Chương 66: Chapter 63: Eerie Calmness

Studying obscuramancy limited the amount of progression in his assimilation. Obscuramancy was the mixture of Void and Information, so there seemed to be a handful of losses. Furthermore, only absolutely new subjects granted a respectable progression and otherwise the rest needed to come from practice. But there's an undeniable aspect of mentality, I've seen that much with Arcane.

It was hard to say which was the answer because Nolotl had read a book on the Boon a long time ago—several, in fact—and no one author agreed on the same causation for assimilation.

"Can I get some spell recommendations? My progress has halted," he petitioned his abjuration teacher.

"Can you remind me which spells related to this Boon have you learned?" Beta didn't remove her gaze from the book as she spoke. No longer was she ready illusory ones but instead real books for she was currently expanding her horizons to develop that information packaging spell. Or at least, a streamlined version that would help them decompress and assimilate the information far faster.

This loop was interesting because he was giving her some gnosiamancy and divination advice as the idea was to not encapsulate raw information but thoughts. Indexed thoughts compressed by addresses, but still thoughts." Ode to Silence, Mage Armor, and Intellect Fortress," Nolotl explained.

"There's also Vacuous Filtration, but I learned that one before getting the Boon."

"So all spells that oscillate the second tier, a virtual second-tier for you at least, and mostly abjurations," she elaborated.

"Are there diminishing returns from learning spells?"

"I'm not quite sure, truth be told. Perhaps there are, but so far it looks like I get rewarded for the effort, with akyromancies providing more assimilation than abjurations, but the pool of evidence is too minute and circumstantial to ascertain anything with decisiveness."

"So perhaps the best path of action will be to cast a second-tier akyromancy to check if there are any losses now that you know one of that difficulty." For a brief instant, Nolotl was close to protest, but he saw some wisdom in that. I still don't know much about Lesser Alignment Assimilation and I will have to deal with it for a loooong time, so I guess it's worth to sacrifice some time to understand it more.

"Alright," he nodded after putting his thoughts in order.

"What do you have in mind then?"

"I do have this interesting spell in hand from my learning days." Casually, Beta summoned a book into her hand with motes of void pullulating around it. She handed it to him on a certain open page. The diviner read the following: Name: Invisible Gesticulation Schools: Akyromancy, Conjuration Requirement: Xenoglossia, Cheironomy, Concentration Effect: Summon a nondescript and invisible extremity. This extremity mimics the caster's gestures.

The summoned extremity can interact with the Physicality but the Physicality cannot interact with it.

"A conjuration, really?" He frowned upon reading the description.

"It took me weeks upon weeks to cast Ode to Silence and now you want me to cast a second-tier akyromancy I absolutely have no proficiency with?"

"Call it a trial," she responded bemused, with those near-dead eyes of hers.

"You said that effort was important."

"Yeah, but this will take me months! And besides, it goes against the scientific method to try for both diminishing returns and effort at the same time. What if we get a similar assimilation rate that Ode to Silence got me? In that scenario, we have no way of discerning if the effort was undermined by diminishing returns or if there was a third unknown factor. They results will be tainted."

"Good point," the akyromancer stated plainly, no interest or deeper thought echoing in her voice.

"Perhaps we should work with something else first. You've cast a third-tier abjuration, but would that slot be taken by a third-tier akyromancy?"

"What do you have in mind?" The new scenario piqued his curiosity.

"There's an upgraded version of Vacuous Filtration at the third tier. You could learn it and check that case."

"Does it do anything else than the lesser version at the first tier?"

"Not much beyond increasing a bit the range of information you can filtrate. Though it removes the concentrations requirement," Beta casually added the last part, an afterthought more than anything else. The fact that she ignored such an important part frustrated him a bit. Well, she hasn't seen me using Simulacrum this time around yet, so she hasn't assimilated how much of a restriction concentration can be.

"Hmm, but even with a proficiency it will take a considerable amount of time. The fact that the keystone of the spell is an element I'm not proficient with doesn't help."

"Why don't you use that same Boon?"

"What do you mean?" He squinted at the abjurer in confusion.

"Set the improved Vacuous Filtration on the Information slot of Lesser Alignment Assimilation and you will now have two proficiencies with it." Yet again, Nolotl nearly protested at that sentence, but the issues he had with the scenario quickly vanished the more he thought about it.

"Even though changing spells losses me assimilation, I've been maxed on Information for a while now and I'm dealing with far more complex subjects while also learning obscuramancy that it's bound to increase it back… Pulsars, that's a marvelous idea, Beta."

"If anything, I'm more worried about the fact that you didn't think about it before." As always, her neutral statements came as brutal insults, if not attacks; no matter if the woman didn't mean it.

"I did ponder it, but casting Simulacrum without it will make it difficult to cast instead of rather effortless. And I didn't want to lose progress either… but I guess it was time to take the plunge." Beta didn't have that improved version of the Vacuous Filtration spell with her, but considering she needed to go back for more obscuramancy papers, they decided to wait a bit and just study Invisible Gesticulation in the meantime as he was bound to learn it at some point.

The spell did sound a bit restrictive and stupid and Beta had this to say about it when he asked:"It's part of a series and the fact that the Physicality cannot interact with it is a strong bonus even if its current iteration is basically another arm that only can replicate existing movement. If you worry about the requirements, they slowly fade with the latter versions of the series until they are all gone. And because concentration is gone at some point, you can cast several of them in tandem."

The thought of casting a myriad of invisible arms that were impervious to mundane weapons and that he could control with his mind was equally enticing as it was terrifying. That convinced Nolotl to follow the path of that spell as it seemed like it would scale terrifically with a gnosiamancer's enhanced thinking capacity, even if the lack of proficiencies and affinity would hurt and explained why no gnosiamancer had ever bothered with that spell. Time assimilation progressed by 1%.

The notification came out of nowhere, and Nolotl's stomach sunk as he peered into the innate clock that was the Cognition and realized what day it was. It was his birthday. As of now, he was officially 20 years old, at least mentally speaking. But what mattered here was the dreadful picture that this notification drew for his Time assimilation. No, it can't be that restrictive to increase Time assimilation, Nolotl refused to assimilate it.

It must be like all of these random Chaos and Arcane notifications that I get. Those ones are free progress, not limited by my understanding of the Alignment but a freebie. He thought in a hurried panic. I certainly hope that's the case, because if not… Well, it would mean that I would need to spend as much time as Enantyum on the time loop to get a measly single proficiency with restoration, not even the chronomancy school.

It couldn't be overstated how much Nolotl didn't want the Time assimilation to be limited to his age to be progressed. He found some solace in the fact that his current assimilation was 5%, meaning that if it was truly and solely affected by his age it should be at 20% now. Without making any fanfare of his current situation as to not alert the reading Beta, Nolotl conjured a limited portion of his status. Name: Nolotl Xocoyotzin Age: 20 Race: Celestial-Terian Main Resource: Mana Resource Deposit Size: 25.

36 Progression Level: 6 (Information) Accumulated Experience: 58% Lesser Alignment Assimilation Progress: - Light ▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 28% - Arcane ▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 11% - Life ▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 11% - Time ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 5% - Information ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ 100% - Space ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 1% - Death ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 3% - Chaos ▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 8% - Void ▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 36% The Alignment itself confirms it; as of today, I've now lived two decades. It was a weird feeling, especially because his Cognition felt some dissonance. Mentally he might be 20, but physically he was 19.

And the fact that his birthday was at the 1st of Information meant that it was a dissonance of a whole year and not just a handful of months. Oh, I can already predict it. This dissonance will get way worse with time. I wonder if that happened to Enantyum? … I doubt it. This is happening because I'm closely connected to the Cognition and the whole plane keeps track of my mental age. Pulsars… The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. That was an issue for later.

For now, he slightly rejoiced on the fact that he was older, in a twisted and unnatural form. He didn't notify anyone of his virtual birthday, but he went a bit out with that day's meal and made plentiful dessert in the shape of a myriad of pastries, both sugary and fruit-based. Worse decision of his life. Now Beta wanted dessert every single day and every single meal. It took the akyromancer another week, but she finally handed him the improved version of Vacuous Filtration.

As of yet, he had yet to make any real progress with Invisible Gesticulation, but considering he couldn't 'brute' force it without a single proficiency nor with singing, he hadn't expected much either. And talking about failed expectations. Name: Vacuous Filtration Schools: Akyromancy, Divination Requirements: None Effect: The spell allows the caster to actively concentrate on the lack of information that the Void presents and categorize it adequately.

The divination's abstract was identical to its first-tier version with the sole distinction of the lack of requirements. Divinations were already lackluster by definition, but somehow, this one hit another low. Nolotl sighed at the description and unslotted Simulation and pondered on how to increase his Information progression yet again. Simulacrum spell removed from the Lesser Alignment Assimilation Information slot. Information assimilation reduced by 10%. Information assimilation progressed by 10%.

You have completely assimilated Information.

"Or perhaps not…" Nolotl mused aloud, surprised at the developments occurring before his eyes.

"Can it backlog assimilation or what it's happening here? Have I been able to simply completely assimilate the Alignment in a second?" His gaze moved upwards to the sigil floating above his head. The gnosiamancer always kept Intellect Fortress active whenever he wasn't practicing Invisible Gesticulation as Beta seemed to greatly enjoy the benefits of his mental fortitude.

"It could be possible, it's a third-tier gnosiamancy, and my thoughts have gotten a bit more complex since the last time I maxed out Information… but who's to say. I'm just glad I won't have to worry about dealing with divination slot switches much." He still wouldn't switch spells willy-nilly just in case, but this fact was still good to know. Without further delay, Nolotl placed the improved akyromancy in the stead of his Simulacrum.

Vacuous Filtration spell assigned to the Lesser Alignment Assimilation Information slot. Vacuous Filtration proficiency obtained. Warning: Removing any spells from Lesser Alignment Assimilation will have their proficiency removed. Warning: Removing any spells from Lesser Alignment Assimilation will have the assimilation progress reduced by 10%. Suddenly, his mind expanded with new insights on the improved Vacuous Filtration whilst at the same time his grasp on the Simulacrum weakened.

"But not as much as it expected," the diviner mused with a smile on his face.

"Mastery seems to be important, and proficiencies cannot remove that. I'm used to the spell by now, but it will still be far more difficult to deal with now. And expensive," he groaned after remembering that fact. Simulacrum was already his costliest spell, so he didn't look forward to spending even more mana on it. Nolotl started treading through the many spellcircles that composed the Vacuous Filtration akyromancy.

He lacked the elemental proficiency, but he had the dual proficiency that was recommended by any certified mage to cast spells. It hurt a lot not having affinity with the spell, but at the same time, a dual proficiency was a dual proficiency. Spending days studying spells wasn't the most amusing thing in the world and his mind was already demanding him some kind of rest, but it still beat learning plain old theory.

Whether it was due to his boosts to divinations or the fact that he knew the previous version of the spell, Nolotl didn't have that many difficulties with Vacuous Filtration. Though he had to admit he didn't know what the baseline was for spells with dual proficiency that lacked the elemental one. Such situation wasn't exactly common.

Perhaps it's due to my new knowledge on obscuramancy, Nolotl spoke in the vulnerated sanctity of his mind as Beta seemed to be concentrated at the moment and he didn't want to distract the woman. I now know a lot more on the obfuscation of information than I did before, and that's the whole schtick of Vacuous Filtration. The whole information compression thing led me to refresh the contents of information theory, though I'm quite more suited for the spell than ever before.

The improved divination worked like its predecessor, limiting the input that the caster received on the Void. It wasn't like a budget Resistance to Cognitive Harm, or Oblivion or to the Eldritch for that matter, but it was true that dealing with less information being less susceptible to it. Ignorance could be a blessing. The fact that Vacuous Filtration allowed for the categorization of data and the improved version expanded on that fact was even better.

I might be able to completely shrug off the effects of the Void Tower. Barring Suppression, that is. The diviner wasn't sure if that meant he could finally see the Void Tower as it really was in the Physicality, but he had learned to navigate it over the last loops, so it wouldn't be much of an issue if that wasn't the case. One week.

That was all the time he needed to learn Vacuous Filtration all over again as the spell had turned out to be a virtual first tier with his dual proficiency and all of his divination boosts.

"Huh," he mused aloud, the interaction he was experiencing puzzled him.

"What?" Beta opened her eyes. She had been sitting in her armchair with no book in hand and instead seemingly meditating. But Nolotl knew the woman to some degree by now and he was completely sure she wasn't resting as she was basically as dedicated or even more than him.

"I hadn't expected this, but Vacuous Filtration is interacting with a Title," Nolotl fiddled with the spell in his mind, the local Cognition rearranging as the oppressive Void lost part of its footing. The spell should only allow him to benefit from it, but between Intellect Fortress and the Title interaction, he was able to cleanse the Cognition a bit.

It wasn't a powerful effect, basically a free cantrip added onto the spell, but it was an interesting development nonetheless as the Cognition was rather dull in the Void Tower yet with his filtrated caresses, it regained its cyan sheen.

"Which? Gnosiamancer?" The akyromancer asked.

"It would be weird if it didn't, no?"

"I mean, yeah, in some sense that Title is always active, but no," he swayed his head.

"I meant my Title of High Priest of Nochochenca." The Empyrean of Void gave him a look of surprise, probably because she had never heard of it. Perhaps in some forgotten corner of her mind, it lingered the tidbit that he was a priest, but by the looks of it, she didn't care much about it.

"So what does it do typically?"

"Beyond weakly connecting me to the believers of the faith, it gives me a success rate to all divinations. That helped me with the previous Vacuous Filtration and Ode to Silence, but now it's affected by the second clause of the Title, and I'm not sure way."

"What's that second clause?" Her voice was uninterested, bemused, and vacuous. She seemed to speak only to fill the void of the conversation so it was a dialogue instead of a monologue.

"It doubles the success rate… wait," he noticed the mistake of his wording.

"By default, I get a 10% increased rate, and the clause doubles that alone when using astral divinations. Very useful for any kind of astromancy, but I'm perplexed why it's active now as the first-tier version didn't benefit from it."

"If I had to say, the cosmos is deeply related to the Void and this spell is of a heightened caliber so it might deal with more sophisticated or cosmological information, therefore being considered as an astral-type divination, if barely."

"Hmm," Nolotl hummed in thought.

"I guess that could be the case. I will never say no to additional boosts, but this is weird."

"What is weird is that you didn't tell me about this title," Beta lectured him.

"I wasn't aware of this, and abusing an increased 20% success rate is nothing to scoff at. We should look at astromancy divinations with Void as their keystone so you can abuse them and assimilate faster."

"We, huh?" The diviner said amusedly.

"You were the first to use such pronouns, I merely replicated them unconsciously," the abjurer explained bemusedly. Without fail, her words were a blunt statement.

"So what are the effects of the divination? Or rather, scratch that. First, how's the progress?"

"Let me look at it, the Title's interaction surprised me so much that I haven't looked at the notifications so far." Even though Beta had no access to immediate status readings, she wasn't surprised by Nolotl's words. It was expected to some degree that gnosiamancers would always have an easier access to information. Nolotl had offered her to perform a status reading, but due to the nature of the loop and the fact that Beta knew about it, she turned down the offer.

No matter how much he tried, the akyromancer was reticent to reveal any information, even if she originally had no issues sharing about Inner Abyss. Nolotl sighed mentally at that, but he checked his Real-Time Status notifications without lingering on those thoughts. Void assimilation progressed by 5%. Level progressed by 2%. Information Alignment increased by 0. 00001%.

"Hmm, it seems I have received more bonuses to my Information than anything else, but yes, I've gotten a full 5% assimilation, just like Intellect Fortress. It seems akyromancy and abjuration don't share a 'slot' so there aren't diminishing returns."

"Well, then. There you have your untainted evidence." Normally such words would be accompanying by a smug tone, but Beta presented none of that.

"Now's time for you to work on Invisible Gesticulation."

"You say that, but I don't think I will get it done on time for the total celestial alignment. And I would prefer not to use such an important event to just learn a rather useless spell."

"And what would you prefer to use the astral event for?"

"Either some ritual as they scale very well with the total celestial alignment, or some enchantment. I would like to fill my Void slot at some point."

"Will an enchantment even work if you only send information back in time?" Beta inquired with a frown.

"That's the main issue, if I use a ritual, it has to be bound to my Cognition," he deflated a bit.

"I have enchanted myself in the Information slot already, but that one was easy. I guess if I enchant myself it will be something like an obscuramancy, but I don't like my chances at finding an obscuramancy enchantment meant for people."

"I will ask Tower Master Dol if I see him, but the answer is most likely a no." The answer wasn't unexpected, but Nolotl still found himself disappointed.

"Your best opportunity will be to create one."

"Easier said than done," the diviner sighed.

"You should know thanks to the vestige that it took me weeks to create a spell that I had dual proficiency and affinity with, and that on the first tier. If I end up creating one, it will have to be after I assimilate Arcane and I can assign it a proficiency."

"That's bound to take a lot of time." The neutrality of her statement was as devasting as always. Nolotl sunk in his own seat, the conversation only beating him down more with each subsequent sentence.

"Tell me about it…"

"For the time being, you should start working on Invisible Gesticulation. The earlier you assimilate Void, the better," the Empyrean of Information looked at the akyromancer in bewilderment.

"Or not? Is there an issue with that?"

"No, not at all," he straightened his back.

"It's only that I'm surprised how much interest you're showing in my progress."

"Well, if you progress then eventually one of my iterations will successfully perform the ritual," Beta uttered those words with such eerie calmness that Nolotl couldn't help but get unsettled.

"Don't you care what will happen to you?" Nolotl asked with a tinge of worry.

"Even if I can give you all of your accrued progress, regressing time will mean that you will die. Several times at that."

"No, I don't care about such sophistry," she stated in a complete lack of emotions.

"It only matters that one of me succeeds on the ritual."

"What's that ritual about for you to get so worked up and spearheaded on it?" An uneasiness littered Nolotl's body, one that he couldn't explain.

"It's something important," the claire-obscure woman responded taciturnly.

"Care to elaborate?"

"No," Beta turned to look at him and her lips curved into something that couldn't be called a smile, yet undeniably, the expression exuded with emotion.

"Nor will you know any more. Only once I succeed."