Ashen walked toward the reporting hall on the same route he'd taken when he came to the advancement chamber.
But something in his step had changed.
His shoulders sat lower, his jaw unclenched, and his breathing fell into even, slow counts.
Where he used to zone in at sudden noises or grind his hands into fists even when he tried to relax, his fingers now rested loose at his sides. His stride was comfortable, not hurried.
He walked with a motion that made him look quieter, but certainly not weaker.
The calm had nothing to do with suddenly forgetting the war or the dead. The madness had been earned: long days in the Bloodwall, corpses at every turn, and nights spent hammering himself raw in the dreamscape until willpower alone kept him upright.
That constant tension—rage, grief, fear—had bent him until his mind jittered at the seams. Advancement didn't erase any of that. It just changed the operating system.
When a path imprints its nature, it pulls the host toward its core. Sloth's pull is toward ease and stillness; it loosens the muscles that had been perpetually clenched and stills the mind that always kept turning.
Because Ashen had Forged Willpower, he didn't surrender to passivity; he resisted the sin of Sloth, but resisting from a more undisturbed baseline required less effort.
The frantic vigilance and constant need to be a better version of his yesterday's self, which kept feeding his madness, couldn't hold itself up against that new looseness.
In short, Sloth made him relaxed; his will kept him effective. The madness, which needed constant high tension to exist, simply couldn't be sustained.
So he moved on, now calm, but still alert, and oddly... light.
═══⟲═══
You will wake up when you say her name~
{Activated Path Skill: Lucid Dreamweaving.}
.
.
.
[You have taken another Step toward Ascension. Congratulations!]
[You are now a Step 6, Idle Reader.]
[...]
[Witness. Do not act...]
"Finally..." Ashen didn't feel anything significant yet, but he was certain that, in the coming days, his transformation would begin to manifest itself.
His eyes momentarily drifted to the final note. "Witness and not act...?" He asked, but his voice echoed without answer.
.
.
For now, he had something more tangible to look forward to.
'Status.'
.
.
"Hmm, Adaptive Reflex and Rested Recovery are the new additions... Let's see what they do..."
Ashen decided to check the skills' descriptions since he found himself clueless from just reading the names.
.
.
.
Ashen's eyes narrowed, mouth twitching. "Well, this is kind of underwhelming… What kind of trashy skills are these...?"
He ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath in an attempt to hold back his rising frustration.
"...This is basically garbage compared to my 7th step skills. Fuck."
He didn't understand why he would receive something like this when his compatibility was so high. Was his theory false after all?
Eventually, he managed to calm down, mostly by hypnotizing himself that it didn't matter.
"Yes. That old guy living rent-free in my mentalscape already said it: skills don't matter. All I need is my spear. Scary stick, instant authority! I'll have everyone kneeling before me, hehehe…"
"That was future-me talking, so that makes it official. Meaning I definitely won't need skills later. He said it… huhuhuhu."
He rubbed his chin while laughing, but the sting in his eye made him squint, like the universe just poked him for trying to look tough. No tears fell, but his pride definitely flinched.
Eventually, he dropped the act, and his face instantly turned gloomy. "Ah, fuck this. Does my high compatibility only exist to torture me? Where are the benefits?! Hey!"
But even as he complained, he already got up and started heading to the report hall.
"At least with these trashy skills, I won't have to rack my brain for a believable lie, really great~!" He muttered sarcastically under his breath.
═══⟲═══
Tok—Tok—
The officer adjusted his posture, leaning forward on his seat, then putting his elbows on the desk.
"Enter." He said composedly, a beat after the knocking sound rang.
The door opened, revealing a well-built man.
The man was moving at an unhurried pace. Even as he closed the door and performed the Iron Oath salute, the slowness remained.
"Ashen Hart, reporting advancement to the sixth step, sir."
"Well done. Have a seat." The officer gestured toward the lone chair across from him.
"Thank you, sir."
As Ashen sat, the officer took the moment to study him.
Scars, thin and thick, marked his arms and neck, tracing over tightly packed muscles and veined skin.
He looked every bit the soldier molded by hardship. His hair, unruly waves ending in jagged spikes, only deepened the feral impression.
But all of that crumbled the moment the officer met his eyes.
They held none of the sharpness expected of a Bloodwall soldier.
Instead, they were calm... so calm the officer almost believed the man had stepped out of paradise, not a battlefield.
Paired with that tranquil expression, he looked like the most relaxed man alive.
The half-waking serenity clashed with his wild exterior, creating a surreal contrast that only deepened the man's confusion the longer he stared.
"Advancing must have been tough. How are you holding?"
The officer broke the silence that seemed to stretch unusually long.
Ashen faintly smiled, none of his earlier frustration present on his face. "It was hard, but I managed. Thank you for asking, sir."
The officer nodded. "Hm, that's good. Now, let's not waste time and jump into the matter at hand." He pulled a green cube and a bracelet from under the desk and set them down.
"I will ask you some questions related to your advancement, and you will answer honestly. And put this on." He handed him the bracelet.
Ashen complied, placing it alongside the weight-altering bracelet that he'd kept since the tutorial.
The officer thought that Ashen likely knew what these were for since they weren't a secret, and everyone who was subjected to them talked about them, but he still explained.
"This bracelet will monitor the intent behind your words and detect if your statements are true or false based on what you believe." He waited for Ashen to nod before continuing.
"The cube will act as the indicator. It stays green if you believe what you said is true, and will start turning orange if you omit details, and finally red if you outright lie."
"Understood." Ashen nodded along, even though he'd learned all of this from soldier gossip, men who always dreamed of advancing and what it would be like to be under the lens of this infamous lie detector.
"It's generally okay to omit some details, but don't lie, or we will be here until you get all your questions right." The officer faintly smirked.
Then, he pointed out, "We are doing this to better understand your capabilities and know how to help you develop, so don't feel pressured. Everyone goes through this; it's standard protocol."
He finished, voice reassuring, but then he suddenly caught Ashen's eyes, momentarily glazed over, as if he was... daydreaming?
"...Yes, sir." Soon, they focused back—as much focus as a half-asleep man could muster.
Looking at this drowsy-calm man, the officer didn't elect to comment on the momentary lapse.
He'd dealt with much worse cases, ranging from delirium, extreme anger issues, to even sheer madness. That's what a prolonged stay in the Bloodwall would do to any sane man, so he didn't blame Ashen, even if he found his means of "coping" slightly unusual.
"Let's start, then." The officer cooled his expression. "What's the name of the 6th step?"
"It's Idle Reader," Ashen answered easily.
The cube lit green.
"How many skills did you acquire?" The man's tone stayed the same as he fired the next question.
"Two."
The cube stayed green.
"Their names?"
"They're Adaptive Reflex and Rested Recovery."
Still green.
"Their uses?"
Ashen's expression darkened for half a second, but he caught himself and answered, "...Adaptive Reflex helps me calm and steady myself faster than most people."
Now his eye was visibly twitching as he was forced to remember how useless those trashy skills were. "As for Rested Recovery... It's also pretty simple. I recover faster after sleep or extended rest than most men."
Green.
The officer glanced down at the cube before looking at Ashen and smiling. "That will be all. Thank you for your honesty. This was a lot easier than usual."
Perhaps because of the sudden feeling of gratefulness, he offhandedly added, "Your skills are above average; if you use them long enough and smartly enough, they will serve you well."
"...Yes, thank you, sir."
"Alright, that will be all. You can take your leave."
Ashen nodded once and took off the bracelet before finally leaving under the watchful eyes of the officer.
Tok—
The moment he closed the door, he heaved a sigh. 'Finally done with all that. Now I can do what I really came here to do.'
As he walked at a brisk pace, destination aimless, his mind spun. 'How will I be able to find her? She's pretty famous around here, so it should be relatively easy… But being famous could also mean it will be hard to get close.'
His eyes hardened. 'Doesn't matter, I'll find you, Alice—'
[Lucid Dreamweaving^ (Skilled)]
The moment he mentally uttered the name, his steps halted, making him freeze for a moment, and then finally "waking up" from his "dream," or rather daydream.
Alongside that, a rush of memories—his original memories—clicked back into place, making him suddenly chortle. "Hah, it actually worked..."