“There’s still a few hours of light,” Rufus said. “Come with me for a little bit.”
Rufus led them in silence. They went to the edge of town and up one of many sets of stairs, arriving on the top of the west wall. There he stopped to look out at the horizon, Jason stopping beside him.
“So you’ve fought your first proper monster,” Rufus said.
“The shabs were certainly rougher than the potent hamster,” Jason said.
Rufus turned his head to glance at Jason.
“Your power to identify things extends to monsters?”
“Just their names.”
Rufus looked back out at the desert landscape.
“It’s time you learned how to advance your abilities,” he said.
“Actually, that reminds me,” Jason said. “I have a bunch of monster cores. Apparently they can raise abilities up.”
Rufus’s head snapped sideways to look at him.
“You didn’t use any, did you?”
“No, I was waiting to ask you,” Jason said. “I thought there might be side effects. After that reaction, I’m assuming there are.”
Rufus let out a breath.
“I’m glad. I should have thought to tell you, but I forgot you had an ability to loot monsters. You’re lucky; it’s a rare power.”
“It’s not just me that can do that, then?”
“No, but it’s a highly coveted ability. I’m starting to get envious,” Rufus said.
“Don’t humans have their abilities go up faster than everyone else?” Jason asked. “Everyone else including me, since I’m not human. Which still seems harsh.”
“Being human does have its perks,” Rufus acknowledged.
“Rub it in, why don’t you?” Jason asked. “How about you tell me how to raise my abilities so I can start catching up to you three.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” Rufus said. “There are two ways to raise your abilities. One is to use monster cores. Every core increases your abilities a little, but only a little. It takes hundreds of iron-rank cores to reach bronze rank, and that’s for humans. For everyone else, it takes even more. It takes iron-rank cores when you’re iron rank, bronze when you’re bronze, and so forth. But you should never, ever use this method.”
“Do you turn into a monster or something?”
“No,” Rufus said. “I said there were two ways of raising your abilities. Every time you use a monster core to raise your abilities, it makes the other method a little less effective. The impact is minimal, at first, but every core you use eats into your potential. If you used cores to get to where I am, the top end of bronze rank, then cores would the only thing that works anymore. And bronze rank isn’t that high.”
“Couldn’t you just hunt up more monsters for cores?” Jason asked.
“You could,” Rufus said, “and some do. In the city we’re going to, Greenstone, almost everyone uses cores. So long as you have the money to buy them you can reach bronze rank without ever facing a monster. But every rank requires more and more cores. By the time you reach silver rank, things slow right down as the costs go up significantly. Most core users don’t make it to gold.”
“If people know this, why would anyone use cores?” Jason asked.
“Because it’s easy and you can buy the cores instead of risking your own neck,” Rufus said. “Most aristocratic families only have a few truly powerful adventurers, while the rest use cores. Do you have aristocracy in your world?”
“Sure,” Jason said. “We’re slowly phasing it out in favour of wealth-based oligarchy, but it’s still around.”
“Uh, alright.”
“So, what’s so bad about the second method that people would use these cores?”
“It requires danger and hard work.”
“I bet it isn’t the danger that stops them,” Jason said. “It’s the hard work, right?”
“Probably,” Rufus said with a chuckle. “The other path to developing your abilities, the real way, has three elements.”
Rufus raised three fingers, counting them off as he explained.
“The first element is training. You have to practice pushing your body to its limits, and not just the physical ones. You have to strain against the boundaries of what your four attributes are capable of. Exhaust yourself, body and mind. Pushing yourself to the limits prepares you to go beyond them.”
“So… exercise?”
“Yes, but not just physical exercise. You have to train the mind, as well. Perception is part of your spiritual strength, and we will teach you how to exercise it.”
“How?”
“Observation training, which is a practical skill as well as a good training technique. Memory games, puzzles. Anything that tests the mind can work.”
“That actually sounds a little fun.”
“That’s good,” Rufus said. “Training, done right, will leave you feeling satisfied and empowered. The second element is also about pushing yourself, but in a much more dangerous way.”
“Fighting monsters?”
“Fighting monsters,” Rufus said. “To truly break through your limits, you must truly push up against them. Only with genuine danger can you go further and do more than you ever thought possible.”
“That’s simple enough to understand, if mildly terrifying. What’s the third part?” Jason asked.
“Meditation.”
“Meditation? As in… just sitting there?”
“Yes,” Rufus said. “Meditation is crucial. The other two elements are about breaking through your own limits. Meditation is about consolidating that gain. It’s where you take the fleeting moments in which you were better than you’ve ever been before, and make that your new normal.”
“Is there a mantra, or something?”
“The key is concentrating on the magic flowing inside you. You can feel it, right?”
“I can,” Jason said.
“It feels unruly, doesn’t it? Like some wild creature inside you.”
“Yeah, it kind of does,” Jason said. “Using an ability feels like throwing out a piece of meat for it to run out and devour.”
“That’s the sensation after you reach a new rank,” Rufus said. “You’ll slowly bring that beast under your control as your abilities grow. Then you’ll reach a new rank and have a new beast to contend with, more powerful than the last.”
“How does that work with core users?”
“For them it’s like feeding the beast drugged meat to make it compliant. The beast still has its strength, but the owner can’t make use of it properly.”
“So core users aren’t just hampering their future, but also making themselves kind of crappy in the present.”
“That’s exactly what they’re doing,” Rufus said.
Rufus directed Jason to sit cross-legged, looking out over the landscape. He spent the remaining daylight guiding Jason through his first meditation, until the sunset lit up the sky with orange and gold. Jason opened his eyes to watch.
“You know,” Jason said, “I think I’m starting to like it here.”
That night, as he lay in the small bed in their assigned accommodation, Jason checked his character screen.
Jason Asano
Race: Outworlder.
Current rank: Iron.
Progression to bronze rank: 0% (0/4 essences complete)
Attributes
[Power] (Blood): [Iron 0]
[Speed] (Dark): [Iron 0]
[Spirit] (Doom): [Iron 0]
[Recovery] (Sin): [Iron 0]
Racial Abilities (Outworlder)
[Interface]
[Quest System]
[Inventory]
[Map]
[Astral Affinity]
[Mysterious Stranger]
Essences (4/4)
Dark [Speed] (3/5)
[Midnight Eyes] (special ability): [Iron 0] 04%.
[Cloak of Night] (special ability): [Iron 0] 02%.
[Path of Shadows] (special ability): [Iron 0] 00%.
Blood [Power] (4/5)
[Blood Harvest] (spell): [Iron 0] 01%.
[Leech Bite] (special attack): [Iron 0] 01%.
[Feast of Blood] (spell): [Iron 0] 01%.
[Sanguine Horror] (familiar): [Iron 0] 01%.