The Orb of Insight has been upgraded to the Orb of Grand Insight.

What’s this, Alice? Keynes asked, seeing the system message.

A token of gratitude from the System, she replied. It is within the System’s right to offer such awards for special merits and restarting the System on Earth is a feat worth a special acknowledgement.

Keynes was stunned by the turn of events. Being recognised by the System like this uplifted his mood. He thanked the System through Alice, then tried to figure out what was different between the normal and grand orbs.

With the System online, Keynes was able to check information about the orb via the System. The grand version wasn’t limited to one thing and lasted much longer than the normal version.

I think we should be going, Keynes said. I recovered enough.

Are you not going to use the orb?

I will but not now. Shaper’s here. I need to find out what he’s up to.

I know he is here but do you not think that using the orb is the priority, master?

Keynes got to his feet. The main street was still empty. She might be right but Keynes worried that the orb would knock him out like the first orb of perfection. It was a horrible experience…

Wait a minute, how do you know Shaper is here?

We met his spiritual companion, master.

What? That white apparition was his spiritual companion? How was it possible for me to see it?

He allowed you to see him but it also means that his master must be in a very advanced stage. I am not able to make myself visible to anyone, including other spiritual companions.

He is. He was able to use his spiritual aura to make himself invisible to my senses. He explained to me that he used threads of his aura to turn off the part of my spiritual matrix responsible for senses.

You must strengthen your spirit, master. Not only because of Shaper but the chaos apparition will eventually return. You must be ready when it does.

So the orb?

Alice nodded as she floated before his face.

Let’s find a secluded room.

***

Would you like to use the Orb of Grand Insight?

Yes/No

Keynes picked Yes.

Warning: The item is consumable. It will disappear once it is used.

Keynes ignored the second message and let the new feeling build up inside him. Whatever he looked at, he knew he could uncover its secrets. He closed his eyes and relaxed, banishing the distractions. He sat in an empty room on the second floor of an abandoned building. He’d activated [Spiritual Ghost] before using the orb. Keynes didn’t want to be found while under the effect of the orb. There was no telling if he would be aware of his surroundings and he wasn’t going to risk it. [Spiritual Ghost] had a duration of 4 minutes. It wasn’t enough to hide Keynes throughout the process but would help nonetheless.

His mind entered a strange state, where it stood on the threshold of something great. Nothing felt small, unimportant, insignificant. Keynes focused on his spiritual core, finding details he’d never seen before. The spiritual core wasn’t the smooth sphere he’d believed it to be. It was still spherical but its smoothness turned into a complex spiritual mechanism. Keynes had never seen anything like this.

The spiritual core was a centrepiece of Keynes’s body, its tendrils spread to other smaller cores. Keynes followed them, finding the six attribute cores. He didn’t have any luck figuring out how to use them. Cultivating them had failed and Keynes understood now why. He couldn’t mindlessly dump the essence into these cores as they maintained a highly sophisticated balance. Too much essence would have destabilised them. It was a chilling prospect even though Keynes didn’t know what it entailed.

He didn’t spend much time with the attribute cores as they weren’t his priority. Keynes returned to the spirit core. Even with the orb, comprehending its complexity was beyond him. But he saw the role of the essence and cultivation. Unlike the attribute cores, the spirit core had a mechanism responsible for the allocation of the essence. And while it was working well, it wasn’t perfect. The number of imperfections was significant and they added merit to what Shaper had said about rebuilding the core. The imperfections would have to be purged. For that, Keynes didn’t need to rebuild the entire core but changes were required.

During the inspection of the core, Keynes noticed something else.

Spell cores.

They were nestled around the spirit core and felt more accessible than the attribute cores. But Keynes shifted his attention away from them as the insight was slowly coming to an end. He needed to figure out a way to swiftly move beyond the Elevated stage.

The trick lay in the architecture of the core. The essence acted as the building blocks, which the core used to transform itself into a greater version of itself. The issue with the stage advancement was that the core seemed to be resistant to change. It badly desired to remain as it was. Even by the end, when all pieces were in place, it was required to force the essence into the core to trigger the transformation and advance to the next stage.

The insight ended…

Keynes sat in the same empty room. Alice floated nearby him.

How long was I out?

Oh, you are already back, master. Only a minute.

Only a minute? Keynes checked. The orb of grand insight was gone. So that was it. From now on, he’d need to figure out the rest on his own. He jumped to his feet.

Alice sharply looked up.

Your friend Vivena is looking for you, master. She is nearby. Would you like me to show you the way?

Keynes considered it then shook his head. He didn’t want to deal with Vivena right now. Her obsession with the outbreaks was becoming dangerous. He didn’t like the idea of constantly watching his back because he couldn’t trust her.

He sighed. The damned vision messed everything up.

What am I supposed to do now? He asked himself. He knew he had to meet with Wagner. Keynes owed him some rifts. With the world having easy access to Level 3 rifts now, Keynes would have to open a few Level 4 rifts exclusively for his company, so they could stay ahead of the rest.

But what about the dominion monsters here? Keynes had mixed feelings about them. Especially, when Shaper was in the city.

I had a feeling that Shaper isn’t here only because of me. Let’s get closer to the palace and see what’s going on there.

What about the insight from the orb, master? Are you not going to act on it?

I will but that can wait a bit. First things first.

***

Alice scouted the area ahead of Keynes as he floated above the buildings. They were careful to avoid unwanted attention on their way to the palace.

It was only a matter of time before Keynes ran into the first skirmish between the tribesmen and the dominion monsters. The pattern here was the same like when Keynes and Vivena had fought the dominion monsters outside the city. The first went fodder to exhaust the humans, then the power level of the monster increased until the tribesmen were overwhelmed and forced to retreat.

The dominion monsters didn’t pursue the tribesmen, only ensuring they didn’t get close to the giant ape. As expected, the moment Keynes crossed the invisible line, the flying dominion monsters appeared and attacked him.

He used his auras to get rid of the pest, as the creatures were Level 1 and mostly hampered his vision rather than causing any real danger. But even a few seconds of his auras being projected cost Keynes a chunk of his precious stamina. He seriously needed to look into good recovery gear and spells once he got back to Geneva.

By the time Keynes got to the palace, the battle was in progress but it wasn’t the kind of battle Keynes expected to find. Not all tribesmen fought against the monsters. Some groups seemed to be on the monsters’ side. Was that even possible?

What is going on here? Keynes asked.

I do not know, master. Perhaps, the dominion monsters have a way to control humans.

Now, that would be unfortunate; and dangerous.

We must investigate this.

***

Aurora entered Hawthorne’s cell. It was the only part of the palace with working runes and no vines. Only the strengthening runes were active, making the cell too hard even for a Level 3 to break out of.

It was the cheapest option available to the palace guards and still required two people to feed the runic system twice a day. These runes did their job and no one thought twice about upgrading them. Thanks to that, Aurora could freely pass through the bars with only a minimal spike of mana cost.

Her husband sat on the stone bench, his back against the wall, his eyes closed.

Aurora appeared inside. She waited a few seconds before she decided to kick her stupid husband. His eyes snapped open as he yelped.

“Wha—Ari?”

Aurora stared at him coldly.

“You’re an idiot, you know?”

“Crossed my mind, why? You think I shouldn’t stay loyal to Bonolo?”

She didn’t reply. It was a pointless discussion at this stage. The palace was in turmoil. The king threatened to kill all his royals if they failed to remove the monsters from the Capital. That move would see him dead and that was going to start a true inter-royal war. Aurora spent her entire life serving Venarys. It was a good life with a structure and future. Both the structure and the future were gone, buried under mountains of greed and betrayals.

She hated betrayals.

“We’re leaving now. We’ll take the fastest flying construct and travel to the First Tribe to collect William and leave the World Reserve.”

Hawthorne frowned, watching his wife carefully.

“And where would we go? We don’t have money. We don’t have any assets. We have nothing.”

Aurora understood his worries and she prepared remedies.

“I have a brother working for the World Government. He won’t be happy to see me but he’ll help. Even if he decides to not help us, I have some valuable itemswith me. They’ll sell for a lot. We’ll be fine.”

Hawthorne nodded then stood up. She loved that in him. He never argued with her if she was right. He knew better than putting his pride in front of him.

Aurora became intangible and invisible. She still couldn’t get over the fact that the outsider had sensed her in the old training camp. She left the cell and reappeared on the other side, then unlocked the cell with the keys she’d stolen earlier.

Hawthorne stepped out of the cell.

“What about Bonolo?”

“What about him?”

“What does it cost us to set him free?”

“For one, they’d figure out we’ve escaped sooner and might pursue, lowering our chances of getting out alive.”

I praised him too early, Aurora thought gloomily to herself, seeing her husband’s unconvinced expression. Hawthorne stood there pondering the choice. She could almost hear the cogwheels inside his brain.

“What about—”

The palace shook.

“What’s going on?”

“The Capital’s under attack but no monster should be able to shake the building. Maybe a bomb?”

“What about this dominion era?”

“I don’t know much more than you do, nor do I think it matters right now.”

The palace shook again and Hawthorne made his choice. He decided to set his friend free even if it lowered their chances of escape.

Bonolo’s cell was a few corners away. No guards there. When Bonolo saw Hawthorne his face paled.

“What are you doing?”

Instead of replying, Hawthorne opened the cell, then turned away and ran to where Aurora waited for him. Together, they got out of the dungeon. No one guarded it.

“Where are the guards?” Hawthorne asked.

“I have no idea. Something serious must have happened.” Maybe the king decided to follow up on his threat? No. That can’t be true…

Then a powerful roar physically hit them and several system messages appeared before their eyes.

The Local Dominion Boss conquered the dwelling.

*

The Dominion of Shaar has been established.

*

The Dominion of Shaar will now spawn monsters regularly.

*

Every monster inside the Dominion of Shaar gains additional buffs.

*

Every trespasser inside the Dominion of Shaar gains additional debuffs.

*

Strength of buffs and debuffs increase over time.

*

You are inside the Dominion of Shaar.

Additional debuffs have been inflicted on you.