"Your class is the next step to really personalizing your Path," Master Zhen said. "When you bonded your weapon, you established the core of your approach to combat. With your class, you will be building upon this. Though I can think of few less apt comparisons for the two of you, if you were to truly stretch the bounds of your imagination and think of yourselves as artists, then selecting your weapon is akin to choosing a brush. It is the tool through which all your expression occurs. To continue the tenuous metaphor, assembling your class is like mixing your paints. You are combining elements to create something distinct."

"What are we combining?" asked Rix.

The older man gestured outward, indicating the air around them. "The external." He followed this up by laying a palm on his chest. "And the internal. A class is a fusion of your understanding of the wider world and your understanding of yourself."

"I know it involves an aspect," said Luna.

"That is the external," Master Zhen confirmed. He looked to Rix, as if weighing how much explanation to give. "To form an affinity with an aspect is to develop a deep connection with some fundamental concept of the universe. The most obvious of these are things like fire and water, the basest of elements, though there are countless others."

Rix nodded. He was familiar with aspects at a high level. Every Ascendant of the Chronicles wielded the power of at least two or three. If the stories were true, they could be used in a variety of ways. The most obvious was that they empowered techniques. Were he to form an affinity with the aspect of fire, for example, he might be able to set his [Wind Blade] alight, or cause flames to spew from the fissure created by [Force Hammer].

Beyond that, they allowed a Martial Soul to manipulate that concept at a fundamental level. Someone with a wind affinity might be able to command the very air around their enemies to impede them, while using other gusts to accelerate their own movements, all without corresponding techniques. The exact nature of those benefits was always one of the more mysterious parts of the Martial Path, and he'd often scoured those Chronicle tomes for more hints as to how they worked.

"Is everything an aspect?" Rix asked. He kicked up a little cloud of the rough sand at his feet. "Is there a sand aspect?"

"Everything can in some way be governed by an aspect," the elder replied. "Conceivably, there might be people out there with an affinity for sand specifically, though I'm not sure why one would want it unless their goal was to irritate their enemies into submission."

Master Zhen studied their expectant faces, a hint of resignation appearing on his own. Eventually, he sighed. "This is the problem with theory," he grumbled. "You begin trying to illuminate a simple subject like 'class,' and suddenly you're giving a lecture on the deep intricacies of the cosmos. A Weaponmaster focuses on how a sword cuts, not why the universe allows for sharpness. But since I know the alternative is you inventing your own catastrophically wrong answers…"

Rix shared a look with Luna, suppressing a smile. He couldn't help but think back to when he'd first met the older man. Any attempt at discussing something even remotely off topic had been shut down with impunity. Oh, how things had changed.

Master Zhen took a moment to formulate his next thought. "We think of the universe as a place built on truths. Fire is the manifestation of heat. Ice, the epitome of cold. But the reality of these concepts is much messier. Hot and cold don't actually exist as standalone qualities, only points of reference for a quantity of heat, and even those are nebulous. The flame sears mortal flesh in an instant, but if placed beside a sun, its thermal output would not even register. Similarly, fire and ice are merely what happens to certain materials when you vary how much heat they are exposed to. Following that train of thought, it really makes little sense for there to be fire or ice aspects at all. They aren't universal truths. They are merely two reactions to different temperatures."

"But they do exist," Rix said carefully.

"They do," Master Zhen confirmed. A twinkle entered his eyes. "Why do you think that is?"

Rix glanced at Luna, but she just returned his stare blankly. Evidently this was beyond her education.

The only aspects Rix knew were those he'd read about in the Chronicles, but if he thought about it, even that meager understanding reflected what Master Zhen was saying. One of his favourite stories involved an Ascendant known as the Night's Edge. He'd grown up in a cave network, and spent long periods in total darkness, which led to him wielding the shadow aspect with a terrifying level of mastery. But looked at through the lens Master Zhen had just used, shadow wasn't really a thing at all. It was just the absence of light. Wouldn't it then make sense that mastery of light would also give mastery of shadow?

"Is it something to do with us?" Rix asked. "The way we experience the world?"

The smile tugging at the edges of the elder's lips told him he was on the right track, but the man continued to probe. "What do you mean by that?"

"Cold might not exist as a universal concept," Rix said, growing more confident, "but as people, we learn to understand what an absence of heat feels like through the idea of ice, and so that's the frame of reference we have. It becomes a truth to us."

Master Zhen nodded, clearly pleased. "Remarkable. A rare moment of clarity. Were I a teacher who dealt in praise, I might almost be inclined to part with some."

Rix grinned. "Were I a student who craved such validation, I'd no doubt be grateful."

A rare genuine smirk crossed Master Zhen's face. "Thankfully we both understand ourselves and are unburdened by such sentiment."

"Thankfully," Rix agreed.

It was Breaker's teaching that had helped him make that connection. All the visualization that he'd practiced in pursuit of his cultivation was fundamentally about using something familiar as a tool to guide him in manipulating something foreign. A bridge was a man-made construct that had nothing to do with qi, but it represented a channel that connected two points, and that was enough to tap into a similar concept on a spiritual level.

It was gratifying to have his two schools of study come together so cleanly. It also felt like a valuable lesson. Despite knowing that the System was functionally built atop the structure of cultivation, in many ways he'd been treating them as two separate skills to master. But this discussion made it clear that they shared at least some parts of a common underlying ideology.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"It is as you say," Master Zhen continued. "The System understands that, at the end of the day, we are people engaging with the world through our own particular framework. To master the fundamentals of reality without couching them within something familiar would be an impossible task. As people build their mastery, their understanding begins to expand. There are several fire masters in the Lava Forge Smelters Corporation who have more than a passable amount of control over cold as well as heat, and countless other Martial Souls have had their aspects evolve in interesting ways. Some scholars even argue that, given a strong enough depth of understanding, all these concepts converge to a single unifying truth, the very nature of reality itself, though nobody has ever come close to proving that."

"If all we're doing with these aspects is dancing around some deeper truth," said Luna, "then why don't we just skip to the good stuff and develop an affinity directly for heat?" asked Luna.

The Weaponmaster slapped his head as though having a very theatrical epiphany. "By the heavens! Why didn't I or any of the other countless geniuses of Cloudpiercer Citadel ever think of that? Just have an affinity for a fundamental truth directly!"

Luna's cheeks flushed. "Okay, I get it."

But Master Zhen wasn't done. "I don't think that you do. This could change everything! Have you considered simply having an affinity for being an Omen as well? I imagine that would accelerate your Path substantially."

Luna raised a hand. "Alright, alright. Lesson learned. I will never have an idea again."

As much as Rix enjoyed seeing Luna taken down a peg or two, he did feel bad for her.

"You've given us a very obvious example of two concepts that are clear opposites," he said to Master Zhen, trying to get the conversation back on track. "What about for things that aren't so clean? Wind, for example, doesn't seem to have a natural opposite. And void is basically the opposite of everything, if you really think about it. How do they fit into all this?"

The older man shrugged. "You'd need to ask masters of those specific aspects, though such things generally defy mere explanation. The important thing to understand is that not everything is a clean two-sided coin. The Martial Path isn't about finding simple dichotomies. It is about charting your own course to uncover the mysteries of the universe. Sometimes, you may find your path twists and turns and converges with many others. Other times it simply burrows deeper and deeper in a single direction. If there is some single unifying truth that binds the universe together, the routes to its doorstep are infinite."

It was a grand idea, and it also brought into question some of what Breaker had taught them. The cultivator had used the analogy of a map. According to him, cultivation allowed you to wander off the beaten path to explore all the universe had to offer, while the System kept you confined to a small array of known routes. That seemed in direct conflict with what Master Zhen was saying. Rix had suspected for some time that Breaker's goals were coloring the way he taught them, and this was yet further proof. That knowledge didn't change anything about his immediate priorities, but it was worth filing away.

"What dictates your affinities?" Luna asked, still sounding a little chastened. "You implied they're a choice, but in the Falling Leaf a lot of people would wind up with similar aspects. Growth, water, that kind of thing. I always wondered why."

"There are no strict rules," Master Zhen replied. "You can theoretically forge an affinity with any aspect with enough diligence. However, as the word 'affinity' implies, it does require a reasonable amount of exposure to the aspect before being able to wield it. There is a sect known as the Floating Lotus Petal that occasionally visits Cloudpiercer Citadel to trade. They spend most of their lives at sea, and to my knowledge, have no members with an affinity for earth."

Luna glanced at Rix and rolled her eyes. "Sects. All crazy, am I right?"

Rix grinned. "You'll hear no arguments from me."

"So back to sand," said Luna, addressing the Weaponmaster once more. "You're saying it would probably be tricky for us to develop that affinity because our exposure to the concept is limited. We'd likely have much more success with something like earth. But if we'd grown up in, say, a desert instead, then our underlying understanding of the stuff beneath our feet would be different and suddenly sand might make more sense."

"Yes, that probably holds true," Master Zhen agreed.

"In the Chronicles," Rix said, "most Ascendants wind up with aspects that mirror their techniques. If they use a lot of fire techniques, they typically have a fire aspect. Is that because techniques also lend understanding of their composite aspects?"

Master Zhen nodded. "Typically the path of least resistance is to work with what you already know. Most corporations in the city carefully curate their technique libraries to reflect the combination of aspects most useful to their work, which in turn makes it easier for their disciples to form strong affinities with those aspects."

Currently, Rix's Path was anything but curated. His north star for those first choices had simply been to survive. It had left him with a mishmash of wind, force, and light techniques. He didn't know where that combination would take him, but he wanted to start thinking about it.

"What about techniques like my [Falcon Slash]?" asked Luna. "It doesn't have a single obvious aspect. Does that mean it will be harder for me to form my affinities when the time comes?"

Master Zhen shook his head. "If anything, it should give you more options. Techniques like that aren't lacking an aspect. Rather, they're a combination of several. While I don't know the specifics, from seeing [Falcon Slash] in action, I would guess it has elements of sharpness and possibly speed. You simply need to pay attention to the way the technique feels when you use it and you will eventually be able to intuit what drives it."

Luna's eyes widened fractionally as he talked. "I'll do that."

"So, we get what an aspect is," Rix said. "How do we go about actually forming an affinity?"

The Weaponmaster's face fell slightly. "That is where things become difficult for you. Beyond a deep familiarity with the aspect, the other requirement is a place of power. Basically an area that resonates strongly with that particular concept. These places are rare and much sought after, and—" he gestured around, "—there are none within the prison walls."

"What about the Fractured Realm?" Rix asked.

The man shook his head. "They are rarely found in those places. The entropy eats away at them almost immediately."

Luna let out a breath. "So, no aspects for us yet."

"Not in here," Rix added, shooting Master Zhen a meaningful glance. He didn't know whether the man had any suspicions about what they were ultimately going to do, but if they wanted his help with their escape, it was best to start warming him up to the idea.

If Master Zhen understood the implication, he gave no sign. He simply studied them with an unreadable expression.

"You've been most generous giving us a lesson, elder," Rix said. "I've got just one more question. You mentioned a class is a fusion of two things, the internal and the external. You've explained the external…"

Master Zhen nodded. "The internal is significantly easier to convey, though for some it is the more difficult part of the equation to actually achieve. The Martial Path isn't merely a journey of skill and capability. It is also one of deep introspection. The System knows that the higher you climb, the stronger the discipline required. Only those with a thorough understanding of themselves and their driving force will be able to find the strength to progress."

"But what do we actually have to do?" asked Luna.

"You must make a statement of intent aloud for the world to hear," Master Zhen said. "It must be authentic and deeply considered, and speak to your own personal reason for walking the Martial Path. Do that after forming an affinity with an aspect, and if the System judges it to be true and meaningful, your class will manifest."

A statement of intent. Rix flashed Luna a wry little smile, and she gave him a knowing one in return. Unconsciously, his hand clenched into a fist, the faint, silvery line of the scar on his palm a familiar ridge against his fingers. He may not have possessed much when starting this journey, but intent was something he already had in spades.

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