His hands ran over the blade. A Father''s Gift. A fitting name. A weapon that would be with him always, matching his pace step by step. A strangling wave of emotion surged up through him. Excitement. Gratitude. Grief. His throat quivered, eyelids scrunching shut as they threatened to spill over.

    "Kaius?" He heard Porkchop move. A second later a heavy weight settled on his shoulder. "You okay?"

    He turned, burying his face deep into the dense fluff of his friend''s neck. Letting his riot of emotions wash through him.

    "Yeah. The sword my father gifted to me just had a little bit more history to it than I thought."

    "It''s okay," Porkchop said, comforting him with a nuzzle.

    Kaius took a deep breath, swallowing down the hitch in his throat. It was a princely gift, one he did not intend to let go to waist. He leaned back to his sword.

    "Thank you." He scratched behind Porkchop''s ear, taking a breath. "I''ve got to bind this thing. It''s frankly idiotic that Father didn''t tell me earlier, walking around with this without that security was monumentally stupid. Even with Bloodline Veil."

    It was an interesting enchantment. One that blocked appraisal of an item unless the person in question was of an intended familial line. Normally, it required a sample of blood from the one an artefact was being made for. In this case, his father simply could have used his own.

    Binding the sword was imperative, he had to do it now. It would link it to his status, letting him know its location on an instinctual level. The connection to his soul would also bolster the enchantments. Not enough to raise them a grade, but each would be more effective. Hopefully enough to prevent the sword''s enchantments from ever being used against him. All else who picked up the sword would find it fighting against their every move, a poor weapon indeed.

    That protection only lasted until death. Without the powerful Appraise block that it held, he would never be able to carry it in public. Without powerful backers and or a clan at his back, any two bit crook would take a shot at him in an attempt to claim the reward of a lifetime.

    Binding it would also give him insight into the conditions needed to reach the next stage in its development.

    He reached for the tightly woven hilt of A Father''s Gift. As if reading his intentions, the small knots in the black supple leather at the hilts base came undone with ease. Falling away to reveal a glossy lacquered wooden hilt, deep nurls of swirling wood grain shining pleasingly in the light. The wooden hilt was inlaid in gold, the yellow lines wrapping and spiralling into one of the densest runic formations he had ever seen.

    He recognised the script. Vhaxanish. One of the handful of candidates for his experiments with body formations and imbuement. Complex, overly lengthy, and with an outright contradictory syntax filled with counter arguments and superseding clauses, it was a nightmare to use correctly. It was also amazing for complex, highly variable effects. Like a soulbinding formation. Or, to link binding sigils to runic hymns that used two different scripts.

    The binding keystone of the formation was a dense knot of twisting and interwoven lines of runes. To interface the blade and bind it to his soul he would need to direct his mana there. The process was relatively simple, but not easy. Much like how he had suffused his eyes with Mana in order to develop Appraise and Inspect, Kaius would need to spin a thread of mana from his centre.

    There were two complications, both of which would make it far more difficult than his earlier - easier - application of internal resource control. First, he would have to make the Mana cross the external barrier of his body to brush up directly against the sigil. Much like the barrier between his soul space and physical space, the jump up in control required was significant. If he had Mana Manipulation it would be much more straightforward. Alas, he did not, and waiting until he did would serve him no benefit.

    The other main difficulty would be in spinning out a thread of soulfire to infuse his Mana pool. Afterall, the sword needed to bind itself to his soul, not to his Mana. The resource would simply be acting as a conduit. Normally, there was no benefit to soul infusion. You only risked opening an easy path to your most vulnerable centre for no appreciable benefit. In this case, that easy path was exactly his goal.

    Kaius took a deep breath. His hand closed around the hilt of his sword, feeling the cool touch of the runic gold inlay standing out from the surrounding glossy wood.

    He closed his eyes, falling into his visualisation of his centre.

    Now that he had Mental Visualisation everything seemed sharper. Less aethereal. More concrete. He reached for his soul, fire writhing out with the lightest touch. It was easier. He hadn''t expected that. An unintended but very welcome side effect of his most recent skill.

    Pulling on the thread, Kaius encouraged it to connect to the nebulous blue cloud of his mana. It didn''t quite snap into place like it had with his skill. He had to focus to keep it flowing there, drifting in the blue gas like some wind caught streamer. He encouraged his soul to flare, a great outpouring of his very essence flowing through his conduit to colour the blue with a radiant ghostly tinge.

    Sweat dripped from his brow. Even with the assistance of Mental Visualisation it was far harder than he expected, the exertion of directly expending some of his soul weighing heavily on every aspect of his being. His head throbbed. Bones ached. Muscles wilted. He''d have to move quickly. He wasn''t quite sure if this was healthy.

    **Ding! Mental Visualisation has reached level 4!**

    His father hadn''t told him of any risks surrounding this niche skill, but he doubted the man had ever seen it used by someone so early. Every other use he knew of for soul infusion, hell even binding an artefact, was almost entirely the purview of the high levelled.

    Binding. Class evolution. Grand rituals. He knew there were more, but those were the only ones Father had deigned to teach him of. The only ones he was likely to make use of himself.

    Levelling strengthened the soul. Without that reinforcement, he might injure himself. Certainly he had never been told of it feeling like his very essence was being depleted.

    He had to hurry.

    Hearing a deep rumble from somewhere behind him, Kaius ignored the distraction and pushed on.

    Reaching for the mana next, he quickly yanked a thread past the outer barrier of his soul space. He traced it through his body, running parallel to nerves and vessels.

    **Ding! Mental Visualisation has reached level 5!**

    He felt so heavy.

    Kaius wasn''t sure if he had the mental focus to keep control of his mana outside of his body. A different tactic was required. Force.

    The resource flooded his hands. Grunting in strain he locked down his skin, forcing his Mana to flood the area. Saturating it like he had done to his eyes.

    Once full, he was forced to bear down on the barrier he had created, mana attempting to push its way free. He didn''t let it. The pressure built. Tingling grew in his hand, quickly rising to feel like stabbing needles in his skin. He bit down on his lip. Tasting iron.

    Just a bit more. He only needed a bit more. Health left his soul, rushing to heal his hand as tiny droplets of blood welled up from his pours. The mana was too much. Breaking down his flesh.

    His skin started to split, drenching the handle of his blade in a slick crimson wash.

    Kaius gave a slight smile at Porkchops concern. "Alright, though I have a few more things that I need to Appraise before we leave."

    "Right after you nearly cracked your soul?" Porkchop asked, flabbergasted.

    "That was just for the sword." he said with a shake of his head. "I won''t need to do that again for a long time."

    Porkchop watched him with suspicion, but settled down to wait.

    Kaius switched his attention to his potion pouch, Appraising the boxy bag.

    **Ding! Appraise has reached level 6!**

    Potion Pouch:

    Depths-wrought item

    A sturdy potion pouch made of treated beast leather affixed to rigid steel plates, designed to protect tonics from hard knocks. Contains space for eight standard sized tonics in squared bottles.

    To his disappointment, the bag was a simple item, not an artefact. It seemed not everything he received from the Champions was guaranteed to be enchanted. Oh well, it still served the purpose it had been made for admirably.

    He flicked the pouch open, turning to his two remaining Solar Revitalisation tonics, and his two new red ones.

    Deciding to appraise the ones he''d had for some time, Kaius pulled free one of the familiar radiant orange tonics.

    Solar Revitalization Tonic:

    Common - Tier I

    At the end of the line, there is only one source of energy. Growth, death, recovery, expenditure. All happens under the watchful warm embrace of the sun.

    A tonic that slightly stimulates the production of Health and Stamina in the soul.

    Depths-brewed potion

    Stamina regeneration I, Health regeneration I

    The description was exactly as he expected, though it was nice to confirm there were no hidden effects that he had missed. Unfortunately, he did confirm that he wasn''t able to reveal the direct numerical effects of his items. Something relegated for higher rarity appraisal skills, he guessed. Kaius slid the orange potion home, and pulled out one of the new roiling red ones.

    Psychopathic Assault Tonic:

    Common

    Some things just need killin''

    A tonic that amplifies aggression, focus and mental resistance. Moderately boosts Strength, with no impact on Stamina.

    Depths-brewed Potion

    Psychokiller I, Strength Boost I

    Kaius eyed the tonic warily. A Moderate boost to Strength was no small gain. With his current cap of twenty, he was nearly half again as strong as he would be without the system''s assistance. Anything that allowed him to push that further was not something he should turn his nose at.

    And yet... increased aggression? That would be a double edged sword. Still, he was confused, it surely clashed with the increased mental resistance. Usually mental resistance was used to ward off the deleterious effects of berserker style boosts at the very least.

    He would have to be very, very careful whenever he tried it. It would no doubt be potent, but if he lost sight of his own sense of safety, it would be worse than useless.

    Slotting the potion back in his pouch, Kaius buckled it closed with a click.

    "Well my friend." Kaius turned to Porkchop. "I think I am done here."

    "Yay! Back home?"

    "Yeah." Kaius nodded. "Though only for a short while. Just long enough to get my next two skills. I''m gonna need to set up a formation for each of them. After that we can go look for some more Champions outside of this glade."

    "No." Porkchop said, flicking his ears. "Need to sleep. More adventure can wait till after a nap."

    "That it could." Kaius laughed, pushing himself to his feet. Some rest would be good.

    Taking a second to unbuckle his sword belt, Kaius picked up his new Serelian Scalemail. He slid it on, admiring the way it hugged him perfectly with nary a pinch or a pull.

    The pair set off, striding out of the underground catacomb to make the slow route home out of the lengthy maze above.