Ben sat with Barry in the morning sun. They had just had breakfast after their usual morning routine of exercise and meditation.

  They had already caught up on some of the priorities that they saw for the Academy going forward, which included the research on bonded animal companions as well as a proper main building and a school for younger kids.

  Now they were focusing on Ben’s personal development. With the Energy Enhanced Evolution Chamber available, the limiting factor for Ben’s development was the level and depth of insight he could generate that would allow him to successfully evolve his perks.

  The fight against the Drakniks had been a huge source of inspiration, but more was needed. And while Ben felt the urge to press ahead with his development, he also thought that it would be better to do it right than fast and end up with sub-optimal results. Especially given that the cost of using the chamber was substantial. Nothing they couldn’t afford, but something that would be very painful if it was wasted.

  “What is on your mind?” Barry asked.

  “I am debating whether I should go for a rare perk or some of the more basic ones.”

  “Such as?”

  “Well, I definitely have to work on the Mind Triune—I finished [Perceptive Mind], but there are still [Focused Mind] and [Enduring Mind] outstanding. Fortunately, those are not really competing with anything else, it is just a question of making the time. No excuses, but the last few weeks have been intense.

  “Anyway, I still have [Public Speaking] and [Administration] as common perks. They are fine and positively aligned with my Path, but having to command a large group of people—many of them strangers—triggered some ideas on how to evolve that.

  “Then there is Hercules—the truth is that I want to explore what is possible on that front.

  “The advantage of all of those is that they are free to evolve if I have the right insight and hike over to the Grove.”

  “That sounds like quite a few topics to explore. What is the alternative?”

  “The elephant in the room is the fighting style. I would love to evolve [Axe Handling] and [Self-Defense]… I just don’t feel like I am there yet.”

  “What is missing?”

  “It still doesn’t flow. I have made progress in aligning it more with my higher attributes and it’s more clearly becoming a true axe fighting style, but there is still something missing.”

  Barry nodded. “That is also my thinking. I am hoping that the SEALs will provide a fresh perspective that will get us over the hump. But if that is the case, why are you worried about this?”

  Ben rubbed his forehead. “It just feels… wrong… to focus on Hercules, which in all honesty is just something I would like to do, instead of refining the fighting style I actually rely on to defend us all!”

  “Nobody is suggesting that you de-prioritize your progress in fighting, but there is no benefit in spending money on something if you know that you are not ready yet. There is also no problem in indulging yourself a tiny bit—it is good for your mental health and it also will provide new insights for us that might help many others down the line.”

  Ben took a deep breath and glanced up at the roof of the HQ where Hercules was perched. “Good. I will do that first, then hopefully address the common perks while continuing to work on the fighting style. With a bit of luck, that will be ready by the time I’m done with the others.”

  “Even if it takes longer—you must not forget that the important thing is to develop and grow, not what your status interface says.”

  Ben nodded; it was easy to forget this simple insight sometimes. It helped him look forward to their next trip to the Grove.

  ***

  They had spent a couple of days running dungeons to generate income for the Protectorate and keep them safe, as well as completing two small missions, gaining over 70 new citizens. It had also been valuable time for the others in Ben’s team to consolidate some of their own priorities with regard to their perks.

  Just like him they would take their time before any major push towards rare perks, but they also had common ones that would benefit from consolidation.

  For that reason, they had been spending the last half day walking to the Grove, however making some detours to collect some more Energy-infused plants for their herb garden and alchemists.

  Hercules ate the only core they harvested from a moose that thought it would be wise to block their path.

  Sarah was accompanying them again, just like last time. She had also made some progress and already acquired a second perk; the combination of being in the Protectorate and doing minor jobs for Allison and the Protectors helped her growth significantly. She had explained that [Observant] helped when being on watch to catch unexpected movements early. It was common and the impact wasn’t huge, but she was rightfully proud, as the perk was a result of her doing many shifts on the wall that she, being only 16, was not obliged to do.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Taking her along for a second time was also a reward for her changed behavior of not pushing herself into needlessly dangerous situations but continuing to work on herself instead. The only caveat to her happiness was that Kevin was now officially her boyfriend but he couldn’t come along; Ben had promised to see whether opportunities would arise for both of them to join on a mission at some point.

  The Grove was still undisturbed and the team quickly found themselves inside the wall of Ironthorn Vines.

  To Ben’s delight a couple of drops of sap had formed since the last time they had visited. Not enough to harvest, and still a long while until it would accumulate enough to create another elixir, but it was a good sign that the resource was not single use.

  They wanted to have a watch up—in addition to Sarah—at all times, so Ben volunteered to wait while his teammates tried to work on a perk without the help of the systems for the first time.

  Michael was the first one to be done with his evolution. He had seemed quite focused on their way to the Grove.

  “Did it go well?” Ben asked.

  Michael nodded. “The Path is clear.”

  “That sounds ominous.” Ben chuckled.

  Michael just raised an eyebrow with a slight smirk and nodded for Ben to sit down and go ahead with his process.

  Ben turned to Hercules, who was sitting on a branch facing inwards. “Ready to try this, big boy?”

  Hercules observed him for a moment, then screeched quietly and hopped down on the ground beside Ben.

  Ben settled down and entered [Meditation].

  Having last done this with the help of the professor’s [Clarity] perk, the difference was stark. He found himself back in the mind space that he had explored a couple of times by now, but while it had all been crisp and clear with the help of the systems and [Clarity], now things felt washed out, and it took much more focus to keep things together.

  Ben had spent quite a bit of time with his mother trying to understand how she interacted with the beasts she summoned.

  Those interactions were mostly one-way. While the bird she could summon transferred some thoughts to her, it was more a transmission than a real interaction. Otherwise, it was always Allison who communicated what she wanted.

  Ben looked for more of a partnership—and of course something that would last a lot longer than just a single fight.

  That answered the first question: what do you want. He wanted friendship, a new, if very different, member of the community. A being that would fight alongside him and the team but would not be sacrificed like the temporary constructs of his mother could.

  To make that happen, he needed a connection. A way for them to share thoughts—or at least emotions. A way for them to understand each other’s needs and wants.

  They would retain their freedom; he was not looking into taming the proud bird but aligning with it to the extent that it helped them both to grow and thrive in this new world.

  He didn’t know how long it took, but slowly a construct formed in his mind and turned into a medium-sized, golden sphere that seemed to align with the others that represented his perks and how it was fed by the Path he was standing on.

  He opened his eyes.

  Night had fallen over the Grove and his teammates were sitting around quietly, talking among themselves.

  Exhaustion flooded through his body. This had taken more out of him than the evolution of [Party Coordination] to [Strength of the Protector]—not even talking about the relatively easy evolution of [Unyielding Retribution]. He had to assume that creating a perk was more strenuous on the body than evolving one, and he was pretty sure that it would take a while to recharge his batteries to attempt another evolution.

  Anxiously, he looked at the waiting notification to see whether it had been worth it.

  Congratulations, your insights have allowed you to form the perk [Evolved Bond] — You can offer an evolved local creature a bond, which must be accepted voluntarily. Once accepted, you and the creature share an innate understanding of each other’s priorities and emotions while within range. Both you and the creature gain a small percentage of each other’s main attribute.

  You can only maintain one bond at a time. Uncommon — Path Alignment: Positive

  That was a resounding success. Far better than he had hoped. In particular the sharing of attributes seemed to stretch what he expected an uncommon perk to do. Maybe the constraints of it being voluntary and being just able to maintain one bond were sufficient to make up for its benefits.

  Interestingly, as the new perk was Mind-based, he now had seven of those, while he only had 5 in his main attribute Body. Though, depending on what attribute he would get from his potential bond and the Mind Triune, he wasn’t that far from getting Mind over 20 as well, which was quite astounding anyway.

  Ben cleared his throat to get the team’s attention. “How did things work out for you all?”

  Allison smiled. “It worked very well, we all achieved what we came to achieve, but I have to say, this is much more exhausting than you let on. The Grove is fantastic, an incredible asset really, but having to produce a large part of the Energy to evolve a perk yourself is really taxing.”

  “It is, but it is also slightly addictive,” Anne added. “The ability to shape your own destiny and abilities is incredible… If you tell us that you succeeded, I am going to go after the lynx,” she closed with a wink.

  Ben shrugged. “The perk I got is very exciting, but it doesn’t guarantee success. The bond is completely voluntary. I’ll have to reach out to Hercules to see whether he wants to do it. But before I do that, what did you all get?”

  “I started with something reasonably small. I evolved [Calming Voice] to [Diplomat’s Voice]. It should help on missions. I am going to work on my leadership and magic perks next, but this should be helpful and it was manageable,” said Allison.

  “I followed the same approach and evolved [Survival: Wilderness] to [Survival]. Should help a bit in dungeons and should we ever make our way up the mountain to the Tier 2 areas,” Anne continued.

  “Go broke or go home, boss—you know me,” Jamal exclaimed. “I created [Iron Skin]; it works with my Constitution and doubles down on my Path.”

  Ben raised an eyebrow and nodded to his friend, impressed. Then he looked to Michael.

  “[Hunt],” was all the man said.

  Ben was a bit surprised; he hadn’t realized Michael had any real interest in hunting beyond some targets of opportunity on their hikes, but it was as good as any other perk to get into the groove of working on them.

  It was time to test his own perk and see whether he could bond with Hercules.