Eric lurched upright in startled disbelief as his sister roaring with laughter.

“Ooh! I had you going for a quick second there, didn’t I?” Her mischievous green eyes twinkled, before flashing like rainbows to a bemused Eric’s surprise. “Sorry, I’ve got no fancy pills to offer you. Just the promise of sweet, sweet power. Now hold still, and let me get a good look at you.”

She frowned, her finger gently tracing his major meridian channels, eyes going from bemused curiosity to wide-eyed disbelief. “What the fuck!?” she whispered aloud.

Eric smirked. “Overwhelmed by my Arcane Potential?”

“No, Eric. That’s middling at best,” she breathlessly said, Eric dying a little inside as she did so. “It’s you’re Meridian channels! I mean, normally, the weight of our powers anchoring and stiffening our nodes should be resulting in strain… a tightening, until eventually they become outright brittle. Mother says it’s a dangerous time. But if we push on and persevere, it will transform to a crystalline matrix by the time we’re ready to truly ascend to Bronze. And it helps if we evolve our basic White tier class into the strongest variant possible at level fifty.”

Eric smirked. “You do know that everything I’ve accomplished so far I’ve pretty much done by the seat of my pants, right? Because pretty much everything your saying is shit I’m now hearing for the first time.”

Elonia shook her head. “That’s not the point, Eric. The point is, your meridian channels aren’t rigid at all! They’re flowing like massive arteries of power just pumping some kind of golden energy different from the arcane… but intermingled too, somehow.”

She gave a confused shake of her head. “And I can sense tendrils of it drifting out to your limbs, your back, in between the major nodes… everywhere.” She shrugged. “Well, if nothing else, I can safely report that your nodes look to be in absolutely perfect health.”

She gazed at him almost painfully for long moments. “Eric, are you in any pain from your powers? Any pain at all?”

Eric solemnly shook his head, only slightly thrown off to find himself dressed in nothing but cutoff jeans, wondering if his last bit of casual attire was what this interface had imprinted as his standard ‘casual ware.’ “No, sis. Actually, I feel fantastic. And what you’re sensing is Spiritual Energy.” He grinned. “It’s the cultivator’s path, and effectively allows me to rank up twice, each level. Once as a Classer, and once as a cultivator.” He furrowed his brow. “Though they’re not syncing level-wise right now, because my cultivation took an unexpected… turn, they do empower one another.”

He gently clasped her hand. “Elonia… I can tell you’re in pain. And I know it’s not just from, well, old habits. How bad has it gotten?”

Elonia paled and swallowed, shaking her head as silent tears streaked down her cheeks. “Bad, Eric. Save for when I’m actually casting magics… inflating my too tight channels with the illusion of potency, then I feel fine. Better than fine. I feel on top of the world, like when I was casting my Doomtwister spell. But when I’m not casting magics, when day turns to dusk and I’m exhausted and just want to sleep… that’s when the channels really tighten up and the pain hits. That’s when I need relief. Just to get some sleep. Just so I don’t feel like every day is constant torment, and that there is something to look forward to at the end of each day.”

Her cheeks flushed. “Even if I know I’m just a junky seeking her fix.”

Eric shook his head. “More like a patient suffering constant pain seeking relief. A relief you deliberately withhold all day, just so you can stay focused and take care of your business. That takes strength and discipline right there, sis.”

He frowned, taking a moment to center himself before taking a good look at his sister’s aura, Unified Perception making too many things painfully clear.

Elonia paled. “Shit, you can sense me too?”

“Elonia, I’m going to be honest. Your meridian channels are strained. Strained so bad that I can’t believe you’re not sobbing out in pain right now.”

“Believe me, I would be, if the Training pod didn’t identify morphine as one of my necessary nutrients, giving me a steady drip even as we speak,” she admitted, her voice husky with shame.

Eric gently squeezed her hand, warm eyes smiling into her own. “How would you like to make that pain go away for good?”

Her eyes widened. “How?”

He swallowed, heart speeding up under her desperate gaze. “Learn to cultivate. Here and now. With me.”

She gazed at him for long, desperate moments, before lowering her head. “Not all classes are like this. But this is the price that I have to pay, if I want to ascend from Elementalist to Arch-Mage. From Adept tier class all the way to Master tier. This is the path I must walk if I want to be the best. If I’m willing to endure the pain. I have to shape my meridian matrix like an Elven High Mage. All must be rigid perfection. Each node enslaved to a different element. For it is in the juxtaposition of those elements that countless spells are unlocked. Far, far more than the paltry handful that other lesser wizards learn.”

Eric gazed at her for long moments. “Is it worth it?”

She flushed and lowered her gaze, refusing even to answer.

“What happens if your… matrix breaks before it fully crystallizes?”

“Then all my efforts to ascend become worthless,” she said with a bitter whisper. “I’ll no longer be able to forge countless variations of spells to fit any situation. I’ll be nothing but dead weight on the battlefield, able to unleash only crude streams of magic, the ragged remains of my matrix that maybe I can still force my power through.” She shrugged. “That, and whatever spells I might have actually mastered before then. But other than those, I’ll be utterly worthless as an Elementalist, or an Arch-Mage.”

Eric frowned. “Is it hard to master spells?”

“Hell yes,” she snorted, “especially if you’re not burning level-up points in here. And with the plans that Mother has laid out for me...” she gave a frustrated shake of her head. “If I’m truly to become a High Arch-Mage by level 100, I won’t have more than a single level-up point or two to spare.”

She glared out at the perfect replica of her own castle in the distance, pearlescent towers sparkling in the golden light, violet pennants fluttering in the breeze. “And mother’s already made it clear that for this level-up, my Doomtwister spell is to take precedence over everything else. And after all the grief I endured for weeks, almost months, trying to master the basics of that ritual, let alone actually casting it, almost impossible to do with shaman curses and goblin assassin both eager to bring me low, I’m actually okay burning my free unplanned point there, so I can effortlessly cast it from now on in just a fraction of the time, and I’m never forced on the backfoot, like the battle that came so close to wiping our alliance from the board entirely.” Elonia flashed a bitter sad smile. “Save for you, brother dearest. Somehow, I think you would have survived no matter what, and made those bastards pay. No matter how many years, or centuries, it took you. Even if I’d been gone for ages by then.”

Eric gazed at his sister for long moments. “But it’s more than that, right? Mastering that spell won’t just allow you to cast it in a fraction of the time you otherwise would need, long before any shaman’s can get themselves in position to curse the entire territory. Because your mastered spell will then be anchored to your soul, no matter what happens from that moment on. Even if your meridian channels burst entirely...”

Elonia paled and shuddered. “Please, don’t even say that aloud, brother!”

“Sorry. But even then, Doomtwister, an army killing spell, will still be available for to you to cast, right?”

Elonia grinned and nodded. “You’re damn right it will, brother. And it’s only thanks to you that I even have the opportunity to bind that spell to me for all time. Now let me see what I can do about returning the favor.”

She pointed down at his hand, Eric surprised to find himself now holding the wand of lightning he had shown her in the waking world. He couldn’t help but admire what he supposed was a dream construct. Not only did it look and feel exactly like the one he had shown her, it somehow felt even more real. As if the wand he remembered promising himself he’d one day master were the dream-like simulacrum, and only now was he truly awake, truly aware… truly alive.

Here and now.

For the very first time.

He shivered with something close to wonder when he realized he could actually sense the tool in his hand in its entirety, all the way down to the miniature Elementium circuit that would channel and direct his streams of mana into discrete bolts of lightning.

Eric gasped, struck with sudden revelation, suddenly understanding the wand in his hand as if it were just an extension of himself. As if what he had been holding in the real world had been the shadow, the illusion he could learn so little from, and this wand, the essence of all the lightning wands that had ever existed, held nothing but delicious secrets to share with him, such that a breathless Eric was suddenly sure he could use the formerly incomprehensible tool in his hand.

“Go ahead, brother. I sense you finally understand. Now strike that target and prove it.”

Eric blinked, only then noting his sister’s hand squeezing his shoulder, sensing a flash of her mana and will, tightly coiled, striking the wand’s circuit just right to unleash a massive surge of arcane potential.

“Forzar!”

And then it was a hooting Eric gazing with awe at the shattered, smoking remains of the archery target he and his sister had imagined into being.

A target he had just struck dead center with a massive bolt of lightning.

Eric’s hand was tingling wildly with life, magic, and lightning’s intimate secrets, his mind bubbling with awe.

Congratulations! You have learned how to use: Lightning Wand!

You now know how to use Lightning Wands at Apprentice Tier (Rank 5) proficiency!

(1 level-up point spent!)

Eric turned to his sister. “I did it!” He said excitedly. “It didn’t require any awful blood magic sacrifice, surrendering my essence at all! All I needed was a better understanding of what was going on inside it and now? Wow. Just… wow! Using it now feels like second nature!”

His sister nodded with a smile, clearly taking joy in the wonder he felt. “And that’s just the first step of what we’re going to do before we’re through, brother. Now let’s strike while the iron is hot, while I can sense you having a breakthrough, finally able to feel the ebb and flow of arcane energies like never before.”

Her voice cracked with a drill sergeant's command. “You have an ice-wand on you, don’t you brother? Pull it out!”

She gave him an approving smile when he did so. “Another top-of-the-line Blue Corp wand. Excellent. The perfect clean Elementium circuit to imprint. Just like imprinting a mastered spell.”

She placed her hand on top of his own, and Eric gasped with fresh wonder as he felt the entire glittering golden pattern blaze itself within his mind. He shivered, suddenly feeling cold, so terribly terribly cold, shivering with nothing but cut-offs on in the middle of a winter gale.

A gale he could now control as the ice and cold funneled through him. Became a part of him.

Channeled into a single perfect spell.

“Glacie Pilum!”

And how Eric crowed with delight, when a perfectly formed five foot spear of ice sprang from his wand to tear into a fresh target popping into existence exactly forty feet away.

Congratulations! You have learned how to use: Ice Wand!

You now know how to use Ice Wands at Apprentice Tier (Rank 5) proficiency!

(1 level-up point spent!)

“Thank you, sis,” Eric whispered. “You have no idea what it feels like, to unlock the secrets to magic I despaired of ever comprehending. And to feel it come so naturally to me!”

His sister squeezed him tight, kissing his cheek. “I know exactly how it feels, little brother. With all you’ve done for me, how can I not do whatever I can for you?”

Her warm gaze hardened with a fierce intensity that had him lurching back in surprise. “But do you know what saddens me most, little brother? A flaw I absolutely cannot abide?”

Eric blinked, licking suddenly dry lips. “Um… I have no idea?”

She sighed, as a powerful gust of wind blew across the prairie, alternating gusts of winter’s ice and summer’s heat washing over him. Eric winced, because somehow it felt like the seasons themselves were sighing in disappointment.

“I sense the birth of a grand new art, it’s infinite potential, locked within you. An art that makes use of two intertwined forces to glorious effect. One source of power I understand not at all, the other I know far more intimately than you ever will. And the two fused together? A wondrous, potent whole.”

She smiled in admiration.

He grinned back, then winced under her sudden glare.

“And you have done absolutely nothing to develop it. Not in full. Only tapping into the tiniest fragment of what it’s truly capable of. And there’s more, so much more that I sense you can do with it!” She sighed and shook her head. “You even have a free level 30 node open! A free node you never bothered to fill. A node that would synergize so perfectly with this art!”

Her words stung him to the quick. “You mock your own potential.”

Eric’s cheeks flushed with shame. “It’s not like I had a chance to do much of anything save fight for my life, constantly, since I got back here! Because people need me to be faster, stronger, mastering ever greater armies, just so our family has a chance at survival!” He swallowed, shaking his head. “I… I always tell myself that one day, when I have the chance, when things are finally calm, I’ll work on understanding my Runic Lore.”

His sister’s gentle smile was like the sun shining on a perfect summer’s day, her golden laughter like the rustle of a thousand tinkling bells. “And that’s why we’re here, Eric. Because you’re right. You were thrown into the fire with no proper trainer at all. But now, it’s different. You have my Enhanced Training Pods, and you have me.”

Eric gave a relieved chuckle. “And I couldn’t ask for better help than that.”

Elonia gave a knowing shake of her head. “No, you couldn’t.” She clasped his hand with her own, and in the blink of an eye, a massive 9 foot tall purple orc with blackened tusks and beady red eyes was glaring down at them both as he roared and lifted a massive battle axe over his head.

“Now, tell me how you would shape your runes together to take care of this pig-faced asshole,” his sister whispered. “Don’t worry. Be creative. Use those symbols in ways you’ve never dared before! We have time, so unlike all our hard-fought battles. So give yourself a chance. See what you can do. You just might find yourself making connections that you never would have before.”

Eric felt his heart pound in his chest as his mind blazed with his runes popping up in his mind’s eye like never before. His understanding of their potential, words that could be used to reshape reality itself, at least in a very small way, and how those symbols could be linked to one another… it was suddenly all so blindingly obvious. As if he had been stumbling around an exhausted dazed wreck puttering on a thesis, when all he had really needed was a good 8 hours sleep and a cup of coffee and it all made perfect sense.

‘Inverto Gravitas unus attentio!” Eric roared, the words linking together flawlessly, in a mere ten seconds. Far too long to be used in combat, normally, not without him casting a single chant before a battle, or howling out a massive one while racing around his foes at insane speeds with his undead legions covering for him. But still, still the words flawlessly left his lips in the tiniest fraction of time it would normally take, and with the utterance of each syllable, he felt his comprehension of his runes of power solidifying like never before.

And so excited he was to see the confused looking orc chieftain squeal in dismay when he fell up towards the heavens for long seconds before Eric finally let him go and he disappeared, his purpose fulfilled, that he hardly paid attention to the latest message flashing across his interface.

Congratulations! You have successfully mastered the basic meanings of the Runes for Gravity, Inversion, and concentration dependent duration! 3(6) level up points spent!

Runic Lore is now Rank 14!

Runic Lore is now Rank 15!

Runic Lore is now Rank 16!

(Note! Double standard cost: Unorthodox dual affinity art outside System Paradigm detected!)

(Note! Tier 5 Master Adventurer Class detected. Full synergistic cross-class bonuses are now in effect. Cost has been normalized for future progression of Runic Lore and all derivative disciplines!)

“Eric, focus!” Elonia said as Eric blinked away the incredible epiphany that had him gazing at the world entire in a whole new light.

Until his sister summoned an orc that was, if anything, even larger that the first.

“Now, quickly! Use your runes in a completely different way. Preferably whichever ones you don’t think you fully understand yet, but you do. Focus on the orc now charging us, Eric. Focus, and stop him!

“Incurvo Gravitas unos attentio!” Eric roared, and the Berserker immediately began howling and clawing at the ground as he tumbled on his side, unable to claw back to his feet, as if he wasn’t on flat land but a madly pitching slope.

Eric nodded thoughtfully as another interface message popped up that he promptly shoved away, concentrating more on the feel of squeezing tightly to the twist in reality his Runic arts were allowing, finding it much less draining simply to force the orc over on its side with gravity at 60 degrees, as opposed to sending him shooting straight up in the air. Which meant it had a lot of potential as a crowd control spell, but it certainly wasn’t lethal.

His sister nodded in approval. “Nice. But how will you finish him off?”

Eric grinned, already having thought of that, delighting in the feel of runic combinations coming to him, limited as his vocabulary was, like never before.

“Roboro Ventus! Iram Ignis! Plures attentio!” Eric roared, the disoriented chieftain that couldn’t seem to regain its feet suddenly shrieking as a furious gust of wind sent it tumbling end over end. Wind comprised of deadly wicked hot flame, Eric now understanding with exquisite precision how to manipulate the rune for many to create an area-of-effect jet of fiery plasma-like winds that really could have scorched a squad, perhaps even a platoon of enemy soldiers.

Eric held the flame for several long seconds, reveling in the feel of sweetest mastery shivering through his soul, now feeling more in tune with his Runic arts than he ever had before. So much so that he jumped for joy, gazing at his sister with unbridled wonder, once the orc disappeared.

“I did it, sis! Runic Arts is now at Rank 19! It’s all finally starting to click, like never before. I finally feel like I’m beginning to understand these runes. More than just the promise of power, they link to actual Platonic ideals. A higher truth than the reality we only think we know!”

Elonia blinked at this, then beamed. “Of course. It’s a fundamental art that you created. Why wouldn’t the soul of your existence flare a little bit brighter as a result?”

Congratulations! You have successfully mastered the Runes for Wrath, Wind, and Strengthen. 3 Additional Level up points spent!

His sister’s eyes grew strangely intent. “This is important, Eric. Very important. Are there any words of power you have yet to fully incorporate into your arcane paradigm?”

Eric laughed. “You mean, besides pretty much every word ever made?” He smirked, well aware of his extremely limited lexicon, before frowning in serious thought, wondering how he could use what he was thinking of in a fresh spell as yet another confused-looking orc popped into existence.

“Mollet roboro herbam unus dies!” he roared aloud, carefully enunciating each syllable, taking full advantage of his unique state of sublime perception to link not one but two modifiers to a single created object, making the shield he was visualizing both resilient and strong, embracing the essence of wood in a singular shape that would last until the setting of the sun. He couldn’t help but grin as it came to him so easily, the slightest shift in inflection, in his own visualization, allowing him to shape herbam, the structure of his wooden summoning, exactly how he wished.

This, of course, didn’t stop the orc chieftain’s frustrated roar, as it slowly began stalking forward, only to place confused massive hands on the bars of a cage appearing from seemingly nowhere.

“Mollet roboro herbam plures dies!” Eric roared, the image of a simple wooden shield transforming itself to the exquisite complexity of a wooden cage. And simply by shifting the word standing for singular to group, and of course, his own razor sharp visualization, he was able to forge to brilliant existence in mere seconds what should have taken dozens or hundreds of hours of disciplined practice to bring into being. But even in this dreamlike state, Eric was savvy enough to appreciate it’s true potential, determined to squeeze every ounce of potential from this ephemeral state of wondrous possibility, humbled by the greatest gift his sister could have possibly given him.

Congratulations! You have successfully mastered the Runes for Wood! 1 additional level-up point spent.

You have mastered your entire lexicon!

Runic Lore is now Rank 20!

You have achieved Adept Tier proficiency in Runic Lore! Two skill perks are now available to you!

You have achieved Adept Tier in a Class Skill!

Your Arcane Reserves and Spiritual Energy have each gone up by 8 points as you transcend all conceivable limits, trailblazing a path to power never before seen on Terra!

Eric crashed to the ground, gazing with awe and wonder at his sister, her sparkling eyes widening with equal wonder, sensing the messages now flashing across his skull, before her face tightened with sudden intensity.

“I won’t even talk about how absurd your fourth power multiplier for tiering up class skills is, little brother. Because that’s hardly important right now,” Elonia quipped with a rueful smile, her eyes now blazing with an unexpected sense of urgency.

“What matters is that you’re on the cusp of something grand. My Sage Eye’s made that pretty damn clear. But you’re going to have to fight to claim it. That means investing the two Skill perk points that by some miracle you’ve avoided spending yet. And that’s just the beginning of how much you’re going to have to bleed for it, if you truly want to blossom beyond your own wildest dreams.”

Eric frowned at this, turning to his sister. “Elonia, what are you...”

But his sister was gone.

Yet the roar he heard behind him made it clear that he hadn’t been forgotten.

Quickness check made! You spot: Confused Orc Chieftain!

Eric grinned, heart racing with excitement. Because even if this wasn’t actual mortal combat, the connection he felt to his soul, the sense that he really was facing peril of a sort that just might shut down his matrix if not destroy his body, was exactly what he needed.

Far from feeling betrayed when the orc rushed him, actually managing to cause Eric very real pain when its fist smashed against Eric’s upraised shield, sliding off the rim to pop and burst Eric’s lip before he instinctively rolled with the punch, Eric was exceedingly grateful. Grateful as he felt things click together in a way that was beyond surreal, more a dream of accelerating competence than the slow growth that comes from weeks and months of training as he weaved and dodged around the orc, stringing runic syllables together with greater ease than he ever had before in his life.

“Debilito dicio ignis unus dies!” He screamed over ten endlessly long seconds of weaving and dodging past a furious barrage of fists, Eric more concerned with tripping over roots than actually outrunning his foe, the massive orc flinching when he felt whatever it was settling over him, before laughing at Eric with mocking contempt.

“Iram ignis unus attentio!” Only to crash to the ground, eyes widening in a state beyond pain as Eric’s concentration-based flame spell, flames further enhanced by the essence of wrath, began burning his foe alive. A fire which now blazed white hot, as the previous spell, custom tailored to make his foe extremely vulnerable to flame, also enhanced by two essence infused words, meant that the orc blazed to superheated ash after a few stumbling steps, and was no more.

“Well done, Eric! Well done!” His sister hooted and cheered as an exhausted Eric stumbled to his knees, feeling strangely depleted and utterly drained, leaning back to find himself trembling in his sister’s anxious arms.

“Eric? What the fuck? You’re totally drained. This isn’t supposed to happen.”

Eric forced a weak smile.

Insight check made!

“I think it’s because I was using Runic Lore infused with my Essence.”

Elise nodded. “I know. It will give you a major penetration buff against enemy buffs and spell resistance when you use it for real.”

Eric winced. “Yeah. I think it’s also tapping into my Soul Reserves.”

Elise paled. “Oh, shit, Eric, it’s tapping into your life force?”

He quickly shook his head. “No, sis. Soul Reserves. The third pool of potential we have, I think, and the one that takes the longest to recover.”

Her sister furrowed her perfect brows. “Shit. I see it. Yours is at eighty three. No, wait… seventy five?”

Eric winced. “Yeah. I’ve, well, life circumstances had be burning an awful lot of my Soul Points blood-linking a number of weapons and choice toys to my soul.” He sighed. “And considering how much of that stuff I’ve been forced to surrender along the way… I’ve definitely wasted some points there. But fuck it, I’m alive and I gained some kick ass spells in the process. Not to mention I can summon my blood-bound weapons in the blink of an eye, so I certainly won’t call it a complete loss.”

Elonia frowned. “But it’s at just a fraction of what your Arcane Potential and Spiritual Energy reserves are. And all three of those stats are below your 200+ in multiple physical attributes, though your Spiritual Energy at 193 is getting pretty damn close.” She flashed a humorless smile. “But if you’re serious about making the most of the very perk you seem to be basing an entire fucking class around… you really need to think about boosting your other potency pools.”

Eric winced. “You’re right. I know you’re right. But after that one time I flooded myself with Arcane Potential I wasn’t completely sure I had earned…” he flushed. “Feeling like… never mind, let’s just say I kind of lost myself in a frenzy after that, proving to myself that I was still, well, me. The last thing I want to do is risk fucking with my soul.”

Her sister chuckled softly, tugging a tuft of his hair as they both collapsed on the grass, taking a moment just to relax and gaze up at the clouds. “yeah, I can see how fears of your System Interface infecting your mind like a squid-faced Mindlord’s tentacles would really freak you out of an arcane path. I could try to reassure you with a big lecture about how that’s not at all the case, that nothing of the sort is going on, but that would be me repeating the same shit Mother spouted at me. I didn’t trust a word of it until I had done quite a bit of research on my own. And this training pod makes the process so comfortable that it never feels anything but natural to me. But this is you’re life, and how you feel about yourself and the path you’re taking is really all that matters. Nothing will cripple your progression more than you having mixed feelings about your own path. So let me ask you, how are you feeling right now?”

Eric furrowed his brow, before breaking out in a brilliant grin. “I’m not going to check my character sheet right now. I’m not even sure how many levels I earned… I think it was three? But I can feel it. Intuitively. The surge of Arcane Potential surging up inside me, and somehow I know it’s because of my own efforts, not the System… even though, intellectually I know I’m in an artifact made or at least sanctioned by the System.”

“Exactly,” Elise grinned. “And yeah, you could psyche yourself into wondering if its real or the System is just making us feel like we’re not it’s puppets, but that’s just something I’ve come accept. If I don’t want to gimp my build as a straight Strength based fighter… no offense...”

“None taken,” Eric said with a smile.

“Then I’m going to have to accept that I might, or might not, be entirely me. But I feel like me. And the me I know would do everything she could to be a kick-ass sorceress. Not gimp herself out of fear, forever forced to hide from very real threats that would always be able to best her, including future hostile human PvPers who would see me as easy prey.”

She smirked. “So whether its the System, or my own anxieties, I’d be allowing one or the other influence over me. At least this way I’m a kick-ass Classer who, for all her flaws, could literally obliterate an entire enemy army, so long as I have the chance to cast a single strategic class spell.”

Eric grinned. “If you’re goal was to tell me to stop being a chicken shit and round out my build a bit… message received.”

She winked. “All I’m saying is let’s work on runic chants made entirely of your essence runes, Eric, so we can boost your Soul Reserves as well as your Spiritual Energy and Arcane Potential, since those two received a sweet boost just from hitting Rank 20 in a skill no one else on Earth even has. But balancing those stats is going to be really important, very soon. Trust me.”

She gave his shoulder a playful punch “And don’t feel too bad about mismatched stats. Because when it comes to the physical... I’m almost ashamed at how low my own stats are.” She flashed a sheepish smile. “I’ve been pouring two thirds of my points into Arcane Potential alone, with just a sprinkling in Vitality and Perception. The other stats are beefed only to mortal limits, and Soul Reserves are still way too low. So low I’m actually ashamed.”

“Why?”

She lowered her gaze. “Crazy as it might sound, the System actually awarded me with an Elite Tier title for the extreme mismatch. 25 Free points into Arcane Reserves, and a permanent 15% increase to absolutely everything I put into it Arcane Reserves, from this point on.” She flashed a fierce smile. “And that bonus is addition to all my others, and is now in effect no matter what I do! So the minute I reach the threshold stats mother absolutely demands, this glass cannon plans on being anything but.” She sighed, shaking her head. “Even if I have to wait til I hit Bronze to do it.”

Eric gazed at her for long moments. “The sad thing is, I get it. Totally. Had I been in your shoes and known about a title boon like that… with a whole army at my back and lacking knowledge of my own path, I can’t say I would have done it any differently.

Elonia flashed a relieves smile. “I… thank you, brother. Hearing you say that, when I’ve been berating myself for being a fool, so vulnerable to snipers none of us saw coming… it means a lot.”

Eric nodded. “You’re nothing of the sort. You made what had, at the time, seemed like a smart play. But now that we know just how perilous things can get, that no army can protect you from the snipers our enemies can freely put on the board, now that we know just how precious and lifesaving high Quickness, Perception, and Vitality can be, I sure as hell wouldn’t advise you chasing after any other extreme specialization bonuses.” He gazed pointedly at his now blushing sister. “No matter how much of a sweet boon they promise. Because a +15% bonus turning to +30% or whatever the hell it would be, will do you absolutely no good if you’re dead.”

His sister had the grace to blush. “Message received, and I’m pretty much feeling the same way at this point, whatever Mother says.”

Eric tilted his head, frowning thoughtfully at his red-cheeked sister. “But there’s more to it than that, isn’t there? You have an essence yourself. I sensed it. And we both know what it is.”

Her flush only deepened under Eric’s pointed stare. “Don’t judge me too harshly, brother. Unlike you, I’ve been sort of living under mother’s great expectations… unforgiving expectations, since the moment we left Newark. And bro? Casting a mile-wide tornado costs a shit-ton of mana, no matter how in tune my soul now is to the elements.”

Eric nodded. “But if you somehow managed to infuse that Tornado with the essence of pain… somehow I bet even Bronze Tier Titans would be stumbling in their tracks. But if you’re soul reserves are as low as you’re making it out to be… doing so would risk you fading to a wisp.”

Elonia gazed at Eric for long moments, shaking her head. “I know that. Shit, Eric, I know that so well it hurts! And every time I’m in here, I’m resolved to account for that weakness… to boost that stat up so high that even Mother will be awed by what I can do, crippling foes with pain. I’ve even been forced to use it a time or two in live combat, albeit with much, much weaker spells, and Commander Drevyn was impressed by how well it cripples our opponents. But whenever I bring it up with mother...” She paled and shook her head. “Somehow, I’m apologizing profusely for being too clueless, too stupid to understand the bigger picture… before putting my points exactly where they’re supposed to be. Which is wherever the hell she wants them to be.”

Eric gazed at his sister for long moments. “You know we’re going to have to talk about that, right?”

This earned a bemused chuckle. “Sure we will. But first thing’s first. Three more orcs for you, brother. Show me just how well you can put them down with your essence runes alone.”

And a smirking Eric did just that, binding them in cages, blowing them over, and setting them ablaze. He sent them tumbling with overbearing winds infused with the essence of Dominion, their howling cry beyond any orc shaman’s ability to counter… before setting them ablaze with hostile Wrath-filled fires beyond any water flask’s ability to quench.

So pushed himself as hard as he could, staying in the zone and riding a glorious stream of epiphanies just as long as he could, so that by the time he had finally crashed to his knees utterly drained, his mind’s eye was blinking with multiple messages that made him shout to the heavens with joy.

Congratulations! Through days of hard work and dedication in a Tier 1 Training Pod, you have successfully evolved your understanding of Runes to the point of transcendent comprehension!

Runic Lore is now Rank 21!

Runic Lore is now Rank 22!

Your Soul Reserves have permanently increased by 2 points!

You have gained the boon Soul Infusion! You now pay a reduced cost in Temporary Soul Reserves when you dare to infuse your Runes With any Essence or Elemental Affinity tied to your soul!