What progress have I made, and how can I become better?

I lay still for exactly the time it took to answer this question honestly, which was less than a minute, because honesty did not require deliberation when you had died enough times to have stripped the self-flattery out of your accounting.

Death clears the head well, folks, only problem is that it is rather, em, permanent.

What progress have I made? I had knocked down a demon using a Surge-Spark combination that might have more potential to kill rather than just stun these demons.

I had kept Bari and Dara alive longer than any previous loop, and I had reached Commander Rel.

I had two new skills I had not possessed at the start of the previous loop, and a Title that was showing me things I did not yet fully understand.

So, how do I become better?

Use the Surge-Spark combination on the first demon before my Anima Depth was spent.

Find Rex before the eruption.

Understand why the second demon circled Dara rather than killing her.

If possible, get closer to the Adept Mages near the pyramid, to see if I can understand or stop what is happening before it starts.

Four objectives. I opened my notebook and wrote them down because writing them made them real in a way that thinking them did not, although my last objective still seemed a little bit too far-fetched, not unless I could move with irrefutable proof, I would just be dismissed.

So I need to learn as much as possible before even considering this last step.

I thought of erasing this last objective, but I left it there; who knows what surprises the day had for me?

Then I called up my status screen.

[Name: Elric Voss]

[Age: 16]

[Title: Death-Touched]

[Available Titles: Acolyte]

[Anima Depth: 35 (Acolyte)]

[Disciplines:]

Threadwork 39 (Acolyte)

Surge 33 (Acolyte)

Spark 19 (Initiate) — Surge sub-skill

[Auxiliary Skills:]

Concentration 32 (Acolyte)

Anima Sensitivity 27 (Initiate)

Observation 26 (Initiate)

Meditation 18 (Initiate)

Endurance 19 (Initiate)

Cooking 15 (Initiate)

Inscription 19 (Initiate)

First Aid 8 (Initiate)

Cartography 6 (Initiate)

Demonology 6 (Initiate) — Rare — Unregistered

Marksman 12 (Initiate) — Uncommon

[Blessings: —]

[Soul Condition: Stable]

I sat with the screen for a moment longer than usual, my eyes resting on Concentration. 32 (Acolyte)

I had noticed the crossing during the chaos of the previous loop, the notification arriving somewhere in the middle of everything, but I had not had the space to feel what it meant until now, sitting in my tent in the quiet of the morning.

I reached inward the way I had learned to reach, toward the place where my Anima lived, and tested the grip.

It was different.

Not dramatically. Not the way crossing into Acolyte had been different for Threadwork, where an entire new range of configurations had opened like a door.

This was quieter than that. More like the difference between holding something with effort and holding something because your hand had simply closed around it and would not let go without being told to.

The mental grip on my Anima channel was no longer something I was doing. It was something I was.

Suddenly, a new notification made me grin.

[Anima Depth: 35 — 37 (Acolyte)]

For a moment, I stared at this notification while feeling the subtle changes happening to my body.

My mind felt clearer, and there was a subtle itch across my skin as if my entire body had just grown a bit. I knew this was not just a sensation as our bodies actively adapted to the growth in our Anima Depth, although I was not sure there had been anyone who had been able to progress as fast as I before, due to the fact that, technically, a few minutes ago, my Anima Depth was at 34.

To test these subtle changes I was feeling inside me, I held a Threadwork lattice in my mind without casting it, just the shape of it, built in thought alone, and pushed it to the third corner where it always wobbled, usually this is where my Concentration had always fractured slightly under the load of holding the full structure, and found nothing there.

Now there was no wobble or fracture. The corner held with the same solidity as the first.

I let it go and sat with that for a moment. Then I stood and picked up my staff and felt the three charms settle.

Mel... mum... dad...

I was so grateful that they were far away from this place, because I did not know what I would do if I saw them hurt.

®

I went through the morning routine at the pace of someone who had calculated exactly how much time it required and was not prepared to spend more.

The robe, staff, and charms were checked and released.

When I pushed open the tent flap, the camp was in its usual rhythm, cook fire burning to embers, the other Acolytes already at their bowls.

Dara looked up as I crossed toward the fire, her eyes going to the light position and then back to me with the expression she used when she was noting something without commenting on it.

I picked up the ladle and the thyme behind the left supply crate.

"Porridge is bad," Bari said.

"I know," I said.

"You always know," he said pleasantly.

I smiled, "Maybe it’s because we have been eating the food from the same cook who makes no effort."

Saying this, I began my small changes to improve the taste of the food, and before long, my efforts were rewarded.

[Cooking 15 → 16 (Initiate)]

Sweet, me and this porridge are becoming best partners. I wonder how much more you can teach me, dear porridge.

I served myself and sat and let the camp sounds settle over me while I thought about Rex.

He had vanished before the eruption in every loop I could account for, and I had not seen him die; with the way he dressed, I should have seen his body among the dead quite easily.

In the chaos of the previous loop, the question had surfaced and been immediately submerged by more urgent concerns. In this loop, I had time to think about it properly.

Two explanations. Either he had fled before the eruption, which meant he had known it was coming, or he had survived somewhere in the camp I had not yet reached in any loop. Both were interesting.

One was considerably more interesting than the other... I would let you decide which.