She took his little piece of advice this time, making the point and the symbols a bit larger. It was just a bit, too, as if she increased it too much, she would have quite a large bomb hovering over her hand and not just a little party trick. She was once again rather glad for her Mana Physique, as well, as she could do little tricks like this, which were rather wasteful of mana, without having to worry about running dry in just an hour or two. Instead of each attempt taking a couple spoonsful from a small cup, it was like each attempt was taking a small spoonful out of a large bucket. A large bucket, also, that refilled with liquid at a fair pace even if she wasn't encouraging it to do so, making it even more convenient to do little experiments.

Shelving those thoughts, she focused on the little point she was making, trying her best to stabilize it and get it setup just right before she even thought about the runes. She was pretty convinced the runes were the right ones, though her inexperience was likely showing, and she waited until the point was stable, taking only a bare trickle of her mana to maintain before building the runes. She went slowly and carefully, little beads of sweat forming on her forehead from the complexity of just those runes, materializing the four of them perfectly and locking them together. She watched closely as the runes settled and the whole thing, now about the width of a dime, perhaps a bit smaller, rather than a quarter that size, just sat there in the air stably. She waited a few seconds, then an entire minute, and when nothing exploded, she gave Zane a triumphant smile.

"Well, you did it," he said. He then took her down a few notches, saying, "At just under five times the size, with ten times the mana, and not drawing or converting mana. But, well, I guess that's a start, at least."

"Hey, baby steps," Beth said, frowning at the point she had made and comparing it to the one the device had made.

"Your third and fourth rune are not correct," Zane explained. When she looked over at him, he produced two very large, though very pale, perfect replicas of what she had done. They weren't made using much mana, thus being practically transparent, but were enough that she could see them and catch even the minute details. He then produced a second set, hovering next to the first so Beth was looking at her runes on the left and his on the right, showing her what she should have done. Or what he would have done, which were not exactly the same, but close enough in this case.

"Those are different runes," Beth said a little lamely.

"Very astute," Zane commented with just a slight tinge of mockery in his tone.

"So, what do they do?" Beth asked.

"This rune," Zane said, highlighting what he had earlier referred to as her third rune, "affects the space around it, which is what you are using to create the sphere of influence. That is not entirely correct, as the example has a rune that pulls at the space around it, which is why the distortion is even detectable. The fourth rune, on the other hand, is what draws mana towards the point, pulling it in from the surrounding area."

"Does it also do the conversion?" Beth asked, gesturing at that rune.

"No," he replied. When she just looked at him, he shrugged in response and gestured back at the point the device had made.

Glowering, Beth got back to it, dismissing her attempt, which she still considered a success, albeit a limited one. She had mostly figured out how to create and maintain the sphere, but Zane's explanation seemed to suggest, to her mind at least, that the runes weren't converting the mana. Well, the runes that she had wrong weren't converting the mana, but he had not said the runes weren't doing it overall, just that that fourth one wasn't doing it. She was making some more assumptions at this point, but it could be that she had a different rune wrong and that was what was doing the conversion. It could also be, very easily, that the conversion either came from different runes, or that it came from something else entirely that didn't have anything to do with runes.

She picked at the problem for an hour, not really getting anywhere much, but eventually she figured out that it was a meta-effect that was causing the mana conversion. It was something rather important to learn about, as a combination of runes or even just other effects could produce results that were unexpected. In this case, the way the four runes combined, along with the way the space mana reacted to pressure, caused a mana conversion effect. When she ran her explanation by Zane, he gave her points for being mostly right, but he did point out she didn't have a full grasp of the functioning of space mana, correcting some of her assumptions.

Zane left her for a while, giving her a third puzzle to work on, before returning before she was fully finished solving the piece. He brought her back to the others before giving them quarters to stay in for a little, telling them that the last piece Beth needed, the two hearts, were arriving soon and the three might want to rest. Blood was certainly quick to take him up on the offer, and Beth and Sera reluctantly took the time to get some rest, not really wanting to give up access to such knowledgeable people and great resources.

They weren't being foisted off, however, as Zane and Fallon didn't really appear to have anything else vital going on, at least from first glance. More, Fallon had also shared his contact information and Zane had shared his with Sera, allowing them to contact them whenever. They were just waiting for Beth's last two items, and those showed up the next day, delivered to the ship or station they were on, which Beth still hadn't got a straight answer about, by an intermediary that was there only long enough to hand over a package.

Considering where they were, and the fact that it was likely the only people other than them currently present were an Exalted and two Manumitted, Beth didn't really feel like they needed to try to hide or play games when doing their rebirth. Likely, no matter where they went, unless they went in her gate, they would easily be detectable, and considering what Mortaine specialized in, she wasn't even sure the gate would be enough to keep it secret. Not that it was even something they really had to keep secret, depending, of course, on what happened, but they would not really need to hide the fact they did a rebirth, even if it produced unexpected positive results, from friends and allies. Thinking as such, they decided to merely undergo the procedure in a free area in the main room of the suite Zane had lent them, commandeering a free space on the floor to undergo the rebirths. Somehow, it didn't feel right to do it while sitting on couches or armchairs.

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The three had all the necessary materials around them and initiated the rebirth just as they always had, and it proceeded much as usual, at least at first. There were several notable differences this time, including Blood pulsing with a very powerful energy and feeding some of that back to Beth and, in particular, Sera. Sera was able to complete her own process relatively smoothly, but it did seem like she got some kind of boost from Blood, which Beth would have to ask about in a bit. Beth herself was distracted because she had managed to garner another class evolution, not something she had expected, but it wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility. Looking over the potential classes, she also saw that this might not be quite as big a jump as the last time, considering the last class evolution had taken her from a class giving six stat points a level to one giving twenty-six. The jump wasn't quite as dramatic this time, but even the worst of the three options was a good increase in stats per level, and the best of the three would have her pulling just ahead of Blood, though the wolf likely had gained another boost this time as well.

The main decision she was going to have to make would be whether to take the highest stat class, which had been her modus operandi up to this point, or if she was going to go for something else. The class offering the most points wasn't necessarily always the best, especially as the other options could lead towards more interesting choices down the line, though there was a lot of malleability in the whole process. Beth reviewed the three choices she had been presented with carefully to try to figure out whether the other two would lead to anything better than the straight stat bonuses of the supposedly best choice. The names themselves would be a bit instructive, and she looked at the list of three options with that in mind.

Sword Survivor

{A warrior very familiar with both the blade and desperate survival. Such a person is highly proficient in cutting down endless waves of enemies while enduring the harshest of conditions. +16 STR, +8 DEX, +6 END, +4 INT, +4 WIS, +4 Free Points per level.}

Martial Champion

{A warrior skilled in many forms of combat and capable of defeating various foes. Differences in skill matter less to a skilled champion, and such warriors are particularly dreaded as singular opponents. +20 STR, +10 DEX, +8 END, +4 INT, +4 WIS, +4 Free Points per level.}

Spatial Slaughterer

{This is a fearsome being acknowledged by all who walk among the stars. Tearing apart space and ripping their foes to shreds with equal ease, nowhere is safe from their dominance of space. +24 STR, +12 DEX, +10 END, +4 INT, +4 WIS, +8 Free Points per level.}

It was a bit of a tough decision, even given her predilection for space and space-based magics. The sword class she dismissed right away, as she didn't really want to focus too singularly on just one weapon, and the stuff about surviving harsh conditions, while interesting, wasn't really anything different that what she was already doing. The class, overall, didn't really present any new and exciting possibilities beyond things she was already handling quite well herself.

That would leave the decision than between just two, and it was a bit harder than it might at first seem. Spatial Slaughterer was rather nice with both its high stat increases and with its talk not just of space but of destroying anything that got in her way. On the other hand, the Martial Champion class was appealing, with its talk of being incredibly skilled in battle and, in particular, someone that could fight against other people and do quite well at it. However, on the other other hand, she was already pretty good against people and would only get better, and that wasn't even her bread-and-butter, but something she often did for fun and occasionally had to do for work. She didn't necessarily want to pigeonhole herself into being better at fighting against people, not that the classes were really that restrictive, but she was thinking about the kinds of benefits she would get from them going forward.

That really only left her with one option as she stretched and got used to being back down at measly old level one. She selected Spatial Slaughterer, grunting as the class change took effect and she felt it ripple through her body and even her soul. She would normally just move on and see how the other two were faring, but she got a notification as the class change settled in, so she still had some more to review. It appeared that, this time, she had a new skill that the class brought with it, which was a change from last time, though it should really be the norm. Considering she was already heavily loaded up on spatial skills, she wasn't sure what else she could get, but the new skill was far from disappointing.

Spatial Domain Copper[0]

{Control the surrounding space with incredible precision and power. At higher levels, can manipulate the space around oneself in any way, including separating it into its own plane.}

The description was certainly something, especially with the talk about being able to basically cut out an area of space around her and make it its own pocket dimension temporarily, if she was reading that right. She would have to play with it, and train it, considering it started all the way down at copper[0], but she was glad to have yet another powerful skill, and one in what she felt was an area of expertise. If the skill was as powerful as she thought it might be, it could potentially be the strongest skill she had, even stronger than other powerful skills like Beastly Tyrant.

"How'd it go?" Beth asked the other two, finally finished with her post-rebirth cleanup.

"More humanization," Blood grunted.

"Same for me, but I felt like I got a distinct feedback from Blood there," Sera said, looking over at the wolf questioningly. Blood just shrugged and slouched on a couch, of minimal help in figuring out what had just happened.

"Nothing bad, though?" Beth asked.

"No, no, nothing bad," Sera clarified.

"Well, we can take a minute to rest, but we should grab some early, easy levels when you both are ready," Beth said, looking in particular at the lazybones of their group.

"Focused on the change," Blood grunted. "Give me some time."

"Helpful," Beth said slightly sarcastically.

"Have to focus on some changes," Blood said. "Need at least three hours before I'm ready for anything else."

"But nothing bad? We don't need to call anyone or take you anywhere?" Beth asked, concerned for her first companion.

"Not bad things," Blood grunted. "Changes are…different. It's hard to explain."

"I think she's experiencing a set of changes that happen at a high level of humanization," Sera cut in. "She's probably just touching on them, but as the runes on her body progress, she'll get a lot more powerful, and she needs to understand those changes. We should just take the day off, honestly. We'll grab a couple dozen easy levels tomorrow; your gate will still be there."

"That's fine," Beth said. "The rest of the day off, which I guess we should plan for in the future, too."

"I should meditate a bit too, but there's no reason you can't sit with me," Sera said to Beth, pulling the shorter girl over to one of the couches.

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