“Your first Abilities don’t have an immediate impact, which is more common than you would think,” Neta told Duncan as they moved away from the ocean. “Those Abilities will change how you fight and smith, but for now, you need to get used to your new body. Everyone’s body changes in different ways after ranking up, so I can’t tell you exactly what’s different. Only training can do that.”

  Duncan had already felt some of the differences during his revelry on the beach. Now that his mind wasn’t as muddled from advancing, he realized the pain of his broken wrist had disappeared. “I broke my wrist during the trial,” he said as he started to twist and bend the joint. “It's perfectly fine now, though. Is that from the rank up or just the nature of being tier one?”

  “The rank up,” Neta responded. “While a tier one body will heal faster than a tier zero, it’s nowhere near that fast without some help from Abilities. When your body ranks up, the Realms help it move closer to whatever would be a perfect body for your Subjects. Since you have a combat Subject, it will draw more from that than your non-combat Subject. A broken bone doesn’t exactly help you when you’re going into battle. The same is true for smithing, but your SWORDSMITH Subject had less to do with how your body changed from ranking up.”

  As Neta finished her explanation, they reached the beach's edge, where a patch of reasonably even grass waited for them. Neta moved to one side while Duncan moved to the other.

  Cinder, who had been following behind, sat down on one of the last rocks of the beach, a smile spread over his face. “It’s been years since I’ve seen you fight, grandmother.”

  “Yes, well,” Neta went through a few quick motions with her sword before she nodded and turned her attention to Cinder. “I have my reasons, as you well know. For now, I want to test what the boy is capable of with my own hands.”

  Cinder just nodded, settling in to watch the match.

  “No enchantments for now,” Neta said, pointing to Duncan’s hairpin and boots. Take those off so you can truly understand how you’ve changed.”

  Duncan complied. Taking off his air walk boots had no immediate effect, simply forcing him to put on the extra pair of boots Cinder tossed his way. He immediately felt the absence of the hairpin, however. The moment he took it off, he felt like he’d put on glasses with the wrong lenses and as though his ears and nose were stuffed with cotton.

  After a moment, the shock of the change receded, allowing him to focus on what had changed. The difference was significant. His natural tier one perception was better than his boosted tier zero perception had been; he’d just gotten used to having the hairpin’s boost active since waking up on the beach as a tier one.

  After taking some time to get used to his new baseline perception, Duncan sent his boots and hairpin into his [Quintessential Armory]. For a brief moment, he became aware of something new. He could feel the extradimensional space tied to his new Fusion Ability like it was an extension of his body. He knew everything that was in there, as well as how much storage he had available. The swords he’d already deposited into the space felt slightly different than the boots and hairpin. Where the two enchanted items felt like they had arrived just as they had been in reality, the swords he had crafted felt more like they were painted on the walls. They were there; he could feel them; they just didn’t take up any room.

  Duncan decided to experiment a little. He summoned the last two items from his spatial ring into his hands. Because of the complexity of spatial enchantments, the ring had a very small storage space, only allowing him to store some of his favorite swords and his buckler. The only two things he’d stored in the ring that weren’t swords he’d personally crafted were his buckler and enchanted greatsword, which were both now on the ground before him.

  He willed each of them to enter his [Quintessential Armory]. Like with his boots and hairpin, they both disappeared from reality. Duncan once again felt something appear in his extradimensional space.

  “How much room do you have in that armory of yours?” Cinder asked as he watched Duncan play with his new Ability.

  “If I had to guess, it’s something like a cube with two-meter sides. So about eight cubic meters.” The metric system was yet another thing Corvelin had introduced to Earth from the wider Realms, for which Duncan was thankful. It would be incredibly annoying to have to convert everything from one system to another.

  Cinder and Neta both let out whistles of appreciation. “You usually can’t get that much space until tier three spatial enchantments, “Cinder said. “And you can put as many swords as you want in there as long as you craft them yourself. I’m starting to feel a little jealous.”

  “Says the tier nine master swordsman whose spatial ring can probably fit the entire O’Leon main house inside of it,” Duncan scoffed.

  “Don’t be daft,” Cinder chastised. Then, after a few moments, he said, “Maybe half of the house, if I organized things extremely well.”

  After a brief moment to appreciate how many swords such a storage ring could hold, Duncan decided he was ready to spar. He turned to Neta. “So, how are we doing this?”

  “No Abilities for now.” At Duncan’s slightly disappointed look, Neta elaborated. “You don’t really have any Abilities to try out at the moment. Your [From Prey to Blade] Ability can only be used while smithing swords, and [Sword Bond]’s whole purpose is to enhance your other QUINTESSENTIAL SWORD Abilities, of which you have none.”

  “So, how do I get some combat Abilities then?” Duncan asked. “I’ve heard about something called a Slip before. Two years ago, one of my cellmates in prison said something about bonding one and getting a new Ability.”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “He was referring to Ability Slips,” Neta explained as she summoned something to her hand. From where Duncan stood, it looked like a small piece of light blue paper. “Some people just call them Slips. Other than realm coins, they are likely the most important resource in the Realms. They help unlock, upgrade, and sometimes even remove Abilities.”

  She sent the Ability Slip back into her storage device. “I’ll explain more later. For now, just do your best.” Neta’s last words and wicked grin were the only warnings Duncan received before she was racing toward him. It was all he could do to summon and raise his arming sword and buckler before she was there.

  The following five minutes were the most exhilarating and eye-opening in Duncan’s 19 years of life. In his first couple of spars with Cinder, he’d experienced something similar, but this was on a whole different scale.

  Neta’s form was perfect. More perfect than Duncan would ever have thought possible. Every strike, parry, and step was precisely where they needed to be. She took advantage of every opening, simply tapping him with the blunt face of the sword when she made it through his defenses. She flowed from form to form, forcing him to do the same. He was tempted to use his [Quintessential Armory] multiple times to switch sword styles, but refrained from doing so. Instead, he relied on his new body to combine sword and shield forms in ways he’d never been able to as a tier zero.

  He used a combination of the aggressive shield bashes of the brawling buckler form and the responsive parries and dodges common to the parting river form. He tried to take advantage of his improved speed and reflexes by guarding his body with his buckler and attacking with the quick, precise stabs of the striking manticore form.

  He tried this and many other combinations. Nothing got through Neta’s guard, and she continued to make it through his. She had reduced movements and power to tier one, but it made no real difference. She could finish him any time she wanted to. He was still a hatchling before a dragon.

  Well, maybe a little more than a hatchling. As they continued to trade blows and dance around the impromptu grass arena, Duncan stopped thinking about Neta and started to pay more attention to his new tier one body. Every move he made, every slash, stab, dodge, and step, was different. His sword moved faster because of his increased strength. His movements were more fluid due to his improved balance. Every aspect of his swordsmanship was changed, along with the vessel with which he fought.

  While he could feel his strength, balance, perception, and other attributes giving him almost 50 percent more than they would have before the Subject Trial, his speed and quickness showed the most significant improvement. Every step and reaction was taken with twice the speed he’d been capable of as a tier zero.

  “You’re much faster,” Neta observed after only two minutes of back and forth, stepping back and lowering her sword to signal the end of the fight. “The Realms seem to have heightened your speed above your other attributes.” She stepped back, giving Duncan some time to catch his breath. Her long sword had left large dents in Duncan’s buckler, and it was apparent his sword was close to breaking with the number of dents and chips covering its blade. On the other hand, Neta's sword was just as it had been at the start of their bout. Duncan expected no less from a battle between Neta’s smithing and his own.

  Duncan sent his sword and buckler into his [Quintessential Armory]. Despite his enhanced endurance, the events of the day and the short but furious spar with Neta had left him exhausted. There was something else, though. Something new that he hadn’t noticed until now. It was like another reservoir of energy was flowing through his body. He tried to tap into it, harness it, and wash away his exhaustion, but he couldn’t control it. It simply continued to flow through his body like the blood in his veins.

  “I think I feel my mana,” Duncan said, finally realizing what the new energy source was. “It almost seems as if it's flowing through my body like blood, but I can actually feel it if I concentrate.”

  “It’s similar,” Cinder said from his spot on the beach. “Your new body grew something called mana channels during your rank up. With them, you’ll now be able to circulate, regenerate, and activate mana throughout your body. No one has them until tier one. One of the reasons the power jump from tier zero to tier one is so much smaller than other rank-ups is because the Realms have to use some of the energy allocated for the rank-up to add something completely new to your body instead of just enhancing what is already there.”

  “Your mana channels won’t be as good as a dedicated mage’s,” Neta took over as she sent her sword into her spatial storage. She walked up to Duncan, who was trying to concentrate on the feeling of mana moving throughout his body. “It’s all a matter of energy. The Realms read your intent, saw that you want to fight as a swordsman in melee, and enhanced your body in a way that would let you best perform as you intend.”

  “There is only so much energy your body could take, however, so it had to settle for the best it could do with the limited amount of energy you could withstand. It’s the same for everyone. For someone like Phevona, strength and speed aren’t as important as mana, perception, and reaction speed. So, the Realms will have used more of the energy allocated for her rank up to give her mana channels that can hold more mana and regenerate it more quickly.”

  Duncan turned his attention away from the mana flowing through the new channels in his body. “Is there a way to increase the amount of mana the Realms use for our rank-ups?”

  “The best way to increase your gains from rank-ups is to be as good in your intended role as possible,” Neta replied. “The Realms will use the mana provided to enhance what is already there. The better the base material, the better the end result. This includes your physical fitness and general aptitude with your QUINETSSENTIAL SWORD Subject. So, never stop striving to improve.”

  “Ok,” Duncan responded. “But how do I actually progress? How do I get to the point where I’m ready to advance to the next tier?”

  “The more things you do related to your Subjects, the more they will progress.” Neta’s voice changed as she took on the air of an aristocrat. “Some people would tell you to be true to the spirit of your Subject or to honor your story with appropriate actions.”

  Her voice returned to its normal, casual inflection. “What it really comes down to for you is fighting and smithing. To progress THE QUINTESSENTIAL SWORD, fight in battles; the more dangerous, the more rewarding. To progress SWORDSMITH, make new swords; the more challenging and well-crafted, the more you will advance toward your next rank.”

  “But how do you actually rank up?” Duncan insisted. “How do you know when you’re ready to advance to the next tier, and how is it done?”

  “Ah. Well, as for how you know…” Neta thought for a couple seconds before she continued. “The more you progress through a tier, the more… full you will feel. It’s hard to explain. It’s not like a feeling of a full stomach, more like a full spirit. For those of us with two Subjects, it’s like having two spirits filling up at different rates. You’ll understand the feeling once you start progressing. Eventually, one of those spirits will be full, and that’s when you know you’re ready to rank up that Subject as well as your body’s tier.”

  “This is another reason I suggested you think of yourself as a swordsman first and a swordsmith second. Your advancements will go smoother if your combat Subject reaches the bottleneck first. It helps The Realms know what to prioritize when it comes to your body’s advancement.”

  “Now, to actually advance, you simply need to get the attention of the Realms. The most common way to do that for a combat Subject is to perform an impressive feat. Clear a particularly challenging temporary realm. Defeat a strong monster. Win a tournament. There are lots of ways. You’ll know when it happens because the Realms will ask for permission before starting a rank up. For non-combat classes, rank-ups are almost always triggered by creating something impressive for your tier. There are other ways, but that is by far the most common.”

  Duncan tried to take in all this new information. Rank-ups, spirits, and impressing the Realms. He was starting to grasp how to progress from where he was, but he still wanted to know one more thing.

  “What exactly does ranking up a Subject do? I know ranking up my body will enhance it; I’ve already felt that. What about the Subject itself?”

  Cinder rose from his place on the beach and approached where Duncan and Neta now stood. “Our Subjects are the lens through which The Realms see us. They are the very nature of our existence as far as The Realms are concerned. Practically, however, Subjects are the driving force that determines what Abilities we unlock. So, ranking up a Subject is all about improving Abilities.”

  Cinder drew a sword from his spatial storage and slashed out toward the ocean. A cut in the fabric of reality appeared over the water 300 meters away, leaving a torrent of silver, unrelenting sword mana in a sphere with a 50-meter diameter. A rush of wind and power rippled out, colliding with the ocean water and sending the scent of salt on the wind.

  “I’ve had that Ability since I was tier one,” Cinder said. “It came from the first Slip I was ever rewarded. It started as a simple slash of sword mana, like the Ability enchanted into that sheath you’ve used. Now, it does that. Not only is it more powerful, it's fundamentally changed. That’s what ranking up a Subject does. It provides Abilities with power, utility, and a chance to upgrade.”

  “Speaking of Abilities,” Neta announced, drawing both her companions’ attention back to her. “I think it's time for your first gift.”