Chapters

*The story "arcs" are experimental ways to break up the story information, non-canon, and each paragraph is generally a chapter.*

See also: Timeline / Chapter List / Soul chapters

## The Adventure Begins (Ch. 001-018)

Rain wakes up in a forest unsure of where he is. He encounters a group of 4 adventurers (Ameliah, Hegar, Brovose, Anton) and, unable to speak their language, they bind him with rope during which a Musk Wolf attacks and is killed by the party. (allowing Rain to see a blue box with "Level Up”). As the party travels, Hegar forces Rain to fight a slime, Ameliah teaches him the first words of the local language, and he sees other members use other magic skills like Purify. Rain also learns he can change the blue interfaces that pop up and starts piecing together, through experimentation, how experience (XP) works, what skills he can take, and what each of the six base statistics mean (Strength, Recovery, Endurance, Vigor, Focus, and Clarity).

Borrowing a knife from Ameliah, Rain decides to carve a crude spear while they camp. (just in time to fight another slime and level up). Rain also finds the slime dropped a rice sized crystal (Tel) which he is allowed to keep. They finally reach a guarded city and the group leads Rain into a building (the Guild) where they sleep for the night. In the morning, the adventurers exchange slips of paper (quests) and the Musk Wolf pelt with a woman (Donna) for Tel. Ameliah leaves the group, and appears to leave Rain, before he convinces her to let him join the Guild too. Rain gets his first quest (kill 5 slimes), his bronze guild plate, and Ameliah bribes someone at the guild to look after Rain. Rain, infatuated with the aura skills, decides to take Refrigerate. However, after testing it in the training room, and seeing the short range and high mana cost, he also takes the skill Extend Aura and adds a stat point to Clarity to help with mana regeneration.

Armed only with his crude spear, Gus leads Rain to the sewers for his quest where it becomes apparent why he has been fighting slimes: they aren't dangerous but smell like human excrement. After killing his first sewer slime, Rain can't find the Tel in the corpse so he takes the skill Purify to evaporate the corpse (only to find that monsters don't always drop Tel). After killing 3 more slimes, the last slime drops from the ceiling and nearly kills Rain, forcing him to burn all his remaining mana on Refrigerate. Barely alive in the Sewer, and out of mana, Rain dumps the rest of his stat points into Clarity and picks up a mana regeneration skill called Winter.

Smelling badly and with clothes ripped from acidic slime guts, Rain returns the quest slip to the Guild and luckily finds a public bathhouse. He uses the quest money to buy a meal, then clothes, from a wandering merchant who teaches him the conversion rate for Tel and coins. The rest of his money goes to rations and he is 1 Tel short of a bunk for the night which the barman forgives. In the morning, broke again, Rain realizes Refrigerate ranked up and skill experience is tied to the mana used. Rotating between Purify and Winter, he earns the thanks of one mage in an orange robe but finds no level suitable quest on the board (he is underleveled to take down a giant slime in the Sewers). Instead Rain hunts random sewer slimes in for Tel and repays the barman Khurt for the loan earlier. Khurt in turn teaches Rain basic numbers and Rain pays Donna for a bunk before going to bed.

The next day Rain takes Intrinsic Clarity to further boost his mana and learns he can customize his System interface further and make it intuitively respond to what he wants. Gus gives Rain an escort quest for Vanna, Yott, and Tarny (as they unblock a sewer stoppage) where it finally occurs to him Purify cleans everything, including his teeth, colon, and bladder. The following day, Rain takes a quest to hunt and kill a Skiffun where, after leveling up, he is able to select a class at Level 5, Dynamo (Rare): +200% mana regeneration. Rain further takes the skill Amplify Aura to rank up his skills faster (more mana spent equals more XP) and he returns to the guild, freely using Purify to gain XP, before purchasing a bunk for the night.

Resolving to learn more about the world, Rain approaches the orange robed mage from earlier to take him along on a group quest for experience. In exchange for no share of the reward, Rain joins the other 4 (Lavarro, Mahria, Carten, and Jamus) in a cart out of the city with Lavarro leading the group. Jamus helps Rain improve his language, teaches him about the Watch (they do not like any kind of unapproved magic in the city and are like police), and works on targeting practice with Mahria. The group grows to appreciate Rain's frequent cleaning sessions (Purify) before they camp for the night.

The next day Rain finds he was able to keep his Winter aura on overnight and starts working out the XP formulas needed for each level. Mahria, Jamus, and Rain take turns sparring with Carten but all realize he just blocks all their damage with his shields. Mahria also seems interested in Rain's Refrigerate until she finds out the mana cost. After Jamus catches Rain staring at Mahria over the campfire, he warns Rain that Mahria is their leaders (Lavarro) daughter and should be careful (he also suggests Rain doesn't want to know her father).

Rain levels up overnight and starts spending XP to unlock Tier 1 skills (previously all he could see was Tier 0) and selects the skill Detection. They finally reach their location, Vekuavak Mine, and are supposed to retrieve 15 magical miner picks whose owners were killed by monsters. The group is attacked by waves of Dark Hounds (Level 5) and Rain is fairly useless in the fight. Afterwards, Jamus and Mahria are short on mana but Rain is able to find the last miners pick with Detection before Lavarro points out there is a lair present further below. Unfortunately, despite purifying all the corpses, Rain is forced by Lavarro to give up all the Tel he finds and is rather upset he doesn't get a share of it (they wouldn't have dug through the corpses for it).

Feeling alone, Rain leaves the group upon reaching the city and focuses on ways he can contribute in a group fight. He settles on boosting his non-offensive skills with Aura Focus (Refrigerate would damage allies still). After testing in the Sewers, he finds his way to an equipment merchant and, overwhelmed by the prices, buys two cheap stat rings (Strength/Focus). Impressed each gives the equivalent of a free stat point, Rain starts focusing on getting money for more and negotiates with Rankin to sleep for free in the Guild as long as he cleans it daily with Purify. A few days later, emboldened by alcohol, he starts busking in the Guild square cleaning people (Purify) for donations too.

The next day, Gus is agitated and strongly urges Rain to immediately take a quest exchanging evertorches in the Sewers. Rain hears someone fighting behind a wall of filth and he Purifies the wall trying to get to him. Unfortunately, this creates a deluge of water pushing Rain and an unconscious black man down into the sewers. Rain helps Val to the surface where a stranger (pickpocket) helps him to the Guild. The Guild healer wants money up front to heal him. Rain is unable to pay (as the pickpocket took his money) and then is found by the furious Guild leader: Rain's earlier busking was open practice of magic, which is prohibited in the city. Rain gets stripped of his guild-plate, is fined 500 Tel which he can't pay, so he is then thrown roughly in the street: Rain gets exiled from the city.

Level 8 & +1 Free Skill Points (*Hover Over Skills For Descriptions*)

## Exiled (Ch. 019-038)

Jamus hunts down Rain by finding where his Winter aura was activated. He apologizes, gives Rain the belongings Rain left at the guild, as well as all the Tel he gathered from the Dark Hounds earlier. As Rain is effectively banned from the city, Jamus takes him to stay with his cervidian friend Tallheart while explaining how health and overhealth works. Jamus explains he and Carten are still under contract by Lavarro, for one more mission, to help Mahria experience fighting in a team. This is why Jamus leaves for the city again.

Rain, left with the armored and antlered cervidian, decides to help rebuild Tallheart's burned down home. Rain starts by purifying the ashes and dirt while learning that Tallheart is a smith of sorts with exceptionally high strength (single handedly felling trees for the project). While snacking on river weeds (Tallheart can't eat meat), Tallheart reveals he burned down his home, he doesn't know why, and that cervidians are not allowed in cities. Rain in turn shares his entire story and they bond over how Purify eliminates the need to use the bathroom ever again before going to sleep.

Rain finally reaches the max rank for his first skill (Intrinsic Clarity) and learns 10 levels is the max for a skill (though some things like specializations or equipment can raise it further). Tallheart teaches Rain to start a fire and explains monsters. Unlike animals, they are not alive and are born from nothing in Ranked areas which always increase as you go further underground (Fel Sadanis is Unranked while the Sewers are barely Rank 1). When discussing powerful equipment, Rain learns his cheap stat rings are basically consumables that will break soon. Tallheart lacks more metal to create anything better, and Rain advertises his Detection skill. The smith forges Rain a shovel from his few scraps to help him look for metal. Rain takes the skill Channel Mastery to improve his search, combing with Detection, and incidentally learns skills multiply, not add, when buffing.

After solving the optimal range/efficiency of his 4 buffs with Detection, Rain finds a small meteorite which is forged into an anvil. Now Level 10, Rain starts unlocking more tiers and consults Tallheart on how to use his free stat points. Tallheart suggests focusing on what he is good at before Jamus stops by and is impressed by Rain’s rapid speech improvement. Tallheart mentions his high Clarity (overmana improves memory) and Jamus explains what a monolithic class like Dynamo means (all points in one stat category) and Level Caps (you can only level as high as the essence monsters, or blues, you kill). Rain also learns metal attracts and disrupts magic naturally but auras might be immune to this. Finally, Tallheart suggests the Level 18 Musk Wolf wasn't an accident and likely drawn, and weakened by travelling, by whatever teleported Rain into the World.

Rain fully commits to going monolithic Clarity and picks up Intrinsic Focus to raise his mana pool. While practicing using a new skill (Velocity) Rain finds clay for Tallheart's forge. Rain reviews further notes from Jamus on how even adding stats has a trainable "cap" and thinks about ways he can train his synchronization to fully utilize his stats. After several trips of clay, Rain helps Tallheart finish the forge and they discuss how Tallheart is actually Level 37 thanks to his warrior wife Snowlilly, now deceased wife. After the conversation, Rain decides to put a free skill point into Immolate.

Jamus returns to camp with an encyclopedia and the thankful man Rain saved: Val. Val reveals he was trying to kill the giant slime in the sewers as well as unlock a rare class which needs an essence monster (the slime wasn't one). Letting Jamus and Tallheart talk about the Adamant Empire declaring war on the DKE, Rain and Val go hunting where Rain finds a rusted bridle (metal) and Val kills a lago with a thin beam of light. Val explains how the Adamant Empire, led by Potentate Fecht, put a bounty on cervidians which is why Tallheart can't go into cities. They return to camp where Tallheart agrees to let Val stay.

Rain combines Refrigerate, plus a hole in the ground, to create an icebox for the lago meat. Conversation shifts to Lavarro and their past mission to the mine before Val eagerly pushes forward a plan to explore the supposed lair alongside Jamus, Carten, Rain, and Tallheart. In preparation, Tallheart partially fixes his gauntlet (he lacks the metal to do it right) and happily starts purifying metals. Meanwhile, Val and Rain spar. Besides Velocity being used to trip opponents, Val is unimpressed with Rain.

Val volunteers getting supplies and some armor for Rain as he has virtually no defenses. Meanwhile, Rain plays with his skills and selects Magical Synergy which boosts his overall mana pool. He also tries, and fails, to explain the concept of zero to Tallheart and learns everyone sees the System as "glyphs" in relation to what units they know (meters, strides, furlong, steps, etc). Val returns with a gambeson, padded pants, chainmail, and a helmet for Rain. Rain reluctantly agrees to duel Val again and actually wins. However, to his horror, it only encourages Val, the dueling maniac, further.

Val trains Rains with staves while Rain is confused by Val's build. There is no Light magic tree but Val has all light skills. Returning to his own build, Rain picks up the skills Aura Synergy and Essence Well to maximize his usefulness on the mine trip. Val jealously learns about Rain's rapid leveling while he receives mana via Essence Well. When the skill Winter comes up, Val informs Rain the Adamant Empire has seasonal aura users (“beacons”) but they are all low level slaves and the fourth season, Fall, provides sustenance. Rain listens attentively while calculating the optimal way to use Essence Well with modifiers.

After practicing using Velocity, Rain returns to camp to find Jamus and Ameliah there. Ameliah is upset with what Halgrave had done, came to find Rain, and after introductions, Ameliah decides to come with the group to the lair. As Rain purifies the cart Carten brought them, Ameliah is surprised how powerful Rain's Purify has gotten in such short time and the conversation shifts to Rain’s build (where Jamus and Carten start arguing which skill to take next). Rain joins Val scouting at the front where they find a horde of Fire Kin which Val wants Rain to fight but Rain doesn't feel the same. The horde notices them arguing and charges. Rain hesitates before activating Refrigerate, killing all Fire Kin nearby and nearly also Val. Ameliah heals Val, purifies the corpses, attracts the Tel, and Rain gives Tallheart a Fire Cryst the Kin dropped. Ameliah is confused where the monsters came from as it is supposed to be an Unranked Zone where monsters don't spawn.

Rain wakes up in the middle of the night and joins Ameliah for watch duty. Rain tries, and fails, explaining his world of no magic to Ameliah, like the cities or rocket ships to the moon. Ameliah explains she grew up underground in an outpost called Brightside (Rank 20) until her father, an adventurer, died from the poisonous environment. Years passed before she could pay for her teleportation back to the surface. The next morning Rain roughly puzzles out the experience formulas for his skills and intensely trains Essence Well, with Aura Focus, to unlock IFF as soon as possible. The drawback of losing his senses with Aura Focus is found as Rain wakes up to find mouse whiskers jokingly drawn on his face. It pays off though, the next day he finds he leveled up 3 times and hit his level cap (18).

When Rain tells his party, he leveled up three times in one day, there is a mix of envy and congratulations. Rain starts quickly unlocking multiple Tier 2’s in different skill trees but after his first Tier 3 unlock, he feels violently ill. He learns this is “soulstrain” which happens when you overexert your health, mana, stamina or experience (e.g. spending 10,000 XP) which in turn hurts your soul. Rain cautiously takes IFF but when he tries to modify the System to add people to the exclusion list, he feels the wash of soulstrain, and concludes modifying the system screen strains the soul. Rain switches back to Winter before realizing, with all the rank ups, he has Winter up to 800% mana regeneration for everyone (Jamus and Val take advantage of it to train).

Rain begins asking Jamus questions as they travel (while topping him off with mana) like how they don't have the number '0" but instead gets referred to Staavo repeatedly (the scholar who wrote the encyclopedia for Rain). Rain learns the local continent is named Ekrustia and the second major power is a republic of kings (Citizens) called The Democratic Kingdoms of Ekrustia (DKE). The DKE are at war with the Empire of Adamant (Empire) and the only thing keeping the Empire from taking Fel Sadanis is a large stretch of desert called the Badlands (Rank 10). Rain then experiments with short bursts of Purify he calls "novas" while he and Ameliah discuss Val's possible class and how Winter (internal regeneration) is safe but Essence Well (external) may cause soulstrain to people.

Level 18 & +3 Free Skill Points (*Hover Over Skills For Descriptions*)

## Vekuavak Mine (Ch. 039-056)

Rain’s group finally reach the mine after dark once Rain started using Velocity on the party. They decide to wait till after breakfast and discuss the dangers of mageburn (damaging yourself with skills) in regards to Rain's offensive auras (Refrigerate reduces environmental temperature). The group practices using Velocity (Rain launches Carten 50 meters in the sky on full blast while Carten uses Rebound to safely land) before proceeding down the mine and clearing out dark slimes. Rain finds tin veins for Tallheart to mine while the party proceeds deeper to the lair.

Val and Ameliah scout the path to the lair with their Light Orbs while Val impatiently wants to enter immediately. Rain interjects and Ameliah explains the basic rules of lair diving instead, after noting that she is the only one to have been in a lair so far. For instance, while you can see your parties vitals, just because a person's health drops to nothing doesn’t mean they are necessarily dead, but close to death. And before entering a lair, your party level average should at least match. Lairs have a percentage rate (higher indicates more monsters) and the lair will naturally recharge as long as you don't destroy the core. You can get rewards from breaking lair cores like items, stat boosts, skill points, etc.

Rain’s group finally enters the Everdeep Fortress and starts finding Dark Hounds. Rain realizes only damage counts as participation in a lair whereas outside of a lair, you only need to be in a group (Rain’s Musk Wolf awakening). Carten triggers a trap door and they find themselves lost in a shifting maze before encountering Dark Hounds. Rain's Velocity causes the hounds to initially trip while the rest of the party work fighting them off. One Dark Hound momentarily latches onto Rains arm until he manages to kill it. At least one day later, still trapped in the shifting maze, Ameliah mentally evaluates their progress and is impressed how much they trust each other and are willing to help Rain. She worries Rain is naive and hopes he will help people, instead of be a tyrant, when he learns how powerful he can become. As Rain takes watch, he comes up with a plan using the Lunar Orbs as an absolute position (they can be felt where they are) so no matter how the maze shifts, they still go in the same general direction.

After several more fights with Dark Hounds the group reaches a door that has a trapped hallway of darts leading to a cave. Rain's detection isn't working for monsters, and unable to see ahead, he tries to sense the air and is initially overwhelmed by too many results. He lowers the power, seeing where the air isn't, and identifies a chasm with a narrow bridge. Ameliah sends her Lunar Orb above the bridge and a swarm of Tenebre Bats charge down on them. Rain's Velocity causes the Tenebre Bat's to smash into walls, killing themselves, while Carten uses Velocity to turn himself into a cannonball at the Dark Hounds rushing from behind. Jamus uses a ball of exploding magic on Carten, being overwhelmed by Dark Hounds, when a ram like Umbral Charger collides with Carten. Rebound isn’t enough and Carten is then launched into Rain causing them both to fall into the chasm where Rain's health bottoms out.

Ameliah kills the Umbral Charger with a single blow and leaps down the chasm after Rain and can stabilize him, as well as Carten whose breastplate has also given. With Firebolts she kills the remaining bats. Everyone regroups, drained of mana, and in awe of Ameliah, as they wait for Rain (unconsciously running Winter) to wake up.

Rain wakes up a day later and is groggy from the “dream leaf” Ameliah gave him. Rain purifies it away but Ameliah's Purify earlier had not (it's a medicine and toxin so it depends on perspective). Ameliah asks him how he survived as he didn't have the health to survive the fall. Rain reveals he put a point in Force Ward while flying through the air and used all his modifiers to boost it. After doing the math, Rain realizes he would have actually died if he didn't have the health stat ring (now shattered). Val reveals they saw an essence monster earlier, Dire Darkmonk, while Rain Detection reveals it's actually tracking them from behind. Val sets off to solo the monster for his class requirement and nearly loses if not for Rain's Essence Well. Ameliah heals Val and they find their way to the core where, upon entering a core room, it causes the entire lair to panic and all remaining monsters surge at them. Ameliah quickly dispatches them and a portal opens, leading the party out of the cave, as soon as the lair hits 0%. Outside the mine, they find it's snowing. Rain learns about the various soulstrains and the effects they have on the body.

Tallheart starts purifying the iron he mined and teaches Rain that he needs to use crude filters to purify the metal which, once purified, will let him build proper tools and filters that won't break. An impure filter means the process must be repeated several times until pure. After pouring out the melted iron, Rain uses Refrigerate to cool it as Tallheart ponders how best to make Rain armor (hearing about Rain's near death was distressing to him). After a time, the impure filter breaks and Tallheart is happily left with a pure ingot of iron from which to make a lasting filter.

Rain works on ranking up his remaining skills while he scavenges melons for Tallheart. Upon Rain's return to camp, Ameliah messages that more Kin are in the area which suggests a "rank shift" is happening which would be disastrous an area like Fel Sadanis (monsters can spawn anywhere unlit). Rain helps Val train his new skill, Solar Ray, while calculating the optimal way to rotate Essence Well and Winter but is cut short as Val gets mana soulstrain. Rain learns that souls need to train to use new stats from equipment and one's soul remembers this training in the future even if you reduce the stat and increase it later (“synchronization”).

Val wants to go right back to the lair the next day but the party votes to rest a day as Rain, Val, and Jamus all have some type of soulstrain. Jamus shares his previous life as a banker until a nobleman seduced his wife and Jamus found out none of the kids were actually his. Jamus then left his money to his family and started a new life as an adventurer. Ameliah, Val, and Rain proceed to have a short discussion on the morality of killing even if it saves more lives. Whereby both Ameliah and Val conclude Rain is naive with little life experience.

The next day Rain figures out the XP formulas for each skill tier and rank. Using them to create an intense training schedule, Rain's eyes occasionally flicker with lightning at times (which happens when you use a lot of mana). He also finds out Winter won’t cause soulstrain from overmana as soulstrain from mana overuse was apparently a separate category. (Rain being somehow immune). Tallheart also offers to make Rain a set of armor out of Dark Steel (Carbon Steel + Dark Cysts) and Rain agrees to take a skill (Mana Manipulation) to charge his armor in order to make space for an additional upgrade, a Dark Regeneration rune (armor will heal itself in the dark). Rain wraps up the day training Force Ward on Carten and having group members take turns punching Carten.

Rain's intense training schedule pays off the next day with him ranking up 12 times in skills. Ameliah also explains that specializations are available at Level 25 to raise the skill level cap. The requirement is simply 5 skills in a tree, at least level 10, by level 25, and you can raise the max rank of skills in that tree by +5. Further, Legendary classes have 5 specializations, taken from their specialization, and a Legendary Dynamo only requires all points in Clarity. Tallheart shares he is a legendary Runic Powersmith and Rain learns people rarely take monolithic classes because of the vulnerability of stat imbalance. Though there was only one known Goldplate Dynamo ("Endless") who died years ago.

The group's next lair run goes much more easily as Rain can solo groups of Dark Hounds with IFF and even prevent Carten from taking damage with Force Ward. Quickly cleared, Rain trains Force Ward further as he unlocks more skill tree tiers. With specializations being so powerful, no new skill trees make sense, but Rain does start theorycrafting new skill combinations for classes. Ameliah then takes Rain hunting and asks him about his future plans. Rain doesn't entirely know except he wants to help people and correct things that he sees wrong with the world (like healing and enchantments not being free for people).

Carten takes the cart along with the sentient horse Dust to fill up water at the river but instead has some fun wrestling a bear and defeating a crawler vine (the horse runs off). The horse is apparently self-aware and frets at the annoying humans. Dust only like the long haired one (Ameliah) for giving him apples and starts becoming more observant like wondering about how to make fire before he darts away from the loud one (Carten) again. Carten catches Dust before an archer/scout orders him to stop and futilely fires an arrow at Carten. Carten ties up the archer and hauls him back to camp where they learn from the scout (named Stint) is from Lady Velika Vekuavak's expedition… which is presently on its way to reclaim the mine.

Knowing time is limited, Rain bonds with his new armor Tallheart made (Dark Revenant's Armor) and the group, Stint in tow, quickly move to break the lair core. They reach the core easily, which prompts Rain to wonder if cores are alive (he is told they aren't). Rain tries to charge the core with mana only to be told he needed dark aspect mana as Tallheart impatiently shatters the core. Rain also learns parties are a mindset by the leader, now Ameliah, and Stint is added right before they break the core. Rain receives his first accolade (+10 Perception) and Stint becomes Awakened. Stint’s joy reinforces Rain's idea of wanting to awaken the world. The group quickly pick up what they can carry (hoping that leaving the metal and cart will placate the Lady) and take off into the woods with the help of Rain's Velocity.

Lady Velika Vekuavak finds the campsite, and the refined iron, and filters indicating a master smith was there. A sword enthusiast, she rushes after the group once finding their tracks. Meanwhile, Rain's group needs to take a break for Rain when suddenly Velika appears demanding to see the smith. Val, seeing Velika is Ossaran, tries to offer Ameliah to duel her (Ameliah is not pleased) before Tallheart admits he is the smith and refuses to go with her. Velika's chief officer interrupts the scene: Lavarro is at the mine and Velika is needed. A compromise is reached where, in exchange for letting them go, Velika will visit Fel Sadanis in 2 weeks and Tallheart will consider her request to forge a sword.

## Return to the Guild (Ch. 057-074)

Gus fails to recognize Rain when he walks into the Guild with his new armor (something a bronzeplate couldn't afford). Rain has 500 Tel to pay his fine, and he can actually speak the language. Gus gets Halgrave so Rain can pay his fine and apologize. Halgrave explains the Guild gives freedom only lesser then nobles enjoy in exchange for doing tasks the Watch cannot, or will not, do. Rain endangered that by breaking the rules though Halgrave apologizes for being so harsh. Rain is reinstated and joins Carten and Jamus for lunch where he mentions he'll be staying with Tallheart for a while. Jamus suggests looking into living in the city like him as well as getting a cloak.

Rain works out the math concerning Mana Manipulation and realizes he can run Winter and Mana Manipulation simultaneously. He grabs a quest for the large slime in the Sewers and a quest to charge the Guild heaters with mana. Gus explains that if you team up for quests, and don't list it in the ledger, you won't get contribution points (which are important as some cities have point minimums required for quests). Rain finishes charging the Guild heaters and makes Gus very happy before setting off for the giant slime. Rain slowly starts breaking the clogged filth to the slime with the slime repairing it each time. After all the water is drained, Rain starts using Immolate and finally sees the Mucus King (Level 7). Immolate sets it on fire filling the air with a putrid smell but Rain has to alternate with Refrigerate as the air is too hot (then too cold) to breathe. Rain barely beats the Mucus King and gets a golden crown along with an unknown cyst for his trouble.

Rain then returns to Tallheart’s clearing where Ameliah has already sent Stint on his way and is now consoling Tallheart. (the snow reminds Tallheart of his wife Snowlilly) They get a fire going and Tallheart informs Rain he should be able to make a ring with the slime crown. Tallheart talks about he and his wife Snowlilly came from Bellost to save more of their kind after they were the only ones from the village who escaped the Empires Hunters. Tallheart shares a specific story where he and Snowlilly went looking for a village within the Empire that supposedly enslaved a cervidian. The humans there stared at them with hate and the cervidian (Proudrock) was being passed around until his horns grew in and they could kill him. Snowlilly and Tallheart traveled Ekrustia, freeing other cervideans, and formed a secret colony for the survivors. Snowlilly wasn't satisfied with their strength and, finding a powerful lair, a dragon killed her while she bought time for Tallheart to escape.

The following day Rain makes plans to build Tallheart a new home and Ameliah agrees to get a building permit so buying construction supplies and going into the forest isn’t suspicious. Tallheart reveals he'll make the sword for Velika because he needs rare metal to fix his armor but he always builds restrictions like binding it to one person (the implication being so it couldn't be used against his people) Ameliah reveals she's leaving north soon to find more about Velika and Rain returns to the city visiting the bank and buying accessories: a heavy black cloak, a belt with pouches, a leather messenger bag for notes, and coffee.

Rain finally turns in his slime quest and starts experimenting with Purify in the guild tavern. He unsuccessfully tries to modify the spell before being called to Halgraves office. Jamus, Carten and Lavarro are already there and Lavarro wants restitution for them breaking the lair. However, they legally don't have to and Halgrave takes their side, then leaves. Lavarro pins Jamus up against the wall with a Force spell despite Rain's Force Ward being 100% before Rain's mana is instantly drained, Carten is thrown through the wall, and Rain is pinned to the ceiling. Halgrave intervenes and threatens to ban Lavarro from the Guild if she doesn't stop immediately so she does and Rain is knocked out as he hits the floor.

Wallace poorly heals Rain and Mahria gets him some ice, still not sure what the fight was about. Halgrave orders Rain to clean the Watch barracks for free as Immolate being used in the slime fight sent greasy vapors up through all the bathrooms. Rain meets Ameliah on the way out to the Watch who promptly heals the swelling in his brain that Wallace missed. Rain needs a threat assessment before he can enter the Watch stronghold and Sentinel Lamida concludes the power of his offensive auras jump him to a Category 3 threat capable of destroying a village. The four guards (Mest, Brakis, Kellen, and Melika) are initially wary but open up in appreciation as Rain cleans all the barracks.

Rain wakes up in Tallheart's clearing the next day, and while planning out his next 7 skills until 25, shares the wonders of coffee to Jamus, Ameliah, and Tallheart. Next Jamus takes him to meet his scholar friend, the 'failed' adventurer Staavo. They trade questions and Rain learns that most awakened don't take monoliths because it is too hard to level or too dangerous to invest in one stat and don't make it to Level 25. Dynamo (Clarity), Fortifico (Health), Animus (Focus), Vivificant (Health Regeneration), Dustrio (Stamina Regeneration) and Tortugo (Endurance). Though Fortifico and Animus are used by the Empire, most monoliths tear themselves apart from imbalance or cannot do damage at all. Rain also learns that lairs are rare in exchange for telling Staavo about flight and generators. After further discussion, Staavo gradually starts seeing Rain’s build as more viable as he didn't know several of the skills existed and finishes up by explaining the geopolitical relations of the Guild, Watch, DKE, and Empire.

Rain returns to the clearing and is digging the foundation of Tallheart's new house while Tallheart finished engraving the ring. Rains thoughts drift to Val trying to repair his jacket and how he told him the Empire adducted his Goldplate father when he was younger (likely because of his class). Tallheart finishes the Malleable Ring and reveals Rain's armor has finger joints he can wear the ring over. Tallheart also used a GranCryst to make the ring but explains it is worth it for all Rain has done for him.

Far from Fel Sadanis, Stint wakes up in the barn of a farmer and fails to guess the horses name despite Dust's effort as they head away from Essed. He comes upon a merchant and daughter being waylaid by 8 bandits, and hesitates, before remembering Amelia’s parting words not to waste his gifts. The merchant is struck with a crossbow bolt and Stint rapidly takes out all but the leader who hopelessly outclasses him in melee combat. As the brigand leader is about to kill Stint, the merchant, Mlemlek Ko-Latti (Mlem), kills him from behind instead. Mlem and his daughter Ava get Stint a healing scroll and Stint says farewell to them as he turns further eastwards.

Rain and Ameliah debate units of measurement while Rain reviews his notes on how to train his base stats using the ring. One way was running with Ameliah to increase the stamina recovery but Rain was too mentally scared to take off his armor (he hadn’t take it off since the mine) because of his low health. Ameliah gives him a hug, a pep talk, and they decide to race to work Rain’s on Rain’s stamina without the armor. Ameliah wins easily and comments when looking at this ring that it is bound and no one can see a bound equipment’s stats. She goes on to explain the side effects of training specific base stats and mentioning it is easy to see the progress of training the stronger his soul (stronger soul is easier to manipulate System interface). They race again, Rain using max Velocity, before Rain finally decides to take Aura Compression and rapidly regain mana for another run. A short while later Ameliah carries Rain back to camp as his multiple cases of soulstrain leaves him barely lucid. Rain asks her not to go before he passes out.

Ameliah makes her way to Jarro find out more about Velika and her family via the Fel Sadanis Bank's teleportation platform. She mulls the conflict between the DKE and Empire concluding taking Fel Sadanis to be near impossible for the Empire but strategically valuable as the teleportation platform would bring their armies right behind the DKE front lines and force the DKE to thin their border troops in response.

Jamus wakes up with a mana headache because of his low Clarity. His new girlfriend (Meloni) learned how to brew a mana potion and Jamus promises to ask Rain for words from his language to name her dog. Staavo meanwhile finishes his first generator prototype and it actually works to create sparks of electricity before melting. He immediately thinks of more questions for Rain. Rain also wakes up with a hangover and slowly starts using Purify over the forge while he suggests that he can use it to mask Tallheart's smithing smoke in the future. Still wanting Rain to recover, Tallheart teaches Rain Ranks which he almost picks up quickly enough to win. Jamus visits to let Rain know the Watch has a special quest for him and Staavo is looking for him to find out more about electricity. Jamus also learns the English word for "Cloud" to name Meloni's dog while Rain tops him off with mana via Essence Well.

Rain manages to change when the System wakes him up every day, which means he doesn't have to wait for each morning to rank up. He walks into Fel Sadanis in the morning and is briefly stopped by the Watch (Melka and Sarl) while they worry about a possible Rank Shift (multiple Kin sightings). Rain sees Rankin at the Guild with a special quest for him and he starts to wonder if Rankin is embezzling funds by how rundown the Guild is. The quest was at the bathhouse where Rain finds Sentinel Lamida allowed ice slimes to remain to test his aura damage. Rain clears them out and goes to the Sewers for a separate slime killing quest where he sees a boy fighting slimes trying to awaken (not realizing he needed a blue). Rain tries to help by purifying the filth off the boy not realizing it was lard to protect the skin and the boy was naked underneath. The boy, named Kettel, extorts Rain’s cloak through guilt, receives the Tel dropped, and is escorted safely home. Staavo meanwhile, impatient that Rain hasn't visited him yet, secretly follows Jamus out of the city.

Rain finds an alchemist shop run by Myth and Reason to turn in another quest for moss. He is rushed by a giant white fluffy dog called "Cloud" and recognizes this must by Jamus's friend. Meloni, the assistant shopkeeper, prys about Rain's origins, he comes across as a noble, while explain she runs the business side of the shop for the two financially inept alchemists (Myth and Reason). As Rain starts haggling for supplies a perceived earthquake interrupts their discussion. At the same time, Val turns in a wanted man to the Watch for a bounty. The Watch guards (Kellen/Vaast) the man into custody but when they demand to update Val's threat assessment, he refuses and starts to leave before Sentinel Lamida stops him. She lets Val go, commenting to the guards they have bigger problems with the teleportation platform when an earthquake interrupts anything further.

Citizen Westbridge and an impatient Velika Vekuavak teleport to Fel Sadanis. Velika decapitates a Watch officer and Westbridge saves the guards life with Greater Restoration before admonishing Velika. (they are not to kill any members from the Watch, Bank, or Guild while taking the city) Velika disables the teleportation platform while Westbridge plunges into the ground to activate a hidden Majistraal artifact only the DKE knew about. Meanwhile, Halgrave, in his office, transforms into a metal golem with the assistance of several Tier 4 skills and, grabbing an obscenely heavy hammer, stalks into the air (Airwalk) to deal with the two invaders. A message meanwhile appears to all citizens that their mana will be siphoned to form a city shield.

Westbridge's mission is to raise Velika as a Citizen (against his wishes) but she was the only suitable non-Mage strong enough to survive the implant. Westbridge announces the DKE is annexing the city from the Watch in order to deny the Empire access to the teleportation platform. In the meantime, a defensive barrier will form by draining everyone's mana within. Halgrave interrupts demanding the release of all Guild members (Westbridge refuses) and calls for a DKE vote (which approves the action). The two begin to fight with the city falling apart around them while Rain evacuates people to the sewers. Westbridge lures Halgrave outside the before racing inside the barrier and blocking Halgraves from the city. Westbridge holds a formal, unanimous vote, to raise Velika as a Citizen of Fel Sadanis where an implant is created and stabs into Velika (working its way to her heart). Westbridge, his job completed, teleports to Jarro and fails to tell the new Citizen Sadanis she is trapped within the barrier too.

## Citizen Sadanis (Ch. 075-094)

Three days later, Rain recalls how the people sheltering in the Sewers were demoralized when Westbridge. Most of the city, and food stores stocked for winter, were spared by the fires that came after, and the city had access to the river (bisected to become a stagnant pool thanks to the barrier). Most of Rain’s time was used for water purification, and he didn't disclose his mana regeneration abilites, only helping the healer (Wallace) who Rain instantly revised his opinion of. Wallace was trapped in a debt cycle of temporary stat rings which he needed to heal but consumed all his money, never allowing him to afford more permanent equipment. (hence being stingy with his mana) Rain also feared being enslaved by Velika if she knew about his mana boosting abilities and hid frequently in Staavo's abandoned home. However, Velika ordered all Awakened to meet in the city's arena so Rain adjusted his Malleable Ring, worked out experience formulas for modifiers, and started charging his armor. Rain fights the System menu to create a max tolerance for each stat (how high before soulstrain), max synchronization (what percentage of the stat he can use), and maximum stats he can equip, before heading to the meeting.

Rain sees a large assortment both of Bronze and Silver awakened, Guilders and Watch, in the arena and is reminded how they share a common history. Both split off from something called the Majistraal Ascensi Guildum and the plates internall ranked members (with Platinum distinguishing true members). The rest of the stands were filled with nobles and bankers before Velika starts the meeting alongside the nobleman Lord Arta Rill (her second in command). Velika goads the group to attack her, and after no one does, she orders a Tel tax on all Awakened, her own guard to be formed with exclusive access to the lair, sole access outside the barrier, and the Guild/Watch to work for free in the meantime. Carten briefly challenges Velika before being invited to her mansion for sex. Mlem, sitting next to Rain, is surprised to learn he was the ragged looking man he sold clothes to and invites Rain to visit his shop later. Velika, now in her mansion, reflect how she didn’t want to ever rule and just wanted the freedom to do what she wants (right now that means raising from Level 48 to 50). She feels trapped.

Rain retreated to the Guild for peace but Rankin, supported by the Citizen, tried claiming authority of the Guild and a fight, led by Jaks, was brewing over doing the Citizen's requests for free work. Rain finally decides to stop hiding his abilities and activates Winter with a 10x boost whilst pushing to the quest board, taking 3 quests, and shutting down Rankin's objections. Rain advises everyone to do their part, that they can't stop Velika, and that he would be boosting everyone's mana regen in the Guild tavern for a few hours. Rain, using Winter and Aura Focus, unlocks more skill trees, tries to figure out synchronization further, and theory crafts builds like "Passivist". When he drops Aura Focus, he is surrounded by Watch Silverplates.

Sentinels Lamida, Phoss, and Talasa secure Rain's help to come to the barracks each night and run Winter as he sleeps to hopefully get rid of the mana drain. Sentinel Lamida flatly tells Rain they can't do anything if Velika comes for him but politics (the Watch attacking the DKE) keeps Velika from murdering everyone. Rain turns in the various completed Citizen quests and then goes outside the city to train by jogging and using bursts (novas) of Refrigerate. On the city walls, Sentinels Lamida and Talasa watch Rain and comment about his strong soul, armor, and overall build. Talasa is impressed though the senior Lamida states Rain is only strong compared to "fools stumbling in the dark" within a backwater like Fel Sadanis. That evening Rain visits the Watch and runs Winter.

Rain sets his System alarm an hour early so he can work out Stamina tolerances from training the day before. While playing with his stats he realizes lowering a stat below its current maximum will create effects like overhealth (rapid healing). Rain starts charging his armor before noticing the barrier status is "fair" so the siphon dropped from 90% to 50%. At breakfast, Rain learns unawakened Watch recruits started off with a free martial education and at 16, the most promising were promoted to “prospects" who were awakened to Officers based on merit and a lottery system. Rain meets with the Sentinels again and is informed no one appeared to get soulstrain from Winter’s overmana though Warriors were hit the hardest. Officer Melka, looking exhausted, is forced upon him as his liaison.

Rain, with Melka in tow, pays his awakened tax and continues purifying water and cooling the air as he tries to guess how much time Fel Sadanis can survive like this. He runs into Kettel and helps Purify his friend Buggy’s skill condition but their mention of the Citizen (whose guard they joined) aggravates Melka. (who doesn’t want to talk about it and finds a tavern) Rain goes outside the walls to start using Refrigerate novas again. A few days earlier, Ameliah raced back to Fel Sadanis as soon as the teleportation connection to Jarro disappeared. She is stopped by Sentinel Tabot a Watch Scout, and filled in on the attack, that Halgrave has let, and the scouts haven't seen any of her friends. Ameliah finds a trail near Tallheart's clearing but was in no condition to follow. She rests at the camp, and viewing the barrier, she ponders whether she is getting too attached, if she can do anything here, and if it's time to move on. During her thoughts, she spots Rain walking outside the city and flares Purify to catch his attention. They hold notes up to the barrier to communicate (Rain doesn't know hand signals) and Rain melancholically resolves to find a way out.

Val meets an information broker (Morret) in the same rundown tavern as Melka. Val gets information about the lair (The Fels) and learns it is a Rank 11 chemical aspect lair with a waterfall bringing fresh water from outside. Morret tries to pay Val for information on Rain but Val rejects him and focuses on finding the lairs water system. Rain meanwhile finishes running Refrigerate, unlocks more skill trees, and finds Melka drunk in the bar. She nearly passes out until Rain purifies the alcohol from her body and she confesses she is mentally scarred from Velika cutting off her head in the attack (Westbridge somehow saved her), nobody else knows, and Rain promises to keep her secret.

Halgrave is in Xiugaaraa (“City of Lights”) to meet the Guild Leader. (Burrick the Volcano) The city exists in a ranked zone thanks to constant light runes (to prevent monsters spawning) made by the Worker class Illuminator. Halgrave reflects on how hard, and what great risk, it was to "pass the wall" at Level 25 and the extra hurdles workers faced financially and physically. (You need to pay a full party of Level 25 or higher just to survive the area, find a blue, get equipment that can damage a blue, hope the blue you found can be damaged by that equipment, and somehow weaken or restrain the blue until the Worker could damage it. Halgrave then attends the meeting while Lavarro, unbeknownst to him, eavesdrops from a separate room. While Halgrave wants to retaliate against the DKE, Burrick shuts him down, and Lavarro knows Halgrave will obey orders. Lavarro, infuriated, resolves she can abandon the guild but she will not abandon her daughter.

Rain starts shifting the Malleable Ring from physical, to mental, buffs overnight and it paid dividends in raising tolerances. He gets Melka to explain the side effects of stat imbalance (e.g. Strength makes you hungry) but she doesn't have an answer for how to improve his synchronization except time and patience. Rain and Melka pass by Mlem’s shop and Melka got a high, but fair quote, to recharge her daggers. Rain easily does it for free before haggling on 4 books covering children’s tales, Ossarian tax policy, Empire propaganda, and Zeelada). Rain senses a monster again in the city but Melika tells him it was almost surely Sentinel Gal, a tamer.

Rain gets Melka to explain how physical skills (fixed movements) and katas (library of movements you can chain together) work with her dagger skills before Lord Arta Rill sends for him. He gives Rain a large amount of Tel as a "gift" for his purifying contributions and future collaborations. And then informs Rain he will be escorting the Citizen to awaken her guard tomorrow in the Fel Sadanis lair. (Velika want's Rain's Purify for the swamp lair) Lord Rill rigged the selection to guarantee his overconfident and reckless son, Arlo, will enter but asks Rain to keep him safe. After the meeting, Rain and Melka enter Havenheild equipment shop where Rain ends up charging all their equipment for a steep discount on a collapsible staff and consumable chemical ward.

Rain wakes up the next day and discovers his synchronization went up in Vigor because he wasn't training past his limit. He reviews his notes on the city’s lair from Melka as well as the potions from Myth and Reason (discounted for charging their equipment) along with a slew of other supplies. With Velika hiding in the ceiling, Rain watches the group slowly arrive (Arlo Rill, Kettel, Breggeh, Bosco Deitrich, Rina Ashworth, and Samson Darr) before Velika drops down and scares them. Rain gives the unawakend a similar speech Ameliah gave him on his first lair and, once entering, finds out he can't entirely purify the Chemical lair away but the mana siphon was somehow blocked within the lair too. The unawakened file in behind him but the eighth person, Breggeh, can't enter. Velika infuriatingly realizes there is an intruder already in the lair. (maximum of 8 people), exits the lair, tosses Breggeh inside, then forcefully rips the lair open to enter before privately expressing her displeasure to Rain how everyone is disobeying her. Rain talks her out of publicly executing the guards until they find out how the intruder got in.

Rain outlines the path they need to take to reach the core and forms a wedge formation with Samson as the rear guard. They fight through a Level 5 Plague Rat Swarm with Arlo and Kettel breaking ranks to attack (failing to follow orders). The rest of the formation holds, Velika strangely demands all the loot, and then she evaluates everyone's performance. They clear out several more swarms (with Velika only needing to step in once) before she starts making them fight duels with Trundlers (only Arlo and Samson pass). Velika then brings a swarm of Kin for Rain which he annihilates with Immolate, impressing the unawakend, but Velika sees on the party screen he nearly killed himself in the process with mageburn.

After downing recovery potions, Rain gives Kettel his new staff to replace the spear Kettel broke dueling the Trundlers. He warns the group about the next sections threat, Fungiform Stumpers, and experiments purifying a slime to create a Crystal Slime (to which Rina commits as a pet). The first fight against the Fungilform Stumper goes poorly knocking Bosco out and others, like Kettel, unable to do damage. With the group's stamina fading, Rain uses Velocity to launch himself forward, severing the Stumper's leg, and then freezing it with Refrigerate. Rain almost runs out of mana before Rina mercifully kills it with arrows. Velika, meanwhile, muses to make Rain her own personal beacon as Rain purifies away the poisonous spores left.

Rain and the group are mentally scarred, yet gaining cohesion, after having to be partially digested in the next part of the lair before reaching the end. They slowly clear it out before Velika smells the intruder nearby and Rain, via Detection, realizes it's Val. Val is unconscious, half eaten by a dead snake, with a poisonous fang puncturing his stomach. Samson takes over feeding Val health potions and Rain foolishly uses Purify, unclotting the wound, blinding Samson, and causing massive bleeding. Val is stabilized for the moment while Rain (and company) are forced to fight the Corpulent Gill Monitor (blue essence monster) that snuck up on them. All the unawakened eventually do damage, Arlo does the killing blow, and everyone awakens.

Far away, Lavarro releases a ragged translocationist who transported her to the city of Westbridge. She is intent on forcing Citizen Westbridge to release her daughter and she isn't scared. Ater all, she may be a Silverplate but she never lost to her Goldplate, ex-husband, Halgrave once. Meanwhile, Ameliah tracks down Tallheart, Jamus, and Staavo (while covering their tracks with Mask Trail) We learn her class (True Jack) lets her substitute one prerequisite for another of the same tier as long as it had a logical connection to the skill. Her legendary class (Uncertain Savior) went further and let her additionally refund skill points. Sentinel Tabot tries tracking Ameliah and gets as far as Tallheart's clearing before he realizes someone just killed him. Elsewhere, Lightbreaker sits in chains within the Empire’s encampment and overhears a report that all enemy scouts have been successfully killed. The Dominus in charge wants to send a strong message and slaughter the Watch outside the barrier slowly. Eventually, however, the Dominus relents to Lightbreaker who annihilates their camp in a burst of light. Lightbreaker is not strong enough to oppose Fecht, so he obeys.

After the fight with the essence monster, Rain asks to speak to Velika alone and states he knows she is trapped inside the barrier with them. Velika flies in a rage, and after a few blows, and his helmet ripped off, Rain starts to reason to Velika how obvious it is: she has no money (she collects the measly Tel from this trip and taxes awakened), she has no guards (formed her own), she has no other help here, and despite hating ruling it she never leaves. Rain states he isn't blackmailing her, will keep purifying and cooling the city regardless of her choice, but if she listens to him then he'll also help her rule. His other condition is to release Carten , and let Rain and his friends leave Fel Sadanis once the barrier is down. (she laughs and informs him Carten is in love and won't leave, but otherwise agrees)

Sentinel Talasa, within the Watch stronghold, frets over being overruled to attack Velika as she leaves the lair. Talasa appreciates her assistant Bartum anticipated, and sent, a runner to communicate what is going on which cheers her up. (he always anticipates what she needs) After securing the Guild and various nobles, and with most of the Guilders, the Watch wait to strike Velika as soon as she leaves the lair. Rain leaves first carrying Val and is whisked from the room, then so are the newly awakened until just Velika remained. As Velika steps through the lair everyone launches their attacks, however Velika managed to slip back into the lair and emerged to slaughter the group to the man.

Rain awakens in complete darkness, pinned by a corpse, and trapped in a collapsed tunnel. Rain remembered how he activated Force Ward when Sentinel Phoss threw him and his Detection reveals no survivors. Rain begins Purifying and looting the bodies around him while also realizing he may need to improve his strength tolerance to dig his way out. He toys with the Malleable Ring and begins training with pushups. Meanwhile, Mlem is protecting a food stockpile that he purchased in preparation of a food scarcity crisis. He observes the Adamant Empire sieging the city and failing to break the barrier. And thinks the rioters in the city are fools for considering the barrier would fall atter lasting this long. Elsewhere, Carten brings an enraged Velika a healing potion while she hopelessly shouts for Westbridge across the mental link.

Rain’s rigorous physical training program bears fruit as he discovers how hard you push yourself matters more than the net stamina points spent. However, as he starts lowering his stats via the malleable ring (for puffs of overstamina and overhealth to rapidly heal) he becomes incapacitated and passed out due to Endurance/Vigor soulstrain. Rain awakes an hour later, modifies his System menu again to show his total experience, exact vitals, and armor integrity into a single window. He then classifies all the soulstrains he knows before forcing the training dialog to manually appear on demand for the first time. (no longer at 6 AM everyday) and works out how skill experience and general experience works. He tries to abuse it via an Essence Well loop (sending mana to himself repeatedly), dubs it Esssence Meditation, and wonders if there is a correlation between the skill Essence Well and Essence (blue) Monsters.

Within the barrier, Rain uses Essence Meditation to level Aura Compression twice and uses Purify to occasionally light up the area. When he is ambushed by a new slime, he purifies it to a neutral Crystal Slime, and uses puffs of mana from his hand (Mana Manipulation) to tame the slime (Tel and Essence Well failed). Rain names the slime Dozer and briefly notices a vague mental bond like he can almost understand Dozer’s base feelings. Rain unsuccessfully tries to "Purify" a collapsed doorway to remove the rubble but then drills holes, fills them with water, and freezes them (Refrigerate) to expand and crack the rocks. Over several hours, he breaks a pathway to the entrance of The Fels where he starts to purify the deceased (including Melka) while collecting their equipment and accolades.

Outside the barrier, the Empire's army maintains a sustained battery against the barrier while preparing for a DKE counterattack. While on another continent, Halgrave, Burrick, and the Warden, using DKE Citizens Donharrow and Magabor to facilitate a mental link, open negotiations with the DKE. Burick (the Guild leader) disavows Lavarro for killing Citizen Westbridge and promises to personally take care of her before The Warden steers the conversation back to Fel Sadanis and the Empires "invisible army" stalled against the Magistraal artifact. The DKE states they will not give Fel Sadanis back to the Watch as both the Watch and Guild never answered their pleas for help against the Empire. They go on to ask for more help against the Empire before bluntly being told the Guild will stop paying taxes in their territory and the Watch will not hand back Citizen Magabor until the DKE return Fel Sadanis.

Meanwhile, Rain starts purifying slimes he finds and is up to three Crystal Slimes before checking his System log and receiving an icy burst of pain from too much experience accumulated (he ran Essence Mediation while sleeping) and writes it off as soulstrain. He reviews the 11 accolades looted from the corpses but is unable to bind them. He tries filling them with mana but after 3,000 mana he gives up, reviews the other equipment, and resumes excavation. Over time he noticed his mental bond become stronger with Dozer (they can roughly tell each other’s feelings) as he fed it mana. Rain receives a short, one-way message from Carten informing him the Adamant Empire was attacking, there were riots, they need his Winter aura, and Velika is still out of it.

Miles above Fel Sadanis, Citizens Northharbor (Force/Air Mage), Bowcraig (dual element Heat/Cold Mage), Greenfield (Earth Mage), and Bluecrest (Aspect Elemental) fall from the sky and attack the Adamant Empire sieging Fel Sadanis. While Bowcraig casts Meteors from above, Greenfield lances massive pillars of stone into their fortifications. Bluecrest also duels Incarns (suicidal soldiers ftally enhanced by multiple spells in exchange for power). As Lightbreaker attacks, Bowcraig activates a rare charm that gives 10,000 Light resistance (just over the damage limit in an unranked zone). Bowcraig pretends to take damage as he converts the heat from the meteors into cold via Thermal Conversion and pierces Lightbreaker's heart...only to find it was an illusion. As the illusion breaks, Northharbor and Bowcraig are killed in an instant and the fortification illusions dissolve. Lightbreaker, low on mana, leaves the two remaining Citizens and follows the safely retreating army which evacuated half a day earlier.

Max Equippable Stats: 139
 Synergy

## Rank Shift (Ch. 095-112)

Chapter 095
3 days after Carten's message spell, Rain is ragged from digging and has various self-inflicted soulstrains. Outside, Tarny, Yott, and Vanna raced to save Rain as the city is overheating and running out of clean water. Rain, sensing the Workers with Detection, made an ominous sight as he simultaneously broke though the wall and unknowingly projects a fearful aura towards the workers. Rain doesn't understand, and Vanna mistakenly thinks it is oversoul Platinumplates have, before Rain deduces his soul must be leaking and it probably ruptured from the Essence Meditation earlier. Dozer briefly gets introduced, and reprimanded, for trying to eat Yott's filth, before Rain gets updated on what has been going on.
Chapter 096

After dispersing the group with a plan to gather supplies at the bathhouse, Rain, pulling a cart of supplies, is set upon by thieves and quickly reverses the situation when they realize he is "Death Zone" (Kettel's new nickname). Rain’sleaking soul and burst of Refrigerate root them with terror. Rain warns the muggers he will restore clean water and order before dispersing all but one (the man who robbed while rescuing Val) and moderately extorts him. Rain arrives at the bath house, breaks down the locked door, and situates himself (and the loot filled cart) in an alcove. He removes his armor, along with tattered gambeson, and is surprised by the physical transformation of muscle and pale skin formed while also fighting an irrational vulnerability of being without armor. Tarny (bordering fanaticism for "Lord Rain") brings the healer Wallace who can't detect an “oversoul” and informs Rain he has been healing the Citizen and happily being compensated. (though Rain still refunds the Tissue Scan mana via Essence Well) Rain starts to deal with the heat and water crisis by purifying, then freezing, the bathouse water for trapped residents.

Chapter 097

Vanna's brother, Smelt, briefs Rain in the morning and lets him know Carten came for him while he was sleeping and left a message to stay away from Velika (bad mood). Rain freezes his armor and belongings in a tub of frozen ice and traverses the Sewers (his oversoul and Dozer panic people). The water operation goes smoothly (with the nobles not interfering and the Watch holed up in their barracks) while Rain sees a carpenter to replace the broken bath door. Rain stumbles onto a patrol who brings him to the new officer in charge, Officer Bartum where, under a Muffle ward, he returns the nameplates, equipment, and accolades of the fallen Watch members. Rain visits the merchants next to purify and refrigerate the food stores while pondering the lack of leadership left. (Velika refused to do anything and Lord Rill was accidently killed by the Watch before confronting Velika). Bartum helped Rain partially with his oversoul problem, describing it as having pierced his outer layer or paling of the soul. Usually it is a firm barrier but unawakened are porous and thus more susceptible to Rain's leaking soul. And while it prevented Rain from binding accolades, Bartum thought it would heal with time. As Rain is leaving an inn afterwards, he hears Ava shout for help and sees an injured Cloud which Rain mistakenly uses Purify and only re-opens the wounds (like Val). Shortly after finding Mlem, they take cloud to Myth and Reason’s alchemy shop where they manage to stabilize Cloud.

Chapter 098

Four days later, after temporarily replacing his shredded gambeson, Rain tries multiple times, unsuccessfully, to use Essence Meditation fix his soul. He holds a meeting in the bathhouse with four other people (Vanna, Uman, Khurt, and Lady Par). Uman was teaching Rain hand language and collecting information from outside the barrier, Vanna ran the water operation, Khurt was a liason to the Guild to find Mages to cool the city, and Lady Par a liason to nobles. After doing the math, Rain realizes everyone would be dead in six weeks so he needs to see Velika to address the barrier. Kettel and Breggeh are guarding Velika's estate and let Rain inside to see Carten (who is running things). On the way, Rain uses Force Ward to help an imprisoned Val jump 6 stories before watching him turn invisible and escape. Carten informs Rain that Velika is financially in debt to the Bank and not in a good mood. Regardless, Rain enters Velika's room only to immediately get a spoon thrown into his eye (blocked by Force Ward) and after some conversation, Rain is told Westbridge is dead and was the only one with access to the artifact to lower the barrier. Rain still wants to try but Velika darkly says there is another way…kill every person inside the barrier and it won't have enough mana to support itself.

Chapter 099

After leaving Velika, Uman confirms Lavarro is waiting outside the city as is Ameliah who left him a message. (along with Staavo, Jamus, and Tallheart) Rain has Uman spread the word that the Watch may resume patrolling the city, Velika disbanded her guard, and she won’t' help or interfere further. Rain checks in with a Guilder (Cera) cooling the city with Blinding Fog and pays her with mana via Essence Well. He learns the Essence Well transfer rate really isn't that impressive, compared to other skills like Infuse, along with the fact Cera looks down on unawakened people ("dulls"). Meloni finds him next and thanks him for saving Cloud by gifting health potions. (Rain suggests using durable glass for adventurers and Meloni agrees). Along with informing him his new Forceweave was ready, Rain tells Meloni about Jamus being outsides the barrier and she takes off as Vanna brings forward Officer Bartum. Rain recaps his meeting with Velika and they start an excavation plan for the artifact while the Watch resumes their patrols. Outside the city, Rain finally talks with Ameliah and Tallheart who are staying at the makeshift camp (The Lee) and starts to fill them in on everything that happened so far.

Chapter 100

Rain, sleeping outside by the barrier, is jolted awake at midnight to see the The Lee under attack by Fungilforms (meaning a Rank Shift) and rushes to the city. Inside the city, people like Mazel Strongarm (Carten's Aunt) already are fighting off the weaker Coal Lurkers. Rain races inside the city and help secures the outside gates while the guards fight off a Fungilform. He then wipes out a wave of Coal Lurkers with Refrigerate, tops off the Mages with Essence Well, and leads a small group to a bigger fortification. Elsewhere, Carten duels a Fungilform to a standstill before luring a second one in and making them damage each other as Velika lazily looked on eating walnuts. Myth and Reason briefly argue over what to salvage before a Razorspine Dissolver in their closet ends their argument and they quickly flee their shop. As the Watch sees the Alchemist shop go up in flames, Bartum orders collapsing all the homes and bringing all the refugees within a perimeter. At the bath house, the guards are exhausted and Vanna runs into the darkness with torches to draw away the Fungilforms before nearly dying to a Razorsine Dissolver and being saved by Val. Rain is already rescuing his second group of unawakened to the bathhouses before finding Mlem and Ava who'd been trying to deliver Rain's new Forceweave. Together Mlem and Rain kill a Fungilform before Val appears needing more mana. Outside, unconcerned by the monsters, Tallheart starts felling trees and dragging them back to The Lee for bonfires and fortifications.

Chapter 101

Rain and an assortment of guards (Sarl, Moston, Wolf) are taking turns guarding the thousands of people at the bathhouse. Rain is keeping them topped off with mana as they slowly burn out from exhaustion and soulstrain whilst waiting until sunrise for a break in the attack. (monsters don't spawn in light). Rain has supplied over 50,000 mana over the night, and constantly run Detection for threats, to slowly changed the Watch's view on supports roles. As Rain recovers mana, he starts making mental "monster cards" to plot their strength compared to their level and guesses that monsters aren’t exponentially stronger at higher levels, humans just have bad builds. As Officer Tilson (Arcane Archer) returns, Rain's Detection finds an unknown monster and Rain, Val, and Tilson race to the river to find a Razorspine Dissolver (A "reaper" class that is much stronger for its level then other monsters)

Chapter 102

Rain starts tanking the Razorspine with his armor as Val overconfidently darts out and is hit with acid to the face. Tilson pins the Razorspine with Pinning Shot while Rain struggles to Purify the acid on Val's face. The Razorspine is at first hesitant of Rain's staff until it finally cuts it in half and nearly beheads Rain. Only a concentrated Immolate saves him but drains him of all mana, causes mageburn, and the Razorspine nearly breaks his armor on a follow up attack before Tilson shoots it off. As the Razorspine corners Rain, Officer Wolf enters the fray and pushes it back while flinging Rain to safety. Rain covers Tilson as he fires a Pinning Shot, and misses, causing them all to start running. Rain, armor pierced and drained of mana, is saved by Ava distracting the Razorspine with Firebolt as Mlem ambushes it. Rain quickly snaps his broken bones back into place with overhealth as he internally celebrates surviving.

Chapter 103

The next day, Val unsuccessfully tries to sneak up on a brooding Rain atop a Watch building. Their faces are both scarred from the battle but Val's is more permanent. They reflect about the dire state of the city with over a third dead and most the city collapsed. Val apologizes for making Rain save him again before bitter feelings arise of Rain’s unique advantages in the fight (Level 18 Essence Blue and exquisite armor) overtake him while he has trained his whole life. He catches himself, and finally apologizes, before the conversation shifts to Lightbreaker where Val, is tempted, but not ready, to share his past yet with Rain. Meanwhile, Myth and Reason work feverishly to make enough Evertorches for the third night while investigating the toxic moss rapidly spreading with the Rank Shift. At “The Lee,” Tallheart is busy fetching wood for bonfires (no Evertorches) and making basic weapons and tools. He finishes making a spool of wire for Staavo as well as some glass. (Rain had given basic instructions via Amelia to Staavo.) With help from Amelia's skills, Staavo is able to power and light s glass bulb for a short while before it burns out. Lavarro is doubtful it is more than a curiosity, when a torch would do (she appeared during the shift and is staying at the camp), but Tallheart says it is merely the beginning.

Chapter 104

Three days later and things are starting to stabilize. The city fortification is constantly lit and Velika temporarily joined them as excavation to the artifact continues. Rain's armor was slowly being repaired and after reviewing his stat allocation and skill trees, Bartum let Rain know triggering his own Training Overview was not normal and was only supposed to happen once per day. But after observing no further damage, Rain continued unlocking trees and trying to unsuccessfully fix his soul via Essence Meditation. At The Lee, Officer Turton thankfully reflects on having three Silverplates (Lavarro, Ameliah, Tallheart) to protect them. Without knowing how far the Rank Shift spread, it was impossible for them to safely leave. Turton, after setting up a mindcaster, is connected to Warden Vatreece who takes control of his body and, after permission, reads his memories of the past month. He doesn't know why, but he is instructed to lie to Lavarro and get her to put on the mindcaster. Rain, after failing to fix his soul again via Essence Mediatation, waits for Vanna to turn away Rankin before coming down (Rankin wants Rain to stop working with the Watch for free). Val surprises them and appears to have gotten closer to Vanna before revealing Carten was dumped by Velika. Using Force Ward, Rain, Vanna, and Val jump off a cliff to the excavation site to much fanfare. After examining the tunnel, Rain realizes they dug right past Westbridges tunnel because of an enchantment of some kind that only he can see past.

Chapter 105

At the end of the tunnel, Rain finds an obsidian obelisk in a room where no monsters can spawn. Rain calls the Watch and their enchantment expert, Tanner, checks the room but upon touching the obelisk collapses in what he described as pure agony. Khurt tried and also collapsed until Rain tried it and feels the same agony. He can't move and slowly builds a mental wall around himself to block the pain before falling asleep. When he awakes, he appears as a glitched hologram (soul damage), like when he binded his first accolade. When he tries to interact with the obelisk, he is submerged in the memory of pain again before passing out. When he wakes up again, Rain figures out that time is moving extremely slow, it’s based off Clarity, and this isn't inside his soul but a subspace of his soul: Soulspace. He can clearly see threads now (Accolade, Dozer, Dark Revenant's Armor, Malleable Ring) including the six base stats in his body that have more with greater synchronization. (degree of connection between body and soul). And while he couldn't modify spells still, he saw a raw dump of incomprehensible symbols when running spells.

Chapter 106

Myth and Reason try to explain their findings to Meloni before noticing the red glow of a mindcaster outside the barrier. A quick bribe using Cloud, and they notice Lavarro in the mindcaster while Reason mumbles his worries of a faction war (Guild, Watch, Bank). The Warden, reviewing Lavarro's memories, sees the attack on the city of Westbridge firsthand. Lavarro destroys buildings and leaves a path of destruction (absorbing the kinetic energy) before finding Citizen Westbridge in the rubble. Westbridge is enraged at the destruction of his city before Lavarro severs his leg and whisks him from the city. She demands information to lower the barrier in exchange for his life which he refuses. She tries threatening his children, but to no avail, before realizing everything is being recorded by Westbridge’s Link and the plan has failed. She swiftly kills Westbridge, hoping maybe the barrier was tied to his life, and flees. Outside the memory, Lavarro fights to free herself before the Warden casually knocks her out, places an imprint of herself inside Lavarro's mind, and breaks the link and takes the teleportation platform out of Jarro. The Warden wants the DKE neural link so she can send herself through more than one connection but it would mean war and the Empires victory. Inside the city, The Watch throws Kettel off the barricade wall for defying orders and randomly targeting monsters. Cassel and Adri deal with the monster while Vincke (another Fire Mage) lectures him. Kettel was Level 5 but lacked the skill levels, and mana regen, to get a good class. He stumbles into Mahria and invites her to go for an adventure but she'll only agree to do so with Rain and a full group.

Chapter 107

Jamus is trying to relax and draw Meloni while Stavoo pesters him to do something useful like draw a generator. Both are interrupted by Lavarro (Warden’s clone) who orders a camp meeting saying neither the Guild or Watch are coming and she was ordered by The Guild destroy the mindcaster. She then starts interrogating people with the intent of breaking the barrier. Having spent equivalently 3 weeks inside the timespace, Rain worked out a calculator, scripts to pulse a code saying he was alright, and a command interface to communicate with the obelisk. While he had a direct link to the interface via Linksight, it overwhelmed his mind with pain so he shunted it into a command box interface. After many attempts, he finally connected to the obelisk and gains administrator access. After learning the basic commands the obelisk would accept, he starts adding everyone manually to a resident list so they could leave the barrier. Elsewhere, Sanin, the bank vault enforcer, is informed via a wrist device that a recovery team has made contact. Rain finally finishes the list but omitted Lavarro out of fear and Velika in case reopening the DKE link caused more problems.

Chapter 108

Ameliah and Tallheart see Rain, Valika, Meloni, Bartum and others making their way to the barrier. Rain pulls Ameliah through the barrier to her surprise while Lavarro (Warden clone) bangs angrily to be let in. Velika lets Ameliah know that Rain figured it out, they are free to go while her DKE link is calling Westbridge a traitor and her a spy for the Empire. Outside, Lavarro (Warden’s clone) is obsessed with getting Fel Sadanis and the artifact to rival the Guild's Xiugaaraa ("City of Lights"). While The Watch hoarded information carefully (it can be dangerous), and seldom gave Rare classes, the Warden toyed with telling Mahria which skill she was missing to be a pure cold elementalist to set her on the right path. (Mahria and Lavarro had been trying to solve it for years). While Lavarro raged against her control, she shifted towards analyzing Rain and how to utlilize Lavarro (some things The Watch couldn’t officially do) as well as moving Turon to Vigilance where he couldn't disclose Lavarro had been captured. On the barricades, Rain and Tallheart sit together after obelisk control over to Guardian Dunwich. Velika was gone, exchanging a pardon for the peaceful handing over of the city. Rain asks Tallheart how to get stronger and Tallheart says will, persistence, caution, and time. Tallheart describes how it takes will to persevere and listen to caution as well as time to find opportunity. Over years he and his wife, Snowlily, would delve beneath the surface, scout a target, prepare tailored equipment for a single monster, strike, retreat, recover, and repeat. Layer by layer, until they reach the bottom of the cave, and then surface to find another cave and repeat. Snowlily grew impatient, ignored caution, and eventually they were ambushed by a dragon and she died. As Rain is about to share what happened inside the city, Ameliah, Jamus, Carten, and Val join them. Gradually all their friends stop by for a party by a bonfire as everyone shares their stories and Rain plans his next course of action.

Chapter 109

Rain is training with Ameliah and farming monsters outside the barrier while learning there are different classifications of monster that give different XP and if you kill too many, they stop giving XP. Rain initially wants to form a party until he learns the Guild doesn't accept cervideans so he shifts towards forming a mercenary company where a group of people can grow stronger together. Rain wants to awaken the unawakened and build a secret base/airship, but he really convinces Ameliah saying the first mission would rescue Vestvall survivors (where Jamus's family is). Myth and Reason privately debate where they can go as crafters are enslaved and gay couples persecuted. They unhappily settle on Bellost. Ameliah distracts everyone but Tallheart with a target practice contest where people get overinvested. As Rain asks Tallheart to join his Company, Tallheart abruptly says "Yes". Officer Bartum approaches Guardian Dunwich and is informed the knowledge to fix Rain's soul is restricted and only after a mental scan by the Warden will he be helped. However, they will award Rain an emblem of the Watch that is the highest honor an outsider can receive and will mark him as an ally of the Watch to others. Bartum is informed all non-Watch personel, including Rain will have to leave, he is in charge of the evacuation, but for his service he will be promoted to Sentinel. Rain, meanwhile, is planning his expedition and almost all of his friends (including Myth and Reason) decide to join. Bartum approves Rain's rescue operation and lets him incidentally know the Watch is building a Citadel around the obelisk and teleportation platform while razing everything else. After Rain congratulates him for his promotion, Bartum awards Rain as a Custodian of the Watch.

Chapter 110

Rain examines Tallheart's second Smelter attempt utilizing all the city scrap metal and heat cysts. Because of its weight, and lack of horses, Rain devices a gear system for Tallheart to propel it with pedals. Ameliah, reacquainting herself with a prior Earth Element build, redirects a flooding river outside so the company can depart East towards Vestvall. Samson meets with Vanna to join the Company and plans to discard his house name. After administering “Rain’s Asshole Test” (are you speciest, racist, prejudist, discriminatory against...) Rain quickly allows him to join. Rain suggests Samson giving combat lessons to the company before breaking Val's invisible ambush (Rain has Detection running on a script). Samson has a poor first impression of Val and incidentally brings up he saw Kettel about to go scavenging before Rain quickly organizes a rescue mission. He knows Kettel is in over his head.

Chapter 111

Kettle, Mahria, Jaks (Vivicant), Stoneshield (Warrior), Elmwood (Nature Mage) and Mindyblades (Rogue) use Kettles information to hunt down Rankin's house in hopes he has been embezzling coin from the Guild. When they reach the Guild, they momentarily debate how to get the Fungilform out (no one wants to fight it inside) before Mahria shows how to lure it out. Unfortunately, it brings a host of Plague Rats and the group is nearly overrun before winning the fight. They next try to fight 3 Fungilforms before Stoneheart, Mindyblades, and Jaks are heavily injured. Cornered in a building, a swarm of Coal Lurkers attack while the group makes a final stand and buy Mahria time to cast Froststorm. As the spell forms, Kettel loses consciousness and wakes up naked from the Froststorm and Ameliah healing him.

Chapter 112

The Watch had sent a group with Rain to rescue the party and Rain met Ameliah on the way there. After they formed a perimeter and healed the group, Rain lectures an irritated group of Guildmates on their stupidity. Mahria and Jaks are combative, and take issue with Rain wearing the Watch's custodian plate, before Rain shifts the conversation back and discovers they were looking for Rankin's gold. Rain pulls out a depth gauge stating the Rank is 11 here and that the group were far too under leveled, with a bad team composition, to attempt this. Rain gets upset the longer he talks until Ameliah calms him down and they go to loot Rankin's house where Detection shows a small horde of Tel in his basement. Ameliah topples the house to expose the basement and Rain is in awe of her number of Earth/Geo skills before she briefly explains her class lets her swap skills. In the basement Rain found 53,000 Tel and three ledgers that proved Rankin's embezzlement scheme. Rain grabs Gus, Officer Bartum, and a contingent of The Watch to catch Rankin in his lie. Rankin, unable to lie before the Watch, is arrested as Rain gives 100 Tel to each remaining Guilder in the city and gets to keep 20% as a whistleblower fee.

Max Equippable Stats: 139
 Synergy

## Ascension Formed (Ch. 113-124)

Chapter 113

Five days later, Tallheart finishes the rudimentary forgewagon that lacks a few features (e.g. brakes and suspension). The forge had to be reduced to one third in size, and some parts like the lard (grease) and belts (leather) would wear quickly. Rain works tirelessly alternating between improving his physical fitness and meditating to fix his soul. He plans on improving his regeneration stats first so he could train longer later. His Linksight didn't work outside the obelisk though he could faintly feel thinks like Dozer, when the Watch emblem bonded to him, or when people joined/left his party. He reviews the company list of 50 people (Kettel and Mahria were the only Guilders to join) as well as the inventory list cobbled together by Mlem and paid for with his Rankin reward. He still has to buy steel and weapons as Tallheart wouldn't forge them for people he didn't trust. Rain gives a short commencement speech announcing he was voted as captain, the company name will be Ascension, and they will be run as a true democracy of equals.

Chapter 114

Ascension departs and hopes to make it to Vestvall with a week of hard travel. Ameliah is doing most of the security work and lures a swarm of monsters to test the guards. Rain announces the "surprise" attack and orders the Awakened not to use magic. Lyn Aleuas Draves, an unawakened noble and spear user, looks around after the battle, and figuring out the ruse, mentally agreeing they needed the practice. The slimes dropped 13 Tel which signals monsters are matured enough to drop loot again and Rain needs a plan to divide it. Tallheart later looks into fixing the sound and suspension of the forgewagon while Rain checks the crude odometer to see how far they travelled for the day. Rain dislocates his knee pedaling from not having enough Endurance and confesses to Tallheart he is just tired and keeping busy because the memories of Fel Sadanis won't let him sleep. They talk privately as Tallheart marvels at the unenchanted Forgewagon but still refuses to make weapons for the company. When Rain asks how many cysts are needed to block Warden Vatreece's mind reading, Tallheart simply says it's impossible.

Chapter 115

The company stops for the night, exhausted, and Ameliah hands over all the loot she found (100 Tel and some cysts) saying she doesn't care about the loot but Rain will need company rules for it. Ameliah raises earthen walls for the night and Rain announces they will loot the remains of Essed and have a direct democracy for now needing 75% approval for new rules. Vanna is voted quartermaster and Rain announces a company credit system for dispersing loot and a bidding system needing company credits for rare items like blues. (with some offsets to discourage awakened from hoarding blues from unawakened). Romer, the scribe, later translates Rain's intent of a "goldsink" into company dues and Staavo, no longer able to power his generator with flowing water, works on perfecting a steam engine.

Chapter 116

Rain wakes up at 3 AM and finally gets Mana Manipulation to Rank 10 (unlocking Elemental Shaping and Ethereal Aura). He reviews Romer's notes and adds a progressive tax for top earners with an exchange fee for credits to Tel. Rain also adds modifiers to the “even split” by giving additional shares to the top contributors in a fight. Ascension travels fighting off random monsters with Val and Kettel getting soulstrain from competing too hard. Rain pulls out his accolades and tries to work on Essence Meditation again in the back of the forge wagon. Outside, Meloni shows off how quickly Cloud is learning tricks (maybe because of Winter) and Jamus reveals to Meloni his children from marriage aren't biologically his though he mostly wants to know they are alright. When Rain wakes up after a long rest, he can't find his accolade but they also see a lair right in front of their company.

Chapter 117

Rain orders the group to stay put and puts Vanna in charge while Ameliah checks that the Essed lair level is 9. Ameliah is worried \*how\* a lair spawned on the surface, with no one claiming it, or that Lightbreaker is nearby and blocking it from view. She agrees to take Flight later to scout the lair and when Rain shows Ameliah the accolade he finally bound, and she takes it, Rain feels the Link breaking and is in pain. They try again and Ameliah figures out the problem is with Rain, not the accolade, and that people don’t show each other their accolades because, if stolen, you have to kill the person to get it back. She explains to Rain that distance doesn't matter for accolades (nobles use vaults) and you can store as many as you want but the active ones have limited slots, powerful ones take more slots, and you generally get your level plus one for accolade slots. Rain shares he wants to make accolades shared property in the company before Ameliah scoffs at the difficulty of it as they walk back to camp.

Chapter 118

The next day Rain learns he needs mana sight to find lairs as Detection doesn't seem to work and is signficantly reduced inside lairs. He fights the System to give his lair team's vitals (Carten, Samson, Mlem, Lyn, Val, Jamus, and Tahir) in absolute numbers but only gets percentages. (Rain took the strongest members, minus Ameliah, and Tahir beat Kettle and Ava in a target contest.) It is extremely cold in the lair but Immolate, thanks to Ameliah’s Mana Sight, was found only to act as a catalyst for Heat mana in the environment while single target spells "leaked" it. More importantly, melting snow caused the lair to put it back aggressively. As they came upon an abandoned farmhouse they don't search for valuables as objects from lairs disappear over time. They get to the village and Mlem notes the lair added a wall that never existed. They break down the wall gate and come upon a flickering ghost in the form of a man milling bones, before another beggar ghost appears, and suddenly a roar sounds as hundreds of ghosts flickered in and out of existence identifying them as low leveled "Frozen Memories of Essed". Behind them a Level 13 Frostbear Spirit Caller shoots tentacles of ice from its back into the villagers, armoring them, as they start to charge.

Chapter 119

Rain starts a script to max his Focus and Clarity and runs Immolate without boosts to protect his teammates. They take shelter in the mill and hold the line as Rain's Immolate slowly expands and takes out the horde of ghosts despite the Frostcaller summoning more ice armor for them. As Lyn and Tahir take damage from Immolate, the group flees the burning building while a deluge of snow threatens to collapse on the party if Immolate stops. Rain lowers the intensity, flooding the party with water, and making Jamus unable to use lightning. Mlem nearly dies to a Frostcaller feint before using the Skipping Stone to escape and the party harries the bear until it dies. Rain rallies the rest of them back to a roofed building and switches to Force Ward before an avalanche of snow crashes down on them. Dozer reflects to itself the problem of emotions and the new one (worry) that makes him need to find Rain. Tallheart picks Dozer up leaving the forgewagon without Rain, Dozer can’t understand words very well. Dozer escapes again, following the [King Link], stopping to clean Cloud, before being scooped up by Ameliah. Ameliah presses against the barrier, and unable to enter, she knows the group is still alive.

Chapter 120

Carten happily braves the storm and digs Rain out first while Mlem uses his skipping stone to get out the rest before Rain informs Carten of the door to the next area opened up in the mill.  Tahir, Lynn, and Samson discuss the lair and Tahir is still afraid both of the monsters and Rain's power. Samson can't feel Rain's soul leaking like the other two, but he reassures them Rain is a good person and this lair doesn't appear to be normal. Jamus comes by to ensure Tahir and Lyn take their potions, Rain is worried, and constantly checking their vitals, but they choose to save the valuable potions. Rain automates a Mana Manipulation script to match his mana regen and charges up Mlem's Skipping Stone to full much to Mlem's suprise. The company takes the spiral staircase beneath the mill where the temperture plummets and they have to choose between three paths (flame, sword, shield). They take shield and get locked into a room with an Ancient Icemont Turtle (Level 9). As Carten tanks, no one can damage it until Jamus uses an Overcharged Arcane Bolt to crack its shell whereupon everyone focuses their attacks on the crack and they kill it.

Chapter 121

Two more choices (flame, sword, shield) and two more turtles down. Samson maintains his sword and practices his various swordsman katas. He fights the rigid kata, with some success (it isn't suitable for ice) before agreeing to teach Rain some sword katas too. After resting (Jamus still has mageburn from the first fight), the group descends a staircase again to find a barrier with a light far in the distance. (Samson deduces Rain, Carten, Jamus and Val can see it because of a rare Perception accolade) Inside the barrier, the temperature plummets and Rain's Immolate is no longer enough for the unawakened. As Samson reassures Lyn and Tahir they aren't useless, Rain turns off IFF and builds a script that locks damage just below everyones base 1 Heat resistance, with a few safeties, which makes you uncomfortably warm but not take damage. The light was another barrier and as they cross they are ambusehd by dozens of Frost Hounds (Level 5) and a blue Frost Hound Alpha (Level 5). Rain's script safety backfires and stops Immolate so he uses Velocity to trip the hounds as they kill all but the essence monster.  Monsters have stamina so Carten subdues it and ties it with rope.

Chapter 122

Rain, after shutting down Tarny's fanaticism, announces they brought a Level 5 essence monster to the barrier to awaken 8 people. The first slots will go on company essentials with Lyn, Tahir, and Vanna getting priority. They have plenty of damage dealers (DPS) so Rain wants 2 Healers (fully committed Healing builds with metamagic, not just Healing Word like Wallace). Fully committed healers can fix old woulds and even regrow limbs. Rain also wants 2 Tanks which are extremely tough and has a skill to get monster aggression (Threat Attraction) (e.g. Carten). Lastly, Rain wants Supports and uses the example of a famount group, the Rousers, who had a Chemical Malefactor that controlled the fight through debuffs like Malaise. Rain answers questions before laying down to rest and when Ameliah walks in on the sleeping Rain, with constant badgering from Dozer, she lays down by Rain, with an Earthen partition modified with a Dozer shaped hole, so Dozer can simultaneously touch them both. Tallheart sees them sleeping and thinks of Snowlilly. Staavo wakes them up, fustered from being peppered with build questions, and wanting to ask questions about the his steam engine, but Rain directs him to help out around camp first in exchange for help. So far Jamus, Tallheart, Staavo, and Dozer recognize Rain and Ameliah like each other but won't admit it.

Chapter 123

Inside the lair, stuck at 0%, Ameliah uses Elemental Shaping to push Cold mana inside the core, supported by Rain's Essence Well, but doesn't make a dent and doesn't want to train it (for a Jack far better skills to train and limited time). Kettel is improving and the Company awakened 8 people off the Frost Hound Alpha (eight person swapped in last and did finishing blow).  Tahir and Merrick become healers and practice healing blistered Company feet. Lyn and Evonna become Tanks while Hanes becomes a Ranger. Vanna becomes an Elemental Enhancer that buffs allies though no one knows if the class exists. (she saves stat points for a monolithic backup). Finally, we learn crafters have a Medium (material), Augment (how you work with it), and Discipline (what you make). Sheena takes Woodworking while Romer takes Runecrafting and could enchant Sheena's weapons. Rain sends 8 people inside the lair to break the core (which won't break) so Ameliah flies Rain to Tallheart (Rain's armor resists Flight and Ameliah has to override his soul with hers until he thinks of Flight as a buff). Rain finds out he can override Ameliah's too and descends (which Ameliah says he shouldn't be able to do) to Tallheart.

Chapter 124

Tallheart gives Tarny and the rest of a group an iron consumable, enchanted spike, but it doesn't work either to break the core. The unawakened draw lots who will be replaced (Tarny loses) before Rain and seven others break the core. Rain gets an Ice Bolt accolade and the others Awaken at Level 0 with no accolades and an unknown cap. As the lair collapses they flee and all that is left is the ruins of Essed. Rain finds Tarny (upset over his loss of Awakening) and bequeaths him the Ice Bolt accolade that grants Tarny a "provisional interface" and explains Ascension is about not hoarding power but sharing benefits. Two days later, packed with scavanged supplies of Essed, they fall into formation and move towards Vestvall.

Max Equippable Stats: 171
 Synergy

## Vestvall (Ch. 125-170)

### Arrival at Vestvall (Ch. 125-140)

Chapter 125

Stint and his horse Dust are scouting for Vestvall before Rain surprises them and takes them to their camp. Jamus pesters Stint for information but Stint doesn't know Jamus's family, informs Jamus 3/4 of the city survived, before Jamus takes off with Tallheart, Samson, and Carten. Stint informs Rain three Bronzeplate adventurers took over an inn and one broke Stint's leg when he stood up to them. Ameliah begins healing Stint's leg before the pain of setting his bone makes him pass out. Jamus worries about his family as they reach the city wall before the guards (Mig and Del) let them up after a few "deer" jokes. Inside, they draw a crowd and Samson negotiates with the mayor before Jamus curtly threatens the crowd, after more "deer" jokes aimed at Tallheart. As Ameliah joins them Jamus's son Bens rushes through and tells Jamus his family is fine.

Chapter 126
*knock yourself out with filling in here*

### Delving into the Depths (Ch. 141-162)

*knock yourself out with filling in here*

### Leaving Vestvall (Ch. 163-170)

*knock yourself out with filling in here*

## Three Cliffs (Ch. 171-200)

### Battle at Three Cliffs (Ch. 195-200)

Chapters 195-xxx
Rain and Ameliah try to sneak out armorless to get Velika and then leave Three Cliffs. Just as they landed, the Imperial attack starts and knives strike at targets of opportunity while two more imperial metalclad warships rush into the harbor. They kill Translocationist Glavin, target the clinic outpost on the middle cliff, and bombard the Temerity with fireballs and Rain with a Meteor. Halgrave, Ameliah and Velika rush out to meet the and a first assessment of the warships reveals that they are better shielded than the Fist of Progress was.

Rain saves Vanna, Mereck, Dust, Stint and himself from that Meteor strike, then deals with a wave of attacking Imperial soldiers, alongside Captain Bakal.