The doors opened at a touch, no grinding or groaning as the machinery worked within the walls. However, that was the extent of preservation. Immediately before Felix was a shattered series of shelves hung heavily with a cloying dark. The small semicircle of light from the hallway revealed bone, stone, and wood snapped like kindling. They were sliced through by claw marks, some as big as Felix's thigh and deep—they split the shelves and melted the tiled flooring where they touched.

Felix stepped in, Pit close behind. He placed a paw against one of the claw marks, and it was even bigger than his own. "What did this?"

"I don't know, but it clearly has something to do with the catastrophic damage the System talked about.”

“Maybe the place got invaded by those blind Chimera."

Felix grimaced. The enslaved Chimeras he’d seen in his Grandmaster visions were not a happy memory. "Godslaves?"

"Maybe Vessels, too. It's the only thing that makes sense."

“You might be right.” Felix panned around, inspecting the dark. It was thick, actively blocking his exceptional Perception, but as he flared the stat, he could just make out things in the distance. The shelving was tall, easily three stories high, but the ceiling was far higher. Above, and perhaps several hundred yards in the distance, a series of massive Mana crystals hung from gilded sconces. Huge spikes of green, gold, orange, and blue flared outward in distinct and specific patterns. It wasn't a random outcropping or growth. This was intentional.

They glowed very dimly, barely casting enough light to illuminate their immediate surroundings, but it was clear what they were. Felix cast around and found a small Belais crystal, polished into an orb and set into a platform covered in golden sigaldry. He reached out, Will and Intent pressing gently against its array. Immediately, the Mana crystals illuminated, flickering before they steadied into a distant hum. Light flooded the stacks, but the shelving still blocked his view.

"Wait here, Pit," Felix instructed. Adamant Discord!

He rose up above the chamber on a tether of lightning, and slowed, breath caught. “This is…incredible.”

The library was uniquely structured. Vaster than the entryway with the Triumvirate statue, this was an enormous circle with a domed roof that arced above them as if they were standing inside a bubble of stone and bone. The floor itself rippled, as if a series of waves had frozen it into undulating patterns that descended and ascended across the vast expanse of the room.

The shelves stood at steady intervals, big enough for Pit to walk between them, but constructed strangely. They formed enormous circles, interlocking with one another in the oddest of patterns. Archways built through their centers allowed passage to the inner rings, and in some places the circles intersected or cut one another off. Seen from above, they resembled nothing so much as expanding ripples in a pond.

Most surprising, however, was that each shelf contained a collection of objects—for once, not empty or useless or Lost. Crystals, stone orbs, wooden obelisks, and more. The material ranged from mundane to extraordinary, from low to high Tier, and all of them exuded a specific sense of power and significance. He snagged the closest with his gaze.

Unseen Beholder.

Name: Axe MasteryRarity: CommonType: Skill Tome (Masterwork)Temper: Apprentice Tier - Grassroots BodyAttunement: NoneLore: Learn to wield an axe with deadly grace and power.Times Used: 122/400

Skill Tomes. Within him, the Beast rumbled. Its attention was caught, too. How high in rarity do they go?

A cursory glance caught other Skills that were Uncommon, and even Rare, but what arrested his attention was the destruction. The damage at the entrance was not the full extent of it. Section after section had collapsed, broken through by what was clearly a vicious fight. Even worse than the evidence of bestial violence, there were a number of shelves that were cut. Not by claws or blade, but sliced through cleanly as if pieces of the room had been simply deleted.

I’ve seen that before. His perfect recall fished through his Mind. It was the same as in several Nymean ruins: insane damage from perfectly clean cuts. Was it a Vessel?

Felix lowered himself back to the ground. "Come on, Pit. Let's start looking around."

They soon discovered that every label was in the same ancient dialect as the entrance to the Skill Library. He couldn't read them, but Unseen Beholder had no such issue. Each item pinged in his vision, a new entry without a single mote of resistance, even through the Crucible. The Skills on display varied in usefulness, and not all of them were designed for combat. In fact, many were distinctly utility-oriented, designed to help communities thrive through craft, trade, and husbandry. Mending, building, and even farming were present among even the upper rarities, which he discovered extended into the Uncommon and Rare sections, each one just as large as the Common area.

“These are all really useful. Especially if I were an Untempered guy just starting out in life.” He held up a Skill Tome that looked like a small mountain, complete with tiny trees carved out of serpentine and alabaster. He’d expected weapons and danger, not the surety of solid Skills meant to carve out a place in the Continent. “Is that why the Ruin didn’t take them all?”

He’d noticed the gaps on the shelves. There were more than a few, and near them was always another collapsed section of shelving, often cut clean. The Ruin had interfered in the library, but only sporadically. He was able to find some combat based Skills here and there though, just not nearly as many.

Something in this place preserved it against the Ruin. Felix made a note to keep an eye out for whatever it may have been. It could prove useful.

The more Felix looked, the more it felt like a treasure trove. Not for him, certainly. He didn't need to know about animal husbandry or wainwrighting, but all of it could be used to lift a population up the echelons of power. He likened it to the massive jump starts that guilds provided at the cost of one’s independence, like the Protector’s Guild. Felix’s hands practically twitched, eager to snag everything around him. If he could get it all into his own Librarium, he could disseminate it amongst everyone in his empire. Wherever a Beacon existed, these would be accessible. The thought was heady. It would be hugely beneficial to everyone, not for the fight soon to come, but beyond that, if they survived.

His steps slowed. Huh.

He’d spent so long prepping for the fight against the Hierophant, the gods, and now Ruin itself. Hours anticipating the worst things that could beset his people, and the distinct possibility that he wouldn’t make it out alive. Yet now, with just a bit of Skills to hand, he was already planning for a world beyond the battle.

Maybe that was foolish. He had no illusions about who the Hierophant and the gods were going to target when they met next—Felix was strong, but he wasn’t omnipotent. But at the very least, if he set these up right, the world could go on even if he didn't.

He tried, once more, to summon Knowledge. His Authority stretched, becoming fuzzy and granular in some unidentifiable way, before it fizzled out entirely. Just as before, he couldn’t bring the Memory construct into Etrionn. Whatever was keeping Karys and Paxus from manifesting was having a similar effect on the Geist.

"So much for having authority over Andiva," Felix muttered.

He trailed his hand down a dark shelf, letting it skip across crystalline goblets and orichalcum statues. He needed to find a way to establish Authority in Etrionn in order to access all of his regular capabilities, let alone transport any of the treasures out of the once-Walking City.

I need to find the Seat and Seal. It has to be around here somewhere.

With a gesture, he summoned his Crown of Elysium. It manifested instantly, a warm weight against his temples, and immediately he was beset by a resounding vibration. It shook through his Mind before rippling down across his Body, picked up by a the Chalice. Wincing and blinking back stars that flashed in his eyes, he banished both pieces of the Regalia. Immediately, the vibrations faded, and Felix was left panting at the end of a long, broken shelf.

It’s all of the Crescian Bronze. His Crown had always resonated with the presence of the metal, and now he was surrounded by an entire mountain of the stuff. So it’s all useless to find Seats and Seals so long as I’m inside this place.Great.

As his vision cleared, he noticed one of a few doorways leading out of the Skill Library. He'd spotted them from above, but had not paid too much attention. They looked like nothing more than private alcoves, perhaps to study the various Skills on display.

This one, however, had a sign, much like the library itself. He pulled up the map and grinned.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

Title Library.

Felix hurried to the door, throwing it open with a gesture, but stopped short. No more than three strides in, the ground was broken, and the place where once a library of some sort had stood was sheared free, leaving nothing but dangling roots and empty darkness.

“Dammit.”

The cut on the floor was clean, just like the shelves. He leaned in, running a finger across it. The edge was so finely sliced that it was polished. There was no sign of burning or distress to the remaining structure. It was just gone, obliterated entirely.

“Deleted by the Ruin.”

Felix backtracked to the Skill Library. To say he was frustrated would be an understatement. Titles and the methods to find them would have been incredibly beneficial to everyone.

“But no,” he snarled, “the selfish gods would never want things to be easy.”

He made a beeline for the far end of the library. From his observation, the Skills had grown in rarity the further inward he traveled, away from the library's entrance. There he’d find something useful.

He hoped.

Felix crossed to the very edge of the rippling shelves, watching as Rare turned to Legendary, and Legendary turned to Mythic. Beyond that was the end of the vast chamber, with no indication there were Skills of higher rarity at all.

This’ll do.

Perhaps somewhere in this massive collection, there was a Skill that could work for him.

The Skills in the Mythic rarity section were interesting. As he ran Unseen Beholder across them, he found that they ranged in usefulness, and that many were attuned to specific elemental Mana. Just like the rest, there were Mythic Skills for non-combat activities. Things that would be useful, but not to Felix. Not now. Maybe in another life.

The specific elemental attunement wasn't a problem for him. Being Unbound, he should be able to learn any of it. What held them back, however, was how expansive the Skills seemed to be. They were large. Not in size—the objects they were contained within were all still no bigger than two fists stacked atop one another. No, instead, they were powerful and unfocused. Unwieldy, even, and confusing in many cases.

He stopped at one, a Skill Tome that looked like a glass recreation of lightning. It was set right next to a clean slash through the shelving.

Name: Skyfall Stars

Rarity: Mythic

Temper: Paragon Tier—Iron Cascade Spirit

Attunement: Metal/Air

Lore: Calls down a rain of destruction from the stars themselves. Molten metal falls from the sky, piercing an area of your choosing.

Overall, a pretty useful battle Skill, especially against a larger force. Rare too, since it had avoided the Ruin’s purge somehow.

Felix hefted the Skill Tome and immediately was plunged into a Memory. He stood above a ravaged town—flying, apparently, though he couldn’t identify the Skill allowing him to do it. All he could see was an army of a thousand or so people far below. They were camped out in earthen structures that seemed pulled from the ground, many clad in stone. Felix stood in the air, feeling a distinct and vicious hate for them.

Then he felt the Skill.

It began in his core space, an amorphous ball in his gut, before traversing through his pathways and out of his hands and head. Mana and Essence both shot into the sky, congealing amid the stars that glimmered in the night. With a contemptuous gesture, they fell.

Streaks of white hot metal dropped at insane speeds, hurtling into—through—the shelters far below. Fire bloomed and screams followed. The Skill had killed many, but there were plenty still alive.

Felix licked his lips and dropped, battleaxe hefted in one hand while new Skills marshalled at his center. He—

The Memory ended, and Felix was standing in the library once more.

“Bleh.” He shook off the foreign emotions from the person who donated the Skill. Anger was well and good, but wearing someone else’s felt…icky. “Let’s see if I can remember how that Skill worked.”

Perfect recall came in clutch as he recreated the feel of the Skill’s vibrations. Pieces of it started making sense as Mana swirled in his core space, but there was a lot he didn’t catch on first viewing. He checked the Memory again, three more times. Each time he got a little closer, until the last one, where he slammed head first into a wall.

ERROR.

This Skill Is Incompatible With Your Temper.

“What?” He checked the description again. “Iron Cascade Spirit. Do I need the same Spirit to learn it? That…makes sense.”

Clearly the Temper listed was the Aspect of the donor. Felix doubted he needed exactly the same Spirit—they were too varied for that to be true—but a similar one was likely required. You couldn’t transplant a kidney without the same blood type, after all.

So learning a bunch of cool new Skills it out. Felix tapped his fingers against the Crucible, thinking.The Evolutionary Indicator made it clear that several of his Skills were on the verge of Evolving. Some of them could definitely use a boost, sitting at the Zenith level. Could he grab some Mythic Skills and combine them with his other Skills that were on the edge of Evolution? Would it net him something even better?

He'd combined Skills many times, most at first out of necessity, then at the prompting of the System itself as synergy was detected. He'd never specifically learned Skills in order to put them together, though he'd been told that that was a tactic used by many of the most powerful among the Continent. But what could use the boost most? Felix didn't have infinite time to hunt up every possible potential combination that could work for him. He needed something that would provide the biggest boost in the quickest time.

"Shaping," he said with a clap of his hands. "I need to push Sonata further to really access all that it can do. Find some and I can combine them.”

“Wait," Pit said. He'd been following behind, silent for the most part, as Felix explored the shelves, but he'd been listening. "That could mess up our Core Manifestation, can't it?"

Felix paused.

"Knowledge said something about the Core Manifestation being an accumulation, right?" Pit walked closer. "If you just add new stuff in, doesn't that interfere with how you've been…accumulating?"

"I don't know, but we can at least look."

The pair split apart, traversing every curving aisle there at the end of the library. The plan was to set anything regarding shaping aside to inspect, but they found very little. Felix wasn't exactly surprised. Shaping had always been a rare talent, even in ancient Ages. At the end of an hour, they found two Skills, and they were only lightly touched by shaping.

Name: Bright Iron Carapace

Rarity: Mythic

Name: Malignant Morbidity 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Rarity: Mythic

He focused on the Skill Tomes, one after the other, and his Mind was cast within. Memories swirled through each, captured by whomever stored the particular Skill. Felix dove into them, experiencing the casting of each Skill through foreign eyes and limbs. He felt the pathways inside of the person fill and empty, pouring magic through every Mana Gate in the case of Bright Iron Carapace, or just the feet with Malignant Morbidity.

By the time the Memories ended, Felix had a grasp on each Skill…and didn’t like them at all. They weren’t bad by any means—in fact, he was sure they’d be extremely useful for someone else, just not him. The first summoned a shell of iron across one’s Body—strong and potentially useful for attacking as well as defense, it held some promise if it weren’t so bulky. The second manifested spores in the target area that sprouted swiftly and released toxins into the air as well as wherever they took root. While the first touched on metal shaping and the second bordered on life and poison shaping, both were too far flung from his Sonata.

No matter how he inspected them, he couldn't sense a single matching bit of pattern inside the Memories. Frustrated, he set them back on the shelf. He couldn't combine them with his Skills if there were no similarities to anchor them to one another. It was possible to force it, but Felix doubted he'd like the results.

"Felix, this is... Whoa, you need to see this."

Wearily, Felix stood and walked over to his Companion, who was busily staring at an empty wall. "What are you talking about, Pit?"

"What are you even looking at?"

The tenku looked at him, clearly bewildered. "What am I looking at? It's right in front of us."

Felix frowned. Stepping forward, he placed his hands against the wall. Other than an expanse of stone carved with hundreds of blossoms, he felt nothing. There was a bit of empty space behind the carvings, but that was no more than a design of the sculpture itself.

"It's beautiful, but—we've seen this everywhere—what are you talking about? You can't—you're touching it. You're practically through it."

"Through what, Pit?"

"The door."

Felix stepped back, looking again at the expanse of empty wall. He flared his Perception, pushing his senses as best he could. He even strained his Affinity, but nothing was there.

Pit tossed his head, feather’s ruffling. "Look through my eyes."

Felix did, closing his own only to open Pit’s giant golden eyes. He didn’t do this often, sharing pieces of each other like this, and it was disconcerting to suddenly be several feet higher. The world through Pit’s vision was different. Colors were more intense and objects were sharply defined in a way that Felix couldn’t pin down. Magic swirled around them, vaporous Mana that curled across their feet and the wall—Felix blinked. Before him was a doorway, plain as day. It was inscribed with what looked like millions of sigils, the pattern of which was clearly designed to flow in ways that mimicked the carved blossoms that Felix had perceived. It was clearly an array, one so dense it was like looking at lace set into stone, bone, and wood.

He couldn't parse much of it, almost none in fact, until he flared Magus of the Grand Design.

Magus of the Grand Design is level 132!

That helped. He spotted sigils for shadow, sound, and light—all of them inverted, flipped and paired with a thousand other sigils that modified the working again and again. Recursively, repeatedly. Folding on itself until it was hidden even from itself.

Magus of the Grand Design is level 133!

What he could understand was the sign writ large across the top. A warning that shifted into English as he read it.

Halt!

All Those That Seek To Ascend The Summit Must First Find Their Footing.

To Do Otherwise Is To Risk Everything.

Below it, inscribed in golden inlay by a different hand were four simple words.

Record Of Core Manifestations.