Since most of my time was spent on Ring Four, I didn’t get to see the actual expedition party heading out into the Nether Vein proper. I did receive an extremely official-looking letter from the Councillors, which thanked me for all my efforts towards the Nether Vein, and also nicely stated that they were in my debt.

  I needed to remember that. The more I spent time as the leader of the Sun Cult, the less I felt like the things I did were some sort of favour or needed remuneration. But at the same time, I had spent a good deal of effort for Zairgon as a whole.

  Over the next day, I spent some time working on my Affixes before I headed out to meet Linak. I didn’t want to let my Aspects fall behind for too long.

  I would have met him yesterday, but the Artificer’s Guild had been closed. Weekly holiday, apparently. I couldn’t blame them for that.

  So I figured I’d focus on the things I was slowly learning and figuring out. Having acquired only the one new Affix for Flare recently, I was really looking forward to getting some for others, especially now that I had ideas. It wasn’t just Manipulation for Illumination that I was going for. I now knew what Affixes I’d work towards for both Entropy and Ritual as well.

  One thing at a time, though. First, I focused harder on Manipulation.

  It felt like it was working. After all, the most basic use of it was something I could already perform—lowering and raising the intensity of light on things I had used Imbuement on.

  But try as I might, for hours and hours on end, the new Affix didn’t materialize.

  “Forgive me, Cultist,” Santoire said. He was leading a bunch of new initiates on a temple-cleaning trip. “But you’re, uh, distracting…”

  I pursed my lips. Oops. I had noticed stares, but I had become so used to the ones I kept getting at every other place on Zairgon, I had forgotten that I could be actively distracting. Especially when I was glowing on and off like a broken streetlamp.

  “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t see you guys enter. Thanks for taking care of the mess, by the way. The temple looks so much cleaner. I’ve just, uh, never been good at that kind of thing.”

  “It’s no problem at all, Cultist,” one of the new initiates said brightly.

  I smiled. Then gave them some space.

  Alright, so just manipulating my Illumination’s intensity wasn’t going to bring about the Affix I was seeking. So what else could I do? What else could I manipulate and control…

  An hour later, I was practicing with the Scarthralls again. With mostly Vandre and Lujean this time. Since this wasn’t one of our scheduled sparring days, we could practice in a much more free-form way.

  “You sure you want us to throw everything at you, Cultist Ross?” Vandre asked. He looked at Lujean a little dubiously, who just shrugged back.

  “I’m sure. I know how to get my new Illumination Affix now, I think, and you guys can really help.”

  “Alright, if you say so.”

  They flung their Aspects at me. Vandre with his acidic blood and Lujean following it up with his Wildfire that raced everywhere.

  My counter to that was Reflection. Their attacks were purely magical, so I could throw them all back with my Reflection Affix. But I wasn’t going to. Not all of their Aspects, at least. Instead, I was going to try and modify it, focus on what it could and couldn’t reflect. I would, essentially, manipulate what Reflection could do.

  It took some time. I didn’t get it right instantly, and I wasn’t being overly cautious either, which meant their attacks slipped through my defences to strike me head-on.

  The Scarthralls winced every time that happened, even though I wasn’t hurt in the slightest. For one, my Vitality was significantly higher than their magical strength. For another, Manifestation had created blobs of light nearby, which disappeared every time I was going to take a hit. Vital Mana was such a delight.

  It took a lot of practice, and I thanked the Scarthralls for being patient. I probably could have tried using my own Aspects against myself, but I wanted the unpredictability the Scarthralls brought.

  Eventually, after what felt like a few hours of practice, I was now modifying Reflection any way I wished. Normally, I just threw it up to block all hostile magic aimed in my direction.

  There was no finesse to it. No fine control. Not so now.

  With my newfound control, I could make it block only Vandre’s blood or Lujean’s flames, letting the other through. I could also make it so that they were both hitting me as well, just with significantly reduced intensity, or even at nearly full intensity if I so wished. This was great.

  It went in line with the fine mana control I had been training to achieve. Modifying Reflection needed me to modify the amount and intensity of mana I sent into it, rather than just letting the Affix and Aspect run their course.

  [ Affix Unlocked!

  You have acquired a new Affix for your Illumination Aspect.

  Affix: Manipulation ]

  [ Rank Up!

  Your Illumination Aspect has risen by one Rank.

  Illumination: Silver V ]

  “Got it,” I said with a smile.

  The Scarthralls cheered. Credit to them, they didn’t look tired or impatient or anything of the sort. As such, I made sure to thank them profusely for their assistance.

  “Uh, didn’t you have someplace to go, Cultist Ross?” Vandre asked. “You sure you still have time? It’s getting rather late.”

  I blinked. Then cursed. He was right. I had gotten so distracted that I had forgotten about my meeting with Linak.

  “Thanks for the reminder,” I said. “Watch over the cult while I’m gone, please.”

  “You’re just going out for one night, Cultist!” Lujean called after me. “Not on the Pits-cursed Nether Vein expedition.”

  I laughed as I left.

  I barely caught Linak before he had disappeared to wherever he lived. He was closing up the Artificer’s Guild as the last person to leave after the workday was done. I was tempted to curse the lack of a proper sun on Ephemeroth. When most of the day looked the same, it got pretty difficult to tell the time intuitively.

  “Oh, Ross!” Linak said. “You look like you’re in a hurry. Is everything alright?”

  “Hey, Linak.” It was nice I didn’t need to waste time catching my breath. My heightened Vitality meant my stamina had improved tremendously. I had hurried all the way from Ring Four, and that sort of run in my old Earth state would have left me panting like a dog. “It’s nothing too urgent. Just wanted to talk to you about Artifices if you’re free.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “I do need to head home,” he said. “But why don’t you come accompany me for a bit?” He offered me a beaky smile. “And if we’re not done by the time I reach home, then I guess I’ll be hosting you for the first time! Although, it won’t be much, sadly.”

  “It shouldn’t take that long, and I’ll try not to hold you up. What’s waiting for you back home?”

  We got going as Linak replied, “Oh, it’s just my son. My little boy is ill.”

  “Oh.” I hadn’t yet asked about Linak’s personal life, so it was a bit of a surprise to me to learn he was married. To be fair, it wasn’t like I was an expert in judging Plumefolk ages. “I hope it’s nothing serious. If there’s any way I can help, let me know, please.”

  Linak laughed good-naturedly. “It’s just a fever. He’s already up and running, strong lad that he is.”

  “Oh, that’s good.”

  “Never mind that, Ross. What did you want to tell me?”

  As we walked through Ring Three, I mentioned everything I had talked about with Silhatsa the other day. The streets were crowded with nearly everybody heading home after work. It was a strange coincidence that the idea of rush hours seemed to exist on Ephemeroth just as it had on Earth.

  “Another mana core?” Linak said so incredulously, I heard a distinct squawk at the end of his sentence. His rust-coloured feathers had ruffled in excitement too. “That’s incredibly rare, Ross. You will never cease to amaze me, will you?”

  “I aim to amaze, yes,” I said, a little drily.

  Linak squawked in laughter again. “Miss Silhatsa is correct. Unfortunately, brute-forcing it, as you refer to it, is the tried and tested way of manifesting a mana core. Gathering mana at a point where your soul can latch onto it is the only consistent way of gaining a mana core.”

  “So there are inconsistent ways, then?”

  He stared at me. Ah, right. He meant that kind of inconsistence—methods that were difficult to replicate. My original mana core had arrived thanks to the shenanigans surrounding my Sacrifice. Not everyone could do that.

  “But if simply gathering mana is how you get more mana cores,” I said. “Then couldn’t just anyone get a second mana core by piling all their mana into one location?”

  “Well, no. That sort of thing takes an inconceivably enormous amount of energy. The only reason I hadn’t mentioned it yet is because you’re one of the few people that can attain that sort of magic, thanks to your first core’s property. Gold-ranked though you may be, I don’t doubt you could rival Jades, maybe even Sovereigns, in terms of pure energy output.”

  I… hadn’t considered it quite that way at the end there. Mostly because I lacked frames of reference. There was no easy number indicating just how much mana I or anyone else could handle.

  “I’ll get started on it, then,” I said. “Are there tips or tricks? Any specific directions I need to follow? Or is it just piling up the mana into one location and hoping for the best?”

  “Pretty much the latter, yes. You should get it in no time, I’m thinking.”

  I supposed I’d see when I actually got around to it. Up next, we discussed the real issue I wanted to talk to Linak about.

  “You’re thinking of an Artifice that can house your Compound Aspect, eh?” Linak rubbed the underside of his beak like it was a chin. “Hmm…”

  “Silhatsa said it’d basically be a glorified lamp,” I said. “I think she’s right.”

  “Perhaps. We could start working along that direction. What are the exact properties of the Compound Aspect that you were hoping would be useful?”

  I spoke at length about Protostar and how I had manifested it at the Kalnislaw lands.

  Linak warmed a lot more towards the idea. “Dissipate heat and light, and in a controlled fashion too. That’s very neat!” His eyes started sparkling. “And you said you want to integrate it with the Anymphea’s manatech? Why didn’t you say that from the start!”

  He laughed almost maniacally.

  “Hold your horse—uh, take it easy,” I said, amending my idiom in case nobody knew what horses were here. “I’m glad you’re excited, but I’ve got no idea how it’s all going to integrate together.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t expect you to, no offence. This is my line of expertise, Ross.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, fair enough.”

  Linak said he’d start figuring out the basics of the artifices we’d need. He didn’t want to tell me much more about it without first having a think for himself, so I let him be.

  What he impressed upon me, though, was to get my second mana core up and running as soon as I could. Apparently, that would help with the artifices because I’d be able to use Permanence a lot more frequently then, just as I had suspected.

  “Here,” I said.

  Linak accepted the little pot of flavoured juice I had bought from a nearby store. “Oh, my son will love this. But why?”

  “I don’t think I’ll be accompanying you to your home, Linak. But I don’t want to always be the one taking things. So, uh, this is just a small token of appreciation. And you know the Sun Cult will always be there to help if you ever need it, right?”

  Despite Linak having only a beak, not a mouth, I could tell by the way his eyes crinkled that he was smiling widely. “Thank you, friend. And don’t worry about it. That’s what friends do, yes? We help each other whenever we can.”

  Well, creating an artifice was going a bit beyond just helping, but I only beamed back in return. He was right in essence.

  I spent the next few days mostly just training. Sure, I had acquired one Affix for one of my Aspects, but what about the rest? Then there were the new Augmentations I still had to train up.

  For now, I focused on Entropy. I wanted to get a second Affix for it before it hit Silver, and while that was still a few weeks away, there was no point in dallying.

  The idea was basically the opposite of the Affix I currently had. Emission clearly made any other Aspect I possessed start to gradually emit its energy away. But could I do the reverse? I already had Concentration for Flare that could draw in heat energy, but it was an active ability. Something I needed to, well, concentrate to use.

  Now, I was thinking in terms of what Gutran had said. That Affixes didn’t necessarily have to be something that was active, something that needed direct control.

  So, could I come up with an Affix for Emission that drew in all the radiation from the surroundings to essentially provide me with a store of energy I could then manipulate as I wished? I had a feeling this would compound the effects of Flare’s Absorption, and even synergize with Reflection in certain cases.

  Because I could see myself gathering energy with via this potential Entropy Affix I was going for, maybe use Absorption if the battle had presented a heat source, and then unleash all the gathered energy at the exact same instant that I used Reflection.

  Catch opponents flat-footed? More like eviscerating them with a bit of their own power in the mix.

  I’d probably need some way to redirect that energy, though.

  Despite my training, I didn’t get it in the next few days. It was hard to practice. I had to focus on Flare’s Absorption but not activate it while also trying to spread it to other sources of energy. By others I meant light and heat as those were the only ones that really radiated.

  But I was making progress. Slowly but surely, I felt infinitesimally thin strands of mana seep out and constantly connect with the radiated energy around me.

  The problem, I was quickly discovering, was that the amount of energy that was normally radiated out was kind of small. Sure, the sum amount of energy in an entire area was probably sizable, but in smaller localities, it wasn’t anything huge. I wasn’t going to be making much progress or gaining a ton of energy, especially if I wasn’t using something like Concentration actively.

  Hmm, I’d have to think about it.

  A few days later, Atholaine and Vandre returned from a little trip to the Wind Cult.

  “We didn’t do a whole lot,” Atholaine said. “Cultist Favoile is ill.”

  I pursed my lips. “Hope it's nothing serious. I should pay him a visit.”

  “He also sent this, Cultist Ross,” Vandre said, handing me a scroll.

  They had gone over to study new Rituals that Favoile was teaching his cultists. He had generously invited others to attend, if they were able, and I had asked the Scarthralls if they were free.

  “Oh, this is a list of new Affixes,” I said, unfurling and going through the scroll. “Not a new Ritual.”

  Vandre looked away in embarrassment at that.

  Atholaine elbowed him. “Vandre ended up mentioning that you hadn’t gained a new Affix despite hitting Silver, so the Wind Cult leader said to prioritize this.”

  “How nice of him,” I said.

  The list had quite a few options, such as Participatory Enhancement, Circle, Subjectivity, and so on. Favoile had added little definitions to go along with them too, which I very much appreciated.

  I belatedly realized I probably should have asked about new Augmentation suggestions for Fervour. Oh, well. I’d have to hit him up some other time. I had ideas of my own for later.

  Participatory Enhancement improved the effect of the Ritual based on how many people were carrying it out, which further increased if it was being performed by all participants simultaneously. Circle essentially created a switch that could remotely activate Rituals, holding a completed Ritual’s power in check until it was needed.

  Finally, Subjectivity allowed the ritualists to select targets of the ritual other than themselves. That last one was interesting because rituals so far had been buffing affairs for the participants. With this Affix, it could be used directly against others.

  I really needed to think about it.

  “How’s your shopping going?” I asked.

  “Lujean and the others should be done soon,” Vandre said. “We bought a lot of stuff with the Adventurer’s Guild money. I think you’ll approve, Cultist Ross.”

  “Is that right? I’ll be waiting to see then.”

  The next few days didn’t see me getting my new Ritual Affix as I mostly focused on Entropy, squeezing in some Agility training sessions with Gutran, and observing how the work on the vineyards was going—the Anymphea were diligently constructing their greenhouses.

  Three days later, I got the Affix I was going for.

  [ Affix Unlocked!

  You have acquired a new Affix for your Entropy Aspect.

  Affix: Intake ]

  [ Rank Up!

  Your Agility Attribute has risen by one Rank.

  Your Entropy and Flare Aspects have risen by one Rank.

  Agility: Gold IV

  Entropy: Iron VII

  Flare: Silver VI ]

  Happy as I was to finally get new ranks and Affixes, there was another interesting development I needed to pay attention to. The first Nether Vein expedition had returned.

  And it wasn’t looking good.