The world was a little brighter when I opened my eyes. Darkness still reigned over the land, but my gaze easily pierced through the rippling ward to find the devourers.

I was sure these lesser demons did not possess the same intricate inner weave as us, but what they had was a dense core filled with black, tar-like essence flowing through their dingy innards and veins . It flowed through their unholy blood, providing inhumane brute strength and unrelenting endurance.

More surprising was the position of the dark core. For most devourers, it was at the centre of their chest, akin to a high-functioning heart, whereas the corpse flies had them in their grotesque heads.

Turning my attention, I eyed the columns and the formation embedded within them, finding I could glimpse their structure almost as clearly as the person who had engraved them in the sacrarium. Surprisingly, it did not seem perfect to my gaze.

Fractal Sight's utility seemed to have grown further. Although I still could not quite perceive with my influence like higher-class shapers, my vision was nothing less than that of those extinct aerial predators.

My other senses were enhanced as well. Honestly, I could go with a dull sense of smell right now. The barrier was barely preventing the repulsive stench of the horrid abominations. Thankfully, I knew a trick to control certain senses.

[Auric Enhancement complete.] [You have gained the attribute: Enhanced Aura (Advanced): +46.] [A new way is available: Aura Sense I (1/100)]

I frowned. Should have guessed that the world had not brightened, but it's my newly awakened aura acting up.

While the Enhanced Aura was by no means meagre, there were more benefits that came with advancing to noble class. My perception turned inwards to my primal seed. Outwardly, its appearance was only more concentrated than before, brimming with green luminance, but inwardly, the convoluted complexity of weaves was something beyond my grasp. It was the weave of the new gift I had gotten myself. Even in its infancy, the complexity was incomparable to an elementary weave.

Well, I knew it would be like that. The surprising part was the essence concentration, which did not seem to have risen by a lot; even the essence revolution was far tamer. But once I pulled my will, it all seemed to come to life, the essence gushing out in a flood. Seriously, the amount of essence I could exert was easily a few times over the peak of Common Class. What used to take my full concentration was now barely child's play.

Then there was the superior Aether root. The aether I could pull was not merely nine times that of a single lesser aether root, but a lot more. Needless to say, I could now sustain my flight using my own essence for a longer time, although it would not be any faster than with the levitation boots.

Startlingly, a smaller Aether root bud grew flanked by the prime Aether root, its radience far more gentle. The stimulus my honour provided was not enough for it to bloom competently. Focusing my Will, I detected it still required a couple of weeks of nurturing to produce essence threads.

Still, it delighted me no end to learn I could gain as many essence threads as I currently held in about a couple of weeks. I was not starting Noble class from square one. All the work I had put in over the seasons was finally paying dividends.

Leaving it behind, I turned my gaze towards my palm. The wheel mark in it had grown more vivid. I did not invest any time in studying its intricacy to pull out all the important information from my profile.

==============

[Profile]

Arilyn Arcis O'Ryon

Path: Shaper (Common)

Wayfarer (Noble) Honours: Prime Seed (Prestigious), Journeyman Artisan (Prestigious), Nascent Demon Hunter (Noble)

Aspects:

Influence: +2 (+40%)

Weight: +4 (+40%)

Will: +5 (+70%)

Attributes [8/9]: (Unallocated Points: 178) [+30%]

Arcane (Greater): +202

Adaptive Physicality (Greater): +1

Split Focus (Advanced): +84

Fortitude (Advanced): +74

HyperCognition (Advanced): +58

Uncommon Reflexes (Advanced): +99

Enhanced Aura (Advanced): +46

Agility (Elementary): +54

Gift:

Fractal Soul

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[Fractal Sight]

[Rune Imprint]

=================

Advancing to the ninth step allowed me to shape my class exactly the way I wanted. Of course, there were some stipulations—I could not evolve everything I wished—but that was merely a limitation of my soul and body. What I had received from the grand Apparatus of Paths opened a new way for my future path.

If I had wished, I could have advanced my mental attributes rather than the physical ones, and even gained new ones to help with spells. That would have been far easier to accomplish.

My mental acuity was not bottlenecking my arcane capacity yet. The only thing limiting me was this flimsy physical body.

Although it had not changed drastically, it would in due time with the new greater attribute.

Adaptive physicality was almost impossible to gain through any kind of practice. Among my friends and the people I knew, I believe only someone like Diana could ever acquire it on account of having both enhancement and enchantment types of essence. Of course, hers would work effectively differently from mine based on the type of essence.

Adaptive physicality, as the name suggested, adapted the body to the training we put it through. Such as if I began great weight training and put my body through grievous beating, my body would evolve towards a more muscular build with high endurance and lifting capacity, whereas if I were to focus my attention only on arcane shaping, my body would become a great conduit for essence.

My purpose for this attribute fell more towards the middle, which was the base requirement for Rune Imprint.

There were a few directions I could take for my gift transfiguration. Even something like Mum's Construct was among them, but with a lower capacity. Although it would have evolved and perhaps even gone beyond her gift when I advanced to Fabled Class, I deemed Rune Imprint had more flexibility.

For all intended purposes, both gifts were quite similar and could achieve similar results at higher classes, but Mum's Construct was geared more towards the entirety of crafting, while mine concentrated on runes and the ability to imprint them on living things.

Focus on the living part. Despite nobody stopping anyone from painting their skin gold with runes, the benefit they would receive was meagre compared to my gift, on top of all the drawbacks.

Human flesh was not actually optimum for engraving runes. Far from it in the lower classes. Even the elementary ones could ruin anyone below fabled class in a few years, where the higher-grade runes could easily kill someone ill-fated.

Even with Rune Imprint, my body was ill-equipped to be engraved with even the elementary runes. The efficiency would be far greater, but so would the cost.

Hence, Adaptive Physicality. The greater attribute would solve that issue so long as I trained my gift appropriately. With a few points in it, I could engrave elementary Haste runes on my body as I wished with little to no duress for a certain amount of time.

There were also various other merits that I was not quite certain about. Supposedly, I could stack rune formations and even save them within my Prime seed for instantaneous casting. It would require drawing the runes with my essence threads directly within the seed, so basically spellforging with a little extra step.

As a side benefit, Rune Imprint had reduced the requisite conditions for spellforging. I could finally begin the practice.

My new gift transfiguration would require some practice to master, but my attributes brought instant benefits. They had merged into a more generic direction, albeit not quite common. Most shapers would have gone for greater elemental affinities, whereas I chose the generic arcane. But looking at the 202 points in it, I could not help but feel how much easier it would be for me to shape elements. I could spiritually feel it at the tip of my essence threads. With a thought, I could pull a fireball out of thin air.

I deliberated over which one to try first when a deafening roar pierced through my thoughts.

I jumped to my feet, eyes drawn towards it. My penetrative gaze pierced through the mass of demons to find the owner of the roar. An Ashhound standing over three metres tall surged towards the dome, working its three pairs of massive limbs

It was not only I who detected it; most of the awakened crowd quickly fell into battle formation, wielding their various weapons. The common people sequestered around had not seen the greater demon. But they had heard the scream and did not need much help imagining the unholy visage of the thing roaring.

The magistratus, Uncle Dalin, and a few others helped calm the people before they fell into unnecessary panic.

I flew over the broken arches to land near a column. Lucian stood not far away and jerked his head towards me.

"I thought you were—" he began, only to withdraw several steps when the harrowing monstrosity came sundering through the lesser demons to crash against the ward. Its claws raked into the barrier, creating ripples so wide and far-reaching that they made half the people jump to their feet with their hearts in their mouths.

Much to everyone's relief, neither its claws nor its fangs could penetrate the hallowed bubble. Of course, that did not stop it from trying. The morbid creature kept shrieking and crashed into the ward with its everything, its maw visible in the rippling golden light was enough to keep people awake at night.

Unnerved, I tore my eyes from it.

"Don't worry," Lucian said. "The barrier will hold." He pointed towards the column from where more golden essence was drawing out and stabilising the ripples. The quantity was so large that perhaps even common people could tell through the glaring radiance. "See that? The restoration runes here are beyond immaculate."

Indeed, the formation repaired itself before the Ashhound could wreak further havoc. The only way the demon could do anything to it was by burning all its essence. I did not see anything like that happening any time soon.

"I have seen something like this only in another place," Lucian said, eyes still drawn to the restoring barrier. "Though I believe most sacred places have a similar formation in place... The monster can assault it all night, and the ward will still hold."

Lucian said the last part louder so the people could hear him. A few cheers flowed amongst the mass, prompting the rest to join as well. But the cheer was short-lived as another roar boomed from the rear. No, not one—two resonating roars, coming from the same direction.

A pair of Ashhounds, as large as the one scraping its fangs against the barrier, bolted towards us. One of them seemed to be blind in one eye, as only one of its eyes glowed malevolently. Its counterpart led it to assault.

The monsters struck their massive forms against the dome, causing great unrest in both the land and the barrier. The eight columns shook slightly in the wake of the monstrocities.

They attacked in various directions before all converging to strike the same place, thinning the ward with each deliberate crash.

A few strings of runes running through the bubble sprang and ripped apart. The restoration, too, became a tad slower.

Lucien flinched back. The people were already surging in unrest; the few awakened could barely keep them calm. Unbidden, [Band of Protection] flared to envelop me in a cocoon of protection.

"May the goddess protect us all," Lucien prayed, resting his palm on his heart. And many joined him in silent prayers, their palms clasped on their chests, eyes shut tight, not wanting to see.

The goddess remained mysterious to the prayers, but Father's figure came like a bludgeoning force to strike a dark sword into the head of an Ashhound.

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