65. Tempering the Mind

Alex adjusted his grip on the small bar of chalk in his hand. The powdery residue it left on his fingers reminded him of his first few months as an awakened.

In his crouch, he leaned forward to brace with his left hand while completing the last strokes of the ritual circle. The body tempering ritual that Eura had left for him was almost ready to begin. He still needed to place the reagents into the proper places, along with the mana stones required to power the ritual.

“How long do you think this’ll take?” Robert asked, leaning on the carved entrance to the back room.

“Not sure. The body tempering I did a few months ago took a few hours to finish.”

“And this will give you more stats? Can anyone do them?”

Alex nodded while pocketing the chalk. “As far as I know, everyone can perform a body tempering once per rank. When we get back to my place, we can look at getting each of you set up with one. It’ll be up to you to obtain the required materials, but if you do, I can perform the ritual for you.

“Why come here, though?” Aisha asked.

Alex looked over his shoulder to see her sitting on the floor, resting her arm on Luis’s leg, who sat on a stool against the wall. “Last time it left behind a weird residue. I think it was some impurities getting cleansed from my mana channels. And uh… the rituals can be painful.”

“Painful?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s that got to do with… Wait. You wanted to be further from other people so they don’t hear you scream?”

Alex shrugged, remembering Maelis’s words from months before. “Power comes at a price. I’m willing to pay it. I just don’t want to make others uncomfortable.” He was so focused on placing the reagents, he didn’t see the look shared between the three.

“Well, we’ll be here if you need anything,” Robert said.

Alex bobbed his head in thanks. “I appreciate it. Just make sure no one disturbs the ritual; it can’t stop once it’s started. The backlash from a failed tempering can be very bad.”

“Define ’very bad,’” Aisha said skeptically.

“Uh, severe crippling or death.”

“Great,” she said with a laugh.

Robert chimed in with a shake of his head. “Not really selling me on this whole body tempering thing, you know.”

Alex joined them in the laugh. “I don’t want to sell you on it. Either you want to push yourself for the power, or you don’t. Think about it while I’m doing the tempering.” He stood, brushing his palms against his pant legs. “Seriously. Think on it. I’ve got a lot of people joining me lately, and I’m happy to use the resources I have to help people that I trust. Think on what you want to do and let me know when we leave the Rift. I’ll help how I can.”

Settling down into a seated position with his legs crossed, he gave them all a genuine smile.

Aisha muttered something in response, but Alex only picked up on a few words about being stupid, couldn’t say, and Robert. However, she was interrupted by Luis standing and stretching. He touched the long, straight sword at his hip, clearly pleased to have been reunited with his weapon of choice.

“Food,” he said simply. The first time he said it, it was a statement. The second and third times were questions for each of them.

Alex shook his head while the other two accepted.

Aisha stayed where she was, but Robert soon stepped out to the front hallway of the building. “I’ll be out front. Take however much time you need.” He stepped away from the doorway before pausing and looking back. “And Alex… good luck.”

Taking a deep breath, Alex did what he could to steady his breathing. The closer he got to activating the ritual, the more his mind remembered the searing pain that had accompanied the last one. Aside from the pain, he’d had a constant worry in the back of his mind since deciding to do the ritual.

You’re sure it’s not going to be a problem?

Maelis sighed dramatically. “Yes, kid. I’m sure. Look, do you remember when we discussed the different types of clones? Yours is a version that’s seen, just not very often. Rather than creating something, body and mind, that is a reflection of you, you instead created a skill that splits a part of you. Both the mind and the body are still yours. Even the clone skill’s name should be a hint to you for this. Trust me.”

Alex found that he did trust the old rune master, but he was still a little sour that he’d taken the time to create new clones and balance their stats, only for Maelis to recommend he dismiss them before the ritual. He said it was less that the clones being out would cause an issue, and more that the skill might suddenly cancel during tempering, which could be awkward if a body suddenly disappeared, leaving behind a pile of clothes.

All right, all right. I’m just making sure.

“Look, you wouldn’t cast a buffing spell or eat stat buffing food in here and be worried for your clones, right? Whenever it's dismissed, it will reassimilate with your natural state, and the next one created will assume a new form based on that.”

The logic made sense, but the concept itself gave him pause. His eyes grew slowly wider as the implications settled on him, and a new idea formed for the direction he wanted to take his skill

He took a full minute to calm his breathing and order his thoughts, pushing aside the ideas of future advancement and returning home.

With his eyes still closed, he mentally called on the System. He performed a quick check of his stats before pulling up the prompt to advance or evolve his main class. Even though he knew that he’d choose to advance Spell Weaver, he decided to wait and see if the evolution option changed, as it did with the previous rank advancement.

The window he was looking for appeared next. The one that congratulated him on reaching level 60 and offered to ascend to the next Rank.

He accepted the prompt and felt himself being lifted from his seated position. Alex knew that if he were to open his eyes, he’d likely be hovering about a foot off the ground, with golden motes of power forming around his body and drawing to his skin. The final, flashy gesture of the rank advancement came in the form of a brilliant golden beam of light shooting toward the sky.

Guess in this case it’s a rocky ceiling.

The corner of his mouth tugged upward, only to have his thoughts interrupted as he was abruptly returned to the ground by gravity.

Wincing, he shifted his position and tried to look dignified, but his mind quickly moved on to other topics. All three of his Parallel Minds took off in different directions, thinking about home, Edwin, Olivia, Valtherion, Sam, and Mark.

Another shot off to think of future progression and the idea he’d gotten from Maelis just moments before.

His main mind attempted to rein them in, before it too got distracted by the blue windows lingering in his mind’s eye. The idea of advancing or evolving his [Feather Step] skill pulled his focus.

“Pull it together, kid. You knew this would happen.”

Right.

Of course I did.

I knew this would happen. That’s why I prepared.

All three of his minds snapped back to attention and thought through the ritual setup. He knew he needed to start the process, but he marveled at the speed at which his mind was processing information.

The rational side of his mind knew that his body and mind had changed with the advancement to C Rank, and it was simply more receptive to the massive amount of Willpower he had.

The stat, often referred to as mental agility, made his thoughts process faster. He made the analogy of a computer with all the speed in the world, which was unfortunately lacking the Intellect, or processing power, to keep up with the speed.

With the focus of someone trying to herd wild cats, Alex reined in his mental chaos and initiated the ritual.

Pulsing his mana, he felt the mana coalescing around him, so thick it caused his skin to tingle. His muscles flexed reflexively, bracing for a pain that never came. Instead, it was his mind that felt an instant reaction to the ritual.

A spike of pain so sharp could be felt at the top of his head that he instantly saw spots. When he struggled to keep his eyes open, he realized his head had lulled forward. A groan escaped his lips as he straightened his back and opened his eyes.

Aisha was still watching him, but from a different point in the room. Her eyes went wide when she saw him look at her.

Just as they made eye contact, another lance of pain shot through the front of his head.

He grit his teeth and clamped his eyes shut.

“What the fu—”

He sat up again, realizing this time that he’d slumped to the side. Looking around the room, Aisha was closer now, Robert by her side.

They both looked worried, and when he sat up, they moved closer to the ritual.

Alex raised his hand. “Stop. Let it continue. Whatever you do, do not stop this ritual.”

Both of them stopped where they stood, clearly wishing for some action to take.

His mind threatened panic, worried that if he wasn’t able to maintain consciousness, the ritual may fail or have diminished effects. When the next wave of pain hit him, he fought to retain consciousness, pulling in his focus to a singular point— to his desired outcome.

Thanks to Eura’s letter and their talks from more than a year ago, Alex knew what the ritual was designed to do. His stats had been restricted by his trait for so long that he’d literally had dreams about putting Free Points into other stats.

While this wouldn’t fix the problem, it would allow the first of his other stats to scale proportionate to his Willpower. To him, this was the best-case scenario. It allowed him to keep his insane Willpower stat weight, while letting a balancing stat grow alongside it.

He focused on that. On the goal.

His muscles relaxed at the same time that he clamped down on his thoughts. He drew on his mental control to narrow his mind to a tunnel. Nothing happening to him or around him mattered— only the goal mattered.

Alex felt the mental assault brought on by the ritual, but he didn’t black out again. Hanging on by a stubborn thread, he weathered the storm.

It was impossible for him to tell how much time had passed, as after a while, even the pain had subsided. He convinced himself that he was a rock in a storm and the pain was nothing but the temporary splashing of waves against his immovable self.

“Kid! Hey, hey! Snap out of it, brat!”

The voice sounded from a long way off, but it was enough to remind Alex of the goal. Not the goal to survive and weather the storm, but the goal of completing the ritual.

Slowly, he loosened his grip on his mind and felt the world around him return to focus.

He was surprised to find the room empty and more dim than when he’d started. The only sign that anything had changed in the room was a cold plate of food on the floor in front of him, just outside the ritual circle.

A small smile crept onto his face as he leaned forward and pulled the bowl across the rocky ground.

One of the first things he noted was that his [Parallel Mind] skill had deactivated. He wasn’t aware of when it had happened, but the three lines of thought that were in his head at the start of the body tempering, recombined into his normal train of thought.

Concerned, he quickly pulled up his status before letting out a sigh of relief.

His stats were whole, and he’d returned to 100% of the values that he expected to see. He did wonder what that meant for Scout’s clone, and how that portion of his mind had returned to him even through the Rift’s natural barrier.

Pushing the thought aside for the moment, he made a mental note to look into it more later. If there was something to allow his mind or body to pass through the Rifts, then there was even more potential in the skill than he’d thought.

He was pleased to note that there was no foul-smelling black sludge on the floor at the conclusion of this ritual. And was even more pleased to see the huge leap in the Intellect stat on his status screen.

Looking over the changes, he took a bite of the hard loaf of bread.

***

Status
Name: Alex Moore - Level 60
Class: Spell Weaver (Novice) + Advancement Offered
HP: 1000/1000
MP: 1718/1718

Traits: (1/3)
{Primordial Will}

Titles: < The Magician >
Pathfinder
Unbound
One Against Many
Control Freak
Journeyman Ritualist
Gifted Mage
The Magician
Integration Champion
Iron Will

Physical Stats:
Strength: 29
Agility: 50
Constitution: 100
Vitality: 31

Magical Stats:
Intellect: 473
Willpower: 1281
Mana: 172
Wisdom: 163

Bond Skills:
[Mana Siphon] (Journeyman - Level 16)
Primary Stat Shared - Mana

Active Skills:
[Mana Thread] (Journeyman - Level 18)
[Mana Infusion] (Journeyman - Level 6)
[Feather Step] (Novice - Level 20) + Advancement Offered
[Fractal Body] (Novice - Level 6)
[Parallel Mind] (Adept- Level 2)
[Intimidate] (Novice - Level 5)
[Spell Storage] (Novice - Level 18)
[Shrug Off] (Novice - Level 17)
[Running] (Novice - Level 17)
[Meditate] (Novice - Level 15)
[Mana Blade] (Novice - Level 5)

Passive Skills:
[Sleep Resistance] (Tier III)
[Efficient Rites] (Tier I)
[Spell Weaving] (Tier II)
[Mana Conduit] (Tier I)
[Quick Recovery] (Tier I)

Bound Items:
D Rank Growth Item (Unique) - Spectral Eye of the Celestial Sage
D Rank Growth Item - The Magician’s Cap
Unique Identification Item - [Manifest Planetary Title]

***

He choked on the bread when he saw the change in his Intellect.

The choke turned into laughter after he removed a water bottle from his spatial ring and took a drink.

It was crazy to think that if he had a similar ritual to be applied to his Constitution, he could be as tanky as Kinley was in their fight. With his stat jumping several hundred points in the evolution and body tempering, he was eager to begin testing and training.

With Intellect being the stat to govern magical power and the ability to understand concepts of higher-tiered magic, he wondered if grasping the intent of more complex runes would suddenly become easier.

His thoughts were pulled away from daydreaming by the sound of shuffling behind him. Looking over his shoulder, Alex saw Aisha sit up from a small pile of blankets in the corner of the room.

She rubbed her eyes and looked at him. “You’re up. Glad to see you made it through.”

He gave her a smile around his mouth full of bread. “Yep. Thanks for the food.”

“Luis brought it for you this morning.”

“This morning? How long was I out of it?”

“You started the ritual yesterday afternoon. Hard to judge time in here, but it’s been more than a full day.”

Alex’s eyes grew wide. “Damn, that’s a lot longer than I was expecting.”

She shrugged in response. “It gave everyone some time to calm down. A lot of the humans split right away, but those who stayed are more interested in you. Honestly, it’s most of us who were better adjusted to our situation. You’ve got quite the fan club out there, you know?”

“Really?”

She nodded and stood. “There are only a few blankets here. Do you have more of that camping gear you lent us in the hollow vein?”

“No, that was most of it. Probably all ruined from Kinley’s men tearing through the camp. It’s not worth going back for, I’ll get better stuff when we go back home anyway.”

“Okay. Well, you should get some rest. I’d suggest you sleep here, rather than back at Shael’quir’s. You going out there is probably going to cause a bit of a stir.”

“A stir?”

She nodded and started walking toward the door. “Come look.”

Rising, he joined her in the short walk down the hall and looked out of the cracked wooden door. The open space surrounding the cliff-carved room was full of shadowed figures. The Koru’qai looked to be twice the size of the small cluster of humans and didn’t bother to sleep under a blanket. There were easily fifty people there, spread out and asleep.

Robert stood to the left of the door, barely visible from the cracked door.

Aisha tapped Alex’s shoulder and motioned for him to step back. “I’ll relieve Rob so he can get some sleep. You can stay in here and get some rest. The Koru will want to greet you in the morning.”

Scratching the back of his head, Alex agreed. “Okay… I guess. Just come let me know when it’s morning. My sense of time is all kinds of messed up right now.”

“Sure thing,” Aisha said.

With that, Alex returned to the back of the room and made himself comfortable in the few fur blankets she’d left behind. Once he was settled, he activated [Parallel Mind] and split his consciousness into two streams of thought.

It made him giddy with excitement to see the Magician’s Cap effect working. Since the bound item prevented his Intellect Stat from ever being reduced, even though his intellect should be split by the skill, the item took priority, essentially multiplying his intellect. Both halves kept the new, full 473 Intellect.

His main mind quickly drifted off to sleep while his second mind began to re-explore concepts he’d already spent countless hours pondering. The first subject he was most eager to revisit was the greater runes he’d been learning from Maelis to recreate the elven ritual.

------------------------------------------

This could be the end of the chapter here, but honestly I didn't get to everything I had planned in the outline. If I have time today, I'd like to extend this chapter and cover the last few beats I had planned.

Since I'm trying to keep the Book 3 chapters to 70 total, I don't have a lot of wiggle room. That might lead these last few chapters to be quite long as there is still more plot to unfold!

Keep an eye out for a bonus post this evening or early tomorrow. If I'm able to, I'll post it as 65.5!