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Leaning forward, Alex reached out and touched the gem. Black slithered out from it and down the stone, forming into words upon the plain white mantle.

[Trial: Cull the Meek]

Objective Completed. Rewards Earned.

Accept Rewards [1/1]?

"Yes," Alex said.

The lines vanished, and the air before him shimmered. Threads of golden light swirled together and traced through the air, forming into sentences.

Title Fragment Acquired.

Top Ranker: Granted to those who placed among the top 10 spots of a leaderboard in a Trial. Magnify the effect of any Title Fragments connected to this one.

Alex studied the floating words for several seconds. This was the first time that one of his titles had actually come with a description of what it did. It certainly made things easier, and this Fragment was good — and straight forward.

A straight improvement to another Title Fragment was a great reward. Considering the System had chosen the word \'magnify\' for its phrasing, Alex got the feeling any Title Fragment he combined with Top Ranker would be getting a rather significant improvement.

Before he could dismiss the glowing words, Alex\'s eyes caught on a different portion of the wording.

The System had said any fragments. Plural. Of course, there was a chance that meant it would work with any singular fragment, but there was an equal chance it would let him put three or more different Title Fragments together.

His head tilted to the side and he quickly tried to see if he could combine Top Ranker with Unbound Mirrorlander, one of his fully made Titles, but the desire went nowhere and the System ignored him.

Alex shrugged to himself. That was fair enough. Titles weren\'t Title Fragments, but it had been worth a shot. He could save Top Ranker until he collected a few more powerful Title Fragments and then see what he could do by combining them all together.

Given how much of a benefit Unbound Mirrorlander had gotten him by advancing his Core Skill for free, Alex was more than just a bit eager to find out. He\'d just have to be careful not to waste it on a Title Fragment that wasn\'t particularly powerful. When it came to magnifying abilities, the quality of the original mattered a lot.

The glowing words before him abruptly shifted.

Soul Gem Acquired.

Nightmare Aspect

A tiny disk of golden light traced through the air. Alex\'s hands shot out a moment before a fist-sized red gem dropped from the portal. He caught it, looking back just as the portal vanished and the System\'s words faded.

He looked at the crystal, his head tilting to the side. Other than its name, the System did nothing to identify it. It did look vaguely similar to the crystals embedded in the mantle above the basin, but not nearly close enough that he could confuse them for each other. The Soul Gem was larger by far.

This is part of my rewards from the Trial, so it\'s definitely important. I would have loved an actual description, though. What\'s this thing do?

Alex studied it for a few more seconds, but no answers emerged. With a small shrug, he carefully set it on the ground in front of him, taking care not to knock it into the basin. The gem wasn\'t going anywhere. He could figure out what it did once his main tasks were accomplished.

Alex raised his eyes to the huge ball of mist churning above his head. There was something far more pressing than Title Fragments. He could get some new abilities.

He could finally advance Monster Medley.

The eagerness in his stomach made his insides prickle. Alex hadn\'t even cashed in all the energy he\'d gathered from the fights leading up to and around the Trial. He didn\'t even want to think about how much power that was.

Alex sat down at the top of the stairs and focused himself, pushing the churning emotion away. He had to distill the power before he could work with it.

And that was what he did.

Drip by drip, brilliant blue power rained down from the sky and filled his basin. Alex was only vaguely aware of the process — his full attention was focused on harnessing the power and drawing it free from the misty cloud.

Time slipped by.

The misty cloud shrunk.

The Basin filled.

Alex realized he had a very slight problem.

The basin was full — and almost a quarter of the power still remained floating in the air above him. Drawing any more would just send it spilling over the brims of the bowl and into the lake below.

Something told Alex that would do nothing but waste the energy. He hesitated for several long seconds. He\'d never left power undistilled before, but it wasn\'t like he had much choice. His mind released its hold on the power.

The mist twisted above him. It collapsed in on itself, all the floating particles shifting to create a smaller ball that more properly represented the amount of power remaining. A relieved breath slipped from Alex\'s lips. It would wait until he was done with the power that currently filled his bowl.

With this much energy… I wonder how much I can push my Mind Palace.

There was only one way to find out.

Alex lowered his head and drank the glistening liquid.

Icy power poured down his lips and flooded through his body. It prickled against his skull and cloaked him in a freezing blanket. A single ripple passed through the dark lake beneath him. It rolled out from the basin and traveled through the reaches of his Mind Palace.

A rumble shook the lake. Dozens of tiny ripples emerged from the space at its edge. The water broke, rolling away from a large white column as it broke free of the darkness and lifted into the air. It continued to rise until it towered easily ten times taller than Alex.

The pillar was a pure, plain white, without any decoration or adornment. That did nothing to take away from its grandiosity — but Alex didn\'t wait to admire it. He wasn\'t done yet. The amount of energy in the basin had been only marginally impacted.

He continued to drink. A thin twister of magic liquid twisted up from the surface of the water as it drained, keeping its connection to his lips.

More ripples passed through the water. A second pillar broke through the dark lake, lifting into the sky as rivers rolled off its surface.

It was followed by a third. The three made a triangle around the entirety of Alex\'s Mind Palace. They were perfectly distant from each other and identical in every single way. By the time the third had risen, Alex had drained over half of the energy in the bowl.

He made no move to stop. The advances to his Mind Palace had been immensely useful, and Meiderly\'s warning not to advance to Initiate before he upgraded his mind as much as he possibly could still rung in his head.

With the amount of power I\'ve got here and how much less energy it takes to level up than it does to grow my Mind Palace, the smartest thing I can do now is make sure the Mind Palace is maxed out in preparation for reaching the Initiate Stage.

Alex pulled more power through himself. The ripples passing through the lake below grew stronger, transforming into small waves. They crashed against the base of the basin and the pillars.

Far in the depths below the lake, white chains rattled like thunder.

No more changes seemed to be happening. That didn\'t stop Alex. He could still feel energy flowing, and that meant it had to be going somewhere.

Seconds ticked by.

Sweat trickled down Alex\'s forehead as the strain from the energy bit at him from within. It was getting harder to continue drinking. The power in him was pressing against his insides and seeking escape.

The fuller his Mind Palace grew, the more it resisted power — and the harder Alex pushed.

He shoved power into it like he was packing a tiny suitcase for a month-long trip. A dull hum built in his ears and power prickled against his skin. The basin was less than a quarter full now.

The power thrashed against him, driving into his stomach like a physical kick. Alex doubled over, but he still didn\'t stop drinking. He yanked on the magic even harder. A loud crack split through the air. He didn\'t have time to check what it was. There was still room. There was still a ways to grow.

A second crack split the air. Alex\'s jaw clenched of its own volition. His eyes throbbed and his head pounded with a freezing headache. Every single part of him longed to release the magic.

His hands held the rim of the basin so tightly that his knuckles turned white. Tremors shook his arms and ran up his shoulders.

He drank once more.

A third crack echoed out.

A hammer of invisible energy slammed into Alex\'s chest. It launched him from the top of the basin. He hit the watery ground with a pained grunt, the breath completely driven from his lungs. The world rang all around him.

For several seconds, Alex didn\'t move. Then he let out a groan. He gathered himself and blinked heavily before pushing himself upright.

For a moment, it looked like his extra efforts had done absolutely nothing. Then he caught sight of one of his pillars.

There was a single, circular indent in its surface. Alex approached it, shaking off the last of the freezing cold and his confusion.

The indent was perfectly smooth. There was no sign of the stone that had once been where there was now a fist-sized socket. Alex glanced over to the other pillars. They each bore the exact same impression.

His gaze drifted over to the gem sitting on the top of the basin, then back to the pillars. He arched an eyebrow.

One quick trip to the top of the basin — which was now empty — and back to the ground later, Alex lifted his Soul Gem up to compare it to the hole in the pillar.

It was a near perfect match.

"Not suspicious in the slightest."

A faint pressure pushed up against Alex\'s hands. He blinked, then tried to bring the gem a bit closer to the socket. He had no plans of actually sticking it in yet, but the pressure coming from the pillar grew even stronger when he brought the gem closer.

It was like trying to touch the positive ends of two magnets together. Alex pushed a bit harder, but the gem ground to a halt nearly a foot away from the pillar. It stubbornly refused to move any closer, no matter how hard he shoved on it.

Alex let out a grunt and let the gem lower. It seemed his Mind Palace had absolutely no plans of accepting the gem quite yet.

At least I know what it\'s for… vaguely. I\'m going to have to fish for information to figure out what this thing is for. At least it looks like this isn\'t part of what I need to upgrade before I can advance to the Initiate Stage. It must be something I have to do after I get stronger.

Alex walked back up to the edge of his basin, scanning the lake for any reflections within it. There was nothing. Its dark surface had returned to a perfect black. No more hazy apparitions hid beneath its surface.

He climbed up to the top of the basin and sat down, then sank into meditation once more. Alex condensed the rest of the swirling mist into raindrops that fell into the basin, filling it just over a quarter of the way full with magical energy.

Then his eyes opened once more. Alex looked down into the swirling water, taking a moment to make sure he hadn\'t forgotten anything.

Nothing came to mind. His Mind Palace was completely prepared. There was no reason to wait any longer.

He drew in a deep breath, steadying himself, and then reached down.

The water twisted up to meet his hand.

Power slammed into him in a wave.

Your Stage has advanced to Novice 8.

Your Stage has advanced to Novice 9.

Your Stage has advanced to Initiate 1.

Your Mind Palace has evolved from Establishment to Illusory.

You have unlocked [Riftwarped] Domain Qi.