“Mul!”

  Cen sat up straight, her left hand reaching out for her brother, who was about to disappear under a pile of beasts. Pain tore through her, and she dropped back onto the mattress with a strangled cry, her toes curling against the agony that raged through her, and tears welled up behind her eyes, fists clenched as she rode the radiating waves of pain.

  When at last the pain receded into a dull ache, Cen sobbed shakily and tried to open her eyes again. Soft, yellow light greeted her into a sparse room.

  No beasts.

  No Mul.

  Nothing.

  Just her quick, shallow breathing, a table with a flower, and a bed with crumpled up, twisted bedsheets.

  Sweat poured down her forehead in rivulets, mixing with her tears, and she looked about her in ravaged, weakened confusion.

  Where…

  “Ouch!”

  She searched for her left hand, carefully, and found it bandaged all the way up to her elbow. Pain radiated from within the tightly wrapped bandages, as though her arm sought to splinter into a thousand tiny shards, and her fingers twitched and trembled of their own accord. She couldn’t lift or move her arm at all.

  What…

  Her mind lit up at the memory of the beam of pure, raw aura that she had unleashed, and for a moment, her heart tightened.

  Mul… Did I… Did I hit him?

  She pressed her eyes with violence, and swallowed a sob.

  No, no, no! I couldn’t have! I couldn’t! I couldn’t!

  She licked her dried, chapped lips. I need to find him. I need to make sure he’s…

  TING!

  She paused.

  Was that…

  She opened her notifications, her drumming with painful dread, and she found that there were three new notifications waiting for her. The subject line of the first one read Your brother’s fine!, while the second one read Check your gains first. As for the last, the only thing it could be was her gains notification from the den fight.

  A sigh of shaky relief escaped her lips, and tears leaked down the sides of her face. The thought of having killed her own brother in that blast of aura… Her aura, and from her very own hand…

  She gasped. “From my hand?”

  Once more, she craned her neck to look down her injured and immobilized limb.

  “I did that… With my hand. But how…”

  First and foremost, how had she gone past the [Mastery] boundary? And secondly, how in the Nexus had she managed that without a skill? After a moment's hesitation, she took a deep breath and pressed her eyes hard, pushing out the last remainder of her tears. This was no time to cry. Her brother was safe, and she had achieved something astounding, and the master had messaged her!

  Quick! The gains!

  “My Crystal…” she whispered. “So many new attributes!”

  And a new window popped open before her, replacing her gains.

  Attributes of the Mind… And so many! she thought, her mouth forming a perfect o.

  It wasn’t a surprise that her physical attribute gains were as lackluster as they always were. No, what shocked her was to discover that there were so many attributes of the Mind!

  How many more are there? She wondered. Am I missing any?

  The others’ [Neural Processing] attributes were most likely a part of the Mind attributes as well, and she had to wonder if there were more to unlock… And if there were more of them in the Mind family, maybe there were even more for the Soul and the Body as well! But she reigned in her enthusiasm with difficulty and scanned the window again.

  A few of her new attributes came with Attribute Modifier Bonuses as well, though they were unknown to her at the moment, and would remain so unless she actually gained modifiers in them.

  Something to discover, she thought, excitement threatening to run wild again. But [Cunning] though…

  She sighed, her racing thoughts coming to a screeching halt. That one brought back ugly memories of a not so long ago past, and the lie she had weaved, endangering everyone in the party with her duplicity, including her own brother. She closed her eyes for a few moments, then opened them again. It was all in the past, and she hadn’t hidden anything else from the party ever since.

  The past is the past, Cen, she told herself. Now we’re here, and it's the now and the future that matters.

  She continued re-reading through the list.

  And then there’s [Creativity] and [Shaping]. They clearly go hand to hand… And for [Shaping], it says one can even shape the aura within their bodies! Was that what I did?

  Cen bit her lower lip and thought back to that moment. Had she even done anything? Had that beam of aura been a result of any conscious effort from her at all? She had been taken by despair, seeing death come for her brother. All she’d wanted to do was save him, and Nar, who had once again selflessly jumped into danger for one of them… But there had been no way for her to reach them. Nothing for her to do at all, as her [Aura Projectiles] would’ve hurt them just the same as the psaelis surrounding them, and there was no point in even bringing up her little puffs of her air from her staff…

  It was one of the greatest weaknesses of her mighty path. It was powerful, but it was only usable with any measure of proper might when unleashed off into the distance. Their potential for friendly fire was almost a guarantee at close range, and so, she was relegated to medium-long distance combat…

  But wait!

  She bit her lip harder, as thoughts formed out of the disjointed mess that whirled within her mind.

  Reach… Protect… If I put them together, that beam sort of accomplished both. But that feels like a bit of a stretch… I didn’t really imagine anything. I just reached out my hand and…

  And what?

  Her aura had responded to her wishes, pouring out from her hand? Breaking through her [Mastery] limit? And that was another question in itself! How had she blown past the limit like that? She didn’t even remember cycling her aura from her core, down through her left arm pathway and out her hand! All she remembered was the need to save her brother…

  She grimaced. Her head was starting to throb, and pain was gradually increasing from her wounded arm.

  Must’ve damaged my pathways… Like Nar did, she realized. But why didn’t the master heal me?

  Sleep was starting to beckon for her once again, her body ravaged by her aura and her mind still drained from the tribulations of their first assessment.

  But not yet! Not… Yet. Alright. Alright. What’s left… Ah! [Ego], so that’s what it was, and that one’s part of the Soul attributes.

  She frowned, forcing her sight to remain steady. Focused.

  Body, Mind and Soul, the 3 Fundamentals of Sapiance… Body is not my path, so that leaves me with my gains in Mind and Soul. Six new attributes in Mind, and [Ego] joins [Aura] in the Soul… And I wonder if there are any more attributes of the Soul as well.

  She blinked, and the windows disappeared. It was finally time to check her master’s message, and her heart performed a somersault in her chest despite her exhaustion. The thought of that communication both excited her and filled her with dread. Was it this time? Would it finally happen?

  She sighed, tears brimming in her eyes once more. It had happened! It had finally happened!

  A compliment… A real compliment! She thought, almost forgetting the pain that echoed dully across from her bandaged arm.

  Oh! How she had longed to impress the Master of Aura! How she had longed to hear that she was doing well! That she was special! That she would do great things with her path!

  And now, there it was, and her heart danced at the prospect of learning more about aura from the master!

  What secrets would the master unveil to her? What knowledge would the master impart on her?

  In a way, it was confirmation of everything she had dared hope for and believe in regards to her aura while she Climbed. And now, she was truly about to embark on her great journey of learning and discovery!

  There was nothing in the whole wide Nexus that she wanted more than to understand the energy that emanated from her very soul, and the thought of her path being one that allowed her to directly manipulate that same energy filled her with a giddy excitement!

  Oh! The things I could do! The things I will do! She thought.

  Of course, she didn’t yet know what these achievements would be, but if that beam of aura was any indication of the things to come, then… She grinned. She didn’t even care about the blocker the master had placed within her. Not one bit! Whatever it took, she would do it to earn the secrets the master knew!

  However…

  Her smile faltered. She could never afford to disappoint her master. She had to work hard, she had to be diligent, and dedicated in her efforts! She had to show the Master of Aura that she was willing to do anything to earn her instruction! Anything!

  She worked twice as hard as any other apprentice in her class already, but she could work even harder! And while she might not be the quickest practical learner, she was definitely the smartest and the hardest working, and her [Aura Projectiles] were second to none. In battle, none shone brighter than hers, or wrought the same level of devastation! She might deny it out loud, but she kept the truth inside!

  She emerged from her train of thoughts abruptly, her breath quickened in the silent room, under the ever-present hum of the ship, and sleep latched onto her immediately, seeing its chance.

  I’ll make the master like me, Cen thought, as her eyelids closed. She’ll see. She’ll see…