"He fought and fought…"
"He fought when his allies died."
"He fought when his loved ones had fallen."
"...And when there was no one left to fight, he looked back to find… no one."
"At the end of his life, he had been granted one last chance to redo it all."
Thwap.
A glimpse of Ashen Hart's life.
—By The Idle Chronicler.
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Fwoosh.
A gentle flame lit the candle.
While the flame looked tame, it was persistent, as if time overlooked it. The same held true for the candle itself, as it hadn't melted even one inch despite the passage of time… and the same was true for the candlebearer who escorted the flame onward.
Golden eyes surrounded by darkness watched the figure intently from behind, more precisely focusing on the flame's color, which had turned fully amber by now.
.
.
Ashen opened his eyes, and a faint smile found its way to his face at last. "Finally ready…"
He took in his surroundings, his gaze falling on the blue mana circuits adorning the advancement room, and felt the now-familiar calmness envelop him.
Everything was ready for the next step. He let out a soft breath and silently thanked the most recent reinforcements that had arrived.
The Lust Domain had delivered, unlike the others—a million strong had arrived yesterday, with healers to tend to the wounded on top of that. They hadn't lied when they said that the Lust Domain was the bane of all cultists.
Those deranged lunatics hadn't found a single opening for ambush, especially when the army divided itself and reconverged on the Ashbastion.
That was also what gave Ashen enough breathing room to ask for leave to advance to the next step, despite being responsible for a division of ten thousand.
'I'm ready to advance. Please start.'
[Acknowledged]
[Step advancement initiated: Idle Chronicler (Step VI → Step V)]
As Ashen read the string of words announcing his imminent advancement, he braced himself for the usual bombardment of information about the concept of Sloth.
…But something unexpected happened instead.
[Warning: Soul Resonance Required. Domain Knowledge 'Sloth' Will Be Imprinted.]
[...]
[...]
"Uh, hello?" Ashen tilted his head in confusion and increasing dread. 'Where's my advancement? Oi!'
The system seemed to notice his bafflement as it finally responded.
[Since the last step, it was detected that the user had forged a new path in the Sloth concept. There is no prior information present in the archives of Humanity's System on this new path, so no infusion can proceed.]
This was the first time Ashen had witnessed the system being this chatty, so he tentatively asked, "Miss System… I hope it doesn't mean you won't be able to help me advance…?"
[...]
[User Ashen Hart is presented with two choices.]
"...Which are…?" he asked, tone hopeful.
[Stop your current path and abandon your own interpretation of the concept of Sloth.]
[This will allow the System to use the already-present information of the concept to help you forge a path based on your predecessors' paths.]
[Or continue on your own unique path.]
[The quality of skills and fitness with which you wield Sloth will depend entirely on your own interpretation of the concept.]
Presented with the two choices, Ashen heaved a sigh of relief. As long as he could keep advancing, everything else would come second.
Then he focused on the system's words, running the information through his head and looking for what was best for him.
'The first choice is obviously the safe and most assured one, but…'
He remembered how the last infusion of information had clashed violently with his own in the previous advancement… and he also knew that if he took this choice, he'd have to drastically change how he acted…
There was no way a normal Sloth pathwalker would be as driven as him. So he'd practically have to say goodbye to all the grind, effort, and training he'd been doing. Otherwise, he'd be stuck in the fifth step forever.
'The other choice, on the other hand… while it sounds like something unique to me… I can't ignore that it depends on my own understanding.'
Ashen wasn't arrogant enough to believe that his own understanding of a concept would surpass what the system had gathered in its "archive," as it said, no matter how unique it was.
Still… he'd still go with the second choice if it came down to it, since he wasn't keen on becoming "lazy" for power.
He knew for a fact that most of his current might came from training and not the initial skills he'd acquired from the concept.
Before that, though, Ashen tried his luck one last time with this suddenly responsive system.
"Ehm… Miss System, what do you recommend?"
[...]
[Based on the system's understanding of user Ashen Hart, the system recommends you take your own unique path.]
"Oh… so you'll help me if I go with that, right? It's your recommendation, after all."
It looked like the system didn't need his gaslighting, judging by its next response.
[Of course.]
[Humanity's System was created to aid humanity in survival against foreign races, so the system will do its utmost to help any user.]
[The system will still infuse any compatible information of the concept of Sloth alongside your own and will do its best to help you forge the best available skills from them.]
[Additionally, the system will generate a suitable epithet that will act as a compass for your embodiment based on your current understanding.]
[...Just as this new path will help the successors of the Sloth pathway, the system will assist the current successor.]
"Oh, thank you, Miss System! I'll choose the second option, no need to say more… hehe." Ashen didn't need further prompting and gleefully spoke.
What more could be said? He would be a fool to pick the other choice when its advantages were reduced to zero with the system's vow of assistance.
[Acknowledged]
[Warning: Soul Resonance Required. Domain Knowledge 'Sloth' Will Be Imprinted.]
[Personal Interpretation: Requested.]
With that last prompt from the system, Ashen guessed it was his turn now.
He closed his eyes and concentrated inward… then he let his mind wander from the first day he'd linked with the system until now.
His first epithet was Dreamer. When he thought of dreams… nothing much came to mind aside from training and torturing himself inside his lucid dreams.
'No… it's not that.' He briefly shook his head. 'There's something else underneath…'
He tried remembering his feelings whenever he entered his lucid dreams… or right before he did.
Whenever he retreated to the sanctuary of his mind, most of the time he was frustrated… either by his lack of strength, or anything else—his inability to do something, or be somewhere.
The core of the matter was that… his emotions were always in disorder… but the moment he reached his dreams, that frustration, rage, and impatience slowly melted away, bit by bit…
'And why is that…?'
The answer came as soon as he asked the question. In his dreams, he could train. In his dreams, he could rest. In his dreams, he could empty his boiling feelings and eventually calm down.
He remembered the healing sanctuary where he could achieve ultimate rest, and he remembered the days he'd talked to his sleeping twin as if he were annotating a diary. Those moments were almost akin to therapy.
Also… A Dreamer didn't mean that only he dreamt. He remembered those moments where he'd let Seraphine dream of her past to relieve her stress and calm her emotions.
…He remembered the moments after all the training in his dreams that had finally given him enough power to feel… tranquil.
"Yes, a Dreamer dreams to feel tranquil, no matter the content of the dream. As long as one achieves the tranquility of emotions, they are a Dreamer." Finally, he muttered the moment he left memory lane.
"...How can one talk about Sloth if they can't even calm their emotions first?"
An impatient Sloth didn't exist, after all.
[Personal Interpretation: Accepted.]
[Continue?]
'Yes.' He mentally confirmed. There was still another step, after all.
[Personal Interpretation: Requested.]
Silence stretched as Ashen's face turned somehow bitter.
He recalled the system's last sentence during his ascension to the sixth step.
Witness. Do not Act.
Only recently did he understand the meaning behind it.
"An Idle Chronicler, huh…"
While he seemed to have focused on being a Chronicler and had neglected the Idle part of his epithet, that wasn't exactly a correct assumption.
He still remembered the times when he'd had to grit his teeth as he recorded those prisoners' lives.
How many times had he wanted to interfere when he wrote about how an innocent mother was killed?
How many times had he wanted to just be there and rip the neck of an assaulter as he forced himself to write how a woman was raped?
How many injustices had he seen in the lives he chronicled? And through all that, he could only remain… idle.
Those events had already passed, and he could do nothing to change or influence them. He felt that most intimately when he was in the history fragment.
He'd done his damnedest to change history, but the Pride Domain died in the end, and he could only idly watch.
Rowan and Chun died, and he could only idly watch.
Even when his actions saved the rest of the domains and the people behind them, it was only in a fragment, and real history stayed unchanged… and he could only idly watch.
Through all this, Ashen had learned to accept things as they were and acknowledge that sometimes, staying idle was the right and only answer.
"...The core of an Idle Chronicler is… helplessness. A Sloth doesn't always choose inaction for the sake of laziness, but simply because they've accepted their own helplessness…"
[...]
[Personal Interpretation: Accepted.]
[Continue?]
Ashen shook his head. "That is all."
The moment Ashen uttered the words, he felt his head being assaulted with an influx of information, but unlike last time, every bit hovered around his understanding of Sloth and complemented it.
Thanks to this, he didn't feel as suffocated as usual, and even the fever that followed every infusion was absent.
[Soul Resistance Check: Passed.]
[You have taken another Step toward Ascension. Congratulations!]
[You are now a Step V, Time—]
[...]
[Not enough conceptual information to make the epithet possible. Looking for a more suitable alternative]
[...]
[You are now a Step V, Moment Deceiver.]
"Hmm…" Ashen glanced at the messages and guessed that there was something better, but his body probably couldn't handle it at his current Step.
"No matter… I did my best, and shall keep doing my best with the tools given to me," he shrugged.
"Status."
==============================
Name/Arrival date: Ashen Hart - 2025/02/11
Sex/Age: Male/27
Height/Weight: 195 cm / 92 kg
Current condition:Medium circuit permanent damage
Pathway: Step V: Moment Deceiver
Thema: Bellator
Affiliation: Atlas Defense/Reserve Army/Wrath Domain.
Title: Tidewalker
[2. Traits]
—Forged Willpower
—Observant
—Liminal Dreamer
[3. Physical Level]
Strength: D+ | Endurance: C- | Agility: D+
Perception: C+ | Stamina: D+ | Mana: E-
[4. Abilities]
4.1 Innate Powers:
—Beholder's Eyes
—Twin souls
—Mana Authority
—Equivalent Exchange (0)
4.2 Path Skills:
—Lucid Dreamweaving (Masterful)
—Trance (Skilled+)
—Somatic Autonomy (Basic+)
—Vital Drift (Skilled-)
—HourVault(Entry-)
—BlindStep(Entry-)
4.3 Other skills:
—Spear Thrust (Masterful+)
—Spear Slash (Skilled+)
—Spear Parry (Skilled+)
—Heartforge Cycle (Skilled+)
—Grafted fighting style (Skilled-)
—Clean (Skilled+)
[5. Conceptual powers]
—The concept of Sloth Efficiency (Glimpse)
[6. Cognitive Depth (Thoughts, Mindset, Disposition)]
— Calm / Indomitable / Determined
==============================
Ashen calmly admired his growing skills before jumping to the new additions. The most notable were, of course, SA and Vital Drift. Especially SA, which had been his hardest skill to gain mastery in until now.
Thankfully, scanning the body composition of countless soldiers seemed to push it to the brink of the Skilled threshold finally.
He then turned his attention to the new skills and summoned their descriptions.
==============================
Hourvault — A static reserve tied to rest. Possessions and a portion of excess power are folded into a locked cache while the host remains idle. The longer the rest, the larger the reserve; movement causes the reserve to bleed away.
The reserve can be accessed at any time from anywhere.
Stealing ticks and storing them… For a time deceiver, hours held in stasis are coins in a sealed purse.
==============================
==============================
Blindstep — A single instant leap that time overlooks. Activate, and the host moves while nearby time turns a blind eye. Enemies, projectiles, and clocks behave as if a moment was skipped. Blindstep's effect wanes if the Hourvault is depleted.
A movement akin to passing through a crack the world refuses to notice.
==============================
'A movement skill at last…' Ashen nodded while he held his chin in thought. 'It was about time. My fighting style is too static… I hope that this will be the answer.'
Ashen could see that the skill was nothing to scoff at from the description alone, so his hopes will probably not be misplaced.
'The other one, though…' A grin found its way to his face without him noticing.
'Looks like a storage space at first glance… but my Thema is Bellator… a warrior. So it has to have some offensive means.'
He focused on the portion that claimed he could store power, and countless ideas sprang to mind.
'Maybe with this… I'll finally be able to hit above my weight class?' He mused, but then shook his head. 'Better not let my imagination run wild before some live testing.'
With that, he sprang to his feet and walked out after dusting off his military pants.
As he stepped out of the advancement room, his thoughts were full of his next plans and how to incorporate these new skills into them.
'Before that, though, I should wait for the adaptation period to be over.'
He knew that after each infusion of the Sloth concept into the body, some changes were bound to happen over time. The fifth step, especially, was one of the most sought-after on the pathway because it enhanced something that most would kill for: life force… and by extension, life span.
Ashen was curious about how this would happen and decided to keep monitoring his body with SA.
In the meantime, he had a division of soldiers to manage.
'Come to think of it… they said they'd assign me a new battalion after my advancement, and it's the remnants of the Greed Domain's soldiers, no less. I wonder how they'll be.'
He hoped they'd be less troublesome than the Pit's criminals he'd had to constantly deal with, at least…
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