Regis flipped the tome’s pages to the one showing his feats and traits. Once the pages stopped turning, several new entries tugged at his gaze.

{Blood of old}

{You have awakened the dormant power of the ancient elven blood coursing through your veins. Your passive arcana regeneration is increased by 2(awakened ancestral trait).}

Blood of old was the boon he received from Avenar and it proved to be a truly precious gift with the increased arcana regeneration. The one granted by Flonus the iron clad was also a firm boon.

{Warrior’s might}

{Your body is a weapon and so is everything you choose to wield. All weapon skill gains mastery 5% faster.}

Learning to wield weapons faster, even if just by 5% was something he could make use of throughout his life, just like the affinities he had gained. Both his fire and air affinities were recorded neatly

{Air affinity}

{You have an arcane connection to the breeze and wind that flows through the land. You can practice air elemental spells with greater efficiency and have an increased resistance to spells of the same element. You can hold your breath twice as long as most people by circulating your arcana through your lungs.}

{Fire affinity}

{You have an arcane connection with all flames that burn around the world. You can practice fire elemental spells with greater efficiency and have an increased resistance to spells of the same element. Your temperament can burn with a passion or rage that is beyond most ordinary mortals, granting you heightened resistance against fear and mesmerizing magic.}

His two notable new feats were also present on the pages, although ‘little charmer’ changed a bit in name.

{Charmer}

{You know how to be a charming fellow when needed, gaining a 5% bonus to persuasion and haggling when talking to women.}

{Just a scratch}

{Injuries are bound to happen, but they won’t stop you from doing what you must. Your pain tolerance and concentration while injured has been slightly increased.}

They were quite simple, but useful feats, so Regis didn’t mind having them. As the pages flipped once more, his skills came into view, making him raise his eyebrows. There were new ones waiting for him while his older ones grew visibly stronger after such a short time.

{Staves}

{You are capable of wielding ordinary staves and their sub-variants such as bladestaves, spears etc. Each rank gained in the mastery of staves shall lower the effort it takes to wield it by 0.25 %. Every fifth rank increased the harm you cause by 1. Every tenth rank grants a minor perk. Every twenty-fifth rank allows you to choose a specialization.}

{Skill mastery: 7/100}

{Damage bonus: 1}

{Mastery progression: 8/10}

{Stamina cost reduction: 1.75%}

{Heavy strike}

{Strike your foes with all your might for 5 points of stamina. Heavy strike deals weapon base damage + 2 per level.}

{Skill mastery: 2/5}

{Mastery progression: 2/30}

{Basic meditation}

{You clear your mind to share the world’s breath, actively regenerating your arcana. Your passive regeneration is equal to 1/10th of your willpower attribute per minute plus 1 for any affinities. Your active arcana regeneration is one and a half time of your passive on wild lands while double that of your passive regeneration on awakened lands. Each level of skill mastery grants an additional point to active arcana regeneration. Long term meditation increases one’s arcana reserves.}

{Skill mastery: 1/5}

{Mastery progression: 17/20}

{Current passive arcana regeneration: 5.6 per minute}

{Current active arcana regeneration: 11.2 per minute}

{Lore}

{Knowledge is power. Learn about the workings of the world and the myriad creations in it. Study the arcane, cultures, creatures, items, texts and all that is worth knowing. Lore gathers all you’ve learned and helps you identify and deduct things when necessary. Every level in lore skill grants 0,25% to persuasion and haggling. Every level grants 0,5% to identification check success towards higher rarity or shrouded items. Every tenth rank grants a minor perk that is gained after specialization. Every twenty-fifth rank allows you to choose a specialization. Lore is a passive skill.}

{Skill mastery: 23/100}

{Mastery progression: 5/30}

His mastery of staves was self-explanatory as he used it as his main weapon and heavy strike was an obvious basic skill too. The levels he gained in his lore skill was a surprise, but since he’s been using charlatan’s wisdom to identify and learn about things, it was understandable. As for basic meditation; he didn't know how to feel about being able to top his arcana reserves with only five minutes of active meditation. With no other skills needing his attention, he looked at his spells next.

{Charlatan’s wisdom}

{Rank: initiate}

{Spell class: arcane}

{Spell type: verbal}

{Nothing can stay shrouded in mystery forever. Use your erudition and magic to reveal the true nature of the creatures and objects of this world. This spell reveals the most important details of anything you touch as long as your erudition and mind can bear with it. Identifying an object or creature cost 5 points of arcana. Charlatan’s wisdom currently only identifies items up to uncommon rarity unless they wish to reveal themselves to you. It can only identify creatures up to the 10th level.}

{Arcana cost: 5}

{Casting time: 5 seconds}

{Range: touch}

{Skill mastery: 1/10}

{Mastery progression: 16/20}

{Lesser heal}

{Rank: initiate}

{Spell class: arcane/elemental}

{Spell type: verbal}

{Spend 10 points of arcana to cure diseases and mend wounds worth 2.5 points of health by guiding light element infused energy into them. Every level of mastery increases the amount of health restored by 0.5 points. Having innate light affinity will decrease spell cost by 1 point of arcana. Use lesser heal repeatedly on mutilated body parts and missing organs to regrow them. Permanent health loss due to said injuries must be healed in a 100:1 ratio for small limbs and organs or 200:1 ratio for large limbs and organs. Lesser heal only works on living creatures.}

{Arcana cost: 9}

{Healing done: 3.5}

{Cast time: 5 seconds}

{Range: touch}

{Spell mastery: 2/5}

{Mastery progression: 12/30}

{Grow quartz}

{Rank: initiate}

{Spell class: elemental}

{Spell type: verbal}

{Spend 10 points of arcana to grow a 4cm long and 1cm wide quartz piece in 10 seconds. Each level of mastery increases the size of the crystal by 1 centimetre in length and half a centimetre in width. The quartz crumbles away if the spell fails or you cancel it before completion. You can cast grow cluster on the same quartz piece to increase its size.}

{Arcana cost: 10}

{Cast time: 10 seconds}

{Range: touch}

{Spell mastery: 0/5}

{Mastery progression: 6/10}

{Quartz shot}

{Rank: initiate}

{Spell class: elemental}

{Spell type: verbal}

{Spend 15 points of arcana to grow an offshoot crystal piece in 5 seconds and fire it towards your enemies. Quartz shot deals 5 points of base spell damage plus that of your catalyst’s. Each level of mastery increases your base spell damage by 1. The spell crumbles away after fifteen meters.}

{Arcana cost: 15}

{Base spell damage: 5}

{Cast time: 5 seconds}

{Range: 15 meters}

{Spell mastery: 0/5}

{Mastery progression: 5/10}

The obvious increase in charlatan’s wisdom was well earned in his opinion, but the increased mastery of his lesser healing spell was more important. Its healing capabilities rose by an entire point, making it 40% more effective than it was at the beginning. Even if 1 point of health didn’t seem much, it could mean the difference between life and death in battle.

His grow cluster and quartz shot spells gained some mastery as well from the few times he actually used them, but their growth was negligible. With the matter of his spells out of the way, he took a quick look at the page with the black bookmark, finding that a lot has been recorded there. As the pages turned to the right place, rows of new information appeared.

{Foes slain}

{Level 1 Blight touched rat}*3. You have gathered 45 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.

{Orcish outlander}*2. You have gathered 100 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.

{Level 3 undead wolf}*1. You have gathered 60 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.

{Level 3 fallen archer}*3. You have gathered 180 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.

{Level 3 fallen infantryman}*23. You have gathered 1380 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.

{Level 4 fallen swordsman}* You have gathered 1440 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.

{Level 5 fallen berserker}*1. You have gathered 240 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.

{Level 7 fallen priest of malice}*1. You have gathered 960 Amaranth from this type of enemy so far.

{Shards and other bonuses}

{Arcana shard}*1. Your maximum arcana was increased by 1 through absorbing arcana shards.

{Fortitude shard}*1. Your maximum stamina was increased by 1 through absorbing fortitude shards.

{Vigour shard}*2. Your maximum health was increased by 2 through absorbing vigour shards.

{Spell mastery}*3. Your maximum arcana was increased by 3 as a result of gaining mastery in spells.

{Meditation}*3. Your maximum arcana was increased by 3 due to prolonged meditation sessions.

‘So mastering spells will give me a flat bonus to my arcana? Nice.’ He hummed as he closed the tome. It was good to have a clean and simple record of his kills and Amaranth gains, but the chronicles regarding the shards he absorbed and the increase of his arcana through spell mastery and meditation were slightly surprising. Done with the dry and mighty recordings, the young dark elf walked around the statue. The old bookshelf was still there with the three scrolls on it.

Regis grabbed one and unfurled it, revealing the drawing of the ordinary looking stick figure that could be separated into three sections made from five nodes. ‘Am I just supposed to fill this with Amaranth?’ He thought to himself as he tried to focus on the bottom left dot of the drawing. It began to shimmer in a dim reddish brown before slowly turning into a glowing dot. The young dark elf felt his soul-space shake and as he looked up, he could now see a dull bronze coloured star on the pitch black sky. As he looked back at the scroll, words formed beneath the drawing.

{Human Ancestral Constellation}

{Rank: Bronze}

{Nodes: 1/15}

Physique: 0,166* Mind: 0 Might: 0

It became obvious that activating these constellation nodes would indeed strengthen him, but the amount was ridiculously low and long winded that the count stopped after the fourth number. Looking at the miniscule change, he had to know its cost, so he put the scroll down and walked back to the tome. After checking his Amaranth counter on his character sheet, he found out that the node cost him twenty-five Amaranth. With this in mind, Regis paced back to the shelf and grabbed the scroll once more.

Each node from the three sections he observed seemed to correspond one of the three described attributes. He willed the nodes to life one after the other until all fifteen of them glowed with a bronze hue. The dark sky above him now had fifteen tiny bronze coloured stars shining on it, faint threads of light connecting them. Looking back at the scroll, the description on it changed along with the night sky.

{Human Ancestral Constellation}

{Rank: Bronze}

{Nodes: 15/15}

Physique: 0,25 Mind: 0,25 Might: 0,25

It cost him 375 Amaranth to activate his ancestral constellation, but his curiosity still gnawed at him as he forced more Amaranth into the scroll. The bottom left node slowly began to turn grey and after a few seconds, it glowed with a silver hue. This, as it soon turned out, however cost him 50 Amaranth. It didn’t take a genius to calculate that it would cost him 750 to turn the entire constellation into silver, but he didn’t hesitate for a moment to do so. When he was done, his Amaranth reserves were down to half of what he started with, but it was worth it and the faded scroll was an obvious proof to that.

{Human Ancestral Constellation}

{Rank: Silver}

{Nodes: 15/15}

Physique: 0,75 Mind: 0,75 Might: 0,75

Even though it cost him dearly, he had almost increased three of his attributes by an entire point. ‘My character sheet doesn’t seem to register it unless it’s a round number.’ He mumbled to himself as he stared at his tome that still hadn’t changed the specific attributes. With over a 1000 Amaranth remaining, Regis decided to go all in towards those round numbers and forced the first node to turn into a golden one, earning a strained 0,066* increase at the cost of a 100 Amaranth. One after the other he filled three nodes from each of the 5 node sections, keeping the rest of his meagre scraps for emergency. Even with that, he went beyond the one point mark on all three attributes.

{Human Ancestral Constellation}

{Rank: Gold}

{Nodes: 9/15}

Physique: 1,34* Mind: 1,34* Might: 1,34*

Regis felt content as he looked at his character sheet and found the clear one point of increase of his attributes recorded. Since he was done splurging his earnings, the young dark elf sat down and began to meditate. The soul-space crumbled around him and after a moment of falling through the darkness, he found himself sitting in front of the sewer camp’s fire.

“I see that you’re back,” Bray spoke from the other side of the small fire. “How was your time in your soul-space?”

“Quite fruitful,” Regis answered as he lay down on whatever rags he found around. “I’ve gained two points to all of my attributes from outgrowing my ‘fledgling’ status and I’ve almost completed my human ancestral chart as well. It got me another point in three different attributes.”

“Oh,” the elderly fellow sighed. “That is indeed good news. Now you can forge your own path without hindrance. Have you decided which one you wish to take?”

“To be honest; I don’t really know how that works. I’ve read some notes about the subject back home, but they were quite vague about it. I know that it’s like a tree, starting at the roots which are known as Tier one classes. Besides that, I only know that it grants me access to some basic skills and some such.”

“That’s quite a bare bones way of thinking about them,” the grey haired man said as he grabbed a small stick and began to draw something on the dusty stone floor. “The church of the seven paths is called that exactly because they represent the seven paths you can choose from. Those that follow the path of magic begin their journey as neophytes. The people of faith are noviciates while those of military path are referred to as conscripts. Most of the people that follow the path of free warriors are simply called fighters while the people who try to make their living from the forests are called outdoorsman. Those who live off the land such as farmers or herbalist start out as croppers and craftsmen begin walking their paths as apprentices.”

Regis listened to the lengthy explanation with rapt intent as he tried to fill out the blank spots of his knowledge by what he had just learned. Once Bray was finished with his monologue, he waved the young dark elf closer, pointing at the ground. Regis looked down, seeing seven doodles lined up next to each other. It reminded him of the stick figures he had in his soul-space and the sudden appearance of a mild headache along with the glowing words in front of his eyes proved him right.

{You have learned the ‘Apprentice’ constellation chart.}

{You have learned the ‘Conscript’ constellation chart.}

{You have learned the ‘Cropper’ constellation chart.}

{You have learned the ‘Fighter’ constellation chart.}

{You have learned the ‘Neophyte’ constellation chart.}

{You have learned the ‘Noviciate’ constellation chart.}

{You have learned the ‘Outdoorsman’ constellation chart.}

The sudden influx of knowledge made him stagger back dizzily as the golden words faded. He looked at Bray with mixed feelings, stuttering as he breathed out the stale air trapped by the sudden events.

“These are…”

“These are the constellations of the seven paths. Usually you’d have to ask the representatives of the seven paths for these, but I’ve travelled long enough to see all of them.”

“Thank you Bray,” Regis stammered. “These charts must be worth a fortune.”

“Don’t worry about it, lad. Most of the time, you’d only have to do a small favour to the local leader of a path, or prove your worth to get access to it. Having all seven only helps you cut time. As for which path to thread; that is up to you. First you should finish that ancestral chart of yours and then choose a trail to stride. I must warn you though; you can walk all of the paths if you choose to, but if you decide to be a student of all…”

“Then I won’t be the master of any,” Regis finished the line of thought. “Thanks for watching over me, and for your wisdom as well. We should both get some rest. I feel drained and you look just as bad.”

“Go and rest then,” Bray scoffed. “I might look worn, but these old bones still have enough life in them to move about for a while.”

“Sure,” Regis laughed as he watched the fuming old hobo. “In that case, I’ll take that corner for myself. He pointed at the clear are just behind the crates.