The truth of the matter, at least as far as Jason can tell, every path can lead to the highest levels of power. The trick of it is to not limit yourself. Someone who focuses just on fire and heat will end up being limited as they are neglecting the other side of the temperature scale. On the other hand, a person who has focused entirely on chess and is able to see the world as a game can move others like a god on high.

Jason’s arrangement of powers has a truth hidden in them that he can feel. While [Civilization], [Ascendance], and [Substance] are each elements on their own, he can see them connecting. A stagnant civilization will fall so must ever be reaching upward while at the same time needs to be grounded in their past and present. The path to ascend is easiest with a community to support you and to go any distance needs a proper foundation in reality. One’s substance can only shine forth when compared to others around you and will quickly fall apart if you don’t have a goal.

But within those truths are darker revelations to be had as well and Jason does shy away from them either. To uphold civilization, even in the face of people being raised up unfairly and the corruption. To drag yourself to the top by using your community and building a foundation based upon arrogance. Having a foundation so set in its way that you hold back others around you to keep your world level.

Beyond that, Jason sees the face of some of the elements he has rejected. Those that mirror his current three. That of the wilds, falling, and the aethereal. These are not the corruptive elements that he took care of first. Rather, they are just views, not even necessarily opposite but generally in opposition.

The wilds push back against civilization for space and the two represent the ever-present struggle of nature. Those who fall might be seen as evil and like darkness does tend to gather less than stellar characters. Still, digging deeper can gain just as much power as rising up and sometimes you need both. Plains aren’t built of clouds, but rather the metals from beneath. Finally, aethereal would honestly be a better pair for ascendance if not for his connection to civilization. Seemingly as separate from the more material earth below as possible. In reality they both make up the earth as a whole and through the combination of the two, life is possible.

Stretching before Jason is an expanding realm of possibilities. If he was willing to take in, only one of those concepts would radically change his future. In fact, taking in all three would bring much greater power. A world realized with the earth below and sky above. Civilization rises up out of the wilds and spreads before time passes and it falls once again to be reclaimed. A cycle that some would view as perfect.

Also a vicious trap. Looking at substance and the aethereal, you might think they would be all you need to form the world itself. But if you think of them as solids and gasses you realize what is missing. Where is the liquid? What world could actually live without water? And plasma, a sky with the sun or stars, a world without fire. Truly a dead place.

Once you think about it deeper, the idea that you can build a world by only adding three more elements is worse than a joke. Hubris of the highest degree and he had seen it play out many times before. Both in story and when watching from between. But the realization itself is an important step. Noticing what you lack and then realizing even after filling in all the holes there would still be something missing.

While Jason would like to believe he won’t get caught by the classic tropes that litter the path behind hubris. But the only true way to make sure you stay away from the traps is to know they are there in the first place. Sure, luck can guide you through a minefield, but Jason does not want to tempt fate like that.

His cultivation base will be the protection of the common so that the extraordinary can be found and raised up. Maybe in the future he will be able to hold the common within himself as a world onto itself, but for now what he has will do. The path to power is an endless affair. Trying to rush it when time isn’t pressing would be foolish.

Then Jason’s alarm goes off. He had set it to alert him when there was half an hour left. His pondering had taken up more time than he could afford. Of course he also couldn’t afford not to so he can only shake his head and continue. Luckily he isn’t quite needed in the game at the moment because things have advanced too far to stop.

Once again he focuses on his dantian and the three elements that are spinning there. With the pattern in mind, he starts to work. The outer layer, that of civilization, he compresses into a shell for the rest. Thinner and thinner until it becomes as if there is no divide between what is inside and the hostile outside. A bubble around the rest and yet more solid than a brick.

With proper protection from civilization, Jason turns toward the next layer. Here he spreads it throughout the entire inside of the shell. Like hard soil, he tills it into a rich loam from which his future can grow. Both the good and the bad mixed to produce a fertile soil into which he plants a seed.

The seed of ascendance. The last element is taken by Jason and compressed into a single small dot of potential. A seed that will grow into his future, planted in the center of a rich field protected by the walls of civilization.

All around Jason the wild powers still. Then a small shock wave emanates out from him. Like a ripple in a pond, it spreads out, seemingly innocuous. It hits the edge of the area kept free of the corrupting powers that formed when he first pushed them out.

Akhier

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