Three rocks fell to the ground.

You are distracted.

Keynes sighed, staring at the scenery before his eyes. A flat expanse of an otherwise mountainous Level 1 rift.

And you are ignoring me yet again, Alice added after a few seconds.

She was right. Keynes was exhausted after training for 6 hours straight though it wasn’t the source of his distraction, Haef was. Since Alice had sensed the crafter’s conflicting emotions, Keynes had his doubts about the man. There was no way to know what Haef’s exact thoughts were without a specific Talent or skill but it was enough to raise a red flag.

Did he make a mistake revealing information about the monster parts? If yes, then something was fundamentally wrong with his company. Weren’t they paid enough? Or was there something else that Keynes didn’t see?

Either way, things couldn’t stay this way. Otherwise, what was the point of having a crafting department?

This actually stopped Keynes from divulging the secrets of cultivation to Haef. He needed to find a solution.

You have to help me figure this out, Keynes said. And I’m not ignoring you, alright? Keeping three rocks up in the air at the same time just isn’t easy.

We will find a solution. Now, focus on [Telekinesis]. If you wish to rely on this skill in combat, it must be battle ready then.

I don’t understand why wouldn’t it be easier to use scrolls of teaching related to [Telekinesis]? You said yourself that it is possible.

Alice sighed, resigned and quite annoyed. They were arguing about this for a while now.

Scrolls of Teaching cannot replace training. Full stop. Deal with it.

She’d already explained this to him. While scrolls bestowed knowledge upon ascenders, knowledge itself couldn’t make the skills to work better but it made ascenders understand how to make it better. And then there was a secondary role of techniques; consolidation. It created a knowledge floor that ascenders could always fall back to. In the end, it was up to Keynes to make [Telekinesis] powerful and he was okay with it. Maxing out his attributes twice had taught him the beauty of grind. Although improving [Telekinesis] wasn’t going to be as simple an affair as maxing out attributes. It involved a lot of methodology and planning. For the last six hours, Keynes had gone from a pebble to a hundred kilogram rock, and then from one small rock to three. It also was the point where he noticed an issue with handling multiple objects. His brain reached its limit even with 33 points into the Mind attribute. Deep down, Keynes felt that he wouldn’t be able to successfully split his attention to support manipulation of 4 objects. It was what kicked off the discussion about learning through techniques. Keynes improved handling of [Flight] through Technique of Flight and Technique of Lesser Knowledge of Wind Currents. Both techniques added a lot of understanding to how [Flight] functioned, making it easier to squeeze extra juice out of the skill. And that seemed to be the issue here, techniques didn’t add new powers, only allowed to peer deeper into the existing ones. Or at least it was how Keynes understood it. Even with Alice’s help, his understanding was severely limited.

He’d peered into the System, searching for clues there but he found no answers there, which he’d expected. The System like the spiritual companions were there to support ascenders, but the struggle was ascenders’ to bear.

I have an idea, Keynes said to Alice and took Shortsword of Speed out of his dimensional pouch. Out of the two shortswords in his possession, this one had a lower rarity and hence a lower amount of spiritual energy.

He used [Telekinesis] on the item and failed to lift it into the air. Keynes was so baffled by his inability that he fell on his back, rough pebbles bit into his skin like sharp teeth. Why did he fail? Was his willpower too weak? Perhaps. Currently, his Will was at 31, if he used the Forceful Will wand, it’d add an extra 7 points to his Will.

Before he did so, Alice stopped him.

Master, you are thinking about this the wrong way, literally, the opposite way.

Can you delibe--

It hit him like a freaking train. Out of nowhere came a sudden realisation. One of the rules of training attributes was to keep them as low as possible during the training. Each increase in attributes scaled up and required far more effort than the lower value. It was only natural that training skills was a similar process. In this case, Keynes took off every item with an attribute modifier he had, returning his attributes to bare minimum Level 3 second degree Perfect State gave 29 points each.

The effect was noticeable and very unpleasant. If that happened during a fight with a tough opponent, such distraction could prove fatal, Keynes realised. There was nothing he could do but keep it in mind though.

With lowered attributes, Keynes returned to his training of [Telekinesis] starting from the beginning.

***

When walked back into the crafting department, he was spiritually and mentally exhausted. He’d pushed himself to absolute limits. He’d fallen unconscious twice but he knew it was the right way. With his items back on him, Keynes felt his body’s recovery rate slightly increased. Too much strain and his body would fall apart. Everyone had their limits. Obviously, Keynes doubted his training methods were the most efficient but he worked with what he had.

Speaking of that, Keynes turned to Haef who was polishing a white ring. Keynes had thought hard about the crafter and others who might come after him. The solution was simple and it’d been there all this time.

Ritual of Secrecy.

It was a well known ritual to the Old Blood families. Required materials weren’t hard to acquire and their Level only affected the strength of the ritual. Level 1 materials weren’t ideal but sufficient for now. It also meant that at some point, Keynes would be able to break Shaper’s ritual too, which Keynes would gladly do.

In exchange, Keynes would explain to Haef the secrets of essence cultivation and the role of Spirit in crafting. As Shaper had said to him, spiritual aura was an ascender’s tool of interacting with the outside world. Being able to see a spiritual matrix during a crafting process was going to be a game-changer.

Something Keynes couldn’t give away recklessly. His enemies were out there and empowering them wasn’t a smart thing to do.

“Sir!” Haef jumped upon discovering Keynes in the room with him. His assistant Wigam wasn’t here. Perfect. “I didn’t hear you coming in.”

“I came to you with…” Keynes glanced at the ring pinched between two rubber pincers. “With an offer, Heaf.”

“The new grounds and all that?”

Keynes nodded, swallowing an urge to comment on ‘all that’ part. He didn’t, he needed the crafter.

“I can’t help but wonder…”

Keynes touched the ring, silencing the other man.

Ring (Crafted)

+1 to all attributes

-

[Ring]

Level 1

The modifier wasn’t the one Keynes asked for but he let it slide. For now.

“Before we move on, there’s something you must agree to.”

Haef frowned, clearly hesitating. Keynes could feel it in the man’s aura, so it had to be a strong emotion right now.

“Sir, my employment--”

“I value knowledge, Haef, and things I know shouldn’t get in the wrong hands. Your employment contract means nothing to me. It doesn’t protect me in the slightest.” Keynes turned to the man. “Tell me the truth, Haef, what did you think about when I told you about the monster parts? Why did you hesitate?” Alice sensed the spike in conflicting emotions right after Haef had learned about the monster parts.

Haef placed his hands on the crafting table, looking seemingly into the distance. Was he collecting his thoughts or coming up with a believable excuse? No way to tell.

Keynes waited until the other man took a deep breath and faced him.

“I checked my employment contract last night and I found that your company would only pay me five percent of the market value for items I craft if they sell them outside the company, otherwise I get nothing for my crafts. And on top of that, what’s the market value is highly arbitrary in this context. With other crafters making fortunes on Artefact Exchange right now, I couldn’t help but feel cheated.”

Keynes had read about Artefact Exchange on the Web. It was the largest marketplace for rift items and materials. The access to it was quite limited though so Keynes didn’t know how Haef knew so much but that wasn’t an actual issue here.

As quickly as he could, Keynes recalled everything Wagner and others told him about their company and their values. Sadly, there wasn’t much to fall back on. This part wasn’t what Keynes was interested in and so he naturally skipped it.

Now it came to bite him in the bottom.

What should I do here? Agree with Haef or double down on the company’s policy?

Alice was silent on the matter as it wasn’t something she could help him with. Keynes needed to reply and he needed it to be strong… Oh, I see.

“Information about the monster parts aside. What would you be able to craft if we didn’t give you the access to our rifts and resources? Can you go out there and hunt rift monsters in the wild or buy your own crafting materials?”

This seemed to get through but still, to some degree, the other man resisted to cede the point.

“But without me, you cannot craft the actual items. You need a crafter as much as a crafter needs materials.”

“I won’t argue with that,” Keynes agreed. “Though I can still trade materials for the finished item with others on the marketplace. Especially now, when crafted items mostly offer attribute modifiers. But all of this is shortsighted. Would you rather have a few percent now or a true fortune later that will come from staying ahead of the curve?” It was a bold question but it was the only one Keynes could come up on short notice. He wasn’t trained to deal with situations like this.

Haef mulled it over. Alice confirmed that the crafter was very conflicted. It must have dawned on Haef that without the company his access to materials would dry up unless another organisation would pick him up and offer better conditions. Honestly, Keynes didn’t know if 5% was generous or not. Did his company screw Haef over or were they generous? He’d need to talk to Wagner about this. That little snake would know for sure.

“I need your answer,” Keynes said, when he had enough of waiting. “Are you ready to make history or would you rather fight over scraps?”

Haef squinted at Keynes, for all his hesitation, Haef’s eyes radiated with intelligence. Keynes had to be careful. His decisions were the company’s decision and he didn’t want to undermine the company.

“I will stay,” Haef replied. “But I wish to be allowed to sell at least one item every month. I will pay off the cost of materials but the profit will be mine.”

“Whatever,” Keynes said, relieved. It was nothing to him and it’d keep Haef happy until a better solution was found. “Now, the offer. I know how to improve your crafting. By a large margin but this information is not available freely. And I don’t mean the items I requested. I mean that in order to learn it, you’d have to go through the ritual of secrecy so no one else will learn this secret.”

“Is that necessary? We could write another contract…”

Keynes met Haef’s eyes with a cold stare.

“It is an absolute requirement, Haef. Without a ritual of secrecy, the deal is off the table. It’s a non-negotiable condition.” And without the deal this seems like the extent of your abilities even with your Talent.

This time the crafter was much quicker with the response.

“Fine. If it’s going to make me better than others, I’d be a fool to not accept it.”

“Good. We’ll start as soon as I have the materials delivered.”