The next morning, I woke to a startling amount of noise. When I went downstairs the avatar was singing happily. He had been dragging wood and stones to the base of the cottage. Some of it I could see was basic material, but some of it had a heavy glow to it.

  “Ah, my friend good morning. I thought I would help you by bringing you some extra material. This wood and stone are from a nearby mana well. I thought it would be helpful.”

  He then told me about working almost all night to collect the material. The mana well he was talking about being on the far end of the grove. He had made multiple trips to get it all.

  “My last gift will be ready soon,” he says gleefully. He is almost giddy at the thought of it. I can tell there is more to it.

  “You seem to be happy about this,” I ask nervously.

  “Yes, it has been ages since I have given a gift like this. This is the first one since I have ascended. Because of my new evolution, this should be very special. I can only give a gift like this once every five hundred arcs. The very first time I did this it was very special. The one I gifted it to went on to become a great hero, and eventually empress of her people.”

  “I doubt I will become some great leader,” I say with a bit of a chuckle.

  “And yet it is very much a possibility young friend. Power and fate give little care for what we think” he said his face flat.

  The idea of me being in charge of a large group was terrifying. I could see being in charge of a small group. Hey maybe even leading adventurers. From our conversations, there was a lucrative business in going into the wilds and finding ancient ruins for artifacts. That was before the upheaval now it might even be better. He knew of a few ruins within his forest that no one had been to in thousands of arcs. The conviction that he made the statement concerned me though. It was as if he could sense something that I could not.

  Towards the middle of the day, the library became available. When the doors opened, I was met with a grand sight. The library was a mixture of dark woods and gold inlays. The library from what I could see also had a mixture of clockwork devices, it was like a steampunk library. While I wanted to go inside and get lost in the wonders available. I knew that would not be good as my friend was excited to give me my gift. I gave the library a quick glance with the intent of spending more time there later.

  Once I was done looking at the new library, I went back outside. My friend was standing underneath the orb growing on the tree. He was obviously waiting for something. I started to watch as well when the orb started to glow. At first, it was a dim light, but as time continued the light got brighter. To the point where the light blazed like a second sun in the forest. I could hear him laughing as I was forced to turn away. The light disappeared abruptly. When I turned back the orb was still glowing, just not as brightly. He deftly plucked it off the tree handling it reverently before turning towards me.

  “It is done my friend,” he says excitedly. “This was much more than even I was expecting. Even so, this will just be enough.”

  He is still stuck on balancing some cosmic scales. While I don’t fully get the concept. And, there might just be some entity who is out there measuring the value of things being done for others. I just don’t see it, but I will not deny something that will help me survive this place.

  He headed back to the cottage carrying the orb the whole way. I followed him, it felt like a procession. When we got back to the tower, he turned to me. I could tell he was intensely serious.

  “Now my young friend. This is why I had you hold off from spending your attribute points. Rogul and I found that certain things had benefits when done at the same time. While we never tested it with one of these” he said holding up the orb. “What we did test it with leads me to believe that this will have drastic results.”

  He handed me the orb and motioned for me to go inside.

  “Now what I need you to do to make the most of this process. Is to start the orb but then stop and use your AP. Once you do so the AP selection won’t take hold until you finish the process to use the orb. Doing both at the same time should strengthen both and direct some of the energy into the right options” he said slowly. “I would suggest getting comfortable the process could take some time.”

  I sat on the couch and look at the orb in my arms. It was the size of a basketball and had to weigh in at around fifty pounds. It was warm to the touch and pulsed with internal energy.

  Before I selected yes, I did as he instructed and used my pending AP points. I did what I had been doing up to this point to keep a somewhat even build. I divided the points by four and slotted them. Without seeing an average person, I would not know just how strong or weak I was. But after seeing the avatar with his insane strength. I knew there were beings out there much stronger than I was. I was very proud of my stats though when I was done.