Kent was stumped. There was little doubt about the identity of the magic reinforcing and securing the exhibition room of the institute. While Kent couldn’t be sure what the enchantments or magic did, their presence, a powerful hue of bright intensity, and several different flavors of magic made them not only a powerful deterrent but also a potentially strong defense.

Amplified by a total lack of guards around the exhibition hall it showed a sense of confidence and trust in the present defenses – or a reprioritization by the local political hierarchy.

Where does this leave me? Kent couldn’t help but wonder. He could look elsewhere for treasure, spell cores, or valuables but he didn’t want to. It felt almost like a failure if he did so. But maybe there was a way around that.

There had to be a key, an enchantment, or something akin to those, that either allowed for access or keyed one into the wards. Every, or at least the majority, employee of the institute would have one of those. But even visitors could enter the exhibition hall without a guide. That implied external control in addition. As Kent was not aware of a ticket office handing ward keys out in the first place.

From there it was a guessing game. Without a doubt, he could find whatever he was looking for within. That didn’t help him right now though, only once he had entered the exhibition.

Other places that would likely store and secure such items would be in spaces that were just or almost as hard to gain access to. Surely there would be some in the professors’ rooms and who knows else were.

He could probably enter one of the offices – though there was no guarantee that he would find anything helpful but an almost certain guarantee that he would lose even more time.

Just as he was considering to seek out an initiate to rob, he realized a glaring flaw in his plan. What if they were keyed to a magical signature? It felt likely that such a thing could exist, and if any place had such a thing, it would be the institute.

Kent shelved that idea. He’d need something, anything was better than his original plan. He rattled his brain to come up with something. Anything that wouldn’t directly out his position and alert the entire institute.

He came up empty.

Maybe it was a shortcoming of his mind that he couldn’t come up with a better option. Maybe the institute was just that good. Or a confluence of poor planning, insufficient information, or a lack of financial fluidity.

He walked up to the door - roughly half-by-weight-metal - and flared Metallic Presence with Metallic Mastery amplifying it.

Metallic Mastery (13/20) (1/200)

Vary the final output of metal-related skills

Maximum Output Variance: 100%

Maximum Parameter Variance: 30%

Parameter Variance included factors of a skill such as range, weight, and direction as well as several others. It increased and decreased skill castings by similar margins as the output variance did and for each parameter affected. But most of his skills thus far were fairly cheap so it didn’t offer much for any of those skills. Except for Metallic Presence. He was able to reduce its range, precision, and several other facts that the output variance had not affected. Allowing him to reduce strain by a significant margin.

For the next part of his plan, he only needed to know of the existence of metal on the other side of the room. Several thick straps of metal bars and bolts reinforced the door from the other side and all were now attuned to him.

Next, he attuned each of the 19 distinct pieces of metal he could see at a glance, six oversized hinges and the respective counterpart, the adornments, and the reinforcement plates.

It can’t be that easy right? And it wasn’t. At least not mentally. The highest number of individual metal pieces he had thus far accelerated had been seven, five of his harness and two knives. That had been a few levels ago and while difficult not impossible.

On second thought, Kent crouched down right next to the center of the door and tried to discern whether it had any type of lock. There were two crystalline inlays right next to each other on respective opposites of the door, yet neither seemed to allow for the insertion of any sort of physical key. A second flaring of Metallic Presence took him out of it for a breath.

But the memory of the metal boxes was abstruse in his memory. There were seemingly a dozen distinct pieces of metal within, yet he could not attune a single one. It wasn’t the only impression that remained in his mind. The distinct signature of another object he had previously attuned stuck to his head. The box with a lot of fire magic within was stored here.

I doubt I’ll have any success playing around with that. Neither will I have the time. After having attuned the metal pieces as well, he tried to get a gleam of the insides with his mana sense. There he found an explanation for why he’d previously been so confused.

Where the rest of the enchantments on the door lacked any sort of metal affinity – whatever that implied – the energy within the presumed locks was almost cramped with it and several other flavors.

Tampering with this seems dangerous. He was tempted to figure out a way to interact with the locks. After moments Kent decided against it.

He would try his original plan first.

Laying down next to the door wasn’t the most defensible position but it allowed for the best angle of acceleration. First, he pushed on the parts of the hinges affixed to the door, lifting the door and pushing it against the frame. There hadn’t been a lot of clearance, barely a finger’s width.

The hinges creaked slightly, groaning under the unusual strain. But the door wasn’t lifted away.

That’s enough, Kent grinned as he accelerated the hinges and four metal bars down. This time with the full might of Accelerate Metal and Temporal Fitting.

A single hinge broke as Kent rolled away. Cracking of metal reverberated through the room bouncing off the walls and further into the institute.

Kent cursed mentally as he rolled back to the door.

He repeated the same tactic twice over until the last four hinges broke off all at once. Kent had no real possibility of lowering the door softly, all his abilities, even with Metallic Mastery didn’t allow for such a thing. So he decided to go for the dramatic entrance. By this point, anyone within the exhibition would know of his attempt at entering anyway. Best to scare them a bit first.

As the door fell toward him he pushed every piece of metal as strongly as he could away from him – the easiest application of Accelerate Metal.

Crashing erupted from all over the room. Shattering wood, glass, and stone resounded from everywhere. Metal clanged and liquids splashed. Building and swelling like a storm in the forest.

He was briefly worried. But at that point – Kent was sure of it – the alarms already had to be blearing.

I’m on borrowed time now at least. He mentally began counting down from thirty as he dashed through the shattered door frame.

Under other circumstances, Kent would have stared at rows upon rows of vitrines, weapon racks, bookshelves, and odds plants awestruck. Not even the heads of creatures the size of a whole human body were able to draw his attention now.

He had a goal, and he’d see about finding it. He was going to steal the source of the fire he’d previously felt.

Yells and shouting drew closer with each and every one of his steps. Catching up faster to him than he could move into the exhibition. Blanketing, smothering any desire in observing childlike fascinations.

As quickly as he could he dashed further into the hall reaching for a few unsecured knives and daggers and slotting them into the empty pouch that hung by his side. Five in total. His quest didn’t tell him to stop. And he would only leave once it signaled him to have completed his target or until he saw guards.

He rushed through the room, looking for something that looked like a guaranteed success. He still moved roughly into the direction of the source of the fire but had lost the knowledge of its absolute position. He knew he shouldn’t dare to use the slightly inhibiting skill again, but he wanted that fire object.

He felt it as he sent a pulse of Metallic Presence out. An intense heat came from only a dozen paces deeper into the exhibition, permeating the metal he had previously attuned. As he observed it for the one count the familiar heat grew, swelling, blazing. Telling him that it was here.

Most importantly it felt incredibly strong. And strong meant valuable. Kent rushed as fast as his feet could take him to where the fire signature originated. Past a few marble pillars at the end of a particularly wide path stood a lone glass vitrine with a box of metal inside – open to two sides with a lid flipped to the back.

It was the first time Kent could see energy signatures from more than a pace away. It almost completely overwhelmed his energy sight.

In the open casing lay a red shimmering gem the size of Kent’s fist. A spell core he realized. He took fast steps and glanced at the sign below the glass.

“Special Exhibit,” the sign read in the first line. Kent only read the second line to know that this was what he needed.

“Spell Core – Fire (Undeterminable Rarity)” followed by several more lines of explanations Kent had no interest in reading. He knew it would fulfill the quest.

The rest of the words didn’t matter, the history and theory behind it were all irrelevant. What did matter was that this had to be worth leagues more than his spell cores of tranquility had been.

He kicked at the glass vitrine that held the box and core within.

To his surprise, it shattered. The moment it did. The world became a blur. Some sort of magical effect overtook Kent’s senses, thinking became sluggish and moving twice so. He was keeling over slightly trying to not fall into the sea of shards he had created in front of him. He stretched out one hand to steady himself. But it didn’t fall on the display cabinet as he had planned.

It felt as though he was reaching through the world, through space. Not moving, frozen in place with his right hand burning hotter and hotter with each second.

Kent had no clue what was going on. It looked like his hand was pressed against where the glass had previously been, resting against some invisible force he couldn’t feel. Then just as quickly as the vertigo had come he’d felt it pass, his hand touched the now floating crystal. Scorching heat rolled through him burning his hand and arm. And with the pain came a certain clarity of mind.

He activated his cloak's spell and vanished into the land of darkness and night. The fire of the soul core in his hand illuminated the dark world for the first time – leaving a discernable flickering on all objects around him.

Whatever magic had muddled his mind, decreased rapidly.

A glance at his mana confirmed the dread he’d been feeling. The cloak drained even more of his mana than the cloak usually it.

Only three-fifths remain. I need to get out.

He rushed into the main path of the exhibition, drawing throwing knives from the holsters with his other not burning hand.

The first two people he saw pointed at him a moment after he came into view. He dropped out of the Night's Embrace and accelerated a knife at each. The second knife tore through a trachea and excited the corresponding body through the back, the other glanced off the woman’s chest plate with a shocked expression. Kent vanished again, and she seemed to have struggled following his movements.

He turned around and ran the other way, further into the exhibition.

A disappearing act, a corner, a long unoccupied hallway, and another theft later he appeared in a hallway over in front of a large window. The tower shield he’d taken was pressed against the window at the end of the exhibition. Several different colored pieces showed Heron's ascension to the throne.

When it too shattered after a brief cast of his magic without much resistance Kent felt the first drops of doubt coalesce in his mind. It couldn’t be this easy, could it?

His harness activated and Kent accelerated through the partially broken window. The air outside felt muddy, dampened, and thick. Slowing him down and dragging him down. He loosened the restrictions of Metallic Mastery imposed on Accelerate Metal. His skill won out over the area-wide effect around him.

He was hurled away by his own magic. At first upwards, then just straight way towards the mountains in the distance. The system chimed thrice during his flight, but he didn’t have the energy to look at the three waiting notifications.

On several occasions he witnessed objects passing him. And even when he began feeling safe after a fifty-count he didn’t dare decelerate. His mana was low and he wasn’t going in the entirely right direction to throw off potential trackers.

Kent turned around once. The light of the torches throughout the outer district and the magical lights in the second and first districts struck an ache through his heart. He had given up any chance of coexisting with civilization for now. He didn’t know whether he would be welcome in other cities now or whether he had migrate to a different kingdom.

He did know that the intertwining colors erupting all over Farburg were in his honor, congratulating the completion of his quest.

Kent would… He would grow stronger. Fight monsters, conquer dungeons, gain experience and skill in his chosen path, and try to pawn off the giant spell core still burning his right hand.

He angled his parabolic arcs of flight towards a particularly familiar mountain slope, and decelerated as strongly as he could. He had less than fifty mana remaining at this point. The descent grew more precarious than he’d hoped for. With ten mana left to his name, the stumbled down on the ground, not quite able to absorb the entire force of the landing with his knees.

Kent laid down on the uneven stone and dirt floor exhaling heavily.

He pulled up his recent notifications just to make sure he had been truly successful.

Quest Alert (Two Eyes for an Eye):

You have taken back your rightful belongings – or something of equal or greater worth. You have inflicted pain on those who have slighted you and dared to oppose the true scions.

Static Reward: Level Progress – 2 Levels

Variable Reward: Everything you have obtained in your quest shall rightfully belong to you.

Special Reward: Soul Core Assimilation

He hadn’t noticed the two levels earlier but now they were there as though they’d always been there. His mana jumped up by a few points. The other rewards were a little ambiguous. Especially the variable and special reward.

What does that even mean? Kent wondered as he tried to parse the special reward.

Given the system’s treatment thus far it felt like another thing that would potentially screw him over. He’d never heard of a soul core. Much less of people being able to assimilate any kind of core. Though, he didn’t doubt it one bit that some noble somewhere had a trait that allowed the very same.

The next two notifications made Kent’s eyes shine.

Displacer – Casting the same spell multiple times all at once is elementary. Sustaining and repeating that for several iterations is not. Increases the contributing attribute (Mind) by 10%.

Multicaster – Affecting one conceptual object with multiple parallel casts of the same spell requires significant mental hoops. Increases Mind by 25%.

That… Is surprising. I didn’t expect it to be that easy to gain new titles. Though, I feel like the system made an error here. I don’t think I could have cast Accelerate Metal on any real object multiple times.

Kent was glad for it though. He could have used more mind earlier to appease the strain of Metallic Presence and control multiple distinct metal pieces at once. Now he would have to worry less in the future. He was giddy to see what would happen in the future.

Next, he began glanced at the three daggers and the two knives in his pouch. Just as he was about to open the pouch with his left hand – given that his right was still occupied his vision was filled by another information box.

Soul Core Assimiliation:

Would you like to assimilate the spell core?

Yes/No

Not choosing before falling asleep the next time will automatically assimilate the spell core.

Choosing “No” is not advised.

He looked down at his right. His no longer burning hand. It looked fine he thought. The skin was heavily agitated but not more so compared to touching a hot pot. There was no spell or soul core anywhere in sight.

Shit.

Kent didn’t want to assimilate the spell core. He didn’t even know what that meant. But he couldn’t select ‘No’. The button was there. But he was not able to mentally select it. He was almost tempted to try yes. But he’d not.

“This is bad,” he muttered out loud. He didn’t know what exactly would happen if a spell core was assimilated. He’d never heard of it in the first place. What he did know was that his soul had no capacity or affinity for fire. This might ruin him if it didn’t kill him outright.

“That sounds just about right. I finished this stupid useless quest for you and as a reward, I get something I don’t want forced upon me. What are the odds that I die?” Kent yelled into the world. He didn’t care anymore that they might find him due to that.

Notice – Not assimilating the soul core now that it merged with your soul will result in certain death.

At least it had responded to him this time. Whatever that meant probably wasn’t a good thing anyway. What were the odds that it was lying to him?

He grit his teeth, thinking of anything, any possibility to not immediately absorb the core.

Notice – You are running out of time.

“Fuck you,” Kent yelled. “If I survive this, I will make you pay.”

Notice – Hate is a good motivator young one.

Kent gaped.

Options exhausted Kent scratched his head, hopelessly looking for another way to proceed and get out of this situation. He stood there for a while, feeling the exhaustion of the continuous stress he’d been under, and the mental exhaustion of the previous hours equivalent to strenuous hours of concentrating take a toll on his mind. He knew that if he didn’t start soon, he would fall asleep. He barely cared anymore. He just wanted a break.

Is a full night of sleep so much to ask for?

Kent laid back down again, tracing his eyes across the sky, wishing that he’d been dealt a better card in life. One that allowed for happiness and friendship, instead of isolation and despair.

Notice – A Ten Count!

If his soul wasn’t obliterated the moment he fell asleep, he promised himself, he would disregard whatever the system gave him as a quest. He’d look for a village and just befriend everyone there.

He thought of the friendships he’d had just months ago. It all ended because of this stupid system. How he’d grown alongside his friends and siblings.

How he’d met Estes, someone that wasn’t quite a friend, far from it even, but had helped him regardless.

Then there was Alexus, the smith’s apprentice. They’d only seen each other a handful of times, but they could have been great friends. Interested in the same things but with a similar outlook on things.

Kent felt water pool in his eyes. But he didn’t swipe it away. He wanted to remember, wallow a bit in his sadness. As far as he was concerned, he’d earned it. Any emotion besides stress and tiredness was welcome. Anything that would let him fall asleep a final time without the impending doom hovering over him.

“Damn it,” he chuckled. “There I go, thinking of it again.”

With a smile, he thought back, back to his youth when he’d played with his siblings and neighbors, and listened to the stories they would tell. He thought back to a good time. One in which one’s trait didn’t matter.

Yes, he’d grown beyond anything he could have foreseen. Beyond what anyone could have expected of him. Not even his father could claim him to be a failure now – except he would if he were to see him now.

Somewhere along that line of thinking his thoughts finally drifted off into the sweet embrace of sleep. Slumber he didn’t expect to wake up from.

Kent hadn’t expected to wake up. But something had woken him. Not the sun burning down on him. Not the distant roar of the wind, or the cold breeze with which it swept across his skin. Something inside him screamed for his attention.

“Wake up Traitless,” the firm voice of an older woman resonated in his head, coming from everywhere and nowhere at all at once. Not quite audible, but there regardless. “We have a King to burn...”