Chapter 28: One Small Step

“Let’s get out of here,” Trint said; without waiting for a reply, Trint grabbed Iliana’s hand and took one small step beyond the edge of the ascension pool. Like before, time seemed to freeze. Unlike before, this System message had the following text.

System Message: Warning i8 Ascension Pillar

At this time, you may accept ascension to i8.

Sovereign Status Acknowledged

Sovereign Privileges allow the following access:

Ascension to i8

Ascension to i7

Further ascension beyond i7 is not permitted from the i9 ascension pool.

Additional Sovereign Privileges unavailable at this time

Warning: There are no returns to i9 without first receiving system-approved professions allowing access.

Do you wish to ascend to i8 or i7?

Yes - choose an iteration.

No - remain in the current iteration.

‘Pneuma, is there any reason not to go to i7?’ Trint asked in the nearly frozen time of their conversations. ‘Would I be instantly killed or something?’

‘I see the benefits of both routes, but I will let you decide.’ Pneuma found himself at a loss again. ‘You are stumbling into things I never expected, and I am trying to trust your intuition. And not lose my sanity.’

Without further discussion, Trint made his decision, and they left i9.

They were unaware they had been watched by a few placed in the crowds. They had seen a middle-aged man and a younger woman; hoods pulled back, running from pursuers, step into the pool, and instantly leave.

These pursuers gathered at the pool, too late to do anything. But they left to report their encounter with a potential target and hope they weren’t punished for letting them slip away. These particular men didn’t even know why they were searching for. To them, orders were orders. It was learning the “why” of a mission that was beyond their position in the gang.

The last time Trint ascended, he arrived in i9 with a storm of Spirit absorbed from miles around him. Now he was in i7, the lowest of the Spirit Realm iterations. From i7 to i5, everyone started to focus on Spirit. Many were not able to absorb it like a cultivator of Spirit. Most just gained access to the system resource of spirit.

Spirit operated, unlike levels, though. When a person earned enough Exp, they would go up a level. But no matter how many levels anyone gained, Exp did not transfer to Spirit. Spirit marked a qualitative difference in power. For those who unlocked a Spirit pool. They could get unique skills that harnessed that pool of resources. Or they could find a trainer and attempt to transfer already known skills into their Spirit. That could mean learning to burn Spirit rather than mana or stamina. It could also be making the skill a Spirit skill. The latter was far more powerful.

Spirit skills, by nature, consumed Spirit but did so far more efficiently than ordinary skills. Efficiency was an important thing when fights turned to skirmishes that turned to battles that turned to wars. In i7, there continued to be instances, but they also began small-scale wars. With lifespans of 1,000 years, some were able to amass considerable power. The system seemed to encourage the struggle, yet it gave options for the less combat-oriented alongside those waging war.

i7 was among the first in the climb of iterations that encouraged professions to begin. This presented options anyone could gain Exp from crafting, selling, harvesting, concocting, and all the other forms of activity related to a profession.

No one mastered a profession in i7, but they got started. The first steps in i7 could lead to empires in i3. As you progressed to higher iterations, the technological advantages increased. The system controlled the way any technology worked. Phones from pre-system would likely do nothing here.No, one knew since none were brought into the integration. Surprisingly only the people and the landscapes were the same. The system generated all the rest.

Even their bodies were eventually replaced as they leveled. The system was subtle and, to some, even insidious. At least, that was the most popular theory. Most questioned the benevolence of a system that forced you to fight to survive or restart. The whole thing was frustrating for all but the climbers. Climbing with levels was rewarded, and the various ways to do so only increased as you ascended each level.

Everyone successful at climbing the iterations took on a profession. It often coincided with their class, magic, or fighting style. Crafting metal in i7 as a blacksmith could branch and advance a class to build intergalactic space transport. But the system itself was the most advanced technology known. And with it, travel across the universe was possible. At i7, there were increased rewards and Exp for expanding the civilized universe.

That incentive stretched to i1. And creating empires, dynasties, and more was the best way to level. Power was granted for action, and ruling became a way to level. For unknown reasons, the System pushed the powerful to grow more powerful and to strive for True Ascension. But only a handful chose to embrace such an unknown. Even if the system encouraged it, how do you get the most powerful in many universes to take an unknown plunge into the dark void of the unknown?

When Trint arrived on his feet in the i7 ascension pool, Iliana had stepped forward out of the pool and fell to the ground. She fought a battle with nausea and managed to be victorious in not throwing up, but after an hour, she wondered if she would have been better off just giving in and puking.

Trint and Iliana’s arrival was less eventful than their departure and magnitudes less than Trint’s last ascension. It seemed that the Sovereign status Trint had acquired didn’t multiply the effects he suffered when arriving in i9. Over the previous hour, unbeknownst to Iliana, Pneuma had led Trint through the city’s streets. They had arrived in Orion. That didn’t tell Trint much since he hadn’t asked the locals. Pneuma eventually explained Orion was about the size of Trint’s pre-system continental United States of America.

They happened to be in Orion’s capital Rigel. They were on their way to another transportation pool. Unlike ascension pools, this one served as transport to other locations on the planet. The costs to operate them were determined by the system but based on a fluctuating market. Supply and demand and finite resources drove the prices of this source of travel to be prohibitive. But over a significant enough distance, there were no other options in i7 to reach places that would require hundreds of years to go by other means. The need to increase fighting proficiency, progress in a profession, train Spirit, gain Exp, and leave i7 for i6 was too important to waste it traveling.

Pneuma’s plans in i7 for Trint had been to travel to Hatsya, a secondary capital of Orion, eventually. A contact within the family that was supposed to be still living out a punitive assignment lived there. Punishment by forced travel to lower iterations was uncommon as you progressed, but not many wished to receive such a sentence. Still, some old families considered it a proper way to correct rebellious children.

The travel across the city showed Trint the contrast between his experiences in the i11 Iowa suburbs and this metropolis. The architecture was medieval European in construction. Mostly stone and lumber. But some of the buildings were exceptionally tall. Some reminded him of cathedrals from Earth. Most were small one or two-story buildings made of wood, with the cathedral-like structures being atypical but occasionally seen above the others.

Pneuma had kept their path winding and confusing on purpose. They finally appeared in a bustling area with beautiful stone-paved roads with fountains in the four corners of a vast courtyard between the surrounding buildings. There was also a crowd walking away from a pool in the courtyard’s center.

There was a small crowd pressing toward each fountain. Trint’s mental stats and love for puzzles determined their destination based on the name Hatsya. Above each fountain was a statue of a constellation of stars. The only difference in the sculptures above the fountains was that a gem was placed in a different location along the constellation for each fountain. Trint knew from the crazy way his brain put information together that Hatsya was a star in the constellation Orion from Earth. And Hatsya made the knee of the form of Orion. He saw the giant apple-sized sapphire in a statue’s knee before Pneuma even had to tell him where to go.

‘Trint, even if you get Sovereign privileges, we need to get us to Hatsya,’ Pneuma directed. ‘So don’t take us to some secret treasure room of the ancients. Well, if that is an option you get, let’s talk about it first.’

Trint pulled Iliana to the crowd pressing towards the Hatsya fountain. It was their turn, and the group in front of them had vanished. First, squeezing her hand tight, Trint placed his hand in the fountain and got the system message.

Sovereign Status Acknowledged

Sovereign Privileges allow the following access:

Travel to Hatsya

Travel to any system travel access point in i7.

Specify location or choose from a list

Trint was very tempted to look at the list. Maybe there was some treasure room or weapons vault location. But he resisted and requested the Hatsya location.

Five days later, they were sitting down for an offering of tea. They had traveled through Hatsya and found clues that led to their current housing. Pneuma had said that the symbol on his family ring was well known in the Ancient Realms of i4 to i2. But its use anywhere lower was not expected. Trint had drawn a picture of the family symbol and showed a few people. When they found out from a city guard that there were a pair of merchant crafters whose shop symbol matched Trint’s ring, they tracked them down.

After Trint cautiously established they were who he was looking for and asked to speak about their mutual family relations, they invited him and Iliana to a small courtyard behind their storefront for Tea. It was early afternoon. Trint was more of a coffee guy, but since the system took him, he hadn’t enjoyed any of the old comforts he was used to. One of which had been his daily pot of coffee. His new body and mind seemed to function better without the daily caffeine injection. He was reminded of that sweet goodness Jack had shared with him when he was offered adoption.

“Trint, Iliana,” Began the middle-aged man, “I am Jung, and this is my wife, Befiny. We welcome you to i7 and the iterations, young ones.”

“I didn’t say anything about being new,” Trint was suspicious and also curious why he said that.

The man laughed and a small window opened in front of the man.

Jung Carlo, Level 1875

“If my estimation is correct, you are a child of the most recent integration or possibly one iteration before the most recent,” Jung went on. “I mean no insult. Age and the appearance of youth do not equate to your pre-system or even the lower iterations. You can see from my level and might deduce that I have reached iteration 3. If I am correct, you can be no older than 375 if you took the entire life cycle of each to ascend. I believe you took far less and are probably 50 years old. Making you quite young. How am I doing?”

“Not far off.” Trint conceded. “So, what is your connection to the symbol on your business sign?”

“Ah yes.” Jung sighed, “The young, always in a hurry.” He laughed to himself. “Do not be offended, we all were once like this; ambitious and eager, or I would never have gotten to my level. Sadly my connection to that symbol is also the reason I am here and the cause of my lack of former ambition.

I am but a prisoner in this vast world. Orion may stretch far and be on a more giant planet than you can travel in the life cycle here, but it is a desert without enough air to breathe.” He sighed deeper, and his gaze had drifted a bit. He brought his attention back to Trint. “Apologies, I did say I am not in a rush, but I will respect your situation and needs.

I am a member of a Dynasty reaching the top of the iterations. I am forbidden from speaking its name. But my proof is in this soul-bound ring and the symbol that matches my business. This can be worn only by my family’s sworn and bound members. Even my wife who married in will never receive one, nor can I offer her mine. They are linked to the blood that flows in us and the Lineage of Spirit and Soul ancestry that passes in our family. I would not share this if I couldn’t also sense the ring’s power you bear.”

Trint had listened, and his excitement grew as he learned these were the people they were looking for, but his anxiety spiked when he realized they knew his connection to the family.