The Lone Wanderer

Percy had obviously known that the plaque he had purchased wasn’t the most efficient artifact in the universe. Not only had the Attendant admitted its shortcomings before the auction, but Tiberius and his interstellar companions had also attested to that fact after receiving the modest benefits of the object during the return trip.

Still, it was one thing to be told by others, and another thing to personally experience the process firsthand.

Whoever had created the plaque had clearly carved the runes using mind mana, but the artifact had to function without it. As far as Percy knew, only mana cores, internal worlds, and Elemental Sources could directly convert mana from one affinity to another, so the enchantments on the object wouldn’t be able to replenish mana of a certain element if it got consumed.

Sadly, ambient mana lacked many of the properties that would allow it to flow through the recipient’s body and interact with their mind correctly, forcing the mage who had designed the object to make certain concessions.

The runes responsible for producing the mindset had already activated, bathing Percy in a gentle radiance and attempting to plant the seed of his new ability from afar. This was an inferior method to the one Saint Ludwick had employed, since the deceased demigod had been fine with not being able to grant his Compass to more people after depleting his ancient stash of Clear mana.

The subpar runework on the object didn’t help much either. It was admittedly a little better than House Etna’s original language, but far worse than the enchantments that Percy had seen on the Void Hand’s planets or the Sapphire Pavilion’s hall – let alone the Vault’s magiscript.

‘This is good news for us,’ Percy thought. ‘If we create a similar plaque that just replaces the enchantments and is capable of running on any mind user’s mana, the resulting mindset should grow at least thirty percent more effective.’

Translating this random planet’s language and rearranging the runes into a more efficient configuration might take years, and the product would still be worse than a custom-made mindset, so Percy wasn’t in a hurry to embark on that project.

Once the plaque’s enchantments dimmed, Percy reached into the new seed inside his mind, willing it to activate. A wave of warmth exploded outwards, spreading to every corner of his brain. It felt like the mindset’s figurative roots were pushing and stirring the contents of his skull, rearranging everything within. Memories rose and sank in unfamiliar patterns, old associations shifting places as if invisible hands were reorganizing a vast library. At least it wasn’t painful, though it was quite uncomfortable.

By the time the notification appeared and the mental intrusion died down, Percy was on his knees, struggling to keep the most recent Honey Roll inside his stomach.

[Congratulations! You have acquired a new mindset: Enhanced Cognition!]

‘A warning would have been nice!’ Micky protested through the connection, his words accompanied by a spectral groan.

‘Serves you right,’ Percy replied with a chuckle. ‘You may consider us even now.’

The Huehuan grumbled something, but Percy ignored his friend entirely, deciding to let him experiment with the mindset on his own. It didn’t look like there was much to study, but they might arrive at different conclusions if they played with their latest acquisition separately.

After drinking some water and taking a quick shower to wash away his nausea, Percy examined his mental state.

His thoughts felt a little clearer and flowed more smoothly, reminding him of the way he usually felt after a core promotion. The only difference was that the modest wave of euphoria wasn’t fading this time.

‘Huh. I can get used to this.’

The colours and textures in Percy’s surroundings had grown more vibrant. He was easily able to tell how deep and rough the cracks and crevices in the stone walls of his bedroom were, as well as spot even the tiniest splinters protruding from his wooden furniture. Dust drifting through the air stood out more clearly too, each particle catching the light for a fleeting instant before vanishing from notice.

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The magical motes danced around him slightly more slowly, though the change was barely perceptible, and Percy knew that it was just an illusion – it wasn’t the flow of time that had changed, but the speed at which he was experiencing it.

Allowing his Sage’s Pond to unfold, Percy noticed that his sensory domain stretched a little farther than usual. He estimated that he could now see things up to five and a half kilometres away while supplementing the spell with his willpower. He doubted that the mindset had directly sharpened his senses, but accelerating his cognition had allowed him to interpolate and extrapolate more information based on the same amount of data.

‘I can control a couple of additional sentries and handle a single extra Pond,’ Micky informed him. ‘I bet you should be able to do the same, though we still won’t be able to focus on all of them at the same time.’

Percy nodded. ‘It should help with alchemy and runecrafting too.’

Satisfied with his cursory examination, he pulled up the new description in his Status, wondering whether there was anything that he had missed.

___

Mindsets [57%]:

___

It wasn’t the most groundbreaking upgrade, but it was a welcome one.

Percy’s new mindset ate up more than half of his mental capacity. He’d been told that this would be the case, but he didn’t feel any kind of strain on his brain. If anything, it was the exact opposite, though he guessed that the mindsets would stop functioning properly if he tried to exceed the limit.

Hopefully, the first two wouldn’t be affected too badly since they were both extremely cheap, but Percy would rather not put that to the test. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if his memories fused with Micky’s and had to be separated again, but the last thing he needed was to lose all the planets that he had marked with Ludwick’s Compass.

Fifty-seven percent of his capacity did sound a little high considering the relatively weak effect of the mindset. The improvement was noticeable, even pleasant, but hardly transformative. Percy was sure that it was possible to improve the plaque so that it would grant a mindset which achieved the same effect with under forty percent of a person’s capacity.

The problem was that Percy would need a mind user skilled in runecrafting to carve the new enchantments. Also, he wasn’t sure that the repertoire of runes that he had purchased from the Vault – expansive as it was – contained enough details on this particular subject. Upgrading the artifact might have to wait until his next visit to the artificial world, which should be centuries away.

Scaling the mindset to use a hundred percent of his brain would theoretically amplify the effect by two and a half times, allowing him and Micky to control another handful of sentries each. It still wouldn’t be enough to fully manage the entire army of constructs, though Percy didn’t know what else might be possible with a specialized mindset.

‘Maybe we can give up on other functions to further boost its compatibility with the spell. Then again, that’s not necessarily the best use for our mental capacity either.’

Even though the new mindset was somewhat rough around the edges, Percy didn’t regret his purchase. Leaving aside the fact that he would now be making use of a previously untapped resource, exploring the effects of Enhanced Cognition for a few months or years should prove quite informative. When he found somebody capable of granting him a proper mindset, Percy would have a much better idea of what to expect, and what to ask for.

Happy with his analysis, he stored the plaque inside his seal, reminding himself to pass it to Nesha or Galahad later.

Annoyingly, the earliest recipients of Percy’s gifts would have to travel to the Fungal Spire a second time, since he kept finding new resources to empower his allies with. Thankfully, nobody had complained yet.

And why would they? This was a nice problem to have.

With his most pressing tasks taken care of, Percy finally had some free time to check up on a bunch of interesting ingredients that he had neglected over the past couple of weeks. Hopping into the tunnel leading to the depths of the hive, he eagerly walked through the crystal-lit corridor leading to one of his most frequently used chambers.

Unlike the empty, circular caves he usually trained in, he had asked the wasps to construct this space with several rows of inner walls, separated by passages barely wide enough for a human to walk through. He needed them, because the magical reagent he was cultivating seemed to grow best on vertical surfaces.

Spreading his Sage’s Pond across the room, his vision was momentarily overwhelmed by the pale golden glow of the plant. The details inside the cavern appeared to settle a little faster than usual, causing Percy to crack a smile.

The moss clung to the minerals in thick, uneven patches, its light pooling across the walls and reflecting off of even the mundane metals and crystals.

‘Let’s see if this weird ingredient is of any use…’