Nar wobbled to a stop in front of the door.

  That morning, when he woke, he had been barely able to move. The pain shooting through him and the stiffness had been close to unbearable, and not even in their first week had he felt as destroyed as he felt that morning.

  “We did this on purpose,” instructor Koh had told them that morning. “So that you learn the value of warm ups and stretching, which we’ve been so far guiding you through. Today, I will show you how to do both, and from now on, we will start and end every lesson in the correct way. Outside of it, it will be your responsibility to do them on your own, and every time you decide not to do either, I hope you will remember the pain you are feeling now. And the much worse one you’re about to endure. To the floor!”

  And true to the instructor's words, by the Crystal, Nar swore that he would never, ever forget to warm up and stretch ever again, for the rest of his life, however long it might be.

  Now, after dinner, Nar knocked on the door before him, his heart beating with excitement, and the door sighed open almost immediately.

  “Come in,” the Master of Blades said.

  Nar stepped into the small training room, and the door slid silently closed behind him. In the center of the room, the master was busy stretching himself, using one of the positions that instructor Koh had shown them.

  “Join me, will you?” the master said, smiling at him. “Judging from your painful and stiff gait, I assume the lesson has been learned, yes?”

  Nar nodded effusively. “Yes, master. And I’ll never forget it.”

  “You say that now, but the temptation always comes,” the master said, grinning as Nar clenched his jaw not to utter any sounds as he lowered himself to the floor. “When you’re tired, when you’re hurt, and when the battle is done and you are drenched in blood… Yours, or the enemy, the temptation will come.”

  Nar’s eyes widened in surprise.

  “Yes! Of course you need to stretch after fighting!” the master said, laughing. “Unless you are told directly by a healer not to do so, you should always assume that you need to stretch post battle. And warm-up before it as well. Do you want to pull a muscle or cramp up mid fighting? Either of those will drastically reduce your combat capabilities, and drag not only you down, but your whole party as well. And you can never compromise your capabilities for the following battle either, which may arrive much sooner than you expect.”

  “I… I see, master. Thank you. I’ll make sure to warm up and stretch before fighting as well,” Nar said.

  “Good. See that you do. Swap,” the master said. “Now, I also trust that you understand the importance of what Instructor Koh, Mes and Tob are teaching you?”

  “Yes, master. I mean… I think I do.”

  “That’s the right answer. In time, you will understand, but for now, just accept that it is crucial to your path. As crucial as your own aura,” the master said. “And trust Senior Instructor Koh as well. He’s one of my oldest apprentices aboard the Scimitar, and his skill with two-handed blades surpasses my own. And while your training will not exactly follow the same steps as the other apprentices in Squad 8, instructor Koh is well aware of all the necessary changes he needs to make in order to accommodate you. But again, as confusing as it may be for you to be in Squad 8, trust in us. Lean back.”

  Nar did as told, and stared at the ceiling with his mouth firmly shut.

  Fuck! He thought within. Crystal fucking damn it all!

  “It hurts, doesn’t it?” the master asked. “Enjoy it! Pain is good for you. Pain is your friend! It builds discipline and mental endurance, and these will serve you well for your entire life.”

  “Yes… Master,” Nar breathed through his clenched teeth and nostrils.

  “Now, as you can see, and good on you for not bringing it up, we are asking for a lot of trust from you,” the master said, flowing into a different stretch, as though his body was a liquid. “As I said, we see and know things that you don’t and can’t yet. Even years into the future. And this ignorance we are keeping you in is deliberate. It’s for your own good. There will be enough on your plate already, between me and instructor Koh’s teachings, and we will guide you at the appropriate pace.”

  “I understand, master,” Nar said, almost crying in relief as he swapped to a different position. “And I trust you and all of the instructors. I don’t know anything, and it was always my intention to find a teacher in the O-Nex.”

  The master smiled at him. “That’s a harsh assessment of yourself, apprentice. You know a tiny, little bit. It’s close to nothing, but it is there. And it is good that you recognize that you need instruction. Many Climbers step out of the gates thinking they know everything, and a few of them never humble themselves enough to admit how wrong they are when reality comes punching them in the face. They either learn fast, or their journeys end.”

  Nar nodded. He had seen reality alright, when those men had nearly taken them from the healer’s room in the arena. And like it or not, he had to admit that the encounter had knocked a lot of pegs in his perceived level of his presumed ability and skill.

  “Anyways, instructors Koh, Mes and Tob, will teach you how to move, and later on, on how to use your longsword properly. In Slaying, you will learn to recognize weak and strong spots, and how to take down any sort of creature, while in TSA, as tank apprentices always call it, you will learn to make proper use of your [Awareness], [Perception] and senses, in order to get the most out of your [Reflex], and be able to warn your party of danger in time, position yourself in the most critical place at all times, and make decisions and fight in whichever way you can contribute the most in. Add to that your aura training, and for now, that is more than enough to go on. And speaking of which, I believe you established your left arm pathway just earlier?”

  “Yes, master,” Nar said. “The Teacher of Mastery helped me do it.”

  After an excruciating day of stances and steps, Nar had found himself sitting within an aura pod after dinner. He hadn’t been sure exactly what he should do, considering that the last thing the Master of Aura had told him had been to not practice his aura for the weekend. However, within a minute of him sitting down and activating his barrier, the Teacher of Mastery himself had joined him.

  “I will supervise the establishing of your main, five pathways,” the short, extremely pale man had told him, dispensing with formalities as he immediately sat in front of Nar. “The first pathway must be discovered by yourselves, but following that, we supervise to ensure everything goes smoothly with the remaining pathways. The legs are tricky, as they must be established together, and the brain is even trickier, and potentially deadly. So do not attempt to establish any pathways without my say so, is that clear?”

  “Yes, teacher,” Nar had said, still taken aback by the man’s sudden appearance.

  “Good. Tonight, we will establish your second pathway, the one into the left arm,” the man continued. “Based on the conditions within you, we may be able to establish the rest of the pathways within the week. Later on, we will show you how to strengthen them. Again, you will not establish any new pathways afterwards without our say so. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, teacher.”

  “Very well. Let’s begin then. Close your eyes and…”

  And so, Nar had established his second pathway, up his left shoulder, down his arm and into his palm and fingers, just like the first one. It had gone a lot smoother than the right channel had, though Nar wasn’t sure of whether that was due to it being his second time doing it, or the Teacher of Mastery’s presence.

  “The Teacher of Mastery himself helped you, because your [Pathways of the Champion] are already an upgraded, class specific version,” his master explained, finally answering that question for Nar. “We were concerned that since they’re already wider and stronger than any of the other apprentices’, that some issues could occur when establishing them, so, we decided to have him supervise you himself. Alright, that should do it.”

  The master straightened up after his last stretch, but to Nar’s surprise, he sat back down again, and motioned for Nar to do the same.

  “With that, there is only me left,” he said. “My duty is focused on the more specialized requirements of your path. That means your aura usage and your skills. And while instructor Koh will be responsible for most of your sword teaching, I will complement it with several small touches to make his instruction fully fit our purposes. If at any point you have any questions, or doubts about anything that we are doing, about any aspect of your training, do not hesitate to come to me, the Master of Aura, or your other teachers. We do not condone complaining in the Blades Hall, but we do not condone blind obedience nor fear either. Discipline and respect, yes. But never blindly, and never unmerited or unjustified. Perhaps we might not be able to answer your questions yet, but we will do our best to not simply string you along. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, master.”

  “Good. Now, to our purpose tonight,” the master said. “For better or worse, we still don’t know what your affinity is, or what it's going to be. The affinity assessment gave us some good ideas for the majority of the apprentices, but unfortunately, you’re not amongst them. However, we can’t just sit down and wait for it to manifest. You may not want to hear this, but in the worst-case scenario, it could be years before it happens.”

  “Years?” Nar asked, his eyes widening. “It can take that long? Uh… Master. Sorry.”

  “You can do away with that when we’re talking like this, Nar,” the master said. “And yes, it's unfortunately not that uncommon. 60% of auramancers uncover their affinity within their first year of what we call “exposure”, which occurs mostly in the Labyrinth when apprentices are exposed to all the infinite variety of dungeons, aspects and enlightenment opportunities in it. The following 40% will unlock theirs anywhere from one year to even decades later, depending on the rarity of their affinity, and how difficult it is to trigger the necessary enlightenment.”

  Nar’s mouth dropped open.

  “The decades long cases are extremely rare, though,” his master said, raising a hand in a calming gesture. “I’ve never heard of one within our guild in my lifetime, and Tsurmirel has over 7 billion combat class holders under its payroll.”

  The master laughed at Nar’s shocked expression.

  “I miss that,” he said. “The daily shock of something new, of something shiny and wondrous! I used to be rendered speechless multiple times a day, back when I exited the gate. Everything was so much more than I had imagined. So much bigger. So much more chaotic and promising. It felt like we could do anything back then…”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Nar hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether or not it would be disrespectful to ask the master a personal question. But in the end, his curiosity won out.

  “You’re an Ex-Climber too, master?” he asked, hoping his tone was respectful. In truth, the Master of Blades did not have the ashen skin tone he had come to associate with Ex-Climbers.

  “Me? Oh yes! Nearly all of the faculty are.”

  “All of them?” Nar asked, frowning. “Aren’t there any auramancers in the O-Nex? I mean, I know about the big disadvantage with not being able to use aethertech, but still…”

  The master tucked his knees under his body and readjusted his weight, his back effortlessly straight.

  “It is that, but it is more,” he said, his tone cautious. “The O-Nex is not a kind place to us, Nar. Those who decide not to delve, and who don’t attract the attention of a big delving guild such as Tsurmirel, are forced to take up any job they can find in order to survive. Those jobs that they do find… Well, let’s just say that they aren’t very good, given they can’t use aethertech. To be honest, even if you die within the next few years, your life would’ve still been better than theirs is, even if they live to old age, and that’s a pretty big if in itself… Of course, what parent does not wish for a better life for their children? So Ex-Climbers do all they can so that their descendants become aethermancers instead, and have a better chance at life than they did. Within a few generations, they forget their B-Nex roots and are, for all intents and purposes, just normal ONs. And very few are those who decide to become auramancers, considering everything they stand to lose.”

  Nar rubbed his chin, considering the master’s words.

  “Is it really that bad?” he asked. “To be an auramancer?”

  “Hmm. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t impactful,” the master said. “We miss out on a lot, and that’s the unfortunate truth. But it doesn’t do to dwell on what might have been. We are forged by the Pressure of the B-Nex, and we come out of those Gates marked by it forever. That is our lot, and the Labyrinth is a much kinder and better life for us, than the scraps we could’ve had in the O-Nex.”

  The master shook his head. “This might be hard for one so young as you to understand, but one can go from battle to battle, and know enduring peace. While another might hang up the sword to never again see a drop of blood be shed, and yet never know a single moment of true peace… You are better here, Nar. Trust me.”

  I don’t get it… Nar thought to himself. How is that possible?

  The Master of Blades chuckled. “You’ll understand when you’re older. For now, just forget about it.”

  “Yes, master. But then, is it true that auramancers Named Few can be the equal of three aethermancers Named Few?”

  His master burst out laughing. “Who told you that? Wait! Let me guess. It was the Master of Aura?”

  Nar nodded.

  “Humph! That old fart is obsessed with aura! She’s consumed by it, and by the need to know it, and to understand ever more of its mysteries, and unravel more and more of its possibilities,” the master said, shaking his head. “She’s done much for Tsurmirel, but as with anything you might hear in the Nexus, whenever someone says that this or that is a better path, or a stronger way, or faster, or so on and on, take it with several fistfuls of salt. It all depends. It all always depends on an infinite number of variables… Anyways, it's too early for you to be spouting the Named Few to your master with such bright eyes! The audacity! We haven’t even started!”

  “Yes. Sorry, master,” Nar said, bowing his head.

  “Learn to crawl before you even think about flying,” the master said, shaking his head. However, his steely eyes gleamed with contained mirth.

  “You can fly?”

  “That’s a rude question to ask.”

  “I’m sorry, master. Wait! That’s not what I…”

  The master laughed at his indignant expression.

  “Enough, enough!” he said smiling. “The night is going to run out on us, and we haven’t even gotten down to business. Anyways, as I was saying, for better or worse, we don’t know what your affinity is going to be yet. While you won’t achieve your true potential, nor fully realize the how behind your path until you unlock it, what we have to work with is actually very substantial already. Your Path of the Champion provides us with excellent raw materials to build up solid foundations with, and while your party members that have already unlocked their affinities are bound for a period of great uncertainty, as their paths shift and churn, we can speed you along on establishing the fundamentals, as we believe that your affinity will come to strengthen what your path already is, rather than change it significantly. Anything can come out of their gains for the near future, and they will have to keep changing and adapting everything as their affinities take full hold.”

  “But then… Isn’t there a chance that when I finally get my affinity, that I’ll lose everything that I worked for?” Nar asked. “How do you know that my affinity won’t change everything as well?”

  The master took a deep breath, and a moment of silence passed between them, growing heavier with each anxious heartbeat drumming within Nar’s chest. “I knew you would ask the question. It is only logical. And I have considered long and deeply what to answer. But the reality of the matter, Nar, is that I cannot answer your question at this moment. It is beyond me.”

  “What? But how…”

  “You will have to trust me, Nar. Whatever you build between now and whenever your affinity unlocks, I can promise you that not even a shred of effort will go to waste,” his master said, his eyes like steel on his weathered, golden metallic face. “Give it your all, Nar, and I swear on the Crystal and the Radiants, that you will not regret it. I know it’s not a satisfactory answer, but it’s all you can know for now.”

  “I…” Nar sighed. “Alright. I’ll trust you, master.”

  His master shook his head. “You must give me more than that, Nar. To anyone else, we are taking a calculated risk based on the data we have, and this is of crucial importance, Nar. I need you to swear on the Crystal that you will never betray this knowledge.”

  “I…” Nar hesitated.

  What in the pile is going on? He thought. If they don’t know what my affinity is, then how do they know that it’s going to work out in the end?

  “I told you your path was one of sacrifice and hard work,” the master said, his tone hard. “And this will be the least of what will be demanded of you, if you are to succeed. But think about the promise of power that awaits you. This path has tremendous potential, a true hybrid path! Think of what you could achieve! Think of your dad, awaiting your return!”

  And then, it was as though Nar stood before an enormous precipice. Again, just like when he had left K’s Records. Below him, a bottomless dark called out to him, beckoning to him with a force greater than any he had ever known. He wanted nothing but to step back from that fall, and yet, he knew with the same certainty that he would do anything to save his dad and ensure the future of his party, that he was bound to plunge into that precipice… It was inevitable now, and he had no idea how far down it went, or if he would ever come out from it again. Or the same person.

  “Nar? I need your word.”

  “Yes,” Nar whispered, his voice almost unrecognizable to himself, as though something else spoke through his mouth. “I swear by the Crystal, I will not reveal it to anyone.”

  And his right foot edged closer to the edge…

  I’m going to fall in, Nar realized. There’s nothing I can do to stop it.

  “Good. With that out of the way… Nar? Nar!”

  Nar startled with a gasp.

  “Are you okay?” his master asked. “What happened?”

  “Uh?” Nar made, looking around him.

  Before him, there was only the master and the dark gray room.

  What in the pile?

  “I-I don’t know… I saw… I…”

  The master snorted. “You need to go to bed, young man. This is not the first time you’ll be so tired you’ll start seeing things, but, I have more to squeeze out of you tonight, so hang in there.”

  Seeing things? Nar asked himself. Weird, yes, but it wasn’t the first time that exhaustion played tricks on his mind. It happened all the time during the Climb.

  “Yes, master,” Nar said, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I’m paying attention!”

  “You better!” the man said, chuckling. “Alright, now for real. Given what I told you, this is how we are going to proceed. Between the three of us, me, the Master of Aura, and K, we’ve decided that you’re going to focus on your DPS and sword fighting first. Of course, this involves taking command of your abundant aura, which is the critical component upon which your entire path hinges. And that means three things.”

  The Master of Blades raised a finger.

  “First, you’ll need to complete all the five main pathways within your body. Then, you will need to learn to properly cycle your aura for fighting. Yours is a path of extreme combat, Nar, and you won’t make any great strides while sitting down and meditating. It will be through drills and practice, by sweating and moving, and by enduring and surviving in the middle of the thickest fighting, dealing damage and soaking it up. And your aura will help you tremendously with all of that.”

  Nar nodded. He had guessed as much.

  “I’ve noticed your efforts in cycling during training, and well done, that's exactly what you should be doing!” the master said smiling, and Nar felt a surge of pride well up within him, and it was hard not to grin openly at the unexpected praise.

  “Cycling will speed up your recovery as you’ve seen, including your status,” the master said. “But it will also help you make better use of your attributes, increasing your efficient use of them. Eventually, when your body finally catches up to a point where it can fully make use of your attributes without the help of your aura, cycling will then elevate your attributes to higher heights… So, moving and fighting aura cycling, or combat cycling as we call it, is the first component for laying the foundations of your very special path. And of course, the higher your [Mastery] and [Pathways of the Champion], the better you will be at that and with fighting in general, being able to use your skills and aura a lot more.”

  He lifted another finger and Nar couldn’t help but feel his heartbeat sped up. This was it. This was the beginning of everything he had fought for, and everything he had struggled through in his Climb. The true beginnings of his very own path were being laid out before him, and he couldn’t be happier with what he was hearing.

  “Secondly, your [Aura Attack] is a start, but nothing more than that,” his master told him. “All melee auramancers start out with it when they upgrade to an auramancer class, but it is just the root of a long tree of progressively better and more specialized skills. In fact, aura cycling and getting this skill upgraded, are going to be our focus for the next two weeks, ahead of your first assessment. You will need combat cycling if you are to perform to at least the same level as you have thus far, now that you no longer have the mercy of the Climb. And the skill upgrade, while I hope you can get it before the assessment, I doubt you will. Which means, it will have to be part of your gains, and that means that you’ll need to have a proper grasp over this skill to have any hope of seeing it amongst your gains… And understand that this is a common route for us auramancers. We build the skill, and then the System rewards us with it, usually through our gains.”

  Nar nodded slowly at his master's words.

  And gains means combat, Nar thought. I guess the captain wasn’t exaggerating then.

  “If all goes well, after the first assessment, we can take some time before the third and final assessment for you to gain the basic understanding of the second crucial skill that you will need to unlock,” the master said.

  He raised his hand, revealing his different, golden cylinder, and a pale blue screen came to life in between them.

  “This is a skill that you’ve actually used before, if at a much more advanced level, but not one you currently have.”

  Nar inhaled sharply. “The ones I used in the Ceremony?”

  “One of them. The offense one. Watch, as I doubt you’ve seen it before.”

  Nar leaned forward and a video played in the master’s touch-pad. In it, Nar watched as he himself activated the advanced champion skills he had earned as part of his class change.

  “That’s me?” he whispered, as his [Strike of the Champion] blew away tens of thousands of spiders, devouring the broken Raid Boss in a roar of shattering aura explosions.

  “That’s you, and that final strike of yours is what we’re looking to unlock,” his master explained, putting away his screen. “Of course, it won’t be anything of that level for a good while yet. For one, you don’t have the [Mastery] to power it, and for another, your pathways can’t stand it. Without the help you received during the Climb, it will be a while before you can manage anything close to that devastation. However, even the beginner, basic version that we’re aiming to unlock is going to be of tremendous help to you, Nar, and ensure we solidify the first steps of your path. With it, you will have the complete range of attributes for fast movement and survival, powerful close combat, and a devastating close to medium range skill for when you really need that extra burst of power to face down any unexpected situations.”

  “Ranged as well…” Nar whispered.

  The Master of Blades wiggled his three lifted fingers at him and then closed them into a tight fist. “There is a great path awaiting you, Nar, if you can build it, and as long as you can continue to grow the aura to sustain it, for it will be an extremely aura hungry path. Which is where our newest finding comes in.”

  “My hidden skill,” Nar said. “Do you really think I should put all of my modifiers into one attribute?”

  The master smiled. “The idea does not appeal to you?”

  “I… I don't know. It feels wrong somehow.”

  “I’m not going to lie,” the master said. “I don’t know of anyone that has ever gone down that route. It’s like a hyper specialization inside an already hyper specialized hybrid path… But you’ve got to admit you see the logic in it, no?”

  “Yes, master,” Nar said, sighing. “As long as the [The Aspiring Champion] continues to upgrade, I will gain all the attribute points that I need from it…”

  “It will and you will, though not at the level of say, the kind of [Strength] a brawler, such as Mul, will achieve. Aura is the core of your path, and never forget that. But if it makes you feel better, we can re-evaluate things after the [The Aspiring Champion] first upgrades. Does that work?”

  “Yes, master,” Nar said, relief washing over his expression. “Thank you.”

  “Good, now, let’s get started.”

  “Eh?” Nar said, glancing at his clock.

  It’s half twelve already!

  Nar looked up and flinched in surprise. The master was now standing an extra couple feet away from him, and in his hands, he held a sword that looked very familiar to Nar.

  A longsword…

  “On your feet, apprentice!” the master said. “And consider sleeping early another thing to add to the list of what you must become used to sacrificing as well.”