I wanted to focus on getting my actual job here done before I focused on getting my Augmentation. In part, that was because there was a weird sense of integrity about it that I felt kind of sort of obligated to follow. As in, I was here to do a job in return for payment. That was my official goal. Prioritizing my personal gains over completing my task felt dishonest.

For another, I wanted room to think and grow. I trusted Linak and the academists to not just bail on me after the job was completed, especially since their fussy professor wasn’t here. They seemed like pretty sincere people.

My first treasure was essentially a small monocle.

“An eyeglass for looking through things,” the Ogre said. He had introduced himself properly as Mage Tirk. “You can imagine its various applications, yes? Looking at bone fractures and other internal lesions, looking into constructions and devices to find internal cracks and displacements, even looking into food to determine the interactions between ingredients—”

“That last function would need a magnification rune we haven’t integrated properly yet,” Mage Privant, the young Rakshasa, said. “Otherwise, Tirk is correct.”

I sent my mana into the monocle via Sacrifice. No, I wasn’t wearing it at the time, because blinding myself with vivid threads of mana swimming around in front of my eyes didn’t sound fun. “But it doesn’t work,” I said. “Which is why it’s getting Sacrificed.”

Both grad students grimaced.

[ Sacrifice

You have Sacrificed 1 [Broken] Artifact of Thorough Sight. Windfall bonus activated.

Reward: Thorough Sight now active for 4 minutes ]

“Oh!” I quickly looked away. “Ew, ew, ew.”

“Are you alright?” Linak asked with concern.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I closed my eyes for a bit. “I just can see through everything.”

It would have been one thing if the Sacrifice reward had just made me seen through one layer of whatever I was looking at. Instead, for the brief moment I had actually experienced it, Thorough Sight seemed to make me see into whatever the centre of my target was.

I had assumed that I’d just have had to avert my eyes. Seeing through the mages’ robes to reveal their naked bodies would have been rather uncomfortable, but a reasonable outcome from a treasure that was supposed to enable seeing through things. What I got instead was looking through their skin and even their flesh until I was staring straight into their organs.

Not even a proper picture of organs, where I might have been fascinated at how different races’ internal structures varied from that of humans’. No, I just got a hodgepodge of flesh and blood vessels and many different glistening and pulsing bits that made no sense whatsoever and just wanted to make me hurl.

And for four whole minutes too! This was actually pretty annoying. At least it wasn’t over an hour like the Emulation effects.

All three other mages laughed when I mentioned what I was going through.

“I told you it was incredibly broken,” Mage Privant said.

Mage Tirk shuffled about. “Ah, well, that is why we’re having it be Sacrificed by our friendly trash destroyer Mage here. I was mostly curious if your Sacrifice Aspect would bypass the incorrect functionalities, Mage Moreland.”

I wanted to glare at him but looking at the Ogre was annoying. “And is that why you never bothered to explain the incorrect functionalities in detail, Mage Tirk?”

“Well, no. I just thought it would be funny to see your reaction.”

The others chortled again. Admittedly, I might

have found it funny too if I wasn’t on the receiving end.

We waited for a bit until the Sacrifice reward ran out. It wasn’t that I couldn’t see at all. It was just highly uncomfortable looking into the centre of everything. The walls, the floor, even my own hands. I was actually curious what I would see if I looked into the ground or up at the sky but getting to either of those would make the four-minute timer run out so we didn’t bother.

The next treasure was an old wheel. When I Sacrificed it, I got a strange movement bonus as a reward. All my motion was essentially sliding now, like every surface was coated in thick ice and I was wearing skates.

Needless to say, the mages laughed the first few times I slipped and fell. I rubbed my ass as I was helped back up, laughing too. It was kind of funny.

The next thing was an old bowl.

“It’s an actual treasure this time,” Mage Privant said. “As in, an ancient treasure we bought from some adventurers who found it in Eversight Dungeon.”

“Where’s Eversight?” I asked. “I’ve been to Seethescale.”

“It’s basically next door. The entrance is somewhere on Ring Three, I think? I’m not sure.”

Naturally. They were grad student mages, not adventurers. Mage Tirk went on to explain how the bowl had a property of appetizing whatever was put into it. That made me curious if it could even make me feel good about chowing down bug-food.

I Sacrificed it. Then I grimaced at the reward.

[ Sacrifice

You have Sacrificed 1 [Broken] Artifact of Gastronomic Appeal. Windfall bonus activated.

Reward: Afflicted with Intense Hunger

ERROR

Conflict with prior Reward

Re-evaluating…

No reward assigned ]

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

My stomach clawed inside for the merest second. I hadn’t even finished reading through the strange blue screen before the feeling disappeared and I was back to normal.

“Huh,” I said.

Naturally, the academy mages were all curious about it.

“The conflict is from a different Sacrifice,” I said when I figured it out. It wasn’t hard. “I Sacrifice my food instead of eating it usually, and the reward I get is a whole day of zero hunger and thirst.”

“Ah!” Mage Tirk clapped a closed fist into his palm, small eyes glinting with scholarly enthusiasm. “Conflicting rewards! What an interesting property for an Aspect.”

“I do wonder if the inherent rank of the Sacrifice offering affects which reward comes out on top,” Mage Privant mused.

“There are undoubtedly hidden qualifiers that the Weave doesn’t make us privy to.”

“That is indeed correct.”

They theorized about it for a while, and it was interesting to listen to, but some of it was jargon I wasn’t familiar with such as the Weave’s Internal Homogeneity and its Categorical Thesis. I wasn’t here to learn about Mage lingo though, so we soon turned back to finishing up my job.

Of which, thankfully, there weren’t a lot left. There were several more old knives, but I had done that already the last time, so they allowed me to just keep them for now so I could Sacrifice them later.

I did mention my experiences in Seethescale Dungeon against the Greater Brillwyrm, where I had Sacrificed the knife Blessed by Escinca. It confirmed their theory that not only would I get the slashing effect reward, but I would also get the more magical property any knife had, so long as they were active and running.

The last few things were a cowl that could make people invisible—I just turned into a patchwork of invisibility and visibility, which again drew laugher—and a bracelet that had been capable of regulating internal temperature. From that, I got the minuscule ability to control heat.

It was only an internal effect, and it was nice that I could make my body feel cooler at a pinch. But more importantly, it reminded me about different Aspects.

My Path would be hitting Silver soon enough, and then I would be able to gain new abilities. Whole new schools of powers that I could learn to control. The Aspects I could learn, however, were a lot more limited than something like an Augmentation. So, as a Path that was aligned with stars, would I be most capable of learning something like Aspect of Heat? Something to think about.

But with all that done, I could now finally get going on my Augmentation. Technically, I wasn’t yet done with my job. There were all the broken, faded, and cracked mana crystals still left. But that was part of the process.

Every time I Sacrificed another crystal, I got the same reward. More and more external mana threads appeared around, a thousand tiny glowing serpents writhing all around me.

And the important bit was that they were my mana.

“You can control them?” Mage Tirk asked.

It was a very interesting question because generally, I needed direct physical contact to use my Aspects, save for Gravity’s Field Manipulation. These mana threads, however, bypassed that limitation.

I nodded. “Just takes a little focus.” I concentrated and sent a few threads flying at the Mage’s pointy hat, which turned dark violet just before connecting. His head suddenly bowed down and he yelped. “It takes a moment for the threads to get there though, and I need to focus, which also takes a bit.”

“But you wish for your Power Augmentation to aid that?” Mage Privant asked, chuckling at how Mage Tirk was struggling to stand back up straight.

“Yes.” I tried moving the mana threads follow the motions of my hand without using much mental effort. “What are your Power Augmentations, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Privant flushed, scratching the horn coming out his left cheek in embarrassment. “Uh, my Power is not in Silver yet.”

“Nor mine,” Mage Tirk said, finally standing up straight after hefting off his hat, which just made him looking he was trying to carry a baby whale. I hadn’t put that much Gravity into it. “We’re mages. We don’t really need Power as much.”

I remembered how Kostis had bypassed needing to raise his Power by using a fancy Augmentation that could temporarily boost it. All these mages put absolutely no stock in Power, did they? It wasn’t like I could blame them. Who needed an Attribute that could only help hit things harder physically when fireballs could just incinerate the target alive?

But I was finding gaps in what I was capable of, and if focusing on Power was going to help me get past those deficiencies, then there was no way I was letting an opportunity slip by.

Interestingly, none of them actually seemed to dismiss my intention of focusing on Power. There was that at least.

“My Augmentation is Mana Generation,” Linak said. “Basically, if I punch hard enough, I regenerate back some extra mana that I’ve spent.”

I nodded. “That’s a good one.” But not quite for me.

I kept Sacrificing more of the crystals, moving my arm to manipulate the new threads even while I drove them using my Gravity Aspect. There was no point in using them on me. The threads floated too close and drawing them inside wouldn’t have been difficult. It wouldn’t have helped my cast time practice.

Though, to be fair, I wasn’t exactly practicing improving my cast time. That would happen naturally with increasing Spirit.

What I was really getting a handle on was applying all my new external mana to my targets physically.

It was odd to practice that there, in the middle of the lab, with the other mages looking on patiently but not very helpfully.

“You want to… apply mana using your fists?” Mage Tirk asked. “Oh, some Battlemages would be useful references, but I don’t recall anyone in the academy being proficient at that.”

“Sorry.” Mage Privant rubbed the horns on the back of his head. Unlike his Ogre companion, he didn’t wear a mage hat. “We haven’t been much help for you with your Augmentation. Especially after you’ve been so open with Sacrifice.”

“That’s alright,” I said. I wasn’t too annoyed. Just getting the crystals was going to be a huge help.

“Perhaps we could provide some Spirit Injectors,” Linak said, looking at the two grad student mages. “Ross—Mage Moreland—mentioned how he has been trying to raise his Spirit. We can assist with that more directly.”

Mage Tirk slapped his fist into his palm again. “Oh, yes!”

“I’ll go get some!” Mage Privant rushed off before I could even ask what Spirit Injectors were or how they could help. “They’re my last batch,” he called, his voice dwindling as he disappeared. “But I should be able to get some more after the next exam…”

He returned pretty quickly. I reached out and took the small potions bottles he offered me, adding them to the pile of broken and faded crystals that I was supposed to Sacrifice in my storage bag. It was almost getting full.

“What do these Spirit Injectors do?” I asked.

“They’re essentially liquified mana,” Mage Privant said. “But unlike mana potions which is directly digested by your stomach, where the digestion process frees the mana from the liquid to then be added to your internal capacity as guided by the Weave, a Spirit Injector has the mana get added to your mana core, awakened or unawakened.”

“The process then boosts all advancement towards Spirit that you’re currently undergoing,” Mage Tirk said. “Trust me, they’re very helpful for improving your Spirit. You may suffer some minor drawbacks, like hallucinations, but I think you’ll be fine.”

“Interesting.” I smiled at them. “Thanks. Getting my Spirit ranked higher has been my main focus for a while now.”

“It can be hard,” Mage Tirk said knowingly.

Mage Privant collided his fists together, the familiar gesture of good luck I had seen from Aurier. “You’ll get it to Silver in no time at all.”

Thanking them again, I said my farewells and left with Linak. I parted with him right after exiting the Preservatory, after thanking him for accompanying me, of course.

Then I headed to Gutran’s place, trying hard not to get lost.

After just one small accidental detour, I arrived at the smithy. Aurier was hammering away at a blade glowing reddish-orange, and I gave him a wave before approaching his master. And my mentor too, I supposed.

“Sorry to bother you all of a sudden,” I said as Gutran stopped his smithing. “But do you think you could spar with me for a bit? I know what Power Augmentation I want and how exactly I can get it now.”

Gutran took a moment to put his stuff away and prepare, but he joined me in about five minutes. I put on my armour and got my mace ready.

“Same as before?” Gutran asked. “Or do you want some kind of special exercise or something?”

“Nah, just come at me,” I said. Gutran frowned just a bit when he saw me crushing the broken crystals and used Sacrifice to pop up external mana threads swirling around me. “You pointed out how cast time is a problem, right? Show me that again, please.”

We sparred. We fought. We collided. Gutran was obviously stronger and faster, so I was naturally getting pushed back. But with every clash, I forced myself to forget about how I normally used my Aspect. No matter how much my instincts roared to use Gravity, to change my weight, to mess with my opponent, I ignored them all.

Instead, I focused on what I was doing, on how I was moving, on how my motion caused the threads to move too. With every hit, I was able to direct the mana better and better. I didn’t care if I was getting hit. Gutran wasn’t trying to kill me.

All I needed to focus on was getting the external mana used to being driven around by Power-empowered motion.

Through it all, the main thing I had to hold dear was that it was my Power driving my mana.

Power. Driving mana. Mana that I could control, as every touch I landed on Gutran slowly began to get infected with the magical threads, strands that only turned dark once I had punched them into my target.

Gutran stumbled. He frowned as he bowed under more weight. “I didn’t see you using your Aspect.” His eyes flickered to all the threads floating around me. “Except…”

Slowly, I smiled, wiping off my sweat. “Yeah, I think I’ve basically done it.”

[ Augmentation Unlocked!

You have acquired a new Augmentation for your Power Attribute.

Augmentation: Mana Injection ]

As I read through the blue screen, my smile widened. Looked like the Weave had recognised it too.