Chapter 243 - Insight and Offers

Nate stood on the balcony, enjoying the cool, ocean breeze as he mentally probed the remains of his right arm. His first thoughts were to remove the Fire Concept embedded in the wound, but he was finding that the Concept was tenacious. There were Subconcepts within the fire that were similar to others he had encountered. At first, he’d wondered if it was Devouring again but in the end he’d determined that it was Consuming. With that realisation, Divine Energy had flowed into him once more, and as much as he revelled in the feeling, it had not removed the purple flames from the stump that had once been a delicate elbow.

The problem he was having was that the Fire and Death Concepts were so intertwined that removing one was liable to take the other with it. That was the opposite of what he wanted, as an opportunity to study the Death Concept in isolation was not only of interest to him, but a necessary step forward on his Path.

So, with some trepidation, he had spun up two runes. The Fire Drain and Water Clean runes had worked in tandem, one trying to pull out the flames as though they were a poison while the second tried to clean where they had been. Nate had taken it slow, working throughout the wound piece by piece over the course of a couple of hours. In the end, he’d been partially successful. The Death Concept had lost a significant amount of its potency and he suspected it would fade on its own without the fire to consume flesh and feed it more death. But, enough remained to study and it was that study that he had spent the better part of the day working on.

Death, it seemed, had depth, just like Life, and though he’d only gotten two hours with the Concept before it finally faded, he had some ideas going forward on how to further engage with the idea of death. The Concept in his arm had had the feeling of a Subconcept related to Empowerment and with that particular tidbit Nate had realised the cyclical nature of the Path that had been used by the Deathflame wielder. Fire to burn and Consume that fed Death which Empowered Fire. Wounds that would grow, so long as there was fuel to burn. The fuel in this case being living beings. The idea was both beautiful and terrible. Beautiful in its elegance and efficiency. Terrible in its application.

Still, for all its power, the Deathflame Seed of Eternity, even with an advantage in Class and Skill levels, had failed to defeat them. Even if the Deathflame Seed had been kicking their asses, Nate took that as some small proof that the creature had been wrong. That Nate did not in fact walk a broken Path. He just walked a Path where the ultimate goal was creation, not violence.

With those thoughts out of the way, he looked at his own cleansed arm.

“I told Kiri two days,” he muttered to himself. “But there’s no reason not to fix it now. Maybe I should’ve gone slower with the fire cleansing runes.”

With a shrug, he spun up a new rune utilising the Sigils for Life, Soul and Recall. All the while, he maintained a second Life and Gentle rune to suppress the pain as his arm began to regrow. He estimated it would still take a few hours to fully regrow the arm. Plus, he needed to improve the material of the new bones to align with the rest of his Augmented Skeleton. Without a second thought, he spent a unit of Divine Energy to improve Multi Conceptual Material Shaping. With one part of his mind improving the bones in his arm as they formed, he focused the final part of his mind on creating more materials for Conceptual Automated Existence.

As he sat there, Kiri popped out of the spatial door and dropped a plate in front of him piled high with steaming fish accompanied by a bottle of wine.

“Eat up! Glad you came around on the arm, little brother. I’m going to go explore the city. See you at dinner?”

Nate just nodded, already stabbing some fish with a makeshift fork he had shaped on the fly. Regeneration was hungry work and he had a pit in his stomach to fill. He watched his sister leave before knuckling down to make sure he was whole by dinner.

*************

Nate sat on a comfortable cushion with Kiri to his left. Across from them sat Elders Ra’Paki and Jin’Kahn, mirrored on their own cushions. Between them was a low table heaped with food in small, wooden bowls. Seafood sat beside fresh fruits and a variety of sauces with some simple flatbreads.

As trusting as Nate was, he didn’t have Kiri’s ability to come back from the dead and could recognise how easy it would be to poison him. After all, none of his Divine Skills warded against poison, nor was his Constitution or Endurance Stats particularly high. A weakness he intended to look into. So, instead, he waited for Kiri to eat the various foods and sauces before trying them himself. Not that he thought the Elders joining them would try to poison him. No, it was Elder Rok’Nohn he was being wary of.

Kiri had returned before dinner and told him what she had found within the city. While plenty of people had viewed her as a curiosity and been friendly, she had caught more than one dark look, especially from those who wore the black fur of the Jungle Stalkers Temple. Since it was clear there was a divide in opinion, they had agreed to be as careful as possible, while not offending their guests and getting as much in trade out of them as they could.

“It is impressive that you recovered your arm so quickly, Ascendant Nate,” commented Elder Ra’Paki. “Some of our more esteemed alchemists could have managed the same. But it would have been incredibly expensive to do so. You had mentioned wanting to take your time to study the wound. Did your desires bear fruit?”

Nate smiled politely as Elder Ra’Paki wrapped some meat that might have been crab in flatbread and dipped it into one of the sauces.

“Less than I would have liked, but it was, as you said, fruitful.”

Elder Jin’Kahn stared at Nate intently, “I have conferred with the other Elders…”

“Can it not wait until after dinner?” demanded Ra’Paki, clearly finding Jin’Kahn’s behaviour impolite.

“It cannot,” retorted Jin’Kahn. “How often do we get access to sapient Ascendants outside of our own Temples? The answer is almost never, Ra’Paki. We should not be wasting a moment of this opportunity. There is nothing I am unwilling to do to take full advantage of this chance.”

Elder Ra’Paki snorted in response, though did not disagree with the long-haired Elder of the Depths Walkers Temple.

Nate waved a hand to cut through the tension, “No need to stand on ceremony. We can talk and eat at the same time.”

“The Depths Walkers Temple will offer you two perfect pearls with varying truths per hour of your time in addition to viewing our Heart of the Sea.”

Elder Ra’Paki choked on his food at the final statement.

“That is your Divine artifact, right?” asked Kiri placidly. 

As she waited for an answer and Ra’Paki to stop choking, she continued to try every piece of food on offer. Nate wasn’t sure if she was doing it because she was curious about the various flavours or was just making sure Nate could eat whatever he wanted without fear of poison. Either way, he appreciated Kiri’s dedication to the cause.

“It is,” replied Jin’Kahn, carefully eating a fried tentacle.

“That seems risky,” countered Kiri.

“Not so long as we do not give you cause to attack us or steal from us, which is why the other half of the offer is so generous.”

Nate remained quiet, letting Kiri hash out the terms of their involvement with the Depths Walkers Temple.

“Still, I have to ask why,” pressed Kiri. “Why let us anywhere near it?”

“Not both of you,” answered Jin’Kahn. “Just Ascendant Nate.”

Nate’s eyebrows went up slightly, “Now I have to ask why.”

“The Temple desires your insight. You are, as Ascendant Kiri described, adaptable. So are we of the Depths Walkers Temple, to a lesser extent. The Paths beneath the waves are many and unlike the Jungle Stalkers and Sky Wardens, we have many creatures of the deep we can take after, or none at all. The Temple desires your understanding of our artifact, and we would offer much to accomplish that goal.”

Nate could read between the lines. He had already held a suspicion that it was this Divine-tier artifact that allowed the Depths Walkers to be slightly ahead of most other Temples in terms of their Class tiers. More importantly, if all Calikex children were born with a Common Class Core to protect them from the ambient mana, it meant that this artifact was allowing some Depths Walkers to skip a tier during an evolution. However, having seen Jin’Kahn’s attendants, he knew that advantage was not gained by all the Disciples of the Temple. Perhaps it was limited to Elders, or perhaps there was something else involved, but either way, he would have the opportunity to find out if he accepted. As for the ‘perfect’ pearls, he suspected that meant Mythic-tier and he could always do with more mythic materials. Especially naturally occurring ones as they could come with new Concepts or Subconcepts, fueling his Divine Energy and growth.

Kiri glanced at him and he felt Reciprocity stir within his chest. The offer was generous, but it seemed balanced. The Depths Walkers must truly want his insight to offer so much.

“I agree,” answered Nate.

Jin’Kahn smiled and he noted she glanced out the window towards the ocean as though she couldn’t wait.

“Tomorrow morning?” she asked after a moment and got a nod of affirmation from Nate.

“I’ll meet you down at the pier,” he added.

“We can have alchemicals fetched so you can breathe beneath the waves, though there is nothing for the pressure,” offered Jin’Kahn.

“Not needed.”

With the offer of the Depths Walkers Temple settled, they focused on the feast. Afterwards, as attendants were clearing away the empty plates of food, Ra’Paki finally made his own offer.

“Ascendant Kiri, the Temple of the Sky Wardens would offer you a Perfect feather of a Gyrhawk and two-fingers of Skystone for every hour you are willing to spend training our Disciples.”

“What kind of training? I don’t really do much flying.”

“While the Sky Wardens do predominantly battle from the air, their targets are often on the ground. I think they would gain much from battling an Ascendant where their lives are not on the line. Any insight into their gifts or failings would be appreciated.”

“Tell me about these feathers and skystone.”

“Ah, yes, you would not know. The Gyrhawk is a dangerous hunter that can blend into the clouds and sky above, making it almost impossible to spot before it is upon you. This gift is carried in their feathers which can be made to change colour as well while being as sturdy as stone. Speaking of stone, skystone is a rare mineral that is found in small quantities far to the West. The Sky Wardens have a monopoly on it as when it is released from the ground, it floats up into the clouds.”

Kiri glanced at Nate who nodded, letting his sister know he could find uses for those materials.

“Very well, Elder Ra’Paki. You have a deal. Same as Nate? We’ll begin tomorrow morning. After sunrise and breakfast?”

“That would be perfect. As we all have plans for tomorrow, did you wish to partake in some entertainment or retire early?”

“Retire early,” replied Nate immediately, intentionally ignoring the flash of regret across Jin’Kahn’s face.

After a few final pleasantries, Nate found himself back in his room within his spatial zone. With his arm regrown, his stock of materials for Conceptual Automated Existence somewhat replenished and nothing else to occupy his mind, he bent himself completely to the task of discovering a Sigil for Art. Kiri checked in on him at some point. When Frick returned, the Familiar had recognised his focus and set himself the task of playing punching bag for Kiri while also tiering up materials for Nate.

It was after midnight when he finally achieved the outcome he had been pushing for. His Divine Translation Spell didn’t confirm it for him, unable to recognise the Sigil since apparently Arikanvil could not, but his Conceptual Insight didn’t lie. The shape of the Sigil was simple enough, with a triangle with a line coming out of the top, surrounded by ovals and circles of different sizes. But the placement of each had needed to be perfect. With the discovery, Divine Energy rushed into him once more, but Nate was already spending some of it to enhance Conceptual Insight. By the time morning came, he intended for this new Sigil to be at least Master-quality. By tomorrow afternoon, Grandmaster quality. Then, he would spend the thirty Divine Energy to raise it to Divine.

Of course, he could recognise that there were likely other interpretations of a Sigil for Art. The one he had found was clearly focused on the idea of the painter, which is why he had focused on that in the first place. But art came in many forms and he was sure there were other versions of the Initiate-quality Sigil. However, the circles and ovals gave him a hint as to the path forward to find a Sigil for paint. With a smile, he got to work.

The reddish sun was just peaking over the horizon as he walked down towards the pier, where he sensed that Jin’Kahn had been waiting for him since before dawn. He could’ve gone down earlier, putting the woman out of her misery as she impatiently paced back and forth. He even might have, if he hadn’t been so focused on his attempt to discover a Sigil for Paint. Just one more try he had kept telling himself, and his efforts had paid off. Just before sunrise, he had finally found the right configuration. Another Initiate-quality Sigil, which would mean little for most people. However, with his ability to improve the quality of Sigils, likely abusing The System's own knowledge, by this time tomorrow he would have a Divine Sigil for Art and a Divine Sigil for Paint. Which meant that tomorrow morning, he would begin crafting his first Divine item. Until then, he would see what the Depths Walkers had to offer, and what he in turn could offer them. 

Elder Jin’Kahn smiled as he approached, “Are you ready to venture beneath the waves, Ascendant Nate?”

“I am,” he replied.

“Me too!” yelled Frick, the little spirit jumping out of the water by them and surprising Jin’Kahn who spun on her heel, her hair rising up like tentacles around her.

Nate facepalmed. Frick had taken the form of a goblin shark, likely pulled from Nates own memories. It was going to be a long day.