Pulling out my aptly-baptized "The [Faith] Of Solaena" notebook and adding it to the hill of books making up my boonest, I mentally readied myself to review all the discoveries and [Insight]s that ultimately led me to, with the approval of [Guided], commit myself to becoming a logistics auditor.
The first tens of pages I flipped through retraced my early research from before I reacquainted myself with the [Faith] Section of the sanctuary.
At that time, I was still in the middle of familiarizing myself with my [Cultivation] Aspect while worrying about balancing my Essence development.
Thus, I set the threshold for any Aspect possibly becoming part of my Path through being related to logistics practices very, very, very high.
That resulted in the very first condition to this hypothetical Aspect being that it was not related at all to any sort of direct [Exertion]s I could be subjected to while involved with logistics, as I wouldn't be doing it for the Essence development it caused.
For the second condition, following the implacable strictness of the first condition, if I were to integrate a new Aspect to my Path through logistics work, it had to be one I could not have formed without drastically altering my then way of life.
Third condition, it must not be a social Aspect, as I did not need one in any way, shape, or form. It could possess a social facet to it if needed, though.
Fourth condition, this Aspect must be perfectly compatible with my expectation of nine-tenths of my daily Essence development quota being fulfilled by an approximately eight-hour-long [Cultivation] routine, leaving the rest of the time available to be dedicated to an extremely slow and complex development.
Fifth condition, the overwhelming advantage [Guided] offered me when it came to dealing with anything involving unwieldy loads of information governed by an accurate set of rules—typically logistics work—absolutely must not be related to the core concept of my chosen Aspect.
Sixth condition...
Seventh condition...
Looking back at my list of requirements, my past self really had the right ideas in seeking [Perfection].
Her only failing had been to disregard the obvious in favor of delving into obscure knowledge, assuming that unearthing an Aspect like [Cultivation] was something she could base her [Ambition]s on.
Then, from dwelling on hopeless fundamental Aspects she disregarded by the thousands, she set her sight on high order ones, trusting the process of looking far in the future to evaluate whether something was worth pursuing or not.
Until the answer literally fell into her lap in the form of a book referencing back to a bunch of Aspects one could base their entire Path on.
That's where she was reintroduced to the [Faith] Aspect, and just like when she first learned about it, the [Faith] Aspect was something she nearly ruthlessly disregarded.
After all, why should she bother with an Aspect solely formed by people who had given up on their own Path and were willing to dedicate their entire existence to supporting the Paths of other Essence Entities, all in the hope of being recognized for their [Faith] and be bestowed with a sliver of their [Faith] Entity achievements?
The [Faith] Aspect may be embodying a concept that was part of the nomenclature defining the Faith Of The Aspects itself, but the two really weren't the same thing.
The Faith Of The Aspects was a Civilization-wide faction whose influence extended throughout the entire Nexus Realm, dedicated to the study of Essence and how it was wielded by Essence Entities by taking the form of Aspects forming up their Path.
The [Faith] Aspect was a single Aspect, if one that had been heavily researched due to how every powerhouse ended up on its receiving end, with thousands of recorded syntheses.
That was it.
Except...
What if I turned it around?
In all her prodigious intellect, simply by not dismissing something she should have outrightly dismissed and instead dedicating a minute to it, my past self attained a Path-defining [Insight] that sent even [Guided] into a momentary flurry of chaotic suggestions.
Because I believed in myself.
Because I believed in [Guided].
Because I believed in my Path.
Thus, I believed I would, one day, end up on the receiving end of Essence Entities who formed the [Faith] Aspect.
And I remembered there being cautionary tales about being on the receiving end of [Faith] without being prepared for it.
It was such a straightforward line of thinking, such an unfathomable notion, such an inspired idea, that I thoroughly failed to disregard it once I etched it in my mind.
I wasn't so deluded as to surmise a [Faith] would form around me anytime soon, but if there was one thing my Path excelled at achieving, it was to never allow my existence to be threatened by anything I became aware of.
Threatened by powerlessness, I formed the [Exertion] Aspect.
Threatened by starvation, I formed the [Cycle] Aspect.
Threatened by ignorance, I formed the [Insight] Aspect.
Threatened by darkness, I formed the [Perception] Aspect.
Threatened by being seen, I formed the [Darkness] Aspect.
Threatened by a broken, unmendable vessel, I formed the [Will] Aspect.
Threatened by Essence corruption, I intended to form the [Purity] and [Harmony] Aspects.
[Faith] was simply the latest addition to a long list of threats bound to grow by multiple orders of magnitude as I developed my Essence and became exposed to new hazards.
Having become aware of it, however, extremely distant in the future this [Faith] threat may be, I had to learn more about it.
And what better place to learn more about [Faith] than the [Faith] section of the sanctuary dedicated entirely to it?
The ensuing pages were just a long list of books I read with fluctuating interest, along with the most significant pieces of knowledge they contained.
At the end of this list, marking the transition with what came before, was the book that unquestionably led me to separate my research on [Faith] into the very notebook I was shuffling through.
A book christened "[Paragon] Of Civilization".
I reached towards the pile of books that made up my booknest and picked a book bearing this exact name.
If there was one place to start reviewing my planned addition to my Path, it was with this book.
Skipping through the preamble that made me consider whether this was a history book about ancient powerhouses who bent the [Will] of Civilization through their existence, I reached the segment that introduced the [Paragon] Aspect itself.
If an Order had to be affixed to it, the [Paragon] Aspect would theoretically be a "mere" Fourth Order Aspect.
But far from refusing this affixation, the book delved deeper into it to explain why no classification systems were perfect or absolute, and went as far as referring to this classification as an exemplification of how the widely-used Aspect Ordering System broke.
In theory, the only quality an Aspect necessitated to find itself unbound from the Aspect Ordering System was for it to be reliant on external influences in any capacity.
As one of the known pinnacles of [Faith]-handling Aspect, the [Paragon] Aspect was an absolute embodiment of that.
How one was meant to form the [Paragon] Aspect wasn't detailed even in a roundabout manner, as according to the book, all Essence Entities who successfully formed it dated from before the ongoing Resurgence Era.
Nevertheless, the Nexus Order successfully recovered many texts discussing the far-reaching impacts of all Essence Entities who formed the [Paragon] Aspect, a non-negligible part of them even going as far as describing them as the first line of defense of Civilization, the first to have gone against the grand Calamity that wiped Civilization as it was known then.
For that reason, the author of "[Paragon] Of Civilization" was firmly convinced that no one in the current Era had yet to form the [Paragon] Aspect, with only several Essence Entities known to have formed what were assumed to be its Third Order Aspects equivalent—Aspects such as [Icon] or [Symbol].
Going down the Aspect line, the Second Order Aspects were associated with the likes of the [Ideal] and [Avatar] Aspects.
For the First Order Aspects, dozens were listed, from [Luminary] to [Exemplar].
And completing the Aspect line were fundamental Aspects like [Leadership] or [Inspiration].
When it came to interacting with [Faith], the fundamental and First Order Aspects were irrelevant, but where plenty of other publications ended up avoiding speaking too "academically" about such a subject, "[Paragon] Of Civilization" went the exact opposite way.
[Faith] was described as an unavoidable consequence born of an extraordinary Path, and rejecting it was portrayed as the height of foolishness when it was such a versatile force that could be leveraged into both personal might and social influence.
Substantially, a [Faith]-handling Aspect, while absurdly specialized in performing what its "[Faith]-handling" moniker implied, and that to the extent of being rendered worthless without sufficient [Faith]...
Was an Aspect that could be utilized to perform single instance miraculous feats ranging from endowing oneself with literally endless energy for whole minutes, to the creation of precious metal from nothing, to forcefully entering a fake state of enlightenment, to, and that one was proven by an Essence Entity bearing the [Icon] Aspect...
[Resurrection].
A Third Order [Faith]-handling Aspect combined with what was quantified as the [Faith] of around four hundred thousand Essence Entities having all formed the [Faith] Aspect...
Could ward off [Death] itself.
With this mind-boggling reality as a foundation, "[Paragon] Of Civilization" then went on to laud the high order [Faith]-handling Aspect to the uppermost Strata.
Like, supposedly, the only reason no singular [Faith] faction had yet to rise to the mythical heights described in many historical texts was because no singular Essence Entity belonging to this Era had yet to have had the confluence of factors required to elevate them to the exalted status of [Paragon].
As for whether it took being widely acknowledged throughout a given dimensional area, being recognized as an indisputable powerhouse above all others, or being approved as some sort of Civilization-wide leader...
The author expectedly had no idea beyond it most certainly involving [Faith] of an order of magnitude unseen throughout the Resurgence Era.
Tens of millions of Essence Entities with the [Faith] Aspect, all revering the same existence.
Thus it was that "[Paragon] Of Civilization" presented me with a promise of potential tantalizing enough for me to put my trust in it until I confirmed my belief in the Everwell Sector.
Further research led me to investigate Aspects such as [Herald], [Divinity], and [Deity]—arguably the most renowned [Faith]-handling Aspects, and for good reason, as each carried promises just as profound as those of the [Paragon] Aspect.
Eventually, however, my deepened research also confirmed the threat that [Faith] represented for any Essence Entity unprepared for it.
Cautionary tales—the majority of which most certainly weren't actual stories—of unprepared powerhouses who found themselves forming the [Martyr], [Chosen], [Effigy], or [Anointed] Aspects one day out of nowhere, only for their existence to be warped by the same [Faith] that should have empowered them...
There were hundreds.
The consequences comprised feeling the pull of [Fate] to do something, having one's personality altered, or in the most extreme cases of having rejected any interaction with [Faith] for centuries, promptly losing one's agency for short periods of time.
The commonality in all these consequences was easy to discern.
Those who failed to address the [Faith] directed at their existence, at their Path, were bound to one day be swallowed by it and be transformed into a [Will]-less tool compelled to conform to the "[Ideal]" those who had [Faith] believed they [Symbol]ized.
Compiling all this knowledge, the conclusion I reached was evident.
I would not shy away from [Faith].
I would do the exact opposite.
I would make [Faith] an integral part of my Path.
Before the [Faith] of Solaena even began to take shape, I would preemptively form a [Faith]-handling Aspect, or at least develop the foundation for it.
It wasn't arrogance.
It was looking far in the future with strong convictions in my Path, myself, and [Guided].
Once I reached that conclusion, it became a matter of planning the addition of a [Faith]-handling Aspect to my Path, and the ensuing hundred pages of my notebook were exactly that.
Which fundamental Aspect was the most suitable for my Path.
Which First Order Aspect I would pursue after it.
How it justified investing my idle time into being a logistician.
Which logistician post was most suited for my chosen Aspect.
How to best leverage [Guided]...
As all Aspect research was wont to do, there was no [Perfection] to be found, only compromises.
Even the [Cultivation] Aspect had its drawbacks if I explicitly sought them out, insignificant they may be compared to what I gained from synthesizing it from three fundamental Aspects.
In this case, unfortunately, two fundamental Aspects ended up toe to toe in terms of [Harmony] with my Path when I finished my research, the [Inspiration] and the [Persuasion] Aspects, which forced me to further extend my investigation and simulation, until at last...
The [Inspiration] Aspect won out through its exceptional prospective faculty to transmit [Guided]'s extraordinariness to anyone capable of cognizing it.
Not that I really invested that much relative time on the selection of my fundamental Aspect, as I fully intended to quickly synthesize it into a certain First Order Aspect that I settled on before even the fundamental one.
The [Exemplar] Aspect.
It was not quite a [Cultivation]-level Aspect, but the concept it embodied may as well be on a whole other level compared to the alternative First Order Aspects that eventually led to being able to synthesize a [Faith]-handling Aspect.
If [Inspiration] was a concept I could induce through my Path inspiring others to give the best of themselves by showing them either a glimpse of my [Will] or my ever-growing abilities, then [Exemplar]...
I was arguably living the life of an [Exemplar].
An [Exemplar] of pushing oneself to one's limits.
An [Exemplar] of not being bound by one's ignorance.
An [Exemplar] of not settling limits for one's [Ambition]s.
An [Exemplar] of an [Ideal] life according to my and [Guided]'s criteria.
That settled its pertinence to my quest of preparing myself to handle [Faith].
As for what came after it, which Second Order Aspect I intended to synthesize [Exemplar] into, it was way too early to determine for certain.
Auditing the result of my research by rechecking various books I referenced throughout, my assiduousness and brilliance spoke for themselves by there not being a single mistake in either my simulated mathematics or the rationale behind my application methods.
Being a logistics auditor would serve as one of the best tools to display my—[Guided]'s—absolute might in not letting go of a single erroneous number in ledgers filled with millions.
One way or another, I would soon be even more of an [Inspiration] to anyone susceptible to being inspired.
A real-life [Exemplar] of excellence in everything I undertook.
Surviving.
Travelling.
Studying.
Fighting.
Healing.
And now, auditing.