“Are you sure you want to do this?” Alindal asked nervously, his voice as quiet as he could manage.

The two of them huddled together conspiratorially on the edge of Jack’s bed. Several feet away, Raina slept, oblivious to their discussion. She had been asleep when the two got back from the bath chamber which was fine with Jack since he still hadn’t decided exactly what to tell her. Cordan was missing but neither of the friends was overly concerned about his absence.

“Mhm, I’ve got more than enough to get you to the peak of C-rank,” Jack whispered. Although he understood his friend’s apprehension at the thought of increasing his destructive power, they would need him to be as powerful as possible in the coming days. He added, “I just need to do a quick test so I can figure out the specifics of the Link transfer.”

He had planned on sharing his Eidos with Alindal from the start especially since both his World Core and designation were capped specific requirements. As he expected, none of his companions had gotten any rewards from the optional assignments he had completed, likely due to lack of contribution. However, what he hadn’t expected was Alindal’s ignorance about the Purification of Terras objective being upgraded to World Objective. A quick check by Alindal revealed that the objective had, in fact, changed in his interface; he just hadn’t received a notification about it, which meant the same was likely true for the other two. Jack’s only guess as to why was that they hadn’t received any notification about the escalated objective because of distance or, perhaps, the interference of the Dark Ones with the Logos.

He brought up his World Core Status and focused on Links, specifically with the desire to obtain information about his connection with Alindal.

[Links]

-The Blue Heart may exchange Eidos freely with Linked creatures.

-Linked creatures may use any Relics created by the Blue Heart regardless of their Resonance attribute.

-10% of any Eidos absorbed by Linked creatures is converted into Logos for the Blue Heart.

-The Blue Heart may view the Status of any Linked creature.

[Linked Creatures]

Alindal

Linked Trait: Blessing of the Seamstress

-View Status?

-Transfer Eidos?

Jack glanced over the information. The question was whether the ten percent tax would apply to the transferred Eidos. His first suspicion had been that the tax wouldn’t apply since the details specifically said Eidos absorbed rather than transferred or received. The tax likely applied to eidos stones though whether or not it would apply to Eidos gained from objectives had been a subject of debate between him and Alindal. Unfortunately, he’d held off on testing his theory back at the temple instead he choose to wait until they were back in the safety of the Twilight King’s domain so he’d never actually gotten a chance to try the transfer.

He met his friend’s eye. “Alright, I’m going to start. You’re sure you don’t mind me seeing your Status?”

“Yes. Our souls are bound, my friend. You have my implicit trust. However, I would appreciate it if you did not ask about my name. I know I’ve never mentioned it to you but I— I do not wish to speak about it.” Alindal said before taking a deep breath and closing his eyes.

“No problem, Al,” He had no problem respecting his friend’s wishes; Alindal would tell him in his own time. With that out of the way, Jack opted to open Alindal’s Status.

Name: Alindal ayl Rek’arn

Designation: Sorcerer (D-3)

Available Eidos: 0

Ethos: 385/385 (2.3/min.)

Mana: 890/890 (3/min.)

[Attributes]

Might

25

Stamina

29

Dexterity

45 (49)

Agility

24

Intellect

29

Willpower

30

Focus

55 (60)

Resonance

29

[Abilities]

View Skills?

View Traits?

View Relic Skills?

He let out a low whistle. Despite knowing that the Blue Heart had granted its bonuses to Alindal, he was still impressed by his friend’s Attributes. Once Alindal leveled up to the end of C-rank, his Attributes would rival or even surpass Jack’s own, not counting the Relics.

The Attribute bonuses from the Blue Heart are as potent as I expected but the fact that my Links receive all of the cumulative bonuses too is incredible and concerning at the same time. While He trusted Alindal with his life, he couldn’t say the same for anyone else. By Linking someone with the Blue Heart, Jack was bestowing a massive boost of power onto that individual. One poor judgment call on his part and he would have a serious and, potentially, permanent problem on his hands. It didn’t help that Helbiel expected him to form as many Links as possible to better aid her in the fight against the Dark Ones. Mentally, he kicked himself for not asking her about measures to prevent betrayal among his Links; he had learned so much from her but at the same time, so little had gone unsaid. It’s a shame she could only stop the passage of time in one world at a time. Then again, if she had the power to do it for all worlds, I doubt she would need my help or have such a hard time protecting Fracture from the Dark Maker.

Jack directed his thoughts away from Helbiel to avoid getting distracted. Alindal’s Attributes did raise some questions though. For instance, his Might in the mid-twenties yet the elf was still as scrawny as ever. I wonder how that works. Is he actually stronger now because of the Logos or is there something more to it? Because of the nature of designations, most individuals with access to Might increases that Jack had encountered were physically fit, more or less, matching the distribution of their Attributes. He didn’t even notice the change until I asked about it, so how exactly do Attributes work? I’ve definitely felt the difference when my Attributes increased before. I don’t see how he’d miss a thirteen-point boost in Agility and Might.

He recalled the feeling of speed and power that had come over him when he used Awaken or when Cordan used Psycho Boost. He also remembered the increase in clarity and drive he’d obtained from the bonuses to his mental Attributes gained from level-ups and the Blue Heart. Wait, do temporary boosts from Skills work differently than permanent bonuses? What about Relics? I know Relics count for the sake of resources like Ethos and Mana but temporary boosts from Skills don’t. What are their actual effects on an individual? Dammit, I’ve got so many questions and no time to run tests or do research.

He blinked as he realized that he was, once again, getting sidetracked. He opened his Status to monitor his Eidos.

Name: Jack

Designation: The Fool (C-10)

Available Eidos: 1,031,338

Ethos: 1000/1000 (4/min.)

Mana: 960/960 (10.2/min.)

Vigor: 1440/1440 (6.6/min.)

[Attributes]

Might

39 (44)

Stamina

70 (100)

Dexterity

25 (30)

Agility

28

Intellect

66

Willpower

32 (68)

Focus

28 (30)

Resonance

-

[Abilities]

View Skills?

View Traits?

View Relic Skills?

After getting everything situated, he opted to allocate one hundred Eidos to Alindal. The faint connection they shared widened as the Eidos traveled through it. The sensation of the transfer caused a shiver to travel across Jack’s skin. Through the Link, he could sense that Alindal experienced something similar.

“You transferred one hundred, yes?”

“Mhm, looks like the transfer is one to one,” He said after checking Alindal’s available Eidos. “That’ll make things easier for us but let me try taking it back.”

“Alright,” Alindal responded.

Quickly, Jack transferred the hundred Eidos from Alindal to himself. The process worked in much the same way; however, the sensation was stronger this time around. Notably, he wouldn’t have categorized the feeling as unpleasant, just odd. He checked his Eidos and sucked his teeth, disappointed but unsurprised.

“What?” his friend asked.

“Nothing, I just wanted to see if the boost from my trait would apply to the transfer. It didn’t which isn’t surprising since your Resonance didn’t amplify the amount transferred either.” He shrugged. “Was worth a shot though.”

He and Alindal chuckled at his notion of exploiting the Logos in such a simple way. For his part, Jack still had plans to experiment with his Scion of the Logos trait in the future. There were methods of turning stored Eidos back into eidos stones. They were expensive and hard to come by but Jack might potentially be able to further amplify his available Eidos by reabsorbing eidos stones that he created via those methods. He didn’t have high hopes for the plan but he would try when given the opportunity.

“Ok, Al. Give me a second while I calculate how much Eidos you’ll need to reach level ten of C-rank,” he said, focusing on the Sorcerer designation in Alindal’s Status.

Designation: Sorcerer

Sorcerer is a magic designation specializing in spell casting. Sorcerers utilize rapid casting and offensive spells that channel the power of elemental energy to devastating effect.

Designation Rank

D

Designation Level

3/10

Eidos Allocated

332/3000

A bit of addition and subtraction got Jack the answer he need easily enough. It would cost him well over half his available Eidos; however, he didn’t hesitate. The increase in magical potency that Alindal would gain from the levels would serve their purposes well. He input the amount necessary then imitated the transfer. Alindal let out a sharp gasp drawing Jack’s attention away from the various boxes of information.

“What wrong?” he asked, glancing at Raina to make sure she hadn’t woken up. She didn’t move and her breathing remained the same.

“Ah, sorry, my friend. It’s just the sensation was much stronger this time.” Alindal whispered. Jack glanced down at his friend’s arm and saw his hair standing on end.

Huh, it didn’t feel any different for me. He stroked his chin pensively. “I’m guessing the sensation might be stronger for the person on the receiving end of the transfer. Obviously, the amount transferred plays into it too. Do you feel alright?”

Alindal took a moment to answer but eventually said, “Yes, it was just a bit disorienting.”

“Hm, well it should be fine then. We’ll just have to give the next merry member of our band a heads-up when the time comes.” Jack said, stretching his arms. He fell backward onto his bed letting out a content sigh. With the transfer done, Alindal would need time to administer to his level-ups. In the meantime, he would use the remainder of the time generously allocated by the Twilight King to rest.

Alindal got up without prompting from Jack and sat on the edge of his bed just a couple of feet away. He seemed preoccupied with his Status while Jack made himself comfortable dismissing the various Logos windows in the process.

Almost a minute later, Alindal spoke softly, his voice so quiet that it would be inaudible to most. “Speaking of our merry band, what do you plan to do with the other Links?”

Closing his eyes, Jack responded, “Honestly? I have no idea. If we make it out of this intact, my first thought is to try to find Johan or to free Mitani from the Fleshpits but I doubt they’ll want to join us after everything that happened.”

A palpable silence filled the room after that. Neither of them wanted to dwell on their lost companions but with things changing the way they were, they would have to revisit some dark parts of their past to make peace. However, Jack wouldn’t be doing that today so he did his best to put it out of his mind.

Perhaps seeking to offer a distraction from the past, Alindal asked, “What about Raina? If she proves herself, would you consider forming a Link with her?”

Jack remained silent for a few seconds and briefly considered pretending that he’d already fallen asleep. Eventually, he responded, just as quietly, “That depends on a lot, Al, and not just her either. There’s no going back once a Link is finalized.” Another pause punctuated his statement before he opened one eye and asked, “Did she make that good of an impression on you?”

“Perhaps. It’s just… I enjoy her company and, well, she reminds me of you when we first met.” Alindal scratched the back of his head sheepishly as though embarrassed by the statement.

Jack scoffed, “So she’s an idiot who’s prone to making bad decisions?”

“Your first decision was to save me from Azatiel’s chains while risking your freedom, my friend.”

He turned over to lay on his side instead of responding, his witticism failing him at that moment. Alindal didn’t press him further. In the calm that followed, sleep gradually claimed him while his thoughts ran thick with memories of better days and the fragmented echoes of past lives.