Chapter One Hundred and Eighty Nine - 189"What do you mean, you're unavailable? Developing your Intent is paramount, Felix. You cannot afford to be lax with the Chant."
They were in Felix's tiny closet of a room. Well, Felix was in the room while Zara stood in the doorway and Pit loomed behind her like a horse-sized bouncer. She patted his beak before staring back at Felix. For his part, he gave her an apologetic shrug as he grabbed a set of linen clothes that had seen better days. These will do.
"I know. It's not that. I've got to clear up my Skills. My first meeting with the Maw led to several of my Skills being broken. I've fixed a lot of them, but I still have a few left."
Zara shook her head. "Avet's eyes, broken. How could that happen? There's no record of this--" She stopped mid-sentence, registering Felix's confused stare. "Nevermind. Are they your Mana Skills?"
"No. Most of them are Body Skills, weapon masteries and one Mind Skill." Felix flexed his hand, just imagining the jolts of pain whenever he used them.
"Body Skills?" Zara's tone was incredulous. "Why waste your time? You've proven yourself well capable without weapons of any kind. Your transformation Skill alone is terrifyingly effective. What need do you have for a sword?"
Felix opened his mouth, then closed it. "It's more than that. I feel...I feel like I'm in pieces, somehow. I need to be whole."
Felix looked up again to see Zara regarding him levelly, her bright blue eyes curious. While his Affinity could sense nothing that the Naiad didn't wish to give away, she seemed genuinely concerned. "I see. How has your core developed? I think that may have a lot to do with these feelings."
"What?"
"Your core. You should be in the Actualization Stage at this point, yes?" Zara eyed him impatiently, before realization dawned. "You're Unbound. You have no idea. Night." Zara held up a hand and placed it near Felix's body. "May I inspect your core?"
"Uh, sure."
Zara's ochre palm touched Felix's tunic, right above his belly button, and he felt a gentle pulse of aquamarine power sweep through him. It was like getting blasted by those air conditioners above the doors of a convenience store; chilly but benign. Felix observed Zara's face instead, watching as her expression changed rapidly from pinched concentration to surprise.
"You've already condensed into the Ring Stage? And--you have strands forming?" Zara shook her head ruefully. "I had expected accelerated developments, but this..."
"What are you talking about? What's the Actualization Stage and Ring Stage? Is that--are they a Tier thing?" Felix asked.
"No, it's--damnation. I should have told you of this already, but you were so capable. I had assumed---regardless. The core," Zara stepped back and gestured. A ghostly image formed of her Intent appeared before them, a small glowing speck in a dark void. "All cores start the same. It is a mote of energy that sits in your center and radiates System energy throughout your Aspects. It is the interface between you and the System itself. This is the Mote Stage. When enough energy has passed through that speck of power, it will begin to branch through your flesh, forming channels for the System's energy to better travel within. This is the Vein Stage and is quite important. Typically this happens around level 15 to 20, as that's when most gain the requisite stats to jump start the process."
Felix thought back, thinking on his time in the Foglands around those levels. He recalled the burning sensation he'd continuously felt within him from the outset, whenever a Skill leveled or he'd earned more stat points. Was that his Mote Stage?
"Which stats?"
"Intelligence and Willpower are key, but Endurance and Vitality are also important to endure the process," Zara eyed him. "Most would need at least 15 in each to make the most of the Vein Stage. Do you recall this occurring?"
Felix thought back to the near death by hypothermia that had netted him his Fire Within Skill. It had all the earmarks of what she was talking about. The events then had edged out of his perfect thirty day recall, but he could remember well enough. "Yeah. My stats were in the twenties and thirties at that point."
"That--to be expected of an Unbound," Zara said. Her breathless interest in this conversation was a strange departure form her usual kind mystery. The image between them had become a body of pulsing veins, looping throughout the torso and spooling through each limb and even head. "Once your channels have formed they take a while to settle. Once they do, the use and expulsion of Mana vapor becomes far easier. At that point your core should have grown into its next stage, called the Visualization Stage. This is where you begin to conceptualize your power."
"Rory mentioned that to me," Felix nodded. "He said there were some who saw their cores as vaults in the earth, or a forest of trees, or whatever."
"Precisely. Rory should know a bit about this, as it is key to an effective combatant. Once you've visualized your core, its form becomes affixed and rarely changes, but it allows you to benefit more rapidly from the influx of energies." This time the image changed to show a core that looked like a swirling ball of ocean water, except more...ephemeral than actual liquid. More energy poured in from the sides before being siphoned back out. "From there one must accumulate power from the ambient Mana all around them, pulling it into their core and expelling it from their channels. This is usually done passively thanks to Mana regeneration, so the more you use your Mana the faster you can cultivate this power. After that comes the Actualization Stage, where the visualization of your core becomes more concrete and nearly real. Someone at this stage should be able to mentally delve into their core and experience it as if they had physically entered the space." Zara let out an exasperated breath. "This is where I would have guessed you were, based on what you've told me of your capabilities. But you're a whole stage ahead."
With another gesture, the image once again changed. Now the water had vanished, instead forming into a replication of Felix's own core. It was a ring of thick, liquid-like fire that spun in the center of two dozen revolving Skills.
"Pit helped me," Felix admitted, meeting eyes with his Companion. Pit let out an excited chirrup. "When we fought the Ravager King he helped me spin my core to manage the influx of monster Essence and Mana. After that I lost half my Mana pool and then this all happened." He pointed at the ghostly image.
Zara pointed to the ring of blue-white flames, crackling with lightning. "The Ring Stage, where your power condenses into a more potent form, will typically reduce your available Mana pool. But what you lose in available Mana you gain in might as each Mana Skill now carries an extra boost. You've noticed that, yes?"
Felix nodded. He certainly had noticed his Skills were hitting harder than before.
"This is concerning, however. That you have broken Skills at this stage," Zara shifted the image of Felix's core, an impressive snapshot she'd somehow taken with whatever ability she'd used. It focused on a half dozen Skills that shone with fitful lights. "The Ring Stage of your core will plexity in combining Skills. The further along your advancement moves, the more set in stone your existence becomes. The greatest of us, those that are Grandmasters and beyond, they are immutable and nearly ageless. But gaining new Skills? Altering their old ones? Nearly impossible."
"Nearly, though," Felix said, jumping on the word. "And I'm nowhere near that level."
"No, you're not. But you are advancing rapidly, and in ways that confound me. The Ring stage should not be reached until you're an Adept and have enough Mana and significance to force the transformation."
"Significance?"
"A consequence of power. The more you attain, the more...weight you have in the three Realms."
"So the Ravager King helped me, then," Felix said, feeling a surge of grim satisfaction. "And I imagine the Larval Ravager and Queen Ravager didn't hurt."
"No, they certainly did not. Your manner of acquiring power is something I haven't seen before, but strength does not come without a cost. Beware of how you proceed, Felix. The path ahead of you is wild and untested." With that, Zara spun on her heel and left his room.
He sat there a while, thinking on things. Ultimately, however, he had already made up his mind. Zara's advice was well meant, but Felix couldn't wait any longer. Now was the time. He was done messing around with broken Skills.
The next day, Felix was back in that warded room, again.
"Hopefully ye don't burn the walls down this time, eh?" Rory said, slapping the walls that still bore faint char marks. "What're you plannin' to do about monster cores? We're right short of them at the moment."
"Don't worry, just chalk the ritual. I've got the rest covered," Felix assured the man, while within his core a stormy nebula of writhing, iridescent smoke raged. In preparation for this, and despite Zara's protests, Felix had gone hunting. Over forty Revenants had died before he'd felt he had enough to work with, and even then Felix killed another dozen. Just to be safe.
Rory eyed him but began to mark out the complex ritual circle around Felix. He had done this before without the ritual circle, but it had been wildly inefficient. Tons and tons of the Larval Ravager's Essence had been lost, only the bare minimum actually utilized to strength and build an evolved Skill. It had still netted him a Legendary ranked Skill, but what if he did it right?
Wearing his worn and torn spare clothes, Felix sat in the center of the circle and threw back a small vial of bright magenta liquid. It burned as it went down, diverting itself toward his core before rapidly spreading throughout his channels.
Oooh, that feels weird.
He'd grown in understanding since the first time, both through System-ingrained knowledge and observation. He knew now the cost of a backfiring ritual, especially one meant to combine Skills; it would be Mana intensive, nearly prohibitively so for most and that's if it went well. If it took a turn, as his first such attempt did, then someone could die. So when Rory finished the circle and went to activate it, Felix stopped him. "No, I've got it. No need to waste your Mana on this."
"Lad, don't ye test me. This is dangerous. Ye could--"
"I know. I know, Rory. And thank you," Felix grated out, his voice rough with unexpressed concern. "This should go smoothly, but if it doesn't you shouldn't be forced to pay a price."
"Daft boy," Rory groused. "I'm a teacher. This is what I do."
Without hesitating, Rory placed his hand on the edge of the ritual circle. "Begin."
It was....Painful wasn't quite the right word.
'Transcendentally awful' was more appropriate, if dramatic. Felix went through the process of breaking his Skills, bearing the agony of a piece of himself being savagely split apart. It was like ripping off his fingernails, just slower. And to music.
Axe Mastery, Blunt Weapon Mastery, Long Blade Mastery, all of his broken skills were torn apart and held together only by his Will. After a lot of thought, Felix chose Unarmed Mastery as the base for the new Skill he'd forge. There was a worry that he'd upset his Apprentice Tier Formation, but he couldn't imagine reforming all of his fighting Skills without his strongest one. He'd spoken at length with Rory about it, and the Dwarf had led the both of them to their newest arrival: Aenea the Alchemist.
Some hard negotiations led to him getting an alchemical draught meant to aid in combining Skills while maintaining the construction of what Aenea called the "seed Skill." Felix almost wished he'd had one of them back in the Domain when he'd cannibalized his Poison Resistance Skill. Regardless of those benefits however, it wasn't a well regarded creation, partly because of it's low ranked materials provided little help in the way of the sundering and combining process--it was still an enormously painful experience that most could not handle. And partly because of its physical side-effects which he was told in no uncertain terms were violently foul. Yet the low ranked materials meant it was easy to produce in camp, so Felix had to hope his Endurance and Vitality could withstand the aftermath.
He didn't miss Aenea's smirk as he left her rooms, however. Which only made him want to use the draught all the more, if only to prove he was stronger than her dumb craft.