Die. Respawn. Repeat.

[ Phase-shift has begun. Pausing all Interface functionality until shift has been completed. ]

[ Phase-shift complete. Calculating changes. Removing notification suppression. ]

[ Phase-shift Rank: S ]

[ Firmament base has been established. Ranking function unavailable. Information restricted. ]

[ Congratulations on completing your first phase-shift! Please note that the Interface may take time to fully calibrate to your Firmament base, depending on complexity. New skills offered will be tailored to your Firmament base. ]

"Well, that doesn't tell me much, considering how I built it," I mutter. I don't regret it in the slightest.

"Why he talking to himself?" Akar demands, looking between Mari and Tarin. "He hit his head?"

"It Interface," Mari says.

"He call me old fart!" Tarin complains.

"I can hear you all," I grumble. It's more of an affectionate grumble than anything. I've grown to like the crows a lot. Ahkelios, sitting on my shoulder, snickers at me, and I give him a playful flick that makes him yelp and scramble to defend himself. I go back to my notifications, ignoring the way Akar immediately starts cooing over Ahkelios and the way he absolutely eats up the attention.

[ Once calibrated, the Interface will attempt to track your progress towards the next phase-shift. ]

[ Due to events specific to your phase-shift, you have been awarded the following skills:

Durability: Verdant Armor (Rank A)

Speed: Intrinsic Lightning (Rank A)

Strength: Amplification Gauntlet (Rank A) ]

That's a lot of powerful new skills — all thanks to the three crows here. I bow my head towards them, suddenly grateful, and they all stop mid-conversation to stare at me.

"What you bowing for?" Mari asks.

"You've helped me a lot." I shift slightly, uncomfortable. "And I'm a lot stronger for it. If I don't thank you now..."

I trail off. I'm running into a truth I'm trying to avoid — the longer a loop runs, the more attached I'll get to the people within a loop. I don't try to avoid interacting with others; that seems like a long and lonely road, and one that will detach me from the realities happening within a loop.

But losing them every time I loop is almost worse.

"Stupid," Mari snorts, but she's hiding the fluff of her feathers that I know means she's pleased.

Akar doesn't react nearly as much, not knowing me as well, but she seems sort of gruffly accepting. "You more manners than Tarin," she says.

"What day today? Tarin roast day?" Tarin complains. He hops experimentally, kicking out a leg — I'm surprised when I see a flash of black lightning trail behind his kick, something I hadn't seen before — and then I realize it's a combination of the phase-shift and Tetrachromacy making me even more sensitive to Firmament. "Good you grateful! You not forget us, yes?"

"I don't think I could if I tried," I say with a laugh.

Ahkelios, perched on my head, chooses this moment to pipe up. "I'll make sure he won't forget! Every time he does, he's going to owe me moss."

"I still owe you moss," I say dryly.

"He'll owe me twice the moss."

"I don't think there's that much moss in this forest."

"He's slandering your forest," Ahkelios cries, pointing at me dramatically, and I laugh along with all three of the other crows — even Akar, who seems amused and delighted by the little mantis' antics.

But the moment of lightheartedness passes quickly. There's a lot we have to talk about and a lot I need to test before I'm ready to head out towards the Great Cities. Ahkelios seems to sense the change in my mood, and he settles back down on my shoulder, the look on his face growing serious.

"We need talk." Tarin's the one to break the silence, surprisingly. He stretches gingerly, then squawks a bit as one of his joints pops and he scares himself; his wife smacks him on the head with a wing.

"You take shower first. Then talk," she scolds him. Before Tarin can protest, she physically picks him up, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck in a single hand. Tarin flails in protest, but — rather noticeably — doesn't fight back.

Then she walks out of the tent, still carrying him with her. I stare after them with a slightly raised eyebrow before Akar draws my attention with a wave of her wing.

"I not think I need to join in," she tells me. "I need do work. You call me if you need me. If you find more rare herbs, you bring to me. Okay?"

She doesn't wait for a response. She stalks out of the hut, leaving Ahkelios and I standing alone in the middle of it all.

I blink. "I wasn't expecting that," I admit, sitting down on one of the chairs to wait for Mari and Tarin to return. Ahkelios shrugs, hopping off my shoulder and onto the floor in front of me. "...Where did you get that flower?"

Ahkelios points to a bouquet someone had left for Tarin. "He wasn't using it," the mantis says, shrugging, and munches happily on a petal.

I chuckle. "Any thoughts about how all this went?"

Ahkelios looks up at me seriously. "You need to take a moment to slow down," he advises after a moment. "I know you're worried about the other Trials, but you're wearing yourself thin chasing one problem after another. You have a bunch of skills you can try to merge with the Eye, you need to figure out all your new ones..."

"I know," I sigh. There are so many things to keep track of now — the new dungeon access is one of those things. I slip a hand into my pocket, feeling the sharp shard of stone that still sits there. "...Ah, shit, I didn't give Mari the skill shard to look at."

"Oops." Ahkelios shrugs — he doesn't seem particularly concerned. "You can hand it to her when she gets back, right?"

"As long as she does it before I head off towards the Great Cities. You have any idea what they're like?"

"No." Ahkelios shakes his head. "I think I heard of the Cities... but honestly, I was trying to find the exit to the Trial for most of my time here."

"You never found it?"

"No. I would've left as soon as I did." Ahkelios is silent for a moment. "The Trial wears you down after a while. I don't think I was ever as adaptable as you are to all of this; I think I let it break me down, make me crueler..."

"You don't seem very cruel," I say, though I know it's not much of a help.

"It's what happens when I get most of my memories locked away." Ahkelios looks down. "If I get them back and I change... what's going to happen to us?"

"What do you mean?" I ask, although I have a good guess.

"We're friends now, right?" He waits for me to nod in confirmation, then sits down on the floor, curling up slightly. "What if I'm not the same when I remember everything? What if I become someone... I don't know, more cruel, or more angry with the world..."

I'm silent for a moment. "I got a skill, you know, at the end of that Hotspot," I say quietly. "I haven't told you about it yet because I didn't know how."

"What was it?" Ahkelios looks up at me.

"Tetrachromacy. Rank C." I see Ahkelios flinch slightly at the words. I've never asked him how much he can see in this form — it seemed like an inappropriate question. I try to find the words, to figure out what to say next, but Ahkelios beats me to the punch.

"I'm happy for you," he says quietly. "I hope you use it well. I can teach you, if you like."

"I'd love that," I say, flashing Ahkelios a tiny smile. He looks so... he is small, of course, an effect of Temporal Fragment as it bound him to me, but now he looks vulnerable, pained in a way I can't heal.

He seems grateful, at least. Grateful for what, I can't say — maybe me not making a big deal out of it, maybe just the quiet acceptance in the conversation.

I need to try to find a way to share the skill with him, I think.

"Will you teach me how to paint sometime?" I ask him after a moment. He looks up at me, surprised, and then seems a little embarrassed.

"I mean, I can, but you have bigger worries..." He sounds strangely hopeful.

"We're going to have downtime sometimes," I say. "And hey, we're in this together, right?"

"Yeah." Ahkelios nods, as if to convince himself. I hesitate a moment.

"Do you... want me to avoid talking about your eye?" I finally ask. I'd considered dancing around the topic, but it seems easier and better to just ask; if we're both being vulnerable, then now's the best moment.

Ahkelios, to his credit, doesn't respond immediately — he takes the time to think about it, before slowly shaking his head. "I don't want to avoid it before I remember it all," he says eventually. "If we're going to work on helping me remember everything... it's better if I deal with my issues before they come back."

"Okay," I say.

And that's all I say — a quiet acknowledgement of the way he's choosing to deal with his problems. The silence stretches between us, but Ahkelios scoots around on the floor until he's leaning with his back against my ankle, a quiet acknowledgement of our friendship.

I smile at him, small, and let him munch on his flowers in peace, taking the opportunity to look at my Interface instead. There's a notification I missed before.

[ Due to events specific to your phase-shift, the Interface will now grant you a choice between four skills instead of three when banking your credits. ]

Great — more decision paralysis.

Not that I'm complaining, really. I take a glance at my stat sheet, trying to see the options I have available and what I need to investigate.

[ Loop 13 in progress. ]

[ Status:

Name: Ethan

Strength Skills: Crystallized Strength (Rank C), Concentrated Power (Rank B), Amplification Gauntlet (Rank A)

Durability Skills: Tough Body (Rank E), Second Wind (Rank B), Barrier (Rank D), Crystallized Barrier (Rank C), Verdant Armor (Rank A)

Reflex Skills: Mental Acceleration (Rank C), Intuitive Analysis (Rank C)

Speed Skills: Firestep (Rank C), Triplestep (Rank E), Intrinsic Lightning (Rank A), Acceleration (Rank C)

Firmament Skills: Temporal Fragment (Rank D), Firmament Manipulation (Rank D), Color Drain (Rank C), Tetrachromacy (Rank C)

Inspirations:

The Mirror Twice Shattered (Firmament, Unique)

The All-Seeing Eye (Reflex, Rank A)

The Void (Strength, Rank Unknown)

Open Dungeons:

The Empty City (Rank S)

Credit Distribution:

Strength: 30 (179 banked)

Durability: 256 (84 banked)

Reflex: 101 (124 banked)

Speed: 194 (79 banked)

Firmament: 156 (100 banked) ]

This list is going to get... very inflated, I suspect. I'm hoping there will be a way to consolidate skills at some point — the Eye just adds to my list, which means this is just going to keep growing. Remembering every option I have is already getting a bit untenable, so skill consolidation is something I'm going to have to look at soon.

For now, I just play around with Tetrachromacy, feeding more Firmament into the skill and watching the flow of Firmament around me, the way every piece of furniture in this hut is embedded with it.

There's a qualitative difference. It doesn't take nearly as much will to move my Firmament, and it flows significantly more smoothly through my body.

I wonder how different my next fight will go.