Nar flew.

He sliced through low hanging branches and fronds, splitting through glimmering raindrops as he cut the very air before him, aimed at the glowing green and blue plumage that sought to attack him… The real him, who stood motionless, sword in hand, nearly 40-feet below the flying edge of aura and….

The domain twisted around him, up became down, north became south, and Nar stumbled sideways. Above him, his [Aura Blade] exploded short of its target, lighting up the jungle with the fury of his released aura, but the damned rycali darted away from him, flying to safety and waiting for its opportunity to dive at Nar again.

"Ugh," Nar grunted, passing a hand over his face as he regained his balance.

It had been a full week since he had begun training in order to improve his [Aura Blade], closing the deficiencies that he had encountered and furthering his control of the skill in order to kick up to the next stage of capability. If he succeeded, he would be able to use his [Aura Blade] in the tight confines of the jungle and likely would also be able to use a lot more when fighting in close proximity to the others.

However, a part of him also grasped for that illusive possibility that perhaps he could achieve even more than that… Full flight control, being able to send those edges of aura in whatever direction, twist, and turn that he needed too.

Well, first things first… Got to keep control of this damned thing!

Though, perhaps he was being a bit harsh on himself, and impatient. He had made significant strides towards condensing the size of the skill, resulting in a much thicker and brighter [Aura Blade] as well.

"There are two of you?" Cen had asked, when Nar had sat down to seek help from her much better mind about his hypothesis. "Wait… What?"

He had done his best to explain it to the befuddled caster during one of their breaks while out in the jungle, but even now, days later, he wasn't sure if had done a good job at it.

The way he understood it and his master's teachings, in order to control the [Aura Blade] the way he wanted, he needed a "will", an intent, to be imparted into the blade. The [Aura Blade Control] skill handled a lot of that for him, but that was only after the blade of aura left his sword, and it didn't allow him any control over its size nor direction. Therefore, what he needed in order to achieve it, was to take control of the skill itself before the System handed him the reins to it…

"I'm hoping that will lead to a skill upgrade, but in the meantime, I'm… Kinda struggling," he'd said, shrugging hopelessly.

"I see…" Cen said, her eyebrows reaching for her bald head. "Hmm…"

Her neon yellow eyes had looked pensive, her dark gray bald head glistening from the pouring rain that had, that day, thankfully been intermittent.

"I-I don't know how if I can help you there, Nar," the short caster eventually said, her tone pained. "The more I think about this, the more I think that what you need are Mind attributes…"

"[Shaping] and [Creativity]?" Nar asked, wincing.

"Yes… But those aren't very common in melee classes, are they?" Cen mused, holding onto her tiny chin.

"No… Not usually I suppose? I guess there will be cases, of course. There has to be, with so many different paths and affinities out there, but I haven't heard of anything, and I feel like my master would've brought it up already if I needed those attributes," Nar said.

"True. But the way you're describing it, it's almost as though you want your [Aura Blade] to behave like a living thing…" Cen said. "Going a bit further, you probably want it to be able to shrink and expand mid-flight as needed, to dart around obstacles and even to chase after fleeing or dodging enemies?"

"Ideally, yes," Nar said, grinning despite himself. "That would be great, wouldn't it?"

"It would be phenomenal!" the caster said, her neon eyes sparkling. "But…"

Thunder rumbled overhead, in the distant sky hidden by the dark, impenetrable canopy that covered their heads, and within seconds, it was pouring again, and they huddled closer together to escape the rain. Meanwhile, the poor harvesters had no such choice, and were forced to continue cutting away at the carcasses of the reptilian, long finned beasts they had just downed.

"You have no Mind attributes other than [NPC], and no indication that you ever will, so let's set that aside then," she mused again, watching as Mul pulled out a brownish-yellow aether reservoir from one of the beasts, and inspected it. "Hmm, your [NPC] is quite high, and trending upwards, so that will definitely help you, but what you describe seems to go much beyond processing information faster… Plus senses, so you can guide the blade of aura, and you do have those… Ugh."

She turned her yellow neon pupils to him, regret oozing from them.

"I'm sorry… The Master of Aura or Blades is what you need," she mumbled. "Though I'm guessing they want you to figure it out yourself since they haven't told you anything.

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"Why are you sorry!" Nar said, bumping her with his side. "I'm just picking your great brain for ideas! And yeah… I think this one's on me. Or you, if you can figure it out for me!"

"Great brain my ass… I haven't even figured out my own defensive skill yet!" she muttered. "But Mind attributes and will or intent. They seem like such different ways to go about potentially the same end result. Wait… Will and intent?"

She looked back up at him, frowning. "This is a long shot, but… Have you been making gains in [Ego] lately? I haven't been checking your stats."

"I have, actually," Nar said, frowning. They had continued to fight and level up in the jungle, and he was now sitting at a much more comfortable level 43. "Quite a lot, actually, given that no one is bombarding us with mental attacks… I've gained 6 points since coming in here, and the gains started right after that boar fight."

"Which was when you started trying this new way of controlling your [Aura Blade]?" Cen asked, frowning even further. "Could that be it?"

"My [Ego]?" Nar asked, mirroring her deep frown, though in his case, in confusion.

Just in case he was missing something, he looked up the attribute.

Ego: When one understands oneself, they will never be led astray. Each point in [Ego] equates to a 3% reduction in soul, psychic and mental damage/debuffs, as well as a 2% reduction in effectiveness of attempts at being controlled.

Attribute Modifier Bonus: None.

"It only talks about not being controlled…" he said. "Nothing in there about better controlling skills? [Shaping] is the one for that, no?"

"Yes, but that part about understanding oneself… I wonder. I just… I just feel like if you truly are splitting yourself into two, wouldn't that require a massive amount of willpower and degree of control over yourself? And your second you?" Cen posited. "I mean… The first thing that came to mind was that you were trying to drive yourself crazy, but if [Ego] works in this situation, keeping you you, then maybe…"

She shook her head, and reached a hand to the rain falling just beyond their feet. "I mean, it's a big leap, and nothing in the skill description mentions it, but I feel like it could make sense. Somehow."

Hmm, Nar thought, watching as her stare turned glassy as she eyed the rain, lost in her thoughts. She does have a good chunk of Mind attribute points by now… And with [Logic] and [Intuition], maybe she's on the right track, and seeing something I'm not.

He frowned, and folded his arms. Hold on… When I first used [Aura Blade] and cut up the master's room, that was when Aedina got in my head… And when I gained that big chunk of [Ego]... No. That can't be right…

But what if it was? What if the whole thing had been orchestrated in order to earn him that extra [Ego] necessary to learn [Aura Blade]?

That's crazy! That was mental torture! Why would they…

The words to his master surfaced from the backdrop of his mind. A stormy night. An angry apprentice. A remorseful master…

"No. I am a teacher, so it was for you, Nar. It was all for you," the golden man had said. "It was all for the boy that stepped out of those Gates with the shadow of a Named Few stretching far behind him!"

No…

He had learned his [Aura Blade] early… Very, very early, compared to when other apprentices historically had managed it. Had his already greater than normal [Ego] been the reason for that? And why they had concocted that scheme in order to further boost it?

Was all of that just so that I could gain [Aura Blade] in that dungeon? So that I can use it this early?

He didn't want to believe it, but now that Cen had opened that door, it was increasingly impossible to look away and ignore how all the pieces were neatly falling into place and the picture they revealed. Had he been tricked?

"Nar?" Cen called him. "Are you okay?"

"Uh? Oh, yeah… Yeah," he said, pushing a smile to his lips. "I think you might be right, Cen. Though I need to try it out."

She nodded energetically. "If your control gets better and better the more [Ego] you gain, then we'll know for sure! But… Are you sure this isn't dangerous? I mean, splitting your mind sounds… Bad."

"I think it's alright," he said patting her shoulder. "Don't worry."

"We're done here!" Row called. "Let's move out!"

Nar had remained where he was for a moment, staring out as the others assembled.

After all, if the master chose to teach me this skill, and he didn't correct me, then this is most likely the way forward, he thought. And torture, uh?

There was somebody else on that ship who had employed torture in order to train him, wasn't there? And although Tys' grim work already showed plenty of results and further, immense promise, he wondered if perhaps the Master of Blades had not been the only one to see the promise he had carried out of those Gates, and perhaps from the very moment they had met…

His [Instinct] cried out in warning, dragging him back to the present, and his arm lashed out almost of its own accord, the blade slicing through the weak glimmering green and blue wing and downing the rycali in a spray of blood and fluttering feathers. And with a quick leap forward, Nar brained the common, weak beast, and it was no more, its brilliant plumage turning dim.

Even days after that conversation with Cen, he still found himself revisiting it again and again, considering, debating, and wondering what was really going on behind his back, in order to achieve the best possible results for his path, and for Tsurmirel's investments and future plans.

Frowning deeply, his core bubbling with something unkind and potentially disrespectful, he scanned the isolated spot of jungle where he fought in, away from the others so that he could practice in peace, but found that the threat was over. All of the rycali birds lay dead around him, and from the sounds of easy chatter coming from his right, he figured that everybody else had finished their fight as well.

DING! Came the confirmation that the flight of glowing beasts was defeated.

It would've probably saddened him to see such a loss of beauty, as the vibrant, soft feathers of the rycali lost their colors as their aether dissipated, were it not for the fact that the rycali flight had come out of their way to attack them. Plus, they were voracious little flesheaters, and their serrated beaks filled with misshapen teeth were the stuff of nightmares.

What will you do, Nar? He wondered to himself, eyeing as the latest of his kills lost its glow at his feet.

What could he do? Against masters, an Ascendant One, a priest from a powerful order, and a guild of billions?

Nothing. At least not for now.

The best he could for the moment was to get the most out of that domain and emerge from the Brightnight a much stronger delver than the one that had entered it. Plus, he still had months ahead of him in that sweltering, stifling jungle… And that gave him time to think. And once he had thought things through, calmly, and properly, he would bring his concerns to Kur, to seek his opinion, and potentially that of the others as well. For now, all he had to do was grow stronger. And that was exactly what he was going to do.

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