I quickly realized that my heart might’ve acted before my head in this case.

  Combining all my undergarments and reallocating those stats to Order had actually dropped my Grace’s max capacity down below what I had currently earned. It’d been at 100 before, with a max of 135, but was now capped at 74. That wasn’t even the worst part. At 74 points, Grace was still my highest earned stat, beating out Vigor at 66.

  Which meant that Grace was the stat that got augmented by five percent, except as I soon discovered, it didn't also increase the cap. It just boosted my earned stat if it happened to be under the cap. Which it wasn’t.

  And so, my brand new jumpsuit was doing all of absolutely nothing to boost my stats right now.

  On the flip side, I did have a whole 160 points of free Essence. With that, I could reinitialize some of the rings that I had taken out, adding a few points back to Grace, and maybe even buy some [Rare] rings.

  We were in the middle of a battle, however, and fighting Syrril on a good day with a hundred ten percent attention meant we only got our asses moderately kicked. Distracting myself to wear a ring midbattle was just begging to be destroyed.

  Well, you live and learn, right?

  Aerion immediately activated [Reave] and [Fading Fury]. She did that pretty much every time we fought Syrril these days. It was actually the best possible move, considering it extended our bouts from the single-digit-second range to somewhere in the mid-double-digits. Quite the remarkable improvement, even if we relied on his ability to knock Aerion unconscious to make it safe.

  As Aerion began her relentless onslaught of slashes, I charged in, focusing on the feeling I felt during my meditation sessions. As Syrril had taught us, combat was a form of meditation on its own, or at least it could be, depending on your thoughts. While I couldn't exactly contemplate the meaning of life while fighting Syrril, I could at least focus on that sensation of weight.

  I didn’t know if it would help, but it couldn’t hurt, right?

  Aerion activated Aurora’s [Echo Blade] ability, spawning additional copies of her sword. The ability had grown significantly from all the battles in the past weeks and could now manifest four copies that were every bit as lethal as her own. She’d gained more control over them, too, directing them to attack from subtly different angles.

  They still couldn’t fly around and attack from his back, but I figured it’d only be a matter of time until she managed that, too. Dumping points into Wisdom would likely accelerate that process, but there were only so many stats a min-maxed damage build could invest in before it became diluted.

  Aerion’s ability proved indispensable in keeping Syrril occupied, allowing me to activate the twin abilities of Light of the Fearless and charge in.

  This time, though, I also threw some ranged weapons into the mix. Rocks weren’t easy to find up in the canopy, but the forest floor was littered with them. And so I’d amassed a small arsenal in my inventory, which I [Launch]ed, Initializing them on the way out for increased damage.

  Not even Syrril could ignore those, and he was forced to dodge, which allowed Light of the Fearless to connect, and Aerion to get three solid strikes in, brutally slashing the old elf.

  Were this anyone else, they might’ve been cut into pieces, or at least disemboweled. As always with Syrril, though, his nigh-impenetrable soul defense stopped her cold. That didn’t stop him from smiling, though.

  “Good!” Syrril said. “You are both learning. But now, I wish to see this new power of yours, Greg. I do hope you’ll show me something nice!”

  Syrril suddenly changed direction and charged at me. I pushed off, dodging—but not as fast as I had hoped. The 26 points of Grace that I’d lost really made themselves known, and Syrril caught me easily, landing a palm against my chest.

  Well, that was fun while it lasted, I thought, just before the moment of impact.

  Syrril’s soul powers manifested as the ability to channel metaphysical force through his body, turning his skin into a nearly invincible armor that let him tank nearly all mundane attacks.

  It worked in reverse, too, allowing him to bypass all forms of defense. It didn’t matter if it was a light strike or a heavy punch. I’d blackout regardless. And blackout I did.

  This time, however, I felt a resistance. As if something within myself pushed back against that metaphysical force. That was my last thought before the world went black.

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  I awoke a few seconds later. Confused, groggy, and with a mild headache. Aerion sat beside me. She tended to recover from these faster, for whatever reason.

  I found Syrril looking at me pensively. “What did you do?” he asked.

  “What do you mean? You hammered us pretty hard. That wasn’t even the longest we’ve lasted against you.”

  “Regardless, you resisted my attack. Weakly, perhaps, yet it is undeniable. Precious few can at your rank. That is an ability that only comes with the Convergence rank breakthrough. Ascension. It often takes years to master. Could it be…”

  I looked to the corner of my vision to find a slew of minimized notifications that all merged into one when I opened them.

  Congratulations! Order has increased from 29 to 37.

  Eight points. From a battle that lasted a mere thirty seconds. And I wasn’t even concentrating! I wasn’t actively trying. I just kept the thought of that weightiness at the back of my mind. And I got eight points.

  This should’ve been impossible. It was so far beyond the leveling pace of anything I’d experienced, I didn’t know what to think anymore.

  And then a thought occured. What if I’d been wrong about how stats progressed all along?

  What if it wasn’t the stats the Armor Set gave me, but rather the difference between my total capacity and my current earned amount? Was it going up so fast because my Order capacity was now in the 600s, while my current value was so low?

  That would explain why my Grace also rose when I wore my Grace armor. And if that hunch was right, what the heck would an hour of focused meditation do?

  There was only one way to find out.

  Syrril beamed at me, his grin widening.

  Meditation turned out to be far harder than expected. For one, my excitement kept me from truly reflecting on the concepts I needed to. The minimized notifications that popped up every few seconds didn’t help, either.

  Sure, they were small, and in battle, I wouldn’t even notice them. But with my eyes closed, each time one popped up, it reset my train of thought, causing my heart to pump and my thoughts to wander.

  I’d had enough after a minute of that. Thankfully, I had a degree of control over my Status Screen. Focusing, I mentally silenced the notifications for the next hour.

  That seemed to do the trick. The steady stream stopped, and I was finally able to sink in.

  Once again, I focused on that sensation of heaviness—slightly stronger now than before. I did that in tandem with everything Syrril had taught us to think about—our place in the universe, the concept of a soul… what happens after death. Heavy stuff.

  I didn’t need notifications to tell me something inside me was changing, and fast. Time passed, and I sank deeper into that flow state. My thoughts quieted, my body drifted away, and I saw myself in the third person.

  A sudden desire to see more overcame me, and the image zoomed out.

  Past the great tree of the elves, ancient and strong. Then, suddenly, I was the tree. A living being that never moved. That had witnessed the rise and fall of countless generations. That had survived cycle after cycle. An observer of the procession of time.

  I pulled out to the mystical forest in which it sat. A forest with a secret.

  Dominion’s land came into view. Basecrest to the southwest and Dominium to the east near the inland sea.

  I zoomed out more, ascending above the highest clouds, peering through them as though they didn’t exist. I saw Axius in its entirety. Its diamond shape completely at odds with anything natural.

  And I saw tiny dots? Islands, far, far away from the continent.

  I zoomed in on one. This was no mere island. It floated, somehow. Miles above the ocean. Covered in a forest, and…

  I was too far. I needed to see more. I zoomed in and—pure white.

  “Order,” I whispered, my eyes flying open.

  What was that? Visions? Was any of that real? That expanded sense of perception was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. A true out-of-body experience, where time had no meaning. Had it been just a few seconds, or ten thousand years?

  But that didn’t make any sense. Cunning was the stat that governed perception, wasn’t it? Not Order. And cunning never improved through meditation.

  I rose to my feet and stumbled.

  Something was different about me. Something deep inside. Something solid.

  “It is about time!” Syrril’s voice boomed. I found him standing a few dozen feet away. “You were in such deep meditation, we didn’t dare interrupt.”

  “How long was I meditating?” I asked with a frown. Something was definitely different. I could barely even take a step, I felt so heavy.

  “Almost three hours,” Syrril said. “Your girl went off to fetch some food.”

  Three hours!? That was impossible. Yet when I looked around, I noticed the shadows weren’t quite in the same place—the sun’s hue slightly warmer.

  Seriously?

  “Syrril, I—I’ve never felt like that before,” I said in a shaky voice. “I saw the world. I saw everything. What was that?”

  It was like I had become bigger than myself. Larger than life.

  Was this Order? Did I somehow tap into the core of my deity’s existence? Because I was his Champion? Or was it something else?

  So many questions and no answers.

  I dazedly brought up my Status Screen.

  For a moment, I just stared, unable to comprehend the numbers floating in front of me. There was no way, right? This had to be some sort of glitch. A Cosmo prank.

  I blinked several times, fully expecting the glitch to fix itself. It never did.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” I whispered.

  In those three hours that felt like three seconds, I hadn’t gained 10 or 25 points. Nor even 50.

  Congratulations! Order has increased from 37 to 126.

  Congratulations! [Initializer] has leveled up to Divergence - 6. Max Essence increased from 570 to 610. Essence Utilization: 423/610. Would you like to reclaim Initialized equipment?