Controlling water through [Telekinesis] was freakishly hard. Liquids were difficult to manipulate in general and on top of that the water was Level 3 while Keynes was Level 2.

This rift was going to push him to 100%. FINALLY.

After all this time, he couldn’t wait to level up. While he was excited about the boost to his attributes which was significantly larger than a non-maxed-out increase by 33%. But there was another thing Keynes was looking for. He was going to receive another Orb of Perfection and perhaps another buff. He couldn’t wait to find out how another Perfect State would award him.

He'd done some more prodding about Pandora’s Orb of Perfection and she slowly opened up although her hostility toward him didn’t diminish.

“I did use it on my Talent, you?”

“On a temporary buff.”

Pandora narrowed her eyes, clenching her fists. With [Stamina] absorbed she could keep up with them now. It soured her mood that she and Keynes shared the Level and yet she was visibly weaker when it came to fighting monsters.

“You’re having a laugh.”

“No,” he shook his head. “I used it on an untraceable buff I had from a fruit.”

“That was dumb. What happened to the buff?”

“It’s become permanent.”

“That … was lucky.”

Keynes nodded. He indeed was lucky.

“What about your Talent?”

“Call it an unimpressive result,” she snapped and walked away toward monsters emerging from a pool. Haruka took her place.

“She’s scared,” Haruka whispered to Keynes. “She might not get all her attributes maxed out in time.”

It was a difficult thing to imagine for Keynes as hadn’t struggled anywhere near as badly as Pandora. It was something to think about in the future. Why was this so easy for him?

He dropped the manipulation of the water, as his mental stamina was running low. Essence came from the side where Pandora started killing monsters.

Keynes felt it.

Congratulations!

You reached Level 3.

All attributes Advancements achieved.

Perfect State (second degree) unlocked!

-

Orb of Perfection awarded.

-

Orb of Insight (second degree reward) awarded.

-

Purified Body upgraded to Purifying Body (second degree reward).

-

Spiritual Aura upgraded.

-

Spiritual Ghost upgraded.

-

Gain another Perfect State to unlock further rewards.

Upon gaining the Perfect State (third degree) permanent 10% essence penalty will be applied.

Keynes braced himself for the body purification but it didn’t come. The spiritual power that exploded out of him, put all monsters in a daze while Keynes’s companions sharply turned toward him.

He flexed his fingers feeling invincible.

Congratulations, master! Alice appeared next to him, her tiny body shimmered with her own power. The connection between us is getting stronger!

There was much to take in. Every aspect felt improved and a little out of tune with the rest. Keynes struggled with the control of his aura as its strength increased dramatically. Alice came with help, like in the hunting ground when Keynes had entered the Medium stage.

Others approached him but he checked his profile before talking to them.

Name: Keynes Kid

Species: Human

Level: 3 (Perfect State second degree)

Progression: 0%

Spirit Stage: Elevated

Spiritual Companion: Alice

Spells:

Spiritual Ghost (Integrated) Flight Create Water Telekinesis Night Sight

Talent:

Lockpicking

Techniques:

The Technique of Cultivation The Technique of Aura Control The Technique of Lesser Knowledge of Wind Currents The Technique of Flight The Technique of Meditation

Status:

Buffs:

Enhanced Learning (permanent), Purifying Body (permanent), Photographic Memory (strong), Untraceable (medium, permanent).

Debuff:

Chaos (permanent, semi-dormant, ???).

Attributes

Permanent

Temporary

Total

Strength (0%)

29

1

30

Dexterity (0%)

29

1

30

Will (0%)

29

1

30

Mind (0%)

29

2

31

Perception (0%)

29

1

30

Vitality (0%)

29

5

34

He had only three items that benefited his attributes; three rings. Everything else was either non-magical or didn’t add attributes.

This is it! His current stats were better than a Level 5 human ascender. As Keynes was now, he would have defeated Hellescott without Sylv’s help.

Haruka was the first to congratulate him. Vivena joined them, looking relieved. Even though Alice kept his aura under control, he knew he’d have to upgrade his aura control technique again or learn a new one.

Pandora approached the last and slammed her fist into Keynes’s face, or would have if Keynes didn’t dodge the punch.

“What was that for?” he asked.

Surprisingly, neither Vivena nor Haruka reacted. Wait. Did they plan it?

“Let’s see how strong you are now.”

Pandora attacked, employing her technique. She was relentless but it didn’t matter to Keynes. Even with her items, she wasn’t the same threat to Keynes. Finally. The gap between their attributes was too large. Her Talent also failed to cause the same effect as previously. And this time, Alice came immediately with an explanation.

Purifying Body buff and increased spiritual resistance negated the numbing effect of her Talent.

It sounded almost like a system message. Keynes didn’t dwell on it and immediately counter-attacked, sending Pandora flying. Poor control over his strength ended the fight there. One hit took away 25% of her HP. They were baffled. Keynes offered her the Liquid Health flask but she refused.

After they’d cleared the rift Pandora stormed out of it. Keynes barely paid attention to her tantrums as his mind was consumed by a great deal of things. He needed to use the Orb of Perfection, figure out what was the Orb of Insight and prepare for the race.

With the higher attributes, came higher confidence and significantly less patience. Keynes just wanted to go and smash the competition. It alerted Vivena. She came to him, even though they had barely spoken in weeks, and attempted to convince him again that the race was one big trap.

Even if she was right. Keynes was confident he could deal with it. He thanked Vivena for her concern but he wasn’t going to change his decision. She didn’t take it lightly and left the rift soon after that.

“They have quite a temper,” Haruka said.

“Vivena wasn’t like this before.”

“She’s worried about you, Keynes.”

“She shouldn’t be.”

“I agree with her, Keynes. You should walk out of the race. Take Vivena and go hunting monsters. Some news reached me that there is a gigantic cluster of Level 2 rifts. Apparently, millions of people have already travelled to fight the monsters in the cluster. And if not there, you can always go to Australia.”

Keynes stared in the distance, processing Haruka’s words. It came as a mild surprise to find the other man to not share his father’s conviction about the consequences of the Capital entering the competition.

“Why?” Keynes asked.

“The race is hard,” Haruka replied. “Keynes…”

“That’s okay.” Keynes placed his hand on Haruka’s shoulder. “Hard’s fine.”

***

The next day, Keynes, Hawthorne, Vivena, Haruka and Pandora were on their way to the home village. Pandora was angry because she was close to maxing out her next attribute. Unfortunately, her presence was mandatory at the Capital.

Hawthrone assured her that the Capital had their own share of Level 1 and 2 rifts, and she’d be able to finish off the maxing out the process there. It lightened her mood a little.

Keynes was still considering what to use the Orb of Perfection on. He’d wanted to use it on his Talent, especially after discovering impenetrable double doors. But Pandora’s comment about the unimpressive upgrade made him hesitate. His skills seemed like a good idea but Alice convinced him not to do this as he could improve the skills by himself. The same was true for techniques. The only thing he didn’t have a direct influence over were buffs.

Keynes had four buffs. The Purifying Body was the upgraded version of the Purified Body and constantly kept impurities out of his system, making everything he did more efficient and last longer. He was just learning how big of a difference this buff made. Alice didn’t know what would happen if he used the orb on it. The process was random and there were many different upgrades. Alice wasn’t permitted to list them though and he was left with guessing.

The next one was the Untraceable buff. It was the result of the first orb used on the temporary buff. Alice confirmed the possibility of the buff remaining temporary while some other aspect of it was upgraded. Simply put, Keynes had been lucky that it ended up this way. He dismissed the buff without much deliberation, he’d never planned to upgrade it the second time. At least not so soon.

His Photographic Memory buff was the same thing as it’d been before his ascension. It lacked the ‘permanent’ tag and Keynes had a strong suspicion that it’d be the upgrade.

No, he didn’t need that right now.

It left him with but one choice: the Enhanced Learning buff. It was the only buff Keynes didn’t know the origin of. Alice said that it’d been there when Keynes entered the Medium stage.

What’s the Orb of Insight?

It grants a single moment of insight.

The insight could be powerful. Wagner learned much about Keynes from one fruit of insight. Keynes considered using it now but he decided not to. He might need it later on.

But his decision about the Orb of Perfection was final.

Would you like to apply the Orb of Perfection on the Enhanced Learning buff?

Yes/No

-

System Warning: the effects of applying the Orb of Perfection are irrevocable!

-

System Warning: the effects of applying the Orb of Perfection are unknown!

-

System Warning: the Orb of Perfection will be consumed. Gain Level 4 Perfect State to gain another Orb of Perfection.

Keynes picked ‘Yes’ as he applied the orb on the Enhanced Learning. There was something about this buff that felt right.

Enhanced Learning buff (permanent) perfected into Rapid Learning buff (permanent).

Quietly, Keynes expected another skill but didn’t get one.

And then his body was jolted by a familiar pain of spiritual energy moving through him. He grunted, trying to keep his face straight. His Purifying Body buff kicked in lessening the pain but it still was potent enough to render him unconscious.

Later on, they had told him that he’d almost fallen off the flying platform. He might need to pick a better place when using the next orb.

Upon their landing, the rest of the First Tribe delegation was already assembled and ready to leave. Chief Bonolo thanked Keynes for doing this and Keynes reminded him that this wasn’t a charity and he’d ask for something in return, although he wasn’t sure what.

Refreshed and ready, Keynes and the company flew south.

The journey there was meant to take them a week. Even with some members of their entourage only to provide mana to the flying platforms, they still had to stop a few times.

Keynes tested his body while pushing [Flight] and two flight techniques to their limits. The results were promising. Incredibly promising!

His current mana regeneration stood at 7 points per hour. That combined with right wind currents could boost the flight speed to over 150 km/h. Three times faster than the flying platforms.

Soon Keynes discovered something uncanny. The more he flew, the better he got at handling the flight. Learning was normal, but this speed of learning was not. Is this the Rapid Learning buff at work? It certainly felt different now. Every few minutes a realisation hit Keynes that he just corrected some silly mistakes, making the flight more efficient.

This is scary.

It is, Alice agreed. I don’t think you should have possessed this buff, master. It almost feels like … a Talent-grade enhancement.

Keynes stopped dead in mid-air.

A Talent-grade enhancement? What makes you think that?

It is just a feeling. I do not have any knowledge about this particular thing other than it should not be this strong. Its strength resonates throughout our bond, allowing me to learn faster too. Something like this could be possible for Talents not a general buff.

Keynes turned his head to where Vivena was travelling with the rest. Could it actually be that the buff was the result of the error during the Talent revelation ceremony? Things started to fit together. What if Keynes’s Talent wasn’t meant to be Lockpicking but Enhanced Learning? What if Vivena’s parents messed up the experiment. After all, his Talent’s affinity was showing an error. Whatever they had done, it set Lockpicking as his Talent and moved his other Talent to buffs…

Holy cow. The sheer fact that he could come up with that stuff on the fly spoke of the absurdity of the upgraded buff.

How many jackpots could one person hit?

Master, you are forgetting about something.

Hm… ah, Chaos debuff.

Yes. It seems that the Chaos debuff is the result of that failed experiment as well. It may sound like an amazing deal to be able to open the hidden doors and learn as fast as this but once the debuff quits the dormant state it will cause a lot of issues.

We’ll figure something out, Keynes assured her.

And one more thing, master. Please, figure out a way to control your aura. I am growing bored doing it for you.

Oh. He ‘forgot’ about that.