Karzaia’s older brother Lan’zel and great-uncle Fan’ar were waiting in the foyer when she returned home. Lan’zel was a rail-thin scholarly man with deep blue eyes and black hair. Burn scars blemished his face from a near-fatal encounter during his Journey, but he was easily the gentlest member of Karzaia’s immediate blood kin. He was dressed in a black wool jacket, white wool tunic, and black wool trousers held up by a simple leather belt with a silver buckle.

Fan’ar, despite being in his seventies, looked like he was younger than Lan’zel. His Flesh affinity that made him so effective on the Path of the Warmaster also kept him younger without a need to obtain an advanced Talent like Longevity or Immortality. The clansmen he brought into battle would have been startled by the soft expression he directed at Karzaia upon her entry, for her was known for his cold, stoic mien outside his private quarters. He was her mother’s uncle, and it showed in his blonde hair and green eyes, as well as the aquiline features of his face.

She quickly bowed to the two men most strongly involved in her childhood. Like all clansmen of the Nine Lands, her parents were not her primary caretakers. Rather, the clan’s Elders picked three males and three females to be involved with her initial upbringing. One each needed to be of age to be Elders themselves, one would be a cousin or sibling, and one would be someone who had just finished their Journey.

Her parents’ role in her life was as distant but loving figures who watched over her but did not interfere with her education or training. The reasons why the clans did things this way were lost to time, but the clans were nothing if not traditional.

“Karzaia, how went your System Day pilgrimage?” Her brother asked softly. He was roughly twenty years her senior, with her two eldest brothers five years apart above him. They were half-siblings, by different wives of the Clan Lord. One of those who raised him was, ironically, her mother. As a result, he’d chosen the Path of the Sorcerer.

Karzaia’s expression became as complicated as her feelings, “I couldn’t choose my first affinity or Talent, so I had to alter my Path.”

Her uncle gave her a sympathetic expression. Similar to her, the gods had chosen his affinity and first Talent for him, due to a title he retained from a previous reincarnation called ‘Fleshwalker’. As a result, he’d been forced to take a warrior-type Path, lest his affinity and Talent be wasted.

Her brother looked curious, “Which ones?”

“Soul and Soul Sense,” She muttered, looking a little sullen. While her disappointment wasn’t something she could allow herself to feel or show in front of her patron god, she had no reason to avoid doing so with Lan’zel.

He raised his brows in startlement, “Soul affinity?! That is a Primal Affinity! Those are not usually given save to those who complete a great Trial or Tribulation. I am not familiar with Soul Sense, but since it is linked to a Primal Affinity, it must be powerful.”

“It lets me see mana, spirits, and ignore illusions,” She recited the Wanderer’s explanation verbatim. Even now, she could see little sparks of color and streams of mana floating through the air. It was disconcerting, but she knew she would have to learn to live with it.

He looked a bit jealous, “That’s a perfect Sorcerer Talent… but I don’t think it is something just anyone can obtain. I have never heard of such a vision Talent before, in any case.”

“Did you get a Title?” Her uncle interjected softly. Like her, his Title had forcibly shaped his Path outside of his original desires, so he knew the most likely answer.

She bobbed her head up and down into a nod, “Yes.”

Her brother looked surprised, “A Title? That would mean that seven Title-holders have appeared in the last twenty years.”

Lan’zel was concerned, this time more for the clan than anything else. Titles generally only started appearing when the gods were preparing their children for a particularly nasty Tribulation. Old souls with a strong enough connection to their previous lives to force them down a particular path were rare, and the gods rarely let them reincarnate. It wasn’t uncommon for a clan to go six or seven generations without a single Title-holder appearing.

“What is your Title, child?” Her uncle asked, his expression full of concern.

“’Heir of the Hooded King’” She answered quietly, unsure of what was going on. She was never educated about Titles, because most people didn’t obtain them until they reached the very apex of their Path, at Tier 40.

Her uncle went as white as a sheet, but Lan’zel showed no real reaction, not understanding the meaning of the title.

Fan’ar was all-too-familiar with the legend of the Hooded King. Those who reached Tier 20 were required, by tradition, to study the Stele of Legends, a massive metallic tablet found deep under the Temple in each clanhold. The Stele contained the history of the most terrifying era of the Nine Lands, as well as parts of history that predated the System. Watching the Tower of the Hooded King was one of the duties placed upon those who reached beyond Tier 20, and it was the sole task that all clans worked together on, no matter their differences.

The implications of Karzaia’s Title left him terrified for her future, for the gods would test the holder of that title relentlessly, unless he missed his guess. He decided immediately to consult the Clan Lord, but for the moment, he continued to concentrate on the girl he thought of as his own.

“Can you show me your status?” He asked.

She nodded quietly, following his directions as he told her how to will it to show itself to others.

Karzaia Manthein

Title: Heir of the Hooded King

Affinity: Soul (Tier 1)

Talents: Soul Sight (Level 1), Soul-Tempering (Level 1), Soul-Forging (Level 1), Mana Well (Level 1), Qi Sense (Level 1)

He furrowed his brows as he figured out her choices, his encyclopedic knowledge of the skills normally available to clansmen recognizing Mana Well instantly. Soul-Tempering he could figure out somewhat as he himself had the Body-Tempering Talent. Soul-Forging was probably a Talent similar to the Elemental Forging Talent used by those who mixed the Path of the Enchanter with the Path of the Sorcerer. Qi Sense… was definitely a cultivator Talent, which was normally not available to denizens of the Nine Lands, due to the lack of cultivator bloodlines. It wasn’t like it had never happened, but the Nine Lands were heavy with mana, suppressing qi to the extent that cultivation talent was almost nonexistent there.

What troubled him most about her Talents was that they seemed to be geared toward extreme self-reliance and utility. With effort, she would be able to thrive in any environment and challenge any Trial within reason. Cultivation talent, in particular, would do her many favors if she chose to depart the Nine Lands… which was probably why it had been offered. The gods never offered a Talent if the individual’s destiny didn’t fit it.

He smiled, “You made some excellent choices. I am going to go talk to your father so we can figure out a proper training menu to prepare you for your Journey.”

She nodded, looking happy. He felt guilty. What was coming was going to be incredibly unpleasant for her. Tempering skills were a path to great power, potentially. Unfortunately, tempering was precisely what it indicated… pain, trauma, and suffering.

When he turned away, grief twisted his features, even as her clueless brother began quizzing her on what her Talents did.

____________________________________________________________

Sar’ken Manthein slumped on his high-backed wooden throne after hearing the results of his daughter’s System Day. Of his many children, Karzaia was his favorite, bright, clever, strong-willed, and just humble enough to keep her from irritating those around her. Fan’ar’s opinion of what the gods had in store for his daughter weighted down his soul.

At times, he regretted the traditions that kept him from being truly close with his children. As Clan Lord, the demands on his time were many, but he often wished he was allowed to help raise children of the clan like others were. Instead, he had to content himself with playing with them on occasion when they were little and praising them when they did something that benefited their clan.

“What is your advice, Fan’ar? Getting the cultivation manuals out of the old store-rooms won’t be hard, and I know we still have qi-gathering arrays in the treasury from the war with the Sarcasics. I can permit those to be issued out for her training, since we don’t have anyone who can make use of them other than her,” He said wearily.

“I need your permission to treat her as I do my men,” The old but unbowed Warmaster said, looking sorrowful but determined.

They both knew that this was something he didn’t have to ask. The eldest caretakers were always allowed to make unilateral choices about the training of their charges. However, this would be going beyond the usual.

“The tempering Talent?” He asked quietly, hoping, as a father, to receive a negative answer.

“Yes. The other Talents can be increased through various methods, but tempering Talents require more… extreme methods,” Fan’ar said reluctantly. He obviously didn’t want to do it.

“You truly think that my daughter is...” He hesitated.

“The Title says it all. You have seen the Stele. You have stood upon the Wall facing the Tower. You lost two of your wives and all of your brothers there. You have even stepped into its halls, seen the treasures and monsters, the demons, the celestials… you know that she will not lead a peaceful life, even if you imprisoned her to keep her from her Journey,” Fan’ar let it all out. His Lord was not a fool. All the Clan Lords spent a tour on the Wall, and almost everyone had lost at least one relative or friend to the grind there.

“It cannot be the Tower. No mortal could possibly...” Sar’Ken tried to reply.

“No, it probably isn’t the Tower that is the issue… or if it is, it won’t be for some time, possibly centuries. Given that she has cultivation talent, maybe even an age or two,” Fan’ar interrupted.

Again, the Clan Lord sighed. In private, with those he trusted, he rarely bothered to project the stern appearance of the Warmage Clan Lord that crushed armies and beast waves with a single spell. In truth, he was a bit of a moper when he didn’t have something vital and immediate to concentrate on.

Which Fan’ar knew all-too-well. Privately, he thought the ancestors had it right when they denied the Clan Lords the right to raise children. Most of them seemed to dote on them, and he was fairly sure that they would quickly become like the aristocrats in other lands if they were allowed to do so.

“Very well. You have my permission. Temper her, train her, polish her skills, build up her Talents, and strengthen her affinity. Do as you believe is best, even if it means she comes to hate us both,” The Clan Lord, the father, the man who was much older than he appeared, gave in to his Warmaster, accepting that he could not stop the tides of fate and destiny, only prepare.

__________________________

The next year of Karzaia’s life was like hell.

Every day, she was awakened before dawn, only to be taken to the training yard in the Keep. Her uncle Fan’ar, would have her run until she dropped, then he would use one of his Talents to restore her stamina and have her run more. When even the stamina-restoration spell would not work, he would then practice weapons with her. Sword, spear, hand-ax and shield, bow, and even the iron-bound club. They would practice until early afternoon, whereupon he fed her a tasteless meal of nutritious mash and sent her to be trained in the use of her affinity by a retired Warmage.

Her child’s body quickly filled out, more quickly than it should have. She gained an adult’s height, lithe muscles building up on her frame. Her eyes gradually became intense, focused as she was pushed harder and harder. By the end of the first year, she had seen significant improvement.

Karzaia Manthein

Title: Heir of the Hooded King

Affinity: Soul (Tier 3)

Talents: Soul Sight (Level 2), Soul-Tempering (Level 3), Soul-Forging (Level 5), Mana Well (Level 4), Qi Sense (Level 2)

Her Soul Sight was slow to level, though it was active constantly. However, the single level she had gained allowed her to see the flows of mana more clearly. Soul-Forging was her primary method of growing her affinity, and she had grown quite skilled at permanently infusing arrows with soul energy.

Every time she used it, though, she suffered intense pain. Soul-Forging was the process of fusing mana with her soul, transforming it into soul mana, then shaping its form into something she could use. Infusing was the easiest way to use it, though still agonizing. Filling in the ‘empty spaces’ of forged metal was enough to lightly enchant them with soul energy, making weapons capable of killing ghosts and elemental spirits. This was her contribution to the Clan, for normally she would have begun training in a crafting trade in her tenth year, rather than devoting it solely to training her Talents and affinity.

Creating actual weapons from soul energy was more difficult. Even at Level 5, compressing enough Soul mana to materialize a single dagger could take hours and caused her the kind of pain that would have had most people screaming until they were hoarse. Those daggers, though, were deadly… and permanent. Made of crystallized Soul mana, the clan treasured them, for weapons that could kill spirits were valuable beyond measure, as they allowed clansmen to use their affinities for other things when facing the undead.

Her Mana Well Talent simply required her to empty her man over and over, forcing more into the Well each time she restored it. Given her training with her affinity, she had plenty of opportunity to do so. It was the easiest of her Talents to level, by far… and it told her that her affinity was not one that was kind to its users.

Qi Sense was the most difficult of her Talents to level, simply because there was so little ambient qi in the atmosphere. Fan’Ar was not focusing on it, yet, as he believed none of their cultivation manuals were suitable for her, based on her affinity. At the moment, he was simply having her force what qi she could absorb through her meridians based on the simplest, non-affinity manual they had on hand. Frankly, it simply wasn’t efficient enough to be worth the time, for the most part.

Karzaia herself was finding that with every level of Soul-Tempering, she became more inured to her own suffering and her body became sturdier, her mana thicker. It was minor compared to the results of her training so far, but it showed her the value of the Talent, comforting her that her suffering wasn’t for nothing.

Unfortunately, that meant that Soul-Tempering was getting harder to level up. The less she cared about her suffering, the more used to it she became, the less effective her training regime was.

Her uncle, not being a fool, realized this from the beginning.

That’s why, at the end of the first year, the running in the mornings added a suit of iron weights, evenly distributed across her body to make her runs more tiring, her training more exhausting. In addition, he finally used the monies the Lord had given him and numerous favors a certain foreign sect owed him, and he purchased full qi-gathering array and a cultivation manual called ‘The Crushing Soul Scripture’, the only Soul affinity cultivation manual he could get his hands on.

The Crushing Soul Scripture was a partial inheritance of a pre-System cultivator who had discovered how to infuse the Soul affinity into his foundations. It was not particularly resource-intensive… but most of the procedures within seemed agonizingly painful. It emphasized drawing in large amounts of qi, drawing down the Soul to remove all other affinities within it as she cycled it, then crushing it down through force of will and the weight of the cultivator’s soul to make it denser with each stage.

Karzaia prepared to cultivate with some trepidation. What little cultivation she’d been able to do with the basic manuals had definitely strengthened her body, but she knew very well that all manipulations of the Soul affinity involved pain that nobody who hadn’t experienced it could possibly comprehend.

As the cultivation manual instructed, she began to draw qi from her surroundings, watching it and feeling it flow through her open meridians (her first task had been to open them, which was agonizing in itself), rotating the qi within her dantian clockwise until she was ‘full’. It was then that she began the next stage. Using her raw understanding of her affinity, she ‘pulled’ on her soul, drawing down a ball of it roughly equivalent in density and volume to the qi in her dantian.

This was one thing she had never really been able to explain to her uncle. Her Soul affinity didn’t draw from her surroundings, save for fusing it with raw mana to use her Soul-Forging Talent. Instead, it fused with the mana in her body and Well, drawing it forth as a fusion of her soul and her mana. The process was quick, but it was agonizingly painful and exhausting every moment it was in use.

She could sense every drop of the soul-infused mana as if it were a part of her… which it was. She could sense that it would not harm her in the short or long run, but her soul hated being molded and separated in that manner. She could also sense that the amount of soul energy she drew out to forge a single dagger was sufficient to kill any other clansman she had met if they’d tried the same after gaining the affinity.

She wondered if qi would react the same way, even as sweat, faintly tinged with the red of her blood, began to emerge on her forehead. She forced the portion of her soul she had draw out into her dantian, and she wanted to scream aloud as the pain of using her affinity combined with the pain of her qi being forced against the walls of her dantian. Slowly, ever so slowly, the ball of qi in her dantian was, for lack of a better word, absorbed by the ball of pure soul she had drawn out. Black impurities began emerging from her skin as the affinities inherent within the qi were forced out.

When her qi had been completely merged with the piece of her soul, it suddenly formed a ball that condensed into a solid pebble, perhaps the size of her smallest fingertip. This ‘drop’ became the center of her dantian, and the qi she drew in rotated with it at the center. She could feel that, unless she failed to circulate her qi for some time, she would not need to repeat the process anytime soon. In fact, she felt that if she tried to, it would damage her… badly.

Alert! Completion of base cultivation system detected! Altering Status to reflect current state of Ascension.

Karzaia Manthein

Title: Heir of the Hooded King

Affinity: Soul (Tier 3)

Talents: Soul Sight (Level 3), Soul-Tempering (Level 4), Soul-Forging (Level 5), Mana Well (Level 4), Qi Sense (Level 3)

Cultivation: Path of the Crushing Soul (Early Mortal Formation Stage)

She wasn’t surprised at the addition to her Status. Once one had formed a Path, whether it was one of the Adventurer Paths or one of cultivation, it would be added to the individual’s Status. She was surprised, however, to see that her Soul Sight, Soul-Tempering, and Qi Sense had all leveled once. Considering how hard it was to increase either of her ‘sense’ Talents and her tempering, she had been warned not to expect any increases for at least another six months.

Fan’ar looked on with a mix of pride and concern as the child who was both his prized pupil and surrogate daughter took her first real steps on a Path that would inevitably take her from her Clan, even if she didn’t realize it yet. The highest she could reach as a cultivator in the Nine Lands would be Early Foundation, and even that would take decades of effort and incredible expense, considering how dominant mana was over qi on the continent.

The imbalance in natural energies on the continent was nothing new. It was one of the reasons why the beast waves were so common and so horrifically massive compared to the other continents of the Realm. An excess of mana led to the rapid rise of true Magic Beasts, creatures that could utilize true sorcery and Mana Manipulation to create powerful spells as advanced as any mortal sorcerer. These beasts would then procreate with lesser females and send their spawn to secure massive territories so they could harvest the mana-rich minerals and plant life to accelerate their development.

Ending a beast wave in the Nine Lands generally required the extermination of the Magic Beasts that caused them. Qi generally took longer to accelerate the growth of beasts, as it caused fewer mutations and was more difficult to manipulate. However, the beasts that reached the peak in qi-rich regions were generally many times more powerful… to the point where even the greatest of cultivators would choose to keep away from their territories.

For a few moments, Karzaia basked in the formation of her cultivation base… before she began to puke black fluids, the black gunk soaking her wool robe thickening. Her body began to devour the fat on her slim frame at a frightening rate, as her cultivation remade and refined her body, perfectly complemented by her tempering Talent.

This went on for several minutes, before she collapsed, unconscious. Fan’ar made a motion with his hands, and two girls who had chosen the Path of the Servitor appeared from the shadows, their faces concealed by scarves, their hair bound and concealed by black shawls.

The girls took the unconscious Karzaia off to the baths. Two more Servitors in identical clothing, this time male, appeared a moment later. One formed a ball of water with his magic and used it to quickly wash the stones, whereupon his partner burned the remaining residue away with magical flame. This was done several times to dispose of all traces of the physical impurities purged from Karzaia’s body.

When they were done, they bowed to Fan’ar and vanished. Servitors were rarely seen, as they were individuals who had chosen to never become adults, declining to take the Journey at age fourteen. As a result, they were not considered to be full members of the clan, and they were trained to perform menial tasks such as cleaning, laundry, and sanitation. Most had some form of stealth Talent that allowed them to go unseen so as not to offend the eyes of those who had gone on their Journey, thus becoming adults and full members of the clan.

Fan’ar didn’t even consider them to be people. They were those who had refused the challenge the Maker had given them when he bestowed their affinities upon them. In his eyes, their value was below that of his beloved housecat.

Fan’ar considered what he had just seen, and he recalled a conversation he’d had with an old friend when he went to obtain that cultivation manual.

_______________________________________________

Fan’ar sat across from a young-looking man in loose white robes, sipping at the plum wine he was offered when he appeared in the man’s courtyard, without an invitation. The man across from him was smooth-skinned, with black hair and yellow eyes, his skin a stark white. He was the picture of elegance, but, for those who could tell, it was obvious he was a being of monstrous strength.

“Old friend, have you finally decided to take up my offer?” He asked curiously of Fan’ar. Over a half-century in the past, Fan’ar had crossed the oceans to challenge the cultivators of the ‘soft outlanders’, and, after a fight that resulted in both of them having more broken bones and bloodlost than they cared to recall, they had become friends.

“You know I have no talent for cultivation, Shi Xun,” Fan’ar replied with a smile. While their homelands had warred hundreds of times in the past, neither really cared about the old tensions. Their friendship was an oddity in the eyes of most others, but they cared little for what most thought.

“Just because you have no talent, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Even if you only reached the Foundation stage, you would live a thousand years, with your constitution,” The cultivator lamented. He was an elder of his sect, the Cold Rivers, and he was a Nascent Spirit cultivator, on the verge of reaching the stage of True Core, despite being less than a century old. At the very least, he would live a thousand years, if illness or violence didn’t claim him before that.

“I have no interest in outliving my own great-grandchildren, Xun,” He replied dryly.

Most people in the Nine Lands had little to no cultivation potential, due to the lack of qi in the atmosphere. In exchange, a large proportion of the population had incredible potential as sorcerers, to the point where those capable of destroying entire regions with a single spell were as common as copper coins. Unfortunately, extending one’s lifespan with sorcery was difficult and taxing. It also tended to backfire, in the long run, with more than half of those who extended their lifespan becoming powerful undead without even realizing it was happening until it was too late.

Putting down liches, vampire lords, and undead kings was an all-too-common task for Adventurers in the Nine Lands.

“Then why have you come, Fan? Surely it was not to reminisce over old times? I do not recall you being the sentimental type,” The cultivator questioned, raising his right brow inquiringly.

“My… surrogate daughter has talent, but until her Journey begins, she cannot leave the Nine Lands for instruction. I need a cultivation method for someone with a Soul affinity,” He admitted, looking a bit ashamed at having to ask for such a thing. He hated imposing on his few friends who weren’t clan. It always felt… wrong somehow.

Surprise caused Xun’s eyes to widen. He knew about the unique constitution most in the Nine Lands had. For someone with actual cultivation talent to be born there was rarer than finding a diamond in a refuse pile.

“How much talent?” He asked eagerly. Those who could wield both qi and mana freely were far more powerful than those who could only use one or the other effectively. Obtaining such a talent for his sect would raise his standing greatly.

“At least a grade 5, based on that detector crystal you gave me back during the war. It is definitely too high for our meager resources to be able to raise her effectively beyond the most basic stages,” Fan’ar admitted wearily.

Xun’s features became predatory for a moment before he smoothed the greed away from his expression. Fan’ar was too tired to notice the shift, so it went unremarked. Cultivation talent could be gauged using certain talismans and devices. Generally speaking, anything above grade 3 was considered good, and grade 5 was the third best possible talent. A grade 5 talent might appear once a century, even in a nation of cultivators. For one to appear in the Nine Lands was stunning.

Shi Xun considered his next words carefully before he spoke. Soul affinity was one of the rarest affinities, even for those who went through one of the more horrifying Trials the gods had set up. It was a powerful affinity that had a number of drawbacks, primarily that the user had to have a ridiculous level of pain tolerance to use it properly.

“Does the child have a tempering Talent? Without one, they will never progress,” He asked. Tempering reduced the effects of pain on the mind and spirit as the Talents advanced. In time, it was possible to grow completely inured to physical and spiritual pain… though most broke before they reached that stage.

“Yes, the rare one, Soul-Tempering,” He replied. It had taken almost a month for him to find a reference to the Talent in the clan’s library. It was usually only gained through a Tribulation and could not be obtained through a Trial, unlike most Talents. Tribulations were tailored by the gods to an individual, so the Talents given upon success tended to be much higher in tier than those gained in a Trial.

The cultivator shook his head slowly in wonder. Soul Tempering was the ultimate tempering Talent, desired by all cultivators for the fact that it strengthened all aspects of the individual, greatly accelerating the stages of cultivation at later stages. Even those with a lesser potential would rise higher if they had that particular Talent and developed it well.

“They must be truly blessed by the heavens, then. It would be a disservice to allow such a treasure to languish without a proper cultivation method,” He mused. It wouldn’t be difficult for him to convince the old warrior to send the child to his sect during their Journey. Gaining such a potentially powerful cultivator for his sect might allow him to become an elder of the core sect.

Hurriedly, he calculated the contribution points he had hoarded for his next breakthrough, using his incredible memory to search through his knowledge of what methods existed in the library that could be sent to those outside the sect. One of the methods, the Crushing Soul, seemed to fit. It wasn’t kept in the higher levels of the library because the requirements to master it were so high. It required a grade 4 or above potential, the Soul affinity, and the Soul-Tempering Talent to use. In addition, it had to be practiced before reaching the Mortal Formation Stage and forming one’s Cultivation Path.

He used his Spatial affinity to teleport to the library, and he used his contribution points to have the manual copied on his authority as an elder. A few hours later, he returned and tossed Fan’ar the manual, surprising the older-seeming man.

“That should fit the child as you described them. It is the only manual that fits both her affinity and Talents that I can give out to an outsider. However… I will need her to join the sect during her Journey, even if it is only until she reaches Foundation. Otherwise I will not be able to justify it to the Sect Head,” He explained.

Fan’ar bowed his head for a few moments as he thought, then he resigned himself to the inevitable. The Cold Rivers Sect had an excellent reputation, and a few ‘donations’ from the old warrior’s personal funds would serve to keep the sect from mistreating her for her origins. It wasn’t like he had a use for coin outside of buying weapons and food.

“Very well. I will have her sent to you for training and to be a member of the sect until she reaches Foundation,” He said, agreeing to the pact with a sigh. Without the manual, she was unlikely to progress. The Soul affinity could not be mastered with half-measures.