Ryan wasn’t sure how to feel about this. Elated that they were willing to go so far to help him, yes. Conflicted because an entire civilization had been designed just for his progress.
Disappointed because there wasn't enough time to enjoy it.
“I… can’t, at least not this time.”
Fetterue frowned.
“What do you mean? Look at your left arm, you have no control over your volatile mana. You have no control over your aura and it is clear from our brief encounter that you do not have any practice with whatever that conceptual ability was.”
For the first time since he saw her, Fetterue was actually getting heated. It was understandable, given that she had probably spent decades of her life on one person.
“Do you understand how much we’ve had to sacrifice to get as far as we have? How much time it took to gather some of these materials. How much King Theskar had to—”
She choked on her words, unable to finish that sentence. There was clearly more of a reason why that show off King hadn’t shown himself the entire time.
“I understand, but there’s an emergency back in my world. I need to get back as soon as I can.”
“Your world has ascendants. It will not end just because a single person in the fifth realm was away for a couple of months.”
She didn’t know how much time Ryan had on the timer. Even then, a bit over seventy days was just too much time to spend here.
“I wasn’t planning on rushing this either until shit went down, and yes, my world might actually end.”
“How will a fifth realm like you manage to change what ascendants cannot? Our world has staved off threats that you would barely be capable of influencing.”
“It’s using the skill I used on you, or at least a variant of it.”
The argument didn’t sway her at all.
“Then that is all the more reason for you to stay. You have not mastered it, you have not learned a single iota of it. All you have done since you’ve evolved is get stronger and increase your breadth. There is no mastery from what I have seen. In fact, how long has it been since you’ve evolved? A year? Two years?”
“I uh.”
“How long?”
Fetterue’s aura spiked alongside her mana. Her eyes flashing lines of blue that spread across her aura and started to form vague circles of magic. The dedicated spellcaster of Valmere was indeed well into the ninth realm.
“A month. Maybe two weeks?”
The Grand Mage blinked. Her aura sputtering out as she stared at him like he was an alien.
“You are a child with tools that unnerve me… Wait. How long has it been since you became an adventurer?”
Ryan did consider not answering with the truth. Unfortunately, the more ruinous side of him was too morbidly curious as to what Fetterue’s reaction would be.
“A little over half a year?”
The Grand Mage was silent for well over ten seconds, she closed her eyes and looked up.
“We were bullied by someone who had their powers for less than a year… like a child knocking over sandcastles. Is this what greater kingdoms do? Send their young to learn on the bones of others?”
Ryan sighed.
“If only it were that simple.”
“Shut it. I do not need false wisdom from someone with less experience than Irons.”
“Hey, I spent most of my life preparing to become an adventurer.”
“And how long is that?”
Ryan closed his mouth when he realized that the truth would not help him out here. He looked at eighteen year olds and thought they were childish. He could not imagine how someone over six times his age would look at someone in their early twenties.
“I just don’t have time for this, there’s a big problem going on that I might be able to fix and—”
“Then sit. Sit and explain to me everything. I will make an assessment and decide.”
Now Fetterue really was treating him like a kid. Like a teacher talking down to an unruly student, trying to explain why it was important to tell her everything.
“I have spent the last ninety seven years dealing with one crisis to another. Otherwise, all of my spare time has been dedicated to finding various options to improve your mastery on your already staggering skillset. My King likely knew all of this would happen and placed us exactly here, where we needed to be. I will not be dismissed without being convinced that it’s the only way.”
Somehow, Ryan really lost the initiative here. The mistake was telling the truth about his actual experience and age. One he would not make again, at least, not unless it would be really funny.
The problem was that Fetterue did have a point, and it really seemed like he wasn’t getting out of this without at least explaining some things of the outside world.
Ryan gave her the abbreviated version. With the Manager, the Tyrants, as well as some background information about the Great Civilizations. Not that he really knew much about them, Fetterue was just very curious about them.
As they talked for the better part of an hour, Ryan was starting to see it from her perspective. Fetterue really had dedicated most of her life on someone that was literally an alien. She really thought Ryan was from a higher civilization messing around with hers.
…Which, if you thought about it, wasn’t completely wrong either.
Catching her up on the rest that took some more time. Trying to explain both Earth and The Realm and all that came along with it… well, that was rough.
He decided to skip over the fact that she was just a soul from a long dead civilization. King Theskar hadn’t told her and it felt cruel to break this to her now.
With the rest… Well, it was easier to talk to Fetterue about his classes and skills because it was practically impossible for her to leak his information to the Witch Tyrant.
At least with that she took the information with some stride.
“This [Class Change] skill, have you ever used it on others?”
“No, but Epics can reveal more about themselves when you understand them more. I’m hoping the time dilation reward will give me enough examples of the skill to do it. There’s also… uh, class intuition?”
“Time dilation.” Fetterue murmured, then she shook her head. “Class intuition?”
“I sort of get nudges from my class regarding concepts and skills related to my class. I think it’s the benefit I get for my class. For example [Rogues] get better muscle memory while [Warriors] get physically stronger faster. I think my class just does that except with concepts. That, or it’s because the rarity is Quasi-Legendary. I’m not too sure which it is.”
“So, your class is intuitively telling you that it would work?”
Ryan hesitated.
“Not… in such certain terms. I just figured that since the precursor skill [A Glimpse of Perspective] lets me use it on others then it’ll work the same with [Class Change]. The class is telling me I can definitely do more with the skill than I know.”
“And that is all?”
“Sort of?”
He was realizing how flimsy his guesses might seem to others and tried to make up for it.
“Also the Manager is a bastard looking at probabilities and hinted this might happen so I’m looking at the road paved for me and thinking it’s possible.”
Fetterue shook her head, a hasty argument he’d just come up with was not enough to convince her.
“That’s a bad assumption. If what you said is true and it’s looking at every probability then there’s a good chance it’s prepared for the eventuality that you may fail in one of the many instances along the way. You are making gambles and betting on their successes and hoping things have been paved for your success when you said it yourself that you have gone off of its predictions.”
Ryan opened his mouth, then closed it.
“I don’t know what to say to that.”
Fetterue took a deep breath in.
“Good. Then listen. A civilization that is shaking under the weight of rapid changes like yours will likely not slow in the amount of crises that will happen. Even if you rush forward and somehow magically fix this one issue that you are far underrealmed to face by the way, you will then come across another problem that seems like it needs your attention. There may never be another time for you to stop and train.”
There is always another disaster. Seffara had once said. She had said that while the world was peaceful and fully believed in it.
“But what am I supposed to do? Ignore it and hope it doesn’t go to shit while I hide away here and train?”
Fetterue’s face softened, perhaps setting up for the harsh words that would follow.
“If there is one thing I have learned, it’s that running a kingdom requires measured sacrifices. You are hoping that you can constantly throw yourself at the problems of the world and minimize casualties by sacrificing your own life.”
“I’m not sacrificing myself.”
“You are. Take it from someone who has dedicated everything for her Kingdom. I can tell that you don’t understand the value of your own life.”
Ryan shook his head.
“Achievements are gained the most when you’re pushing yourself, when you risk against high odds and succeed. That’s when my potential increases. The risk is worth the reward while the Trial System stays.”
Again, Fetterue was not impressed with his argument.
“And? What is your current potential right now? If you took your current potential and let it grow with just an average amount of risk-taking?”
Ryan blinked.
He had no idea how powerful he’d be as a dragonslayer. With everything he had, soloing a dragon with preparation in the ninth realm should be manageable. But beyond that?
How powerful would a [Conceptual Metamorph] be as an ascendant? One who could freely use Unity with different classes? One who could debuff others through concepts?
Even if he chose to take it easy, he would already end up as one of the strongest and most versatile dragonslayers in The Realm.
Fetterue nodded, satisfied that her point had come across.
“Next time, add that into your calculations of your own death. Weigh the value of your death to that future and what you could do with it. Not just as you are now. Even a city might not be worth the risk of you losing your life in a half-hearted attempt. That calculation is what makes a true King.”
——
Grand Mage Fetterue sent Artigan away to think upon her words. He had promised not to leave her world until he at least met her again in a couple of hours.
The truth was that she herself needed to take some time to digest and understand everything she’d been told.
She felt a beautiful fulfilled clarity of what and why her life had been spent the way it had been. Before it had been mostly blind faith with King Theskar and his current state had left her slowly losing some of that fire.
Now it was rekindled.
A system that gave classes—no, concepts and skills like they were tools instead of actual skills that you learned and mastered over time. Then forced on to other civilizations to be experimented on, tested…
All of these thoughts were a blur in her mind… but most of all, her mind kept coming back to the main realization she had.
Artigan was just a kid.
He was a mad child with wings of lightning, constantly throwing himself at a giant storm, hoping he’d somehow siphon enough from it to rise above it all. By all rights, he was succeeding. She understood why maybe those around him didn’t see it the way she did.
In her own way, Fetterue had seen the real side of Ryan that others had forgotten or missed.
A rare smile appeared on her lips.
“My King truly is wise after all.”
Grand Mage Fetterue of Valmere would make sure that Artigan was no longer flying on such shaky wings.
——
Ryan sat on top of Fetterue’s tower. The view really was great and… well, when he looked at the city it didn’t look so uncanny valley to him anymore. Was it because she had said that all of this was developed for him?
Maybe.
Or maybe it was because he understood why the kingdom was designed the way it was now. A rushed design to keep up with the pace of the Trial System. To bring it to a place where Artigan was recognized and could experiment with social changes as he pleased.
A near-perfect canvas to test himself out on.
With every moment, he was getting more tempted to listen to Fetterue and stay.
She wasn’t wrong. It really wasn’t a perspective that he had been considering. He could do a lot even if he just hit dragonslayer the way he was now.
Was it really right for him to stay here and test things out to his heart’s content? Or was that his greed talking?
Ryan did what every self-respecting person in the modern era did when they came across hard hitting existential questions that had no answer. He decided to shelve it for later and check out the internet.
They called it Valnet here.
It wasn’t quite as convenient to navigate as Earth’s, some of the applications were really janky some of it felt too rigid, but what was recognizable was definitely there.
A proper worldwide net.
And on the top of the most popular news site…
Was Artigan’s face, with a massive title on top.
‘JUDGEMENT DAY?’
So… it turned out they really hadn’t forgotten about the person who came in, made a mess of the greatest war in the world, then appeared later to kill a Duchess and her army, then threatened all the nobles that he’d be back to pass judgment on them if the Kingdom didn’t match his standards.
The average person might not have recognized his face and deeds, but historians sure as hell did.
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Feck me chapter was hard. Good chance I miss a chapter tomorrow because I'm meeting with a good friend I haven't seen in months! Will do a weekend one, hopefully two!