Explorer of Edregon

After getting his journal back and thanking Vin for his contribution, Sean had personally entered Kym's apartment to fetch the Advisor. Apparently, Kym had been deep in one of his books and hadn't even heard Vin's knock. Vin thanked Sean for his help and wished him good luck with getting the last couple of signatures he needed before heading into the apartment and stopping dead in the front hallway.

Spur had mentioned that with the lack of a library, more often than not when someone was trying to find a particular book they'd brought over from Earth, Kym was the one to go to. Vin had originally thought that was a joke.

He now knew Spur had been entirely serious.

Thick textbooks were stacked and piled all over the apartment in seemingly random order. There was but a single narrow path that had been left clear for people to get from the front door over to the living room, and Vin carefully walked through the valley of books as he tried not to accidentally nudge any of the precarious piles. He hadn't even known they'd brought over this sheer number of textbooks with them from Earth, though he supposed waves two and three each had had a lot more room for supplies than they did in the first wave.

Finally reaching the center of the apartment, he found Kym lazily lounging on the one couch, the Advisor not even glancing up from the book he was currently going through. Vin raised an eyebrow as he discovered the current book that held the man's attention was none other than a detailed textbook on plumbing and fluid dynamics. From how focused Kym was, he would have expected to find him engrossed in some sort of fantasy story.

"Hello again," Vin said, nodding at the Advisor. The last time they'd spoken, Vin had come to Kym in the dead of night and tried asking him about Golrim. The moment the other advisor's name had left his mouth, however, Kym had shut down and refused to talk to him, demanding he leave him alone. Remembering that, Vin was determined not to utter the 'G' word this time around.

"Hello," Kym said, finally glancing up and spotting Vin standing before him. "Ah. I was wondering when you'd finally come to me with a question."

Even now, when it was just the two of them, Kym's voice was soft and quiet, as if hoping whoever he was speaking with would forget he existed in the first place. Slowly sitting up, Kym marked his place in his book and put it to the side, gesturing for Vin to take the lone chair in the room.

"Here to ask about the Explorer class?"

"Loosely," Vin nodded, moving a couple of books that had been placed on the chair before sitting down. "I just hit level 35 and figured I should ask for your recommendation on what passive would be best to take. Though let me be clear up front. I do not want a detailed guide on how to best build my class. I just want to pick your brain on this one passive. And I have a question for you regarding skills in general, I suppose."

"That is good you don't wish to have your future laid out before you," Kym said, slowly nodding as he stared at Vin like he was peeling back layer after layer of what made him him. "After hearing about the adjustments that have been made by the Gods, I have a theory about this new System. But before that, let's start with your question on skills. Skills tend to be far less complex than passives."

"Well it's not so much a specific skill I'm asking about as it is skills as a whole," Vin said, deciding to just come out with it. "I just purchased my ninth skill, and the System warned me that I only had a single skill slot left. Did the old System have a hard limit of ten skills?"

"Did it? How curious," Kym said, looking interested for a change. "No, there was no such limit before Edregon. That is news to me. I would recommend informing Spur of this, but I doubt you need my advice on that."

"No, I was already going to tell him," Vin nodded. Getting confirmation that this skill limit was brand new didn't really do him any good, but it was still nice to know, he supposed. "Alright, before I ask about the passive, you said you had a theory about the System I should know about?"

"Indeed I do," Kym said, still watching him carefully, as if curious to see how he would react. "If you had come asking me for detailed help with your class, most likely, you never would have been able to hit your next prestige."

"Wait, what," Vin asked, his eyes going wide with shock. "What do you mean?"

"With the old System, leveling was fairly straightforward," Kym said, ignoring his question for the moment. "One performed actions related to their class, they received experience, and when they hit the required threshold, they advanced to the next level. These related actions grew more complex and narrower as one prestiged, of course, but there were no hard bottlenecks baked into the System itself like there are now."

"Yes, I know that already," Vin nodded. "I'm the one who brought that knowledge back to the Earthers. When we'd first met him, Scule had been stuck at level 19 for a while, unable to hit level 20 and prestige until he'd done something worthy of his Rogue class. It took stealing a magical artifact from a deranged guardian far more powerful than we were for him to be labeled worthy and prestige."

"Indeed. As you say, one must do something that truly embodies their base class in order to be granted permission to prestige," Kym repeated. "However, have you ever stopped to consider how the level 20 bottleneck differs from the level 40?"

"I pretty much assumed it required people to just do another, even more complicated action worthy of their class," Vin admitted. "I haven't really run across many people that high in level anyway."

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"For good reason. Clearly, the Gods decided to make progressing harder than it once was. Why they decided to do that is beyond me, but I see no other reason for the addition of these bottlenecks other than to slow down the rate of leveling and further reduce the number of people capable of growing in power."

"So why do you think asking you for help would prevent me from prestiging again?" Vin asked, trying to get the conversation back on track. For someone who acted as if they didn't want to talk to others, it seemed Kym had a strange way of delving into topics he found interesting.

"We have enough examples that we can safely assume the level 20 bottleneck is in fact overcome by doing something drastic that embodies one's class," Kym continued. "However, from what I've seen, level 40 is different. I heard you ran into Curash during your trip into my fragment, yes?"

"Yes…" Vin said slowly, quite easily recalling the leader of the Red Dawn. It was hard not to remember the man capable of keeping a small gang of bloodthirsty and deadly marauders mostly in line. "Why?"

"Curash has already reached and passed his second prestige," Kym said bluntly. "When I fled my fragment, I saw him from afar, which was enough for my Analysis passive to read him. At that time, he was a level 43 Hunter of Men."

"Wait, pause," Vin demanded, holding up a hand as he tried to take that all in. "You ran into Curash when you were running on your own? And he didn't kill you? And you can see what level and class people have?!"

"Not only did he not kill me, he pointed in the direction of your camp," Kym said, in that same, inflection-less tone he always used as though this were nothing important. "Based on the arrow-riddled body of a giant sand-frog monster I ran past in the desert, I believe he also cleared the way for me."

"Why in the world would you go toward the direction a mass-murderer pointed you in?!" Vin demanded, staring at Kym like he was an idiot. "Wait, please tell me you told Spur about all this, right?"

"Yes, Spur is well aware," Kym nodded. "And I followed Curash's directions because he meant me no harm. I have the Detect Hostility passive, so I am more than capable of telling when people wish to hurt me."

Vin leaned back in his chair, trying to figure out where to even go from here. All he'd intended was to pay Kym a quick visit and ask about his choice of passive. Instead, he'd had this bombshell dropped on him out of seemingly nowhere.

Why would Curash not only direct Kym to our camp, but clear a path for him? As if he'd already known Kym was coming?

Isn't he some horrific monster who kills for fun?

Sounds like I need to have another talk with Golrim.

"Okay… Let's rewind a little bit here. Ignoring Curash for the moment, and the revelation that you're capable of seeing what class and level people have, what was this theory you had about the level 40 bottleneck? That sounds rather important to know."

"My theory is that in order to reach level 20, one must do something worthy of their class. But in order to reach level 40, one must embody not only their class, but the class they wish to receive."

"I guess that makes sense… But why do you think that so strongly?"

"Curash truly was a Hunter of Men, even prior to reaching level 40," Kym explained. "From what I've heard, he lives for the hunt, and even goes so far as to let it consume him at times. Alternatively, I myself have been stuck at level 39 for the past month and a half, despite advising countless people on their classes and options all throughout the day, every day. I've certainly done things worthy of my Advisor class, which is how I bypassed the level 20 bottleneck, but I have not embodied the class. Most likely because I am rather indifferent to it at this point. I never even wanted to be an Advisor, after all."

"So if I were to come to you and ask for your detailed advice…"

"You would not be embodying your Magical Explorer class," Kym finished. "I do not know how such an action would be weighed against the many other things you have done. Perhaps it would have been irrelevant, simply due to the sheer number of ways you otherwise do embody the class. Perhaps it would have gone so heavily against what makes a Magical Explorer that it would have prevented you from ever reaching the second prestige. This is all theory and conjecture anyway simply from what I have observed, but the logic is sound."

"Wait… Does that mean the fact that I came to you at all might harm my chances at prestiging?" Vin gasped. "Even if I walk away right now without asking?"

"Assuming my theory is correct in the first place, I believe that would depend on your reasoning for coming to me," Kym said. "For example, if you came to me simply because it was convenient or you wanted to optimize your class without doing any work yourself, versus if you had an ulterior motive."

"I wanted to make sure I made a good choice, so I could better protect the other Earthers," Vin explained, praying he hadn't made a huge mistake.

"We have no way of knowing where such intentions would fall in the eyes of the Gods, but my guess would be that desire is fairly neutral," Kym said. "And before you ask, going to your friends or others for their advice should be fine. One could argue you are exploring while hunting for information. It is only because you know I have the optimal answers that my advice could potentially be detrimental for your progression."

"Well, crap," Vin sighed, running his hand through his hair as he realized he was back to square one with picking his passive. This entire conversation had been bombshell after bombshell, and frankly, Vin didn't even know which one to tackle first. He couldn't even try to subtly ask anyone to ask Kym for him, because he would know where they got the information from.

Trying to pull one over on the Gods was probably a pretty pointless idea anyway.

In the end, Vin decided the safest thing to do was simply not ask Kym about his passive at all, just on the off chance that the Advisor's theory about the new System was correct. After all, it wasn't worth potentially locking himself out of his next prestige.

"Are you willing to talk about Curash at least? For example, could you tell me his skills or passives?"

"I'm only able to see a person's class and level, unless they grant me permission to look further," Kym said, shaking his head. "And at this point, I've told you everything I know about the man."

"Come on, you seem to have plenty of theories," Vin prodded, hoping to get something else out of him. "Surely you have some ideas about why he did what he did?"

"I do," Kym nodded, his voice turning hard. "Though I won't share them with you."

Which is all the answer I need that he thinks Golrim's behind this.

"Fair enough," Vin nodded, getting up and returning the books back to the seat where they'd been before his arrival. "Thanks for taking the time to chat. I hope the town's been treating you well so far."

"It has," Kym said, actually giving him a small smile as his voice lost the sudden edge it had taken on when he thought Vin was going to try and steer the conversation toward Golrim. "Spur has been good to me, and I appreciate being allowed to go through your literature."

Vin bid Kym a goodnight, before leaving the Advisor to his books. Wishing Sean good luck with his project once more, Vin took one glance at the moonlit sky before deciding he still had time for one more visit today.

Golrim had some explaining to do.