Alice found Cecilia first. Checking up on her friend came before a potentially long, in-depth discussion of her Perks and future choices. Alice wanted to make sure that Cecilia was all right.

When she entered Cecilia’s cabin, Alice had honestly expected that Cecilia would look rattled, afraid, or concerned. Instead, the girl seemed… surprisingly fine. Alice couldn’t help but remember just how rattled she had been during her first fight during Illa’s expedition to the broken mana zone, and how she had felt physically ill afterwards.

Alice was surprised by how much less affected Cecilia seemed.

“Cecilia?” asked Alice.

Cecilia took in Alice’s appearance, before she smiled at her.

“Alice! Come in!” said Cecilia, as she strode over to Alice and gave Alice a very brief hug, before closing the door.

“Sorry I didn’t come earlier – I was busy handling some of my level notifications, and I also had a bit of post-battle collapsing into my bed and sleeping to do,” said Alice ruefully. “After making sure you weren’t bleeding out, I needed to sleep.”

Cecilia chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. I absolutely get it. After the battle, I think I slept for a solid twelve hours before waking up. And one of the Perks I took from [Merchant] reduces my need for sleep. I’m surprised that I slept for so long despite all that.” Cecilia looked pensive for a moment.

Alice nodded, and absently checked Cecilia’s Class seeds. She noticed a fair amount of mana stuck to Cecilia’s various class seeds, much like they had been for Alice. Cecilia’s [Enchanter] Class seed had no clogging issues, likely due to the fact that she was wearing one of the enchanted rings that Alice and Cecilia’s [Enchanters] had made. [Enchanter] looked like it had even levelled up once or twice during the fight – but the rest of her class seeds were, predictably, not levelling up very well without the System’s mana filtration. Cecilia also had a few new types of mana involved – including, problematically, a few that Cecilia didn’t have proper Class seeds for.

If Alice wasn’t mistaken, Cecilia had probably picked up about 4 levels worth of some sort of [Warmage] equivalent Class – and didn’t have any Class seeds similar enough for her to filter the mana into. [Kinetic Mage] was almost close enough for Alice to convert the [Warmage] mana into, but it seemed just far enough away that Alice couldn’t convert it. And Cecilia had no other similar seeds for Alice to use to remove the [Warmage] mana. Alice frowned.

That was… not good. Alice desperately needed to figure out a way to replace the remaining System functions that weren’t working, as soon as possible. Alice wasn’t sure how she could do that – there were still so many System functions that were broken, such as Achievements only granting partial benefits, and new Class Seeds not being formed.

But ultimately, all of those problems needed to be resolved if Alice couldn’t figure out how to just restore the System. Alice sighed, and decided not to think about it for now. Cecilia should be able to fend off the mental corrosion from four levels of [Warmage] without too much difficulty. She just needed to make sure she could get rid of the problem before it grew.

Of course, Alice could handle the rest of Cecilia’s unfiltered class mana.

“Hold still for a sec,” said Alice. “Let me help filter your Class mana.” Cecilia nodded and sat very still on her bed, while Alice got to work. Then she made a mental note to do that for the rest of the [Guards] and [Enchanters] on the boat, once she finished consulting with Ethan. The men on the boat had put their lives in danger to keep Alice safe.  The least she could do was help solve their class-mana related issues. Alice’s new combined Class seed let her generate a lot more filtration mana when she needed it, and right now, she definitely felt like she needed a lot of it.

Alice finished filtering Cecilia’s Class seeds with a sigh, before double checking that there wasn’t any mana left over. She nodded to herself, satisfied with her work.

“Thanks. I got a couple more levels,” said Cecilia. “Even if I can’t quite see the Class seeds, I appreciate you helping out.”

“Don’t sweat it. That’s not why I came here, but I’m happy to extend a little help to you when I can,” said Alice, before checking Cecilia’s expression again.

This time, Alice picked up a few signs that she had missed the first time. There were subtle hints of tension in her hands, where she had probably balled her hands into fists sometime during the night as she slept, and there was an uneasiness in Cecilia’s eyes that Alice hadn’t originally noticed.

Now that Alice thought about it, there was also a much more obvious sign that Cecilia had been rattled. Cecilia had hugged Alice.

Alice didn’t really like hugs very much. She occasionally hugged her friends and family, but it wasn’t something she did often. Perhaps once every few weeks, or when someone she cared about was having a particularly bad day, she would give them a hug, but it wasn’t something Alice really enjoyed. Cecilia seemed to have picked up on this long ago, and never really took the initiative to hug Alice. But the first thing Cecilia had done when Alice walked into her room was give her a hug and then shut the door.

Alice was glad that she had decided to check up on Cecilia’s emotional wellbeing. She had originally been surprised that Cecilia seemed so normal, but perhaps Cecilia was just better at hiding her emotional state than Alice was.

“Are you all right?” asked Alice. She wasn’t what most people would consider in tune with her emotions, but she could still do her best to be a good friend when the people she cared about needed her.

“I’m…” Cecilia shuddered for a few moments, and sucked in a deeper breath. “I’m fine. Mostly. But last night, there was so much chaos, and one of the [Enchanters] I was training died. He was… I mean…” Cecilia took another shaky breath.

Alice awkwardly hugged her friend, giving her best attempt at a comforting shoulder pat.

Cecilia finally crumbled, and started softly crying into Alice’s shoulder for a moment.

“I just… I can’t believe he died. He was right in front of me one moment, and the next moment, he was just, and just like… he’s gone again, and I just…” Cecilia started becoming considerably less coherent as her façade of normalcy collapsed. Alice did her best to calm Cecilia down, until a few minutes later, Cecilia got her breathing and words back under control.

“It just… reminds me of a lot.” Cecilia sighed. “System, I’m a mess now. My father died less than a year ago because of the actions of the Sigmusi, and now, after one of the [Enchanters] I was training died, it all just came rushing back. I guess the Society helped this time, but…” Cecilia’s face oscillated between depression and hatred, back and forth for several seconds, before she sighed.

“I’m really all right now, Alice. Thanks for checking up on me and being here. I think I just needed someone to be here with me for a bit.”

Alice nodded. “I felt it was best to check on you before consulting with Ethan. I wanted advice on my perk choices.”

Cecilia did her best to grin, although her smile still looked a little strained. “So, Perk advice, huh? You usually just pick your Perks on your own. Are you planning on investing a little more into combat, and want to ask Ethan for his evaluation?” Then Cecilia’s grin grew a little less strained as she gave Alice a real smile. “Wait, did you get your first post-75 Perk? I knew you hit level 75 a while ago, so it would be about the right time…”

“Am I that easy to figure out?” asked Alice, feeling a bit baffled. “Yes, I’m getting my first post level 75 Perk. I intend to make it a proper combat Perk, considering what happened last night. But since it’s from my main class, and my main class isn’t really super combat oriented, I’m having a bit of a hard time figuring out exactly what I should do with it. I figure I should start by asking Ethan what I’m actually missing as a combatant, and then I’ll try to design a Perk that fills that weakness.” Alice shrugged. “It seems like a good way to pick my next Perk. I can cover up my lack of combat proficiency with more Perks, but I still don’t really have the innate instinct a properly talented fighter with years of experience has. I’m definitely not as good at sniffing out my weaknesses and fixing them up as a real combat-oriented Mage. Since one of the reasons Ethan took me in as an apprentice was so that I can ask for advice…”

Cecilia looked thoughtfully at Alice. “Hmm… I mean, I can understand the justification for wanting another combat Perk. Last night was scary. But I don’t know if investing into another combat Perk is the answer – well, when you talk to Ethan, I guess he’ll give you his opinion. You should probably take his advice over mine. Good luck!”

Alice nodded, and left Cecilia’s room to find Ethan.

Ethan immediately let Alice in once she knocked, and Alice checked Ethan’s expression as well. Unlike Cecilia, the man didn’t seem that bothered by the attack – as far as Alice could tell, being attacked by dangerous assailants was probably just another day for Ethan. However, while Ethan didn’t seem bothered, he did seem rather tired, so Alice decided to get to the point as quickly as possible.

“Ethan, I wanted some advice on Perks,” said Alice.

“Oh? Are you getting your first post-level-75 Perk?” asked Ethan. “At least you at least got a few benefits out of the mess last night.”

Alice resisted the urge to flinch as yet another person accurately guessed that she had gained her first post-75 Perk last night.

“Well… yes,” said Alice.

“Are you sure asking me about your Perks is a good idea? Frankly, there’s a reason that you managed to get this far in your research despite being lower level than me. I hate to say it, but at least when it comes to magical research you seem to know more about it than I do. Consulting me might make the results worse.”

“I wanted to ask about a combat Perk, not a research-oriented Perk,” said Alice.

“Really? I thought your main class was some sort of research class?” Ethan said, sounding increasingly confused.

“It is,” said Alice. “But the attack last night made me very nervous. If another attack happens, it could be very dangerous…”

Ethan looked at Alice’s expression, before he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“I can see why it was scary, and I can also see where you’re coming from. But are you sure this is the right way to address it? The collapse of the System is still underway, and if you spend too much of your efforts and Perks on keeping yourself safe, you might not be able to prevent any hidden dangers from the collapse of the System. I don’t want to sound selfish and try to convince you to prioritize other people over yourself – you don’t have a responsibility to them, if you don’t want one. But the aftereffects of the System’s collapse could have plenty of hidden dangers that might hurt you as well…”

Alice paused. Ethan actually made a good point. After the fight last night, after seeing Ethan behead himself because he had no better way to fight off the poison enchantment in the woman’s daggers, Alice was scared. She was reacting to the idea that she might end up in another fight for her life soon, and that she needed to prepare for it or she would suffer the consequences. But was that actually the best way to plan her build?

Both from the perspective of her own, personal desires, and for the sake of the people who were harmed by the collapse of the System, Alice needed to figure out how to handle the collapse of the System. Nobody else was really positioned to learn how to fix the System besides her. And her [Explorer of Magic] Class was the class most likely to provide her with the tools to figure out this mess.

Was it really a good idea to get a combat Perk over a research or magic-seed oriented Perk?

As if seeing Alice’s hesitation, Ethan continued speaking.

“I think that your build should ultimately be decided by you – but you should think carefully about whether you want to invest your Perk into improving your combat ability, or improving your research ability. On my end, I’m going to see if one of the other Immortals is willing to help keep you safe – if the Society is sending actual Immortals after you, possibly in tandem with help from the Sigmusi Colonia, then I might not be able to keep you safe on my own. Last night was almost a disaster, and I intend to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Ethan grimaced. “We’ll see what comes of that, though. My father and my mother are probably still stuck in the northern forts keeping the [Nomads] away, but I might be able to convince one of them to come back on a more permanent basis. Doll is worthless in a fight, although she’s very good at making golems and traps, so maybe I can commission something from her. And you already know Allira – I’m not actually sure what she’s up to right now. As for Illvaria’s sixth Immortal, he’s usually not present in the country. But no matter what, I intend to make sure that the protection around you is far superior to what it was last night. And the difference one Perk will make in future fights against Immortals is probably limited, but the amount of difference a research oriented Perk could make towards solving the collapse of the System could be considerably higher.” Ethan shrugged. “But again, you should also pick the Perks you want to. It’s your build and your life.”

Alice thought about Ethan’s advice, and then nodded.  She still wanted Ethan’s assessment of what she was missing as a combatant, but Ethan also made a good point. Dealing with the collapse of the System was still her first priority, and Alice just needed to trust that doubling her number of magic tendrils from her previous Perk choices, and Ethan’s attempts to keep her safe, would work out. Being protected in fights that would decide her life and death sucked, but watching the rest of the world die as the aftereffects of the System’s collapse progressed would suck even more.

Besides, the faster she solved System-collapse related problems, the faster she would level up. And that, in turn, would improve Alice’s self-defense abilities, as long as she tossed a few more Perks into her combat strength later down the road.

Alice still wanted advice on what she could improve on, so she asked Ethan to give her a few less Perk-oriented tips. Ethan went through a few finer details of the way Alice had fought the previous night, discussing various problems that Alice had during the fight – the way that Alice had tried to essentially short-circuit Emilia’s Perks using mana had barely worked because she had misjudged how much mana it would take to shut down an Immortal’s Perks, for example. While it had bought Ethan a bit of time to really hammer her with attacks, Alice had also been taken off guard by how quickly Emilia had shrugged it off, which Ethan noted was due to Alice’s lack of experience using her Perks in real combat.

A lot of Alice’s issues came down to lack of practice, which wasn’t really something she could fix overnight, but Ethan still gave her some advise on what she could work on in the future. After the conversation, she returned to her own cabin and started sorting through her Perks.

The first thing Alice noticed was that the interface for Tier 2 Perk combinations was overwhelming. There were far, far more options than there had been for Tier 1 Perk combinations.

Now that Alice was past level 75, she could combine Perks from outside of [Explorer of Magic] with her [Explorer of Magic] Perks, and so the number of potential outcomes was, honestly, dizzying.

Furthermore, the collapse of the System seemed to have completely short-circuited the ability for the System to predict the results of combining two Tier-2 Perks from different classes. Alice was pretty used to the System at least giving her a few hints about what a combination would do, but while the System had been able to help with those predictions between level 55 and 75, the limited version of the System Alice was using now just didn’t seem to have the ability to predict things past this point. In other words, Alice was going off of her intuition and the months she had spent studying how the System worked.

After sorting through several different lists and thinking about how Perks would probably interact with each other, Alice came up with three different Perk combinations.

{Adrenaline Rush} and {Combat Seed} would probably make for a potent combination of Perks if Alice decided to try to make a combat Perk after all. Alice distinctly remembered how useless she had felt in the fight once {Adrenaline Rush} had ended yesterday, and Ethan had noted that making {Adrenaline Rush} a Perk she could activate more often would help Alice a lot in higher level combat. In fights between Immortals, one side would usually win if they outsped the other by a significant enough Margin – which was why [Dexterity] was one of the stats Immortals tended to emphasize training, especially if they were worried about assassination attempts or if they got into lots of fights. Improving {Adrenaline Rush} would allow Alice to handle this. She wasn’t quite sure what {Combat Seed} would do for the Perk combination… but it was the only Perk Alice thought would reasonably combine with {Adrenaline Rush} and still give her something combat-related. Perhaps it would help Alice shut down other people’s magic use or perk use while {Adrenaline Rush} was in effect?

On the other hand, Alice was more drawn to a few combinations of Perks that were research-focused.

Specifically, the first thing that Alice thought of was combining something with {Seeds of Ambition}. Right now, Alice was severely held back by the limited number of magic seeds she had access to. She still hadn’t been able to build a Math or meaning magic seed. To get everything integrated into a magic seed and get more magic seeds, Alice obviously needed to feed {Seeds of Ambition} another sacrificial Perk. This was probably one of Alice’s most immediate ways to address problems induced by the collapse of the System – and more than that, if Alice combined her kinetic seed with a different magic seed, it might also boost her combat strength a little bit.

Finally, Alice could combine something with {Expanding Comprehension}, to boost her actual understanding of the System and its mana. She wasn’t quite sure what it would do for her immediately, but the Perk could very well give her some crucial insight that would speed up her attempts to resolve the situation or otherwise fix everything. It was a bit more of a gamble, because Alice wasn’t sure if {Expanding Comprehension} could give her any more useful insight on the situation, and she also wasn’t sure if combining it with another Perk would somehow break everything – but it could potentially provide her with a way to fix things far more effectively and easily. It would probably combine with {Intuitive Magic Modelling} pretty well.

So Alice had three major paths forward, in her opinion. The pure research route of combining {Expanding Comprehension} and {Intuitive Mana Modelling}, which would give her the most information, but provide the least actual solutions to her current problems. The accelerated System seed route, which involved combining {Seeds of Ambition} with {Science’s Mana} or a different Perk, in order to boost her magic seed production rate. Alice also thought that combining her new System-enchanting Perk with the Perk that she hoped would eventually create a System magic seed would create something amazing. And finally, if Alice wanted to focus purely on combat potential, She could slam {Adrenaline Rush} and {Combat Seed} together and hope for the best.

Those were her best options, at least in her mind.

Alice spent several minutes thinking over her options, before she first discarded the combat route. Ethan’s reasoning made sense to Alice, and Alice also knew that she wasn’t really that good at combat compared to other people her level. She could bully people who were lower level than her in a fight, but at the end of the day, Alice’s ability to contribute to a higher level fight was limited. Even if she sank this incredibly valuable Perk opportunity into improving her combat ability, that wouldn’t change the fact that she was unprepared for higher level combat. Alice would eventually need to focus on her combat abilities, to close the gap between her and experienced Immortals – but that would take a lot of time, and the collapse of the System just didn’t give her the time to slowly develop right now. For the foreseeable future, Alice was going to be reliant on Ethan and Illvaria’s Immortals if she wanted to stay alive and unhurt. No action she could take would change that right now. It hurt her to admit that, because it was a deeply unsettling idea – but Alice finally put aside the idea of buffing her combat abilities even further.

This meant it was between creating more magic seeds, to try to create a System seed faster and combining her {Expanding Comprehension} and {Intuitive Mana Modelling} Perks to hope it sped up her research more. And that really gave Alice pause, because a huge part of her was screaming to take the research Perk. Alice was pretty sure that whichever combination she didn’t take would be the next pick for her – but which order she did it in mattered a lot. It could be the difference between solving the System crisis after everyone in Illvaria died, or solving the crisis just in time.

If she improved {Expanding Comprehension}, perhaps it would help her locate the physical location of the System – at least, that was an idea. Or it might help Alice understand the way the System was constructed better.

But if she didn’t have the magic seeds to take advantage of that understanding, everyone suffering after the collapse of the System would still be screwed. Alice couldn’t rely on understanding alone – she needed to synthesize several magic seeds and create enchantments based on those seeds to solve the current crisis. All of the understanding in the world wouldn’t help her if she didn’t have a way to turn that understanding into solutions. And most of the System magic seeds just weren’t picked by other people – they were esoteric and largely useless on their own. If Alice wanted to create a System seed and start creating real solutions to this crisis, getting magic seeds faster would probably be vital – and she needed to get that process started as soon as possible.

And so, with a sigh, Alice put aside the research route she had dreamed up, and resolved to take it at level 85 if she didn’t have a better plan by then. And instead, she combined {Seeds of Ambition} and {Science’s Mana}.

Mana started to swirl around her, far more than Alice had been anticipating, and the mana in Alice’s body started to go wild.