Harvey had no idea how long it had been when he finally stood up. Tears had turned to silence, his mind becoming clear as the water pooling around his feet did the same. At first, he was angry at himself for being so emotional, but now he understood that those emotions were what kept him human even when the System told him he was anything but.

  He’d spent so long reacting to the trial that he hadn’t stopped to consider what kind of man he wanted to be. At F Grade, his skills could already burn any normal human alive in moments. At D Grade, would he have skills that could destroy entire cities? Would the screams of innocent bystanders become nothing more than collateral damage as he continued to ascend?

  No.

  He didn’t know for sure what the skills that would fill his two empty slots would look like, but he would make sure they left him in control.

  Pulling up the screen showing his Imprint, he stared at the two halves of his own body. Maybe it was intentional, maybe it wasn’t, but the System had given him the perfect picture of his path forward. Death was inevitable in the multiverse, but his creations could help decide who lived and died. His skills didn’t have to revolve around death alone. They could become tools for life. He would become a scalpel, surgically removing evil from the world while building the walls that protect the good.

  It was up to him to decide what good and evil meant now, and as long as he believed he was on the right path, it would be enough.

  Squeezing some cheap hotel body wash into his hands, he scrubbed his body until he finally felt clean. Then, he carefully picked the knots in his hair until his hands didn’t feel oily after every touch. It took almost the entire travel-size bottle, but it was worth it. Turning off the water, he opened the curtain and found the bathroom completely filled with steam. The duffel bag Elena had brought had pajamas, a toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, hair gel, and a hairbrush.

  Damn, this must have been expensive.

  Pulling the soft cotton over his legs, he took a moment to appreciate the simple joy of comfort. Just a month in the forest made him realize how absolutely hopeless he would’ve been 1000 years ago, and he had John’s mirror to sell him all the essentials. He could barely comprehend how humanity managed to survive long enough to turn sticks and stones into computers and phones. Brushing his teeth, he relished the minty taste on his tongue.

  “Feeling better?” Elena asked when he finally stepped out.

  “Yeah,” he smiled. “Thanks for the care package. How much do I owe you?”

  “Don’t worry about it. I took some of it from the supplies the hotel already had, and I can afford pajamas.”

  “Are you sure? I can pay you back! I’m actually kind of loaded since the traps worked so well,” he insisted. Each of the lower-level Ossari he killed had awarded around 3,000 merit, ballooning his wealth to almost a million merit. It made him laugh to think he’d spent so much effort worrying about becoming a millionaire someday back on Earth, only to do it in a matter of weeks in the trial. Granted, the cost of an energy drink suggested a million merit wasn’t anywhere near the same in dollars, but he chose to ignore that.

  “Positive. Now tell me, how are you? How are you really? I do want to know what happened while I was gone, but I’m more concerned with how you’re holding up.”

  She was lying in the queen bed closest to the window, so he nestled into the second closest to the wall before recounting his week apart. The red glow of an alarm clock on the nightstand between them showed they talked for hours. Eventually, the exhaustion became too overwhelming, and they both drifted off to sleep mid-conversation. The fluffy pillows and thick comforter were too much, forcing them to succumb.

  Harvey awoke with a start, sitting straight up as he frantically looked around the room. He’d grown so accustomed to sleeping in a dingy sleeping bag stretched over his bulky armor that the hotel room felt like a dream. For a moment, he wondered if the whole trial had just been some nightmare until he looked over and saw Elena slack-jawed with her head buried in a stack of pillows. Feeling his gaze, her eyes shot open, and she stretched her arms wide.

  “Good morning,” she groaned.

  “Morning,” he replied.

  It was tempting to lie back down and let himself rot in bed all day, but he knew this was his last chance to prepare for the Undead assault. Slipping on a pair of complimentary slippers he found in the closet, Harvey opened the door and headed for the mirrors where he’d bought his food the night before. Elena rushed out after him, guiding him to a second spot where he wouldn’t be competing with the hundreds of people all trying to buy their breakfast.

  Scrolling through the menus, Harvey found an F Grade set of boots, pants, belt, and long-sleeve shirt that looked just like his old ones. There was also an evolved robe he could buy, but instead he bought a set of padded undergarments meant to be worn under plate armor called an arming jack.

  “Why buy the medieval stuff when you can get jeans?” Elena asked.

  “I don’t know. Feels wrong to wear denim under steel,” Harvey chuckled. “The padding will make wearing it more comfortable anyway.”

  “Whatever floats your boat,” she laughed. “Are you planning on doing any blacksmithing or inscribing today? The mirror sells basic materials now.”

  “Really? Like what?” Harvey asked.

  “Metal, resonance crystals, simple tools…” she rambled. “Nothing as rare as the Moonshade Stalker body you gave me, but most of the simple resonances are there.”

  “No kidding! That would’ve been super helpful a few days ago. Finding enough evolved elementals to get the lightning resonance I need was a pain,” he complained.

  “Well, now you can just buy a few low-grade lightning crystals! They’re insanely expensive, but they’ve helped me keep things moving while I teach the other inscribers.”

  “I’m probably going to hold off for now. I have two new skills to make, and I want to test if one of my ideas is going to work before I buy anything,” Harvey explained.

  “Oh, really? Let me take you to the Loom, then,” she smiled.

  Going down to the main floor, they picked their way through the busy lobby towards a long hallway leading down to a wing of massive conference rooms. Peering through the open double doors, he expected to see rows of metal chairs facing a stage. Instead, he saw multiple Looms just like the one in Veils End placed against the wall. Half had Veilstriders standing at their pedestals, transfixed by the visions appearing in the rainbow haze around them. Occasionally, the spools of thread would spin, weaving sigils that floated towards their hosts.

  “Just as beautiful as I remembered,” Harvey marveled.

  “Thanks,” Elena teased.

  “I was talking about the Looms,” Harvey groaned.

  “I know,” she continued with an impish grin.

  Walking to an empty pedestal, he placed both hands on the orb and felt the heat wash over him. Dense mist obscured the surroundings, isolating him in a sea of visions. It had been a while since he’d felt the incomprehensible existence waiting inside the wood, and it made no effort to communicate with him other than guiding him to the memories he was searching for.

  Harvey decided to start with his Class skill. He’d already decided this new addition needed to fill the gap between his cheaper skills and the exorbitantly essence-hungry Innovator’s Arsenal, and he thought he had a good idea of how to make something that was both efficient and high impact.

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  Fighting Gary, he’d seen him use a skill that did something Harvey had only ever seen beasts do. Use something other than essence as a power source.

  Most of Gary’s skills revolved around siphoning blood and using it to power various effects. He’d turned the blood of the living and dead alike into wickedly sharp blades, free-flowing shields, and even absorbed it to rapidly heal his wounds. It was just like the F Grade Bloodrunn, making Harvey think they had been the impetus for those skills.

  Nothing about Harvey’s path had anything to do with stealing blood, and he wouldn’t use a skill like that even if he could. But he did use his own to create powerful magic inks. What if he created a skill that could absorb ink and amplify its effects?

  It would kill two birds with one stone, letting him create powerful attacks using relatively low essence at the cost of needing an external fuel source. It introduced the risk of running out of fuel, but he hoped his planned profession skill would help alleviate that risk. Most importantly, it would be the first skill that actually made use of the reason he added inscribing to his Profession in the first place.

  Versatility.

  Need to heal someone from range? Pour in some healing ink and send a health bomb their way.

  Need to blow someone up? Pour in some lightning ink.

  Harvey knew it was possible, so he just had to hope the System was able to help him make it real with the jumble of visions he provided.

  The first to be plucked was his first experiment using an arc charge to kill an Iron Elemental. He essentially wanted to replace the iron ball and essence crystal with a construct made solely of his own essence, retaining the arc charge's function while changing the delivery method.

  Next, he added a similar memory of testing his first wildfire charge. He hoped that including inscriptions with different resonances would ensure the skill could accommodate any kind of ink, rather than relying on the lightning resonance to work.

  Then he added three more inscriptions representing his proudest accomplishments. The dual kinetic absorption and lightning burst array that made Aftershock’s full metal construction viable. The healing burst arrays on the grips of both Aftershock and the Sentinel’s Arcblade. The light arrays he’d made to help the Veilstriders who followed him into the darkness and helped him fight the elementals.

  While most were still related to killing, some more indiscriminately than others, he hoped the wide variety of inscriptions would give him the skill he was looking for. A skill that made sure he always had the right tool for the job as long as he’d prepared the ink needed to power it.

  Finally, he added his Imprint. Hopefully, it would become the baseline for his path through the F Grade where preparation and discernment let him truly be the Architect of the Veil’s End.

  Nodding his assent, the five memories and image of his Imprint flew into the Loom, causing a cascade of white, blue, red, and brown thread that stitched to form his new sigil. It took the form of a leather bandolier with three loops holding clear orbs filled with colored mist. One crackled with a barely constrained thunderstorm, while another held the embers of a raging inferno. The final orb contained the ruby red liquid of a health potion, proving he’d at least managed to make a skill that wasn’t purely offensive.

  The sigil was larger than any he’d seen before, but something told him that didn’t mean it was more powerful than a normal F Grade skill. Lifting from the Loom, it floated to wrap around his torso, seeming to sling over his right shoulder as if he were actually wearing a bandolier. His adrenaline spiked as the familiar burn of the System refining his weave returned, but he calmed down once he confirmed it wouldn’t be anywhere near as bad as getting 9 levels all at once. When the burning across his skin finally settled, he opened the skill screen.

  The rainbow mist dissipated back into the orb as he read, and Elena stepped up beside him to see for herself.

  “Am I reading this right? This lets you use ink to change what the orbs do?” she asked.

  “Exactly. That way, I make sure I’m always using the right resonance for the job. I can even help with healing now,” he beamed.

  She hesitated for a second, thinking it over before responding. He could see her struggling to pick the right words, and wondered if he’d somehow missed something.

  “What? Just say it,” he insisted.

  “Well, do you have any ink that’s good at killing undead?” she asked.

  “Umm, no. Lightning Ink works, but I doubt it’s any better against them than it would be against us,” he answered.

  “Do you at least have a few bottles of that then?” she continued.

  “No, I used it all on the arc charges I was telling you about,” he muttered, finally seeing her point.

  “Sooo…” she trailed off.

  He hated to admit it, but she was right. He barely had any time left to restock his ink supply, and had basically created a skill that depended entirely on prep work he didn’t have time to do. He could probably whip something up using the resonance crystals in John’s shop, but he could only refine as much blood as he was willing to lose, which couldn’t be much when the Ossari could show up at any moment.

  “Well… damn,” he swore. “You have to admit, though, it’s a pretty cool skill.”

  “Oh, nobody’s saying it isn’t awesome. Just not sure now was the best time to make it,” she winced.

  “Don’t worry, the next one should help a lot more,” he said, putting his hands back on the orb.

  The sea of visions returned, and he set to work gathering the components for his level 35 Profession skill. This would almost be a sister skill to Inkbound Ordnance, hopefully letting him conjure replicas of items he’d crafted made purely out of essence. After seeing how effective something as simple as tossing an arc charge into the fray was, he wanted to make sure he always had the option to summon one, even if he lacked the time or materials to make it. The essence cost would probably be higher than he liked, but at least he’d be sure he never got caught empty-handed.

  Like before, he added the memories of testing his arc and wildfire charges, but he also included the visions of him mass-producing them in the forge. Right now, they were his only real examples of what would essentially be considered consumables in a video game, but he hoped including both would let the skill make use of his expanded repertoire in the future.

  Then, he added his memory of looking back at Veils End and seeing the destruction his weapons had caused. Watching it again through his own eyes sent a tremor through his heart, but he steeled himself as the glow surrounding the collection of memories grew brighter. He’d hoped that including the results of using his crafted weapons would improve the power of the conjured replicas, and it appeared the System had accepted his idea.

  Finally, he added his Imprint. The radiant light surrounding the visions nearly blinded him, and he smiled as he awaited what he hoped was his next Epic rarity skill.

  Once again, his vision sank into the Loom, and it looked like the power yanked on the spools of thread to urge them to spin faster as a new sigil was woven. As before, a leather bandolier began to take shape, this time filled with exact replicas of his arc and wildfire charges. They were distinctly different than the glassy orbs of ink, and he felt like he could almost reach out and touch them. Lifting from the Loom, the sigil drifted forward and settled across his opposite shoulder, its strap angling downward to intersect the first. The two bandoliers crossed over his chest, making him look like a soldier heading into battle.

  This time, the burn was even greater, but he barely noticed as the skill screen flashed before him.

  Harvey channeled essence into the bandolier, and an arc charge appeared in his hands. It felt like solid iron, but his aura could sense it was nothing more than essence. Glowing blue lines of lightning ink yearned to be unleashed, but he let the array stay dormant.

  “Now that’s more like it!” Elena smiled.