"So, which path will you take? Magician, or Fighter?"
James could've sworn that the scroll smiled when it offered him the two choices.
The words echoed in the back of his mind as he sat in silence, staring at the still water before him.
The lake was strangely blue, unlike the green color of most lakes in his past life. Or maybe that was because he had only ever visited green lakes before?
He sat at its edge on the northeastern corner of the vast plain, the center of which was dominated by the colossal tesseract.
It has been half a day since the study session he had with the scroll in his core's plot of land, as the scroll described that place.
Now, he was torn between two options since one option had been deemed too stupid to attempt, and the other was basically impossible.
'Of course, I agree that using my UA to become an Esper, which was a branch of the Supernatural Path, was dumb. But that scroll didn't have to say bluntly that it's impossible for me to become a Knowledge Path Ascender, did it?'
While James admits he didn't have the drive to pursue knowledge like those scientists in his old world, his intellect shouldn't be that low.
'But then again, I always said that I was just a dumb, lazy ass piece of shit… Heh, I even used that argument against that unreasonable, mysterious voice.'
Thinking back to the time just before his reincarnation, he didn't know why, but the countless conversations shoved into his head in that white-black alternating weird landscape were soothing.
As his thoughts drifted away, he quietly pulled out a coin-shaped crystal and rolled it over his knuckle. The gem was pale blue, faintly translucent, with a tiny carving visible inside.
'So this is a rune, huh? Looks pretty unassuming, honestly.'
The rune was like a letter, a symbol carved with meaning. And this one represented three concepts: "Throwing," "Outside," and "Soul."
Together, it changes the energy crystal into a device capable of ejecting a soul from its container.
In James' case, he could use it to separate his soul from his body without the help of the scroll.
He flicked the coin once more before tucking it into his breast pocket and rose to his feet. Walking slowly along the lakeside, he started whistling.
'Magician or Fighter… I guess it has to be magician, right? I mean, what use is there if the only thing enhanced was my physical body? Fighters can't even use their converted energy outside of their body… that alone was already a huge minus in my eyes.'
That's right, from the scroll's explanation, the other difference between the three paths was the way these paths expressed their power.
And the Fighter Path was by far the simplest one. It continuously strengthens the Ascender's body with the F-Energy or Qi from the converted N-Energy.
'But if I'm going for the magician branch of the Supernatural Path, I will have to do that ridiculous energy gathering ritual…'
The scroll had explained to him that by moving in a certain way while chanting certain words—with a language that he had never heard of—he could draw ambient N-Energy into his core's plot of land.
It even kindly provided him with its own homemade energy-gathering method.
'Eugh… no… it sounds stupid… then again, Fighters have to do that dumb meditation and weird breathing method too…'
Both options sounded and looked stupid to him.
'Wait… my UA! That's right. It gives me a gradual, stackable overall 1% buff. Last time, at just 50%, I could already see ambient N-Energy. If I push it to 100%, maybe I'll actually be able to touch those hazes and force it into my plot!'
Right when he felt that he was such a genius for finding a loophole, he remembered something.
'Penalty: Invalidation of all buffs, stackable overall debuff of 1%'
Basically, that was what happened when he uttered false statements.
The stackable 1% debuff was not a problem; he could fix it just by saying one truth for each debuff. It was the invalidation of all buffs that caused him to be on guard.
He picked up a stick and doodled, lost in thought. Aimlessly, he drew a stick figure, with lines around it, showing that it was absorbing something.
Beside it, he drew the same stick figure with arrows pointing out; the figure exploded.
'Seriously though, what kind of ability makes the user explode as a penalty…'
The danger was simple.
The more buffs he stacked, the more energy accumulated inside his body. And if he triggered the penalty, all that power would rupture outward at once.
Just like a cell exposed to a vacuum, everything inside will rush out instantly, causing the cell to explode.
Eventually, James wiped away the doodle in the dirt, closed his eyes, drew a deep breath, and exhaled slowly.
When he opened his eyes again, a look of resolve settled on his face.
"What's there to be afraid of? I'm the only human here. I don't even have to speak to others and please them. Even that scroll said it was going to sleep… something-something about sealing…"
As he spoke, the throbbing in his chest grew louder.
"Alright! Let's do this! Now, the sky is a bit orange. The lake looks blue. I'm hungry. I need to eat. I haven't eaten since I reincarnated here."
He stacked truth upon truth; even when stray thoughts got mixed in, they still counted.
Pulling a knife from the pouch hanging on his hip, he declared, "This knife is sharp. I don't know why this pouch is hanging on my waist now. I'm pretty sure I lost it."
*thump* another pulse followed.
"Oh, stating that I don't know something counts? Well, that kinda makes sense, I guess."
He kept walking along the lake's edge, finishing almost a full lap.
Just stating the truth one after another like this was dull.
But even so, this was the most acceptable way for him to become an Ascender without doing ridiculous energy-gathering calisthenics or chanting meaningless mantras.
The scroll hadn't even explained what those chants even meant, which only increased his aversion to them.
By the time his buff reached 30 to 40%, the colorful haze appeared, and he slowly reached out, only to be met with the disappointment that he couldn't touch it.
'Well, it's okay. That's within expectation.'
He nodded to himself and kept stacking the buffs.
At 70%, he felt like he was pushing the definition of what a human was.
"Ughh, this… feels sickening… everything's too intense!"
Everything feels irritating and frustrating. The distant rustling of falling leaves, the whisper of the wind, and even the sound of the fish swimming in the lake unsettled him.
The buff spared nothing; every sense was magnified to an unnatural degree. The breeze brushing against his skin felt like invisible hands stroking him, delicate and relentless, causing him to shiver involuntarily.
Despite the mounting agitation, he continued to state one truth after another single-mindedly.
When it finally reached 100%, it came, the surge, the pleasant feeling of dopamine and adrenaline.
"Damn! It feels like I could punch a hole through a mountain! Ahahahahah I love this! This is awesome!"
James took a step forward, twisted his hips, and whipped a jab with his left, followed by a cross with his right, a hook, and finished with an uppercut.
The crisp sound of his fist breaking the air echoed across the silent plains.
When he finished savouring what it feels like to be twice as strong as the toughest fighter he'd ever known, he finally shifted his attention to the sight around him.
"Oh.. my.. God… Beautiful! Amazing! Look at this haze! It's like walking under the sea!"
It was then that he noticed the surrounding haze not only looked denser, but he could even begin to touch it too!
"And it feels damn good to touch! It's like silk, but granular, similar in texture to kinetic sand! Oh, maybe oobleck?"
He continued to caress the soft, slowly spilling haze around him. Laughing freely while doing so.
"Hahah! Ahahahahah! It's even better since it doesn't get stuck to my hands! Oh God, this feels so good. I never knew there were sensations like this in the world!"
James was high. Unquestionably, dangerously high. The constant exposure to high levels of dopamine leaves his mind floating freely to the sky. Just one step shy of going to outer space.
Yet at the same time, his mind was clear. He remembered his purpose in increasing his buff to such a dangerously high stack.
"Ahhh… that's right, the buff is already 115%! Hihihih, I get to put this precious silk inside me. Inside my own existence! I'm becoming one with this wonder of nature! Oh, my precious precious~!"
Like a madman, he caressed the floating, colorful silk around him. Softly, lovingly, like a mother holding her baby.