.

Lastly, he created multiple valves or doors along the tunnel he could open and close at will.

Opening his eyes, Felix found Peace and Hollow Claw sitting next to each-other on the edge of the island, staring out at the city beyond.

“I’m ready.”

Hollow Claw took a breath then stood up and walked over. He knelt down on one knee in front of Felix and looked up at him, “I’ve weakened my neck manually and lowered my health with poisons in preparation. All you have to do is behead me.”

Felix raised a brow, “What about your body?”

He chuckled, “I have no interest in being buried. I would be happy for you to dissect it as you please.”

“Awesome.”

Hollow Claw chuckled then closed his eyes. He extended his neck as much as he could physically revealing a ring of what looked like bruised skin around it.

Felix looked at Peace one last time.

Peace nodded.

Reaching his left hand forwards, Felix placed it on Hollow Claw’s chest then used his other hand to manually draw a Blade Spell in the air with the entirety of his focus and as much mana as he could possibly shove into it. He really didn’t want it to only make it halfway through or something.

Aiming for the ring of weakened flesh, Felix’s Blade Spell slipped right through his neck.

There was no Ding from The System as Felix had already suspected from the lack of static, The System didn’t have any influence here. It also meant he gained no experience but, he wasn’t sure it would have granted him any anyways when his target had offered themselves up to him.

Felix knew he had died instantly though as his soul immediately started flowing into the tunnel he had made and into the planet he was holding still within his Soular System.

While the actual amount of anima was impressive for a creature, it was nothing compared to The System. The density was good but nothing noteworthy, the size was big but not not System like. The overall alignment and actual strength of it, was also very good from three stable convictions of truth, protection and unseen.

However, while not dense or particularly strong the anima felt saturated. It was more filled with experiences, instincts, memories, stories that made up lives than he had ever experienced before. It reminded him somewhat of the curse monster that had been Talrain when they fought. It was like he heard millions of voices, all of their souls carefully merged to create a simple but tight structure just to separate them from Hollow Claw’s actual core soul.

The structure was clearly enough for him but Felix never would have trusted it given how loose and simple it was.

All of the experiences poured into the planet he had directed them to without issue and examining it, he didn’t find any problems. As soon as he had absorbed the entirety of Hollow Claw’s soul, he detached the planet and tossed it back into orbit then sealed the tube he had used.

All the extra anima from his soul, the part that would let him increase his stats marginally, he left in the planet for later consumption at Amatara’s.

He activated The Blood Ring then looked over at Peace.

Peace looked stared at him incredulously, “You okay?”

Felix shrugged, “Yeah. I feel fine.”

Peace squinted, “What was Hollow Claw’s Mother’s name?”

Reaching inwards, Felix sifted through a number of the memories before he decided that would be impossible. If Peace were asking him, it must have been possible to retrieve information so, he decided to just try things. Reaching out into the anima, he formed a question as best he could and let it echo out into the planet.

Nothing happened.

He thought about it for a few seconds then tried to echo out a couple things at once, first was the essence of who Hollow Claw was, his convictions and the overall experience of his core soul. He also echoed out a sense of childhood and being cared for, though he wasn’t entirely certain that was how mother’s would act wherever he was from.

It was obviously not an issue as he got an echo in response that equated to a word he couldn’t possibly pronounce.

Opening his eyes, he gave it a shot, “lkrsdr’wvg-qpelr.”

Peace’s face relaxed and he shrugged, “Close enough.”

“Actually, there is no System here, right?”

Peace nodded.

“So… how are we speaking? Who is translating?”

Peace cocked his head, “You’re speaking System common?”

“What? I am?”

I worked with the Nucleus to move over a few common and useful languages from the translation protocols in the sub System chunk. Then, I moved some thing around and set the default speaking language in your mind to instinctively be System Common. Grim explained.

Oh… I… Alright, seems fine I guess. Is it more efficient of a language?

Yes, but only because English wasn’t particularly efficient. I know of others that are more efficient but System Common is designed to be as pronounceable by everyone as possible while also being the best for mapping to and from other languages. For that, it’s the best I’ve ever encountered.

Gotcha, it’s mostly about compatibility.

Yup.

We thinking about moving my thoughts and encoding my knowledge to the most efficient one we can think of?

Yes but not yet, that would be more involved and we should probably have Mark’s upcoming upgrades in place before attempting it.

Okay, sounds good.

“Anything else?” Felix addressed Peace.

“Nope.”

Felix nodded, “Alright, I’m heading to my first recruitment then.”

“What did you choose as your first one?”

“Amatara.”

Peace’s eyes widened, “Oh sweet, I’ll join you then. I don’t have time for more than one and I was just planning on joining you whenever you decided to head there.”

Felix looked around, “How do we get out of here?”

“Back the way we came.” Peace hopped up to the next platform, a multiple hundred meter jump, then leapfrogged to the next.

Felix just flew himself right at the final platform and arrived at about the same time as Peace who placed his palm flat on the ground, opening a swirling vortex portal before them.

They both stepped through and Peace pushed the black, solid anima door open on the other side.

There was no attendant to greet them but Peace didn’t need one. He simply led them over to another door in the bottom hallway, a red wooden door sitting within a red wooden door frame around it, built into the wall. It stood out because most of the other doors lacked customized frames.

He simply pushed on the door to open it, not needing a key at all, and stepped into the small room beyond. Felix followed and Peace tapped on the wall, almost like he was lightly knocking on a door. A moment later, a vertical line appeared in the air before them that quickly expanded into a square window, revealing a forest of red leaves with a stone path.

They both stepped through and the portal closed behind them.