After trying desperately to save one of his only friends from being tortured, being extorted to work for the city's largest gang leader, and nearly being buried alive under a few metric tons of earth and rock, Asher quite enjoyed taking a break from everything and just hanging out with Brian and Samantha for a bit.

But it wasn't long before he started feeling that new itch he was still getting used to.

Ever since his first battle with the demon in the wizard tower he'd originally appeared in and escaped from, Asher had come to realize that he was something of an adrenaline junkie. Nothing made him feel quite as alive as fighting a life or death battle against an intelligent opponent, and while he loved spending time and just relaxing with Brian and Samantha, his fingers were practically twitching after spending an entire week without actually stabbing anything. He'd gotten to the point where even a quick battle against the mindless heavy boar monsters would be better than nothing. But before that, he had a few quick things he needed to take care of.

Leaning back against the wall of the cabin as he watched Brian practice with his bow, Asher pulled up his interface and took a look at everything he'd accomplished these past few weeks.

Name: Asher Holden

Class: Librarian

Unique classes available: Demon Slayer, Awakened Beast Hunter, Assassin, Librarian

Element: Spatial

Ability: Astral Dip - Lvl 20

Ability: Distortion - Lvl 20

Ability: Personal Rift - Lvl 16

Ability: Spatial Lock - Lvl 7

Ability: Recall - Lvl 3

Element: Knowledge

Ability: Identify - Lvl 17

Ability: Comprehend - Lvl 20

Ability: Incorporate - Lvl 15

Ability: Secret Seeker - Lvl 15

Ability: Judgement - Lvl 3

Element: Eternity

Ability: Eternal Regeneration - Lvl 20

Ability: Complete Resilience - Lvl 20

Ability: Eternal Mark - Lvl 13

Ability: Permanence - Lvl 8

Ability: Sever the Thread - Lvl 2

Resistance: Darkness - Tier 2

Shards: 388,291

Once again, Asher whistled as he took in the sheer number of shards he'd collected after finally finishing Loratta off in the basement of her own compound. He wasn't sure if it was just her untrusting nature, or the fact that she was practically impossible to kill because of her unique Slime element, but it seemed the gang leader had kept pretty much every shard she owned on her person.

Which meant Asher was now in possession of quite the fortune.

Putting aside his vast wealth for a moment, Asher scanned through his many skills. At this point, he'd actually managed to unlock all five of the skills attributed to each element, which meant he had finally completed the Stage of Discovery, and was now apparently working his way through the Stage of Honing.

He still didn't know what the hell any of that meant, but according to Moxy, the fact that he'd been able to fight as well as he could before unlocking all his skills had been remarkable.

Asher briefly thought about the hardened warrior that had taken him under her wing. Because Loratta gave her plenty of strong opponents to fight, Moxy had been the gang leader's right hand woman. But even she had seen the writing on the wall and decided to get out when Draken's coalition attacked Loratta's compound and the entire thing began coming down. Despite knowing she was a dangerous and deadly opponent, Asher couldn't help but hope that she'd made it out safely and that he'd see her again someday.

The fact that fighting against her and dancing on that razor thin wire of life and death was exhilarating had absolutely nothing to do with that hope.

Looking at his skills, Asher noted that a handful of them had finally reached the level 20 cap. He'd already discovered that once a skill hit level 20 it stopped growing. One had to offer up a whopping hundred thousand shards to whatever God controlled the magic of this world in order to evolve the skill to the next tier and keep leveling it.

Moxy had warned him not to evolve any of his skills prior to unlocking all of them, but Asher hadn't actually had the shards to worry about any of that anyway. Though now…

Asher glanced at his insane shard total, noting that he had enough to evolve three of his skills. He'd first offered to give Samantha some of his shards, but she had vehemently refused. Apparently, coming home in one piece and gifting her the exact element she'd wanted for years had been enough for her. Luckily, he only actually had five skills currently sitting at level 20, which meant he just had to decide which of them he wanted to evolve first.

Scratching his head, Asher focused on his options.

Astral Dip (active) - Lvl 20 - Temporarily slip into the Astral Realm.

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Distortion (active) - Lvl 20 - Bend the nearby fabric of space to your whim.

Comprehend (passive) - Lvl 20 - Process information at inhuman speeds.

Eternal Regeneration (passive) - Lvl 20 - As long as you live, you will heal.

Complete Resilience (passive) - Lvl 20 - You will outlast all negative effects.

He thought it fitting that he had at least one skill in each of his three elements ready for evolution, and he decided right then and there that he'd try and keep himself balanced by picking one from each. He had no idea if that was good or bad, but it just felt right for whatever reason. That made his decision slightly simpler, but it meant he now had to choose which skill under his Spatial and Eternity elements he should evolve first.

Astral Dip had saved his life time and time again. It was how he'd escaped the wizard that had dragged him into this world, how he'd managed to even get his hands on the Eternity element in the first place, and it was essentially the cornerstone of his fighting style. Being able to slip into the astral realm to dodge attacks and effectively vanish from this world was beyond powerful, and Asher had high hopes for what the evolved version of the skill might look like.

However, Distortion was also incredibly useful. Being able to attack opponents from afar, pull himself out of harm's way with but a thought, and increase his own mobility tenfold certainly had its uses. Not to mention he tried to keep his Astral Dip skill a secret as much as possible, which made Distortion his bread and butter for most combat scenarios.

Usually, if Asher showed an opponent he had the ability to slip in between realms with nothing but a thought, he made sure they'd never be able to tell anyone.

Ever.

Asher struggled with the decision he'd been given, his eyes flicking back and forth between his two options. In the end, he decided to leave the decision up to fate.

If Brian hits his next target, I'll go with Astral Dip. If he misses, I'll start with Distortion, he finally decided.

After so much practice over the years, Brian had grown to be a fairly consistent shot, especially considering the fact that he was still a kid. But he was always comparing himself to Samantha and her incredible archery skills, which meant every time he got good enough to consistently hit his target, he increased the distance between himself and whatever he was aiming at. By now, he was firing arrows from more than a hundred feet away, and while he rarely managed any bullseyes, he was still hitting the target about as often as not.

Asher waited with bated breath as Brian slowly pulled another arrow from his quiver, nocking it against his bow and turning his focus toward the distant target. The usually energetic and loud boy was silent, his every movement careful and calculated as he went through the motions he'd practiced thousands of times by now. Raising the bow into position, he took a single breath, drawing the arrow back and lining up his shot. He hesitated for only a fraction of a second before letting the arrow fly, watching to see where it would end up.

Asher couldn't help but grin as Brian landed one of his rare bullseyes, and he chuckled as the twelve-year-old broke out of his serene trance, jumping and pumping his arms in victory.

"Did you see that?!" Brian called out, turning to look at him.

"I saw!" Asher shouted back, giving him a thumbs up. "That was amazing!"

"It means I can finally go a bit further!" Brian said with an excited smile, taking a few more steps back and immediately going for his next arrow. Asher could only shake his head at Brian's determination, and he chuckled as he accepted the sign that the universe had given him.

Astral Dip it was.

Spend 100,000 shards to evolve Astral Dip?

Selecting his confirmation, Asher gasped as he felt something within his very soul both tighten and burst outward at the same time, causing him to flinch back and smack his head against the wooden cabin. The sensation was like nothing he'd ever experienced, and he couldn't help but feel as though the conflicting sensations shouldn't even be possible.

Doing his best to ignore the unpleasant feeling, he looked at his newest notification, his eyes widening in shock.

Astral Dip (active) - Lvl 21

Tier 1: Temporarily slip into the Astral Realm.

Tier 2: Amount of time within the Astral Realm correlates directly with movement.

Shards: 288,291

Does that mean what I think it does? Barely able to contain his excitement, Asher let himself slip into the astral, embracing the pale, washed out world he suddenly found himself in.

Other than the fact that the world around him shifted in hue and sound began to echo slightly, everything remained the same. He could still make out Brian shooting at his distant target, crying out as he began missing more shots than he hit once again. No, the astral realm was as serene and calming as ever.

It was within Asher himself that he noticed the change.

Usually, Asher was able to spend no more than a few scant seconds within the astral. Keeping himself in this unique realm was akin to flexing every muscle in his body at the same time, and despite all his practice, it was still something he could barely maintain for long. But now, sitting motionless against Samantha's cabin?

He didn't have to exert so much as a single strand of effort.

I can stay in the astral realm… forever, he gasped, realizing the true benefit of his newly evolved skill. So long as he remained still, Asher could keep his skill active and remain within the white world for as long as he desired. Curious, he tried raising and lowering his arm a few times, and he nodded as he slowly felt his body grow more and more strained. It seemed the strain was still spread out across his entire body, however, which meant he could sit here waving his arm around for a good ten or fifteen seconds before he was forced to drop his skill.

Doing just that, Asher gasped as it finally became too much to hold onto his skill, and he snapped back into the material realm once more. Even so, that didn't put a damper on his excitement in the slightest.

Alright, skill evolution is fantastic, he grinned, eagerly turning to his next one.

Spend 100,000 shards to evolve Comprehend?

Asher quickly agreed, wincing at the unpleasant sensation of his soul both contracting and expanding at the same time yet again. Even knowing it was coming didn't make it any easier.

Comprehend (passive/active) - Lvl 21

Tier 1: Process information at inhuman speeds.

Tier 2: Significantly increase thinking speed for short bursts of time

Shards: 188,291

Asher gave his Comprehend skill a curious look. It would seem evolving the skill had actually changed his purely passive skill, giving it an active component as well. Unable to help himself, Asher immediately focused on his skill, activating it as he watched Brian fire his next arrow.

Asher's eyes slowly widened as he watched Brian's arrow leave his bow and drift across the range at a glacial pace. He could even make out the shaft of the arrow slightly wobbling back and forth as it flew, as though he were watching everything through a slow motion camera. Despite wanting to keep his new skill active, Asher's very brain quickly grew tired, and he was forced to drop the skill after only a handful of seconds.

Well, a handful of seconds for him. For everyone else, it had been barely the blink of an eye.

Another winner, he thought, wincing at the splitting pain that went through his head. Luckily, he had Eternal Regeneration in his back pocket, so he knew any lingering pain would quickly fade.

And speaking of Eternal Regeneration…

Unlike his internal debate between Astral Dip and Distortion, Asher already knew he was going to evolve Eternal Regeneration over Complete Resilience. His somewhat-reckless style of fighting and occasional bad decision-making made his healing skill arguably his most important one, which made the choice simple.

Spend 100,000 shards to evolve Eternal Regeneration?

Asher rubbed his head and nodded his confirmation, smiling to himself as he read the newest addition to his skill.

It looked like he just got even harder to actually put down.

Eternal Regeneration (passive) - Lvl 21

Tier 1: As long as you live, you will heal.

Tier 2: Provided your body is mostly intact, heal even in death.

Shards: 88,291

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