“This is a perfect spot.”

The green plateau was peppered with short grasses and flowers. Keynes spotted scattered rocks all over the plateau, some were covered by moss. Beyond the plateau was forest that inclined with the ground, eventually thinning and turning into a lone mountain. Frankly, the mountain lay beyond the boundary of the rift.

Though he hadn’t used a rift orb that upgraded any rift’s Level, Keynes suspected that by doing so, the boundary simply expanded including what was visible.

But he wasn’t in this rift for sightseeing. He’d chosen it because of convenience. The rocks he’d spotted earlier were of various sizes. The area was flat and easily accessible from the rift exit. There were plenty of places to camp.

Only monsters were missing but they’d been killed off a few hours earlier by Miguel and Ulf. Natalia had gone to Emerald City while Kora was with Keynes. The carry team had been given a week of holiday and their duties were taken over by Esopp who had some of his own people to follow him around. The rift cluster was also closed to VIPs. Esopp wanted to reap 100% of essence from the rifts. He had to level up twice from Level 7 to Level 8 and he wasn’t happy about it. The only reason why Keynes asked Miguel and Ulf to clear this rift instead of Esopp was to preserve it. Esopp had a tendency to be destructive.

Other than that, all the usual operations remained as normal.

“If you say so,” Kora said. She nodded to the crew they’d brought with them to begin the provisory construction. She didn’t know how long they were going to stay here so they brought with them a lot of provisions. They were also waiting for one more person Keynes wanted inside before this rift’s instance became inaccessible.

He watched the workers for a while, in silence contemplating his next steps. His ascension to Level 4 had seemed quiet and uneventful until he tried to leave the damn rift. Ignoring Alice’s protest he’d exited the other rift. It’d disrupted the spiritual equilibrium blasting the rift cluster with his spiritual aura. Alice had stepped in and she’d been able to rein his aura for a time but he’d been on a clock. He’d decided to take this common rift and since then stayed here trying to regain the spiritual equilibrium.

He’d done it eventually so he could now stay around others without risk of blasting them with his powerful aura.

It was marvellous how efficient modular technology was. In about an hour a fully functional camp was raised. It consisted of three private rooms with all necessary amenities, a connected common room with a kitchen and sizable storage room.

The camp had everything they would require for up to a month. Keynes didn’t know if he would stay this long as he didn’t want to be cut off from the world. Unfortunately, neither magic nor technology existed that penetrated the dimensional nature of the rifts. Cables wouldn’t carry on the signal too. Even so, the research team responsible for development of this technology was optimistic as new higher Level materials were tested. It could be as simple as using the correct Level of materials or adding runes or formations.

Eventually, he turned his attention away from the camp and focused on his profile.

“How do you feel?” Kora asked, mildly irritating him. He didn’t show it on his face. He’d asked her to join him in the rift after all; why would he feel irritated by her then? The answer to that was simple. Over the months he’d grown withdrawn, staying more in his mind than interacting with others even if they were present. Even Alice remained in the background for most of the time. Keynes felt alone and he didn’t mind it… He shook these thoughts off, concentrating on the present moment.

“Why do you ask?”

She smiled, sitting down with crossed legs. He’d asked her to not wear the wetsuit. Something about it made him really uncomfortable and it wasn’t the boost to the attributes. Because of that, she currently wore khaki trousers with a dark green blouse. The temperature in this rift was mild and because there was no day-night cycle, the temperature remained stable.

“Because I noticed you haven’t fully adapted to your new attributes; Spirit aside.”

Keynes frowned, looking at Kora without comprehension. To her credit, she realised what his silence meant and continued.

“When you walk, you tend to overstep, your reaction time is faster but it takes you more time to recover from overreaching, and I am quite confident that your Perception feels exactly the same as it was before the ascension.”

Keynes looked inwardly, searching through his memories. It wasn't an explicit process like leafing through a book and was more intuitive but whenever Keynes wanted he could concentrate and see the perfect memory. For this, it wasn’t necessary though. As his memory travelled to his ascension and fro, he noticed little things Kora had spoken of. It raised an interesting question; how had she noticed these things while Keynes had been blind to them?

“How do you know?”

Her smile widened just by a notch but it was filled with warmth and friendly amusement.

“Our team was speed-levelled. From Level 1 to Level 4 in a week then another week to get to Level 5. It was a strange experience.”

He didn’t see the connection. Alice?

She is correct, Alice replied. But I think it will be best if she explains it first.

Keynes didn’t try to convince her, partially because he was curious why levelling from Level 1 to Level 5 in two weeks was a strange experience.

“Can you tell me more?”

“Sure,” she replied. “But I must warn you. This is pure speculation.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just tell me.”

“Everytime we level up our attributes increase. At early Levels, this isn't an issue and you can hardly notice it but jumping from from 20 to 30 points in a week revealed something troubling. Our bodies seem to be not accustomed to the new heightened attributes. While we were instantly stronger and faster, our precision went down the drain. That is why Natalia was dragging us through hell so we could regain it.”

Every cogwheel in Keynes’s head was working overtime while his wide eyes stared at Kora. He had never considered attributes from her perspective but it made so much sense and explained some of the things that had bothered him. It also reminded him of the divergence of mind and body Kaito Ren had told him about. Although he didn’t understand why heightened Mind attribute didn’t take care of the issue this time around. No, there must be more to it. She said that my Perception hasn’t changed and… she’s right. It has remained the same. Why?

“Okay,” Keynes eventually said, causing an amused frown on Kora’s face to deepen. “I have to say you’re onto something but something’s missing.”

She let out a quiet chuckle, turning her head away. There was still timidness in her.

“Of course it’s missing things. While I like to give things a deeper consideration I’m hardly a scholar.” Having said that, some of her solemnity returned. “It is all very anecdotal and based on my team’s experience. I got excited when I noticed the same thing was happening to you because it added some credence to my hypothesis.”

“You’re right though,” Keynes said. “Precision is definitely a thing.” He asked Kora about the divergence of mind and body. She was aware of it but didn’t believe these things were related. Her reasoning boiled down to inner workings of Mind attribute.

“Let’s discuss it through,” Keynes said, keeping the bubbling excitement from overtaking him. He had a very strong hunch that all of this was connected and understanding it was critical to his spiritual advancement. For a brief moment, an overwhelming urge filled him to use the Orb of Grand Insight but he used his Will to crush it. No matter how enticing the idea sounded, the orb was better used elsewhere. He had days of deliberating about his next step ahead of him. There were going to be many occasions to put the orb to good use. “How does precision affect attributes? Strength and Dexterity are straightforward. You also mentioned Perception and you were right. It hasn’t changed despite the status showing thirty-five.”

“Thirty-five? Ah, you have maxed out Perception… why?” She looked confused. “Aren’t you worried about the imbalance?”

Keynes had read about the benefit of equal attributes but nothing about imbalance. So naturally it was his turn to appear confused.

“No idea what you’re talking about.”

Why do not tell her the truth? Alice asked.

I will, Keynes assured her. Once she explains the imbalance… Unless you will?

It is not that I do not want to, Alice said, and through the bond Keynes sensed irritation. But the System’s desire to remain impartial takes precedence.

I know, I know, Keynes said, not wishing to drag their fruitless conversation on.

“Okay.” She raised her hand. “One thing at a time. Let’s finish with attributes first.”

Surprised by Kora’s decisive and confident tone, Keynes nodded. She was right about finishing the first topic before moving on. Keynes’s curiosity could be a pushy thing sometimes.

“So as you said earlier, Strength and Dexterity are self-explanatory. When it comes to Perception, my understanding is that our Mind attribute is confused with all the sensory input coming through heightened Perception and blocks the additional information. Strangely enough, there are some weird shenanigans with Perception that I can’t explain.”

“What do you mean?”

“Whenever I focus on a singular sense, it feels much stronger. I… nevermind.”

“Tell me,” Keynes said, unable to contain his curiosity.

Kora sighed, glancing at Keynes with a guarded gaze.

“I believe that Perception works counterintuitively. Even though it increases, its benefits are accessed differently.”

“So you think we must focus on the desired sense to fully utilise Perception?”

“More or less.”

“But why?”

For a second, he thought she would simply shrug but no, she replied.

“I warn you, I might be dead wrong.”

She waited until he acknowledged. She seemed to be very particular about these things.

“Sure.”

“My belief is that we lack precision in using our Mind attribute so it by default blocks all the extra input.”

That made sense… almost.

“So… that would explain the ‘synchronisation’ issue of Mind attribute but what about Perception? Is synchronisation the right word?”

“Synchronisation… I’d rather use adjustment or adaptation but you’re free to use any word you wish. All of this is most likely wrong anyway.”

Keynes shook his head.

“You aren’t giving yourself enough credit. Thit is a very good insight. Hell, this stuff… Nothing like this had crossed my mind until you pointed it out.”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like it. Anyway, Perception. My guess is that Perception’s and Mind’s adjustment are very similar although, Mind attribute covers other areas.”

“That leaves us with Will and Vitality.”

“Will, at least in theory, should be similar to Strength.”

Lack of restraint. It was an odd take on Will but the longer Keynes thought about it the more likely it seemed. However, he didn’t think the word ‘precision’ was the correct one here. Precision was merely a consequence of another control, or rather lack of control. But what controlled the attributes? Keynes didn’t know that but he knew that six attribute cores were linked to the Spirit core. So perhaps, ‘synchronisation’ was the right word.

Alice, how are we doing?

You are on the right track, master, Alice confirmed.

Keynes shared the new insight with Kora. She looked startled by it but told him she needed time to think about it. He didn’t mind that. They were going to return to this topic tomorrow.

“Okay, now, tell me about the imbalance.”