???, Merrow?

I really can't get used to that sensation, no matter how many times I've been subjected to it.

Breathing deeply, I take in the pleasant forest ambience of Jannis' domain, and reach out to the door of the cabin in front of me, finding it unlocked. I'd knock or announce my presence, but that doesn't strike me as necessary. That I'm here at all is as good as an invitation to enter.

The cabin is very cosy, the walls covered with drawings, paintings and weaponry of unfathomable value, several console tables line the corridor which are home to perfectly formed wood-carved sculptures of people, monsters and some more abstract pieces with nebulous inherent meaning. In the air hangs the warm smell of baking pastries, and the gentle creaking sound of a rocking chair from an adjacent room alerts me to where my host is likely to be waiting.

Twisting the handle to the parlour room, Jannis, Lady of Steel's Ambition, sits on that chair in the corner of the room with a blanket across her lap, basking in the light from the window shining through, slicing idly at a block of wood with a small knife. She makes no attempt to acknowledge my presence as I stride over and stand before her, noting that she looks deathly ill compared to her normally robust complexion.

Then, I make good on a promise I made to myself.

My fist makes heavy contact with her nose, and doesn't even cause her to flinch or pause her movement, carving away at the lumber as if it didn't happen at all. For my part, I'd have better luck trying to punch through the Dragon Knight's chestplate for all the good it did. Retracting my arm, Jannis looks up at me.

"Feel better?"

I clench my teeth, "Absolutely not. But I'm not going to push my luck."

"You know it well," she sighs, and places her project down, "Greetings, my Blade."

"...You're not going to acknowledge what you did?" I glare balefully.

"What's the point of repeating that which you already know? For what it's worth, I am paying a rather heavy price for it right now," Jannis blows the wood shavings off her hand, smiling regretfully.

Exhaling roughly I feel my blood heating up and my breath shortening, "I don't often feel genuine anger. Yes, I have my pet peeves, but anger is something rare, reserved for things that truly offend me. And what you did? A close second to the day I was told by my father's doctor that he would die, because we couldn't afford a measly two million dollars."

My fists clench, my voice raises as high as it can go, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, RIPPING OFF A SHARD OF YOUR AUTHORITY AND SHOVING IT INTO THE SOUL OF A NEWBORN?! WERE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!"

For the last several weeks, Jannis has been piggybacking off my soul through the Title she gave me, getting a front-row seat to every moment I've spent on Merrow, and most likely, some very intimate access to my thoughts and memories in the process. It's equivalent to her ripping out some of the major arteries attached to her heart then ramming her fist through my ribcage and leaving them there. 

Djash had the right of it. I should be dead. Or as good as, Capsule safety measures and failsafes be damned. Just being in the vicinity of existences on the same approximate tier as Jannis was enough to snuff my Vessel out and give me enough of an information shock that I was hospitalised. Having a chunk of that embedded inside me is like swallowing molten uranium and expecting superpowers.

I've been carrying it around for a month now with barely an inkling until recently. I had suspicions as to what could have made me unusually resistant to the corrupting influence of The Pool of Desire and everything that followed. But even then, I thought it was just a high-grade passive attached to the 'Beloved Blade' Title.

Now? I have a target painted on my back telling every unscrupulous jackass on the planet to hunt me down and try to devour my soul to improve their odds of Ascending or whatever use they can think of for a shard of Authority. I am a walking Astral-tier elixir to these people.

Me, a Level 18. The fuck am I supposed to do about that, if one of them gets brave enough? The Dragon Knight isn't going to help me - he only stepped in before to shove Arevas back in his prison. Jannis can barely exert any direct influence over the main plane on a good day, never mind now. I got jack and shit I can do.

"Silver. No, Alexandr. Be silent," Jannis stares me down, and I feel an oppressive weight pressing my anger back forcibly, "I admit, what I did was...crossing a line. But it was also the only option available to me for verifying your outlandish claim in a satisfactory fashion. To cut a long story short, I believe you. Though I cannot understand what brought you back here, and my speculations cannot be shared with the rules as they are, I am your ally in this endeavour, as before. I will offer what help I can within the constraints imposed upon me."

"...I want this out of my body," I demand, "I can't protect myself from those it will attract."

Jannis smiles, "Oh, don't worry about that. It was concealed to begin with, up until you took it upon yourself to have a staring match with an Archdemon Count. By the time you return to your Vessel, it will have been repaired. Temporarily, at least. Until you make it wholly your own the danger will be present."

"...Are you suggesting I absorb it?" I feel my jaw slacken slightly, "That's-"

"Entirely possible for you," she asserts, "I more or less cheated, to be blunt. As you were still in the Vessel creation process - and you chose Silva - the shard was simply accepted as one of the materials in the process through a loophole in the Guidance you requested. Ordinarily, I'd leave a mark upon the surface, so to speak, but the 'shard' serves the same purpose. If I were to retract my endorsement, it would leave an irreparable wound that really will kill you, and unless you make it your own, eventually the parts of it that still resonate strongly of my essence will become a poison eventually that reaches the same conclusion."

"...How long do I have?" I grit my teeth, hard.

"Impossible to tell," she frowns, rubbing her tired eyes, "As far as I'm aware, you are the first example of this. At the very least, I've never attempted something like it before, and I don't feel it wise to be attracting attention by asking around for examples. Fret not, you have a few years at least, so long as you avoid overexerting your soul again. It's barely holding together as it is."

"How exactly am I supposed to fix this?" I exhale, feeling about ready to pass out from the added stress.

"As your vessel this time around is a Silva, you can modify your Crystal Heart to better accommodate it," Jannis suggests, "That was what I had in mind at the time. You're welcome to find alternatives on your own."

"I'll take it under advisement," I echo Horizon's sarcasm, "If you're set on helping me, I need a favour."

"Go ahead."

"I need access to The Olton Keepsake," I request, "The lowest level."

This gives her pause, "For what purpose?"

"I mean to take the Legacy Trial of The Iron Lord," I explain, "To change my Class. Gaining your permission will save me a lot of time spent convincing the Rea-Horolt to let me even approach the entrance."

Jannis' face twists into a complicated expression, understanding but not necessarily approving, "I strongly advise against taking up the Path of another. You know that, don't you?"

"If I'm judged worthy of it, what cause have you for complaint?" I retort, "By your own logic I will have earned it, and by it's nature I don't see it as any different to your plans for the shard of Authority."

She rubs the bridge of her nose in consternation, "If you wished to take up a Hero's Legacy, I would have denied you outright, but an Aspirant's Path is by it's nature incomplete. There's still the possibility of making it your own...fine. You will have your chance."

"That's all I need," I bow my head, "The only question that remains then, is what you mean to do from here on out. We both know the significance of your actions. It will be centuries before you begin to properly recover."

Jannis lets loose a long-suffering sigh, "True enough. I can offer you some simple advice from time to time, within certain constraints. While I cannot guarantee it will be factual, I will not seek to deceive you. As for my health, should you find anything capable of assisting my recovery, I will offer a fitting payment in exchange."

"Anything capable of such a feat would be legendarily rare, valuable and difficult to acquire," I frown deeply, "I'd have to rob Ilg's treasuries to come across something so potent with any reliability. Assuming they even have them."

Jannis chuckles heartily, as if it were a hilarious joke, "I won't ask something so burdensome of you. For now, you'd best worry about your immediate concerns. Such as your promise to Khire's brat."

"'What you see, what you experience, is the present, not the future'" I quote, grumbling under my breath.

"I'm rather proud of that one," Jannis smirks, "Your memories of me gave me a lot to think on. 'tis a shame I was not afforded the same privilege like you and those other 'Inheritors' you found."

"Be content with what you stole," I flip her a middle finger, which amuses her greatly.

"Don't worry, I only looked for the pertinent information," she laughs, "I left you with some dignity, at least."

"I don't care for a burglar's courtesy in stealing everything I own save that which was bolted to the floor," I fire back, "Leaving an IOU on the kitchen table isn't the kind of manners that redeems the act being undertaken to begin with."

Jannis laughs raucously, then her mood rapidly dips, "As much as I'd like to continue this pleasant banter, we're just about out of time. It's best you head back."

I open my mouth to object, as I don't feel like I've managed to properly communicate my anger yet, but I'm not given the chance to utter even a squeak in protest as Lady Jannis stands up, and gently taps my forehead, "We'll speak again soon, Alexandr."

Altar of Steel's Ambition, Second Floor, Northwestern Wing, Olton Mountain Shrine

"Fucking-rrrrgh!" I growl, rubbing my buzzing skull and shifting my legs underneath me to alleviate the pins & needles stinging my calves and feet, "I wasn't finished!"

I suck air through my teeth and do my best to calm down. There's no point in getting angry at an empty room, even if odds are high she's still watching from the corner of her metaphorical eye. Glancing at the altar, I notice two extra additions that weren't there before: A gently steaming pie, still in it's mould, and a small piece of purple crystal propped up against the preserved sword hilt.

A smile tugs at my lips unbidden. It's blatant bribery, but I can't find it in me to stay angry at the sight of the peace offering pastry.

Now is as good a time as any to take stock of what I gained from this messy business, I guess. To start with, my heart has been turned into an artefact of immense power and value without my knowledge and promises to be the death of me should either someone who realises that gets their grubby mitts on me or I take too long in scrubbing Jannis' influence out of it.

With the concealment reinforced, I should at least be harder for those greedy bastards to track, depending on how good a look that got at me when I weaponised it in my efforts to escape Arevas' Curse. It's not going to do much to keep them from finding me through other means, but I'll take what I can get.

The other issue promises to be the bigger pain in my ass. This is something even a 5-Star Grandmaster Enchanter with centuries of experience would shit themselves rather than mess around with. Finding anyone with the means to do anything with it is...

Well, I have no idea where to even start. If it were thirty years from now, perhaps, but I don't have that long. Anything to do with the soul is rare, and this goes above and beyond even the rarest treasures I've heard whispers about. From how confident Lady Jannis was, there should be something I can do.

Sighing, I set dealing with that as a mid-term goal. Once a certain Cavhatirrius Chapter goes into full swing, my chances of finding something that can help will increase significantly. So goes the hope, should I last that long.

On a related note, I pull up the details for Beloved Blade, curious as to what exactly it says now.

The thing I immediately hone in on is the Hidden Attribute.

In addition to the classic Attributes of Strength and so on, there's a number of other values that the system tries to quantify and keep track of. They're either considered hidden because, bluntly, you don't have it, because they're derivative of one of the main 9, or because they're blocked from view without the aid of specialised Skills and Items.

Divinity is one of them. Corruption is another. Others I'm aware of include Luck, Beauty, Presence, Craftsmanship and Prowess.

Luck is self-explanatory. It weights the outcomes of random rolls slightly in your favour. According to testing, all Newborn start with either 1 Luck or 2, decided by a coin flip, and so do all Merrowans. Increasing it is one of the most aggravating experiences in the entire game, and by 2138, most such methods had long been exhausted by Saints for astronomical sums of money and manpower.

Beauty is weird. It's a derivative of the main attributes along with one's appearance, and doesn't have a defined value, instead depending largely on who is observing you, though some traits are accepted as attractive by many people of many creeds and...I'm just not going to try and go into it for the sake of my own sanity.

Prowess is also a little odd and is better translated as 'Competence' in my opinion. For every action, people have a varying degree of competence. The System tries to evaluate how good you are at any given task, assigning an individual value of Prowess to it as part of the base functionality of the world. Though certain Skills can estimate a person's Prowess in a specific field to that Skill, it's an even bigger rabbit hole than Beauty. It's not something you ever need to worry about on it's own, as it doesn't have a direct effect, merely serving as a representative estimation of what's already there, if that makes sense?

Craftsmanship is almost the same thing but for crafting. Certain items with Craftsmanship can add 'correction' values to the process and result.

As for Divinity...I have no idea what it's deal is, really. That's extremely high-end information that only a tiny percentage of people would understand. I assume, that it's responsible in some way for my staggeringly high resistance to the Corruptive effects of Arevas. But despite how it sounds, it's not as if there's a direct relation between the two.

Corruption refers to...how to put it? How far your mind, soul and body 'diverge' from the healthy standard Path. Or something. Delusions, dangerous false beliefs, excessive mutation and more can result from and contribute to Corruption. As can getting too close to corrupted magical energies. It's...something I only marginally understand. But avoiding it's accumulation is a no-brainer - unless I want to end up like Hadrian did, or that utter monster the Jailer of Vessels. Less said about her and those like her, the better, frankly.

Could be there are more Hidden Attributes out there, but those are the ones I know of and about. Not going to mention any that were considered speculation at best.

Standing up, I retrieve the crystal and look at the pie.

"Thanks," I mutter. Must've been listening in when I was complaining earlier. Objectively, this isn't the greatest food I've ever seen in spite of the 'Godcrafted' affix, but she tries. Not to mention there's the risk of running into the same issue as with high grade potions. If I were to swallow a spoonful of Astral-Tier syrrup I might well explode.

Still, it's the thought that counts, and I'll find some use for it, I'm sure.

To round things out, I draw my attention to the preserved sword hilt. I don't feel like it's going to go over well if I just take it now without mentioning it to Rea-Horolt Tern, and I can't think of any use for it right now even if I did. Best to come back for it when I think of something - it's far safer here than with me anyway.

I leave the matter of stat point allocation to one side for now, opening the door. Best to save them for after I complete the Legacy Trial.

IdleFancy

Part One of Rise of the Adventurers nearing completion. I don't want to put a promise on how many chapters are left before Patch Day (The start of Part Two) though, because I always end up writing more than I mean to getting to milestones.

Thanks for reading.