The biggest question for is whether or not the Fracture is populated the way the Cliffside is. Everything indicates that it isn't. I imagine that at least one person would have responded to the sound of fighting the Fractured Guardian if it were populated, and the floor in here is covered in a layer of dust besides.
It doesn't look like anyone's been here for... I don't know how long.
"This place is creepy." Ahkelios shivers against an imaginary cold. I frown slightly, reaching out with my Firmant sense to see if there's anything out of the ordinary.
Nothing. Just those sa sparks of Firmant in the distance, so pulsing a little brighter than before, and others a little dimr; they ebb and flow like a tide. I've never felt Firmant quite like this before.
I try to sense the translation stone Ahkelios had ntioned, but if it does have Firmant, it's not different enough from anything else for to pick it out at this distance.
"Why do I need a translation stone, anyway?" I walk into the first house the golem had spun out of. It's... sparsely decorated, to say the least. "The Interface translates everything for ."
"Most of the ti." Ahkelios shakes his head. "So things it doesn't. Because it's part of the Trial, you see."
"Of course," I sigh.
But maybe there's another reason it translates so things and not others sothing that runs deeper than the Trials themselves. Ahkelios has already said that the Integrators aren't in full control of the Interface, and if we take that together with the ntion that there's sothing unique about the Fracture, and the strange way Gheraa behaved when I t him...
As I think this, I co across the alcove the stone golem must have erged from. It's a recess carved into the wall, decorated with the sa intricately carved lines that were on the golem itself. Residual Firmant still thrums along the lines, and I tentatively reach out with my Firmant sense, wondering just how much I can understand.
Not much, it turns out. The alcove is clearly a charging station of so sort, but that's about all I can glean from it; if there's a reason that the lines are organized the way they are, I have no idea what that reason is.
Everything else about this house is almost eerily dostic, considering the deadly golem that burst out of it. There are tables, chairs, and shelves, all carved from the sa pale-brown stone; it's incredibly plain, now that I think about it.
If this had been lived in, even if it had been abandoned, I would expect to find decoratives. Maybe the remnants of the fra of a painting, or sothing carved onto the walls. Instead, the room is devoid of anything decorative as can be, like it's a mockup of a living space more than an actual living space.
It slls like old, musty dust, and my footsteps echo in the empty space.
"I have no idea what to make of this," I finally say out loud. I glance at Ahkelios, who stares curiously around from my shoulder. "You have any ideas?"
"It looks lonely," he says. He peers around, still clinging close to .
He's not wrong. There's sothing kind of lonely about a ho that looks like it should have been lived in. There aren't even any of the facilities I would expect out of any organic species no restrooms, no beds, nowhere to cook...
I wonder if this was the Fractured Guardian's ho.
Was that thing alive? More than it had seed?
"There's nothing in here," I say at last. The Firmant charging the alcove leads off into the distance, further into the Fracture; I won't find its source here. I doubt I'll even find its source this loop, in all honesty. If I reach out as far as my Firmant sense extends, I can vaguely sense the lines of Firmant heading downwards, and I've already determined I have no plans of going too far down this loop.
Or... almost nothing none. I frown.
Those sparks of Firmant I sensed are still ebbing and flowing and one of them is nearby, too dim to be sensed until the latest pulse. I follow my sense of it, walking over to the empty-looking shelf.
I have to stand on a chair to see it, but it's not completely empty. There's a small fragnt of what looks like pottery on there, incredibly out of place in the otherwise mostly-pristine room. Even if I'd spotted it, I doubt I would have given it a second thought without my ability to sense Firmant, because now that I'm close to it...
The Firmant within it is anchored, not unlike the way Mari taught how to anchor Firmant but the knot is by far the most complex thing I've ever seen. More than that, I have no idea what type of Firmant it is or what it's doing. It feels old. Older than anything I can imagine.
Ahkelios has climbed his way up to the top of my head so he can stare at it. "Why're you looking at a rock?" he asks.
"Because there's Firmant in it," I answer, distracted. Now that I think about it, I suppose other Trialgoers might not have paid attention to this at all not if sensing Firmant is sothing unique to having unstable Firmant, or whatever it was Tarin had said.
But what is it?
I reach out and pick it up, turning it over in my fingers briefly. It doesn't seem to react to my touch at all; it continues that faint pulsing of Firmant. I'm about to pocket it for later experintation when Ahkelios clambers curiously down my arm, poking at it
and abruptly vanishes.
"Ahkelios?!" I'm startled.
Thankfully, he pops back out of the fragnt a second later, looking awed. "Whoa," he says. "This thing has a skill in it! Or, uh, part of one, anyway."
I stare at him. "I have many questions. Like 'how did you do that', 'how do you know that', and 'how do I get the skill'."
"I dunno, and I dunno, and I think you have to complete it?" Ahkelios puts a hand to his chin. "I bet Mari can help you. This looks like an imbuing thing."
It really does. I try reaching out with Firmant Manipulation, but the knot of Firmant inside it is so complex that I don't want to touch it for fear of unravelling the whole thing so I pocket it instead.
Yet another reason to survive this loop.
It'll be a few more minutes before I completely recover from the Firmant strain of that last fight, so I sit myself down in one of those stone chairs.
They're about as uncomfortable as they look. I pull up the Interface, glancing over it with so trepidation.
[ Loop 13 in progress. ]
[ Status:
Na: Ethan
Strength Skills: Crystallized Strength (Rank C)
Durability Skills: Tough Body (Rank E), Second Wind (Rank B), Barrier (Rank D)
Reflex Skills: ntal Acceleration (Rank C)
Speed Skills: Firestep (Rank C), Triplestep (Rank E)
Firmant Skills: Temporal Fragnt (Rank C), Firmant Manipulation (Rank D), Color Drain (Rank C)
Inspirations: The Mirror Twice Shattered (Firmant, Unique)
Credit Distribution:
Strength: 84 (47 banked)
Durability: 97 (84 banked)
Reflex: 66 (58 banked)
Speed: 97 (79 banked)
Firmant: 10 (100 banked) ]
On the one hand, it's nice to see how far I've co. On the other... I grimace. Talk about decision paralysis.
Every single category other than Firmant can be used to trigger an Inspiration right now, assuming that the rewards are the sa for reaching the hundred-credit threshold in the other categories. I don't want to touch Durability and Speed they're so close to giving a guaranteed Rank B skill that I can't help but feel it'll be better if I just wait those three points out.
Between the others, ntal Acceleration has proven enormously useful, and I imagine a Rank C Reflex skill on top of an Inspiration should be another ga changer for . Strength isn't as close as Durability and Speed are, but it's close enough that I want to wait but given my main opponents in the Fracture are those Fractured Guardians, and even Crystallized Strength is insufficient to really hurt them...
"I think I'll bank Reflex first," I say, half to myself and half to Ahkelios, who is peering straight at my Interface. The status screen is apparently fully visible to him. "What do you think?"
"Sensible," the mantis says, nodding seriously. "The gap of power between ranks goes up as the ranks go up, so waiting for a guaranteed Rank B skill is going to benefit you more, but you can't wait forever."
"And Reflex is slow to train." I sigh. I suppose I could try to hone it by doing nothing but dodging an opponent's attacks, but I had been doing that with the Fractured Golem; apparently, that hadn't been enough to net more than 15 credits.
Maybe there's a better way to train it. I'll have to pay attention to how far I need to push myself before I really start gaining credits in that category.
[ Are you sure you wish to bank 66 Reflex credits? ]
Yes.
[ 66 Reflex credits banked! Rolling for results... ]
[ Select between:
Foreknowledge (Rank C)
Intuitive Analysis (Rank C)
Enhanced Perception (Rank C) ]
[ You have unlocked an Inspiration. Bonus will comnce once skill selection has taken place. ]
"Foreknowledge, Intuitive Analysis, and Enhanced Perception," I read out loud. This particular window Ahkelios doesn't seem to be able to see; he waves a hand in front of his face, as if irritated that he can't see it. "You know anything about those?"
"I don't think I ever got Foreknowledge as an option," Ahkelios says. He hops onto the table and frowns thoughtfully. "Intuitive Analysis and Enhanced Perception are both really good, but Enhanced Perception takes longer to get used to. They function best together, actually, so you might want to hope you get another instance of Intuitive Analysis."
"But what do they actually do?"
"Intuitive Analysis filters information for you and then fills in the rest with data from the Interface," Ahkelios says. "It's not entirely intuition-based like the skill na implies but the more you understand sothing, the more information you can get about it."
That sounds useful. Especially if I can use it on skills themselves before I get them. Even if I can't, being able to tell what the Fractured Golems are doing, or what Naru skill Naru might be using... That's an attractive prospect.
"It does an that you won't get as much information if the Interface doesn't know sothing," Ahkelios adds. "It's rare for that to happen, but it does happen. Especially around the Fracture."
"Which is right where I am, of course," I grumble.
"Enhanced Perception is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It makes you capable of processing a lot more information at the sa ti. It can be a bit overwhelming at first you have to learn to filter out information all over again but it can be incredibly useful."
I feel like that's sothing I can already train on my own. It's a bit of an arrogant thought, and I'm sure the Firmant skill would be far more effective, but a part of is almost reluctant to pick it up. Maybe it's pride.
It won't stop from picking it up if I think it's the most useful one I can get, though. I'm still leaning towards Intuitive Analysis, just because it's a way of getting information I wouldn't be able to get otherwise.
But then there's Foreknowledge.
Ahkelios hasn't seen the skill before, but the na itself is pretty telling. Since it's a Reflex skill, I assu there's so similarity with Danger Sense, which I rember getting as an option the last ti I banked Reflex. Foreknowledge is a lot more vague, though; the implication there is maybe that it will let learn about more things than just danger in advance.
I'm tempted to pick it, if not for the simple fact that I'm in a ti loop. Foreknowledge is just a function of dying and waking up again. It's not perfectly comparable, obviously, but it's close enough to make pick sothing else.
Intuitive Analysis.
[ Intuitive Analysis (Rank C) obtained! ]
[ Inspiration comncing. ]
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