The system messages came, as expected.

  “Er… an innate ability from bogeys, is described by a bogey?… It sure looks like it since it has no tags, specs or data for me to work with… will I have to test it over and over to get a grip of what it can actually do?” Kain's smile is crooked as he tries to make sense of the ability.

  Kain dismisses the window and focuses on his newfound ability. It comes to him surprisingly easy, it makes sense to call it innate, it feels like he had always had it.

  “It sort of works like intended. Like the system described them previously, not the bogeys, their description kind of sucks.” Kain muttered while looking at himself lying on the floor of the cavern.

  Kain is looking from above, as if he was floating near the ceiling, because that’s where the rift is. And he can see everything it sees by looking at the rift at his side, manifested in the circle made by his thumb and index fingers as he made an incomplete ‘ok’ gesture.

  Shifting the rift and experimenting, he sighs. “Three seconds. It takes three seconds to shift the rift to another position. The rift can’t move, it can just be there and then appear elsewhere.”

  With some effort he undo his belt and rolls to the side. Using the belt he ties it as a makeshift frame and confirms that he can make rifts with at most fifteen centimeters of diameter.

  “Now, for the true test”, Kain positions the rift near a pebble he can see and now he watches the pebble with both his eyes and using the rift. Then, he stretches his hand through the rift. The hand appeared out of nowhere near the pebble.

  It feels weird. But not painful or anything like that. He also doesn’t feel drained or anything. It just gets sort of uncomfortable. A little nauseating, perhaps. But certainly manageable. Kain smiles.

  He noted the fact that he only got the actual description of the ability, even if it seems it was written by a bogey, after selecting it and confirming its ‘purchase’. This explains why the former Kain already had his choices picked much earlier than his actual awakening. The concepts of ‘builds’ and ‘synergistic ability combinations’ were widespread. The details, however, weren’t shared between families, clans, sects and, sometimes, even individuals.

  A few more radical groups even considered somewhat of a taboo to ask about others abilities and the reasons for their choices. It sort of makes sense. These choices were like a recipe to power.

  Thankfully, this means that Kain could keep his actual choices to himself. He wouldn’t need to explain anything to anyone, ever. And this will make things easier in the long run.

  Because he is about to do something rather unconventional.

  Kain smiled. “Yes.”

  He got the same two system messages again regarding the ability he acquired and its uses. But this time it did come with an extra warning.

  Once again, crucial information is delivered after he already has the ability. Not that it would make him change his mind.

  Kain smiles did get a little crooked after reading that, but he just sighs and shakes his head. Going forward with his plan.

  He summoned his rifts. Four of them. Two pairs. And, while a little nervous, he did his best to focus on the task at hand. He sent one rift as far as he could. Five meters away.

  “Time to see if there’s a glitch here…”

  And then sent the second rift. As far as he could… Ten meters away.

  “So far, so good…”

  Kain holds his breath. The first rift vanishes and reappears… Fifteen meters away.

  “And there it is, ladies and gentlemen. It’s broken.” Kain smiles from ear to ear.

  The rift folds space. A rift five meters away from him means that the entry of the other rift is also there, allowing him to move a rift five meters further, and that one also counts as a point of access to the other entry, allowing him to move the rift five meters further… over and over… to infinity.

  The only thing he isn’t happy about is the fact that it takes three seconds to reposition the rifts five meters further. This means he can only cross one hundred and fifty meters a minute. And this might not be enough to be used in combat, or defense, and maybe some ‘fun’ stuff.

  That, and the fact that if he sends his rifts away, he is left sort of exposed with any rift near him, and this means…

  Kain was no longer smiling. He was grinning. “Yes, damn it.”

  And, as expected, the same two messages followed by the warning.

  And his abilities were indeed a little ridiculous…

  … but very, very interesting.

  Kain was using one rift to watch himself on the floor while the two others took turns advancing to scout the cavern. Maybe the bogeys were right, because he was already having fun.

  And, in retrospect, it did feel sort of like a strategy game. He was looking at three ‘screens’ in front of him, two circles made with his fingers from both hands and one circle made with the belt, and sharing whatever the rifts could perceive, as if he was there. It felt awesome. And confusing.

  But… it could get even better. His benefactor did say “rift… rift… rift… graft…”

  This means there’s some grafting left to follow his instructions properly.

  It’s obvious that ‘grafter’ comes with its own nuances. So, it was time to see what it was all about.

  Kain frowns. Well, his body, mind and soul alongside his stats and all that were innate. But so were the rifts. Right?

  Now, how should he proceed? Kain starts thinking out loud.

  “Option one. Grafting a rift into another rift.” What would that achieve? Allow him to call forth two rifts at the same time, perhaps doubling his speed? Or just summon two in the same position and never be able to split them apart again and ruin his whole setup? Risky.

  “Option two. Grafting a rift into himself.” Would that allow him to call forth the rift faster? Allow him to understand it deeply? To make it his for good and avoid the need for the ‘blessing’? Well, all these outcomes are rather fine.

  “Option three. Grafting a rift into ‘grafter’ to hopefully make ‘grafter’ innate as well and then grafting ‘grafter’ into myself?” Ok, that one is way too risky as a starting point. I might end up with nothing. Or maybe even dead, since even the system told me I need graft to ‘keep working’.

  “Option two it is.” And Kain got the pair of rifts still next to him, the one he was using to observe his own body from a top down look as the rift was positioned near the ceiling of the cavern, and focused on ‘grafter’. He also focused on his resilience. The one stat he was sort of willing to part with, for now, because he could forgo defense for the foreseeable future and everyone knows you should never mess with mental stats.

  The results were instantaneous.

  One hell of a headache, either from his collapsing wisdom or from the rift merging with him, he can’t be sure, he is too busy trying to clench his head as hard as he can. “Shit, that hurts.”

  But, a dozen seconds later and the pain was gone. And he knew. He knew ‘rift’ like he was born with it. Perhaps, like a bogey.

  Ok, so he still needed the ‘blessing’, but the ability changed from innate to soulbound. And, as if the system could guess what he was thinking, and it probably did, Kain read the message in the new floating window in front of him.

  And this means that he just ditched his wisdom for the chance of losing much more if he doesn’t get that ‘blessing’. “I better find some ‘elder bogeys’ to make friends with. Three if possible.”

  But, this wasn`t the end. It was the beginning.

  The first rift was no longer just an external tool. It was an extension of himself. He no longer needed a pair. He was the rift as well. The origin. And whatever he wanted to cross through it, would. No need for a frame, the rift appeared and he was already aware of it all.

  Anything within five meters of him was up for grabs. And the rift only took a single second to shift into its new position. The test was fast and rewarding.

  Kain looked at a pebble to his side, roughly three meters away. The rift was there as soon as he focused on it, no orders given, his intent was enough. And then the pebble was in his hand. No need for mana or stamina. It just felt… natural. As if it was always meant to be as such.

  “Even the description changed. It doesn’t sound ‘bogey’ anymore. Did it also adapt to my intent to keep me in the loop?” Kain smiled, amused, and then his eyebrows raised as he had a weird yet potentially awesome idea. To make the description of his ability, that he could show others, be either completely scary or completely screwed, perhaps both.

  Half a dozen pebbles later and Kain was still smiling. It didn’t take half a second for the rift to be there, whatever there is supposed to be, and then he could reach by stretching his arm through it and reach for what he wanted. And then the rift was above him, facing the side, and he made a throwing motion with his hands as he released a pebble, which disappeared from his hand and flew, not from his hand, but from the rift near the ceiling. Only to be catched again from the rift that reappeared on its path and ended up back into Kain’s hand.

  “Awesome.”

  It was addicting. The control. The power. So, Kain did what felt natural.

  He grafted the other two rifts into one another. Because now he knew what to expect due to his newfound deep understanding of his ability. “Goodbye endurance…”

  As expected, both rifts collapsed into a single ‘new’ ability. A compound rift of sorts.

  And then came a rather unexpected message from the system.

  Kain frowns, “wait… what?” Does that mean that he lost his right to participate in the conqueror’s trial? Did he fail by default? Does this change everything? Anything?

  He couldn’t think straight thanks to his pounding head. He even felt a little dizzy this time. Thankfully he was lying down, so no chance of falling.

  The system intervened before he could drive himself crazy thinking of the possibilities.

  Kain frowns, harder. “So, I got to do both now?”

  The system promptly answers.

  Kain sighs. “Well, shit.” And then he remembers the circumstances of his family and himself, and he grins with a rather interesting idea. He tried to focus on properly planning his next step. And fails.

  He simply couldn’t stop, now. He will plan after he is done with more pressing matters. He turned his attention back to his ‘new’ ability.

  “So, it does work.” Kain smiles while reading a much longer system message describing the way this new ability works. A much bulkier description for a much bulkier ability. The speed has doubled. Because he could manipulate two rifts at once.

  When he made a single rift soulbound, it got three times faster. One second instead of three.

  And now, compounding rifts to graft made them twice as fast. Two rifts instead of one.

  But these two rifts still need the external frames to manifest themselves, unlike the soulbound one, which is kind of a bummer. But they did keep the feature that allows them to extend the range of each other to infinity, which is awesome.

  But since Kain only truly needs one for defense, he should be happy with what he got.

  “I’m already in the clear. It worked. I can use two rifts for scouting rather effectively and keep one, the soulbound that requires no actual commands, for my personal defense.” Kain said as if convincing himself of his achievements. “This is already good enough.”

  And he obviously failed.

  “But man, who am I trying to fool? It’s pretty much obvious that I will graft the rift chain into grafter to try to make it innate as well and then graft everything into the soulbound rift.”