Riven set The Astravar Legacy aside and reached for the final book, his fingers trembling slightly as they touched the leather cover of An Exposé on Aster. The weight of it felt different somehow, heavier than its actual mass should account for, like the knowledge contained within carried physical presence.
He opened it carefully, the pages crackling with age but preserved in remarkable condition. Someone had cared for this text deeply, understood its value beyond mere paper and ink. The first few pages covered familiar ground, recounting the cosmic catastrophe that had transformed Desolara. The grand nebula exploding violently and scattering fragments across the void, one shard colliding with this world's core and releasing energy that would reshape reality itself.
But where the history book had focused on events and consequences, this text dove deeper into mechanisms and systems. Explaining not just what happened but how it worked, why it mattered, what it meant for those living in the transformed world.
The exposition began in earnest after the origin story, launching into technical details that made Riven's mind race with implications.
Aster cultivation, the text explained with clinical precision, follows two parallel paths that determine a practitioner's journey from mortal to something far beyond.
The first path was called Gates, representing measurable levels of Aster advancement. Raw power and capacity that could be observed and compared. There were ten Gates total, each one marking significant threshold in a cultivator's development, each one requiring progressively more effort and resources to achieve.
Riven read the list carefully, committing each stage to memory.
The First Gate was Ignition, where Aster first awakens within a person. Flickering and unstable like a candle flame in strong wind. This was the baseline, the moment when someone stopped being normal human and became something more, even if that more was barely functional.
The Second Gate was Foundation, where the awakened energy stabilizes and conscious control begins. No longer wild and unpredictable but responsive to will and intention. This was where real training could start, where techniques could be learned and applied.
The Third Gate was Torrent, where Aster flows freely through the body. A significant power increase that separated casual practitioners from serious cultivators. At this stage people became genuinely dangerous, capable of feats that would seem superhuman to those below.
The Fourth Gate was Refinement, where energy becomes purer and more efficient. Less waste, more impact. The difference between a bonfire and a focused laser. Both hot but one far more effective at specific tasks.
The Fifth Gate was Resonance, where cultivators begin resonating with external Aster sources. No longer reliant solely on what they generate internally but able to draw from the ambient energy saturating the world. This opened new possibilities, new techniques, new scales of power.
The Sixth Gate was Convergence, where internal and external Aster merge completely. The boundary between self and world blurring in ways that fundamentally altered how cultivation worked. Practitioners at this level operated on different principles than those below.
The Seventh Gate was Ascension, where cultivators transcend mortal limitations entirely. The text did not elaborate on what that meant exactly but the implication was clear. Something fundamental changed here, something that separated the truly powerful from everyone else.
The Eighth Gate was Dominion, representing near absolute command over Aster. The kind of control that turned energy into extension of will, where thinking and doing collapsed into single action.
The Ninth Gate was Eclipse, power touching cosmic forces themselves. Operating on scales that affected more than just immediate surroundings, capable of influencing entire regions or populations.
The Tenth Gate was Sovereign, described as peak mortal achievement. The threshold of divinity. As far as humans could theoretically go while remaining fundamentally human. Anything beyond this was territory the text treated with reverent ambiguity.
Gate progression, the exposition noted, was achievable through training, resources, and combat experience. Difficult certainly, requiring dedication and capability, but ultimately accessible to anyone with sufficient determination and opportunity. The path was hard but it was a path, something that could be walked through effort.
But Gates were only half the equation.
The second path was called Realms, representing fundamental transformation that shattered mortal restrictions and elevated one's entire existence. These were not just power increases but qualitative changes, breaking through barriers that separated categories of being rather than simply accumulating more of the same.
There were ten Realms, mirroring the ten Gates but operating on completely different principles.
The First Realm was Awakening, first contact with Aster's primordial nature. Touching something deeper than just energy, connecting with the cosmic force on fundamental level.
The Second Realm was Harmony, where mind, body, and spirit align with Aster's frequency. No longer fighting against the energy but flowing with it, becoming resonant with its fundamental nature.
The Third Realm was Manifestation, the ability to externalize Aster into tangible forms. Creating constructs and effects that persisted beyond momentary technique, shaping reality through will made manifest.
The Fourth Realm was Tempest, embodying Aster's chaotic destructive potential. Becoming living storm, channeling the energy's capacity for violence and transformation.
The Fifth Realm was Sanctuary, embodying Aster's protective nurturing aspect. The opposite of Tempest but equally profound. Becoming shield and haven, channeling the energy's capacity for preservation and growth.
The Sixth Realm was Void, attuning to the emptiness from which Aster emerged. Touching the space between and beneath and beyond. Understanding that power came from absence as much as presence.
The Seventh Realm was Celestial, channeling Aster's stellar nature directly. The body becomes cosmic, operating on principles that governed stars and nebulae rather than flesh and blood.
The Eighth Realm was Eternal, transcending time's normal flow. Existing in relationship to duration that defied mortal understanding. Past and future becoming accessible in ways the text did not elaborate on.
The Ninth Realm was Primordial, touching the original state of Aster from the nebula itself. Connecting with the energy as it existed before fragmentation, before collision, before transformation. Pure and undiluted and vast beyond measure.
The Tenth Realm was Convergence, becoming a living nexus of all Aster states. Embodying every aspect simultaneously. The ultimate integration of everything that came before.
Realm progression, the text emphasized with unusual gravity, was extremely slow. Requiring specific conditions, genuine enlightenment, and most critically access to Primordial Aster Sources. This was not something you could achieve through simple training or determination. Resources mattered here in ways they did not for Gates. Opportunity and bloodline and sheer cosmic fortune played roles that effort alone could not overcome.
Then came the section that made Riven's blood run cold.
At the Second Realm, specifically Harmony Realm, a cultivator's Gate progression caps at the Third Gate unless they achieve breakthrough to the Third Realm. This created a fundamental bottleneck where talent and resources determined who could continue advancing and who would remain trapped forever.
The text elaborated with clinical detachment. Many cultivators remain at Second Realm Third Gate for their entire lives, unable to progress further despite decades of effort. Lacking either the innate capability or the access to Primordial Sources necessary for Realm breakthrough. They hit ceiling and stayed there, watching others ascend while they stagnated.
This was the great divider in Desolaran society, the text implied. Not whether you awakened but whether you could break through that Second Realm bottleneck. Everyone below that threshold lived in one world while everyone above inhabited another. The gulf between them vast and largely insurmountable.
When discussing Aster cultivation in practice, the text noted, the main concern was always your Realm. Gates mattered for immediate power but Realms determined trajectory. Realms took practitioners from peasant to godhood, from mortal to myth, from human to whatever came after.
Riven absorbed this information with growing unease. He had not even awakened yet, had not ignited that first flickering flame, and already the system presented barriers that seemed designed to separate the worthy from everyone else. Designed by cosmic accident or deliberate structure to ensure only certain people could reach the heights.