Nate held the golden flower in his hands as it vibrated with a powerful affinity for Life. With a simplistic rune he was denying the flower access to the ambient mana but, even with that protection in place, he could feel the Concepts within the flower butting up against his Barrier. He could even sense the cost in mana his Barrier was expending to keep the flower from influencing him. With such a powerful specimen in hand, there were two opportunities now before him. The one he had been waiting for, the obvious one, was the chance to increase his Life affinity to the point where he was almost guaranteed a Life-oriented Class at his next evolution. To do so he would likely need to ingest the flower, but that could wait for a moment, because it was the second opportunity he was interested in right now.

  Activating Farsight of the Runic Artist, he focused on the interaction between his barrier and the flower. Nate had been working on developing the Skill in preparation for its next evolution for weeks now, but every new interplay between two Concepts was another chance to learn something. It also let him continue to use his Intent to nudge the Skill in the direction of actually perceiving Concepts. With that in mind, he tried to draw some of the mana flowing through the Skill towards his eyes. Over a year ago, his eyes had been the only pathway for his original Eyes of the Runic Artist Skill. The original evolution had shifted the Skill into an extrasensory variant and he had lost the ability to visually perceive mana and soul energy. At the time, he felt it had been the right decision, but while his sensory sphere was incredibly powerful, there was something to be said for being able to visually see how everything interacted. This was a golden opportunity to regain the visual aspect of his Skill while pushing it to add the ability to see Concepts and affinities along with how they influenced each other.

  Staring at the flower, mana flowing through his Skill and a small amount being drawn to his eyes by his Intent, he managed to see flickers of what was going on. Those fleeting images were enough for Conceptual Insight to activate, humming into the mix of Skills as Evindal silently watched Nate.

  “Tell me what you see?” asked the elf.

  “It is filled with Life. More than anything I have ever seen. Even my own creations,” Nate muttered and he wondered why, licking his lips thoughtfully. “There is more to it, though. When I created something with a Life affinity, it was…wild. Uncontrolled perhaps? It tried to change its surroundings, evolution in real-time. At the same time, things grew, but that wasn’t all. Some things also died. My thinking is that as things changed some things could no longer compete successfully and died as a consequence. It was also fast. So fast. At the time I didn’t spend time thinking deeply about it, but now, revisiting the idea, I can see how your Concept of Time meshes so well with it. It makes me wonder, how does the change over time influence what you do?”

  “An insightful question. In the Grove, for obvious reasons, many take on plant- and life-related Classes. We’re taught about how changing something can lead to unintended consequences. As such, many of our Skills are utilised in very specific ways where the outcomes are known. Some of my kind specialise as researchers, trying new and innovative methods for improving the Skills we intend to use. I have digressed a bit from what you’re asking, but to bring it back to your question, I have prepared templates for most of the changes I make to the seeds I use. I do this ahead of time. That way, I know how the seeds will grow, within reason. I also have secondary Skills for guiding and directing that growth, including a shaping-type Skill. So the plants I grow create only what I intended and are shaped to my purposes. The Time portion just means it happens faster. Far faster, which is because of the almost non-existent soul energy within plants. But, you are right, that sometimes the seeds can grow in a way I did not intend or fail due to some mutation forming. It’s why I carry so many spares.”

  Nate nodded thoughtfully, eyes still on the flower, “That makes sense. Anyway, you were asking about what I see. I see different Sub-Concepts within this flower compared to what I created. Growth is far more prevalent in this, for example. Even now, I suspect if I let it access the ambient mana it would attempt to grow something. Maybe itself. Maybe something else. Maybe it would try to influence you or I. I suppose what I am talking around is that the growth itself feels uncontrolled. Chaotic, that is the word I was looking for. There is another Concept in there as well. It’s strong, but I don’t recognise it.”

  Evindal opened his mouth and Nate instantly held up a hand to forestall him. The elf clearly knew what that other Concept was, and had been about to tell Nate. But, in realising he was missing something, Nate had caught a whiff of a third opportunity. One he had been intending to create for himself, but with the chance literally handed to him, he stared at the flower as he tried to parse the whispers in his mind. Conceptual Insight was pointing him in the direction, telling him something was there, but the onus was on his own mind to turn those hints into something tangible.

  Life was there, and with Life came Change, but the two were like old lovers, forever bound but still separate and while Change was the outcome, it was not the Concept itself that was present.

  Then there was Growth, as all living things did, until they could do so no more. Growth, of course, was far broader than that. Aisling was living proof of a completely different facet of Growth. But again, that wasn’t what he was sensing.

  The Concepts and the medium were intertwined. That much had always been obvious. Naturally forming affinities were more likely to be present in mediums that reflected the nature of the Concepts themselves. That line of thinking directed his thoughts to the nature of a flower. Reproduction was his first thought, but that didn’t quite fit. While the flower was involved in the process, it wasn’t the whole process itself. Before he had realised it, he seized upon the answer. Propagation.

  He grinned in victory as Conceptual Insight hummed in agreement before fading. As his Skill faded, something else replaced it. The energy bubbled up from within him, suffusing his being and the feeling of connection and realness grabbed him for the third time. As quickly as it came it began to fade, bleeding back into his surroundings, as though reality wanted it back, or perhaps that he was an imperfect container for whatever energy was filling him. In a panic, he tried to direct it rather than hold onto it. Most slipped through his grasp, slippery as an eel. But a small amount followed his direction as he frantically pushed it towards his Class Core and the first Skill that had come to mind. Even with his advanced senses he couldn’t tell what parts of the Skill it touched on, even now unable to tell what the bumps on the Class Core meant. That didn’t matter in the face of the response from his Skill.

  A notification blinked in the corner of his vision, but he couldn’t focus on it as the room lit up around him. It was like he had been seeing reality in black and white and had instantly transitioned to high-definition in colours he had never even conceived of. Evindal was looking at him with wide eyes and Nate imagined his own were similar as he looked at the elf. Instead of seeing Evindal as an average height humanoid with pale skin, amber eyes and silver hair, what Nate now saw was shades of colour, each one representing the smallest of Concepts. He even recognised a few. Connect, Life, Blood, Mana, Water, Shape. The list went on and on. But for every Concept he recognised, there were ten he didn’t. The complexity was both mind-blowing and perfectly beautiful.

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  The moment felt like it stretched on for hours but as his senses faded back to normalcy, he realised that it had barely lasted five seconds. He felt tired and after a moment realised that he had also drained half of his Mana Reserve. That couldn’t stop his smile, though, as he grinned in victory, looking Evindal in the eyes.

  “By the Hells, what was that?” asked Evindal quietly, the elf having turned even paler than usual as blood drained away from his face in shock.

  “What did it look like?” asked Nate curiously, trying to get his own excitement and shock under control.

  “Your eyes changed. They were filled with colours. More than I could count, like a flower blooming outwards and in each subsequent ring, the splotches of colour grew smaller. But that wasn’t what I meant. I felt something. Like I was staring into something endless but everything, everything, made sense. What did you do?”

  Nate glanced at his notification before answering. There were three now but he only brought up the one that had come first. He didn’t want to keep Evindal waiting as he suspected the other two notifications would require more time to go over.

  Congratulations on using Divine Energy to empower a Skill.

  Your achievement has been recorded.

  Nate laughed then, the sound one of pure joy before looking back at Evindal.

  “I found the way to move beyond the Mythic tier. I…I confirmed my Path.”

  Evindal asked him to wait there a moment and Nate could sense the elf rushing to get Aisling. While he waited, Nate sat down on the edge of his bed to go over his remaining notifications.

  Farsight of the Runic Artist 56 > 61

  Farsight of the Runic Artist (M) is ready to evolve.

  Evolutions Available! Please Select 1.

  Skill Evolution Options:

  Conceptual Sight of the Runic Artist (D)

  The True Sight of the Runic Artist reveals the truth of reality. An evolved version of the signature skill of the Wandering Runic Artist Class, this Skill lets one peer into the underpinnings of the world we live in, be it runes, sigils, spellforms, concepts or the nature of space. While active, the user will receive advanced information about anything within their sphere of awareness that they focus on, parting the veil and revealing the truth. Information revealed grows with Skill Level, Perception & Intellect. Enhances Perception by 20%. Increases by 2% per Skill Level. Distance for Sphere of Awareness is Skill Level * fifty centimetres plus Perception / 50 metres centred on the user. Farsight Sphere of Awareness can be created and manually controlled to move. Maximum range for Farsight Sphere of Awareness is Skill Level * ten metres. Increases Creativity by 18%.

  Divine Bonus I: Visually perceive Concepts within vision range. Cost: 1 Divine Energy. Duration: 2 minutes.

  Nate was confused at first. The Skill evolution itself seemed amazing, but he had been expecting a secondary option. Instead he got only one, which seemed to be an evolution to Divine. It was good to have confirmation of what lay beyond Mythic, but at the same time he was a little surprised that he didn’t get multiple options. The second piece of confusion was around the cost. If he was interpreting the description correctly, the Skill would function roughly the same, with some minor boosts to the distance and his Perception, but could be altered with the application of Divine Energy. More interesting was that Divine Energy had a unit cost. That had never happened with mana, which made sense because there were so many ways to influence a cost in mana. Divine Energy, it seemed, might not function in the same way. Finally, the duration was very different to what he had just experienced. A few seconds compared to two minutes. How much could he have learned about Concepts in two minutes? Who knew. But given he could apparently grasp upon Divine Energy by learning more about Concepts made the entire Skill a potential feedback loop.

  Reading over the evolution again, he also noted the Divine Bonus was numbered. Did that mean that in future evolutions he could gain additional Divine Bonuses? That seemed likely. He didn’t see an option and accepted the Skill evolution. He supposed he should be thankful that it now bore the title of Conceptual like the rest of his Skills. Two new notifications instantly appeared in his vision and he opened them even as he sensed Aisling and Evindal quickly approaching. If Kiri was in the base, he would have invited her as well. Bringing up the notifications, he looked over his two Achievements and the changes to his Status.

  Congratulations on aligning all your Skills to your Embodiment before your Second Evolution.

  Your achievement has been recorded.

  Due to aligning all Skills with the Conceptual Embodiment, your Secondary Class has been adjusted.

  Wandering Realmwalker (L) > Conceptual Realmwalker (L)

  You have evolved a Skill to Divine Grade while your Class remains Mythic.

  Your achievement has been recorded.

  With those words his next evolution was set in stone. He would achieve an option for a Divine Class as his Primary. Perhaps The System would give him Mythic options, but given it hadn’t done the same for his Skill Evolution, he had some serious doubts. He would deal with that when the time came. In the meantime, he had some explaining to do. Then and there, in that moment, he decided he would record all his findings, all his theories and all his ideas in a tome that he would grant to Aisling. If Reciprocity demanded repayment of him after his Second Evolution, then so be it, but he would give his mentor the tools to perhaps make the Adventurer’s Guild everything she had ever hoped it would be.

  Aisling and Evindal entered together, Evindal looking excited and Aisling concerned. With a smile of appreciation, both for his own efforts and his mentor's concern, he tucked away the Legendary flower in his Runic Gallery. Sealing the life affinity flower away till he was ready to use it, he began to answer his mentors' questions. He was walking his Path, and part of that Path was about helping those around him to tread their own.

  *************

  Arikanvil looked up from his work and immediately parted space so that it was as though he was standing next to the mortal. The way the mortal's eyes changed for a few seconds was not evidence on its own, but the Divine Energy leaking away from him was more than enough proof of what Arikanvil had suspected. The child from a Dead Realm had knocked down the final wall between himself and becoming a Lesser Divinity. The System would not let the child escape now. Another investment paid off for the hateful thing. But that investment could now help Arikanvil break the chains that held him. He debated for a fleeting second making his offer now. However, the mortal had seemed very attached to the other potential Lesser Divine. A little longer, he decided. Two were better than just one and it would increase the chances of success. Vanishing back to his research station, he continued to tinker with the skeleton of an orb before him. It was almost time. Just a little longer now.

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