Die. Respawn. Repeat.

Adeya wasn't kidding about the Sewer's monsters mostly attacking in waves. I'm not sure what to make of it, but after we clear the Root Acolytes, we aren't bothered by monsters again for a while—long enough, in fact, that we have time to make it to the next valve chamber.

[All enemies have been defeated. You have gained 209 Physical points. You have gained 72 Astral points. +32 Firmament credits.]

I should really start banking in those points. I frown and pull up the Interface even as Adeya and the others gather to discuss the nature of the Tear—I'm still going to be heading in, but our Firmament saturation is sitting a little too high at the moment, at a full 97%. Best not to risk entry until it's dropped a little.

So there's plenty of time for me to figure this out.

The Physical and Astral Aspect Pools are a lot easier to manage than having five separate stat categories, at least. For one thing, unlike the stat categories, I don't have to dump all my points at once—I can choose how much I want to use. For another, I can feel how each point makes me stronger, which is a benefit the ordinary stat categories don't have.

Taylor's face was probably the most flabbergasted, back when I explained this. Not that I'd placed bets on which one of them would be most surprised.

Ahkelios started it, which doesn't count.

"You owe me five dollars, by the way," Ahkelios says. I glare at him.

"You don't even know what dollars are."

"No, but I know they're currency, and I'm going to check out Earth eventually." Ahkelios grins at me. "Unless you don't want me there for some reason?"

I snort. "You're welcome to visit," I say. "Just don't make fun of the state of my apartment."

"I would never. I've seen your cabin."

"My cabin was fine."

"Sure." Ahkelios wiggles his antennae at me, and I roll my eyes, going back to the Interface and hiding my own smile.

I have a lot of points, partially accumulated through my training in the Grove and partially through the fights we've been through since then. Including the Interface's reward for clearing that last Tear—not that I actually did much, there—it amounts to...

[Physical Aspect Pool: 7,591 points

Astral Aspect Pool: 10,271 points

Firmament: 921 credits]

It's a bit of a surprise that I've accumulated that much more astral points than I have physical ones, but I suppose it makes sense. As much as I rely on my physical pool to inflict damage, it's the astral one that I rely on the most: for processing information fast enough to dodge attacks, for moving fast enough to dodge those attacks. I prefer stacking speed over stacking strength.

Now, what to do with these points...

I'll wait to accumulate enough Firmament so I can bank the 1,000 credits all at once—that won't be too far away now. The bigger question is: now that I can decide how many points I'm banking, do I want a bigger number of low quality skills, or a low number of high quality ones?

I choose a mix of both, in the end.

I have enough Astral points to be able to get a single SSS rank skill. That, I think, is worth fully dumping my points into: I won't get much of a chance to get skills that highly ranked again without combining them, and there's no guarantee I'll find skills compatible for skill combination. ŕΑƝՕＢĘS̈

As far as the Physical points go, I'm a little more spoiled for choice: I can try to get one S-rank skill and two A-rank ones, or I can go for seven A-rank ones. I frown in thought for a moment, then decide with a sigh that I'm overthinking it.

The bulk of my power is going to come from my core development. My skills exist to give me options, but they also need to be able to handle the amount of power I put into them. Right now, with the way my skills react to my Firmament...

Well, let's just say I don't want to end up with skills I can't use. Higher-rank skills are safer. In a place as restricted as the Sewers, they'll let me do more with less casts. Even outside of it, a single game-changer will let me do more than five extra lesser skills, especially since I can modify the effects with my Inspirations.

[Are you sure you wish to bank 10,001 Astral points?]

Yes.

[Which Pillar will you feed?]

Well, that's new. I raise an eyebrow at it for a moment, but I suppose it makes sense; the categories still exist, after all.

It takes me a moment of consideration, but ultimately the choice is easy. Guard and Aris are both able to handle processing enormous amounts of data at once. It isn't my specialty, and it doesn't need to be. An SSS-rank Mind skill feels like overkill, especially since Mind won't exactly save me from Teluwat's Talent.

Even Iron Mind couldn't do much against him, since what he does is technically soul modification. I'd needed the Interface to intervene back in Isthanok.

Energy, I decide firmly. I may not be able to outthink it, but I might be able to outrun it. Even parasites need time to feed and proliferate. That, and Energy feels like the more versatile pillar by far, considering how close it aligns with Firmament.

[Banking 10,001 Astral points into the Pillar of Energy...]

[Choose between:

Kinetic Crown (Rank SSS)

Keystone Conduit (Rank SSS)

Absolute Zero (Rank SSS)

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Eternal Moment (Rank SSS)]

For a moment, I just stare at the options, slightly dumbfounded.

Every single one of them is absurd.

Kinetic Crown offers me absolute control of kinetic energy in a sphere around me. It's costly on both Firmament and focus, for obvious reasons, but in return it gives me near-inviolable offense and defense within its radius. If the other options weren't equally incredible, I might have picked it immediately. Even without it, it's tempting.

Keystone Conduit offers a smaller, more distributable version of the Kinetic Crown's effect anchored on top of a tagged "keystone", which is pretty much anything I choose to designate as a keystone. I lose the absolute control of a spherical domain in exchange for a slower control over a scattered distribution of "zones".

More interesting is that I can tag people as keystones. They gain the ability to siphon and distribute kinetic energy to a more limited degree; anything they siphon goes to me, the anchor of the effect. Likewise, if they need additional speed, I have to give it to them. It's widespread, intelligent battlefield control.

Absolute Zero is pretty much what it says on the tin. I have to admit, the most attractive part of the skill is that it's probably the closest one I've gotten to traditional "magic". I smile a little ruefully as I look over the option.

As powerful as it is—and as much as I love the idea of freezing everything around me—it's a skill that's good for one-on-one battles and not much else, especially if I care about collateral. It's a directed, automatic version of the Kinetic Crown. It absorbs all kinetic energy around me and converts it into pure speed for me to utilize.

The upside is that I'll be fast and freeze everything indiscriminately around me as I move. The downside is the whole "indiscriminately" part. Not a skill that plays well with others. On top of that, if I ever face anyone with a similar ability, or someone that can drain my environment before I can drain it, or if I end up fighting someone in space, it's a dud skill.

Not that I think I'll be fighting people in space, but you never know, at this point.

Then there's Eternal Moment. It's probably the strangest skill of the four, and it takes Inspect a moment to translate what the skill does into something I can understand—the longest Inspect has ever taken to interpret a skill for me, in fact.

It lets me create a moment out of time.

Any conventional timeline has a start and an end—a cause and effect. Eternal Moment allows me to stretch that infinitesimal moment between cause and effect into something that exists on its own, no matter how instantaneous it otherwise is. It's similar to a timestop ability, albeit not identical; despite the name, I can only affect a single event at a time. A single "moment", as it were.

Odd skill. Situationally useful, but ridiculously so in the occasions where it would be useful.

That's what decides it for me, in the end. Every other skill is a solution to a problem I already have other solutions for, even if it might take me more work. Even the Kinetic Crown and Keystone Conduit I can work my way around—I can share my Energy skills through Ahkelios, after all, and Guard has his skill circuits to borrow my skills.

Eternal Moment offers me a solution to problems I can't solve yet. It allows me to intervene even when I absolutely shouldn't be able to. It's even passive, to a certain degree—by default, it'll give me just enough time to decide whether or not I want to activate it.

I won't always be able to find solutions, of course. The skill fundamentally gives me time to find one, but it doesn't mean those solutions exist. But for the opportunity it gives me to intervene when I otherwise could not...

That's invaluable. It's a perfect addition to my kit.

And it puts me one step closer to understanding the nature of time. With everything that's been happening on Hestia, I'm going to need it.

[Eternal Moment (Rank SSS) obtained!]

"Whoa," Adeya says, blinking. She glances up at me. "What the fuck was that?"

I raise an eyebrow. I didn't think she'd be able to sense that, but now that I look around, pretty much everyone is staring at me. Gheraa is practically squinting into my chest again, the scirix have all stopped what they're doing to look over at me, and Ahkelios looks like he's holding back a laugh.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"You just..." Adeya pauses, searching for a word. Taylor offers it up.

"Pulsed," he says. I look at him, then at Adeya, who nods.

"You just got stronger," she says. "Did you just phase shift?"

"I would've said something if I was going to try something like that," I say dryly. "I was just banking some points."

"Banking your points caused that?" Adeya demands. I shrug, not really knowing what else to say. "Does this have something to do with the Aspect Pools thing you were talking about?"

"Probably," I say. Technically, points in my Aspect Pools give me physical and "astral" bonuses, according to the Interface, but...

I pause, then groan. Ahkelios starts laughing.

"I was wondering when you'd remember," he says. I glare at him.

"You knew?"

"Technically," he says, holding his hands up to placate me. "I only remembered when you banked your points just now."

I just groan again. I should've been banking my points this whole time!

"Does anyone want to explain?" Adeya asks, looking between us. I grumble under my breath, then sigh.

"When I gain points toward my Aspect Pools, I get a passive bonus toward that aspect," I say. "So points in my Physical Aspect Pool make me stronger and more durable. Points in my Astral Aspect Pool make me faster both physically and mentally. The actual aspects are a little more complicated than that, but you get the idea."

I'm certainly understanding why the Interface "simplified" it to Strength, Durability, Speed, and Reflex. Actually explaining the nuance of Force, Body, Energy, and Mind would take much longer.

"So you got a lot of points?" Adeya asks. I shake my head.

"No, I just forgot the second part of the passive bonus," I say. "All my points count toward the passive bonus, but banked points count more than passive ones. I just banked ten thousand points."

"You banked how many—" Taylor erupts before Adeya can say anything.

"Ten thousand? Why were you holding on to—" Dhruv looks halfway between horrified and angry.

Adeya slaps her hands over both their mouths. Given the look she's wearing, I get the impression that it's not the first time she's done this. "Right," she says. "Got it. Thanks for letting me know."

She smiles at me, and I slowly nod back. I can appreciate her restraint—she clearly recognizes that it doesn't really matter what else is said at this point. That, and I have more points to bank. I don't particularly feel like fielding a barrage of questions about how much I've been fighting.

Ahkelios mostly seems amused by all this, damn him.

"Will you be banking any more points?" she asks. I glance at my Interface.

"I've got another seven thousand," I say. The muffled yells from both Taylor and Dhruv redouble, and I sigh. Adeya just nods, then slowly starts to drag them away.

"I'm gonna go talk to them," Gheraa tells me cheerfully. I blink.

"Why?" I ask. Not that I have a problem with it, but this is a sudden interest. Gheraa just grins at me.

"Why, because that Taylor fellow is a man after my own heart," he says happily. "I bet I can get him to start a fan club!"

"Gheraa, do not—"

It's too late. He's already gone. I stare after him despondently, and Ahkelios offers me a comforting pat on the back.

"It's not that bad," he says. "It's Gheraa. Good chance he's going to end up showing off his skills instead. Or doing a dance."

"Let's hope so," I mutter. Admittedly, I'm not sure his dancing is going to be much better.

I really don't want a fan club. Sighing, I turn back to the Interface, ready to pick out my new Physical skills.