Alex was stirred from sleep by the quiet sounds of shuffling feet and whispered voices. He groaned and rolled over in his sleeping bag. Blinking, the world came into focus.

“Oh, he’s up,” Sam said.

He sat up, rubbing his eyes. The group was packing up their belongings, and most of them had guilty looks on their faces. “What are you guys doing up so early?”

They all shared a look before looking at him in confusion.

“What do you mean?” Mark asked. “Today’s the day!”

“What day?”

“Oh, come on,” Olivia said with a roll of her eyes.

Alex smiled. “Yeah, okay. Today’s the day. You guys just remind me of a bunch of kids on Christmas or something.”

“Sneaking around and waiting for the parents to get up? Huh… I could see it,” Mark said.

Alex pushed himself up from his bedroll and stretched. The soft moss that had begun to grow underneath it did a lot to ease the uncomfortable sleep they’d all experienced early on. The open cavern had slowly begun to fill with vibrant patches of green as Sam experimented and used his magic to grow more plants.

“We’ve all still got one more thing to do before we go back,” Alex said. He’d been giving it some thought over the last week and felt that the group needed some sort of major milestone to mark all the progress they’d made.

Mark groaned. “No, come on! We earned the break.”

“What is it?” Sam asked while Sarah and Olivia watched him skeptically.

“I’m going to set up a ward system before we go. Maelis has been putting off teaching me some things until I can make a working ward. I’ve also got to ask him for two more runes today, so if I can do this before we leave, I’ll be able to talk with him while we make our way back.”

“Okay, but what’s that got to do with us?” Olivia asked.

“Well, by System standards, I’ll be a Journeyman Warder. And even though I don’t have the class, I will technically have the skills of one. We’ve all gained a lot of levels and power in the four months we’ve been in the Rift. There are two more things that everyone can do to really stand apart from all of those other Hunters who’ve also been in here training.”

The group exchanged looks of confusion.

“Body tempering rituals,” he said plainly.

“Oh… shit,” Sam said.

Olivia flicked his ear in response to the curse word, but Sam only laughed as Valtherion echoed the sentence from where he lay nearby.

“I know you’ve all looked at the manual since we’ve been down here. You guys have put it off because of how rough my experience was, but I’m telling you, this is one of those things that will truly set us apart as a group. We can only do it once per rank, and even though the levels have started to slow down from our grinding, we need to do it before hitting C rank.”

“Can we just do it when we get to the town? I can hear the shower calling my name from here,” Sarah whined.

Alex shook his head in response but answered in a firm tone. “No. I don’t want anyone to know the kind of resources we have after Eura’s inheritance. We should do it now and go back into camp as strong as we can be.”

“What’s the other thing?” Mark asked.

“Spirit fruits. Eura left a ton of them in the inheritance, and I’ve been talking more with Maelis. They can just grant flat, raw stat boosts, and after eating two, the returns are severely diminished. So, now that you all have more stats, I think we should use the ‘natural treasures’ as Maelis calls them. I plan to use it to shore up one of my lower stats. What you choose is up to you.”

It took a bit more back and forth, but eventually everyone agreed. He instructed them to spread out around the cavern.

He went to Sam first. “Which fruit did you decide on, bud?”

From where Sam sat, his knee bounced to a quick tempo. “Uh, I think I want one for Mana and one for Wisdom.”

“All right, and what about the ritual?” he asked while pushing his mind toward the bracer. Over the last two weeks, he’d spent a decent amount of time organizing and categorizing things to keep track of exactly how many resources were available.

“I—I… think I want the one that will increase my core capacity.”

Alex nodded in response, seeing the logic behind their healer wanting a larger mana pool to work from. He handed over two fruits and instructed Sam to eat them while bending down and following the diagram in the advanced body tempering manual. The young healer slowly ate both fruits while Alex drew the ritual circle around him.

“I got five stat points in both stats,” he reported.

“Awesome, I was hoping it would be around there. Don’t be too nervous, you can do this. Ready?” Alex asked.

The healer nodded and gulped.

“You’ll do great. Just remember the reward’s on the other side and push through.” He set the last of the reagents in the nodes around the ritual and pulsed his mana through it. As he stood, he scanned Sam to see the progress that had been made over the last few months.

He gave his friend a few additional words of encouragement before walking to Mark.

The big man seemed more excited than nervous despite Alex's display of pain in Eura’s resting place. His jovial energy was infectious, and Alex couldn’t help but smile as he described the skin-enhancing ritual he wanted.

It took longer than Sam’s ritual to set up, as it was layered with both normal reagent slots and the ones to fit multiple D-rank stones to power it. Since Mark had a lower mana score than Sam, it was important to have it provided.

On that same logic, Mark had invested some of his free points into Mana at each level, which meant his lowest stat was Willpower. He followed Alex’s example and asked for two Wisdom fruits.

While he ate, Alex read him a few of the ominous notes from the ritual. “It says your skin will feel like it’s on fire first, then it will feel like a thousand needles are tapping on it repeatedly.” Alex shivered unintentionally, but his friend seemed nonplused.

“A little pain now, for less pain for the rest of my life? Sign me up. I get hit a lot. If this body tempering thing will really make my skin tougher and make cuts or hits hurt less? I’m all for it.”

Alex shrugged. “It says yours should be over in about fifteen minutes. I’m surprised it’s so fast.”

Once everything was set up, he activated the ritual for Mark and wished him luck. Just as he did with Sam, Alex scanned him before walking away.

The difference in their stats was already noticeable. Sam’s stats with an epic class were already starting to outstrip Mark’s rare class greatly.

I’m guessing Sarah will be somewhat similar.

Moving to her next, he crouched and started to flip through the manual. “Which fruit did you settle on, Sarah?”

“I want to keep increasing my highest stat.”

“Which is?”

She looked a little guilty as she said, “Willpower.”

“Oh, nice! It’s the best,” he said with a smile. While his trait had pigeonholed him into the stat, he’d grown to truly love its advantages and believed that there wasn’t a better stat. He handed over the fruits before asking her which ritual she wanted.

“I remember reading one in there about increasing someone’s natural perception. Can we do that one?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Why that one?”

“It would work well with my bow, and I’ve got a hunch that it’ll also affect my {Aura Perception}.”

Nodding in understanding, he repeated the same process. Making the ritual around where she at on the ground, and scanning her before he walked over to Olivia.

Olivia sat with Nox beside her, his large head in her lap. It still unnerved him to have seen so many creatures of the Night come for his life, yet this one was so tame and docile in their downtime.

“Hey, cutie,” Olivia said as he approached.

He smiled at her, happy that much of her casual and flirtatious attitude had returned over the last few weeks. “Fancy seeing you here. Any idea what you want?”

“There was one in there that helped to have someone naturally control their mana. I’m assuming that has to do with Willpower, right? I want to learn how you hold your mana in close, and I think that’ll help me get there. I use enough magic and shadow-affinity mana in my kit that it wouldn’t be a short-term waste either. I’ll take two fruits for Willpower, too, if you’ve got them.”

He scanned her to look at her Willpower.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

He was surprised that it wasn’t in the initial scan, so he pushed his eye a bit further and got more information from her status. Her Willpower was sixty, and he nodded to her while fishing out two fruits from that section of the spatial item.

“Yeah, the ritual might help you increase the stat. I’m surprised you aren’t putting some more into it. It’s the magical equivalent of Agility, after all.”

They went back and forth a bit before he finished building her ritual and gave her a kiss. She raised her hand and opened her mouth as if to say something, but when he asked her what it was, she just shook her head.

Unwilling to push her, he did a full rotation and looked around the cavern for his companion, surprised that he wasn’t able to find him.

Checking their bond, he found a pull that led just outside their main cavern. He followed it to find Valtherion curled up near another cave, using his tail to play with two small spiderlings. The sight made him smile.

His tail flicked overhead, both baby spinners leaning back and attempting to jab at the moving tail with their forelimbs.

Val, come on, buddy. It’s your turn for a ritual.

Valtherion perked up and used his tail to playfully pat each of the spiders on the head. He flapped his wings, causing them both to skitter back into the nearby cave, before taking to the air and following Alex back into the cave.

All of their friends were sitting in the running ritual circles, and all of them seemed to be in varying stages of pain. Mark appeared to be going through the worst of it, having fallen on his side and yelling through gritted teeth.

Val’s excitement dampened, and he faltered in his flight.

“This is the ritual? I don’t want to do it.” The amphiptere turned to fly back out of the cave.

Alex used his barrier spell storage skill to create a small barrier in front of his companion. When he flew into it, running his forehead into the transparent barrier, Alex couldn’t help but laugh.

Come on. It will hurt some, but it will make you much stronger. You want to get stronger, right?

Val came down to the ground and rubbed his forehead with his wing in a way that reminded him of a dog attempting to scratch an itch. “I do want to be stronger. Want to be smarter.”

Alex flipped through the manual for a final time and showed a ritual to Valtherion. “What about this one? It will open your body up to gaining an affinity. It’s not as strong as one of the ones that will give you an affinity outright, since we don’t have any of those, this could be the next best thing. In another ten levels or so, we’ll need to get you another expensive item to consume for your advancement. If we get something good for you, it could end up giving you an affinity if this ritual helps open you up to it.”

“Affinity?” Val said, tasting the word. He cocked his head to the side.

“An affinity makes you very strong and will help you do a certain kind of magic, like fire or lightning. Olivia has a {Shadow Affinity}. They are very rare and will definitely make you stronger.”

“Oli has one?” Val asked. When Alex confirmed the fact, it seemed to make up the companion's mind. “Okay, do that one. I’m strong but want to be stronger.”

“I have some food for you to eat, too. It will make you stronger. Do you—”

“Eat food, get stronger?! Yes.”

He chuckled at his companion’s enthusiasm. “Which one do you want? I suggest you get one for mana or Intellect.”

“Yes.”

“No, I mean do you want—”

“Yes.”

Alex laughed and took one fruit of each type from the bracer and tossed them to his companion, who caught each in the air and greedily devoured them.

“I like this. Can I eat more to get stronger?”

Alex thought about it. “Maybe? Let me ask Maelis later. As a beast. you might be able to eat more and grow stronger than the rest of us. For now, let’s focus on the ritual.” He repeated the steps as before: drawing the ritual, taking the reagents from the inheritance, and activating the ritual. As he stood, he scanned his companion, even though he could look at the full status through the System.

With the entire team set up and prepared, Alex moved to his spot and settled in. There was a bit of charging left to wake Maelis up, but the spirit was ready for the “test” that Alex had created for himself.

He closed his eyes and channeled mana into the amulet, trying to tune out his friends' sounds of pain or discomfort. In a few minutes, the amulet was ready, and Maelis’s consciousness emerged from it, becoming a second awareness in his mind.

“Brat,” he said by way of greeting.

“Hello to you, too.”

“Are you ready to try your ward?”

“I am. And I have the other two runes I want,” Alex added, ensuring that the spirit didn’t conveniently forget about his promise to continue teaching new runes.

“Yeah, yeah. Get on with it before I fall back asleep out of boredom.”

And so, Alex did. It took him almost half an hour to finish the runes he’d started etching the night before, but when he was finished, he sat back and placed his hands on the control stone anchor. “Well, am I good to activate it?”

Mark was sitting nearby, drinking water and covered in sweat. His skin was red like it was sunburned, and he’d left behind a pile of black ooze in the ritual circle similar to the one Alex had during his ritual. He looked over when Alex spoke to Maelis.

“Your life isn’t at risk this time. Activate it and find out if it’s complete,” he said in a tone that dared Alex to do it.

The tone made him hesitate, and he spent another five minutes reviewing the nine runes on the floor. Sets of two were at each corner, which might normally be placed around a tent or small camp, and a single activation rune was in the center.

“It’s good, I know it is,” he said.

“Go ahead, then.”

“I can literally hear the smile in your voice. It creeps me out when you’re happy.”

Maelis grunted, but didn’t respond, instead watching through his eyes as Alex activated the wards. It took a lot more mana than a standard rune, filling each of the nine runes with enough mana for two or three of his spell circles. It was draining, and without Valtherion’s bonded mana, he wouldn’t have been able to do it in a single sitting.

With the activation being the final rune to fill and start, he sent his intention toward the control stone anchor and activated it.

He felt the barrier spring up around him with almost no fanfare. One moment, there wasn’t anything there, then the next, a net of mana was covering him in a dome.

It worked.

“It worked!” he exclaimed, laughing in delight. “Mark, throw a rock over here.”

His friend obliged, picking up a nearby pebble and throwing it at him. It bounced off the barrier and bounced on the rocky floor. Alex laughed harder, marveling at the magic he’d created.

“Oh, man. This is really going to be a problem,” Alex mumbled to himself.

“What?”

“I can just see myself loving this kind of magic. Why is there something so cool about building a shield out of magic? Think of the things I could protect.” His mind flashed to the sun elves breaking into his home to steal his notes, and how differently things might have gone if he’d been able to defend his home with wards.

“Probably wouldn’t have worked. They would have shredded through wards like this with ease.”

“Yeah, probably. But still… ward breaking has to do with finding minute weaknesses in a mana web, right?” He held out his hand, gently brushing it against the inside of the solid barrier of magic. He could see the thin strands that ran in layers from each cornerstone through his left eye. Even with his limited experience, he was sure he could find weaknesses in a ward like this, but he knew that he had to start somewhere.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Well, who better to figure out how to break wards than me? My Willpower is already getting to be so high that you said it could be a problem. Not to mention I have my eye, which is like permanent mana sight. If I can figure out how to break it, surely I can figure out how to make my own stronger.”

Maelis just grunted.

“Anyway, you owe me an explanation now.”

“You see now, why I call you a brat, brat? You may as well have just said ‘gimmie’ and held both arms out while clutching your hands.”

Alex laughed at the mental image and didn’t push further. He knew that Maelis would tell him, and he had other things to do before getting focused on the details of his title.

He scanned the cavern, finding everyone done with their rituals except for Valtherion. Surprisingly, the small bond didn’t appear to be in any discomfort. He was curled up into a tight coil in the center of the ritual with his eyes closed. He seemed calm.

“Is he sleeping?” Olivia asked, rubbing her right shoulder. “Whatever that one is, I wish I had picked that…”

Everyone regrouped and finished packing while they shared the results and experiences of the body tempering rituals. Val finished soon after they were finished, stretching and fluttering around them like nothing at all had happened.

Alex was happy that he hadn’t had a traumatic experience in the rituals, even if it were a necessary boost in power.

They finished all of their packing, and Alex let one of the mana spinner hunters know that they’d be gone for a few days, and would return colony in the coming week.

“All right. You guys ready to head out?” Alex asked them.

The group responded in a chorus of affirmatives. Sam and Mark were so eager that it looked like they had to pee, as they hopped from one foot to the other.

“Let’s head out, then. Olivia, take notes of our route. If you can make a rough map with distances and landmarks, that would be great. I want to make sure we can find our way back here when we’re ready. We could probably find it with landmarks alone, or letting Val loose in the tunnels to chase after the mana in the webs, but it’ll be easier if we just know the route with certainty. It’ll work as a great staging area for when we go after Unity in a few weeks.”

“Of course,” she agreed.

With that, the group said farewell to the mana spinners and began their trek out of the tunnels. Over the last three months, they’d made the trip dozens of times and knew several routes to get to the surface. It was funny that they’d spent so much time underground that the System had offered Mark and Sarah a spelunking skill, and Sam the option of a night vision skill. Mark and Sarah had declined, though Sam accepted the passive until he got a better one.

When they emerged from the tunnels, everyone took a breath of fresh air and looked around.

It felt different somehow, knowing that they were there to return to a sense of safety and civilization, rather than going on another hunt.

Even though the hunts had become less dangerous in recent weeks, they’d continued to push themselves, even as they caught up to their enemies in levels. The difficulty had then been adjusted by pulling more monsters to a fight, or by picking matched pairs of the party to handle different scenarios.

It had started with them pairing up with the pairs that made sense for the fight, or allowing Sam to assist in whatever the matchup was. But gradually, they’d moved to having off-fights, or pairs that didn’t have great synergies, against the enemies. This led them all to adapt and learn more about their limits in different scenarios.

“Form up,” Alex said before moving off to the west toward the pull in his gut, leading them to the Rift exit. Everyone fell into position easily, and as they hit their travel tempo, Alex split his consciousness. He let part of his mind talk with Maelis, while the other focused on their surroundings.

Okay, you old goat. Time to spill the beans.

“Old goat?” Maelis asked.

Yeah… something about your deep and grumbly voice makes me think of a grumpy old mountain goat. If you’re going to keep calling me a brat, then I feel it’s only appropriate for you to have a name that fits your personality, too.

“I’m… not familiar with a goat.” He said the word as if tasting it for the first time. “They live in the mountains?”

Alex pulled on his emotions hard, not allowing any of the glee and amusement he was feeling to transmit through their link.

It doesn’t matter. You’re stalling.

Maelis ‘harumphed’ before relenting. “Fine. There is more to the Planetary Titles than I’ve told you. You’ve guessed that from the beginning. They are used for more than just recognition between other title holders.

“The titles are given to those at the forefront of an area on each planet. There are twenty-two different Planetary Titles. Are you familiar with the divination magic known as Tarot?”

Ah… yes? You mean those witchy people always talking about Tarot cards were really doing magic? Holy shit… wait, wait, wait… is astrology real?

Alex felt like his whole world was coming down around him.

“Tarot is a powerful form of divination magic, yes. I’ve not heard of astrology outside of the study of the stars.” Alex breathed a sigh of relief as Maelis continued. “The Planetary Titles are modelled after the 22 Major Arcana cards within the Tarot System— The Magician being one of them. The System recognizes each as an embodiment of progression and power, meaning that anyone might fit the criteria for one of the cards if they’re doing the right things.”

Like what?

“There are twenty-two of them. You’ll learn more about each over time; they’re not important right now.”

Just give me a few examples so I know what you mean.

Maelis grumbled again, but gave three examples, regardless. “The Hierophant, for example, represents tradition and guidance. They could be a founder of a religious institution, likely shaping mass beliefs. In integrating planets, it’s usually to worship the System or one of the gods.

“The Lovers highlight unity, partnership, and bonds that unite people. This is usually someone whose achievements are around creating alliances or bridging opposing sides of the world or a conflict.

“The World is for someone who makes major strides toward global harmony. Usually, we see this title emerge from someone with enough strength of political skill to end cycles of bloodshed.

“Of course, some are more focused on conquering and combat, such as Death, Strength, and The Tower. But all of the titles are meant to be given to diverse individuals from each planet. Not all of them will be powerful in the sense that they can split a mountain with a single punch… Some of the most dangerous people I’ve seen in my years are not those who wield their own power, but inspire the loyalty of those who wield power.

“Now, if you’ll allow me to continue…” When Alex said nothing, he continued as they moved through the forest. “There are also the Minor Arcana. There are 56 of these, split between four suits. The suits are the Swords, Wands, Cups, and Pentacles. Each of the suits tends to fit with a general structure of the person, but we’ll get into that later. Each of the four suits has 14 cards in them. There are 10 numbered cards, going from Ace to Ten of each suit. Then there are four Court Cards, these are: the Page, Knight, Queen, and King.”

Hey, that sort of fits with a normal deck of cards. I didn’t know that they lined up like that.

There was a moment of silence in his head, as Maelis didn’t respond.

Right… sorry. Continue.

“The entire Planetary Title System is meant to allow the leaders of the world to establish themselves and set up large bases of power for their world. Each of the planetary title holders can create their court using their title card to swear followers to their House.”

It took a few seconds for Alex’s brain to process what that meant. He stopped his movement, and the rest of the party stopped behind him, unaware of the conversation happening in his head.

Wait, what the hell are you saying?

“I’m saying that you can swear 56 people to your cause and give them titles. You can actually swear many more than that if you want, but the number of titles you can grant related to the cards is limited. Whatever your cause and goal may be. You can have them swear an oath that will be System-enforced, granting them titles and rewards for being a member of your court.”

Titles? Rewards?

He looked around him. At his friends, who waited patiently, watching him.

You mean I can swear my friends into my ‘court’ like some medieval knight, and that they can get titles and rewards from it? Why the hell didn’t you tell me that sooner?!

Part of Alex wanted to switch to vocalizing the conversation so that he could shout at Maelis. Something was lacking in angrily thinking his thoughts at the spirit.

You’ve seen us—them—struggling over the last months. They push themselves all day, every day, with almost no break at all. And you’re telling me that there is a way for me to give them a title? How strong is it?

“Bah. You’re being dramatic. Yes, that’s what I’m telling you. The title they get isn’t that strong at E or D rank, so they aren’t missing out on anything. Like I told you before, you don’t normally see Planetary Titles emerge this early. It’s meant to be a system for the world’s leaders and forerunners to establish themselves. Oftentimes, the regimes built from the Planetary Titles save a world in the trying times of an integration.”

Alex put his hand to his forehead. “Holy shit…” he whispered to himself.

“I was hesitant to tell you about this because I still think it’s too early for you to start bringing people into your inner circle. The Titleholders Court is a big deal and is not something you should give lightly. You have a lot to learn about the titles, their structure, and the intricacies of the things you can do with them. I would urge you to keep this close to your chest and not try to use this functionality yet. In the end, it’s your decision, and I’ll tell you how to do it if you really feel the need, but I don’t think it’s the right time.”

He ground his teeth and started moving again, waving at the party with the hand signal to keep moving.

We’re definitely not done talking about this. I’m going to want all the information you can give me on these titles and the whole court structure and oaths.

“You earned it. I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

They ran on in silence, Alex thinking through the information and the subtle bits of information that Maelis had said throughout the previous months. All of the dots seemed to come together. When he had his thoughts in order, he readdressed the spirit.

You still owe me two runes, too.

“Ask for them,” Maelis said simply.

Well, I was thinking—

“Alex,” Olivia said, appearing in a shadow a short distance ahead of him. He slowed to a halt and listened to her scouting report. “You should come look at this. There’s a group of Hunters ahead. They’re all wearing arm bands, but they’re escorting a group of people.”

“Do you think they’ll be trouble?”

“Probably not,” she said with a shake of her head, sending the ponytail back and forth.

“Then we just avoid them. Where are they?”

“I think you should come look first. The people that they’re escorting… they’re carrying around big metal boxes and waving antennas in the air. It looks like tech.”

Both of his eyebrows went up high enough to disappear under the brim of his hat. “Well, that’s different. Do you think it’s actually working?”

“It looks heavy.” She shrugged. “I don’t see why they’d be lugging it around and waving it back and forth if it wasn’t doing something.”

“All right, show me where they are.”