"How's that feel? And none of your no-pain crap. I need to know!"

Nar hid a wince and nodded stiffly as the healer's aura soothed his ravaged pathways.

"It hurts," Nar confessed. "Even just moving… breathing. My heart too. Everything feels… tight inside me. Burned and torn? Is that the right word?"

"Frayed, thankfully, nothing is torn. There's plenty of burning in there, and jaggedness across your pathways, but everything's intact," Jasphaer said, scanning Nar's pathways with his [Aura Sight]. "Genahu, man. This spot here on your right arm… it looks close to breaking! Another one of those [Aura Blades], and you could've ruptured it, and then we would really be in trouble."

"Damn… Luckily, we have a great healer in the party now," Nar said, mustering a smile against the pain.

Jasphaer shook his head, his expression growing taunt.

"There are things that can't be healed as simply as that," Jasphaer said. "Pathways are such a thing, unless you are a powerful healer. A very, very powerful healer."

"Really?" Nar asked, surprised.

"Pathways and cores exist in a strange and largely unexplained reality, somewhere between the physical and the soul, so we can't just heal pathways because they are, in part, a mix of both," Jasphaer explained as he moved his aura across Nar's arm. "In fact, right now, all I'm doing is soothing and healing the physical aspect of it. To fully heal, you are going to need time for your own soul to patch the soul part of the pathways, because I can't fix them."

"Is that why I can't self-heal my pathways?" Nar asked, raising his eyebrows.

Jasphaer chuckled and shook his head. "Of course you tried to. But yes, I assume so. To be honest, I'm still at the beginning of my journey as a healer, and pathways are one of the most complex topics there is to understand, but yeah, I'm sorry Nar, but don't go expecting to self-heal your pathways. I doubt it's even possible."

Nar gave him an absent-minded nod.

Didn't the Master of Aura fix me up like it was nothing, back after the Ceremony, Nar wondered. Am I just in worse shape this time around, or is she just that strong?

Jasphaer continued to heal him, lapsing into silence as he focused, and above his shoulder, Nar eyed the others chatting and splashing by the colorful waves of the lake's edge. Laughter and coughing both reached Nar's ears, and he grinned as Tuk asserted his dominance over Rel, Mul, Lim, Jaz and Eum by sending his stone skipping the farthest across the water's surface.

Once Row's party had also decided to continue journeying with Leon's the tension had melted, and the three parties had joined into one once more. Nar had watched from the smiles, laughter, apologies and even tears from afar, as Jasphaer had decided to get some work in to help him get back up to combat readiness as soon as possible.

"Nar?"

"Yeah?" Nar asked, snapping out his reverie.

"I understand you need to push against the boundaries in order to grow stronger and stronger. We all do, but, especially in your case, please be careful not to shatter yourself against them," the healer said, his long, furry ears flat against his skull as he frowned at something inside Nar's chest. "Thank you for what you did back there, but promise me… this kind of recklessness, don't do it again. Not unless you really have to. I can't tell you how scared I am of being stuck in a dungeon with an injury I can't heal, and you were close to developing one."

He sighed and withdrew his aura from Nar, and dropped heavily on the pebbles at his side.

"A healer is not all mighty, especially not at my level," Jasphaer muttered.

Nar patted his arm.

"I'll be careful," he promised the healer. "It's not like I enjoy this pain, you know?"

Jasphaer snorted. "Are you sure? At this stage I don't even know anymore!"

Nar could only laugh at that.

"Ow! Ow!" he mumbled, as pain radiated across his body.

"It will go away. For now, I'll keep doing what I can to help, and you keep meditating. But slowly! And gently!" Jasphaer warned. "No combat cycling or self-healing until I say so! Actually, it's best if you don't move too much for a couple of days."

"I got it, I got it," Nar said, sighing. "I won't do anything stupid."

"Good!" Jasphaer, standing up. "I need to go check on the others. As for you, just rest for today. No meditation. Honestly, sometimes resting is the only thing you can do."

Nar nodded with a halting, sore movement. "I'll just check my gains and go back to sleep."

"Oh, yeah! Do that. Everyone's gains have been phenomenal. I finally unlocked [Dark Vision]!"

"No way!" Nar said, beaming at the radiant healer. "Congrats, man! It makes all the difference."

"I know! I still need my headlamp to properly see and heal in the dark, but at least this way I can walk around without light," Jasphaer said, his eyes sparkling. "This is awesome! I can't believe that you could do this all this time."

"I'm happy for you, Jasphaer," Nar said, grinning.

"Alright, I'll check on you again later."

Nar was left alone as Jasphaer wandered over the commotion by the waters to check on the next most unwell person.

Shatter against my boundaries, uh? Nar thought, slouching forward. I haven't shattered against anything yet…

He shook his head to keep himself from pulling at dark strands from the back of his mind, and instead checked his notifications. He'd been passed out right until Kur had woken him up so that they could all chat about Leon and the enemy chasing after them, so he hadn't had the time to go through his own rewards yet.

Right, let's see what we got for all that madness.

 

Hidden Quest, Survive the Fall, completed!

 

Congratulations!!

The dungeon guardian is pleased with your performance.

You have been granted rewards.

 

Rewards:

1. Knowledge of how to swim.

2. Enough XP for 1 level gain.

3. You have been awarded an extra 20 attribute points to your main attributes, 10 points to your secondary attributes, and 5 points to all others (that you have unlocked). [Vigor], [NPC], [Instinct], [Ego], [Aura], [Might], [Endurance] and [Presence] are excluded. Other attributes may also be excluded. This reward will apply after your level gain, so any new attributes unlocked will also be affected.

4. Your party has been awarded 10,000 tokens.

 

Nar's mouth dropped ajar, forming a silent "wow".

Are you… serious right now?

DING!

 

You have leveled up!

 

You have gained:

Strength: 60 -> 65

Constitution: 82 -> 97

Stamina: 85 -> 92

Vigor: 18 -> 21

Speed: 91 -> 94

Agility: 93 -> 98

Hearing: 55 -> 58

Sight: 56 -> 57

Smell: 26 -> 28

Dexterity: 24 -> 26

Reflex: 110 -> 116

Accuracy: 24 -> 26

Awareness: 27 -> 29

Perception: 17 -> 18

Ego: 89 -> 110

Aura***: 1683 (565 + 1118 Mod.) -> 1863 (606 + 1257 Mod.)

Instinct: 56 -> 59

Endurance: 26 -> 30

Might: 17 -> 19

Presence: 1 -> 2

???: 35 -> 45

 

The window suddenly blinked off, and a new one popped open before his confused eyes. He hadn't even finished reading the whole—

WARNING!

Attribute increase outside safety parameters!

WARNING!

New passive skill has been detected that directly alters the body/mind matrix continuum.

WARNING!

Triggering emergency shutdown…

Now.

Uh?

That was all he could manage before the lake tilted sideways and his head met the uncaring pebbles at his side, and existence blinked off.

**********

Flashes of blinding color.

Voices.

Places.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Choices.

An enormous presence surrounding him in a tight embrace.

Then came the pain and the crushing weight.

Voices.

Places.

Choices.

A hand reached through the screeching vortex to interlace with his fingers.

"It will be okay, Nar. It will be okay."

Though the pain did not lessen, at least he was not alone, and so he endured for what felt like forever.

And somewhere far, far away, in a place where no light had touched in an eternity, a warning was triggered.

 

Detection of [???] spike.

[???] has breached safety parameters in combat class NAR293457741235645XAV.

 

Accessing data…

Compiling report.

 

Climber.

Auramancer.

Exited gate BN455TE approximately seven months ago.

 

Current status…

 

Unknown.

No record of registry with the Office of Delving.

 

Placing NAR293457741235645XAV into the watch list.

 

Requesting sapient intervention.

 

**********

One moment Nar was fighting for his very identity, holding onto his sense of self as it threatened to slip past his fingers, colors, places he had never seen, voices he could barely comprehend, and a hand firmly clasped around his as a tremendous weight crushed him from all sides, and the next he was… sitting in his mattress, with Tuk, Jaz, Mul and Teb sleeping peacefully at his side.

It's over… Nar thought, his brain piecing itself slowly back together. What in the Pile was that?

The last thing he remembered was having a look into his gains, and then…

My gains! They triggered a warning and it—

A window popped open before him.

 

Your recent gains were outside the safety parameters, and in addition, you have unlocked a new passive skill that required direct changes to your body/mind matrix.

Therefore, in order to ensure your safety, you were placed under a coma and your gains have been phased over a period of just over four days, which has now just been completed.

 

Congratulations!

You can now see your gains report as normal.

 

Safety parameters?

It was not the first time his gains had been too much for him to take in all at once, requiring a few days of slowly being phased into him, but this was the first time that the System had triggered such an extreme response. Not even when he'd unlocked his [Champion Aspirant] class had the System reacted in such an absolute manner to protect him.

Just what in the Pile did I gain that was that crazy? He wondered, as the window flickered to reveal his gains report once more.

 

You have leveled up!

 

You have gained:

Strength: 60 -> 65

Constitution: 82 -> 97

Stamina: 85 -> 92

Vigor: 18 -> 21

Speed: 91 -> 94

Agility: 93 -> 98

Hearing: 55 -> 58

Sight: 56 -> 57

Smell: 26 -> 28

Dexterity: 24 -> 26

Reflex: 110 -> 116

Accuracy: 24 -> 26

Awareness: 27 -> 29

Perception: 17 -> 18

Ego: 89 -> 110

Aura***: 1683 (565 + 1118 Mod.) -> 1863 (606 + 1257 Mod.)

Instinct: 56 -> 59

Endurance: 26 -> 30

Might: 17 -> 19

Presence: 1 -> 2

???: 35 -> 45

 

New attribute unlocked:

Intuition 0 -> 5

 

Attribute Upgraded:

Ego

 

New skills gained:

Enduring Stand

 

Skills upgraded:

[Aura Blade] was upgraded to [Aura Blade 2].

Skill [Pathways of the Champion 15] (Passive) was upgraded to [Pathways of the Champion 16] (Passive).

[Mastery 10] (Passive) was upgraded to [Mastery 11] (Passive).

 

Nothing strange about a big [Strength] increase… Wow! That's a huge [Constitution] jump! Though I guess it makes sense after healing from that crash and nearly shredding myself to bits with aura overuse, Nar thought as he scanned through the list. Hmm, everything's looking pretty normal so, why did—

He blinked as he read the numbers besides his [Ego].

Twenty-one points? What the…

He had been making steady gains to his [Ego], thanks to what he and Cen believed was his training to master his [Aura Blade], but he hadn't expected such a spike, not even after what had happened during the fight with the Lord of the Hungry Jungle. He still needed to make sense of just what exactly had happened at that precise moment when the [Aura Blade] had, seemingly, moved by itself to reach the right target, but the last time he had made such a huge gain in [Ego] had been when Priestess Aedina had gone messing with his mind.

As far as I know, there was nothing like that here, Nar pondered.

Beside him, Teb mumbled something in his sleep, but other than the soft breathing of his companions inside the tent, and the distant murmur of the lake waves punctuated by the sound of hushed conversation from what had to be the people on watch, all was quiet. Extremely quiet.

Nar raised a hand to his head, frowning in confusion. It was sort of surprising how calm he felt. More himself. More in control… His mind still despite the turmoil he had endured for four days without pause.

Is this because of my [Ego] increase? It probably is, right?

And he allowed his eyes to continue scanning the rest of his gains, and once again, he came to halt, his eyes going wide once more.

[Presence]? But… how?

Tys had refused to teach him anything about what was considered the supreme attribute. It was [Presence] that allowed her to command him in that unyielding way that he couldn't even think of resisting, and which would one day perhaps grant him the same power over others, though he hadn't dwelled much on the ramifications that implied.

Because of Tys' refusal, to this day, he still had no idea what to make of his unlocked [Presence], and had not, as far as he knew, used it in any shape or way since Haven. However, it seems as though that had changed.

The only way I gain attribute points is by using them… which means I used [Presence] somehow. But where? Oh! Was it my [Aura Blade] back then? He wondered. Could it be that I also need [Presence] in order to master it? [Ego] and [Presence] both?

He passed a hand over his forehead, and for a moment, his stunned brain distracted itself by being mildly shocked that he wasn't covered in sweat. It was warm out here, but nowhere as bad as it had been in that thorn stifled red jungle.

Right, another something to figure out. Maybe Cen will have an idea… But moving on, here's another thing that still hasn't been figured out, Nar thought, eyeing his final and yet still unknown [???] attribute. That was a ten-point jump. The highest so far, right?

He racked his brain, searching for every occasion where he had made gains to his unknown attribute. The previous record had been with his Ceremony gains, something like seven or eight points.

But just what was that attribute? Its gains came at random, though usually after some of his most intense and desperate fights. Given that neither his master nor Tys wanted to speak about it yet, he continued to have zero ideas as to what that attribute was or what it was already doing to him.

Crystal… Which one caused the emergency shutdown then? [Ego], [Presence] or this unknown attribute? And this time it looks like there was no increase to the [???] + 10 boost to my [Instinct]. Guess it will come when I make it to 50 points, then.

He inhaled deeply, and his eyes, curious, slid further down the report.

Oh, [Intuition]. That's a nice one to unlock, and since Gad and Jul have loads of it, I doubt that's what caused the shutdown. Eh? [Ego] has been upgraded?

Was that it?

He quickly brought up the window with the explanation for the attribute.

 

Ego: When one understands oneself, they will never be led astray. Each point in [Ego] equates to a 3% reduction in soul, psychic and mental damage/debuffs, as well as a 2% reduction in effectiveness of attempts at being controlled.

[Ego] is unique to auramancer paths, the mirror of [Steadfastness] for aethermancer paths.

Hidden Bonus: You have reached a level of self-understanding, control, and security in who you are that few manage to achieve. You will now be able to resist low [Presence], as well as be able to detect and resist any attempts at mind, emotional, and any other forms to control you that are done by up to level 125 enemies. You will also be able to tell from where, and who, the attempts are coming from.

Attribute Modifier Bonus: None.

 

"Holy shit!" he breathed. "This is…"

Mental? Insane? Unbelievable?

All three of these raced past Nar's shock, and for a few moments, all he could do was stare and re-read the description of that hidden bonus again and again.

Resist [Presence]? And detect attempts at mind and emotional control?

He had to stifle a shocked and probably hysterical laugh to burst past his lips and wake up everybody.

This… This is exactly what I wanted! What I needed! Nar thought, a grin spreading over his features. What good was martial might when someone could make a puppet out of him? And while he doubted this was enough to resist [Presence] at the level of Tys', maybe it would be enough to resist scum like that yellow lizard back in the hospital after the Ceremony? He wouldn't know until testing it, of course, but at least now he knew that it was possible!

I can't wait to tell the others! And if I keep increasing my [Ego], one day, no one's going to be controlling any of us. Not on my watch! Nar thought, balling his hands into fists. Wait, I can only detect attempts done against me. Hmm… I wonder if there are more hidden bonuses? Hopefully something that can cover my party as well?

That was a thought. For now, Crystal, he just knew how relieved and excited they would all be to hear the news!

But speaking of excitement… Nar returned his attention back to the gains window, and after reading through the upgrades to his skills, especially his [Aura Blade] now at level 2 and which he couldn't wait to test, he finally turned his eyes to the new skill he had gained, his heart thumping harder.

[Enduring Stand]. Is this finally it?

The pain he had endured as he burned himself with his own aura had been beyond even Tys' torture, and he'd received damaged and self-healed throughout an entire month of jungle delving besides it. So, was this finally his much sought after and needed pain-resistance and self-heal passive skill?

But which one is it? I feel like it's pain resistance. He exhaled slowly, steadying his heartbeat. Only one way to find out.

 

Enduring Stand (Self/Enhancement) (Passive): Most flee from pain. Few are those who see its truth. And fewer still those who embrace it… Beyond pain lies power beyond imagining. Beyond pain lies control and freedom. You have endured and remained standing where others would have long crumbled. While one cannot escape pain, henceforth, its effects on your mind will be treated the same as any other form of mental manipulation. Therefore, pain can thus be resisted by your [Ego] to keep your mind functioning and your body under control. - Epic

 

Pain resistance… And an epic skill at that. Finally. And my [Ego] comes into play for it, Nar read, his back hunching forward in sudden relief. But I will still feel pain.

He sighed. I guess no one can live without feeling pain, right? I should've seen that coming. Well, whatever. As long as I can stay standing and fighting, that is all that matters.

He rubbed his chin, frowning at the skill before him.

But these numbers from my [Ego]... I can now resist 330% of all damage inflicted to my mind and soul. And I can also resist manipulation by 220%... As we thought, the percentage increase was never about reaching the full immunity of 100%. Just as our defenses get stronger, so does the offensive capabilities of our enemies. The other way too. So, offense and defense are basically chasing after each other in an effort to keep up.

He scratched the back of his head.

Given how much more [Ego] have compared to the others, maybe I'm way ahead of that curve, at least for things around my level… And is this me thinking it by myself, or is [Intuition] helping me figure stuff out from now on?

It likely was.

TING!

Hmm?

 

Gains from Hidden Quest, Survive the Fall, have also been applied over the past few days.

 

The gains include +20 for every Primary attribute, +10 for every Secondary attribute, and +5 for every Tertiary attribute.

 

([Vigor], [NPC], [Instinct], [Ego], [Aura], [Might], [Endurance] and [Presence] are excluded. Other attributes may also be excluded.)

 

Therefore, you have gained an extra:

Strength: 65 -> 85 (Primary)

Constitution: 97 -> 107 (Secondary)

Stamina: 92 -> 102 (Secondary)

Speed: 94 -> 114 (Primary)

Agility: 98 -> 118 (Primary)

Hearing: 58 -> 68 (Secondary)

Sight: 57 -> 67 (Secondary)

Smell: 28 -> 38 (Secondary)

Dexterity: 26 -> 31 (Tertiary)

Reflex: 116 -> 136 (Primary)

Accuracy: 26 -> 31 (Tertiary)

Awareness: 29 -> 39 (Secondary)

Perception: 18 -> 23 (Tertiary)

Intuition 5 -> 10 (Tertiary)

 

So, this is what the System judges are my primary, secondary and tertiary attributes… Nar thought, scanning through the list. The primary attributes match the ones boosted by my [The Aspiring Champion], so no surprises there. As for the split between the secondary and tertiary ones, that's a lot more interesting. Everything senses related plus my [Constitution] and [Stamina] are considered secondary, and I guess we can consider these as my survival required attributes. Dexterity is tertiary because I don't need crazy finger and hand capabilities like Tuk for his rings, or Jul and Viy's much crazier and involved fighting styles. My longsword style is pretty straightforward in comparison. Accuracy… I guess if I can control my [Aura Blade] the way I want it to, I don't really need it as much as a ranged class. And lastly, we have [Perception] and [Intuition] as tertiary attributes as well. Uh, I wonder what that says about me? Primary focus, combat capabilities. Secondary focus, survival capabilities. And lastly, things I don't need… So, I don't need to be intuitive nor perceptive?

He frowned at the numbers before him. Should I be offended?

Ah, whatever. Shame that the rest of them don't get boosted. Would love a +20 to [Instinct]... I guess that [Aura] not improving is to be expected, but I wonder if the aetheric attributes increase, though? Probably they do, and Crystal, there's nine of those! Leon's party must have gotten one Pile of an attribute dense level up. Ah… it's almost unfair. And it reminds me of that time with the illatrian, when the System didn't give us any help because we were auramancers.

He sighed. The disadvantages between aethermancy and auramancy continued to grow, however, thus far, he hadn't faced anything that had made actually wonder about swapping energy sources. If anything, the knowledge of just how intrinsically reliant an aethermancer was to their patron was a deterrent that no amount of deprivation had made aethermancy tempting. Not one bit.

So, all in all, a huge leap forward across the board, Nar thought. And even if it almost killed us, the dungeon guardian did us a huge favor with that quest. I wonder why… Anyways, what time is it?

Closing all the windows before him and glancing down towards the small display, Nar saw that it was almost half five in the morning. The early crew would be getting up in about half an hour to start their daily training, and he had no idea if Kur had begun sending people back into the Hungry Jungle for their harvesting and gathering needs or what was the current plan, since he'd been asleep for four whole days.

Speaking off, I don't feel hurt anymore, he thought, sensing his pathways. Jasphaer must have continued to heal me, and my soul must have handled the rest while I slept.

He should probably wait for the healer to give him the all clear before any practice but Nar had the unshakable knowledge within him that he was, if not fully healed, pretty much there. And that he was ready to get down to business once again.

Could this also be [Ego]? he wondered. Anyways, enough of bed time and thinking. Let's get some stuff done.

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