That little announcement garnered even more attention, but I didn’t want to take up time explaining everything to Aninta. I assured her I’d be fine since I was buying the bezoar, and with my new toxic haul acquired, I finally headed home.

The next day, I had Sreketh watching over me just in case.

“Hope I’m not taking up too much of your painting time,” I said. “But I need a spotter in case I start frothing at the mouth and dying.”

“I really hope you don’t start frothing at the mouth and dying. And my painting is fine. I’m at Iron IV now! I’m trying to get an Affix that can make my art come to life, but it’s hard.”

Art coming to life reminded of what Revayne was capable of. “Hmm, I might have a solution to that. But let me look into that later. I’ll get back to you once I do. For now, let’s poison me.”

I had crushed the Belladona plants into edible pieces—wearing gloves for safety—in a mortar. It already came with little seemingly-edible purple berries, but I didn’t want the leaves, stem, or roots to go to waste, so had crushed them all up into a paste.

“Here goes,” I said. I tilted my head back and dunked the mixture into my mouth.

The taste wasn’t that bad. There was some bitterness thanks to adding the leaves and other plant matter, but the actual crushed fruit bits were sweet with a slightly bitter aftertaste.

It didn’t take long before the effects started to manifest. My throat dried up, my vision grew blurry and headachy, my whole body started burning up.

Oh yes, I was definitely poisoned.

It was a smidge annoying there was no handy tooltip from the Weave to confirm it, but it had never been that kind of a system, so it wasn’t surprising.

“Are you alright, Ross?” Sreketh asked with concern. Her words sounded strange in my head, and I felt her propping me up with her small hands on my back.

This poison was serious business. Maybe I shouldn’t have crushed all dozen or so berries I had acquired at the Mage Guild.

“I’ll be fine,” I said, my words sounding like I was transforming into a frog. “Just got to…”

Before the poisoning could get too serious, I tried to focus on Sacrifice. It should work. I had purchased, prepared, and ingested the poison myself. This was entirely mine. With that condition fulfilled, and with the handy little Experientiality Affix, there was no reason Sacrifice shouldn’t work.

I tried to concentrate. The mana threads buzzed within me, but it was hard to actually feel them when my body was slowly being overwhelmed by the toxins. Was nightshade even supposed to work this fast? I supposed that might have been due to its mana-infused nature.

[ Sacrifice

You have Sacrificed 1 [Moderate] Instance of Poisoning. Windfall bonus activated.

Reward: 6 Poison Cure charges. 1 charge used to cure current affliction. 5 charges remaining. ]

As soon as Sacrifice took effect, I recovered. The poison disappeared entirely. My chest wasn’t constricting on its own, my senses were working fine once more, and I basically felt alive again. It was like the last minute had been a dream.

Sacrifice really was something else.

“Does this mean you’re effectively immune to poison?” Sreketh asked.

“Hmm?” I shook my head. “Not quite. I’m immune… five more times. Unless I poison myself some more…”

I explained how I had gotten a set of charges to cure poison to a nonplussed Sreketh. This meant I was insured against five future instances of poisoning too. I’d have to remember that. Besides that, I would also need to see how I could use that later on.

Over the next few days, I focused on training again. There was the usual practice with my various Aspects of course. Using Gravity and Flare to exercise flying, trying to gain a new Affix for the latter, using Illumination to continue imbuing all manner of things with their own luminosity, and carrying out daily Rituals with everybody else at the cult.

I still couldn’t quite

Sacrifice the Ritual rewards. It still felt like the Sacrifice Aspected mana was snapping on something that I was missing.

Even if I decided that what I lacked was another Affix, I wasn’t sure how to get it. The efforts I made didn’t give me the impression I was making much progress on that front. Annoying.

While I was training, I received a message from Kostis about the next steps he had told me to wait for. Apparently, he was personally offering an adventuring job into a dungeon, and he would be happy if I accompanied the adventurers who took up said job. Adventurers whom I already knew. It was going to be Ugnash’s crew again.

That reminded me about getting in touch with Khagnio about the undercity business. I was sure the Scalekin rogue would have some ideas on how to go about properly finding Hamsik’s half-brother.

Curiously, Kostis’s letter didn’t state why exactly he was personally setting up the adventuring job. Well, he did state that he was looking for a particular resource to help his advancement. But what that was and where we would find it were details he would reveal later.

He had also said that the dungeon was deep enough to house my mana implosion, and that it likely held an interesting secret only the pressure of something like the implosion would reveal. I wasn’t sure what all that meant, but now I was extra intrigued about whatever further details he’d eventually reveal.

It made me wonder why he himself wasn’t going in and getting it if it really was important. He was Opal-ranked. Basically all the dungeons under Zairgon would be a breeze.

I didn’t fret over it. Kostis was giving me an early heads-up, which I appreciated, but last I had checked, Cerea wasn’t returning to Zairgon for a few more weeks. It would be a little while before we started preparing for our next dungeon delve, much less actually go on one.

What I actually focused on was ranking up my physical Attributes. I had secured a Vitality rank up recently, but that was about it. I didn’t want to let Power and Agility lag behind.

To that end, I really focused on my training with Gutran.

“On higher ranks,” the half-Scalekin blacksmith said as we took a little breather in between bouts of sparring. “The best way to keep ranking up steadily is by fighting against stronger opponents.”

“Really?” I frowned at him. “Are you sure you’re not making excuses to beat me up some more?”

Gutran grunted out a short, sibilant laugh. “You think I need excuses to beat you up?”

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“…fair enough.”

“The point is that pushing yourself to your limit is how the Weave most rewards you in ranks. An easy way to do that is by constantly fighting against someone stronger than you. This is why adventurers in general rank up very quickly to start, though they will often move to different areas if they want to fight stronger monsters to grow stronger.”

I saw his point, and it made sense too. Honestly, I was grateful I had someone like Gutran to spar with. Not only was he significantly stronger than me still, he was also kind and accommodating. He was open to training me and didn’t need me to pay him for it or follow strict schedules due to limited time or anything like that. I was blessed.

“Thanks,” I said with a grin. “For beating me up, Gutran.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” he said. “I’m having fun, and I’m also slowly gaining ranks too. It’s not the same rate as you, not even close, but it’s the only combat experience I’ve been getting in years, and the Weave seems to recognize that.”

It was my turn to grunt. I hadn’t expected that, but it was pleasant to learn all the same. I wasn’t just being helped here. Even if small, there was some level of quid pro quo going on.

We were still doing our best to train up my Agility Augmentation. Since we had no other recourse than to continue practising reflexes and evasion, that’s what we focused on. Gutran attacked me in a multitude of ways. Aside from punches and kicks coming in with dizzying speed and frequency, we also had bouts of him chucking his weapons at me.

I tried my best to dodge them all. Gutran was much stronger and faster though, so I wasn’t always successful. Admittedly, I was mostly unsuccessful.

But that was the point. The Weave wasn’t necessarily looking for successful undertakings. It looked for effort. And for that, I had an A+. Every hour, I was left sweating, and I thanked the fact that my Vitality had gone up so high and that Sacrificing my food gave me so much energy. Otherwise, I’d have been toast.

But on the third day after my meeting with Kostis, my efforts started bearing fruit.

I had started trying to be a little more technical when it came to dodging and evading. A little more purposeful about it. I wasn’t just reacting haphazardly. Reaction time was another thing I wanted to improve, and to do so, I needed my brain to actually decide when to evade rather than dodging instinctively.

It had at first felt counterproductive. After all, the Augmentation I was going for was Reflexive Mana, which wasn’t that different from instinctive reactions. But Gutran promised it would help, and I had faith in him.

I also compounded my efforts with Sacrifice. After fifteen to twenty odd minutes of training, I paused as I felt myself tiring just a bit as my stamina grew a little exhausted.

And it was this momentary strain that I Sacrificed. It was mine. Undoubtedly. I was the one spending all that effort to get everything I had ranked up. It was me who was performing so much labour to gain new Affixes and Augmentations, and even Attributes eventually.

[ Sacrifice

You have Sacrificed 1 [Minor] Effort towards Growth. Windfall bonus activated.

Reward: Augmentation and Rank gain for the Agility Attribute hastened by 3x. ]

The threads whizzed through my body. I felt them connect with everything. My skin pouring out sweat, my hair falling wispy on my head, my exhausted muscles. Even the sluggishness of my brain. Sacrifice reached them all and took away their diminished states.

I needed a few seconds to acclimatize to the surprising sensation of just... not having a lot of the earlier sensations. No more tiredness. No more feeling I had spent any effort at all.

If the Weave hadn’t assured me the Sacrifice was doing something, I’d have been worried.

As it was, it worked. At least I felt like it did. About halfway through that day’s efforts, after I had performed some more Sacrifices while continuing to maintain my earlier approach, the Weave finally rewarded me.

[ Augmentation Unlocked!

You have acquired a new Augmentation for your Agility Attribute.

Augmentation: Reflexive Mana ]

[ Rank Up!

Your Power and Agility Attributes have risen by one Rank.

Your Ritual Aspect has risen by one Rank.

Power: Silver V

Agility: Silver III

Ritual

: Iron V ]

Was I happy to finally get the rewards I was looking for? Absolutely. Was I actually satisfied though? Well, I was happy that Sacrifice had seemingly shortened the time.

“You look dissatisfied, Ross,” Gutran said. “Despite the fact you look like you finally received your new Augmentation and some new ranks.”

He must have noted my eyes going unfocused as I had read through the notification. Then he must have noted the lack of change on my face.

“It’s, uh, nothing really,” I said. “Just wish I was a little faster is all.”

Gutran nodded slowly. “I understand that it might take some getting used to. But it’s best to not let it get to you. You’re making fantastic progress, faster than I ever did. You’re driven, so efforts needed for Silver might feel dissatisfying at first. But allowing that dissatisfaction to mire the pride you should take at your accomplishment is foolish. Do you understand?”

I took a deep breath. Gutran was blunt but he wasn’t trying to be mean, even if his words had struck a nerve.

“You’re right.” Another deep breath, then I smiled. “Yeah, you’re right. Regardless of how much time things take, I am making good progress. I’ve got a new Augmentation to test out, after all. Thanks for reminding me, Gutran.”

The blacksmith gave me a warm smile.

With my dumb head now sorted back straight, I tried to look at my Augmentation. Couldn’t believe I was feeling butthurt about how long things took instead of actually testing out what was essentially new magic.

Reflexive Mana lived up to its billing pretty well. We tested it by redoing the Agility practices I had undergone so far. My Power Augmentation continued to create external strands of mana at every Power-driven motion. In a real fight, that would be pretty much all my motion.

Reflexive Mana nicely used those free threads of external mana to create straight lines of magical energy piercing right through me like I had been attacked by multiple glowing white javelins. When anything moving with sufficient momentum triggered any of those lines, I was immediate jerked along said line and out of harm’s way.

This had to be one of the most complex Augmentations I had obtained so far. I had never had anything that acted so independently and so forcefully too.

In one test, when Gutran’s punch whooshed in with powerful force, I was yanked away even faster than I’d have if I had gotten hit.

A good chunk of the rest of the day was spent testing it out. Needless to say, my body wasn’t appreciating the sudden jerking motions. They were strong, and also very disorienting.

It made me wonder if this was what teleportation initially felt like too.

There was nothing to it except for more practice, I supposed. We got to working on it. My main goal was just getting used to the sensation, though I figured out some other stuff along the way too.

For instance, the spread of mana lines essentially created a radius of about six feet around me. I was safe within that twelve-foot diameter sphere of space. Anything that touched the edge of the mana lines with enough momentum immediately caused me to shift my location within the sphere of space covered by the mana lines, thereby keeping me unharmed.

I wondered if there was a way to extend that radius. Gutran said it was tied to my Agility’s rank, which made sense. The more I improved it, the more it would improve any Augmentation working under it. Thankfully, getting used to the Augmentation would count as training the Attribute too.

“It’s also likely dependent on your mana control,” Gutran said. “It will improve your capabilities with this Augmentation, especially since you’d want fine control over it.”

He was right. I did want finer control. Reflexive Mana activated automatically, which was fine in general. But sometimes, which was something I had already noted as a potential drawback, I might not want to move away, regardless of the danger of the attack coming at me.

To that end, I would need to achieve far finer control over Reflexive Mana via the same kind of exercises I was practicing for Threaded Reinforcement.

I thanked Gutran again for all the help. He was invaluable. Of course, all I got back was a grunt and a don’t mention it, but I could tell he was pleased.

It was time to return to the temple and take some time to relax. I remembered something I had been told a while back. Something about how working all the time made one nothing more than an automaton, and it was true. I’d do well to take breaks occasion.

But remember, only automatons are made for pure effort.

Right. That was what Master Kostis had said.

But it turned out the world had other ideas.

“Hello,” I said as I spotted Aqrea leaving my office. “Sorry I’m late. Just needed some time to…” I frowned at the look on Aqrea’s face. “Is everything alright?”

She took a deep breath and tried to clear her expression into something more neutral, but I could tell she was still bothered. “We received a message from the guards, Cultist Ross. They’re finally releasing the first group of the innocent Scarthralls.”

I heard the change in her tone when she had said innocent, but I was honestly distracted by the bigger picture. The Scarthralls were free and I hadn’t figured out what to do about them just yet. There was an idea percolating in the back of my mind, but I’d need to confer with them first. It wasn’t like I could make them do anything against their will. And then there were all the other complications.

It looked like tomorrow was going to be a busy day.