“You look fine Jonathan.” Rana spoke, whispering to him from the depths of his conscious mind, “Uninitiated clothing and items appear often less visually pleasing in comparison to spiritual items imbued with Fragments Of Comfort or Fragments Of Warmth.”

  “Although your clothing possesses little-to-no defensive properties to them, it is more than suitable for a night out with that uninitiated human.”

  “What was her name again… Kate, or something?”

  Jon rolled his eyes, knowing that Rana had forgotten her name on purpose. The Earth Reincarnation Womb did not approve of the matching, learning that the current object of his attention was not on the formation of his fifth spiritual vein.

  The bodhi deva tree had assumed that after the formation of his complete Knight Ranked Title and wood spiritual vein, that he would swiftly transition into the development of his war spiritual vein. Developing the underlying structures and conceptual ties back to his Fragment Of Thieving-Envy, which he had decided to use as the foundation for said spiritual vein.

  In addition, much to Rana’s chagrin, he had also started working at the Albion Hotel three times a week. The length of his received shifts changed from day-to-day but more often than not finished late in the evening, reducing the amount of time he had to formulate his war spiritual vein.

  With his Fragment Of Mind and Fragment Of Spirit, Jon was able to maintain periods of extended concentration and focus without the need for sleep or rest. With his Fragment Of Heart and Fragment Of Marrow he was able to perform intensive bursts of physical activity for several hours if he so pleased.

  And as a Knight, his natural physical and mental faculties were far superior to other uninitiated mortals. What might seem like inhuman stamina and unfathomable focus and concentration was relatively normal for those that had achieved Knighthood.

  But even then, with all the effects and enhancements his Rank and abilities granted him, Jon was not infallible.

  He sighed, shaking his head and pretending to adjust his left headphone. His eyes glancing around the busied tram, noticing an abundance of youthful looking men and women. The vast majority of which would have been around his age, some even drunkenly laughing from the other end of the vehicle.

  His Fragment Of Instinct could feel the occasional brush from a gaze somewhere throughout the tram. It softly poked at his [Bestial Intuition] with all the force of a infants fist; devoid of spiritual energy, it was harmless, if slightly annoying.

  “Kate is, well, she seems nice.”

  “Although my definition of “nice” has definitely changed since the end of the System Introduction,” Jon whispered, feeling a hand brush up against his own. Hades-Draconian Shadow watching from beneath him as the woman beside smiled at him, taking just a moment too long to remove her hand from his arm.

  He might have smiled back, if it were not for the overwhelming scent of perfume wafting around him. Something that would have been near-imperceptible to his previous self, had now become an almost noxious force that tickled his nostrils and tastebuds.

  “Please Jonathan. An excuse like that might fool Miss Lydia or Miss Ariel but we both know that if you wanted to merely enjoy yourself, there are far more easier methods. Even without the use of abilities or spiritual items, you are still quite visually appealing to members of the opposite sex.”

  Jon flashed a wry smile.

  “Thanks… I guess?” He muttered, looking down at the watch on his wrist.

  Although none of the clothes that he was wearing were spiritual items, it did not mean that Jon did not have any on his person. Other than the fact that most of his combat-related spiritual items were placed within his [Red Archives Of Mars Quirinus], he was still in possession of multiple other spiritual items.

  Most courtesy of the Merchant Guild creationists, alongside a handful of custom-ordered spiritual items.

  Extrasensory-Observation Glasses were once again placed on his face, enhancing the effectiveness of [Bestial Intuition] and [Eyes Through The Looking Glass].

  Mindful-Time Watch placed on his wrist, improving the effectiveness of [Mine Is The Three Seas Of Knowledge].

  And lastly, a Knight Ranked Knowledge-Talisman hung loosely from his neck, concealed beneath his white-button up shirt. It further improved the effectiveness of all his abilities that possessed the Knowledge Trait, enhancing the strength of all his aforementioned abilities.

  Although uninitiated wines, beers, and spirits were physically incapable of affecting him, the presence of booming music, bodily odours, cigarettes and car exhausts often clouded the range of his perceptions. Minerva-Infiltration Eyes were the exception but could still be mistaken if his Fragment Of Mind was incapable of withstanding the flow of information into his Three Seas Of Knowledge.

  “…” Jon lifting his hand and grabbing onto the railing beside his head. Although he did not need to hold on while the tram beneath him turned a corner, it was more of an unconscious decision, one born from many years of taking public transport.

  Phone buzzing in his pocket, causing him to reach for it, pulling it out and unlocking it with a simple tap of his finger.

  “Hi Jon!”

  “A few of my friends decided to tag along for the night.”

  “I hope that doesn’t bother you but…”

  He responded before Kate could text further.

  “Of course it’s alright. They’re probably just looking out for you.”

  “You’ve got some good friends.”

  Three little dots appeared where her next text would come through from, Jon observing them for several seconds before her next reply came through.

  “Yeah, they can be a little… protective at times, but I still love them for it.”

  “We just got to the bar, should we wait outside for you or meet you inside?”

  His reply came swiftly, fingers moving almost too fast for anyone to see.

  “I’ll meet you all inside.”

  “I’m about five minutes away, I’ll see you in a couple.”

  Kate replied with a thumbs-up emoji, causing Jon to roll his eyes, placing his phone back inside his pocket. He could still feel the not-so-subtle brush of an arm against his own, causing him to reach for the low-ranked rope above him, indicating that he was looking to get off.

  It did not take more than thirty seconds for the driver to arrive at the next stop, allowing Jon to step off and immediately start walking towards the bar. He could still feel the lingering gaze of at least one uninitiated mortal on his person, but ignored them, striding forward towards the location that Kate had texted him.

  His Seir-Perpetual Heart pounding just a fraction bit quicker than usual.

  ‘Am I nervous right now?’ Jon thought to himself, a wry-looking smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  It took him all of four minutes to arrive at the bar where he had agreed to meet with Kate. His eyes glancing towards the bright neon-green sign hanging above the entrance. He entered the bar without too much difficulty, swerving around groups of young people, drinking, laughing and carrying on as if it were the end of the world.

  ‘Not entirely incorrect, all things considered.’

  Voices practically shouting over each other, some ordering drinks while others drunk enough to lose control over some of their inhibitions. Minerva-Infiltration Eyes glancing throughout the disordered crowd before-.

  “Jon! Jon over here!” Kate’s voice slashing through the perpetual chatter.

  Jon immediately turning his head in her direction, noticing a familiar-looking head of bright, blonde-coloured hair. Kate raising one arm and waving at him from across the bar, hoping that he would be able to see her, even with all the people around them.

  He smiled, waving back before gently moving his way through the crowd. [Bestial Intuition] enhancing his sense of hearing, forcing him to perceive all the conversations going on around him. Tabitha-Cedarspear Arm clenched tightly into a fist, trying best to divert his attention away from all the half-drunken exchanges.

  “… with this two girls last night dude! You have to believe me!”

  “Professor Himmler not teaching this year! Something about governmental grants and…”

  “… and in the end, Brian turned out to be sleeping with Jessica all this time! Can you believe it?!”

  “… heard about the sightings in Brunei and Indonesia! New species of tuna more than double the size of anything seen…”

  Jon strode up towards their table, flashing a slightly awkward-looking smile. His eyes glancing towards the two other girls at the table, before landing on Kate, dressed in a thin, but form-fitting black dress.

  Leather jacket hanging loosely from the chair behind her.

  “Jon! I’m so glad you could make it!” Kate practically shouted, hoping that her voice would be not drowned out with all the conversations going on around them. She stepped forward towards him, wrapping one arm around his shoulder, pulling him in for a hug.

  Jon returned the gesture, glancing towards the half-empty glasses on the table.

  ‘Just got here huh?’

  [Bestial Intuition] alerting him to the two blatant stares sent towards him. A slight cough from one of Kate’s friends causing the blonde-haired woman to grin, pulling away from Jon and then gesturing towards the other two women currently seated at the table.

  “Jon, meet Amy and Claire!” Kate shouted, watching as Jon extended a hand towards the two of them. Despite her slight inebriation, she could not help but notice that it was his left hand and not his prosthetic.

  Something that Amy and Claire did not fail to notice either. The former, giving Jon a polite smile, taking the hand while nodding her head. The corners of her mouth curling upwards as she glanced towards Kate on the other side of the table.

  “Kate has told us so much about you, I almost feel like I know you at this point!”

  Jon pausing for half-a-second, before turning his head in Kate’s direction. The blonde-haired girl blushing ever-so-slightly before waving her friend off, dismissing the accusation with an overexaggerated shake of her head.

  “N-no! Only about what happened with the oil and-.”

  Jon interrupted her, pulling his hand back and then extending it towards her other friend. His head still turned in Amy’s direction.

  “All good things I hope.” He responded, shaking Claire’s hand at the same time.

  Jon took his seat opposite both Amy and Claire, noticing that Kate had willingly left a spot for him beside her at the table. A pint glass swiftly placed in front of him, pushed over from Kate’s side of the table. Amy and Claire sharing a glance as Jon eyed the cold beverage sitting before him.

  “You bought me a drink?” He said, smiling while eyeing the girl sitting beside him.

  Kate nodded, shrugging her shoulders while placing her own glass up to her lips.

  “Call me old fashioned,” she replied, smirking while sipping on whatever cocktail it was she had ordered. Her eyes darting towards her two friends sitting opposite her, eyebrows shifting almost imperceptibly as if to gesture towards her friends to do something.

  Amy and Claire sharing another glance, before the former opened her mouth to speak.

  “So, Jon…”

  Claire tapped her fingers across the length of the table before them.

  “What’s the thing you like most about Kate?”

  Break.

  The Ensis Spiritus Sanctus walked through the streets of downtown Sydney, adorned in a thick, oversized hood that covered his elongated ears. Threads of colour natured spiritual energy lingered behind him, forming a series of intangible and metaphysical streaks that imprinted themselves upon the air.

  ‘I regret not taking Jon up on his offer to learn warding and formation crafting from Igraine and Lee-Soo. [Lightless Colour Arts; Seven-Layered Phantasm] is perhaps the strongest fragment-pathway in my current repertoire.’

  ‘And here I am, using it with all the proficiency of a flailing fish.’

  Mael flashed a wry-looking smile, shaking his head before finishing up the final touches on his seven-layered phantasm. His Fragment Of Lightward-Phantasm was a more recent addition, in comparison to his Fragment Of Virtuous-Annihilation and Fragment Of Dividing-Sky.

  He had formed it just a mere two days ago, more than a week after arriving on Earth from the System Introduction. Mael was thankful that he had learnt English from Jon, Delila, and some of the other members of the Exploration Guild, allowing him to communicate with the local humans.

  Accent aside, with a little assistance from a Visage-Haze Mask that Aerilayna had crafted for him, he was more than capable of interacting with humans. Lutins did not appear that visually different from humans, other than their elongated ears and bright-red-coloured veins.

  Nothing that a “hoodie” could not fix. A piece of human clothing that he had come to enjoy quite a bit; enough to leave a mental note within both his Conscious Light Palace and Subconscious Sword Palace. The uniqueness of his imaginary mental construct, or mental constructs rather, granted him an extraordinary level of control over his conscious and subconscious minds, sometimes even allowing him to merge the two.

  Or separate them entirely.

  Controlling them was difficult, considering that the activation of one inadvertently caused the other to move parallel alongside the other. Mael had spent several dozen hours communicating and sharing his experiences with other citizens of Springtown that had shared this specific uniqueness, trying to find some sort of underlying core principle that could allow him to control both mental constructs.

  It had taken him more than half-a-year to figure out, but eventually he was awarded with a System Acknowledged Feat.

  System Acknowledged Feat

  [2]: Comprehend, hypothesize and then implement methodologies related to the control and manipulation imaginary mental constructs Conscious Light-Layer Palace and Subconscious Sword-Layer Palace as a Second-Veined Knight. Mael Sygnus successfully formed his own methodologies and techniques for the parallel and perpendicular manipulations of his Fragment Of Light and Fragment Of Mind.

  This feat has been recorded by the System and grants him a unique reward in lieu of this exceptional achievement.

  One Memento Source Fragment.

  It had been a long time coming but it did not fail to bring a smile to his face when he saw it.

  Unfortunately however, due to the fact that he had ascended from Mortality to Knighthood, he was now forced to form an additional Knight Ranked Title to use as the basis for his Memento Source Item. Mael had put his plans for form his complete Knight Ranked Title on hold, instead focusing on forming his Memento Source Item.

  He had hoped to earn enough Title Fragments from the battle against the Voracious Swarm Mother and her brood, or at least a couple Title Fragments with semi-useful effects.

  ‘But now I’m here. On a planet, several tens of thousands of light years away from Svaarlfin.’

  ‘I know that Jon told me humanity had yet to step fully into the age of stars and begin colonizing the rest of their solar system, but damn… some of these people are just…’

  ‘Idiotic would be an understatement.’

  Using Jon as the standard to measure other humans was a stupendous overestimation to evaluate the average human. Jon had been chosen to participate within the System Introduction, which already placed him within the top percentile of the human race.

  Jon was the not the first human that he had encountered within Springtown, however, he was the human that he befriended the most during his time in the Safe Zone.

  His mind unconsciously equating other humans with the one that he considered a ‘friend.’

  ‘Some of these people are just… weird.’

  ‘Looking down at their ‘phones’ for several hours each day, just mindlessly staring at video after video with no real meaning behind each one. Humanity has reached the information age for crying out loud.’

  ‘More than eighty percent of their entire collective knowledge is at their fingertips and yet…’

  ‘They would rather watch videos of dog pooping on a baby?’

  Mael did not understand human culture as well as he thought he did.

  Or perhaps Jon conveniently ‘left out’ some details about human pass times.

  The Spiritus Ensis Sanctus sighed, walking closer and closer towards the abandoned house that he had started to call his ‘home.’ Placing wards around the property had been difficult in the beginning but more than a week of constant and continuous practice had helped him come to grips with his weaknesses and-.

  [Mine Is The Conscious Light Palace].

  [Mine Is The Subconscious Sword Palace].

  [Light-Speed Instincts].

  Head whipping around with enough force to snap an uninitiated mortals neck.

  Eyes widening in shock; Solais Verte; Sword Of Vanishing Wood-Light manifesting in the palm of his hand. Fragment Of Instinct, trembling uncontrollably within his Light Mana Core.

  Brows furrowed in worry, as he gazed towards the distant skies.

  “… No, there is no way that-.”

  Waves of water natured spiritual energy expanding outwards, breath hitching as a familiar power washed over him. Water natured spiritual energy, so thick and potent that it manifested physically.

  An aquamarine-coloured aurora streaking across the skies of this human city.

  Mael gritted his teeth, tightening his grip over Solais Verte.

  ‘Shit.’

  ‘Not another one.’