An excerpt from the journal of Irsorth the Bright

What is power? My people tell me that it is something they give to me, that they bestow upon the person they think most worthy. My enemies say that it is the strength of one's own skill, the ability to force your will upon the world. Bine says that power is an illusion, that prisoners squabling amonst themselves have no concept of what it truly is. I do not know the answer.

It takes me a week to reach the desert that Carmen had mentioned. I set up camp right at the border and my first night is spent marveling at the strange changes that Genesis made. I’d seen hints of what the geographical shift had done but never anything as significant as what lies in front of me.

Soft rolling hills, the dominant landscape once I left the forests that surrounded Everwall, sharply change into a stark desert. Sand whips through the air, carried by gusts of wind, and gathers into small tornadoes, each one collapsing upon themselves after a few moments. Rocks and cacti dot the landscape, breaking up the monotony of sand with little bursts of color or substance. The border looks as if someone drew a line across a map and the shape of the world followed.

Questions about the change fill my mind but I try not to worry about them. Like most things about Genesis, I’ll either figure it out eventually or I’ll never discover the answer. It’s a frustrating realization but I guess that is what happens when one is taken into a strange new world. The troubles and worries of my old life have been replaced by things I once thought were constrained to the world of fantasy.

Of course, none of that this is important when compared with my current objective. All I know is that my opponent will show up at this location in the near future. So that leaves me with one thing to do until he arrives; train.

I wake up the next morning and spend an hour molding the land around me. Earthen Barrier is used to heighten a platform so that I can see into the distance. Echolocation is constantly active, thousands upon thousands of small pieces of Sound Mana cast out into the distance before some return to me. They paint the picture of a barren landscape; small creatures hunt in short bursts of movement but they are mainly content to wait for their prey. It is almost as if they understand not to waste their energy.

The surest sign of my training, however, are the charred circles that surround the platform. Each one is a chaotic circle of burnt landscape, wild patterns cast into the ground beneath me as if drawing with fire. These are the remnants of my favorite new Skill; True Lightning Strike.

It was dangerous to practice in the city, as I was afraid of injuring the weak civilians, but that worry is gone in the wilderness. I’m free to unleash myself as the force of nature that I am, to feel the shaking vibrancy of power as it courses through me and out into the world. I love being in Everwall, and teaching Joselin and the students how to control Mana fulfills me in a strange way, but it can’t compare to the rush that I feel when I’m out in the wild alone.

Helldarvin has left its impact and I somehow know that it is permanent.

But none of that matters as I once again call the Mana out into the world. Focusing on a small cactus one hundred feet away, I release the Plasma Mana into the world and feel it rip open a channel between it and my right hand. The Electricity Mana follows, filling the channel in an instant to create a perfect bolt of destructive lightning. A crackling noise and flash of burning light surround me but I’m immune to their effects; my own Mana will not damage me as long as I control it.

The light soon fades away and my eyes focus in on the charred cactus in the distance. Most of it has been reduced to nothing, leaving behind a small husk of smoking plant that isn’t a quarter of its previous size.

Congratulations! True Lightning Strike has reached Skill Level 18!

I pull up my Skill list, recoiling at the sight of it. I’m not disgusted by the level of my Skills, as I managed to gain quite a few while teaching, but by the format. The number of Skills I have gone beyond the simple list that was once enough. I need a new way to look at them, a more streamlined approach.

Furrowing my brow, I set myself to the task of cleaning up the display. It takes me an hour but I’m hoping that the time put in now will help increase my efficiency in the long run. Seeing my Skills listed out this way will allow me to determine where I need to focus my attention on.

Way Points: 262

Elemental: Fleet Feet of Air Lvl 65, Elemental Mana Lvl 60, Freezing Beam Lvl 55, Fireball Lvl 52, Stone Armor Lvl 50, Wall of Flame Lvl 50, Chilling Wind Lvl 43, Ball of Oil Lvl 42, Earthen Barrier Lvl 35, Ice Bomb Lvl 16, Sapping Ice Lvl 10, Shatter Lvl 5

Higher Energy: Higher Energy – Motion Lvl 32, Echolocation Lvl 24, Instant Acceleration Lvl 20, Field of Silence Lvl 20, Higher Energy – Sound Lvl 18, True Lightning Strike Lvl 18, Higher Energy – Electricity Lvl 13, Conductive Body Lvl 11, Higher Energy – Plasma Lvl 11, Electrical Discharge Lvl 9

Mana: Mana Bullet Lvl 99, Mana Infusion Lvl 88, Mana Manipulation Lvl 86, Effortless Presence Lvl 72, Mana Blade Lvl 50, Weapon Imbuement Lvl 49, Condensed Mana Bolt Lvl 20

Mental: Passive Mental Search Lvl43, Active Mental Search Lvl 43,, Indominatable Will Lvl 35,, Combat Ranking Lvl 28, Screaming Mind Lvl 26, Mediocre Telepathic Mind Lvl 24, Mental Illusion Lvl 20, Debate Lvl 12

Misc: Pain Resistance Lvl 56, Teaching Lvl 48, Foraging Lvl 38, Climbing Lvl 27, Manual Labor Lvl 25, Disguise Lvl 19, First Aid Lvl 11

Physical: Sprint Lvl 60, Staff Mastery Lvl 47, Trap Making Lvl 35

The new format fills me with a sense of accomplishment. No longer will I have to look at an endless undecipherable paragraph of text to understand and sort my Skills. More importantly, the new format also includes the amount of available Way Points that I have, something that I don’t check as often as I should. While they are still exciting, the Way points and Skills have become a stable part of my life. Stability breeds complacency.

Mentally berating myself for forgetting to check, I am a bit astonished to realize that I have enough points to finish off the Way of One with Mana. Three months have passed but the majority of my time was taken by the school; any time spent training was mainly hypothetical. Instead of endlessly using my Skills, I focused on the theory behind them to try and understand their components better. It’s only now, confronted with the sheer amount of Way Points that I’ve managed to gather, that I realize how effective of a training technique it really was.

Bringing up the way screen, I spend 215 of the accumulated points to finish off Way of One with Mana.

Your mind begins to comprehend Mana’s true capabilities, pushing beyond the boundaries that trap the vast majority. What does it mean to truly manipulate Mana? Are you blindly pawing at the tools given to you or do you understand what rests beneath? A choice comes your way. Reward: +100 Mana.

You have broken thought the boundary of understanding. Mana is capable of so much more than you previously imagined. The tools you were given limit your potential while increasing your capability. What will you choose? Will you accept the tools that were given or will you seek the deeper understanding? Choice:

Deeper Understanding: You cast away the tools that bind you, recognizing that they damage your full potential. Mana cannot be contained into small Skills with singular uses, it is an organic force that yearns to be used in new and creative ways. Reward: You purge yourself of all Elemental and Higher Energy Skills and their combined levels will be added to the respective Manipulation Skill. Manipulation will become your only Skill by which you control specific energies and you will be capable of unthinkable feats. Your only boundary will be the limits of your imagination and the Mana within you. Warning: Mana costs will increase with potency and time.

Power through Limits: You understand that there is power within limits. Unrestricted manipulation is uncontrolled manipulation and uncontrolled manipulation is weak. You know exactly what your Skills are capable of. Reward: You cannibalize the power that had accumulated to separate yourself from the limits of Skills. In so doing, you double the size of your Mana Well. Potential Size: 4640 Mana

My eyes widen as I read the two notifications, hands becoming clammy as I sit on the ground and nervously rub them on my pants legs. What lies in front of me is a decision that has the potential to impact me almost as significantly as my Class did.

Deeper Understanding is absolutely fascinating. I don’t know if it has been due to the effects of the Way, but I’ve recently been feeling constrained by Skills. My Higher Energy’s have the potential to be extremely powerful but they are limited by the Skills that I am able to create, which are in turn limited by the amount of time I spend focusing on leveling them. It is a vicious cycle that causes me to focus on single Skills in order to improve their effectiveness.

To be able to cast away the limits of Skills and freely manipulate the Energies that I discover … the idea roots itself in my mind.

Power through Limits, on the other hand, fills me with a strange sense of unease. Every decision that has brought me to this point has been, whether I intended it or not, focused on casting away my limits. I turned down the power of the Arcane Gunslinger and used hundreds of Way Points in Latent Talent, which led to my discovery of my Class. If the reward of the choice weren’t so tempting, I’d go with my gut. But the idea of doubling the size of my Mana Well … that is something I can’t ignore.

I spend the next hour staring at the words in front of me, hoping to discern some deeper meaning through constant repetition. Unfortunately, none makes itself clear. In the end, it is as it always is; a tough decision for me to make.

In a sense though, it isn’t a tough decision at all. I know what I want, no matter how enticing the reward of the other is.

Closing my eyes, I click on the notification and feel a wave of power crash down upon me. Understanding of Skills like Fleet Feet of Air and Fireball shatter into a thousand base components, each one of which is taken by the wave of power and stitched into a corresponding Manipulation Skill. My body is frozen during the entire process and time loses meaning as each Skill is slowly broken down. It finally ends and I collapse onto the ground, gasping for breath. It may have felt like hours but the sun rests in the same position above me, watching down like an amused god.

I can tell that the majority of my Skills are gone but it … it doesn’t feel as if they have left me. The understanding of each Skill rests within my mind and I can call up every component with a stray thought. This needs to be tested.

Raising my right hand, I bring forth the components of Stone Armor that were related to the manifestation of the gauntlet and substitute the base material for a combination of Plasma and Electricity. A glove forms, comprised of a single bolt that moves at incomprehensible speeds to cover the entirety of my right hand. The air around me crackles as it becomes ionized through the contact.

The adaptability is incredible but it doesn’t come without costs. Analyzing the gauntlet of flowing lightning for twenty seconds cost me nearly a tenth of my entire Mana Well. I know that combining three different Energies is expensive but ten percent of my entire Well is an extreme amount. Obviously I’ll need to change my battle tactics to account for the new potential and increased drain.

A quick look at the new Skills shows a drastically different picture compared to what was there before:

Elemental Manipulation Lvl 483, Mana Manipulation Lvl 464, Motion Manipulation Lvl 52, Sound Manipulation Lvl 62, Electricity Manipulation Lvl 33, Plasma Manipulation Lvl 29

Looking up at the sun, I gauge the distance towards the horizon and estimate that I have about 4 hours left until it sets. Cracking my neck, I raise both my hands and conjure up each one of my different Energies. No time like the present.