Numb sensations. Aches. He felt his Inner Self raw and tender deep within, flinching with each feeble beat of his Ascendancy. Brock groaned through a sudden upsurge of nausea, and with strain, managed to crank open his heavy eyelids, meeting the world waiting beyond.

It took a handful of seconds for him to adjust to the dimly lit interior of his location. Candles were sparsely strewn about, much like the home of the scryer, flickering delicately and offering the surroundings their soft glow. Judging by the condition of many of them, they had seen often use and had been neglected for quite a while before that.

A large crack ran through the far wall, letting a cool breeze intrude and caress Brock’s heated face. The wooden floorboards were long discoloured from dark brown to sickly yellows, and speckles of mould readily grew in the gaps between, even along places on the roof and walls. Vaguely, the place smelled of toilet cleaner, most probably a futile attempt to counteract the stale scent of the structure.

Brock tilted his head to the side and looked over, searching for any sign of human presence nearby. Unfortunately, even after several seconds, he could detect none, not even a local aura signature within a hundred meters of the building. Feeling too weak to get up and look for his companion, he opted to just continue the act of lying down.

His weakness was an odd thing, he found. He felt his body to be in an optimal condition, sporting no wounds and being void of aching muscles. Nor did his head throb from mental fatigue, in fact, his mind felt clearer than usual, if only slightly. Instead, the weakness came from the bounds of his Inner Self, the newfound ethereal aspect of his being.

Brock could immediately spot the issue, but he still looked inward anyway. His mental avatar gazed over his sprawling network of pathways and the crimson heart that was nestled within the centre. The once radiant aura of energy had faded to the barest of wisps as his Ascendancy pulsated meekly to keep itself alive.

There was a moment where he wondered why his aura had been depleted so severely, but then the memories came rushing back. How he had utterly thrashed those thugs and whatever else he had killed that was hiding among them. Maybe that was a situation where he should have killed them, as they were gunning for his life, but they didn’t really have much of a chance of victory anyway.

Eh. Tomato tomato. It’s fine.

What was more concerning was the fact that his aura appeared to have been extremely drained beforehand. Brock supposed he might not have noticed while his mind was stuck focused on the battle. Either way, there wasn’t really any explanation. He had only used the minimum amount of energy he needed to kill the creature with his Technique, yet here he was, bedridden and weak.

Maybe that scammer stole some of my energy too? Brock snorted. Unlikely.

Sighing to himself, Brock studied the patch of mould on the ceiling directly above him and frowned. Immediately, he opened his status screen to blot the sight of it out.

Status.

Brock Carter.

Race: Human [F] LVL 24

Ascendancy: Fetters of the Bound [F]

Level: 26

[Stats]

Strength: 153.75 [+25%][Base: 123]

Agility: 352.5 [+25%][Base: 282]

Dexterity: 123.75 [+25%][Base: 99]

Constitution: 145 [+25%][Base: 116]

Vitality: 206.25 [+25%][Base: 165]

Intelligence: 423.8 [+30%][Base: 326]

Wisdom: 286.25 [+25%][Base: 229]

[Augments] - Augment of Sparks (51.29%), Augment of Skies (28.44%).

[Techniques] – [1] Ethereal Shackles II [F] (13.78%), [Technique Available].

[Titles] - At The Precipice II, Agent of Chaos, Blessed, Destined for Greatness, Underdog, Hidden Fangs, Leader of the Pack, Login Bonus, Opportunist, Enlightened, Mass Murderer, Needless Slaughter, Masochist, Trophy Hunter (Unique), Budding Power, Brainiac, Attuned, Embodiment of Freedom, False Life.

Free Stats: 12

Shards: 1,563,957

Stars of Ascension: 18

Levels, Shards, stats, unexpected upgrades. His status seemed to have it all. The menu had undergone yet another qualitative change in power, although the first thing that caught his eye was the newest Title he had been granted.

False Life: Kill an artificial being. +5 to all stats, +2 Levels

He supposed it was referring to those disguised creatures he had ended up killing. Brock had thought them to be some sort of new monster, but he guessed them being artificial life was cool too. What was far more surprisingly than that, however, was the extreme bonus the Title gave. Two entire levels didn’t seem like much, but to Brock, he’d take anything he could get.

To put things into perspective, he’d need to kill maybe a dozen or so beasts at level 40 or 50 just to get the same effect. His whole level situation wasn’t as truly as bad as he made it out to be, it just required a bit more effort. Still, the boost wasn’t anything to scoff at.

He wondered if there were more ‘artificial beings’ out there. If there was, he’d be all too happy to capitalise on it.

The next of the pleasant surprises was the fact his Technique had somehow gotten itself to what appeared to be its next threshold of sorts, adopting a roman numeral depicting ‘2’ at the end of its name. The sheer amount of progress was perhaps the most unbelievable thing on his whole status page, though he assumed danger really was the catalyst of growth.

Strangely enough, there was a ‘1’ at the beginning of it, and upon focusing on it, Brock drew a prompt up into his vision.

[Choose one mutation for Ethereal Shackles.]

Power I Fortitude I Efficiency I

That’s… new…

Carefully, Brock considered the options. He had already seen some sort of effect relating to its upgrade before, with the newfound ‘shadow stretching’ and slight boost to chain numbers. He assumed the ‘mutation’ to be a more direct way to upgrade one’s ability.

Power, he felt was related to the damage inflicted by the Technique, maybe even the speed of it too. Fortitude was probably connected to its durability and duration, and Efficiency was most likely just a reduction to usage costs. Or, it went the other way, and gave the user more for the same amount.

It was all rather interesting. Despite that, however, Brock didn’t need much consideration on what mutation to choose. Ethereal Shackles was meant to be fast and impactful, binding one down and eating away at them slowly. Fortitude wouldn’t be a bad option, but if he wanted to inflict more damage on higher levelled enemies, Power seemed like the way to go.

Without further ado, he selected his option. He felt a pulse from his Ascendancy, but otherwise nothing happened. Huh.

Feeling somewhat let down by the display, Brock dismissed the window and scanned over his stats once more, noting his significant stat boosts, as well as the slight boost to percentage his Augments had received. He smiled in satisfaction. Seeing his power grow was always a reward in and of itself.

Feel himself get a little giddy, Brock wasted no more time and pulled open his available Techniques. The list had decreased in size drastically, with all the options from the previous selection having instead been replaced by only three.

[Choose your second Technique.]

Oppressive Might [F]: The oppressed call for freedom. They beg for it. Never are they supplied. Scales with Wisdom. Spectral Hunger [F]: Hunger is inevitable, and it is endless. Scales with Wisdom. Immaterial Grasp [F]: Grasp upon power, and you will be burned. Grasp upon weakness, and it shall become yours. Scales with Wisdom.

Stewing on his drastically reduced options, Brock considered the name and descriptions first and foremost. Immediately, he ruled out Immaterial Grasp. Just as a rule of thumb, Brock felt it lucrative to avoid anything that had the potential to burn you or make other people’s weakness your own problem.

While he was certain that there was some powerful gimmick to the Technique, he’d rather not chance something as red flaggy as that. It didn’t just sound like playing with fire, but the whole damn volcano.

Spectral Hunger on the other hand, gave off a series of basic feelings to him, and from that he could judge that it wouldn’t be all that complementary to his fighting style, so he discarded that as an option too.

That only left Oppressive Might for him to choose, and while Brock didn’t exactly get the impression that it would directly assist his current fighting style, he was certain it at least wouldn’t impair it, or force it in a different direction. He was sure that he could manage to incorporate it into combat over time.

With nothing else left to do, he shrugged awkwardly from his position on his back and selected the Technique.

Instantly, he felt another node of crimson energy condense around the exterior of the beating heart that was his Ascendancy, and he dismissed the mild sensation of heartburn. Brock didn’t think he had the energy required to activate it, yet he felt its effects only a second later.

His aura was not all that much stronger than it had been two levels ago, yet now it was readily seeping out the bounds of his Inner Self, darkening the surroundings with churning spectral waves. Softly, Brock prodded it using his new Technique as the instrument, and he felt it recede into his body, like it was a lockbox. It was relatively well contained like this, although he knew it was still readily detectable.

After waiting a few seconds, he let it run free once more and the room darkened again. Interesting…

Brock gave it a final prod with his Technique and found he could use his mobilised aura to physically influence things, being able to knock a candle off a side table and even snuff it out once it was on the ground. From his experiences so far, he had thought the oppressive effects of auras to be entirely mental in nature, but maybe his Technique was able to change that. He felt the edges of a smile break out on his face.

Aside from that, he also felt a slight friction in the air fighting against the presence of his aura, but his Technique quickly sputtered out and hit him with an overpowering wave of nausea before he could investigate the phenomenon further. Brock resisted the urge to puke as he looked inward, noting the small glow his Ascendancy had managed to accumulate having been reduced to the barest flicker.

It seemed mobilising one’s aura let some of it be lost to the atmosphere.

Holding his stomach back from creating a mess he wasn’t going to clean up, Brock contemplated on what he had seen so far, and pinned the second Technique as being the ‘aura’ Technique, so to speak. Harry had been able to mobilise his aura when he had gotten one, and it too had mainly passive applications.

Plus, along with the fact that they only scaled with Wisdom, he thought it was a safe guess that one was to choose an aura-based Technique the second time round.

Brock cut his thoughts short and groaned as a pounding headache began to form, “I feel like a shit in a dishwasher…”

That was not at all an expression, whether it be in Australia or anywhere else, but it aptly described how he was feeling currently. Like a shit… in the dish washer.

With closed eyes, Brock reopened his status screen, finding it to be floating within the darkness, and before he forgot, he decided to check his Aetherweb. He had neglected it for far too long, and it was time he started spending his accumulating Stars.

[Aetherweb: Fetters of the Bound.]

[Stars of Ascension: 18]

Beat of the Ethereal Heart (0/10) Augmentative Attunement (0/5) Extra RAM (0/5) Aurous Reserves (0/10)

From the single option he had had left last time, it seemed that either Brock’s accomplishments, or increase in power, had granted him a few new avenues of spending. Beat of the Ethereal Heart was still there, and just like last time, he was still unsure of what benefits it would bring him.

Augmentative Attunement, judging just by the name, should net him better use of his Augments, or maybe even accelerated growth for them, although that was him being hopeful for the most part. From what he remembered about computers, RAM was basically memory, so while the feeling he got from Extra RAM was muddled, he assumed it would assist his mental capabilities in one way or another.

And then finally was Aurous Reserves. Prior experience in the Aetherweb indicated it would relate to his aura, and with the use of the word Reserves, he presumed it would increase his capacity somehow. He hoped at least. Despite that, he didn’t really have much of a use for aura currently, other than to fuel his Techniques, but even then, both seemed to be pretty situational, and he used his Augments more anyway.

Chewing on his lip, Brock dumped five Stars of Ascension into Augmentative Attunement.

[You have completed Aetherweb: Augmentative Attunement.]

[Augments, only one of the many paths to power in the Multiverse. To become attuned is to become a vessel for the cosmic. Reinforce your bonds with the laws of reality and feel the fruits of your labour. +5% Augment strength, increased pathway compatibility.]

With the next beat of his Ascendancy, he felt his Augments become a little more vibrant, and as the wave of energy travelled them, he sensed his pathways become smoother and better vessels for energy. He felt closer to the nature of his Augments than ever before.

Grinning widely, Brock didn’t hesitate as he rode the high of enhancement and dumped a further 10 Stars into Beat of the Ethereal Heart. He knew that the other two probably had great effects, but on that same coin, he did at least know that their benefits would be useful later on, just not now. And, as someone who was loose with money, he had no issue spending his odd currency on that which was wholly uncertain.

It a bit like gambling, in a way. He was far too familiar with the feeling.

[You have completed Aetherweb: Beat of the Ethereal Heart.]

[With each beat, life flourishes. Being a relic from a war long passed, no one truly understands their existence apart from its creator. As you travel your Ascent, discover that which you hold within you. Increased aura quality, +10% circulation speed.]

Once again, he felt the effects immediately after the next pulse, albeit this one boasted a far more powerful surge. Inwardly, Brock sensed as the idle waves of energy his Ascendancy put out roared through his pathways with increased vigour and speed, owning a thicker viscosity than what he had seen prior.

If Aurous Intensity had boosted the density of his aura, then this one greatly empowered his inner energies, density and all. It took Brock a little bit of time observing, but he managed to discover how the energies his ‘ethereal heart’ pumped out were slowly converted to aura as they travelled the pathways for maintenance and returned to their source.

The travelled flows seemed unable to be recycled, only transformed. Sluggishly, his aura became more vibrant as a superior base product was introduced into its creation.

Brock was usually right about these kinds of things, and while he wasn’t at all a master of the subject, he was at least confident in his notion that his aura would allow him to use less of it to achieve the same amount of power. In other words, boosting the density of his aura increased the power it held, while empowering the energy it was formed from boosted its efficiency.

“The more you know, huh?” Brock muttered to himself.

Sparing a few seconds to bathe in the glory of his newfound enhancements, both ethereal and physical, Brock dumped a singular free stat into Dexterity to round it off, and offloaded the rest into his Wisdom, to celebrate the arrival of a new Technique. Licking his dry lips, he closed his status and sunk further into his mattress.

Quickly though, he stilled. Two auras appeared in the range of his senses. One he was intimately familiar with as belonging to Harry, while the other he felt he vaguely recognised, though he was unable to put a finger on where from.

Finally wiping the sleep from his eyes, Brock eagerly awaited their arrival.