The queen would not let her kingdom fall. There was still one more thing that she could do for her kingdom, that she could give to her people. The queen leapt from the highest point of her castle, soaring into the sky to face Dark Moon.

She was the Azure Queen, and she would grant her people the same protection that she always had. Her gown was her bond, and it grew to match her intentions. The entire kingdom was turned to azure, as she wanted not to protect herself but her home. The azure silk of her sleaves billowed out over the kingdom, and she held firm against the moon’s final descent.

However, for all her strength and skill, she could not win against the Dark Moon. Slowly the queen’s life drained away. Her dress tore as her body broke. All her strength, all her life did nothing more than give her people another moment. In the end, that was all she could do.

Her people had been witness to the queen’s struggle. They had seen the queen give her life to give them a mere moment more. They had felt the warmth of her life, as the skies were painted in her azure glow. In their final moment, all her people had but only one phrase to say to the Azure Queen.

“Thank You”

Mash looked down at the book. His mind swimming with the story, and he was surprised to feel that he could almost picture it within his mind. That one moment the queen had sacrificed everything to make. Mash didn’t know if he could do the same. To face such inevitable demise and fight back. All so that someone else could live for another moment. Even after reading the story, he wasn’t sure if it was something he could do. The story resonated with him though, and he considered what this choice would mean for him. Honestly, the accessory was probably the most practical decision, but he didn't feel like he really needed it. With Priscilla and hunt, he didn't really need the accessory to just repeat what he already had. Similarly, the weapon probably wouldn't be better for healing than his new skills. Even the armor was somewhat redundant, but he still felt like he was leaning towards it.

If he chose to make his armor his bond, he knew that the actual armor didn’t matter. The queen had chosen a dress, and he could just as easily choose a casual outfit. According to the book, he would bond to the raw material. He would need to mold its design afterward. He considered something like metal or wood but decided that he would probably just go with cloth. Its defenses were based on his stats, and the armor’s material wouldn’t matter in the slightest. He doubted it would be much better than his scales, but he was interested in it for another reason too.

The armor wouldn’t get damaged so long as he remained undamaged. Its state would match his own life, and it would shape itself to fit any of his transformations. He knew that picking something to save himself some embarrassment was stupid, but it was just one factor. He didn’t immediately choose it, and instead looked at the next story first. The accessory didn’t have one. He wondered why there was a discrepancy and assumed that no one had chosen that bond.

Mash opened his storage space to grab some of his clothes. He would tear them up to get the material needed for the bond. Daniel finally seemed to gather himself and yelled as he walked over.

“Stop! Don’t use torn-up scraps for something like that. Here, I have something much better. This is called cloud cotton and is extremely valuable.”

There was a weird degree of respect in Daniel’s tone, and Mash could tell that he was struggling to speak like he was before. It didn’t stop Mash from taking the offered cotton. The cotton literally looked like it was made of clouds, and he let his desire get the better of him. Although he did question Daniel while he grabbed it.

“What’s with the tone?”

Daniel flinched a little at the comment but answered promptly as he had before.

“Your KI far eclipses my own, not to mention that it is even greater than the masters. I had assumed that you were in a lower realm, considering your proclaimed age, and I am sorry for how I had been speaking before.”

Within his domain, Mash could see Jill open her mouth. Before she could say something snarky, Mash rushed to get his words out.

“No, please don’t do that. I have not done anything to deserve anything like that. And can you explain why realm and KI even matter?”

It wasn’t that he was completely clueless, it was just that he wanted to hear it from the man himself. Mash assumed that it was like levels, but he didn’t know what any of it meant. Daniel seemed to relax, though that might just be because he was doing something he was obviously familiar with. He lectured Mash and in turn Jill about the fundamentals of Paths. This included a description of realms and how to grow them. Mash listened attentively, though he didn’t know what he thought about it.

According to Daniel, a path was improved through regular meditation. Mash wasn’t sure how well the translation was working because that didn’t sound particularly difficult. From what Daniel was saying, it just sounded like Mash would need to meditate regularly and he would eventually improve his realm. Daniel went into the details about how to do that exactly, and Mash was surprised to realize that he knew what to do already. The other thing he talked about was the realms in general, and Mash quickly understood that his realms were not normal. Daniel suggested that his realm might similar to those that monsters possess, especially if he considered the name literally. He didn't know much about monster realms himself but said that he would look into it for him. Apparently, there was a sect comprised of humanoid monsters, and he would attempt to gather information from them. Mash was grateful as he was completely clueless on the matter.

He had done something similar back when he was a kid. It was the simple process of pushing his own energy out of his body while drawing in some from the environment around him. All he would need to do was repeat that until he felt a noticeable improvement. Daniel let him keep the glass bead so that Mash could keep track of his progress. Jill considered joining Mash, but he told her that might not be the best idea. He remembered when he had done it and developed his core. It had fundamentally changed his class path, and he didn’t think she wanted that to happen. Ultimately, the decision was hers to make. All he could do was give her the relevant information.

After the lecture ended, Mash got to the more important part of his path. He tried bonding with the cotton. According to the book, he would need to drop some of his blood onto the cloth while imagining the shape he wanted. Mash use one of his other outfits as a reference but included some slits on the back to adjust for his wings. He used them regularly enough that he should’ve included them with all of his outfits.

The drop of blood fell onto the cotton, and Mash felt a significant amount of his energy drain. Then he watched in awe as the drop of blood quickly spread until it covered everything. Then the colors shifted, and before long he was left with a complete outfit. It was simple, comprising of a shirt that was a little bigger than he needed, and a set of black pants with a few extra pockets along the side. The shirt’s design was complex. It had his family symbol enlarged and placed on the back. It was big enough that it covered the entire back. The rest of the shirt was white. A single black scaled snake seemed to be moving along the shirt, and Mash realized he could actually make it move, though it did use a little energy.

Mash almost put on the outfit right then and there but stopped when he heard a commotion from the other room. It got him to look around and reminded him that he was not alone. Glad for the interruption, he started moving towards the room. He could see inside with his domain, but he still wanted to know the exact situation. From what he could tell, it looked like Red had found something.

When he got to the room’s entranceway, he could see exactly what it was. He could kind of make out what it was before, but it wasn’t obvious. Now, he could see the object for it was. A crown one made of silver. It looked to be made of interwoven ropes. What looked like flowers protruded from three places along with the crown, their stems ending in needles that would prick a person’s head. It didn’t look very comfortable. Red was holding it, but she obviously looked concerned. Mash could understand, it did look rather ominous.

“The crown of three focuses. I heard that uniting with the item is painful, but you need not be so worried. The effect is straightforward. It will give you three flying weapons from which you can channel your techniques. I’m not sure how it would work for your skills though.”

Red nodded at Daniel’s description, and gingerly raised the crown to her head. She paused and just stared at the item for a little bit. Then after a few seconds, she just plopped it on her head. Nobody moved as they watched what happened. The whole item seemed to squeeze into her scalp. Then three flower petals appeared behind her head. They were about the size of her palm, and they just floated behind her head. Mash watched as the petals slowly moved, and he could see the connection between her and the petals from within his domain. Mash didn’t actually think the item was very useful until he saw blood start flowing around them. It looked like Red could use her techniques through it. That made the item a lot better.

Daniel then gave them another lecture, this time focusing on soul-bound items. It was mainly for Red, but Jill also listened to it carefully. Daniel even had some exercises they could do to raise their affinity with the item. While they did that, Mash opened his storage space and stepped inside. He placed the path book and glass bead inside. Also, he took the opportunity to change into his new clothes. The clothing changed in size a little to fit him better.

It didn’t feel like strong armor. He had somewhat been expecting it to, but he guessed it didn’t matter so long as it worked. Mash did a simple test, growing a wooden staff and smacking his own leg. He didn’t feel anything from the impact. The armor was doing its job, but he decided to just treat it as some extra protection. He was excited to see what else the bond would provide him when he progressed on his path. Mash moved the black snake across the shirt, finding the energy drain to be insignificant enough that he could do it almost continuously. He liked the idea of it and just let the snake crawl around the shirt randomly.

When Mash rejoined the group, he saw Red and Jill whispering to their items. It frankly made them look like psychopaths. He decided to keep his thoughts to himself and shuffled over beside Daniel. As he approached, he picked up a little of what he was saying. He was talking to Luke about his soul. Apparently, Luke had been able to take whatever item he wanted. Mash was a little surprised to hear that.

“Why didn’t you grab something?”

Mash asked the question as the two of them took notice of him. He couldn’t figure out why Luke hadn’t grabbed something. It felt like he was missing out on some easy power.

“I didn’t think any of them felt right. Also, I wasn’t sure if they would work right considering…”

He trailed off and glanced at Daniel. While Mash trusted Daniel enough to share something like his skills, he could understand if the others weren’t. Their track record for getting betrayed or attacked was fairly high. Mash hoped that Daniel was as genuine as he seemed, but Mash wouldn't spill the other secrets. Either way, Mash had something more important to ask anyway. He swung his arms across his chest as he asked.

“So, what do you think? how is everything looking?”