Rissa was waiting for him outside the Armory. She didn’t seem to notice the difference in his weight or muscles. Maybe he was being too sensitive about it?

“That was amazing! I only heard about the fight at lunch, didn’t realize it was you until I got here! Did you know everyone thinks you’re a weapons instructor?”

Serenity chuckled. “I guess that makes sense, even if none of them were wearing jeans and a T-shirt. My outfit now probably won’t help, except for the sneakers.”

Rissa leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I never knew you were so skilled. It makes me feel a lot better about - about where you’re going …” She trailed off, looking worried.

Serenity was pretty sure this wasn’t the time to ask. They were in a crowd, and that wasn’t exactly the best place to ask his girlfriend if she’d had another vision of the future. He started walking towards the next class he wanted to see. “Did you get all the classes you wanted? I’ve got the three of us - you, me, and Lancaster, the policeman - signed up for the first slot tomorrow. It’s midmorning, so there should be time for at least one class first.”

“I hadn’t signed up yet, wanted to make sure they wouldn’t interfere. I think I’m going to take a bunch of crafting classes, they said that could synergize well and open up some interesting Paths.”

Serenity nodded. That made sense; opening Paths was very important, especially early on.

“I did the Intro to Magic thing, and they said I have good affinities for crafting, and maybe a healing or magic-based combat Path. They said to start thinking about where I wanted to go for paths! It should … all tie together but that didn’t mean it was limited to one thing. I’m not really sure what that means,” Rissa admitted.

“You want to do crafting .. have you picked crafts or are you open to pretty much anything?”

“I don’t know yet. Enchanting looks like fun, and carpentry. Maybe sewing? They mentioned runecrafting but didn’t have an example. I know blacksmithing, leatherworking, and glassblowing are out. I really wanted to like glassblowing but I fainted when I got near the heat.” Rissa looked rueful. “I haven’t managed to check out the other crafts yet.”

Serenity nodded. “I’d recommend taking a class in each, even if you don’t think you like it. They’re right that even a little exposure to one you aren’t fond of can help one you do like. If you like Enchanting and are interested in Runecrafting, you need to get to a bunch of magic classes. Get as many Affinities as you can. If you can get a general healing Affinity … those are useful to anyone, even if you can only use it on yourself and for crafting. Healing’s hard to unlock. We can talk through your Path selection when you get there. Wait as late as you can so you have as many options as possible.”

Rissa looked concerned. “That’s a lot of classes. I know they’re only an hour or two each, but … we have limited time.”

“Yeah, that’s the next question. I’m planning to run a Trial every day, two if I can fit them in - I need to push my Level. I’m planning to do one class in the morning each day, more if there’s time. Do you want to do all of those with me, or only every other day? It’d let you get a lot more classes, and I don’t expect your Level to be quite as important to you.”

“Why not?”

“The Path I took last time - it’s - it would be easy for me to follow. So easy I don’t think I can completely avoid it. So I’m going to need to take other Paths as well, since I don’t want to go the same place. But that means I will need a lot more experience - a lot more levels - for each Tier. You don’t have that problem. Plus, I can help you as long as we’re on the same Tier, so we can probably push your Level later if needed.”

Rissa thought for a few minutes, and didn’t reply until they were at the Magic Evaluation arena - what Rissa had called “Intro to Magic”. “Every other day then. It sounds like I need more classes than you do. If I finish early I can do more at the end. Uh - I’ve already been here, should I wait with you or-?”

“I’d say, look and see what there is other than crafting, magic, and weapons. You picked the staff, right?”

Rissa shook her head. “Staff wasn’t right. Leaf-bladed shortspear.”

“Good choice.” Serenity’s attention moved back to the arena as Rissa sauntered away. There were demonstrations here, as well, but what he was looking for were the crystals set on pedestals in one area. Affinity stones. They were pretty basic, only designed to reveal current Affinities rather than help unlock hidden potential, but that was still a good start. They didn’t take long to use, so there wasn’t a line and he was able to walk up to one.

“Put your hand on the stone,” The instructor stated in a bored voice.

Serenity laid his hand on the stone and … nothing happened.

The instructor sounded more puzzled than bored now. “No Affinity? That’s unusual, generally everyone has one that’s easily accessible. Uh. Try focusing on something and … push it towards the stone.”

Serenity reached towards the area of himself where he knew his Affinities should be - the fuzzy layer of his soul that linked his soul to his body. He gathered some of the fuzz and pushed it down his hand to the crystal. It didn’t want to leave his hand, so he pushed harder. It didn’t matter if it hurt, this was how Affinities were opened and he was going to need Affinities. He was sure he could unlock Death affinity easily, but if he did that first he doubted he’d be able to unlock any others. He had to get them ALL right now. He pulled harder on the Affinity-space, and shoved it into - and then out of - his hand.

There was a moment of blinding pain, then he watched darkness flow out of his hand across the crystal. As the darkness filled the crystal, it was followed by a multicolored sea of mixed colors and shades - some of which he was pretty sure weren’t actually visible. The psychedelic stream of color was followed by another wave of black. As the dark and cold filled the crystal, he felt pain and chill radiating from his hand, and then a major headache. As the chill receded, he realized he was sensing the magic and Affinity of everyone around him. It seemed to be coming from… the crystal in his hand?

He looked at the crystal, and realized his hand was blackened and appeared to be dripping blood. He also couldn’t remove it from the crystal. When he tried, the crystal snapped off from the pedestal.

[Multiple Affinities have been Noticed. Additional Paths are opened.]

[Willingness to maim self for power has been Noticed. Additional Paths are opened.]

[Capability to extend Soul beyond the physical form has been Noticed. Additional Paths are opened.]

Wait what?

He seemed to be thinking that a lot lately.

When he turned his attention to the outside world, he realized that others weren’t taking it as calmly as he had. One of the mages was trying to heal Serenity. Serenity knew his HP was back at full, so he wasn’t sure why the mage kept trying. Maybe he’d better ask.

“Why do you keep healing me? I’m not hurt?”

The mage stopped and looked at Serenity’s face, then back at his hand. This drew Serenity’s attention to his hand, which looked more like a blackened, withered claw laid against the crystal. “Oh. Uh, I don’t think simple healing is going to do much. I’m not down any health.” Serenity was suddenly glad he’d used his off hand to touch the crystal.

The mage next tried removing the crystal from Serenity’s hand. It was weird feeling someone else touch his crystal. He’d never known that crystals had a sense of touch. The prying quickly became uncomfortable. “Please, stop.” Fortunately, the mage did.

Serenity cuddled his hand and crystal against his chest. They didn’t feel cold to the touch, but the crystal was still darkened. Maybe if he pulled his Affinity back out?

It was pretty easy to remove most of his Affinity from the crystal. It went mostly clear, with some darkness and a number of sparks of multicolored light. That still looked like it was probably his Affinity, but he couldn’t seem to pull more out. His hand seemed to fill out and look more like a hand than a claw - except that it was now the same nearly-clear material as the crystal itself. “Well, shoot.”

No one seemed to have any idea what to do until Serenity asked for a sling to put his arm in. Carrying the crystal’s weight at the end of his arm wasn’t comfortable, in addition to looking rather odd. The sling at least helped with the weight.

Serenity realized they’d never gotten around to discussing his Affinities. Well, that was fine; he could probably go from here, and there was always his Status.

Name: Serenity

Species: Human (Altered Template)

Path: N/A

Level: 0

Tier: 0

Path History: None

Condition: Damaged Hand, Hungry

Mana: 110

Stamina: 180

Might: 4

Agility: 5

Phys: 8

Understanding: 2

Will: 3

Mind: 1

Perception: 8

Luck: 6 - 106%

Resistances: Unknown

Affinities

Death: 100%

Life: 5%

Mind: 30%

Arcane: 50%

Plasma: 40%

Liquid: 5%

Vapor: 10%

Solid: 15%

Energy: 40%

Void: 60%

Time: 5%

Space: 5%

Concepts: Unknown

Aspects: Unknown

Titles

Previous Supreme Existence

Altered Template

Named

That wasn’t all of the possible Affinities, but it was certainly most of the major ones - the four Physical, the four non-Physical, and the four Universal. He was a bit surprised that it had classed his Affinities as the higher-grade ones, rather than the simple ones most people started with, but perhaps that was because he knew how they fit together and the twelve Great Affinities matched the way he saw the multiverse. Life in particular was higher than he’d expected; he hadn’t really expected to have any Life affinity. He wondered if that was simply because he was currently alive.