Inside the house, I started growing lights on the walls powered with environmental Mana. Ensuring they didn't emit more than a dim lamp's worth of light. A proper ambiance was required after all.

I sat on the loveseat that Novi had grown while I was working on the Whisperash transmutation, staring at the next puzzle on my ring. She had wanted to do it together, but this one didn't really make sense for her to get involved in.

Unless she could use her Strand to sneak past the Domain, but whether that was even possible or not was just speculation. I didn't know if hiding from a Domain while in it was even possible.

At our level, that was, I was sure there was a Skill that would allow that eventually.

So, since that was the case, I might as well do it on my own. Or at least that's what I was trying to tell myself. In reality, I just wanted to spend some time not thinking about trying to optimize my chances of survival for a few minutes.

The first thing I was going to try was the counter Domain idea. Even if the original Domain had been scaled up to my current Stats, the two opposing forces should cancel out. Or at least that was the plan.

Which meant I needed to figure out how to write in Argent Bastion.

Leaning back on the loveseat, I focused on that cold, inhospitable concept that was the Argent Bastion. As I meditated on the Strand, I felt myself sinking into a place deep within myself.

Despite my eyes being shut off, I could see something in the far distance. There was a silver light shining against a dark background. If I had a heart, I knew it would have just stopped beating. I had no idea if that would have killed me if I were a human or not. I couldn't feel my body anymore, other than knowing it had gone perfectly still.

With a flash, the darkness fled, replaced by the sight of a glacier. It was seemingly endless, to the point that the glacier replaced the sky above as it wrapped around my perspective, forming a tunnel.

If I weren't already used to scenes like this, I would have been distracted to the point of knocking myself out of the vision. Instead, I remained calm and watched what was happening. Though, if I could have taken a calming breath without falling out of this, I would have. There was something important here. Why would this trippy psychedelic experience exist otherwise?

I suppose it was a good time waster, but I meant aside from that.

The glacier slid by at a glacial pace as I moved down the tunnel. I tried to will myself to move faster, but had to immediately stop as the glacier began to groan. That noise chilled me to my Core for reasons I couldn't explain.

That made a kind of sense; if my Strand focused on stillness, then focusing on the opposite of that was the wrong answer. In fact, I probably shouldn't be moving at all. So I willed myself to stop, only to find something was forcefully pulling me. I couldn't overcome it with sheer willpower.

So I added some of my Authority to the mix, forcing whatever was happening to stop with all my power. Unlike when I normally exerted my Authority, this time it was like I was using it to push a boulder up a hill. After a moment, I had to take a break and stop trying for a bit just to get my wits about me.

After a couple of bursts of Authority that did nothing, I paused. This wasn't working. Every time I let go, I'd lose almost as much progress as I made. Either I'd need to wait to do this until I had higher Spirit, as Autumn said it should strengthen my Authority, or I'd have to put my big girl pants on.

I chose the second. I was onto something here, and I didn't know if it would be easy to get back here after I'd left. Just dropping in effortlessly could be a one-time thing. It might be far harder or possibly not even be possible to return if I gave up now.

Wrapping myself in Authority, I focused intently on calming myself as much as I could. Sliding along this endless glacial tunnel like it was a lazy river.

Then, with all the power I had, I pulled myself to a stop. Ever so slowly, I saw my perception's velocity drop. Until I finally reached a standstill.

Nothing had changed, and it took everything in me just to stay in this one place. But I held myself here anyway. This had to be it. Why else would I be moving in the conceptual ideal of stillness?

Then my Authority ran out.

With the release, I began moving forward again, seemingly changing nothing. Except my speed was incredibly slow now, far slower than before.

If I was capable of sagging in defeat I would have. Instead, I just sat there, trying to take a metaphorical breather as whatever I had done had run me ragged. Apparently, I couldn't get away with not investing in training my aura.

It took me a little while to notice that, no, I wasn't back to where I was before, I was actually gaining speed. For a moment, part of the description of [Argent Flow] flashed in my mind. It had mentioned something about quicksilver, hadn't it?

This wasn't like when I triggered an Avalanche. Instead, it was more like I was building up speed over time. Sliding along the tunnel, I was going faster and faster, until it felt like I was falling down a hole. The walls were flying by me while I stared downwards at a point in the distance that I was rapidly closing in on. The further I went, the faster I flew.

Finally, I could see what I was heading towards. All I could tell was that it was some kind of massive silver fortress, before I slammed into it.

The moment I made contact with the structure, I was thrown from the loveseat and forced back into my body. Landing on the floor, I noticed that knowledge had scoured itself into my mind, and it was exactly what I had been seeking. But more than that, there was something more. I'd have to play with that part later, though.

There was light flooding in underneath the door. Had I been doing that all night? It only felt like I had my eyes closed for a few minutes.

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I popped open the puzzle, spent ten seconds drawing a ritual on a block of Groveheart Root with Wondersprout Fibres. The answer was trivial; it was as if I had known what it was the whole time.

I started time in the puzzle and watched the thieves walk through the manor door. The defensive array that I had drawn in the first puzzle triggered, but could do absolutely nothing against the new one I just made. The rot splashed off the silver sphere before it could even be conceived of. It didn't even drain any Mana from the Domain of the Bastion.

Silver did have antimicrobial and antifungal properties, didn't it? No wonder I hadn't touched [Verdant Corruption] in a while; it just didn't feel right to use. It would probably be the first Skill I got rid of in my Class to free up Skill slots.

The thieves killed the manor staff on the way, and it was the same as when I had run the first puzzle with no defenses. The problem solved itself.

Would this even be worth any levels? It was so easy.

As it finished up, I received a notification from the ring that I completed the level and unlocked the next one. I would open it up later when I wanted another break. I probably needed to do them more often, if only just to decompress after doing something strenuous.

Even though I didn't feel like I had physically exerted myself—thank Eryx for his mercy—it was still a lot of time spent focusing on something mentally demanding.

A notification finally appeared.

Profession Level (Greenweaver) Increased +2 (19) +8 Wit, +4 Spirit, +4 Arcana, +8 Eidetic Drops

That was as many levels as I had gained when I made Silver Whisperash for doing practically nothing, or at least what felt like nothing.

Who doesn't spend an entire night going on a psychedelic trip sometimes?

I put the points into Wit, a Stat that I felt like I just didn't have enough of these days. If I took my Profession to level ninety-nine, I might actually be able to perceive and control my movement during an Avalanche. Though, I did have an alternative to that now.

Moments later, I received another message.

[HEY! I THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO DO IT TOGETHER!]

I snickered to myself and leaned back in the chair, "You snooze, you lose. Should have made time for me instead of being so busy with Sam."

[It was important… I'll show you later. Anyway, I have a few updates.]

…

Late morning of the next day, after finishing what preparation I could, I stood with Autumn at the top of the bluffs, waiting for Novi to return before today's merfolk migration. She had completed our Daily Quest to a minimum satisfaction alongside Sam, which required twenty kills of beings that were at least level fifteen.

As for future Daily Quests, there was a place near Fateswatch where they posted the completion requirements every morning. Today's was thirty kills, no other requirements besides that.

It was starting to get to the point that I wasn't sure how the average person was supposed to complete it back in Fateswatch. Without explosives, you'd have to spend the hours just butchering wildlife.

Unless the intention was for people to fail? They could be trying to cull the slowest to advance. They got a use out of us either way. They'd also be screwing over non-humans the most, and it wouldn't surprise me if that were one of their objectives as well.

Whatever the case, I received no reward since we only achieved the minimum number of kills.

"Okay, sorry about that. We're out of Fateswatch now. Sam is grinding Class levels in the outskirts," Novi said from atop my head. Popping into existence as if she had been there the whole time.

She likely had been, too.

"Do you really have to stay on top of my head all the time?" I asked.

"Nope, I do it for the love of the game. Also, as per my Oath, here are the memories I was supposed to give you," Novi replied. Then she dumped day's worth of information into my mind in an incredibly disorienting fashion that made my knees wobble.

Given her memory wasn't photographic, the form that the memories came in was a reel of impressions and snippets of information arranged like factoids. Most of what I didn't already know involved her scampering about Fateswatch. I noticed immediately that the Mana in the air wasn't nearly as thick as it was here. There was barely even a thin misting over the city, while out here, the Air Mana was so thick you could taste it even without Mana perception. The lack of Mana in Fateswatch made a sort of sense. It was a low-level Zone after all. But that fact added complications if I wanted to use artifacts over there.

My hammer, for example, was fairly Mana hungry. Just to hold itself together, it burned environmental Mana constantly. And I hadn't even added in a Symbolic Weave yet to give it a power like my [Everwinter Shield].

Most of the other memories blurred together. Moments of her running away from somebody who smelled of ash, listening in to idle chatter on the streets below from a rooftop vantage point, only for something to stand out near the start of her time there.

"Why the fuck is there a Quest to kill me?" I asked while sorting through what she had given me. "And why didn't you tell me about it until now? You figured this out like yesterday."

"I don't know—Gah!" she started, only to be interrupted when I sent her everything I remembered since her creation bundled together in a packet of Winter. She took a moment to recover from having her train of thought knocked asunder by a brick of memories. She slid off my head, falling to the floor.

That'll teach her to mess with me.

As for the other issue, it didn't make sense. Why was he given a Quest to kill me when the gods in Kaelzar's faction seemingly put a ton of effort into making me in the first place? Was there some kind of factional conflict underway that I was caught up in?

Or was this some kind of test? Me versus humanity, a test to decide… I didn't know what. There was no way for me to guess the motive of divine beings.

There was that analogy. An ant couldn't understand my motives in the same way that I couldn't understand the motives of a higher being.

Except these gods seemed more like the Greco-Roman kind, who were basically people but with more drama.

All of this was just idle speculation anyway. All I knew was that I had to eliminate every last hu—

"Bad Ellie! No committing genocide unless forced. For all we know, all you have to do is kill Li Wei," Novi said while crawling up my leg.

I shook my leg to dislodge her, then punted her off the cliff so she would stay away.

"Fine, we'll think about finding him a nice shallow grave once we finish up the Quest for Kaelzar," I replied. Though, in order to do that, it would probably be best to reach Second Ascension quickly. It was a good thing I was getting my Class levels done here.

Novi scampered back up to the top of the bluffs, glaring at me the whole time.

Only to let out a huff and turn to stare out over the ocean, "I'm sorry, I don't know why I kept it from you. We'll deal with him eventually. I'm not strong enough to kill him quite yet. Not with his ability to manipulate Time. I could probably cut his head off, and it would just get reset."

"There have to be limits to his power. There always is with time travel. Have him cause a paradox and explode or something," I said. I had no idea how to bypass his looping ability that Hazel had mentioned when I first met her, either. Maybe his Quest was one where he had to kill me without looping?

I'd have to figure that out eventually. But for now, I had more immediate concerns.

The ocean began to boil as the merfolk arrived.

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