Unknown to Jason and quite luckily for him as well, those researchers and such that are observing him are incapable of detecting the three conceptual powers. To them it looks like a lot of power is entering his body only to disappear. This is of course strange, but not on the level of “bust down the door and take him in for questioning” strange. While not public, the idea of conservation of energy has been called into question because of the strange powers and so the stuff just vanishing isn’t new to them.

Though eventually all good things come to an end and Jason’s alarm goes off. With a short stretch he heads back to his pod and logs into NeoRealm. Once there, he is greeted again with a system message saying another change to his body’s power has been detected. This time though it doesn’t detect enough of an increase to add anymore Energy to his character. Sad, but on the other hand this means that if he keeps working on it, the System will notice and increase his Energy when appropriate.

Still, he doesn’t know how efficient it will be so can only throw it to the back of his mind. For now, what is most important is to work on his Energy total in-game and he happens to have a book just for that. But before he can even get out of bed another System message pops up.

{Real Body Energy deviation causing mirrored deviation to Avatar

Analyzing new Energy make up...

Tripartite Conceptual Energy detected

Analyzing first part...

Concept based upon the idea of order, technology, and community

Tentative name: Tradition

Analyzing second part...

Concept based upon the idea of advancing, purity, and willpower

Tentative name: Growth

Analyzing third part...

Concept based upon the idea of vitality, solidity, and physicality

Tentative name: Earth

Analyzing synergy...

Tradition protects the Earth, allowing Growth

Bonuses from Energy specialization: +10 Defense, +20 Stamina, +60 HP

Readjusting Base Control to 34 as Energy specialization would require at least that much

Rename Conceptual Energys? Y/N}

{New Title: Energy Specialist

You have managed to gain at least two different Energy specializations without System assistance and thus have greater ability to manipulate your own Energy}

“Huh”, Jason stares at the screen as he lies on the bed. NeoRealm just seems to get deeper and deeper. Still, the System prompt is flashing there and since it is giving him the option, “System, rename Tradition as Civilization, Growth as Ascendance, and Earth as Substance.”

{Renaming in progress...

Additional understanding of Civilization, boosting from 0.05% to 0.06%

Additional understanding of Ascendance, boosting from 0.07% to 0.1%

Understanding of Ascendance reaching 0.1% detected

Boosting Strength, Toughness, and Agility by 1

Additional understanding of Substance, boosting from 0.05% to 0.07%}

Upon seeing the new message Jason shakes his head, “How does it even know what percentage to give? That doesn’t make any sense! Well, I guess if it isn’t. Hmm, yeah, if the System is judging the understanding against the max you can have in NeoRealm that would make more sense. It would be prone to not detecting the stranger things one might figure out. Though that would explain why changing the name was able to give me a boost in understanding.”

“Probably not going to be able to boost that in game either. Or at least I’m not going to work too hard on it. I did get a bonus for Ascendance reaching a tenth of a percent, but who knows how regular those rewards are. Plus a pure bonus to stats isn’t exactly the most exciting thing. Though speaking of which, System, show me my stats please.”

{Normal Stats

Strength 43 ( 28[Base] + 1[Ascendance] + 10[Eq] + 4[Set] ) Toughness 57 ( 42[Base] + 1[Ascendance] + 10[Eq] + 4[Set] ) Agility 54 ( 39[Base] + 1[Ascendance] + 10[Eq] + 4[Set] ) Control 34 ( 34[Base] )

Auxiliary Stats

Defense 52 ( 30[Eq] + 10[Energy] + 12[Set] ) Stamina 52 ( 32[Base] + 20[Energy] ) HP 166 ( 106[Base] + 60[Energy] ) Energy 15

Tripartite Conceptual Energy

Civilization 0.06% Ascendance 0.1% Substance 0.07%}

“Huh, it includes the concept percentages in the stats. That’s weird when it doesn’t even title the section as a stat. Though I guess Energy itself is a stat so it kind of makes sense. Anyway, just another thing I can’t do anything about. Except I guess tell Courtney? This would be more proof that cultivation in real life does something.”

Jason stops talking and stares at the ceiling for a moment, “Guess I should get on with reading the book. Gregor did say he wrote notes in it so that might help me. Might not as well. It isn’t like he uses Energy so except for the more generic bits. Though I feel like I am forgetting something?”

“Right, better check on the house plant. It has been a day and I wonder if the System has starved it of Energy again. While that is possible I suspect that my continued interest combined with my farming skill means the System might have just decided it was important enough to keep going.”

Jason goes over and picks up the house plant to examine. It does look slightly wilted, but that might be from the day before. The only way to tell for sure is to check the Energy flow and see if the System has cut it off again. This doesn’t take long, and the answer is sorta.

The System hasn’t cut the plant back to starving, but it hasn’t exactly opened the floodgates either. Instead, it is feeding in barely enough Energy to cover the plants upkeep. However, now that Jason is poking around again the amount of Energy being fed to the plant increases once again. Though this points to another potential explanation for how the plants stay good as long as someone with a skill looks after them, but return to normal when left alone. The System just stops supporting their growth if someone hasn’t used a skill on them recently. It doesn’t try to kill them but you wouldn’t be able to tell it from a normal plant unless you were like Jason and checking the plant’s inner space.

Jason eventually puts the plant down and returns to his book. All the while the System is working overtime. Because of Jason’s cultivation from the real world leaking through, he has started to notice some of the restrictions in place. While the System is incapable of straight out mind control, it is more than capable of causing people to forget a few lines of text or the last thing they thought of if it isn’t too stressful. This doesn’t prevent the players from thinking about a subject but does allow the System to nudge them down the path of considering other things. So many thoughts are spur of the moment that just making Jason think about how he can’t do anything with the new bit of his stat panel was enough to stop him from realizing he could tell Courtney. The connections weren’t made, as he wasn’t considering that too deeply. Like a moment of inspiration, blink and it’s gone, so the System steps in and throws some sand in your eyes to force the subject.