“Watch well,” I instructed my students, as I made myself somewhat comfortable above the manhole cover. A part of me still wanted to conjure my Throne but I simply lacked the power to do so easily. Maybe at some point I would be able to reclaim it, but for now, it was simply too much expenditure for too little advantage.

“Each of you can learn something from what I’m about to do. Parts of the working pertain to each of your affinities, in some way. While the Mist I use is from Ice, I strongly believe that Water-Magic holds a similar concept. It is an excellent medium to cover a large area, allowing a highly efficient spread of Astral Power. In addition, natural Mist is a Weather-Phenomenon, so there should be a connection to your weather-magic, too,” pausing for a moment, I looked at Noriko, after explaining to Kevin and Ling what their connection to my working was.

“Now, for you, it’s more difficult. You wield and seek to comprehend the Light. I can offer only a little help there but I can show you the Darkness. It might not help you directly but maybe, if you understand some of the Darkness I’m about to unleash, it will allow you to understand the light, at least on a superficial level. It helps that the Darkness I’m using at the moment is merely the absence of light, not the true Darkness of the Void,” I mused, noticing a frown on her face as I mentioned the true darkness. It made me long for the ability to delve deeper and investigate the depths of space and the void there, where the diffuse light of distant stars was bound into an empty void, unable to shine on anything and thus, ultimately lost in the empty darkness.

Shaking off the nostalgic memories, I focused on the present and the massacre I was planning. My hands flicked through practised motions, forming the five rune formation I had used before and starting to channel power into it. Just as always, the build-up was slow and steady, a constant stream of mist floating into the manhole below, following gravity’s inexorable pull. The three fledgling spellcasters around me were staring at the glowing runes before me and I could hear Noriko mutter under her breath, even saw a full-body shudder run through her. Realising that there was little I could do to help them, I closed my eyes, letting my mind drift into the disassociated state that allowed me to channel vast amounts of power from the Astral River into the runic formation before me.

For some fifty minutes, I stayed like that, drawing Astral Power from the River and pushing it into the runes, faintly feeling the mists spreading out through the tunnels, pipes and cracks beneath, spreading far and wide. Finally, I decided that they had spread enough and I changed my focus, pushing the second part of the formation to its fullest, even activating Overflow to pour as much power into it as the formation could take.

A soft gasp almost distracted me from my efforts, the noise something unusual and normally alarming but knowing that Silva was there, protecting me, I kept my focus. More and more power surged through the formation and into the mist and I could almost feel the countless creatures trapped within slowly perish as their life was devoured right out of their bodies.

Finally, I decided that it was enough. My connection to the lingering Astral Power was faint and only remained thanks to the constant stream of power I poured into the Runic Formation, so the feedback I received was vague, but it didn’t feel like there was anything still there. Everything was dead, just like I wanted.

Opening my eyes, I first looked at my notifications. They were quite disappointing, countess notifications that told me I had killed something but received no EXP until I finally got to those that told me I had gained a level in Darkness Rune Mastery and Ice Magic, bringing them both to fifteen.

“Now, what did you see? What did you learn?” I asked my students, only to notice that they were all looking quite rough, holding their heads as if in pain. Only now, I realised that the massive influx of EXP apparently was quite rough on them, reminding me of the pain I had suffered after my original clearing of the Snowbold Den, back on Mundus. Far too many levels, too much EXP, all pouring in at once could easily overstimulate the system.

With a discrete and concealed use of Observe, I could read their levels and didn’t even try to hide the grin from my face. They had all gained, massively and had been instantly pushed to level five. The small EXP difference between Kevin and the two females was apparently small enough that it had been swallowed up, leaving them all equally in pain. Apparently, the threshold was based on your own level, gaining five levels at level ten, an increase by forty percent, but at level one, as Kevin still had been? A five-hundred percent increase and something he was paying for.

Looking at them, I began to consider. Could I do something similar with more people here? And if yes, should I try doing so? Would I help the people in the long run, or harm them? A high level was useful, the higher attributes neat but without personal combat experience and skill, they would be negligible. They would die just as quickly, maybe even more quickly, and their higher strength might even attract unwanted attention. For now, I doubted people would actively hunt other high-levelled people to increase their own, but at some point, that might happen. If I considered my present situation, where no creatures were actually worth fighting, I wasn’t sure that point was far off. A few idiotic people that were levelled by someone with a skill-set similar to mine for a few days, pushed forward by large-scale killings or maybe the deliberate baiting and slaughter of Shattered, they could be harvested for their EXP and at a guess, it would be a worthwhile investment, until stronger enemies appeared.

“What was that?” Ling asked, still holding her likely aching head.

“Levels, you are likely amongst the more powerful people around, at least when it comes to your level. Five should give you some Attribute Points, those will allow you to fundamentally improve yourself. Don’t assign them yet,” I warned, getting soft groans in response. Kevin was still curled up in the fetal position, holding his head and groaning. Sniffing the air, I noticed the tang of blood spreading and guessed that he either had a nosebleed or bit his tongue, lip or something.

It took him a little longer to come around and by the time he was aware of the world around him again, I had made a decision. Each of my students would get one boon, one session during which I would dedicate my time to training them and increasing their level if they were interested. It would create a slight imbalance between their level and skills, maybe even lower the traits they got when reaching attribute thresholds, those were based on your actions after all, but that was a choice they would have to make for themselves. If they decided to forgo the session, I would take some extra time to teach them, or something along the lines to make up for it. What a strange thought.

“Now that you all have been granted some levels and gained your first attribute points. I presume you know what the attributes do, if not, ask now,” I continued and, to my consternation, Ling asked. In response, I rose and began to walk, deciding to scout the surrounding area while checking for additional manhole covers, hopefully giving me a better idea of where to send another wave of deadly mist into the sewers. With my students following behind, I began to explain the attributes, going over them sequentially. While I didn’t remember the actual explanations given from that guide during the creation of my Avatar for Mundus, I remembered enough and had the experience to fill in the blanks. How the attributes interacted and how they might interact with future classes, once they got theirs. Due to that, my advice in regard to their attribute-points was to keep them until they got their class or, if they didn’t want to wait, use them to bring Intelligence, Intuition or similarly important attributes to a multiplier of five. Those seemed to be what the system used to assign traits, so getting there would be useful.

Sadly, the more I talked, the more I realised that there wasn’t a perfect way. Everyone had to decide for themselves, just like I had to decide where I wanted to put my focus. It was all a trade-off and there was neither a walk-through nor a guide that could tell us what would be best. And most certainly, there would be no second playthrough, no new game plus. Every choice we made would remain with us, until the day we died.