In the end it didn’t matter, she ended up in the spaceship. The number of possibilities that were opening were greater and greater but the constraints were plaguing their plans. Rell joined them from the spaceship.
They went on to test rifts and found that it was impossible to deploy a rift inside the soul space. Furthermore, they entered from the rift that was about to reset and upon exiting after the reset, they still returned to the old instance not the new one.
“There is some sort of invisible anchor that opens the passageway from this place to wherever you entered from,” Rell said at some point.
“So if there is an anchor, is it possible to modify it?”Natalia asked.
“I’d guess so,” Rell replied.
“I will look into that,” Persephone said, a little too giddy.
“I will help you,” Rell and Natalia said at the same time, drawing a smile from Kora and Keynes.
“Okay, if you need any help from us, hit us up,” Keynes said.
“Wait, where are you two going?” Natalia asked with a suspicious gleam in her eyes.
“I want to hit Level 6 as soon as possible and to do that I have some attributes to master,” Keynes replied. “Besides, I have to choose the Minor Talent Upgrade.”
***
Choose a Minor Talent Upgrade
- Seal — you can seal locations you have opened.
- Untouched — you can enter locations without opening them.
- Conceptual — Lockpicking becomes conceptual (Error affinity -> Concept affinity).
- Lofty — Lockpicking is much more effective against Higher Level locks and seals.
He again showed the selection to Kora. She didn’t have his perfect recall so she needed Keynes to refresh her memory. Alice also made herself visible to her so they could chat without Keynes constantly relaying Alice’s words to Kora. Otherwise it would be annoying.
Kora took her time analysing each choice, despite Keynes telling her about them earlier.
“Let’s start with Seal,” Kora said, leaning against a tree. They took a spot far away from there Natalia, Persephone and Rell worked on the anchor. “My first thought is a possibility to seal rifts but your Talent doesn’t only apply to rifts. You could seal any previously opened location, which could come handy in various scenarios but this new soul space makes some of them obsolete. For example, you could flee inside a rift, then seal it… wait could you seal a rift from inside?”
“No idea,” Keynes replied and then something occurred to him. “But there is a way to check it out without picking the upgrade. I could go inside a rift, wait until it resets and then try to ‘open’ the instance to anyone outside.”
“How would that work for people outside?” Kora mused.
Instinctually, Keynes glanced at Alice who was deep in her thoughts.
“I’m leaning toward saying that it will work in both cases—sealing and opening. As to what it’s like to people outside? Hm. If there are two instances open, there should be a choice to select an instance,” Alice replied after a moment, drawing a surprised expression from Kora.
“Wait, if selecting an instance is a thing, shouldn’t there be a natural way to obtain it?”
“You thinking about a Rift Orb?”
“Yup.”
“Would that be even useful?” Keynes asked.
“It depends on how many instances can be available and for how long they will remain,” she replied. “Though I am sure Willow would find this very useful. It sounds like a good premise to test rifts.”
“Shouldn’t we get back to the topic?” Alice huffed. “This talk about rift instances has nothing to do with the Seal upgrade.”
“Okay, so how is sealing locations useful to me?” Keynes asked.
“It's a very situational ability,” Kora replied. “It could come handy when you need a higher security measure. If we ever return to Earth, this ability can become invaluable.”
At this, he started feeling that the upgrade had too much opportunity cost. Yes, sealing sounded cool and gave him a weird sense of control but it didn’t sound immediately useful. Like, he couldn’t think of any place he would like to seal off. So, why bother with an upgrade that didn’t have an impact right now? Sure, it might come handy down the line but the point when that would actually be a thing was far off.
In the end, the seal was too situational and not useful to him right now.
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“Let’s move on to the next upgrade,” Keynes said.
“Correct me if I’m wrong but wouldn’t that turn you into a literal ghost?” Kora asked.
“You’re partially correct,” Alice replied. “For the upgrade to work, there must be some sort of entrance.”
“Makes sense,” Kora admitted. “It would make your Talent stupid strong.”
Figured as much. That upgrade would add phasing to my abilities. For a minor upgrade to add a separate Talent-worth ability sounds too broken. I wonder what Fen would say, Keynes was lost in his thoughts. She’d be pissed off for sure.
“So I guess, entering rifts without opening them would be a thing with this upgrade?”
“Indeed!” Alice.
“No need,” Keynes dismissed it out of hand, surprising Kora and confusing Alice.
“What? Why?”
“Lem Solaris could enter rifts without opening them. I know I am nowhere near her power level but you know, it is possible without my Talent.”
While he sounded dismissive toward the upgrade, he couldn’t deny that this one resonated with him quite profoundly. It synergised incredibly well with his [Spirit Form] and to some extent with the Untraceable buff. Why did it resonate with him? Because he liked the idea of moving unseen and unrestrain. Not out of fear but practicality. He had no illusions. The moment he put a foot on Earth, he would be the most wanted man on the planet. He didn’t look forward to that.
But the upgrade was redundant no matter how useful he seemed. He’d eventually figure it out on his own so why wasting a minor upgrade on that? In that sense, it was slightly different from the seal, as sealing sounded far harder to ‘learn’ than entering locations without opening them.
“This one might be useful right now, don’t you think?” Kora probed.
“Think about the Spiritual Realm as well,” Alice chimed in.
“Nah.” Keynes shook his head. “I don’t need the upgrade for these.”
They didn’t argue, finding his tone disinterested so they knew they lost him there.
They moved to the Conceptual upgrade and this one was a big one.
- Conceptual — Lockpicking becomes conceptual (Error affinity -> Concept affinity).
There was a lot to unpack here.
“Alice, the floor is yours,” Keynes said, watching her frown. She sighed and shook her head, trying to appear wise.
“So I assume you don’t know what conceptual means?” She smirked. Keynes only shrugged. He wasn’t going to give her satisfaction. She eventually capitulated and began an explanation. “In a gist, this upgrade will make your Talent apply to everything and anything.”
“What do you mean by everything and anything?” Kora asked.
“Exactly what I said. His Talent would be able to affect both tangible and intangible things. Ideas, feelings, defences, minds. You name it.”
“No, that can’t be possible.” Kora shook her head. “This—just no.”
Keynes would smile if he was in the mood. Why was he not? Because choosing this upgrade, which he Keynes believed was way more broken than they had any idea, meant he would lose the Error affinity. With the Error affinity gone, Keynes would lose ability to circumvent the System restriction and access to the reward rooms. That alone made the upgrade unappealing. He could only imagine what kind of reward rooms existed in Higher Level rifts as there was evolution of reward rooms with Levels. Or as the representative of the Greater System said, no more cheating.
The fact that the representative of the Greater System had advised him to give up on the Error affinity made him very suspicious. Though it shouldn’t surprise him to find that the Greater System didn’t want someone with the Error affinity to run around.
He explained that to Kora and Alice and they had two different reactions. Alice agreed with the representative of the Greater System. Messing with the Error affinity at the Higher Levels meant a greater risk with irreversible consequences. The Greater Rift which spawned on Earth after the fourth outbreak was the outcome of the Error affinity as well as the Dominion of Monsters were merely the outcome of very Low Levels outbreaks. She couldn’t predict what kind of calamity would a Level 10 outbreak cause but she was certain it would end the planet itself.
It sounded damn scary but Alice left out one important thing. Keynes wasn’t an idiot to cause a Level 10 outbreak nor was he capable of such a thing. At this point, he might be able to open a Level 7 rift with a great effort at best, a Level 10 rift? Not a chance.
On the other hand, Kora saw the Conceptual upgrade as an incredible platform to experiment. What would happen if Keynes used it on her with intent to open her mind? Or how would it work during a fight? Did the opening of space mean teleportation or something even more bizarre? There were many great questions there and the way she framed them, made the choice no brainer. But the fact of losing the most unique affinity in the universe or even the multiverse remained.
“I agree with both of you, but look at this from a different perspective. This upgrade is clearly overpowered, like there is no contest here, having a conceptual ability to open anything I can think of makes my Talent a Broken One. No doubt about it. So why the catch? Why do the other three upgrades not have this restriction? It appears that the System isn’t allowed to forcefully take away my affinity so instead it tries to make a trade off. I will receive a broken upgrade for the affinity. This alone is enough to not pick it. Because it means that the Error affinity is far superior.”
“Or is simply dangerous,” Alice chimed in.
“Yup, it may as you say or you may be overblowing its capability,” Kora added. “If this were my choice, I’d pick the Conceptual upgrade.”
“Same,” Alice agreed.
“Thanks for the advice but no. I won’t be the System’s puppet.”
“Keynes,” Kora said, sensing his disturbed thoughts. His spiritual aura was well controlled but emotions on his face betrayed him. “You’re no one’s puppet.”
“Anyway, let’s move on.”
- Lofty — Lockpicking is much more effective against Higher Level locks and seals.
“Isn’t this one generic one?” Kora asked.
“It is,” Keynes agreed with her. “But at the same time, it is the very thing we need now. I need to master my attributes and I have an odd feeling that Level 5 or even 6 rifts might not cut it anymore.”
Kora put fingers to her lips; she was considering his thoughts. He could tell she disagreed with his choice but she still wanted to understand and support him.
On the other hand, Alice said, “You’re an idiot. Yeah, this one will make you able to push your Talent even up to Level 8 but can you handle Level 8 monsters?”
“I have to,” he calmly replied.
“So, technically, the Lofty upgrade makes his Talent stronger, yes?” Kora asked, the question directed at Alice.
“It makes it stronger in relation to Higher Level seals and locks. At his Level, there won’t be any meaningful change. Why?” Suspicion was bubbling through the bond with his spiritual assistant.
“I don’t know,” Kora added sincerely. “But the more I think about this, the more Lofty appeals to me.”
“You gotta be kidding me,” Alice huffed. “You are both hopeless.”