After witnessing the cursed girl being restored to perfect health, Tyr saw a new direction had opened up for him. Mother couldn’t keep the smile off her face after he had revealed his interest in pursuing the path of the healer, though he had added the caveat that he didn’t want to fully dedicate himself to the profession.

  While it was a noble calling, he couldn’t imagine himself showing up to work regular shifts in the Temple, tending to the sick and miserable at all times. In his previous life, he had been interested in potentially becoming a doctor that would work in an acute hospital setting, but this was a new world. Magic and marvels lurked around every corner, and he itched to explore the seemingly infinite offerings waiting out there for an intrepid explorer.

  Mother hadn’t been remotely surprised or concerned about his lack of commitment to the Holy Temple. In fact, she had revealed that healers mostly joined adventurer parties and explored Instances or other dangerous regions within Savra, right in the thick of battle.

  As few people had both the inclination and natural talent to become a healer, the demand far exceeded the supply. The financial benefits meant little to Tyr, but his eyes lit up when she revealed even elite parties would snap him up in a heartbeat once he developed some basic proficiency in what she referred to as ‘the Sacred Arts.’

  “No exploring Instances until you’re older though, sweetie.” Mother wagged a finger at him. “Those monsters will still gobble you up in a heartbeat.”

  Tyr had resisted the childish urge to whine. Even with his lobotomized soul, he knew it probably wasn’t a good idea for a toddler to delve into dangerous, mysterious realms. At least until he completed his first training arc. Plus, he needed to research what exactly Instances were after hearing them mentioned several times.

  "Another reason to become a healer, or a 'cleric' as adventurers call us," Mother continued on, trying to convince him of something he had already been convinced of. "No one messes with a cleric. Harming us, or even getting in our way, can lead to serious consequences. Fines, loss of status, even physical retribution. We mostly follow the Path of Pacifism unless we have to break our vows and help in combat, though it decreases our ability to contribute to the group as a healer and buffer. Yet that doesn't make us defenseless by any means. Almost everyone is willing to take up arms in our defense. Not enough of us, and you never know when you or a loved one will get sick beyond the ability of potions to heal. That's a social armor no amount of money can buy."

  Tyr simply nodded along and patted her hand. Though he had to admit, that was a great benefit. No one would dare to mess with him or those he cared for once he officially became a cleric.

  Now that he had Garrett as his Sky tutor, GranGran for Dream and Moon, and Mother agreeing to teach him the Sacred Arts including Holy, Solar, and Life magic, the itinerary for his mystical education was starting to round out nicely. It was only a matter of time until he took his rightful place as the premier talent of his generation.

  And my righteous revenge upon Soren Goldtouch.

  After Mother healed the cursed girl and spent the rest of her mana assisting in some other complex cases, they explored some of the other areas within the Temple. As they navigated the labyrinthine complex, Tyr became convinced that some sort of spatial magic was on display, expanding the interior of the building’s dimensions far beyond what even the sprawling complex should have been capable of containing.

  While the hospital section took up a substantial area, the Temple’s primary function was as a house of worship. Various rooms and suites were dedicated to a variety of divine figures, housing shrines, statues, and priests galore. The smell of incense was ever-present and overwhelming.

  Savra apparently had quite a few gods. These deities maintained an actual presence upon the world, blessing their supplicants and lending their aid in times of crisis. Their metaphysical nature seemed different to the modern religions back on Earth. The closest analogue seemed to be something like the Greek pantheon, who were active participants within the epics of various heroes, shaping events according to their capricious whims. Functionally immortal, but susceptible to permanent death under the right circumstances.

  Some of Savra’s deities were apparently born as S-Grade divinities, though the majority of worshipped figures were Ascendants who had shed their mortal coils through feats of legend. While there were apparently conflicts and disagreements between various cults and institutions, no one claimed they were the one true religion and that all others were heretics.

  Well, supposedly. Tyr suspected Mother sanitized some of the details in her explanation.

  Mother herself worshipped a god known as The Cursed Stranger. Tyr had given her the side-eye after entering the small, dreary closet dedicated to him. No incense, no priests wearing fake smiles.

  His shrine was a simple wooden platform supporting a knee-high statue. The Cursed Stranger was a cloaked figure with four pairs of multi-jointed arms. Vivid crimson eyes blazed under his hood—fingernail-sized rubies that brimmed with Life mana. And probably some other stuff like Blood, though Tyr couldn’t sense their particular magical frequencies due to his lacking affinities.

  “Uh,” said Tyr.

  “He’s a really nice guy,” Mother explained without a hint of irony. “Maybe you can meet him some day, but he’s been in the Abyssal Depths for the last century.”

  A bouquet of white roses appeared in her hand, either magically created or pulled from her spatial ring. She set it upon the altar, and a moment later the flowers wilted into desiccated husks. Mother offered a silent prayer after her sacrifice was accepted.

  They left without another word.

  Goodness, thought Tyr. Don’t tell me she has a thing for bad boys? If that’s even what I can call these weirdos. I bet Leon used to paint his nails black and howl at the full moon or something. Whatever, it’s really not my problem.

  He let his concerns fade away during the walk back home. Especially since they stopped at a merchant stall and Mother bought him a chocolate peanut butter ice cream cone.

  ***

  “We’re baaccck!” Mother called out as they stepped into the foyer of their villa, her lovely voice echoing.

  Leon was waiting for them, hands in his pockets, looking suspiciously calm and composed. Though he wouldn’t bet on it, Tyr was certain Father had been pacing about while waiting for them to return.

  “Father!” Tyr called out, running forward to wrap his arms around the man’s waist. “Don’t worry, the Holy fire wasn’t that bad with Mother there to heal me. I’m all Purged now!”

  Leon shot Mother a look. She shook her head and smiled.

  He patted the back of Tyr’s head. “That’s a relief. I guess it’s too much to hope for a complete personality shift, though. I doubt that was your grandmother’s fault.”

  “Ha ha.” Tyr pulled away and smoothed the front of his suit. “By the way, did you use to paint your fingernails black?”

  Leon narrowed his eyes. “Yes, why? Did your Mother tell you that? I thought she liked it?”

  “Nevermind, I was just curious.”

  Curses. Why did I even ask if I didn’t want to hear the answer?

  Leon shrugged and rubbed the palms of his hands together as if plotting something. “Well, now that you’ve had your fun with your mother and grandmother, it’s my turn. How are you feeling mentally after your visit to the Temple?”

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Tyr raised a golden eyebrow. “Not bad. I mostly just watched Mother work, so it wasn’t that exhausting. Except for when she was chanting and I tried to focus on what she was saying. That hurt my head a bit, but I was able to actually make some of it out this time.”

  “Excellent. I’m envious of your Reincarnator Achievement, honestly. It even works with Words of Power, or High Divine, whatever you want to call it.” Leon rubbed his chin. “I mean, my Profession Skills are way better, but it’s a pretty handy free Achievement.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” said Tyr. “Anyways, what did you mean by ‘your turn’?”

  Of course, he knew what was coming. So far he was lacking a teacher in his main affinity, Mind. Self-study would only get him so far, and he had access to a renowned Scholar with a biological devotion to ensuring Tyr's excellence. And as much as he liked to mess around and moan about Leon, it would be hard to find a more suitable tutor. He just couldn’t resist the urge to tease the man.

  While GranGran must have had some dominion over Mind as well, she had mostly used Dream and Moon mana during their encounter. Her curse of insanity likely tainted her mental workings. Perhaps the ephemeral, malleable nature of Dreams allowed her to circumvent some of that issue, though he knew he had only seen a fraction of her true self within a controlled environment.

  Yeah, probably best not to model my mind after the Fae-Cursed harbinger of madness. Though it may be a pretty useful weapon under the right circumstances, and supposedly doesn’t break Pacifism…

  Leon grinned. “We can’t let that Mind go to waste, and you still have some General Skill slots to fill. You already have [ Meditation ] in your Archive, right?”

  Tyr nodded.

  “Well, with your talents, we’re going to go ahead and skip that one. No point grinding levels in it. Instead, we’re going to work on getting you offered its best evolution for a Mentalist as your base Skill: [Mind Palace]. This will let you have an additional skill evolution once you reach the threshold. So instead of [ Meditation ] evolving at Level 50 and receiving Level 50 [Mind Palace], you’ll start at Level 1 and have an additional specialization at the first threshold.”

  Tyr nodded thoughtfully. Volume 1 of System Compendium had touched upon this topic, though it had recommended specific texts to the reader to explore the various theories and evolutionary pathways in more depth.

  He could have attempted the same for his other General Skills, but there were benefits of starting with the typical base. One of them was flexibility. He could have learned the Rare Skill [Chanting] instead of [Singing], but the latter had broader benefits that would carry over into the evolution. Some people even chose to keep their base Skill across their level thresholds, preferring a general enhancement to their proficiency instead of narrowing in on a specialized path.

  Tyr waved goodbye to Mother. He’d enjoyed their outing together, but he found he was eager to train his absolutely bonkers Mind. Much of his mental energy had been wasted over the years, as he had never had a proper channel for his focus. Having a Totality in the affinity meant that he should be capable of doing anything related to Mind. Perhaps even more than people thought was possible, since the excess over 100 must serve some purpose.

  Tyr rubbed the palms of his hands together as if plotting something. Time to build a mental skyscraper.

  ***

  “Wow,” said Leon. “I thought you’d be better at this.”

  Tyr gritted his teeth, trying to ignore his Father’s jibes. He knew it was mostly meant as a distraction, in order to train his mind to be able to focus and persist under stress, but goodness gracious the man could be a pest.

  In one of the villa’s empty rooms, Tyr sat on a meditation mat. He had settled into the lotus position, eyes closed, breathing in and out, slow and deep. The training to acquire [ Mind Palace ] should have been routine, except for Father’s constant yapping. Plus, the man had produced a lute from somewhere and would play obnoxious, jarring music whenever Tyr started to get the hang of it.

  Though Tyr had to admit, it was yielding solid gains.

  Focused Mind (Common) 27 > 29.

  Mana Manipulation (Uncommon) 8 > 11.

  His initial levels in [Mana Manipulation] had come from merely observing Mother cast her Panacea-Type Heal. Now he was actively attempting to implement it in order to control the mana from the nebulous Core within his chest.

  The new General Skill made it easier to sense the swirling energy signatures compared to the vague hints of color from before. Still, despite his astounding affinity for Mind, the clear energy was difficult to harness. He could barely even sense it; if he hadn’t known it existed in order to search for it in the first place, it may have been completely invisible.

  Following Leon’s instructions, he had managed to rouse the rest of the mana types within his Core, but Mind was strangely reluctant to follow his commands. He was able to isolate the others through intense focus and visualize them traveling down his arm, until they escaped from his outstretched palm as colorful wisps of freeform energy.

  Mind, however, refused to budge. Leon’s antics were absolutely not helping.

  Curse him!

  After that mild outburst of thought, Tyr forced himself to remain calm. This was a test. A trial. He had passed his other trials with flying colors, so why was this one so annoying? And the more he anguished over it, the more he seethed, the farther away his understanding of Mind mana seemed to be.

  [Mind Palace] was an evolution of [Meditation]. The base skill required tranquility of mind. Calm. Enlightenment. Tyr’s internal monologue was usually constant, hyperactive. It probably didn’t help that most three-year-old brains were not well-suited for achieving Nirvana. Yet he had convinced himself that he was special, and if he really wanted to get serious, he could exert complete and utter control over himself.

  Reality was a harsh mistress.

  After an hour of this ordeal, Tyr’s patience had long since worn thin.

  He opened his eyes and stood up, brushing off his pants. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to let me get the General Skill first, then we could train it with distractions? This is a waste of my time.”

  Leon stopped flailing away at the lute and leaned back in his chair, a smug smile on his face. “You know, I’m considered pretty talented myself, and it took me two weeks to gain [ Meditation ] when I was five years old. I was eight by the time I learned to utilize my Mind mana in any sort of freeform technique. That was back when your grandmother wasn’t cursed and took my and Emory's training very seriously. She was still quite the spitfire back then—the Fae cursed her for a reason, after all.”

  Tyr exhaled deeply and rubbed his forehead. “Okay, you’re right. Maybe I’m being a bit unrealistic. But how did you do it? Is there some trick, or what?”

  Leon shrugged. “Stop trying so hard.”

  Tyr began to speak up.

  Leon held up a hand, silencing him. “Your understanding of affinities and your Core is sorely lacking. You may be thinking of it as some external source of power that you need to tame and put under your control. That is the case when you draw ambient mana from your surroundings to empower one of your workings. But your Core is part of you, like your heart or your lungs. Your heart beats unconsciously, you breathe unconsciously unless you’re intentionally focusing on it.”

  That struck a chord with Tyr, though he still didn’t grasp how he was supposed to unconsciously utilize his Core to consciously control his mana.

  “Okay, so what am I supposed to do?” he asked.

  Leon strummed at his lute absently, eliciting a pleasant melody for once. “You’ve already done it. The same way that your conscious actions and thoughts will influence your dreams, these intentional actions are prepping your subconscious mind down the right mental pathways. Anyways, that concludes our lesson for today. Dinner time!"

  ***

  That night, Tyr lay in his bed, hands clasped atop of his chest. As always, he reviewed the course of his day. What he had done right, what he had done wrong. What to change and improve. What cringeworthy things he had done—that always occupied a disproportionate amount of his brooding.

  Still, it had been an eventful day. His future was beginning to coalesce. His path, his self-actualization, was crystallizing.

  Exhausted, his eyelids began to droop against his will. Sleep began to overtake him. He was in the twilight of consciousness, that flimsy border between being awake and being fully asleep, when he felt the slightest stirring of clear mana within his Core. In fact, it seemed that his Core was much larger than he thought. The marble-sized insides contained most of his affinities, while a clear outer mantle of Mind mana surrounded it all, more than tripling its true size.

  Slowly, that Mind mana began to trickle up through his neck, into his head.

  Within his imagination, blurred by exhaustion, a small hut appeared. A flimsy, lopsided wooden construct that looked like a stiff breeze would knock it over. Yet, it wasn’t quite as fragile as it appeared. Clear mana coated the surface, reinforcing the hut.

  [ General Skill Mind Palace (Rare) is now available. ]

  Will 11 > 12

  Damn I’m good, Tyr thought, a moment before sleep claimed him.