Arthur blinked and took in everything. First off he raised his perception to 10, that was supposedly the peak of human potential. He then took a breath and began to look over his talent Gains. And only one of the three options really stood out  to him. It was


    *****


    Savant Artificer: no talent but an uncanny knack for skiing the connections between things lets the user build, craft, and understand magic gear based on inference extrapolation and synesthesia unique to the user.


    *****


    Once he hit accept he felt his third talent lock in. just like that he began to see ties and connections between things that resonated. He tried pulling his perception back from the skill and he stopped seeing the faint connections that things had to each other. He then closed his eyes and envisioned the path back to the obelisk and when he opened them he was there in front of the stone.


    “Ok Spark, how do I get home?” he called into the air.


    With a flash the ball of light appeared, it pulsed once and the pulse rippled outwards and Arthur felt it, he felt the membrane that he just had to push through with his will to rupture and then there was a portal in the air. Grass on this side and carpet on the other.


    The light bobbed. “I''m sure you can see that I''m not letting the light from this side pass through into your world. As it stands now un-filtered ambient mana would be a very destructive force if it should get out. The mana that is in and around your person has purpose, but the ambient stuff is seeking purpose and might find that anywhere as a spare atom. Essentially anything synthetic or mass produced in your world, doesn''t have a spirit or an intent of its own. Things that are handcrafted not just assembled, they have enough of an intent that mana shouldn''t degrade them. Just be careful what you bring across from that side. Anything you take there from here will be stable in its mana molecular bonds so you shouldn''t have to worry about leakage unless you are specifically trying to take a container of ambient mana and release it over there. It would just randomly mutate both living and non living matter. All your mana is generated in your core and powers your abilities and talents, which will all still work over there. By tier 3 you should be immune to most low to mid level munitions but I wouldn''t take on a tank or higher until tier 5 but once you reach tier 9 you will be beyond the means of being damaged by anything that isn''t constructed using mana. But even if you did get killed out there. You''d respawn in your soul space, there is a lot more to cover but suffice to say. It''s safe to bring things from here to there, if you bring something from there to here expect some shenanigans. However, if you bring things from your world or scan them with your  savant artificer skill, we can set up gathering quests and work on crafting things. Things brought for that purpose will be deconstructed down to the atomic level but core components and structural blueprints will be stored for future re-use.”


    Arthur nodded and said. “Ok Scan is just for the blueprint but deconstruct breaks down and stores components and also creates a blueprint. I''m not superman yet… and coming back is just reaching inside and pulling a portal open? And it will snap open near me?”


    “Yes, you can also just will yourself inside, you can either appear at the obelisk or from where you left. Same goes for the earth side, you can return to anywhere you''ve portaled from there to here. So if you wanted to make a moon base you''d have to get there the primitive way, and open a portal from there to here.  And you have a radius of fifty feet that you can pull items between here and there.”


    Arthur nodded on the brink of passing back through. “Can you create a non mana saturated space where I can store things from my world and retrieve them at will?”


    “Yes, that is simple but only because of your affinity for space and time magic. We can even dilate time between the two realms.”


    Arthur nodded. That is freaking awesome. Umm let''s leave it one to one unless time will help respawn the goblins.


    “Indeed the time dilation will assist with that.”


    “Well then do what''s best then.” With that Arthur stepped into the real world again… to see his previous body, laying on the bed in his basketball shorts and t-shirt. It was so strange to be standing there looking at his own body. It was breathing. It was over weight but didn''t look its age. “Spark, can you hear me?” I said aloud.


    “Yes yes… just direct your thoughts at me. What is the… oh… yes well i forgot to mention, when i created your new body and re attached your soul. It lost connection with this one.”


    “Well. is it still alive? It seems to be breathing.”


    “Biologically yes, however it will never wake up again.”


    Arthur stood there for a few beats thinking. He could start over. Use this body to fake his death and just spend his time in the other dimension. But no… he had friends and loved ones and didn’t want to make them sad. He sighed. “This is just Arthur shaped meat…”


    Arthur focused and the portal opened again. He envisioned throwing his own body over his shoulder and setting it down in the grass. With a flex of his talent he stood on the other side of the portal over his prone form. He had a pang, all the experiences of the last four decades, his first kiss. Learning martial arts. Learning to cook. Teaching his cousins and little brother martial arts. “Hey spark, do I have the same biometrics? Like fingerprints and such?”


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    The spark popped into being. “Yes, you have the same DNA, fingerprints, everything. I even kept all your neural pathways and muscle memories.”


    “Ok… when I leave, set the time dilation so that nothing is left when i get back, this is a safe zone right? No goblins are gonna eat it?”


    “You backwards barbarian, I will just disassemble it for more resources.”


    In a flash that Arthur wasn''t expecting the body just disintegrated, the  clothes now lay empty on the ground. “Just like that. I know I''m still me but the body my mother gave birth to just died and only I know it. “he sighed and looked down at the clothes again. They were starting to dissolve, the synthetic fibers not playing well with the mana.” Hey if i bring some clothes over can you absorb and remake them in a size that fits this new body.”


    “That would be simplicity in itself, but why don''t you use your newest talent to do that?”


    “But there is no system out there…”


    “Yes well the system is inside you, and that 50 foot radius. That''s how far my senses expand beyond your own.“


    Arthur headed back out Into his room and willed the portal shut. He dug through his closet and grabbed several articles of clothing and laid them out on his bed. He scanned them with his talent by reaching out to the pattern on his core and flaring perception along with it. He then knew in his mind what they were made from and then he was prompted to reconstruct. It was strange how this part was automated, but sure enough after his talent scanned across his clothes it scanned across them again but this time it pulled from his personal mana pool, and as the wide angle beam passes across it the clothes dissolved and in his mind''s eye he could see a collection of cloth fiber and polyester. But now woven into the fabric was mana. When it was complete the clothes again lay on his bed, smaller and brand new.


    “Spark, can i interact with something in my non mana spatial storage like equipping and unequipping also can you make it so time doesn''t pass inside the non mana spatial storage? Like I want food and drink that I place in there to stay both hot and fresh.


    “I''m not a moron; spatial storage does exist within the system.”


    “What would it take to get a bonded storage space?” Arthur asked, having perked up upon that revelation.


    “It will likely be a dungeon loot drop. Once an inhabitant reaches a level of crafting to make stable Storage items that can survive teleportation and unstable spatial areas that will be an achievement.”


    Arthur took all that in and headed out of his bedroom and into the rest of his little duplex. He stored any and everything that he thought he might want or need. Tools, Dishes, clothes, furniture and several of his recharge packs fully charged. He popped back into his room and snagged his headphones which he stored. He focused on equipping and unequipping them into his ears. It was a strange sensation but he adjusted to it. The next snafu he considered was that if his headphones and charge packs couldn''t charge in the time frozen storage space. He also practiced changing clothes. He practiced storing his phone into and out of his pants pockets from storage. He also briefly considered becoming the world''s most elusive jewel thief. Traveling the world avoiding his rival, the Interpol detective; set to try and catch him. Teleporting into locations that shouldn''t be reachable and stealing things from inside of locked and secure cases. As he did this he wandered around outside his house. Sending Debris into the Demi plane to be recycled for matter. Like the junkpile next to his house. On a whim he also stored his car.


    “What is my spatial storage''s upper limit?” Arthur asked Spark as he puttered around.


    Spark’s voice echoed in his mind. “It''s not unlimited, however it takes from the potential storage of the demi plane. You could technically store that entire small town you live in and it wouldn''t even be a percent of the space. So as long as you aren''t trying to. Absorb and terraform your star system you should be fine. Consider that your sun takes up. 99.9% of the mass of your star system, and allll the other planets and moons and debris only account for .01% of the rest of the mass of your solar system. Now, what does your car account for in that?”


    Arthur blinked in surprise considering that perspective, and then his brain noped out of that consideration. “Got it, lots of space… does that mean that if i jumped into the ocean… I could absorb the whole thing? You know what. Don’t answer that.” he then walked into his backyard. Out of sight of any neighbors and summoned his soul weapon. It snapped into being and he practiced some blocks and swings. After a few minutes of that he dropped a junk mattress out of his storage and plopped down to meditate. He focused on his core and the weapon summoning skill, and slowly but surely began widening a pathway towards his right hand. He held in his mind the idea of summoning the weapon sheathed with the handle appearing in his right hand. He made solid progress widening the channel half way u\down his right arm before the strain seemed like it could do damage if he didn''t give it time to settle. So after that he just sent pulses of energy as far down the pathway as felt comfortable, trying to acclimate the widened channel to energy flowing through. He continued that until he felt mental exhaustion start to creep in.


    *****


    You unlocked the meditation skill.


    Meditation is a skill that grants the user increased hp and MP generation while the user meditates.


    Your meditation skill has reached level 7


    *****


    Arthur blinked in surprise at the skill announcement. He couldn''t wait to go to work tomorrow. Take a 15 minute break for 3 hours in his pocket realm. Teleport to work. Teleport home. For now Arthur teleported to the back lot behind his favorite local Mexican restaurant. No one was around, and he headed around to the front. He wasn’t really worried about  being spotted, in this time of Cellphones. People were largely in their own worlds. He headed inside and ordered their twenty dollar super burrito. The thing was more than a foot long and thicker than his forearm. After it arrived he ate half of it the normal way and metabolized the food, much like the berries. And then he used his power to consume the rest when no one was paying attention. Suffice to say the staff was surprised that he finished the giant burrito. When he got outside he had to teleport straight home and into the restroom. Because the other part of metabolizing the burrito after the berries was… now he had waste to dispose of.


    After Arthur left his restroom, he went into his fridge and stored everything. He also stored all of his spices. Before sitting down at his computer and looking up how to make pemican bars. With his talent, compact and dense High calorie food was a must.


    ****


    Skill learned information gathering


    Skill raised to level 9


    *****