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Now that she had regained her connection with Gem, Karna’s future development became much simpler. Any paths she chose would be smoother and all her progress faster. So far she had avoided making enormous strides in becoming powerful for two rather obvious reasons. First of all, she didn’t want to draw too much attention just yet, though the need for that was growing less by the day. Secondly, because she believed in the importance of laying proper foundations for future growth.

Many reincarnators abused their accrued knowledge to make enormous strides in cultivation to gain power quickly, but that left them in need of special and potentially dangerous to acquire and use resources. That or they would leave their foundations shaky by taking shortcuts and starting their cultivation too early before their bodies were ready, which would make them crumble when faced with someone who had taken the proper steps and taken their time. Thanks to their vast knowledge these reincarnators could fill in most of those cracks in their foundation later on and they would leave fewer cracks than those who didn't have the benefit of all that knowledge, but a foundation that had been repaired and patched up was still not the same as one that was built to last in the first place.

She personally thought that the haste of most reincarnators was due to fear. Those that had lived several lives knew just how dangerous life could be, and they all raced to gain enough power so that they would not be left helpless and exploited. Every reincarnator had lived through at least one life where they had ended up as a victim or a slave, used and abused. It was precisely because they all had that experience that the reincarnators who knew just how traumatizing and horrible such things could be, and would do almost anything to avoid going through it again.

Karna had learned patience. She had lived long enough to know that everyone would encounter hardship and become a victim at some point. She’d certainly had her own encounters with the darker fates. It was during those lives that she had earned some of those less than flattering True Names. However, as a result of that suffering, she had learned various ways to avoid falling prey to similar circumstances that didn’t necessarily require overwhelming power. Sometimes you needed to learn to roll with the punches. Take a bit of punishment to avoid greater suffering. And should things get really bad, she could always leave. There was a vast universe out there, and she had many skills she could leverage for survival. Skills that didn’t require you to be strong. And if life got really bad, you could always hasten the arrival of the next one.

It was those kinds of skills that had allowed her to live those unremarkable lives that she had enjoyed so much in the past. She had lived dozens of lives where she had not cultivated at all, choosing instead to live as a mortal, plying a trade, or traveling as a vagabond healer or a tradesman. Few villages minded a visit from a general handyman that could use a dozen useful skills to make their lives easier for a short time. If a village already had a blacksmith, then she’d be a tailor. If they already had both, then she’d be an apothecary, or a specialized carpenter, or an engineer, or one of a hundred other professions that didn’t require her to step on anyone’s toes. And if someone decided to attack her anyway? Well, there were ways of defending yourself without being a cultivator, as long as the difference in power wasn’t too large. The catch was that such methods usually came with a cost. Either one paid in materials or one paid in lifeforce.

That’s why she had remained hidden and taken steps to hide her heritage so far in this life. It wasn’t that she had no way to defend herself even as a child, and she also had a fairly protective “father”, but she didn’t exactly cherish the idea of spending a large chunk of her lifeforce to defend herself from an attack while Arjuna wasn’t around. This universe was also extremely dangerous in comparison to many others. Just this city alone had many people too powerful for her little tricks to work against without a major sacrifice, and even then she would only slow them down.

She hadn't forgotten that the judge had mentioned this might end up being her last life. If that was to be the case, then she would make the most of it. She would become strong, and she would do it the proper way, so that when she eventually came face to face with the other reincarnators, she would be able to crush them where necessary. Reincarnators were a competitive bunch at best of times, and some of them had gone insane due to living so many lives. Heck, Karna wasn't all that sure of her own sanity! At least she still retained a spark of something that stopped things from getting out of hand. She had seen too many reincarnators that treated others just like cattle. She had forced many of them to face the final death personally. There was a reason she had earned the Name Reaper.

The decision to become strong had already been made as she had been born, and she had already begun to take the first steps on that path, but it was still useful to review your options. “So what are the paths open to me in this life?” She considered while tapping her chin with a dainty finger. The paths to power were many and they all had their benefits and drawbacks. She was also still young enough and early enough in her cultivation that she could make changes.

The most common option was the way of the warrior or the method of cultivating Ki. This was the path that had by far the most adherents to it. The warriors gathered Ki in their dantians and built complex internal worlds according to their chosen cultivation method. Ki cultivation was in many ways the easiest path and had the least stringent requirements in that it required the least natural abilities from the user. A proper cultivation method could go a long way towards overcoming any lack of natural abilities after all. Warriors had strong bodies, and the various techniques could mimic many of the more powerful effects that the mages had access to. What they lacked was variety. Usually, the warriors had techniques with a very narrow focus and could not freely wield their powers in any way their imagination took them. The use of Ki also had limited utility outside combat, though not completely non-existent.

This was a path she had a lot of experience with. She had lived many lives where it was the only path available to her, and it was a path well-trodden by her and by others. It was also what she considered the most boring path, as she had done it so many times. Using Ki was effective, but not her preferred choice. Still, she wouldn’t dismiss the possibility outright. That said, she had access to more interesting options in this life, so she would likely choose them instead.

The second most common path was the path of a mage. Mages gathered mana to form a mage core and attuned their powers with the surrounding natural mana to bring about all kinds of impossible changes and a wide variety of spells and effects. The old adage was that if you wanted to kill a person, you brought a warrior, but if you wanted to kill an army, you brought a mage. The reality was not quite that simple, but magic was by far the most versatile of the different powers, and also had the greatest utility outside of combat. Most high-end artisans and creators had at least some ability as a mage for the purposes of enchanting and many other vital techniques used in such professions. A warrior might be able to craft a powerful weapon from rare materials, but to truly make that weapon shine, you needed a mage.

The third most common path was to seek the blessings of the gods and channel the holy powers that those gods imparted on you. This was the path Karna had the least experience with, and the one she dismissed outright. She wasn't planning on relying on a deity for her own powers after all. Still, the priests and holy warriors had their niche and their abilities could be extraordinary when used correctly. Never underestimate the servant of a god, especially if that god has a grudge with you. Psionics was also out. Not because Karna didn’t like the option, but because you couldn’t use psionics if you were capable of using mana and vice versa. She’d had a couple of lives as a psion, but they were generally quite rare, and she wasn’t even certain if there were any in this universe currently. Reincarnators actually made very powerful psions due to their gathered knowledge.

That left the more esoteric and less often seen abilities, of which she had clear access to at least one, Aura. Aura served in many ways a similar purpose to Ki, in that the main focus of the ability was to strengthen yourself and your body, but where Ki relied on cultivating an internal world and could be used to some extent by almost everyone, Aura relied entirely on bloodlines and could only be used by those that had at least one of those required bloodlines. Aura maximized the benefits gained from your heritage and the cultivation of many abilities that came with a particular bloodline. A good enough Aura user could also develop and refine a diluted and weak bloodline to a more pure and powerful one if they had the prerequisite skills and knowledge. Aura was extremely powerful, but also very limited in that you only gained those abilities associated with your heritage. If you had a phoenix bloodline, even a weak one, you would eventually be able to turn into a real phoenix and use all the abilities inherent to that race, but you would never have access to draconic, or vampiric, or titan, or any of the myriad of other abilities unless you gained that bloodline and the method to cultivate it as well.

There were many paths to power, and very few paths were mutually exclusive, aside from psionics. For instance, Medjai like Arjuna were both mages and warriors. Some masters recommended that you focus on a single path in order to not split your attention between two abilities, which could result in not reaching mastery on either. Those masters had a point. It was usually more beneficial to become a master in one path than be mediocre in two. That didn’t account for talent or take the unique advantage of reincarnators into consideration though. Most reincarnators had already walked down at least one path and had the gathered knowledge and experience from that path, which allowed them to master more than one path. Many reincarnators had their preferred paths that they focused on despite this advantage, and there was something to be said about mastering one thing to the absolute limits.

Through trial and error, the oldest reincarnators had come to some conclusions that Karna also shared. Magic was just too useful to pass on whenever it was available. Even if you focused on one of the other paths, you would at least dabble in magic just for all the benefits the versatile path provided. Karna also happened to think that magic was more powerful than any of the other paths, except for one, and she had become one of the greatest mages in the multiverse in the past. Thus it would be folly to not pursue that path in this life as well. That’s why she had acquired those essences from the spirits in the Spirit World after all.

Additionally, Karna knew of a secret that only the older and smarter reincarnators had figured out. A benefit that came from living multiple lives. And that secret was the true strength of Aura. Most Aura users could only ever really master one bloodline during their lifetime, no matter how powerful they became. Even then, they usually only achieved a certain level of mastery in their bloodline. It was as if they were building a puzzle by crafting each piece personally with their cultivation and even the best member of a particular bloodline could only figure out a quarter of the pieces and were working with an incomplete picture. Masters of equal level would have the same number of pieces, just not the same pieces. But what if one were to live several lifetimes as a vampire for example? Over those lifetimes, you would slowly be able to gather all the pieces, and in the end, you could cultivate your Aura by using the entire puzzle. Your results would be vastly different to those beings that only had a few pieces to go by.

There was another dirty little secret to reincarnators. The main benefit they carried on from one life to another was their knowledge and their skills. Even if a skill you mastered worked a little differently in another universe, you still used to be a master and could figure out the differences quickly. But knowledge wasn’t the only benefit. As the reincarnators lived their lives, some of those lives would be as different kinds of mythical and magical beasts. And once you lived enough lives as a particular type of beast, or reached the pinnacle in a single life, some of that beast would stay with you forever.

You would always have some of the nature and some of the bloodline of that beast within you, even if you shouldn’t have it due to your heritage. It also affected your appearance and behavior in some cases. If you lived enough time as a phoenix, for example, some of that grace and beauty would stay with you in all your lives. You simply couldn’t live several lifetimes as the most graceful and beautiful creature in most universes without some off it rubbing off on you. Of course, that didn't mean that only positive things rubbed off on you. Those that spent enough time as a dragon usually developed a certain level of greed and the need to hoard things for example. Karna had that problem as well, but she had learned to channel most of those instincts to positive and harmless things. Most, not all.

There was also a third secret that only someone as old as Karna could’ve figured out. The different bloodlines were not actually building their own separate puzzles. Their cultivation methods were in many ways connected if you knew where to look. If you put all the puzzles together, a cohesive picture formed. So what would be the results of someone who had already fully completed the entire picture and had lived enough lives to gather almost all of the relevant bloodlines and could figure out the rest? Well, Karna had never tried before, but she was planning to find out.

With her choices made and now affirmed, all that remained was to put them to action. So far she was only at the first level of cultivation for both Aura and mana, which basically meant that she had the potential, but that she had not yet reached the first significant threshold. That wasn’t strange for someone as young as her, though there were some geniuses that had managed to reach much further. Especially those reincarnators filled with fear and the need to gain power quickly. She had focused on building her foundation instead and some of the results had already become apparent.

During the party last night, the guests had noted that she was a rather strong Aura user for someone so young. She had already started cultivating her Aura using the method she had compiled from all of her previous lives, so her strength was way beyond what it should be for someone at the first level. The guests had all assumed she was already at the third level, at the very least, which would’ve been remarkable for someone as young as she was. They were not wrong in that she did have the same power as someone at the third step, they simply didn’t know why.

Cultivating Aura was all about Awakening your bloodline by having epiphanies about the nature of that bloodline. Every time you went up a full step you Awakened more of the bloodline inside you, and as a result, you would gain more abilities associated with that bloodline. The better your cultivation method and the more complete your "puzzle" so to speak, the more of that bloodline was Awakened. Even with her completed method, Karna wouldn’t be able to Awaken more than a single bloodline when she went up a step, even if she could Awaken the entire bloodline in a single go.

Since there were only so many steps one could take on the path of immortality, that meant she could only Awaken a limited number of them, so she had to choose well and with care. The order also mattered. Even if she could theoretically Awaken any bloodline thanks to being a reincarnator with so many lives under her belt, the first Awakenings were more difficult. It was much easier to use a bloodline you naturally possessed. Thanks to being a Godling and having the power of Aura since being born, she knew she had at least one bloodline, but she didn’t know which one. And thanks to the fact that she was already affected by so many bloodlines from her old lives, it was hard to say with certainty which of them was natural. Not without proper testing at least. She had her suspicions of course, but she wanted to be sure. Thankfully, Gemini would be able to perform that test.

As for mana, the reason for her slowness there was much simpler. There was no large hurdle she needed to cross, no epiphany she needed to have, and no amount of training she needed to undergo to go up to the second level, or to become what was called a second circle mage. The methods of going up levels for mages were relatively simple. They needed to accumulate enough mana repeatedly to allow their mage core to overflow in order to force it to grow, enhance the magical pathways in the body to handle the new influx of mana, and then carve the so-called second circle into their mage core. The process was a little more complicated than that and required years of study usually, but Karna had done the required study many times over in her previous lives and could recite all the necessary steps in her sleep.

No, what held her back was the fact that she was refining her mana. The mana inside a mage could be at various levels of purity. The purer your mana was, the more you could do with the same amount of mana. A drop of extremely pure mana could achieve the same results as a bucket of impure mana. The spells created from mana that was purer also tended to be more powerful. All the mana within you was always the same purity, so you had to refine your entire mana pool at the same time. The more mana you had, the more effort it took, so the earlier you did it, the better. This was what she meant when she thought about foundations.

Karna had an excellent mana cultivation method she had developed herself, as did most reincarnators, so the mana she gathered was already at a very high level of purity when she started, and normally she should’ve been easily outstripping her peers with the speed of her cultivation. The problem was not her cultivation method, but the level of purity she was aiming for and her current location.

She was currently at the Higher Planes, but eventually she would need to move on to the Divine Planes when she reached immortality and she wanted to be ready. One of the largest hurdles facing the newly Ascended mage immortals was the purity of their mana. They would need to spend decades if not centuries to refine their mana to the level of purity required in the Divine Planes. The problem stemmed from the fact that Divine planes were filled with divine power that made the process much easier, while the Higher Planes were not. So the work she had to do was slow since she had to work with an inherently less pure source of power. Added to that was the fact that she wouldn’t be satisfied with reaching the minimum standards of the Divine Planes either. No, she had reached that point a year ago. She aimed for perfection. If this was going to be her last life, then she would build the perfect foundation right from the start, no matter how hard she had to work.

She had a lot of work to do, but luckily Gem would make the process much easier. She had made it sound like her suggestion about Gem taking the form of a magical support spirit had been one she had come up with on the spot when Arjuna had asked, but the truth was that this had been planned years ago. There were magic supporting spirits, and then there were magic supporting spirits, and the spirit Karna had in mind would make the process of purifying her mana ten times faster and easier. Nobody would likely be able to identify a type of spirit that was usually only seen serving immortals that had reached Divinity, right?

That meant she would finish the process and easily become a second circle mage in time for the Academy tests. A second circle mage would not be anything special among the applicants, as those applying would be the geniuses of the entire Magocracy as well as some foreign students. However, she wouldn’t be just any random second circle mage when the time came, and the tests were not just about your current state of cultivation. Otherwise, the spots would all be taken by the older and more experienced applicants. There would be tests of knowledge, skill, potential, and affinity as well. And that was just for mages, although this being the Magocracy, the mages were the most important. She also had a spirit and she was an Aura user, so the odds of her failing in the test were slim to none.

“Alright, time to do this. Gem, come out and test my bloodlines.” She commanded the spirit.

A small flying creature seemed to appear from inside her in a flash of light, and a bat-like creature with a long tail and a mouth filled with sharp fangs landed in front of her. Spirits came in many varieties. Some of them were constantly at their master’s side, mostly this included the support type spirits, while some would only appear when called. The rest of their time would be spent in the Spirit World where they came from. From previous experience, she knew that Gem liked to terrorize the other spirits every time she was set loose from her little hiding place.

“You know, I never liked this form all that much Karma. It’s good for information gathering and analysis, but it’s not very comfortable.” The spirit complained and stretched out the leathery wings that didn’t reach more than 40 cm in wingspan.

“Then it’s a good thing you’ll only need to use it once.” Karna retorted. “And the name is Karna in this life.”

“That’s an amusing little coincidence, isn't it? So close, yet so far.” Gem pointed out the similarity. It was hard to miss after all.

"I asked about it from father once. Apparently, he was named after a hero in some old legend. Apparently that hero Arjuna had a rival named Karna. Notably, that Karna was supposed to be the child of a king and the Sun Goddess. Well, he knows I'm a Godling, so he thought it was fitting, even if the original Karna in that story was male." She explained. She had after all wondered about the same thing.

“Isn’t it tempting fate just a bit to name you after the rival of the character he was named after?” Gem asked, knowing that tempting fate was not wise when dealing with reincarnators, and especially so when dealing with this particular reincarnator.

“I also raised that question. His answer was, and I quote: ‘Bah! The character I was named after was the child of the Thunder God. You know I have absolutely terrible compatibility with that element and I’m definitely not a Godling. It’s just a story, if a good one.’” Karna recalled with a fond smile. Despite their rocky start, she had grown to like the man. Even if his parenting sucked, he wasn’t a bad guy. In fact, his reactions made him a rather entertaining person.

“Sounds like tempting fate all the same to me. Alright. Let’s get this stupid test over with, so I can return back to the Spirit World and you can summon me with a nicer form next time.” The tiny bat waddled next to the sitting Karna and bit her finger, drawing a drop of blood. Then the bat sat there for a while, tasting the blood and figuring out what it meant.

“A whole lot of Phoenix, and a very pure and high-ranking bloodline at that. The same amount of Titan. Also the purest bloodline imaginable. There’s a bit of something minor mixed in there, but I can’t quite figure out what. Could be just plain old divine heritage or it could be something else, but it has a powerful taste that I cannot recognize.” The bat finally stated.

“Doesn’t matter. If it’s so minor, then it won’t make a difference. Still, Phoenix and Titan, huh? No wonder someone sent me down here. Those two races really like to keep their bloodlines pure and undiluted, unlike some races that like to shag everything that moves. Or doesn’t move. I was expecting the Phoenix considering how many lives I’ve lived as one and how much the multiverse likes to throw me into the role for some reason, but the Titan part was a bit of a surprise. With that combination, I'm shocked I wasn't sent all the way down to the Mortal Planes to hide. The Higher Planes still see some immortals visiting on a fairly regular basis after all.”

“Maybe they don’t care as much anymore? It’s been a long time since you’ve been to this universe after all. The rules could’ve changed.” Gem suggested, not really having much faith in her guess.

“I don’t really think so. It’s more likely there was some kind of plan involved. Still, I hope we won’t have to worry about it for a while. I’m not nearly ready to deal with all the issues the immortals can and will bring to the table.” Karna dismissed the idea and gave a deep sigh. It wasn’t very likely that she’d have all that long despite her hopes. She never did have much luck where this universe was concerned.